Cholera in Boone-Duden Country, 1849-1852
by Bob Brail
In early June, 1849, former president James K. Polk had just retired to Nashville, Tennessee, after serving one term as President of the United States. During their trip from Washington, D. C., Polk and his wife traveled through New Orleans and up the Mississippi River to Tennessee. In his diary, the former president often commented upon the cholera epidimic that was sweeping across the country. On June 1, James K. Polk wrote that “[d]uring the prevalence of cholera I deem it prudent to remain as much as possible at my own house.” In spite of his caution, two weeks later, on June 15, former president Polk would be dead, another victim of a disease that did not differentiate between presidents and paupers as it ravaged America from 1849-1852. Southern St. Charles County certainly was not spared, as numerous pieces of evidence suggest.
Cholera had visited the St. Louis area before 1849, although the disease was its most severe in that year's epidemic. The disease entered the United States in New Orleans in late 1848 as emigrants disembarked and moved upriver to cities on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers in the following weeks, “[b]efore the New Orleans Board of Health would asknowledge that cholera had besieged the port.” Steamboats carrying infected passengers began arriving in St. Louis by year's end. The death toll from cholera in St. Louis for January was thirty-six but by July it has risen to 1,746. Each day St. Louisans by the hundreds were contracting, often through contaminated water, this bacterial disease. Untreated cholera, causing diarrhea and dehydration, could cause death within hours, even in healthy people. By year's end, 4,317 St. Louisans would be dead from cholera, more than six percent of the city's population. No effective response to the disease was implemented, other than establishing a quarantine on Arsenal Island for steamboat passengers arriving from the south. Smoking fires, hot baths, and bleeding were recommended but to little effect. One historian wrote, “Remedies for cholera were even more varied than the physicians who ordered them, as many would alter their prescsriptions as the epidemic progressed.” From 1849 through 1852, cholera deaths in St. Louis peaked in June and July every year. From 1849 through 1852, cholera “was never wholly absent from the city”
The story of the cholera epidemic of 1849-1852 in Boone-Duden country is not quite as clear as the St. Louis account. There are gaps in the story or, one might say, pieces of the puzzle that are missing. However, there is ample evidence that cholera was very much in evidence in southern St. Charles County during these years. The two major sources of this evidence are census and church records.
One source of information is the 1850 Mortality Census for St. Charles County. From 1850 through 1880, the federal censuses included information about persons who had died in the previous year. Besides names, the census also recorded age, sex, race, birth place, occupation, month of death, and cause of death. St Charles County's population was enumerated from July through September, so it should have recorded the names of many cholera victims from the summer of 1849 when the disease was at its worst. The 1850 Mortality Census lists 113 deaths from cholera in St. Charles County from July of 1849 through July of 1850, with deaths peaking in July and August. This represents nearly forty percent of the three hundred deaths in the county that year. Forty-six of the cholera victims were children under the age of sixteen, almost exactly forty percent of the deaths. Eighty percent of the cholera victims died in July and August.
Since their burial locations cannot be determined, another approach to discovering what part of the county these 113 victims were from is to compare their last names to St. Charles County residents in the 1860 federal census with the same name. (An even better approach would be to use the 1850 census; unfortunately that census did not identify the townships of the respondants.) For example, there were several Fuhr household in Dardenne Township in 1860, so Peter Fuhr, who died at age twenty-six in the 1849 epidemic, may have lived there. In the same way, there were also many Ferril families in Dardenne Township, so 1849 cholera victim Mary Ferril, age three, may have been from there. Bernard Hellebusch, age thirty when cholera killed him in 1849, was probably from Femme Osage Township. It is possible that Juliana Kunze, who was five months old when she died in the epidemic, was the daughter of Jonathan and Wilhelmina Kunze in Femme Osage Township. In 1860 there were several Wallenbrock households in Femme Osage Township, so 1849 cholera victims Henry Wallenbrock, age thirty, and Catherine Wallenbrock, age two, may have resided there. Jane Wise, killed in the 1849 cholera epidemic at the age of twelve, may have been the daughter of John and Mariah Wise of Dardenne Township.
Another source for information about the cholera epidemic in Boone-Duden country is Das Demokrat, the German newspaper of nineteenth century St. Charles County. In its June 24, 1852, issue Das Demokrat included the following news of cholera's most recent visitation to the area:
Local Affairs
The reports from the western parts of our county sound very sad. In New Melle the cholera swept away in a few days some 60 people just among those who belong to the local church, so that a number of families were totally wiped out. From there extending on beyond the border of Warren County there have been cholera cases continuing to occur.
We regret that the conditions of health of Callaway Township have given rise to the rumor, that our fellow citizens there will not take part in the election. As we hear, cholera cases are occurring only rarely there any more, by the second of August they will hopefully have disappeared entirely; therefore we know for certain that our German compatriots from Callaway Township will not be missing at the ballot box.
(State and local electionswere held in August at this time. Only federal elections took place in November.)
This alarming article very clearly states that the village of New Melle had been ravaged by cholera, even to the extent of killing entire families, by the end of June, 1852. Most years the cholera epidemics did not become their deadliest until July and August, so one wonders if “a number of families were totally wiped out.” Records of other area churches do not indicate anything so catastrophic occuring at that time. Unfortunately the burial records of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in New Melle for 1850-1854 are missing, so they do not provide any evidence the deadliness of cholera in 1852. However, there is a sign in the church's cemetery that reads as follows: “In memory of the many unknown Lutherans who lie here as a result of the cholera epidemec in the early 1800's.” This sign is located at the graveyard east of the church, where cholera victims are said to have been buried.
