Research turns up evidence of real Santa in Missouri

We all know the story of “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore, who described Santa Claus as “chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf.” Most of us have heard the story of Virginia O’Hanlon who, as a young girl of 8, asked her father if Santa Claus really existed. Her father replied that she should write to the New York Sun newspaper because “If you see it in the Sun, it is so.”

The famous response by Francis Pharcellus Church was, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” The closest to the truth, though, was the movie, “Miracle on 34th Street,” showing Santa as just another member of the community who, at that time, lived in a nursing home in upstate New York.

I can do them all one better using good genealogical detective work. Santa Claus actually took a turn living among us as a farmer and family man in Saline County, Missouri.

Now, my belief is that Santa wanted a turn at living an American life away from the North Pole for most of the year. Let’s face it, the North Pole is a really inhospitable place. Being the CEO of a company has its perks, allowing Santa to live among us, like regular folk, and only going to the North Pole during the high season in December. Once he decided to live in America, he found a family in Missouri who took him on as a baby. As to my theory, that is pure speculation. The following search for Santa, however, is mostly all true.

Detective work

With Christmas just dayss away and out of curiosity, I did a general search in Ancestry.com on Santa Claus. Imagine my surprise when the name actually elicited more than 5,000 hits. I would expect most to be from newspapers because virtually every newspaper has the big guy’s name in it during the Christmas season. But I never expected to find entries for phone books, class yearbooks, professional and church directories, military records, census records, wills and probate records, vital records (birth, marriage and death), and even family trees.

I knew from all this that I would have to whittle it down, so to speak, because much of the results would be stories written about Santa. I needed to find the real man, not the myth.

I started with the yearbooks finding that most were just statements that Santa visited a pageant during Christmas. Some were poems written by the students. Did any have photos of the real Santa? Thousands of yearbook pages in Ancestry mention Santa, but none had a photo of the real guy other than a man dressed in a Santa suit.

Since I wasn’t going to find a photo, I turned to census records. This was more manageable, with only 48 hits. Most were the same census, which showed Santa as a year-old baby on an Indian reservation in 1898 New Mexico. Not exactly who I thought I would find. The only other one of interest was Santa living in Missouri in 1940 with Mrs. Claus and all the little Claus children. This sounded promising and led me to Santa’s parents and lots of other records in Missouri.

Santa in Missouri

Working backward as genealogists often do, I found Santa, his wife, Minnie, and several children in Saline County, Missouri, in 1940 and 1930. In 1940, he was working as a sewer man, and in 1930 he was a laborer working in “River Construction.” In 1910, he was a laborer on a neighbor’s farm, and in 1900 he was with his parents, William Claus and Henrietta Samuels Claus, attending school along with his siblings: Emma, William, Pearl, Nellie and Earl.

In 1920, though, things got a little peculiar. I found Santa living in Pettis County, next door to Saline County, living with his younger brother, Earl, listed as single. He and Earl worked their own farm. Two of Santa’s sons, William Owen and Raymond Elbert, were 15 and 12 in the 1930 census, meaning they would have been born before 1920.

Where were Minnie and the children in 1920? Several genealogists have tried to find Minnie, William and Raymond during this time period to no avail. My theory is they were at the North Pole, where William and Raymond were learning the family business.

I looked next for marriage records on Ancestry and found that Santa Claus married Minnie Mabel Hill on June 9, 1912. I also found marriage records for his sisters Emma, Pearl and Nellie. Always follow the collateral lines, because you never know what you are going to find. Perhaps descendants of these lines can help with the search. So far, I haven’t contacted any descendants, but give me time. I am certain I will find some.

Santa in Colorado

Searching military records, I found Santa’s World War I draft registration giving his birthdate, April 4, 1888, and that he was married with children living in Prowers County, Colorado.

Colorado? Who would have thought to find Santa in Colorado? According to this record, Santa worked for Lamar Cole as a farmer. Whatever took Santa and Minnie Claus to Colorado is unknown. My thought is that it might have been the coal mines that were active in Colorado at the time: Santa helped supply food for the coal miners and, in return, he obtained the coal he needed for stockings of naughty little girls and boys. Just a thought, though; might not be true.

I then searched newspapers. Newspapers are full of Santa Claus. Wading through story after story about Santa Claus, I finally found in 1933 that Santa was making sure to respond to every girl’s and boy’s letters from all over the world.

In the Dec. 22, 1933, issue Macon Chronicle-Herald, Macon, Missouri, the headline read, “America’s Real Santa Claus Lives in Missouri; Not the North Pole.” Santa wrote to the newspaper stating that he owed the boys and girls of the world letters but didn’t have time to respond to them all. He wanted to respond, but the cost of stamps would take away from the food budget for his own children.

The Depression hit Santa as it did most everyone else. The article also noted that “For 11 months out of the year Santa Claus labors on his tenant farm near Slater, Mo., on week-days. On Sundays he preaches at church … ”

Santa lived in Missouri for 11 months of the year and spent December answering letters from children, or so the article said. Seemed enough evidence to support the idea that he was actually at the North Pole getting ready for his yearly flight, but I could be wrong.

Where did he go?

Birth and death certificates are a 20th century phenomena. Santa’s children and siblings were around for this, so I checked Ancestry. No luck there. Searching on Google, I found that the state of Missouri has death certificates online from 1910 to 1964. The actual certificates are there, not just an index. Death certificates often name parents and spouses, and always give a cause of death. I found certificates for Santa, Minnie, some of his children and some of his siblings. From their certificates, Minnie died in 1944 from a perforated ulcer and Santa in 1957 from kidney failure.

Unlike Kris Kringle from “Miracle on 34th Street,” Santa Claus really did live, for a time, in Missouri with his wife, Minnie, and their nine children. He lived a full life, working hard to provide for his family, attending church as a minister and answering children’s letters from all over the world.

Memorial tombstones are in the Blue Lick Cemetery, Blue Lick, Saline County, Missouri, for Santa and Minnie. But I believe they aren’t really buried there. I believe they are really at the North Pole preparing for Christmas as you read this story, don’t you?

This story was originally published December 21, 2016 at 9:22 AM with the headline "Research turns up evidence of real Santa in Missouri."