John, the oldest of the Scheel children, at age 14, died of diphtheria along with four of his siblings in Henry Twp. within one week of each other in November of 1885. This was before either Lutheran church was keeping records or before the Remsen newspaper was in existence. The newspaper in the county seat of Le Mars had this article:

A family named Sheels [Scheels], living five miles south of Remsen, have lost four children in the last few days. One, a little boy, was sick but a few hours, when death relieved him of his agonies. His sufferings were such that he jumped out of bed and ran crying and screaming about the room until becoming exhausted he fell over on the floor and expired in a few moments. The little girl, a sister of the boy, suffered the most intense agonies, and in a spasm of pain more severe than the others, clasped her arms about her father’s neck and died in a few seconds. One day last week three children of different families were buried at one funeral. The cases are so bad that the mouth fills with membrane to such an extent that it projects from between the teeth. The sufferings of the afflicted ones are indescribable, and the only relief comes with death. The doctors say they are unable to arrest the disease, and at once pronounce the cases incurable. Our informant says that no words can do the subject justice or paint the horrors of the sick room where diphtheria has entered. – Le Mars Evening Sentinel, Nov. 20, 1885, page 1.

A short biography of the Scheel Family:

Michael Scheel and Marguerite Rostermunndt were born in Germany. They met and married in the United States. Marguerite was born in 1852 and came to the United States in 1867, settling with her parents in Benton county. Michael was born in 1843 and came to the United States in 1866, living at Davenport a year and then moving to Benton county. They were married in March 1871 and moved west to Marcus in 1882, buying a 210-acre farm there for $11 an acre. In 1881 they bought a half section of land, at $32 an acre, eight miles southeast of Remsen, now the Detlef Erichsen farm.
The family knew the hardship of pioneer farming. The diphtheria plague which struck Remsen in 1885 took the lives of five of the seven Scheel children. The cyclone which struck here the same year carried away a chicken house on their farm, killing the chickens, and blew away their barn after depositing the four horses on a spot 80 rods away, where they landed still fastened to a piece of the manger and absolutely unharmed. Both families pulled safely through dust storms, grasshopper attacks, droughts and storms emerging with productive, well-kept farms and improved equipment.
Retired. In 1887 the Scheel family retired to town, where Mr. Scheel was for a number of years on the town council and served as mayor from 1893 to 1896. Mr. and Mrs. Scheel and daughter Emma moved to California in 1907. Mrs. Scheel passed away in 1920 and her husband followed her in 1928. Surviving are three children. Lena, who married Frank Spiecker, local banker, deceased, and Alma and Adolph, living in California. - information from the 50th Jubilee Edition, Remsen Bell-Enterprise, August 24, 1939, page 28