Mary Rzeppa Schulz
Mary Rzeppa was born in the ethnically Polish region of Upper Silesia, Prussia, in 1844, the daughter of Johann and Tecla Rzeppa. Johann and his family arrived in Texas in 1855 when Mary was 11 years old. They brought with them a Christ figure for the new parish in Panna Maria.
In 1865, Mary Rzeppa married Gottlieb Schulz in Panna Maria. The couple resided at the corner of Alameda and Bonham streets in San Antonio. Gottlieb and Mary had two daughters and a son.
Around 1872 the young family moved to Panna Maria where Gottlieb and Mary operated a dry goods and grocery store. When Gottlieb died at age 36 in 1876, Mary, a self-reliant and determined woman, ran the store herself. Two years later, Mary was only woman to donate $100 the Panna Maria church building fund. By 1879, she owned a town lot in Panna Maria valued at $1,000, six horses or mules, and nine head of cattle, not to mention the $2,000 in merchandise in the store. In 1880, she was named postmistress of Panna Maria, a post she held for 21 years. Around 1884, she moved to Brackenridge, Texas, which was soon renamed Falls City when the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway built a depot there. With her keen business sense, she saw opportunity in Falls City and opened the Schulz Mercantile Company, eventually employing ten shopkeepers. She also owned the local bank in Falls City, Falls City National Bank. At the same time, she owned and successfully managed her large grain and cotton business, a steam gin, and a lumber mill. In 1909, her wealth was calculated at $400,000, about $11,000,000 today.
Mary Schulz generously supported her parish in Falls City, Holy Trinity Catholic Church. Church records reported that “Credit is due to Mrs. Mary Schulz of the Rzeppa family of Panna Maria, through whose efforts, particularly, the building plans took concrete form.”
Mary died on May 21, 1923, at the age of 78, and was buried in Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery in Falls City.