Local History: Dr. Gustav and Alice Schulz: From home to hospital

The brick Queen Anne home that William Coerver built at 605 Broadway has been a city landmark since 1891. It was purchased by Dr. Gustav Bernhart Schulz in 1916 through a trustee sale. A historic, unique structure, the home is an Original Treasure property in the Broadway historical area.

Dr. Gustav Schulz was born to Dr. Frederick B. and Augusta (Zedler) Schulz in Wittenburg, Sept. 13, 1870. Frederick was educated in Germany and received his medical degree, including surgery. Moving to the United States in 1854, he continued medical school in Louisville, Kentucky, and private practice in New York, Chicago and Texas. In Texas he met and married Augusta Zedler in 1860. They moved to Missouri, where he practiced medicine in Altenburg for 10 years before moving to Cape Girardeau.

Gustav was encouraged to follow his father into the medicine. As all the Schulz seven children, Gustav was educated in the local public schools. He went on to St. Vincent’s College and the old Normal School. His medical pathway took him to St. Louis, where he was employed in a pharmacy. This knowledge enabled him to fill his own prescriptions at a later time. He enrolled at Beaumont Hospital Medical College (St. Louis University Medical School), graduating with a degree in Doctor of Medicine in 1892. He then received valuable experience while spending his internship at the City Hospital.

Dr. Gustav moved back to Altenburg, where he hung his medical shingle at the Wagner Hotel (razed 1962) for 10 1/2 years while his father was in Cape Girardeau. After his father’s retirement in 1903, Gustav moved to Cape Girardeau to take over his father’s practice. In Altenburg and Cape Girardeau, Schulz was the epitome of a country doctor ... horse and buggy, traveling the roads in all kinds of weather. Many times by lamplight, he performed surgical procedures. The Spanish flu, malaria and typhoid were all familiar maladies of his day.

He studied to further his surgical skills at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, becoming close friends with Drs. Charles and William Mayo. Over the years, the Mayo brothers often stopped in Cape Girardeau to visit Schulz on their way to Florida.

Frequently, Dr. Schulz brought patients to the old Saint Francis Hospital for surgery. It was here where he met his future wife, Alice Knight of St. Louis. After graduating from nursing school at St. Luke’s Hospital, Alice worked at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York and studied in Boston under the chief surgeon at Harvard University before returning to St. Louis. It was while accompanying a surgeon from St. Louis to Saint Francis Hospital that she met Dr. Schulz.

After a courtship to St. Louis, Gustav proposed marriage to the petite, blue-eyed, blond nurse.

Their nuptials were on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 16, 1916, in St. Louis. He brought his bride back to a home he had just purchased at 605 Broadway. They were medical soulmates from the beginning as they decided to convert the second floor in their attractive home for the Schulz Surgical Hospital. Alice became the doctor’s anesthetist.

Dr. Gustav was an early leader in public health and correcting unsanitary conditions. He served many years on the Cape Girardeau Board of Health and was appointed by the governor to the State Board of Health in 1910 for which he served as president. He was a member of the county and state medical organizations, as well as the American Medical Association. He served many years on the Cape Girardeau Board of Education, as well as president. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge and Centenary Methodist Church.

Dr. Schulz believed he was the city’s first physician to perform an appendectomy and cesarean section.

Just a few months after the Schulz marriage, a startling event occurred. Alice was threatened by a letter mailed from Allenville offering $2,700 for her death. It ended up in the hands of the sheriff of Scott County. The doctor surmised the letter was written by a disgruntled lady patient who believed she was in love with the doctor, unbeknownst to him. Alice was not harmed as a result. (The Weekly Tribune, March 22, 1917.)

Together, Gustav and Alice worked tirelessly to promote a new hospital for Cape Girardeau. The Schulz Hospital closed after treating 840 patients in four years of operation, when Southeast Hospital opened in 1928.

Dr. Schulz continued to see patients until his failing health and death July 8, 1954. He had faithfully served his patients for 62 years. The Rev. R.C. Holliday, Centenary Methodist Church, officiated at the funeral. Honorary pallbearers were doctors of the community.

The doctor’s medical instruments and equipment were turned over to Southeast Hospital for display.

Alice continued to live at 605 Broadway until her death Aug. 8, 1966, accompanied by her pet dogs. Over the years there were “Bonnie,” “Puck,” “Pixie” and “Muggsy,” the last one left in the care of Dr. Kramer (Cape Girardeau County Probate Records).

Mrs. Schulz was active at Centenary Methodist Church, nursing organizations and St. Mark’s Chapter of the Eastern Star.

Interments for the Schulz couple were at Memorial Park.

Beverly Hahs is a native of Cape Girardeau County, a freelance writer and graduate of Southeast Missouri State University with a degree in English and library science.