Johann Lorenz (John) Schulz, 1833–1907

Johann Lorenz Schulz, son of Johann Philipp Schulz and Anna Margaretha Goller, was born on 2 April 1833 in Neuhaus in Bavaria. Although he was born in his mother’s village, the family lived in nearby Issigau. He was nine years old when his mother died in December 1842. Two years later, his father remarried. Johann Lorenz trained as a carpet weaver, but industrialization was increasing and pay declining, so it is likely economic reasons led Johann Lorenz and his brother Johann Nicholas to emigrate in 1853.

Johann Lorenz and Johann Nicholas Schulz departed Bremen on the SS Emma and arrived in Baltimore on 22 October 1853. In the United States, Johann Lorenz chose to be called John, but Johann Nicholas remained Nicholas, following the German custom of using the second name. John and Nicholas worked one year in Baltimore as carpet weavers for wages of three dollars per month. Then, learning that wages in St. Louis were seven dollars per month, they moved.

On 13 July 1856 at St. Paul’s Evangelical Church on Giles and Potomac Streets in St. Louis City, Johann Lorenz Schulz married Maria Jahn, daughter of Franz Jahn and Anna Jllichmann, In 1857, John lived on the west side of Menard between Geyer and Emmet and Nicholas on the west side of Rosatti between Soulard and Lafayette. John was a weaver, Nicholas a laborer.

In March 1857, John’s father-in-law, Franz Jahn, purchased property on Mattis Creek on the north side of Kennerly Road in Sappington. Franz sold this land to John in 1860 and John paid off the mortgage in 1864. This was the location of the Schulz family farm. Now it is Schulz Road. The farm was valued at $1000 in 1860 and $3400 in 1870. On 1 March 1869, John also purchased some of his brother-in-law’s land nearby in the Meramec River bottom.

Other important information about John Schulz:

• • Naturalized 1860 in St. Louis City.
  • Served about four months as a cook in Company “B” of the Second Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia, a Civil War Union unit.
  • Served as librarian and on committees as a charter member of the Concord Farmers Club 1877
  • Purchased a family burial plot in St. Lucas Evangelical Cemetery on 27 August 1887 when youngest sons, Friedrich and Walter, died.
  • Joined the Almstedt Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, located in Fenton 1895, and, by 1899, the Free Masons of the Fenton Lodge A.F. of A. M., where he held several offices.
  • Served as a county road overseer for four consecutive years beginning in 1902
  • Celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary with Maria on 14 July 1906 at St. Lucas Church.

John Schulz died on 4 February 1907 at his home in Sappington at age seventy-three with burial in the family plot at St. Lucas Cemetery. In his estate, probated beginning 13 February 1907, he bequeathed $100 to each of his twelve children. By 1909, son William owned the farm along Mattis Creek at Kennerly Road and son Frank owned the farm in the Meramec River bottom.

Written by Carol Whitton
April 2017

© 2017 St. Louis Genealogical Society