"Tracking down Family" Saint Louis Travelogue by grandmaR

TA sign

We drove north on US highway 51 until we got to Dyersberg where we could cross back over the Mississippi to Missouri. (The alternate would be to go south to Memphis and cross there.) We were in Missouri by about 11:30. Missouri which has lettered roads instead of numbered ones.

Missouri doesn't have their welcome stations right at the border, so we stopped when we got to one about a half hour later. They had a nice fire in the fireplace, because it was really cold. We used the bathroom and then stopped at the TA and got gas and ate lunch. We ate at the Country Pride instead of the Taco Bell which was under the same roof. Apparently the waitress was at lunch, because we were waited on by a young guy who confessed that he was the dishwasher. I had chicken noodle soup and a BLT, and Bob had chili.

Seventh street area

We left I55 and took US 67 up to Farmington, and after we found our way off the highway (limited access) and onto Hunt Road, we only had to stop and inquire once as to where to check in (which was at the Eagle Lake Lodge next door) to the condo at Crown Pointe Links. The place was empty except for us and one other man. It is brand new - there were no indications that anyone had ever stayed there before us.

We left in the dark to go find something to eat, and ended up at the Catfish Skillet (open Tues-Sat) where are choices were Fried Chicken, Fried Shrimp or Fried Catfish family style.

January 20th (Sunday) we stayed in the condo and watched the playoff games on TV. Bob wanted to find where we were during daylight, so he drove in to Farmington by himself and went to WalMart and bought some things for lunch and dinner for a couple of days including a pizza. It was really cold and windy anyway so I didn't want to go out.

January 21st was MLK day and I was not sure what would be open. I started doing computer research on the family, and we did not go out that day either. It was really cold and windy anyway. I called St. Peter and Paul cemetery and got a person to answer. He looked up to see if there were any Kokes buried there and said there were not although he said there were lots of Kochs. I was not sure if they were Catholic anyway, although there were German Catholics.

I found that the oldest Lutheran Church in St. Louis was Trinity and it was only a few blocks from where the census said that the Koke's lived. (top picture)

January 22nd, it snowed a little bit during the night. We left the condo to go in to St. Louis. When we got to the 7th street area, we detoured off I-55. The old area of South 7th street where they lived has been torn down and is not a big expressway type street. Although the streets were icy, we found Trinity church without incident.

St. Louis Arch against the sun

There was a parking place on the street, and the church was open, so we went in. There was a man there who was very jovial and showed us around the church and looked to see if there were baptismal records there for the Kokes. But there were not. By coincidence, he knew Westcliffe and Silver Cliff quite well.

We left there about 11:30, and went to the St. Louis Arch, which Bob said he had been to, but I had not. And it was a Historical site where I could get my National Park passport stamped. After we drove around the whole park, we parked in the garage and walked to the arch. Unfortunately, while I had my cane, I left my Golden Age card and the NPS passport in the car. So I had to get a stamp on a piece of paper, and we also had to pay full price for going up in the arch. The arch is NOT handicapped accessible as there are steps to get down to the visitor's center, and also up to the cars.

We missed the 12:10 car and went in the 12:20 one. Going up takes 4 minutes. Bob did not remember that the cars in the arch were so small. I did have my cane, so they put us in the first car. The views from the top were amazing, and while we were there some workmen came and opened up the floor. We went down in the 12:46 car (takes 3 minutes going down), and then we walked over to the Westward expansion museum. We did not do the two films which you had to pay to see.

I got to talking to a NPS guard and he recommended that we go to one of the historical societies which was on Skinker, and gave me directions to get to it. But of course I didn't have anything to write on. Bob walked around the museum while I was talking to him. It was done in concentric arches by date.

By the time we walked back to the car it was about 1330. I attempted to direct Bob to the expressway going west, but we missed the turn off Market Street and ended up taking a tour of the less beautiful sections of St. Louis. We finally stopped at Burger King for lunch - by this time it was almost 1400. There were two signs inside that this was a mini-police station for St. Louis.

