In 1775, John Andrew Shulze was born in the parsonage of the Lutheran Church near Stouchsburg, a Pennsylvania-German community of Berks County (now, Lebanon County) in southeast PA.

His father, the Rev. Christopher Emmanuel Shulze had married Eve Elizabeth Muhlenberg – so John Andrew grew up with a close relationship to the enormously talented and learned family of the Muhlenbergs.

Young Shulze sturdied at Franklin College in Lancaster, PA (now, Franklin & Marshall College) and was ordained a minister of the Lutheran Church.

Shulze retired from the ministry after six years following a spell of ill health.

He married Susan Kimmell and became a merchant in Myerstown, PA.

After serving three terms in the Pennsylvania House and one term in the Pennsylvania Senate, Shulze was elected the sixth Governor of the Commonwealth in 1823.

Shulze served six years, and retired to Montoursville, a settlement on the Susquehanna River in north central Pennsylvania.

In 1852, Shulze died in Lancaster, PA and was buried there.

During his administration, Shulz tried repeatedly to enact free compulsory schooling in PA, but was not successful (it was enacted under his successor).

Schulze did launch the ambitious public works projects of canals and railroads across the Commonwealth – projects that produced enormous economic gains for succeeding generations.

With the Mayor of Philadelphia, Schulze also worked to recover young African-American Pennsylvanians who had been kidnapped and sold to southern plantations.

The kidnapping gang was successfully broken up, but few of the perpetrators were brought to justice.

(In contemporary debates about immigration, one may want recall that Schulz and his predecessor, Joseph Heister, (both considered successful, progressive Governors) did not speak English as a first language and both were known to communicate most easily in the Pennsylvania “Dutch” dialects.)

This postcard photograph was made about 1920.

The image was copyrighted and printed by H. Winslow Fegley, a prolific photographer in southeast Pennsylvania.

NOTE: The legend on the face notes “John Andrew Schulze”.

Most current histories use “Shulze” as the spelling of the Governor’s name.

An on-line search reveals, however, that contemporaries of Governor Shulze corresponded with him under the name, “Schulze”.

The massive stone structure of Christ Lutheran Church is still standing, but I cannot find a contemporary view of this Parsonage.