Johann Caspar Schmidt was born in Queckborn, east of Giessen, on 17 February 1724, the son of Johann Henrich Schmidt of Queckborn. He married Anna Dorothea Haas, daughter of Johannes Haas & Anna Catharina Arnold, on 10 October 1748 in Steinbach, Oberhessen. She was baptized 15 October 1719 in Steinbach. The couple lived in Steinbach, where they raised a family. They have 6 known children, each of whom as born in Steinbach: (1) Anna Elisabetha, born 20 August 1749; (2) Johann Georg, born 15 August 1751; (3) Maria Elisabetha, born 1 December 1754; (4) Catharina Elisabetha, born 11 February 1758, died 12 September 1758; (5) Conrad, born 8 April 1760; and (6) Anna Dorothea, born 30 November 1763.
The pastor of the Lutheran church in Steinbach wrote that they left for Astrakhan, Russia, in 1766. Wife Anna Dorothea and the two youngest children died along the way. The father and his three surviving children arrived in Paulskaya on 17 August 1767. They are recorded there in the appendix to the 1767 Census in Household No. 46, where they wintered. The family moved to Hockerberg where father Kaspar Schmidt married Anna Margaretha Schmidt, the widow of Johann Georg Schmitt.
In 1770, Johann Caspar Schmidt, his wife Anna Margaretha, and her two sons by the previous marriage to Johann Georg Schmitt (Johann Daniel & Philipp) moved to Basel. On the 1798 census, widower Johann Caspar is still living in Basel at age 75 in Household No. Bs41.
Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga: Economy, Population, and Agriculture (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999).
Müller, Hanno. Familienbuch Steinbach (Neufassung, 2013).
Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 360.