USA > Maryland > History of the German Society of Maryland > Part 9
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yawl boat against the side of the vessel, they feared the worst. Suddenly the hurrying noise on deck ceased and all was still as death. As soon as they considered it safe, the two men ascended and cautiously lifted the covering of the hatch as far as they were able. They saw a lantern moving on shore and the lifeless body of Mayher stretched on the ground. Mayher had been taken ashore by the captain to get rid of him. He staggered from weakness and either fell or was knocked down face fore- most and the captain placing his foot on the neck of the prostrate man, stamping on it, broke the victim's neck. Williams informed the coroner of the county next morn- ing, November 29, that the body of a German named Otto Mayher had been found on the shore of the Manokin river, in Lower Fairmount. Life was extinct. A jury of inquest was summoned. Captain Williams was one of the jurors and the principal witness. He testified that Mayher on the day before had fallen in the hold of the vessel and seriously injured himself; that during the night he must have walked to the shore where he was found. Rufus and Lankford corroborated him and Boye and Haase were not called from the vessel to testify as witnesses. And the jury found that Mayher had died from natural causes. The body of Mayher was buried in a trench of about two feet depth on the shore, and the incident was soon forgotten like the graves of so many poor foreign oyster dredgers, who lost their lives on the waters of the Chesapeake. Captain Williams before morning had moved his vessel with Boye and Haase on it out into the stream and prevented any one from coming on board. Immediately after the inquest he sailed away. During the four weeks that followed he treated the two
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Germans much better, but would not allow them to have any intercourse with any one outside of the boat. When discharging a cargo, they were always directed below and were carefully watched.
They were afraid of their lives and abided the time when they would be discharged to inform the proper . authorities of this most foul and dreadful murder. They were discharged at Crisfield and reached Baltimore about the 24th of December and informed the German Consul of the crime. The consul, by his attorney, L. P. Hennig- hausen, Esq., brought the matter to the notice of the police authorities of Baltimore, who at once took action with the State's attorney of Somerset county. Captain Williams was arrested and indicted for murder in the first degree. The body of Mayher was exhumed and a decent burial given.
President Claas Vocke, on hearing of the murder, di- rected F. W. Brune, the junior counsel of the society, to communicate with the State's attorney of Somerset county for further information and, on January 5, 1885, read his answer to the meeting of the board and made arrange- ment for the boarding and lodging of the two witnesses, Haas and Boye, who were without means or employment, to keep them here until the trial of Captain Williams, which was expected to take place in April next. On motion of Mr. H. G. Hilken a committee, consisting of Messrs. C. Vocke, Christian Ax, Eb. Niemann and the counsellors, William F. Frick and F. W. Brune, were appointed with authority to use the funds of the society in order that justice be done in the Mayher murder case. On motion of Christian Ax it was resolved that a detective be em- ployed by the president and counsellors to aid in the
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investigation of the case. The counsellor, F. W. Brune, of the society was present and rendered valuable assist- ance to the State in the trial of Captain Williams. Julius Conrad, the agent, conducted the two witnesses, Boye and Haase, to Somerset county and remained with them dur- ing the trial. Captain Williams was convicted of murder in the second degree and sentenced to 18 years in the penitentiary. The conviction and sentence was confirmed by the Court of Appeals of Maryland on the appeal of Williams, reported in 64 Md. Reports, p. 383 to 395.
