Schulte Family History by Peter Schulte Sr.

A Schulte Family History
By Pete Schulte Sr.

Schulte is a common name in Germany. The name is generally associated with a trade or occupation. The original meaning is a " head man" of the village.  This is one who was responsible for collecting dues or taxes and paying them to the lord of the manor. Other translations are tax collector, mayor and magistrate. The Schulte family this blogster is related to originated in the western part of old Germany.  In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Germany wasn't actually a country but an amalgamation of provinces and municipalities most of which were known as Prussia. My great great grandfather was born in the Westphalia province in the town of Eslohe. Because of political unrest and widespread unemployment, many Germans picked up and moved to other countries to find opportunity.  The United States was a popular destination and my great great grandfather, Anton, emigrated to the US and settled in Detroit, Michigan. One of the Schulte family members did extensive geneological research and determined that Anton's trade was owner of a match factory.  Anton was 28 when he arrived in the States and, in short order, found another German immigrant, Theresia Rehnart and married her.  Unfortunately, Theresia was to die of tuberculosis at age 29. They did have one daughter from the marriage, also named Theresia, and she too died of the same disease at the same age of 29. Anton then married another woman with the Schulte name, Christina, and they had nine children but only five of them survived until adulthood. Anton eventually died at 78 of diabetes and Christina lived to be 84. My great grandfather, Joseph, was one of the five surviving children.  He was born in 1864. Joseph held a variety of jobs, one of which was a Detroit city policeman. Joseph married a French woman, Christine Hardoin, who emigrated to the States from the Alsace-Lorranine province of France. They were both in their 20's when they married and they had eleven kids.  One of the eleven was my grandfather, Raymond who was born in 1895. Sadly, Christine died at age 46 of cardiac asthma. Their children all survived to adulthood.  Joseph never remarried and lived to the age of 85 when he died of pneumonia.  We're told he had 53 grandchildren.

Little is known about Raymond's early life.  We think he completed high school and attended a business college in the Detroit area. This was in the early 1900's when very few kids went to college. We have a picture of him in a baseball uniform with a few teammates so we know he liked sports.  At the time, baseball not football was the king of sports. When Raymond was in his late teens, he decided to strike out on his own. It was quite unusual for someone to do this in those days and we heard his father was not pleased with the move. He was the only one of his family to leave the state. He headed out to California and got a job with the Imperial Sugar Company and based in Huntington Beach in Orange County. While in California, he tried the acting profession and joined the Pasadena Playhouse players in Pasadena. Live plays were still the most popular form of entertainment at that time but the film industry was about to make it's debut.  Raymond also served in the U S Army during World War One.

He stayed in California for nearly ten years and then relocated to New York City. He took a job with the Burroughs Corporation as a sales representative. While in New York, he met and fell in love with an Irish girl from Brooklyn by the name of Peg Ryan.   They married (he was 31 and she was 26) and had five kids (one died at five days old) and one of the kids is my father. Raymond had a stroke when he was 54 and died four years later at 58. Peg died a few years later. 

So there's a snapshot of the Schulte family from Anton to Raymond.  This Schulte family was quite prolific in Michigan. It is estimated that there could be as many as 100,000 descendants of Anton in the United States. If there are any other Schultes out there related to Anton, let us hear from you.