Letters 1881-1949
Fahrlander Family
NOTES ON LETTERS: (Helen Ramsey)
Dad left Germany September 7, 1880, for
America. He was to contact his cousin (Resch) who had been working at
Ansonia Clock Company on Long Island and who might be able to help him
secure work. But when Dad arrived in New York and tried to locate him, he
found that he was no longer with Ansonia, and Dad did not know where he had
gone. He had to write his father in Germany to ask him to get in touch with
Resch's family and get his new address,all of which took time. It appears
that Dad had written Resch prior to leaving Germany, telling he was coming,
but that Resch had already left New York and didn't receive the letter, and
this must be the undelivered letter mentioned in the February 13 letter.
This letter also indicates that he wrote the Post Office in New York asking
that the letter be forwarded, and since the postmaster replied that they did
not have a letter, Resch thinks it might have gone to the Dead Letter
Office, as we would call it, in Washington, and he would write them. (Such
optimism, in view of our present postal "service".)
Meanwhile, Dad was in New York, at 17 years of age, unable to speak English
and so unable to qualify for many jobs. He seems to have been able to find
former Germans from his locality: the Noppers (a hat store), and George
Schill. Then in the letter of 15 April, 1881, Dad's father mentions a Karl
Feil, a watchmaker, leaving Germany March 13, 1881; that "He wants to go to
Thomaston where Resch, Vitus Hummel are working too ... Casimer Holzer has
asked for your address ... he is working in Brooklyn. I will enclose his
address for you and also the one of Franz Burger, Huffler, the son of the
roadmaster in Waldkirch, your former schoolmate, has also left for America.
Your schoolmate Fischer from the 'Ziegelhof' in Waldkirch, who left for
America before you, is said to have died in New York."
Dad mentions in his memoirs that this cousin, the watchmaker (Resch), had
also been in England prior to coming to America.
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