Four years after the death of the mother, they came to America. Grandfather was a stone mason. A few years before they came, he started a brickyard. The clay had to be trampled with their feet. Philip and Frederick did not take to the work, preferring to farm instead. Grandfather wanted to come to America while his wife, Catherine, still lived, but she would not consent to go while her old mother lived, but before she died, she said they should go as he had wanted to do. After the death of her old mother they made plans to come.
Letters from those who went to America contained accounts that filled their hearts with hope for better opportunities, and an escape from militarism.
German laws differ from ours. All that a woman brings with her when she married is kept separate as her own. In case of death it is given to the children, so Grandfather had no right to his wife’s estate. He talked it over with the Justice of the Peace, and he trying to be helpful to the family, said that Gabriel might go security for the money and so the property was sold and they made plans for the journey
The journey began in April of 1851. They left in a wagon at night from Shornsheim to Mainz, a city nine miles distant. Their clothes and food were about all they took along. From Mainz they went by steam boat down the Rhine River to Rotterdam, where they had to wait ten days for the ship (a sail boat) Hector, a Holland merchant ship, which was not quite completed. Steam ships were not so common then and passage on them was higher. The Hector was bound for India to buy spices, sugar and coffee. It took 14 months for the complete trip to India and back. They could take passengers along to New York. In those days each family had to take enough provisions for the voyage. The company furnished the fuel and stove for cooking.
About May 7, 1851, they started. They had two storms. Grandfather was quite sick on the water, not sea sick, but worried. The rest got through with very little sickness. They bought their own provisions at Rotterdam. Each individual had to have a certain apportionment. They had zwieback, (kind of bread) beans, bacon, eggs and sauerkraut. Some would take some food from home. Each family did its own cooking. Being a merchant ship, cooking arrangements were only for the crew, so the stove was used most of the day, and some got up at two a.m. to get a chance at the stove. The apartments were quite nice for the passengers, and being just a new ship, everything was clean.
Little Catherine was quite a favorite with the passengers and the crew. Her friendly disposition made friends with everyone. She would go to the cook and say, “Ich habe hunger” and the cook would give her a piece of pancake or something handy.
They were 57 days on the ship, and provisions were beginning to run low when they arrived in New York.
On July 3, they were examined by a doctor. They could not unload for two days. Small boats went back and forth from the ship to land. Grandfather got a fine mess of beef at six cents a pound, which tasted very good after the ship’s food.
They stayed in New York about six hours, and then they went up the Hudson River to Albany. There a baggage man tried to make them pay for overweight baggage. When the folks objected, he was going to pull away one of the trunks. Frederick got hold of the other handle and pulled the other way. Then another immigrant got after the baggage man with a knife, then he let go. This baggage man was of German background, too. He didn’t have much sympathy for his fellow countrymen. Immigrants often had suffered from this kind of treatment from this class of men.
From Albany they took a train to Buffalo. From Buffalo they went by rail to Chicago. They stayed over night with an innkeeper that they had known in Germany. He pictured the future hopeful and tried to persuade Grandfather to locate in Chicago. But their goal was Wisconsin, where other countrymen and some of their old neighbors had found homes. Among them were Soller, Dexheumer, and Held.
From Chicago they went to Milwaukee, which was a several hours ride on a steamship. They arrived at Milwaukee and were met by a boy named Berngesser. He took them with him to lodge at his house. Grandfather knew the boy’s father in Germany.
While they were there, he gave Grandfather and Uncle Philip directions to the home of Mr. Held, twelve miles distant. This man was here nine years and paid $1.25 per acre for his land. Held returned with them with a team and wagon.
Horses were scarce, and most of the farming was done with oxen. Soon they bought forty acres of land about one half mile from the Held’s. The man from whom they bought the land owned eighty acres just across the road. Since they had a renter on the forty, the folks could not move in, so he let them live in his tool shop until the renter moved out. He bought most of the renter’s crop.
This place had a good barn and a fair house. The folks lived on this forty for four years.
During their stay there, Lizzie married Abraham Stauffer. They first lived two and 3 half miles from Grandfather, near Menomanee Falls. After living there a while, they moved to Menasha, 90 miles away. They lived there a few years, and in time he lost everything he had.
Grandfather and Philip worked at their trade as stonemasons.