Family tradition, related by August and Minnie's granddaughter, Lillian Heft (Martha Schonschack Heft and Henry John Heft) states that August and his future wife, Wilhemina Gutzke, were neighbors in Germany and went to school together when they were small children. However, once in Michigan, they didn't know each other's whereabouts. August always "had an eye" for Minnie from before. One day August had forded the Ecorse River and was traveling on a main road when he saw Minnie's father. He jumped down from his horse and pursued him, inquiring about Minnie. He found out that she was engaged to a Dentist. He tracked her down, wooed her and they were married April 23, 1876 in Wyandotte, Wayne, Michigan through this chance meeting.

In March 1887, the family traveled to California due to the health of Teresa and lived in Los Angeles where Henry was born in 1888. They went to Los Angeles as Minnie's sister, Augusta Schilling, was living there. August helped build the first elevator in Los Angeles while there. They lived there for a year and returned to Detroit as they missed their relatives there.

August was a builder and during President Cleveland's time (1893-1897), there was a bad Depression, so as his family was growing, he decided to buy some farm land, move and grow his own food. He located first on Warren Avenue near Plymouth, Wayne, Michigan, cleared the land and built a place to move his family. Martha, the eldest, helped him while the rest of the family stayed in Detroit. After he got that place in good shape, he sold it and on 30 January 1893, bought another farm (house and 86 acres) for $4,000. It was at 48300 Ann Arbor Road, near Plymouth. He built barns and fixed up the house. (Note: The house was called "Spruce Roost" and has since been torn down to make room for an upscale subdivision). August sold the Plymouth home in about 1903 for $4,500 and moved to Sugar Bush Road in Chesterfield Township, Macomb, Michigan. In 1910, August purchased 80 acres on North River Road, in Mt. Clemens, Macomb, Michigan. The land bordered the Clinton River, across from current Selfridge AFB.

On April 23, 1926, August and Minnie celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary: "Fifty years to the most of us is a big long time, to try and visualize where we will be fifty years from today would stretch the imagination of the most versatile. Last Friday, the 23 of April, Old Father Time was taken back just fifty years when Mr. and Mrs. August Schonschack of Mt. Clemens stood before Rev. Griffith of that city and again took each other for better or for worse, again they stood and pledged their troth for another fifty years, and as the preacher pronounced the final words that mean so much, they turned to each other as in days now long gone by. Instead of the little woman, giant of 71 years, whose efforts have brought up six stalwart sons and three wonderful women, who now figure as leading citizens of their respected communities, there stood a blushing bride, her hair adorned with flowers and before them in a long line stretched the path of life with its ever present hazards. Instead of the toil worn giant of 71, she looked and saw the boy of her dreams, he who had overcome the difficulties of those past 50 years and had lived to see his bride and himself surrounded by nine living children, their children and families." Two years after celebrating his Golden Anniversary to Minnie, August died suddenly at his home on Riverside Drive. He had been suffering from heart trouble. On September 21, 1930, two years after the death of her husband, August, Wilhemina Gutzke Schonschack passed away. Minnie and August are interred in Clinton Grove Cemetery.