At the meeting of the board, held July 6, 1885, the board by resolutions deeply deplored the loss by death of two valuable members, Mr. J. H. Hausenwald and Ferdi- nand Hassencamp. At a meeting of January 4, 1886, on motion of Mr. Christian Ax, the counsellors were re- quested to inform the society what laws from congress or legislature were necessary for the protection of the crew on board of oyster vessels, and at the yearly meeting of January 25, 1886, Counsellor Louis P. Hennighausen made a full report of a body of laws for the better protec- tion of the crews on board of the oyster vessels, of which Counsellor F. W. Brune declared himself in accord. At the suggestion of Mr. F. W. Brune and on motion of Mr. Chr. Ax a committee of seven, consisting of Claas Vocke, F. William Brune, L. P. Hennighausen, Chr. Ax, Wm. Numsen, H. von Kapff and Victor Buschmann, were ap- pointed to appear before the legislature, then in session at Annapolis, to urge the adoption of such laws. The com- mittee visited Annapolis and appealed to the legislature, but the legislature adjourned without acting upon the matter; the influence of the lower counties and oyster industries being against it for reason of the costs, etc., of
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the registration of crews being required by the law. The society, however, was determined to renew the agitation and persist until success was achieved. At the next legis- lature, in January, 1888, a committee of 25 instead of 7 from the German Society of Maryland was appointed to go before the legislature in Annapolis and demand the passage of laws to protect the oyster dredgers. F. W. Brune, Heinrich C. Tieck and Oscar Wolff, attorneys at law, were appointed a special committee to draft suitable laws to be submitted and accompany the committee. The members of the committee were: Claas Vocke, H. vou Kapff, George A. Von Lingen, Frederick Wehr, Eb. Nie- mann, William Middendorf, Ernst Schmeisser, H. G. Hilken, Louis Dohme, John Hinrichs, V. H. Buschmann, Henry Lauts, H. A. Schultz, Capt. Henry Steffens, H. Knefely, Chas. Bein, F. Ellenbrock, Joseph Friedenwald, Charles Hilgenberg, P. L. Keyser, Fr. Oelmann and L. P. Hennighausen. Other prominent citizens, members of the society, joined the committee on its trip to Annapolis, and it was an imposing demonstration before the legis- lature in behalf of the poor oyster dredgers for their better protection. Addresses were made by Messrs. Brune, Tieck, Wolff and Hennighausen. The laws, substantially as recommended by the society, were passed by the legis- lature and signed by the governor, to go into effect in the year 1890, January I. The principal provisions of the law were: A registry kept by commissioners at the ship- ping ports of the crews of every oyster dredging boat, contracts in writing before the commissioners and record thereof of the period of time, wages, return to port, etc., and the captain to account for every man not returned ; and adequate punishment for violators of the law.
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On February 15, 1887, Jacob Rudolph, one of the managers of the society for the preceding twenty-two years, departed this life, and at a special meeting of the board resolutions deploring his loss were passed.
Soon thereafter, on March 21, 1887, another special meeting was called by the president.
Christian Ax, vice-president of the society since 1869 and for many years an active member and liberal con- tributor to charity, had departed this life. Resolutions deploring his loss not only for the society, but that the German inhabitants of the city had lost in him one of their best and truest citizens, were passed.
In the winter of 1886-87, on the report of cruel treat- ment of a German oyster dredger in the lower bay, the society at an expense of $66.25 sent a tug boat with United States marshal on board to have the offending captain arrested. The captain hearing of this escaped, but was later arrested on land and punished. In April, 1887, the society received from one H. W. Schmidt, of Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, $73 to reimburse it for the assistance rendered for a number of years to a poor widow of the name of Weber. The income of the society not being sufficient to meet the demands and costs espe- cially increased by the efforts to protect and relieve the oyster dredgers, some of its members made strenuous efforts to increase the paying membership by soliciting citizens to join the society, and at the meeting of April 2. 1888, Mr. Ernst Schmeisser proposed 60, Mr. A. C. Meyer, 60; Mr. Charles Weber, Jr., 33; Mr. Robert M. Rother, 10; Mr. John Hinrichs, 7, and Messrs. Meeth and Conrad, 4, a total of 174 new members. This in- creased the list of members from 218 in 1887 to 443 in
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1888, the largest membership the society ever had. In 1889 it decreased to 400; in 1890 to 389; in 1891 to 373; in 1895 to 348; in 1900 to 252 members. It then slowly increased again, and since 1904 has averaged from 300 to 325 members yearly.
It being the opinion of some that the Germania Club rooms were not a popular meeting place for the society and the cause of its limited membership, on the motion of Ernst Schmeisser it was resolved to meet thereafter at some other place. The meetings were next from July 16, 1888, to April 14, 1890, held at the Germania Maenner- chor Building, on Lombard street. These were found less suitable and on April 14, 1890, and July 14 the meet- ings were in the German Orphan Asylum, on Aisquith street. The locality being inconvenient, the society on January 12, 1891, and thereafter until April, 1893, met at Raine's Hall, in Baltimore street, corner of Postoffice avenue. All these places were at the disposal of the society free of rent, with no expense for heating, lighting or cleaning. The smaller attendance at those meetings showed that the old home in the rooms of the Germania Club was after all the best meeting place for the society, and on application, the club was generous to receive the society again on April 10, 1893, on the same old liberal terms, free of rent and expense.
