Lowell was born on a Charrette Township, Warren County, Missouri farm that shared its east border with widow St. Franceway’s farm of La Charrette Village. Lowell M. Schake learned much of Charrette Creek, the Missouri River and Charrette Township in his youth. Charrette Creek borders his family farm for most of two miles on the south and west.

His German ancestors came to Charrette Township disembarking at Marthasville Landing, previously La Charrette Landing, and they eventually owned much of the farmland where La Charrette villagers St. Franceway, Luzon and Chartran once resided. As a lad he fished, hunted, trapped, swam and explored—even ice skated Charrette Creek. Like the children of La Charrette Village he walked across neighboring farms to his one room school and farmed with a team of horses. Indian artrifacts were collected from an Indian campsite on his farm where his grandfather Schake once operated an old sugar camp. His maternal grandparents lived in the same cabin Daniel Boone resided in late in life.

Lowell and Wendy, his wife, lived their first year of marriage within a few yards of Charrette Creek.The Katy Trail of today crosses about a mile of this farm generally aligned with milepost 79 and 80. Today he enjoys the trail and encourages others to do the same to learn more about La Charrette village history only recently restored to life.

For thirty years a professor and administrator of Animal and Food Science departments at Texas A&M University, The University of Connecticut and Texas Tech University now retired, he resides at Royal Sands on Mustang Island, Port Aransas, Texas. Recognized as an innovative teacher, he published over 300 technical articles on behavior, energy management and nutrition of cattle. His hobbies are genealogy, hiking, writing, tutoring students, fishing and otherwise enjoying the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico.

His first post-retirement activity was a comprehensive study of his family genealogy and their ethnohistory. His research took him to the German villages of Betzen, Humfeld, Lemgo and Ludenhausen in Lippe-Detmold and to Leinen, Lengerich and Versmold in Westphalia, home to his ancestors before they arrived in Charrette Township to live in the community of Marthasville. The Schakes of La Charette is posted here.

Currently, he is compiling a biography about a Michigan dentist who, as an amateur, was instrumental in saving three endangered species to include the Whooping Crane and the Kirtland’s Warbler. Proceed to ‘Books’ for more details on his next selection. Writing and volunteering has become a happy compulsions for the 67-year old grandfather in retirement.