USA > Maryland > History of the German Society of Maryland > Part 8
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The operations of the past year show a diminution of sixty per cent. in our receipts and a corresponding decrease say fifty per cent. as compared with those of 1861. The former were increased last year (1861) owing to the sales of $4,000 city stock, which was required by the pressing wants of the unemployed, whilst during this year, the ex- cessive demand for labor has provided for very many, who would otherwise have been dependent upon the bounty of the Society. The receipts from passengers show a falling off as compared with last year of forty per cent. The appli- cations for assistance has fallen from 4,158 in 1861 to 1,116 applicants in 1862. It may, however, be prudent to antici- pate a much larger call upon our charity before the expira- tion of the present year (1863) and it behooves us to pre- pare for the coming storm. The present invested fund is $32,500. Should it become necessary to encroach upon this fund to aid those who most need it, and for whose benefit
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it has been accumulated, it surely will in the exercise of wise charity not have been needlessly gathered. The disposition of this subject, may, I think, be properly entrusted to the finance committee, etc., etc.
The report closes with the following :
The undersigned cannot close this brief report without bearing testimony as far as has passed under his observa- tion, as to the faithful performance of every duty of the different branches of the Society, and whilst recommending a continuance of the same well doing, he must suggest every species of economy and as is consistent with prudence, not intending to deprive any who may be deserving of receiving the full benefits of this noble charity, but with the object of so dispensing our income that the greatest good may be done to the greatest number, and that when peace and hap- piness shall once more be restored to us, we may have the proud satisfaction of pointing to our past actions with gen- erous pride, and be prepared to continue our journey with the same satisfaction, we have experienced for so long a period.
The apprehension of the good treasurer of a coming storm of much larger call upon the charity of the society, however, was not confirmed. The year 1863 and subse- quent years were of great prosperity to Baltimore. Being near the seat of war, Baltimore became a depot of army supplies and war material. New industries and manu- factories were started, large numbers of soldiers and strangers visited the city and made purchases. There was plenty of work to be done at good wages. Immigra- tion gradually increased, the demands for charity de-
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creased and the society gained new members. In Janu- ary, 1865, thirty-four new members joined. A commit- tee consisting of Charles W. Lentz, Frederick Raine, William Numsen and Charles Spilker was appointed to assist the State authorities to promote immigration to Maryland. The salaries of the physicians were increased to $200, and of the agents to $700 and $300 a year, re- spectively. Seven apothecaries in different parts of the city were appointed to dispense medicines at the expense of the society. In 1868 Vice-President Charles Spilker, a most efficient officer and member of the society since 1833, departed this life, and appropriate resolutions were passed at a special meeting held April 6. A convention of State Immigrant and Benevolent Societies of the United States was held at the Broadway Hall, in Balti- more, in the middle of April, 1868. The society took part in the proceedings and paid the expenses of $267.05. This is the only item in the books of the society during the many years of its existence not strictly and directly spent for charity. The membership in 1869 was 200 and increased in 1870 to 217.
A bill pending before the legislature of Maryland im- posing increased taxation on arriving immigrants, the society at a meeting held March 29th, 1870, passed a series of resolutions protesting against the passing of such laws or measures, and Jacob Trust, Alexander Wolf and H. Wilkens were appointed a committee to present the resolution to the legislature; the bill was defeated. On January 18th, 1871, the first donation of two hundred and fifty dollars, and in the following years until 1876 in all the sum of nineteen hundred dollars was given by the society to the General German Orphan Asylum of
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Baltimore City. On the 27th of June, 1871, the society suffered a severe loss by the death of its venerable Presi- dent Albert Schumacher, who, for over 30 years, had pre- sided at its meetings and guided the affairs of the society. He was one of our foremost merchants, a public-spirited, liberal citizen, who took an active part in all affairs tend- ing to the advancement of Baltimore city. His death was generally deplored by all citizens and by the members of the society in special meeting assembled. In his last will he bequeathed to the society $10,000 of Baltimore city stock, the interest on which to be annually divided among destitute Germans, or suffered to accumulate till it may be concluded by the said society to found a hospi- tal or a home of refuge for which purpose also the whole or part of his bequest may be applied.
