But the idyllic life in rural Illinois was not to last. His own wife, Maja Stina, died in a cholera outbreak which killed about 150 colonists. While Jansson remarried in September 1849, the doctor that the group brought from Nauvoo, Illinois to deal with the earlier outbreak proved both incompetent and expensive. Dr. Robert Foster foreclosed on some of Jansson's promissory notes so that 30 pairs of communal oxen, 94 calves and other communal livestock and possessions were auctioned off in 1849. In 1850, Jansson sent nine of his followers to California, hoping that they would prospect successfully during the California Gold Rush, and that this additional wealth would help support their community. Although nearly bankrupted by Dr. Foster, and despite the desertions, the colony of 100 men, 250 women and 200 children owned 4000 acres of land, a church, grist and flour mills, three dwellinghouses and five other buildings.