Anna Maria "Mary" Sturmer was born on October 25, 1825 in Filsen, Germany the daughter of Peter and Susan (Cornelius) Sturmer. She was married to Joseph Marks on April 15, 1850 in Galena, IL. They had seven children. Catherine Frances (aka Kate)(H1 - Frank M Edwards)(H2- John O Freesman) Marks (1851-1944), Mary Eva (aka Minnie)(Ernst A Tappe) Marks (1854-1900), Joseph M Marks (1856-1857), Helena Emma (aka Lena) (Edward Julius) Marks (1857-1945), Carolina Anna Barbara (aka Carrie) (Roland Schwarz) Marks (1860-1886), Susan Elizabeth (aka Susie) (John J Downey) (1861-1925), and Rachael Rosina (aka Tena) (Ferdinand H Snyder) Marks (1864-1950).
Genealogy memories of their grandparents from Clara and Agnes Tappe recorded by Anna Tappe Rowe
In 1857 Mary and Joseph brought the farm when they had three children. Mary had a photograph of her six daughters hanging in the kitchen - should would look at it and say, "I had such pretty babies, and now look at those homely girls".
Aunt Lena told me this incident from Grandma's life as she told it to Aunt Lena: her father, Peter Stuermer, was caught poaching upon the landowner's estate. He was arrested and sentenced to pay a fine, but with his large family to support, he couldn't pay, so he had to work it out. But again his family needed his earnings for food, so - the wife Susan, being unable to leave the children, the oldest daughter, Mary Stuermer, had to go to the landowner's home and take care of his children for two weeks to work out the fine.
Mary Stuermer was one of six children of Peter Stuermer and Susan Cornelius Stuermer. Her father was a shoemaker of the village of Filsen, Germany. Her mother immigrated to the United States in 1847 and she lived in her adopted country for twenty-nine years.
Mary Stuermer came to the United States with her brother, John Stuermer and a landsman, Jacob Traut. Mary found employment in New York taking care of children. Later her sisters and her other brother also came to the United States, most of them settling in the Midwest. Eva Stuermer Lucke settled in Iowa; Barbara Stuermer Krackenberg in Jo Daviess County, IL; Susan Stuermer Burkhart in ??; John Stuermer in Potosi, WI; and Jacob Stuermer seeking gold in California.
Mary Stuermer Marks was of medium height, slender, with brown hair parted in the middle and drawn back, and large brown eyes. She suffered from an open leg. She was soft-spoken, quite and patient. After her marriage, she continued working as a family helper until after their second child was born when they went to housekeeping in Galena, IL.
Mary was the first person to be buried in the middle of Holy Cross Cemetery. This property was ceded to Holy Cross Church was part of the original homestead of Joseph Marks.
This is a biography of Mary Sturmer (Stuermer), hand written by her in German on her birthday. It was translated into English by Anna Julius and Mary Jane Borsdorf.
October 25, 1885 - Sixty years have already gone by since my first birthday - the years have passed into the river of time. Of eleven children, I was the middle one; and although Father was an industrious worker (a shoemaker) and Mother a strong and healthy worker - also very saving - Father worked all day and half the night in order to provide the daily bread for so many; and to earn enough was not always easy. And the lot of the children was such as soon as their schooling was done, they went from home to strangers to earn their bread. It was not always a happy life living with strangers, for often we went to bed hungry, or often had to take what was coming (literally, had to bite into sour apple). And though it would do no good to complain, one had to be satisfied and not despair. At the time, the "Holy Robe" was being shown in Trier. I was in the holy city of Trier as a maidservant to a good and devout woman on Sterngasse on the dam. The strenuous work and anxiety by day and the everlasting singing and praying at night gave me no rest in the day time and no sleep at night, and I contracted nerve fever. I was brought to the hospital where I stayed for several months. With good meals and the good care of friendly nuns, I was on my feet again in a few months. Only - to my despair ... I would rather die, for what is left of me? I wasn't strong enough to work, at home there were still too many to feed (literally, too many bread eaters) so that even without me, the portions were very small (literally, the plates got empty too fast). So I walked the streets of the holy city of Trier to another, but no one could use a girl with cropped hair (literally, a shaved head - presumably, from nerve fever). "You are not in good health; if you have parents go to them", I was told. So I had to go home. I went back and found that my Father had died, and my Mother had too many worries without me. So my oldest brother decided to go to America to seek a new home for us in Potosi, Wisconsin with our countrymen. He wrote soon from the lead mines from Potosi, Wisconsin. He was making some money and wrote that they should come.
