ST. CHARLES COUNTY HISTORY

By Dorris Keeven-Franke

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History happens. All stories, especially the difficult ones, need to be heard. Award winning author, a public historian, professional genealogist, and International speaker. Member of the Missouri Speakers Bureau and the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
  • The White Family at Sage Chapel

    The White Family at Sage Chapel

    Simon White (1881-1966)

    Simon Leslie White passed away on August 13, 1966 in St. Joseph’s Hospital in St. Charles. He had suffered a heart attack at his home in O’Fallon, 509 Sonderen Street. He was the son of Rufus and Millee (nee Sallee) White, born on August 7, 1881. He leaves behind his wife Cora (nee Abington) White and several children and grandchildren. The family was served by the O’Fallon Mortuary (Callahans) in O’Fallon.

    His obituary

    Funeral services Held Today For S.L. White, 85

    Funeral services were held today (Wenesday for Simon Leslie White, 85, who died Saturday, August 13, at St. Joseph’s Hospital in St. Charles, Mr. White suffered a heart attack last Friday and was rushed to the hospital. Services were at 2 p.m. at the O’Fallon Mortuary with burial in the Sage Chapel cemetery. Mr. White was a member of the Hopewell Baptist Church. Survivors include his wife, Cora Avington [sic] White; eight children, Sylvester White, O’Fallon, Mrs. Margaret McCormick, Arthur White, LuLurean Thornton, Beaulah White, all of St. Louis; Thomas White, Overland; Eugene White Chicago, and Harry White, St. Charles; three step-sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces and grandchildren.  O’Fallon Community News, August 17, 1966. 

    Jessie White (1908-1927)

    Jessie White died at her home in O’Fallon, Missouri Sunday, November 20, 1927 of complications with Tuberculosis. She was born the daughter of Simon and Cora (Abington) White and had grown up and lived on “the Hill” her entire life. Born on November 4, 1908, she had just reached her eighteenth birthday. She leaves behind several brothers and sisters; Flossie, Arthur, Sylvester, Beulah, Thomas, Eugene, Corinne, and Harry. The family was served by the Keithly Funeral home and she was buried at Sage Chapel Cemetery.

    Lucy Hughes White (1864-1958)

    Lucy Hughes White passed away on January 22, 1958. She had been born enslaved in O’Fallon on the 16th of February 1864.  Lucy married Leonidas “Lee” Hughes as Lucy Singleton, on November 28, 1881 in St. Charles, where his family farmed.  They had five children, son Reverend Fred Hughes (1885-1966) who served as Pastor at several  African Methodist Episcopal Churches in St. Louis and California, daughter Viola Mae Hughes (1887-1975) who married  Alexander Lewis from Howard County and moved to California, daughter Margaret “Maggie” (1889-1953) who  married Spherrel Claiborne (Junior),  and daughter Georgia (1891-1974) who married Wheeler Lewis and later moved to St. Louis. After Leonidas Hughes passed away, she and Thomas St. Clair (1852-1908 buried in Greenwood Cemetery-St. Louis) had two daughters, Rhoda (1902-) and Clara (1904-). After Thomas St. Clair passed away, in 1908 she married Rufus White (1852-1919) who was also born a enslaved, who had several children by his previous marriage to Millie Sallee: Simon, Sherman and Ethel. By 1920, Lucy was living near Lincoln Street in a log house that was near where the Krekel Civic Center is today. She worked as a laundress, by taking in wash, and taking in boarders, to support her loving family of children and grandchildren who lived with her. She lived there for many years and is still fondly remembered. (I believe the house is still standing). She had gone to live with her daughter Georgie in Kinloch, Missouri, before she passed away and then brought home to Sage Chapel Cemetery.

    Lucy Hughes White holding her granddaughter, Juanita (later Juanita Sanders), in front of her log cabin. Photo  (circa 1925) from Mary Stephenson and the photo collection of the O’Fallon Missouri Historical Society.

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  • The Fourth of July

    The Fourth of July

    By Friedrich Muench

    This is an excerpt from a Fourth of July Speech given by a German emigrant in Washington Missouri in 1840 to celebrate the occasion at its’ own Liberty Hall. Known for his eagle screaming speeches, Friedrich Muench, who had just arrived six years earlier, was honored when a request was made for his comments. This speech was made 185 years ago in a small Missouri town…

    He posed this question to his audience…

    “We Germans met a hearty welcome from some of you, but at the same time we heard and still hear a loud and passionate cry against us from a party that proudly call themselves “Natives.” Who, then, are properly and solely the natives of the vast territory now in possession of the United States? The red skinned hunters, who by the arms of the whites have been exiled from the country of their birth and driven to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

    But, speaking particularly of my countrymen, what makes those “Nativists” cherish so hostile a feeling toward us? We newcomers, far from endangering the happy state of this country, will bring to it our skillful hands, our money, our talents, and our scientific accomplishments. We also bring the sincere desire to promote by any possible means the welfare and independence of this our adopted country.

    Perhaps the “Natives” will object that we differ in customs and language. That is a circumstance harder on ourselves than on you! You are the great majority, and your language is, and forever will be, the language of all public transactions. We are eager to acquaint ourselves and our children with your language, but learning a new language is not easily achieved! That we will do, but what we shall never do is discard entirely the sweet language of our mother country, this sacred inheritance from our German forefathers.”

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    Happy Birthday America!

  • The Abington family

    The Abington family

    Sonderen Street in O’Fallon Missouri was once home to many of the families whose loved ones and families are buried in Sage Chapel Cemetery.

    Eldora Abington (15 June 1863- 25 March 1921) , wife of Liberty Abington (21 December 1857 – 14 June 1931), passed away on March 28, 1921, in her home, next door to Sage Chapel A.M.E., in O’Fallon [on Sonderen Street]. She was born June 15, 1868, the daughter of Alex Welch. She leaves behind Jessica born 1887, Bessie born 1889, Allie born 1892, Todie born 1896, and a son Eddy born 1903.  After a memorial at the church, E.A. Keithly of O’Fallon served as the undertaker for the Abington family for the burial in Sage Chapel Cemetery, next to her husband who is also buried there, but no headstone has ever been found.

    Cora E. White passed away on Thursday, November 23, 1972. She had been born Cora Abington on September 10, 1882, the daughter of Louis and Mollie Abington. She grew up in the community of the Hopewell Baptist Church, a very old African American Church south of Wentzville on Hwy N (the Boone’s Lick Road). We know she had brothers and sisters named Fred, Ardalia, John, Oregon, Tennessee and Troy. When she was a young girl of 18, she married Simon “Samuel” L. White on June 3, 1901 and they made their early home in O’Fallon on Main Street. near the home of the town’s founder, the  widower Nicholas Krekel, where he lived with his daughter Bertha Krekel. Simon and Cora had several children, some whose names we will never know, because there were no records. We do know there was Margaret “Flossy”, Arthur, Sylvester, sweet  Jessie who they lost when she was just 19 years old, Frona, Beulah, Tommy, Eugene (pictured), Robert, Corine (Thornton) and LuLurean (Vardeman). By the 1920s, Cora and Simon had moved their  family over to “the Hill” which is today’s Sonderen, and were members of Wishwell Baptist Church.  There they had more room for their family, and could raise chickens and have a larger garden because O’Fallon was growing and changing. When she passed, she joined her dear husband Simon who had preceded her in death, at Sage Chapel Cemetery.

    Eugene White: picture taken at age 4 months (1918). Son of Simon and Cora Abington White, Grandson of Lucy White. Portrait was taken at Maxwell Studio, 2007 Lawton Ave. Photo from the O’Fallon Missouri Historical Society.