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Frick 347 to his political principles. On November 2, 1890, he wrote, ‘‘Well, next Tuesday is the election, and we hope the entire Republican Tiket gets elected. I am an election judge here.’’ Conrad Weinrich died in New Melle on August 25, 1904.11 11. St. Charles Demokrat, September 29, October 6, November 7, 1870; letters of February 2, 1876, September 3, 1873, December 26, 1874, NABS; St. Paul’s Lutheran parish register, New Melle/Mo. 45. First Lieutenant Karl Adolph Frick and Alwine Frick Karl Adolph Frick was one of the small category of emigrants who saw emigration as an economic venture. He did not leave his home because he had experienced or feared economic setbacks; instead, he was drawn to the New World by the hope of potential profit. He was born in 1835 in Lahr, Baden, a town of 7,000 inhabitants. His father was in the tanning and leather trade and prominent enough to be a member of the town council. Adolph probably attended secondary or commercial school until he was fifteen, then spent two years as a clerk in France and made his way to America via Le Havre in the spring of 1854.1 In the first surviving letter of March 1856 from Cincinnati, it is already clear that Frick had a good head for business. Two years after his arrival, in early 1857, he moved to Missouri, bought land sixty miles west of St. Louis, and opened a store that was obviously the main business in the village of Campbellton.2 The following year he became the local postmaster and married Alwine Vitt, the daughter of a well-to-do farmer who had emigrated from southern Westphalia in 1853.3 Politics source note: The handwriting of Alwine and Adolph Frick could hardly be more different, yet their writing style is very similar. Her handwriting is small, regular, constant, and easily legible; his is rather flamboyant, changing, and irregular. Though one might imagine the businessman would have had considerable practice writing, the structure of his phrases is remarkably undisciplined , with subjects that dangle or change in mid-sentence. His wife, however, is equally freewheeling in her style. They both write clearly; Adolph’s rare spelling and grammar mistakes re- flect the Allemanic dialect spoken where he was born, whereas Alwine’s writing shows little, if any, influence from her local dialect. Not included here are the letters in the series from the time before 1860 (one) and after 1865 (six), as well as one letter each from 1860, 1862, and 1864 and two undated letters. 1. Neumann (1883), 654; GLA Ka 360 Lahr Zg 1935-11/2221; NYPL, Hansa, April 20, 1854. The motivational distinctions for emigration are based on Marschalck (1973), 52, 71. According to a biographical sketch in History of Franklin (1888), 748–49, Frick attended a ‘‘college.’’ 2. Letter of March 9, 1856, NABS; the last letter from Cincinnati is dated May 8, 1857, NABS. According to History of Franklin (1888), 749, Frick spent two years in Cincinnati, but the date of his arrival in Missouri is unclear. 3. Letter of December 1858, NABS; History of Franklin (1888), 749; MC 1860: Franklin 348 Frick are seldom mentioned in the letters before 1860, but Frick was at least an active member of the local Turnverein. Like many other Turners,* in terms of his religious views he was something of a freethinker.4 Although he probably got along well in the English-speaking world, most of the customers in his store were Germans: one-quarter of the whites in Franklin County were German-speaking immigrants. There were a significant number of slaves, almost 9 percent of the population.5 Not surprisingly, given his association with the Turner movement and his familiarity with city life, Frick was a Republican: in 1860, in the first election after he was naturalized, he voted for Lincoln, who placed third out of four in the county with 24 percent of the votes.6 Frick did not take part in the war from the very beginning, but as the fighting spread from St. Louis through the rest of Missouri, he volunteered for the Franklin County Home Guards, a militia unit, on June 13, 1861. Since he was made a captain, it is highly likely that he helped organize the company. Perhaps his connections with the Turners played a role: they formed the core of the unionist movement in St. Louis, and the 17th Missouri Infantry...

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