"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.

* * *

     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?

1881: In the beginning — Fred Sr. and John go to Montana

From Heritage Book of the Original Fergus County Area (pp. 451-3):

Nothin' goin' on in Amazonia, it seems.

¶  The Samuel Jenni family emigrated to American [sic] in 1869 from the small town of Waldeck, Switzerland, where they had operated an inn near the capitol city of Berne. The family consisted of Samuel and his wife, Anna Segesseman Jenni, and their children, Eliza, Red [Fred?], Anna, Gottlieb, and John. Eliza later became Mrs. Fred Hornkohl, and Anna married Frank Kalin. Young John was seven years old when the[y] settled on a farm in Amazonia, Missouri. His education had begun a year earlier under a tutor since there were no public schools in Switzerland at that time.

Leadville, CO pack train, 1880s

¶  In 1881, [23 year old] Fred and the nineteen year old John left Amazonia and stayed in Leedville, Colorado for a time before coming to the territory of Montana where John worked for awhile at a livery stable in Helena and then for a Prickly Pear Valley rancher until the winter of 1882 when he joined his brother on Fred’s homestead on Beaver Creek; eventually filing for one of his own just below Fred’s. A year later Gottlieb began homesteading on the land adjoining John’s and the winter of 1983-4 were busy ones as the three brothers built cabins and settled in.

Deer Lodge, MT, Masonic Lodge

¶  The Journey from Missouri to Montana had been made aboard an immigrant train departing from Omaha, Nebraska. The travelers furnished their own food, which they cooked on huge ranges, which took up much of the space in the cars. The seats made into beds at night and the train was a comfortable place from [which] to view the spectacular scenery which became increasingly more awe-inspiring as they approached the Rocky Mountains. It took four days to make the trip from Omaha to Ogden, Utah, and many lasting friendships were formed as the pioneers traveled west in congenial kinship. At Ogden, passengers bound further west were transferred to the narrow guage [sic] Utah Railroad, which was later converted to the Oregon Short Line. This train labored up through the mountains, which in winter were bitterly cold. The passengers finally arrived at Deer Lodge, Montana and the end of the line. From there, those going north took a stage to Helena, about forty miles.

Maiden, MT

¶  In 1884, Samuel Jenni died of yellow fever at New Orleans, Louisiana and his widow journeyed to Beaver Creek in September of that year with daughter, Anna; their railroad tickets, from Amazonia, Missouri to Billings, Montana, cost $46.35 apiece. Until her death of pneumonia in 1885, Mother Jenni made her home with Fred.

Gilt Edge, MT

¶  Lewiston at this time was a fur trading post only; mail and supplies were picked up at Cottonwood Town, the stage stop. John worked for Phillip Laux, making brick and then helped build the store in Cottonwood Town. He and brother Fred, who was an expert teamster, worked together on the bridge across the creek at Cottonwood; Fred handling the horses and John working with broadax, hewing trees into logs and lumber. He also helped build the church on upper Beaver Creek at the foot of the Snowy Mountains, gaining valuable experience in carpentry.

Maiden, MT 1886

¶  A man with a plow, horses and a few hand tools could till his land and raise grain crops which were hauled many miles to Billings, Fort Benton or to the roaring gold mining towns of Maiden and Gilt Edge or to the Spotted Horse Mine. Supplies were brought back so the wagons were loaded both ways. During the winter months, poles were hauled out of the mountains for building cabins, barns and fences. John could recall weather so cold that the trees would snap and literally explode when touched with an axe. Montana winters were truly a test of a man’s endurance and strength. Temperatures of 65 to 70 degrees below zero were not unknown. On one sled trip to the mountains for poles, John became hopelessly lost in a raging blizzard. Realizing that it would be foolhardy to continue in the loaded sled, he unhitched the team, hung grimly onto a tail and let the horses have their heads. After what seemed an eternity of struggling, half frozen, through hip high drifts, they stopped in a settler’s yard where the weary horses were fed and rested and John fell asleep over a bowl of hot stew as he tried to be polite and stay awake to listen as his host ramble on, eager to visit with the first company he’d had in weeks.

Leadville CO

¶  Freighting was a rugged life; John had many experiences which tried him sorely. Getting hung up on a stump was a common occurrence; frequently a load would be dumped over. One time a team and full load bogged down at a crossing and one horse got into quicksand; John hastily tied the poor beast’s head to a nearby tree, succeeded in loosening the rest of the horses and with them pulled the … foundering animal out. On another occasion he was saved from being robbed of team and provisions when a rider came along just as he was accosted by a couple of unsavory characters. The area had its share of outlaws and misfits such as “Rattlesnake Pete,” who enjoyed terrorizing the citizens, but for the most part the pioneers were hard working and honest men…. 

     [Author unidentified]