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116 Eversmeier ‘‘thievery’’ of ‘‘throne and pulpit.’’4 These exhortations sound somewhat repetitive and schematic, more like the complaints of someone who is powerless than a serious call for action, but at least one son adopted Carl Hermanns’s political views and considered himself a ‘‘Social Democrat.’’5 4. Carl Hermanns from Stuttgart, August 8, 1877, December 29, 1878, NABS. 5. Letter of Otto Hermanns, March 8, 1881, NABS. 11. Caroline Eversmeier Caroline Eversmeier (née Neuer), born in 1824 in Eberbach/Baden and the daughter of a wood turner, lived a life in Germany that was on the fringe of society. Released from police custody in December 1850, she was picked up and punished six times in the next year and a half for ‘‘shirking and being dissolute’’ and then was finally put in jail.1 As happened frequently, though secretly, in several German states, she was given the choice of remaining incarcerated indefinitely or immigrating to America, with her passage paid by the authorities. She opted to leave and received 45 guilders* from her hometown of Eberbach plus 76.31 guilders from the state of Baden to defray costs; together with four other inmates, she sailed on March 31, 1853.2 By then her three sisters were already living in Algeria. In the United States she was apparently more successful in establishing herself. She married a hack driver from Hanover who was listed in the 1860 census with fifty dollars in assets but no property.3 Aside from the letter of 1863, no information is available about her subsequent life. [Baltimore, July 9, 1863] [salutation missing] Once again I take my pen in hand to write to you, dearest sister. It has been 9 years since I left my parental home, and during this time I have written 2–3 times to Eberbach and never received an answer. As for me, I am well, thank the Lord, and I hope that my few lines find you as happy, hale and hearty as I am, for I have put my trust in God and He source note: Caroline Eversmeier’s handwriting is unpracticed and irregular, her spelling, grammar, and punctuation are chaotic, and her vocabulary is quite limited—but despite considerable interference from her local Baden dialect, her writing is easily understood. 1. Letter from the Eberbach district authorities to the town council, June 15, 1852, StdA Eberbach /Neckar. 2. A file on payments to detainees unlikely to reform, GLA Ka 236/8640. 3. MC 1860: Baltimore/Md., W. 2, #894. Dünnebacke 117 has not forsaken me. I was only an outcast in my own homeland, but here in a faraway country there are people who still have feelings, and after misfortune and unwarranted suffering, great joy will come to pass. If you were only here with me, you could live as happily as I do. I was all alone when I arrived here, but I met good people from Bruchsall on the ship, a girl and her uncle, Mr. Rullmann, who took me along to her brother’s house where right from the start I got paid 5 talers* a month. I worked there for about a year and then I met my husband. We got married in 1854 on the 17th of December, and we’ve been living a happy life and are as pleased as punch. [16 ll.: asks for news of her sisters; correspondence] Dear sisters, I want to let you know that I don’t know when my husband will have to go to war, and then I will be all alone. I don’t have any children, and every day there are so many men being slaughtered , on some days 10 to 20 to 30 to 40 thousand men, they’re taking one man after the next [9 ll.: correspondence; address]. I remain your loving / sister Charlotte Karolina / Eversmeier [Attached is a letter to the town council in Eberbach, requesting that her letter be forwarded; note: address unknown] 12. Dünnebacke Family Of the six children of the owner of the farm Haus Marpe near Niedermarpe (in the Sauerland, southern Westphalia) who lived to adulthood, the two youngest immigrated to the United States. Johann, born in 1813, left Germany in 1836, and nine years later he was joined by his brother Joseph, born in 1818, who emigrated together with his wife, Maria Franziska. An uncle was already living in Detroit with his seven children, but the two brothers decided to...

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