THE ASSISSANATION OF

WILMINGTON DELAWARE POLICE OFFICER

CHARLES W. SCHULTZ

WILMINGTON POLICE DEPARTMENT 1891

Wilmington Delaware 1890’s

Old Town Hall as it appeared In 1890 Looking north on Market Street from 2nd street in 1890

In 1848 Wilmington becomes a city and is named the county seat and with a growing population the police force grows as well. The Wilmington police are often referred to as the “city constables" and as the city police during this time. The department was relatively small in the following decades as it is less than forty officers by 1873 however there were outcries by the newspapers of the day to increase the force.

Between 1848 and 1873,the department during this time came under what was commonly known as the “spoils system” in government. The entire police force was appointed by the mayor and served at his pleasure, which meant that an officer could be dismissed without cause at anytime. It also meant that a new mayor could appoint a new police force while dismissing the entire existing force.

Officer Charles W. Schultz

Officer Schultz was appointed to the department in 1888 to patrol the 9th Ward of the city. By trade, Schultz was a painter and patrolled his district by night. Officer Schultz was well liked by the citizens of the 9th ward and was known as a fair and fearless officer who discharged his duties with fidelity to his profession. Officer Schultz showed no fear in performing his duties for the citizens of Wilmington. When Officer Schultz spoke his word was final.

Officer Schultz was paid $60.00 a month and as was the case with most officers, they lived in the Ward where they patrolled. Officer Schultz lived at # 12 W. 20th Street with his wife, his sister Clara, and children

North Wilmington 1894, 9th Ward area

The weeks prior to the assassination

Wilmington, at the time, was experiencing what the papers described as a Rein of Terror as Burglars, Thieves, Thugs over the past fortnight had descended upon the city The 9th Ward contained many tough localities and many groups gathered on the street corners harassing the citizens of Wilmington. Officer Charles W Schultz had made several arrests in the weeks prior to his assassination. When needed the law was enforced with a iron hand, bar fights were broken up and groups without purpose were disbanded with the command of his voice. Defiance meant arrest

On a cold and bitter night of January 29, 1891 between the hours of 12:45 AM and 1:00 AM, Officer Charles W. Schultz was conducting his beat in the 9th ward dressed with his heavy gum overcoat wrapped tightly around him to keep him warm in the bitter cold of the night. The weather forecast called for a possibility of rain that night

Officer Schultz now walked alone where two officers walked before the installation of the new Telegraph system. The night was darker than normal, no stars, no moon light. The only light is from new electrical street lights and those of houses and drinking establishments

Officer Schultz started his beat that night at 18th and Market Streets

After checking in, using the new Telegraph stations installed just weeks before ,Officer Schultz confers with Mr. H.W. Evans of the William Lee and Son’s Flower Mills.

1891. Note the signal (telegraph) box

Wilmington's police were first in Delaware to adopt a “signal service” on December 21, 1890, combining telegraph/telephone to allow patrolmen on their beats to summon an ambulance or patrol wagon. Patrolmen were required to report hourly to ensure they were awake and on the job

While traveling westerly on 20th street, pass his residence Officer Schultz turns north on Tatnall Streets. Officer Schultz observes two individuals walking east on Elliott Avenue (now Elliott Place). These individuals fit the description of suspects wanted in a safe cracking with explosives case that occurred the previous night at the George W. Lodge and Son’s Grocery store on 7th and King Streets. Unknown to Officer Schultz, it was believed these same two desperados were responsible for an armed robbery a short time earlier on Concord Turnpike.

As the assassins walked towards 21st Street at Tatnall, Officer Schultz stepped out from his concealed location and under the newly installed electric street light demanding the assassins to stop and raise their hands. They in turn with guns already in hand, demand officer Schultz to raise his hands. Officer Schultz refuses to cooperate and attempts to withdraw his gun from under the heavy coat, but does not succeed

Without hesitation or warning and at point blank range two shots ring out shattering the silence of the night

The taller of the two assassins, described as a rough burley fellow in a light jacket with a derby hat, fires at Officer Schultz striking his head. Officer Schultz’s helmet falls to the ground with a bullet hole clearly visible covered in blood. The shorter suspect, also in a derby hat, shoots Officer Schultz in the stomach. This bullet is the one to cause great damage including his kidney, and is the fatal wound.

As the newspapers describe…

The two assassins flee easterly on Concord Turnpike running towards Market Street . They were last seen running on Vandever Avenue towards the East Lake section of Wilmington and disappeared into the darkness of the night.

