William Schmoele was born in Platenburg, West Phalia (death certificate).

William Schmoele (Wilhelm Schmöle) was well known among the Germans in Philadelphia. He was born in, Westphalia and studied at the University of Marburg. After his arrival in the United States he became instrumental in the establishment and expansion of some German-American newspapers (Susquehanna Democrat, Pennsylvania Staats-Gazette) and after 1835 made a name for himself as a physician in Philadelphia. He was very active in German-American affairs and helped to organize several building and loan Associations. The Egg Harbor project was very much in line with his interest in cooperative ventures. George von Bosse, Das deutsche Element in den Vereinigten Staaten (New York, 1908), 116 f. - Deutsch-Amerikanische Geschichtsblatter, X (Chicago, 1910), 141, 144. (1)

Gustav Koerner, in his book, "The German Element in the United States," speaking of the influential and public-spirited citizens of Pennsylvania (pages 73 and 74), says of Dr. Wm. Schmoele, "In the year 1845 he returned to Philadlephia. We have especially to thank him for the establishment of the first building association in Philadelphia, which was organized under the name of the "American Deposit and Building Association." He was also the founder of numerous other societies of this kind." It must be remembered that in the year 1846, Frankford was not included in the city of Philadelphia, and as the early building associations were on the "terminating" plan, the Frankford association had, in 1846, completed its work and gone out of existance. In 1846, Dr. Schmoele, through his brother, residing in Brooklyn, N.Y., succeeded in organizing an association in that city, and, in the following year, in 1847, through his friend, Woolsieffer, Dr. Schmoele secured the organization of an association in Baltimore, Md. It is believed that the oldest building association that is now operating in the United States is "The Decatur Building Association of Frankford," Philadelphia, Pa., which was organized in January, 1849, and has led a useful and prosperous existence to the present day [1920]." (2)

"…the first building association in the United States of which we have been able to find a seemingly authentic record was organized in Philadelphia in 1845 by a German physician, Dr. William Schmoele, under the name, "Amerikaniecher Darlehenund Bau-Verein" (The American Deposit and Building Society). The account of this is given in Gustav Koerner's book, "Das Deutsch Klement in deu Vereinigten Staats" (The German Element in the United States). Through his brother, residing in Brooklyn, Dr. Schmoele in the same year, organized a society in that city, under the name, "Brooklyner Gegenseitiger Darlehen-und Bau-Verrin" (The Brooklyn Mutual Deposit and Building Society). In the next year he secured the organization of a society in Baltimore. Soon after similar societies were established in New York, Boston, Newark, Hoboken, Charleston, Savannah, and other cities and towns. Their growth continued, for a while, slowly. But of late years, they have multiplied rapidly, until we now find them numerous in almost every State." (3)

In 1833 William Schmoele, a native of Germany, came to Philadelphia and became a student and assistant of Bute's. He graduated at the Allentown Academy and established a large practice in the city, where he remained until 1844, when he returned to Germany and spent four years in studying special branches of medicine, especially pathology and morbid anatomy, under Rokitansky and other pathologists. Returning to Philadelphia, he assisted in organizing Penn Medical University in 1854. Schmoele is said to have been one of the first men in the country to advocate the germ theory of disease. After 1857 his time was in part devoted to business operations. (4)

"Names of the participants in the Settlement movement are here given. The addresses accompanying them are those which the shareholder claimed when they joined the Society. As the source of our information we cite the Ledger of the organization, yet found in Herman.

Schmoele, Heinrich, Philadelphia
Schmoele, Dr. Wilh., Philadelphia"

(The German Settlement Society of Philadelphia: and its colony, Hermann, Missouri by William Godfrey Bek, pg. 117; 1907)


In 1854 the Camden & Atlantic Railroad was opened attracting the attention of developers and settlers. To open some of these lands for settlement, The Gloucester Farm and Town Association (GFTA) was organized on November 24, 1854 in Philadelphia and the following Board of Directors were elected: President, William Ford; Secretary, Frederick A. Roese; Treasurer, Henry Schmoele; Superintendent, William Schmoele; Hon. Andrew K. Hay, P. M. Wolsieffer, Garrick Mallery, Jr, J.H. Schomacker, and James H. Stevenson. The GFTA purchased from Stephen Colwell the "Gloucester Furnace Tract," comprising about 30,000 acres; 5,000 acres of the Batsto tract, and about 1,000 acres more of so-called exceptions to round out the tract. It was the intention then of laying out these lands into twenty-acre farms and two towns, one embracing about four square miles, adjacent to the railroad station, "Cedar Bridge," to be called "Pomona," and one five miles distant, adjacent to Gloucester Lake and Furnace, where a considerable number of buildings were still standing, and were occupied by the first settlers, arriving during the years 1855 and 1856, to be called "Gloucester." (5)

In the late 1860s and early 1870s, General Frémont spearheaded a business venture to build a new railroad coast-to-coast. He made the Memphis and El Paso Railroad the centerpiece of this new operation. He intended the full route to extend from Norfolk, Virginia, to San Diego, California, then up to San Francisco. Most of the activity during this period (c. 1867) was just talk among investors. But director William Schmoele did his part in making this a transcontinental railroad by buying 1,023 acres in Norfolk, Virginia, in order to develop Virginia City as the eastern terminus. (6)


Common Pleas Courts
No. 1 - ROOM B - PEIRCE, J.
Zachariah Batdorff vs. William Schmoele. An action upon a mortgage given to secure the payment of promissory notes. On trial.(7)

Schmoele v. Galloway 15 Vroom 145. (Sales of land for taxes in the township of Galloway, in the county of Atlantic, made under a special statute, decaled legal.

