Mr. City Judge Hering in Pirna in Saxony.

W.B. May 6, 1850.

Your Honor! I received your dear letter, dated June 14, 1849. Following it I made a certificate for Mr. Adv. K. Friedrich and mailed it around the middle of Sept., last year. I enclosed in the letter my passport which I had received in Pinneberg before my departure as well as a letter for Mr. K.F. and one for my cousin Karoline Zimmermann and some lines to your honor, which contained my thanks for the information you gave me so readily. I had addressed this all to Mr. Karl Friedrich. But as I have received to this day no sign yet about the arrival of my certificate nor an answer from my cousin, I have to believe that the whole parcel is lost. I therefore wrote another certificate and addressed this time the letter to Mr. Judge Dir. Hermann Schneck. I enclose the certificate in your letter with the request to give it to Mr. Judge Dir. And I hope and wish that I might be luckier this time.

In case my first certificate should still have arrived — against my suspicion — the success of it should make me believe, that my interests are not in the best hands and I put it up to your discretion whether you want to keep back the second certificate — in such a case. You have to this or the other my full agreement.

Finally I want to thank you again deeply for the kindness you showed to me and I hope you fulfill my request mentioned above.

To the judge of the Court Mr. Hermann Schneck, Pirna.

W.B. May 6, 1850.

Your Honor! By making you through the enclosed certificate to my attorney of power, I flatter myself not only with the hope that you will accept the job I asked you for, but also that you will soon inform me about the arrival of my letter and to give me at the same time a short survey of the inheritance, how big or small my share would be, …

… and when I could look forward to receive at least part of the money. Besides that I would like to know who of my relatives are still alive and are heirs also.

To Karoline Gerstenberg, Kummerfeld near Altona, near Pinneberg. [Not mailed!].

W.B. May 4, 1850.

Dear Lina! I have received your letter of Feb. 12, 1849 and I would have answered you a long time ago if I would not have been so vexed at your behavior while my uncle passed away. These days some of your earlier letters fell into my hands and the feelings showed in them caused me to write this letter. I hope that it will reach you and your husband and little family in good health and if you will continue as you started you will still come to wealth.

I was very happy to read in the papers that this summer steamboats will go from Hamburg. I wish that you would send the wanted things for autumn. It will be still early enough for the steamboat, if you mail it the beginning of November. If you want to send it by a sailing boat, it should be mailed already in the beginning of September. Please take care that every box or barrel is marked in clear letters as follows: Mr. F.A. Meissner, W.B.; Care of Mr. Ferdinand Karck, N.Y.

Mr. K.F. Meissner in Ütersen near Altona.

W.B. May 6, 1850.

Dear Karl! I have received your letter of April 2, 1848 and was very happy not only to hear from you but also that at the present time all of you are well and so far everything is going fine.

Accidentally I have heard that our uncle in Pirna has died and we all are probably among his heirs. I just cannot understand that you did not let me know about that. I wrote for that reason already last year to you, but received no answer. I believe they have made in Kummerfeld the plan to cheat me for my inheritance. Please let me know whether you received already something, how much we have to expect, who your attorney of power is and whether you are satisfied with him.

Give my regards to Ullrich and tell him that I have written already several times to him but did not receive any answer. I ask him to write to me how business is going in Kummerfeld. Send my regards to Betty, Wilhelm, Mana, and Aunt and write soon to your brother.

F.A.M.

Mr. Ferdinand Karck, Consul of Hamburg, N.Y.

W.B., May 7, 1850.

Your honor! I received your friendly lines with the kind permission to be able to send my letters to Germany through your hands. Accordingly, I take the liberty to send you all the letters with the request to mail them at the first and best opportunity. I want you to make the letter to Aderwitz free to Hamburg or Bremen. I am most interested in the letter to Pirna, as it contains a certificate and I have sent one already last summer which did not arrive. Finally I want to thank once again for your unselfish offer only to charge me for the postage. It feels so well in this country of selfishness and egoism and avarice to find somebody with a German character and ideals and to see these written in German language.

It will be comfortable to know that you will mail the letters, when you have opportunity, too.

Mr. W. Wesselhöft, Dr.—No. 18 Bedford St., Boston .

W.B. April 28, 1850.

