Compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, president of the Valley Falls Historical Society
The Valley Falls Historical Society recently received an inquiry from Walter Schlappi-Kuter, Guttannen, Switzerland, for information about Kaspar Abbuehl. The writer has also asked for information about Viola Reichart, about whom he wrote, "Back in 1976, Viola wrote a letter to Kaspar Schlappi, a distant relative of mine . . . She wanted to find out what itinerary the Guttannen people, Ott and Abbuehl, took on their journey to America around 1850."
Mr. Schlappi advised that relative had passed away and he did not know if her letter had been answered and continued "By chance, some time ago I came across a stack of old letters. In one of those Arnold Abbuehl (1823-1899) described exactly his trip."
"From New York, Arnold Abbuehl, with his family, moved by ship to Albany, continued by train to Buffalo, crossed the Erie Sea to Cleveland and finally arrived on a canal boat to New Philadelphia on Aug. 26, 1851."
Following is a copy of a portion of the letter to the family written by Arnold and others upon arrival at New York, August 1851, describing their journey to America.
The events will be reported in Parts I and II — the first relates events leading up to the sea voyage; Part II tells of the sea voyage.
Part I —
"Beloved father, mother, brother and sister and all relatives Thanks god we can now in good health tell you a few things of our journey. We are sure that you yearned for a letter from us. However, we want to tell you only the most important events of our trip, for if we wanted to report every occurrences we would not be able to finish the letter in one day.
When we came to Berne we had to pay for each adult 150 Swiss francs and for each child under 12 years 110 Swiss francs. Now you can calculate how much the total amount was. (Remark: it was 740 Swiss francs) On May 26 we came to Basel and had to stay there until May 30, then we took the train to Mannheim. There we stayed overnight and on first of June travelled on a steam ship over the Rhine to Köln. There we stayed one day, and on the third we went on by train to Antwerpen where we had to stay until June 9.
At that time all of us were well, particularly the children. We naturally assumed that we all would come on board of the same ship, but things turned out differently. When we had to help load our trunks from the railway to the ship, joy turned into grief. We were desperate when we were told that we would be separated, some of us would come on this ship and the rest of another one. Heinrich Gebel, Johannes Frutiger, Alexander Nägeli, Melchior Banholzer Balthasar Abplanalp and Johannes Frutiger from Gadmen went on a three-master named Elisabeth Delison with 370 passengers. They sailed on June 7. I, Johann Tännler, Balthasar Streun, Schieferli (the tour guide) and Magdalena Gebel came on a two-master named "Profethen" with 80 passengers. We departed on June 9, but hardly 200 yards out of the harbor we had to stay still for 3 days without getting any ship provisions. Hence we had to live on our own money, there was enough to buy but very expensive. From 13th on we sailed gently through the Canal."
(Next Part II, the sea voyage — )
The Valley Falls Historical Society Museum will be open at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 3.
No comments:
Post a Comment