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1844 - Michael Schuller
Although his name was listed as Michel Schuller on the ship's manifest when he emigrated to the United States, birth records of his children show that his name was spelled Michael. According to Michael Schuller's death record, his parents were Alphonze Schuller and Sophia Tomas, and according to the 1920 census they were born in Alsace. The family was Roman Catholic. Alsace was a heavily Roman Catholic region. confusing recordsSorting out genealogical facts can be very confusing. According to the 1910 census, Michael Schuller was born in Germany and spoke German. But according to the 1920 census, Michael Schuller was born in Alsace-Lorraine and spoke French. By 1930, the census records become a bit more accurate—Michael was born in Alsace-Lorraine (partially correct) and spoke German. At the time of his birth, Alsace was a part of France, but large parts of the population were of Germanic origin and spoke German. MühlhausenFor many years, the town the Schuller family emigrated from had been forgotten and unknown to their descendants. Then a document was found that solved the mystery. When Michael Schuller's son Michael registered for the draft in 1917, he listed his birth place as "Muelhausen, Elsace, France." This is the only source we have found for a specific place of origin for the family.
The name of the town was actually Mühlhausen (German for mill houses). In the Alsatian Swiss-German dialect, it was known as Milhüsa. Today it is a large sprawling industrial city known as Mulhouse (pronounced my-luz in French). It is the second largest city in Alsace after Strasbourg. Mulhouse is the largest city in the southern part of Alsace known as the département du Haut-Rhin (Department of Upper Rhine) The northern half of Alsace is the département du Bas-Rhin (Lower Rhine). The upper and lower designations refer to the relative elevation above sea level. The southern half is near the Swiss Alps, hence the upper designation.
In 1648, at the end of the Thirty Years War, the Holy Roman Empire was disbanded and much of Alsace was ceded to France by the Treaty of Westphalia. However, Mühlhausen remained a Swiss town until 1798 when, at the peak of its prosperity (based on the manufacture of printed cotton fabrics), it voted to become a part of France also. This was a purely pragmatic decision. At the time, a French blockade of the Swiss cantons forced the city leaders to ask France for unification in order to continue to trade and prosper. Fifty years earlier, in 1746, four young men from Mühlhausen founded the city's first textile printing works where they developed dyeing and printing techniques for calico cotton fabrics. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the city of Mühlhausen grew rapidly, largely due to the implantation of numerous textile printers. In 1789, Mühlhausen had 6,600 inhabitants. By 1851, the population had grown to 29,500. In the 19th century, Mühlhausen and the surrounding Alsace area became world leaders in the manufacture and marketing of chintz and other printed cloth. The pictuesque cathedral of Mühlhausen was dedicated in 1866 when Michael Schuller was 22 years old. Therefore, parish records would need to be found elsewhere. Alsace
The agriculturally rich lower area is checkered with vineyards, while the higher slopes are forested and sprinkled with monasteries and old castles. To the west lies the Lorraine region of France, to the south is Switzerland, and to the east across the Rhine is the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) of Germany. Alsace was part of the Holy Roman Empire and its successors from 841 to the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. For eight centuries it was ruled by Germanic leaders including the Hohenstaufen Emperors in the 12th and 13th centuries and the Habsburgs (often Anglicised as Hapsburg) in the 14th to 17th centuries. In 1648, Alsace became a French territory for the first time.
Therefore, before 1871 anyone from Alsace would have been considered French. From 1871 to 1918 they would have been considered German. After 1918, they would have once again been considered French. So in the 1900 and 1910 U.S. census records anyone from Alsace would generally be listed as having come from Germany. In 1920 and 1930, Alsatians would generally be listed as having come from France.
