John Schlichte

John SchlichteÂ’s background, life style, and goals were not unlike those of the other
German Catholics who were among the first settlers in the Templeton area.
The story began in Goldenstedt, Germany. In 1847 his parents, Dietrich Theodore and
Elizabeth Kohls Schlichte, and two daughters, Catharina, 9, and Anna, 3, packed their only
possessions in two boxes and left Goldenstedt for Bremen, Germany, where they boarded
the ship, Alder, for the voyage to Balitmore, Maryland, arriving Nov. 30. Anna died
aboard ship.
Two years later John was born, Nov. 15, 1849, in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the family lived
for several years while Dietrich earned enough money as a carpenter to move his family to
the New Vienna area in Dubuque County, Iowa.
After his father died in 1859, John, who was then ten years old, and his mother made their
home with his sister Catherina and her husband, Adolph Langel. He married Angela
Wegman, a daughter of Herman Wegman, Feb. 6th, 1872, at New Vienna, Iowa.
Early in 1874, now 25 years old, John, his brother-in-law Joseph Drees, and G. Henry
Halbur, descended to move from Dubuque County to Eden Township in Carroll County.
The Schlichte Homestead was located a mile and a half west and two miles north of the
present town of Templeton. The Drees family lived across the road east and the HalburÂ’s
nearby.
Devout Catholics, one of the first projects was to join with other families in giving labor
and materials to build a small frame church on a knoll on a Schlichte farm. However, only
run mass was read in it, Aug. 15th 1883, before the building was dismantled and moved to
the site where the Sacred Heart church and Templeton now stands, in order to provide
services for larger number of people.
The oldest living member of the Schlichte family, Frances Heider of Carroll (100 years old
July 5th 1981), recalls playing around the foundation which remained there for some time.
She also remembers that before one could receive First Holy Communion it was necessary
to be at least twelve years and to have attended the Catholic school in Templeton for one
year. To do this, part of the time she boarded with the sisters, and other times she walked
the three in half miles, following the railroad tracks, or road horseback, or drove a sulky.
By this time new original home had been replaced by a large Square White House,
complete with a parlor, parents bedroom, large dining room with stained glass trim for the
bay window to the East, a good size kitchen, and five bedrooms upstairs for the growing
family. The barn, a landmark for many years, was constructed with wooden pigs instead
of nails.
Through the years John Schlichte, by buying and selling various parcels of land in the area,
increased his original fifty acres, which he had purchased in 1874 from the Iowa Railroad
Land Co. for $225.45, to a half section of land in one piece. The South half of the farm is
presently the property of Mrs. Edward Schlichte.
John and Angela Schlichte had 11 children, three of whom are still living: Frances, Mrs.
Henry Heider of Carroll; Mary, Mrs. Henry Fangman of Redwood Falls MN. and Rose,
Mrs. Frank Ferneding of Manning.
Those deceased either following John and Henry who passed away in infancy. Anna
Templeton, Joseph of Chehalis, Washington, Clara Mrs. Frank Fangman of Templeton,
Edward of Templeton, Cecelia, Mrs. Al Burlage of New Vienna and Florence, Mrs. Ted
Testroet of Audubon.

Photo of John Schlichte family (I believe Testroet family)