Dear Doctor! If you look back in your journal Oct. 12, 1848, you will find my daughter Wilhelmine marked down. [Now in 1850, she is almost 16 years old—LPM.] Her (sickness) trouble was that her period was not going right and she complained always about stomach ache. We made then the water cure after the prescription of your brother and you gave her a little white powder against the stomach ache. After the use of this powder the aches were entirely gone and all the troubles got better. As the water cure seemed too fussy during the cold weather we interrupted it. The patient felt better all winter long, and in springtime of 1849, I believe it was April, the period started again all by itself. The patient had it two or three times very hard and felt at that time unusually well and full of strength, but with the beginning of the warm weather the period got weaker and weaker and stayed off entirely at the end. The patient became again weak and complained again much about stomach and headache. Like in autumn of 1849, we asked for the advice of Dr. Leonhard in Sandwich. He gave the patient first a clear, sourish liquid, which, however, deepened the headache so badly that we had to stop with it. After that she got a mixture which contained partly turpentine. This caused a strong period but the patient was very sick; after four weeks the period came again but then constipation followed and the patient became very sick and moody. (Dr. L. prescribed pills against it.) The next period followed in four weeks, after that the patient felt a great pain …

… in her left side which kept on for three weeks. Dr. L. prescribed pills and said the patient is scrofulous and it would be useless to give any more medicine. The next period was only very weak and the dirt in it — taken into hand — looked gray instead of red. The following and the last period 14 days ago were a little bit stronger, but looked still a little bit gray —.

The patient seems to be unable to drink water. This might be caused by the water itself as we live here in a flat marshy region. The patient has to sustain fully of milk as it causes vomiting. I believe now to have told you all about the state of the patient and we look hopefully for your answer …

Mr. W. Wesselhöft, M.D. in Boston.

W.B. May 12, 1850.

Dear Sir! Wilhelmine took all the powders you sent her according to your prescriptions. Yesterday she took the last of it, but so far we can see no improvement in her feeling. The patient gets about two or three times a day a rising heat in her face, one or the other ear turns fire red and becomes burningly hot. At that time the headache is worst, although she never gets entirely rid of it. When it is very bad and I put my hand on her head I can hear her blood beating in her head, at the same time her feet and hands are cold and freezing shudders run through her. During these attacks the patient is usually very weak, but in the times between she is quite gay.

May 17, 1850.

As it was just about the time when the patient was supposed to have her period, I put off mailing the letter in order to wait whether there would be a change in her feelings by the period. But the period has stayed off already several days and the patient felt very miserable and weak during these days. The headache is very bad, but the raising heat seems to be less. The patient complains about continuing stomach pressure and a pain above the stomach, but below her breasts. Hands and feet are always cold, at worst during the heat wave in her head. Arms and legs are weak and without strength, little appetite; the patient was constipated for the last days and we gave her therefore an enema Tuesday evening, …

… Wednesday morning and evening, which she all kept and Thursday morning we gave her a soap pill; a bowel movement followed. The patient sleeps little and then only restlessly at night. During the day she is mostly in a state—half awake and half asleep. Now I don’t know anything else to add but the question, when you will send medicine and whether we should stop giving it in case the period should come in the meantime or after the use of the medicine.

Mr. W. Wesselhöft, M.D., Boston.

W.B. July 4, 1850.

Dear Sir! We have used all of the medicine according to prescription. The patient has the menstruation regularly but very weak and was generally better, but sometimes still very sick with head and stomach ache. The warm baths prescribed for her and which we gave her from time to time seem to trouble her—she was always nearly lifeless in them—but altogether she feels better and has more strength. The heat in her head leaves her sometimes for a day, another day it appears even two or three times. She still has a continuing headache and stomach pressure. People who have seen her while she had the heat in her head believe she has a tendency for tuberculosis, but I console myself with the fact that she has no cough. We look forward to your advice.

To the Judge Dir. Hermann Schneck in Pirna Your Honor:

In March of this year I sent a certificate, in which I nominated you as my attorney of power in the inheritance of my late uncle, the former Friedrich Gotthelf Meissner in Pirna, to the Judge Dir. Hering in Pirna. I asked him to give it to you. But as I have received no answer from you nor from Mr. Hering I must fear that it did not arrive. I ask you therefore urgently to answer me at once after the arrival of my letter and to let me know whether you received my certificate, whether you would like to accept my offer in this affair, how the state of this affair is right now and which steps I have to redo to further my interests.

To the City Court of Law in Pirna.

W.B. Aug 12, 1850.

