Abraham Schultz and Regina Yeakle [68-1]

[68-1] ABRAHAM SCHULTZ, b Mar. 23, 1747; d Dec. 23, 1822; s George and Maria (Yeakel) Schultz [68]; m Oct. 24, 1771, by Rev. Christopher Schultz, to REGINA YEAKLE, b Oct. 1, 1749: d Nov. 9, 1826; dau Christopher and Maria (Schultz) Yeakle [160-1].

Children (7):

Abraham Schultz was born on his father’s plantation in Upper Hanover Twp., Montg. Co., Pa. He was the eldest son of George and Maria Yeakel Schultz. In early youth he imbibed a genuine love .for books and literature; and although the educational facilities were very limited, he diligently pursued his studies. He was naturally endowed with a comprehensive mind and a keen, retentive memory. Reared a Schwenkfelder, he devoted himself at the arly age of twelve to the transcribing of some of the more important of the Schwenckfeld theological documents. To one of these transcriptions made in 1761, he affixed his signature thus: ‘Abraham Scholtze.”’ Another extensive manuscript of which he made a transcript is ‘“‘The Schwenkfelder Compendium of Faith,” compiled by Christopher Schultz.

Having thus early in life beeome imbued with the tenets of Schwenckfeld, he steadfastly affirmed his adherence to the same until the end of his life. As a member of the Society of Sechwenkfelders, he served as a trustee, a school inspector, teacher, and catechist. The Goshenhoppen Schwenkfelder School Record shows that Abraham Sehultz was engaged as a teacher on November 21, 1775, for a term of three months, at a salary of eight pounds. He opened the school on December 5, 1775, in the home of Baltzer Schultz. Wherever opportunity offered, he encouraged others to carefully examine the doctrines for which the fathers had fled from home and country.

His command of both the German and English languages enabled him to engage in the writing of instructive letters. One of them, written June 14, 1783, to some surviving Schwenkfelders, or their relatives, in Silesia, Christopher Groh, Johann F. Heintze, Jeremiah Heydrick and others in the

: ARE NOTICE—That you are « hereby required personally or by sufficient _ substituté,to appeay at the house of Henr -y Ki ‘eps, properly: armed and equipped

for service, atthe hour of ten a. M. on the sth day of. September next, to march when required:...A ppeals to be held at Henry Kreps's, on ‘the 224 day of Sep-.

sember next, at ten o’elock a. M. |

Given under my. hand the 30th day of dugust, a. p. 1814,

“ToMn Ql Whe Le ner (OP, Chere Jai Soa etm. A Milita ary Paper of Jacob Wiegner [154—-O},

Harpersdorf—Probsthayn region of Silesia, is especially remarkable. In it he gave an account of the life among the Schwenkfelders during the period of the American Revolution; it also contains an excellent description of the effects and consequences of the war. His letter addressed to George Kriebel in 1794, with regard to the Sacraments, is a Valuable presentation of the interpretation entertained by his people at that time. Another letter written October 22, 1791, to his nephew, Dr. Christopher Heydrick, who had just reached his majority and was then a senior in the Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania, is a gem; the missive is full of excellent advice and is an example of elegance, both in style and in the choice of words. The original is still carefully preserved by the Heydrick family in western Pennsylvania, and is in addition a model of neatness and beauty of penmanship. The following paragraph from that letter reveals the splendid judgment and noble culture of Abraham Schultz, at the same time evineing an idealism worthy of emulation. The paragraph reads thus:

‘‘Next to a teacher of the Gospel I think there is not a Class of men that should be more circumspect and careful to promote the Happiness of Mankind than a Physician. A Physician I believe should be a man of sound religious Principles and a tender Conscience, his chief aim should not be great temporal Honor or Emolument (which is the most delusive Phantom of our depraved Nature) but as above said, an ardent desire to promote the Happiness of Mankind. Whether such Principles are now and then inculeated by your Teachers I do not know, but such Principles I suppose would not be unworthy of any Professor of your Faculty.”

