California Biographies

Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of 
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with 
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)

History By Paul E. Vandor 
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
 
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


MRS. MARY SCHULTZ.� A woman with an interesting history is Mrs. 
Mary Schultz, the widow of the late William H. Schultz, the extensive pioneer 
land-owner and stock-raiser, and for a while the leading Fresno County 
sheepman in the Elkhorn district. She herself is the representative of a 
wealthy German family, and she has counted among her California friends 
some of the best-known men and women of the Golden State. She divides 
her residence between 1139 R Street, Fresno, the home of Mrs. Philip Koehler, 
and the old Schultz home ranch, two miles north of Burrel. 

Mrs. Schultz was born March 26, 1861, at Rheinpfalz, on the River Rhine, 
in Germany, where her mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Koehler, 
was still living, in April, 1917, at the entrance of the United States into the 
war with Germany. She was then eighty-three, and the last letter received 
from her arrived about that time. The father was Jacob Langfinger, who 
was a vineyardist and owned a fine home and a place of 100 acres, mostly 
devoted to the culture of vines. He came from a well-to-do German 
family, and he died in 1910, at the age of eighty-one. Six girls and two boys 
made up the family; and they are: Kate, the wife of Philip Koehler, who 
resides in Fresno; Elizabeth, who is married and lives in Germany; Marie or 
Mary, the subject of our sketch; and Barbara, Madge and Anna, all of whom 
are married and still residents of Germany, and Philip and Jacob, both of 
whom are single, and have remained in the Fatherland. Marie was brought 
up in the Lutheran Church and attended the ordinary grammar-grade schools. 

Her older sister, Kate, had married Mr. Koehler in Germany and with 
her husband and their one child, and Mary, she came to Firebaugh, Cal.. in 
1877, at which place Mr. Koehler was employed by Miller & Lux as their 
foreman on the old Columbia Ranch for three years. Mrs. Schultz often 
talked with Henry Miller and often served him with meals, when he came 
their way. At the end of three years, the Koehlers' moved to Merced, there 
to remain two years, and Mrs. Schultz went with them, as indeed wherever 
they migrated; in 1881, they came to Fresno, and then they went back to 
Merced. 

At Fresno, Miss Langfinger met William H. Schultz, to whom she was 
married on March 21, 1882. He then owned three sections of land northeast 
of what is now Burrel, viz. sections 24, 25, 27, and a band of 3,000 sheep, and 
he was well-known in Fresno and Fresno County. Mr. Schultz bought this 
land in early days, and for a while they lived near Elkhorn. 

Mr. Schultz was born in Saxony on September 25. 1847. a member of a 
very respectable family in ordinary circumstances. He made three trips to 
America as a cabin boy, coming to New York on his last trip in 1864; and 
concluding to come to San Francisco, he journeyed by way of Panama. When 
he reached the Isthmus, however, he was taken, sick' with the Panama fever: 
and there he had to stay for more than a year. Finally, he landed at San 
Francisco in 1865. Some time after his arrival he bought sections 25 and 27 
from the Southern Pacific Railway Company, and section 24 from a private 
party. He had acquired water rights and recorded his deeds at Millerton, 
the county seat. 

With a partner he ran a restaurant in San Francisco, and then came up 
to Elkhorn, where he became interested in sheep, after which he bought his 
land. He was always a good business man, made money and had many 
friends. He was a public-spirited pioneer, and often served on the Grand 
Jury and in other positions of responsibility. He was a life-long Republican, 
and grew up in the Presbyterian faith. His death occurred on March 19, 
1895, when he was only forty-eight years old. 

Mr. and Mrs. Schultz were the parents of two children. William Henry 
was a mechanical engineer, he died December 26, 1918; and Armand W. is 
an extensive farmer and stock-raiser, and runs the Schultz home place. He 
was married in 1912 to Miss Laura Chartrand, daughter of A. E. Chartrand, 
at one time a well-known creameryman of Fresno, and now retired. They 
have two children � William and Gretchen Marie. Armand owns 310 acres 
and farms, all in all including the land of his mother, over 600 acres. 

Mrs. Schultz now belongs to the Unitarian Church of Fresno, and is 
active in many good works � religious, patriotic, sociological. She loves her 
adopted country, as she looks back fondly to the scenes of her youth and the 
associations of her near-of-kin ; and she never neglects an opportunity to put 
America first, and to advance Fresno County and its interests whenever 
and wherever she can.