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Submitted: 2/4/14 • Approved: 9/21/18 • Last Updated: 9/24/18 • R17750-G17749-S3
May 28, 1838, Germany
November 13, 1938
Genealogical sources: T.D. Hudson, Lora Peppers, JewishGen Online Worldwide:
Sarah Sussman Shuster was born in Bavaria (Germany) and immigrated to the United States in the late 1850's with her husband Isaac Schuster. They started off in Illinois, then wound up in the Union parish town of Farmerville. By 1885, Isaac became the clerk and postmaster of Farmerville, Louisiana. The Shuster's took in boarders which would lead to tragic consequences.
On September 12, 1885, the Shuster's sixteen year old daughter, Ida, either knowingly or not, took a lethal dose of strychnine and died. She was pregnant by a boarder in his late 20's who was also the town druggist. Much specualtion and scandal ensued. The Shusters were a beloved family, as were the majority of the Jewish citizens of Farmerville. Most of the town sided with the Shusters over the scandal that had cost them their daughter's life. Ida was laid to rest in the Jewish section of the Farmerville City Cemetery. Her father Isaac would pass away in 1903 and his grave is marked in the same cemetery whereas Ida's is unmarked.
Sarah is buried by her son, Samuel Washington Shuster and is the mother of the following children:
Samuel Washington (1857)
Benjamin (1859)
Jenett (1861)
Helen (1863)
Marion (1867)
Ida (1869)
Celestine (1871)
Joseph (1874)
Carrie (1876)
Rosetta (1880)
If dates are correct, then Sarah died an octogenerian at a time when it was extremely rare.
The spelling of the Shuster name is sometimes Schuster. Issac's gravestone is spelled with the c. Most of the census records drop the c.
Contributed on 2/4/14 by NiseyCRob
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Record #: 17750