Born January 15, 1857 Alfdorf, Baden-Wurttemburg, Germany
Died November 7, 1950 Allamakee County, Iowa.
George married Katherina Fitz (born July 27, 1861 Alfdorf, died May 8, 1935 Allamakee County, Iowa) on September 18, 1887 at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Postville. George farmed near Lansing, was living with son John and Martha Schellhammer at the time of his death. He is buried at Lanisng Ridge Cemetery.

Helga & Frieda Schellhammer
Herbert Rissman, son of Julius & Sophie (Vieth) Rissman


Frieda (middle front), Martha, John and
Helga (middle back) Schellhammer

Front: John, Lorraine and Martha Schellhammer
Back: Frieda and Helga Schellhammer

John & Martha Schellhammer - 1957

John Schellhammer was the son of George and Katherina (Fitz) Schellhammer and Martha (Vieth) Schellhammer. John was born June 21, 1895 in Postville and died April 20, 1989 in Waukon. Martha was born October 10, 1905 in Grossenweiden, Germany and died February 1, 1990 in Waukon. Both are interred at Oakland Cemetery in Waukon. John and Martha farmed near Lansing during the early years together, then farmed near the Union Prairie twp. Allamakee co. - Glenwood twp. Winneshiek co. border. After their move into Waukon in the late 50's, early 60's, John was the caretaker for the cemetery and park in Waukon for 20 plus years. They were members of the Zion Reformed Church in Waukon.
(click here for Vieth family album)

John and Martha Schellhammer with daughter
Helga (Schellhammer) Lenz at the Good Samaritan Home in Waukon, June 1986

The Schellhammer farm home in Union Prairie twp. July 1949
Lorraine & Frieda are standing in front of the house

I visited the farm in 1990 when in Waukon for Grandma's (Martha) funeral. The only thing that had changed was the big willow tree in the front had been taken down and a new one planted to replace it. (click on photo to enlarge)

Martha helped the family by making wedding cakes. These are just two of the hundreds of cakes she made for many of newlyweds in Allamakee and surrounding counties. She once made a cake that was modeled after one of the churches in town (it was in the newspaper - if memory serves me correctly, it was the church on the west end of the main street that the theatre is on). Another cake I remember is the one that she made that looked like an ear of corn. Each kernel was individually placed on the cake and it even had the husks opened up around the corn. She won a ribbon at the fair for this one. Sometimes she had as many as three or four cakes to be delivered to a church in one weekend.

L-R front:  Donald Kerndt, Frieda Schellhammer, Rev.Henry Marks, Donald  Jensen, Glenn Schellhammer

L-R back:  Frederick Zimmerman, Ruth Wendel, Milton Saewert,  Marlys Schellhammer, Eugene Osterlie.

(names of the people in the photo were identified by Janet Koozer, Oct. 2007)