Br. Botthian

Peter Jueb Schneider was born on March 3, 1830 at Niederzissen, Germany. In 1851 the family emigrated to the US and settled in Detroit, Michigan, where young Peter became a tailor. Three of his brothers became Christian Brothers, they were: Brother Amian, Brother Dosas, and Brother Botulph. At age twenty-two, Peter entered the Novitiate at Montreal and became Brother Botthian in 1852. He taught in St. Francis Xavier's School in New York for his first nine years. In 1855 he was one of the first teachers at St. James School in New York where he taught Alfred E. Smith. He also taught at and was Sub-Director at Rock Hill College and held the position of Director at St. Peter's School in Philadelphia; Syracuse, New York; Melrose, New York; St. Patrick's School, Newark, New Jersey; Transfiguration and St. Patrick's Schools in New York City, and at Ammendale from 1887 to 1890. In 1897 he visited and worked with his brother, Brother Botulph, in Santa Fe. He was in foreign mission work in Australia and Singapore for ten years. On his way back from Singapore he was imprisoned in Germany for attempting to interest young men in the American Missions. He was ordered out of the country and the parents of his potential recruits were obliged to swear that their sons would never leave Prussia. He died at age eighty-two and had been a De La Salle Christian Brother for sixty-years.