We got to the St. Louis Historical Society Research Library, and they wouldn't let us bring in any bags (although they let me take in my camera), so Bob sat out in the lobby while I looked up microfilm.

I first tried to find if there was any mention in the St. Louis papers of the stagecoach accident, but the microfilm reader was so high that I got a crick in my neck trying to read it through my bifocals. It was interesting, but not informative. One of the ladies brought me a book which showed a man named Koke who was a jeweler, but he was not in the proper time frame, although I wish I had written down his name.

The NPS guy had suggested I look in the city directory, so I did that and found "Koke Wm., saloon, cor. 9th and Howard" in one of them, and Koke William, painter, ws Third opposite the theatre". I do not think either of these are are Kokes. The directories were from c 1843 and 1861. I was unsuccessful at getting them copied, so I photographed the screen. They kicked me out at closing time which was after 1600.

We drove back to Farmington and stopped on the way to eat at Don Rosener's Homestead Restaurant in Bonne Terre, which was a buffet. Dinner was $7.45. They had meat loaf, fried chicken, fried fish, fried chicken livers and gizzards, salad, mashed potatoes and gravy, bread pudding, brownies, cobbler and soft ice cream. THe Lions Club meets there and the first and third Tuesday. But this was the fourth Tuesday. The sky was clear and we could see the full moon when we got home at 1900.

One of the monuments in Memorial Park

I did another round of telephoning based on the research I did yesterday. I called City Hall, and they said they would have marriage records, and I should look on the Secy of State's website to see what was available. http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/boards.asp

I found death records for

Frank Koken 2 yrs M W St. Louis
Koke, John 30 Y M 30-Jul-1854 St. Louis

I found a naturalization record for

Koker, William Germany St. Louis City 1858
Second & Minors Papers
Sub Series Naturalization Cards
County St. Louis City
Reel Number C 25816
Box
Folder
Volume J
Page 46

I called the Catholic diocese, but could not get them to answer the phone. I also called Concordia Cemetery which the guy at Trinity had told me was the Lutheran cemetery at that time. He said he had one Koke who was in Section 1, Row 19, grave 12A. This was the old section of the cemetery and he wasn't sure if there was a grave marker.

Then we left and went to track down the tigers and go to St. Genevive.
He called me back later to say he went out to the site and that there was no marker.

After lunch, we left and went to track down the tigers and go to Ste. Genevieve.

The information we had on the area said there was a "National Tiger Sanctuary" with five tigers. I found this hard to believe. I took Bob out on all the alphabet roads - We went up D, crossing OO and K and C and several one lane bridges until we got to Y which we took through St. Francis until we got to the tiger sanctuary. But the gate was shut and there didn't appear to be anyone around.

So we continued to the town of Ste. Genevieve. I wandered around in Memorial Cemetery there - it has about 300 monuments although there are supposed to be over 4000 people buried there. The cemetery was closed to farther interments in 1881, so these are old tombstones - many of them in French.

Then we drove through town to where there was a ferry across the Mississippi. We didn't take it though - it was $10 one way and $18 round trip for a car. People use it as a short cut to Illinois. On the way back, we stopped so I could get a picture of the flood marker. The high point was 49.5 feet and where the marker was it was about 10 feet in the air.

We went to the visitor's center and saw a film, but most of the buildings are closed in the winter. The lady there said that the man that owns most of the things in the area (Crown Valley Winery, Crown Point Golf Course, Crown Valley Wine Store, Eagle Lake Golf Club, Crown Ridge, Crown Equipment etc etc) had a fight with the person running the tiger sanctuary, and the tiger man took his tigers and went home. So then the Crown person (whose name is not Crown), went and got some tigers of his own.

After we saw the CD/film about the area, and used the facilities (where there was a sign not to put anything into the "stools"), we drove on back to Farmington. Bob had bought a pizza, but there was no pan to cook it in or pizza cutter, so he stopped at Walmart again and bought them. Then we went to the White Castle and got hamburgers to bring home and eat.

Rev Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther's monument

Our first stop today was the City Hall. I first stopped at the death records department and they basically said that they couldn't help us and it would be $10-$15 for them to look. So then we went down to the Marriage records, and here we hit a gold mine.

