HTML: 3B 1873
Mr. John Ulrich, La Crosse, Wisc.
Jan. 3, 1873.
Dear Sir! As I had an excellent crop of seeds last summer, I want to enlarge my business a little. I therefore want to have my catalogue, which I send hereby to you, printed as an enclosure to the Nordstern and have it mailed with it. The paper should be at least as strong as the one of the Nordstern, the printing should be good and clear. I want it all on one side, the back side unprinted; it also has to be ready still this month and mailed right away. How big is the edition of the Nordstern, and how much would it cost me—at least approximately—to send with every copy an enclosure? I think 1/4 page of the Nordstern size will be sufficient. I ask for a reply soon.
P.S. After having written this, I received the Nordstern from last week and as enclosure the bearer’s New Year’s greetings. It seems to me that the paper hereby used would be pretty fitting to my catalog.
<T140> Before you start printing, I would like you to send me a sample so that I can correct some possible mistakes.
See above.
Mr. John Ulrich, La Crosse, Wis.
Jan. 13, 1873.
Dear Sir. I received your letter of Jan. 9 only yesterday (on account of snowdrifts). I had counted on $15, maybe $17 are not too much either. I ask you to have ready the printing and mailing if possible by the 24th. If you are going to send me a sample, you don’t have to include the manuscript as I have a copy.
With my best greetings …
Mr. Wilhelm Freise, La Crosse.
Jan. 13, 1873.
Dear Mr. Freise. As bad weather and bad ways kept me from going this winter myself to La Crosse, I would like to ask you to send me my small assets of $19.00 per Postal Money Order to Sparta.
I still have so very nice garlic that I planted for you alone, as you told me you could use a barrel of it. If you should be short on your supply, please let me know about it. Don’t you want to write me how much you could use next autumn from the articles listed below? … So that I have more directions when I am going to sow.
With my best wishes… F.A.M.
Mr. August Gebhardt, Quedlinburg in Prussia.
Jan 22, 1873.
After having waited for long and in vain for your new seed catalog, I see myself forced to get my need of vegetable seeds from here.
I beseech you to send me as soon as possible the following flower seeds by mail …
Mr. John Ulrich, La Crosse.
M.P. M.C. W.
J[an] 27 [1873.]
I only received on Saturday your letter of the 20th with the enclosure together with the ‘Nordstern,’ and I am quite satisfied with the paper and printing. I am only sorry that you did not put the preface (which concerns the whole catalog) on the top across the whole catalog, which I sent you along as a sample. <Insert from T142: > This would have given a better look to it all. I also had hoped that you would have printed a small recommending notice into the no. of the Nordstern with which you mailed the enclosure. <End of insert.>
If you still have the form standing, I would like you to make me about 200 copies for my own use, where <T141> you could leave off the beginning like ‘Enclosure to the Nordstern,’ etc. Please send me the extra circulars by mail. According to my counting, they will add up to about $4, wherefore I include you the post money as it has to be paid in advance.
With my respect …
Mr. Wilhelm Freise, La Crosse, Wisc.
Jan. 31, 1873.
Dear Sir. I have received your letter with the enclosed Postal Money Order, and I thank you very much for it. I don’t have any more celery, but very good parsley roots. I have a small supply of seeds that I can sell by the pound. You will find below what I have. I will send you paper seeds, especially flowers, as soon as I am through with unpacking …
Mr. Karl Friedrich Meissner, Ütersen, Pappenstrasse No. 33, near Hamburg, Germany.
Febr. 3, 1873.
Dear Brother Karl. I have received your letter of Jan. 2, which pleased me very much. But I am sure sorry that your health is not very good. You nearly entirely ignore with your silence my friendly proposal to come over here and to live with us. I think that a sea voyage would do you good, and I am sure that your spirit and mind will warm up if you are together with my cheerful boys. You must not be afraid that my wife would mind [be disturbed by? -LPM] you. We will all welcome you with our love; and concerning the work I told you to do—you are entirely wrong. you can just do what your health allows. In case you are unable to get the money for the trip, I will send it to you until the next autumn, even if I have to borrow it.
