Category Archives: 19th century history

Early, surprising uses of oil

Posted on May 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

In The Titans by Ron Chernow, I came across the following:

Oil was put to myriad uses during the Civil War, treating the wounds of Union soldiers and serving as a substitute for turpentine formerly supplied by the South. Even on the battlefield, the use of kerosene refined from crude oil spread, and Ulysses S. Grant often sat in his tent, drafting dispatches by the flicker of a kerosene lamp.

Wait, wait, back up. Did it really say “treating the wounds of Union soldiers”?! I assumed it must have been so, but had no proof until I stumbled across The Foxfire Book, the first volume in a series containing “a wealth of the kind of folk wisdom and values of simple living” from times of yore. In addition to tips on hog dressing and moonshining, the book offers a chapter on “Home Remedies,” where I found the following:

BLEEDING
-Place a spider web across the wound.
-Apply a poultice of spirit turpentine and brown sugar to the wound.
-Apply lamp black directly to the wound.
-Use a mixture of soot from the chimney and lard.
-If the cut is small, wet a cigarette paper and place this over it.
-Use kerosene oil, but be careful not to add too much or it will blister the skin.
-Use pine resin.

There are a variety of such “recipes” under each of the subject headings below, but from here on out I will only share the oil-based recommendations.

CHEST CONGESTION
-Make a poultice of kerosene, turpentine, and pure lard (the latter prevents blistering). Use wool cloth soaked with the mixture. Place cheescloth on chest for protection, and then add the wool poultice.

IRRITATION CAUSED BY INSECTS
BEE STINGS – Place either turpentine, chewed tobacco, tobacco juice, kerosene, or a mixture of sugar and dough on the sting. Any of these will relieve the pain and draw out the poison.
BUGS–For head lice (cooties), shingle hair close and use kerosene.

INFLAMMATION
-To kill infection, pour some turpentine or kerosene mixed with sugar on the affected area.

NAIL PUNCTURE
-Put some old wool rags into an old tin can, pour kerosene over the rags and light. Then smoke the wound.
-Pour kerosene oil over the cut, or soak it in same three times a day. This will also remove the soreness.

SORE THROAT
-Make a poultice of kerosene, turpentine, and pure lard (to prevent blistering), and place this on your neck. In five minutes you will be able to taste the kerosene in your throat, and the cure will have begun. Then take two or three drops of kerosene oil in a spoon with a pinch of sugar and swallow this to complete the treatment.
-Put a drop of kerosene on a lump of sugar and eat it.

In an opening paragraph of “Home Remedies,” the authors write: “Some of the remedies undoubtedly worked; some of them probably were useless; some of them–and for this reason we advise you to experiment with extreme care–were perhaps even fatal.” With such a caveat, I include this advice on curing spider bites: “If bittem by a black widow spider, drink liquor heavily from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. You won’t get drunk, you’ll be healed.”

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The early days of oil

Posted on April 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

In researching about my blacksmith great-great-grandfather, I’ve often turned to a book called Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow.

John D. Rockefeller (born 1839) was a contemporary of Michael Harm (born 1841), and both men migrated in the mid-19th century to Cleveland to build their fortunes (Rockefeller’s fortune was more substantial and enduring, but still).

Photo courtesy of Cleveland Public Library

Rockefeller set up his first oil refineries, the Excelsior Works, Chernow writes, “on the red-clay banks of a narrow waterway called Kingsbury Run.” In this tidbit, I find two startling coincidences. One, Michael Harm spent his three-year apprenticeship in Cleveland at a wagon shop situated quite near Kingsbury Run. And two, before the refineries cropped up in Kingsbury Run, another ancestor, my great-great-grandfather H.F. Hoppensack, operated his brickworks there. In the obituary of Henry F. Hoppensack, it states: “From 1848- 1851, Mr. Hoppensack manufactured brick on Broadway Hill where the Standard Oil Co. is now located.”

