William Decatur Schultz (1864 - 1940)

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 19 Sep 1940 at age 76 in Mulhall, Logan, Oklahoma

Biography

William Decatur Schultz was born 1Sep1864 in Marion County, Missouri. At the age of twenty-five, he and his brother, Harney Shultz, went to Oklahoma to participate in the Oklahoma Run of 1889 and acquired land in what is now Mulhall, Logan County, Oklahoma. The following account is from a journal kept by William's brother:

"In April 1889, Oklahoma was opened up and I went to Oklahoma. I went on a train. I was sitting straddle of the back coach when we went in April 22, 1889 at 12 o'clock. The train stopped at Guthrie and nearly all of them got off and ran for town lots. There was 3 of us that tore out down the railroad looking for land, not knowing where we were going. All three of us got claims 1 1/2 miles Southeast of Guthrie. I hold out on the claim about a week before I sold it for $50. The Indians crossed it every evening. One night I had cooked me some supper. I never slept near the fire because I figured if some one came along they would look for a person near the fire, so I went back in the woods. I had a big pistol around me and I had been asleep when I was awakened by a terrible noise. I thought it was some kind of wild animal. I jumped up running and reaching for my pistol. It had slipped around and I fell over a log and an owl flew away! Then I sold my claim, I bought a horse that I had no business with. The reason I sold my claim was to buy a river bottom claim for $100. The fellow who bought mine waited a week, until he got his title, before he paid me and by that time those claims went to $500 and I didn't have that kind of money. A married man had to live on a claim. A single man had to show some improvement and stay on the claim part time."

William married Dasie Norton on 14October1891. By 1920 they were living in Rose Hill, Logan County, Oklahoma with their children. Daisie died in 1938, and by 1940, at the age of 75, William was again living in Mulhall, Logan County, Oklahoma.

William died on 19Sep1940 and is buried at Roselawn Cemetery, Logan County, Oklahoma.

Sources

• The Recollections of Harney Shultz from a journal in the possession of his daughter, Emma Zell Shultz Knighton
• 1870 Census, Missouri
• 1910 Census, Mulhall, Logan, OK
• 1920 Census, Rose Hill, Logan County, Oklahoma
• 1930 Census, Logan County, Oklahoma
• 1940 Census, Mulhall, Logan, OK
• Roselawn Cemetery records, Logan County, Oklahoma.