The object of establishing a General German Hospital for the care of sick and destitute Germans as mentioned in the bequest was long considered, fully discussed and canvassed by the society and referred to a committee consisting of H. von Kapff, Isaac Cohen, Wm. Numsen, Ferdinand Hassenkamp, Christian Ax, Claas Vocke, Jacob Trust and Dr. Geo. Reuling, who reported that un- less the sum of $30,000 be first raised by private sub- scription, it was not practical for the German Society to establish a hospital. The report was adopted. The munificent donation by Johns Hopkins for a general hos- pital in the city, about that time, however, appeared to the members and citizens generally, to make the establish- ment of such a small hospital less urgent and desirable and nothing further was done in the matter.
Herman von Kapff, a merchant and vice-president of the society, was elected the successor of Mr. Schumacher
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and by successive annual elections remained president seven years until 1878, when he declined a re-election. At the meeting of January 4th, 1875, the death of Col. Mathias Benzinger for many years an active manager of the society was announced, and resolutions deploring his loss were passed. At the yearly meeting of January 20th, 1875, Israel Cohen, the treasurer, read his thirty-first, and which was to be his last, yearly report. It was as all his annual reports, very full, lucid and encouraging. Proud of the achievements of the society in giving proper relief to the destitute and suffering, full of wise counsel to the management and as to the future of the noble charitable work, wherein he and his father before him had taken such a signal part. He concludes his report with the following pathetic words :
"In conclusion then the undersigned has but to repeat his earnest prayers, that we may continue to render every aid and comfort to the deserving poor-that the sick and the destitute may be fully cared for, and that in the future we may not do injustice to our record of the past."
On the 3rd day of June following, this noble man sud- denly died, within four years after his friend and cola- borer in the field of the noble charity, Albert Schumacher, the president for more than thirty years, had departed. Mr. Cohen could well say: that the future may not do injustice to our record of the past. The record of the society of the following period, and to the present time, shows no abatement in the true spirit of charity, economy, efficiency of management, and conscientious performance of duty, from the noble record of their predecessors. The
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demands upon the society increased as the city expanded, and the duties of the office of president became so mani- fold and onerous, that it could not be expected that a per- son of large business affairs of his own, holding that of- fice, could have the time and leisure to perform them. The society after due consideration thereof on January 22nd, 1877, resolved to rent and open a business office located near the centre of the city, where its two agents, every day from 9 o'clock A. M. to 2 o'clock P. M., shall attend to the business of the society. The first agent to have the control and draw weekly from the treasurer funds on orders signed by the president, to pay the orders of and signed by the respective managers or president, to the applicants for charity. The first agent to keep full and correct books of account and information and give bond in the sum of five hundred dollars for the faithful performance of his duties: the second agent to be sub- ordinate to the first agent and to give bond in the sum of $250. The president, if convenient to visit the office daily and to have absolute control over the agents and conduct of business: the agents to visit the immigrant vessels on their arrival and the first agent is authorized if necessary to employ proper persons as assistants on such arrival of emigrants. The office to be also a free labor bureau to those seeking work or employment and the agents to treat those seeking assistance with kindness and politeness.
