"He was never heard of or from again" (Whatever became of Samuel Jenni?)

New Orleans, long ago

     My folks are from Germany. They—especially my mother, who fled the advancing Russians—used to tell me about the numerous “displaced persons” (“DPs”) in Europe after the war. Millions of people were desperate to find relatives and other loved ones. A system was set up in which those who (hopefully) were sought announced, at special viewing stations, their locations and contact info. Many people were eventually united in this way; but many people never found their loved ones. Not even after many years. That’s pretty horrible.

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     One of several mysteries concerning the early Jenni clan is this one: Whatever happened to Samuel Jenni? 

     Samuel, with his family, were the first Jennis (in our saga) to immigrate to the US (in 1869). They settled in Amazonia, Missouri (Andrew County) and seemed to remain there, more or less. But in 1882, Samuel evidently left the family to explore prospects in New Orleans. He never returned.

     I have two questions: (1) why exactly did Samuel go to New Orleans? (2) How exactly did he die? 

     According to the Heritage book of Central Montana, p. 166, 

     Some records identify Samuel's death date years after 1884—as late as 1887. (The Ancestry.com "bio"  asserts that Samuel died "about 1887.")

     In a part of the Heritage book that discusses Frank Kalin (p. 183), we find a brief reference to Samuel Jenni's trip to New Orleans:

     Note that this writer erroneously (?) identifies Samuel's wife as "Elizabeth." All other references to Samuel's wife that I have found indicate that she was named "Anna" (Anna Segessenmann, b. 1820), and she died in her son Fred's home in January of 1886 of pneumonia. 

     But if otherwise correct, this account suggests that Samuel went to New Orleans in 1882. 

     Was he not heard from again? Did letters from him stop at some point in 1884, suggesting that he had died then?

        Page 452 of Heritage offers this:

     This account seems to imply that Anna journeyed to Montana because she learned (?) that Samuel had died. Or did she infer that he Samuel likely died, owing to his sudden failure to write?

     I have come upon this info from Descendants of Meinrad Franz Kalin:

This appears to be a version of the Heritage account above, but it adds something: "Their father, Samuel, went to New Orleans, Louisiana that year, planning to return for his wife and children, but he was never heard of or from again."
     Well, if he was never heard "of or from" again, how account for the factoid (if it is a factoid) that he died of yellow fever? Either the family was simply in the dark concerning Samuel's fate or they had speculated that yellow fever took him. —Unless, of course, we contemporaries have access to that factoid, perhaps through Ancestry.com. Ancestry does indeed refer to Samuel's death, by yellow fever, but it refers to no supporting document.
     I've sought newspaper reports of Samuel's death in New Orleans—from 1884 to 1887. The only thing of possible interest I've found is this:

7-18-87 Times-Piquayune (New Orleans)

     I could find no followup report.

     If Samuel did die in 1887, he would have been about 58 years old (he was about nine years younger than his wife, Anna).

P.S.:

     I consulted the History of yellow fever, by George Augustin (1905). According to Augustin, New Orleans has often been the location of outbreaks and epidemics—e.g., the epidemic of 1878. During that year, New Orleans had a population of 210,000 and suffered 27,000 cases of yellow fever. There were 4,046 deaths, which is remarkable, to say the least.

      The following year, there were 48 cases and 19 deaths. 

      1880: 2 deaths  

      1881: no deaths 

      1882: no deaths 

      1883: 1 death 

      1884-8: no deaths 

      1889: 1 death 

      Etc. 

      These figures are confirmed elsewhere. 

      Samuel Jenni left for, and likely arrived in, New Orleans in 1882, a year in which there were no yellow fever deaths. According to official records, there was only one more death of yellow fever in New Orleans between 1883-1888—namely, the 1 in 1883. It would seem unlikely that Samuel was this one victim. 

     If, as at least one family historian suggests (see above), upon leaving Missouri in 1882, Samuel was never heard from again, then his assumed death would likely have inspired speculation. Given New Orleans’ notoriety as a locus of yellow fever epidemics—the last one occurring only a few years prior—family members might have speculated that Samuel was taken by yellow fever. 

     But, given the record above, I doubt that that is how he died, if he died in New Orleans. 

     No?

P.P.S.: I did find a followup report to the 7-18-87 news story, though it isn't very helpful:

7-19-87 Sat Review, Hutchinson Kansas

     Also, it turns out that the incident occurred in Pittsburg, not in New Orleans. 

     So it's back to the drawing board.

New Orleans, 1880s?