Here’s another coincidence–Harm & Schuster made business wagons for the Chandler & Rudd grocery. In Chernow’s account of Rockefeller’s life, he states: “[Rockefeller's] younger sister, Mary Ann, married a genial man named William Rudd, the president of Chandler and Rudd, a Cleveland grocery concern.”

Although John D. Rockefeller and Michael Harm were about the same age and lived and worked in Cleveland during the same era, I doubt they knew one another on a first-name basis. The English, German and Irish enclaves in Cleveland in the mid-19th century did not fraternize so often. Nonetheless, it’s a six-degrees-of-separation kind of thing. In The Titans, Chernow describes those early days of oil that I am certain had a profound impact on my great-great-grandfather, and all Clevelanders, as well.

“At the time [just following the Civil War], refiners were tormented by fears that the vapors might catch fire, sparking an uncontrollable conflagration. … Mark Hanna, who later managed President McKinley’s campaign, recalled how one morning in 1867 he woke up and discovered that his Cleveland refinery had burned to the ground, wiping out his investment …’I was always ready, night and day, for a fire alarm from the direction of our works,’ said Rockefeller. ‘Then proceeded a dark cloud of smoke from the area, and then we dashed madly to the scene of the action. So we kept ourselves like the firemen, with their horses and hose carts always ready for immediate action.’

“… In those years, oil tanks weren’t hemmed in earthen banks as they later were, so if a fire started it quickly engulfed all neighboring tanks in a flaming inferno. Before the automobile, nobody knew what to do with the light fraction of crude oil known as gasoline, and many refiners, under cover of dark, let this waste product run into the river. ‘We used to burn it for fuel in distilling the oil,’ said Rockefeller, ‘and thousands and hundreds of thousands of barrels of it floated down the creeks and rivers, and the ground was saturated with it, in the constant effort to get rid of it.’ The noxious runoff made the Cuyahoga River so flammable that if steamboat captains shoveled glowing coals overboard, the water erupted in flames.”

Randy Newman’s “Burn On” may have been about the Cuyahoga River fire in 1969, but apparently, that river had already burned one hundred years ago.

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Games making history

Posted on April 22, 2012 | 2 Comments

Yesterday, Phil Humber of the Chicago White Sox pitched the 21st perfect game in baseball history. Yes, it was here in Seattle against the Mariners, and no, I wasn’t at the game to see it happen.

In a weird synchronicity, though, this week I happened to be editing a scene in Harm’s Way where the characters are enjoying some outdoor recreation. The year is 1862. What sort of game would they have been playing? Baseball?

Often, I’ve looked for answers about the past by logging into the King County Library web site to visit their 19th Century U.S. Newspapers database. First, I searched “baseball” in 19th century Ohio newspapers between 1857 and 1865. Guess what happened? “Your search found no results. Try again.” But I knew it had to be there. I have visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, so I knew the pastime, if not the official game, extended back to the 18th century. What did they call it back then? In a moment of inspiration, I tried separating it into two words: “base ball.” That did the trick.

From The Daily Cleveland Leader, May 4, 1858
Base Ball.
        Never within the memory of that venerable old fogy, “the oldest inhabitant,” has the “base ball” epidemic raged so fircely [sic] as at present. Fields, open lots, streets, alleys, and yards, everywhere can be found a troop of boys and men with a ball and a couple of bats, working at play as earnestly as if it were the greatest business of the day. All ages and all classes have caught the infection. The toddling, unbreeched youngster crows as he hits the tiny ball with the little wand; the school boys make the streets echo with their uproar as they dispute about a “tip” or a “first bound;” out in the fields the portly men grunt as they run past the bound, and grey-bearded Nestors plant themselves firmly to await the swift coming ball. The ragged and shoeless urchin enters with heart and soul into the game he is playing on the street; the staid merchant, the cautious banker, and the millionaire are just as excited and eager over the same game a little out of town.
        Hurrah for base ball! There is no game superior to it in strengthening the muscles, expanding the chest, invigorating the frame, and enlivening the spirits. It is a thoroughly republican game. The possession of wealth or social station does not make a man hit the ball better nor run his rounds faster, nor will the mechanic who bowls shrink from hurling a swift shot after the running millionaire. Cricket is a very good game, but there is too much looking on in it. The good “bat” has all the time to himself, and the green hand loses his first chance, and has to sit on the grass for the remainder of the day. “Keep the pot boiling” is the only way for health and fun, and this “base ball” does.