By this necessary new arrangement of keeping an of- fice the expenses of the society were still further increased. They were in 1873, $8,146; in 1874, $9,028; in 1875, $8,735; in 1876 the United States Court decided that no State could impose a tax on the landing of immigrants,
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this being within the exclusive jurisdiction of the general government. Thereupon the steamship lines and owners of immigrant vessels refused to pay further the commu- tation tax for their passengers. This was a loss of thou- sands of dollars yearly of the income of the society, whilst there was no diminution of the expenses, the applications for charitable assistance rather increased and the mana- gers were not inclined to refuse proper relief out of the treasury of the society. As a matter of course the report of John R. Seemuller, the treasurer elected as successor of Israel Cohen, dec., at the end of the year, 1876, showed a deficit of $1,393.17 and for the first time the invested capital of the society was encroached upon by the sale of some of its Baltimore city stock, etc .; its capital at that time was $75,500. To meet the emergency, the yearly dues of members was raised from three dollars to five dollars, with a loss of twelve members, but the remaining members in 1877 by voluntary contributions over and above the $5 dues, contributed the sum of $548 to meet the deficiency of 1877. At the yearly meeting of January 16th, 1878, Mr. Claas Vocke, a merchant who for years had been a prominent active officer of the society, was elected president, and Ed. Nieman treasurer., On March 26th, 1878, a special meeting passed resolutions on the recent death of the Vice-President Charles W. Lentz, for forty years one of the officers of the society. Mr. Hein- rich F. Wellinghoff on July Ist completed the twenty- fifth year of faithful service as agent of the society and resolutions of congratulation to him were spread on the minute book of the officers. On July 19th a special meet- ing deplored by approbate resolutions of the death of Frederick W. Brune, Esq., for more than forty years a
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member and for the last thirty years one of its faithful reliable counsellors. There were 234 members in 1877 and 221 in 1878, the total expenses for the year 1878 were reduced to $4,351.57 by the more economical work- ing of the medical department, and reducing the salaries of its four physicians from $200 to $100 each, per annum. The invested capital, in covering the deficiency of the income, was further reduced by $500. All efforts to in- crease the membership proved fruitless, more resigned than were admitted, there were but 206 members in 1880; 185 in 1881 ; 178 in 1882 ; 170 in 1883; 194 in 1884; 190 in 1885; 199 in 1886; 218 in 1887; 443 in 1888; 403 in 1889; 391 in 1890. H. F. Wellinghoff, the agent of the society having become by old age too feeble to perform the duties of his office, the board dispensed with his serv- ices and on February 5th, 1883, appointed Julius Conrad his successor at a salary of $600 a year, and Carl Schling- loff was appointed second agent at a salary of $30 a month. In 1885 the society removed its office from No. 147 West Lombard street to No. 78 South Sharp street, and Schlingloff having resigned as agent, G. A. Traut- wein was appointed in his place. The expenses in the salaries of the agents being reduced, the strictest economy enforced; the society could not reduce the wants of the poor and suffering. These were mostly widows with in- fant children having no means of support except by their hard work. The wages for woman's work in those years were starvation wages. Thirty cents for sewing a dozen heavy shirts, 28 cents for a dozen drawers, etc., were the ordinary wages. A widow with small children, who had to do her sewing at home, could with 16 hours daily work, earn but two to three dollars a week, not to speak of sick-
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ness of herself or children. The society therefore con- tinued to make inroads on the capital invested in former prosperous years. In 1881 the deficit was $196.68; in 1882, $586.12 ; in 1883, $1,360.69; in 1884, $1,641.22; in 1885, $1,909.60; in 1886, $1,420; in 1887, $935.54; in 1888, $1,048.20; in 1889, $1,096.49. At this rate, if con- tinued for twenty-five years, the entire capital of the so- ciety would be consumed, and if viewed by the experience of similar societies, the German Society of Maryland would be extinct. Radical changes in the working of the society were adopted and the next year showed a sur- plus of $1,250, and no further deficit occurred thereafter.
At the end of the year 1886, Mr. Claas Vocke declined a re-election, and Louis P. Hennighausen, one of the counsellors of the society since 1884, on January 24th, 1887, was elected president and by re-election (1909) re- tains that office. We have read how the society in its infancy and early years of its existence waged a long and hard fight against the abuses of the redemptioner system, procured good and wholesome laws for the protection of the redemptioners, prosecuted evil-doers and liberated free born white servants who were treated as slaves by their masters. It was in the years of the presidency of Mr. Vocke that the society was again called upon to as- sist and liberate a class of men who were unlawfully kept in quasi slavery, cruelly treated, robbed, and some mur- dered, these were
OYSTER DREDGERS.
