My Genealogy Hound

PETER SCHNUR, the subject of this sketch, was born in Crawford county, Ohio, December 4, 1845, of German parents, his father and mother having emigrated from Germany and settled in Ohio about the year 1830. For a few years he attended the public schools at Galion, Ohio, but at the age of about fourteen years entered the office of the Galion Democrat as an apprentice to learn the printing business. Here he served faithfully for a period of three years, which was then the time allotted before an apprentice could enter the ranks of journeymen. A few years later he became a partner in the publication of the Galion Review, a local paper, with which he was connected for about two years. In the autumn of 1868 he concluded to “go west and grow up with the country,” and with his wife and child settled upon a claim in Cherokee county, Kan. The life of a farmer proved distasteful, however, and in the fall of 1869 he moved to Carthage, Mo., where he shortly afterwards secured a position in the office of the Carthage Banner, serving the proprietors of that paper faithfully until the winter of 1871-72. About this time the numerous developments in the new mining camp of Joplin were attracting great attention, people were flocking in from all parts of the country, and the little places of Joplin and Murphysburg began to assume proportions as thriving and promising towns. Mr. Schnur was looking for a good location to engage in business for himself, and it occurred to him that Murphysburg was a point that held out large promises. He accordingly looked the field over, and in February, 1872, set up a small printing office, and on the 7th of the following month issued the first number of the Mining News, a more extended notice of which will be found on page 450 of this volume. Mr. Schnur is one of the pioneer citizens of Joplin, and has watched with pride the growth of the place from a hamlet of a few hundreds to a city of 10,000 inhabitants—a result which is in no small degree due to his good work in behalf of the town in the columns of the paper of which he has so long had charge. Mr. Schnur was married at Muncie, Ind., Oct. 4, 1866, to Miss Ada, daughter of Eleazer Coffeen, one of the oldest citizens of that place. From this union there are five children: Millie, Herbert, Mabel, Mamie, and Harry A. Mr. Schnur has membership in the Ascension Commandery No. 39, K. T., Joplin R. A. C. No. 91, and Fellowship Lodge, 345, A. F. & A. M.; is an A. O. U. W., and was a charter member of Joplin Lodge Knights of Pythias.