From The Daily Cleveland Herald, September 20, 1865
Base Ball.–The Forest City Base Ball Club, recently organized in this city, meet twice a week on its grounds on Kinsman street for practice, and the general develpment of muscle in its members. An exciting game was played yesterday afternoon. It is rumored that match will be arranged before many days between this club and another located in a neighboring town.

In the above articles, I notice a few variances in terminology — click here for a chronology of 19th century rules of the game. But what grabs me too is a sense of nostalgia. As a child, I remember faculty picnics and family gatherings where an impromptu baseball game was the centerpiece.

Times change. The closest “all ages” romp I can think of in recent years was in 2008, the year my son graduated from high school. That spring, the high school teachers teamed up against the seniors in a pot-boiling match of Ultimate Frisbee. History in the making.

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Tom Thumb

Posted on April 16, 2012 | 5 Comments

On my recent visit to the (now-closed) Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art, a doll replica of Tom Thumb was on display.

Oh right, you’re thinking, Tom Thumb, of the English fairy tale. The little guy who, among other mishaps, gets cooked in pudding and swallowed by a giant, right? Wrong.

While fairy tales endure, living breathing persons often pass out of the public awareness. One legendary personage of the mid-19th century was General Tom Thumb. Born in 1838, Charles Sherwood Stratton’s growth slowed considerably after the first six months of his life. P.T. Barnum, Stratton’s distant relative, took him under his wing and made a sensation of him in Europe. Stratton adopted the stage name of General Tom Thumb, and became a very wealthy young man. He first appears in the Cleveland newspapers in 1857.

“The Lord Mayor of London has prohibited Tom Thumb’s carriage from parading the city.” –2/25/1857, The Cleveland Daily Herald

“We understand that Gen. Tom Thumb is dangerously ill, and not expected to recover. He is, we believe, in France.” — 12/11/1857

“General Tom Thumb held a levee [reception] at the Museum, in New York, on Friday last. … He is now but little larger than a three years old child. He wears a cap surmounted by a crown not unlike those worn by the officers of the British steamers. He is quite communicative–is twenty-one years old–lives in fine style in Bridgeport, and keeps his fast team like any gentleman of the town or ton, though he seldom drives out without company.” — The Scioto Gazette, Chillicothe, OH, 3/20/1860

“Gen. Tom Thumb INJURED. –This notable personage met with a severe accident in St. Catharines, Canada, last Monday. A letter published in the Toronto Leader says:
An accident, which might have been attended with very serious, if not fatal effects, occurred this morning to no less a personage than Gen. Tom Thumb. He and his suite left the Welland House in high spirits, in a conveyance drawn by two spirited horses; they had just turned into the principal street, when the axle broke, which started the horses. The near fore wheel came off, precipitating the whole of the party into the mud, which, in consequence of the late heavy rains, was very deep. The General alighted on his back, striking his head and taking the hair clean off his crown; he was bruised also severely on his thigh. The little General, however, bore the mishap like a true hero, his favorite pipe remained in his mouth, and he continued to smoke while lying on his back in the mud.–11/14/1861 – The Daily Cleveland Herald

An article in the end of 1861 reports that while Tom Thumb toured Chicago, robbers attempted to steal his jewels, but were thwarted. Then, in May of 1862, General Tom Thumb arrives in Cleveland at 24 years of age, reportedly 32 inches high and weighing 38 pounds.