The Schullers from Alsace reflect this back and forth history. They descended from Germanic roots and they spoke German. (Schuller is a derivative of schüler, German for student, pupil or scholar). Yet the Schullers considered themselves French as did most Alsatians. The people of Alsace were French in spirit, proud to belong to the country generally regarded as the most civilized in Europe at the time, yet they always retained their historic Germanic customs and dialects. 1855 - Salomé ThomasSalomé Thomas, was born in Alsace in April 1855 during the reign of French Emperor Napoleon III. According to the 1920 census, both her parents were born in Alsace also. We have no record of their names. According to her death record, Salomé's maiden name was Thomas, which I considered to be an unusual name for an Alsatian, because it looks like an English spelling—not French or German. But historical records in Alsace confirm that Thomas is the correct spelling. trivia: Alfred Dreyfus and Albert SchweitzerThis is just an interesting aside, but Michael and Salomé were contemporaries with Alfred Dryfus, a French military officer best known for being the focus of the "Dreyfus Affair." Dreyfus was born in Mühlhausen or Mulhouse to Jewish parents on October 9, 1859. He was framed for an act of espionage and arrested for treason on October 15, 1894. In January 1895, he was sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. Dreyfus won a retrial after Émile Zola published a front-page letter to the French President, entitled J'Accuse! He was eventually exonerated in 1906. Another bit of trivia is that Albert Schweitzer was born in the nearby town of Kaysersberg, Alsace on January 14, 1875. The son of a Lutheran pastor, Albert attended high school in Mühlhausen. He was 20 years younger than Michael and Salome, but was just two years older than their first child Alphonse Joseph Schuller, who was born on March 5, 1877. The Schullers emigrated to the United States in 1888 when Alphonse was just 11 years old, so he and Albert Schweitzer would not have been high school classmates. 1860 - 1869Michael Schuller became a carriage maker and a blacksmith. Perhaps his father Alphonze had those trades also. Michael later taught his eldest son Alphonse the skills of the blacksmith/farrier trade. 1870 - 1879In 1870, when Michael Schuller was 26 and Salomé was 16, Prussia went to went to war with France. The Franco-Prussian war was largely fought in Alsace and resulted in terrible destruction and loss of life. Although we currently have no record of his military service, Michael was of military age during the war. It is likely that he was drafted into the French army. His great-granddaughter, Betty Struckmeyer, remembered seeing a portrait of a man in a military uniform while visiting the Schuller household in St. Louis in the 1920s. Perhaps this was a photograph of Michael.
A policy of Germanization banned the French language in schools and all newspapers had to be printed in German. There was tremendous anger and resistance in Alsace over German domination. The Alsatian sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), in exile in Paris, created his famous Statue of Liberty for the U.S. Centennial of 1876, saying that it represented for him precisely that freedom which he and his fellow Alsatian were being denied. marriage and childrenIn 1873, Michael Schuller and Salomé Thomas were married in a Roman Catholic parish in Mühlhausen, in what was then a part of the new Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen (the Imperial Country of Alsace-Lorraine) in the Deutsches Reich (German Empire). Salome was 19 and Michael was 29. Over the course of their marriage they had 11 children. Five died in infancy or childhood, most likely in Alsace. Only six survived to adulthood according to the 1910 U.S. census record. Of the five children who died, we only have the name of one—Elizabeth—whose birth date is unknown. Their surviving children included four sons who were born in Alsace. The first was born in the 1870s.
There is some reason to believe that their first son, Alphonse Joseph Schuller, may not have been born in the town of Mühlhausen. His grave marker states that he was born in Paris. Although possible, this birth place is not likely. Other documents indicate his birthplace as Alsace, although none definitely state he was born in Mühlhausen. Alphonse, who had quite a sense of humor, sometimes claimed that he was born in a town named "Infillibippi." I have not been able to find any town in France with a name resembling that and, from experience, I would take his claims with a grain of salt. Alfie also told his grand-daughters that he was descended from King Alphonse of Spain and that therefore they were royalty—princesses. "But," he cautioned them, "don't tell the other children." Most likely, all the brothers—Alphonse, Joseph, Anton and Michael—were born in Mühlhausen, a part of the Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen (the Imperial Country of Alsace-Lorraine) in the Deutsches Reich (German Empire) of Emperor Wilhelm I and his prime minister Otto von Bismarck. 1880 - 1889The next three children, all sons, were born in the decade of the 1880s.
1888 emigrationIn April 1888, the family left Alsace and emigrated to Saint Louis, Missouri in the United States. There is no record of what caused the decision to emigrate.
