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426 Cramer and Simon On February 11, 1865, Voigt had expressed his wish to swear the oath of loyalty to the United States and requested not to be put on the list of prisoners to be exchanged. It was April 7 before he could take the oath of amnesty, swearing to ‘‘support and defend the U.S. Constitution and abide by and support all acts of Congress and presidential proclamations having reference to slaves.’’21 Voigt’s life after the war can only be sketched in rough outlines, but he never carried through on his decision to leave Texas. His numerous business connections in Houston were certainly helpful when, together with his friend Schmidt from New York, he started up an import business in the nearby port of Galveston. Robert Voigt died only one year later, at the age of thirty-five, probably of appendicitis. His wife lived only two more years at the most, but their two surviving children were well taken care of by the close family network in the area.22 21. Federal Military File on Captain [Voigt], Comp C, Waul’s Texas Legion, Texas StateA. Hyman (1959), 199–218, provides a detailed description of amnesty proceedings but gives no estimates of how many Confederate officers applied for amnesty. 22. Justman (1974), 304–7, 315, 322.Voigt died before November 1867; guardianship proceedings for his two children began that month (Harris Co., Probate Minutes, Book F., p. 221), micro- film, Texas StateA. In 1870 the children were living with their grandfather Schweikart and their aunts in Houston, where Mrs. Anna Voigt was also listed in CD Houston 1867–68. MC 1870: Harris Co./Tex., Houston, W. 3, #70. 55. Captain Ernst Cramer and Ferdinand Simon Ernst Cramer and Ferdinand Simon became brothers-in-law and were quite similar in terms of their social position both before and after they emigrated. Cramer came from a well-to-do family of millers and merchants in Schweinfurt, and when he emigrated in 1854 at the age of eighteen, he listed himself as a merchant.1 Even if this reflected his hopes for the future more than the actual facts at the time, in his new home in Texas, these hopes became reality. Cramer was one of the first settlers of Comfort, a colony dominated by freethinking intellectuals and Forty-eighters some forty-five miles northwest of San Antonio. He traded various goods and did source note: In the case of Cramer, no valid statement on the original language can be made on the basis of the English translation (see note 5), though their similar background makes it seem likely that what can be said of Simon’s German applies to Cramer’s as well. Simon is not only able to write free of errors and with great fluency, but he also appears to enjoy displaying his mastery of the language. Even apart from the content, he is fun to read. 1. Information provided by the donor; HPL Donau, April 1, 1854. According to MC 1900: Blaine Co./Idaho, e.d. 26, #311, and MC 1910: Blaine Co./Idaho, Hailey Pct., p. 215, Cramer had immigrated in 1853; if this is correct, this reference could be to his second crossing. Cramer and Simon 427 Ernst Cramer. (Charlotte Cramer Lafrenz) some farming and cattle grazing on the side. At least once, in 1859, he went back to Germany on business.2 Not much is known about Simon’s background in Germany except the fact that he was born about 1826 in or around Darmstadt and arrived in Texas in 1854 at the latest, but perhaps as early as 1846. He apparently lived for a while in San Antonio, where in 1855 he married Carolina Bauer, who had recently arrived in the United States with her parents, sister, and brother. In the 1860 census Simon appears as a merchant in the small settlement of Leon Springs, fifteen miles from San Antonio on the stage road to Comfort. His household included his wife, two children, and a business partner who is frequently mentioned in his letters, Friedrich Kraut. The following year, Cramer, Simon, and brother-in-law Bauer each bought 500 acres of land not far from Comfort, farms that were either adjacent or at least close together.3 In Texas, Germans with a middle-class background were among the most vehement opponents of slavery. A group of freethinkers in Sisterdale, a nearby 2. Geue (1970), 61. On August 31, 1859, Cramer...

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