“Gen. Tom Thumb. The levees of the above ‘beau ideal’ of man continue to be well attended by delighted audiences. His impersonation of the ‘Grecian Statues’ is decidedly artistic, and call forth repeated plaudits from his audience. Mr. DaVere’s popular and pleasing ballads, and Mr. Tomlin in ‘Simon the Cellarer’ and the ‘Little Fat Man,’ tend to keep the audience highly pleased during the intervals occasioned by change of dress. To-morrow he takes his final farewell of our citizens, for he intends visiting very shortly the golden shores of California and Australia.”

In 1863, Gen. Tom Thumb married Lavinia Warren. (Notice that, in the picture above, the doll is holding a photograph of Tom Thumb and his wife.) The following article appeared shortly after their wedding:

An Intrusion upon Tom Thumb and Wife.–Mr. and Mrs. Stratton, who are now traveling through this country to let people see how small they are, stopped at the Jones House, in Harrisburgh, on their recent visit. Their levees were densely thronged, and hundreds failed to gain admittance. Among those who were disappointed were several staid gentlemen belonging to the hotel, who prevailed upon the agent to conduct them to Tom’s room, after the evening levee was over. Followed by a crowd of spectacled and reputable gentlemen, the agent proceeded to the chamber, knocked at the door, and was summoned to ‘come in.’ But when the door opened, there stood Tom in his unmentionables, while Mrs. Thumb was invisible. She had just retired, taking refuge among the cambric ruffles of a linen pillow slip, after repeating her tiny prayer, doubtless, of ‘Now I lay me down to sleep all wrapped up in a little heap.’ But the General stood defiant, with boots in hand, his brow gathered into a frown at the intrusion, which no explanation of the agent could dispel. Nothing was left but retreat.” — The Daily Cleveland Herald, 5/11/1863

The couple went on to give birth to a baby girl, and by 1864 were touring London, Paris, and Rome. Charles Sherwood Stratton lived to the age of 45.

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Mosquito frets and legends

Posted on April 12, 2012 | 1 Comment

ImageSomewhere, I read (at the Cleveland Natural History Museum? the Great Lakes Science Center?) that the mouth of the Cuyahoga River was a swampy, mosquito-ridden land when Moses Cleaveland first surveyed the lots for Cleveland in 1796. When it comes to that, it still is. Enter any Cleveland woods mid-summer and the mosquito whine is sure to drive you back out.

How did 19th century denizens of Cleveland cope with mosquitoes? Window screens did not come into use until after the Civil War. Research tells me they did have mosquito nets. I also found an 1862 reference to “head-bags made of crape.” Another source mentioned a practice of wrapping one’s hands in green baize–the fabric that covered billiard tables.

A search through 19th century newspapers elicited the following:

9/8/1858 – Newark Advocate

Where Mosquitoes Come From

These pests of summer proceed from the animalculas commonly called ‘wiggle tails.’ … If a bowl of water be placed in the summer’s sun for a few days, a number of ‘wiggle tails’ will be visible, and they will increase in size till they reach three-sixteenths of an inch in length,–remaining longer at the surface as they approach maturity. … In a short time a fly will be hatched and escape leaving its tiny house upon the surface of the water. … In fact, standing by a shallow, half-stagnant pool on a midsummers day, the full development of any number of ‘wiggle tails’ to the mosquito state can be witnessed, and the origin of these disturbers of night’s slumbers thus fully ascertained. — Scientific American

8/8/1870 Daily Cleveland Herald

Sparrows and Mosquitoes

… Four years ago, 20 pairs [of English sparrows] were imported [into New York City], and provision was made for their accommodation. Now it is estimated that there are five thousand pair in the New York parks and gardens; and their active and industrious habits are believed to have materially diminished the swarms of mosquitoes which have heretofore made New York a byword and a hissing among all light sleepers who have sensitive skins. This theory is stengthened (sic) by the fact that the same experience has marked the introduction of sparrows into Jersey City–the mosquitoes having greatly diminished there even, which is mosquito land itself. If there is anything to this … then we [of Boston] go for importing one thousand, or five thousand pair at once, to be domesticated in Boston and immediate neighborhood, as a matter of more importance to the peace and comfort of our citizens than would be the addition of a hundred extra policemen. — Boston Traveler

