H0490
The study's number for this person. Cite it and it will always lead here, whatever the spelling.Emil Hegnauer
Born at Bates County in 1870 and died in 1880.
born about 1870 at Bates County, Missouri died before Jun 1880
Life story
Emil Hegnauer was born about 1870 and may have been a son of Leonhard Hegnauer, a Swiss-born Union veteran, and Susanna Katharina Hirschi, who had moved from Madison County, Illinois, to a farm in Bates County, Missouri, the year before.1–2 If so, he died as a child. A memorial places his grave in the Reform Cemetery beside the German Reformed church north of Prairie City, where his parents were buried many years later.1, 3–4
Pleasant Gap
Leonhard and Susanna had married at Highland, Illinois, in July 1866, and their first two children, Mary Christina and Christian, were born in Illinois.5–6 In 1869 the young family crossed Missouri in wagons drawn by ox-teams to settle in Bates County.2 The county, on the Kansas border, had been emptied in 1863 by the Union army's General Order No. 11, and many of its people never came back.7 In August 1870 Leonhard and Susanna were farming in Prairie City Township, post office Pleasant Gap, with Mary, aged three, and Christian, two.6 Emil was born about that time.1
About 1879 his parents were among the first members of the German Reformed church built near Prairie City.8 When the census taker came in June 1880, the household in Pleasant Gap Township held his parents, Mary, Christian, Leonard, aged eight, and a little sister, Susan (Katherine Susanna), aged two. Emil was no longer with them.9
Death and burial
No record of his death has been found. By 1900 his mother had borne seven children, of whom five were living, the youngest Robert Lucius, born in 1887; one of the two she had lost was a daughter, Margaret M.2, 10 Emil's grave in the Reform Cemetery has no known stone. His father was buried in the same cemetery in November 1916, and his mother in February 1918.1, 3–4
What we know
Proven
- Birth at Bates County, 1870
- Death, 1880
- Burial at Pleasant Gap Township
What's still open
- Parents (possible; lead's decision, 27 Sep 2026). The memorial itself was read on 27 Sep 2026: created by R.
- Death. Not found. He is not in the household in the census of June 1880, when he would have been about nine, and his mother's five living children in 1900 are all otherwise known, so he had died by 1900, very probably before June 1880.
Sources
Sources 1–2
1 Find a Grave, memorial 78556009, 1870
Find a Grave, memorial 78556009, Emil Hegnauer (1870 – unknown), Reform Cemetery, Pleasant Gap, Bates County, Missouri, linked as a child of Susanna Katharina Hirschi Hegnauer (memorial 56820862) (findagrave.com/memorial/78556009). Also "Find a Grave Index," database, FamilySearch, Emil Hegnauer, birth 1870, burial place standardised as "Prairie, Greene, Alabama". FamilySearch record QV2K-NN17
2 History of Bates County, Missouri, 1918
[W. O. Atkeson], History of Bates County, Missouri (1918), pp. 719–721, sketch of Christian Hegnauer: his parents, Leonard Hegnauer, "a native of Switzerland and a Union veteran", and Susan K. (Hirschi), came to Bates County from Madison County, Illinois, in 1869, crossing the state in wagons pulled by ox-teams; Leonard Hegnauer's children listed as Mrs. Mary C. Hammer, Christian, Leonard, Mrs. Katie S. Link, Margaret M. (deceased) and Robert L. (no Emil); scan shared by Susanna Vogt, "Bates History - Hegnauer excerpt," Ancestry member tree 37158608, 4 December 2023.
Sources 3–4
3 Find a Grave, memorial 55639179, 1843
Find a Grave, memorial 55639179, Leonhard Hegnauer (25 Apr 1843 – 31 Oct 1916), Reform Cemetery, Pleasant Gap, Bates County, Missouri (findagrave.com/memorial/55639179).
In the archive: O04022
4 Find a Grave, memorial 56820862, 1846
Find a Grave, memorial 56820862, Susanna Katharina Hirschi Hegnauer (15 May 1846 – 12 Feb 1918), Reform Cemetery, Pleasant Gap, Bates County, Missouri, gravesite H228, with a gravestone photograph by Larry Spangler (findagrave.com/memorial/56820862); also "U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s–Current," Ancestry.com.
Sources 5–6
5 Illinois, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1866
"Illinois, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1800–1940," database, Ancestry.com, Leonard Hagnauer and Susan K Hirschi, 4 July 1866, Madison County, Illinois (his parents' marriage at Highland; index entry, the same event as the FamilySearch register entry cited on their profiles).
