Heinrich "Henry" Friedrich Schnull Family  

The Schnull daughters - were established on the east side of the lake by their - father, as quoted by "Catey" Catherine Matilda (Glossbrener) Rasmussen:

...a relative, great-grandfather, Henry Schnull had established his three daughters - Emma, Nannie, and Julia, in cottages on the East Shore which became famous for their tennis court about 1904. One of these, called "Hilarity Hill". this is where eleven little Vonnegut -Mueller-Schnull cousins grew-up

The Schnull name is spelled various ways in the records - most common is: Schnall.

1. Heinrich "Henry" Friedrich Schnuell was born DEC 1833 in Hausberg, Westphalia, Germany, and died 3 NOV 1905 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana He was buried 6 NOV 1905 in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana Sec 6 Lot 35. son of Friedrich Wilhelm Schnull & Ernestine Wilhelmina Bierman

He married Mary Mathilde Schramm 11 DEC 1856 in Hancock County, Indiana, USA, daughter of Jacob Schramm and Julia Junghaus. She was born JAN 1836 in Jones Township, Hancock County, Indiana and died 7 Jul 1902 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana. She was buried 10 Jul 1902 in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana Sec 6 Lot 35.

Matilde Schramm's father was Jacob Schramm, who came from Saxony, where for generations his family had been grain merchants. He brought with him five thousand dollars in gold, six hundred books, and boxes of household goods, including a dinner set of Meissen porcelain.

He bought at once a section of land near Cumberland, Indiana. Jacob Schramm traveled extensively-once around the world, quite by himself. He prospered. He bought a great deal of land, one parcel of over two thousand acres on the old Michigan Road just northwest of Indianapolis. He loaned money, secured by good mortgages, to later arrivals in the vicinity.

Matilde Schramm met Henry Schnull on one of his early buying visits to her father's farm in 1854, and they were married n 1857. Matilda was Jacob’s only daughter, and he advanced Henry Schnull capital to help him start a wholesale grocery business and launch a successful mercantile career which made him a large fortune. Matilde was as stern and tough as Henry, but she had a warm, lovable disposition and was the real matriarch of the family.

Henry Schnull, with his brother, August, came to Indianapolis from the town of Hausberge in Westphalia about ten years before the Civil War. hey had both been apprenticed as Kaufmann, or merchant, in Germany and knew the methods of trade and accounts. They first engaged in the business of buying and selling farm produce in central Indiana. They traveled about in a wagon to the farms in the area; bought grain, butter, eggs, chickens, and salted and smoked pork, and resold these farm products in the city at a profit.

As they prospered by the hardest kind of work, they enlarged their operation by trucking surpluses to Madison or Jeffersonville, Indiana, on the Ohio River, where the merchandise was loaded on huge barges which were floated down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. One or the other of the brothers would accompany the shipment and attend to the trading in New Orleans. Here they would sell the produce in a good market and buy coffee, rum and sorghum, which was called "New Orleans molasses." These products they then shipped north by barge and sold at a profit in Cincinnati or Indianapolis. They are said to have brought to Indianapolis one of the last shipments from the South before the river was closed by the Confederates at Memphis. The price of sorghum and coffee skyrocketed, and the Schnull Brothers then had sufficient capital to establish a wholesale grocery business and construct a warehouse which was still standing in 1981 on the southeast corner of Washington and Delaware Streets in Indianapolis. The firm was originally a partnership known as A. & H. Schnull, later Schnull & Company. At the close of the Civil War, August announced that he had enough money and wanted to return to Germany. So he sold his interests to Henry and took two hundred thousand dollars back to Hausberge, where he bought a small Schloss and lived like a gentleman until his death in 1918.

The “Wholesale District.” It began in 1863 when two Westphalian emigrants, the brothers August and Henry Schnull, built the first wholesale house on the southwest corner of S. Meridian and W. Maryland Streets. Schnull’s Block comprised 102-108 S. Meridian and housed their enterprises. With their profits the brothers founded Merchants National Bank in 1865. While August returned to Germany, Henry became one of the city’s most successful businessmen of the 19th century.