In the community in which he lived, Abraham Schultz served as a serivener and counsellor. In 1796 and 1797, he with Cadwallader Evans, Joseph Tyson and John Shoemaker, represented Montgomery County in the General Assembly of the Commonwealth. During that session he served as a member of numerous important committees. Among other things he supported a bill enabling trustees of the University of Pennsylvania to vacate seats of members for not attending the meetings. It is also of interest to note the following petition regarding the construction of a stone bridge across the Perkiomen at Collegeville, Pa. This petition was introduced Jan. 9, 1797, entitled: ‘‘A Petition from a number of inhabitants of Montgomery County, praying leave to raise, by way of lottery, the sum of $20,000 to be applied for the purpose of building a stone arched bridge over the Perkiomen Creek where it erosses the great road from Philadelphia.’’? On motion and by special order this petition was read the second time in order to be referred to Messrs. Evans, Schultz, Tyson, J. Shoemaker, Lieb, Lewis ’ and Gehr, to report thereon. [Z. E. S. J.] °

Benjamin Shultz, M.D., the eldest son of Abraham Schultz, was born and reared in Upper Hanover Twp., Montg. Co., Pa., on the farm at present (1922) in the possession of Roland Dicky. The educational facilities, provided by the Schwenkfelder School System of the colonial period, surrounded his early life. He prepared for a professional career, graduating from the department of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in the year 1795, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. At the time of his graduation he submitted an inaugural dissertation to the examination of the Rev. John Ewing, S. T. P. Provost, the Trustees, and University Medical Faculty. This was done on the twenty-first day of May, 1795. The dissertation was published under the title: ‘‘An Inaugural Botanico-Medical Dissertation, on the Phytolacca Deeandra of Linnaeus. By Benjamin Shultz, of Pennsylvania, Member of the Philadelphia Medical Society. Philadelphia, printed by Thomas Dobson, At the Stone- House, No. 41, South Second-Street, 1795.” It is a book of fifty-five printed pages and one plate. The common name of the plant treated in the discussion is “‘Poke” or ‘“‘Poke-Weed.” Dr. Shultz dedicated this, his first publication, to his instructors and friends, Caspar Wistar, M.D., and Benjamin Smith Barton, M.D. Two copies of this very scarce book are preserved in the Schwenkfelder Historical Library at Pennsburg, Pa.

Two months after his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Shultz delivered an oration before the Mosheimian Society of Philadelphia. This was likewise published, under the title: “An Oration delivered before The Mosheimian Society, on July 23d, 1795; Being the Day appointed for their Yearly Meeting. By Benjamin Shultz, M.D., Philadelphia; Printed By T. Dobson, at the Stone-House, No. 41, South Second-Street. M, DCC, XCV.” This is a quarto tract of fourteen pages. A copy of this rare print is preserved in the Ridgway branch of the Philadelphia Library. The Mosheimian Society ‘‘was instituted in the year 1789, in the city of Philadelphia, for the purpose of keeping up the knowledge of the German language, and to preserve it in its purity. It was named after Mosheim, a celebrated writer in Germany, who made the most strenuous exertions to purify this elegant language from every foreign word and name, in order to simplify it as much as possible.”

During the years following his graduation, Dr. Shultz appears to have engaged in medicinal experimentation. This led him, with the aid of some friends, to establish a balsam farm along the Green Valley road in Hereford Twp., Berks Co., Pa. The project proved an unsuccessful one and

dissolved about the year 1800. Subsequently he located at or near Middelberg in what is now Snyder Co., Pa. Very little is known of his later life. He appears to have suffered great affliction through an accident which necessitated the amputation of a limb. Without the assistance of a physician he personally directed the operation, although he died from the effects on March 5, 1814. The place of his interment is somewhere in the Middelberg region. [E. EF. S. J.|