Sarah Shultz Brick and her daughter Mattie
Arch Brick lived in a cabin behind his children
This story always causes some double-takes when it is told, and I think it’s an interesting part of the family history of the extended Shultz family. The folks talked about in this little essay are descendents down the line through John Fletcher Virden Shultz, who was Joseph Bennett Shultz’s oldest son.
John’s son Valentine (b. 2 Apr 1858) was the fifth and youngest child of John and Terissa (Long), his first wife. Valentine was married several times, and the record of his marriages is somewhat confused by what appear to be incorrect family attributions in some local newspaper announcements. There is confusion on a number of issues, including just whch wife bore which children, the maiden name of his wife Sarah, as well as her birthday. This is a ripe topic for more study.
In any event, Valentine and Sarah had several children. Their daughter Martha Ellen, who went by Mattie, is the subject of this note. She was born in Medaryville on 8 August 1886. On March 31, 1902 she married Archibald Brick, a member of another family line which has been in Medaryville since its earliest days.
Arch and Mattie had three children: daughter Lavern (who went by “Beanie”) whose married name was Baker; daughter Edna, who married Hallie Saltsman, and a son, Lloyd.
In 1911 Mattie contracted tuberculosis, and on September 28 of that year she died at age 25, leaving her widower and three young children.
Thereafter occured the strange turn of events. Mattie’s mother, Sarah, had divorced from her husband Valentine in the intervening years, and Valentine moved to Missouri where he married again. Arch Brick’s father, Tolbert, was widowed. So Tolbert Brick married Sarah (Shively) Shultz, and the two of them reared Arch and Mattie’s children. Arch moved into a small house (some called it a cabin) behind his father’s house, where he lived until his death on February 7, 1935. Sarah lived into her 90’s, passing away in September 1953. She is buried in the Medaryville town cemetary.
Lloyd’s son Lloyd (Butch) Brick works for the town today as its maintenance foreman.
Posted by Brian Capouch on Thursday, November 16, 2006