To Judge Dir. Hering in Pirna:

Your Honor! Your pleasant letter of June 18, 1849 reached me well and around Sept. 4 1849 I made a certificate for Mr. Advocate C. Friedrich and mailed it. But as I received no answer and was afraid that it got lost I made in March 1850 another one and that time for Judge Dir. H. Schneck. I addressed it to your Honor with the request to give it to Mr. Schneck, but as I received no answer to this letter yet I don’t know how to explain it, and take therefore the liberty to address these lines again to your Honor with the urgent request for news about the certificate and the present state of the inheritance. I preferably would like to know how much my share would be. With the same letter I sent a question to Judge D.H. S. and I look with desire forward to an answer to my letters.

Your devoted … F.A. Meissner.

Care of Mr. Ferdinand Karck, Consul of Hamburg, N.Y.

Postscript: The signer of these lines refuses before your court to accept any steps undertaken from anybody but me and by my attorney of power in the affairs of my late uncle, Fr. G.M. in Pirna.

Mr. de Ray, Ütersen near Altona .

W.B. Aug. 12, 1850.

Your Honor! The last news I heard from my brother K.F. Meissner, was a letter, which your nephew brought with himself to N.Y. I have written since this time already several times to him and requested urgent answers but in vain -. As he worked with you as a gardener and enjoyed your sympathy, you will please excuse my liberty to write to you and ask you to let me know his present address or in case he is still working at your place—please give him the enclosed letter and tell him to answer me at once.

Respectfully Your F.A.M.

[I.T. ?] To the Administration of the Pinneberg Territory, Pinneberg in Holstein [Not mailed!].

W.B. Aug 12, 1850.

Your Honor! The signer, not personally known to your Honor, was a former land owner in Kummerfeld, where he has still his home rights (is still citizen) and where his daughter has now his belongings—a fortune of 1000 Cour. Mark. As I have reason to believe that my present stay is kept secret by my family and from an unknown reason, I take the liberty to tell it to you with the request to supervise my interests, fastened to my fortune, which my daughter has right now to my very probably soon to-be return.

F.A.M.

W.B., Mass., N.A.

To Mr. Ferdinand Karck, Consul of Hamburg in N.Y.

W.B. Aug 12, 1850.

Your Honor! I request again your kindness and want you to mail the enclosed letter with the earliest mail. I ask you to put the postage on them. I have received no answer yet to all my letters you were so kind to mail in March as little as to all my earlier ones. I don’t know any more how to explain it. I enclose $2, which I believe to be enough for postage.

My best thanks for your kindness.

To Mr. Ferdinand Karck, Consul of Hamburg in N.Y.

W.B. Sept 5, 1850.

Your Honor! On Aug 13 of this year I mailed a letter to you containing three letters for Germany and a two dollar bill, but as I have received no answer yet I am afraid they got lost. In this case I would like to write again and have it mailed with the next steamboat and therefore I sent these lines.

To "The Water Cure."

Sep 17, 1850 [Concerning Wilhelmine’s chronic illness.].

From Brother Karl Meissner.

By the ship Gutenberg.

Address: Mr. Friedrich Adolf Meissner in West Barnstable, Massachusetts, North America.

Ütersen, Sep. 15, 1850.

Dear Adolf. I surely received your three letters, but would have liked to save you the postage as I don’t know anything to write which could be of use to you.

Your first letter—despite the fact that it cost 21/—was welcome because it said you are still alive and quite well. There was a P.S. for Mr. Ullrich in it and so I had the letter sent to him by Marie, but received no answer from anywhere.

You inquire about an inheritance in Pirna. All I know about it is this: A long time ago a letter was read to me in the courthouse of Altona, saying that Mr. Friedrich Gotthelf Meissner had died in Pirna and that I had a share in the inheritance as son of his half-brother, the late minister Mr. Ernst Friedrich Meissner in Schönbach. I therefore had to make a certificate to an advocate in Pirna. For this purpose Mr. Karl August Friedrich in Pirna was proposed to me, whom already you and all the other relatives made to their attorney of power. There was no cause for me to write therefore to you, as I was told that you had already a certificate made, too. The advocate Held in Altona asked 10 [S?] for the certificate but wanted to give me credit until I would get my share, but so far he received no answer yet form Pirna. After having received your 2nd letter which also cost 21/ I wrote personally a letter to Mr. Karl Aug. Friedrich in Pirna, which I mailed personally at the post office in Altona on June 11, A.D., but received no answer either. Now I got your 3rd letter about this matter from a man, but I can give you more information as I know myself.

When I was still in Dresden, Uncle Traugott [see <T029>—LPM] told me once explicitly that I cannot count of an inheritance from any of the relatives. Therefore I don’t believe that I will ever get …

… anything and it would be better if you would waste no more postage on this matter. In case I should hear something of importance to you, I won’t fail to write it to you. -.

