USA > Maryland > History of the German Society of Maryland > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12
100
HISTORY OF THE
correct information of its condition and sound advice as to their requirements on their long journey across the Atlantic and their arrival and settlement here; also warn- ing those not fit or too infirm, not to come, and of the character and object of the society. It was signed by the officers of the society and with the approbation of the foreign consuls, members of the society.
By a resolution passed October 3rd, 1834, it was ordered that 3,000 copies of the address be forwarded and distributed in the different principalities in Germany from whence most of the emigrants came.
Messrs. F. W. Brune, F. L. Brauns, A. Schumacher, Dr. F. E. B. Hintze, Fredk. Focke, Charles W. Spilker, John P. Stroble, Mathias Benzinger, Samuel Keerl and Salomon Etting were especially active officers and mana- gers of those years. Charles F. Mayer and F. W. Brune, Jr., were the counsellors.
IOI
GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
CONVICTS.
Baltimore, July 1st, 1837.
At the meeting of the officers of the society the presi- dent having communicated to the meeting intelligence he received from the German newspapers published in Phila- delphia of a number of convicts being on their way to the United States destined to New York or Baltimore, and transported to this country under the direction of public authorities in Germany. It was resolved that the presi- dent be instructed to communicate this information to the mayor of the city of Baltimore, accompanied with a translated extract from the newspaper and suggest to the mayor the propriety of such interposition as the laws may allow to prevent the landing of such convicts in Balti- more or to send them back to Germany, and in the ab- sence of all legal authority for such objects, to recommend to the mayor the expediency of having the attention of the State or general government called to such evils, with a view to appropriate enactments, and further that the president be authorized to proffer pecuniary aid from this society in conjunction with means from the corporate authorities of Baltimore for returning the convicts to Germany, and particularly that the president state to the mayor that the society will through a committee of their body visit the vessels arriving with passengers in con- junction with any committee of the city council to inquire into the character of the passengers and when it is ascer- tained that vagrants or convicts be on board that the society will co-operate with the city authorities in all
102
HISTORY OF THE
necessary measures for the returning of such passengers to Germany. Resolved, that a committee of three be ap- pointed to wait on the mayor and confer with him upon the subject of the aforegoing resolution. Solomon Et- ting, John P. Strobel and F. L. Brauns were appointed the committee.
The extract from the German newspaper published in Philadelphia on the first day of July, 1837, translated as follows is :
"Thuringen, Germany, April 10th, 1837.
"A number of convicts out of the prison of Gotha will be sent in a few days under the escort of a secret police officer to Bremen in order to be transported to the United States of America, New York or Baltimore."
In consequence of which C. G. Boehm, Chas. Spilker and S. P. Strobel were afterward appointed a committee by the president to act in conjunction with the city au- thorities on board of the vessel arrived, on which sus- picion rested, but no results were effected by it. The closest investigation made by the officers of the city au- thorities, assisted by the committee of the society, failed to find any convicts among the German immigrants who came here. The same charge was again made a number of years later, in the Know-Nothing times, which also proved unfounded.
It stands to reason that emigrants who came to make this country their future permanent home, would not suf- fer convicts to accompany them without making it known on their arrival here, to have them transported back to the country from whence they came, and to those settled
103
GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
here it was a matter of their very existence and happi- ness that no convicts of their old country should be per- mitted to land. There is no reliable evidence that con- victs or felons were ever at any time shipped by any of the German governments to the United States. Political prisoners were sometimes pardoned on condition that they leave the country, these would go to England or come to our country and would become excellent citizens. Dif- ferent was the case with
104
HISTORY OF THE
"PAUPERS. "
Persons unable to work and without means of support, harmless, but undesirable citizens, a burden to every com- munity wherein they live, and everywhere at all times communities, more or less, have availed themselves of every good opportunity to get rid of them. If a pauper is desirous to change his habitation to another country or distant city, with no or little prospect of his return, I would like to know the county, town or city which would not furnish him free transportation; this was done to some extent by German communities and the German Society of Maryland has done its utmost to prevent it. The paupers who succeeded in landing here, were the most persistent and pressing claimants for aid and sup- port from the society, a burden to its officers, and an ex- pense and injury to the community. The law prohibi- ting the landing of these unfortunates here, it was cruel to transport them back in the slow sailing ships to the port they came from in Europe. The society made ef- forts to prevent their embarkation at these ports and ap- pealed to the authorities thereof.