The United States Government having assumed full control of the landing of the emigrants by immigrant commissions, and the railroad transporting the emigrants to the west from their landing pier here, the former activ- ity of the society in advising, aiding, protecting and tak- ing care of these emigrants became superfluous, and it confined itself more to assist the needy Germans and
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descendants of Germans living in our midst, and amony those especially, to widows with infant children having no income or support. As a measure of economy the as- sistant agent was in March, 1889, discharged. The agent was relieved from the duty of attending the landing of emigrants, he, to remain at his office from 9 A. M. to ; P. M. to attend to employment seekers, pay orders of the managers given to the needy, keep books, etc., and after : P. M. to visit at regular intervals those who received regular monthly allowance, to inspect and report their condition, and carefully to investigate every new appli- cant for assistance and make full reports to the officer of the board for action, and to enter the reports in a book kept for inspection.
Mr. Eberhard Niemann, the faithful treasurer, being about to retire from business and spend his declining years in Germany, resigned his office, and Charles Weber, Jr., on July 31, 1889, was elected treasurer, which office he held until his death June 30, 1908.
To prevent further inroads upon the invested capital of the society by yearly deficits and thereby its ultimate ex- tinction, Col. Fredk. Raine in the annual meeting of Jan- uary 27, 1890, moved: "That henceforth the capital shall be kept intact," which was unanimously adopted. The large number of medicinal prescriptions which had been compounded at the cost of the society and the salaries of the physicians amounted to about $1,000 a year. There had been opened in different parts of the city free dis- pensaries of medicine, which were liberally supported by the city out of certain fines imposed and collected by the city authorities. Johns Hopkins Hospital and other hos- pitals gave free medical and surgical treatment to the
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poor. There being thus ample provisions for sick in- digent poor persons, the society on October 4, 1889, dis- continued the practice of furnishing medicinal prepara- tions free of charge. The salaries of the physicians was reduced to $200 a year, and in 1894 only one physician was appointed without any fixed salary, he to be paid for whatever professional services he might render upon request of the officers. By these economic measures the society was enabled to support more liberally poor widows with infant children. Every member of the board hav- ing the right to issue an order on a printed form, directing the agent to pay to the person described therein as being in need and worthy of assistance a sum not exceeding five dollars, it was found that some of the managers were more generous and liberal with the society's money than the finances allowed. Others would give without taking the trouble of a personal investigation of the condition of the applicant. A committee consisting of L. P. Hennig- hausen, R. M. Rother, Charles Weber, Jr., and A. C. Meyer was appointed to make such changes and sugges- tions as would prevent further deficits, made a rigid investigation and discovered a number of unworthy per- sons who received assistance from the society through orders issued by careless managers. It was thereupon ordered that no order issued by a manager should be paid unless the agent of the society had first investigated the condition of the applicant and made a report thereof to an executive committee of three members to be annually appointed by the president, and only after the executive committee had approved the order shall the treasurer by the agent pay the same. At the meeting of the board of January 27 and February 10, 1890, the recommendations
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of the committee were adopted and the president ap- pointed R. M. Rother the secretary, Charles Weber, Jr., the treasurer, and A. C. Meyer the executive committee. This new order of working has proved satisfactory and been continued. On March 17, 1890, on recommenda- tions of the executive committee, thirty-one pensioners of the society, found unworthy, were dropped of further assistance. On April 17 Mr. Charles Weber announced the death of Julius Conrad, the agent, and Frederick Schad was elected his successor.