If your sense had not entirely shriveled up, so pull yourself together and come over here. You will have a new life, and feel once again happy. I send you my picture. Maybe it looks more like me than my handwriting. Won’t you send us a picture of you?
Did you hear anything from Napoleon [Who?—LPM] ? Is he still alive? Or are we the only descendant Meißners left?
I also sent a newspaper and my seed catalog to you. We have an unusually cold winter, and hope for a warm summer. All my little ones send their greetings to their uncle, and my wife and I to the brother. Let us soon hear again from you.
Your F.A.M.
<T142> Mr. Michael Binon, Milwaukee.
Febru. 3, 1873.
Dear Sir. Maybe it will please you to hear that a man entirely unknown to you has heard with his deepest sorrow about your loss, the death of your surely dear wife. I read it in the La Crosse Nordstern. By chance, I got your paper of the freemasons in my hands, by which I got to know you as a champion of the light.
I myself have excepted myself since my 18th year from the many prejudices (I am now 68). The first motive was given to me by a book about agriculture and Schiller’s works: "You had hoped your wages are paid for. Your faith was your happiness given to you. You can ask your philosopher—what the minute does not give you—no eternity gives it back." I wondered already a long time that no apostle of the light would arise, and that so many educated men like Daniel Webster showed at that time so much sanctimony. But what is the American not willing to do if he wants his [political] office?
I am also very happy to hear about your paper, that there are now men who don’t shy away from confessing their convictions in public, and are armed with courage and knowledge to fight for enlightenment; and that my former home, the Oberlausitz, has found a good place within it [?].
I would like to give my contribution also to the furtherance of this good cause, but I am quite short on cash at the moment. If you could use some garden or vegetable seeds, I am going to take one or two issues of the ‘Free Thinker.’
With my friendly wishes …
Mr. Michael Binon, Milwaukee.
Febru. 3, 1873.
Some of my acquaintances and fellow thinkers, to whom I recommended the ‘Free Thinker,’ promised to have sent for it. If they did not do so yet, would you please send them a free sample? And that to: William Hankee, M.P. M.C. Wisc.; Frank Dille, P.M. at Newry, Vernon Co., Wisc.; Henry Crouse, Eau Galle, Dunn Co., Wisc.
With my friendly wishes …
<T143> Mr. Friedrich Thierstein, Marmon Cooly [Coulee?], La Crosse.
Febr. 17, 1873.
I have received your letter and I will send you all kinds of seeks, which cost five cts. per paper, for four cts. per paper, and I will have them postage paid delivered to you by mail. Beans and sweet or sugar corn, which costs 10 cts. per paper, will be sent to you for eight cts. per paper, postage paid. …
I will send your flower seed by mail, postage paid, and I will give you 30 cts. discount for every dollar, so you have to send me only 70 cts. for every dollar of the catalog price.
Of course my offer is only as long good as I have supplies, and you can be sure that you will receive only good seed. You send best the money to Sparta by a Postal Money Order, which you can get in the post office in La Crosse.
… F.A.M.
Mr. John Ulrich, La Crosse.
Feb. 19, 1873.
Dear Sir! With yesterday’s mail I received an order for seeds from a Mr. John Boll in Dallas in Texas without money, and I am supposed to send them by Express. If I send the seeds by Express P.O. D. and they are not accepted, they will be returned and I have to pay the postage both ways. Mr. Boll claims to have received my catalog with the ‘Nordstern.’ I therefore suspect that you know the gentleman, and I take the liberty to ask you for your advice.
With my friendly wished …
Mr. John Boll, Dallas, Dallas Co., Texas.
March 1, 1873.
According to your wish, I am going to send you today by Express the flower seeds listed in the inside and, as I suspect that at least part of them are to be sold, I have sent you a lot. All the seeds were raised last summer in my garden, and I therefore can hope that you will be satisfied with them. I recommend myself for further orders. … F.A.M.
Mr. John Boll, Dallas, Dallas Co., Texas.
March 1, 1873.
