Underground@Springdale

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The Shader family is an example of how difficult genealogical research can be. Just because you know a person’s name doesn’t mean it will be easy to locate them in government records.

The Schader’s were among the numerous German immigrants who settled in Peoria. Thanks to the census enumerator’s error, we have a clue as to how they pronounced their family name.

The census records often tell us as much about the census enumerators as they do about residents. In 1860, Lorenz and Francis’ names were listed in the census as “Lorentz and Franciska.”

The Schader family pronounced their name as “Schodder,” based on the 1880 census enumeration when it was recorded that way, and then later corrected. Assuming the census is otherwise correct, Lorenz was born in Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, in 1821 and his wife, Frances Portman, was born either in France or Germany in 1828. They were married in Peoria on December 2, 1850, but Lorenz Schader was spelled “Lawrence Shader” and Frances was listed as “Frances Portman.” Apparently it was difficult for anyone to get both Lorenz’s first and last name spelled correctly.

The 1870 census spelled their last name correctly, but gave Mr. Schrader’s first name as “Larance.” When he was naturalized, on May 25, 1857, in Peoria, his name was recorded as “Laurence Schader” by the Peoria County courts. No wonder his stone so carefully recorded the facts of his life.

Lorenz Schader was a carpenter. The family lived at 525 N. Water Street.

They had several children. Joseph, or “Joe,” was born in Illinois in 1858; Andrew in 1860; twin sons Laurence and Frank in 1862; Nicholas, or “Nick,” in 1851; and Peter in 1855. Peter worked in a saloon and all of the other boys were railroad brakemen.

Frances Schader’s stone is next to her husband’s. It is another grave that does not appear in the two-volume Index to Springdale Cemetery, Peoria, Illinois, 1857-1927. The engraving is difficult to read but it appears to say that she died on Jan. 16, 1898, in the 70^th  year of her age.

Click on the photos below to see them enlarged.

The most-used resource for researching Springdale Cemetery is the two-volume Index.  But, I find most people don’t fully understand how to use it.

The Index is a list of those buried in Springdale Cemetery from 1857 to 1927.  Before anyone uses the index, they really need to read the preface. The original names were, of course, handwritten and difficult to read. Some of the records were 120 years old when the index was created. Because of the mismanagement of the cemetery, one book of burials,
between 1900 and 1910, is missing.

The indexers attempted to include the person’s name, where they were born, where they died, how old they were when they died, and whether they were married.

They also included “Date of death or interment.” This little note is critical for researchers. Sometimes the cemetery recorded the date the person died. Sometimes they recorded the date they were buried. In most cases, there is a period of three or four days between those dates.

So many people assume that the date is the date of death. Then they go in search of an obituary that might have been published on that date, and don’t find one.

To use the index, do two searches. Assume that the date of death is given. The obituary usually appears sometime between the date of death and up to one week afterward, if the family waited for out-of-town friends and relatives to arrive. Prior to 1900, in particular, a pre-obituary might have been published, explaining how seriously ill someone might be and telling their life story as though it was an obituary. Hopefully, none of these people ever read of their own pending demise!

In most cases, that approach works. No one has an estimate of how often the burial date was recorded, instead of the date of death.

If the date of burial was recorded, it can be a challenge to identify the actual date of death. In winter, the ground in Peoria freezes so hard that, when the staff had to dig graves by hand, there was allegedly a vault in the cemetery where bodies could remain for up to a month while the family waited for enough of a thaw to make it easier to dig a grave. If the
burial date was used for those deceased, the death date could be off by as much five weeks or more. No one knows exactly how rigidly the cemetery adhered to the one month rule.

What to do?

In a case where no obituary appeared a couple of days before the date that appears in the Index, assume that the date is the date of burial instead of the date of death. Search
previous date for up to one week before the date given.

It does not appear that the newspapers ran reports of burials that occurred well after the date. The obituary ran at the time of death. To date, there don’t appear to be any record of postponed burial events aside from what might appear in the cemetery’s records. For legal reasons, the date of burial is probably more important to the cemetery than the date of death. They needed to keep track of who was buried and when, regardless of the date of
death.

The easiest way to identify the date of death is to find the death certificate, at the courthouse. The library does not have these records. More importantly, the death certificate is filed at the courthouse in the county where the person died. If the deceased died in Chatsworth, Illinois, in that historic train wreck that involved dozens of people from Peoria, their death certificate is filed in Livingston County. If they died in nearby Pekin, their certificate is archived in Tazewell County, and so on.

If the person died between 1916 and 1950, there is an online source called the Database
of Illinois Death Certificates, 1916–1950. Start by narrowing the search to the county where the person probably died. If you don’t find their name, expand your search to the entire state, just in case they died in another county.

The other option is to contact Springdale Cemetery and ask the cemetery for any information they have. They will send you a map, along with directions to the person’s grave. In the vast majority of cases, the date engraved on the stone is correct. However, the date on the death certificate is considered the true date of death, regardless of what is recorded anyplace else. (It is true that sometimes the death certificate date has been wrong but, provided with enough evidence, the courthouses will correct the certificate.)

These records are more accurate. They were not created by volunteers, who did their level best in creating the Index.

It does take a few weeks to get a response but the information is probably more accurate. The cemetery is responsible for maintaining records pertaining to real estate, which is what a grave really is. In spite of the mismanagement of the cemetery, the information they provide is often more accurate.

So why use the Index?

It can be a good starting point. Providing the cemetery with as much information as you can locate on your own, will help them identify the person you are looking for. Many of the entries are correct.

Just keep in mind that the index is not a legal record. It was created by volunteers working with a poor recordkeeping system. Don’t discount it, but also don’t assume that it is a legal record because it is not.

This is a grave I find interesting. I have only gone on one guided tour of Springdale Cemetery and was a bit surprised that, with the exception of the Woolner family (they were Jewish), the tour consisted almost exclusively of white, protestant, males, most of whom were wealthy.

Our tour guide actually waved dismissively as the trolley passed Mt. Sinai, one of the larger sections of the cemetery where many Jewish families are buried, and our host sniffed, “Oh, that’s the Jewish section.” I was beyond offended especially since the Jewish community of Peoria was hugely vital in creating this city.

In addition to the Jewish people buried in Springdale, there are hundreds of others of every conceivable religious belief (see A Mohameddan in Springdale). Springdale is remarkably diverse cemetery and many, many, many people buried there are not white. So it isn’t clear why only wealthy white people are included on that particular tour.

In the Old Public Lots, there is this truly charming little stone that has survived the neglect Springdale endured for a certain part of its history. It is a beautiful little stone that reads:

Susan M. Coursey

Wife of Joseph R. Davis

Died March 12, 1901

Age 33 Years

Gone but not forgotten

Susan M. Coursey was a black woman born in Canada in Sept. 1870. Both of her parents were born in Pennsylvania. It would be interesting to learn her full history. She was definitely not the only black person buried in Springdale, however.

At the time of the 1900 census, Joseph and Susan had only been married for four years. He was from Tennessee, as were his parents. He was a black man born there in April 1853.

In 1900, a year before Susan died, they were living in the same household as Julius Sawer, a black man also born in Tennessee, in March 1862. Julius was married to Josie Sawer, a black woman born in December 1871 in Kentucky. They had been married for one year. Josie had no children. She was apparently Julius Sawer’s second wife since he had two sons living with him, both of whom were born in Tennessee.

Susan M. Coursey lived a short life. We don’t know why she came to Peoria, or how she got here. But she was clearly loved and her husband, or whoever put the stone on her grave, wanted a little bit of her own history preserved so they had her stone engraved with some genealogical facts.

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