Hillgartner Family History: Stultz

Stultz

(var. Stutts, Stults, Stolz, Stoltz)

The Stultzes in America appear to be descended from two brothers, Peter and Michael, who arrived in the Port of Philadelphia in 1753 on the ship Edinburgh out of Rotterdam. They were the sons of Johann Heinrich and Gertrude Stultz or Stoltz. It’s unclear whether Johann came over with them. Their origin was listed as the Palatinate, which could simply refer to the port of departure. At that time, the Palatinate included parts of Hessen, Baden, Bavaria, and Alsace.

Peter had eight children. At least three of his sons (John, Peter, and Jacob) married Caplinger girls (Magdalena, Julian, and Catharine). Between 1802 and 1804, all five sons (and their wives) migrated west to Highland County in Ohio. His grandson Allen had three girls by his first wife. When she died, he married Leah Catherine Miller who bore him nine more children.

John was the youngest child. He enlisted when the Civil War broke out, rising from Corporal to 1st Lieutenant in the 107th Ohio Infantry. When it was over, he married a half-Indian girl named Tilda. The family Bible doesn’t mention whether he ever tried to bring her home, or if he was discouraged from doing so. At any rate, the two disappeared into the West and the family never heard from them again.

But this was small potatoes to what happened next.

Salome Jane Stultz

Every family has its scandal, whispered and worried over from one generation to the next. The Stultz family's involved Allen's first daughter by Leah, Salome Jane, an original choice of name to say the least.

During the summer of 1867 it became evident that the nineteen year-old had gotten herself with child. The girl stubbornly refused to talk about it with anyone. Salome gave birth to twins January 7, 1868. George William and James Davis were adopted and raised by their grandparents, taking the last name of Stultz.

Salome Jane eventually married a widower 20 years her senior, Phillip Rhodes, in 1877. But the twins were not part of the deal.

She bore Philip five children, but as far as is known, George and William never lived with the Rhodes family. At some point, the boys did learn that their biological father was named Renno or Reno.

Three generations later, he was still a man of mystery. The only further details that had come to light were that he was a draft dodger or deserter from the Union Army, and might have been Canadian. It took the advent of the Internet, metasearch tools and expanded access to old records to finally finger the likely culprit.

He was known to be in the area of Southern Ohio at the right time, the late spring of 1866. He was a notorious scoundrel with no scruples, and a reputation as a ladies' man. Even if he had wanted to claim the boys, there was no way he could have since he was behind bars, and serving an effective life sentence, by the time they were born. This would also explain why Salome Jane preferred that her offspring know nothing about him.

His name was John Reno.

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