Henry Schnull, a man with unusual business vision, remained in Indianapolis and devoted his energies to developing a wholesale district for his adopted city. Schnull saw the residential area between the retail merchants on Washington Street and the Union Depot and freight depots on South Street as an ideal site for the wholesale trade. During the late 1860s, he pursued his ambitious vision of a wholesale district by purchasing lots, razing houses, erecting speculative wholesale houses, and persuading other businessmen to do the same. By the early 1870s, Schnull had succeeded: whole­saling was firmly established in the region between South and Washington Streets. (Wholesale District Plan, p. 18)

His efforts won Henry Schnull the epithet “Father of the Wholesale District.”

Henry Schnull elected to remain in the United States. He became one of the leading merchants of Indiana, and was a most highly regarded citizen. In addition to his wholesale grocery business he founded the Eagle Machine Works, which later became the great Atlas Engine Company, which manufactured stationary steam engines and farm implements. He also organized the American Woolen Company, the first textile mill in the State.

Shortly after passage in 1865 of the law authorizing national banks, he established and was first President of the Merchants National Bank of Indianapolis, which has survived all of the intervening panics and is still operating.

Henry Schnull was a man of immense industry, courage, and independence; intelligent, self-reliant, and resourceful ; incorruptibly honest and reliable in his dealings; and completely dedicated to business and accumulation. He became very rich for his times, endowed his children with generous gifts, and left a fortune in 1905 which has assisted three generations of his progeny to live comfortably. He was so much engaged with his many activities that he was not much of a family man, and his children saw but little of him.

The Schramm letters, by Jacob Schramm; Emma (Schnull) Vonnegut Publisher: Indianapolis, Indiana Historical Society, 1935.

Children are:

2 i. Emma Schnull was born 4 SEP 1857 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, and died 17 FEB 1939 in Culver , Marshall, Indiana. She married Clemens Vonnegut, Jr. 4 SEP 1878 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, son of Clemens Vonnegut , Sr. and Katharina Blank. He was born 19 NOV 1853 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, and died 18 JAN 1921 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana. He was buried 21 JAN 1921 in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana Sec 6 Lot 4.




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Henry Schnull and Clemens Vonnegut, Jr.

3 ii. Nanette Schnull was born FEB 1859 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, and died 16 OCT 1929 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana. She married Bernard Vonnegut 19 SEP 1883 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, son of Clemen Vonnegut , Sr. and Katharina Blank. He was born 8 AUG 1855 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, and died 7 AUG 1908 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana. He was buried 10 AUG 1908 in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana Sec 6 Lot 4.

4 iii. Gustav A. Schnull was born JAN 1862 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, and died ABT 11 SEP 1936 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana.

5 iv. Julia Wilhelmene Schnull was born MAY 1864 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, and died ABT 20 APR 1926 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana. She married George J. Mueller 17 OCT 1888 n Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, son of Charles G. Müeller, Sr. and Margaretha Esther Hüeman. He was born JUN 1860 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, and died 3 MAY 1931 Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana.

Second Genertion:

4 iii. Gustav A. Schnull was born JAN 1862 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, and died ABT 11 SEP 1936 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana.

Gustav and Matilda Schnull originally built the Schnull-Rauch House at 3050 N. Meridian Street in 1904 it was designed by by renowned architect Bernard Vonnegut . It is one of the few remaining examples of French Romanesque architecture in Indianapolis.



1921 he was a trustee of the Citizens Gas Company and president of Schnull & Co wholesale grocers

T.C. Steele painted the portraits of Gustav Schnull’s parents that hang in the front hall. In 1923, Matilda Schnull died and her daughter and son-in-law, Gertrude and John Rauch, moved into the home to take care of the elder Mr. Schnull. The Rauchs were very influential in Indianapolis. The home became known as the Schnull-Rauch House. Gertrude and John Rauch’s son - John G. Rauch, Jr. was responsible or the gift of the home to the Junior League of Indianapolis in 1979.