Schmoele v. Galloway Township Committee, 44 N.J. Law, 145.

Egg Harbor H. & V. Co. v. Galloway, 13 Vroom 145

Expenditures for the Fiscal Year ending March 9, 1882 - Paid in Schmoele suit $100. (Port Republic, Galloway Township, Atlantic County) pg. 119, Documents of the One Hundredth and Seventh Legislature of the State of New Jersey, Volume 1.

FORECLOSING A BIG MORTGAGE.
Thousands of Acres and Several Hundered New Jersey Families Involved.
ATLANTIC CITY, July 15. - There was much alarm in Egg Harbor City and adjacent communities to-day when it became known that Slape & Stephany, a law firm of this city, had been engaged for the past three months in making searches and collecting testimony with a view to the foreclosure of a mortgage, which covers thirty thousand acres of land, including the entire city of Egg Harbor and portions of hamilton, Galoway and Mullane [sic] townships, this county. The evidence collected and the searches made are of such a positive charachter that hundred of families are alarmed lest their homes be taken from them. Closely following the completion of the Camden and Atlantic Railroad in 1854 several settlements sprang up along the line of the road, causing a great demand for real estate. Among the larger purchases at the time was one in 1855 by Dr. Henry Schmoele, from Stephen Colwell, father of Charles R. Colwell, at present a resident of Philadelphia, and who was one of the projectors and heaviest stockholders in the Philadelphia and Atlantic City Railroad. Mr. Colwell is also owner of the Weymouth Paper Workd, this county. By his purchase Dr. Schmoele became possessed of the present site of Egg Harbor City, a tract comprising four thousand acres, and adjacent territory. At the time Dr. Schmoele made this purchase he executed to Mr. Colwell a purchase money mortgage of $180,000. Subsequent transactions resulted in two additional mortgages, one for $23,000 and another for $3,100. Soon after this Dr. Schmoele made conveyance for all these lands to the Gloucester Town and Farm Association. For a few years this was a successful and powerful organization, its operations extending throughout South Jersey. After a time distress came upon the settlers, the land was no longer in demand and the association became financially embarassed. It failed to pay taxes on the ground unsold, necessitating its sale under a State statute for taxes by the townships in which it was situated. Hundreds of families for years have lived on these lands, improving them in the belief that the tax title guaranteed them absolute possession. They were entirely unmindful of the Colwell mortgage until to-day, when the searches and evidence collected by Slape & Stephany leaked out. The searches so far made have cost over $500 making a voluminous book of four hundred pages, which will be presented next week to the Vice Chancellor. There is but little or no doubt that the lands will be sold under the foreclosure, incuring the loss of homes to two or three hundred families at least. Many of these unfortunate parties have announced their intentions of bringing suit against the township from which they took title for damages.(8)

Dr. William Schmoele, who has been ill for some days at his residence, 1426 Spruce street, was reported somewhat better at a late hour last evening. His illness has been diagnosed as bronchitis. The attack had left the patient weak, but he was thought to be out of danger. (9)

Dr. Wm. Schmoele, Sr. who died on Saturday at his home, 1426 Spruce street, was formerly the publisher of the Susquehanna Domocrat, at Wilkesbarre, and the General State Gazette, another democrat paper. He studied both law and medicine and was an author of reputation. He was one of the founders of Egg Harbor city and other German settlements. Dr. Schmoele was 76 years of age. (10)

Dr. Schmoele died of chronic bronchitis at 2:30 p.m. Death certificate prepared by Dr. William Ford. (death certificate).

William Schmoele, M.D., a native of Germany, came to the United States previous to 1834, and became a student and assistant of G. Bute's, M.D., finally graduated at the Allentown Academy. In the early days of homeopathy in Philadelphia he enjoyed a large and lucrative practice. About 1844 he returned to Germany and spent four years studying special branches of medicine, and particularly pathology and morbid anatomy, under Rokitansky and other eminent pathologists. Returning to Philadelphia he assisted in the organization of the Penn Medical University in 1854, and developed the graded course offered by that school, this being the first attempt to introduce this method of study into the United States. Dr. Schmoele was one of the first men in the country to advocate and earnestly labor to promulgate the doctrine of the germ origin of disease. Since 1857 his time has been divided between various business operations and the practice of medicine. (Transactions of the World's Homeopathic Convention, held at Philadelphia… 1876, pg. 728)

Biography written by Drew Techner.

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Sources:
1. Egg Harbor City: New Germany in New Jersey, Dieter Cunz (1956)
2. Cyclopedia of Building, loan and savings associations: how to organize and Sucessfully Conduct Them, by Henry Samuel Rosenthal (1920), page 33.
3. (The Co-operative news, Vol. 1, by Saving and Loan Association leagues of Indiana, Ohio Building Association League, Kentucky League of Local Building Associations, pg. 7; 1890)
4. History of Homeopathy and Its Institutions in America by William Harvey King, M.D., L.L. D. presented by Sylvian Cazalet
5. The Daily Union History of Atlantic City and County, New Jersey, by John F. Hall, June 1899, pg. 111
6. The King of Louisiana, 1862 - 1865, and other Govt. Work, by Raymond H. Banks, a biography of Nathaniel P. Banks (2005), pg. 1415
7. Philadelphia Inquirer, October 10, 1876, pg. 3, col. 1.
8. Trenton Evening Times, July 22, 1886, pg. 6.
9. Philadelphia Inquirer, May 21, 1887, pg. 3.
10. Baltimore Sun, June 14, 1887, page 4.