My Genealogy Hound

Charles L. Schultze, one of the leading German citizens and prosperous farmers of Troy township, Oakland County, residing on his farm of 77 acres in section 5, was born in 1855 in Germany.

When Mr. Schultze landed at Hoboken at the age of 13 years, it was to enter the printing establishment of his cousin, Henry Cherouny, then editor of the Hudson County Journal. After a year in the printing office, young Schultze decided that his inclinations lay more in the direction of farm work, and he soon found employment near Poughkeepsie, New York, at the end of the season enlisting as a private soldier in the 18th United States Infantry, being discharged at Columbia, South Carolina, a year later. Since that time he has devoted himself to farming exclusively. In 1880 he came to Oakland County and bought a tract of 20 acres in Royal Oak township, paying $25 down, and entering into a contract to pay the rest in 10 years. There he built a log cabin, and when it was ready for occupancy he possessed just $13. Before the family could settle on the land, want of drainage had rendered it almost uninhabitable, but he managed to carry wife, children and furniture, and to set up a home. On account of the encroaching water, he found that farming without drainage was impossible, and went through much hardship and discouragement. When the boom in real estate reached Royal Oak, it included his farm, and he was able to clear a handsome sum by its sale. In 1892 he settled on his present farm, which he is constantly improving. Mr. Schultze’s success tells its own lesson of the value of perseverance and industry.

In 1876 Mr. Schultze was married to Emma L. Killman, who was born in 1856 in Silesia, Germany, and is a daughter of Christian Killman. A family of nine children were born to them, the survivors being: Walter, Charles, Henry, Edward, Fred, Emma and Bertha. Mr. Schultze has endeavored to give his children better educational advantages than he enjoys himself.

He is a member of the Lutheran Church. Politically he is a Republican. Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of the Maccabees, the Gleaners, and the Foresters of America. He is a man who commands the respect of his neighbors, and has a wide circle of warm personal friends. In every sense of the word, Mr. Schultze is a self-made man, having fought his way, almost unaided, from the bottom of the ladder.