ST. CHARLES COUNTY HISTORY

By Dorris Keeven-Franke

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Award winning author, and International speaker. President of the Archer Alexander Memorial Foundation. Member of the Missouri Speakers Bureau and the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. President of the Boone’s Lick Road Association. Executive Director of the Missouri Germans Consortium. She has been writing for over 35 years and published several books on local history, German immigration, and other topics. Currently working on To Tell a True Story – Archer Alexander.
  • Edwards Family

    Edwards Family

    There are over 100 burials at Sage Chapel Cemetery. For more information about the Cemetery see https://sagechapel.com/

    Mishey Edwards (1881-1957)

    Mrs. Mishey Edwards of O’Fallon, Mo., passed away at her home Monday evening at five o’clock following a heart attack. Mrs. Edwards who was 76 years old and a resident of O’Fallon for a number of years is survived by one son. Donald of Kansas City, Mo. Five grandchildren, Donald Jr. and Mrs Anna Jean William of Kansas City, Mrs. MaryStephenson of St. Charles, Mrs. Betty Keys of St. Louis and Leo Hart of O’Fallon, Mo., seven great grand children and a number of other relatives and friends. The body will be in state at the Craven Chapel M.E. Church in O’Fallon, Mo. from Friday evening until 2 pm. Saturday afternoon when funeral services will be conducted. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Daily Cosmos Monitor October 3, 1957

    Mishey  passed away on September 30, 1957. She was born on November 10, 1881, the daughter of Charles “Freeman” Letcher and Frances Rafferty. She was preceded by her son Gilbert Hubbard, born July 7, 1898 who died April 10, 1919; her son by Arthur Edwards, Rolf Chester born the 5th of May and died the 12th of June, 1912; daughter Dorothy Edwards born February 22, 1904 and died February 2, 1952; and her husband of nearly fifty years, Arthur Edwards, also known as Arthur Vardeman who passed away three months before. They are all buried at Sage Chapel Cemetery.

    Mishey Edwards tending her chickens. Photo from O’Fallon Missouri Historical Society and Mary Stephenson.

    Dorothy Edwards (1904-1952)

    Dorothy Edwards as an infant. Photo from the O’Fallon Missouri Historical Society and Mary Stephenson.

    Dorothy Edwards passed away February 2, 1952, and was buried in what her family referred to as Wishwell Cemetery, but also called Sage Chapel on February 5th, from the Keithly Funeral Home in O’Fallon, Missouri. She was born the daughter of Arthur and Artie “Mishey” (nee Letcher) Edwards on February 28, 1904, in the St. Paul area, where she grew up.  She worked for many years as a housekeeper for many of the area’s families. In the 1940s, her family  moved to O’Fallon, and lived on what the local community called “the hill”. They had movedinto O’Fallon so that the young people, like her daughter Mary, could go to High School and get an education. In St. Charles was Franklin High School, where all “colored” children of St. Charles County, Warren County and southern Lincoln Count were “allowed” to go. She was preceded in death by two of her children, Gilbert Hubbard and Rolf “Chester” Edwards, and her father Arthur Edwards. She leaves behind her mother, Mishey, a brother Donald, two daughters, Mary (Stephenson ) and Betty (Norris) and a son Leo Larue Hart.

    Dorothy Edwards (left) and Esther Hubbard. Photo from the O’Fallon Missouri Historical Society (Mary Stephenson Collection).
    Four generations, left to right:  Mishey Edwards, Mrs. Mary Stephenson, Dorothy Edwards.  Mary Stephenson is holding her oldest child, Margaret, and the little boy in front is Albert, her sister’s son. Photo from the O’Fallon Missouri Historical Society – Mary Stephenson Collection.

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  • 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!