She (Mother) sent many pleading letters to Trier (a 7 hour walk to take the letters to the state office). It took many such letters to Trier, but Mother could not sell the land inherited from her parents, so she borrowed $25 on one of the pieces so that I, too, could go to America. With a few of our countrymen, we started on our journey March 10, 1846. Since at this time there were no steamships to transport immigrants, and a lot of immigrants had gathered in the seaport, many had to wait. We too had to wait and not until April 12, the Holy Easter Day, did we get on board. Six hundred persons on board - a merry life. On the deck was a great coal stove and a big pail with coal where each family had to cook their meals - especially many pancakes made from just a litte flour, swieback and water. Often, too, quarrels broke out in which case with their iron pokers went after the men, trying to steal pancakes, to drive them away. The voyage lasted nearly two months. On the 6th of June we reached the shore of New York. Now I had to part from (the others) after so many days of doing nothing, we had to look around for employment. There was a great demand for German girls as workers in homes, and I was lucky to find employment in a good family. The lady of the house took great pains to instruct me in all the tasks necessary, and after I could understand her language, she told me and warned me of the many dangers which always threatened a lone young lady in New York, and she cautioned me, just like a good mother to avoid all gatherings. I only visited the church and on pleasant days took the children to the park. Thus, I spent two years with this good family. Then my mother and other sisters came to New York, and since they would not find out anything about me, even though my Mother and youngest sister went out on the streets and accosted every maidservant they met, they gave up hope of finding me and left New York to go to Potosi, Wisconsin to find my brother. They had a troublesome journey on a canalboat to Milwaukee and from Milwaukee in a lumber wagon through ice and snow for a week to Potosi. Since mail did not travel as rapidly then as now, it made a great difference in how plans turned out, and things didn't always go as they should. Since I, in New York, had earned much money, I wrote my Mother that I would send her twenty-five dollars; she should write me as to when to send it so that she would receive the money. Now my uncle wrote (in reply) that my Mother and sister had left and by this time should be in New York. I searched for them to no avail. Finally, I received a letter from my brother which directed me to a poor tailor, whose wife shared their small quarters with my Mother and sisters. And so, after all my trouble and grief, I was too late; my Mother lost heart and went to Wisconsin to my brother. I never found her (in New York) and I could have helped her so much.
Now I found my other brothers and sisters: one lived in New York, one in Neuberg. My brothers worked in the brickyards and were cheated of their pay; they walked to Syracuse where they got employment in the salt mines. After I learned that my Mother had arrived safely in Potosi, WI, I sent her two ten dollar bills in a letter. The postmaster certified them, but in Wisconsin only gold and silver were in circulation; no merchant would accept them (the ten dollar bills). They went to Milwaukee for exchange with a loss of several dollars (in the exchange). My brother wrote to say if we came to Milwaukee to bring no paper money - it was worthless there. Now since Mother was settled in the Far West, there was no rest or peace for us in New York. So in spite of many objections from the good people who had treated me as one of their own children, I said farewell to find a new home in the wilderness, leaving one sister back in Long Island, sister Susan and I started our journey.
Genealogy memories of their grandparents from Clara and Agnes Tappe recorded by Anna Tappe Rowe
In 1857 Mary and Joseph brought the farm when they had three children. Mary had a photograph of her six daughters hanging in the kitchen - should would look at it and say, "I had such pretty babies, and now look at those homely girls".
Aunt Lena told me this incident from Grandma's life as she told it to Aunt Lena: her father, Peter Stuermer, was caught poaching upon the landowner's estate. He was arrested and sentenced to pay a fine, but with his large family to support, he couldn't pay, so he had to work it out. But again his family needed his earnings for food, so - the wife Susan, being unable to leave the children, the oldest daughter, Mary Stuermer, had to go to the landowner's home and take care of his children for two weeks to work out the fine.
