17 April 1843.

Under today’s date the following building contract has been decided — carefully planned — between the gardener F.A.M. and the Master Mason Heinrich Mohr.

The mason obliges himself to construct the building according to a sketch or directions of the builder, and to do all the necessary work, and to be so far ready with this matter by Johannis [midsummer] of this year (1843) that the building can be moved into. The cellar and the "Wistenkuhle" are supposed to be ready latest in two weeks after ‘Date,’ and the surrounding walls in four weeks after the signing of this contract.

F. A. Meissner obligates himself to pay to the Mason Mohr for the work done, to pay three [M?] four [SS?], in writing: Three Mark four [SS?] for each 1000 of red or loam stones used, for which Mr. Mohr also agrees to take over the worker’s work, the preparing of the loam and chalk as well as cleaning and putting them in. Meissner has to buy all materials, and has to have them any time ready for use on the place.

Mr. Mohr can use the logs lying on the building ground for the necessary scaffolds, but only in case these won’t be damaged thereby and made worthless for their original purpose.

Meissner does the construction of the basement according to Mr. Mohr’s instructions, and Mr. Mohr makes him responsible for at least one year after the building is finished that the house won’t have any tears or the place breaks down.

When the building is put up Meissner will pay Mr. Mohr half of the amount of the accomplished mason work, the other half is paid after all masonic works are finished on time and according to contract, including cleaning and jointing.

Michaelis of this year is the latest date when all mason works are to be finished, and the building is to be delivered. If this is not the case, the builder is entitled to have the building finished at Mr. Mohr’s expense.

So done in Kummerfeld, April 17, 1843.

H. Mohr, Master Mason.

F.A. Meissner, Joachim Huijldorn, Georg Gerstenberg.

1 [M?] received on June 6 of this year. M. Mohr.

On 23 Oct. 40 [SS?] paid according to receipt.

On March 25th, 3o [SS?] received. Mohr.

According to agreement the remainder was paid by two loads of peat.

From: Uncle G. F. Meissner, Pirna, July 1, 1845.

To: Friedrich Adolph Meissner, Kummerfeld über Hamburg near Pinneberg; Franco Hamburg.

Dear Nephew. It was known to me, that my brother Ernest Friedrich Meissner, who was minister in Schönbach, left two sons behind, also that you both are supposed to be in America, but now I heard from my niece Zimmermann in Spitzkümmersdorf, that you are married in Kummerfeld, and your brother is working as a gardener near Hamburg. As you both never let anything hear about you, I would like to know now how you both are in every regard.

From us sisters and brothers Wilhelm Friedrich is still alive and the Pilliteno Cären [Is this an official position, e.g., caretaker at Pillnitz? — LPM] in Dresden, and also the widow Hg. Unruh lives now in Schneeberg. August Friedrich Meissner went to Teplitz several years ago to a cure to the ‘Bad’ [hot springs or spa], and died there of Cholera. My wife died already three years ago. I am alone, and have no children. Also I am no longer young, as I started my 77th year on the last Johannis [midsummer] day, but otherwise I am as well as if I were 30 years old. The niece [Karoline Christiane] Zimmermann must be regretted. She made a bad choice in her marriage. Her husband is a lazy, slovenly guy. My brother Karl Friedrich has died in Itterschen near Hamburg. He left a son who studied theology. He is supposed to live in Hamburg. Did you hear anything from him? Now I wish from my heart that you and your brother are doing well.

I recommend myself to you and your wife (who I don’t know), and remain your.

Uncle Friedrich Gotthelf Meissner, who loves you.

Pirna, July 1, 1845.

Mr. Rupert Day, Woodwardsville, Essex Co., N.Y.

West Barnstable Jan 17, 1847.

I ame waiting for som letters from Germane who will be directet to Woodwardsville, please tell the postmaster to send him to West Barnstable Mass wher i living now. I have a very good farm of 50 achers all level no stones, and good soil, i have a good pair oxen and four excellent cows. I planted two acres corn one acre Potatoes and seedet three acres buckwheat, there is her a first rate market every produce sells for cash, hay for 15$ at the barn, butter 25 cts and so vegetabilien and everything. Whe living close on the road where the stage from Boston passe four times a day.

As we like the country so mutch we dont like the people as well as to Woodwardsville and talken oft from you and all our friends there please tell him all our best respect. I hope you will give me a answer lat me know how it goes there is anny body commen to Mr. Müllers farm, if it is a german tell me his name and contry. Is Andrew Stivens gone?

