Herrmann Life Story History Inf
LAND of
PROMISE and FULFILLMENT
Life Story of Richard Herrmann, Sr.
as told by his son Henry Herrmann
Printed by TEL GRAPHICS
Division of TELEGRAPH-HERALD, INC.
East Dubuque, Illinois 61025
for the benefit of
Dubuque County Historical Society
and the
Dubuque Fraternity of Free-Masons
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author gratefully
following friends:
Mrs. Helen Mercer
Mrs. Dorothy Kalvelage
Mrs. DeAda Mally
Mrs. Ruth Clark
acknowledges assistance from the
Carnegie-Stout Libary
Mrs. Adele Feller
Mr. Carlton Jones
Mr. Donald Giesemann
Mr. Ron Hahlen who designed the cover
INTRODUCTIONS
To DUBUQUE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Mr. Henry Herrmann has, through words, painted a vivid portrait of a delightful per-
sonality - intimate and intriguing - with qualities sometimes difficult to identify in this
present age of automation.
The author has suecessfully woven the story of a man's life into the fabrie of a strug-
gling eommunity, thereby lending eredence and meaning to those events of our local
history related in dull, faetual records.
The Dubuque County Historieal Society anxiously covets sueh material as a refer-
ence source in the library at Ham House Museum.
Mrs. Kenneth Mercer, Curator
Ham House Museum
To DUBUQUE MASONIC FRATERNITY
There are hundreds of thousands of fertile aeres oceupied by human beings here in
America. There are millions of comfortable homes. It is a wonderful nation. What made it
so? Was it the dull, unimaginative individual who avoids work and responsibility?
Not at all. This great nation with all its accomplishments, with all its promise, was
ereated by the imagination and the vision of men sueh as Riehard Herrmann, Sr., the
subject of this biography.
His son, Henry Herrmann, has detailed the life story of a man well known both loeally
and throughout the state of Iowa for his active participation in many branches of Free-
masonry.
But this story is not for Masons alone. It will speak to anyone who will ponder the
signifieance of our nation.
Brought to this country at age ten by his father, Richard was eventually left to sup-
port his mother and four sisters, while his father, who had abandoned them, returned to
his native Saxony.
If perseverance and dedication to moral principles can be taught by the written
word alone, surely this personal eneounter with Riehard Herrmann, Sr. should demon-
strate the wisdom of his life and strengthen our conviction that a wider acceptance of
his view eould create a renewed spirit in this beloved land of ours.
D. E. Gieseman
November 1972
ii
WHY A BIOGRAPHY?
(found among the writings of Riehard Herrmann)
There is nothing finer in the world than honored old age; there is nobody
more popular than the man of wintry years who is benevolent and optimistic,
who is active and as mueh interested in world affairs today as at any time of
his life, and even more so by reason of his experienced years. There is no more
inspiring reading than a good biography, a life story that speaks direetly to
other lives. We gather strength from reading of the struggles and aehievements,
the battles and vietories of others. Nobleness enkindles nobleness, power
quiekens courage to do and dare. Sometimes the ehance reading of a certain
biography ehanges the entire course of a person's life; a new point of view is
gained, a new sense of values is established. In extending our interests we
enlarge our sympathies and understanding and open new doors to opportunity.
You will find that the happiest most thoroughly contented men are the hardest
workers.
They are the men who, serving others most, serve themselves best. Idleness
is a bad thing at all stages in life; of a man in old age it is a catastrophy, for
it is ruinous to the most amiable disposition. When you behold the ideal old
man, the patriareh who is serene and lovable, you will find that he is a very
busy man, has something to do, some good interest has his attention. Being
busy all the time his temper never fIuetuates mueh; its always like a sunbeam.
No man used to work can endure idleness very long. There is nothing rusts a
man out so quickly as having nothing to do.
"1 am old as years are counted
But I'm yonng, in faet my dears,
for my soul is not encumbered
with the cobwebs of the years.
I'm not ever backward gazing
with a dotard's vaeant stare,
claiming that all things amazing,
all things great are buried there.
"1 am living in the present
and the present is the stuff,
and I find the world so pleasant
I ean hardly get enough.
Oh my whiskers may be snowy
and my steps be kind of slow
and my bald spot rather showy
but I'm young, I'd have you know!"
ill
LAND of
and FULFILLMENT
PROMISE
Autobiography of Richard Herrmann, Senior
with Foreword by Henry Herrmann
FOREWORD
In offering this work to the A. F. & A. M. Masons
of Dubuque and the Dubuque County Historieal So-
ciety for publieation, the writer is under no illusions
as to its literary merit, nor as to any great aecomplish-
ments by my father in either financial or educational
fields as measured by present-day standards.
One might then ask, "What is your motive in
publishing this simple biography?" In answer, I shall
have to say, as must anyone who gives this story a
careful reading, "1 find this story most interesting and
somewhat dramatic, as in my father's plain but force-
ful eonversational English, he deseribes the happy
youthful life in his native Saxony; his father's abrupt
decision to break the home ties to go to Ameriea;
my grandfather's several serious mistakes, leading
after several adventures in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and
Illinois, to eventual abandonment of his wife and
five ehildren, all of tender age, on a primitive wood-
lot farm in southern Illinois, while he returned dis-
appointed to his native Germany."
Few people have had a less auspicious beginning
in life than Riehard Herrmann-left at the age of
eighteen to eare for his mother and four sisters, with-
out money and without a job!
How by sheer grit, natural ability and adherence
to sound prineiples he worked his way out and up,
adjusting to life in this fast-growing country, and
finding a life of happiness and fulfillment in Ameriea,
the 'Land of Promise,' is a story both intriguing and
inspiring.
Since his autobiography was penned at the rather
early age of fifty-seven (he lived thirty-five years
longer); and also, since his written aecount is mostly
faetual, having little of an introspeetive nature, there
is mueh to be added to aeeomplish the present writer's
objeetives.
When it is eonsidered that my father knew only
the German language upon arriving in this country
at the age of ten, and that he had only one year
of sehooling in Pittsburgh in which to learn English,
it is not surprising that his writing is in the vernaeular
and laeks some of the polish of that of college gradu-
ates.
However, those who knew him during his later
years reeognized him as an edueated man, well
aware of eurrent affairs in polities, science, art, and
soeial fields. He was a keen observer, had a good
memory, and made the best use of aequired knowl-
edge.
He early learned to appreciate the advantages of
living in a eountry whose eonstitution and laws per-
mitted freedom of opportunity and freedom to live
one's life and to make one's own way as best one
can without interference, while not eneroaehing upon
the rights of others.
Yes, my father became a very enthusiastic and
patriotie Ameriean. Attentive to his civic duties, he
never failed to vote or to take interest in public af-
fairs. I remember well that for the celebration of the
4th of July, he never failed to bring home an armful
of fireworks which he personally set off, to the de-
light of us children. Yes, and he bought the biggest,
most powerful sky rockets that he could find. That
stopped when my mother's father, Christian Jungk,
died on July 4, 1900.
The foregoing is by way of letting the reader know
that there is something more to be found in this
autobiography than a mere recital of events. But
read the story and see for yourself whether I am
correct.
Since this autobiography was, as before stated,
written at age fifty-seven, and during the remaining
thirty-five years of his life he merely added to his
story the pertinent vital data, the present writer finds
it rather imperative that he should add a sequel, or
rather "afterword," in which he may describe the
more intimate characteristics, which only one as
close to my father as myself could do.
This sequel will follow the life story itself, which
appears here as it has been greatly abbreviated, edited,
rearranged by the editor and presented as an after
luncheon talk before the Dubuque High Twelve Club,
on Feb. 28th, 1964.
Henry Herrmann
v
Life Story of Richard Herrmann
An after luncheon talk given before Dubuque High Twelve Club
by HENRY HERRMANN
Two considerations caused me, instead of giving
a verbatim copy of the Life Story of Richard Herr-
mannn, to reproduce here a thirty-minute condensa-
tion, which I delivered before the Dubuque High
Twelve Club February 28, 1964.
First, since Father had only a grade school educa-
tion in Germany and was unfamiliar with the niceties
of English grammar, it became necessary for me to
do much editing of his autobiography. Secondly, large
sections of his book consist of reproductions in Ger-
man script of letters, poems, and announcements from
friends and relatives in Saxony. Therefore, the repro-
duction of this condensation seemed more suitable.
Life Story of my Father, Richard Herrmann
Mr. President and fellow members of the Dubuque
High Twelve Club:
I have hesitated about speaking to you on so
personal a subject as my father, but several con-
siderations persuaded me to overcome my inhibitions
in the matter. First, he was known to most of you
for his active and enthusiastic participation in all
branches of Freemasonry; and secondly, rather than
to dwell exclusively on this aspect of Father's life,
I wish to relate the story of how, from a very in-
auspicious introduction to the United States, as an
immigrant boy he, through hard work and sticking to
principle, developed a fine appreciation of the Ameri-
can way of life.
Before proceeding, I think I should give you some
information about his forebears and of life in their
native Saxony. I have taken notes from the auto-
biography which Father wrote in the year 1906. It is
written in his spontaneous conversational style, in his
fine legible writing, and is illustrated with numerous
pen and ink drawings.
Richard Herrmann was born in Chernnitz, Saxony,
on Mareh 10, 1849. His father, John Gotthilf Herr-
mann, was born near Meissen on the river Elbe in
Saxony, November 8, 1812. He died July 5, 1908, at
the age of ninety-five years, eight months. My father's
mother, my grandmother, was also born in Saxony,
near the city of Greiz; the date, Mareh 27, 1827.