Mary Stuermer was one of six children of Peter Stuermer and Susan Cornelius Stuermer. Her father was a shoemaker of the village of Filsen, Germany. Her mother immigrated to the United States in 1847 and she lived in her adopted country for twenty-nine years.
Mary Stuermer came to the United States with her brother, John Stuermer and a landsman, Jacob Traut. Mary found employment in New York taking care of children. Later her sisters and her other brother also came to the United States, most of them settling in the Midwest. Eva Stuermer Lucke settled in Iowa; Barbara Stuermer Krackenberg in Jo Daviess County, IL; Susan Stuermer Burkhart in ??; John Stuermer in Potosi, WI; and Jacob Stuermer seeking gold in California.
Mary Stuermer Marks was of medium height, slender, with brown hair parted in the middle and drawn back, and large brown eyes. She suffered from an open leg. She was soft-spoken, quite and patient. After her marriage, she continued working as a family helper until after their second child was born when they went to housekeeping in Galena, IL.
Mary was the first person to be buried in the middle of Holy Cross Cemetery. This property was ceded to Holy Cross Church was part of the original homestead of Joseph Marks.
This is a biography of Mary Sturmer (Stuermer), hand written by her in German on her birthday. It was translated into English by Anna Julius and Mary Jane Borsdorf.
October 25, 1885 - Sixty years have already gone by since my first birthday - the years have passed into the river of time. Of eleven children, I was the middle one; and although Father was an industrious worker (a shoemaker) and Mother a strong and healthy worker - also very saving - Father worked all day and half the night in order to provide the daily bread for so many; and to earn enough was not always easy. And the lot of the children was such as soon as their schooling was done, they went from home to strangers to earn their bread. It was not always a happy life living with strangers, for often we went to bed hungry, or often had to take what was coming (literally, had to bite into sour apple). And though it would do no good to complain, one had to be satisfied and not despair. At the time, the "Holy Robe" was being shown in Trier. I was in the holy city of Trier as a maidservant to a good and devout woman on Sterngasse on the dam. The strenuous work and anxiety by day and the everlasting singing and praying at night gave me no rest in the day time and no sleep at night, and I contracted nerve fever. I was brought to the hospital where I stayed for several months. With good meals and the good care of friendly nuns, I was on my feet again in a few months. Only - to my despair ... I would rather die, for what is left of me? I wasn't strong enough to work, at home there were still too many to feed (literally, too many bread eaters) so that even without me, the portions were very small (literally, the plates got empty too fast). So I walked the streets of the holy city of Trier to another, but no one could use a girl with cropped hair (literally, a shaved head - presumably, from nerve fever). "You are not in good health; if you have parents go to them", I was told. So I had to go home. I went back and found that my Father had died, and my Mother had too many worries without me. So my oldest brother decided to go to America to seek a new home for us in Potosi, Wisconsin with our countrymen. He wrote soon from the lead mines from Potosi, Wisconsin. He was making some money and wrote that they should come.
