Maria Jahn Schulz, 1837–1918

Maria Jahn, daughter of Franz Jahn and Anna Jllichmann, was born on 10 August 1837 at the family home, no. 151 in Mährisch Altstadt, Mähren [Moravia], Austro-Hungarian Empire [now Staré Mesto, Czech Republic.] She was baptized the next day at Rímskokatolická Staré Mesto pod Snezníkem [Altstadt Roman Catholic Church].

Maria emigrated with her parents, Franz and Anna Jahn, from Bremen on the SS Adler, arriving in New Orleans on 30 November 1854. From there they went up river to St. Louis.

Maria Jahn married Johann Lorenz Schulz, son of Johann Philipp Schulz and Anna Margaretha Goller, on 13 July 1856 at St. Paul’s German Evangelical Church on Giles and Potomac Streets in St. Louis City. They had a total of fourteen children, but the last two sons died as toddlers in an epidemic.

The Schulz family farm was in Carondelet Township on Mattis Creek, on the north side of Kennerly Road, south of Gravois and west of Sappington Road. Living with them until their deaths were her parents, Franz and Anna Jahn. This is now Schulz Road, off Kennerly Road, backing up to Interstate 270.

Normally the Schulz family attended St. John’s Evangelical Church, Mehlville. Maria sponsored the baptism of niece, Maria Nebe, on 25 May 1863 at St. John’s Church. Descendants suggest Maria sometimes also attended the Catholic Church in which she had been raised. After 1881, they transferred to St. Lucas Evangelical Church in Sappington, which was closer to their farm.

Maria and John celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary on 14 July 1906 at St. Lucas Evangelical Church, Sappington. Present were their seven sons and five daughters, along with thirty-four grandchildren.

John died in 1907. After his death, their sons took over the home farm. In 1909, Mrs. Maria Schulz appeared in the county directory as the widow of John, living on Gravois Road in Webster Groves [sic]. She lived at the home of her youngest son, Edward Schulz, until her death.

Maria Schulz died on 26 August 1918 at the age of eighty-one. She was survived by eleven of her children: Frank, Charles, John, Henry, William, and Edward Schulz, Elizabeth Reifsteck, Anna Ruehl, Rose Wehmeyer, Mary Schneeberger, and Mollie Brinkmeyer, as well as twenty-nine grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren. Son, Gustav, predeceased her. Maria was buried alongside her husband in the Schulz plot in St. Lucas Evangelical Cemetery, Sappington.

Written by Carol Whitton
April 2017
© 2017, St. Louis Genealogical Society