9/3/1881 Cleveland Herald

A 15c box of ‘Rough on Rats’ will keep a house free from flies, mosquitoes, rats and mice the entire season. — Druggists

Finally, I found a reprint of this legend in the 9/7/1872 Cleveland Morning Daily Herald:

Origin of Mosquitoes

We take the following legend from the Minneapolis Tribune:

The Red River Indians have a legend respecting the origin of mosquitoes. They say that once upon a time there was a famine, and the Indians could get no game. Hundreds had died from hunger, and desolation filled their country. All kinds of offerings were made to the Great Spirit without avail, till one day two hunters came upon a white wolverine, a very rare animal. Upon shooting the white wolverine, an old woman sprang out of the skin, and saying that she was a “Manito,” promised to go and live with the Indians, promising them plenty of game as long as they treated her well and gave her the first choice of all the game that should be brought in.

The two Indians assented to this and took the old woman home with them–which event was immediately succeeded by an abundance of game. When the sharpness of the famine had passed the Indians became dainty in their appetites, and complained of the manner in which the old woman took to herself all the choice bits; and this feeling became so intense that, notwithstanding her warnings that if they violated their promises a terrible calamity would come upon the Indians, they one day killed her as she seized upon her share of a fat reindeer which the hunters had brought in.

Great consternation immediately struck the witnesses of the deed, and the Indians, to escape the predicted calamity, boldly struck their tents and moved away to a great distance.

Time passed on without any catastrophe occurring, and game becoming even more plentiful, the Indians again began to laugh at their being deceived by the old woman. Finally, a hunting party on a long chase of reindeer, which had led them back to the spot where the old woman was killed, came upon her skeleton, and one of them, in derision, kicked the skull with his foot. In an instant a small, spiral-like body arose from the eyes and ears of the skull, which proved to be insects. They attacked the hunters with great fury and drove them to the river for protection. The skull continued to pour out its little stream, and the air became full of avengers of the old woman’s death. The hunters, upon returning to camp, found all the Indians suffering terribly from the plague, and ever since that time the red men have been punished by the mosquitoes for their wickedness to their preserver, the Manito.

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Outdated? expressions

Posted on April 3, 2012 | 2 Comments

“Where do you get all these weird expressions?” my daughter once asked me.

“What do you mean?”

“Some of the stuff you say. When I say it, my friends have no idea what I’m talking about.”

“Give me a for instance?”

“Like ‘Podunk.’ Where does that word come from?”

She got me wondering. I looked it up and found its (speculative) origins fascinating. Go ahead and check it out for yourself here: Podunk

My search also turned up something more: “Slang of the American Civil War.”

In this list, I recognized a number of phrases I still say. Expressions used 150 years ago, during the Civil War. When I think about it, most of them came from my mother, whose ancestors hailed from western Pennsylvania. At moments like these, the era of Civil War feels like the not-so-distant past. Here are just a few expressions I still use.

Time to bite the bullet.
Enough of these carryings-on.
I finagled my way in.
He was fit to be tied.
We’ll get there by hook or by crook.
If I had my druthers.
What a rigamarole!

Finally, have you ever wondered about the phrase: I heard it through the grapevine? It turns out “grapevines” were telegraph wires. By Jiminy!

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Falling prey to fictional realities

Posted on March 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

I am knee-deep (p. 150) in the process of revising my book Harm’s Way. I enjoy the revision process more than writing a first draft. It’s a chance to understand themes and cull them out, to get a “big picture” view. Also, to catch times when I may have painted a scene too sentimentally. I think of these moments as a “fictional reality,” the most realistic world I’ve been able to cobble together based on research, but where I must still dig deeper to find the truth.

At the moment I’m revising the chapter where my great-great-grandfather’s packet ship Helvetia arrives in New York harbor. The year was 1857. In the National Archives and Records Administration, as I scrolled through microfilm searching for a ship manifest with Michael Harm’s name in the first half of 1857, I encountered hundreds of lists. Three or four immigrant ships might arrive at Castle Garden in one day, from Liverpool, Hamburg, and other European ports. Diary accounts of the time note how ships hailed one another in the north Atlantic sea lanes and kept track of the sightings. As I pictured New York harbor, clotted with barges, steamships, schooners, and immigrant packets, I wondered — would any of these ships be carrying African slaves? It was pre-Civil War after all.