Otherwise I surely would like to know how you are doing. Betty, Aunt and Marie live in Altona, Wilhelm [Karl’s son—LPM] is with a gardener, Mr. Petersen, in Elbe. I am with Mr. de Roy. I have not been in Kummerfeld for a long time. I hope and wish you are healthy and stay that way and that you may live many years even without the inheritance.

Your brother, Karl Friedrich Meissner .

Mr. Ferdinand Karck, Consul of Hamburg, N.Y..

W.B. Sept 17, 1850.

Your Honor! On Aug 13 of this year I mailed a letter containing three letters for Germany and a $2 bill for postage to you. As I received no answer to this letter and feared it got lost I took liberty to address a letter to you around Sept 5, in which I asked you about it. As I received to this letter no answer either I see myself forced to write to you again and ask for your kind reply.

From Brother Karl Meissner.

Address: To Mr. Friedrich Adolf Meissner in West Barnstable, Mass., North America.

Ütersen, Oct. 19, 1850.

Dear Adolf, After having mailed by the ship Gutenberg on Oct. 1 A.D. a letter to you which contained nothing of importance, only the announcement that I had received your letters but was unable to give any information about the inheritance in Pirna, I received on Oct. 5, a letter from the advocate Friedrich in Pirna, of which I send you a copy:

To the gardener, Mr. Karl Friedrich Meissner in Ütersen.

According to your honored order, I took care for your rights in the inheritance, which your uncle, the merchant Fried. G. Meissner left behind. The whole inheritance consists in about 8000 [Thalers?] and is divided into two parts. One part belongs to the full blooded race and the other to the half-blooded sisters and brothers of the deceased. The first part is double the size of the 2nd one. From the latter side six people exist, namely the heirs of six half-blooded brothers and sisters; You, then you compete with two brothers, one of them, Fr. A. Meissner, is in America and the other, E.F. Meissner, is supposed to be dead. [Ernst Friedrich Meissner, b. 1807, d. about 1824 aged about 17 and apparently without offspring—LPM.] I was so far unable to prove the latter’s death and therefore it is still a question whether this part of the inheritance is divided into two or three shares. The house here in this town, which belongs to the inheritance, has been sold lately and 5350 [Thalers?] were paid for it. One therefore can expect that soon the inheritance will be distributed. The cash money certainly was already divided last year, but is not paid yet as the death certificate of your brother is still missing. In case I am unable to get one till the next time when the other parts of the inheritance are divided I will demand that the share belonging to E.F. Meissner and his descendants is kept while you and your brother in America will get their parts. I will take care that it will be sent to you right away. E.F. Meissner, born 1807, is supposed to have died in Dresden. But as all my investigations led to no result I hereby ask you whether you are willing to tell me when E.F. M. died, in which part of town it was, where he once lived, whether he maybe died somewhere else and whether you therefore can give me a death certificate.

Respectfully I sign, yours, Friedrich, Advocate.

== Pirna, Oct. 1, 1850.

According to my calculation we both have to expect 1/54 of 8000 [M?] Saxon currency. This would be about 370 [M?] and after deducting all expenses 300 [M?] about should be left. As I cannot give a distinct information about Ernst I left the letter unanswered. If you know something about it then do it yourself.

It is all the same here. Nothing changed. I would be glad once to hear again how you are doing.

Your brother, Karl Friedrich Meissner.

Capt. John Percival Dorchester Mass.

10 Nov 1850 [excerpt].

… my harvest turns out very scanty …

To Mr. Karl Friedrich, Advocate in Pirna.

W.B. Nov 12, 1850.

I have received your letter—dated Oct. 1st 1850—on Nov. 6. I cannot understand how you as a business man could put off so long an answer to my letters and caused to me so many unnecessary expenses and troubles. I sure cannot call this done in my interest?

Concerning the death of my brother Ernst Friedrich I can tell you this: He died in the year 1824 or 25 in the little Field Castle near Dresden. He was employed at that time in Court Printing Press and learned how to become a compositor. Our uncle [mother’s brother—LPM], the Court Gardener Karl August Seidel, was our guardian. He or the gardener Treugott Jakob Seidel can affirm his death. Also can this be proven through the documents of the Guardian Administration Office in Dresden.

(Our cousin Mrs. Büchel in Dresden surely remembers this, too. Norbert Meissner knows about it at any rate. We have, however, very little communication with our other relatives.).

