USA > Maryland > History of the German Society of Maryland > Part 6
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By the dates of these letters it appears that the attor- neys had answered his letter within three days, but he had without waiting for a reply engaged another attorney, and taken this case out of their hands. The attorneys could not act otherwise than tender their resignation to the society. The resignation of Mr. Frick was accepted at the meeting of March the Ist, and Charles F. Mayer, the son of the president, elected in his place.
David Hoffman, Esq., at the next meeting of the offi- cers also resigned as counsellor, and Peter Hoffman Cruse, Esq., was elected in his stead. A fee of one hun- dred dollars for each of the late counsellors for their services was granted, but not accepted by the counsellors. A petition for a writ of habeas corpus for the Breuning boys was filed in the court for Queen Anne county. President Mayer wrote a personal letter to the Honorable R. Earle, chief judge of the county, on behalf of the Breuning boys. The judge answered, stating that he knew Mr. Denny personally as a man of good character and standing, who did not intend to violate the law. The president called a special meeting of the board, and the judge was informed that the society insisted upon the boys being released from the unlawful custody of Mr. Denny. On the hearing of the return of the writ, the
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GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
boys were set free. Their parents, being in bondage as redemptioners, could not take proper care of them and the society by the Register, Mr. L. Thomsen and under the authority of the Orphans' Court had them regularly bound as apprentices to learn farming. The case of the gardener, Stoffel, was also taken up again by the new counsellors, but the record does not disclose with what success. On March 2, 1819, the president sent the fol- lowing letter to Captain Jacob Maxwold :
Commander of the Norwegian Ship "Prima."
Sir :- By a meeting of the officers of the German Society of Maryland, held yesterday, I am desired to present to you the thanks of the board on behalf of the society for the humanity and courtesy with which you have, during a pro- tracted voyage, conducted yourself toward the unfortunate emigrants, who, by the uncommon generosity of the govern- ment of your country, have been after so many perils and privations which these poor people had encountered since they had left their native country, the kindness with which you have uniformly treated them was particularly consol- ing, etc., etc., etc.
CHR. MAYER,
President of German Society of Maryland.
On the 15th of March, 1819, the president wrote the following letter, which certainly was not within the scope of his authority as the president of a society which only had for its object the protection of the emigrant and not of the ship owners. It is addressed to the German immi- grants yet remaining on board of the Dutch ship "Vrouw Elizabeth":
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"Captain Bredero has applied to the German Society of Maryland, and represented that you refuse to hire your- selves on reasonable condition for the payment of your passage money. As Captain Bredero conscientiously per- formed his part of the contract, and, up to the present time as we are informed by everybody, treated you very kindly, your refusal is unjust, unlawful and ungrateful. The Ger- man Society makes it its duty to assist your countrymen when they are in need, and to protect them as far as it is able; but it will also not suffer any injustice to be done by emigrants, and by advice and act induce them to fulfil their obligations. I declare, therefore, to you, that Captain Bre- dero has a lawful right to have you committed to prison, to remain there on meagre fare, until your debt is paid, if you do not consent to hire for a reasonable time-that is not more than four years, for the payment thereof. The captain can exercise this right, after the expiration of thirty days of your arrival, and the German Society will assist him in this. Please conform to this, and it will please us. You are hereby warned of the consequences.
(Signed) CHR. MAYER, President, etc."
On the IIth of May, 1819, the president gave to Cap- tain Bredero a certificate that he treated his passengers with kindness and humanity.
On the 17th of April, 1819, Mr. Lawrence Thomsen, the able secretary of the society and State Register of German and Swiss Immigrants, departed this life. The society in meeting assembled unanimously recommended Lewis Mayer to the governor and council of Maryland as a suitable person to be appointed for the vacant office
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GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
of Register for German and Swiss Immigrants arriving at the port of Baltimore. Lewis Mayer thereupon was appointed Register by the governor and council. Lewis Mayer remained State Register and secretary of the board of managers of the society until June, 1823, when in con- sequence of his removal from the State of Maryland, he resigned both offices, and, on recommendation of the society, Henry G. Jacobson was appointed his successor. In the summer of 1819 the yellow fever was in the city, especially at Fell's Point. The inhabitants fled into the country, where they lived in tents. There was much suf- fering among the poor and soup-houses were established. In Germany they had good crops, prosperity had returned and for many years there was a diminished emigration from that country to America. The society gave more attention to the relief of the poor of the city, natives of Germany and Swiss and descendants of Germans and Swiss.