A search for 1857 slave ships, turned up an official reality stating that the importation of slaves into the U.S. was outlawed in 1808. According to an article in Wikipedia, the last documented slave ship to arrive was The Wanderer, in November of 1858. Hmm. A fictional reality? It seems it was hotly disputed, the article elaborates, as to whether or not undocumented slave ships were continuing to reach American shores after that year. Either way, it was The Wanderer, with its 409 slaves, that received all the attention:

The slaves who arrived to the United States on the Wanderer gained a celebrity status, that spread beyond the south to newspapers in New York, Washington, and London. They were the only group of slaves who were frequently identified with the ship which they arrived on.

Here is another discovery, a link to an 1857 interview with a Captain James Smith, who describes New York’s South Street as being “the chief port in the world for the Slave Trade.” The interview continues:

My vessel was the brig ‘Julia Moulton.’ I got her in
Boston, and brought her here, and sailed from this port direct for the coast of Africa.
But do you mean to say that this business is going on now?
Yes. Not so many vessels have been sent out this year, perhaps not over twenty-five. But last year there were thirty-five. I can go down to South Street, and go into a number of houses that help fit out ships for the business. I don’t know how far they own the vessels, or receive the profits of the cargoes.
But these houses know all about it.

1857 was also the year of the Dred Scott decision, which denied citizenship to all slaves, ex-slaves, and descendants of slaves and denied Congress the right to prohibit slavery in the territories. According to this PBS Timeline, the last slave ship to bring slaves into the U.S. landed in Mobile Bay, Alabama in 1859. I’m thinking there were probably others.

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Mythic Palatines in America

Posted on March 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

I did not realize this book was so rare. My relative Angela gave a copy to me–Pfälzer in Amerika (Palatines in America) by Roland Paul and Karl Scherer–to help in my thesis research. Searching out a link to it for this blog, I notice it sells for a high price. I can see why.

It’s not such a big volume, but it’s packed with cross-cultural historical info. Published in 1995 by the Institute of Palatine History and Folklife, it offers articles about 18th and 19th century immigration to America from the Palatine region. Most of the text has English translations. Included are  maps and explorations of the “waves” of immigration and their causes, bios of notable personalities, and letters written by immigrants to America (only in German).

I find the bios especially intriguing. I had not realized that Thomas Nast (b. 1840), “cartoonist, moralist, and ‘president-maker’” was a contemporary of Michael Harm (b. 1841).

When in Germany, I visited Villa Ludwigshöhe above Edenkoben, and walked through that town, but missed the part of Edenkoben with the Johann Adam Hartmann fountain. Born in Edenkoben, Johann Adam Hartmann emigrated in 1764 to America, finishing his days in Herkimer, NY. A neighbor of James Fenimore Cooper, many claim the main character of Cooper’s most famous series (Last of the Mohicans, The Deerslayer, The Pioneers, etc.) is in part based on Hartmann. Pfälzer in Amerika states:

[After arrival in America in 1764], Hartmann became a woodsman and hunter on the Indian frontier. When the War of Independence began in 1775, he had already had ten years of hunting and fighting experience which he now put to use. In particular, he is said to have been instrumental in winning the Oriskany battle against the British troops and their Indian allies in the Mohawk Valley on 6 August 1777.

A memorial plaque has also been installed in the village. “In Edenkoben and elsewhere, it is firmly believed that next to Daniel Boone, the man from Edenkoben formed the most important model for J. F. Cooper’s character, Leatherstocking.”

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Pictures of other days

Posted on March 15, 2012 | 2 Comments

A couple of weekends ago, I had the opportunity to attend the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference in Chicago . I picked up so many literary journals at the book fair I had to make a trip to the post office to mail them before flying home. On my return to the hotel, I passed the Art Institute of Chicago and made a mental note to return.

