TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: Johann Henry Schmitt, IV

by Jody Weaver

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY (July 29, 2025): Johann Henry Schmitt, IV, was born in Büdesheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany in 1829. When Johann was 16 years old, his parents, Johann and Maria, chose to leave political unrest brewing in their homeland in search of a better life in America. Tragically his father, who was a wine maker, fell between two ships at the dock just before their scheduled departure and drowned. His mother Maria made the difficult decision to continue on with the voyage to bring her three sons and two daughters to America. Records show that they were passengers on the ship “Andacia” which left Antwerp on December 5, 1845, and first arrived in Galveston on March 29 and then Karlshafen on April 12, 1846, where they settled. Karlshafen was one of the names used for the port on the shell beach at Indian Point, or Old Town, which later became Indianola. Tragedy struck again in December 1849 when Maria Schmitt froze to death during a sudden, freak freezing norther that swept in while she was out looking for a lost calf.
Johann Henry Schmitt changed his name to “Smith” when he became a citizen of the United States in 1850. Henry, as he was known throughout his life, married Josephine Ludwig on May 5, 1851, on Matagorda Island. Her family had immigrated to Indianola from Kiedrich, Germany, also in early 1846. It is not known for sure whether the Schmidt and Ludwig families knew each other in Germany, but the villages where Henry and Josephine grew up are only about 30 miles apart on either side of the Rhine River in the beautiful wine country of Germany. The names of both families are found in cemetery records on each side of the river, so it is a possibility.
Henry and Josephine lived in Indianola and later at Alligator Head (present day Port O’Connor), where Henry had a sheep ranch. For a while during the Civil War, they lived on Capano Bay at Old St. Mary’s in Refugio County, where Henry ran the mailboat. Henry’s granddaughter Rae Edler, in the 1974 Calhoun County Shifting Sands, tells the story of one time when a Yankee gunboat was stationed in the harbor, but since there was no fighting in the area, the sailors were entertaining the young ladies with parties aboard ship. On one of these occasions, she says, the ladies got word to their men, who then went dressed in ladies’ clothes, and captured the gunboat. Henry brought home a teapot as a souvenir, which Mrs. Edler stated was still treasured by the Smith family.
At Indianola and later in Port Lavaca, where they moved after the 1886 storm, Henry owned a small grocery store, where regular customers often came to play Dominos. Henry and Josephine had sixteen children between 1853 and 1879, 10 of which lived to adulthood. 
There are many prominent past and present Calhoun County citizens who descend from Henry and Josephine Smith. His son William Henry Smith established the Port Lavaca Channel and Dock in 1917 (Smith Harbor). It was the first corporation to obtain a charter from the State of Texas. Three of his grandsons founded the Smith Bros. Seafood Company around 1920, and another grandson, Harry Smith partnered with his brother-in-law W.H. Bauer to found the Bauer-Smith Dredging Company in 1936. 
Henry Smith died on May 22, 1907 in Port Lavaca. The headline of his obituary published in the May 23, 1907 Port Lavaca Wave reads “Pioneer called – Death of Capt. Henry Smith on Wednesday afternoon.” Henry is described as “an early German pioneer of Texas” and “one of our old residents and highly esteemed citizens.” Josephine joined him in death in December 1912, and they are both buried under one marker in the Port Lavaca Cemetery.
References:
Smith Reunion 1990 notes found on ancestry.com

Shifting Sands of Calhoun County, Texas
W.H. Bauer- a biography of accomplishment

Tombstone Tuesday is written and compiled each week by Jody Weaver and Sheryl Cuellar of the Calhoun County Historical Commission, sharing the people and stories behind Calhoun County's history 





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