When thinking of an ancestor who was an outcast, who comes to mind? Various situations could result in a person becoming an outcast from their family or from society. These ancestors may be the subject of a family story that entails some kind of crime, misdeed, argument, or another event. Uncovering the facts behind the story can lead you on a quest to discover more. In this blog post, I’ll discuss an “outcast” in my family tree, William “Shoot’em Up Dick” Shults.
Family Story
Two notable stories were passed down about William “Shoot’em up Dick Shults” in my family. My dad told of Uncle Dick’s involvement in the death of Dick’s oldest brother, William Henderson Shults.
In 1884, in Brown County, Texas, Dick and William Henderson were out riding and Dick flicked William Henderson’s horse with his whip causing the horse to start bucking and running. William Henderson held on, but when he finally got off the horse he had blood coming out of his ears and mouth. He died shortly after.
William Henderson Shults was my 2nd great-grandfather and his death in 1884 left his widow, Eliza Ann Isenhour with four young children and expecting another baby. Eliza remarried a year later and with her second husband, Jacob Meek moved the family north to Indian Territory in about 1892. Perhaps Uncle Dick made the move with his sister-in-law’s family because his nephew and my great-grandfather, William Huston Shults told another family story that places Dick in Indiana Territory during this time. Keep in mind, that Oklahoma didn’t become a state until 1907, so it would have been Indian Territory when the following even occurred.
While in Oklahoma, Dick was at a dance one evening with a girl. Her boyfriend came in drunk and they got into a fight. Dick ended up shooting the man and had to leave town. He was later known as “Shoot ’em up Dick Shults.”
Uncle Dick fled to Arizona Territory to escape any repercussions from the law. He must have stayed close to his brother’s family because my grandfather, Charles Leslie Shults, visited him occasionally and included this snippet in his life history.1
In the spring of 1926, about April or May, I went into Sanger, California and went to work in the grape vineyard for a while, then Tiger Valley and went to work for a big rancher out there and I worked for him through 1926. In 1927, I went to Arizona to help Dad’s uncle, Uncle Dick. Bob was born the 16th of March 1927. When he was about three or four weeks old, I went to Arizona. My wife and the boys couldn’t come cause it snowed in the mountains, but I went on out there to try and run the ranch for Uncle Dick. He had his arms broken and he couldn’t do anything and I had to take care of him for six or eight months.
Dick Shults and nephew, William Huston Shults
Early Years
Uncle Dick was the youngest son born to Rachel (Cox) and Hickman Monroe Shults. Born in 1864, he was listed as age 5 on the 1870 census of Falls County, Texas. 2 It always seemed odd that Monroe and Rachel named their oldest and youngest sons by the same name of William.
Monroe Shultz 50 farmer
Rachel Shultz 43
William Shultz 22 farm labor
Martin Shultz 20 farm labor
Apolonia Shultz 17
Lucinda Shultz 16
Francis Shultz 14
Delila Shultz 13
Maria Shultz 10
John Shultz 7
William Shultz 5
Andrew French 15
By 1880, the children’s mother, Rachel had died and Hickman Monroe Shults was a widower with four children at home. Another child, Eliza, had been born. Perhaps Rachel died with her birth. No headstone or death information was been found for her. Notice that Uncle Dick was still going by William at age 14.3
H. M. Shults 59, widower, 59, farmer
Mary Shults 19, daughter, house laborer
Johny Shults 16, son, farm laborer
William Shults 14, son
Eliza Shults 8, daughter
We don’t know when Uncle Dick was involved in the incident requiring him to leave Indian Territory after shooting a man, but later in life, he entered a retirement home in Coconino County, Arizona, where he reported that he first arrived in Arizona in 1898 in Tombstone. 4
The city of Tombstone, Arizona, had begun with a silver strike in 1877 and people flooded into the area hoping to get rich quickly. By the mid-1800s it was growing as quickly as San Francisco or St. Louis. Cowboys, speculators, prospectors, homesteaders, businessmen, and gunmen made their way to the city. It is no wonder that Uncle Dick would have gone there as well looking for a place to lay low.
Life in Arizona Territory
William Huston Shults, Dale Bassett, Uncle Dick Shults, Sanger California, about 1942
Thanks to newspaper articles we know more about Dick’s time after leaving Indian Territory. They describe his life as a cowboy, several accidents, and his run-in with the law over his homestead.5
15 June 1902 Dick must have spent some time in Kansas, because The Wichita Daily Eagle on 15 June 1902 posted that there were letters remaining at the Post Office for Dick Shults and a J.W. Shults. Perhaps he left that as a “permanent address” for his Oklahoma family until he made his way to Williams, Arizona, by 1904, where The Williams News reports a Dick Shults on the list of uncalled-for letters at the Post Office, Williams Arizona for the week.
