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From: OHBIOS <>
Subject: [OH-FOOT] Ohbios-Darke Co. Bios (Shultz)
Date: 23 Jul 2003 23:48:28 -0000


Darke County OHIO Biographies.....Chester George Shultz May 26 1892 - April 16 1855
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File contributed for Ohio Biographies Project by:
Francis Motschman, Sr. July 23, 2003, 7:48 pm

Author: Francis D. Motschman, Sr.

The Shultz Family of Darke County, Ohio

The Biography of Chester George Shultz
Son of William Sherman Shultz and Whilemena "Lillie" Mae Petersime
by Francis D. Motschman, Sr.

Chester George Shultz, a Honey Dipper, a Trash Collector, a Convicted
Felon, a Staunch Jehovah Witness, a Beloved Father. Could one man be all of
these? The answer to that is Yes, and more.

Chester, or Ches' as everyone called him, was born on Thu., May 26,
1892 in Greenville Twp., Darke County, Ohio. He was the second of nine children
born to Sherman and Lillie Mae Shultz.

"He was a good Big Brother", his brother Sherman Harold said, when
talking of him, "He was thirteen years older than I so we didn't do many things
together when I was a boy... but he was a good brother to me".

My wife, Juanita Shultz, remembers him from when she was a young girl
in the 1930's. She said that he would come to Dayton and pile all six kids in
the back of his truck and take off for his farm. She said it was great fun for
all the kids, bundled up in blankets in the bed of the truck. They would sing
songs as loud as they wanted and tell stories and laugh a lot. Once there he
and his wife, Bonnie, would treat them royally, doing whatever it took to make
their weekend a pleasant experience. "They never talked about religion to any
of us", Juanita said.

Chester and his family were Jehovah Witness' and could often be seen on
the street corners of Greenville along with his daughters passing out pamphlets
and talking to people about HIS religion. His son, Freddie, would be there
sometimes but as often as not wiggled out of it in some manner. In spite of
having to go out on these religious foray's with their dad, his kids loved him
and were happy having him as a father.

Someone once said, "The way to make money is to do something no one
else wants to do". Chester must have been aware of this as that is what he
did. He had two business' going at the same time. One was the Honey Dipping
business. If you don't know what a Honey Dipper did, it was this: he emptied
out privies. If you don't know what a privie is: it's an outside toilet. It
wasn't every man that could do this work. This job didn't keep him totally busy
so he collected trash. He was able to fix many trashed items and sell them as
used merchandise. What he couldn't fix he too, would junk. His business' took
him all over the area so many people knew him and he had many friends all over
Darke County.

He married Ruth Worley sometime around 1910 and they had four children.
The first being Margaret and the other three are unknown to me. I have taken
two stories, one from his granddaughter, Elisabeth Reyes, of California, and
one from his brother, Sherman Harold, and merged them to arrive at this: It was
not unusual for Chester to be gone for several days when he was working his
jobs. It appears that Ruth is an alcoholic and on one occasion while he was
gone she went into town and spent the day drinking at a bar. Sometime during
that day there was a catastrophy at home. What the catastrophy was we don't
know. We do know that three of his four children were killed. Only the oldest
girl, Margaret, escaped with her life. When Chester got home and found out what
had happened and what his wife was doing while it happened, he took after her
and probably would have killed her if he could have. As it was, he managed to
beat her up pretty good and even hit her once with a hammer, but she managed to
escape his wrath and had him arrested. He had a trial and ended up spending
some time at the Mansfield prison, in Mansfield, Ohio. We have a card he sent
to his brother Earl while at the prison dated November 1, 1916.

Margaret, in the meantime went to live with a relative in Wyoming.

In 1924 Chester married Bonnie Irene Miller Boze. Her first husband was
Ralph Boze and she brought with her two children: Maxine Boze age 6 and Russell
Boze age 5. Chester and Bonnie had four children. Their first, Evelyn Gertrude
was born on Mon., September 19, 1927, then came Ida Mae who was born Abt. 1929.
The third born was Frederick "Freddie" who came into this world Abt. 1931 and
then their last child was a girl who they named Louise and who was born on
Thu., May 18, 1933.
Grandma Lillie Mae Petersime Shultz said that naming her just Louise,
was a no-no, that she had to have a biblical name. Lillie called her 'Mary' and
the name stuck and she was Mary Louise from then on, although legally it was
just Louise. ( This comes from Elisabeth Reyes of Calif., Mary Louise's
daughter)

Bonnie spoke German and English and played the piano, to the delight of
all the children.

Chester finally came to his own death on Sat., April 16, 1955 in
Greenville, Darke County, Ohio.
Bonnie died on Thu., November 18, 1976 in Greenville, Darke County, Ohio

Both Chester and Bonnie are interred in the Ansonia Cemetery, Ansonia,
Darke County, Ohio

This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/bios/ohbios/

File size: 5.3 Kb


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