In the second half of the 19th century, the production of flour significantly increased in the Saratov province thanks to German and Russian entrepreneurs engaged in the milling business. Among the best producers in Saratov were the Schmidt brothers, whose flour received a bronze medal at the World Industrial Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and a gold medal in Stockholm in 1897.

Andrew and Peter Schmidt, two close brothers, became the founders of the merchant clan of the Schmidts. Through hard work, ingenuity, and honesty, they accumulated capital and settled in Saratov.

The Semyonov brothers describe the history of the Schmidts in their book "Saratov Merchants" as follows:

Andrew and Peter Ivanovich Schmidt, originally from the village of Ust-Zolikha in the Kamyshin district, built a steam mill on the banks of the Volga at the sources of the Kabanovsky, later Volzhsky, ferry in 1879. At that time, they also erected stone grain warehouses on Bolshaya Sergievskaya Street (later known as Chernyshevsky Street).

By that time, the brothers were already mature men, both around sixty years old, and the capital and experience they had accumulated allowed them to expand and improve the business they had started in the 1840s, beginning with windmills and small operations in the Tsaritsyn and Kamyshin districts.

In 1883, the Schmidts became the owners of two mills. They called one of them, their own, the Big due to its size, and the other, the former Zeifert mill, the Small. The latter was located at the intersection of Bolshaya Sergievskaya Street with Novo-Uzensky Street and still stands in its place.

The Schmidt brothers were very close, lived in the same house, and dedicated themselves entirely to their business. This interest in their work played a key role in resolving the issue of the inheritance of their capital and property. They solved this problem by marrying their children, a cousin and a sister. Thus, an influential figure, Peter Petrovich Schmidt, emerged in the Saratov merchant arena, co-owner of the undivided wealth of his father and uncle, who lived and died in harmony at the end of the 19th century. In their last years, they no longer engaged in business.

After the revolution, the mills, warehouses, and river fleet of the "Partnership of the Schmidt Brothers" were nationalized.