Son of Johann Georg & Katharina Elisabetha (Hofmann) Arras.
_____________________
On August 1, we took off with a strong wind and traveled very fast. Within a few hours we were seasick, although some did not, in a few days we recovered. It took six days to go through the channel. When you get out to sea you feel like you are traveling in a valley, you can't see very much. So far the trip was not too bad. We were in hopes it would not take too long. The Captain thought with a good wind it would take about 32 days, but for 12 days we had no wind never moved at all, and we had days when the wind would blow the opposite direction. We survived through two storms. The trip would not have been too bad if the Captain could have been trusted. He was young, drank a lot and took most of our food.
Therefore, it is very important to have a list of everything you need. Had we known all this we would have contracted it differently. Had we known how much it would take each day for about 90 days, we could have bought all this in Bremen a lot cheaper. We needed potatoes, beans, peas, barley, rice, white flour, tea, sugar, coffee, (the herring are very good), eggs, cheese, sausage, vinegar, wine, white and dark Zweiback (toast)..the white is tastier than the dark. We could take bread for 15 days, also beef for 14 days. You salt it some, else it would sour and could not be eaten. The water was terrible. Pork kept better, it would not sour as fast. Our cook was not too clean and our Captain was young. It was their first time out to sea, he misfigured our trip by two hundred miles, the final days according to the map. We still had 40 miles and some unlucky hours ahead.
On September 16th, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, there was a good strong wind, seems as if it always started out strong. By nightfall the Captain had drank too much and was asleep and left the steering of the ship to the Pilot. It was dark and all we could do was leave it in the hands of our Lord. At 11 o'clock that night the ship hit a beach and the sailor yelled we found land. Every one jumped up to see, but it was too late, the ship started to thrust, knock and crack. We believed here was our grave-site within two hours. As everything was getting out of hand so my brother got out of patience with the Captain; the masts had to be cut down, within minutes the Captain had the masts cut down and the sails were in the water, the wind had no power any more, the ship was buried in the land and sand and filled with water to the water-line.
We did not suffer any disaster. Every one was saved by the hand of our Lord and Father. So as daylight came we took our belongings and headed for land. If our Captain had been alert, we would have seen all this about 8 o'clock the night before and saved a $35,000 ship and brought it safely ashore.
The people that lived in the area came and took us to their homes and gave us something to eat. On Sept. 21 we took our belongings and headed for New York; we arrived here on Sept. 22. Here our people were welcomed very well. My wife, children and I went to a market where a lady came and gave my wife a bowl of apples and a piece of money and went on. We followed her, she went to a butcher shop and gave us more money. My wife received so much meat she could hardly carry it back to our ship. A baker gave us bread and other baked goods amounting to about $30.00. We felt very rich.
I forgot to mention before, we had two deaths on our voyage, a child of Heinrich Bauer from Winterkasten and Phillip Griner's daughter from Schoenberg. On Sept. 23, about 6 o'clock in the evening, we left New York on a Steamship. It had a nice dining room with all kinds of things to eat. The next day about 3 o'clock we arrived in Baltimore. We stayed until Sept. 29. We started for Friedrick-town which took about 18 hours. We stayed here several days by a Johs Dasches till we could find other lodging. Then my two oldest children became very ill. A German doctor soon had them well again. But our trip again was delayed and in disgust we said, why didn't we stay home. While we were here we looked around at the situations of homes, work, the land etc. My brothers took a trip to Semberburg. It took them 32 hours. Here they found good and bad land, limestone land. There are farmers there. It's unbelieveable, they have from 10 to 16 saddle horses, more hogs than you can count, 50 to 100 steers and always have about 50 in a fattening pen, 12 to 20 cows and lots and lots of chickens; also Guinea hens and Peacocks. They had the latter two for pleasure and their beauty.
If anyone wants to work he can earn a good living as a day laborer. The people that came with us found jobs and earn 75 cents a day. They are building a railroad track from Baltimore to Ohio. An ordinary man can live as well as a rich man.
