HTML: 2B 1869-1870
To August Gebhardt, Quedlinburg.
Jan 4, 1869.
Dear Sir! I ask you to send me as soon as possible the seeds I will list below. I have a small seed business which I can easily enlarge if I can receive good seeds. I have received seeds from Mendel in Erfurt during the last two years, but was very badly served. I enclose a cheque for $22, that will be enough, the Prussian Taler counted as 75 cts.
Address the seeds to F.A.M., M.P., M.C., Wis., U.S. of N.A. in care of Konstantin Württemberger, Post Agent in Bremen. Your … F.A.M.
== To the above: Jan. 9, 1869.
On Jan. 5 I was in Sparta and tried to buy a cheque, but the banker had no connection with Quedlinburg or Brunswick; however, I received a cheque for $32.40 in Friesian currency to the ‘Vereins Bank’ in Hamburg on Co. Mark Banco, which I mailed in Sparta with a letter and the list of seeds to you. I wanted to insure the letter, but the banker did not advise it, and said he would write me another one in case the cheque would get lost.
<T121> But now I realize that—if my letter should be lost—I would be in trouble, as a second order would come too late. I therefore send you a copy of my list of seeds and beseech you to send it at once after my letter has arrived. In case the cheque should get lost, I will send you another one right away, or you also can order the Post Agent in Bremen to collect the money.
Your devoted …
To Johann Heinrich Krauß, Moores Creek, Monroe Co., Wisc.
Febr. 16, 1869.
Dear Father and Mother! We just received a letter from Suba. If you want to hear something from your relatives in Germany, you have to come over here soon. Mother’s parents are both dead and she can still collect a small inheritance. When you will come here, I can write you the necessary certificates. We are all healthy and send our wishes.
Your son-in-law, F.A.M.
.
To Whom It May Concern:
I, Anna Elizabeth Krauß, formerly Heyl, born in Suba in the Duchy of Meiningen, presently living in Monroe County in the State of Wisc., in the U.S. of N.A., hereby elect and choose Mr. Gustav Koch, Minister of Bettenhäusen and Suba, as my true, complete, and legal attorney of power, in order to collect and legally put in receipt for me and my husband and for our profit alone, my inheritance consisting of the estate of my late parents Susanna Katherine and Johann Heinrich Heyl, and to do all acts, things, and deeds which my named attorney of power thinks necessary or useful in fulfilling the mission I give him, as entirely as if I would do it myself if I were present in person; and I recognize and affirm hereby all the acts of my named attorney done in obedience to this certificate.
As affirmation of the content above, I have written it myself and sealed it on March _, 1869.
Anna Elizabeth Krauß.
Signed in the presence of: Johann Heinrich Krauß and F.A. Meißner; March _ A.D. 1869. State of Wisconsin, Monroe County, Ss.
<T121A [Two translation pages have the same number.]> The above Anna Elizabeth Krauß came personally to me and acknowledged having written the certificate above out of her own free will and signed it.
F.A. Meissner, Justice of the Peace.
J. Ullrich, Esq., Nord Stern [newspaper], La Crosse, Wisc.
March 24, 1869.
You find enclosed a list of garden and flower seeds. If you feel moved to send an order, you can write the amount due in my favor to the ‘Nordstern’ [Northern Star]. If you have the opportunity to talk with somebody from Sparta, you can easily learn that my flower seeds are not only as good but even better than Vick’s in Rochester. My filled [double] zinnias are excellent, as well as the pansies, asters, and phlox. From the two latter ones I have separate colors also.
If you occasionally would recommend me to your friends I would try to be grateful.
== Garden Seeds ==.
I address this announcement to my German fellow countrymen, and to those readers of the ‘Nordstern’ to whom I am unknown yet:
I have a quite important business in raising seeds. I get every year from Germany all the newest kinds of flowers and vegetables that can be raised here in this country, and I have tested their value for this region and raised fresh seeds, and I sell the kinds (of which a small portion often costs me a dollar and more) for 10 cts. per paper.
I have a complete assortment of all common vegetable seeds, especially those that are wanted only by Germans, like Savoy cabbage, white and blue turnips, curly and broad leafy endive, summer and winter leek, spinach, celery, parsley, marjoram and thyme, etc.
My flowers are known all around here; my filled [double] zinnias are wonderful as well as my big leafy pansies, asters, and Stocks, phlox in eight brilliant colors, filled [double] strawflowers, reseda [mignonette], and many other kinds.
I will send seeds to everybody who wants them—postage free—by mail, and that is three papers for 25 cts., six for 50 cts., and so on. For those who rather give their orders to the office of the ‘Nordstern,’ there are seed lists available, or write to me. F.A.M., M.P., M.C., Wisc.
== <T122> Seed Potatoes ==.
Early Godrich, Cullivo, and Gleason. I will send—postage free—these three new, much renowned sorts, for which I paid $1 per lb. last year in N.Y., for 50 cts. per lb. to all who like them.
M.P. M.C. W. F.A.M.
Mr. J. Ullrich.
Apr. 21, 1869.
