Review of Darlene Della Schneck's "Letters From a Montana Sheep Man: The True Tale of Isaac S. Schultz

Man  "Found"  In  1931  After  44 - Year  "Disappearance"

Roles  Played  In  This  Tale  By  My  Grandmother,  My  Uncle,  And  My  Cousin 

                                

A Review of 

Darlene Della Schneck Letters From a Montana Sheep Man: The True Tale of Isaac S. Schultz                                                                                                                                (CreateSpace,2013) 

                                     178 pp   $23.00   ISBN-10: 1484861728   ISBN-13: 978-1484861721

Reviewer:  Forrest Wayne Schultz

     Although I have read historical accounts of my remote ancestors, the book under review here is the first one in which I have close relatives who are among the cast of characters.  The Isaac S. Schultz referred to in the subtitle was a brother of my paternal grandmother Elizabeth S. Schultz, who was the favorite of his four sisters.  Speaking of favorites, my favorite uncle, Eugene,  was involved in the "finding" of Isaac, and my favorite cousin, Paul, was involved in the documentation of the tale!  I had no knowledge of these roles they played until I read this book, and I had even forgotten about Isaac & his "disappearance" itself, which I had been briefly told about when I was a boy:  it apparently had "disappeared" from my memory.  I now hold Eugene and Paul in even higher esteem than I did before:  what they did here was worthy of high praise.

    The outline of Isaac's life is easily told.  After accomplishing what very few people did in the 19th Century -- getting a lot of higher education -- he failed at his next goal, namely to get rich by going west to become a sheep rancher.  Due to his consequent embarrassment, after 1887 he ceased writing letters to his family back east, which led them to wonder what had happened to him.  He was legally declared dead in 1896 by the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Registrar's Office (p. 135 f); but the Genealogical Record of the Schwenkfelder Families book (published in 1923) lists him as "disappeared" (p 52).  The  mystery was solved in 1931 and contact was renewed, after a 44 year lapse!!  How this was done you can learn for yourself by reading the fascinating account of it in this book.

    There is a remarkable twist in this tale.  Isaac regards his sister Elizabeth highly and she repays the compliment by producing two progeny -- her son Eugene and her grandson Paul -- who are very helpful to Isaac!!  This is the kind of thing that makes learning about history so interesting and so much fun!!

    There are some insights into the history of the late 19th century West in this account, just two of which I shall note here:  in his letters Isaac refers to "cow boys" (two words) and to "Sanfrancisco" (one word), which is very striking.

     The author is also deserving of high praise for the inclusion of the magnificent photograph taken a century ago of Elizabeth and Levi G. Schultz and their eight children.

     I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in American history, and especially for Schwenkfelders and other Pennsylvania Germans. 

     Information is available at http://montanasheepman.blogspot.com/