She (Mother) sent many pleading letters to Trier (a 7 hour walk to take the letters to the state office). It took many such letters to Trier, but Mother could not sell the land inherited from her parents, so she borrowed $25 on one of the pieces so that I, too, could go to America. With a few of our countrymen, we started on our journey March 10, 1846. Since at this time there were no steamships to transport immigrants, and a lot of immigrants had gathered in the seaport, many had to wait. We too had to wait and not until April 12, the Holy Easter Day, did we get on board. Six hundred persons on board - a merry life. On the deck was a great coal stove and a big pail with coal where each family had to cook their meals - especially many pancakes made from just a litte flour, swieback and water. Often, too, quarrels broke out in which case with their iron pokers went after the men, trying to steal pancakes, to drive them away. The voyage lasted nearly two months. On the 6th of June we reached the shore of New York. Now I had to part from (the others) after so many days of doing nothing, we had to look around for employment. There was a great demand for German girls as workers in homes, and I was lucky to find employment in a good family. The lady of the house took great pains to instruct me in all the tasks necessary, and after I could understand her language, she told me and warned me of the many dangers which always threatened a lone young lady in New York, and she cautioned me, just like a good mother to avoid all gatherings. I only visited the church and on pleasant days took the children to the park. Thus, I spent two years with this good family. Then my mother and other sisters came to New York, and since they would not find out anything about me, even though my Mother and youngest sister went out on the streets and accosted every maidservant they met, they gave up hope of finding me and left New York to go to Potosi, Wisconsin to find my brother. They had a troublesome journey on a canalboat to Milwaukee and from Milwaukee in a lumber wagon through ice and snow for a week to Potosi. Since mail did not travel as rapidly then as now, it made a great difference in how plans turned out, and things didn't always go as they should. Since I, in New York, had earned much money, I wrote my Mother that I would send her twenty-five dollars; she should write me as to when to send it so that she would receive the money. Now my uncle wrote (in reply) that my Mother and sister had left and by this time should be in New York. I searched for them to no avail. Finally, I received a letter from my brother which directed me to a poor tailor, whose wife shared their small quarters with my Mother and sisters. And so, after all my trouble and grief, I was too late; my Mother lost heart and went to Wisconsin to my brother. I never found her (in New York) and I could have helped her so much.
Now I found my other brothers and sisters: one lived in New York, one in Neuberg. My brothers worked in the brickyards and were cheated of their pay; they walked to Syracuse where they got employment in the salt mines. After I learned that my Mother had arrived safely in Potosi, WI, I sent her two ten dollar bills in a letter. The postmaster certified them, but in Wisconsin only gold and silver were in circulation; no merchant would accept them (the ten dollar bills). They went to Milwaukee for exchange with a loss of several dollars (in the exchange). My brother wrote to say if we came to Milwaukee to bring no paper money - it was worthless there. Now since Mother was settled in the Far West, there was no rest or peace for us in New York. So in spite of many objections from the good people who had treated me as one of their own children, I said farewell to find a new home in the wilderness, leaving one sister back in Long Island, sister Susan and I started our journey.
Anna Maria "Mary" Sturmer was born on October 25, 1825 in Filsen, Germany the daughter of Peter and Susan (Cornelius) Sturmer. She was married to Joseph Marks on April 15, 1850 in Galena, IL. They had seven children. Catherine Frances (aka Kate)(H1 - Frank M Edwards)(H2- John O Freesman) Marks (1851-1944), Mary Eva (aka Minnie)(Ernst A Tappe) Marks (1854-1900), Joseph M Marks (1856-1857), Helena Emma (aka Lena) (Edward Julius) Marks (1857-1945), Carolina Anna Barbara (aka Carrie) (Roland Schwarz) Marks (1860-1886), Susan Elizabeth (aka Susie) (John J Downey) (1861-1925), and Rachael Rosina (aka Tena) (Ferdinand H Snyder) Marks (1864-1950).
Genealogy memories of their grandparents from Clara and Agnes Tappe recorded by Anna Tappe Rowe
In 1857 Mary and Joseph brought the farm when they had three children. Mary had a photograph of her six daughters hanging in the kitchen - should would look at it and say, "I had such pretty babies, and now look at those homely girls".
Aunt Lena told me this incident from Grandma's life as she told it to Aunt Lena: her father, Peter Stuermer, was caught poaching upon the landowner's estate. He was arrested and sentenced to pay a fine, but with his large family to support, he couldn't pay, so he had to work it out. But again his family needed his earnings for food, so - the wife Susan, being unable to leave the children, the oldest daughter, Mary Stuermer, had to go to the landowner's home and take care of his children for two weeks to work out the fine.
Mary Stuermer was one of six children of Peter Stuermer and Susan Cornelius Stuermer. Her father was a shoemaker of the village of Filsen, Germany. Her mother immigrated to the United States in 1847 and she lived in her adopted country for twenty-nine years.