...We buy white flour and bake bread. Our wives say if we could have had this flour in Germany. My brother visited Holp and found him in good health. He had a new house, 2 cows and 2 hogs.
...An acre of ground is worth $6.00. He has a nice brick house and will have it paid for in ten years. Now he plans to sell here and move to Ohio. There an acre of land costs $17.00. We are going there too. We are leaving November 8, we will have 14 days to travel. After we got in this country and after our hard trip, we wished we had stayed in Germany. Now we thank the Lord that he gave us strength to come and now that we are here we are happy and feel very lucky. After we once get settled our women won't have to work so hard and they won't have to ask every day, what will I have to cook today? If you want it, there is plenty, they can do what they want to. It's unbelieveable how different life is here than in Germany. Here they take a nice piece of bread and spread butter on it, (a finger thick), then eat meat with it.
My greetings to Johs Brenner, Philipp Rosemann and his wife, also Heller and Von Stein in Neunkirchen, and to all our friends. Another letter will follow.
Peter Arras
__________________________________
Friedrickstown, November 7, 1831
I still can't write too much. Maybe after I'm here a year and fully settled and know what I'll be doing and get more familiar with the country I can tell you more. About all I really know now is what I hear and read. There is work to be had if you want to work. A day laborer can earn more here than a farmer can in Germany. Lich and Gero Repper are working as hand laborers. They work with railroad tracks. They each earn $1.00 a day. They are building a new track to Friedrickstown. One farmer is giving $20,000 and a German minister is giving $6,000 toward building this track.
I notice they have a plow which they go through the corn rows with and seldom touch the corn. After they harvest the corn, the stalks are left in the field, then they put cattle in the fields and they eat the leaves. If we had not had all that hard luck maybe I could tell you now what all I bought. We would probably have gone from Baltimore to Wheeling over the Ohio river.
We went to a sourwing place in Baltimore. They had a heavy Woolen mat in front of the door. Here you had to clean your shoes before you entered. My letter is not too nicely written because I've been sick, also the children. We got no rest day or night, so I am still weak. But thank God, we are all well again. Our Doctor is a very nice man, also rich. He has $70,000 in the bank, has several farms, several houses and lives in a very nice house himself. The steps are white marble, but he is a very common man.
A greeting from my oldest daughter to her friends in Neunkirchen and all relatives and friends in Bremen.
Peter Arras - From Brandau
___________________________
AN AGED FARMER
FATALLY INJURED BY A RUNAWAY AT JENERA.
Peter Arras, one of the pioneer German farmers of Van Buren township, met with an accident, that will probably cost him his life, Monday. During the afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Arras went to the cemetery south of Jenera, to fix up the graves of some relatives. When ready to start for home Mrs. Arras got in the buggy while Mr. Arras held the team. Just as Mrs. Arras got into the buggy the team took fright and ran away and dragged Mr. Arras quite a distance when his head struck a stone and he was rendered unconscious. The team ran about a mile before being stopped. Mrs. Arras remained in the buggy and was not hurt. Mr. Arras was taken to his home and two physicians were called and an examination revealed the fact that his skull was fractured. At last reports he was alive but his recovery was regarded as very doubtful.
_____________________
On August 1, we took off with a strong wind and traveled very fast. Within a few hours we were seasick, although some did not, in a few days we recovered. It took six days to go through the channel. When you get out to sea you feel like you are traveling in a valley, you can't see very much. So far the trip was not too bad. We were in hopes it would not take too long. The Captain thought with a good wind it would take about 32 days, but for 12 days we had no wind never moved at all, and we had days when the wind would blow the opposite direction. We survived through two storms. The trip would not have been too bad if the Captain could have been trusted. He was young, drank a lot and took most of our food.
Therefore, it is very important to have a list of everything you need. Had we known all this we would have contracted it differently. Had we known how much it would take each day for about 90 days, we could have bought all this in Bremen a lot cheaper. We needed potatoes, beans, peas, barley, rice, white flour, tea, sugar, coffee, (the herring are very good), eggs, cheese, sausage, vinegar, wine, white and dark Zweiback (toast)..the white is tastier than the dark. We could take bread for 15 days, also beef for 14 days. You salt it some, else it would sour and could not be eaten. The water was terrible. Pork kept better, it would not sour as fast. Our cook was not too clean and our Captain was young. It was their first time out to sea, he misfigured our trip by two hundred miles, the final days according to the map. We still had 40 miles and some unlucky hours ahead.