I am not interested in having money sent to me only partly. I hope that my information enables you to bring this affair clear and please let me know how much I am to receive from you, in order to write a check for you, as it seems to me to be very unsafe to collect money in cash.

Respectfully, F.A.M.

To Mr. Hering, Judge Dir. in Pirna.

W.B. Nov 12 1850.

Your Honor! I have received your kind answer on Nov 6 and I cannot omit to see my deepest thanks to you. Also my attorney of power, Mr. Friedrich the advocate, has given answer to me—only and alone caused by your and Mr. Schneck’s visit to him, as he writes himself. The information I gave Mr. Friedrich about the death of my brother will enable him to prove it validly and to clear the situation. As your Honor recommended Mr. Friedrich to me I am convinced that my little inheritance will go to safe hands. I want to thank you once again for your lines.

Respectfully …

Mr. Ferdinand Karck, Consul of Hamburg in N.Y.

W.B. Nov 12 1850.

Through your kindness I have received a letter from Pirna on Nov. 6 of this month. I have to receive from there a little inheritance of nearly 200 [Thalers?] and want to ask for your advice whether it would be better for me to have it sent to me in cash—in money or silver—or whether it would not be better to make a bill of exchange of it and whether it is possible to do so through your negotiation. I mean it to do it by this way: I write a money-order saying that my attorney of power is to pay the amount to you or your orders and you pay it to me then here in N.Y. (Please excuse my inexperience in things of commercial matter.) Please be so kind as to mail the enclosed letter with the next Bremen steamer. It is not necessary to put postage on it.

To Karoline Gerstenberg in Kummerfeld near Hamburg.

W.B. Nov 12, 1850.

Dear Lina! I am sure you are very well or else I should think you ever remembered your father and would ask once how he is feeling. -.

I would like you to send me for next spring the following items. If you can mail these things in the beginning of March by a …

… sailing ship or in the beginning of April by a steamboat, I am sure they will arrive here still on time.

[Order list:…].

I expect that you will answer this letter after arrival, that I will know whether I can count on it. Give my regards to your husband and your children.

Your father …

[P.S.] Please write the following address on all boxes or barrels, which you will send to me: Mr. F.A. Meissner, Care of Mr. Ferdinand Karck, Consul of H., N.Y. Besides that write "Garden Seeds" on the barrel with seeds, and on the others write "Trees," "Shrubs," or "Plants" according to what they contain.

Please enclose with the seeds some price-"Courants" [current prices?—LPM], a Booth’s Tree Nursery Catalog and one about carnation seeds from the place where Bielenberg and the other gardeners of Altona received their wonderful carnations from in the last years. I sure would like to have some.

I am most interested in the things I underlined, especially pear seeds, carnations, and Stocks seeds. As you have to buy these I will compensate you for your expenses during the next summer if you need it badly, but I believe that you must be rich already as you surely save everything which I might have wasted.

Capt. John Percival Dorchester Mass.

16 Dec 1850 [excerpt].

… The barn has cost $1299.90 …. I am very much obliged to you for your kind offer to make your house my home in case I should come to Boston and I only wish I could furnish my house in such a style that I could offer the same hospitality to you. …

Capt. John Percival Dorchester Mass.

19 Jan 1851 [excerpt].

… I am very sorry that you feel so much troubled about getting William a place, but I hope you will remember that it was your own kindly offering we accepted…. I have put in the farm 201 loads manure and the harvest calculated at a fair price amounts to $126.80, a sum about triple as last year but still a very discouraging result … my earnings of the past year have not sustained our wants, I have only procured what was necessary on food and some coarse clothing and there is still a debt of about $25 to pay for. I rejoice in having a good barn and shall use every effort to make up the deficiency of the last year; how far I shall be successful I do not know. I wish you would assist me with about 500# Guano, that is as much as it wants for manuring an acre of land, but I don’t intent to increase my liabilities with if you could not do it for your satisfaction to see me getting a living on a farm where nobody else could I shall not want it, because I dont know if I could ever pay for.

From "Doris Meissner" [Johanna Friedericka Doris Runtzler Sennewald].

To:[brother-in-law] Mr. P.H. Kierulff, Carpenter, Bükenbreitengang, Platz No. 22, Hut No. 3, Hamburg.

January 1851—W.B., Mass., N.A.

Dear Sister! After having mailed our last letter in January 1848 to you, we received your and Mr. Merkel’s letter—dated Dec. 1847, we also received your letters from August 1848.

