The Schepp Family Chronicles

By Frances Schepp Ruh

Fredrick Schepp stepped off a steamer in 1853 to seek his fortune on American soil. The dream led him and his mail-order bride to Kansas where their investment bought a piece of prairie that remains in the family to this day. Scattered to Nebraska and Oklahoma, Schepps live the American dream. But getting there, the family has experienced success, failure, wealth, poverty, kidnapping, and murder.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Frances Schepp Ruh
• Release date: Jan 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781936840076

Frances Schepp Ruh

Fran Ruh is the family storyteller and great granddaughter of the Schepp family patriarch. She grew up in Kansas and Omaha and has retired from a 25-year career in commercial real estate. She and husband, Ron, now live in Naples, Florida. They spend summers in Omaha to be near their two sons and five grandchildren and often stay at the original family cattle ranch on Deep Creek, near Manhattan in the rugged Flint Hills of Kansas.

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I am most grateful to my husband, Ronald Ruh, for his patience, encouragement and for knowing when I needed to take a break. To my Aunt, Alberta Stumpff, for her priceless contributions and for generously sharing her memories with me, I give sincere thanks. Many thanks also go to Eldon Henton, family friend and Schepp family historian, and to my good friend Roger Baker for his valuable support, advice and editing.

Preface

Kansas is no mere geographical expression, but a state of mind, a religion, and a philosophy in one.

—Carl L. Becker, American historian (1873–1945)

THE MAIN CHARACTER IN OUR FAMILY drama is not a person, but a place. It is the state of Kansas, specifically the Flint Hills of Kansas. Set in the northeast corner of the state, this grazing land covers four million acres as it winds through nineteen counties. Also known as the Bluestem Hills, it is a geological phenomenon, ranging from thirty to sixty miles wide, created by ancient ocean currents and glacial movement. Scattered throughout the area are huge granite boulders, punctuating the landscape, remnants of the Ice Age. Eastern Kansas differs from the open, flat lands to the west as the sky differs from the sea. Western Kansas is all about men, farmers tilling the earth and growing crops meant to feed people.

The Flint Hills is cow country suitable only for grazing. Some of the undulating hills are soft and some rolling; others are steep with sharp outcroppings of limestone ledges, and deep valleys that are creased with rivers and creeks. Trees grow in abundance along these waterways, providing wood for building homes and for heating them. Many of the creeks are dammed to make ponds for the cattle. Springs are plentiful; the water is cold, pure and sparkling as it seeps from the limestone ledges, offering pleasure to the eye as well as a thirst quencher for both man and animals. Although the ground is rich, rocks lurk just below the surface, daring the plow to disturb them. The river bottom land is flat land, richer yet and relatively free of rocks, but still the crops harvested there are alfalfa, milo, and feed corn intended for cattle not man.

Kansas’s men match the terrain, rugged and strong. Cowboys and cattlemen, their bowed legs stuffed into high-heeled boots, their weathered, leather faces shaded by Stetson hats, are American icons. They are like steel, tempered by the relentless south wind and summer heat that often soars into three-digit temperatures. Then, they are cooled to the opposite end of the thermometer by blizzards and ice storms when the temperature drops to thirty degrees below zero.

Kansans are also open, like the blue sky above them, and they are as expansive and surprising as the view when you reach the top of one of their hills and see a panorama that stretches for miles in every direction.

Annually, in the spring these hills are aflame. During the early years of development, the dangerous, destructive fires were caused by lightning and the campfires of thoughtless cowboys and settlers. Today, they’re deliberate and carefully controlled by landowners who work together to ensure that the benign, beneficial line of flame that creeps across the hills stops short of buildings and timber. Two weeks after the fires, the charred landscape gives way to a fresh green that blankets the countryside, free of brush and weeds.

Like the brush fires, the members of our family live for a time, then they’re extinguished to be replaced by fresh, new life. All that survives and gives us continuity is our blood, the land and the history of those who tamed it. Even though later generations were forced to move to neighboring states to find work, they are all eventually drawn back again to Kansas, with a commitment to protect and keep the ground that extracted such a high price from those who came before us. The call comes as a whisper, not a command but a gentle invitation. It seems to say, not to the ears or to the mind, but deep inside to the heart, I miss you, please come home.

If you delay or resist, the voice becomes louder and more insistent until finally you reply, Yes, I miss you too and I’ll be there soon.

Kansas is often called the heartland of America. In fact, the exact geographical center of our country is in Chase County, in the heart of the Flint Hills. Is it any wonder, then, that this wild, mysterious, feral land defines us and dwells within our hearts.

Introduction

We are always afraid to start something that we want to make good, true and serious.

—Brenda Upland, contemporary American author

I AM A CANTADORA, A KEEPER OF THE old stories. Now, while able, I want to pass them on to you. I’ve delayed for a long time. I hope not too long.