( t;.,- J.-..", It ~d,¡t- ~ "", 7. )
NEW MARt\ET AND CITY HAL.L- CHEMN1TZ..::/8.rJ
Richard Herrmann was born here Mar. 10th, 1849.
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Honorabk Discharge of Johann Gottlob Herrmann-3D yrs. old-of Blätterskben by
Hayn in Saxony-after 11 yrs. 9 mos. service as musketeer, CÙ1.ted 30th October, 1801-
signed Carl Frederick RuMlph van Schönberg.
Her name was Therese Baehman. Her grandfather or traveling meehanie, going among other places to
was Johannes Timmig, who was a eantor and sehool Beyreuth in Bavaria; Italy; Lyons and Grenoble in
teaeher, and later a well-known organ builder. France, where he did the metal work for the manu-
My great grandfather's name was John Gottlob faeture of fine carriages.
Herrmann. The only difference in the names of my My father tells of an incident whieh happened at
grandfather and my great grandfather was in the this time. It seems that three skilled German me-
middle name: in one, Gottlob, meaning God love; ehanics traveled and found work in a earriage factory
in the other, Gotthilf, meaning God help. He also in France. They soon aroused the envy of the French
was born in Saxony, in a town named Blättersleben in workmen who conspired to thrash these Germans, and
the year 1770, He served two terms of six years each they set their biggest bully onto the smallest German,
in the army, receiving an honorable diseharge in When grandfather saw this, he rushed in and grasped
1801. During that time he fought both with Napoleon the bully by the throat, and with his powerful hands,
and later, against him. Afterwards he was married ehoked him until he was glad to leave off. He after-
and settled down, and was employed as overseer of wards apologized to grandfather and said that he had
vineyards for three different Knight's Manors. He been drinking.
died at the age of 84 years. After leaving France grandfather traveled to vari-
Grandfather, when young, also helped with the ous towns in Switzerland, and finally settled in the
work in the vineyards. Later he learned the blaek- eity of Zurieh. Here he owned and operated for ten
smith trade, and as was customary, he worked seven years a wagon factory, manufacturing heavy wagons
years at very low pay as an apprentice, and then for traffie over the mountains. He liked the customs
one year more to pay for his clothes. He was a and manner of the Swiss people, and would have
man of good physique, and had eonsiderable ability stayed there, but about 1846 there was a political
as a meehanie, so he beeame a skilled metal worker. upheaval, so he left and went baek to his native
After his apprenticeship he traveled as a journeyman Saxony. He settled again in Saxony, working in rail-
2
BfTTliRGUT 8¡m;SLITZ aft tÙr E.l&e I,,¿ ÔJ(oSSENHAIN.
Seusslitz Manor, Grossehayn
LOWER CANAl-
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MILL ANONA LFACTDRY OF
Home of John G. Herrmann on the Sorge showing Mill Race,
3
road shops in Dresden, and later in Chemnitz, where
he worked in a locomotive works operated by a Mr.
Hartman. Here he was married in 1846 to Therese
Bachman. In 1847 he again started a business of his
own. Being a good maehinist and skilled in the
tempering of tools, he built all the maehinery for a
faetory for manufaeturing wire and eut nails. We still
have his eatalog and price sheet with his name at the
top. There are drawn wire and eut iron nails of all
sizes and types with exaet deseriptions of eaeh. I
believe I counted ninety styles and sizes. Later he
bought a mill property on a stream ealled the Sorge,
near Chemnitz, intending to use the water power to
run his machinery, The property was used for fourfold
purposes: to grind flour; to run a bakery; to draw
iron wire; and to make nails. As many other mill
owners experienced, he had diffjeulties with varying
water stages, whieh sometimes were too high and at
other times too low. So he had to dig a eanal for a
eonsiderable distance to improve the flow of water.
About midcentury there was political unrest in
Europe; many péople left the country and eame to
America. There was a great influx of German people
to mid-America during the decade 1850 to 1860. All
four of my grandparents eame over at about that
time. They were all Saxons.
Father then tells of his sehool days in Germany
from the age of six to ten, and deseribes the route
he traveled daily with his sister Selma from their
home on the Sorge to Neukirehen (New Chureh). He
tells, among other things, that he learned to write
in both German and Latin seript, and that on Fri-
days he had an hour drawing lesson, whieh just suited
his taste.
He says, "My father had gone to great expense in
making the old mill property suitable for his faetory,
and was meeting with good suecess, when the Italian
war broke out and made sueh depression in trade,
everything in a commercial way eoming to a eom-
plete standstill, that with heavy debts, he found it
diffieult to continue. So he arranged matters and
eame to America, taking me with him, I being then
about ten years of age."
My father in his book dwells at some length about
the beauties of his native Saxony that he had left
behind-a country somewhat like what we have here
along the Mississippi River-at Dubuque, its rolling
green fields, with a hamlet here and there tueked be-
tween the hills, and here and there a round mound
with an ancient castle on top. He speaks of the cities
of Chemnitz, Meissen, Greiz, and Dresden-centers
of manufaeturing-ehinaware, glassware, and cloth of
various kinds. They were also centers of culture, with
educational institutions, museums, art galleries, ete.
He speaks of the jolly and earefree nature of the
people; of the life on the river Elbe; the river traffie;
and the steam boat exeursions.
Vierkantige BauJlägél.
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Copy of Nail Price List. John G. Herrmann.
4
Meissen on the River Elbe
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Mylau and Masonry Bridge.
Showing house where my maternal grandmother lived-(note smoke from chimney)
5
Voyage to Ameriea
So leaving all this he says, "My father and I eame
to America in September, 1859. We erossed the
Atlantie in the mail steamship "New York" from
Bremen to New York City. The voyage was one of
the roughest in the memory of the old tars of the
ship. It started to storm the day we left Southampton,
England, and stormed all the way aerosS. The waves
were 'mountain high: and in mid-ocean some of the
heavy iron frame work holding the boilers in place
broke loose. They had to stop the maehinery and the
ship drifted at the merey of the waves while repairs
were being made." He says, his father, being ex-
perienced in heavy iron work, helped in the black-
smith work to repair the damage. Finally they landed
in New York seven days late, having taken twenty-one
days in erossing instead of fourteen.
My father expeeted to find Ameriea about as
pietured in the geographies, as at the landing of
Columbus with Indians standing by; so he was agree-
ably surprised to see the large city and great buildings
of New York. They went by railroad via Philadelphia,
where they visited a eousin, a daughter of one of his
father's brothers. From there they journeyed several
stations beyond Cumberland to visit the brother who
was living on a hillside farm, too steep, they thought,
for eultivation. From there they went to Wheeling,
Virginia, where my grandfather found work in an
iron foundry and maehine shop. Later he worked
there for Stewart and Company, who manufaetured
stoves and other iron work. My grandfather says he
worked on the iron doors and stairways that were in-
stalled in the United States Custom House, the old
Post Office in Dubuque, Father then went to sehool
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in Wheeling, Virginia, and soon learned the English
language and was able to aet as interpreter for his
father. The teaeher complimented him on his fine
WTiting, whieh was explained by the faet that in
the German sehools both the German and Latin
seripts were taught. They were in Wheeling at the
time John Brown staged his rebellion at nearby Har-
per's Ferry. From Wheeling they moved to Pitts-
burgh, Pennsylvania, where Grandfather worked in
the shops of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad. My
fathe~ went to sehool at the Third Ward, and made
good progress. He relates that at reeess he used to go
aeross the street to wateh a woodcarver at work; he
was interested in the carver's drawings and in the
earving of wood.
Father's first recollections of politics related to
the presidential eleetion in the fall of 1860, when
Abraham Lincoln was eleeted President to sueceed
James Buehanan. There was a vigorous eampaign with
torehlight processions, brass bands, and floats. The
Republieans had floats with "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
and "Honest Old Abe, the Rail Splitter." The Demo-
erats had for their candidiates Bell and Everett, and
for their floats they used all the large bells they
eould get from the steamboats at the landing.
As soon as it was known that Lincoln was elected,
John Floyd, the Minister of War under Buehanan and
a strong sympathizer with the South, hired several
steamboats and had loaded cannons, guns, and am-
munition whieh were in the arsenal at Pittsburgh, and
had very quietly taken them down the Ohio River as
far as the Kanawha River, intending to turn them
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over to the Southerners. But the boats with the muni-
tions of war were arrested in the niek of time and
brought baek to Pittsburgh.
In the spring of 1861 Lineoln eame East to be in-
augurated, and father saw him as he made a speech
from the baleony of the seeond story of the Mononga-
hela House. I have head father relate many times how
the war started, first with biekering on both sides
of the slave question; then, when war started, how
the generals on both sides, having all studied in the
same military academies, were reluctant to fight eaeh
other, and would say, "Let's hold baek and let Con-
gress settle it;" and how Lineoln tried one general
after another and had to relieve them until he found
Grant, who seemed to know what the war was about
and did his duty.
Father tells of how the news of Lincoln's assassina-
tion was received, and how the large buildings in
Pittsburgh were draped in blaek.
After the war my grandfather read in the papers
about oil wells down the Ohio River, and always
alert, with an eye for business, he decided to go down
there and investigate. Finding the oil wells as had
been deseribed, and seeing that the oil was of good
quality and the wells pumping six or eight barrels a
day, he decided there was a ehance to make good
money. He at once took steps to organize a stock
company to drill for oil.
