HTML: 2A 1865-1868
<T102> Moschkowitz & Siegling in Erfurt.
Nov 26, 1865.
I ask you to send me for the enclosed $5 bill: I lot best filled [double?] English Stocks; one lot best filled half English Stocks. As well so many of the seeds listed below, as you can send for the remaining amount. I want to receive the seeds as soon as possible. Send them by mail and write ‘Seeds’ onto the package, but don’t include a letter.
… [seeds] …
I expect that you send me good seeds and the right kinds. I also would like to have your newest catalog and I might give out a bigger order next year, if you could tell me, how I could have it sent in an inexpensive way. In this country here seeds can be sent by mail for eight cts. per lb. For what price and by which way will you be able to send them—as inexpensive as possible—to N.Y.?
Expecting a reply soon, I sign …
Bernhard Domschke, Milwaukee.
Dec. 1, 1865.
Please be so kind and pay the amount of the included small bill to Mr. Coleman, and ask him to take it as prepayment for the Herald.
If you or Mr. Coleman should want a hundred good celery bulbs for $5.00 as prepayment for the Herald, let me know about it, before there is a hard frost. I will deliver them—packed into a box—free to the station in Sparta, and would like to know whether you want these to be sent by express or by train. If you want more, you can have them for $4.50.
<Written in English.> to G.H. Crouse.
Dec. 12, 1865 …
<Written in English.>.
19 May 1866 [excerpt].
… In the time I have lived here, I have been elected four times Town Clerk and twice Justice of the Peace, and I have only a few weeks ago received without any application of mine [?? hard to believe—LPM] the appointment of U.S. Postmaster at Mount Pisgah. [He held this post for about 1-1/2 years.—LPM].
<Written in English.> G.H. Crouse, Peppin Co., Wis.
24 Nov 1866.
<Written in English.> G.H. Crouse, Mapel Springs, Dunn Co., Wis.
14 Dec 1866.
<Written in English.> G.H. Crouse, Mapel Springs, Dunn Co., Wis.
9 Jan 1867 [excerpt].
… Phoneta, Vernalia, Adventus [?] …
<T102, cont.> Jan 16, 1867.
Friend Runyan. You will be surprised that I did not pick up yet my bulls. You will remember the last time I spoke to you, when you were in Sparta. I came home the following night during a snowstorm and was sick for a week. Then my wife got sick and all the children; now we are better again. But as I have no wagon and the sleds stayed away for so long I was unable to get any more hay and straw. The winter has passed already halfway and as a Christian you will keep the bulls for the other half, too. <T103> If you know somebody who is willing to pay me $80 for the red steer, sell it. As soon as we will have good tracks for sledding and it is not too cold I will visit you, as I promised my wife.
My regards to your wife. Your friend, F.A.M.
To the Minister of the Parish in Schönbach near Neusalz in the Oberlausitz, Kingdom of Saxony [between Jan and Apr 1867]
Your Honor! A little bit longer than 62 years ago the writer of this letter was born in the house where you are probably living right now (if it did not have to make room for a new one!) About 40 years ago I have visited the land of my youth last, but it seems that with growing age the memory of it becomes fresher and clearer.
My memory reflects the trout dike as if I saw it only a few days ago. The pride [der Stoltz?—could be der Stall = shed? -LPM] over the milk cellar, where we had our playroom, the water trough from which I pulled my brother out by his hair, the big pasture near the dike, the barn, the fruit trees on the hill—everything stands fresh before my imagination. As the wish to hear once from there gets stronger and stronger, and as I don’t know whether somebody of my relatives and friends is still alive, I take the liberty to write to you.
Above the meadow near the dike the minister’s helper lived, who had a deaf son and a couple twin sisters, whose Godmother my mother was. Behind the barn Fielder lived whose daughter Christel was my daily playmate. In Spreinberg lived the minister Jähnicher, whose son Volkmar—as old as I—who established himself in Neusalz as soap maker. I am sure that his sisters Marie and Julie can still remember me. They were my playmates. In the lower Neudorf [new village] lived the linen weaver Jähne, whose son Traugott went to University and probably has become a great man.
In Odernitz lived my Uncle Moser [husband of Wilhelmine Meißner sister or half-sister of F.A.M.’s father], from whose only daughter Karoline Christiane, married Zimmermann, I just found a letter, in which she writes me that she was in Schönbach and has visited the church, Mother Schuricht, and the minister’s house. She lived at that time (1844) in New Spitz Leutersdorf. In case my cousin should be still alive—as I wish and hope—I would like to ask you, sir, to send her many nice greetings from me, and to tell her that I would be very happy to hear from her again. Also I would like to ask you to give my <T104> regards to all the other friends who still remember me.