On September 16th, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, there was a good strong wind, seems as if it always started out strong. By nightfall the Captain had drank too much and was asleep and left the steering of the ship to the Pilot. It was dark and all we could do was leave it in the hands of our Lord. At 11 o'clock that night the ship hit a beach and the sailor yelled we found land. Every one jumped up to see, but it was too late, the ship started to thrust, knock and crack. We believed here was our grave-site within two hours. As everything was getting out of hand so my brother got out of patience with the Captain; the masts had to be cut down, within minutes the Captain had the masts cut down and the sails were in the water, the wind had no power any more, the ship was buried in the land and sand and filled with water to the water-line.
We did not suffer any disaster. Every one was saved by the hand of our Lord and Father. So as daylight came we took our belongings and headed for land. If our Captain had been alert, we would have seen all this about 8 o'clock the night before and saved a $35,000 ship and brought it safely ashore.
The people that lived in the area came and took us to their homes and gave us something to eat. On Sept. 21 we took our belongings and headed for New York; we arrived here on Sept. 22. Here our people were welcomed very well. My wife, children and I went to a market where a lady came and gave my wife a bowl of apples and a piece of money and went on. We followed her, she went to a butcher shop and gave us more money. My wife received so much meat she could hardly carry it back to our ship. A baker gave us bread and other baked goods amounting to about $30.00. We felt very rich.
I forgot to mention before, we had two deaths on our voyage, a child of Heinrich Bauer from Winterkasten and Phillip Griner's daughter from Schoenberg. On Sept. 23, about 6 o'clock in the evening, we left New York on a Steamship. It had a nice dining room with all kinds of things to eat. The next day about 3 o'clock we arrived in Baltimore. We stayed until Sept. 29. We started for Friedrick-town which took about 18 hours. We stayed here several days by a Johs Dasches till we could find other lodging. Then my two oldest children became very ill. A German doctor soon had them well again. But our trip again was delayed and in disgust we said, why didn't we stay home. While we were here we looked around at the situations of homes, work, the land etc. My brothers took a trip to Semberburg. It took them 32 hours. Here they found good and bad land, limestone land. There are farmers there. It's unbelieveable, they have from 10 to 16 saddle horses, more hogs than you can count, 50 to 100 steers and always have about 50 in a fattening pen, 12 to 20 cows and lots and lots of chickens; also Guinea hens and Peacocks. They had the latter two for pleasure and their beauty.
If anyone wants to work he can earn a good living as a day laborer. The people that came with us found jobs and earn 75 cents a day. They are building a railroad track from Baltimore to Ohio. An ordinary man can live as well as a rich man.
...We buy white flour and bake bread. Our wives say if we could have had this flour in Germany. My brother visited Holp and found him in good health. He had a new house, 2 cows and 2 hogs.
...An acre of ground is worth $6.00. He has a nice brick house and will have it paid for in ten years. Now he plans to sell here and move to Ohio. There an acre of land costs $17.00. We are going there too. We are leaving November 8, we will have 14 days to travel. After we got in this country and after our hard trip, we wished we had stayed in Germany. Now we thank the Lord that he gave us strength to come and now that we are here we are happy and feel very lucky. After we once get settled our women won't have to work so hard and they won't have to ask every day, what will I have to cook today? If you want it, there is plenty, they can do what they want to. It's unbelieveable how different life is here than in Germany. Here they take a nice piece of bread and spread butter on it, (a finger thick), then eat meat with it.
My greetings to Johs Brenner, Philipp Rosemann and his wife, also Heller and Von Stein in Neunkirchen, and to all our friends. Another letter will follow.