At the meeting of the board of officers held March 17th, 1838, Mr. F. W. Brune read an ordinance passed by the senate of the city of Bremen, the port from whence most of the German emigrants sailed for Baltimore, re- ferring to and preventing the exportation of paupers and vagrants. On motion of Mr. Solomon Etting the same, with an appropriate preamble, was ordered to be spread upon the minutes of the society. In the next
105
GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
year, December 26th, 1839, the society passed a law for the board of officers to elect annually, at a fixed salary, an agent of the society to collect the dues from the mem- bers and perform such other duties as the Board may prescribe for him. At the next meeting the board elected, as the agent of the society, Mr. Conrad Lindeman, at the yearly salary of $300. His duties were, beside collect- ing members' dues, to examine carefully and report, the condition of applicants for assistance, which may be re- ferred to him by the president or any of the board of managers, promptly to visit all vessels arriving at this port with German passengers, and kindly and benevo- lently aid them with his counsel, which may be suggested by the president and officers of the society, as to their residence whilst here, and their permanent location either here, or in any other State or territory of our country ; and daily to call on the president for orders.
It could not be prevented that, among the hundred thousands of German immigrants who landed at this port, in the course of time, a small percentage would be- come a burden to the city or were paupers, and much was said of this in those years ; but the great mass became in- dustrious, prosperous citizens and taxpayers, and paid their honest share for the support of the poor of the city.
It should also be borne in mind that 272,218 German immigrants who landed here in the years 1833 to 1876, paid to the city of Baltimore the sum of $408,327 in com- mutation passenger money, supposed to be for the sup- port of any pauper which may have been among them and become a burden to the city. A very large sum of money and in excess of the proportion of paupers which may have been among them. The United States Govern-
IO6
HISTORY OF THE
ment, under the Immigration Laws, now collects four dollars from every immigrant who comes to our hospi- table shores, but not a dollar of the money is expended for the support of the poor, as formerly.
In 1840, on motion of Gen. Joshua Medtardt, a com- mittee was appointed to revise and amend the by-laws of the society and Messrs. F. W. Brune, Benj. I. Cohen, Gen. J. Medtardt, and the counsellors F. W. Brune, Jr. and Brantz Mayer, Esqs., were named as the committee.
At the meeting of December 26th, 1840, Mr. Albert Schumacher, one of our most prominent merchants, and consul for the Hansa towns, was elected president and held that office by re-election for more than thirty years until his death June 26th, 1871.
In December, 1841, Mr. Claas Vocke was elected sec- retary of the board of officers, and later as president and vice-president, remained an officer of the society for more than sixty-two years until his death in 1903.
In 1841, on motion of Dr. August Wegner, the presi- dent and secretary, were requested to draw up a petition to the legislature of Maryland for the appointment of an interpreter of the German language in the courts of the city of Baltimore, and thereafter a German interpreter was always one of the bailiffs of the courts. The anni- versary meetings of the society and the meetings of the officers were up to 1842 held at Beltzhoover's Hotel, where also the anniversary dinners took place. On January 3rd, 1842, the society and board of officers met at Boizards' European Hotel, thereafter and for the first time December 26, 1842, at the rooms of the society "Germania," No. 40 North Howard street. This society
CLAAS VOCKE
IO7
GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
now called "The Germania Club" has ever since then and to the present day, free of costs, generously placed its well-furnished, commodious rooms at the disposal of the yearly and quarterly meetings of the German Society of Maryland and the meeting of its officers.
