From History of Walworth County Wisconsin by Albert Clayton Beckwith, Vol. II, 
publ. 1912, Page1344-1345
 
JOHN A. SCHWARTZ.  Of the many sterling citizens sent to Walworth county, 
Wisconsin, from the state of New York, few have led lives more commendable 
than John A. SCHWARTZ, of Troy township, a man who believes in being of some 
service to his fellows while passing through the world and not in merely 
striving for selfish ends, and thus he has always enjoyed the confidence and 
esteem of the people who came into contact with him.
 
Mr. SCHWARTZ, as the name implies, is of German descent, indeed he is only of 
the second generation in America, his birth having occurred in Celia, Holt 
county, New York, on April 8, 1840.  He is the son of Paul and Elizabeth 
(WAGNER) SCHWARTZ, both natives of Germany, he of Mince and she of Worms.  
There they spent their early childhood, the father being eighteen years of age 
when he emigrated, and she but a girl when she came to New York state, and 
they both went to the town of Celia where he found employment in the salt 
works.  They came to Wisconsin in the spring of 1843, with the early settlers 
and located on a farm of eighty acres in Troy township, to which he later 
added until he had a fine farm of three hundred and forty acres.  It was all 
raw land and consequently much hard work was necessary to develop it.  About 
forty acres of one eighty had been improved before he came here, his first 
eighty having no improvements whatever.  Here Paul SCHWARTZ engaged in general 
farming and stock raising on a large scale until his death, in 1894.  His 
family consisted of nine children, seven of whom are still living.  His wife 
died in the summer of 1881.  He was a member of the Catholic church.
 
John A. SCHWARTZ, of this sketch, grew to manhood on the home farm and he 
received his education in the pubic schools of this county and a commercial 
school in Milwaukee.  After his graduation there he attended Milton academy, 
working his way through school.  He found plenty of work on the home farm, 
hoping to develop the same.  He remembers well the erection of their first 
home here, a rude log cabin, also remembers seeing his father cast the first 
furrow in his new farm.
 
The subject was a young man when the Civil war came on, but he did not go to 
the front, though he belonged to a local club that sent many substitutes into 
the army.  Upon leaving school he followed teaching for six winters, then 
entered the mercantile business in East Troy for one year; the next year and a 
half was spent in trucking.  In the fall of 1871 he erected a general 
merchandise establishment at Troy Center (the same year that the railroad was 
built here).  He operated this store for ten and one-half years, enjoying a 
good trade.  In the meantime he had purchased the home farm, all excepting 
eighty acres, in 1881, and he moved thereto in the spring of 1882 and there 
farmed until the fall of 1906, when he moved again to East Troy.  In 
connection with general farming, he was a breeder of thoroughbred Merino 
sheep, also general stock raising.  While he was in the store at Troy Center 
he bought and sold the warehouse there, and he entered into partnership with 
his eldest son, Albert A., under the firm name of J. A. SCHWARTZ & Son, and 
they dealt in grain, lumber, coal and lime, etc.  Mr. SCHWARTZ has been very 
successful in whatever he has undertaken, being a man of industry and sound 
judgment and always on the job.
 
In the spring of 1868 Mr. SCHWARTZ was united in marriage with Elizabeth 
WILMER, who was born, reared and educated in Walworth county being the 
daughter of a well known old family here.  This union has resulted in the 
birth of the following children: Albert A., Bernard F., Florence, Edna, 
George, John J., Susie, Roy R., Walter W. and Nellie E.
 
Politically, Mr. SCHWARTZ is a Republican, and the entire family are Catholics 
and faithful in their support of the mother church.  He has been chairman of 
Troy township eight different terms, clerk of the district school, and has 
held other local offices, always with satisfaction to the people, though he 
has never been an office seeker.
 
Submitted by Carol