MAURICE M

Born in Delaware County, N.Y., February 11, 1827, and died at Wilcox, Elk, Co., Penn., May 18, 1884. At the age of sixteen he embarked on a whaling ship for the Arctic seas, and returned to his native land after a voyage of four years. His voyage, and the hardships and experiences attendant upon it, gave him his stern and unswerving peculiarities of character and his robust and hardy physique, thereby well fitting him for the hard and active service of his after life. After his return from the sea, he became a tanner, and engaged extensively in that business up to the time of his death. He operated a tannery at Sparrow Bush, N.Y., from 1860 to 1866, and during these years accumulated a goodly fortune. At the time he disposed of his tannery at that place, he proposed to retire from active life, but after a pleasure trip to Europe of a year's duration, he was again persuaded to embark in the tanning enterprise, this time at Wilcox, Elk county. From the summer of 1877, up to the time of his death, he was at the head of the firm doing business under the name of the Wilcox Tanning Company. Mr. Schultz had exclusive charge of the landed and manufacturing interests of this company, and by his energy, fidelity and perseverance, he commanded not only the implicit confidence of the other members of this firm, but also the admiration and respect of the community in which he lived. He was kind- hearted and generous, and never turned a deaf ear to the appeals of the less fortunate in life. His wife, Mary A. (Atherton) Schultz, still survives him, also two sons and one daughter: Norman (residing in New York City), Irving (residing in Wilcox, Penn.) and Mrs. Edward Barnes (of Orange, N.J.). The Wilcox Tannery is now conducted by his two sons, Mr. Irving Schultz being the resident member, and having the general supervision of the same.

Source: Page(s) 745-759, History of Counties of McKean, Elk and Forest, Pennsylvania. Chicago, J.H. Beers & Co., 1890.
Transcribed February 2007 by Nathan Zipfel for the Elk County Genealogy Project
Published 2007 by the Elk County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project

By far the most colorful trustee was one Maurice Morgan Schultz. Mr. Schultz was born in Delaware County, NY, on February 11, 1827, the son of Abraham I. and Mary Smith Schultz; a biography of Mr. Schultz read: At the age of sixteen he embarked on a whaling ship for the Arctic seas, and returned to his native land after a voyage of four years. His voyage, and the hardships and experiences attendant upon it, gave him his stern and unswerving peculiarities of character and his robust and hardy physique, thereby well fitting him for the hard and active service of his after life.[i] He was reported to be a man of great girth over 300 pounds.[ii]

In March of 1852 he began to buy property in Sparrowbush to build a tannery; the first parcel was purchased from Timothy A. Raymond (OC Deed Book 117 Page 160), and contained a clause giving Maurice: the privilege of using and controlling the water of the Sparrowbush (Kill) belonging to the said Raymond from the bridge on the Honesville Road to the Delaware and Hudson Canal, for the purposes of a tannery on the premises in such a way as not to overflow the lands of said Raymond.

According to the deed, Maurice was living in Westfall Township, Pike County, PA, when he purchased that first plot of land, but a note in the margin of the deed reads: "Mailed to M.M. Schultz Port Jervis August 4, 1852", so he must have moved across the Delaware River between March and August of 1852. The Schultz family was living in Sparrowbush by 1855;[iii] Maurice was twenty-eight years old, his wife, MaryAnn Atherton[iv] Schultz, formerly of either Cayuga County, NY, or Cortland County, NY, was also twenty-eight; they had one son, Norman, who was two years old.[v] Norman was listed as born in Orange County, so he must have been born while they lived in Port Jervis, or shortly after they moved to Sparrowbush. By 1860 the Schultz family had grown with the addition of sons Irving and Percy;[vi] a daughter, Laura, was added by 1865.[vii]

The tannery was in operation by June 30, 1854, when it was destroyed by a fire. A newspaper article at the time said the value of the building, stock and machinery was about twenty-five thousand dollars, but Mr. Schultz only had it insured for twelve thousand dollars.[viii] He evidently rebuilt rather quickly because the 1855 New York State census lists the tannery with ten thousand dollars invested in real estate and thirty six hundred invested in tools and machinery; it employed twenty-six men at that time.[ix] Nineteenth century tanneries were not the most pleasant places: it was a lucrative but unpleasant profession; there was blood everywhere, gobs of animal fat, extraordinary smells that would stick with the tanner no matter how many times he bathed![x] Tannic acid, also called tannin, was used in the tanning process; tannin is found in the bark of hemlock trees,[xi] so large tracts of hemlocks were needed to keep the tannery in operation.

It is very possible that one of the factors which brought Maurice Schultz to this area was the abundance of hemlock trees; some of the parcels purchased by him were probably forest lands; for instance, he picked up four hundred and forty-eight acres at a foreclosure in July of 1853 (OC Deed Book 127 Page 41).

