Shultz, Esther P.

Posted By: Dale Motschman
Date: 22 July 2003

The Shultz Family of Darke County, Ohio

The Biography of Esther P. Shultz
Daughter of William Sherman Shultz and Whilemena "Lillie" Mae Petersime
by Francis D. Motschman, Sr.

When my wife, Juanita Shultz was a little girl she had a gold mine, of sorts. It was the rage with her and all her little girl friends to cut out Movie Stars from magazines and form scrap books. Juanita's aunt owned a beauty shoppe... and guess who got all of the shoppes old magazines... you guessed it... Juanita did.

Juanita's aunt was Esther P. Shultz. She was the eighth child born to Sherman and Lillie Shultz and was born on Mon., September 18, 1911. I believe that her mother and father thought she was going to be the last girl they would have and sort of spoiled her during her first few years. This is evidenced by a letter she wrote to them while she was in beauty school in Dayton, Ohio. The weather was just starting to turn nippy and she thought that they should have anticipated this and that they should have sent her her overcoat by mail. She was very sharp and irritated with them in the letter. I have the letter, I've read it and I know she wrote it to them but for the life of me I can't picture her writing that letter. The Esther I have always known was a rather quiet person, one who was always concerned about other people's feelings. Granted, though, I didn't know her until many years later and the spoiled little girl had long since diaappeared leaving a very sweet compasionate person in her place.

She met and married Harold Doty Abt. 1930 and they had their first born, Wanda Doty on Fri., June 12, 1931. They also had two boys, Jake Doty, Abt. 1940 and Jack Doty, Abt. 1943.

Harold was a very likable man, a barber, and had a voice that would make you think he should have been a radio announcer, it was so deep and was so resonant. He was glib as well and these qualities combined came to play a big part in his next occupational venture... selling for Fuller Brush. He was a very successful salesman for Fuller Brush winning many awards from them. Later on, right out of the blue, he quit them and started another career selling Electrolux Sweepers. He won many awards from them also plus many free trips abroad. He became a distributer for them and was successful in that also. As he got older the fire just wasn't there and he longed for the days when he was a barber. When he longed for something he went after it and the next thing you know, sweepers were in his past and he is the owner of a barber shop in Eaton, Ohio.

On Wed., September 25, 1974, my wife and I went to Cincinnati, Ohio to attend a program that was put on by the famous healer, Evangelist, Kathryn Kulman. I had been having some back problems and we wanted to see if I could get some relief. On our way back from the program we were driving up I-75 towards Dayton. I smelled alcohol and I mentioned it to my wife. She said that she had been smelling it too, but just hadn't said anything. We had a Ford Station Wagon and I thought, maybe some drunk got in our car and is laying behind the seats, so I pulled off onto the berm and got out and checked. There was nothing. We didn't think anything more about it. After a while I told my wife that the next exit we would be coming to would be the one going to Middletown and Fairfield, if she wanted to stop and see Esther and Harold. She declined, saying that it was too late to be dropping in on them. Just a short time later the alcohol odor turned to the fragrance of flowers. We both remarked about it, thinking it very strange.

When we got home and got out of the car you could hear the phone ringing in the apartment. We rushed in to answer it before they hung up. It was my mother-in-law, she said that she had been trying to get us all evening to tell us that Harold Doty had died. We thought this may be the answer to the strange smells. Maybe, maybe not.

When Wanda got married Esther, who was an excellent seamstress, made the suits and all of the gowns for the wedding. A monstrous job for one person, but she did it and they were all beautiful.

Harold continued with his barber business until he died on Wed., September 25, 1974.

Esther lived until Mon., May 8, 2000. They are both buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Fairfield, Ohio

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