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JOSEPH SCHEPERLE, carpenter and farmer, eigth
child and third son of Johann (George) Schepperle and wife
Anna
(Katharina). He was born in Smithville, Wayne County, Ohio, December 5,
1849. He was the first child born in the U.S.A. After the Civil War, at
the age of 16, he came with his parents, one brother, and two sisters to
Cole County, Missouri. He died at the age of 88 on March 3, 1938, at the
home of his son John on Boonville Road in Jefferson City, Missouri.
On July 20, 1871, (recorder of deed records show July
20, 1871; St. John's Church records show August 20, 1871), when he was
21 years old, he was married to Mathilda Susanna Fischer Leis, daughter
of Mrs. Susanna Fischer of Wooster, Ohio, (Susanna was born in 1830).
Rev. Ed. Huber officiated. Mathilda was born November 15, 1851; died
July 11, 1909, at Millbrook, Missouri. Both are buried at St. John's
Lutheran Cemetery, Lohman (Stringtown), Missouri. The couple lived all
their mature life in the community of their adoption.
He was known to hundreds of Cole County residents as
"Uncle Joe." Besides being known as a good workman, an
enterprising farmer, and an upstanding citizen, he also became known as
a Democratic political leader and gave his attention to the affairs of
his party in many elections, although he never sought office himself. He
became a member of St. John's Lutheran Church of Stringtown while a
youth and maintained his connection with the congregation and was
instrumental in the construction of St. John's Church, completed in
1905.
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He will especially always be remembered by his
children, grandchildren, and friends for his ardent insistence that
everyone should plant and raise apple trees. This tradition was probably
brought with him from his native Wayne County, Ohio, where just a few
years before, Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) had become a part of the
Ohio Valley legend and where his apple trees had strengthened the
economy of the rich pioneer farming areas of central and northern Ohio.
Most of his children did maintain apple and fruit trees, especially his
oldest son William who had a large orchard. Many of his grandchildren
today remember, when he came to visit, that he would always have a
sincere concern that the trees were properly cared for. From:
Palmer William Nicholas Scheperle
History of the Scheperle (Schepperle) Family of America
Jefferson City, Missouri, 1982 |