First the lady there was able to find on microfilm a copy of the city hall record. It said

"Koker

State of Missouri,
County of St. Louis} This is to certify that on the 28th day of November AD 1857 I united in the holy bonds of matrimony by virtue of authority in me vested Fr W. Kaken and Sophia Elizabeth Uelzen. Given under my hand this 6th day of February 1858. Fr. Picker Pastor
Filed and Recorded February 16th 1858 C. Kermle Recorder."

We couldn't read the pastor's name very well, and she tried to look him up in the Catholic diocese list and couldn't find anyone of that name. So she called the diocese and they would talk to her. They said, "oh yes that's Fr Picker - we've had a lot of trouble with him." By which I think they meant that a lot of people asked about him.

Then we went to the Civil Court to see if we could get the naturalization records. They wouldn't let me take my camera in and they wouldn't even let Bob's cell phone in because it would take a picture. So I went up alone, but the records were sealed and in another location. So I left my name and address to see if they could get them and send them to me.

We then went to the City Library to see what we could find. Bob found out about Picker in a book there. It said Old Picker's Cemetery was named for a minister who founded Holy Ghost E&R Church, and that the current Picker cemetery was at 7133 Gravois.

I found on-line several Koke immigrants through NY. Wilhelm, and Frederick among others all of whom came from Eitelsbach Germany. However the name Koke was written so that the final E looked like an L and it was listed as Kohl in the printed book.

I also looked up the death records on microfilm that Brett gave me. Wilhelm Kooch died at age 15 days of convulsions and he was buried at St. Pauls. Heinrich Koke was 30 years old and died of congestion of the brain from alcoholism and heat. The attending physician was Pruitt or something like that he the undertaker was City and he was buried in the City cemetery.

We decided to try to find Picker's cemetery, so we drove out Gravois through some more rather seedy neighborhoods. By this time it was almost 3 pm and we still hadn't eaten, so we stopped at a Jack in the Box. Bob doesn't like to eat in the car, so we went in Bob got a hamburger and shake and I got a #3. The place turned out to be where a homeless black man was hanging out. He asked us for 99 cents to get a hamburger. Bob said he didn't have any money, but I gave him my french fries, which he ate.

Then as we were driving down Gravois, I thought it might be better to go to Concordia cemetery where we knew one of the Kokes was buried, so we did. We didn't find the stone of course because there wasn't one (I hadn't gotten my phone messages yet), but we walked around and looked at the stones including a huge monument with stained glass windows in the middle of the cemetery to Rev Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther who was a pastor at Trinity Lutheran in St. Louis.

During our visit a police car came into the cemetery. I don't know why.

We drove back to the condo and had pizza.

Grant NP ranger

We went to the county library, and found the records of the Holy Ghost church, but could not find the baptismal records which did not appear to be in date order or in alphabetical order. But I did find the original record for Frederick Wilhelm Koke, which was CLEARLY spelled Koke. It was in German script and I can't read it, but I got a copy. They also had the naturalization paper which said

April Term 1858. April 5, 1858. William Kokes a native of Germany who applies to be a citizen of the United States, comes and proves to the satisfaction of the Court that he has resided in the United States for at least five years and in the State of Missouri at least one year immediately preceding this application, during which time he has conducted himself as a man of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same: and the Court moreover, being satisfied that said applicant has taken the preparatory steps required by the laws of the United States concerning the naturalization of foreigners, and he declaring here in open Court, upon oath, that he will support the constitution of the United States, and that he doth absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure forever, all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign Power, Prince, State and Sovereigny whosoever, and particularly to The King of Hannover of whom he is at present a Subject therefor the said William Kokes is admitted a citizen of the United States.

By this time it was almost 1500 and we had not eaten lunch. We went to the Grant NHS and I got my passport stamped and we went through the house, and then we drove back here, getting gas on the way, and having dinner at Ponderosa.

Exit from condo

We leave tomorrow for home, and Bob and I have been arguing over what route to take to get to the Frankfort KY Hampton Inn. After that we go to Lexington VA on the way home.