Now I want to tell you and my friends something about me. I live as farmer in the state of Wisconsin and enjoy an excellent health. I am Justice of Peace in the town[ship] Portland and Postmaster of Mount Pisgah. We have the best soil for wheat, good spring water, and enough wood, but the region is a little bit rough and hilly. There no poor people living in the country, but no rich ones either. Several of my German neighbors who maybe came into this country 10 years ago and hardly know how to make a living for a short time, own now a beautiful farm and on the road to wealth. Meat and bread are here in abundance, but there is little money. Uncultivated land costs $5 per acre. One finds hardly here Government land any more. It is a very hard labor to cultivate the soil, and therefore Germans, coming from the lowest classes, which are used to hard work, make the best progress, while the educated classes often hardly make a living.
As I have to think to tire your patience out, I will finish my long letter by giving you my best regards and assuring you that I will be very happy to receive an answer from you.
Theodore Ch. Wendel, 518 Washington Str., Boston, Mass.
April 3, 1867.
Last year I had me sent seeds from Moschkowitz and Schaline, which were however not very good. The early Erfurt red cabbage was a bastard between red and white, so one could hardly tell to which kind it should belong; and in order to get to know Mr. F.W. Wendel’s seeds better, I ask you to fill the included list. I took the names from the Erfurt catalog. If you don’t have one or the other kind, I would ask you not to substitute another one, as I want to get to know the kinds. I include $2 for you. If it should not be enough I am going to send you the difference as soon as the seeds arrive. But as it is already late, I count on you that the seeds will be sent right away.
With my friendly greetings …
[List of the seeds: …].
<T105> Mr. K.A. Seidel, Court Gardener, Dresden.
February 5, 1868.
Dearest Uncle! [brother of F.A.M.’s mother]. I heard from Minister Jeering in Schönbach, that you are not only still alive—a vigorous old man—but that you still remember me. Mr. Jeering informed me that you have retired and that both of your sons are in Australia, also that Aunt Erhardt {Lore?] lives near N.Y. I was, however, unable to learn from his letter whether my much respected Aunt, your wife, is still alive. As you want to learn more about me and as I can look upon you as my second father, I owe you a sort of account of my past life.
You know that I lived in Kummerfeld, where I found a pretty nice farm, and where I had a good living with my wife and my only daughter. My wife, who was 12 years older than I, was terribly jealous, and worked herself always up in a rage, passing all limits and decency. [Remember that he was hanging out with Doris Sennewald for at least seven years before he left Germany—LPM] My poor little daughter, standing in between, suffered terribly. In order to escape a greater misfortune, and with the use of my last strength, I decided to leave everything and to emigrate to America. With the permission of my wife I left all my possessions to my daughter, who took over the obligation to care for her mother. I took only the bare amount of the trip with me.
Here in America, I first lived in the state of N.Y., then in Massachusetts, went then to Florida, where my second wife died and I nearly passed away too, caused by the fever. I left Florida in order to get my health back. I was only more a frail shadow. I went to Wisconsin and settled down where I am presently still living. After my health had improved a lot and life alone had seemed nearly unbearable for me, I got married for a third time four years after the death of my second wife.
I now own 120 acres of land—without debts—with house and necessities; have cows, oxen, sheep, pigs; and raise vegetables and seeds, and sell seeds, which makes a good living for me and my family.
I enjoy an excellent health, my wife also. We have five cheerful strong children: Ernest, Adolph, Doris, Carl, and August are all our wealth, and I can say honestly that I am living contented and happy and still feel strong enough to raise my children to useful members of the human society.
It is a long time since I heard from my brother Karl who lived in Ütersen near Hamburg. His wife and daughter were dead, one son was still alive. If you, dear <T106> Uncle, should find time to answer me, I would be very happy. Please send me Aunt Erhardt’s address. Knowing that a sister of my mother is in America, I sure would like to write to her.
Please accept the assurance of my deepest respect, from your grateful nephew …
[LPM Note: In these letters to Germany, F.A.M. refers to Doris Runtzler Sennewald as his second wife. I have no evidence that he ever married her. In letters to his daughter Karoline, who presumably knew all about their relationship before they left Germany in 1845, he never called her his wife—always ‘Mrs. Sennewald.’].
Mr. Helms, Seed Merchant in Hamburg.
Sept 18, 1867.
Dear Friend! Send me please, at once after my letter has arrived, your seed catalog, even if you are unable to determine the prices for next year exactly.
With friendly greetings, F.A.M.
Mr. Oscar Knopf, Ferina Fried. & Wilh. Wendel, Erfurt, Prussia.
Jan 1, 1868.
Dear Sir! Last spring I had you send me your catalog from Boston and afterwards I ordered—as a try—an assortment of cabbage seeds and some kinds of flower seeds. From the cabbage seeds, the early white and early red ones were degenerated, and the late red one was old seed that did not come up, and the Ulmer sour cabbage was false. The others were nice, but all mixed up, medium sized and tall. The full Chinese carnations were single. I will therefore write directly to you hoping to receive better seeds.