Peter Arras
__________________________________
Friedrickstown, November 7, 1831
I still can't write too much. Maybe after I'm here a year and fully settled and know what I'll be doing and get more familiar with the country I can tell you more. About all I really know now is what I hear and read. There is work to be had if you want to work. A day laborer can earn more here than a farmer can in Germany. Lich and Gero Repper are working as hand laborers. They work with railroad tracks. They each earn $1.00 a day. They are building a new track to Friedrickstown. One farmer is giving $20,000 and a German minister is giving $6,000 toward building this track.
I notice they have a plow which they go through the corn rows with and seldom touch the corn. After they harvest the corn, the stalks are left in the field, then they put cattle in the fields and they eat the leaves. If we had not had all that hard luck maybe I could tell you now what all I bought. We would probably have gone from Baltimore to Wheeling over the Ohio river.
We went to a sourwing place in Baltimore. They had a heavy Woolen mat in front of the door. Here you had to clean your shoes before you entered. My letter is not too nicely written because I've been sick, also the children. We got no rest day or night, so I am still weak. But thank God, we are all well again. Our Doctor is a very nice man, also rich. He has $70,000 in the bank, has several farms, several houses and lives in a very nice house himself. The steps are white marble, but he is a very common man.
A greeting from my oldest daughter to her friends in Neunkirchen and all relatives and friends in Bremen.
Peter Arras - From Brandau
___________________________
AN AGED FARMER
FATALLY INJURED BY A RUNAWAY AT JENERA.
Peter Arras, one of the pioneer German farmers of Van Buren township, met with an accident, that will probably cost him his life, Monday. During the afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Arras went to the cemetery south of Jenera, to fix up the graves of some relatives. When ready to start for home Mrs. Arras got in the buggy while Mr. Arras held the team. Just as Mrs. Arras got into the buggy the team took fright and ran away and dragged Mr. Arras quite a distance when his head struck a stone and he was rendered unconscious. The team ran about a mile before being stopped. Mrs. Arras remained in the buggy and was not hurt. Mr. Arras was taken to his home and two physicians were called and an examination revealed the fact that his skull was fractured. At last reports he was alive but his recovery was regarded as very doubtful.
Son of Johann Georg & Katharina Elisabetha (Hofmann) Arras.
_____________________
On August 1, we took off with a strong wind and traveled very fast. Within a few hours we were seasick, although some did not, in a few days we recovered. It took six days to go through the channel. When you get out to sea you feel like you are traveling in a valley, you can't see very much. So far the trip was not too bad. We were in hopes it would not take too long. The Captain thought with a good wind it would take about 32 days, but for 12 days we had no wind never moved at all, and we had days when the wind would blow the opposite direction. We survived through two storms. The trip would not have been too bad if the Captain could have been trusted. He was young, drank a lot and took most of our food.
Therefore, it is very important to have a list of everything you need. Had we known all this we would have contracted it differently. Had we known how much it would take each day for about 90 days, we could have bought all this in Bremen a lot cheaper. We needed potatoes, beans, peas, barley, rice, white flour, tea, sugar, coffee, (the herring are very good), eggs, cheese, sausage, vinegar, wine, white and dark Zweiback (toast)..the white is tastier than the dark. We could take bread for 15 days, also beef for 14 days. You salt it some, else it would sour and could not be eaten. The water was terrible. Pork kept better, it would not sour as fast. Our cook was not too clean and our Captain was young. It was their first time out to sea, he misfigured our trip by two hundred miles, the final days according to the map. We still had 40 miles and some unlucky hours ahead.
On September 16th, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, there was a good strong wind, seems as if it always started out strong. By nightfall the Captain had drank too much and was asleep and left the steering of the ship to the Pilot. It was dark and all we could do was leave it in the hands of our Lord. At 11 o'clock that night the ship hit a beach and the sailor yelled we found land. Every one jumped up to see, but it was too late, the ship started to thrust, knock and crack. We believed here was our grave-site within two hours. As everything was getting out of hand so my brother got out of patience with the Captain; the masts had to be cut down, within minutes the Captain had the masts cut down and the sails were in the water, the wind had no power any more, the ship was buried in the land and sand and filled with water to the water-line.