6 1870 U.S. Federal Census, Prairie City Township
1870 U.S. Federal Census, Prairie City Township, Bates County, Missouri, post office Pleasant Gap, page 24, dwelling 173, family 174, Leonard "Heyrauer" [Hegnauer] (27, farmer, born Switzerland), Susan (24), Mary (3, Ill.), Christian (2, Ill.) and Peter Grob (31); citing NARA M593; database with images, Ancestry.com.
Source 7
7 Missouri-Kansas Border War, 2020
Jeremy Neely, "Missouri-Kansas Border War," Missouri Encyclopedia (State Historical Society of Missouri, published 24 June 2020, updated 29 June 2020): four days after the Lawrence raid of 21 August 1863, General Order Number 11 "authorized the Union army to eject the residents of Jackson, Cass, Bates, and northern Vernon Counties"; observers called the empty border counties the "Burnt District", and "Thousands of exiles would return after the war, but many others would not", missouriencyclopedia.org/events/missouri-kansas-border-war (accessed 27 September 2026).
Source 8
8 FamilySearch Full-Text, county history, 1883
FamilySearch Full-Text, county history, Bates County, Missouri, 1883 [probably History of Cass and Bates Counties], account of the German Reformed church near Prairie City, built about 1879: "A. Hammer and wife, Leonard Hegenaur and wife, Peter Kamm and wife, and Christopher Hegenaur, were among the first members" (machine transcription); image familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9DF-KWST; the same names, garbled, in a 1958 cemetery survey ("Leonard Hegnauer and w[ife] Christopher Hegnaur"), familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSY6-B9HN-G
In the archive: O04084
Source 9
9 1880 U.S. Federal Census, Pleasant Gap Township
1880 U.S. Federal Census, Pleasant Gap Township, Bates County, Missouri, E.D. 160, dwelling 72, household of Leonard Hagn[a]uer [indexed "Lenerd Waguner"] (37, farmer, born Switzerland), with his wife Susan (34) and children Mary C. (13, born Illinois), Christian (11, Illinois), Leonard (8, Missouri) and Susan (2, daughter, Missouri); citing NARA T9; database with images, Ancestry.com.
Source 10
10 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Pleasant Gap Township, 1846
1900 U.S. Federal Census, Pleasant Gap Township, Bates County, Missouri, E.D. 18, sheet 11, dwelling 225, family 230, Susan K. Hegnauer (wife, born May 1846, Switzerland, 54; married 34 years; mother of 7 children, 5 living; cannot speak English) in the household of Leonhard Hegnauer, with sons Leonard and Robert L.; citing NARA T623, roll 839; database with images, Ancestry.com. Also indexed by FamilySearch (Leonhard's entry): FamilySearch record M3HK-FKS
More sources are in the evidence below.
Life in time
with the history around itabout 1870
Birth , Bates County, Missouri, United States
How we know
Year from Find a Grave only. He is not in his parents' household in the census taken in Aug 1870, so if the year is right he was born late in 1870, very probably on the family's farm in Prairie City (later Pleasant Gap) Township.
Find a Grave memorial 78556009 gives only the year 1870, and its creator linked him to Susanna Katharina Hirschi Hegnauer as her child. The census of Aug 1870 lists Leonhard and Susanna with Mary, 3, and Christian, 2, but no Emil. His parents had farmed in Prairie City Township, Bates County, since 1869, so a child born to them late in 1870 would very probably have been born there. No birth or baptism record has been found.
before Jun 1880
Death
How we know
Not in his parents' household in the census of June 1880; no death record found.
He is not in his parents' household in the census of June 1880, when he would have been about nine. In 1900 his mother had borne seven children, of whom five were living, and all five are otherwise known; the two who had died were a daughter, Margaret M. (county history, 1918), and very probably Emil. Find a Grave gives no death date. "Before Jun 1880" rests on his absence from the 1880 household.
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1870 Birth
Year from Find a Grave only. He is not in his parents' household in the census taken in Aug 1870, so if the year is right he was born late in 1870, very probably on the family's farm in Prairie City (later Pleasant Gap) Township.
Find a Grave memorial 78556009 gives only the year 1870, and its creator linked him to Susanna Katharina Hirschi Hegnauer as her child. The census of Aug 1870 lists Leonhard and Susanna with Mary, 3, and Christian, 2, but no Emil. His parents had farmed in Prairie City Township, Bates County, since 1869, so a child born to them late in 1870 would very probably have been born there. No birth or baptism record has been found.
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1880 Death
Not in his parents' household in the census of June 1880; no death record found.
He is not in his parents' household in the census of June 1880, when he would have been about nine. In 1900 his mother had borne seven children, of whom five were living, and all five are otherwise known; the two who had died were a daughter, Margaret M. (county history, 1918), and very probably Emil. Find a Grave gives no death date. "Before Jun 1880" rests on his absence from the 1880 household.