We are still living in W.B., where we sent our last letters from and as our situation is still much the same, only we all become some years older and so we put off always writing to you.

July 25 of last year we received a letter from Wilhelm [her brother, F.W. Runtzler: see <T40>—LPM], in which he wrote that he arrived safely in N.Y. and that all of you were well and healthy when he left. We answered him at once but never heard from him again. If you know what became out of him and where he is now, let us please know about it and his address.

[Her children:—LPM] Wilhelmine was ailing a lot during the last years but is better in this winter. Leonore is working since last autumn and weighs 146 lb. William weighs 180 lb. and wants to go to sea in spring. Henry goes to school and we all are well and healthy. We suffer no want of anything, but we could not save anything either. Before one knows the language and the …

… situation here it is very hard and I am afraid Wilhelm will have a rough time at first, but this will go over.

We cannot advise Kierulff to come over here. At least as a cabinet-maker he will have no future. The furniture here is very, very cheap and are all made square. In case little Lina should be still unmarried and has the wish to come over here, she can have a much better life here and with little ease and little work in a week she can make $1 that is three F eight S [maybe: F = franken, S = shilling—M. Camphäusen]. She can come to us and we will accept her kindly and find a job for her. When she arrives at N.Y. she only has to go to the Consul of Hamburg, who knows us and who can tell her how to find us best, but she needs Meissner’s address.

Give our regards please to sister Karoline, brother Heinrich, your husband and children, and please let us know about you soon again. Give your letter to Norbert Slomann instead to the post office and address it to F.A.M., W.B., Mass. N.A.

To Mr. F.C. Merkel, Weavermaster in Hamburg, Brauerstraße No. 44.

W.B. Jan 1851.

Dear friend! After having mailed our last letter in Jan. 1848 to you we received your letter of Dec. 1847 and also your letter—dated Aug 1848, which we read with great pleasure. You surely did not believe at that time that the agitations in Holstein would last so long.

We are still in W.B. from where we wrote last. We have—to be sure—enough to live but cannot save anything yet. Doris is still sometimes homesick for her friends in Hamburg and cannot get used entirely yet to the life here. The children however are quite happy. William will go to sea this spring; Wilhelmine was sick during the last years but is better now, she becomes tall and strong. Leonore is working since last autumn and is very "chic," she weighs 146 lb. Henry also grew big and strong.

The social life here is miserable; one does not find some good friends together sitting over a glass of punch. The so-called Temperance Societies are so powerful that nobody is allowed to drink in public brandy, wine, or beer, as this is looked upon as a shame, but they drink henceforth more and more secretly. Sanctimony is here a big virtue. In public life many things—to be sure—are better than in Germany, but they are still incomplete. The plurality always makes the laws, the crowd however is not always the smartest or the honest ones; they only look for their own good or the advantage of others (when they get paid for it). The proverb: "Grease …

… swims on top" is here as valid as anywhere else. We have here now similar agitations as in Germany on account of the slavery, which still exists in the Southern states and which the Northern states want to get rid of, but I don’t believe in an outbreak.

It will be a great joy to us to hear from you and your wife and children. We hope all of you are well and healthy and we ask you to greet all friends from us. We greet all of you very much.

In case you think of sending once some of your children over here, send them before they are entirely grown up, so that they can go still to school for one or two years. They learn then the language better and get better used to the life here.

I wish you could [see—LPM] what guy William grew up to be, and all the others speak English very well, too. That is just what keeps the most Germans from being successful—namely not knowing how to speak English. Besides this it is easier here at any rate than in Germany to become something here.

If you write us, please send your letter to Robert Slomann instead through the post office and address it as above to.

Your friend …

Capt. John Percival Dorchester Mass.

2 Feb 1851 [excerpt].

… Now as spring is at the door it would be a waste of time to cart clay … if you intend to spend some $15, as it seems by your letter, to help me get along I think it would be to the best advantage to spend it on Guano … but you may do as you feel disposed to.

Capt. John Percival Dorchester Mass.

19 Mar 1851 [excerpt].

… yesterday we had some high tides … a large hole is broken in the dam, all my swamp was under water as well as a great deal of the tillage land round the edges of the marsh. …

Mr. Ferdinand Karck, C. of H. in N.Y.

W.B., Mass., March 24, 1851.

Your Honor! According to a letter of my attorney of power in Pirna I am supposed to receive so far—after all expenses were deducted—money in the amount of 153 [Th?] 19 [NGC?] three [R?]. I therefore use your kind permission and ask you to send this little sum to me. For that reason I enclose a money order. I hope you inform me when you have received the money. Maybe I come personally to N.Y. to receive the money from you.