The season is very mutch back her, i hope you and your family all well, my best respect to your father the old working man.

12 April 1847.

The rental contract between Peter O. Müller in New York and F.A. Meissner in Woodwardsville, Essex County, N.Y. dated Nov. 5, 1845, has been terminated under the following conditions as of today:

F.A. Meissner returns the rented farm, which is in Essex [County], with the improvements, stocks, and inventory listed in Attachment A, to Peter O. Müller and agrees to make no further demands to Peter O. Müller other than those that can be deducted from the said rental contract.

Peter O. Müller receives the furniture as well as the improvements, stocks, and inventory listed in Attachment A, which F.A. Meissner had rented, and declares hereby to have received his assets of $408.48 according to Attachment B, with interest. He receipts over the full amount and loses all demands to F.A. Meissner that could be deducted from the said rental contract.

The farm has to be vacated by F.A. Meissner by May 1, but has to be managed until this date with unselfish care for Mr. Peter O. Müller’s interest.

From: "Doris Meissner" [Johanna Friedericka Doris Runtzler Sennewald, b. abt 1812]

To: Mr. F.A. Meissner, care of Mr. Walter, n. 154 Wall St., New York City. Care of W. Peter Muller, Importing Merchant, William Street, N.J.

Woodwardsville, April 16, 1847.

Dear sweet, good Father. In my thoughts I often give you a kiss, and more than one. If I say 100, I don’t say a lie. Only the thought of embracing you soon in my arms can soothe my sorrow. So far I was unable to sleep yet any night in peace, because I cannot have you in my arms. It is a great reassurance for me to know you are all healthy and happy. My dear good Papa, the children, and I speak the whole day of you. Now you must know that I wrote every day something to you, dear sweet man. Boredom or impatience or — I don’t know how to name it — force me every day to write, but maybe if I would know how you are I would not be so uncertain. You cannot imagine what is always spoken here, one says we’ll go to N.Y., the other: "We are ready for Europe.."

The weather is very changeable: Tuesday, the 6th: snow, hail, and rain. Friday, the 9th: bright sunshine. Saturday, 10th: awful snowstorm, so vehement, that we always think the house breaks down. Sunday, the 11th: it froze very hard, and around noon the sun came out. I have to tell you about our domestic life: we get up at five in the morning, feed the cows, Henry brushes the calves, and I do the same with the cows. My chickens are lazy, sometimes one, two, five eggs is the most we get.

Mr. Tortsch offered me his chickens; he sold already his cows, calves, and oxen.

On the 12th: we got again snow, and had to dig our way out to get to the stables. On the 13th: hard frost. Sun around noon which thawed a little bit.

On the 14th: beautiful sunshine. Around four or five o’clock in the morning Trina got a cow [heifer — LPM] calf. We cleaned out the stable, and tied it there. I nearly entirely forgot that our little pig died on the 13th in the morning. All our care was in vain. It was all well till Sunday. When I called for it, it came running at once. Monday morning its legs were stiff, and so it was unable to walk any more.

Dear sweet Papa! You maybe wonder over my mixture. When I get impatient with my work I sit down and write a few lines, in order to talk to you for a few moments.

On the 15th: hard frost, also on the 16th. This morning old Mr. Day visited us, and said he could not remember in his 73 years that there was ever snow at this time of the year as now.

My dear good Papa. I received your letter on the 16th. You write that they want to have us all. That is sure good, but I think you will know best how it is there, and whether it will be best for us, to get land or not. If you won’t get any it might be as well as good. Do what you think best. Maybe we can plant potatoes.

Give William the regards of us all. The children greet and kiss you. You wrote to kiss the children from you. I did it but your Henry did not want to. I am so happy that you are well — if I could only believe it. We are — God be thanked — also all well, only the food won’t taste right to me.

Well, Papa, farewell, and don’t forget to love your Doris.

To: Mr. Christian Schmidt, Lower Red Hook, Dutchess Co, and N.Y.

West Barnstable, May 27, 1847.

Dear friend. You must not be mad at me, that I did not write yet to you about our new home, or better, "working-place," (as we are here on this earth to work. One has to work his whole life in order to live, until everything is finally over. When I was still at home I made plans and plans, but now I see only the little success, that arose from them.).

We arrived here finally May 15 after a long and hard journey, and had — as you can imagine — a lot to work. We have about two acres wheat, one acre planted with potatoes, and nine acres with different kinds of lentils sowed on them.

