Letters from Germany
In the following you will find three letters which were really sent from Germany to America. A father wrote to his sun, who emigrated shortly
before. The ancestors gave the permission to publish this letters here.
Ruest, 09/11/1858
Dear Son,
If I find you and your wife and your daughter in good health with my writing,
so be it. Thank goodness we're all fine. Health and contentment are the biggest
gift from God. We may have as much as you (?) want, but if you don't have
health and contentment nothing will help.
We received your letter from August and learned that you all were healthy and
that pleased us very much. With this I want to close.
Now I will inform you with our harvest. The rye and the wheat good, the summer
barley middling. With the potatoes it seems as if they will turn out well also.
With the fruit it is also middling. The wind has damaged a lot of grain and
fruit.
The fruit is lying under the trees so that we can put it together with our feet
on July 17 - 18. I don't know anything further to write because nothing new has
happened here except the "Erbzinsmann" Joachim Garling Him God has given a son
this summer. They are all fine and send their regards.
Now we send our kindest regards to your brother and your sister-in-law, and
Hahn ... (?) and his wife Joachim Garling and his wife and aunt Sophia Garling
sends her regards as well and wishes you the best of health.
If it is better where Fritz Garling is, you can travel there as well. You have
to do some research if there is an area where it is better. It is said to be
as nice there as in Mecklenburg. Some area good and then bad.
I don't know anything further to write. Now I send my kindest regards and wish
you the best of health.
the good ... (?)
your father F. Garling
We also send our kindest regards to Johann Albert and his wife and wish them
the best of luck.
Dear Son, Jellen, 5/17/1860
We received your letter from February, 12th and it was too nice to see that
you are doing fine, which pleased us very much. As for us we're thank goodness
all healthy. The house of your brother has increased by a daughter, as well as
Nehls his wife has given birth to a young son. Dear Son, we enjoy living in
Jellen very much, we live in Timm's house, where the schoolteacher used to live.
Nehls lives in new Schwinz, where the old schoolteacher Bunge used to live.
Fritz Cords und Joh. Nehls work in the forest every day. Woman-farmwork we don't
have to do. We don't have quite as much farmland as we did in Ruest, because we
have 240 Ruthen farmland, but other than that we like it here. Nobody else
emigrated from Ruest, but Joachim Garling, who lives in Francesville, he
writes he's doing well.
We've continously had snow all this winter and since Easter we've had dry winds.
Now we've had rain for eight days and warm weather. My earnings certainly aren't
as good as in Ruest, but I don't ask for work as much as I used to, because I
turn older every day, too. We have a good neighbor, with whom we get along real
well, otherwise it's pretty lonely here.
We don't know much else to write, except that we're all still healthy, which
is always the best. Our Carl is tall now and he's going to school diligently,
he sends you his regards, especially to your Mina.
Recently I went to Ruest to work there for eight days; nobody knows yet what
will happen to the other day laborers in Ruest, they're saying that they will
all have to leave.
Cords and Nehls have been sawing boards all this winter since eight days before
Christmas, which they got 16 to 20 Schilling a day for.
You write that you had thought we should get the idea to come to America, but
we haven't gotten it yet and doubt if we will get it. We will first find out
what our acres are doing here. You wanted to know if Christoph Wendt went to
America too, he didn't, he stayed in Ruest. He was supposed to go to Jellen,
but he didn't want to do, so he furnished his house in Ruest and has to pay
8 Taler rent a year.
We also got 300 Ruthen meadow. Joach. Garling didn't like the journey to
America at all, his wife and daughter were sick on the boat for 14 days and he
had to manage everything by himself.
Joachim Garling picked a good time for his auction, because he was paid well
for everything, because shortly afterwards the Cholera broke out in Goldberg
and on the outskirts, where a lot of people died, a couple of people died in
Kordo as well, among them Johann Frick's wife and Mina Suko and all her
children. Ruest was spared the Cholera, we had to keep watch night and day for
four weeks.
Regards from your always loving father,
your brother, your brother-in-law and
Write us again in the fall sister-in-law and all of your friends
what you have harvested,
then we will write you what we Friederich Garling
have harvested.
In our point of view the people Carl and Johann Albert
here are doing just as well as send you their regards
in Ruest.
(I bid you farewell)
When you write again, then write:
to the forest worker Fr. Cords in Jellen
near Dobertin
Dear Son,
If I find you and your wife and child with my writing at good health,
it shall be alright with me. As for us we are thank goodness still all
alive and healthy. God has given us a daughter, she's called Mina. She was
born January 29th. With an enthusiastic hand I set pen to paper to write to
you. I want to know how it can be that you don't even write. Time has become
so long to us. On April, 15 we received a letter from Joachim Garling,
he said they were all still healthy. They had a good harvest.
Now I want to write you that the day laborers from Ruest have all gotten their
certificate. They are all supposed to go to Fimfow.
Now I want to write you how our harvest was. We have threshed 3 bushels rye.
We have grown as many potatoes as we could carry. We can't sell any. The fodder
beets have all stayed small and the roots too because of the big wetness.
We have had a lot of rain this summer. The fodder beets and the roots and the
cabbage have all stood in the water. Everything is expensive here. A bushel
of potatoes 1,16; a bushel of rye 2,28; a bushel of wheat 3,32 M.
A piglet of 6 weeks 3,24 M, a calve 50 - 60.
Our Carl and Maria are going to school.
We live in the same house as the schoolteacher. Our Carl has been going to
school for three winters.
I don't know anything else to write. I will go sleep now. Regards from me and
your brother and sister and brother-in-law and from all your friends and
acquaintances.
your father F. Garling
Jellen, April, 21 1862
Write us soon.
Johann Zuelck is sending his regards as well. His sister Sophia moved before
her wedding to Oldenstorf. All the wedding guests were all invited. The night
after that the whole farmstead burnt down.
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