Lewis Michael Schmidt was born in Boone county Iowa October 10, 1878, and was raised on a farm east of the city of Boone Iowa.

Louise K. Leininger also was born in Boone County Iowa October 10, 1888, 7 miles north of the city of Boone. Both Lewis and Louise received their education in country schools.

In 1904 the John Leininger Sr., family, including Louise, headed west, and settled in Griggs County in Kingsley Township. They built a new home 11 miles SW of Binford and started farming. Soon after, Lewis Schmidt came to work for John Leininger. A romance developed between Louise Leininger and Lewis Schmidt, and wedding bells rang for them on June 20, 1905. To this union a son was born on March 8, 1906 named LeRoy Marvin Schmidt. Some of the old timers might remember LeRoy as playing banjo with "Art Johnson and His Melody Kings." He also serviced radios for I. D. Allen in Cooperstown.

Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Schmidt adopted a daughter who was born April 11, 1913 by the name of Dorothy Louise Schmidt. She was educated in Griggs County and moved to Tacoma Washington with the rest of the Schmidt family in 1936. She was married to Francis T. Moore June 10, 1938.

LeRoy Schmidt married Mildred Clauson who was being raised by the Alfred Retzlaff family 12 miles west of Cooperstown. They were married in the Zion Evangelical Lutheran church west of Cooperstown on October 28, 1927. They lived in Cooperstown several years before deciding the pastures looked greener on the west coast. In 1936 LeRoy, Mildred and a family of four headed for the west coast and settled in Tacoma, Washington where LeRoy worked for the St. Regis Paper Company, for 34 years before being pensioned off at the age of 65 years.

Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 333