- proven
Hover or drag along the line, or select a point and use the arrow keys.
Places in this life
2 places, in order- 1 Bates County, Missouri Birth about 1870
- 2 Pleasant Gap Township, Bates County Burial
Hollow markers are placed approximately, at the town, county or region.
Family
Records
Search the archive →Deaths and burials
Also cited as evidence: 8 records filed under relatives
- 15 May 1846 probable Birth “Susanna Katherine Hirschi”, filed under Susanna Katharina Hirschi Ancestry
- 4 Jul 1866 probable Marriage “Susanna Katherine Hirschi”, filed under Susanna Katharina Hirschi Ancestry
- 1883 confirmed County history “Hegenaur”, filed under Leonhard Hegnauer FamilySearch Full-Text
- 1900 probable Residence “Susanna Katherine Hirschi”, filed under Susanna Katharina Hirschi Ancestry
- 1900 confirmed Census “Leonhard Hegnauer”, filed under Leonhard Hegnauer FamilySearch
- 31 Oct 1916 probable Burial “Leonhard Hegnauer”, filed under Leonhard Hegnauer Find a Grave
- after 12 Feb 1918 probable Burial “Susanna Katherine Hirschi”, filed under Susanna Katharina Hirschi Ancestry
- 12 Feb 1918 probable Burial “Susanna Katharina Hirschi Hegnauer”, filed under Susanna Katharina Hirschi Find a Grave
The evidence 3 facts with their grades, 11 sources, and the research notes
Facts
Research notes
- Sources: He is known only from a Find a Grave memorial (and FamilySearch's copy of its index) and from what his family's records say and leave out: the censuses of 1870, 1880 and 1900 and the county history of 1918. No birth, baptism, death or burial register naming him has been found. The historical background is from the State Historical Society of Missouri.
- Parents (possible; lead's decision, 27 Sep 2026): The memorial itself was read on 27 Sep 2026: created by R. Marti on 16 Oct 2011, "no marker", no biography, no photograph and no source; birth "1870, Prairie City"; linked to Leonhard and Susanna as parents. Everything known of him therefore rests on one memorial of unknown basis, so the link stays possible, as in the parents' profiles, until a record made in his lifetime (or the cemetery's own records) names him. The case for him: he may be a son of Leonhard and Susanna because (1) his memorial is in the Reform Cemetery, where they are buried, and its creator linked him to Susanna as her child;1, 4 (2) no other Hegnauer couple is known in Bates County in the 1870s: Leonhard's brother Christian, in Prairie Township in 1880, did not marry until 1886, and his sister Barbara married in 1883 (see Leonhard's profile); (3) a birth in 1870 falls in the gap of almost four years between Christian (May 1868) and Leonard (Mar 1872);6, 9 (4) in 1900 Susanna had borne seven children, five living; the five survivors are all known, and the county history names only one of the dead, Margaret M., which leaves room for one more.10, 2 Against it: no record made in his lifetime names him, and the county history, which names the dead Margaret M., does not. An unsourced list of the children in an Ancestry member tree (RG_SM12, 2015) names "Emil Hegnauer (1870 MO– )" third, between Christian and Leonard; it may derive from the memorial and adds little.11 The Reform Cemetery's records, the register of the German Reformed congregation near Prairie City or a newspaper notice of his death would settle it.
- Birth: 1870 is the memorial's year only. The census of Prairie City Township, taken in Aug 1870, lists Leonhard and Susanna with Mary, 3, and Christian, 2, but not Emil, so if the year is right he was born late in 1870, very probably on the family's farm.6, 1
- Death: Not found. He is not in the household in the census of June 1880, when he would have been about nine, and his mother's five living children in 1900 are all otherwise known, so he had died by 1900, very probably before June 1880.9, 10
- Burial: The study's earlier survey found no marker recorded for him. The memorial page should be read for its creator, any note or photograph and a plot number. FamilySearch's copy of the Find a Grave index standardises the place wrongly to "Prairie, Greene, Alabama".1
- Leads: the records of the Reform Cemetery and of the German Reformed (Zion) congregation near Prairie City; Bates County newspapers of 1870–1880; his father's Civil War pension file (invalid certificate 1,097,644), which may hold a statement of his children.
- This profile is part of the Hegnauer one-name study.