By a resolution passed January 5, 1819, the board re- solved itself into committees to procure additional mem- bers and solicit subscriptions in the following order of arrangement :
First Week: Conrad Schultz, Samuel Keerl. Second Week: Justus Hoppe, John F. Friese. Third Week: William Krebs, Lawrence Thomsen. Fourth Week: Jacob Small, Lewis Brantz. Fifth Week: August Hammer, Frederick Waesche. Sixth Week: Michael Kimmel, F. L. E. Amelung. Seventh Week: Frederick Leypold, Philip Eckel. Eighth Week: Wm. Frick, Lewis Mayer. Ninth Week: Henry Schroeder, D. Hoffman.
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At the same meeting a by-law was adopted that, within one week after the next anniversary meeting of the so- ciety and every year thereafter on the same day, the presi- dent, vice-president and board of managers shall elect by ballot counsellors and physicians to the society for the year ensuing. A vote of thanks was passed for Conrad Schulz, the Prussian Consul, for his benevolent exertions to alleviate the sufferings of the unfortunate emigrants lately arrived here in the ship "Prima," from Norway. A redemptioner named Joseph Schwartzkopf, who came with the ship "Juffrow Johanna" in January, 1817, and sold to a master in Annapolis without having any writing to show his terms of servitude, there being at the time no registration of redemptioners, appealed to the society for redress. , The president sent sworn depositions to Annap- olis, showing that Joseph Schwartzkopf arrived here and was sold in servitude in the early month of 1817.
We now come to a blank leaf in the record book of the proceedings of the officers of the society. There is no entry during the period from September 25, 1819, to December 26, 1821, when, at the anniversary meeting of the society, held at Williamson's Hotel, Justus Hoppe, a prominent merchant, was chosen president and B. J. von Kapff, Dr. A. J. Schwarz, Henry Schroeder and General John Stricker, vice-presidents. William Frick appears as a member of the board of managers. The record book of the proceedings of the society was burnt in the great fire of 1904. The Federal Gazette of December 21 to 23, 1820, contains a notice that the anniversary meeting of the society and election of officers would be held at Mrs. Wintklos' Hotel, on Bank street, on Tuesday, December
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GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
26, 1820, at 12 M. Brantz Mayer in his "Memoir and Genealogy of the family of Mayer from the city of Ulm in Maryland," page 41, says his father, Christian Mayer, for reasons of other duties, in 1821 declined a re-election. Charles F. Mayer, Esq., the counsellor, resigned in 1822, and William Frick and David Hoffman, Esqs., were again elected as counsellors of the society, offices they had re- signed in 1819 on account of the Breuning boys' case. The former held this position until 1832 and Mr. Hoff- man until 1836, when he removed from the city to Phila- delphia. Both were prominent in public affairs. Wil- liam Frick, Esq., as author of legal books, orator and judge, was a son of Peter Frick, who, as early as 1773, was a leading member of the German Lutheran Zion Church and always took an active part in public affairs for the welfare of Baltimore Town, and in 1796, when Balti- more was raised to the dignity of a city, was a member of the first city council and served for several years as the president of the First Branch. His son, William Frick, Esq., was also a life-long worshiper and regular attendant of said Zion Church. In 1836 William Frick was ap-
pointed by President Jackson collector of this port and retained the position under President Van Buren. He
subsequently represented the city as State senator. In June, 1848, he was appointed by Governor Thomas chief judge of the then Baltimore county. As chief judge of that court he became a member of the court of appeals of the State of Maryland until the adoption of the new con- stitution in 1851, when he was elected by the people as the first judge of the Superior Court of Baltimore City. He held that position until his death on the 25th of July,
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1855. He remained a life-long member of the German Society.
David Hoffman, Esq., LL. D., was born in Baltimore Town in 1784 of German parents. He was a leading member of the early bar in Baltimore; became professor of law in the University of Maryland from 1817 to 1836, is the author of "A Course of Legal Studies," of "Legal Outlines," standard works for many years, and published other books of merit.
