HENRY C. SCHROER, one of the well-known farmers of Washington township and a substantial landowner living a mile north of the pleasant village of New Knoxville, was born on the place on which he is now living and has lived there all his life, a period of more than fifty years. Mr. Schroer was born on February 26, 1872, and is a son of Herman and Sophia (Wierwille) Schroer, natives of Germany, who had come to this country with their respective parents in the days of their youth and had become residents of this section of Ohio, both the Schroers and the Wierwilles having been early settlers in the New Knoxville neighborhood. The late Herman Schroer was a well-grown lad when he came here with his parents back in pioneer days and he helped to develop the woodland farm on which his father had settled there north of New Knoxville, in the southwest quarter of section 17 of Washington township, in the fertile inner curve of the valley of Clear creek. After his marriage he established his home on that place and became the owner of a farm of 245 acres, which he was developing in admirable fashion when death interrupted his labors in 1882. His widow kept the farm going and long survived him. They were the parents of eleven children, all of whom are still living save two, the subject of this sketch having seven sisters, Eliza, Sophia, Fredericka, Anna, Minnie, Sarah and Flora, and a brother, William Schroer, of whom further mention is made elsewhere in this volume. Henry C. Schroer was but ten years of age when his father died, and he thus early began to assume mature responsibilities in connection with the operation of the home farm, which he and his elder brother carried on in their mother's behalf. He received his schooling in the local schools, and after his marriage took over that portion of the old home place on which he is now living, established his home there and has continued to reside on that place, now the proprietor of a fine farm of 100 acres, which he has improved in excellent shape, and on which he has a well-equipped farm plant. In addition to his general farming Mr. Schroer has long given considerable attention to the raising of livestock, and is doing well. Henry C. Schroer married Elizabeth Duhme, who was born in Germany, and who came here in the days of her girlhood with her parents, Henry and Eliza (Kuhlman) Duhme, of whom further mention is made elsewhere in this volume, and to this union five children have been born, Gustave, Clara, Ewald, Reuben and Taletha, the two elder of whom are married. Gustave Schroer married Selma Schroerluke and has one child, a daughter, Mildred, and Clara Schroer married Ernst Schultz and has one child, a son, Willis. Ewald Schroer is his father's mainstay on the farm, and Reuben Schroer is now a student in the Mission House of the Reformed church at Cheboygan, with a view to becoming a clergyman. The Schroers are active members of the First Reformed church of New Knoxville, and for two years Mr. Schroer served the congregation of that church as a deacon. In his political leanings he is enrolled among the growing number of "independents" in this section of Ohio, and for two terms at different times has served as school director. The Schroer home is very pleasantly situated on rural mail route No. 1 out of St. Marys, and the latchstring is ever out to the family's many friends.
This Schroer farm is located at 11160 Glynwood-New Knoxville Road, and it is still owned by John and Norma Schroer, John being the son of Ewald.