I sent you today 17 papers of vegetable seeds and 45 papers of flower seeds. The papers have all the same price, 10 cts. for a single one or three for 25 cts. There are many old seeds on the market which is sold for five cts. per paper, but which is worth less than nothing.
The ‘Nordstern’ has missed already since two weeks its friendly visit to M.P. P.O. Probably it was left in the post office in Sparta. I want you to write $4.20 in my favor for 17 papers of vegetables and 45 papers of flower seeds.
Dr. F. Werner Engel, Drug Store, Black River Falls.
April 21 [1869].
I have received your letter. Answering it, I will send today by mail 185 papers of vegetable and 60 papers of flower seeds. Altogether 245 papers at five cts. each is $12.25 . In case one or the other kind should not be enough, I can send you more; and what will be unsold I am going to take back. The seeds are all fresh and good, so that they will make us customers for next year. I can send you fresh onion seeds for 30 cts. per ounce. The N.Y., Mass., and Conn. catalogs list these for 50 cts. I can sell you this autumn good dried sage for about $40 to $50 per 100 lb.
With my friendly wishes, F.A.M.
<Written in English.> G.H. Crouse, Eau Galle, Dunn Co., Wis.
9 May 1869 [excerpt].
… We … send our best wishes to the second messias. … [Son Docerus b 1 May 1869—LPM].
<T123> Mr. Rudy & Co., Bangor, Wisc.
M.P., Oct. 20, 1869.
The La Crosse ‘Nordstern’ has mentioned your factory several times in a commending way, which caused me to ask you whether I could buy my need of woolen winter clothes for my pretty big family less expensive with you than in Sparta. If you don’t mind the trouble, then send me some samples and prices of twine for stockings, flannel, and tough pants stuff for boys, the last one would be best if half woolen.
… F.A.M.
Karoline Gerstenberg in Kummerfeld near Pinneberg near Hamburg, Germany.
Oct. 20, 69.
Dear daughter. I answered your letter of April of last year at once, but as it seems that you want to wait again for five years, I send you enclosed my picture that you won’t forget me entirely and that you can imagine how an old man looks like.
My greetings to all of you. Your father, F.A.M.
Dr. F. Werner Engel, Drug Store, Black River Falls.
Oct. 27, 1869.
According to my book you owe me $12.25 for 245 papers of vegetable and flower seeds to five cts. each paper. I hereby beseech you in a friendly manner to send me the unsold ones back—well packed—and by the same way to send me the amount of the sold ones.
I have sold all of my hay crop to Jähner and Gage in Sparta.
August Gebhardt, Quedlinburg.
Nov. 16, 1869.
The seeds I received from you this spring are doing quite will with some exceptions. Three-fourths of the salvia did not come up. I therefore suspect that you sent old seed mixed with some new one, which was a great damage to me as I sowed out the salvia myself. The onions were excellent, the cabbage pure and good, …
If I sell such a bad seed, I am going to lose many customers soon. Is you white Brunswick cabbage better? You sent me some other sorts, and under false names besides. Of my flower seeds <T124> the sorts were partly mixed up. …
I think of having my need for this year again sent from you, if you will try to avoid the mentioned errors as much as possible. I am less interested in the price, but mostly to receive the right and good kinds. The custom taxes and the freight cost me as much as the seeds themselves. Also it makes a big difference to me if I shall [send?] the money so long in advance. As I can buy here six months on credit, is there no way you can indicate by which I can give you security and you will allow me the same advantage as I have here? Expecting a reply soon, I sign …
Mr. Gustav Koch, Minister in Bettenhäusen and Suba, near Meiningen in Saxony.
Dec. 15, 1869.
You will accuse me of laziness that I did not answer your kind letter yet, but you surely will allow me to say something to my excuse. When I received your letter, I brought it—by the preacher—to my parents-in-law, who live about 15 miles from here, and I had told them that Mother should bring the letter back soon, as I wanted to send it to Heinrich [Krauß], too, who lives more than 100 miles from here. I even offered myself to answer the letter for my parents-in-law and—if they wanted the inheritance—to make the necessary papers. I received no answer nor the letter back. My business is so urgent, especially in spring, that I could not take off. But as I received one letter after the other from Heinrich who was so impatient, one Sunday morning I went to Metgers Valley. Father had just come out of church, but Mother had gone just again to a prayer meeting. To my question, whether they did not want to answer the letter, I got the reply: "We sent already for the money." This and the restoration of your letter were all that I could get out from the old man. I sent the letter to Heinrich who—as he wrote me—could not decipher it all [i.e., Heinrich can’t read German well—LPM], but was extremely happy about it. I read in Heinrich’s letter which I just received that he had written to his cousin and had received an answer and a post card from the old home.
In order to explain you a little the behavior of my parents-in-law, I have to tell you that the old man is a little insane; mother is still responsible, but both their sense got lost in religious fanaticism. They both forsook the church of their fathers and converted <T125> to the German Methodist Church. This kind does not only have service on Sunday but has every night meetings in which they feel possessed by the Holy Spirit (Devil!), scream, cry, yell, in such a way that nobody can imagine who never witnessed it. I gladly let everybody have his own religion, but ask also to be left in peace. But this sort of people want to convert the whole world, and every time when we meet Mother tries her luck on my wife, but who—God be thanked!—has still all her sense left. Heinrich and his parents are enemies. The cause of it is that he is—supposedly—in religious matters ‘a reed shaken in the wind.’ My wife, with whom I have five children, is a good mother and housewife , and we live, although I am much older, happily and contented.
