Santa
Clara County
Biographies
AUGUSTUS SCHOENHEIT
The Schoenheit remedies have brought their
patentee and manufacturer considerable fame, and have secured to his son and
namesake a business founded in the pioneer days of San Jose. These remedies
have been potent factors in the maintenance of health not only in California,
but throughout the United States and Europe. Mr. Schoenheit is to the land
beyond the Rockies what Ayers was to the east; a man of sincere convictions and
comprehensive knowledge of drugs and anatomy; a scientist and chemist who has
been content to spend years in the perfecting of some remedial agency, and
whose laboratory has furnished him an interest and resource far beyond the
consideration of mere money-getting. Indentified with San Jose since 1859, his
efforts of almost half a century have been in keeping with his keen
intelligence, well directed ambition and progressive citizenship, and have
added to a life rich in adventure and varied in opportunity.
Born in the heart of the Thuringian Forest, Saxony, central Germany, December 12,
1827, Mr. Schoenheit’s earliest youth proved a
keynote to his novel and out-of-the-ordinary career. He was one of many
children to play around an humble mountain home, in a
region offering superior inducements to his father, John Schoenheit, a civil
engineer and surveyor. While still a small lad his playground was shifted from
the forest to the city of Moscow, Russia, where he attended the gymnasium, and
later pursued his studies in a similar institution in St. Petersburg. His
mother, Margaret Schoenheit, came of a family to whom much honor is due, and
which numbers among its members men of extraordinary courage and perseverance.
Dr. William Junker, a nephew of Augustus Schoenheit, was a prominent and early
African explorer, who penetrated further into the wilds of the dark continent
than any who had gone before him, and who was rescued from a precarious
position with the party of Emin Bey
in 1889, by Henry M. Stanley. Emin Bey, the great Jewish explorer, vastly appreciated the
efforts of Dr. Junker, and prior to the Emin’s
treacherous death at the hands of Arabs near Nyangwe,
in October, 1892, completed the accounts of the eminent doctor. Dr. Junker was
born in Moscow, Russia, April 6, 1840, and died at St. Petersburg February 13,
1892. He was a man of great learning and succeeded in securing a valuable
collection of scientific facts and data during his journeyings
through darkest Africa, in connection with which he published a book entitled Reisen in Africa, in 1891.
Mr. Schoenheit remained in Russia
until he was sent back to Germany for military service, when he enlisted in the
Jeger Corps of Thuringia, later served in the army of
Schleswig-Holstein, the Third Jeger corps, the Fifth
corps, and the First regiment, advancing to the rank of lieutenant before his
twenty-first year. From 1848 until 1851 he served in the Danish war in
Schleswig-Holstein. After completing his military service he received his
patent and entered the University of Gottingen, remaining for two years, and
there meeting Prof. William Seelig, between whom and
himself there sprang up a lifelong friendship.
Mr. Schoenheit came to California in
1853, sailing to New York, and embarking from there for Aspinwall,
and crossing the isthmus (sic) on foot. He suffered great deprivation during
this trip, and after arriving in San Francisco mined in Coloma, in the Sugar
Loaf district, in Sonora and Big Oak Flat, in the latter place hearing from the
Indians that there was a place where the water came pouring down from the sky.
Keen of intuition, he rightly discerned that the red men meant to describe a
valley, and, accompanied by three companions, well armed and equipped, he
proceeded in the direction indicated by the Indians. Going through a forest of
big trees, the like of which they had never dreamed, a still greater surprise
awaited the travelers, for, wading through grass as high as man and beast they
came upon the great Yosemite valley from the big (sic) Oak Flat side, and were
amazed at its extent and grandeur. With the exception of Hutchinson, who had
been there a few days before, theirs were the first pale faces to invade this
now famous valley, and they may be said to be the discoverers and first
practical explorers, for they brought back the first description ever given of
one of the great wonders of the earth. This was in 1854. During the Fraser
river (sic) excitement of 1858 Mr. Schoenheit went upon yet another adventurous
journey, reaching as far north as Victoria, where he found the news of gold to
be a humbug. The two comrades who traveled with him were killed by Indians.
Returning to San Francisco, Mr. Schoenheit soon afterward came to San Jose and
became a clerk in the first drug store established in California, its founder
being one Davini, an Italian, who had formerly
followed the sea as a whaler. The store was ushered into existence in March,
1848, in Lima, Peru, and was moved to San Jose in 1849, where its owner sold it
some years later to a physician under whom Mr. Schoenheit served as experienced
druggist. Eighteen months later he was in a position to purchase the business,
then located where the Rae Building now stands on the corner of Market and
Santa Clara streets. Later on the stock was removed to the present site of Spring’s store, and later to the Auzerais
House. Still later he occupied the store adjoining the Auzerais,
remaining there until the earthquake of 1868 entirely demolished his store, he
himself barely escaping with his life. This sensational termination of business
came at an inopportune time, for Mr. Schoenheit had just returned from a trip
around the world, in which he had studied chemistry and pharmacy in the great
centers of learning, and had experimented with certain remedies which he desired
to place on the market. His journey had been replete with pleasant happenings,
exhaustive research, and all around enlargement of mind, but he had encountered
severe storms on the way from Panama to San Francisco. The earthquake was a
severe financial blow to him, yet he rallied with characteristic determination,
and soon had a stock of goods installed in the Auzerais
Building, where he remained until 1878. By that time the new Stone Building was
completed, across the way, and he moved there and made it his headquarters
until 1898. His present place was then moved into No. 72 South First street, the main business block of the town, and he has
since continued to manufacture the remedies which have made his name a
household word in the west. His liniment has gained him a world-wide
reputation, and is the result of three years of experimenting in this country
and Europe. His Specific No. 1 is almost as well known, as is also his
non-poisonous corn cure, his medical lozenge, Schoenheit’s
sarsaparilla, and Schoenheit’s cough cure. Mr.
Schoenheit married, in Hartford. Two children have been born of this union,
Augustus A., general manager of his father’s business, and Sophia, a graduate
of Leland Stanford University.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast
Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1318-1319. The
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.