I am raising vegetables and flowers , and sell seeds. I need for both businesses both good seeds and the right kinds. If you want to fill my enclosed order, you can send it to your agent in Boston, to whom I will send the money as soon as he informs me that the seeds have arrived. Or, if the new postal-contract is already valid and seeds can be sent for a lower postage, you can send them directly to me by mail and I will send the money to you. At any rate, I want to have the seeds still before the 1st of March. If you will send me this autumn your sell list on time, I will be able to use seeds for my sell.
I sign: F.A.M.
Please send the listed seeds to: F.A.M., M.P., M.C., Wis., U.S. of N.A.
[List of seeds …].
<T107> Mr. Wilhelm Adolf Jähring, Minister in Schönbach near Neusalz in the Saxon Oberlausitz.
[Mar? 1868].
Your Honor! I have owed you a long time my thanks for your dear letter of June 20 of last year, and I don’t know what to do how to appreciate all the troubles you had in order to fulfill my wishes and even more. I accept with great pleasure the pictures you had made for me, and I ask you to send them to me by mail. By a new law, printed matter, pictures, and seeds can be sent since Jan 1 for 1-1/2 cents per ounce, but no letter must be enclosed. In the enclosed letters, which I ask you to deliver, I have tried to satisfy the wishes of my friends as well as possible , and I leave it to you to read them, if you think they are worth the trouble.
The party nuisance about which you complain in Schönbach, is here also very dominant. In political matters the Republicans (radicals) and the Democrats (conservatives) are the most bitter enemies. The first ones, which are now running the Government, are for the thorough extermination of the slavery and are also the creators of the ‘Homestead Law,’ by which every family can receive 160 acres of land for the ‘red tape’ fee. The latter ones, which use their name only as a cloak and seduce many thereby; many immigrants would like very much to found a realm of Lords and slaves or of rich and poor people.
But in religious matters, it is even much worse here. Every fool founds a new sect and proves by the Bible that he has the only true religion; only the Norwegians still stand to the Lutheran Church and have preachers from the old home country who are paid well, also the German Catholics stand mostly to their church. Most of the other Germans are the booty of the sects. The German Methodist Church counts the most members, and I sure wish you could attend one such a meeting. You would believe you are in a madhouse. Old women, shoemakers, and tailors believe themselves enlightened by the Holy Spirit (possessed by the Devil!) and elected as Apostles. <T108> You never heard such a screaming and yelling in a church before. The Meth. Church also has regular paid preachers, but they have to change their parish every second year. Every preacher has a district in which he travels around and holds his services, in some places in a house or schoolroom.
Concerning the red Indians, it is not as bad as you believe. They are powerless; only now and then do they attack the farthest advanced settlements, rob and murder and plunder. To the people concerned it is sure hard enough, but altogether it is not more but a little creek falling into the ocean. In the neighbor county, La Crosse, are already many Bohemians [Czechs—LPM], also many Norwegians and Germans. The native Americans die out pretty much. Their wives believe themselves too weak to raise more than one or two children. Medicine for this purpose is offered in public in the newspapers, and by using these the American women ruin their health.
Every poor German who can afford the money can have no bigger interest paid from it but to go to the U.S., but he must not stay in N.Y., and not go to the South either, but go to the Northwest. Millions of acres land wait here still for a hand to cultivate them. The work—to be sure—is hard, but the result better. The soil is loam and is excellently fitted for wheat. This town as well as the whole country is only cultivated since 12 years, and there are fields which bore wheat for 10 continuing years without any fertilizer without losing their value.
Milwaukee is the main market for Wisc. and Minnesota. According to the papers, 129,000 bushel of wheat arrived there last week, while in the weeks earlier since last autumn every week about 100,000 bushel arrived. (A bushel weighs 60 lb. and costs $2.).
I was very sad about the death of my cousin [presumably Karoline Christine- LPM] Zimmermann. I sure wish her children would come over here, especially the girl. Would it not be possible for you to have her come to you and learn a little bit more about her?
<T109> Mr. Traugott Jähne, Professor and Curator [?] in Bautzen.
[Mar? 1868].
Dear friend of my youth. I heard with great pleasure from Mr. Jähring that you still remember me, but I regret very much that your health is not very good. As far away as the roads of our life led—they finally will come together again in the end, namely in the grave. You have had a beautiful career before you. If you have worked in the sense of enlightenment, the seed you sowed will bear fruit nearly a hundred times. Your spirit will live on in your students, and only the body will turn into dust.
Although I worked and lived in a hostile sphere, the spirit of my grandfather (who created the embellishment of the church in Schönbach) accompanied me everywhere. [Christian Friedrich Meißner, grandfather of F.A.M. was minister during the construction or reconstruction of the village church, which is still standing (as of 1989)—LPM] I maybe could have become rich, if I would not have spent everywhere so much of my time and strength to beautify my house, wherever it was. But the dream of my youth once to have my own house and farm, which arose especially when we had to leave the parish, got materialized.