Why? Because I love art. But also for historical research. Photography did not appear until the mid-19th century, and then, only in its crudest forms. Painters of the 19th century, with the advent of realists like Millet and Courbet, focused on capturing real people in real life settings. Above is a painting in the Art Institute by William Sidney Mount called “Walking the Line.” Painted in 1835, during the era of the Andrew Jackson presidency, it depicts clothing and entertainment of the time, as well as the antebellum racial divide. (Classroom guides and resources related to this painting and others by Mount can be ordered from the Art Institute of Chicago here.)

And check out this painting called “Lights of Other Days.” A still life of snuffed out lanterns? What is John F. Peto trying to tell us with this artwork about the second half of the 19th century? By 1906, the light bulb was all the rage, but here one gets a forlorn sense of old ways being left behind.

Below is the painting that most captured my imagination, which I post here for Angela, who has helped me so often and so long with research and translations for Harm’s Way. “The Ghost Dance” was painted by Ralph Blakelock in 1895, five years after the Sioux massacre of 1890 at Wounded Knee. Simon Kawitzky has written an entire thesis on the subject. He writes: “.. in The Ghost Dance, Blakelock distinctly melds the ether of the dancing spirits into the matter of the forest as they disappear into oblivion and are lost forever.”

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Cleveland and its Germans: 1897-1898

Posted on March 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

At the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland I picked up a book with bios on many early German-American residents of Cleveland. The original was in German, written by Jacob Mueller, and this translation is by Steven Rowan.
The book begins with a quote by Goethe:

America, you have it better
Than our continent, the old,
You have no fallen castles
And no basalt.

The old master Goethe, when he directed the verses above to the United States in his “Delicate Zenias,” could add, “And you do not have great cities with their bustling life and striving, with their splendor and misery, with smoking chimneys and unhealthy tenements.” Much has changed in the meantime. Today, to be sure, one may still look in vain in America for picturesque castle ruins such as decorate the banks of the Rhine, but it is certainly possible to find decayed, ruined cities whose founders and inhabitants once believed their new settlements would be numbered among the most populous in the land in a few decades. On the other hand, there are little places whose names were barely known by any European, at least in the year Goethe wrote that verse (1827), that have grown to great cities. One of these is Cleveand, the Forest City.

