Schoenherr family 1899: J. Albert Schonherr, Lydia, Emma Buuck; (standing) Henry, Otto.

Schoenherr family 1915: (seated) J. Albert Schoenherr and Emma Buuck; (standing) Otto, Lydia, Edgar, Henry.

Europe 1898 bg cu	East Germany 1990
Indiana 1888 bg NE Adams	Fort Wayne SE Smith
2217 Smith St. ca. 1900, with Emma Buuck, Mrs. Lepper, a boy, and Lydia	Otto and Clara Schoenherr 1916

Julius Albert Schoenherr was born in Klotze, Germany, near Magdeburg (75 miles southwest of Berlin in what used to be East Germany) in 1859. His father, Albert Julius Schoenherr, was a "toepfer" or maker of pottery in Klotze and his mother was Sophie Meister. Julius Albert emigrated to America in 1884, sailing from Hamburg and arriving in New York City on Feb. 15. He moved to Fort Wayne in Allen County, Indiana, applied for naturalization Nov. 1, 1886, and would be granted citizenship in 1892. He began work as a car oiler on the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1887, repaired the steam boilers of the locomotives at the Turntable in the Pennsy Shops, was promoted to car inspector in 1911, and retired with a pension in 1926. He married Emma Buuck in 1889 and became part of the large German community around Friedheim Indiana that was founded by Emma's grandparents Friedrich and Margaretha Buuck in 1836. This community grew to include the Buucks, Blomenbergs, Wittes, Horstmeyers, Gallmeyers, Homeiers, Bultemeiers. Many of these families had been emigrating from the Windheim village in Germany since the 1840s. By the 1880s, 40,000 Germans lived in the Fort Wayne region and made up 80% of the population. Many belonged to the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran church. Albert and his family were members of Zion Lutheran Church at 2313 South Hannah St. Albert lived at 2217 Smith Street, 1 block north of Creighton on the southeast side of Fort Wayne. The Pennsy Shops were he worked were on Gay Street. His son Otto would build a house, with the help of Albert's brother Henry who was a carpenter, at 3118 Smith Street when he married. Otto was born in 1892 and married Clara Blomenberg in 1916. He worked in the Pennsy Shops until 1914 when he went to Montana for 2 years as a cowboy. He returned to Fort Wayne to marry Clara and during the police strike of 1922 he became a patrolman for the city of Fort Wayne. He retired in 1943 and moved to the cottage at Clear Lake near Fremont in Steuben County in the northeast corner of Indiana.