John W. Schultz Biography


	This biography appears on page 1155 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.


	JOHN W. SCHULTZ, one of the leading merchants and representative 
citizens of Wessington, Beadle county, is a native of Germany, where he 
was born on the 23d of February, 1835. After his father's death the 
widow came with her two sons and two daughters to America, the family 
locating in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she passed the remainder of her 
life, while of the children our subject is now the only survivor. The 
early educational discipline of Mr. Schultz was secured in the excellent 
schools of his fatherland, and he was about fourteen years of age at the 
time of the family emigration to America. He thereafter attended the 
common schools in Cincinnati, Ohio, and effectively supplemented the 
training he had previously received. After attaining years of maturity 
he devoted his attention to farming in the old Buckeye state until 1855, 
when he came west as a pioneer of the state of Iowa, locating in 
Dubuque, Dubuque county, where he was engaged in the mercantile business 
until 1882, in which year he came to what is now the state of South 
Dakota and became one of the early settlers of Wessington, where he was 
engaged in the general merchandise business until 1885, when he removed 
to Hand county, which lies contiguous on the west of Beadle county, and 
there successfully continued farming until 1897, when he returned to 
Wessington, where he now controls the most extensive mercantile business 
in this section, drawing his trade from a wide radius of country and 
having the confidence and esteem of the people of this locality, where 
he has made his home for so many years. He is a straightforward and 
reliable business man, urbane and courteous at all times and his name is 
a synonym of honor and integrity wherever he is known. He has ever been 
a stalwart advocate of the principles and policies for which the 
Republican party stands sponsor, and has been an active worker in its 
cause. In 1894 he represented Hand county in the state senate, where he 
made a most creditable record. Though he was candidate on the Republican 
ticket in the preceding election his personal popularity was such as to 
enable him to overcome the large Populist majority which was normally 
given in Hand county at that period, and his election was a merited 
tribute of popular esteem and good will. He also served one term as a 
member of the board of commissioners of Hand county. He is identified 
with the Masonic fraternity and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.