1919 -- Fred's Death

Fred Kohlhepp died on September 14, 1919. While I have not been able to find an obituary for Fred (the American Falls Press records I have reviewed end just prior to his death), I have located his death certificate.

Of note:

(a) Occupation at this time is listed as Rancher. I find this somewhat surprising as Fred at this time was also a business operator and real estate owner, who rented out some commercial properties. I'll share more on this in a future post.

(b) He was treated by a doctor from September 13th to September 14th, and died that morning of the 14th at 4 AM. The cause of the death at this time is listed as "Tuberculosis of lung," which was the common form of tuberculosis. It was commonly known as consumption, due to the weight loss it often caused. Fred's old photos show that very thing. Some have called tuberculosis as man's oldest infectious disease, and today (while treatable) it is still the #1 cause of death by an infectious disease (transmitted by bacteria). Many people today are carriers of "latent tuberculosis", not manifesting the symptoms of active tuberculosis. Some family records claim that Fred gained tuberculosis on his mission, and while that's possible, I don't know if it's probable. The bacteria do multiply at slow rate, but 12 years later seems to me like a long time to question if it was contracted on his mission. Also, Eda's earlier account claimed he was diagnosed with tuberculosis in his childhood. Fred seemed to be fighting lung problems during a good chunk of his life. On January 28, 1915, the American Falls Press contained a note on his poor health, which was likely related to the pulmonary tuberculosis that did him in, and at the time described as pneumonia:

"F. J. Kohlhepp, one of the oldest residents of American Falls, and a pioneer of southern Idaho, has been bedfast a month with a severe attack of pneumonia. He is improving at present but will be unable to be out again for several weeks."

It would be interesting to know if tuberculosis was a common cause of death in the American Falls area at this time. I'd need to do some study of the death records to determine that. For another day!

(c) Fred is noted as having been buried the very next day (September 15th) in the Falls View cemetery. This cemetery fortunately was not buried under the flooding of the American Falls reservoir, and can still be visited. Below is a picture of his grave:

While the head stone notes Ella Hickman, his wife, she is not actually buried here. Ella had remarried (George Martineau) and when died, she was buried in the Ben Lomond Cemetery in North Ogden, Utah, in a family plot her mother purchased. There's a sadness to this -- and my family lore claims George refused to let Ella be buried next to Fred. A little surprising given that she was his second wife (and he'd have 2 more). I admit there may have been a practicality in not carrying a body back up from Utah to Idaho.