I am very satisfied with the farm, and it is the best in the whole neighborhood. Altogether there are about 50 acres, 16 of which are meadows bordering the garden. They are divided into parts with three to five acres each. The soil is mostly loam without any stones. In the distance — from a low sand hill one can see the ships in the ocean going by, and the stage from Boston passes by our garden four times a day. I have two good oxen and four wonderful cows. The prices are excellent here; butter costs 21 to 28 cents per lb., hay $15 per ton, and so do potatoes and vegetables. Otherwise the region is very poor and has much in common with the "Lüneburger Heide" (Luneburg Heath). It does not even produce enough corn [grain? — LPM] for their own need — and corn is about the only thing which is raised here. The people here are over smart, and at the same time are so stupid. When I arrived here I was overwhelmed by their advice and good tips, and now they nearly ruin my field and run out there all the time in order to see my wheat. But the greatest surprise of all is to them the fact, that my wife is working with me on the fields. The owner of our farm is the worst of all the …

… bad people. He would bite his little finger off for money’s sake, and he cheats where and whom he can, as I am told by people. He is right now in New York, and I hope he will not be around here too much. In case you should once ever have difficulties with Mr. Radcliff (one never knows, you know!), our house is always open to you. You can take the railroad from Hudson to Boston. There you only have to cross the street and go to the ‘Old Colony Railroad’, and take a ticket to Sandwich. From there you can travel by the stage to our door.

Please give my regards to Mr. Radcliff, and tell him that I often thought of him when I thought of the high cost of living, and I was glad for him that he was so successful.

My wife and children send their regards also, and we all would be very happy if you could once come to us.

To: Karoline Gerstenberg.

West Barnstable, Mass, August 1st, 1847.

I have received your letter, which I longed to see with impatience, and I saw from it that you went along with the fashion and got married. May your choice be a happy one. — I had always believed that a girl like Lina Meissner with such a beautiful house and business as I left to you, would get a husband with some money. Diligence and good will are not always sufficient. Your debts would have been paid up, and you would have had a carefree life. And your father would still have the hope of ever getting some land of his own and spend there his old days instead of always having to work for …

… strange people. As easy as it is here to acquire land, one still needs always cash for it, and without money one can do nothing. I have changed my home this spring, and moved 400 miles closer to you. I only cultivate half of my farm. It is situated very near the ocean, and from a sand hill we can watch the ships go by in the distance.

We had a very bad time this spring: one box seed cost [?], and one box potatoes $1. I know very well that I owe Mr. Gatiens nothing, also I paid off Paul Schlüter, but I cannot remember Heinrich Schlüter any more. Through the change of my situation the amount of money I want of you has changed also. For this reason I enclose some lists, but you have to send it at any rate still this fall or else it will arrive too late. As I wrote you earlier — you have to send it to New York, from where I am going to have it picked up. At the same time you have to write me a letter, and tell me where to you sent it. In case a ship should go from Hamburg to Boston, you can send it with this one, as it would be much closer to me.

I wish you and your husband a happy life.

With greetings, Your Father.

I hope my letter may reach you while you are still well and healthy. I nearly passed away during the last hard heat wave. I have already mowed nine acres and have still to mow 11 acres of wheat, while I had to mow in Kummerfeld not even a small meadow myself.

To: Mr. Christian Schmidt — Lower Red Hook, Dutchess Co, N.Y.

West Barnstable, Dec. 3, 1847.

You promised in your last letter to write to me again, as soon you would have received news from your mother. You must not yet have had this joy, as so far I have not heard from you again. We enjoyed hearing of the pleasure which your lover’s letter caused, and we wish you from deep in our hearts that you may have the luck of embracing your lover ‘in person.’.

So far the work was still always urgent, so that I often thought and sometimes spoke of you, but did not get around to write to you.

Besides me and my family, a Scotsman and a Dutchman are the only friends around here. The Scotsman has a young wife and no children yet, but expecting daily a newcomer. He has been a manager in his homeland. My boss brought him here last winter from New York, but they went along only for a month. He worked as a day laborer through summer, and now in the winter he got a very comfortable job with a rich widow, where he receives $12-1/2 dollars per month plus food. The Dutchman with his wife and little girl works for a Finn, who picked him up from the New York poorhouse last spring. He gives him food and 100 dollars, what is enough for the first year, as they speak no word English. Next year they will be able to get at least 50 dollars more.

You better hurry up and get yourself a wife. So you can start your own business, and you don’t have to slave as you do now.

