Post # 17 ~ Drawing Down the Curtain on Mr. Shultz

No End To His Zeal

~ Undaunted to the Last ~

The histories of Hamburg and its founder Henry Shultz are nearly inextricable. If I am interested in Hamburg, I am interested in Mr. Shultz. Before moving on with the Jeffers story, I have a few more Shultz-findings to share. 

Henry Shultz tirelessly promoted Hamburg, proclaiming its importance and success; and he defended himself with equal fervor. (I wish I had time to compile a collection of his writings, with notes about the context. Several historians have been intrigued by Mr. Shultz: Wikipedia has a well-done Henry Shultz article; and searches have turned up several blogs and articles about the man and his town.)

Shultz published many accounts of his woes; here is one: See the transcription of the whole article here. Below are some excerpts: 

The Edgefield Advertiser, 1839-08-15. LOC

INQUIRIES IN A CASE OF BANKRUPTCY.

Circumstances and events have placed the actions of my life in a different and more arduous aspect than many or my fellow beings...My fate in the intercourse with mankind has been rather a hard one, but I have borne it with manly fortitude...

I date my arrival at Augusta, Geo., in 1806, and continued there until 1821...[M]y conduct and perseverance enabled me gradually to rise to wealth and fame, having been engaged in several magnificent enterprizes - the bridge across the Savannah river, the wharf at Augusta, Geo., the Bridge Company's Banking house, besides many other valuable buildings. 

It is to me that Augusta owes the main public enterprizes she boasts; monuments not less of my toil than of her injustice. By the acts of those who speculate in false promises to pay; by changers and hucksters of money, my honest and laborious gains were snatched from my hands, I was stripped not only of my hard earnings, but of my last and dearest possession; my good name, my all; I was cast out, stigmatized and a broken man...

Did my oppressors stop here? No. I was pursued into another State, cast from dungeon to dungeon, and was finally compelled to say, after two years confinement, that I was a bankrupt. 

Was I tempted into wild cotton speculations, or any thing else of a like nature; were my expectations overwhelmed by the waves of the ocean? I would answer no; neither was my all consumed by the flames of the devouring element, nor did I place my earnings upon the wheel of fortune, or lose them at the gaming table, nor through any other species of dissipation. Have my various great undertakings proved unsuccessful, and their failure involved my ruin? - No...

My town [Hamburg], the real estate of which was valued in June, 1821, by the Court of Equity at $7,000...was sold a short time previous for $1,500, making its value $8,500, at that time. According to the assessment made under the order of Council for the present year, its real estate is now valued at $365,000...[My] Bank...paid to the stockholders a dividend of 21 per cent....

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Henry Shultz's rhetorical style presents a fascinating psychological study, a combination of self-pity and over-the-top boastfulness. Even the contemporaries who found him off-putting were fascinated. John Abney Chapman, for example, wrote in History of Edgefield County, Chapter XXVI, pages 238-239 (after he transcribed the whole Sibley article):

The following additional information in regard to Mr. Schultz was derived from another source:

"Mr. Schultz, the founder of Hamburg, was a native of Hamburg in Germany. When about nineteen years of age he was taken prisoner by Bonaparte and released upon the promise of not bearing arms any more against the French, which he violated and was re-captured. Napoleon, not caring to put a mere boy to death, gave him liberty to emigrate to America. He came to Augusta and first followed boating to Savannah. After Augusta took possession of his bridge Mr. Schultz then went before the Legislature of South Carolina and promised, if they would help him, to build a town that would rival Augusta, The State must have failed to fulfill some of its promises, for after Schultz was ruined he was often seen in Columbia during the sessions of the the Legislature with his long overcoat dangling around his heels and the mark of Cain upon his brow. After Augusta took possession of his bridge he built a toll gate on the Carolina side and collected his tolls from there. When the courts decided the case against him Mr. Schultz tried to commit suicide by firing a pistol in his mouth, but the bullet came out at his forehead, greatly disfiguring his face."

Whether the State failed to keep any of its promises to Mr. Schultz or not, is not known to this writer, most probably not; but he was involved in a long lawsuit about his bridge, in which he was loser and he sank the State’s $50,000. Hamburg was built as promised, and did for some years an immense business.

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Faint praise for a man who did, after all, accomplish much in Chapman's beloved Edgefield District.

The newspapers, perhaps more in tune to the arduous work of building mercantile businesses in Hamburg, did give him some respect:

Even Augusta's Daily Constitutionalist and Republic could wish him success. 1846-11-27. LOC

And the Edgefield Advertiser had this to say when the curtain was finally drawn on Mr. Henry Shultz.

The Edgefield Advertiser, 1851-10-16. LOC