Shultz, Alexander


HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS DESCRIPTIVE OF ITS SCENERY,
AND
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF SOME OF ITS PROMINENT MEN AND PIONEERS.

Published by Brink, McDonough & Co., Philadelphia 1879


Page 253

ALEXANDER SHULTZ was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, November 14th, 1829. His father was a farmer in good circumstances, and in 1836, moved to Grantsville, Allegheny county, Maryland, twenty-five miles west of Cumberland, on the National Road, which was then the main thoroughfare of travel between the East and the West. His father owned there six hundred acres of land, and built a hotel at a cost of seven or eight thousand dollars, and also was the owner of another hotel on the same route, but the building of railroads changed the current of travel, and rendered the property unproductive. Mr. Shultz grew up to manhood in that county. August 31st, 1859, he married Eleonora Glotfelty, who was descended from an old German family who settled in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, before the Revolutionary war, and afterward moved to Allegheny county, Maryland, where Mrs. Shultz was born. After he was married, Mr. Shultz went to farming for himself on rented land, and afterward purchased a farm of three hundred acres at Grantsville. He continued to reside in Maryland through the war, and in 1866 emigrated to Illinois, landing in Shipman November 16th of that year. In 1872 he purchased the farm of 160 acres which he now owns, in section twenty of Hilyard township. He has eight children living: Joseph A.; Lydia C., now the wife of Elisha Turney; Robert Lee; Bayley; Kitty May; Alexander M.; Henry E., and Rosella. In his politics he has always been a democrat, as were all his ancestors before him. He has been one of the leading citizens of Hilyard township; for three years he was assessor of the township, and one year collector. IN 1877 he represented the township on the Board of Supervisors, and in 1878 his name was prominently brought forward as the Democratic candidate for Sheriff. The family from which Mr. Shultz is descended is of German origin. His grandfather, Jacob Shultz, came over from Germany when fourteen years of age, before the Revolutionary War. He settled in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, and secured his tract of land by what was known as an old "Tomahawk Right." He was one of the old pioneer settlers, and was obliged to go to Hagerstown, Maryland - eighty miles distant - for salt and iron, which he would transport on pack-horses. Jacob Shultz was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Mr. Shultz's father, Adam Shultz, was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania; he followed farming, and for forty years also carried on a tannery. His second wife (Mr. Shultz's mother) was Nancy Shockey, also born in Somerset county; her father, Abraham Shockey, served seven years in the Revolution, and after his death his widow drew a pension as long as she lived. The Shockey family was originally of French descent. The grandfather of Mrs. Shultz on her mother's side was also in the Revolutionary war; his name was Robert Compton, and he was a native of New Jersey; he was Aid-de-Camp on General Washington's staff, and once, while carrying dispatches was captured by the British; he was searched, but his papers which were hid in the lining of his boots, were not discovered.

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