10/02/2026
Recently a few of the museum volunteers provided some a portion of the program for the Madison County Chamber Annual Banquet. Teri Moss has shared her ‘character’ story and here is mine.
ANTONETTE SCHULTE —
Guten Abend…..Good Evening.
My name is Antonette Schulte.
I was born in Westphalia, Prussia, in a coal-mining village called Stockum. My husband, Antone, was a miner, and in 1845 we made a decision that changed our lives forever.
We left everything we knew.
With six children ranging in age from two to fourteen, we traveled for three weeks by wagon, river barge, and on foot to the port of Bremerhaven. We carried one trunk, a Bible, and our hopes for a better life.
In October of 1845 we boarded the Humboldt bound for America. On the passenger list we were Anton Schulte, 44 Male; Antonette, 44 Female; Elizabet 14 F, Joseph 13 M; Gertrude12 F; Johanne, 6 M; Anton, 5 M; Franz, 2 M.
Our voyage took eight weeks.
More than two hundred people were crowded between ship decks. There was little fresh air, less privacy, and barely enough water. Everyone was seasick. Disease was common. Many families buried loved ones at sea before reaching America.
Every morning, I counted six heads and I thanked God they were all still there.
My youngest son, Franz, was only two years old. I tied him to me with a shawl when storms came. My oldest daughter, Elizabet, became a second mother to the younger children when I was too sick to stand.
After weeks on the ocean, we finally arrived in New Orleans and boarded a steamboat up the Mississippi River.
Our destination was supposed to be Hermann, Missouri, a thriving German settlement.
Instead, when we reached Ste. Genevieve, we were told there was work for miners at a place called Mine La Motte.
So, we walked. We walked thirty miles into the Ozark hills to a place where Frenchmen had dug lead since 1799. No town, no paved streets, no German bakeries — just pits, smelters smoking, rough log cabins. And opportunity.
Antone went underground to work in the mines owned by Thomas Fleming.
I stayed above ground and built a home.
Our cabin had a dirt floor, one room, and no glass in the windows. In winter we stuffed moss into the cracks to keep out the wind. I carried water from the spring, cooked over an open fire, made soap from lye and pig fat, tended a garden in rocky soil, and tried to keep lead dust off the children’s food.
It was hard.
At night, by firelight, I taught my children to read using the Bible I had carried from Prussia.
People sometimes ask how a miner’s wife could raise merchants, mine owners, and community leaders.
The answer is simple.
In a mining camp, children learn to work and they learn to count.
They learn to look beneath the surface and see value where others see only rock.
My oldest son Joseph grew up to become a merchant, a county judge, and one of Fredericktown’s civic leaders.
Joseph and his brothers helped develop the Schulte, Catherine, and Cobalt mines that contributed to Madison County’s mining industry.
The family that arrived with one trunk became part of the story of Madison County.
But the story does not end there.
Let me step out of Antonette’s shoes and introduce myself.
My name is Ruth Ann Skaggs, Antonette Schulte is my great-great-great-grandmother.
The 13-year-old boy on the Humboldt was my great-great-grandfather Joseph Schulte. He became very successful. Joseph, judge of the first district of the Madison County Court, went to California to mine gold in 1850. After his return to Madison County, Mo., in 1853, he resumed lead mining with his father and followed this occupation up to 1871. In 1872 he became a resident of Fredericktown. In 1873 he and two brothers, John and Frank, established a general merchandise store in the town and carried on an extensive business.
Joseph, and his brothers had opened the Catherine Mine — the brothers built a 5,000-foot tramway to haul ore — and brought St. Louis investors to Fredericktown. They also opened the Cobalt Mine — now one of the largest cobalt reserves in North America — and the Schulte Mine was named for our family.
Joseph’s son John was my great-grandfather.
John’s daughter, Ruth Schulte Skaggs, my Grandmother, was the youngest of his 8 children.
My father, John Paul Skaggs, just like Antone and Antonette, raised six children.
And just as Antonette had hoped when she crossed the Atlantic over 180 years ago, her family is still here.
Still working.
Still serving.
Still building Madison County.
I grew up hearing stories passed down about the trunk, the voyage, the dirt floor cabin at Mine La Motte, the lead dust on everything — and how she taught them to read by firelight.
And the determination it took to start over in a strange land.
The mines helped build Madison County.
But it was families like Antonette and Antone Schulte who built the community around them.
Thank you for allowing me to share their story!