In January, 1889, on motion of Mr. Rother, a new edition of the constitution of 1868, with the changes and amendments since adopted, was ordered to be printed. The secretary sent communications again to our sister societies of New York and Philadelphia, requesting them to make known to German emigrants by circulars and otherwise of the character and danger in hiring as oyster dredgers in our bay. The officers of the society also induced the Hon. A. S. Hewitt, the mayor of New York, to summon the shipping agents licensed by the city before him, and admonish them that he would revoke their license if they continued shipping men as oyster dredgers tc the lower bay. However, the trade was too lucrative and the lower bay so distant as to be practically out of reach of the law ; so the trade in hiring these ignorant men continued. In the beginning of the season of 1889-90 à case of great cruelty was reported. At the request of the board our attorney, Heinrich C. Tieck, Esq., with a United States Marshal and a warrant for the arrest of the captain, Lynn Rea, and mate, John Ucey, of the oyster boat "Ella Agnes," went down the bay and arrested them on the water, brought them to Baltimore, where they
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were in the United States District Court tried, convicted and punished. The captain was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and to pay a fine of $100; the mate, Ucey, to three months in prison. The crew, Eugene Jungling, George Ricks, Wilhelm Hoffman, Joseph Scherf and John Junker, were kept as witnesses, and after the trial or: March 10, 1890, they reimbursed out of their witness fees the German Society in the sum of $35, expenses in- curred on their behalf. The attorney generously refuse.1 any compensation for his arduous work; and it is to be noted that no attorney of the society ever charged or would accept any compensation for the many and great services they rendered to the society in its noble work of humanity in protecting the innocent oppressed poor and unfortunate. The crew in a pathetic letter expressed their deep-felt gratitude to the society for their liberation out of slavery and cruel treatment. The punishment of Capt. Rea and Mate Ucey made some impression on the captains and for some years no cruelties were reported. The discharging and landing of men on distant desolate shores, without paying them their wages, however, con- tinued. In December, 1889, a German recently arrived, who could not understand a word of English, was after d month's work as oyster dredger, without a cent of his wages paid, put on shore in Dorchester county. Being a total stranger, unable to make himself understood, afraid of violence, he slept in the woods. He was arrested and committed for three months to the work-house. The society being informed of it, by habeas corpus proceed- ings in the Baltimore City Court on the 22nd day of December, 1889, procured his freedom. He at once found employment at his trade as a mechanic. He had a
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trunk filled with his clothes, tools, etc .. stored at a board- ing-house in Baltimore and proved to be an industrious, honest man.
At the session of the legislature of 1890 the shipping agents, oyster captains and their friends made strenuous efforts to have the law, which was passed by the legisla- ture of 1888 for the protection of oyster dredgers, re- pealed. The officers of the society succored by the active aid of the Maryland Prisoners' Aid Society, the Hiber- nian, St. Andrew and St. George Societies of Baltimore, opposed the repeal and succeeded. Commissioners under the law were appointed and confirmed by the senate. In June, 1890, a petition for the pardon of Captain Williams, the murderer of Otto Mayher was filed with the Governor of the State. He had served only five years of his term of 18 years for his awful crime. A large delegation of the society together with delegates from the charity so- cieties aforenamed went before the governor and pro- tested against granting the pardon and it was not granted. In the years 1890 and 1891 there were few complaints. It was in February, 1892, that a colored man informed President Hennighausen that three men, presumably Ger- mans, were in the lower bay on the oyster schooner "Bertha May," Captain Mills, unlawfully detained be- yond the time they hired for and badly treated. The president lodged complaint in the name of the society be- fore Governor Brown of the State, who sent an oyster police boat, had the captain arrested on his schooner in Honga River, brought before Justice Hart, who fined him $50 and costs, and set the men free. In December, 1892, the president being informed by an escaped captive
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named Witzigman, that a number of Germans were held captives on several dredge vessels, he induced Governor Brown to send one of the State police steamers to their rescue and Col. Heinrich C. Tieck, as attorney of the German Society of Maryland, with Captain Edward Bid- dleman, United States deputy marshal, on December 26th, 1892, left Baltimore on the State police steamer "Gov- ernor McLane," for the lower bay. The intrepid brave Colonel Tieck was armed with nine writs of habeas corpus and thirteen warrants issued out of the United States District Court at the instance of the society, for the arrest of the violators of the law. It had been reported that one of the oyster captains on October 13th, 1892, came to New York and by fair promises of light work, good treatment, board, lodging and $14 a month wages, hired thirty-two recently arrived emigrants as oyster dredgers on the lower bay, without having them registered by a commissioner as required by law. Fourteen of these men were Germans and among these, four youths who had landed in New York on the 13th and on the 14th of October were in Baltimore on board of an oyster vessel, the rest were of various nationalities. They were hired for the season ending April 1, 1893, with the understand- ing, that if they did not like the work they could leave on November Ist, 1892. On November Ist they all wanted to leave, but were kept prisoners on board the several vessels. Severe winter weather had set in. The bay was full of ice and the rivers frozen over. On December 29th, the president received the following telegram from Colonel Tieck-Chrisfield, Md., December 29th, 1892 : "Met the enemy. He is ours; rescued fifteen men and made four arrests." On the following day nineteen oys-
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ter dredgers freed by Colonel Tieck and sent at the ex- pense of the society to Baltimore, came to the office of the president. Their appearance indicated that they had endured great hardship and privations. The hands of the men presented a horrible sight, hardly one out of the entire number being without a rude bandage, which covered cuts and bruises.