Officer Schultz rises from the street where he had fallen, staggers along, falling several times, in his weaken condition, (possibly in a feeble attempt to chase the suspects or to get to the nearest signal box at 18th and Market Streets) passing his own residence at #12 W. 20th Street to sound the alarm

18th and Market Streets as it appeared in 1891 #12 W. 20th Street as it appears today

His cries for help are finally heard by George Akins and Mr. W.H. Dunnell, a mill worker from Lea & Sons Flower Mill on Superfine Lane. Both take Officer Schultz to the offices of Doctors E. Shortledge, of 1812 Market Street a police surgeon.

Officer Schultz is able to give a description of the two assailants to the doctor and requests to be taken to the newly built Delaware Hospital at 16th and Washington Streets.

Delaware Hospital as it Appeared in 1891

Death finally came to Officer Schultz with his family at his side 41 hours after being shot. The 37 year-old Officer Schultz died at 5:10 p.m. Friday evening January 30, 1891. Schultz’s father and two brothers from Kennett Square are with his wife and children.

Wilmington officers continued hunting down the cold blooded murderers involved in the deadly attack while newspapers editors worried that any possibility of identifying the assailants had vanished because of the “complete mystery enshrouding the few-known facts” of the terrible tragedy. The “only witnesses of this frightful crime were the victim and his assailants, and while the former’s lips are sealed in death, the latter have thus far succeeded in eluding arrest, leaving such meager clues as to admit only slight hopes of their speedy apprehension,” a paper wrote. No one from the public steps forward as witness’s to the assassination The lookout continued for days as squads rushed to Richardson’s Woods on the Newport Turnpike, the West Yard, the B & O Station, and other places but to no avail. As the sun faded one more time on New Castle County, officers on the day watch were detailed for extra duty with instructions to arrest all suspicious characters. And that they did for a number of arrests were made of tramps and others, however, one by one, they were all discharged. The only warm lead remaining developed Saturday when the chief received a telegram from that two men answering the description of the fugitives were lurking in that area. Officer Yates rushed to the Pennsylvania village, but when he got there the men had disappeared.

Authorities continued following leads and tracking down suspects, but the tangled trail kept leading them down paths to nowhere. Despite a wide search, some baffled investigators suspected the murders still lurked about Wilmington since it seemed almost impossible for the assassins to have escaped to another place, they asserted. All “cities and towns were notified of the shooting and reports from those . . . places indicated that no such men had been seen,” reported the Morning News. As the cold trail continued getting colder, Chief Swiggett received a telegram from the Norfolk, VA advising that authorities had two men answering the description. He jumped on a midnight train, but returned home empty handed for this, like other leads, proved fruitless. The slayers remained at large.

With investigators unearthing nothing new, the outrageous murder also started disappearing from headlines, but before it became a long forgotten case in the annals of Delaware crime the editor of the Morning News noted some lessons from the tragedy. When the city installed police signal boxes officers began patrolling alone instead of in pairs since the city believed there would be no problem with summonsing aid from the police booths. That “order should be rescinded at once, especially in such lonely places as was patrolled by Officer Schultz,” the paper editorialized. They also thought that the force was too small for the territory patrolled. “There are not more than eighteen officers on duty at night, and with the handful of men scattered from south Wilmington to outskirts of the Ninth Ward and from the West Yard almost to Edgemore, the only wonder is that more robberies and other crimes don’t occur.” Finally, the men should keep their guns where they can be reached instantly for if it is under coat, they might as well be without a weapon.

As is so often the case, the young Officer Schultz was survived by his Irish Immigrant Wife, Mary E. Schultz nee Callahan and five children.

The funeral procession started at Officer Schultz’s residence at #12 W. 20th Street to St Patrick’s Church. The police marched two abreast in full dress uniforms and wearing white gloves.

St. Patrick’s 1890 photo

Inside St Patrick’s church, the coffin was carried on the shoulders of six

Wilmington police officers with the Chief of Police leading the procession.

Mary Schultz follow the coffin in the arms of Officer Schultz’s brother followed by her five children, the youngest being 2 years old and the eldest being 11 years old.

The coffin was covered in white flowers with a white dove with spread wings from the police department. His head rested on a bed of roses. Father Bradford celebrated the high mass.

