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INTRODUCTION:
Our
Emigrants to America
(Letters
by emigrants 1877-1880)
From
old letters of the Sieck family of Eckel n/Erfde the following were
selected. They cover but a short span of time, yet they express a lot!
They report the reasons why at times whole families moved across the big
water. Each letter emphasizes the word "land" or property, and on
one occasion Carsten Sieck writes: "It is easier here to start your
own enterprise".
This was the main rationale, and on occasion of his repeated travels to his
former home his brother Hans remarked: "I wanted to be able to stretch
my feet under my own table." He gave an additional reason: "My
brother Claus had to serve under the Prussians, and I asked how he had been
treated. There, you see, I did not wish to submit myself to that."
Thus, they left also to evade the draft.
For a better understanding of these letters a few words of explanation are
in order:
There were 10 siblings in the Sieck family. Soon after the war of 1870/1871
the oldest son Claus was drafted. At this time his father died, he
inherited the farm and his brother Hans took on the running of the
property. For this he earned a one year deferral of his military service.
Two older sisters, married, were already in America, both of them farming,
a third one had just traveled there and married a farmer. The first two
letters were written by the two oldest ones and their husbands. They
acknowledge receipt of their inheritance to the extent that they had not
already received it to cover their passage. The amounts appear negligible
today, yet P. Schroeder paid a mere $ 1,250. for 160 acres, one quarter of
which they could pay in cash. Shortly thereafter, Hans took over his first
farm and paid a mere $ 700.; considering that his inheritance was twice
that of his sister he was able to pay nearly all of it in cash. The latter
half of both letters contain enticements to come to America; not only the
two brothers are eager emigrants, the young sisters are as well and even
Claus, provided he could have sold his property quickly and at a favorable
price.
The final letters are by the brothers Hans and Carsten. In order that Hans
could be drafted, Claus was dismissed prematurely; Hans, however, had left
for America soon after his (Claus') return. Now he writes to his younger
brother Carsten who is about to be drafted, and gets him to follow him. In
the meantime the mother had died as well; the remaining children were
between 18 and 11 years old, i.e. the four girls about whom Hans writes.
(They left together for America in 1881, the youngest was not yet
confirmed.
Hans mentions typhoid as cause of death of his brother Carsten; in my
opinion he mentioned once that that a severe homesickness played a role as
well.
Nothing substantial has been changed in these letters, except for some
orthography and some punctuation had to be inserted to make the text more
understandable; the (German) style remains unchanged; it speaks well for
the authors and their school, as well as the cantor who taught them.
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