Peter Hoffman Cruse, Esq., was a man of distinguished talents and an accomplished scholar. He was for a num- ber of years the editor of the "Baltimore American," and later of "The Patriot."
Justus Hoppe was re-elected and remained president of the society until the year 1833. With him were Jacob Small, a member of the board of managers from 1819 to 1829, and in 1826 and 1827 first vice-president. In 1826 Jacob Small (Schmal) was elected mayor of the city of Baltimore. He resigned the office in 1829. General John Stricker, the fourth vice-president, died on the 23rd day of June, 1825, in his sixty-seventh year of age. His remains were interred with great military honors. At the time of his death he was the president of the Bank of Baltimore. He was one of the most amiable and best of men.
The record book of the society being destroyed, we have no detail of its activity in those years, but the fol- lowing incident taken from a book in the library of the late Rev. Edward Huber may be considered as one of frequent acts of like nature. S. V. R., a Swiss nobleman,
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GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
published in Aaran, 1827, a book under the title of "My Visit to America in the Summer of 1824."
He shipped from Havre on the German emigrant ves- sel "Hyperion" for Baltimore. On page 53 he writes : The vessel arrived at Baltimore on the 14th of July, 1824, and landed the emigrants, who immediately made ar- rangements to depart for the western territories of the United States, mostly in small caravans of eight to ten persons. Some were already entirely divested of money. They applied to a highly esteemed society in Baltimore and the two poorest families, consisting of eleven persons, received a horse and forty piaster. They, like the majority of such emigrants, wandered to the shores of the Ohio river.
The society held its yearly meetings and election of officers ( fully reported in the appendix) regularly in the last week of each year at Beltzhoover's Hotel, southeast corner of Baltimore and Hanover streets. It was also called "Indian Queen" Hotel, and celebrated in its days. Beltzhoover in 1832 removed to the "Fountain Hotel."
After the election of officers and transaction of busi- ness, a banquet followed with the usual toasts and speeches. It is to be noticed that these meetings and banquets were held in daytime and not in the evening, or night, as is the custom of the present time. In 1832 the society received from the lady patronesses of a concert the sum of one hundred dollars, with the request that the same be immediately distributed among Germans in dis- tress in the city.
No entry is found in the record book of the officers of the society during and after the presidency of Justus
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Hoppe nor thereafter relating to a particular case of cruelty or wrong to a redemptioner requiring the assist- ance or intervention of the society. The strict enforce- ment of the registration and apprenticeship laws enacted by the State at the instance of the society and applied under the supervision of the officers of the society by the State Register, who was at the same time the secretary of the officers, as well as public opinion which had set against the redemptioner system, had a wholesome influ- ence. The newspapers of the ensuing years do not con- tain any more advertisements for "the sale, nor offering rewards for the capture of runaway redemptioners." There were gradually less redemptioners coming. In 1830 Henry G. Jacobson, the State Register, resigned, and Charles Starke was recommended by the officers of the society and appointed by the governor as the suc- cessor in office. Starke resigned in 1834 and Justus Hoppe recommended to the governor as the successor.
The society placed certain sums of money in the hands of the president to be disposed at his discretion to the aid of destitute German and Swiss immigrants and account- ed for to the treasurer. Aside of the counsellors- at-law, it always had two competent salaried physicians to attend poor sick immigrants.
On the 26th of December, 1832, Charles W. Karthaus was elected president. Mr. Karthaus as vice-president had been very active to increase the membership and fund of the society. At the meeting held on the ninth day of February, 1833, he appointed from among the officers committees to solicit subscriptions from the members re-
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GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
siding in the respective districts, assigned to them as follows :
John P. Stroble, G. A. von Spreckelson, J. J. Cohen.
Ist and 2nd ward.
C. W. Karthaus,
Chas. Diffenderfer,
3rd and 4th ward.
J. J. Hoogewerff.
Edward Kurtz, Dr. F. E. Hintze, F. W. Brune.
5th and 6th ward.
Chas. G. Boehm, F. L. Brauns, Samuel Keerl.
7th and 8th ward.
Frederick Focke, Chas. Starcke, A. Schumacher.
9th and Ioth ward.