We have earned this summer not more but our food. This will you not surprise too much as you know how many mouths I have to feed, and we arrived only March 15th here. Everything I sowed and planted thrived quite well, only my potatoes were nearly all spoilt. I have sowed this autumn four acres barley and one acre wheat, and I hope to have some save money next year.

I could be satisfied with my present position if it would not be for the owner of the farm. He is such a wretched fellow, a hungry wolf in sheep skin, who always sneaks around and waits for an opportunity, but so far he could not find anything wrong yet.

We are all still well, and hope to hear soon the same from you.

Best wishes to you from my wife and children. F.A.M.

To: Mr. Master Weaver Merkel, Foreman in the Workhouse, Braunstraße 44 in Hamburg.

West Barnstable, Mass., Jan 1848.

Dear Mr. M. As we still think so often of you and your dear wife, and talk about you, we cannot believe that you have already entirely forgotten about us, and we want to ask you through this letter to let us please know all about you. Are you still well? How are Franz, Ernst, Franziska, and Heinrich, and all the others, which arrived in the meantime, doing? Is the workhouse still as it was? Is Mr. Dietrich still alive? And Mr. Schmesel and Mr. Ludwig? How are Aunt Schmidt and husband, and Margraf with his young wife and children? By the way, I would like to ask your dear wife to do me a favor, and visit my sister Lina or Betty, and tell them how they can stand it to let me go for such a long time without news from them. We have written to them a year a go, and have not received an answer yet. Is that right? I would like to know, too, how Mrs. Geisger and her little Luise are doing? We have heard a lot about high prices and a famine in the inland. Did Hamburg have to suffer under it, too? -.

We are luckily all healthy and well. Henry had the bad luck to break both his legs the first summer. He had to stay in bed for seven weeks, but now he is entirely all-right again.

William did not grow very much in height, but he is very strong. He has worked already very nice this summer. Minna [Wilhelmine — LPM] has grown quite a bit, and Lons [Leonore — LPM] is still the fattest of them all.

When we arrived in America, we first went 250 miles north [from New York City — LPM] to a farm, cultivated, the land strong and the winter long. For this reason we could not find a liking to that place, and this spring we went again 400 miles to the southeast. Now we live on a small peninsula, close to the ocean, where the soil is better and the climate milder. We have rented a farm, where we all worked very hard last summer.

The children go now to school. They speak already English quite well; I also am doing pretty fine, and go along fine with it. The weather here is nearly the same as near Hamburg, only the summers are a little bit warmer. The main fruit here is corn [grain? — LPM]; wheat thrives also, barley, oats, and buckwheat. Potatoes were all spoilt last summer. Pumpkins are raised in big amounts for eating and feeding the pigs.

Best regards from all of us to you and your dear wife. Have a nice time and gratify us please soon by writing to us.

Your friends in America …

… Although we did not make any more last year than what we needed for ourselves (we arrived here only May 15th), we hope very much to save some money this year. When we will have made enough money we want to go west and buy us a place of our own. There one can buy 80 acres of the finest and most fertile land for 100 dollars or 350 Mk, for what one has to pay only one to two [Mk?] taxes per year. In the place we are living right now the farms are as expensive as near Hamburg, but in return the market is excellent here, and everything can be changed to money.

[Continuation on page <T008>:]

Dear Sisters!

You will receive these few lines through Mrs. Merkel which I asked to visit you and to let me know how you are doing, as I don’t have received any answer to our letter yet. Have you already forgotten your sister? Let us please know how you are doing. We have moved to another place. So please address your letter, if you write, to F.A.M., West B., Mass.

To: Mr. Christian Schmidt, Red Hook, D. Co, N.Y.

West Barnstable, Jan 14, 1848.

Dear friend. I have received your dear letter, and I want to thank you very much for your friendly wishes towards the New Year. We are all well, and live very happy in the circle of our family. I want to wish you the same happiness of contentment at home. It is therefore my deepest wish and best advice for you, that you may get married very soon. But that is not easy to say. It all depends on good luck. The smartest one sometimes is cheated most. I read from your letter that you cannot make up your mind, and I can imagine very well how you must be feeling. In your last but one letter you were so happy to have received a letter from your girl from Germany, and now ? I don’t know all the details about this but I can imagine that you wrote in your letter to your lover about your love and faith in her, and made her hope to become once your wife, and now ? You see no possibility to carry out this plan, and look for another friendship. But please imagine now how your fiancée must be feeling. She hopes and waits with true love for her Christian, and lets all her other good chances go by, and you already [have] another girl for a long time. Girls — that is for sure — are very often thoughtless, and the proverb goes, — out of the eyes, out of their thoughts, but there are enough examples, too, that they die of a broken heart. But for what reason should I make your heart still feel worse as it does already now. For your own happiness’ and peace’s sake I press myself into your secrets. Please listen to my advice: I believe you must still write to your bride again, and must tell her clearly by which way she can become your wife, and what you have to offer her. She is not the first bride who follows her groom. I myself have known two very pretty girls. The one of them followed her bridegroom to Texas and the other to South America. If she does not want to come you are free and don’t have to make reproaches to yourself. If you want me to, I will write for you. Somebody else can often do it better. People in love write usually only about their love, and forget that a lot more than this belongs to the human life.