Memory fades and ability with it. I didn’t seek this role and have been reluctant to accept it. When I first realized the need to preserve our family’s history, I planned to write a saga spanning the generations. I wanted every date and fact to be accurate, but learned that this is impossible. The saga is beyond my ability and the notes and stories of our early history, left from previous generations, are hopelessly inaccurate. Often legal documents contradict the stories, or historical events do not coincide with the motives and actions attributed to our ancestors. Like stories told around a campfire, these tales have grown and changed with each telling.

We are so rich in experience. In the nearly century and a half since the first Schepp set foot on American soil, we have experienced success, failure, desertion, divorce, alcoholism, wealth, poverty, and even murder. Our ranks include a recluse, a philanderer, an inventor, a mail-order bride and much more.

What I offer here is a combination of official documents, notes left by family members, personal interviews, my own memories and recollections of conversations during family gatherings. When I am unsure of facts or find conflicting stories, that will be made known to you. In my endeavor to describe the people and events that tell our story, I pledge always to tell the truth, but perhaps not all the truth.

Before we begin this journey through time, you need to know who I am. My name is Frances Ann Schepp Ruh, the last person to carry the Schepp name and a member of the fourth American generation, the great granddaughter of our patriarch Fredrick Schepp. I was sixty-six years old in 2004 when I began writing this story. It’s been six years in the writing, and this is our story so far.

And now, let me introduce you to the members of our family, past and present. As we travel through the years, prepare to be shocked, puzzled, amazed, amused, saddened and inspired. We’ll begin in the year 1853 in New York City.

The Immigrant

Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.

—Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees

IN THE YEAR 1853 THE UNITED STATES of America had grown from the original thirteen colonies to thirty states with a population of slightly more than twenty-three million. Just a year earlier Democrat Franklin Pierce had defeated General Winfield Scott for the presidency.

In June of that year Fredrick Schepp, a young man of twenty-two, arrived to seek his fortune in this new land. All we know of Fredrick’s early life is that he had a brother already in America and a sister who married a German army officer.

The few photos taken of Fredrick show a man of average height and build. Even though he wore a full red beard that concealed much of his face, he appears to have had even features. His children and grandchildren often told of his heavily accented broken English; so it is safe to assume that, when he arrived in this new land, he spoke only German.

Even from the beginning of our story we find contradiction. Both Fredrick’s son and granddaughter left notes saying that Fredrick was born on April 5, 1830, in Magdeburg, Germany, and that he worked for his passage to the new land as a ship’s cook landing in New Orleans, a journey that took fourteen weeks. While he may have worked as a cook, U.S. immigration records show that young Schepp entered the country through New York, not New Orleans. The records also indicate that Fredrick listed his birthplace as Stambach, Germany, and show that he departed from the port of Bremen in June of 1853 arriving in New York the same month.

Fredrick was encouraged to come to America by his older brother, Henry, who arrived here in 1850 and settled in Westport, Missouri, now a suburb of Kansas City. Except for the fact that he encouraged his younger brother to join him, little else is known about Henry. Yet his contribution to us, that of American citizenship, may have been the most significant of any person in any generation. Fredrick’s children described the brothers as close, but there is little evidence of such a relationship after their arrival. We do know that during his early days here Henry worked as a stone mason at Ogden and at Fort Riley, Kansas. He died near Manhattan of a snake bite. He left two sons, Oscar and Henry. Henry died in Ogden, Kansas, and Oscar was last heard from in California.

In nineteenth century Germany, wealth was concentrated in the upper class. The feudal system remained long after power in France and England had passed into the hands of the working people. Family lore tells us that Fredrick, a shoemaker by trade, left Germany to escape military service. That may be true because the loosely knit confederacy of countries that later became Germany had many internal struggles and quarrels with neighboring countries. An additional reason may have been that Fredrick was seeking adventure, opportunity and the promise of free land.

If adventure was his goal, Fredrick would have found excitement enough on his journey from New York to Kansas. In 1853 railroad lines reached only as far as the Mississippi River. From there he would have traveled by river boat and finally by wagon.

If Fredrick left Germany to avoid conflict, he chose the wrong place to settle. Kansas, a part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and later included in the Kansas Nebraska territory, was originally set aside in the 1820s to be permanently used as Indian territory and was closed to white settlements. In a treaty dated 1825, the Kansa Nation ceded twenty million acres of land to the United States, and the tribe was then confined to a reservation in northeast Kansas. In the same month, the Osage Nation was limited to a reservation in southeast Kansas.

Fredrick Schepp

Kansas was an important crossroads for travelers headed for California, Utah or Oregon. Pioneers stopped for water and outfitting before taking the Oregon, Santa Fe or California trails.

Indians did not readily accept their resettlement and often attacked these wagon trains. To protect these travelers and the influx of settlers, Army forts, including Fort Riley and Fort Leavenworth, were soon established.

