Conceived in Germany, born in America, Sophia Maria "Mary" Schrader (later Johanningmeier) was the second-born child, first to survive, of her parents, August Friedrich Wilhelm Schrader and Katharina Maria Dorothea "Mary" Homann. The first-born of the Schrader couple died as the ship on which they emigrated neared the New York shore in 1865. The child is buried in New York.

Sophia "Mary" was born November 13, 1865 in Jefferson Township, Clayton County Iowa. Her baptismal record of December 28, 1865 is at St. John American Lutheran Church, Guttenberg. Evident is that she was named for her baptismal sponsors, Sophia Fischer and Maria Wohrheide. Documentation of her March 21, 1880 confirmation is at Zion Lutheran Church, Clayton Center, in Read Township.

With three younger brothers and three younger sisters, Mary was reared on a farm in Wagner Township. Her future husband resided on a farm in Giard Township, notheast of Wagner, with his mother and stepfather.

THE ELKADER REGISTER of February 9, 1888 describes wintry conditions when Mary married Charles Johanningmeier at her parents' home on Friday, February 10. "Quite a heavy snow Monday night" (February 6), and "Roads drifted and traveling very poor," plus "All mails badly delayed," and "Twenty degrees below zero yesterday (Wednesday) morning." Despite challenges, a formal photograph of the couple in wedding attire exists to this day. It is said Mary's wedding veil, encased in a shadow box frame, hung in her bedroom for many years.

Already in 1867 Charles had signed a deed for 160 acres in Monona Township. Mary and Charles began married life on that property in an existing Victorian frame house with wooden shutters and gingerbread trim. Of their eleven children born between 1888 and 1905, three daughters died as infants. Of the remaining eight who lived to maturity, seven were sons assuring the perpetuation of "Johanningmeier."

Sunday gatherings for family were anticipated after Mary and Charles retired from the farm to a frame house on Main Street in Monona. It is there they celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1938. Their 51st anniversary in 1939 however, was their last: Mary died in October. After a funeral service in her home, she was buried near her three infant daughters in Eno Cemetery, a rural location in Wagner Township where her parents were interred in 1897 and 1906 and, later, her husband in 1943.

Her death/burial record is at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Monona, Clayton County, Iowa. Entry #10, year 1939, documents her burial on October 21. However, her date of death as October 18 is incorrect and should be October 19.

--DeeAnna Allum Granston, author
JOHANNINGMEIER, DRAHN, SCHRADER, Clayton County, Iowa