Herman C. Schultz (July 24, 1860 - December 22, 1935) was an American civil servant from

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, who served a single four-year term as a member of the Wisconsin State Senate, towards the end of which he legally changed his name to Senator Schultz.

Background

Schultz was born, in Wittenberge,

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

on July 24, 1860, but during his infancy moved with his parents to Grabow in

Mecklenburg-Schwerin The Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a duchy in northern Germany created in 1701, when Frederick William and Adolphus Frederick II divided the Duchy of Mecklenburg between Schwerin and Strelitz. Ruled by the successors of the Nikloting Hous ...

. He received an academic education and went into

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

for six years. In 1882, he came to Milwaukee, and operated an art supplies store with his brother. In 1887, he went into newspaper journalism, and in 1890 became superintendent of the Third Street

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. In 1894, he became a worker in the office of the

city clerk A clerk is a senior official of many municipal governments in the English-speaking world. In some communities, including most in the United States, the position is elected, but in many others, the clerk is appointed to their post. In the UK, a Tow ...

. He was appointed secretary of the city Election Commission in Milwaukee upon its 1911 creation, a position he would hold for the rest of his life.

Politics

In 1916, Schultz (a "stalwart"), having won a five-way Republican

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against incumbent William L. Richards (a

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) and three other candidates, was elected to the

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of the Senate (the

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of Granville and

; Villages of North Milwaukee, East Milwaukee and Whitefish Bay; and the 13th, 18th, 21st and 25th

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of the City of Milwaukee) in the 1916

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

, with 6,804 votes to 4,408 for Social Democrat Osmore Smith. He was assigned to the standing committee on

corporations A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

. As secretary of the Milwaukee city election commission, he encouraged the adoption of tabulating machines to count votes. In January 1920, Schultz chaired the Wisconsin state chapter of the

Committee of 48 The Committee of 48 was an American liberal political association established in 1919 in the hope of creating a new political party for social reform to stand in opposition to the increasingly conservatism of both major U.S. political parties, t ...

, an organization to unite liberals and progressives in Wisconsin in "a political campaign for real reconstruction". In February 1920, it was speculated that he would not seek reelection to the state senate so that his continued service as secretary of the election commission would not be challenged. He in fact was not a candidate in 1920, and was succeeded by fellow Republican

Oscar Morris Oscar Haskell Morris (March 8, 1876January 2, 1939) was an American journalist and Republican Party (United States), Republican politician from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was a member of the Wisconsin Senate for 18 years, representing Wisconsin's 4 ...

. He remained secretary of the Election Commission.

Outside the Senate

On January 16, 1920 Schultz filed papers to change his name to Senator Schultz, stating that there were too many Herman Schultzes in Milwaukee, and he was tired of reading about criminal cases involving people of that name in which he had no part. In 1925, Schultz was a strong supporter of universal

postal voting Postal voting is voting in an election where ballot papers are distributed to electors (and typically returned) by Mail, post, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling place, polling station or electronically via an electronic voti ...

in Wisconsin. He died December 22, 1935, in a Milwaukee hospital, after an unspecified long illness.Associated Press. "Senator Schultz, 75, Dies After Long Illness" ''The Capital Times'' December 23, 1935; p. 4, col. 5
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schultz, Herman C. 1860 births 1935 deaths 20th-century American legislators People from Wittenberge Politicians from Milwaukee Emigrants from the German Empire to the United States Republican Party Wisconsin state senators