In Germany, his occupation is variously reported. He is sometimes described as an “Eigener” or “freeman,” in the sense the term had been used in England and New England for centuries, i.e. an independent citizen and member of the community with full rights.116 He is also called a “Kötter,”226 something like a tenant farmer, who lived in a “cottage” away from the main house. Probably all of these were true at various times. The last vestiges of the feudal system were disappearing at about this time in Germany, and the peasants liberated. The 1852 Gross Stavern census reports him as a “Beerbter,”227 or heir. By census records, he was a farmer in Iowa. He was reported also by Agnes Stegman to be a tax collector in Hannover, and a housebuilder in America.119 (These last roles are uncorroborated and open to question. Her report of the role of tax collector does jibe with the status of Schulte as “steward,” including the responsibility for collection of taxes.)

The first three children of the family, including Johann Bernard, are shown in St. Vitus Church records as born in Tinnen. the next four are shown as born in Gross Stovern, suggesting that the Schultes moved sometime between 1845 and 1847.226 Though the Schultes came to America from Stavern, I doubt that they had more than a few years’ residence there. Stavern was a couple of miles across the great moor from Tinnen, where nearly all of the known ancestors lived, and most current namesakes still reside.