Biography - ALONZO MESHACH SHULTZ

For more than forty years the Shultz family has been identified with the agricultural and business interests of Macoupin county and has contributed its share toward the development of the material, moral and educational welfare of this section. Alonzo Meshach Shultz was for many years prominently interested in farming and dairying, but is now engaged in the lumber, implement and hardware business at Shipman, being the owner of one of the most flourishing concerns of the kind in the county. Born in Allegany county, Maryland, January 2, 1856, he is a son of Meshach and Charlotte (Augustine) Shultz, both of whom were natives of Somerset county, Pennsylvania, the father having been born May 28, 1831, and the mother April 30, 1835. The first member of the family in America came from Prussia about 1760, while Frederick the Great was upon the throne. He settled in Pennsylvania and there spent the remainder of his life. Adam Shultz, grandfather of our subject on the paternal side, was born in Somerset, county, April 6, 1789. In 1837 he purchased a tract of one thousand acres or more at Grantsville, Maryland, and there established his home. He was one of the builders of the Old National Road and constructed twelve or fourteen miles of that celebrated highway, between Wheeling and Baltimore. He was twice married and by his first marriage was the father of four children: Peter, who was born July 19, 1812, and died in Garrett county, Maryland; Eliza, who married John Royer of Garrett county, and died in 1910, in the ninety-seventh year of her age; Lydia, who became the wife of a Mr. Wagner, of Michigan, and is deceased; and Judith, who is also deceased. The second wife of Mr. Shultz was Nancy Shockey, who was born in 1801 and became the mother of fourteen children, namely: Matilda, who became the wife of Andrew Deahl, of Hickman, Nebraska, and is now deceased; Perry, who died of cholera at St. Louis, in 1866; Chauncey, who served as county judge of St. Louis county and as sub-treasurer of the United States at St. Louis under President Cleveland’s first administration and is now deceased; Bailey, also deceased, whose wife, Catharine Shockey Shultz, is now living at Shipman at the age of ninety-two years; Huldah, who married John Kite, of Shipman, and is deceased; Alexander, who lived at Hutchinson, Kansas, and is now deceased; Meshach, the father of our subject; Mary Jane, who married Andrew Arndt, of Maryland, and is deceased; Amanda, the wife of Rev. Isaac N. Augustine, of Grand Island, Nebraska; John A. J., formerly a prominent man of St. Louis, Missouri, now deceased; Van Buren, who lived at Shipman, Illinois, and is also deceased; Sarah Ann, who married Samuel Brown, of Lexington, Missouri, and is deceased; George M. D., who is now a real-estate man of Kansas City, Missouri; and Upton, who located at Denver, Colorado, and is now deceased. The grandmother of our subject, Nancy (Shockey) Shultz, was a daughter of Christian and Barbara Shockey and a member of an old Pennsylvania Dutch family of Somerset county. Her father served for six years and seven months in the Revolutionary war.

Meshach Shultz, father of our subject, grew to manhood at Grantsville, Maryland. He was married to Charlotte Augustine March 20, 1853, and soon afterwards engaged in farming on his own account. He later operated the tannery at Petersburg, Pennsylvania, but in 1861 disposed of his tannery and purchased two hundred and eighty acres of the old family homestead at Grantsville, also engaging in the general mercantile business. In 1869 he disposed of his property and came with his family to Shipman township, Macoupin county, Illinois, where he engaged in farming. He was the owner of two hundred and forty acres of land on sections 23 and 24, also acquiring other property in the county. He was one of the organizers and the first president of the Shipman Banking Company, and in 1891 removed to Shipman, where he died December 3, 1907. Charlotte (Augustine) Shultz is a daughter of Jacob F. R. and Justinah (Null) Augustine and a granddaughter of Frederick and Catharine (Myers) Augustine. Frederick Augustine was one of the wealthy men of Pennsylvania and was the owner of a large body of land around Petersburg, Pennsylvania. Jacob F. R. Augustine died at the age of forty-one years from injuries received by being kicked by a horse. He was the father of ten children: Elizabeth, who married William Starner, of St. Paul, Minnesota, and is now deceased; Isaac, who lives at Grand Island, Nebraska; Charlotte, who became the wife of Meshach Shultz; Rebecca, who married Michael Hoy, of Somerset county, Pennsylvania, and is now deceased; Catharine, the wife of Andrew Kramer, of Somerset county; Joseph, of Wisconsin; Jacob L., a resident of Grantsville, Maryland; Matilda, who became the wife of James Arndt, of Litchfield, Illinois, and is now deceased; Diana, who married Fred Gorman, of Oklahoma; and Cornelia, the wife of John Mitchell, of Moberly, Missouri. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Shultz, namely: Marshall, who died at the age of four years; Alonzo Meshach, of this review; Nancy Jane, who married William A. Fischer, of St. Louis, Missouri; Franklin S., record of whom appears elsewhere in this work; Cora May, who is the wife of Milton Dodson, of Jerseyville, Illinois; Herman Jacob, a resident of Shipman; Alice Lotta, the wife of Chester Miller, of Carlinville; and Chesty Anna, who married Rev. Peter B. Fasold and is now deceased.