Mary Stuermer came to the United States with her brother, John Stuermer and a landsman, Jacob Traut. Mary found employment in New York taking care of children. Later her sisters and her other brother also came to the United States, most of them settling in the Midwest. Eva Stuermer Lucke settled in Iowa; Barbara Stuermer Krackenberg in Jo Daviess County, IL; Susan Stuermer Burkhart in ??; John Stuermer in Potosi, WI; and Jacob Stuermer seeking gold in California.
Mary Stuermer Marks was of medium height, slender, with brown hair parted in the middle and drawn back, and large brown eyes. She suffered from an open leg. She was soft-spoken, quite and patient. After her marriage, she continued working as a family helper until after their second child was born when they went to housekeeping in Galena, IL.
Mary was the first person to be buried in the middle of Holy Cross Cemetery. This property was ceded to Holy Cross Church was part of the original homestead of Joseph Marks.
This is a biography of Mary Sturmer (Stuermer), hand written by her in German on her birthday. It was translated into English by Anna Julius and Mary Jane Borsdorf.
October 25, 1885 - Sixty years have already gone by since my first birthday - the years have passed into the river of time. Of eleven children, I was the middle one; and although Father was an industrious worker (a shoemaker) and Mother a strong and healthy worker - also very saving - Father worked all day and half the night in order to provide the daily bread for so many; and to earn enough was not always easy. And the lot of the children was such as soon as their schooling was done, they went from home to strangers to earn their bread. It was not always a happy life living with strangers, for often we went to bed hungry, or often had to take what was coming (literally, had to bite into sour apple). And though it would do no good to complain, one had to be satisfied and not despair. At the time, the "Holy Robe" was being shown in Trier. I was in the holy city of Trier as a maidservant to a good and devout woman on Sterngasse on the dam. The strenuous work and anxiety by day and the everlasting singing and praying at night gave me no rest in the day time and no sleep at night, and I contracted nerve fever. I was brought to the hospital where I stayed for several months. With good meals and the good care of friendly nuns, I was on my feet again in a few months. Only - to my despair ... I would rather die, for what is left of me? I wasn't strong enough to work, at home there were still too many to feed (literally, too many bread eaters) so that even without me, the portions were very small (literally, the plates got empty too fast). So I walked the streets of the holy city of Trier to another, but no one could use a girl with cropped hair (literally, a shaved head - presumably, from nerve fever). "You are not in good health; if you have parents go to them", I was told. So I had to go home. I went back and found that my Father had died, and my Mother had too many worries without me. So my oldest brother decided to go to America to seek a new home for us in Potosi, Wisconsin with our countrymen. He wrote soon from the lead mines from Potosi, Wisconsin. He was making some money and wrote that they should come.
She (Mother) sent many pleading letters to Trier (a 7 hour walk to take the letters to the state office). It took many such letters to Trier, but Mother could not sell the land inherited from her parents, so she borrowed $25 on one of the pieces so that I, too, could go to America. With a few of our countrymen, we started on our journey March 10, 1846. Since at this time there were no steamships to transport immigrants, and a lot of immigrants had gathered in the seaport, many had to wait. We too had to wait and not until April 12, the Holy Easter Day, did we get on board. Six hundred persons on board - a merry life. On the deck was a great coal stove and a big pail with coal where each family had to cook their meals - especially many pancakes made from just a litte flour, swieback and water. Often, too, quarrels broke out in which case with their iron pokers went after the men, trying to steal pancakes, to drive them away. The voyage lasted nearly two months. On the 6th of June we reached the shore of New York. Now I had to part from (the others) after so many days of doing nothing, we had to look around for employment. There was a great demand for German girls as workers in homes, and I was lucky to find employment in a good family. The lady of the house took great pains to instruct me in all the tasks necessary, and after I could understand her language, she told me and warned me of the many dangers which always threatened a lone young lady in New York, and she cautioned me, just like a good mother to avoid all gatherings. I only visited the church and on pleasant days took the children to the park. Thus, I spent two years with this good family. Then my mother and other sisters came to New York, and since they would not find out anything about me, even though my Mother and youngest sister went out on the streets and accosted every maidservant they met, they gave up hope of finding me and left New York to go to Potosi, Wisconsin to find my brother. They had a troublesome journey on a canalboat to Milwaukee and from Milwaukee in a lumber wagon through ice and snow for a week to Potosi. Since mail did not travel as rapidly then as now, it made a great difference in how plans turned out, and things didn't always go as they should. Since I, in New York, had earned much money, I wrote my Mother that I would send her twenty-five dollars; she should write me as to when to send it so that she would receive the money. Now my uncle wrote (in reply) that my Mother and sister had left and by this time should be in New York. I searched for them to no avail. Finally, I received a letter from my brother which directed me to a poor tailor, whose wife shared their small quarters with my Mother and sisters. And so, after all my trouble and grief, I was too late; my Mother lost heart and went to Wisconsin to my brother. I never found her (in New York) and I could have helped her so much.
