Schifferdecker & Zelleken Families
The Families Who Lived Here
Charles and Wilhelmina (Martens) Schifferdecker and Edward and Margaretha (Grome) Zelleken were German immigrants who arrived in America seeking an opportunity for a better life. Through their entrepreneurial business success, they built two fabulous homes and led the creation of many of Joplin’s landmark institutions with their philanthropic support.
Charles and Edward became business associates in the 1870s as beer brewers in Baxter Springs, Kansas. In 1880 Kansas voters banned the production and consumption of alcohol. The Schifferdeckers and Zellekens then relocated to Joplin, Missouri, and became lifelong next-door neighbors.
Both men made their fortunes by owning valuable mining land. They partnered with the hard-working prospectors to mine lead and zinc, and helped to establish Joplin as the center of mining in the Four State area. When their homes were built, southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas were the largest producers of zinc in the United States producing 75% of the zinc consumed in America.
They were outstanding businessmen and community leaders. Their philanthropic deeds include financially supporting the YMCA, St. John’s Hospital, Scottish Rite Cathedral, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin Charitable Union, and the Provident Association. Their gifts and investments manifested in establishing a city park, two residential neighborhoods in south Joplin, Joplin Opera House Association, and the Mount Hope Cemetery Association. They served on the Joplin Board of Education, Joplin Special Road District, and the Inter-State Grocery Company. In the financial world they were major stockholders and officers for First National Bank and Miners Bank.
Charles Schifferdecker
Charles Schifferdecker was born on August 28, 1851, in Baden, Germany. At the age of 18, he left his homeland and boarded a ship for America.
He worked at a brewery in St. Louis, Missouri, before relocating to Baxter Springs, Kansas. Schifferdecker gained employment working for another German immigrant, Edward Zelleken, in his brewery business. He was a founding member of the First National bank, serving as its president for twelve years. He served on the Joplin City Park Board and two terms on the Joplin Board of Education. He was a member of the Joplin Turner’s Society and Joplin Club. He was very generous to his community by donating property for the building site of the Scottish Rite Cathedral and to the city of Joplin, which today is known as Schifferdecker Park. Schifferdecker died at his home on October 30, 1915.
Did You Know?
In 1899 Mr. Schifferdecker began to sell 186 residential lots located south of 20th Street fronting Main, Joplin and Wall Avenues.
Edward Zelleken
Edward Werner Zelleken was born on the first day of 1839 in Altdorf bei Nurnberg, Germany. He arrived in America in 1860. After stops in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sedalia, Missouri, and Baxter Springs, Kansas, he permanently relocated to Joplin in 1881. The following year he built an impressive red brick residence at Ninth and Pearl. His early career revolved around lead and zinc mining, banking, and real estate. Zelleken was a major stock holder in the Interstate Grocery Company, vice president of Miners Bank, and president of Galena Lead & Zinc Company. Zelleken died at his home on Sergeant on November 29, 1919.
The Architecture
The Schifferdecker and Zelleken homes are located in the first neighborhood development west of Joplin Creek known as Murphysburg, derived from the community founder, Patrick Murphy.
Designed circa 1891 by Arthur Tappan North, the Schifferdecker home is a two-story, German-inspired, Romanesque-styled home. North incorporated a raised, rough-faced, large block Carthage limestone foundation, red brick cladding with unique rounded corners, and a vertiginous hipped roof topped with Buckingham slate. A dominating three-story circular tower defines the southeast corner. A polygonal dormer juts out from the hipped roof. Decorative terra-cotta bands and panel designs add ornamentation to the roof line and façade, featuring floral designs, dragons, urns, and the flowering hops plant.
The Zelleken home is a three-story Queen Anne, designed in 1893 by Frank Resch. This delightful style showcases an asymmetrical plan with a steeply-pitched, hipped roof sporting multiple irregularly shaped gables, cutaway bay windows with pressed zinc metal cladding, decorative terra-cotta details, and three wooden wrap-around porches. The home’s silhouette boasts three original chimneys with bulbous planters.
The site also contains a carriage house and a car garage, both original to the homes. Charles Schifferdecker possessed elaborate custom-made carriages pulled by some of the finest purebred horses. Adjacent to the Zelleken home is one of the first automobile garages in Joplin.
The Johnson Family
John Richard Johnson married Louisa K. Martens, a niece of Charles and Mina Schifferdecker. Johnson became Schifferdecker’s “right-hand,” managing his extensive property holdings. Mr. Schifferdecker showed his gratitude by constructing a house for the Johnsons at 419 S. Jackson Avenue. The 1905 two-story, brick, $10,000 home was designed by Joplin architects Garstang and Rea and located directly west of the Schifferdecker home.
(This home is currently privately owned and not affiliated with the Museum.)