La Bourgogne is famous because of a disaster which occurred 10 years after the Schuller's voyage. On July 4, 1898, on a voyage from New York to Le Havre, La Bourgogne was sunk in a collision with a British coal ship, the Cromartyshire, in a deep fog off Newfoundland. La Bourgogne had 726 persons on board—506 passengers and 220 crew members. 549 people drowned. 1890 - 1899After the family's arrival in the United States, census records help to fill in some of the gaps in the family's story. Unfortunately, no census record is available for 1890. The Federal Census of 1890 was destroyed by a fire at the Commerce Department in Washington, D.C. on January 10, 1921. The surviving fragments of 1,233 pages list only 6,160 of the 62 million people counted. When the Schullers arrived in St. Louis in 1888, the population was about 145,000, with 1,717 residents who were born in France and 66,000 born in Germany. We don't know where they first settled, but by 1900 the Schuller family was living the Soulard area of St. Louis, just south of downtown. Soulard is one of the oldest neighborhoods in St. Louis with homes dating from the mid to late 1800s. The area was named for a French surveyor, Antoine Soulard, who surveyed the area for the King of Spain while St. Louis was under Spanish control from 1763 to 1800. During that period, St. Louis was a part of the "Ylinneses" region of the province of "Luisiana." The Soulard community was annexed by the city of St. Louis in 1841. There is a record in the 1890 St. Louis City Directory of a Michael Schuller living at 1003 Allen Avenue, between 10th Street and Menard Street, in the Soulard neighborhood. He is listed as a laborer.
We can assume that the Schullers were members of this church because their children were baptized there and Michael, Salome and Anton are buried in the Sts. Peter and Paul Cemetery in South St. Louis. (The entrance to the cemetery is located at 7030 Gravois Avenue and their graves can be found on a hill just south of Loughborough Avenue.) A parochial school was conducted in a large story building adjoining the church on Eighth Street. Over the next several years, Michael and Salomé's two surviving daughters were born:
After seven years in the United States, the six Alsace-born members of the Schuller family became naturalized citizens in 1895. In 1895, Gould's St. Louis City Directory listed Michael Schuller as a blacksmith living at the rear of 1003 Allen Avenue.
In 1899, Gould's St. Louis City Directory listed Michael "Schuler" as a blacksmith residing at 1724 South Broadway, with Alphonse "Schuler" as a "shoer" at the same address. 1900 - 1909In the 1900 census we learn that Michael Schuller (55) and Salomé (45) were living with their six children at 316 Lafayette Avenue, between South 3rd Street and South Broadway, in St. Louis. Their home lay just two blocks from the railroad tracks that ran along the banks of the Mississippi. Michael's occupation was a blacksmith. Sons Alfonso (23), Joseph (20), Anton (15) and Mike (13) were working as a blacksmith, a laborer, a clerk and a machinist's assistant respectively. Minnie (11) and Mary (9) were in school. Alphonse Schuller soon left the household. He married Emma Bauer on July 18, 1901 in St. Louis, Missouri, most likely at Sts. Peter and Paul church. He was 24 and she was 20. (See Alphonse Schuller and Emma Bauer) Emma was the daughter of Gustav Bauer and Christine Bauer. She was born May 19, 1881 in St. Louis, Missouri. Alphonse and Emma Schuller had four children all during this decade:
Sometime between 1900 and 1903, Joseph Schuller married Margaret (surname unknown). She was born in 1881 in Illinois to unrecorded parents. They had one child, Mildred Schuller, born in 1904 in St. Louis, Missouri.
1910 - 1919In 1910, Michael (64), Salomé (55), and their children Michael (23), Minnie (21) and Marie (19) were living at 815 Geyer Avenue, between 8th and 9th Streets, about 4 blocks west of their previous address on Lafayette. Michael senior was a blacksmith for a boiler maker. The John Nooter Boiler Works Company was located nearby in the Soulard area. They began manufacturing pressure vessels in the 1890's. Perhaps Michael worked there. Young Michael was a foreman at a buggy works, Minnie was a stitcher at a shoe factory, and Marie was a stenographer in an office. After 12 years in the United States, the census says that Michael and Salome still spoke German, not English.