My present home is in western Wisconsin, 28 miles east of La Crosse, and has much in common with Schönbach. The first origin of the La Crosse River comes out of my garden. The trout dike that silted up in Schönbach has arisen here again. I become 60 years last Christmas and enjoy excellent health. I am married with my 3rd wife 10 years. We have five healthy, cheerful children, healthy in body and mind, and when I wish still to live longer it is mostly for the reason that I want to gain time to educate my children’s minds in order to keep them from going the wrong way. Despite the big difference in years, I live happily with my present wife, and I am contented with my life; and as much as I enjoyed hearing once again from Schönbach and old friends and acquaintances, I am too much accustomed to the conditions and life here as to wish to change these here for the others at home.
I hope and wish that your state of health improved so much that you can gratify me by answering my letter.
Your friend and playmate in the youth …
<T110> Wilhelmine Meißner in Bautzen.
[1868].
Dear Cousin. I heard through the kindness of Mr. Jähring that you are now the only one from our family who is still alive there, and that you are unmarried. As much as I know, no male descendants of the many of our grandfather’s children are still alive besides me and my brother Karl, who lives near Hamburg and has two sons (wife and daughter are dead!). But I did not hear from him since several years.
You maybe still remember when I visited you last in Zwittau before my departure to America. I was then 18 or 19 years old [1822?], and now I am 63. On my way to America, I made the acquaintance of my first wife in Hamburg. I returned from A. after some years and got married at the age of 21 [1826—but elsewhere he gives the marriage date as 2 Feb 1827, which would be just after his 22nd birthday. Karoline’s birth date is 12 Nov 1826, which is "too soon" for the 1827 marriage date but is "OK" if they were married in 1826]. The fruit of this marriage was an only daughter [Karoline]. She is still living near Hamburg, is married, and has many children.
When I was 40 years old, I went to the States a second time, married a widow with four children. We lived several years in the state of N.Y., then in Mass. Seduced by charming newspaper reports, we went again south and that it to Florida. After a short time, we all had the fever. My wife died. My stepchildren scattered after their mother’s death and I was again alone [note: no mention of Henry here—LPM], exhausted by the fever, and the little fortune we had acquired earlier all used up by sickness and travel expenses. With my last strength I went from Florida to Wisconsin, lived there four years as a widower, making my living as farmer and gardener. I got married a 3rd time at the age of 53 to a girl of 21 years. With this my third wife I live now since 10 years, happy and free of worries and contented. My health is now better than ever before, and Ernest, Adolph, Dora, Carl, and August, five merry and healthy children, are our most precious possessions. We also have no want of life’s necessary things. My and my wife’s work makes a good living for us all. As I have enough land for cultivating, I can hope to get soon help from my children that I will be able to sleep in peace when death comes to me and my family has enough wealth to live on.
I sure am unable to know what friends and relatives from your mother’s side you have there, or else I would like you to <T111> come to us and live with us. I hope you will gratify me soon by an answer. Give your letter—without postage—to the mail and address it to your faithful cousin. F.A.M.
Juliane Ficker (minister’s wife) in Spremberg near Neusalz.
[Mar.(?) 1868].
Dear Julie! I should better address you with Mrs. Minister, but in my memory you are still the cheerful girl and I am probably in yours the wild boy who often romped around with Volkmar. As I learned you are living in the parish of Spremberg as widow with three children.
It sure will appear strange to you in your big stone house, when I tell you that I live in a log house that is only 16 by 18 feet in size. The four walls surround a single room that serves as living room and kitchen. Cooking and baking is done in an iron stove that stands in the middle of the room. Along the walls are open trunks and chests with china, books, and clothes. Saws and other tools hang in between (we don’t need a gun any more here, as the red Indians and the deer have already been expelled from this region). Below the living room is a cellar of the same size, and above it is the bedroom. I live happily and contented with my 3rd wife, who is 30 years old [b. Apr. 1837] and I am 63, notwithstanding the difference of age. Perhaps you believe that the honeymoon is not over yet. This surely can be the case, but it lasted already for 10 years and Ernest, Adolph, Dora, Carl, and August, five healthy, cheerful children, are witnesses of our love. In the same way will it appear strange to you that my wife is entirely alone in her household chores. Servants are something very unusual in this country. Indeed, German girls serve maybe one or two years in the neighbor town, where they get $2 per week, but they usually get married soon. Besides my wife depending only on her own efforts, I also have to make a living for me and my family by the work of only my hands. As my oldest son is only eight years old, I receive no help yet from my children. (A daughter I <T112> had with my first wife still lives near Hamburg and is married.) I have enough land, but I am not yet able to cultivate it all, so I raise mostly vegetables, and I raise and sell seeds. Very often I have to change my living room into a court room and have to take pen and law book instead of plough and axe into my hands. On such an occasion the whole neighborhood usually assembles in my room and I send my wife and children to a neighbor’s house. Sometimes also a couple in love arrives unexpectedly and wants to become husband and wife, and there is a lot of entertainment.