We did not suffer any disaster. Every one was saved by the hand of our Lord and Father. So as daylight came we took our belongings and headed for land. If our Captain had been alert, we would have seen all this about 8 o'clock the night before and saved a $35,000 ship and brought it safely ashore.
The people that lived in the area came and took us to their homes and gave us something to eat. On Sept. 21 we took our belongings and headed for New York; we arrived here on Sept. 22. Here our people were welcomed very well. My wife, children and I went to a market where a lady came and gave my wife a bowl of apples and a piece of money and went on. We followed her, she went to a butcher shop and gave us more money. My wife received so much meat she could hardly carry it back to our ship. A baker gave us bread and other baked goods amounting to about $30.00. We felt very rich.
I forgot to mention before, we had two deaths on our voyage, a child of Heinrich Bauer from Winterkasten and Phillip Griner's daughter from Schoenberg. On Sept. 23, about 6 o'clock in the evening, we left New York on a Steamship. It had a nice dining room with all kinds of things to eat. The next day about 3 o'clock we arrived in Baltimore. We stayed until Sept. 29. We started for Friedrick-town which took about 18 hours. We stayed here several days by a Johs Dasches till we could find other lodging. Then my two oldest children became very ill. A German doctor soon had them well again. But our trip again was delayed and in disgust we said, why didn't we stay home. While we were here we looked around at the situations of homes, work, the land etc. My brothers took a trip to Semberburg. It took them 32 hours. Here they found good and bad land, limestone land. There are farmers there. It's unbelieveable, they have from 10 to 16 saddle horses, more hogs than you can count, 50 to 100 steers and always have about 50 in a fattening pen, 12 to 20 cows and lots and lots of chickens; also Guinea hens and Peacocks. They had the latter two for pleasure and their beauty.
If anyone wants to work he can earn a good living as a day laborer. The people that came with us found jobs and earn 75 cents a day. They are building a railroad track from Baltimore to Ohio. An ordinary man can live as well as a rich man.
...We buy white flour and bake bread. Our wives say if we could have had this flour in Germany. My brother visited Holp and found him in good health. He had a new house, 2 cows and 2 hogs.
...An acre of ground is worth $6.00. He has a nice brick house and will have it paid for in ten years. Now he plans to sell here and move to Ohio. There an acre of land costs $17.00. We are going there too. We are leaving November 8, we will have 14 days to travel. After we got in this country and after our hard trip, we wished we had stayed in Germany. Now we thank the Lord that he gave us strength to come and now that we are here we are happy and feel very lucky. After we once get settled our women won't have to work so hard and they won't have to ask every day, what will I have to cook today? If you want it, there is plenty, they can do what they want to. It's unbelieveable how different life is here than in Germany. Here they take a nice piece of bread and spread butter on it, (a finger thick), then eat meat with it.
My greetings to Johs Brenner, Philipp Rosemann and his wife, also Heller and Von Stein in Neunkirchen, and to all our friends. Another letter will follow.
Peter Arras
__________________________________
Friedrickstown, November 7, 1831
I still can't write too much. Maybe after I'm here a year and fully settled and know what I'll be doing and get more familiar with the country I can tell you more. About all I really know now is what I hear and read. There is work to be had if you want to work. A day laborer can earn more here than a farmer can in Germany. Lich and Gero Repper are working as hand laborers. They work with railroad tracks. They each earn $1.00 a day. They are building a new track to Friedrickstown. One farmer is giving $20,000 and a German minister is giving $6,000 toward building this track.
I notice they have a plow which they go through the corn rows with and seldom touch the corn. After they harvest the corn, the stalks are left in the field, then they put cattle in the fields and they eat the leaves. If we had not had all that hard luck maybe I could tell you now what all I bought. We would probably have gone from Baltimore to Wheeling over the Ohio river.
We went to a sourwing place in Baltimore. They had a heavy Woolen mat in front of the door. Here you had to clean your shoes before you entered. My letter is not too nicely written because I've been sick, also the children. We got no rest day or night, so I am still weak. But thank God, we are all well again. Our Doctor is a very nice man, also rich. He has $70,000 in the bank, has several farms, several houses and lives in a very nice house himself. The steps are white marble, but he is a very common man.