I have sent the seeds by mail, as the Express would not accept them. Send me the amount by Postal Money Order to Sparta or La Crosse. Amount, $7.30.
<T144> Mr. Friedrich Thierstein, Marmon Cooly [Coulee?], La Crosse.
March 7, 1873. I received yesterday your letter of the 3rd. If you will reread my last letter, you will find that I told you to take a Postal Money Order to Sparta and to include it in your letter and to address it as usual to M.P. M.C. Wis.
Mr. Karl Frölich, La Crosse.
March 12, 1873.
I received your kind order and the enclosed $5.00 yesterday and I will send you today the ordered seeds with the exception of one paper Premium Flute Dutch Cabbage and one paper leek, which I still hope to send you at the end of the week.
You don’t have to include money in your future orders, if I can pay off my debt for the ‘Nordstern.’
Mr. Friedrich Thierstein, Marmon Cooly [Coulee?], La Crosse.
March 21, 1873.
I have answered your letter of the 3rd on the 7th and told you to take a Postal Money Order to Sparta. As I did not hear from you again, it could be possible that my letter or yours got lost. Therefore this inquiry.
<Written in English.> Henry Crouse.
25 Mar 1872 [excerpt].
... As soon as the Northern Pacific R.R. is ready, I shall go to Washington Territory.
<T144, cont.> Mr. Wentzel Blumentritt, New Hartford, Winona Co., Minn.
April 16, 1873.
Answering your letters from March 30, which I received yesterday, I have to tell you that I did not receive your first letter with the $1.60 . If you would have sent me a list of the things you want in your last letter, I would have enclosed them herewith. But do so at once after the arrival of my letter and I will send you the seeds free, if you should not find your first letter again. I have received this spring hundreds of letters with money, but this is the first from which I hear that it got lost.
Also send me in your next letter an ‘Affidavit’ which a Justice of the Peace has to sign about in the way as the following, but changed to the particular circumstances:
"Wentzel Blumentritt being duly sworn declares under oath that on the fourth day of February A.D. 1873 a letter was mailed by him at La Crosse Wis. P.O. containing One and 60/100 dollars, addressed to F.A.M., M.P. M.C. Wis."
As the spring is so late this year, I think you will receive your seeds still in time if you write at once.
F.A.M.
<T145> Mr. Ferdinand Brehme, Brownsville, Minn., P.O. B. No. 99.
M.P. April 16, 1873.
Dear Sir. I received your letter yesterday and I will mail you today the two papers containing the seeds you wanted (with the exception of spinach, and onions only 1/4 lb.) for which I include the bill.
My father and grandfather were ministers in Schönbach in the Oberlausitz. Brothers of my father lived in Pirna and in Dresden. My grandfather and uncle [Karl August Seidel] from my mother’s side were court gardeners with the King in Dresden.
As all the seeds I sent to you are good, I can hope that you will be satisfied with them. Recommending myself to you, I sign …
F.A.M.
Mr. Anton Riedel, La Crosse, Wis.
May 1, 1873.
Dear Sir! I received your letter of April 14 with the enclosed 60 cts. on the 15th and sent the ordered seeds on the 16th. postage paid. As you did not receive them (the cause of this is probably the present big confusion in the Sparta post office), I am going to send you the seeds again, and hope you will receive them this time.
With my best wishes …
Mr. John Ulrich, La Crosse, W.
May 2, 1873.
Dear Sir! I have received your bill, but as I intended to make some necessary enlargements and improvements in my seed business, for instance the construction of a hot house, which I want to finish this summer, I want to ask you to give me time till autumn; I include however $2 for the Nordstern.
With my friendly wishes …
Mr. John Ulrich, La Crosse, Wisc.
May 8, 1873.
Your quite unfriendly answer to my friendly request is in front of me. The proverb, ‘A good word finds a good place’ does not seem to have been fulfilled here. You make me reproaches that I did not ask for more time before, but at that time I did not know yet that it would be necessary to make use of your indulgence, and I did not suspect either that you were under such a pressure, as I often read in your and other newspapers that subscribers owed the money for two to three years. I also could <T146> reply that you did not make beforehand your conditions how fast you wanted to be paid. I am not in the habit to make debts that I cannot and don’t want to pay, but the long and hard winter has taken an unusual advantage of my money. I could not let my cattle starve etc. etc. …
If I would have the money I would send it to you, but in order to show you my good will I give you hereby two of my assets which are both due and which you can collect.
