John G. Schmid was born in Germany, -coming to America in 1869 where he first settled in Wisconsin. He came to Dakota Territory and worked in Jamestown in 1882.
Mr. Schmid took a trip north of Jamestown in the fall of 1882 to locate a homestead, paying a man in the business of locating homesteaders twenty-five dollars to take him. He found land that suited him north of Carrington so he took up a tree claim and a homestead on the Southwest 1/4 section 14,147-Birtsell Township, and Southwest 1/4 on the same section. John put markers on his land and went back to Wisconsin for the winter and to get supplies to bring back.
The first part of March 1883, Mr. Schmid shipped a car of household goods, lumber for a shack, two horses, two cows, one pig, some chickens, food supplies, about two hundred bushels of oats and seventy-five bushels of corn to be used on his homestead.
When Mr. Schmid got to Jamestown, the snow was so deep the train couldn't get through to Carrington. When they finally got to Carrington, they fixed themselves something to eat on the train car because the only hotel, a small shack in Carrington was short of food because of the weather.
Mr. Schmid told his wife to stay in Wisconsin until he sent for her, but one day in early April she came to Carrington on the train with their three sons, Leonhard, Frank, and George, her mother and a sister. Mr. Schmid was surprised and had help to build onto his shack so there was enough room.
Mr. Schmid tried to get out to his homestead in April with his wagon and two horses and two mules. The snow was still so deep that it was hard to see where he was going. There were no roads or trails.
He tried to follow the single line of railroad survey stakes north of Carrington. It was night of the third day since leaving Carrington when he reached his homestead. He made a mistake and built his shack on section thirteen instead of fourteen. When he discovered his mistake, he had to tear down, move and build over again.
He broke about seventy-five acres of land in 1883. He used a single bottom plow, seeding barley and oats he had brought from Wisconsin. Mr. Schmid had a good crop that year. He cut his grain with a cradle, bound it by hand, and made several stacks of it. He used a flail to thresh his crop.
During 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, prairie fires were bad. Mr. Schmid fought them often to protect his farm. People could pick buffalo bones and sell them for twelve dollars a ton so they would burn off the grass to find the bones easier and most of the time the fires got out of hand.
Mr. Schmid moved into the town of Barlow in 1905. He operated a harness shop and hardware store. His son, Ben, took charge of it in 1933.
Other settlers were Tom Wright, James Sweeney, Guptil, who had a town named after him, O'Hara, Rand and Matt Wiltschko.
Many of the early settlers came in the spring because most of them either walked or came with horses, and traveling this way was impossible during the winter. The early settlers who came were of many nationalities.
The early homes were mostly made from lumber, however, some of them were banked with sod and some were completely sod. There were also some tarpaper shacks.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 47