The following is a list of people whose biographies were written up in Cleveland and Its Germans: 1897-1898:
Franz Adler
John Aenis
Rud. von Ahlefeld
Hermann Anhäusser
Daniel Appel
Georg F. Arnold
Friedrich Axel
Michael Baackes
Wm. Backus Sr.
Gustav A. Balzer
Benjamin R. Beavis
W. H. Beavis
Jakob Beckenbach
Fred Beilstein
Edward Belz
Joseph Beltz
Wilhelm Beutel
Emil Bierfreund
Jacob A. Blodt
Ed. H. Bohm
Heinrich Born
H. Brockhausen
Frank Büttner
Stephen Buhrer
Karl Burkart
Carl Claussen
Karl J. Cobelli
Georg J. Dahler
Leopold Dautel
Hans Demuth
W. Dertinger
Wm. Dewald
J. S. Dickle
F. H. Dietz
Friedrich Dietz
Kilian Egert
Ferdinand H. Eggers
Leopold Einstein
Adalbert Ernst
John J. Ernst
Franz V. Faulhaber
Jon Feihl
R. H. Fetterman
W. F. Fiedler
O. H. Franke
Christ. Frese
Albert Friedl
John Friedl
Godfrey Fugman
Philip Gänsslen
Albert Gehring
Carl Ernst Gehring
F. W. Gehring
John A. Gehring
Christ. Geiger
Georg Gernhard
John Götz
Amalia L. Groll
Georg C. Groll
John C. Groll
Georg F. Gund
M. Hablützel
Joseph Hackman
Hermann Hamm
Louis Harms
G. L. Hechler
G. Heidenreich
Chas. Heiser
Chas. Herrman
Ed Hessenmüller
Dr. Rudolph Heym
Simon Hickler
C. R. Hildebrandt
Jacob Hiller
Martin Hipp
Jacob Hirt
Joseph L. Hitz
Heinrich Hoehn
W. F. Hoppensack
Bishop Ignatius Horstmann
C. F. Hunger
Friedrich Jampen
David Jankau
Chas. L. Jaster
John Jaster
Nikolaus Jung
Herman Junge
Ernst Kappler
Gustav A. Kärcher
August Kimmel
John Koch
Chas. Koebler
Joseph Krug
Georg Kühn
Theodor Kundtz
Julius Kurzer
Rudolph Lack
Franz C. La Marche
Georg Lambert
H. G. Lambert
John B. Lang
Joseph Lang
Dr. George F. Leick
Isaac Leisy
Otto Leisy
Johann Lendy
Robert Lenz
Rev. Theophil Leonhardt
Henry Leopold
Jul. H. Leppert
Moritz Liebich
August Loew
Carl Lorenz
H. W. Luetkemeyer
Chas. W. Maedje
Christian Maedje
Wm. E. Maedje
F. W. Maier
Jackob Mall
R. B. Martinetz
Friedrich Mattmueller
Adolph Mayer
Edward S. Meyer
Dr. Edward S. Meyer Jr.
Franz Joseph Meyer
John C. Meyer
Dr. Wm. Meyer
Karl Michel
Charles Miller (of Holzhausen)
Chas. Miller (of Baltimore)
John Miller
Conrad Mizer
Arnold Moser
Antoinette Muhlhauser
F. Muhlhauser
C.A. Müller
Gottlieb Müller
Jacob Müller
Jacob G. Mueller
Johann Müller (of Weinigen)
Johann Müller (of Königheim)
C. A. Muerman
Georg V. Muth
Wm Neracher
Franz Neubauer
Felix Nicola
J. H. Niemann
W. Noville
Isidor Nunn
John J. Nunn
Ed. M. Oerl
John Olderman
Robert Opitz
Albert Petzke
Otto Petzke
August Pfaff
Rev. Nicolaus Pfeil
John Piper
John L. Piper
Leonhard Platt
F. Rannacher
John Reich
Daniel Remelius
Friedrich Ries
Emil Ring
Rev. J. H. C. Röntgen
Dr. W. L. Rosenberg
H. G. Rudolph
Herm. Jul. Rütenik
Chas. Sältzer
Johann Schaber
Philip Schäffer
Bernhard Schatzinger
A. B. Schellentraeger
C. C. Schellenträger
E. A. Schellenträger
Dr. J. D. Schenk
Adolph Schildhauer
John Schlitz
F. von Schluembach
F. W. Schmidt
Friedrich Heinrich Schmidt
Johann Schneider
Philip Schreiber
Fred P. Schröder
John Schröder
Christ. Schüpbach
Dr. H. C. Schwan
F. C. Seelbach
Louis Seelbach
Henry g. Slatmyer
George B. Solders
Georg J. Sommer
Jacob Stein
Rev. J. H. Steppler
Gustav Stern
John Stofft
Gottlieb Strasser
August Thieme
Rev. C. A. Thomas
B. Villwock
Chas. W. Voth
H. B. Votteler
Jacob Wageman
John Wagner
John C. Wagner
Fritz Walter
Dr. Gustav C. E. Weber
John c. Weideman
G. A. Weitz
Henry Welf
Joseph Welf
Albert Weske
Rev. Franziscus Westerholt
Friedrich Wick
Carl L. F. Wieber
Jacob B. Wieber
John Wilhelm
Lorenz F. Wilhelm
Hermann Woldmann
Dr. S. Wolfenstein
Wm. Woltman
Philip Jacob Würtz
John A. Zängerle
Dr. Karl Zapp
Jacob Züllig
August Zwierlein

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Posted in 19th century history, List of German Immigrants to Cleveland

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