Another reason why he probably chose this spot to build his tannery was the Delaware and Hudson Canal; he could ship his finished leather on canal boats; since he had come from Ellenville, NY[xii] he would have been familiar with the canal, and its advantages. Mr. Schultz had seventy thousand dollars of real and personal estate invested in the tannery by 1860, according to the census; the raw materials were valued at sixty one thousand dollars, with an annual production of one hundred thousand dollars; the tannery averaged twenty male employees.[xiii]

M. M. Schultz was also a quasi-farmer: he had nine improved acres and four hundred forty-eight unimproved acres by 1855. His farm was valued at three thousand dollars, the stock and tools had a cash value of one hundred seventy-five dollars; he had two neat cattle, two cows which produced one hundred eighty pounds of butter, one horse, and four pigs.[xiv] It does not appear that he was as serious a farmer as Jonathan West; he never listed himself as a farmer, he was always a tanner; he probably spent his time and energy at the tannery, and not on the farm. There were fifteen men living at the residence with his family during this time, fourteen said their occupation was tanner, and one was a laborer;[xv] it would seem very possible that the man listed as a laborer worked on the farm, and not in the tannery.

In 1860 only a Charles Gariss, whose occupation was clerk, lived with the Schultz family; however, their real estate was listed as worth thirty-one thousand dollars while their personal estate was valued at five thousand; M.M. Schultz was not listed in the Schedule 4 Productions of Agriculture section of that census, but the section appears to be uncompleted.[xvi] The 1865 census only lists a Robert Hardy, a servant from North Carolina, as living with the family; the farm was now valued at forty-five hundred for the real estate, and sixteen hundred for stock and tools.[xvii] Mr. Schultz must also have been an esteemed member of the community; besides being a trustee of the cemetery he was postmaster of the Sparrowbush Post Office from December 21, 1865 until September 6, 1867.[xviii]

About 4 o�clock on Wednesday morning last, the extensive Tannery of M. M. Schultz, Esq., at Sparrowbush, in this Town, was discovered to be on fire, and in a short time was entirely consumed. About one-half of the finished leather, with the hides in the vats were saved. The loss is estimated at $75,000, on which there was an insurance of $25,000. Mr. Schultz, at the time, had a large Government contract to fill. By this casualty a large number of hands are thrown out of employment. This is the second time the Tannery has been burned, and we understand that it will be re-built immediately.[xix] The fire was in February of 1862, which would have been during the Civil War, so the government contract was probably to supply leather to be made into shoes for Union soldiers. Unfortunately, the Town of Deerpark Industry Other Than Agriculture form on the 1865 state census was blank, so we do not know anything more of the Schultz tannery as far as value or employees are concerned.

On October 19, 1866, Maurice Schultz sold the tannery to Edward R. Swasey, George Swasey and Charles Cooper for the sum of sixty thousand dollars (OC Deed Book 198 Page 90); Mr. Schultz had paid a total of $5,121.00 for the eleven properties on which he had built his tannery, and which was now sold to The Swaseys and Mr. Cooper. Over the fifteen years that Maurice was in the area he bought and sold many properties, not only in the districts around Sparrowbush, but also well over a thousand acres in Sullivan County, as well as houses in the village of Port Jervis.[xx] It appears that the Schultz family lived in Port Jervis after they sold their holdings in Deerpark; James J. Allerton sold a house on Church Street to MaryAnn Schultz in June of 1867 (OC Deed Book 202 Page 324).

At the time he disposed of his tannery at that place, he proposed to retire from active life, but after a pleasure trip to Europe of a years duration, he was again persuaded to embark in the tanning enterprise, this time at Wilcox, Elk County [PA].[xxi]

Mr. Schultz is listed on the 1870 Federal census as living at the Stephen Eaurnhaus Boarding House in Wilcox, Jones Township, Elk County, PA; the value of his real estate was $100,000, and his personal estate as $10,000, but MaryAnn and the children were not listed there.[xxii] According to one source, Maurice, with his brother Judson, in association with a John Ernhout, and probably with help from Maurices brother Jackson, built a tannery in Wilcox about 1870; large areas of forest land were purchased in Jones Township, and in adjacent McKean County, which may have totaled over forty thousand acres.

In 1881 Maurice Schultz had a 36 inch gauge railroad built to haul bark and logs for the tannery, and for nearby Wilcox Lumber Company; the tannery became the largest tannery in Pennsylvania.[xxiii] The 1880 Federal census lists M. M. Schultz with Mary A and Irving as Boarders; it appears to be a hotel, but it could be a boarding house; it is not the same place Maurice lived during the 1870 census. His occupation was a Tanner, and Irving was a Book-Keeper;[xxiv] Norman Schultz was listed as a leather merchant living in New York City.[xxv] It is rather curious that Maurice Schultz had such a large, and seemingly profitable business, but still lived with his family in a hotel; there is a possibility that the hotel, or boarding house, could have been owned by the tannery. Maurice Morgan Schultz died in Wilcox on May 18, 1884; he was fifty-seven years old.[xxvi]

A photo of Maurice Morgan Schultz, taken when he was older, and
without a beard.