Did you not receive any letter from your mother, yet? You want to know whether you could find a job here. I am convinced, that — with or without wife — you would find an opportunity. The details cannot be decided in advance.

I have no use for Radcliff’s farm as I have rented here for three years.

Best regards from my wife. We look forward to hear from you.

Your F.A.M.

To: Mr. Christian Schmidt, Red Hook.

W.B. February 4, 1848.

Dear Friend! I have received your letter of Jan 16. You probably have received mine at about the same time. We all were glad over your decision to look for a job around here. Your wish has been mine one, too, since a long time. I have already some prospects, but nothing for certain yet. As much as I have heard about salaries: $12 per month for a whole year, or $16 for nine summer months are normal, in the last year even 18 and $20 were sometimes paid. Please write to me as soon as possible, whether you will be coming for sure, and for which price I shall make a contract for you. I will then have it announced in the newspaper, and I am sure to find a job for you, as the Germans have a good name around here.

I am in not as bad a situation as you as I have a family, but I still long very much for a friend. One can never trust the Yankees — they always keep you in their minds. Therefore, dear friend, put your decision into reality. My wife and my children are all very happy that you are going to be close to us. Please give me soon an answer.

Best regards.

Sincerely yours.

To: Karoline Gerstenberg, Kummerfeld near Hamburg (Not mailed!).

March first 1848.

Dear Lina! I received your letter of April 1847 in the beginning of July and I answered it in August. You promised to send me different kinds of seeds and as these are of great value to me, I am very sad to see my expectations deceived. I have to believe that you neglected your promise or that at least you tried successfully not to answer my letter. Therefore I will not address this letter to you and I hope for an answer soon (it is too late now for the seeds!) in order to get rid of this uncomfortable business.

I have changed my home as you will have saw from my last letter and my present address is: West Barnstable, Mass. I would like to hear from my brother as well as from old friends like Johann and Mr. Ulrich etc.

When I have recovered a little and will have a better footing here, I am sure to have the opportunity to make business with you, which could be advantageous for both parts. You could sell here all the things you could not get rid of at home, like fruit trees and berry bushes are rare here. If I am receiving a satisfactory answer soon I might put up a big order for the autumn.

Best wishes to your husband and to all my friends.

Your Father Reim. [??].

To: Mr. Johann Gottlieb Ullrich in Ottsmarschen near Altona.

Dear Ullrich! The wish to hear from you and your family reminds me of my duty to write to you about how I am doing now and how I did in the past. First I want to ask you to forgive me for departing without saying goodbye to you and I am convinced, that you won’t think bad of me when I remind you of my troublesome, even desperate situation at that time.

Our sea voyage was not too fast. It took us seven weeks. But we felt very lucky to cross the ocean with our old ship and to arrive at New York’s harbor without accident, and the joy of entering the so longed for country made us quickly forget all the troubles with which such a journey is usually accompanied. N.Y. has grown a lot in the last years that it is nearly impossible to reach its end by foot.

Hundreds of buses cover the main streets. Besides these, railway tracks in all directions with hourly trains are there, and on the streets are such masses of people that one who was used to move around in Hamburg still has to learn a lot here.

The stranger feels entirely lost in such a town and I claimed myself very lucky to be able to leave that town after a 14 day long stay. A salesman of N.Y. gave me the management of his farm 200 English miles towards the north. The farm consists in 1500 acres, divided into smaller parts, 200 to 300 acres of which are cleared, but the remains are still forests. I received $300 as working capital and the net profit of the farm (after expenses for our food and the farm were deducted) was supposed to be divided between me and the owner. This seemed to me a pretty good contract, but the situation and conditions planned it different. The region was too cold, the soil too strong, and the market too far away. Woodwardsville was cleared very much 20 to 30 years ago, but since that time people moved away, the huts declined, as their former inhabitants moved westward. I stayed there for one summer and two winters and I was very glad when I was could say good-bye to this place again.

