Harvested
Hemp for Weaving
Pine grew very plentiful around
Kaiserslautern. Another thing I can recall plainly is the working of hemp and flax. Hemp
grows to a height of about four feet while flax about two feet. When it is ripe it is cut
and dried in an open and level field. It is left there until the pith and bark have
decayed enough to be easily removed. A man by the name of Urschell used to watch it I
remember. It was then taken and thoroughly dried over a pit containing fire, then it was
clubbed to remove all pitch and bark, after this the pure lint remained. Then it was
pulled through heckles and shredded fine for weaving.The only relatives I knew were an
aunt, a sister of my mother’s, and my father’s mother who lived at Hirshhorn
(Deerhorn) which was about 9 miles from where we lived. Us children were allowed to go
there to see her on Saturday and return Sunday. Her name I think was Christina Eicher.
My mother died in 1826 when I was 7 years old. My father then married Elizabeth
Christman and to them were born six children: Nicholas, Michael, Peter, Phillipina,
Elizabeth and Barbara.
Ludwig Maximillian was King of Bavaria at that time. I saw him go through
Kaiserslautern once. The schoolteachers in the neighborhood all took their scholars and
lined them along the pike over which the king traveled. The line of school children was
about a mile long, beginning at the edge of the town. The older ones stayed in town. When
the procession came to the children the top of the carriage was let down and the horses
were driven slow so that all the children might see them. I remember the king was an
ugly-featured red-haired man, while the queen was as pretty a woman as could be found in a
thousand. Their son afterwards became the husband of Queen Victoria of England. Queen
Victoria was the same age as myself.
Began Trip to America in 1833
Began Trip to America in 1833
We lived about 25 miles from
France, and started for America in
the spring of 1833. At the line of France the wagoners or teamsters weighed all the
baggage and women and small children and were charged 15 francs for each hundred pounds to
be hauled. The men and boys and all able-bodied women and girls had to walk.
The distance through France was 150 leagues or 500 miles. The country in France was
beautiful, all nice and level and no mountains. We were one month in going through France.
The first town in France we came to was Washbundt, the next was Beach [probably Bitche],
where a garrison of soldiers was stationed. The next was Nunsing or Nancy. We got to Nancy
at noon, and while there my stepmother was sitting on the seat of the wagon with
Phillipina, who was a little child then and slight of form, but a very pretty child. While
there a jolly Frenchman came up and began to play with her and talking to her in French.
He then went away and came back in about 15 minutes with a pretty little pasteboard box,
partitioned off inside and with seven or eight different kinds of candy for the little
girl. I well remember how the rest of the women got mad because my sister got that candy,
and she was only one year old at the time.
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