Mr. Ferdinand Brehme in Brownsville, Minn.
To F.A. Meissner, M.P. M. Co. Wis.
April 16, 1873 for seeds according to the bill, $6.50
Please give the above amount to Mr. John Ulrich in La Crosse. F.A.M.
Mr. John Boll, Dallas, Dallas Co., Texas.
To F.A. Meissner, M.P. M. Co. Wis.
Dr: March 1, 1873 for seeds according to the bill, $7.30
Please pay the above amount to John Ulrich in La Crosse. F.A.M.
Mr. Ferdinand Brehme, Brownsville, Minn., P.O. B. No. 99.
M.P. May 30, 1873.
Dear Sir. I sent you the seeds you ordered in your letter of April 3, by mail on April 16. I would be very pleased if you would send the small sum of the bill, $6.50—according to your promise—very soon by a Post Money Order to Sparta, W.
With my best wishes, F.A.M.
Mr. John Boll, Dallas, D.C., Texas.
May 30, 1873.
Dear Sir. March first I sent you by mail the flower seeds you ordered. I would be very pleased if you would send me soon the small amount of the bill, $7.30 by a Post Money Order to Sparta.
With my friendly wishes, F.A.M.
<T147> Heller & Schram, Sparta.
June 17, 1873.
Friend Schram. Please select a linen smock for my boy. I will pay you as soon as I come down. Give him a good one that can be washed, none of the bad yellow ones, and take consideration that it will fit, not too small and also not too big.
With my friendly wishes, F.A.M.
Mr. Wentzel Blumentritt, New Hartford, Winona Co., Minn.
June 17, 1873.
About three weeks ago, I received a letter from the ‘Dead Letter Office’ in Washington, that a letter was sent there for me without stamps, and that I would receive it if I would mail in an eight ct. stamp. I suspected at once that it might be your letter, and I received it some days ago.
As you naturally cannot make use any more from the seeds for this year, I will hereby return your letter and the included $1.60.
With my friendly wishes. … F.A.M.
Mr. Ferdinand Brehme, Brownsville, Minn., P.O. B. No. 99.
Aug 21, 1873.
Dear Sir. You did not even answer my friendly letter of May 30 with the request to send me the small amount of money ($6.50) that you owe me. You force me, if I will receive no satisfactory answer either to this letter, to remind you of your debt by an open Postal Card.
With my friendly wishes … F.A.M.
Mr. John Boll, Dallas, D.C., Texas.
May 30, 1873.
Dear Sir. You did not answer yet my friendly letter of May 30 with the request to send me the small amount of money ($7.30) you owe me. You force me, if I will receive no satisfactory answer either to this letter, to remind you of your debt by an open Postal Card.
With my friendly wishes … F.A.M.
<T148> Mr. Karl Frölich, La Crosse.
Sept. 1, 1873.
Dear Sir! I thought of sending some flowers and garden fruits to your next exhibition. I therefore had already sent to me a ‘Prize List,’ but as it contains no further ‘Rules,’ I would like to ask you for some information.
1. Is the exhibit exclusively for the residents of La Crosse Co., or is it possible for people outside of the County to become members by paying one dollar, and be able to demand the right to send products to the exhibit?
2. Is a certain time established, until which articles are going to be accepted? Namely, is it still enough time on the morning of the second day to deliver things for the exhibit?
3. Does the necessary space have to be (ordered) reserved in advance, and where can this be done?
I hope that you will fulfill my request, and will give me the wanted information. If you could give me some good advice besides, I would accept it very gratefully.
Respectfully, …
Mr. Wilhelm Freise, La Crosse.
Nov. 14, 1873.