Meanwhile, quite a number of big paying pump-
ing wells were discovered near Franklin, Venango
County, on the Allegheny River. He says, "We went
up there to look at this new diseovery and found it
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Boring Tools
7
favorable. We leased a plaee on the Plummer farm,
one mile north of Franklin and nearer the future
Oil Creek and Oil City. We went baek to Pittsburgh
and reported to the stoekholders. Father undertook
the management and boring of the well. He bought
an eight horse-power oseillating cylinder steam engine,
and he himself superintended the forging and mak-
ing of the boring tools, He also bought the necessary
rope, about 700 feet long and two and one-half
inehes thiek, and shipped all by steamer to Franklin."
,,' .
He says, "We put up a derrick and engine house, set
up the engine, built a shanty with four bunks for
sleeping, and I did the cooking and washing while
father and one man did the boring and firing and
running the engine." He tells of a big fire which oc-
eurred at Oil Creek, where a big flowing well was
struek. Someone lit a mateh to light a cigar, and
although at some distance from the well, the saturated
air exploded and resulted in a great conflagration,
They noticed the red glow in the sky and thought it
Flowing Oil Well-Pennsylvania.
8
was the "Northern Lights." Next day they heard
about the fire. Forty-four persons lost their lives in
the fire, and a large area was devastated.
He says that after the flowing wells were struek,
no one thought of doing any more pumping, but all
endeavored to bore deeper and strike a flowing well.
He says "Our well on the Plummer farm had been
bored 504 feet deep, and we could have pumped
perhaps four or five barrels a day. We sold out the
maehinery and equipment, and father and I went to
Oil Creek to buy, ship and sell oil. We bought all
barrels available. Father painted the steneils. J H.
We bought a good lot of oil and shipped the first by
steamboat to Pittsburgh, where we sold it for a profit.
As I had by this time learned English pretty well,
and father was still unfamiliar with the language, I
acted as interpreter for him, and we beeame known
there as the 'Duteh oil speeulator and his boy.'"
My father was then about twelve years of age,
and he relates in his book many experiences in the
oil fields, and has made a number of pen and ink
sketehes; among them one on page 139, of a flowing
well whieh flowed at the rate of 2500 barrels a day for
a long time. It was impossible to find enough barrels
to handle that mueh oil, so they took to building
boxes of two-ineh plank, sixteen feet square, and two
or three feet deep. These were filled with oil by a
pipe line from the wells. Beeause the water in the
ereek was not deep enough, they built a dam with a
gate in it, and would collect the water for a week
and then let it out with a rush and float the oil barges
down on the swift-running eurrent. This was like
Wreck of Oil Barges
9
shooting the rapids. Father relates one exciting in-
cident, whieh he has illustrated on page 153 of his
book. He relates: "The boats, having been eut loose
some six or eight miles up the ereek, would gain
sueh momentum that they would gct ahead of the
artificial rise and would ground and get stuek until
the higher water would cateh up and lift them off.
On one oeeasion a large raft of barges got stuek on
a stone pier of a bridge whieh erossed the stream near
Oil City. The raft beeame unmanageable, and many
barges eoming behind them piled up on them before
they could see what was happening. The oil was
splashed into the water, the oars flying around and
knoeking the men down and into the oil. One boat
swung around and closed the ehannel on one side
of the pier, and another struek this amidship and
swung around and closed up the other side, so the
whole ereek was bloekaded, and there were dozens
of oil rafts still eoming in quick suecession. Before
they knew what was happening, their oil boats would
be hoisted high in the air, the eon tents spilled into
the ereek; and the wreekage would sink baek and fill
with water. How many men were killed I do not
know, but oil ran several feet deep, and perhaps a
million dollars worth ran down the Allegheny River,"
He eontinues: "Our boat with about 350 barrels of
oil in it had just passed the bridge, but being ahead
of the rise, it got stuek on a sand bar just below the
bridge. We had to have it pulled off the next day, but
we were thankful that we were one of only two or
three that got through safely to the river."
"After the oil boats were safely down the ereek,
they were lashed together at Oil City and floated
down the Allegheny River to Pittsburgh, I aeeom-
panied many sueh rafts down to their destination, In
many cases the stage of water was very low and
caused no end of trouble, as the rafts would get
grounded on sand bars and low places on rapids
and falls. At sueh times we had to jump into the
water, build wing dams and then take pike poles and
push the boats over into the deeper water." He relates
many experiences they had on the Ohio River at
this time. But to eut the story short, I shall say that
after the Roekefeller interests agreed to construet a
pipe line from the oil fields all the way to the refinery,
there was no more trading in oil. The railroads pro-
vided steel tank ears and storage tanks were built
all over the eountry-so there was no more transporta-
tion of oil on the river.
Father continues: "When I was about fourteen
years of age Father sent me to a German School in
Pittsburgh to be instrueted, preparatory to being eon-
firmed in the ehureh. Father had a blaek suit made
for me, and we had our pieture taken. I was eonfirmed
in the United Evangelical (St. Trinitatis) Chureh in
Pittsburgh in 1863.
"About this time my father sent money to my
mother in Chemnitz, Saxony, for her and my four
sisters to come to Ameriea."
Father's sisters relate about their landing at New
York City. Looking from the ship to the waterfront
stores they noticed a small sign: "Ice eream and ale
for sale." Studying it for some time, they pronounced
it "Esay Crayaam unt aile fur salle."
"After they arrived in Pittsburgh, she being dis-
satisfied with living conditions here, Father offered
her the money to go baek again and leave the ehildren
with him, but she refused. In the fall of the year we
went down the river and landed at Cincinnati, where
we stayed over winter. While there I worked in a
bakery, working from 5 p.m. to 5 a,m, We baked
bread, buns, rolls, coffee eake, sponge eake and pies-
and then I had to do the cleaning up."
"Next spring we paeked our belongings and went
by steamer down the Ohio to Evansville, Indiana. This
was at the close of the war, and I remember seeing
the store windows still boarded up."
"From Evansville we went by railroad to Vin-
cennes, Indiana, and from there via the Illinois Cen-
tral Railroad to Centralia, Illinois. Here my father
bought from the land agent of the Illinois Central
Roalroad a 120-aere traet of timber land at $11.00
per aere, and a team of horses for $300. This was
about one mile from Central City, and was covered
with heavy timber, mostly oak and walnut." Here,
Father says, "I put in five years of the hardest physieal
labor of my life, first clearing a sufficient space for
a house and garden; then putting up a log dwelling-
a story and a half affair with porehes on both sides.
We also built a log barn and wagon shed aeross the
road. We cut all the logs, chinked out the eraeks with
clay and covered the roofs with clapboards which
we split from straight-grained oak. The clearing pro-
cess was very arduous, and in piling and burning
brush and old logs, my four sisters proved them-
selves brave as Trojans, and assisted very materially
in getting the place cleared and under eultivation.
We set out lots of fruit trees, mostly apples and
peaehes, and in front of the house Father planted a
vineyard of grapes."
Father relates many experiences on this farm, sueh
as collecting a swam of bees, hunting rabbits, and
in one ease, shooting a skunk in a hollow log with
sad results. For hunting here Father had purehased a
fine English Twist double barrel shotgun. With it
were a powder horn and a leather shot poueh with
measuring gauge. As the loeality abounded in ducks,
grouse, and quail, he had a good bird dog, and he
used:; leather and net game bag, which is still pre-
served in his Museum.
Once he nearly lost his life while hauling logs.
The rough road shook the fastenings loose, and a
heavy pole hit him on top of his head and eame very
close to killing him.
"Besides raising corn," father records, "we also
raised sugar eane, cotton, sweet potatoes and oats.
About the seeond or third year on the farm we all go'
dreadfully siek with ague and fever. It lasted through
10
the whole summer, and although we took quinine
regularly we were all so weak from fever and ehiTIs
that none of us felt strong enough to go about a
quarter-mile to the spring for drinking water. When
winter set in the ague quit of its own accord."
At about this time my grandmother, deciding
that she eould not live under such conditions, moved
to Centralia, taking her daughters with her. Grand-
father decided to go baek to Germany, leaving my
father, then about eighteen years of age, to make
his own way and support his mother and four sisters.
My grandfather, John G. Herrmann, made several
serious mistakes in judgment whieh prevented him
from realizing his ambitions in Ameriea, and eventual-
ly led him to return to his native Saxony, a disillu-
sioned man.
First, if he had established his nail making busi-
ness in this fast-growing country, he must surely have
done well, as building homes was then the foremost
activity. Instead, he allowed the lure of quiek profits
in the newly discovered oil fields of Pennsylvania to
sidetraek his efforts into this untried field.
Farm Home in IlliMis.
11
Then as he moved on to finally settle near Cen-
tralia, Illinois, had he taken along his oil drilling
tools and tried it there, he might have struek it riehl
Years later on a trip south, I saw many oil wells in
this region, some of them on the railroad's right-of-
way. But then, who thought that there was oil in
Illinois?
The third and greatest mistake he made was for
him to allow impatience to pass reasonable bounds
when his good wife complained of the primitive liv-
ing conditions to which he had brought her and their
four daughters. Leaving them and my father, then
eighteen, to fend for themselves on a primeval wood-
land farm, he returned to Europe, disappointed in
America.