In the session of the State legislature of 1842, Mr. Ris- teau, a delegate from Baltimore county, introduced a bill to repeal the act of 1833 allowing the German and Hi- bernian societies two-fifths of the passenger commutation money. The German Society held a meeting to protest against the passage of an act depriving her of an income, being only a part of the money collected from German immigrants ostensibly for assistance and support of the poor among them, and applied by the society together with other money, supplied by its members, for the very purpose of assisting these poor Germans in the most economical, best philanthropic manner. A strong com- mittee of five with the able counsellor Chas. F. Mayer, Esq., as chairman, was elected to devise ways and means to prevent the adoption of the bill; it was defeated and the society continued to enjoy the income of the two-fifths of the passenger money. The liberal annual donations to the public free dispensaries of medicine to the poor were increased and the salary of the two physicians of the society of $50 increased to $100 a year, which by a reso- lution of the society was declared not intended as a com- pensation for their services but with a view to cover a portion of their actual expenses incurred in the cause of charity. The position of a physician of the German Society must have been very desirable among the medical profession of the city, there were most always several
108
HISTORY OF THE
candidates in the field and often a contest which required repeated ballotting.
We find famous physicians among them, Dr. Charles A. Wiesenthal, and Wm. Zollikoffer in the eighteenth century, Drs. Jacob Baer, Diffenderfer, August J. Schwartze, George Frick, Huttner, August Wegner, Joshua J. Cohen, F. E. B. Hintze, William Keerl, Ed- ward Schwartze, Henry Albers, F. Schurman, J. Hamel, L. Morawitz, etc.
In 1844 there appeared again in several newspapers the old story that convicts had been sent from some parts of Germany, it was a vague general charge, based upon a malevolent rumor. The society took up the matter and in meeting adopted the following resolution. presented by Mr. B. J. Cohen :
"Resolved: That a committee of three be appointed to inquire into the truth or falsehood of the charge made in the public prints, that convicts are sent from some of the states of Germany to our shores,-and that if such is the fact, proper measures be taken by said committee, to en- deavor to prevent such immigration, and if the facts be not true as stated, that the public mind be disabused of such impression, calculated as it is, to excite and perpetuate prejudice."
This was seconded by F. W. Brune. The chair ap- pointed on the committee Messrs. Biedemeyer, Cohen and Kall. On motion of Col. Mathias Benzinger it was re- solved that the above resolution be published in the news- papers. As in the previous charge of the same nature no evidence of the truth thereof could be found. Notwith-
109
GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
standing, this malicious baseless charge was again often repeated in later years, especially in Know-Nothing times, and as often refuted.
There was a steady increase from year to year of Ger- man immigrants who favored the port of Baltimore as convenient to reach by the national turnpike across the Alleghanies the cities of Wheeling or Pittsburg, from there to go by river boats down the Ohio and confluent rivers and waterways to the new States and territories of the far west. It was a long irksome trip by horse and wagon across the mountains to Wheeling or Pittsburg. An advertisement which appeared in "The German Cor- respondent," a Baltimore paper, announced that an ex- press conveyance had been established whereby the immi- grant would reach Pittsburg in fourteen days. Cumber- land was one of the resting and forwarding stations on the route to Wheeling. It was reported to the German Society that German immigrants had been grossly im- posed upon by the forwarding agent at Cumberland, by being utterly deceived in regard to the character of con- veyances in which they were forwarded from Cumberland to Wheeling. The society placed the complaints in the hands of its counsellor, William F. Frick, Esq., to prose - cute the contractor for transportation of this city as well as the forwarding agent in Cumberland for obtaining money under false pretenses.
Among such a large immigration there were always some mechanics and laborers who had not the means to pay the expense and costs of the journey to the west or preferred to stay here. They were honest men, willing to work if they could find employment, but
IIO
HISTORY OF THE
being strangers here, ignorant where to look for it. The society to assist them, in 1845, appointed Mr. William Numsen, C. Deecke and C. W. Lentz as a con- mittee to consider and report on the expediency of estab- lishing an intelligence bureau, where, free of costs, men seeking employment could obtain information and advice and employers could leave orders for men they were in need. The committee made a favorable report and that Friedrich Raine, the proprietor and publisher of the Ger- man Correspondent, a public spirited citizen, offered for a very moderate compensation, and only in view of the benevolent object, to place the bureau in the office of his newspaper, the society to pay for a permanent advertise· ment in the Sun, American and German Correspondent and for the pamphlets to be freely distributed on board of arriving immigrant vessels. The society accepted the offer of Mr. Raine and on January 16, 1845, entered into a binding contract with him. Mr. Raine was to keep a record of all applicants for work and of those who ob- tained employment through the bureau and annually make a report to the society. He reported more than 2,000 applicants, whereof 600 found employment in the first year ; more than 3,500 applicants whereof the greater part found employment in 1846. The existence of the intel- ligence bureau became known in nearby towns, and it the following years thousands of workmen were sent through the agency of the bureau to Cumberland, York, Washington, Boonsboro and places where factories were in operation or railroads being built.