In 1910, Alphonse Schuller (33) was living at 4609 Easton Avenue, about six blocks east of Kingshighway Boulevard in north St. Louis, with Emma (28) and their three children: Alice (8), Elmer (6) and Kenneth (7 months). Alphonse was a horseshoer or farrier who owned his own blacksmith shop. (Today, Easton Avenue has been renamed Dr. Martin Luther King Drive.) Within the next seven years, Alphonse opened his own company, the Schuller Auto Repair Company at 4543 Delmar Avenue. Horses were a thing of the past, and for someone skilled at working with metal, Alphonse decided auto repair was the future. In 1910, I found no census record for either Joseph Schuller or Anton Schuller. In 1914, Marie Schuller married George Hugh Roninger. He was born January 24, 1890 in Columbiana, Ohio. They had four children, the first two born in this decade:
In June 1917, George Roninger (27) registered for the draft. He was living at 3909A Wyoming in St. Louis with his wife Marie and his two sons Louis and Robert. He was a manager of sales promotion for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. He had 3 years of military service in the artillery. In 1917 and 1918, the four Schuller brothers also registered for the draft. In June 1917, Michael Schuler (30) registered. He was living at 908 Russell Avenue. He listed his employment as hat maker and his employer as the Norris Polk Hat Company at 1227 Washington Avenue in St. Louis. In September 1918, Alphonse Schuller (41) registered. His address was 1343 Walton, between Page and Easton, in St. Louis. He listed his occupation as auto repair work at Schuller Auto Repair Company, 4543 Delmar Avenue, about eight blocks south of his home. In September 1918, Joseph Schuller (37) also registered. He was living at 1005 Lafayette Avenue in the Soulard area. His registration card listed his occupation as a motion picture operator at the Majestic Theater at 11th Street and Franklin Avenue. His wife's name was spelled "Margariette." In September 1918, Anton Schuller (36) also was registered for the draft. At the time, he was an inmate at the City Sanitarium at 5400 Arsenal Street in St. Louis. He was found unfit to serve in the military because he was declared "insane."
Sometime around 1917 or 1918, Minnie Schuller married Edward Seemiller. He had been born on November 6, 1892 in St. Louis, Missouri. They had one son:
1920 - 1929The 1920 census records give us this picture:
In 1920, Alphonse Schuller (42), Emma (38) and their three children, Alice (18), Elmer (16) and Kenneth (10), were living at 1343 Walton Avenue in St. Louis. This census record gives Alphonse's birth place as Alsace-Lorraine, and not Paris. He was a repairer of automobiles. His son Elmer was employed as a machinist with a mimeograph company. The census was conducted on the 6th and 7th of January, 1920. Although Alice Schuller was enumerated at this address, she had actually married three or four days earlier. On January 3, 1920, Alice Schuller married Ernest Sagner in St. Louis. (See Ernest Sagner and Alice Schuller) Ernie and Alice had two children, born during the next six years:
In 1920, Joseph Schuller (38), Margaret (38) and daughter Mildred (16) resided at 1005 Lafayette Avenue in St. Louis. Joseph was an electrician for a picture show, most likely the Majestic Theater, and Mildred was an office clerk for a railroad. In 1920, Anton Schuller (37) was still an inmate at the City Sanitarium at 5400 Arsenal Street in St. Louis. In 1920, Minnie (Schuller) Seemiller (30) and Edward Seemiller (27) were living at 2015 South 9th Street in St. Louis with their son Edward M. Seemiller (1 year, 3 months). I have found no census record for Marie and George Roninger in 1920. However, by 1922, they were living in Colorado where their third child was born. Their last two children were born in this decade:
This picture, most likely taken in St. Louis in 1926, shows Michael and Salomé Schuller with their son Alphonse Joseph Schuller, granddaughter Alice Elizabeth Sagner, and great-granddaughter Betty Lee Sagner.
This photo shows the extended family on the same day, perhaps on the occasion of the baptism of Alice and Ernie Sagner's second child Alica Anita Sagner. My only clue is that Salome is holding an infant and Alice (seated on her far left, our right) is wearing a corsage. In the crowd are Michael and Salomé Schuller's four sons and two daughters. Included are two sons-in-law (George Ronninger and Edward Seemiller) and two daughters-in-law (Emma Schuller and Margaret Schuller). Of Alphonse and Emma Schuller's three children, two were married and with their spouses in this photo (Alice and Ernie Sagner, and Elmer and Audrey Schuller). 