Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas Henry Schumacher Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

HENRY W. SCHUMACHER

(Transcribed by Peg Luce)

The life of Henry W. Schumacher was inspiring because of its single-mindedness of purpose and fidelity to a few fixed objectives. In this it found itself at variance with the outlook of the modern generation which ahs been reared with a great deal of emphasis upon the “well-rounded” man or woman. The weakness of the “all-around” point of view is that its subjects tend to spread themselves too thinly over fields of endeavor. But Henry W. Schumacher served his profession – the law – with a devotion of heart and mind and a concentration of purpose that never wavered. He possessed a wholesome interest in public affairs and the welfare of his environment. But he did not dissipate his energies or weaken his usefulness by sundry excursions into various fields of endeavor. “The law is a jealous mistress,” he often quoted – and he served her with all the vigor of a rugged mind and with all the devotion of an acolyte’s heart.

It is not strange, therefore, that he left a deep impression upon his day and generation. He stood for only the highest ethics of practice. He served his clients with candor, with the utmost honesty, and with untiring zeal in their behalf. He took no questionable cases; he was the soul of integrity. There was a granitie quality in his character. Men soon learned that they could trust him with their most precious possessions, with their most sacred confidences – provided always and of course that their cause was just.

He never was guilty of betrayal in his life. And thus there grew up about him the feeling of confidence, of assurance and protection that surrounds a great oak. From the soul of him there emanated a trustworthiness that never slackened during all the long and honorable decades of his career.

While he never sat upon a bench, men called him “Judge,” in instinctive tribute to his high standing and profound legal attainments. He was meticulous and careful in all his work. He used the choicest of language, and his talk was flavored with extracts from classics unfamiliar to modern readers. He was an entertaining companion, with a vast store of anecdote that always carried its point with pungent accuracy. Above all, he was a gentleman – with a fine sense of personal dignity whose charm was heightened by an unfailing expression of old-fashioned, and sincerely meant, courtesy. His like is few in the world of men.

So Henry Schumacher is gone today – gone from the community that knew him intimately for forty-five years, gone with his pure devotion to his profession and principles, gone with his touches of neighborly kindliness. But a life of such magnificent worthiness as his shall never cease to enrich the fertile soil upon which it was sown. – September 27, 1930.