In January, 1853, the intelligence bureau was removed to the house of Jacob Ober, No. 59 Thames street. Jacob
III
GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
Ober was appointed the agent to have charge of said bureau on a salary of $250 a year, $50 rent and $100 for clerk hire.
In the month of July, 1845, a gross outrage had been committed in. the city by several ruffians upon the person of a young German girl named Margaretha Sailer, recently arrived from Germany with her brother. The ruffians were arrested and committed to prison for trial of their crime, to take place at the next October term of the criminal court. The girl was required as prosecuting witness for the State, to give bail in the sum of one thou- sand dollars for her appearance at the trial of the case, or else be confined until then in jail. She had no relatives nor friends here except her brother, who was, like her, a stranger and an immigrant, to give bail for her and keep her out of prison. It was then that Mr. Charles Degen- hardt, one of the managers, and a Mr. Hess gave tempo- rarily bail for her till the next day, when it was to be renewed or the girl go to jail. The president, Mr. Schu- macher, on being informed, at once called a special meet- ing of the officers of the German Society to take proper steps for the protection of the unfortunate girl. The meeting was fully attended. In the absence of Messrs. Brune and Frick, the regular counsellors, from the city, George William Brown, Esq., later chief judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore, acted in their place and stead and represented the society in the cause at court. The society, with the consent of the court, placed Marga- retha Sailer and her brother in care of a committee of three, with the family of a Mr. Sollers, and paid for their board and lodging until the trial of the case.
II2
HISTORY OF THE
In 1846 Mr. Charles Caspari, for many years a well- known German apothecary in this city, was elected by the officers to furnish at the costs and expense of the society on the order and recipe of its physicians medicines to the sick poor. In 1849 the immigration increasing, two more apothecaries, Mr. Stehl and Mr. Koechling, were added as dispensaries of medicine under the control of the society's physicians, and a Mr. Treiber, a resident of Cumberland, Maryland, was requested to post the so- ciety of any imposition that might be perpetrated by any of the lines forwarding immigrants.
Mr. Frederick Schepeler was appointed in 1849 as one of the committee to examine the treasurer's report. Some years thereafter he went back to Germany and remained there. He must have taken with him a strong impression of the good work the German Society of Maryland was doing. Forty-five years thereafter, in 1895, he sent from his home in Münden, Germany, to the society a generous donation of one thousand dollars.
The failure of the revolution of the year 1848 in Ger- many for a more popular representative government, and the reactionary laws and measures which followed, caused a wide-spread discontent among its population. The leaders and most active men in the revolutionary move- ment fled their native country to escape political prosecu- tion, imprisonment and even death. Most of them after a sojourn in Switzerland, France or England came to the United States as refugees and with few exceptions re- mained here to become excellent citizens. They were mainly journalists, teachers, lawyers, artists, physicians, scientists, army officers, musicians, etc., all men of high
II3
GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
culture and idealists. The first of these arrived here in 1849. Their number increased in the following years, and then it seemed as if a huge army were following their officers. Among the writer's fellow emigrants which crossed the Atlantic from Bremen in 1855 in the ship "Minerva," the principal topics of conversation of the men was their part in the fighting on the barricades in the revolution of 1848-49.