Working notes
- Find a Grave 78556009, Reform Cemetery, Pleasant Gap (Leonhard's family cemetery); parentage probable
Sources
- 1
Find a Grave, memorial 78556009, Emil Hegnauer (1870 – unknown), Reform Cemetery, Pleasant Gap, Bates County, Missouri, linked as a child of Susanna Katharina Hirschi Hegnauer (memorial 56820862) (findagrave.com/memorial/78556009). Also "Find a Grave Index," database, FamilySearch, Emil Hegnauer, birth 1870, burial place standardised as "Prairie, Greene, Alabama". FamilySearch record QV2K-NN17
- 2
[W. O. Atkeson], History of Bates County, Missouri (1918), pp. 719–721, sketch of Christian Hegnauer: his parents, Leonard Hegnauer, "a native of Switzerland and a Union veteran", and Susan K. (Hirschi), came to Bates County from Madison County, Illinois, in 1869, crossing the state in wagons pulled by ox-teams; Leonard Hegnauer's children listed as Mrs. Mary C. Hammer, Christian, Leonard, Mrs. Katie S. Link, Margaret M. (deceased) and Robert L. (no Emil); scan shared by Susanna Vogt, "Bates History - Hegnauer excerpt," Ancestry member tree 37158608, 4 December 2023.
- 3
Find a Grave, memorial 55639179, Leonhard Hegnauer (25 Apr 1843 – 31 Oct 1916), Reform Cemetery, Pleasant Gap, Bates County, Missouri (findagrave.com/memorial/55639179).
In the archive: O04022
- 4
Find a Grave, memorial 56820862, Susanna Katharina Hirschi Hegnauer (15 May 1846 – 12 Feb 1918), Reform Cemetery, Pleasant Gap, Bates County, Missouri, gravesite H228, with a gravestone photograph by Larry Spangler (findagrave.com/memorial/56820862); also "U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s–Current," Ancestry.com.
- 5
"Illinois, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1800–1940," database, Ancestry.com, Leonard Hagnauer and Susan K Hirschi, 4 July 1866, Madison County, Illinois (his parents' marriage at Highland; index entry, the same event as the FamilySearch register entry cited on their profiles).
- 6
1870 U.S. Federal Census, Prairie City Township, Bates County, Missouri, post office Pleasant Gap, page 24, dwelling 173, family 174, Leonard "Heyrauer" [Hegnauer] (27, farmer, born Switzerland), Susan (24), Mary (3, Ill.), Christian (2, Ill.) and Peter Grob (31); citing NARA M593; database with images, Ancestry.com.
- 7
Jeremy Neely, "Missouri-Kansas Border War," Missouri Encyclopedia (State Historical Society of Missouri, published 24 June 2020, updated 29 June 2020): four days after the Lawrence raid of 21 August 1863, General Order Number 11 "authorized the Union army to eject the residents of Jackson, Cass, Bates, and northern Vernon Counties"; observers called the empty border counties the "Burnt District", and "Thousands of exiles would return after the war, but many others would not", missouriencyclopedia.org/events/missouri-kansas-border-war (accessed 27 September 2026).
- 8
FamilySearch Full-Text, county history, Bates County, Missouri, 1883 [probably History of Cass and Bates Counties], account of the German Reformed church near Prairie City, built about 1879: "A. Hammer and wife, Leonard Hegenaur and wife, Peter Kamm and wife, and Christopher Hegenaur, were among the first members" (machine transcription); image familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9DF-KWST; the same names, garbled, in a 1958 cemetery survey ("Leonard Hegnauer and w[ife] Christopher Hegnaur"), familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSY6-B9HN-G
In the archive: O04084
- 9
1880 U.S. Federal Census, Pleasant Gap Township, Bates County, Missouri, E.D. 160, dwelling 72, household of Leonard Hagn[a]uer [indexed "Lenerd Waguner"] (37, farmer, born Switzerland), with his wife Susan (34) and children Mary C. (13, born Illinois), Christian (11, Illinois), Leonard (8, Missouri) and Susan (2, daughter, Missouri); citing NARA T9; database with images, Ancestry.com.
- 10
1900 U.S. Federal Census, Pleasant Gap Township, Bates County, Missouri, E.D. 18, sheet 11, dwelling 225, family 230, Susan K. Hegnauer (wife, born May 1846, Switzerland, 54; married 34 years; mother of 7 children, 5 living; cannot speak English) in the household of Leonhard Hegnauer, with sons Leonard and Robert L.; citing NARA T623, roll 839; database with images, Ancestry.com. Also indexed by FamilySearch (Leonhard's entry): FamilySearch record M3HK-FKS
- 11
RG_SM12, "Children of Susanna Hirschi & Leonard Hegnauer," story (no sources cited), Ancestry member tree 70279146, shared 28 August 2015: lists "Emil Hegnauer (1870 MO– )" third among six children, between Christian (1868) and Leonard (1872).