There are nine mantels throughout the house made out of wood, carved marble and brick. The door-plates, doorknobs, and hinges of the home have two different and distinctive designs. The first floor hardware utilizes an unusual lion’s head emblem. The second floor exhibits a fleur-de-lis pattern.

The Steinway piano that is displayed in the North Parlor has been in the home since 1923. And was on 14 Nov 197 listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

He married Matilda L. Mayer 12 OCT 1887 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana. She was born NOV 1865 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, and died ABT 2 MAR 1923 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana.

Children are:
6 i. Bertha Mathilde Schnull was born 26 JAN 1890 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, and died 25 FEB 1971 in Duarte, Los Angeles, California, USA. She married Francis Maus Fauvre 2 JAN 1915 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, . He was born 15 AUG 1888 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, and died 15 Apr 1970 - Chandler, Warrick, Indiana buried 18 April 1970 Rose Hill Cemetery Newburgh, Warrick, Indiana; married 2nd abt Nov. 1956 Frances Land birth: Birth: 9 Nov 1891 - Enfield Whit, Illinois Death: Death: 17 Jan 1990 - Evansville, Vanderburgh, Indiana buried Rose Hill Cemetery Newburgh Warrick, Indiana daughter of Edward Land and Esther Jordan son of Francis A. [Maus ] Fauvre and Lillian R. Schnull

7 ii. Gertrude A. Schnull was born 14 MAR 1893 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana died 21 Oct 1984 - Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, USA. She married 14 APR 1914 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana. John G. Rauch born 16 July 1890 and died 3 February 1976 Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana son of John Rauch and Catherine Berger. He was a prominent Indianapolis resident, lawyer, and civic leader. Graduating from Harvard Law School in 1914, he began practicing law in Indianapolis in 1915 and joined the firm of Rauch, Chase, and Kitchen in 1946. During his long career, he played an instrumental role in many civic organizations as President of the Board of Trustees for the Art Association of Indianapolis (1962-1976), Chairman of the Board of the Indiana Historical Society (1957-1976), an organizer of the Park School Foundation, and as Director of the Indianapolis Symphony and the Children's Museum. He also co-authored with his wife, Gertrude Schnull Rauch, "A Bibliography of Laws of Indiana, 1788-1927," and wrote "The Midwest Resort, a History of Harbor Springs, Michigan. " JOHN RAUCH PAPERS, 1926-1977 Collection #M 0456 Indiana Historical Library

8 iii. Josephine Edna Schnull was born 4 NOV 1894 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana. Death: Mar. 13, 1973 burial Van Pelt Cemetery Waldron, Shelby County, Indiana married: 8 Sep. 1919 Marion co., In. [Bk. 105 pg. 82] Daniel Independence Glossbrenner Birth: 4 Jul 1896 - Indianapolis, Indiana Death: 25 Dec 1983 burial Van Pelt Cemetery Waldron, Shelby County, Indiana son of Alfred M. Glossbrenner and Minnie Mae Stroup

Sketches of Prominent Citizens

Henry Schnull

Among the enterprising buisness men of Indianapolis, Mr. Schnill will be found in front rank.

He was born in the kingdom of Prussia on the 26th of December, 1833, where he received a good education.

He came to the United States and to this city in October, 1852.

In December, 1856 he was married to Matilda Schramm, the daughter of a wealthy farmer of Hancock county, where she was born.

Mr. Schnaull was the first to commennce the wholesale grocery business on Meridian street. He was in that buisness from 1855 to 1871 - first under the name of A. & H. Schnull and atferwars - Severin, Schnull & Co.

Mr. Schnull was for severl years president of the Merchants' National Bank of this city, and was also a partner in the foundry known as the Eaglel Machine Works.

He is at this time president and treasurer of the Indianapolis Cotton Manufacturing Company.

By this it will be seen that since Mr Schnull's twenty-four years' residence in the city he has been one of its active business men.

He now resides in an elegant residence on North Alabama Stree.
,br> As Mr. Schnill has been so fortunate in his business transactions, he must have had his foot planted on the ladder of firtune, and has worked himself up to the top, and is considered one of the substantial men of the city. - - pg. 352-353

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Vonnegut Family Index