Did you know that Charles Schulz was baptized in Altenburg? Did you know that Charles Schulz was a dentist? And did you know that today would be Charles Schulz’s 150th birthday? Perhaps you are now wondering if a descendant of Snoopy now wanders the streets of Altenburg.

Carl August Schulz was born on April 13, 1875, so today would be that special 150th birthday for him. Many other boys named Carl would later be called Charles, and I took some liberty in calling this man Charles to get a smile in the introduction, but it appears that this man was mostly called Carl throughout his lifetime. Carl was the son of Dr. Frederick Bernard and Alwiena (Zedler) Schulz. I have already written a post about Carl’s brother, Dr. G.B. Schulz titled, Surgeon from Wittenberg. G.B. Schulz was born in 1870 in Wittenberg, Missouri, but in the previous post, it was said that the Schulz’s moved across the river to Grand Tower to escape a smallpox epidemic. That is where Carl was born. With just one exception, his future census entries said that he was born in Illinois. In 1876, three Schulz boys were baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. So, Carl’s parents must have brought these 3 sons back across the river to be baptized in Missouri. I suppose there is a possibility that Rev. J.F. Koestering may have gone to Illinois to baptize the 3 Schulz boys. Below are the baptism records for Gustav Benjamin, Friedrich Wilhelm, and Carl August Schulz.

Not long after Carl’s birth, the Schulz family moved to Cape Girardeau. That is where we find Carl in the 1880 census. This time he was actually called Charles. His father was a physician in that city. If you look at the column for birthplaces, you will see that the first Schulz child was born in Texas. Interestingly, the second child had the birthplace described as the Mississippi River. Then all the rest were said to be born in Missouri. This is the only entry in which Carl, who was 3 years old at the time, was said to be born in Missouri.

People doing family research always encounter the 20 years of not seeing individuals in a census entry between 1880 and 1900. I did manage to locate the confirmation record for Carl, whose name was spelled Karl in this image. He was confirmed at Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau in 1888. This record states that Carl was born in Grand Tower.

This family photograph was taken of Carl along with his parents and siblings not long before 1900. Carl is standing right behind his father.

I also located this caption that identifies the people in the above photo.

Probably during the 1890’s, Carl studied to become a dentist. I suspect he may have gotten his training at a dental school in St. Louis, but I have no documentation for that. By the time of the 1900 census, Carl was a 25 year-old lodger living in Carterville, Illinois. He had become a dentist. Carterville is located between Carbondale and Marion, Illinois.

In the 1910 census, Carl was in his 30’s and still unmarried. He was living in Red Bud, Illinois where he continued his dentistry practice.

Carl would get married during the next decade, but I am left with plenty of questions about it. Not only was I not able to definitively find a marriage record for Carl, but I could not determine much about his bride. Part of the problem is that Carl Schulz is a fairly common name, and you have to be careful to find the correct person. Based on a few subsequent census entries, his wife was named Florence. There are a few Ancestry.com family trees that give her name as Florence Fowler, but I have my doubts. Carl had his World War I draft registration completed in 1918, and this document indicates that he was married, and his wife was named Florence.

In the 1920 census, we find Carl and his wife still living in Red Bud. They had their only child, a daughter named Dote Louise, who was still a baby.

The Schulz family was living in Chicago when the 1930 census was taken. Carl was still a dentist.

In 1936, the daughter, Dote Louise, was a student at Evanston High School, which is located in the north part of Chicago.

In the 1940 census, we find the trio of Schulz’s living in Highland Park, which is a metropolitan neighborhood in northern Chicago. At the age of 64, Carl was still a dentist.

I did not find a reliable entry for Dr. Schulz or his wife in the 1950 census. I did find an obituary found in a Chicago newspaper for Carl Schulz. The transcription on Ancestry.com mentions Dote Louise Raddatz, who was his daughter, so I am confident that it was the right obituary. It says Carl died in 1958. Dr. Carl Schulz is buried in the Mt. Auburn Memorial Park in Stickney, Illinois, another metropolitan neighborhood in Chicago.

Florence Schulz’s death is a complete mystery to me. Since she was not mentioned in Carl’s obituary mentioned above, I suspect that she died prior to Carl’s death. I do not know when she died or where she was buried.

There were plenty of members of this Schulz family who had medical professions. The father was a medical doctor, along with one of his sons, Dr. G.B. Schulz. Then, not only was Carl a dentist, but he had a sister named Emma who is listed in one census entry as being a dentist, and she was also married to a dentist. In the family photo caption, Emma is given the Dr. in front of her name. A number of them remained in Cape Girardeau during their lives, so the Schulz name was one that was prominent in the Cape Girardeau area. Carl may be the only one who took his dental skills over to Illinois where he spent much of his life. I find it interesting that Carl was likely the only Schulz who was born in Illinois, and he then he ended up living in that state.