Father relates it was a very difficult time to find
work, and there were probably twenty men looking
for work to one who found a job. He was persistent
in asking everywhere for work and ealled several
times at a harness shop, as he had done some work
on harnesses at the farm. The proprietor first refused
him; then he said, "Why, yes, there are four cords
of wood up at the house that you ean saw." Father
went to the house, found the wood and the saw in
the woodshed, The saw was in very bad eondition,
so he first had to file it. Then he went to work. The
wood was old hiekory, 'hard as bone and full of
splinters.' Father was determined to saw the wood,
even if it took a whole week. By filing the saw twice
a day, he eompleted the job in four days, for whieh
the man paid him five dollars. This was the first
money father earned that he eould eall his own,
aside from some poeket ehange he had earned baek
East, shining boots at twenty-five cents a pair.
Right after that he got work at the Illinois Central
yards, first clearing out a wood yard; then laying
track with the seetion gang. After about two months
a fellow worker said to him, "Diek, if I eould write,
figure, arid draw as well as you can, I would not
be working on the seetion. There is a fellow going
away that is working in the storeroom, and if I were
you, I would try and get in there." Father eontinues,
"At noon I went to the place and inquired of the store-
keeper, Mr. Ziek, if I eould get the job. He said,
"There are a lot of fellows after it already. Can
you write?" I pieked up pen and ink from his desk
and wrote something. He said that would do. That
evening my mother and I went to his home, She
explained her position; showed him my drawing book;
and finally he agreed to give me the job."
"I was there only about two months when I met
with a very serious aecident which eame near taking
my life. I had to eross over a lot of tracks every
morning to get the mail. There was a string of cars
standing there, and two ears uneoupled with a space
of about two feet between them. I was looking in the
direetion of the main string of ears, whieh appeared
to be stationary. Just as I stepped in to go through,
there was a sharp bump, and the ears eame together
and eaught the fleshy part of my left leg between tI
bumpers, squeezing the flesh stone dead, clear dov
to the bone. I found that I could still walk, so I we
to the pump to put on some water. Then I went
the storeroom, and they sent me home. I was I.
up for five weeks. I did not sue the company,
many would have done, and as soon as I was w
enough I went baek to work again. My Boss, 1\
Ziek, was eleeted County Treasurer. He gave me t
tax books to figure up and paid me liberally for t]
extra work. Also, I made some maps for the Ch
Clerk in the Shop's Office, for whieh he paid 1
five dollars apiece."
"The work at the storeroom was sometimes VI
hard and heavy, when there were earloads of st
bars and copper erown sheets to unload, weigh.
put away. But I liked the work and was strong.
healthy and full of life, and with all our poverty,
small beginnings, we all (my sisters and 1), worl
and earned, and we soon had money in the ba
We put our money together, Mother's and sist
and mine, and bought out a millinery store and 1
making and pressing establishment. The girls Sl
learned the business and built up a good tradE
continued to work for the Railroad Company.
were all of a jolly and happy disposition, and we .
some of the pleasantest times of our lives d(
there."
"I had worked at the storeroom about a year w
the Division Engineer died suddenly and the assis
engineer was diseharged. I met the new Engin
Mr. L. T, Moore, and asked him whether he waI
anyone to take the assistant's place. He said, ,
not unless I ean get an engineer," and he strode a'
and boarded a train. Thirty days later, as I eame
the office, the Master Meehanie, Dave Oxley, sai
me, "Diek, Mr. Moore wants you to come up
clerk for him." I was so surprised and pleased tha
I eould say was "Thank you." I found Mr. Moo
very pleasant and kind-hearted man. He said, .
and I will have to do this work alone, but I t
you will have no trouble finding your way int
We take a eopy of everything that is done, and
ean look baek and be guided by the reports oj
preceding months." I had no difficulty in fig,
up and making out the first monthly report and
ance sheet."
"Mr, Comstoek, who was the paymaster on
Road, paid me a high compliment. He said the m.
ly pay rolls whieh I got out were the neatest
most correet of any on the whole line. Part 0:
duties when not otherwise engaged were to assis'
Moore in going over the roadbed, taking notes,
eondition, He taught me to assist him in surve
to straighten out sags in the traek, and correc
eurves,"
"After three years in this pleasant place to '
Mr. Moore was transferred to Amboy, Illinois, a
they had there, for assistant, an old hand, and'
12
the youngest on the Road, he had to let me out. I
got a job as bookkeeper in the Merchant's Union
Express Office. It was a busy place, as it was a
transfer point, and they were handling so many boxes
of peaehes,"
"After a time I received a letter from the Assistant
Chief Engineer in Chicago, asking me to write a
letter to Mr. G, H. Candee, Division Engineer at
Dubuque, about getting in there. I did so, and he
sent me passes by return mail, and after a few minutes
talk with Mr. Candee, he said I could go right to
work. I did so and had my mother send my trunk
and belongings after me,"
"My first work on the Iowa Division was to go
out to Le Mars and take an inventory of all items
belonging to the roadbed: bridges, water tanks, snow-
fence, weight and kind of rails, and general condition
of all items over a twenty-five mile streteh,"
Father then tells of an incident which led to his
starting his museum of natural history. There was a
great fire at Moore's Lumber Mill in Dubuque. The
heat threatened to burn the railroad's wooden bridge
across the mouth of the inlet to the mill. Mr. Candee
and my father and a number of men from the section
formed a bucket brigade to pour water on the bridge
and keep it from burning. About 9 o'clock in the
evening Mr. Candee said, "Mr, Herrmann, here is the
key to my house on 17th Street. I wish you would
go up there, light the hall lamp and go into the
kitchen, build a fire and put on the tea kettle. I want
to make a eup of tea when I get home." In passing
through the hall with a lighted lamp in my hand, I
noticed a ease with specimens of minerals and crystals
whieh sparkled. The next day I asked Mr. Candee
how long he had been colleeting. He said about six
years. I then and there made up my mind to see what
I eould do. I started right in to colleet and post
myself."
Father employed his spare time in colleeting
fossils, and as his work often required him to go out
along the roadbed through Waterloo and as far as
Sioux City, he soon had a representative collection
of the fossils of Iowa. When I was five years old
the three large cases in our front hall were already
filled with fossils and minerals, neatly worked out,
classified, labeled, and well arranged. How he man-
aged to do this at the same time he was earning a
living and raising a family, I do not know. But he
was never idle.
At this time, 1873, he joined the Masonic Lodge
No, 49, and at once became an enthusiastie Mason.
He worked in all three Dubuque Lodges, so that
members often inquired, "Which Lodge do you be-
long to?" The Masonic Lodge rooms were then at
5th and Locust Streets, and I believe the Engineer's
office was in the same building. He served in all the
minor offices and was eleeted Master of Metropolitan
Lodge in 1883 and served two terms. He took the
MASONIC JEWELS
Past Master's Jewel-Metropolitan Lodge No. 49
Past High Priest's Jewel-Dubuque Chapter No.3 RAM.
Royal Areh degrees in February, 1874, and served as
High Priest three years, 1887, 1888, and 1889. He
also attended meetings of the Grand Lodge and the
Grand Chapter, and received appointments in eaeh-
Senior Grand Deacon in 1885 and Grand Royal Areh
Captain in 1890. He also aeted as Thrice Illustrious
Master of Dubuque Couneil No.3 and conferred the
degrees on about seventy-five eandidates. He was
knighted in Siloam Commandery No.3 in October
1874, and served two terms as Commander. In addi-
tion, he served as Seeretary for the Chapter, Treasurer
of Metropolitan Lodge, and Recorder for Siloam Com-
mandery. He beeame a Shriner in 1888, and also a
member of the Scottish Rite the same year. In addi-
tion to all this he served as Secretary-Treasurer of
Freemason's Hall Association for twenty-one years.
The reeital of his Masonic activities takes thirty pages
of his book, and includes copies of his various cer-
tificates and his Scottish Rite parehment, illustrations
of his jewels for Past Master and Past High Priest,
as well as aecounts of various trips he and my mother
made to the Knight Templar Triennial Conclaves in
Chicago, Washington, New York, Boston, Denver,
Chieago again, and perhaps others.
Father had worked for the Illinois Central Rail-
road five years after coming to Dubuque (eight years
13
in all), when there was another ehange over the
entire system, and he received thirty days' notice to
find another job. He received a tip from a Masonie
friend that there was going to be a ehange made at
the Dubuque Cabinet Makers' Association, and he
might be able to get in there. He ealled on Mr.
Wunderlich, the President, and after a few minutes'
talk he was engaged to work as clerk and bookkeeper.
The eompany had just been incorporated, and my
father's first job was to set up a new set of books.
This he did, setting up a double entry system pat-
terned after what he had seen at the railroad com-
pany. Father applied himself to this new business
with his customary diligence, and learned it thorough.
ly, The business prospered until the depression years
of the 1890s. By this time Father had saved some
money and was able to buy up a controlling interest
in the business, whieh was then reorganized under
his leadership. In 1907 the term of ineorporation ran
out and, as most of the original stoek holders had
died, and their ehildren wanted their money out, my
father was appointed receiver, and finally purehased
the factory and the store. He later sold the factory,
and from that time the retail business was eonducted
under the name of R. Herrmann and Sons.
Father had three main interests in life: First,
his family, in whieh he took very mueh pride; second,
his Masonie work, into whieh he put so much effort
and from whieh he received great insipiration; third,
his Natural History Museum, with whieh he en-
deavored to teaeh reverence for God and for God's
Creations,
If I had to eharaeterize my father, I should recall
three main points: First, his enthusiasm for life in
general; seeond, his high respeet and patriotie feeling
for the country of his adoption; and third, his high
regard for both the Ameriean way and the Masonic
way of life.