Dear Sir, Already since four weeks I am preparing myself to come personally with my products to La Crosse, but bad roads and weather have always kept me back. I therefore will send you today samples of sage, summer savory, bulb celery, dwarf stalk celery, parsley roots, and leek.
I will deliver the articles above in barrels to the following prices to the Express Office in Sparta.
Sage in barrels containing 25 to 30 lb., at 30 cts. per lb. (If you want them divided into 1/2 and 1/4 lb., I am unable to sell them for less than 40 cts.)
Summer savory, divided into 1/4 lb. for 40 cts. per lb. (15 or 18 lbs. are everything I have here from.
Bulb celery …; stalk celery …; leek …; parsley …
<T149> I did not raise marjoram or thyme. My first seed was washed up by a flood and the second seed was ruined by the drought.
As soon as I will receive your answer, I am going to bring the goods to Sparta, but the vegetables only, if it is not too cold.
With my friendly wishes. … F.A.M.
Mr. Wilhelm Freise, La Crosse.
Nov. 24, 1873.
Dear Sir, I am going to send you today two barrels (58 lb.) of sage for 30 cts. per lb.: that is $17.40. As I owe Mr. John Ulrich from the ‘Nordstern’ $17, you can pay him this sum for me, what you can do probably in goods. If you should need only one barrel sage, you can give the other one to Mr. Ulrich and pay him the balance. Wishing a good reception, I sign … F.A.M.
Mr. John Ulrich, La Crosse.
Nov. 24, 1873.
If the early winter would not have surprised me and bad weather and roads kept me back, I would have come personally to La Crosse with my autumn crop, and I would have paid you my debt. I am going to send today two barrels of sage to Mr. Wilhelm Freise and I ordered him to pay you. But if Mr. Freise should want to keep only one barrel, please take the second one and sell it to your butcher (the lb. sage costs 30 cts. plus the freight to Sparta) and have yourself paid the balance from Mr. Freise.
Mr. John Boll, the honest man from Texas, has not paid me yet for my seeds from last spring.
I still have to tell you how the ‘leaders’ of the Reform Party in Sparta cheat the people and lead them around by their noses. Wilson sent me the tickets for this town with a note—as he said: by order of the Committee—saying that we should take care to have the tickets already in the morning at the polls and that they should be voted for. I will send you one of the tickets as a sample, and ask you to explain to me how come that Graham received 540, while Wresheurn and the other candidates of the Republican ticket have a 133 majority <T150> in this county.
What a boring sentimental moonshine story did you serve us this time in the ‘Nordstern.’ I should think the compositor might lose his patience writing such a thing.
With my friendly greetings. … F.A.M.
Mr. John Boll, Dallas, D.C., Texas.
Dec. 10, 1873.
Dear Sir! You did not keep yet your promise to pay me the small sum you owe me by P.M. O. It was not my fault that you received the seeds for last spring so late, and as the seeds are all very fresh you can sell these still next spring with a good conscience. When I received your order without the money in cash included, I first asked in La Crosse for information about you. I was told: "You have nothing to fear. The Bolls are honest people." You won’t abuse the good faith your friends have in you, will you? I have to make a living for a big family, and as I am raising only seeds, I need the profit of them in order to be able to buy bread for my children.
With my friendly greetings … F.A.M.
Mr. J.C. C. Rust, Brunswick.
M.P. Dec. 16, 1873.
I received your catalog and friendly offer last spring, but it was too late to send still in for a small order. I have received my need for several years from Quedlinburg, but I was served so badly that I could not stand it any longer. I am less interested in the price, but mostly in good seeds and the right kinds. So far I got my seeds via Bremen, but I was always cheated by the N.Y. agent. I therefore will try it via Hamburg. I expect from you that you fulfill my order as soon as possible, so that I won’t receive the seeds too late. It takes often the same time from N.Y. to here as from Germany to N.Y. I enclose the approximate amount in a Money Order for 18 Prussian Talers.
I would also like to know what difference there is, for instance with cabbage, between first and second grade. Please enclose a new catalog. F.A.M.
<T151> Mr. W.R. Jähring, Minister in Schönbach near Neusalz in the Oberlausitz, Germany.
