An announcement was made in the Monroe Evening Times on Monday, March 16, 1908 that Anna Schuh, 18-year-old daughter of Rev. and Mrs. Alfred Schuh, had disappeared. Pastor Schuh was the minister at St. John’s Church from 1895 until his death in February 1938. She left on Friday morning, supposedly to visit her sister, Matilda, who was a student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. After she failed to arrive there, it was learned that she took a train from Janesville to Chicago.
Marshall Blunt and W. F. Trukenbrod went to Janesville on Saturday afternoon and then on to Chicago to follow up on that clue. The matron at the Union Depot in Chicago had remembered the missing girl who was waiting for the 10:30 night train to Michigan. Rev. Schuh left for Chicago that afternoon after receiving word from his brother-in-law who had arranged for assistance in tracing the girl out of Chicago. It was expected that she would be located within a few days. Her uncle in Menominee, Michigan, said that she had not reached there.
Miss Schuh, and her older sister, Matilda, had graduated from Monroe High School with the class of ’07. She had frequently expressed a desire to go away and work on her own. Her parents discouraged this, which might be why she did not confide her plans with anyone. “Those who know her say she is a young lady of high purpose and strength of character. Those nearest the family know that she has not been well, the condition of her health having given her parents some serious concern, and to them a plausible explanation is that because of nervousness and discontentment she was beset by a whim.”
The headline the following day stated, “Sure Girl Is Safe.” Rev. Schuh had reached Chicago on Monday evening to have others take up the work; Marshall Blunt had returned at noon on Tuesday. Failure to trace her out of Chicago led them to conclude that she went to Chicago to take a position and that she had reached there safely. They knew that she was alone each time they had a trace of her, so there was no fear that harm had come to her. Oh, my, some of their theory was quite wrong!
Rev. Schuh took a train to Chicago about 10 days later and was assured that Anna was not in Chicago and that she had not gone to Northern Michigan. Detectives who had been at work on the case had been discharged and a plan was being considered to offer a reward sufficiently large to make certain that the girl could be found. Every clue had failed. Thoroughly discouraged and ready to give up all hope of finding her, Schuh took the train home. He dreaded his arrival at home with nothing to cheer the family.
In the meantime, it was reported on Friday, the 27th, that Miss Schuh had written her mother from the Young Ladies’ Christian Hospital in Los Angeles, where Miss Schuh was ill. She wanted to remain there since she had been promised employment. A nine-page letter was handed to Rev. Schuh for him to read on the train ride to Monroe.
A portion of the letter read, “I suppose by this time you have given me up for lost or dead. Well, I am neither. I am stranded way down here in Los Angeles. Don’t ask me how I got here, I don’t know myself. It is all like a dream to me. I was so tired of staying in Monroe, that my only thought was to get somewhere, and I am glad it happened to be here. This is the most beautiful country, just like summer and the ocean is grand. This is the first day I have felt homesick, being Sunday, because it is so hard to be all alone in a strange city, although some of the girls are very nice. I was very tired and weak after I got here but am feeling quite well today. I suppose it was not the right thing to do, but I just got a streak. I suppose all young people feel that way some time. I had an awfully hard trip but lots of experience, enough for sometime any way. I am staying at the Y.M.C.A. so you don’t have to worry about me. They help you find work any time you want it. I shall try to get work at one of the beaches as governess or something like that. But I have to get strong again. I was so thin. My heart seemed to be affected a little. Well, no more traveling for me for a long time. I like the place and am going to stay. Once in the Chicago depot Friday afternoon I thought I saw papa but I was not sure. I nearly gave up a couple of times. I hope you will forgive me for deceiving you so, but I could not help it. I have learned so much already. That is just what I needed, to get out on my own hook and I haven’t regretted it so far either. To think that I was at home in church two weeks ago and am now thousands of miles away!”
On the following Thursday the newspaper reported that Anna was to arrive home on Monday with Herman L. Gloege, according to a telegram that her parents received from him. Mrs. Schuh left Sunday afternoon to meet her daughter when she arrived from Los Angeles on Monday. Nothing was printed about her arrival back in Monroe.
Anna eventually married a Mr. Lizar, had a daughter, left Monroe in 1958 to live with her daughter in Greendale, had a stroke in May 1977, and passed away in the Family Hospital Nursing Home in Milwaukee on Oct. 11. She is buried here in Greenwood Cemetery.
