‘A high standard’ - Edna Scheperle dedicate life to nursing career after death of fiancée in World War I

Born and raised in the Cole County community of Millbrook, Edna Scheperle was engaged to marry Walter Fischer. After her fiancée died in a military training camp during World War I, she attended nursing school in St. Louis and dedicated her life to the nursing profession. Courtesy of Marsha Propst

By Jeremy P. Ämick
 
Edna Scheperle came of age in the agricultural community of Millbrook south of Lohman, where, as a young adult, she became engaged to Walter J. Fischer. With the promise of marriage and a happy future together, these plans were suspended when Fischer was called into military service in World War I. Her fiancée did not survive the war and that is when she resolved to embark upon a life of service as a nurse to honor the memory of her beloved.  
 
Born on September 12, 1893, Edna’s father was John Scheperle Sr., a native of Germany who was the co-owner of Centennial Mill in Millbrook and, talented in the construction trades, became the builder of the Lutheran churches in Stringtown and Honey Creek. The youngest of nine children, Edna attended public and parochial schools in the Lohman and Stringtown area.
 
“Walter Fischer … and Miss Edna Scheperle, of Millbrook, visited with Mr. and Mrs. A.F. Heidbreder of Clarksburg Sunday,” reported The Central Missourian of the early stages of the couple’s association on September 1, 1916.
 
Having grown up on a farm near the Zion community south of Jefferson City, Walter Fischer continued working on his father’s farm into adulthood. Additionally, he chose to explore business interests while his relationship continued to develop with Edna Scheperle.
 
“Another early mercantile business ‘Kautsch and Linhardt’ had in the late 1880s established a store on the present site of the Farmers Bank of Lohman,” noted a 1976 booklet describing Lohman history. “Around 1908-1909, they moved across the street and constructed the fine building on the west side of Main St.”
 
The booklet continued, “In 1911, this firm sold out to A.N. Linhardt…. Mr. Linhardt operated the store with Walter Fischer between 1912 and 1917…”
 
It was on June 5, 1917, that the 25-year-old Fischer complied with the mandate to register for the military draft. On September 20, 1917, he said goodbyes to his family and to his fiancée, Edna, when he was inducted into the U.S. Army in Jefferson City and boarded a train bound for Camp Funston, Kansas.
 
After completing several weeks of initial military training, Fischer was assigned to the Sanitary Detachment of the 365th Infantry. Despite all his training and preparations to deploy in support of the war being fought in Europe, Fischer’s service soon came to an unexpected end.
 
“Walter Fischer, a Cole County soldier at Camp Funston, died last night after a lingering illness of spinal meningitis,” the Jefferson City Post-Tribune shared on May 16, 1918. “His parents, Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Fischer, were at his bedside when he died.”
 
The newspaper went on to note that his training experience at the Kansas military post marked the first time Fischer had been away from home for an extended period.
 
The soldier’s remains were brought back to Mid-Missouri and interred in the cemetery of Zion Lutheran Church, where Fischer and his family were members. Local members of the American Red Cross performed a patriotic service in conjunction with the funeral service while members of the Home Guard provided a firing squad as part of the military honors.
 
“It was estimated that 1,000 people attended the funeral of Walter Fischer…,” the Jefferson City Post-Tribune printed on May 20, 1918. “One hundred and fifty automobiles were parked around the little cemetery where the body was laid to rest.”
 
It was a traumatic period for Edna Scheperle, mourning the tragic loss of the man to whom she had been engaged to marry. Not long after his death, Scheperle enrolled at the Lutheran Hospital School for Nurses in St. Louis, graduating from the program in June 1923.
 
Susan Scheperle Schenewerk, a great niece of Edna Scheperle, explained, “She was an absolute gem of a person and when she lost Walter, that was the time she decided to go to nursing school and dedicate her life to helping others. My mother always said that losing him broke her heart and she never married.”
 
Making her home in the St. Louis area, Scheperle worked more than 50 years in nursing. She made frequent trips back to the Lohman area, oftentimes providing care for relatives suffering from illnesses. Her caring spirit and service as a nurse inspired others, including two nieces, two great-nieces and a great-great-niece, who also graduated from the Lutheran Hospital School for Nurses.
 
A charter member of St. Louis Lutheran Business Women and an active member of the Messiah Lutheran Church in St. Louis, the 92-year-old Scheperle passed away on December 9, 1985. She was laid to rest in the cemetery of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Stringtown.
 
Family and friends still share the story of the death of her fiancée, Walter, and the inspirational and unselfish life that she went on to live as a means to honor him.
 
“Her influence and wisdom endears her to her nieces, nephews, and all who know her,” wrote Palmer Scheperle shortly before Edna Scheperle’s passing. “Her love of a high standard of conduct and sincere belief in unselfish service affects everyone privileged to be associate with her.”
 
Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of the historical compilation “Moments on the Moreau.”   

Walter Fischer was raised on a farm near the Zion community south of Jefferson City. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1917 and was 26 years old when he died from spinal meningitis in a training camp. Courtesy of Susan Scheperle Schenewerk