I have heard with much regret that my dear friend, your sister Marie, passed away, and I hope that you will tell me a lot about yourself and your sister in your next letter, which I expect soon to arrive.
Best wishes to you and your family from your friend and playmate of your youth, F.A.M.
<T384> [Loose letter]. [Louise is daughter of Karoline Christine Zimmermann, nee Moser. Louise and F.A.M. are second cousins.]
Leutersdorf, April 4, 1868.
May God greet you! Dear cousin. I try to talk to you in my thoughts. I would rather converse with you in person, but it cannot be. So I will take the pen and write. We are told that you inquired about us, and wrote to the minister in Schönbach. He in return wrote to our minister. He said that you are still alive. I thought at first it was only a son of yours. …
Dear Sir! You surely will forgive me for answering your dear letter of Febr. 5 only today, because I was burdened with a troublesome official task, and besides, my eyesight is so bad that I can do hardly anything around the house. I want to thank you above all for your dear letter, from which I was able to see that my letter arrived. As I made no copy of my first letter to you, and your silence made me afraid that it maybe got lost in the big ocean, I was quite troubled as I could not have remembered all the material I collected for you and especially the addresses. I was just about to inquire whether my letter had arrived. Therefore my joy was the greater by receiving certainty through you. But not only for me, also for Prof. Jähne, your cousin [presumably Wilhelmine—LPM] Meissner, and Mr. P. Rike, was it a great pleasure to have a letter—a sign of life—from you in hand. Your letter was of great interest to many old friends and acquaintances. With your kind permission, I read your <T384> letters that were to go to Bautzen and Schönbach. I made from it a report—leaving all personal and family matters out—and gave it to the newspaper that is read in the Lausitz here, which printed it. I heard already from many sides that many people read this excerpt with great interest and so—I hope—you will still give me your pardon for doing so.
Your request about Zimmermann’s … [?] was at once taken care of, and on the other side you have an—unfortunately very imperfect—correction of Zimmermann’s daughter. She visited me with her married daughter, but without any interest to emigrate across the "big deep puddle," as she said. The Germans probably are only a few percent in the tremendous migration of peoples. They are too much tied to the home country, which would be quite a nice attribute, if it weren’t mostly just resistance to every improvement and to any new thing.
I don’t know whether Prof. Jähne wrote to you as he intended to do, as work and sickness made a walk to Bautzen so far impossible for me. I am only glad that I could mail you the branches of the fruit trees that you wanted so much, on April 28. I sent already the explanations about the branches and the leaf of the millet a week ago. I got the millet from Rölick. There is little to say about the two other leaves [pages?—M.C.]. The photograph of your uncle only looked wonderful after several manipulations [retouching?—LPM], and I hope you will enjoy it. I believe I told you already in my last letter that the original painting of your deceased uncle is in the local church. There is not much to say about the 4th picture, which shows the whole village, as the photographer did not have at that time his big apparatus. The picture was taken from the so-called Friend Mountain, between the roads to Beyersdorf and Aurwalde [?]. In the left corner you can see the Hustberg [?] and then the Lotmarberg [hills]. In between is the Lausitz and some other Bohemian mountains. A piece of poplar avenue between the church and some houses left is the street to Löbau, which to the right continues to … [?] where there are fruit trees that are marked by tiny points. The … [?] is behind the street leading to Löbau, that means now behind the poplar avenue. From the middle of the picture I have only picked out the so-called Lochschenke [?], the second hotel from here. It stands with the front side opposite the observer. Above the Lochschenke is the <T386>Neudörfer windmill. Between the Lochschenke and the opposite house is the road to Bunswalde [?], visible as a white crooked line. Behind a poplar avenue above the Lochschencke is the house of Mr. Friedrich Tisch, the store of the old linen merchant Tisch from your time, who remembers you still very well. In a bigger scale you see his house below the village, about in the middle. To the right, the way passes toward the upper village, left along the ditch to the new village. This new village can be seen on the main picture. …
<T112, cont.> Volkmar T. Jähnicher, Bernestadt in Saxony.
April 11, 1868.
Dear Volkmar. Yesterday I had the big surprise to receive a letter from you, and as I know how uncomfortable it is to wait so long for an answer, I try to fulfill your wish at once, but I would have liked it better, if you would have written more exactly what you wanted to know. My answer can be therefore only very general.
Soap making and all other trades are done here by factories. Some Germans who don’t like to work stay in the cities as innkeepers, but this profession is already overfilled. The best go to the country and work for their bread ‘by the sweat of their brow.’ For this class, enough room is here, because millions of acres of good land wait still for the hands to cultivate them. The richest as well as the poorest man can make his living here, but everybody has to work himself, because it is so easy to get land here, and therefore nobody wants to work for the other, or only at a very high salary.