Alonzo Meshach Shultz was educated in the public schools of Grantsville, Maryland, and continued his studies in the district schools of Shipman township after arriving in Illinois. He assisted his father upon the home farm until about twenty-four years of age when he was married and for two years after that event engaged in the milling business with his father and Joseph Dodson. In 1881 the title of the firm was changed to Shultz & Fischer. After another year Mr. Shultz sold out and purchased two hundred and forty acres of land on sections ii and 12 of Shipman township, upon which he took up his residence. This land was mostly unimproved. He cleared away the timber and brush, erected a comfortable residence and other buildings, and developed his place into one of the highly improved farms of the section. He also purchased eighty-eight acres adjoining and engaged very extensively in the dairy business. He maintained fifty to seventy milch cows of the Holstein breed and was one of the largest dairymen in Macoupin county. His success was recognized by his brethren in the same line of business and he served for four years as vice president of the Illinois and Missouri Dairymen’s Association. In 1910 he disposed of his farm and purchased the lumber business of James D. Metcalf, of Shipman, taking possession August 4, 1910. He has added very largely to the lumber stock, which is all under cover, and also engages on a large scale in selling implements, builders’ hardware and machinery.

On July 12, 1879, Mr. Shultz was married to Miss Margaret Mitchell, a daughter of William Mitchell, of Medora, Illinois. Four children were born to this union: Lottie May, who married Walter French, a farmer who lives near Shipman; Florence, who is living at home; Orville, a farmer of Shipman township, who married Zona Archer and has one child; and Ada, who is also at home.

William Mitchell was born in North Carolina and removed to Missouri about 1840, locating about twenty miles north of Kansas City where he operated a wagon and blacksmith shop. He entered the Union army at the time of the Civil war but was captured by the enemy and forced into the Confederate army. He was recaptured by the Union forces and after the war removed with his family to Rockbridge, Greene county, Illinois. About 1872 he moved to Medora, being still engaged in the blacksmith and wagon-making business. In 1886 he took up his residence at Hickman, Nebraska, and died there two years later. In his family were six children: Wilmina, who married J. A. Quick, of Shipman, and is deceased; Otis Mitchell, who is living at Shipman; Margaret, who became the wife of Alonzo Meshach Shultz; Hallie, who is the wife of George Deahl, of San Francisco, California; Catharine, who is married and lives in Tennessee; and Arthur, a resident of Shipman, Illinois. Mrs. Margaret Shultz died from heart failure, July 17, 1891, and on July 20, 1892, Mr. Shultz was married to Miss Belle Utt, a daughter of Napoleon Utt, who settled with his family in Illinois from Ohio in pioneer days. A record of the Utt family appears elsewhere in this work, in the sketch of E. J. Black. By his second marriage Mr. Shultz became the father of two children: Otis, who died in infancy; and Bertha, who is living at home.

Fraternally Mr. Shultz is a member of Shipman Lodge, No. 212, A. F. & A. M., and also of the Modern Woodmen of America. Religiously he is identified with the Evangelical Lutheran church of Shipman and is serving as deacon in that organization. Ever since arriving at manhood he has given his support to the democratic party of whose principles he is an earnest advocate. In the course of an active and useful life he has enjoyed and merited the confidence and good will of his fellow men. He has been loyal to the interests of the community and has effectively performed his part in promoting the general welfare. He possesses in a marked degree the confidence of his associates and is thoroughly qualified by experience and ability to conduct successfully the important business of which he is the head.

Extracted 20 Oct 2018 by Norma Hass from History of Macoupin County, Illinois: Biographical and Pictorial, by Charles A. Walker, published in 1911, Volume 2, pages 218-225.