Final Internment was in the new Cathedral Cemetery on Lancaster Avenue

Over the next several years, Mary Schultz, her children and Officer Schultz’s sister move about the city, being poor and destitute. The Newspaper holds a public fund raiser for the family and the city offers Mary Schultz $500

FINDING FAMILY MEMBERS

The Parents

• Charles F. Shultz- (Father)

• b. September 1828 Pennsylvania

• m. 1853 Pennsylvania (Asenatha A. Pierce)

• d. after 1900 and before 1906

• Asenatha A. (Pierce) Schultz (Mother)

• b. 14 January 1833

• m. 1853 Pennsylvania (Charles F. Shultz)

• d. 16 February 1906, Philadelphia Pa

They lived in Kennett Square Pennsylvania. The 1860, 1870 and 1880 census records has Charles’ occupation listed as moulder. He is also crippled in the 1880 census. According to the 1900 census they had 7 children and 4 alive at the time. The newspapers states that Edward (Lawrence) and William came to visit Charles when he was dying in the hospital

Brothers and Sisters

• Charles W. b.1854 d.1891

• William b.1856

• Walter J. b. 1857 d. before 1900

• Edward Lawrence b.1862

• Lillian b.1864 d. before 1900

• Clara b.1865

• Anna b.1872

Charles W Schultz

• Charles Webster Shultz

• b. 08 September 1854 Kennett Square Pennsylvania

• m. Kennett Square Pennsylvania (Mary E. Callahan)

• d. 30 Jan 1891 Wilmington, Delaware

• Charles’ occupation in 1870 was, “working in a coach factory”. His occupation in 1880 was “painter”. He moved to Wilmington in 1880. He was baptized at the Kennett Square Presbyterian Church but converted to Catholicism on his death bed.

• Mary E. Callahan (wife)

• b. 1858 (some census records say Ireland others Hammerton Pennsylvania)

• m. Kennett Square, Pennsylvania

• d. after 1920

1910 census has Mary as a widow with 3 children living at home. The census also states that she has 4 surviving children out of 5. At the time of Charles’ death the newspaper states that there are 5 children. The 1920 census has Mary living with daughter Mary Wilkinson.

Daughters

• Mary A. Shultz -daughter • b. 19 September 1884 Wilmington

Delaware • m. 1912 Wilmington Delaware

(John Newton Wilkinson) • d. after 1946 • John Newton Wilkinson Sr.

(husband of Mary A. Schultz) • b. 16 November 1865 Pennsylvania • m. 1912 Wilmington Delaware

(Mary A Shultz). Second marriage • d. 07 Jan 1946 Wilmington Manor,

Delaware (burial Mt. Salem Cemetery , Wilmington )

• Alice C. Schultz - Daughter • b. 1891 Wilmington Delaware • m. 17 February 1909 Wilmington

Delaware (Harry Beeson) • d. 1953 Saint Petersburg Fl. • • Harry Snyder Beeson • b. 2 December 1887. Wilmington

Delaware • m. 17 February 1909, Wilmington,

Delaware (Alice C. Schultz) • d. 1949 , Saint Petersburg FL.

Beeson children

• Harry A Beeson • b. 26 February 1910 Wilmington

Delaware • m. • d. 12 Feb 1984 St. Petersburg FL • • Alice I Beeson • b. 1913 Wilmington Delaware • m. • d. • Gene C Beeson • b. 04 May 1919 Wilmington

Delaware • m. 1947 St. Petersburg Fl (Ann

Louise Samon) • d. 24 May 2000 St. Petersburg Fl.

1910 US Census

Mary Schultz’s Death Certificate April 19, 1921

Family found in Florida

Gene Beeson is in a nursing home in St Petersburg Florida.

Larry Beeson, Barry Beeson, and Alice Jean aka Alison Beeson are Gene’s children

Harry Almond Beeson has two children Gary and Cherie Beeson. Gary had two children David Brian Beeson and Paul Alan Beeson.

Harry ‘s son Gary Beeson is exchanging information with this writer and the Wilmington Police Department

Chief of Police Christine Dunning accepting the proclamation Honoring Officer Schultz for the Schultz family

Officer Schultz death is recognized by his brothers and sisters of the Department of Police

The Puzzle is not complete Officer Charles W. Schultz’s grave is unmarked At Cathedral Cemetery

WE will be doing a fund raiser to have the grave stone placed on Officer’s Schultz grave

To be added to the city of Wilmington memorial

And recognition at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington DC

To be recognize in May 2014

THANK YOU OFFICER CHARLES W. SCHULTZ FOR YOUR SERVICE TO THE CITY OF WILMINGTON DELAWARE

The following contributed to this presentation

•Mike Dixon

•Terri Hansen

•Mary Beth Devine

•William McGonigal

•Laymen Grant