The ways of getting a farm here is depending of the money everybody brings with himself. For $2,000 to $3,000 you can <T113> buy here a well established farm of 160 acres. For $60 to $1,000 you can get a half cultivated farm of 80 acres, where a family can find at once its living. For $5 you receive one acre of uncultivated land. For $15 you receive a ‘Homestead claim’ of 40 to 160 acres, which will be your own if you have lived 15 years on it and cultivated it. The ‘Homestead claims,’ however, are rare in this region, as most of the land has already its owner, and to go farther west will bring you too close to the red Indians. Some people also work in the first years on a farm for shares. They give namely half of all they raise to the owner (vegetables excluded!). He who has a relative or friend here always finds easily a place to work and live, but for the entirely strange one it is usually hard before he gets used to the conditions here. Your daughter will be a big help to you. My wife has to take care for five children, the oldest of which is only eight years old and the youngest one year.
About two months ago, I wrote to your sister in Spremberg. You can learn my domestic state from her. I also wrote already two letters to Mr. Jähring, minister in Schönbach, which may contain something you would be interested in. In case you decide to come earlier, I might ask you to take a daughter of my late cousin Zimmermann along. My brother Karl is still living—so far as I know—near Hamburg. Best wishes to you and your children.
Your F.A.M.
Louise Zimmermann in Lautersdorf in the Josefsdorfe; to Gottlieb Siebern, No. 42.
May 30, 1868.
Dear Cousin. I have received your letter by the kindness of the minister Jähring. The cause for my inquiries is that your late mother was a dearly loved friend of my youth. For her sake, the wish arose in my mind to have you come over and maybe become useful. I read in your letter that you are poor, but have little interest and courage to improve your situation. In this country here work still brings reward. Nobody <T114> has to starve here if they want to work. Here the wheat grows, from which every year millions of bushels are sent to Europe. You depend on the good Lord: he is supposed to help you. He does so, too, when he shows you the ‘Promised Land,’ and you are guilty if you ignore his call. You will never save enough in your home country to pay for the trip. Here, you could pay them back in a few years, if somebody could loan them to you. A youth friend of mine, Mr. Volkmar T. Jähnicher in Bernestadt in Saxony (which should not be too far away from you,) thinks of coming over here this autumn. Maybe he takes you along, if you once would visit him.
Writing is too boring. I thank you for your letter and wish that mine will reach you in good health. Give my regards to your brother.
Your cousin, F.A.M.
Mr. W.R. Jähring, Minister in Schönbach near Neusalz in the Saxon Oberlausitz.
May 30, 1868.
Your Honor! On May 22, I received the pictures in an undamaged and fine state, and May 26 your letter arrived. On May 20, I received a very friendly letter from Traugott Jähne. I also received a letter on April 10 from my playmate of my youth, Volkmar T. Jähnicher in Bernestadt, and shortly afterwards one from a certain Mr. Taye, manager of Dom Moenau near Boxberg in Prussia. The w latter ones caused by your essay in the Bautzener paper. My cousin Wilhelmine, however, and Mrs. Post Ficker did not make the trouble yet to answer me. Also my uncle, court gardener Seidel in Dresden did not answer my letter yet. The pictures sent to me by your and friend Jähne’s kindness will be kept by me as a treasure of my house and family. My neighbors tell me my grandfather and I look very much alike.
[U.S. President] Johnson has been acquitted, or rather 35 thought him guilty and 19 unguilty. According to law, 2/3 majority is necessary to condemn somebody [i.e., to impeach a U.S. President—LPM]. The secret societies in the South have much in common with the ‘Feme-gerichten’ [’kangaroo courts’] in the Middle Ages. In the <T115> same way as at that time the German knights did not want to bow before the laws and give up their supposed privileges, the southern aristocrats do the same here. Everything would be all going the same way, if Johnson would not always interfere. It will be up to the next president to destroy the knights and robbers, like Kaiser Karl.
After a drought lasting four weeks we had this morning a fertile rain. I used this interruption of my work to write the above things down, but as it stopped again and my work is very urgent I will continue writing another time.
May 31st.
As I was yesterday unable to mail my letter, I am going to add some more. My newspapers that I just received bring news about the Republican convention (which took place last Wednesday in Chicago). It has proposed Ulysses S. Grant for President, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives Schuyler Colfax as Vice President. As the Republican Party is the strongest, one can expect that these both are going to be elected next November. I personally don’t think too much of Grant. He is no great man. He is a lucky man who has risen by the conditions, and it rarely happens that a shoemaker or tailor climbing the highest step of honor is not flattered. Besides, the Americans are prejudiced by money, and a President usually tries to exploit the four years of his ruling to his advantage. Grant surely was not selected either by the Party because they believe him to be a great man, but only because they hope they can beat with him best his opponent, the Democratic candidate. Also, the leaders of the party don’t want a great man, because he would have too much will power and would not let himself be led by the party leaders.
