Bertha, Victor and Emilie Fieg as children. The picture was probably taken in 1899 or 1900. Could they be standing in their back yard in Yonkers during their first American winter?
GENEALOGY
NAME BORN MARRIED DIED
Carl Fieg July 11, 1857 1906 February 1879
Emilie Böhler Aug. 23, 1857
Martha May 7, 1885 Dorman 1917
Victor Dec. 1881 1907
Lothar Aug. 11, 1886 Florence Shields Sept. 3, 1914 Aug. 23, 1958
Max April 3, 1888 Nettie Newman December 1909
Bertha May 5, 1890 Lester Bonardel May 19, 1914
Emilie Dec. 7, 1894 Arthur Case Feb. 28, 1915 July 29, 1984
CASE CHILDREN
Stanley January 1916 Emily Porter
Thomas May 1917 Alberta Krope
Gifford 1919 Susannah Waggoner
Richard May 22, 1922 Amelia Thomas
Walter 1925 Betty Sittler
Hazel May 1927 Dec. 16, 1928
Arthur 1930 Cathy Weeks
THE OLD TIMER'S MEMOIRS
It's too bad the first memory of the Old Timer is scatological. In her home in Pforzheim, Germany, the privy was attached on the outside of the house, and up about 3 stories. When she was three years old she could wait on herself but for the cleansing process she would stand bent over, clothes withdrawn, and yell "Bo-bo-butze!" Her sister, Bertha, four years older, would come upstairs and clean her, as their mother had her six children, her husband, and her aged mother to care for.
"Martha was born May 7, 1885 and died Feb. 5, 1918. Max was
born April 3, 1888. I've heard Max say that famous blizzard even
occured [sic] in Germany; that when my mother was waiting for
him to arrive the narrow streets – die Gasse – were filled with snow.
"Beta was born May 5, 1890, and I on Dec. 7, 1894, tho people
think Beta is younger than I."
Another memory is going bathing in an enclosure with sister Martha, ten years older, and what a pleasure, splashing and dunking!
A birthday is remembered because that same sister had put tiny white peppermint candies under each scale of a cone from a Norway pine. A cake with candles was on the table, and when the birthday child was asked, "Which would you rather have, the cake or that pretty pine cone?" she said greedily, "Both!"
On another occasion she remembers screaming and crying so loud that her father took her from the table and pushed her out the door, and left her there screaming, "Du dow, du dow!" Translated it meant, "You sow, you sow!"
The next memory is riding in a surrey with her mother and all the rest, riding at a brisk pace -- her hat on the seat -- and the hat flying off into the unknown. They were on their way to go to America on the ship The Pennsylvania.
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In the late nineteenth century, an extensive network of railroads connected Pforzheim to Baden, Wurttemburg, Stuttgart and other large cities of Germany. The area, called the Gate to the Black Forest, sat at the confluence of three rivers and was bustling with industry.
In 1888, on a visit to relatives, Bertha Benz and her two sons arrived in Pforzheim on the first "long-distance" drive in the history of the automobile in a car manufactured by her husband Carl Benz. I can imagine my great-grandparents Carl and Emilie and three, maybe four, of their children standing by the road waving handkerchiefs and cheering as the vehicle passed by.
When Carl Fieg married Emilie Böhler in 1879 the city's population was about 25,000. Their six children were born between 1881 and 1894 beginning with Victor and ending with Emilie, who was named after her mother. Since the establishment of a gold and jewelry factory in an orphanage in 1767 the area had become world-famous for its jewelry, a reputation retained even today, and Carl was a jeweler, though probably not a good businessman. (His son Lothar Sr. carried on the tradition of being a "soft touch" in business, though he became a successful builder and did not suffer the humiliation of bankruptcy as did his father.)
During "La Belle Époque" women were wearing leg-of-mutton sleeves whose size contrasted with the tiny sashed waists and the simple, flared skirts that were the fashion of the day, and the bustle had all but disappeared. The sporty, emancipated (for the day) Gibson Girl set the style.
Earlier in the 19th century little girls had worn smaller, shorter versions of their mothers' hoop skirts, bustles or empire-waisted dresses but when Millie was born, girls' dresses had taken on a different appearance. They were straight dresses with low waists and big lace collars. The skirts had details such as pleats, scallops, ruffles and shirring and girls commonly wore their hair in bangs.