William Hilberg, Charles Fischer. C. G. Peters,
IIth and 12th ward.
The regular dues of the members of the society were at that time three dollars a year. The records of pro- ceedings of the society before 1860 being destroyed as aforesaid, we can by the membership of later years esti- mate the average number of members of the preceding years, as not more than one hundred and fifty to two hundred. Some members contributed liberally more than their regular dues (see list in annual reports) and others by the payment of a large sum became life members. After the payment of the salaries of the physicians, the medicines, the agent who visited the arriving immigrant
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HISTORY OF THE
vessel and other necessary expenses, there was but a small sum left to meet the demand of those deserving aid in pecuniary distress. We read from the record book of the officers (which is preserved) of the constant efforts of the officers of the society, who were men of high stand- ing in the community, assuming the arduous duty of per- sonally soliciting subscriptions for their noble charity. We may assume that by their unselfish devotion they gained the sympathy and admiration of their fellow citi- zens in their work, and the legislature of the State passed a law which relieved the society, by assisting and giving it more ample pecuniary means. In the session of 1832 Charles F. Mayer, Esq., the counsellor of the society, was a member of the legislature. He introduced a law whereof his brother, Brantz Mayer, the eminent author and lawyer in his Memoir and Genealogy of the Mayer family (p. 41) writes :
"From its (the German Society) beginning to this day, the Society has been one of the most effective institutions in America, designed to aid foreigners ; I drew the original law under which it collected 'passenger money' and enabled it to help so many immigrants."
This law, passed the 22nd of December, 1832, by the Legislature, is now incorporated in our new "City Char- ter," adopted April 25, 1898 (p. 208, sections 519 to 531), under the heading of "Immigrants."
It provides : That every master or commander of any vessel arriving from a foreign country or from any other of the United States who shall enter said vessel at the cus-
ALBERT SCHUMACHER
:
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GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
tom-house in the city of Baltimore, shall, within twenty- four hours after such entry, make a report in writing on oath to the mayor of said city of the name, age and occu- pation of every alien passenger of his vessel, or forfeit the sum of twenty dollars for every such passenger neglected or omitted to be reported.
That the owner or consignee of any such vessel shall give a bond to the State of Maryland in the penalty of three hundred dollars for each passenger so reported, conditioned to indemnity and save harmless each and every city, town and county in this State, from any cost which they respec- tively shall incur, for the relief and support of the person named in the bond, within five years from the date of the bond, and also to refund, etc., any charge or expense such city, etc., may necessarily incur for the support or medical care of such persons, if received into any almshouse or hos- pital or any other institution under their care. Prescribing a fine of twenty dollars for each passenger not bonded as aforesaid, unless the owner or consignee of any such vessel within three days after the landing of such passenger, shall pay to the City Register the sum of one dollar and fifty cents for each and every passenger aforesaid, the receipt whereof shall be deemed a full and sufficient discharge from the re- quirement of giving such bond. The money so collected to go three-fifths thereof to the trustees for the poor of Baltimore City for the purpose of supporting foreign paup- ers of the said city, and the other two-fifths shall be paid to the Hibernian Society of Baltimore and the German So- ciety of Maryland.
The law was originally passed as afore-stated, which would be construed that each, the Hibernian and German Societies, be equally entitled to the two-fifths of the com-
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mutation money, which would not be fair as great many more German than Irish immigrants arrived and lived in Baltimore and the German Society thereby carried a heavier burden than the Hibernian.
The president of the German Society thereupon mailed the following letter :
Baltimore, March 6th, 1833.
CHARLES F. MAYER, EsQ., Annapolis.
Dear Sir :- Your esteemed favor of the 4th inst. is at hand, and this morning I received a copy of the Bill respecting emigrants ; but I should like, if you think it can be done, to fix a certain amount on German passengers to be paid over by the Mayor and City Council to the German Society, so as to get a respectable fund and you may be assured that the Society will by such law become more numerous and ere long, one that will be able to do some good to poor Ger- mans arriving. I think that an alteration would be well to be made if it can be done, as it regards children instead of five to say ten years in the 2nd section 4th line. I leave this, however, to your better judgment, so soon as the law has passed, you will please to send a copy that we may have it printed in German, English and French, and send it to the different ports, where Germans arrive from.
