Osmond's Veterans Remembered

John Frederick “Fritz” Schomberg

World War I

John Fred "Fritz" Schomberg was born in Westside, IA, on Aug. 20, 1893.

He was the oldest of six children born to Ludwig and Maria Schomberg. One young sister, Alice, died at age 6, and a brother, Carl, also died young at age 27 of paralysis and Bright’s Disease.

In 1911, the family moved to a farm near McLean. While John is listed as working on a farm in the 1910 census at age 16, his father is listed as working in the lumber business. In fact, Ludwig ran a lumberyard in Randolph after farming by McLean for 13 years. John was enlisted in the Army on June 25, 1918, and was sent to Camp Funston for training. He then served as a private in Company B, the 313th ammunition train. During World War One, ammunition trains were used to carry ammunition to the front. According to an article on ammunition trains that I found, “An easy target for the American Doughboy was the truck drivers whom it was assumed spent most of their day sitting down, rarely came under fire, purloined the best rations, were never short of wine and returned to their barracks every night where they slept in feather beds.

“Although some drivers may well have had a more comfortable life than the average infantryman, that was certainly not the case for the drivers of the U.S. Army Ammunition Trains, who delivered ammunition to the fighting troops and artillery. Driving close to the front line, these trucks would often encounter shell fire and poison gas and when they did they had little option but to keep going and hope for the best."

Apparently, John served in France, as I found him on a transport ship named Pastores returning from St. Nazaire, France, and arriving at Brooklyn, N.Y., on May 29, 1919. He was honorably discharged from the Army on June 11, 1919.

John, known by his family as Fred or "Fritz," married Lydia Kraemaer

Dec. 17, 1919, at Wayne. The couple moved into McLean and lived there all of their married lives.

According to his family history in the McLean Centennial Book, after his discharge from the service, Fred purchased the Edwards and Bradford Lumberyard and the Shannon Elevator.

Then in 1924, he purchased the Atlas Elevator. He added things to his business over the years — trucking, oats hulling, buying and cleaning seed, rolling grain, manufacturing feed, buying and shipping cobs.

Fred and Lydia had one daughter, Vaun, who married Arvid Bloomquist. Fred died Jan. 4, 1974, and is buried at Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Norfolk with his wife, Lydia.