Sequel to Autobiography of Richard Herrmann
As stated in the Foreword, the autobiography is "I am a medioerity" -eomparing himself to many ac-
mostly a running aeeounf of facts, oecurrences and quaintances who were eollege graduates; yet through
impressions, giving but little of his introspeetive enthusiasm, industriousness, and perseverance, he
thoughts. aehieved aeclaim for his Museum of Natural History,
The writer feels, therefore, that to give a better whieh he started about 1871, his areheological and
understanding of Riehard Herrmann's very full ad- historical work, and for his work in the Masonie
justment to life's many problems, and in partieular his Fraternity. All three of these hobbies he pursued
complete adjustment from the European to the Ameri- with eharaeteristic zeal and enthusiasm, while at the
ean way of life, a more personal aeeount, gained from same time tending to his business interests, and found-
the intimaey of family life, becomes fitting, This, the ing and giving first importance to his family, of whieh
more so, since I have heard my father say to friends, he was very proud.
Life in Dubuque, Iowa
The foregoing is a factual aecount of Riehard'
Herrmann's life up to the time that he arrived in
and beeame a permanent resident of Dubuque, Iowa,
about the year 1871. Shortly thereafter his mother and
four sisters sold out their millinery store in Centralia,
Illinois, and moved to Dubuque. They established
a new millinery store on Iowa Street near the corner
of Twelfth.
They soon became acquainted with and mingled
with the German-speaking people of the city. I am
not sure whether they made their home in the same
building, but it is evident from records, that Richãrd
did much of the aeeounting and paid many of the bills
for merehandise needed for the business. I have
records of several large bills for millinery goods pur-
ehased about September 1876 from the firm of Rich-
mond & Blake, who were at that time loeated at the
northeast eorner of Ninth and Main Streets in the
well-remembered stone front building with the eagle
perehed near the top. I have also several large bills
14
Richnwnd and Blake Building
James Levi Building-7th & Main
Dubuque, Iowa
for sueh goods purehased from Chicago houses dur-
ing the sueceeding months-among them D. B. Fisk
& Company and Gage Brothers Company, I also note
a bill dated November 14, 1876, from P. Klauer of
1236 Iowa Street for one No. 24 Diamond cook stove
for $24, and labor and materials for setting up old
heating stove, $5.45. I note also a bill from Phillip Pier,
of Fourth and Clay Streets, dated December 8, 1877,
for one-half ton eoal, $2.50, and one-half cord wood,
$2.50. Also I note several receipts from MeElrath &
Lenehan for street sprinkling at one dollar per
month. Taxes on the store merehandise for the years
1876 and 1877 were $7 and $5.50 respectively. Pur-
Brick Store Building 1643 Clay Street
Frame building moved from 7th & Clay
D. B. Fisk & Co. Building
Chicago, Ill.
ehases of millinery goods were made at this time
also from J. F. Steiner & Company, 552 Main Street;
James Levi & Company, 698 Main Street; and H. B.
Glover & Company, (Successors to Glover & Smoek)
at 744 Main Street, Coal was purehased from Charles
W. Ware, 817 Main Street.
I do not know the time or cireumstances of my
parents beeoming aequainted. It may have been that
some of the materials needed for Mrs. Theresa Herr-
mann's Millinery Shop were purchased from the
General Store of Mr. and Mrs. Christian Jungk, which
had been established in a two-story frame building
whieh during the 1850's and 1860's stood at Seventh
and Clay Streets. By the deeade of the Seventies the
Jungks had prospered and had aequired a three-story
briek double store building at 1643 Clay Street. The
original frame store building, in whieh my mother
was born, was moved to 1673 Clay Street, where it
stood until a few years ago.
It is surmised that Riehard Herrmann met Miss
Lina (Lena) Jungk while paying the bills at the
store. Or they may have met at Germania Hall, where
my father belonged to the Turnverein, a German
Soeiety for praeticing athleties. Suffice it to say that
a note in Father's diary at that time says, "Took two
young ladies to Germania Hall-had entertainment,
sandwiehes and coffee for three-the total bill eighty-
five cents!" I found a receipt dated August 3, 1877,
stating that Father bought for three dollars a skiff
from one Matthew Mint. So evidently he intended
to take the young ladies boating on the Mississippi.
My parents beeame engaged on February 22, 1877,
on the 25th wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs.
Christian Jungk. They were married one year later,
February 22, 1878.
I find among Father's receipts one from Ham &
Carver, Herald Steam Printing House, dated January
11, 1878, for one hundred wedding invitations and
envelopes, $8.; also one from Dubuque Telegraph
15
Company dated February 2, 1878, for a local notiee
three times for one dollar.
The wedding was held in the seeond-floor parlor
of the new briek store building at 1643 Clay Street,
the Reverend Dr. Joel Bingham, pastor of the First
Congregational Chureh, performing the ceremony.
This was followed by a grand banquet and ball. The
eounters had been removed from the store below,
and the shelves were neatly draped. The Germania
Band, with sueh talented musicians as Professor
Hoppe, Henry Wunderlieh, and Herman Tiseher dis-
coursed delightful musie. Miss EmmaJungk aeted as
bride's maid and Mr. Hugo Soltau as best man.
Over the bandstand at the end of the store was a
transpareney with eolored letters and lights inside
saying "Gluek dem Brautpaar" -freely translated:
"Best Wishes to the Bridal Couple." This transpareney
~ur ,.5 i LberflerL 'Í fÍ5o~j ~ it.
~ ?---;¡.- 18"77'
Silver Wedding Card-Mr. and Mrs, Christian Jungk
was made by Mr. C. V. Mos, who during the same
year married the groom's sister.
Among the guests were Mr. and Mrs. James Levi,
Mr. and Mrs. August Christman, Mr and Mrs. A.
Kaiser, Mr. and Mrs. C. V. Mos, Mr. and Mrs. William
Nollman, Mr. and Mrs. August Jungk, Mr. and Mrs.
Fred Herbst, Mr. and Mrs. Christ Vath, Mr. and Mrs.
Henry Wunderlieh, Mr. and Mrs. John Foerst, Mr.
and Mrs, C, Jaeobi, Mr. and Mrs. G. Schneider, and
many others. Many beautiful gifts of silverware were
reeeived.
Reverend Bingham expressed himself as highly
pleased: "For once," he said, "it is my privilege to
attend a genuine, old-fashioned wedding." Nor did
the neighborhood youth refrain from giving a rousing
eharivari. Both loeal newspapers gave the wedding a
very good write-up.
16
Silver Wedd' '..
mg Presents tor M
r, and Mrs, Ch' .
ristwn ]ungk
17
The society into whieh they entered was largely
German and they conversed ehiefly in their native
tongue, prefering it to English. After 1850 the large
eities of the Midwest from Pittsburgh through Ohio
and Illinois to St. Louis and upriver to Dubuque and
including Chieago and Milwaukee all had large Ger-
man populations. They were mostly skilled meehanies
and were industrious home builders, providing mueh
of the power beneath the growth of these sections.
I recall that as late as 1907 when I was working
as clerk for the Dubuque Cabinet Makers' Associa-
tion's retail store at 10th and Main Streets, about
every seeond or third eustomer would soon inquire
"Spreehen sie Deutseh?" (Do you speak German?)
I would reply that I didn't speak it but eould under-
stand it, I reeall that in my early years my grand-
parents spoke German exclusively, my parents speak-
ing either German or English as suited the oeeasion.
My grandparents endeavored to persuade us ehildren
to eontinue speaking German, but by the time we
reaehed sehoolage we preferred English.
I recall that at that time the Germans in Dubuque,
as elsewhere in the Midwest, were organized into
various soeial groups, sueh as the Turner Society
Card of Good Wishes
18
Card of Good Wishes with RAM. significance
whieh met at Germania Hall; the Saengerbund which
used to perform in a large hall at 22nd St. and Central
Avenue; the Military Band, most of whose members
were German; the Sehutzengelselschaft, an organiza-
tion for praetice shooting whieh met at the Shooting
Park on the Sageville Road. I remember as a small
boy being present at a German Day observance at
the Shooting Park and hearing the speaker of the day
exhort those present to speak German and emphasize
the best in their society. Now and then were heard
eries "Horeh, Horeh" (Hear, hear!).
Many Dubuque enterprises were managed by
German businessmen, One of the largest and best
known was the Dubuque Brewing and Malting Com-
pany, whieh eombined the brewery interests of
Messrs, Heeb, Glab, Sehmidt, Sehwind and others,
replacing their old plants with a magnificent up-to-
date one at Thirty-second and Jaekson Streets.
The Chicago Great Western Railroad, whose line
passed to the rear of this property had eonstructed
side traeks for convenient ear loading. I still have nos-
talgie memories (1900 to 1915) of the Dubuque Malt-
ing Company's numerous delivery wagons loaded with
barrels piled high in pyramid form and drawn by the
finest obtainable teams of Percheron horses. Also, I
remember that they used two electrie delivery trueks.
These were powered by storage batteries whieh per-
formed very well, carrying full loads about the city
19
(like-minded persons), all skilled in the arts of car-
pentry and eabinet-making and some in upholstery.
The Civil War was ended, and once more the people
turned to the normal pursuits of farming, trading,
manufaeturing and home-making. The fame of the
"fabulous riehes" to be made in Iowa and the Mid-
western states, had reaehed the East eoast and the
lands aeross the waters. As there had been deeades
of political unrest in Europe, and as letters arrived
from Ameriea telling of the freedom and opportuni-
ties to be found here, the fever of adventure spread
over the people and, as everyone seemed to be doing,
they left their homelands in large numbers and emi-
grated to Ameriea, "the Land of Opportunity."