I would like to mail the letter to Mr. Friedrich at the same time as the money order. I would like to ask you to send the other letters which are only friendship letters with a Hamburg ship in order to save the higher postage—all without postage.

Mr. Karl Friedrich, Advocate in Pirna in Saxony.

W.B. Mass, March 24, 1851.

153 [Th?] 19 [NGC?] three [R?].

Please pay to Mr. Ferdinand Karck or to his orders, in Saxon currency, one hundred and fifty-three Thalers 19 [NGC?] three [R?].

F.A. Meissner.

[Letter continues on <T034>] …

… [Letter continued from <T033>]

To Mr. Karl Friedrich, Advocate in Pirna.

Following your letter of February 21, 1851 I have written with the date of today a money order for Mr. Ferdinand Karck, C. of H. in N.Y. and I request from you to pay my assets (153 [Th?] 19 [NGC?] three [R?]) after being shown the money order.

If you could send to me by Oct. 13 of this year the amount of 100 [Th?] for my left-over assets in the value of 127 [Th?] 11 [?] and the interest due, I would be willing to give it to you or sell it for this amount. But it must be understood that I have no more expenses and red tape, besides that I don’t want to have anything to do with a third party. I therefore want you to send me a cheque you made in your own name for this amount which is payable Oct. first of this year—with one word—that you will guarantee that 100 Thalers will be paid to me for Oct. 13 of this year without any extra expenses. If you cannot arrange this affair that way I want you to introduce me to my debtor and to arrange it that way that I can to receive by money order yearly the amount due to me. For that reason it is necessary for me to know the time of the payments.

To K.F. Meissner in Ütersen near Altona.

W.B. March 24, 1851.

Dear Brother! I have received your letters from Sept. 15 and Oct. 19, 1850 and I was happy to hear that you are still alive and well. I have in the meantime received already a couple of letters from my attorney of power in Pirna. According to the last one, which I received yesterday, part of my inheritance is paid out and the remainder is supposed to be paid in 10 yearly payments—what a red tape! I am still well and doing fine so far. Please let me know from time to time how you are doing.

With friendship, Your brother.

Capt. John Percival Dorchester Mass.

17 Apr 1851 [excerpt].

… The "water cure" is helping Leonore and we will soon start it on Wilhelmine—we have delayed as she has been improving. Leonore was sick when she went to work for a neighbor but when she came home got well after five weeks of the treatment. …

In my last I wrote you about some high water but we had it still higher … about 1/4 acre of my best garden ground which I had manured very high and planted with early vegetables are washed away.

To Mr. Ferdinand Karck, C. of H., N.Y.

W.B. April 28, 1851.

Your Honor! On March 25 of this year I mailed a letter through you which contained a money order to my attorney of power in Pirna in the value of 153 [Th?] 19 [NGC?] three [R?] which I asked you to collect for me. At the same time I enclosed a letter for Mr. K. Friedrich, Advocate in Pirna, and several letters for Hamburg, in order to have them mailed. I am interested to know whether …

… you received this letter of mine, especially the money order. I would have dared already earlier to ask you about it, if I would not have believed, that you maybe wanted to wait the departure of the last Bremen steamer. As I have received no answer so far from you I can honestly say I am worried about it.

To Mr. Ferdinand Karck, C. of H., N.Y.

W.B. May 27, 1851.

I have received your Honor’s letter telling me that my seeds and plants have safely arrived from Hamburg. The cheapest way to send the goods here would be by sailing ship to one of the southern ports of Cape Cod—Hyannis or Cotuit port. But as it is already so late in the year and possibly no sailing ship is going this route, the best way would be probably by steamboat and railroad by the Fall River route, namely first by steamboat to Fall River, then by railroad to Middleboro and from there on by Cape Cod Branch Railroad to Sandwich. In case you should send the goods this route, it would be better to mark them Sandwich instead of W.B.

Respectfully …

Mr. Ferdinand Karck.

W.B. June 16, 1851.

I have received your kind letter of June 5 as well as the trees etc. from Hamburg. Unfortunately the trees were so carelessly packed that they all dried out. I say for your prompt and nice transport my deepest thanks. I would have enclosed your expenses if I would not have been sure that the money from Pirna will arrive at you in a short time. I sent a letter to my attorney of power (you were so kind to mail it!) saying that I would sell for a round sum of 100 Thalers my remaining assets which were supposed to be paid to me in payments during a period of 10 years. He agreed in this deal and therefore I send another money order for 100 Thalers and ask you to collect if for me. If you will kindly send the enclosed lines back to me after having received my letter, it will prove to me the true arrival of my letter and will save you the trouble of writing to me.