As you are interested in our conditions, I am going to send you the pictures of Lincoln, Johnson, Stanton, Grant, Meade, Sheridan, Thomas, Hancock, Farragut, Forster, and of the political speaker, Miss Anna E. Dickinson. But I have to ask you to excuse the ink spot. While I am writing, my youngest son climbs on the table and overturned the ink bottle.
I read in your letter that I never told you about the climate here. Our winters are pretty long, the summers short but hot. Our main product is wheat, but in the valleys where the <T116> soil is too rich, corn is raised, which gives good, nourishing bread, but is preferably fed to horses and oxen and to fatten the pigs. In the potato fields, the potato bugs have done a lot of damage in the last few years—a disgusting worm of the size and form of a swelled pea, and poisonous.
As I just look at my lamp, I have to ask you, do you also have kerosene oil? If not, I can tell you that it gives a wonderful light. I honestly regret it very much that you suffer so much from your eyes. I have to use glasses for reading and writing, but I still can do my other business without them. I have to make again use of your kindness and ask you to deliver the enclosed letter to my aunt. I surely had hoped to receive an answer from my uncle, as I wanted to learn the address of my aunt who lives near N.Y., but my hopes were not fulfilled. I cannot help but to say my deepest thanks to you for the many kind favors you did to me, an entirely stranger to you, and I have to ask you, as you introduced me in your last letter to your wife and children, to give my best regards to your family.
Your devoted …
== Post script:
To Louise Zimmermann: If you are—as I suspect—a decent, industrious girl, you will be welcome in my family and I will compensate Mr. Jahnichen for his expenses.
To Karoline Gerstenberg in Kummerfeld near Pinneberg in Holstein, North German States.
June 17, 1868.
Dear Daughter! Yesterday I received a letter from Davenport, Iowa, and I was very surprised to find out that it was from you. It is a riddle to me, what might have caused that you sent the letter first to Davenport. It is dated April 14 and has been two months on the way; it would have arrived after 20 days if sent directly. Although my spring works are very urgent, I don’t want to let you wait long for my answer. It seems to me that neither your love for me is very great, nor your curiosity to hear about me is very strong, as it took five years until you finally made the move and wrote to me. You can see from this answer that I am still alive. Your [half-] sister and brothers, Ernest, Adolph, Dora, Carl, and August, the oldest nine years and the youngest two years old, are all cheerful, healthy, well behaving, educated children. The elder ones sometimes talked of their big sister who is living across the big <T117> water and wondered that she never wrote a letter.
We have hard times here too; the bushel wheat costs $1.75 of the last crop. The cause of this however is not that not enough is raised, but because it is sent to Europe. You can realize how much wheat is raised here by the fact that in Milwaukee, the main market for Minnesota and Wisconsin, weekly 100,000 bushels arrived since the last crop. Besides this there are still millions of acres of land waiting for the hands to cultivate them. Portland, the village or town I am living in, has 36 sections of land. Every section is a mile long and a mile wide. At least 25 sections or 100 quarter sections are not lived in yet. A quarter section is 160 acres, about as much as a big farm in Kummerfeld. If you once will write again, I sure would like to hear about your children and how things are going. Did none of your older children save enough money yet to come to his grandfather, or does none of them have enough sense of enterprise to found an own farm? My wishes to all of you.
Your father, F.A.M.
Mr. W. Foge. Dom. Moenan by Boxberg; Reg. Ber. Liegnite in Prussia May 9, 1868 [out of order?].
Dear Sir! I received your letter of March 30 within 20 days and I would have answered at once if I would not have wanted to learn more details about the travel expensed from a man who arrived only two years ago. Mr. Breitenfeld, a Prussian from the Neumark, arrived here with eight persons via Bremen and Quebec, and he says that he had 500 Taler, which he used all up for the trip and made $50 debts besides. He paid for the sea voyage from Bremen to Quebec 30 Taler per person, and from Quebec to Milwaukee by canal and railroad 12 Taler per person. The leftovers were for extra expenses. If you take these numbers you can easily find out what it might cost you. First you have to go to Hamburg or Bremen, from there to Quebec or N.Y., how it just fits best. In N.Y. you can buy a ticket directly to Sparta, Wisc., from where on you still are 15 English miles (or five hours by foot to walk) away from my home. The shorter you will stay in N.Y. or other places, the less it will cost you. You don’t have to bring <T118> anything else but beds [bedding?], clothes, and linen along. For the sea voyage, you take one or two lb. of chamomile tea along. It will give you a better service than wine or brandy.
I give you a copy of a letter I wrote a short time ago to a friend of yours, so that you will see more about the conditions here. He also was moved by the Bautzener Weekly Paper to write to me. I give you also his address. Maybe you want to make the trip together. I also have to warn you—don’t let yourself be seduced by brilliant descriptions to go to the South. I speak from experience. Don’t stay in the big cities but go straight to the West. If you want to settle down in my neighborhood, I will gladly assist you with my help and advice.
