The Journey

Jessica Browning

October 03, 2006 11:39 am

— On the average, an American man or woman can recall from their childhood endless hours of carefree romping, playing and possibly a few hours here and there scattered throughout their days.
But things were different during Abe Schneider's life, proprietor of Schneider's Scrap Metal; his earliest memories were much different than those described above. From the time he could remember until he was 13 years old, all he knew of was WAR. The booms of cannons, explosions of bombs, the advance and retreat of armies, the destruction of his city by fire, these are his childhood recollections. Abe can recall days upon days spent hiding in cellars while battles were raging over their heads, along with days of hunger and misery, this is how my grandfather recollects his childhood.
Abraham Schneider was born in Novogorod-Volinsk, Russia in May of 1908. When Abe was past the age of six the World War had begun to sweep the universe and from that time until he made his journey to America with his family in the summer of 1921, all he knew was war and then revolution.
Abe's city had nearly twelve thousand in population and lied only 30 miles from the Polish border. This made the city a strategic point sought by both Russian and German-Polish armies during the war. Throughout the war possession of Novogorod-Volinsk went back and forth between the two, but finally in desperation the Russian army bombed the town, completely destroying it.
This was the time that the women and children fled to the countryside for survival. Therefore, Abe, his mother and two young brothers Simon and Ralph, hurriedly gathered what belongings they could carry on themselves and wearily trudged their way out of their home into the country. They would stay in small farmhouses which would refuge often more than one hundred people. More times than not there was insufficient food and many times they went hungry for days at a time.
Following the war had came the revolution for Russia. The revolution overthrew the Romanoff regime and established the Soviet Republic. There were two armies struggling for the possession of Russia at that time, the Reds and the Whites. The Whites were Loyalists and were fighting to continue the monarchy and the Reds, or Communists, were seeking to form a socialist union. Abe well remembers seeing one of the armies marching through his town to engage their foes in battle and then a few hours or days later retreat in a hurry for safety. Once again the citizens of this town were forced to flee. Abe clearly remembers seeing many groups of prisoners taken by one army or the other and as quickly as they could be marched to the outskirts of the city, they were shot down. The citizens were not allowed to view the actual killings although they were permitted to see the bodies as they lay on the ground prior to a mass burial. As order began to be restored, bread lines were formed and Abe had stood in lines many days to get food and rainment.
In 1921, came the overwhelmingly welcoming word from America that Abe's family could come to this land and in the spring, preparations were made for the start of the trip. Abe's father Benjamin had made the journey to the land where he had heard "the streets were paved with gold" and had started a business and managed to send money for his family to join him in the land of opportunity.
After arriving in New York they went first to Cincinnati where they spent a week before coming to Osgood. Immediately Abe started to school-the first that he had been permitted to attend. Abe, at the age of 13, began in the second grade. In the next two years he studied and worked hard and within that time he advanced to the fifth grade. After this Abe went to work learning the shoe repair trade, and after one year of learning the trade, he went to Cincinnati where he was employed for one year by the Land Shoe Hospital, which was the largest shoe repair shop in the city at that time.
In 1925 Abe returned to Osgood and operated a shoe repair shop for eight years. In June of 1933 he moved his shop to the Aikins building and in April 1934 moved once again to a building on Eckert Street. Abe built an amazing trade. In less than one year's time Abe had repaired more than 2,400 pairs of shoes.
Since 1923 along with the shoe business Abe and his father Ben had been dabbling in junk and scrap. Soon thereafter they carried on with the junk business and left the shoe repair behind. On June 16, 1935 Abe married his soon to be wife, Myrtle Stout. He and Myrtle had four children; Sherrill, Marcia, Kathy and one son, Ralph. Abe took over the junk business that he and his father had built and it became Schneider's Scrap Metal. The business is now run by Ralph. At the age of 98 Abe still goes into work every day - for a half a day.
Schneider's Scrap Metal is more than a junkyard. It’s a family business that holds a history that through the years has been told by many but felt by only few. Those of us lucky enough to be part of Abe Schneider’s family hold him and the story of who he is very dear to our hearts.

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