Despite the plan to settle Indians in Kansas, by 1850 white squatters inhabited those lands. Regardless of the danger, they demanded the opening of the area for settlement. In 1852, Congress began debating the Kansas Territory issue and in 1854 finally passed the bill creating both the Nebraska and the Kansas territories. Most Indians complied with the law and were relocated to Oklahoma. Others did not.

At the moment Fredrick arrived in Westport, these important events were shaping his destiny on the Kansas border.

The Kansas Act of 1854 allowed settlers to decide whether to permit slavery within its borders. This provision repealed an earlier law that prohibited slavery in any new state north of latitude 36°-30°.

Two versions of Fredrick’s early days in Kansas exist. The first has him settling in Westport where he plied his trade as a shoemaker. The Civil War was brewing and Kansas was a border state. Deep loyalties existed on both sides that not only divided the general population but sometimes even divided families.

Later, Fredrick found work on a wagon train hauling supplies from Leavenworth, Kansas, to the soldiers at the western forts on the Old Military Road. Great herds of cattle and horses were also driven over this trail. For this work he used six and eight yoke of oxen hitched to an Army wagon, with a straight tongue, high wheels and a large boat-shaped box. Because there were no bridges, they had to ford creeks and rivers. The weight of the wagons and their loads caused great cracks to open between wheel tracks; often, they were deeper than the men were tall. When one track was worn too deeply, another would be started, replaced by a third. For some stretches there were as many as ten or twelve sets of tracks. Herds of buffalo and deer roamed freely. Wild turkeys were also a familiar sight and a possible source of food. Even though the wagon trains had cavalry escorts and guides, that included Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok, Indian attacks were frequent.

A family legend tells that on one of Fredrick’s trips his wagon broke down and he went in search of wood to make a new part. Other stories say he left the wagon to look for water. While he was away, Indians attacked, killed and scalped the man who remained with the wagon. Fredrick survived by hiding in bushes along the creek bank during the night. In another version Indians overtook the wagon, and Fredrick gave them food and indicated that soldiers were following close behind him. The Indians left without harming anyone. Perhaps these are different renditions of the same story, or they may be separate tales altogether.

Life in a wagon train would have been difficult. In addition to the Indian attacks, other dangers would have come from the renegade pro- and anti-slavery bands that roamed the area. Nature would have been even more challenging. The extremes of Kansas summers and winters, sudden storms, tornados and blizzards would have been difficult to endure in an open wagon. Because the wagon drivers traveled across the state in all kinds of weather, they would have had to maintain and repair their wagons, watch for water, shoot game for food, build fires and sleep under the stars. It would’ve been a hard life, and it’s doubtful that any man could have endured it for long. In addition, the Kansas Pacific Railroad, an authorized branch of the Union Pacific, was pushing westward connecting Kansas City to Denver, making the wagon trains obsolete.

Other accounts of Schepp’s efforts in America include a homestead that he established near Manhattan, Kansas, in the early 1860s, on a claim that was jumped in his absence.

On January 19, 1861, President Buchanan signed the bill granting statehood to Kansas. When the messenger bearing the news arrived in Topeka, spontaneous celebrations broke out and lasted far into the night. The town was ablaze, as each family placed a candle in their windows. Wealthy families lit two candles. By this time, it was clear that pro-slavery forces had lost their bid to control Kansas. The Civil War began three months later. The first Kansas regiment was called on June 3, 1861, and the seventeenth, and last, in 1864. The number raised was 16,554. Kansas’s regiments killed in battle and from disease were greater, per thousand, than any other state. Some accounts of this period suggest that both factions pressured Fredrick to spy for them. If he did return to Germany, this is likely to be both the time and the reason for his absence.

Without doubt, the first years of Fredrick’s life in Kansas are clouded. It’s certain that he drove the supply wagons but unknown for how long. Later events confirm that some time during this period he acquired property or earned enough money to buy property, but there is no official record of Fredrick, his activities or whereabouts until 1867.

Wasting Away in Margarithaville

[M]emory is fragile and the space of a single life is brief, passing so quickly that we never get a chance to see the relationship between events; we cannot gauge the consequences of our acts, and we believe in the fiction of past, present, and future, but it may also be true that everything happens simultaneously.

—Isabelle Allende, best-selling author of Daughters of Fortune

FREDRICK SCHEPP’S MARRIAGE TO Margaritha Muhlenbacher was brief and stormy. The Muhlenbachers were a family of Prussians who settled in Alma, Kansas, on the Illinois Creek. They had immigrated sometime during the 1850s. The family consisted of Margaritha; her mother, M. Margaritha; three brothers, John Louis, Fredrick and Peter; and a sister, Louisa.