Seemingly endless waves of immigrants eame to the
middle west during the 1850s and 1860s. Many, lured
by the discoveries of gold in California, made the
long, diffieult and hazardous journey overland to the
West coast. But here in Iowa and nearby states the
soil and climate proved good; transportation via the
Mississippi River and the Great Lakes, and by the
then building railroads moved their products to the
markets and brought general prosperity. By the sixties
substantial progress had been made and a midland
empire was coming into being. Between 1850 and
1870 many thousands of German immigrants flowed
into the Midwest to supplement the many English,
Irish and Duteh, who had preceded them. As the
Germans were mostly meehanies and builders, their
services were quiekly made use of by those already
here, and a rapid growth was made possible. The in-
flux of German population was most noticeable in
the Midwest, along the travel routes, the Ohio and
Mississippi Rivers, so the entire mid-eontinent from
Pennsylvania to St. Louis, Missouri, Chicago, Milwau
kee, and Iowa had a substantial proportion of Ger
man peoples.
Now in Dubuque, as eaeh year saw many nev
families coming in, to settle and make their ways, th,
eity was expanding, new homes were being built, nev
manufactures were needed, and opportunities fo:
work and growth were everywhere. It was in the..
cireumstances that this group of fourteen eabine
makers, seeing the need for furniture in many nev
homes, sought to join their skills in a eo-operative en.
terprise-a furniture faetory, I was told that man)
of the group had little cash to contribute, perhaps,
few hundred dollars; very few as mueh as $1000
Many worked out their shares of the partnership b)
working for periods without pay.
The first year was diffjeult, but there was ready
sale of their products at good prices, and every yea!
from 1868 on showed a profit, excepting only 1871.
when a disastrous fire at the Diekinson Sash and
Door Faetory, 10th and Jaekson Streets, spread to the
Cabinet Faetory aeross the street, burning it to the
ground. Immediately plans to rebuild were made. A
committee consisting of D. L. Wullweber, Henry
Wunderlieh, Herman Tiseher and John Stuber was
appointed to raise money. On January 23 and 24,
1871, a "Prize Concert and Ball" was held and
about fifteen hundred dollars was raised. The Ger-
mania Band played at this ball. A resolution of thanks
to the Germania Band and to the publie for their
liberal patronage of the eoncert and ball was passed.
A new building was ereeted and a new 12 x 18
eylinder engine was installed by Rouse & Dean, a
Dubuque eon cern.
The Report Continues
"In May '71 borrowed five thousand dollars from
R. Waller on trust deed on faetory, five years at ten
percent interest. Contraeted to rent store building at
79 Main Street, six years at thirteen hundred dollars
per year rent. Also bought from 1. L. Dickinson a lot
for a lumberyard for fifteen hundred dollars, bor-
rowed on mortgage from Mrs. Mengis.
"20 January, '74, received loan of two thousand
dollars from C. W. Bittman without note and without
interest, to help the business get baek on its feet. The
directors wanted to give him a note and ten pereent
interest, but he refused to take it. Then they voted
to send to his home a fine secretary and bookease,
but when it arrived at his home he sent it baekl
(Note: I believe this seeretary eventually beeame the
property of my father; see sketeh on pages 362-363
of his autobiography.) This book page 69.
"1 Oetober, '74, the boiler exploded and the en-
gineer, C. B. Freeman, and the fireman lost their
lives; great damage was done to the factory. A new
boiler installed, thirty-four flues, iron smoke staek,
twenty-six inehes diameter, fifty feet high, Fred Beyer
appointed as engineer.
"Sept, '76, C. W. and D. L. Wullweber sold their
stoek baek to the company, thirty-six hundred dollars
eaeh, taking it out in furniture to go into the retail
business. 20 June, '76, George Sehuler sold his stoek
to the eompany at seventy-five eents on the dollar,
same to be taken out in furniture at six percent off list
priee.
Other items noted in the twenty-five year report
may be listed briefly as follows:
"Jan. '77, committee of D. L. Wullweber, H. Wun-
derlieh, C. Jacobi, John Foerst, and Ceo. Sehneider
appointed to study plans for reorganization.
Apr. '77, D, L. and C. W. Wullweber sold back
their stoek.
June '77, the business was organized into a stock
eompany with the following officers: H. W. Wunder-
lieh, president and superintendent; C. Jacobi, secre-
tary and foreman: and John Stuber, traveling sales-
man. Riehard Herrmann employed as bookkeeper.
22
June '80, Riehard Heronann named seeretary. A Streets, their well-stoeked lumber yards, and their
lot south of the faetory was bought for a lumberyard. four-story briek double front retail store at 429 to
Jan. '81, moved to build on eorner of 10th and 437 Main Street. (This was in the MeCann Building,
White Streets. Committee appointed: H. Wunderlich, next to the Opera House at 4th and Main Streets.)
C. Jacob!, and Richard Heronann. . Also, they had attained a fine reputation for the
June 82, R,chard Herr:nann on board of d,rectors. quality of their furniture and a eorresponding growth
1887, new artIcles of mcorpor~tron. in trade, both wholesale and retail. Their territory
1890, C. Jacob, gave up hIs Job as foreman and hI th th t se d by the
G. Sehneider was appointed in his plaee." lwas roug Py e Csame as a now rve
nterstate ower ompany,
As maehinery in a furniture faetory must run at While the first twenty-five years saw steady
high speed, and as at that period few safety devices growth, the next deeade saw a gradual dec1ine due
were in use, from time to time serious aecidents oe- to various reasons and eireumstances; several periods
eurred. In February, 1895, Mr. Albert Leute was of business depression, inereased competition from
struek in the stomaeh by a board. He died later, pre- Eastern faetories, and a laek of eapital with whieh
sumably from the injury. The report makes no men- to purehase improved labor-saving maehinery all
tion of eompensation, had their effects. Also, many of the original stoek-
A most unfortunate aeeident befell a Mr, W, holders had died, leaving their shares in the business
Koenig. While working on a planing maehine his to ehildren who were not interested in investing,
arm beeame caught and was drawn into the planer, but rather in getting eash for their interests.
ehopping it into little pieces all the way to the Riehard Herrmann, with eharaeteristie optimism,
shoulder before the maehine eould be stopped. Al- had visions of eontinued growth of population in the
though there was great loss of blood, he reeovered and Midwest, and of eorresponding expansion of the
was alive at the date of the report. In one ease a furniture business. Aecordingly, he bought up the
boy working on a sandpaper maehine received a stoek of those who wished to saerifice theirs to get
slight injury to his fingers. His family sued for ten out their money, During the next seven years he
thousand dollars and eosts. A ehange of venue was aequired a majority of the stoek, and the direetors
taken to a eourt in Manehester, Iowa, where the eleeted him president in June, 1899. Under the
judge deeided that it was a ease of extortion and former management there had accumulated a large
threw it out of eourt. amount of indebtedness bearing ten percent interest.
From this report it is evident that the substantial During the first several years of his management he
growth of the business during the twenty-five years paid off a large part of these debts and replaced the
since its small beginning in 1867 was not attained remainder with lower interest-bearing notes.
without ups ad downs, through good times and bad, At this time my grandparents, Mr, and Mrs.
and the setbaeks incident to carrying on a manu- Christian Jungk, and my uncle, Herman Jungk, be-
faeturing business; but the report points with pride eame stoekholders, and my mother and her parents
to the fact that the "Dubuque Cabinet Makers' As- loaned money to the enterprise. My brother Oscar,
sociation has beeome 'one of the most solid furniture having graduated from high sehool in 1899, entered
faetories in the West:" And well they might take the business, and, being of. a meehanical turn of
pride in their three-story briek faetory and three-story mind, served a period of apprenticeship in the factory
briek warehouse at 10th and White and Jackson and soon was able to take the place of the foreman,
,/$ a;t:~ Æ-. ~M;d-C~--
BOUGHT OF
'~-~-~ DUBUQUE~ ~-~
,-.,
CJéJ'm.o.; "pt C{fJ/t óOfJaY,l
For I'Tmnpt payment inside J()lJnys
- -" -- - ):; nÙrount1nny be dtlduclPJ
Store and Factory Bldgs. from Billheads
23
~-
who wished to retire. My brother Arthur, graduating
from high school in 1901, also entered the business
and became shipping clerk at the retail store. My
own recollections of the business began in 1906 when
I also graduated from High School.
My first duties were to sweep the floors with an
oil broom and dust and polish the furniture on dis-
play. My starting pay was one dollar per day. Under
my brother's management the factory gradually gained
momentum. A number of improvements were mad
and some new maehinery was installed. Also, it w'
found neeessary to replace the boiler, as the old OD
was in dangerous condition. This was done by ¡}
Marshall Boiler Works at a eost of six hundT,
dollars. Electrie lights were installed in the faetory 1
John Stuber, grandson of John Stuber, Sr. This w:
to replace the dangerous oil and gas lamps and w:
a necessary improvement.
Recollections of the Factory
From here on the recolleetions are my own, al-
though the record of the discord among the stoek-
holders, whieh led to the final dissolution of the
Dubuque Cabinet Makers' Association in 1908, 'is
taken mostly from the terse but precise reeords of the
stockholders' meetings,
Father was very proud that he had put his three
sons through high sehool, and now that they were
with him in the business he had high confidence that
he could save this promising industry for Dubuque.