A greeting from my oldest daughter to her friends in Neunkirchen and all relatives and friends in Bremen.
Peter Arras - From Brandau
___________________________
AN AGED FARMER
FATALLY INJURED BY A RUNAWAY AT JENERA.
Peter Arras, one of the pioneer German farmers of Van Buren township, met with an accident, that will probably cost him his life, Monday. During the afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Arras went to the cemetery south of Jenera, to fix up the graves of some relatives. When ready to start for home Mrs. Arras got in the buggy while Mr. Arras held the team. Just as Mrs. Arras got into the buggy the team took fright and ran away and dragged Mr. Arras quite a distance when his head struck a stone and he was rendered unconscious. The team ran about a mile before being stopped. Mrs. Arras remained in the buggy and was not hurt. Mr. Arras was taken to his home and two physicians were called and an examination revealed the fact that his skull was fractured. At last reports he was alive but his recovery was regarded as very doubtful.
_____________________
On August 1, we took off with a strong wind and traveled very fast. Within a few hours we were seasick, although some did not, in a few days we recovered. It took six days to go through the channel. When you get out to sea you feel like you are traveling in a valley, you can't see very much. So far the trip was not too bad. We were in hopes it would not take too long. The Captain thought with a good wind it would take about 32 days, but for 12 days we had no wind never moved at all, and we had days when the wind would blow the opposite direction. We survived through two storms. The trip would not have been too bad if the Captain could have been trusted. He was young, drank a lot and took most of our food.
Therefore, it is very important to have a list of everything you need. Had we known all this we would have contracted it differently. Had we known how much it would take each day for about 90 days, we could have bought all this in Bremen a lot cheaper. We needed potatoes, beans, peas, barley, rice, white flour, tea, sugar, coffee, (the herring are very good), eggs, cheese, sausage, vinegar, wine, white and dark Zweiback (toast)..the white is tastier than the dark. We could take bread for 15 days, also beef for 14 days. You salt it some, else it would sour and could not be eaten. The water was terrible. Pork kept better, it would not sour as fast. Our cook was not too clean and our Captain was young. It was their first time out to sea, he misfigured our trip by two hundred miles, the final days according to the map. We still had 40 miles and some unlucky hours ahead.
On September 16th, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, there was a good strong wind, seems as if it always started out strong. By nightfall the Captain had drank too much and was asleep and left the steering of the ship to the Pilot. It was dark and all we could do was leave it in the hands of our Lord. At 11 o'clock that night the ship hit a beach and the sailor yelled we found land. Every one jumped up to see, but it was too late, the ship started to thrust, knock and crack. We believed here was our grave-site within two hours. As everything was getting out of hand so my brother got out of patience with the Captain; the masts had to be cut down, within minutes the Captain had the masts cut down and the sails were in the water, the wind had no power any more, the ship was buried in the land and sand and filled with water to the water-line.
We did not suffer any disaster. Every one was saved by the hand of our Lord and Father. So as daylight came we took our belongings and headed for land. If our Captain had been alert, we would have seen all this about 8 o'clock the night before and saved a $35,000 ship and brought it safely ashore.
The people that lived in the area came and took us to their homes and gave us something to eat. On Sept. 21 we took our belongings and headed for New York; we arrived here on Sept. 22. Here our people were welcomed very well. My wife, children and I went to a market where a lady came and gave my wife a bowl of apples and a piece of money and went on. We followed her, she went to a butcher shop and gave us more money. My wife received so much meat she could hardly carry it back to our ship. A baker gave us bread and other baked goods amounting to about $30.00. We felt very rich.