1930 - 1939The 1930 census gives us this picture: In 1930, Michael (85) and Salomé (75) were still living at 908 Russell Avenue with their son Mike (44) who was still employed as a hat maker in a hat factory. Michael and Salomé's grandson, Edward M. Seemiller (11) was living with them. I don't know the reason for this. His father died four years later of cancer. In 1930, Alphonse Schuller (53) was living at 5025 Ridge in St. Louis with his wife Emma (48), and his two sons Elmer (26) and Kenneth (20). Alphonse was now listed as an automotive painter, Elmer a house painter, and Kenneth a manager at an insurance company. In 1930, Joseph Schuller (49) and his wife Margaret (49) were living at 2832 Texas Avenue in St. Louis. Their daughter Mildred was no longer in the house. I have no record of Mildred's married name. Joseph was still described as an operator of a moving picture machine. In 1930, there was no record of Anton Schuller (45). I don't know if he was still a patient in the City Asylum of St. Louis. Perhaps by this time he had been discharged from the hospital, and may have returned home to live with his parents. He was residing at their home when he died in 1941. His death certificate stated that he had worked at odd jobs, usually as a laborer or a truck driver. In 1930, Mary Roninger (38) was living with her husband George (40) at 411 Emerson Street in Denver, Colorado. They had four children—Louis E. Roninger (15), Robert H. Roninger (13), Mary S. Roninger (8) and Dorothy J. Roninger (6). George was a salesman at a grocery store. On June 7, 1934, Minnie's husband, Edward Seemiller died of cancer at age 42. Their son Edward M. Seemiller was about 16 at the time. They were living at 1816 S. 14th Street in St. Louis. His death certificate said that he was a shoeworker. Michael Schuller died on April 9, 1936 at his home at age 92 of pneumonia. He was buried on April 11, 1936 in Sts. Peter and Paul Cemetery at 7030 Gravois in St. Louis, Missouri, section 040. The grave site is just south of Loughborough Avenue. According to Michael's death certificate, by 1936 Michael and Salomé Schuller were no longer at 908 Russell Avenue, but were now living at 710 Allen Avenue in St. Louis. It is likely that Anton was living with them at this time. The 1938 Gould's St. Louis City Directory lists Mrs. Salomé Schuller living at 710 Allen Avenue. Salomé died that year on April 6, 1938 at age 83 of chronic heart and kidney problems which had been diagnosed five years earlier. According to her physician, she was also suffering from senility. Her last residence was 710 Allen Avenue in St. Louis. Salomé was buried on April 9, 1938 alongside Michael in Sts. Peter and Paul Cemetery. 1940 - 1949Anton Schuller, died on December 28, 1941 at age 57. Five days earlier he had been admitted to the Robert Koch Hospital in St. Louis with pulmonary tuberculosis. The Robert Koch Hospital for Contagious Disease, was located at 4101 Koch Road in Oakville, south of the city of St. Louis. Like most major American cities in the nineteenth century—especially port cities—St. Louis had repeated problems with infectious diseases. Cholera, yellow fever, leprosy, smallpox and diphtheria were among the diseases to strike the city, leaving tens of thousands dead. By 1910, tuberculosis was responsible for more deaths than all the other infectious diseases combined. To combat the disease, the former Smallpox and Quarantine Hospital was converted and named the Robert Koch Hospital after the German physician who first isolated the tuberculosis bacillus in 1882. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his tuberculosis findings in 1905 and is considered one of the founders of bacteriology. Nineteen buildings were constructed by 1939 and an 105-acre farm, post office, railroad stop, housing, and recreational facilities made the hospital almost self-sustaining. By the end of World War II new medications decreased the life-threatening effects of tuberculosis; from the 1950s to 1983 the hospital was used as housing for the indigent elderly. Anton was buried on December 31, 1941 next to his parents in Sts. Peter and Paul Cemetery. 1960 -1969Minnie (Schuller) Seemiller died in April 1965 in Missouri at age 76. Alphonse Schuller died on November 4, 1965 in St. Louis at age 88. Joseph Schuller died in September 1966 in St. Louis at age 85. 1970 - 1979Mike Schuller died in March 1979 in Farmington, Saint Francois, Missouri at age 92. 1980 - 1982Mary (Marie Salome Schuller) Roninger died on April 28, 1982 in Littleton, Colorado at age 90.
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Michael Schuller was born in November of 1844, most likely in Mühlhausen, département du Haut-Rhin (Department of the Upper Rhine), Région Alsace in La Royaume de France (the Kingdom of France). The territory was ruled by the French monarch Louis-Philippe d'Orléans. To date, this birth has not been confirmed by examining the registres de l’état civil of the Archives Départementales du Haut-Rhin.
The first written records of Mühlhausen date from the twelfth century when it attained status as a free town. In 1354 Mühlhausen became part of an alliance of ten Imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire in the Alsace region called the
Zehnstädtebund (Décapole in French and Decapolis in English). In 1515, Mühlhausen pulled out of the alliance in order to ally with the Swiss cantons as an independent republic. Mühlhausen is located just 20 miles northwest of Basel, Switzerland. It was closely allied with the canton of Basel and was considered a Swiss town for over 250 years of its history. 