My mother had wanted me to go on to eollege, as
many of the young men of my class (1906) were
doing. I had done quite well in high sehool, graduat-
ing among the first ten in seholarship in the largest
class up to that time.
My progress had been greatly hampered by the
development of deficient eyesight. I was about half
way through high sehool before one of my teachers
prevailed upon my father to have me fitted with eye
glasses. It hurt father's pride to admit that one of
his sons was physically deficient in any way. I
remember that I had not been able to read the writ-
ing on the blaekboard from the front seats and often
had to ask the teaehers to read the examination
questions, I remember that after receiving my first
pair of glasses I went into the baek yard and looked
at our ehickens. They looked so bright and clean
cut!
Several of the men teachers called at the retail
store office at 10th and Main Streets to urge my
father to send me on to college, but as my two
brothers were already helping him in the business,
he wanted to treat us all alike and not give me an
advantage that the others didn't have, So I also en-
tered the furniture business; and from that time on
there existed among us brothers a gentlemen's agree-
ment that we would stiek with my father through
the difficult times ahead, regardless of personal pref-
erences.
My duties were in the retail store, sweeping
floors and dusting the furniture, and on oecasion
helping out in the shipping room. I also aeted as
messenger boy for my father, going to the factory
with written orders, or going to the bank with de-
posits. This was often several times a day. Father
believed in doing things promptly.
My Aunt Selma on a visit to her father in Saxor
when he was ninety-five years of age, wrote to r
father, "Now I know that eoffee is a slow-poisOl
he drinks eight eups a day and remains quite we!
He died during the next year.
Going over again to arrange his affairs, she Wf<
to Father, "Urgently need birth certifieates and de:
eertifieates of my two ehildren. I have booked p
sage home." Father went the same morning he
eeived the letter, to the sexton of the cemeter
seeured the certifieates and eabled the information
her just in time for her to settle affairs and take I
sage on the day planned.
So after eheeks were received in the morning m
he entered them upon the cash book and then m
up the deposit whieh I took to the bank at ab
10:00 A.M. If several more cheeks eame in the n
mail, I was sent to the bank a second time wit
deposit. My father had a theory about money mat
whieh I believe is still valid: that holding on to mo
slows up the eeonomy; and that if everyone paid I
promptly, money would cireulate faster and busi
would be improved. This reealls the old story al
a dozen men, eaeh owing the other a dollar tha'
thought he couldn't pay. Someone loaned a do
and eaeh paid the other until all were paid!
On payday, which for the faetory was every
weeks, my father would figure up the pay due'
of the workmen (the number varied from fort
seventy-five), marking the time and the pay de
eaeh on manila paper envelopes made for that
pose. Totaling them all, he would write a ehec1
the amount and send me to the bank to get
money, mostly gold pieces, in a eanvas bag. Com
this earefully on his desk board, the gold pieces, I
ly in five and ten dollars, were first plaeed in st
then inserted in the envelopes. After all were r,
these envelopes were placed in an empty env
box, and I was sent to the faetory with them, A
distance was over three blocks, and the tin
payday was well-known, I often wonder why]
never held up!
I would take the white box first to the shi
room, where Mr. Herman Kuenel, a second {
of my father, was clerk; then to the faetory, ,
I would thread my way past humming machir
24
my brother, the superintendent. He would take me to
each workman, we would find his envelope, and he
would receive it with a glad smile.
The pay those days for day work averaged about
$1.75 for a ten-hour day (6:30 A.M. to 5:30 P.M., with
an hour out for luneh). Some of the more strenuous
maehine jobs paid as mueh as $2.50 per day. Mueh of
the cabinet work and the finishing was done on a
piecework basis. I reeall that many of the envelopes
contained from twenty to thirty dollars for two
weeks' work. Strange to say, many of the workers had
managed to own their own homes and were satisfied
with their wages. There was not heard the grumbling
and the antagonism that one hears today. My own
pay soon went from six to ten dollars a week, where
it stayed a long time, as that was what some of our
skilled workers were getting,
My duties soon included waiting on retail eus-
tomers and doing some of the bookkeeping, also an-
swering the telephones (at that time there were two
telephone eompanies in Dubuque, the Bell and the
Iowa, so eaeh office had two phones). Many of the
calls were inquiries about deliveries or about custom
jobs being done in the faetory. As we had no tele-
phone in the factory, I had to tell the eustomer that
I would find out, whieh necessitated walking down
three bloeks to the faetory and eoming back with
the desired information.
Our retail trade had dwindled somewhat under
stress of eompetition, stores that advertised four
rooms completely furnished for $198 and on easy
eredit! Our business up to that time had been on a
eash basis, or on a thirty-day basis to well-known
customers. Mueh of our trade consisted of repairing,
refinishing, and upholstering. We had skilled, reliable
workmen, and we received such jobs from many of
the fine old homes in Dubuque. Among these people
our work was mueh appreciated, and they expressed
satisfaetion with both the quality of the work and
the eharges.
My father was well and favorably known to most
of the first families in Dubuque. He had an inquiring
mind, and often engaged in eonversation with the
older people, thus gaining much information about
our city's early history. Often customers would come
with requests for certain pieces of furniture to be
made to order. After ascertaining the particulars,
Father would pull out a piece of wrapping paper,
plaee it on his desk, and proeeed to make a pencil
drawing, making correetions as directed by the eus-
tomer. When the latter was satisfied with the drawing
and a rough estimate of the eost had been made,
Father would send it down to the faetory to be
made. As the drawing was not a blueprint or meehani-
eal drawing, but a simple drawing in perspective,
with overall measurements, one ean imagine what a
ehore it must have been to the superintendent £0
figure all the necessary sizes of the interior pieces, to
interrupt the regular work and proceed to get out
this special work in a reasonable length of time! My
brother often protested that this was an unprofitable
line of work, but Father persisted in trying to aecom-
modate eustomers.
I remember several attractive sideboards that were
made for the dining rooms of sueh customers as A. F.
Heeb, Tom Connolly, Tom Mulgrew, and A. F.
Byrne. Also, large orders for some of the Catholie
institutions, notably St. Francis Sisters, Visitation
Sisters, and Sisters of Charity, were produced during
the years 1905 to 1907. We also made some fine
leather upholstered ehairs and settees for the Du-
buque Club, then newly organized, for their building
at 9th and Locust Streets. Among these was a round
leather settee fitting around a supporting post. This
later became a model for several more whieh we
made for hotels in various places. Above the central
post was a wooden frame eontaining a number of
advertising panels. I still have a photo of one of
these whieh was ordered by the Telegraph-Herald
and sent by them to a hotel. The leather used was
No.1 top grain eowhide, and eurled hair was used
Round Leather Settee made for Dubuque Club Building
9th & Loeust Streets
for filling. Our skilled upholsterers were adept in
making the deep biscuit tufting, at once attractive
and comfortable. Among the special orders produced
were numerous orders for pattern pieces of wood
for the Connolly Carriage Works.
At that time we also received a number of orders
for special pieces used by the Benevolent Proteetive
25
LABOR STRIKE
"Seventeen and a Half Cents"
of the company's property with a view of settling
the affairs of the association as quickly as possible
and to the best advantage. Thereupon, after an ex-
change of legal notices by attorneys for the opposing
sides, Richard Herrmann applied to the court and
was appointed receiver of the corporation under ten
thousand dollars bond.
In compliance with the orders of the court a
receiver's sale was advertised in the local newspapers
the required number of times, and the public sale
was held October 13, 1908, Attorney Ceo. Kiesel act-
ing as salesman. The following gentlemen were
present at the sale: Judge D. J. Linehan, Ceo. Kiesel,
P. 1. Nelson, Richard Herrmann, Oscar Herrmann,
John Stuber, Jr., W. B. Baumgartner, Emil Hartig,
Henry Wunderlich, W. Manson, Herman Jungk, John
Adams, 1. C. Collier, and others. The entire property
was sold to Riehard Herrmann, he being the higheSt
bidder and subject to the approval of the court, as
follows:
Mdse in store and all fixtures and appli-
ances ......................................................$ 2,000.00
Book accounts yet unpaid, wholesale ð:
retaH ........................................................ 1,500.00
Real estate & personal property, factory
buHding, warehouse, six lots, machinery,
lumber, and all other material, barses, ð:
wagons """""""""""""""""""""""""" 17,000.00
Total ............................................$20,500.00
Shortly after the sale two young men, Austin C.
Waller and Henry G. Brandel, came to my father
and said that they had seen by the newspapers that
the faetory had been sold for $17,000. They said that
they were willing to pay somewhat more, My father
said that if they would offer enough more he would
be willing to release his ownership to satisfy the
stoekholders. After a conference with their attorneys,
they came next day with an offer of $20,000. My
father said, "All right, the property is yours." They
seemed anxious to close the deal. My father without
delay made out the necessary papers and cancelled
Going baek to the year 1907, wbüe Father had
to worry about the dispute with the stockholders as
to whether or not to continue the business, and
while the owners of the store building were demand-
ing more rent, there came a letter from the United
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America,
stating that the woodworkers in all the bubuque
faetories had been organized and hereafter would
work only nine hours a day at not less than forty
cents per hour, and enclosing a copy of their trade
rules applying to woodworking shops.
the 1D0rtgage which was largely to protect notes I
money which had been advançed by my mothE
folks. He received the check, $20,000, in fun payme¡
He immediately deposited this and then sent to eo
stockholder the amount dlle, making his report
the court. My father retained the retail store and t
accounts and took in my tWo brothers and myself
partners. Thereafter the retail furniture store w
continued under the name R. Herrmann and Sons.