The burial records of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in New Melle do show that the 1849 epidemic very likely claimed an unusually high number of lives for the small community.
It is obvious that the number of burials in 1849 was unusually high. The fact that seven of these deaths occurred between August 2 and September 10, and that six of them were apparently children is highly suggestive of cholera. (Not until 1869 would the cemetery again have as many as nine burials in a single year.) These seven individuals were as follows:
Johan Conrad Buschdieker, no age given, son of Fr. Wilh. and Mar. Elis, died August 2
Clara Elizabeth Bussdick, 61, died August 18
Johan Friedr. Schiermeier, stillborn, died on August 23
Catherine Louise Harbach, 9, dau. of Joh. Heinr. and Cath. Elis., died August 30
Catherine Wilh. Maschmeyer, 6, dau. of Carl Fer. and Cath. Maria, died August 31
Johan Heinr. Landwehr, no age given, son of Peter Heinr. and Ann Cath. Elis., died Sept. 3
Cath. Louise Mathilda Beumer, no age given, dau. of Casp. Heinr. and Cath. Mary, died Sept. 10
One cannot say with certainty that any of these people died from cholera, but it seems very likely that some did.
The cemetery records of the Femme Osage United Church of Christ show that small village was unaffected by cholera in 1849 but probably was not so fortunate three years later in 1852.
The only period of time where there was an unusually high number of burials was July and August of 1852, when cholera was deadliest. Of those fourteen individuals who were buried in July and August, eight were children. Friedrich Jorling (37) and son Friedrich (4) did six days apart in July. The fourteen individuals who died between July 12 and August 28 were as follows:
Another church whose records indicate the presence of cholera during the years in question is Immanuel's United Church of Christ in Holstein, on the western edge of Boone-Duden country, in Warren County's Charrette Township. Founded in 1839, this church buried few individuals during its first few years, including two in 1847 and two more in 1848. In the years of 1849 and 1850, however, the church cemetery added fifteen burials, all but two of them between July 20 and September 10 of each year. In one five-day period in July, 1850, there were four burials. Again, circumstances indicate these deaths were probably from cholera.
Sometimes oral history provides the only evidence of cholera's presence in this area from 1849-1852. St. John's United Church of Christ in Cappeln had its genesis in 1840 when forty acres were donated to start a church there. A cemetery was laid out at that time. The oral tradition of the church maintains that the large empty space on the southern edge of the current cemetery is “actually the site of a number of unmarked graves, victims of cholera.” In 1989 the church decided to have a symbolic commital service for the unknown cholera victims buried there. Rev. Devin Jones prayed the prayer of commital for the dead, and a commemorative marker was laid.
The many small family cemeteries in the southern part of St. Charles County also msotly likely contain victims of the cholera epidemics of 1849-1852. One example would be the Wezler Cemetery near Matson. The small plot contains about ten graves from several decades in the 1800's. Interestingly, three of these graves contain the reamins of individuals who died on three consecutive days in July of 1849, in the midst of that year's cholera epidemic: Louise Wezler, age 26, died on July 16; J. C. Wezler, six months old, died on July 17; and J. C.'s twin, H. W. Wezler, died on July 18. None of these names appears in the 1850 Mortality Census. Were their deaths due to cholera? Perhaps. Also of interest are two small family cemeteries on Schnarre Road, the McGowan Cemetery and the Henry Edwards Cemetery. Together the two cemeteries contain about thirty-five burials which occurred over several decades. However four of these burials, two children and two women in their twenties, took place in a three-week period in September, 1851.
The COVID-19 epidemic has been a forceful reminder of the destruction of life that an epidemic can cause. Years from now, historians will have a nearly unlimited supply of resources as they seek to write their accounts of the coronavirus. Historians of the cholera epidemics that ravaged the St. Louis area in the middle of the nineteenth century do not have that luxury. However, even though resources are limited, enough clues are available to conclude that Boone-Duden country was infected with cholera, and that an alarming number of local residents died of the disease.
Sources: 1839-1989: Immanuel's United Church of Christ, Holstein, Missouri; Burial records, St. Paul's Lutheran Church, New Melle; Cemeteries of St. Charles County by Lucille Weichens; “Cholera” (mayoclinic.org); “Cholera in Missouri” by James T. Barett, Missouri Historical Review (shsmo.org); Das Totenregister von Die Deutsche Evangelische Kirchegemeinde, Femme Osage, Missouri Ed. Coradean Naylor; Dutzow: a Place of Dreams by Urban Ruether; Findagrave.com; “History and Records of St. John's Church, Cappeln, Mo” (heritage.freese.net/family/Cappeln); “History of St. Paul's” by Bill Schiermeier, Cracker Barrel Country; “How Cholera Reached St. Louis,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch 4 July 1953 printed in Missouri Historical Review (shsmo.org); Jameskpolk.com/history/the-death-of-james-k-polk; Jones, Devin, telephone interview; Kamphoefner, Dr. Walter, emails; “Mortality Schedules” (census.gov); “Notes Upon the History of Cholera in St. Louis” by Robert Moore (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov); St. Charles Demokrat (shsmo.org); “Stories of Everyday Living” by Margaret B. Graham, Missouri Historical Review (shsmo.org).