Alsace is an eastern region of France that is separated from Germany by the Rhine river. Alsace is oriented along a north-south axis on a fertile plain tucked between the Rhine River on the east and the forests of the Vosges (pronounced vōzh) mountains on the west. It is about four times as long as it is wide. 
After the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, Alsace was ceded to Germany, along with the region of Lorraine, and became
the Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen (the Imperial Country of Alsace-Lorraine). The combined region remained under German control for nearly 50 years until the end of World War I when the territory was returned to France in 1919 and once again became separated French regions. (Alsace was destined to become German territory again in 1940 before being reunited with France once more in 1945.) 
The Vosges mountains to the west of Alsace provided a natural barrier to French language and culture during much of Alsace's history. The Alsatians developed a unique Swiss-German dialect and a Germanic culture and architecture. After the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the French government began to teach French in Alsatian schools, but the common people retained their own dialect for day to day activities. After the Franco-Prussian war, it was once again German language and culture that was taught and French influences were suppressed. 
At the war's conclusion in 1871, Alsace was ceded to the new German Empire or Deutsches Reich. The transfer caused an estimated 50,000 people (about 3 percent of a total population of about a million and a half) to emigrate from the region westward to France and to America. 
On April 16, 1888 the ship La Bourgogne arrived in New York from Le Havre, France. The ship's manifest includes Michel Schuler (43), Salomé (31), Alphonse (11), Joseph (7), and Antoine (4). Note the French spellings of Michael (Michel) and Anton (Antoine). Their youngest son Michael is not listed on the manifest. He would have been about 16-17 months old at the time of the voyage.
Built in 1885 for the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, La Bourgogne was constructed of iron and steel with two funnels and four masts. She was a 7,395 gross ton vessel, with a length of 494.4 feet and a beam of 52.2 feet. She was propelled by a single screw and had a speed of 17.5 knots. La Bourgogne could carry 1,055 passengers—390 in first class, 65 in second class, and 600 in third class. 
She sailed on her maiden voyage from Le Havre to New York on June 19, 1886. That year she raced against time and crossed the Atlantic in seven days, winning first place in the New York postal service competition. 
Just three blocks east in the Soulard neighborhood is Saints Peter and Paul Church, a Roman Catholic congregation founded in 1849 to minister to German immigrants. Located at 1919 Seventh Street at Allen Avenue, the current German Gothic structure was constructed in 1875. The church, with a steeple more than 214 feet high, was built to seat 1,500 people. 
On May 27, 1896, a powerful tornado struck St. Louis, destroying or damaging over 8,800 buildings, killing at least 138 people, and injuring over 1,000 more. The twister touched down in the southwestern portion of the city and moved northeast in a zigzag course more than two miles long and a mile wide. In its course, the tornado severely damaged Saints Peter and Paul Church and many buildings in the Soulard area, including the City Market. The tornado crossed the Mississippi river at Eads Bridge and caused additional destruction in the city of East St. Louis. It was one of the most devastating disasters in St. Louis history.
From April 30, 1904 to December 1, 1904. the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was held in St. Louis, celebrating the centennial of Thomas Jefferson's major addition to the territory of the United States. The World's Fair was located on the present-day grounds of Forest Park and Washington University, and was the largest fair to date with over 1,500 buildings. Exhibits were staged by 62 foreign nations, the United States government, and 43 of the 45 U.S. states. The Fair also hosted the 1904 Summer Olympic Games, the first Olympics held in the United States. These games had originally been awarded to Chicago, but when St. Louis threatened to hold a rival international competition, the games were relocated.
Opened in 1869 as the St. Louis County Insane Asylum, the hospital was renamed the St. Louis Insane Asylum after the City of St. Louis separated from the County of St. Louis on October 22, 1876. Located on elevated ground on Arsenal Street, west of Kingshighway (about 4 miles southwest of downtown St. Louis), the hospital consisted of a 5-story central building, flanked on each side by 4-story wings with 5-story end pavilions. The 194-foot cast iron dome on the central building was visible across much of the city. It was renamed the City Sanitarium in 1910 and extensive additional wings were added in 1912.
In 1920, the elder Mike (Michael) Schuller (74) and his wife Salomé (64) lived at 908 Russell Boulevard, between 9th Street and Menard Street, with their son Mike (32). The younger Mike was a hat maker in a factory, probably the Norris Polk Hat Company mentioned in his draft registration a few years earlier. 
