Pictured above are William and Wilhelmine (Minnie) Kruse behind the counter of their store in Humboldt, South Dakota. Both were born in Germany; William in 1849, Minnie in 1851. Both immigrated to America as children with their parents. They were married in 1871. Along with their store, they also farmed. The 1915 census recorded that Minnie had given birth to sixteen children, only three of which were still alive. William died in 1917. Minnie died in 1928.
Between July 1 and July 16, 1894 eight of their children died from diphtheria, with a ninth child dying three months later. The oldest to die was eighteen years old; the youngest was one month old. The following item appeared in an area newspaper that month.
The epidemic of diphtheria which has been raging in Humboldt township during the last month does not seem to be improving much. William Kruse, prominent farmer and merchant of the township, was in the city after a coffin for one of his children. He had a family of 11 children. Seven of them have died, he expected another would be dead when he got home and is afraid the other three will also die. The doctors pronounce the disease in his family as black diphtheria. He says new cases are being reported every day.
A single gravestone marks the area where all nine children are buried. All of their names are listed on the front: Anna, Edwin, Emilie, Frederick, Hugo, Lizzie, Louis, Robert, and Amanda. Below the names is written “Kinder von (children of) W.M. und Minnie Kruse.”
On the back of the stone, also in German, are the words of Jesus from the Gospel of Mark 10:14: “Let the little children come unto me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”
One can barely imagine such a terrible tragedy. Think of the grief of that couple to lose nine children, all at once. Two of the grandparents were still living and also had to watch all those little ones die.
Now imagine them going to the gravestone maker and telling the stone cutter to engrave that text. What a testimony to their faith! That act of faith still speaks, even now to us, 132 years later. They were proclaiming their trust in the Lord’s promise that the family would one day be together again, in God’s heavenly kingdom.
Few of us will ever face as much loss as the Kruse’s in such a short time. But in so many ways, this world does give us all a rough ride. Former presidential speechwriter and author Peggy Noonan (1950- ) writing for a secular audience, wrote:
We have lost the old knowledge that happiness is overrated; and that, in a way, life is overrated. Our ancestors believed in two worlds, and understood this life to be a ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short one’ (as Thomas Hobbes said 400 years ago). We are the first generations of man that actually expected to find happiness here on earth.
Jesus promises us so much more.
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John 16:33 — (Jesus said), “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Psalm 27:14 — Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
Psalm 31:24 — Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.
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Our kind and heavenly Father, lover of souls, we give thanks for those dear to us who have departed this life, and are now with you. We praise you for gathering your children, one by one, from the strife and weariness of this troubled place and this short time, to the peace of everlasting years in your home. We thank you for the joys of this earth, and of this life, while they last; but we also praise you for their ending, and for the hope of what lies beyond them. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
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Zion Lutheran Church and cemetery in rural Hartford, South Dakota, where the Kruse family is buried.
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