I forgot to mention before, we had two deaths on our voyage, a child of Heinrich Bauer from Winterkasten and Phillip Griner's daughter from Schoenberg. On Sept. 23, about 6 o'clock in the evening, we left New York on a Steamship. It had a nice dining room with all kinds of things to eat. The next day about 3 o'clock we arrived in Baltimore. We stayed until Sept. 29. We started for Friedrick-town which took about 18 hours. We stayed here several days by a Johs Dasches till we could find other lodging. Then my two oldest children became very ill. A German doctor soon had them well again. But our trip again was delayed and in disgust we said, why didn't we stay home. While we were here we looked around at the situations of homes, work, the land etc. My brothers took a trip to Semberburg. It took them 32 hours. Here they found good and bad land, limestone land. There are farmers there. It's unbelieveable, they have from 10 to 16 saddle horses, more hogs than you can count, 50 to 100 steers and always have about 50 in a fattening pen, 12 to 20 cows and lots and lots of chickens; also Guinea hens and Peacocks. They had the latter two for pleasure and their beauty.
If anyone wants to work he can earn a good living as a day laborer. The people that came with us found jobs and earn 75 cents a day. They are building a railroad track from Baltimore to Ohio. An ordinary man can live as well as a rich man.
...We buy white flour and bake bread. Our wives say if we could have had this flour in Germany. My brother visited Holp and found him in good health. He had a new house, 2 cows and 2 hogs.
...An acre of ground is worth $6.00. He has a nice brick house and will have it paid for in ten years. Now he plans to sell here and move to Ohio. There an acre of land costs $17.00. We are going there too. We are leaving November 8, we will have 14 days to travel. After we got in this country and after our hard trip, we wished we had stayed in Germany. Now we thank the Lord that he gave us strength to come and now that we are here we are happy and feel very lucky. After we once get settled our women won't have to work so hard and they won't have to ask every day, what will I have to cook today? If you want it, there is plenty, they can do what they want to. It's unbelieveable how different life is here than in Germany. Here they take a nice piece of bread and spread butter on it, (a finger thick), then eat meat with it.
My greetings to Johs Brenner, Philipp Rosemann and his wife, also Heller and Von Stein in Neunkirchen, and to all our friends. Another letter will follow.
Peter Arras
__________________________________
Friedrickstown, November 7, 1831
I still can't write too much. Maybe after I'm here a year and fully settled and know what I'll be doing and get more familiar with the country I can tell you more. About all I really know now is what I hear and read. There is work to be had if you want to work. A day laborer can earn more here than a farmer can in Germany. Lich and Gero Repper are working as hand laborers. They work with railroad tracks. They each earn $1.00 a day. They are building a new track to Friedrickstown. One farmer is giving $20,000 and a German minister is giving $6,000 toward building this track.
I notice they have a plow which they go through the corn rows with and seldom touch the corn. After they harvest the corn, the stalks are left in the field, then they put cattle in the fields and they eat the leaves. If we had not had all that hard luck maybe I could tell you now what all I bought. We would probably have gone from Baltimore to Wheeling over the Ohio river.
We went to a sourwing place in Baltimore. They had a heavy Woolen mat in front of the door. Here you had to clean your shoes before you entered. My letter is not too nicely written because I've been sick, also the children. We got no rest day or night, so I am still weak. But thank God, we are all well again. Our Doctor is a very nice man, also rich. He has $70,000 in the bank, has several farms, several houses and lives in a very nice house himself. The steps are white marble, but he is a very common man.
A greeting from my oldest daughter to her friends in Neunkirchen and all relatives and friends in Bremen.
Peter Arras - From Brandau
___________________________
AN AGED FARMER
FATALLY INJURED BY A RUNAWAY AT JENERA.
Peter Arras, one of the pioneer German farmers of Van Buren township, met with an accident, that will probably cost him his life, Monday. During the afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Arras went to the cemetery south of Jenera, to fix up the graves of some relatives. When ready to start for home Mrs. Arras got in the buggy while Mr. Arras held the team. Just as Mrs. Arras got into the buggy the team took fright and ran away and dragged Mr. Arras quite a distance when his head struck a stone and he was rendered unconscious. The team ran about a mile before being stopped. Mrs. Arras remained in the buggy and was not hurt. Mr. Arras was taken to his home and two physicians were called and an examination revealed the fact that his skull was fractured. At last reports he was alive but his recovery was regarded as very doubtful.
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