The Specter of a Killer: Typhoid Strikes the Williams Family

UNK SMULL > PETER SMULL > JOHNATHAN SMULL > SAIDEE SMULL m Curtis Williams

Minnesota State Fair, 1910

The general story of Saidee is told here.  Tragically, Curtis died at age 36 of typhoid after an illness of several weeks. Curtis and Saidie had gotten married in 1903 with all good in front of them. His parents were Mary Ann Smith and John W. Williams.

Married - At the house of the bride's mother, Sept 9th, at 8 o'clock, Miss Sadie Smull to Mr Curtis Williams both of this place. The bride is one our best young ladies and the groom is a prosperous young farmer living a few miles north of town. They leave Thursday for Freeport, Chicago, and other points to be gone for about a week. They have the best wishes of a host of friends.
Waverly Republican Waverly Iowa
Thursday, September 10, 1903

Curtis

Their first child, Rosalie, was born in 1904. Their second, "Maudie," arrived in 1906. His mother died in September 1907 and the Williams' moved to his parents farm and his sister, Mrs.Rosa (Julian) Moine, moved to Curtis & Saidee's farm. In 1908, they swapped back. They got all settled in when poor Curtis, who had been dealing with a carbuncle on his hand, lost his wallet with nearly $20 while working in his fields which was a big deal, and it was never recovered.

In September 1909, the popular young couple were surprised with a party hosted by their many friends. Things were going very well. A year later, in September 1910, the young couple decided to go to the Minnesota State Fair. They returned in mid-September and by mid-October, Curtis, and then Saidee, were suffering from typhoid fever.

Whether it was contracted during their travel to/from the fair isn't known, but only four people in Iowa had come down with the disease that month, the Williams' being two. 

After a several week struggle with the disease, the physician, Dr. Jay, and private nurse had no hope and Curtis died in the mid-morning on Tuesday, November 14, 1910. Saidee was so ill, the doctor and family did not want to further endanger her by telling her of his death. Saidee pulled through, but was unable to attend her husband's funeral. 

Several months later, the farm was sold. Saidee would move to Denver, Iowa, in 1928.

Personal Interviews: Saidee Smull Family History

Curtis Williams

Peter Smull > Johnathan Smull > Saidee Smull married Curtis Williams

I've written many letters and emails trying to get distant family members to help me in my quest. Unfortunately, those have mostly been met with deafening silence. One day, I shot off an email to a distant cousin who lived in Minnesota. She is the granddaughter of my great grandmother's sister. Think about that for a minute, I usually need to. She agreed not only to talk to me, but was going to be visiting the area and would meet with me and BRING PHOTOS!  I had died and gone to heaven.

Saidee Smull was the sixth of eight known children of Johnathan Smull and Mary Jane Cooper. She was born 11 Jan 1877 in Bradford, Chickasaw County. She married Curtis A Williams, son of John Williams and Mary Ann Smith, on 09 Sep 1903 in Plainfield, Bremer County, Iowa. The elder Williams' had been born in Indiana and pioneered into Dixon County, Nebraska, before relocating to the Bremer County, Iowa area.

Saidee and Curtis had two daughters, Annie Rosalie (1904), who went by "Rosalie" and Florence Alta Maude (1906), who went by "Maudie." When Maudie was just four, her father died suddenly from typhoid. He was only 35 and a strapping young farmer who took care of his own family as well as his widower father, John.

Life changed significantly for Saidee, but she persevered. She raised her daughters and had a close relationship with several of her sisters and was often found visiting them in Plainfield from Denver. Around 1912, she got more bad news. 

Rosalie, Saidee and Maudie in
Loma Linda, California 1912-1913

Her daughter Rosalie was sick. My interview subject, her daughter, mentioned her mother had been sick and they had gone to California about that time, but she didn't know why - we figured it out while going through the packet of materials she brought. Inside, neatly folded, was a brochure for the Loma Linda Sanitarium where they provided treatment for tuberculosis (among other things). Mystery solved. The girls and Saidee stayed out there for a year until Rosalie was better. Once they grew, both girls became public school teachers.

Saidee never remarried and lived in her later years with her daughter Rosalie and family. Rosalie married a young man named Cloyd Belton, who had arrived in Iowa to work on a road crew building a highway near Denver and never went home. Cloyd was one of eight boys of Marion and Beatrice (Campbell) Belton from Calloway County, Kentucky.  They went on to have my interview subject.  Rosalie died 10 Mar 1990 in and Cloyd died in 1984.

Maudie married a gent named Fred Baker in 1932 in Marshall County, Iowa. They went on to live in Texas. Maudie died Hot Springs, Garland County, Arkansas 30 Aug 2005. They had a boy and a girl.

Maudie and Rosalie Williams