You write in your letters about the hard times for the farmers in Germany. We hear the same complaint this year here also. We have namely too much wheat and too little money, but as one cannot eat the latter one and the first one makes good bread, we don’t need to starve.
My wife asks you to greet her relatives there, and thanks you with me for your very kind letter. We wish all of you the good and remain your devoted. F.A.M. and wife.
Mr. W.R. Jähring, Minister in Schönbach near Neusalz in the Saxon Oberlausitz.
Dec. 15, 1869.
Your Honor! When I answered your kind letter of July 16, 1868, I had not received yet your and your wife’s picture, but it really arrived by next mail and they are as a memory of the kind giver very precious to me, also my uncle’s picture refreshes again in my memory the well-known features. I include for you my picture, but have still to owe you the one of my wife, as she was unable to go to Sparta (15 miles away) being kept back by her small family.
Did your brother-in-law execute his plan? I have not heard again from Volkmar Jähnicher and other people who want to emigrate. Probably my descriptions were not charming enough, but here ‘the fried doves’ fly into nobody’s mouth. The Mrs. Minister Ficker never answered my letter; it showed only that she wanted her curiosity satisfied by mine [i.e., my letter], but I am <T126> really very sorry that my cousin Wilhelmine never answered me.
Now something about politics: As it seems, Benst’s spirit beats all obstacles and reforms Austria, but Bismarck’s fire seems to be pretty burnt out. Grant has quite confirmed my judgement about him, at least his great spirit could not yet be detected yet. The church meeting in Rome will probably in vain try to swim against the tide, but it is nearly unbelievable how much stupidity and darkness are on this earth—.
I think you got already used to it, that I ask you always for something, and you will therefore not be surprised. In order to have something living from the home of my youth, I would like very much to have some branches from the apple tree near the water trough, which pleased us children every year at Christmas time with its red fruit; also some branches from the plum tree near the Minister’s house, if it is still alive, the fruits of which my father enjoyed as delicacies. The branches can be cut some time in winter and can be sent by mail. If the package is marked ‘plants,’ the postage (which has to be paid in advance) amounts to about three [?] silver nickels or one cent per lot.
Friendly greetings. I remain your devoted …
Mr. Karl Traugott Jähne, Professor in Bautzen in Saxony.
[Dec 1869 or Jan 1870].
Dear friend! I saw from your very nice letter of April 23, 1868 that you preserved me your youth friendship and not only that, but also that it matured to a friendship between men, despite my separation of so many years. The year 1869 was a pretty hard one for us. First in spring, when it was just time to work in fields and gardens, I was lying very sick in bed for four weeks. In autumn my wife delivered a well-built girl, but who had to give up her young life during the hard birth. After that my wife had to stay in bed for seven weeks and suffered from weakness a long time afterward. So I had no help in her for collecting the seeds. How much this threw me back in my work only he can imagine, who knows how here everybody has to depend entirely on himself alone, and how everybody <T127> has to work hard especially in summer and cannot assist somebody else. We tried this summer to make up for the lost time and only now I find some time to relax my mind a little.
Your life has been quiet while mine was often shaken by storms. This is probably the cause that our philosophy of life is different, but everybody is happy in his own religion.
I have written to my cousin Wilhelmine Meissner at the same time I wrote to you, but I received no answer, which hurts me very much as she is the only still living relative from my father’s side. I still remember very well when I visited her in Zwittau before my departure to America. If you have the opportunity to see her, give her please my best regards.
We are now well and healthy and hope to hear the same from you and your dear wife. With best wishes to all of you, I remain your F.A.M.
I cannot thank you enough for the beautiful memories of the home of my youth which was caused by your and Mr. . Jähring’s kindness and friendship. I only miss now a picture from you and your dear wife. I send you a picture of me and I would like to know whether you still can find a resemblance to your playmate. The picture of my dearly loved uncle, the court gardener K.A. Seidel, and an unfinished letter written a short time before his death, have also come into my hands as a dear memory of him.
Mr. August Gebhardt in Quedlinburg in Prussia.
M.P. M.C. Wis.; sent by Griffin; Jan 12, 1870.
You will find enclosed a list of my need of seeds for this year, and also a check of the ‘First National Bank in Sparta’ for 24 Prussian Talers for payment of the amount or something more. Do I still have something in my favor from last year? As my seeds have to go a long way, you surely will send these as soon as possible.
== Seed list … =.
Last year I had to pay $8 as custom taxes. It would be better if you indicate the full value on top of the boxes. Send it again to Konstantin Württemberger in Bremen, who treated me nice last year. The N.Y. Spediteur [expediter?] however has tortured me and I therefore try to find out tomorrow in Sparta how I can do without him. F.A.M.
HTML: 2B 1869-1870
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