On 1 July 1905, The Williams News reports: “Dick Shults, a cowboy of the Texas type, while attempting to brand a 2 yr. old steer at the J.D. ranch the first of the week, had the misfortune to have the steer which was lying on the ground, throw its head around and run one of its horns into his left foot.”
4 November 1905, The Williams News reports that “Bert Daniels, Tom Hughes, and Dick Shults were visitors this week.”
5 May 1906, The Williams News lists donations for San Francisco sufferers: Dick Shults $1.00
2 June 1906, The Williams News reported: “Dick Shults, a Texas cowboy, who for some time past has been employed at the local sawmill, met with a serious accident there last Saturday morning which nearly cost him his life. His clothing became caught about a shaft and in a twinkling both of his arms were drawn round the shaft and crushed till they were scarcely recognizable as arms. Both bones of the left forearm were broken, while the right was broken both above and below the elbow. It was feared for a time that the left arm would have to be amputated, as the circulation was almost stopped, owing to the crushed condition, but we are glad to state now that Dick will be out as soon as the bones begin to knit. He certainly had a close call at losing both arms as well as his life.”
7 July 1906, The Williams News reported: “Dick Shults who had both arms broken recently at the mill is again able to be around, though he still carries one arm in a sling.”
28 September 1907, The Williams News reported: “In the case of Dick Shults vs Saginaw & Manistee Lumber Co. an action brought by Shults to recover $31,250 for injuries which he claimed to have sustained on the 26th day of May 1906, the suit was commenced by Cocke & Cocke attorneys, residing in San Antonio, Texas, who were represented in court by Ree Ling, of Prescott, who appeared for Shults, and X N. Steeves appeared for the company. The defense filed a motion to dismiss the action for want of merit and the court allowed the motion, which ends the case.”
1910 Census: After the initial listings with his parents in1870 and 1880, Uncle Dick disappears from the census until 1910 when he appears in Coconino County, Arizona, at the age of 44, working as a cowboy on the range. 6
25 February 1914 Another family story surrounds Uncle Dick’s marriage to Selma. Family legend has it that he traveled to San Francisco and met Selma there where she was working for the Levi Strauss company. However, their marriage took place in Coconino County, Arizona, where Dick resided. Perhaps he did travel to San Francisco and brought her home to marry.7
27 March 1914, The Williams News reports: “Notice is hereby given that the lands described below, embracing 376 acres, within the Turayan National Forest, Arizona, will be subject to settlement and entry under the provisions of the homestead laws of the United States . . . Any settler who was actually and in good faith claiming any of said lands for agricultural purposes prior to January 1, 1906, and has not abandoned same, has a preference right to make a homestead entry for the lands actually occupied.” Dick Shults is listed as a settler with a preference to these lands.
25 September 1914, The Coconino Sun lists a crop and chattel Mortgage: Dick Shults to Johnson & McConky.
From March 1914 – September 1916, several notices are listed in The Williams News of an application of Dick Shults with a land description.
14 January 1915, The Williams News reports that Dick Shults, a rancher from Spring Valley was transacting business in Williams today.
17 September 1915, The Coconino Sun: “Water Location notice, Shults spring, Dick Shults, at the county recorder’s office” 6 April 1916, The Williams News: “Dick Shults of Spring Valley, was a Maine visitor, Monday, Mr. Shults started to Maine in his wagon and mired down in mud to the hub of the wagon he was forced to unhitch and walk back to Maine and pack his groceries out on his back.”
24 May 1917, The Williams News: “Dick Shults, a homesteader who has been claiming part of the Government farm at the Spring Valley Ranger station, was placed under arrest last Friday by Deputy U.S. Marshal Weige and taken to Tucson where the Federal court is in session, to stand trial. The arrest of Mr. Shults followed upon his repeated refusal to vacate government land at the Ranger station, after receiving due warning. Mr. Shults took up a small homestead adjoining the Ranger Station at Spring Valley, 5 years ago. Lacking a house on his homestead, he later asked permission to move temporarily into a shack on the ranger farm. This was granted him.
A winter passed and still Mr. Shults remained in the shack and made no effort to erect a house on his own homestead. He was accordingly given warming to move off by a certain date, but when the time set had passed, he had made no preparations to move. The Forest Service then extended its leniency by setting aside two and a half acres that took in the shack, as a part of his homestead, so that he would be complying with the homestead laws in living on his land, thus giving him his house. Mr. Shults next asked to be allowed to lease 30 acres of the Ranger farm. The lease was granted him. The lease money should have been paid in advance but was not paid at all. Mr. Shults was then ordered to vacate the leased land. Instead he began fencing it in, asserting that he was going to homestead it. This action resulted in the Forest Service being forced to take decisive action to dislodge him. He was accordingly placed under arrest, last Friday, and taken to Tucson for trial on a charge of trespass.”
