JOHN B. SCHOTT. For over sixty years the name SCHOTT has been a distinctive one in Quincy's progressive commercial affairs. It is especially associated with Quincy's importance as a center of the manufacture and distribution of leather and saddlery products. The John B. Schott Saddlery Company, built up on the nucleus of a pioneer tannery, was subsequently advanced to a front rank among similar firms in the Middle West.

The stimulating factor and head of this business for many years was the late John B. SCHOTT. He was born in Bavaria, Germany, March 28, 1833, a son of Philip Anthony and Margaret (FISCHER) SCHOTT, both of whom represented some of the most substantial families of old Bavaria, people of education and a high degree of commercial ability and integrity. Mr. SCHOTT was a tanner, and he and his wife spent all their lives in their native town, where they died when past sixty. John B. SCHOTT was one of the six sons to grow to manhood, and all of them learned their father's trade. He acquired a liberal education, and in 1852, at the age of nineteen, started for America. He traveled on a sailing vessel and after a number of weeks landed in New York City. He worked at his trade as a tanner and currier at Cincinnati, Ohio, for about four years. It was in response to an advertisement which offered the rental of a tannery at Quincy that Mr. SCOTT arrived in this city on the 16th of May, 1856. He made arrangements to take over an old tannery at the corner of Sixth and State streets, and e subsequently married the daughter of the founder of the business. Though he came to Quincy with very little capital, Mr. SCHOTT was a man of much ability in his line, and his energy enable him to make a success of the business. At first only six or eight men were employed but he pushed the business rapidly and in 1861 bought the property. In 1865 he bought other property at 613-615 Hampshire Street, where he engaged in the general leather business, besides conducting the old tannery. Another addition to the business came in 1875, when he took up the manufacture of horse collars. In 1877 the company engaged in the wholesale manufacture of saddlery goods, and at that time employed twenty-five men. In 1879 a building at the corner of Third and Hampshire streets was acquired and that for many years has been the headquarters of the J.B. SCHOTT Company. In 1889 Mr. SCHOTT erected a five story addition in Hampshire Street, a building that is still known as the Schott Building. The goods manufactured by this firm have been sold in practically every state of the Union and even abroad. From six to eight men represent the company on the road, and altogether there are about 100 employes.

John B. SCHOTT invested much of the surplus of his business in local real estate and owns some especially valuable property between 14th and 15th streets on State Street, in which locality he had his home for forty-seven years. After only two days of illness he died at his home May 6, 1910, at the age of seventy-seven. He was an independent voter, but his business position alone made him a factor of importance in the city and he was always liberal in his support of a worthy causes.

February 17, 1869, Mr. SCOTT married at Quincy, Miss Adolphina SCHLEICH, and they lived to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. Mrs. SCOTT, who is still living, was born near Berlin, Germany, December 6, 1839, daughter of F. Julius and Wilhelmina SCHLEICH, both natives of Prussia. Some of her ancestors were prominent teachers and preachers in the Lutheran church. Mrs. SCHOTT came to America with her parents on board a sailing vessel between Breman and Baltimore in 1847. The were six weeks in making the passage, and the family brought with them all their household equipment, including cooking utensils and beds and bedding. From Baltimore the family came on west to Quincy, where Julius SCHLEICH established himself at his trade in a tannery. He had sought a home in the new world to become free from the political and other restrictions that sent to so many liberty loving sons of the fatherland to this country during the late '40s. Julius SCHLEICH built a tannery at the corner of Sixth and State streets which was the first institution of the kind in Quincy. Troubles assailed him in the management of this business, and he died in 1851, at the age of thirty-nine, leaving the property much involved. The tannery was finally taken over, as already noted, by the late John B. SCHOTT, who made it the nucleus of the business just described. The widow of Julius SCHLEICH survived him a great many years and was ninety-three years old when she passed away May 20, 1903, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. SCHOTT, with whom she had lived for over forty-five years.

The SCHOTT home at 1421 State Street is one of the stately places in the city, and indicates in its atmosphere the substantial qualities of its owners. One special feature of the place are the fine trees growing on the spacious lawn. These trees were set out when small by Mr. and Mrs. SCHOTT, and they now stand as living signals of their earlier lives.

Mr. and Mrs. SCHOTT were the parents of six children, Antonia, Julia, Emma, John F., Adolph and Robert. Antonia, who lives at 1301 State Street, is the widow of Louis WOLF, formerly president of the Quincy National Bank and manager of J.B. Schott Saddlery Company. Julia is the wife of Charles H. LAUTER, manager of the Schott Company. They have two children, Carl and Margaret, the former a chemist. Emma died at the old home at the age of forty-five, unmarried. All the sons, John, Adolph and Robert, are connected with the company and business established by their father. All are married, and John has four children, John, Jr., Herbert, Theodore and Frances, while Adolph has one son, Frederick.

QUINCY AND ADAMS COUNTY HISTORY AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN,
Vol. 2 by David Wilcox. Lewis Publishing, 1919. pp 762-763