W.B. Mass. June 16, 1851.

100 [Thalers].

Please pay to Mr. Ferdinand Karck or to his orders in Saxon currency, One hundred Thalers.

F.A. Meissner.

To Mr. Karl Friedrich, Advocate in Pirna.

Mr. Karl Friedrich, Advocate in Pirna.

W.B. June 16, 1851.

I have received your letter of May 2, 1851 and following it I made a money order for the amount of 100 Thalers, which I still have to get for Mr. Ferdinand Karck. I request that you kindly send the money and I want to thank you for fulfilling my wish concerning my remaining assets.

I sign …

Capt. John Percival USN Dorchester.

W.B. Jul 6 1851.

Dear Sir, Your generous offer to release me from my obligations to you, viz.: a note of $1500.00 and a note of $230.00 with interest, by paying you no order before the first day of April next One Thousand Dollars, I accept with the greatest gratitude, I will pay you the money as required, and am your—.

Mr. Ferdinand Karck, C. of H. in N.Y.

W.B. July 8, 1851.

I have received your letter of June 18 with the good news that my money order was paid and I ask you to write out a cheque for me in the amount due, that is $95.00, which I can easily sell here to one of the grocers which do their shopping in N.Y., or—if you prefer and believe that there is no risk of loss to have it sent by mail.

Respectfully …

To Karoline Gerstenberg in Kummerfeld.

W.B. Aug 7, 1851.

I have received your letters from Jan first and March 30 as well as the trees, shrubs, plants, and seeds.

The trees and shrubs were all dried out and would not have had much value anyhow as they were not packed well at all and were bound only together like a bundle of bushes. The shrubs seemed to have been put so wet into the barrels that they all but a few were spoilt. It is sure a miracle that the seeds are still mostly OK, as you did not even pack them either in a little box by themselves.

I have read with great joy the assurances of your love in your letter of Jan. 1 and I would be still more convinced about them if your deeds would agree with your words. How come that you took so little consideration for my wishes concerning the trees and shrubs? — How come that you did not announce me the death of my uncle in Pirna right away? —.

As I have left my former home again and don’t know yet the end of my wandering, address please your letters as follows: Mr. F.A.M., Care of Mr. F. Karck, C. of H., N.Y.—in case you feel still moved once to write again to your father —.

Mr. Ferdinand Karck, C. of H. in N.Y.

W.B. Aug. 7, 1851.

I have received your Certificate of Deposit at the Mechanic Bank in N.Y. for the amount of $95 and I thank you very much for it. I ask you to mail the enclosed letters with a Hamburger ship or the next German ship and to put postage on them.

Respectfully …

Mr. Rufus Day.

29 Aug 1851 [excerpt].

… do you still own that white mare … when is the next court in your county, as I have been thinking about to get naturalized then. [See <T074>: "1854, May 23, F.A. Meissner became a citizen".] William my oldest boy has gone to sea on a trading voyage to Central America.

G.F. Wurdeman, Aiken, S. Carolina.

12 Sep 1851 [excerpt].

… have read some remarks in the Boston Almanac … would like to inquire about Enterprise, Florida … [I am] now naturalized. [Not true: see <T074> reference at previous letter to Rufus Day.]

Mr. Ferdinand Karck, C. of H. in N.Y.

W.B. Oct 13, 1851.

I received your letter of Aug. 26 with the enclosed deposit paper of the Mechanic Bank for $70 and I thank you for the prompt and kind execution of this affair and I would like to ask your help and advice in another affair, if I can be sure not to bother you too much.

I surely want to emigrate to Florida but I cannot get away from here earlier than in November. Do you think there is still an opportunity to go to Jacksonville, Florida by ship? My family has five members and we have pretty much luggage and it would probably be too expensive for me to go by steamboat there over Charleston and Savannah. Would it be impossible for you to let me know the cost (in round figures) of the one or other route from N.Y. and whether it would be dangerous to do so at this time of the year?

Besides this I would like to get naturalized before going to Florida. It is impossible here as I don’t live here yet for five years [in Mass.—LPM] but in N.Y. I could find witnesses who can affirm that I am already five years here [in N.Y.—LPM]. I therefore would like to know whether there is a meeting of the court in this or the next months which will accept a petition for naturalization.

NAVIGATE