What did Millie's hat look like, as it sailed off in the breeze? Was it a small flowered affair, accented with ribbon and pheasant feathers and maybe a cameo brooch? I think it was a "Gainsborough," back in fashion after one hundred years, meant to be loosely tied with a satin ribbon under her chin and tilted slightly to one side, which, lying on the seat of the surrey, caught a current of air and flew off to who knows where, a memento of life in the old country lost to the little girl forever.
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The father's business had gone bankrupt, he went to America, and left his wife and six children to follow after he obtained work.
Our father Carl Fieg * was one of four brothers, Herman, Lothar
and Frederick. The last [i.e. the youngest, Frederick] came to America
about 1890. Herman went to Australia and illustrated that book, Das
Buch von Pferde."
"I don't know what became of your great uncle Lothar but Frederick
worked at publishing in Newark, N.J. and fathered six daughters
and two sons. Only one daughter, Helen Griffith**, is left. A retired
school teacher, she lives in Milford and I wish you could talk to her.
Her nephew Frederick Fieg is living in California – retired from
the Army. His address: 118 N. Ost, Lombac [sic], Calif. 805-RF6-3661."
"[Frederick Sr.'s] other son, Otto went to South America under a
cloud, did well there for Esso and died not so long ago. He had
married a Portugese [sic] girl.
"No one knows how or where Herman died.
"Our father had a crooked partner in Germany, in the jewelry
business and he had to go bankrupt – a terrible disgrace in Germany
in 1898 or '99. So he slipped away to America ahead of his family
and later sent for his family in May of 1899. We sailed on the ship The
Pennsylvania, and arrived in New York in July.
"My mother Emilie Böhler [alternately spelled "Boehler," and pro-
nounced "bailer."] was born in Baden Baden on Aug. 23, 1857. My
father on July 11, I think also in 1857, or maybe before 1857. They
were married in February, I think in 1879."
"I have a wedding ring home with the date on the inside. Our father
died in 1906 – the year your father was still out west. How much
do you know of his riding the rods out west? How did my mother ever
let him go?" [Millie is here referring to my grandfather - her brother Lothar -
who, as a young man, went west to work on the railroads.]
The sea voyage was pleasant, as she remembers some men with chocolate bars, tempting her; her ten-years-older sister seasick the whole three weeks; her mother being told by the steward she did not have to make up the berths; she and the four-years-older sister unrolling toilet paper till the roll was empty and stuffing it into a chamber [pot] until it was full.
* Carl was also known as Philip, according to genealogical research into the lineage of his son Max's second wife. That may have been a middle name, or a mistake, as the middle name Victor is attributed to him in other family literature.
** Helen Griffith, née Fieg, is the daughter of Millie's Uncle Frederick of New Jersey.
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How interesting to read that Aunt Millie was unsure about the dates of her parents' birthdays and wedding anniversary, days which, nowadays, are big business and people are supposed to make a big deal and spend lots of money on them. (Millie's great-nephew Steven Fieg researched the origin of birthdays and found that "when ancient peoples began taking notice of the moon's cycles [they began to pay] attention to the changing seasons and the pattern that repeated itself over and over and so they began to mark and note time changes. That's the start of birthday history." He also mentions that kings and nobles were originally the only people to have big birthday celebrations, "explained by a theory that nobility were the only people wealthy enough to throw such celebrations, and quite possibly were the only ones thought to be important enough to have been written about or remembered.")
By around 1890 ships were almost all built from steel instead of the much heavier iron. Vessels were lighted by electricity in every quarter, including even the steerage; there was room for exercises and games on deck, well-stocked libraries and music-rooms, a piano or organ and a variety of food. The transatlantic passage was probably as comfortable as being at home.
The fastest of these new ships could make the transatlantic trip in less than a week, but the Pennsylvania, built in 1872, was not in that class of ocean-going vessels, though she and her three sister ships - Ohio, Indiana and Illinois - were the largest iron ships ever built in the United States and the first ships to challenge Great Britain's dominance in the passenger-transport trade since the Civil War.
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The next memory is living in Yonkers, with a big collie dog named Carlo, who could jump over a high picket fence [shown in the photo in the introduction]. A cousin, Helen Griffith, came from Newark to visit them and for some reason on a hot summer day, they all crawled under the furniture and hid.
The first day of 1900 was a cloudless icy day, with a fine crust on the snow. There is no memory of not being able to speak English, and the first English words her mother learned were "Hooray for McKinley!"
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