Now I found my other brothers and sisters: one lived in New York, one in Neuberg. My brothers worked in the brickyards and were cheated of their pay; they walked to Syracuse where they got employment in the salt mines. After I learned that my Mother had arrived safely in Potosi, WI, I sent her two ten dollar bills in a letter. The postmaster certified them, but in Wisconsin only gold and silver were in circulation; no merchant would accept them (the ten dollar bills). They went to Milwaukee for exchange with a loss of several dollars (in the exchange). My brother wrote to say if we came to Milwaukee to bring no paper money - it was worthless there. Now since Mother was settled in the Far West, there was no rest or peace for us in New York. So in spite of many objections from the good people who had treated me as one of their own children, I said farewell to find a new home in the wilderness, leaving one sister back in Long Island, sister Susan and I started our journey.
Genealogy memories of their grandparents from Clara and Agnes Tappe recorded by Anna Tappe Rowe
In 1857 Mary and Joseph brought the farm when they had three children. Mary had a photograph of her six daughters hanging in the kitchen - should would look at it and say, "I had such pretty babies, and now look at those homely girls".
Aunt Lena told me this incident from Grandma's life as she told it to Aunt Lena: her father, Peter Stuermer, was caught poaching upon the landowner's estate. He was arrested and sentenced to pay a fine, but with his large family to support, he couldn't pay, so he had to work it out. But again his family needed his earnings for food, so - the wife Susan, being unable to leave the children, the oldest daughter, Mary Stuermer, had to go to the landowner's home and take care of his children for two weeks to work out the fine.
Mary Stuermer was one of six children of Peter Stuermer and Susan Cornelius Stuermer. Her father was a shoemaker of the village of Filsen, Germany. Her mother immigrated to the United States in 1847 and she lived in her adopted country for twenty-nine years.
Mary Stuermer came to the United States with her brother, John Stuermer and a landsman, Jacob Traut. Mary found employment in New York taking care of children. Later her sisters and her other brother also came to the United States, most of them settling in the Midwest. Eva Stuermer Lucke settled in Iowa; Barbara Stuermer Krackenberg in Jo Daviess County, IL; Susan Stuermer Burkhart in ??; John Stuermer in Potosi, WI; and Jacob Stuermer seeking gold in California.
Mary Stuermer Marks was of medium height, slender, with brown hair parted in the middle and drawn back, and large brown eyes. She suffered from an open leg. She was soft-spoken, quite and patient. After her marriage, she continued working as a family helper until after their second child was born when they went to housekeeping in Galena, IL.
Mary was the first person to be buried in the middle of Holy Cross Cemetery. This property was ceded to Holy Cross Church was part of the original homestead of Joseph Marks.
This is a biography of Mary Sturmer (Stuermer), hand written by her in German on her birthday. It was translated into English by Anna Julius and Mary Jane Borsdorf.