24 May 1917, The Williams News: “Last Friday Bobby Burns drove Deputy U.S. Marshal, Weige out to Spring Valley in his tin beetle to make the arrest of Dick Shults. It was a poor day for sightseeing with the pouring rain, but nevertheless, the gentlemen report having taken in all the side trips, with the result that they did not reach their destination until rather late in the day. It had been predicted that Shults would resist arrest, but no difficulty was experienced. Coming back, the beetle demonstrated that is no water bug, but consented to carry the men on solid land, provided they carried it across the boggy places.”
Dick and Selma are enumerated on the 1920 census of Spring Valley, Coconino County, Arizona.8 That census does show her German birth, fitting with the family story.
Following the troubles with the land reported in the newspapers, Dick was finally able to secure a land patent in 1925 on the Gila River-Salt River meridian.9 The image below shows his patent just north of Flagstaff, Arizona, and south of the Grand Canyon.
According to family stories, Dick and Selma separated sometime in the 1930s. With no children to care for him, Dick entered the Yavapai County Pioneer Home for a time as an elderly man. His entry papers verify his father as Monroe Shults and his mother as Rachel Cox. 10 He died on 16 Feb 1949 in Williams, Coconino, Arizona.11
Would Uncle Dick be considered an outcast? After reviewing his life story, he certainly had many unfortunate incidents with the law and seemed to be an outcast in that sense, but the Shults family stood by him. Thanks to family stories, historical records, and newspaper articles, more of this uncle’s life story can be told.
Best of luck in all your genealogical endeavors!
Sources
- “Charles Leslie Shults: Life Story in his Own Words, Charles Leslie Shults LVNL-5BF, Memories, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/4016092 : accessed 26 February 2023).
- 1870 U.S. Census, Falls County, Texas, population schedule, Precinct 5, p.113A, dwelling 249, family 244, Monroe Shultz household; digital image, Ancestry (https://ancestry.com : accessed 17 February 2023); citing NARA microfilm publication M593, Roll 1584.
- 1880 U.S. Census, Falls County, Texas, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 42, sheet 216A (stamped), p.13 (penned), dwelling 121, family 126, H.M. Shults household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 February 2023; citing NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 1302.
- “Arizona, Yavapai County, Pioneers’ Home Resident Ledger and Index, 1911-2000,” entry for Dick Schultz, no. 1137, page 12, database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSZL-MJFR?cc=3031544 : 14 August 2019), > image 1 of 1; Arizona Department of Libraries, Archives, and Public Records, Phoenix.
- Williams News, [microfilm reel] (Williams, Ariz.), search for Dick Shults, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Lib. of Congress (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov : accessed 20 February 2023).
- 1910 U.S. Census, Coconino County, Arizona, population schedule, Wiliams, enumeration district (ED) 22, sheet 7 B (stamped), no dwelling or family number, Dick Shults household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 February 2023); citing NARA microfilm publication T6249, roll 39.
- “Arizona, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1865-1972,” for Dick Shults and Selma Kepp, Coconino >Marriage Certificates/Licenses – Books 2, 3, 4, 1903-1919, database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60873/images/40657_541930-00386 : accessed 25 February 2023).
- 1920 U.S. Census, Coconino County, Arizona, population schedule, Spring Valley Precinct, enumeration district (ED) 13, sheet 2A (stamped), p. 384 (penned), dwelling 3, family 3, Dick Shults, digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 25 Feb 2023); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 46.
- Dick Shults, Arizona, Phoenix Land Office, Serial Patent 053083, accession 951038, 8 January 1925, the authority of the Homestead Entry original “Land Patent Search,” images, General Land Office Records (www.glorecords.blm.gov : accessed 25 February 2023).
- “Arizona, Yavapai County, Pioneers’ Home Resident Ledger and Index, 1911-2000,” entry for Dick Schultz, no. 1137, page 12, database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSZL-MJFR?cc=3031544 : 14 August 2019), > image 1 of 1; Arizona Department of Libraries, Archives, and Public Records, Phoenix.
- Arizona, U.S. Death Records, 1887-1968, death certificate for Dick Shults, 1949, # 588, database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8704/images/087_10871442-00955 : accessed 25 February 2023).
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Thanks for the note!