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| Elizabeth Krieger, circa 1868 in Germany just prior to her voyage to America |
Here now she endeavored to raise her children by farming the acers while her husband herded the ship (sic) away off in the Hills. That this was a hardship can only be understood when one realizes that in her parental home existed luxury and servants so naturally she was not used to manual labor. Neither did she know the value of money. Being well educated she soon figured out a way to get along.
Now there were Two sons and two daughters born to this couple and the older the children got the more did the mother feel the lack of wealth to be able to do for her children. She became critical over the situation and life was not any too pleasant around the family Hearth. The father became disheartened and indifferent and took it out in drink, which only heaped coal on the fire and added more discomfort to the home.
The food was very limited. Each child was allotted her or his piece of bread, which was all different in sizes according to their various ages, the largest going to the oldest and so on to the smallest for the youngest child. Well, very often when the mother was busy doing outside work the children would quarrel about their bread which was cut, spread and put in a drawer ready for them to help themselves, and because the second (a son) would get such terrible punishments (the mother having such terrible temper) the oldest, a daughter, would not tell on her brother and often went without food till the next meal. Then there were two more children, an other daughter and the youngest was a son. They were in rotation Eliszabeth, Johannes, Elsabeth and Heinrich.
Education being compulsory in Germany the children received their education in a little village school in Gossfelden, and the most festival day came when the children of the villages were confirmed in Marburg, a city. Marburg is three hours [walk] from Gossfelden if one went through the forest. Marburg too was the trading markt, or market as we term it.
After the children were confirmed, they were put out to work wherever they could find work. The oldest was taken to Marburg and put into a home as assistant servant. Here she was very much in favor with the servants and also the Gesellschaft, or household, and many favors were bestowed upon her, so when her Sunday off came (which was once a month), She was allowed to go home and given a lot of food to take home to her brothers and sister. Besides this she had already collected rolls and cakes from her own plate which she carefully stored to take home and as she came the children came running to meet her because they knew she was bringing them a feast.
But before she went to Marburg to work, she had been in Marburg but a very few times. The family shopping was done about once a year when the whole family was measured up for clothes and shoes. Those days all clothes and shoes were made to order.
Now after the mother had placed the order for the new shoes, all were finished but one pair so Eliszabeth was sent to Marburg to get the shoes. Well, She had an uncle living there who was very fond of her and her brothers and sister so her mother, making arrangements for him to look after her while in the city, directed her to go to him. He then buys her gifts and cakes and sends her on her way home, but there happened to be a circus in town.
Eliszabeth naturally stopped to watch the parade and somehow loses the shoes. Now she trembles and hunts and hunts and finally wends her way toward home shaking because she realized how hard her folks had to work to pay for the shoes and it meant no more shoes for one year. Even this she was glad to sacrifice but the thought of the mother’s temper almost drove her to lose herself into the woods rather than face her mother. But as she came halfway thru the woods the mother met her, worried because she thought her daughter was lost in the woods, because night was creeping on. It truly was late, she being delayed on account of the circus and the long hunt afterwards for the shoes. The mother took the daughter home and after they got home Elizabeth related the story to her father and mother.
Well, poor Elizabeth might better have lost herself in the woods because her mother lost control of herself and shamefully beat and pounded and kicked and jerked the child until the mother was worn out and the daughter slumped from abuse, but it wasn’t enough; the mother then yells for the father to come and give her some more.
But he being of a kind heart and good judgement says, “No! No! Katherine you have more than abused that child and all of the spankings will never bring back the shoes. I don’t think she lost them. I think some one took them from her while she watched the parade and they would have taken them from you, too, had you been there watching that parade. But you were so furious no one can talk to you and it’s enough now, you almost killed that child, that’s enough now.” And He takes and carried his daughter to bed. It wasn’t because Elizabeth lost the shoes but because it meant a whole year’s savings to get the shoes, but when the kind uncle found out the outcome of the episode, he severely reprimanded his sister and had Elizabeth measured for a new pair of shoes.
After Elizabeth grew up to be a beautiful young woman and quite a bright girl. She always read a great deal and by that her attention was attracted to that great America. She meditated a long, long time before she ever mentioned it, but each week and day by day the desire became stronger and stronger until finally, finding her mother in good spirits, she broached the subject. She was now sixteen and felt grown up and equal to almost any task. Well, needless to say her mother threw the idea so far away and wouldn’t listen to any thing like that. Of course in those days it usually meant parting for good and besides, who would help them raise the other children?
But Elizabeth had her mind made up and was determined to go. She was lurked (sic) by the call to the west and the letters from some of the uncles, her mother’s brothers, who had emigrated to the good old United States and had found their fortunes according to their letters. One especially became famous thru the successful operation of a saw mill on the banks of the Cedar River in Waterloo, Iowa. So enticing were his letters telling of all the good fortune and beautiful home and stable plus servants and Hostler, so Elizabeth writes and asks him if there were any opportunity for her to made good in America. After due consideration he sent her the money to come on and live with him and his family, and she could act as nursemaid.
That there was joy and sorrow can only be realized by some of the older readers who realize how far it seemed years ago to cross the ocean. Tho this mother had a severely bad temper she idealized her daughter and when she realized that every thing was real and not merely a dream of Elizabeth’s, she proceeded to take Elizabeth to Marburg and order her clothes made for the trip.
It took a month to get Elizabeth in readiness for her lifetime trip. Also family groups met for big feasts and she was sent gaily on her way in May and as the train was pulling out her father threw his pocket book into her lap through a window of the train as it was leaving the station. Youth know no fear. For Elizabeth thought it quite some adventure to be able to travel so far all alone. The first encounter was when she met a couple of maiden ladies on the ship. They said, “Koenen Sie Hochdeutch sprechen?” (Can you speak high German?)
“Oh ja, das habe ich in der Schule gelernt.” (Oh yes, I learned that in school)
“Dann loessen Jin bittn Gfr dialect in Deutchland.” (Then please leave that low [Hessian] dialect in Germany!)*
So they kept on correcting her grammar all the weeks that they were on the water. Well now, the uncle in America couldn’t wait until she came. He had told his household and friends, “Just wait until Elizabeth comes, then you shall hear some real Hessian dialect and see some real Dutchman.” But alas, when she arrived, to his surprise she was quite modernized. Her clothes had been made American style and her language she readily improved on the trip, so she was quite a dissapointment and not the show they expected to see.
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* Note that in subsequent years, Elizabeth would retell the story to her son Elmer remembering this part as "Then we say throw that dialect into the ocean waters right now!"
Found in papers at JM’s home on March 8, 2001. This story was written in pencil in Elizabeth's daughter's (Louise Widmann Sinn’s) handwriting. It is assumed that Louise translated the account as narrated by her mother in German, as Elizabeth never learned to speak or write well in English. It was a part of the estate of the author, inherited by JM's mother Elizabeth Sinn MacLaughlin.
The punctuation was changed for ease of readability, and a title was added. Otherwise, the author’s spelling and capitalization were retained. The German translation was also added.
Note: Although the author says she was sixteen, she traveled in May of 1868, and this would have been just before her sixteenth birthday in August - perhaps she was counting the “European way” and she was in her sixteenth year. The German ladies who corrected her grammar cannot be identified; both Hamburg and New York passenger lists are in embarkation order.