Mid-Missouri woman looking into life in Missouri River bottom before floods

Home even without houses

This 1924 spring wedding of Ann Benedict to Pete Swehla is taken in the Missouri River bottom, with corn shocks from the fall in the background. The bridesmaid is Edith Benedict and the best man is Joe Schollmeyer. Fred Sundermeyer is between them. The flower girl is Josephine Benedict and the boy is Frank Benedict.
This 1924 spring wedding of Ann Benedict to Pete Swehla is taken in the Missouri River bottom, with corn shocks from the fall in the background. The bridesmaid is Edith Benedict and the best man is Joe Schollmeyer. Fred Sundermeyer is between them. The flower girl is Josephine Benedict and the boy is Frank Benedict.

CHAMOIS, Mo. - Susan Sundermeyer grew up in the Missouri River bottom, where her great-grandfather settled the family in 1879.

"I have deep roots there," she said.

While helping the Missouri Humanities Council collect information about the Chamois area for its German Heritage Corridor, Sundermeyer received encouragement from council representatives to pursue an identification project of pre-Great Flood of 1993 farmhouses.

She received a $2,500 Missouri Humanities Council grant, which has been augmented by the Chamois Historic Preservation Commission and the Chamois Industrial Development Corporation.

Her first step was to collect her own family's stories and photos - extensive, thanks to a great-uncle in the early 20th century whose hobby was photography.

Then she used her weekly column about Chamois, "The Home of Good Neighbors" in the Unterrified Democrat, to provide an introduction, invitation and updates on the project.

Response has been steady and surprising.

Today, her research is brimming with nearly 50 folders of specific properties, maps - hand-drawn and printed - photos, paintings and artifacts.

"There are lots of flood pictures," she said.

Sundermeyer, a retired elementary school teacher, has identified about 90 houses in the 16-mile stretch across Chamois and Morrison. That's nearly double the number of homes she knew of when she made her grant application.

Pictures have been great revelations about early life in the river bottoms.

A photo from a spring 1924 wedding, which pilot Charles Lindbergh attended, shows corn shocks and handmade streamers for decorations on the 1920s car.

And paintings provide a quintessential look at life on the farm in the Missouri River bottoms. Most of them also include barns and other auxiliary features for specific properties.

"Thank goodness for these paintings," she said.

In addition to the properties, however, the project is designed to depict daily life. Many of her family pictures help do that, showing everyday tasks like feeding chickens, separating cream and milk, cooking on the old wood cook stove, stirring a copper kettle of apple butter, cutting wheat or hunting.

Personal stories and memories are helping to preserve that lifestyle. Some features of that approach to life remain in the area, such as belief in the freedom of religion, valuing education and helping one another.

"I've heard all kinds of little stories, some that are not going to be repeated," she joked.

The 1913 Osage County Atlas was a good foundation, providing the location of existing houses and names of land owners.

Then she had to move forward in time for any homes built after that, including modern ranch-style houses built in the 1960s and '70s on ground above the Flood of 1951. She looked backward for homes built and gone in the years prior to that atlas.

"I'm looking for any house at any point," she said. "I want pictures, history, stories - anything people are willing to share."

Recently, Sundermeyer hosted a meeting for people to bring in their photos and stories. She was pleased with the turnout of more than a dozen people.

She was even more pleased to learn the exact location of the Busse School, which she had hand-drawn from other histories too far east.

The men who farm the land today know the location of the old school because of rocks in the field, the remains of the school's stone foundation, she said.

"It's exciting learning more about the history of where I live," Sundermeyer said.

The earliest settlers brought slaves with them to farm the land, she said. So it could be assumed many of the first homes, now gone, were built by their hands.

The town of Chamois wasn't established until 1856, when the railroad came through. Sundermeyer said until she researched the history of the town, she thought it was first a river town.

The Benedict House, where the wedding reception attended by Lindbergh was held, was built with remnants from the 1904 World's Fair.

"There are lots of stories about Lindbergh," she said.

Sundermeyer grew up in the Benedict House. Then her parents built a new home in the river bottom in 1964.

"Dad taught us to do both work and then play, just as his dad taught him," she remembered.

The farmhouse of her great-grandparents and grandparents is gone. Her grandparents' later home and the Benedict House are standing, but "definitely not livable - or safe," she said.

"There were so many beautiful homes," Sundermeyer said.

Most of the homes built in the 1960s and '70s, above the 1951 flood line, still stand.

The oldest home she has identified was built with bricks made on site in 1845 by the Shobe family, one of the first to settle the area.

Built on a hill overlooking the river valley, it had access through the bottom. So although it was cut off by the flooding, the house was never damaged, Sundermeyer said.

"It is still a beautiful farm home today," she said.

The oldest still-standing brick home, the Paulsmeyer Home, is soon to be torn down.

Only 19 farmhouses still stand in the area, Sundermeyer said. Five are ranch-style homes from the '60s and '70s. Five are old farmhouses still habitable. The other nine are declining old farmhouses.

Sundermeyer is not nearly finished with her research. She has more people to visit with and more maps and photos to track down.

Eventually, her findings will be displayed on 12 or more tall banners, which will first be exhibited at Chamois Days in September at the Chamois Lions Community Center at Riverside Park. Afterward, the exhibit will be housed at the Townley House Museum.

However, the display design is mobile, and she hopes the project will travel to several sites, not only in Gasconade and Osage counties, but even statewide.

Artifacts that may accompany the future display include antique doors with water marks from the Great Flood of 1993, a wash stand and a traveler's trunk.

"This is home, even though the houses are gone," Sundermeyer said. "My dad, grandpa, great-grandpa and other relatives all looked at these same bluffs, this same valley, this same land. It was a great way of life, living on a farm."

For more information or to share information, call 573-301-5134 or email [email protected].