October 25, 1885 - Sixty years have already gone by since my first birthday - the years have passed into the river of time. Of eleven children, I was the middle one; and although Father was an industrious worker (a shoemaker) and Mother a strong and healthy worker - also very saving - Father worked all day and half the night in order to provide the daily bread for so many; and to earn enough was not always easy. And the lot of the children was such as soon as their schooling was done, they went from home to strangers to earn their bread. It was not always a happy life living with strangers, for often we went to bed hungry, or often had to take what was coming (literally, had to bite into sour apple). And though it would do no good to complain, one had to be satisfied and not despair. At the time, the "Holy Robe" was being shown in Trier. I was in the holy city of Trier as a maidservant to a good and devout woman on Sterngasse on the dam. The strenuous work and anxiety by day and the everlasting singing and praying at night gave me no rest in the day time and no sleep at night, and I contracted nerve fever. I was brought to the hospital where I stayed for several months. With good meals and the good care of friendly nuns, I was on my feet again in a few months. Only - to my despair ... I would rather die, for what is left of me? I wasn't strong enough to work, at home there were still too many to feed (literally, too many bread eaters) so that even without me, the portions were very small (literally, the plates got empty too fast). So I walked the streets of the holy city of Trier to another, but no one could use a girl with cropped hair (literally, a shaved head - presumably, from nerve fever). "You are not in good health; if you have parents go to them", I was told. So I had to go home. I went back and found that my Father had died, and my Mother had too many worries without me. So my oldest brother decided to go to America to seek a new home for us in Potosi, Wisconsin with our countrymen. He wrote soon from the lead mines from Potosi, Wisconsin. He was making some money and wrote that they should come.
She (Mother) sent many pleading letters to Trier (a 7 hour walk to take the letters to the state office). It took many such letters to Trier, but Mother could not sell the land inherited from her parents, so she borrowed $25 on one of the pieces so that I, too, could go to America. With a few of our countrymen, we started on our journey March 10, 1846. Since at this time there were no steamships to transport immigrants, and a lot of immigrants had gathered in the seaport, many had to wait. We too had to wait and not until April 12, the Holy Easter Day, did we get on board. Six hundred persons on board - a merry life. On the deck was a great coal stove and a big pail with coal where each family had to cook their meals - especially many pancakes made from just a litte flour, swieback and water. Often, too, quarrels broke out in which case with their iron pokers went after the men, trying to steal pancakes, to drive them away. The voyage lasted nearly two months. On the 6th of June we reached the shore of New York. Now I had to part from (the others) after so many days of doing nothing, we had to look around for employment. There was a great demand for German girls as workers in homes, and I was lucky to find employment in a good family. The lady of the house took great pains to instruct me in all the tasks necessary, and after I could understand her language, she told me and warned me of the many dangers which always threatened a lone young lady in New York, and she cautioned me, just like a good mother to avoid all gatherings. I only visited the church and on pleasant days took the children to the park. Thus, I spent two years with this good family. Then my mother and other sisters came to New York, and since they would not find out anything about me, even though my Mother and youngest sister went out on the streets and accosted every maidservant they met, they gave up hope of finding me and left New York to go to Potosi, Wisconsin to find my brother. They had a troublesome journey on a canalboat to Milwaukee and from Milwaukee in a lumber wagon through ice and snow for a week to Potosi. Since mail did not travel as rapidly then as now, it made a great difference in how plans turned out, and things didn't always go as they should. Since I, in New York, had earned much money, I wrote my Mother that I would send her twenty-five dollars; she should write me as to when to send it so that she would receive the money. Now my uncle wrote (in reply) that my Mother and sister had left and by this time should be in New York. I searched for them to no avail. Finally, I received a letter from my brother which directed me to a poor tailor, whose wife shared their small quarters with my Mother and sisters. And so, after all my trouble and grief, I was too late; my Mother lost heart and went to Wisconsin to my brother. I never found her (in New York) and I could have helped her so much.
Now I found my other brothers and sisters: one lived in New York, one in Neuberg. My brothers worked in the brickyards and were cheated of their pay; they walked to Syracuse where they got employment in the salt mines. After I learned that my Mother had arrived safely in Potosi, WI, I sent her two ten dollar bills in a letter. The postmaster certified them, but in Wisconsin only gold and silver were in circulation; no merchant would accept them (the ten dollar bills). They went to Milwaukee for exchange with a loss of several dollars (in the exchange). My brother wrote to say if we came to Milwaukee to bring no paper money - it was worthless there. Now since Mother was settled in the Far West, there was no rest or peace for us in New York. So in spite of many objections from the good people who had treated me as one of their own children, I said farewell to find a new home in the wilderness, leaving one sister back in Long Island, sister Susan and I started our journey.
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