I now live in a cultivated region in the state Massachusetts on a narrow peninsula, which you can find easily on the map south of Boston. Cape Cod is on account of the big fishing industry in its bay well known. In 1620 the Mayflower with the first Pilgrims (Puritans) (a religious sect) landed here. They first fled from England to Holland and then to America, and their descendants are still the only inhabitants of this region. The peninsula is so narrow that one can see from a low hill in its middle to the ocean at both sides, which are covered by fishing vessels all year round. The row of hills are covered with oaks. The southern bank has bad sandy soil, but has some nice fishing villages; the northern bank has the farm on which I am living right now. It has pretty good loamy soil and many marsh meadows, but which are outside the embankment and which are flooded by a high flood. The hay tastes salty and is of no great value. Otherwise are all agricultural products very expensive here, as very little is raised and the region is overpopulated for the fishing’s sake. If the work would be not so expensive a farmer could easily become rich. A good farm of 50 acres …

… has a value of 2500 to $3000 and is managed by the owner and a boy to help him. The women do nothing outside of the house; the man has even things to do like milking the cows and carrying wood and water into the house.

In springtime a lot of herrings come with the flood nearly to my door and in winter we catch in the ditches between the meadows. The main product here is corn [grain? — LPM]. I have four cows and two oxen and have to pay the half of everything I raise to the owner as lease. The milk of my cow and the vegetables I need are not included in this contract.

The state Massachusetts is one of the oldest, has generally only bad soil, and is known in the whole Union for sanctimony and has an ill repute. The moderation apostles have gone so far as to forbid brandy to be bought at any place. In the same manner wine and beer are prohibited and we have to drink water like our cattle — with the exception of clothes a farmer lives here much worse than in Germany. I heard that it is better in the West. One can buy there 40 acres of the best soil for only $50, but one still needs about $300 so that he can start out for himself.

Now, my dear Ullrich, please do me the favor and let me know very soon about you. Please send my regards to your sister, Madame Hasse and ask her in my name to write once to me. Please great my brother and Betty and tell them they should once write to me, too. Give them my address. I have written last summer to Kummerfeld, but I have received no answer yet. I know that Lina got married. How is business going?

Farewell and keep me as your friend in your memory.

To Mr. Christian Schmidt, Lower Red Hook, Dutchess Co, N.Y.

March 6, 1848.

Dear friend! My expectations to hear from you after my two long letters have been always disappointed (as often as I have asked at the post-office!) and I just cannot explain your long silence. We are already worried that something of bad luck might have happened to you. I have found for you a job, which is in my opinion very good.

Mr. Senas D. Basset Esq. Hyannis.

West Barnstable March 6, 48.

Sir. Mr. John Barker Crocker informed me you wanted to hire my friend and countryman Mr. C. Schmidt now at Red-Hook Dutchess Co., N.Y. I have written to him about it today and shall communicate his answer to you as soon as possible.

respectfully, your obedient servant.

Mr. Senas D. Basset Esq. Hyannis.

West Barnstable March 18, 48.

Sir! It is not my fault that you have to wait as long for a answer, i only received a letter by the yesterdays mail of Mr. Schmidt, by who he wreite my that he agreet to stay som time longer by his master — .

If Mr. Crockers creditors take posess of his farm after the court held to Barnstable in the beginning of next month i shall be myself without employment and i should estimate me very happy to work for you, as i ame a gardener of profession i hope i should suit you.

Respectfully your obedient servant.

Mr. Christian Schmidt, Red Hook, D. Co, N.Y.

W.B. May 17, 1848.

Dear friend! Around the 6th of this month I wrote to you and told you that I found a job for you with a salary of approximately $150. In my opinion this is a very fine job. I waited for your immediate answer whether you were going to accept this offer or not, but 11 days have passed already since and I have heard nothing from you, yet. As I received no answer either to my last two letters I cannot explain your silence any more and therefore I am going to address this letter to the Postmaster of R.H. with the request to let me know whether you are still alive.

To: Mss. Martha & Abigail Crocker by theirs attorney Mr. R.F. Crocker.

West Barnstable May 17, 1848.

Sir! I have the pleasure to hand you the account of boarding due to me by cancellation of the Knowen lease, and demand the value of, befor we proceed farther.

F.A. Meissner.