I have to mention also that there are still other ways and many means how to acquire property than the ones I described in my letter to the friend of my youth. Breitenfeld arrived here having a debt of $50 and now he has a house of his own and 80 acres of land. Already six families of his relatives live here, and a brother is expected any day now. So I could tell you many examples of my neighbors, that people starting out with nothing have in five to 10 years become wealthy farmers. An extract of my letter to Volkmar T. Jähnicher in Bernestadt in Saxony: …
Now my dear unknown friend! I believe to have fulfilled your wish by the above content. I sure would like to hear from you again and get to know you in person. Best wishes to you and your wife …
<Written in English.> G.H. Crouse, Mapel Springs, Dunn Co., Wis.
7 July 1868 [excerpt].
… The children … wished … to hear from Netta, Nalia, and the rest. …
<T118, cont.> Mr. W.R. Jähring, Minister in Schönbach near Neusalz in the Saxon Oberlausitz.
Aug. 10, 1868.
Your Honor!
I have your dear letter of July 16 in front of me, and I have to thank you again for your many kind favors you rendered to me. The pictures will probably arrive with the next mail, but as you want information on account of your brother-in-law, I hurry up to give it to you.
I believe that the watchmaker business makes a pretty good living here in the mushrooming cities in the West and causes little expenses. There are two watchmakers in Sparta; each one of them has a small shop, repairs watches and has clocks, wrist watches, and jewelry for sale. A German neighbor of mine who owns a pretty good farm has often—when he was <T119> short on money—left his wife and children behind on the farm, went to Sparta, put out his sign, and repaired clocks. In the big cities nearly every shop is overfilled. I would recommend to your brother-in-law Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Iowa. Tools and clothes are about everything he needs to bring along, as the freight from N.Y. to the inner country is pretty high. I have paid $4 per 100 lbs. I try as soon as possible to repay your favors, especially for sending me the picture.
With many friendly wishes I remain your devoted—F.A.M.
Mr. Alven Straubel, Blufton, Mo., Morrison Street, P.P. R.
Nov. 9, 1868.
Unknown friend! I have received your letter of Oct. 14. I can recommend you this region as excellent. Many a guy whose health was weakened or ruined elsewhere by fever has recovered here. The climate is not too good for corn and fruit trees. Farming should be too hard for you also. But I think you could secure for yourself a good living if you would settle down in one of the small neighbor towns and raise here house plants and fresh vegetables. I would recommend La Crosse. If you don’t have the means to build yourself a small living house and a hothouse (you can get a house lot on credit), you have first to work in small gardens for a summer long, whereby you soon will make friends and receive help.
If you should know the address of my aunt who supposedly lives near N.Y., I would be very glad if you would let me know it.
Best wishes from your …
<Written in English.> G.H. Crouse, Eau Galle, Dunn Co., Wis.
Dec. 13, 1868.
<T119, cont.> To the Minister of the Parish in Seebach near Meiningen in Germany [Late 1868 or early 1869]
Dear Sir! My brother-in-law and my parents-in-law want very much to hear from their former home and the relatives still living there, and as they received no answer to their letter, and don’t know who is still alive right now to whom they could write, they turn to you, Sir, by me, and ask you to give them some information.
My father-in-law, Johann Heinrich Krauß, left Seebach about 22 years ago [1846?] with his wife and a son of 12 years [George Henry Krauß, b. May 1834] and a daughter of nine years [Eva Dorothea Krauß, b. Apr. 1837] and went to North America. He lived the first years in the state <T120> of Ohio and now in this state since about 10 years. The old man lives with his wife on a small farm, the yield of which plus some days work now and then with a neighbor gives him a trouble-free living.
His son George Henry is what one would call a self-made man. In his 15th year he escaped the hard treatment of his father and made trips, traveled through nearly all of the states of N.A. and returned—sick with fever—to his parents, where he was accepted with great joy. By reading books and self study, he acquired so much knowledge that he could dedicate his life to teaching, and now he is a very much liked teacher in our ‘public schools’ and receives $30 a month as pay. he owns besides a nice farm, has a wife and four children. He would have written this letter himself if he would know how to speak German. He remembers still very well his teacher, Mr. Abt, his uncle in Herpf [?], the big dike near Seebach, his grandparents Heinrich and Susanne Heyl, the forests nearby, and the Arl-mountains.
The daughter of the old Krauß, Eva Dorothea, is my wife and now I want to make myself also known to you. I was born in the Saxon Oberlausitz, where first my grandfather and then my father were ministers of the church in Schönbach. If your Honor would feel himself moved to answer my letter, you would make my parents- and brother-in-law very happy.
With my highest respect, your F.A.M.
HTML: 2A 1865-1868
WELCOME page