[Dec. 27, 1873 (F.A.M.’s 69th birthday).]
Your Honor! Nearly four years have already passed since I owe you the answer to your dear letter of March 2, 1870, as well as the ‘Thank you’ for the grafted branches you sent me at that time. Unfortunately the branches were so dried out that I got only three of them to grow, and those froze to death during the last hard winter. We namely have here in northwestern Wisconsin a special climate or soil (I believe that the latter is mostly at fault). We raise exceptionally good wheat and barley; oats and corn do also well. The heat rises in summer to 90, 95, or even 100 degrees. The winters—to be sure—last six months, but are not colder than in north Germany or in the north of the state N.Y., but in spite of that we cannot raise pears, apples, plums, and cherries. Many thousand fruit trees have been planted here already. They might grow for two to three years, but then they freeze again; sometimes a tree might even get eight to 10 years old. There are here wild ‘Holzapfeln’ [crab apples] and many wild plums, among them quite nice tasting kinds, which the frost won’t harm, also the so-called ‘sibirisch Holzapfeln’ [Siberian crab apples] thrive very well here. We have to give here two bushel wheat for one bushel apple. One bushel wheat weighs 60 lb. and costs $1.
I just read again friend Jähne’s letter of April 23, 1868, and as he never wrote again to my answer at that time, I am forced to think that he is no longer alive. Or maybe my remark, that I owe my much moved life only to a free religious conception, has upset him so much that he broke the ‘yardstick’ over me.
The power of habit is very big. He who was born, baptized, raised, and lived and worked as Lutheran in Germany, surely finds it unnatural that there are still people who think differently. But here in America, where often in one family the husband, the wife, and the children all belong to different sects, and everyone believes that he alone is on the right track, reason is in <T152> the foreground and religion in the background. I learned with great joy that also in my own home in the Oberlausitz the light of the Enlightenment rises.
Our five children are not only still alive, but also cheerful and healthy in body and mind. The oldest one (14) is just as tall as his father (5’ 5") I noticed anyway that the children of the colonists are usually taller and stronger than their parents, which maybe has its reason also in the better and richer food.
You surely know about our political conditions from the papers. Your Bismarck surpasses all my expectations, and our Grant surely will stay back far behind him. Our Republican Constitution seems to need even bigger improvements. These popular elections have their good and also their bad points. For instance, a member of the Congress is elected in my village. The two or three candidates are entirely unknown in the village. The village consists of Norwegians, Germans, and Americans. Every group has about one or two political leaders. Candidate No. 1 has the most money, but is the biggest rogue. He buys the leaders of the Norwegians and the Germans. These go in front during the election, like the leading wether before a herd of sheep, and all the others follow. The Americans usually vote more according to their conviction, which they usually form by their newspaper, and these again are also bought, and so it comes that usually the worst guy is elected.
It is the same in the world of law as in the political world. Two farmers have a quarrel and bring it before a ‘Justice of the Peace.’ He has sent for six other men, who have to swear that they are going to decide about the matter in an impartial way. The plaintiff shows his proofs, the defendant his counter proofs—so far, everything is still pretty good. But now the advocate of the one and then the advocate of the other make a long speech addressed to the jury and the judge. Whose advocate lies best usually wins the case. Sometimes also the decision of the jury indicates that they did not understand a thing, or the sharpest party tries to get a leader <T153> among the jury whom the others follow blindly.
But I see my letter is getting too long. If you should think it worth an answer, I ask you very much not to follow my example and have me wait for it four years, as I become already 69 years today.
At the same time with the letter, I am going to mail you some flower seeds, not because I believe that you won’t have as good ones in Germany, but because I hope that their blossoms will remind you of your grateful F.A.M. , who respects you very much and thanks you for your friendly signs of your kindness.
P.S. In case friend Jähne should be still alive, I would ask you very much to give him my greetings and to tell him that I don’t know how to explain his silence.
P.S. Jan. 2, 1874: I just received the latest issue of the ‘Nordstern,’ and as it contains some items that might interest you, I will enclose it.
HTML: 3B 1873
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