It wasn't my plan, when I wrote last week's post, that someone who rated a brief mention in that story would be the focus of this week's work, but here we are. I collected this marker a few months back while roaming the wilds of Berks County with husband Kevin and bff Andrea - I think we were on our way home from Zenkaikon, but at this point I don't honestly remember for certain.
In any event, this week we're looking at the life of another of Pennsylvania's governors. This time, it's number six.
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| The marker stands on Conrad Weiser Highway, near the entrance to the Christ Lutheran Church property. |
John Andrew Shulze was born in Tulpehocken Township, Berks County, on the 19th of July in 1775. His father was the Rev. Christopher (or Christoph) Shulze, the pastor of Christ Lutheran Church on what today is Conrad Weiser Highway, and as such he was born in the church's parsonage. The building no longer stands, having been replaced by a newer parsonage in the centuries since.
Through his mother, Eve Elizabeth, young John was a member of the influential Muhlenberg family of the region; she was the daughter of Henry Muhlenberg, who is regarded as the father of the Lutheran church in what became the United States, and the sister of prominent politicians Peter and Frederick Muhlenberg. John was, as far as I can tell, the youngest of Christopher and Eve's three children. He had an older sister named Anna Maria and an older brother named Heinrich.
As a Berks County native, John was one of the Pennsylvania Dutch, and spoke the language fluently. Even as an adult, he retained his heavy "Dutchie" accent. After being educated at home in English and German by his father, he attended schools in the cities of York and Lancaster, then finished with what his biographer calls a "classical course" in New York. He studied theology there as well, under the Rev. Dr. Kunze, and was ordained in 1796 as a Lutheran minister.
John spent the next six years as a pastor of various churches in Berks County. But in 1802, he came down with a severe case of rheumatic fever, which affected his health for the rest of his life. Unable to continue preaching thanks to his affliction, John instead went into trade, and became a successful merchant in Myerstown, Lebanon County. He married a young woman named Susan Immel, or Kimmel; sources vary. They had at least one child, their son Francis, but some sources say they had as many as five children. It may be that Francis was the only one to survive infancy.
The most significant event of John's time as governor was his effort, alongside Philadelphia's mayor Joseph Watson, to conduct a massive rescue. A group of roughly twenty young free blacks were kidnapped from Philadelphia in 1825, taken to Mississippi, and sold into slavery. The crime was perpetrated by Patty Cannon and the Cannon-Johnson gang, a notorious crime organization which chiefly operated in Maryland and Delaware. Several of the kidnap victims were recovered and brought back to Pennsylvania, but although extradition notices for the gang members were sent to Virginia, Alabama, and Mississippi, very few of them were arrested; as far as I can tell, only one of them was convicted. John Purnell was sentenced to 42 years in prison but died five years into his sentence. Patty Cannon herself was arrested in 1829 and set to be tried on four counts of murder, because the bodies of four of the kidnap victims were found buried on her land. However, she died in jail - most likely by her own hand - before the trial could begin.
John's other primary focus during his administration was to push for free public education to exist and be required for all children in Pennsylvania. Like my hero Thaddeus Stevens, he believed that public education was essential for society to progress. He wasn't able to actually bring this into law, but his successor, George Wolf, did, and part of the reason he was able to do it is because of the groundwork that John completed during his years in office. He also, as I mentioned last week, issued the paperwork necessary for the establishment of Lafayette College in Easton. As a tribute to his interest in educating the citizens of Pennsylvania, Penn State University named Shulze Hall in his honor.
John decided that two terms as governor were enough for him, and when his second one was up, he retired to Montoursville, Lycoming County. However, he returned to politics a few years later, in 1839, by acting as a delegate to the Whig Party's first national convention. The following year, he joined and was president of the Electoral College of Pennsylvania; as such, he oversaw the election of William Henry Harrison as our ninth President.
And Christ Lutheran Church, where he was born, still remembers him. Not only do they have the marker, but both of John's parents are interred in the churchyard, pictured here.
I've got one more post for the month of July and then we're heading into August. This year is passing too quickly! I hope that you're all enjoying your summer!
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
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