I remain your obdt. servant,
CHAS. W. KARTHAUS,
By supplemental act, passed by the legislature, 1833. Chapter 177, the mayor and city council were directed to pay the two-fifths of the passengers commutation money to the German Society and Hibernian Society, re-
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GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
spectively, in proportion of the amounts received from German and Swiss and from Irish passengers. So that thereafter the German Society received from the city the sum of sixty cents from the commutation money paid by every German and Swiss immigrant arriving in the city of Baltimore. The owners of the emigrant vessels col- lecting the money as a part of the passage money before the departure from the old country and paid it to the city on the arrival of the vessel. By this law the society was relieved of its financial stress and enabled with far greater efficiency to continue its good work. The city collected one dollar and fifty cents from each emigrant arriving at this port, ninety cents whereof went to the city poor-house and sixty cents to the respective national societies repre- senting the countries the emigrants came from. Accord- ing to the books of the German Society, the German emi- grants who came to Baltimore and paid sixty cents each, less two per cent. commission to the city register for col- lection as provided by law, were :
From 1833-1840 44,584 persons
From 1841-1850 50,660 persons
From 1850-1860 73,722 persons
From 1860-1869. 49,513 persons
From 1869-1876 53,375 persons
Total German emigrants to Bal-
timore who paid commutation money from 1833 to 1876. ... 272,218 persons
In 1876 the Supreme Court of the United States de- clared that, under the late immigration law passed by
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Congress, no State had a right to collect any tax, assess- ment, etc., from passengers arriving at its port, and the owners of the vessels refused to pay any further.
The society receiving the commutation money enlarged its activity by authorizing each of the twelve managers to give assistance by printed orders furnished them or the treasurer of the society. It also contributed regularly to the eastern dispensary of the city. In 1832 Albert Schumacher appears as one of the managers and remained an active officer until his death in 1871. He was at first one of the collectors of contributions for the ninth and tenth wards. In the year 1825 the ever faithful Ben- jamin J. Cohen was elected treasurer and held that re- sponsible position by annual re-election until his death in the year 1845, when his worthy son, Israel Cohen, was elected his successor in office and retained by annual re- election until his sudden death in June, 1875-fifty years, twenty thereof by the father and thirty years by the son, were the finances of the society entrusted in the custody, care and fidelity of Benjamin Cohen and his son, Israel Cohen. The records show their painstaking care and efficiency. Their annual reports are full and lucid in detail, with sound advice as to management and investment of the funds of the society, with solicitous care for the poor beneficiaries, so that not a dollar appears to have been misplaced or lost during their remarkably long years of gratuitous service in their important office of trust and responsibility. Their noble and steadfast devotion to charity is so well expressed by Israel Cohen in his thirty-first and last report as treasurer on January 2, 1875, in the following words :
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GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
"The policy inaugurated some years since of adding to our permanent fund as opportunity offered (without at the same time denying relief to the suffering) has born its good fruits and whilst we can report no increase of our perma- nent fund, still we have met every call upon us, and are enabled to present our condition as last reported, prepared and seeking to perform our part fully and efficiently."
In special meeting held June 4, 1875, the officers of the society deplored the loss of their valued friend and effi- cient officer (Israel Cohen) who discharged the duties of his office with such great fidelity and satisfaction, etc., and caused appropriate resolutions to be published in the daily papers and entered on the records of the society.
In July, 1834, the officers were informed that gross impositions were practiced upon German and Swiss immi- grants arriving in the city of Baltimore. On motion of Mr. Salomon Etting, it was resolved that circulars in Ger- man and English language be printed to be handed to the captains and consignees of every vessel arriving in Balti- more with German and Swiss immigrants; that a com- mittee of the society consisting of W. C. Karthaus, John P. Strobel and Charles G. Boehm may be applied to for information and redress.
Many immigrants arriving here in those years from the interior of Germany under very erroneous informa- tion and wrong impressions of the condition of this coun- try and thereby on their arrival here were utterly dis- appointed, low-spirited and often dispairing of their future. The society, therefore, adopted an address, pre- pared by Mr. F. L. Brauns, to those in Germany who intended to emigrate to this country, containing full and
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