Men who had hired on vessels in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay to dredge for oysters in the winter
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season. It was very hard work done on small schooners, called pungies or buckeyes manned by six to ten men, captain, mate and cook. The season is from October to April, a heavy iron dredge is lowered by windlass in the water to the bottom and with a fair breeze moving, the dredge will scrape the bottom of the bay and scoop the oysters, the dredge with the oysters in it, is then by men turning the windlass, raised above and emptied on the deck of the vessel, where the oysters are culled and the marketable thrown in the hold. It was estimated that 20,000 men were in those years engaged in the oyster in- dustry on the waters of the Chesapeake. The bottoms were yet full of oysters, and if the wind was fair and the water free of ice, dredging would often be done day and night, and in a couple of weeks they would have a full load for the market. Hard work, but often very lucra- tive. The inhabitants of the shore counties, usually worked on shares with the owners and captains of the boat and fared well, so did boats from Baltimore, and if on wages no complaints were made known by them.
It was from the vessels belonging to the counties of Maryland and Virginia bordering on the shores of the lower or southern parts of the bay, dredging with hired labor obtained from Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburg, etc., that the reports of terrible suffering, cruel treatment and horrible murders reached Baltimore. The negroes of Baltimore, after the experience of a few seasons on these oyster vessels, refused to hire any more, then there were some cases of shanghieing negroes in the city for these vessels. The publicity by the daily press of these crimes and the activity of our police, soon put an end to it. It was then the home labor market by the knowledge of
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the cruel treatment of the men being closed, that the so- called shipping offices, applied to the large cities of the north for men to hire as oyster dredgers, promising from twelve to fifteen dollars a month wages, good eating, lodging and fair treatment, for reasonable work. There are always in the winter season in large cities, honest men willing and able to work, out of employment and short of means. The shipping agent or runner would be paid two dollars by the captain of the oyster boat for every man he induced to sign an agreement to work as oyster dredger for good wages, etc. The men were not told that the two dollars commission and railroad fare to Bal- timore would be deducted out of their first month's wages, and the kind and character of the work was not explained to them. The men were glad to get work at fair wages. Americans, Irish, Germans, Italians, etc., were taken by rail in droves, under the care of a shipping man from New York to Baltimore, where they arrived usually at night time, and from there on board of a vessel, to be taken to the lower bay and distributed among the oyster dredging boats. They were sedulously kept from intercourse with
any outsider on the trip. They usually commenced to work at 5 o'clock in the morning and until dark in the evening, received the coarsest food, and had to sleep with- out bedding in the small forepeak of the boat. They were a motley crowd of unfortunates, who were thus put to a work whereof they had not the slightest knowledge or experience, among them were by profession : clerks, teachers, students, bookkeepers, mechanics, artists, farm- ers, laborers, etc. Strangers to the land, to the work and to each other. The captains used to the hard life, were
LOUIS P. HENNIGHAUSEN
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at home, fully armed and with the authority of the law, bent upon to get as much out of the men by their hard work as they could. The men during the cruise were not allowed to go on shore, when they had a cargo of oysters it was transferred to a steamboat or larger vessel and taken to Baltimore or Philadelphia. They were held and treated as captives, those of tender physic would soon break down from the exposure and hard work; often the flesh of their hands, being cut and poisoned by the oyster shells became violently inflamed, having the so-called oyster hand, very painful and requiring weeks of medical treatment. If after cruel beating, the men were still shown, unable to work, they were put ashore without pay, on some place many miles from a city, to make their way the best they could in the midst of winter to the distant hospitals of Baltimore which they filled every winter in large numbers. The farmers and captains of the steam- boats were as a rule kind to these poor men and aided them to reach the city. These were the ordinary ills and suffering of these oyster dredgers, but in the course of time when dredging was not always so profitable, and the captains by immunity of their cruelties to the foreign crews had become used to it, awful crimes of the darkest nature became frequent in those waters. The waters of the bay extend about 180 miles to the capes, with thou- sand of miles of shore of inlets and tide water rivers. The shores are sparsely settled and whilst we had an oyster navy to protect the oysters from unlawful depredation, we had no police protection for the unfortunate dredger, defenseless at the mercy of a brutal, fully armed captain, and although it was well known and published by