They brought the following report in writing from Colonel Tieck to the president, dated "Steamer Geo. R. McLane, December 29, 1892, near Ragged Point, Poto- mac River :
Dear Mr. Hennighausen :- We arrested four men and freed twelve men, who will go per steamer from Crisfield, if that port is not closed by ice, or go to Drum Point on the Patuxent river if we can land there. We have had a hard time at Leonardtown, St. Mary's county, where we met a whole fleet of oyster vessels. There we arrested the cap- tain, we were especially in search for, and placed him in the Leonardtown jail to await the action of the U. S. Dis- trict Court. We seized the schooner "Partnership" whereof the father of the prisoner was in command. I boarded the vessel and was told by the crew that one of their number, a youth of 20 years, named Kleber, of Frankfurt a. M., had been hit by the captain on his hand with a hammer that the blood squirted from it, and so seriously injured that in the following night he jumped overboard and was lost. I am convinced that he lies dead on the bottom of the Po- tomac; as no human being could live in the icy cold water for five minutes. This captain was arrested by Capt. Tur- ner of the Str. "Govn. McLane" for violating the State Oyster Laws, found guilty by a Justice of the Peace in
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Leonardtown and fined $50 and costs. We freed six men of his crew and sent them aboard the "McLane." This case cost the Captain $200 and he had to leave one of his boats as security in possession of his attorney at Leonard- town for the payment of costs and fees otherwise he would have gone to jail to keep company with his son. However, I am not done with him and shall continue his case before the U. S. Commissioner Bond. He sailed with his mate and cook and the mate of the boat of his son for Baltimore. The mates and cook are colored. They were arrested with the captain here but could not be held under the State laws. I shall therefore obtain warrants for their arrest from the U. S. Commissioner. I have directed the witnesses (the crews of both vessels) to your office; it is advisable to take them before a U. S. Commissioner to obtain warrants for the arrest of mate Walter Sykes, colored, of the bugeye "M. E. Dennis" No. 155, Capt. Stewart H. Evans; also for the mate, Joseph Sanders, mulatto, of the "Lucy Gallagher" No. 154; for Andrew Cooper, colored, mate of the same vessel, all of them now on board of the "M. E. Dennis", Capt. Stewart H. Evans, sailing for Baltimore. It is best that they should be arrested as soon as they arrive in the harbor, for after they have landed, these three devils in human form may escape. The witnesses against Capt. Ed- ward Evans, of the "Lucy Gallagher" No. 154, are Otto Casar, Josef Korzulla, Emil Bahn (principal witnesses), Nicolas Margne, Adam Sorkal, Jean Blue and Frank Casper. These are also witnesses against the colored mates, Josef Sanders and Andrew Cooper. The witnesses against the colored mate, Walker Sykes, of the bugeye "M. E. Dennis", are Charles Lenz, Oscar Rief, Chas. Muffer, John Varge, Emil Kochler, Ignaz Krandanz and Paul Poucani.
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See to it that the Commissioner will hold the witnesses for the negroes may not arrive in Baltimore for a day or two. We are now looking for the schooner "Viola" No. 505, and are at the mouth of the Potomac. It is very cold and many vessels are frozen in. This morning our steamer was sur- rounded by ice and is now rocking heavily.
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