Records tell us that all three Muhlenbacher brothers joined the Kansas Militia on October 10, 1864. They served in Company L of the Fourteenth Regiment under the leadership of Colonel J.M. Harvey. Whether they enlisted or were drafted is unknown.

In the early stages of the Civil War, Confederate Major-General Sterling Price conducted the last major military operation west of the Mississippi River. Even though the Union Cavalry under Major-General Alfred Pleasonton defeated him, the campaign is still known as Price’s Raid. During the fall of 1864 furious battles raged across Missouri, the target being control of Kansas and Arkansas. The confederates hoped to dominate these lands and capture the supplies that they offered. They also believed that a Southern victory would surely lead to the defeat of Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1864.

It’s likely that the service of these brothers was needed for the battle of Westport. This decisive four-hour battle fought on October 23, 1864, took place only seventy miles east of the Muhlenbacher property.

Price’s retreating forces were again engaged in battle two days later on October 25 at Trading Post in Linn County, Kansas, on the banks of Marais des Cygnes Creek. Later that day they faced another encounter six miles south at Mines Creek, which was the scene of the final defeat.

All three Muhlenbacher brothers were discharged on November 1, 1864. The records list their period of actual service as twenty-three days. Historians believe that they may never have left Wabaunsee County.

Although no government records can be found documenting any of the three brothers’ service in the Union Army, a photograph of Fredrick and Peter was taken dressed in full Union Army uniform. The belt buckles, powder bags and rifle complete with bayonet are family property today. There also exists a discharge document for Fredrick stating that he was drafted into the Union Army on February 28, 1865, for a period of one year or for the length of the war under the command of 2nd Lieutenant George W. May. He was honorably discharged on August 13, 1865, at Montgomery, Alabama. The reason given for his discharge was that his service was no longer needed. This certificate also states that he was twenty-nine at the time of his discharge and that he was born in Germany, stood five feet four inches tall, had a fair complexion, gray eyes and brown hair.

We don’t know how Fredrick and Margaritha met nor do we know the circumstances surrounding their courtship and their marriage. They were married on January 1, 1867, as the Civil War was nearing an end. We do know that this union produced a son known as John Louis on October 29, 1867. He would later be called Louie. Fredrick was thirty-seven and Margaritha twenty-eight. At this time, Fredrick had been in the United States for fifteen years. Perhaps he felt that it was time to settle down.

The bride’s brothers had a reputation for being contentious and suspicious in nature, and they guarded their considerable wealth carefully. The Muhlenbacher holdings included several thousand acres of land, three stone houses, more than a thousand head of cattle, and one of the finest stands of timber in Wabaunsee County.

The Schepp family lore is that the brothers were hostile to Fredrick and he felt threatened by them. Perhaps this was intentional on their part and they hoped to drive him away. It’s even been implied that once Fredrick had produced an heir, the Muhlenbachers had no further need for him.

In September of 1868, Margaritha petitioned the court to issue an injunction forbidding her husband, Fredrick, to sell any property real or personal that was in his possession or that he claimed to own or that she owned in her own right. The action was a success. John Louis Muhlenbacher was appointed to receive and take possession of all property claimed by the couple.

Later, on December 14, 1868, Fredrick brought and won a civil action against John Louis for the recovery of one sorrel colt with whitish feet, about one year old, six cows, three calves, one double barrel shotgun and one old American musket gun. The suit demanded that the property be returned to Fredrick no later than Christmas Day of 1868.

In March of 1870 Fredrick sued for divorce. Each party was represented by an attorney. The grounds were desertion, and both husband and wife stipulated that they had lived apart for more than a year. The words of the handwritten document say that the marriage was set aside and annulled rather than that a divorce was granted. Margaritha was awarded care and custody of their child, but Fredrick was given full visitation rights. Margaritha was also enjoined from all rights or interest in property, real or personal currently owned or later acquired by Fredrick. This portion of the decree reverses the 1868 court action.

At this time, Fredrick signed a deed conveying eighty acres of land in Lecompton, Kansas, to Margaritha. For this property, he was paid one hundred dollars. This transaction was not covered in the terms of the divorce decree.

In the decree the child is referred to as Fredrick L. Schepp Jr.

This may have been a clerical error or Margaritha may have changed the birth name. Fredrick’s son was born before birth records were kept in Wabaunsee County, so this is one more of our family mysteries. Because there was an annulment, it is amazing that Margaritha kept the Schepp name. Perhaps it was for the sake of the child.

Notes left by a family member say that, although he had visitation rights, Fredrick did not see his son, Louie, again until he reached the age of twenty. It would be interesting to know if that meeting was accidental and, if not, who initiated it. We also do not know if Louie had a relationship with his younger half brothers, Albert and Herman, in later life.

Certainly, emotions were heightened at this time. Hostility and distrust are apparent in the tone of the documents that remain. One must wonder what the