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the newspapers, that numerous hideous crimes were com- mitted on these waters. It became a habit with a large number of captains, at the end of the season, or when the severity of cold had covered the bay with ice to make dredging impossible, to put their foreign crews, often severely frost bitten, without paying them any of their hard earned wages, on some lonely landing on shore on the lower bay, to make their way in ice and snow to Bal- timore, Washington or Philadelphia. Reports came that captains had shot and killed men, on the slightest resist- ance or threats, although the men had no weapons, and the flimsy excuse for it by the captains, was the fear of mutiny. There was no investigation. On information
to the United States courts the answer was, we have no vessel and no funds at our disposal to go the great dis- tance down the bay to find out and arrest the offender. The city authorities referred the matter to the counties. Some of the worst cases happened in the Virginia waters south of the Potomac River, out of the jurisdiction of Maryland. The greatest impediment was that the wit- nesses had no money and found no employment to remain here, to await the arrest and the trial of the offender. Being strangers here they were anxious to get to their homes and among their friends. In December, 1884, the horrible murder of a young German recently immigrated from Germany, became known to the German Society, and was the beginning of its struggle and efforts for many years, to protect the oyster dredgers from the bar- barous treatment on the boats in the Chesapeake Bay. It was one of many similar cases and we relate it in full as disclosed by the sworn testimony in the case :
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OTTO MAYHER,
who was about 20 years of age, was a hale, hearty looking fellow, with rosy cheeks and a bright, healthy appearance. He was the son of a surveyor of Stuttgart, well educated and of good manners. Among his effects were hand- somely engraved visiting cards and good clothes. Not finding for some time after his arrival here any employ- ment or work, on the 22nd of October, 1884, he, together with Fritz Boye and Ferdinand Haase, two young Ger- mans, who had arrived in this country within a year in Baltimore, shipped with Captain Williams of the pungy "Eva" as dredgers for a two months' cruise. The agree- ments were signed in a shipping office run by a German. Neither of them could speak English or were aware of the hardships they would be compelled to undergo. All went well for a time. They worked hard and were fairly treated. There were aboard with them aside of Captain Williams, William Lankford and a man named Rufus, of Somerset county. About a week before his death May- her complained of feeling unwell. He told his comrades that he had severe pains in his side and was not able to work. His indisposition was attributed by them to ex- posure and with a few days' rest they thought he would have recovered. The captain, however, refused to let him off. He was ordered to his work as usual and when he finally broke down and declined, he was knocked down and brutally beaten. From that day Mayher was sub- jected to the most horrible treatment. Among other pun- ishments was that of being hit with a marlin spike and knocked down. He was then kicked until he fainted; again he was beaten with a rope and until he fairly yelled
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with pain. To stop his cries the captain planted his heel on the victim's throat and stifled him into unconscious- ness. At another time a rope was fastened around him about his arm pits and he was hoisted up by the halyards, stripped of his lower garments and drenched about the lower limbs with icy cold water. On the day before his death he was taken down in the hold and strung up by his thumbs, the body being suspended seven feet above the flooring. While in this position he was swung to and fro in order to increase his torture. These are only samples of the horrible treatment he suffered. He be- came so weak that he was scarcely able to walk. The vessel had then reached Lower Fairmount, where the work of unloading was begun. Mayher was down in the
hold when ordered up. Unable to speak English, he by signs intimated his inability to work. This infuriated the captain, who sprang upon his defenseless victim, pounded him unmercifully with a bar. Finally he brought it down with crushing effect across the poor fellow's loins. In his agony he writhed on the ground and shrieked for mercy as best he could. To prevent his cries being heard the captain then placed his boot heel on the prostrated man's throat and kept it there until unconsciousness prevented further outcry. The work of unloading was continued, and at nightfall, when all was quiet, the captain ordered Boye and Haase to bring their comrade on deck. They obeyed the order, and more dead than alive, Mayher was brought from below. When they had deposited their burden on deck they were ordered below, there to remain until called. They went below and the hatches were closed on them. Hearing the clanking of chains, patter- ing on deck, moving of the anchor and the dashing of the
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