The full tide of emigration from Germany to America took place in the years from 1850 to 1861. Many skilled mechanics and small tradesmen left the towns, but the host and multitude came from the agricultural country. The writer recollects well, when in the years from 1850 to 1855, entire villagers in the central part of Germany sold or abandoned their acreage and all the inhabitants, from 100 to 500 men, women and children, with their pastor, school-teachers and burgomaster emigrated to America. In season he would daily see wagon trains loaded with trunks, boxes, implements, bedding, house- hold goods, often with the cradle on the top, the women and children on the wagons, the peasant men in their blouses walking alongside, men and horses decorated with artificial gay flowers, pass on the turnpike leading north to Bremen or Hamburg, there to embark for Amer- ica. More than 100,000 of these landed in that period in Baltimore, the agricultural class most all to proceed from here to the then far west to found new farming settle- ments; the skilled mechanics, artists, etc., to the various cities and towns, and an uncertain percentage would re- main here. There was a great and good work to do for the German Society of Maryland. No matter how
II4
HISTORY OF THE
intelligent a man may be, if he cannot by his ignorance of language make himself undestood, he is or at least ap- pears stupid. He will make mistakes, can easily be imposed upon and being a passing stranger, there are men who will take advantage of him, and some designing men will make it a trade by gaining the confidence of the stranger by knowing and speaking his own language, to swindle and rob him. To protect the honest emi- grants against these vampires of society and to inform them of the conditions awaiting them on their arriva! here, the German Society had annually thousands of cir- culars of useful information printed here and sent to the emigration ports of Hamburg, Bremen, Amsterdam and Havre to be distributed on the vessels among the pas- sengers before their departure. On their arrival here the agent of the society boarded the vessels and again distri- buted other circulars of wholesome information, ready to advise, assist and protect them against fraud and imposi- tion. Mr. Jacob Ober, who had been elected agent for the intelligence office of the society in January of 1853, died in July of the same year, and Mr. H. F. Wellinghoff was elected his successor and by yearly re-election, held that office for thirty years, until April, 1883, when he resigned by reason of old age. Mr. Wellinghoff was instructed to keep an office at Fells Point, near the landing of the emi- grant ships. His salary was $600 a year. He was also furnished a clerk. Mr. C. Lindemann was retained as agent in the city. He was now styled inspector, and in 1859 succeeded by a Mr. John R. Hiltz, who thenceforth was called second agent. The medicine dispensaries were increased to seven, located in various parts of the city. To prevent paupers from landing and having them
115
GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND
transported back to the port they came from, remained one of the duties of the agents and of remonstrance by the society to the agencies in Bremen.
The foregoing dates have been taken from the record of the proceedings of the officers. The records of the proceeding of the society up to the year 1861 were des- troyed by fire. We now turn for information to the records of the society of January 16, 1861, recorded by Herman von Kapff, secretary, and find after the election of officers, resolutions prepared by G. W. Lurman, J. Cohen and H. von Kapff, committee, deploring the death of F. W. Brune and Charles G. Boehm, former vice-presi- dents, and H. G. Jacobson, all original and continuous members and founders (1817) of the society. A com- mittee of Mr. E. Hirshfeld, C. Nitze, C. Bulling, F. Has- sencamp and J. Bruehl were appointed to procure new members. The report of Israel Cohen, treasurer, shows 191 contributing members; cash surplus from last anni- versary dinner, $10.51 ; interest on investments of $27,000 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad First Mortgage, $1,620; $6,500 Baltimore city 6 per cent. loan, $390; passengers' money, $3,889.03; expended for physicians, $300; agents, $910.60; trusses, cupping and leaching, $78.25 ; paupers' conveyance to almshouse, $12; and returning to Europe, $15; medical prescriptions, 3,077 ; prescriptions, $547.66; printing, etc., $97.26; charity on orders of managers, $2,018.20; new investments, $1,000; Baltimore city 6 per cent, $972.50; Maryland State stock, $3,000.
The society then at the beginning of the Civil War had a capital of $36,500, safely invested, and by this prudent foresight fairly well prepared to meet the coming storm. In 1861, the first year of the war, industry and trade were
116
HISTORY OF THE
suspended in Baltimore. The mechanics and laborers were without employment, unable to earn their daily bread. Four thousand one hundred and fifty-eight per- sons applied in that year to the society for pecuniary assistance, and on investigation found worthy and given relief. The free medical prescriptions numbered 4,608. To meet these wants the members increased their sub- scriptions and the society sold $4,000 Baltimore City 6 per cent. stock, due 1896, for $3,422.50. The German immigration diminishing to such extent that only 2,172 German emigrants arrived in Baltimore in 1862. The income from passenger money was small. However, at the end of that year, Israel Cohen, the treasurer. in his annual report says :
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.