The above-mentioned Messrs, Brandel and Wall
proceeded to convert the factory into one that won
turn out chairs in large numbers, similar to the cIu
factories in Sheboygan and Ft, Atkinson. As t1
warehouse which they had purchased Was fiI1ed wi
new furniture, they proceeded to dispose of this :
our former customers. With the ,proceeds they pi!
chased new machinery for chairrnakirig, disposû
of some of the old machines. We took a considerab
amount of the stock into our retail store, pa}'Ùi
theD! the regular wholesale prices. I take the fcJ
lowing notes from my father's minute book:
"I had not turned over the plant to them mOl
than folD' or five months when Mr. Waller camel
me and said that be and Mr, Brandel had had
a 'falling out' and could not get along togethe
that he had supposed that they were going in ,.~
equal .hazes or in proportion to the amount that ea<:
had invested in the enterprise. But now Mr., Bram ¡
demanded $6,000 sal8ry per anmmt, and CODSidere
Mr. Waller only as' a clerkship at a nominal ~
and furthermore, that be eould get that amount elsí
where; in fact had gone there already. As be was th
practical man, this left Mr. Waller helpless to run th
plant. Would not I take it off his handsP He wool;
be willing to lose $6,000 on it. 1 told him, 'No, $I
could not be done, as 1 had liistributed to each s1>arì!
balder his share of the money, which had sinĊ beeJ
investeJl elsewhere, and could not again be go~
together: "
In consequence, the building remained idle fori
long time. The warehouse at 10th and White Streeli
was later purchased and used by the Rhomberg FIji.
Company. j
;~
d
'ê
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and JoinenI
of America
Dubuque, Iowa, and East Dubuque, 1IIinois
March 2, 1
Cabinet Makers' Association
Dubuque, Iowa
Dear Sirs:
We beg leave to inform you that on and
April 1st, 1907, OlD' members will work only,
balD'S per day, and all work outside of the faètorý
28
of the eompany's property with a view of settling
the affairs of the association as quickly as possible
and to the best advantage. Thereupon, after an ex-
ehange of legal notices by attorneys for the opposing
sides, Riehard Herrmann applied to the court and
was appointed receiver of the eorporation under ten
thousand dollars bond.
In eompliance with the orders of the conrt a
reeeiver's sale was advertised in the loeal newspapers
the required number of times, and the publie sale
was held Oetober 13, 1908, Attorney Geo. Kiesel act-
ing as salesman. The following gentlemen were
present at the sale: Judge D, 1. Linehan, Geo. Kiesel,
P. J. Nelson, Riehard Herrmann, Osear Herrmann,
John Stuber, Jr., W. B. Baumgartner, Emil Hartig,
Henry Wunderlieh, W. Manson, Herman Jungk, John
Adams, J. C. Collier, and others. The entire property
was sold to Riehard Herrmann, he being the highest
bidder and subjeet to the approval of the eourt, as
follows:
Mdse in store and all fixtures and appli-
ances ......................................................$ 2,000.00
Book aecounts yet unpaid, wholesale &
retail ...........................................,......,..... 1,500.00
Real estate & personal property, faetory
building, warehouse, six lots, maehinery,
lumber, and all other material, horses, &
wagons ..........................,........,................ 17,000.00
Total..... ................,..............$20,500.00
Shortly after the sale two young men, Austin C.
Waller and Henry G. Brandel, eame to my father
and said that they had seen by the newspapers that
the factory had been sold for $17,000. They said that
they were willing to pay somewhat more. My father
said that if they would offer enough more he would
be willing to release his ownership to satisfy the
stoekholders. After a eonference with their attorneys,
they came next day with an offer of $20,000. My
father said, "All right, the property is yours:' They
seemed anxious to close the deal. My father without
delay made out the necessary papers and eancelled
the mortgage which was largely to protect note
money which had been advançed by my mot
folks. He received the check, $20,000, in full payt
He immediately deposited this and then sent to
stockholder the amount due, making his repo
the court. My father retained the retail store anI
accounts and took in my two brothers and mYR
partners. Thereafter the retail furniture store
continued under the name R. Hemnann and So
The above-mentioned Messrs. Brandel and VI
proceeded to convert the factory into one that "
turn out ehairs in large numbers, similar to the
factories in Sheboygan and Ft. Atkinson, Aß
warehouse which they had purchased Was £illed
new furniture, they proceeded to dispose of tIJ
our former customers. With the proceeds they
chased new machinery for chalrmaking, disp
of some of the old machines. We took a conside
amount of the stock into our retafl store, 111
them the regular wholesale prices, I take the
lowing notes from my father's minute book:
"I had not turned over the plant to th-
than four or five months when Mr. Waller caJ
me and said that he and Mr. Brandel had }
a 'falling out' and could not get along toØ
that he had supposed that they were gI)ing :
equal shares or in proportion to the amount that
had invested in the enterprise. But now Mr. B.
demanded $6,000 salary per annwn, and cons!
Mr. Waller only as a clerkship at a nomJøaI .
and furthennore, that he could get that amount
where; in fact had gone there already. Aß he WI
practical man, this left Mr. Waller helpless to ",
plant. Would not I take it off his hands? He ,
be willing to lose $6,000 on It. I told him, 'No
could not be done, as I had distributed to each :
holder his share of the money, which had sinĊ
invested elsewhere, and could not again be I
together.' "
In consequence, the building remained idle
long time. The warehouse at 10th and White S
was later purchased and used by the Rhomber¡
Company.
LABOR STRIKE
"Seventeen and a Half Cents"
Going baek to the year 1907, while Father had
to worry about the dispute with the stoekholders as
to whether or not to continue the business, and
while the owners of the store building were demand-
ing more rent, there came a letter from the United
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America,
stating that the woodworkers in all the Dubuque
factories had been organized and hereafter would
work only nine hours a day at not less than forty
cents per hour, and enclosing a eopy of their trade
rules applying to woodworking shops.
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Join<
of America
Dubuque, Iowa, and East Dubuque, Illinoi
March 2
Cabinet Makers' Association
Dubuque, Iowa
Dear Sirs:
We beg leave to inform you that on and
April 1st, 1907, our members will work only
hours per day, and all work outside of the faèl>
28
be eight bours per day and at not less than forty cents
per hour.
Enclosed 1 send you a copy of "Trade Rules"; see
last page, covering rules in shops where our members
work.
Trusting our request will meet with your approval.
We remain
Your very respectfully,
R. Fuelle
C.D.C.
Well do I remember, as I went into the factory
one moming, the guilty look on the faces of the work-
men, as I came in and found that instead of working
they were standing in groups and talking. I also re-
member overhearing the discussion that afternoon
as a, delegation of the workmen came to see Father
at the store office, The discussion went something
like this:
- Father: "Aren't you men satisfied with your pay?
Haven't 1 paid you well?"
No answer.
Father: "What is it that you men want?"
One of the men (the spokesman): "You've run us
long enough. Now we want something to say."
Father: "Well, 111 turn the factory over to you.
I'll sell it cheap."
Negative answer.
Father: "If 1 am going to pay the bills, 1 ought
to have something to say about running it, shouldn't
I?"
No answer.
My two brothers and a Jewish cabinetmaker by
the name of Wolf Berkowitz, together with several
cabinet makers who were on piece work, continued
working and finishing partially completed pieces.
The finishers also stayed on the job as well as the
shipping clerk who was thus able to ship out sueh
pieces as were on hand or were then completed. So
a process of gradual liquidation was begun.
The strike eontinued for six months at the very
time that the minority stock holders were pressing
for a windup of the business. The woodworkers in
seven Dubuque woodworking plants were organized
by Mr. R. Fuelle of the Brotherhood of Carpenters
and Joiners of Ameriea. 1 am not sure whether any of
these firms eomplied with their demands, But the
strike eontinued for six months, after whieh time Mr.
Fuelle abruptly left Dubuque, his pay as an organizer
having been cut off.
With the final windup of the affairs of the Du-
buque Cabinet Makers' Association, a firm which had
contributed to the life and prosperity of Dubuque
for a period of forty-two years, and with the eourt's
approval of my father's two-year term as receiver,
my father and all of the family felt a great relief.
Father did not take lightly his responsibility to the
stoekholders, nor bis responsibility to the workmen.
He always looked upon his position as employer as
one of eo-operation in a very worthwhile enterprise.
He never eonsidered that his own compensation or
that of any of us should be greater for a given piece
of work than would be that of a worker in the faetory.
The workers sensed this attitude and were always
loyal and eooperative.
Although it was a great disappointment to see his
dreams of eontinuing and expanding the business
eome to nought, he felt reassured that the retail store
earried on by himself and his three sons under the
name R. Herrmann and Sons would eventually ful-
fill his ambition and afford a sufficient creative
outlet.
We Build a Boat
Having recited my father's experiences as an
employee of the Illinois Central Railroad, and of the
Dubuque Cabinet Makers' Association, as a stock-
holder and as a director, and finally as the president
of said organization, and of the rise and fall of his
dreams of keeping this promising industry alive and
going, I shall now turn attention to other facts of his
life: his family, his avocations and times of relaxa-
tion, his hobbies; of life in the "Gay Nineties" and the
first decade of this century; of the war years; of his
Masonic activities; and of his later years.
Of his family life let me say first that it was very
happy throughout his life, his optimistic and en-
thusiastic nature carrying him through good times
and bad. The succeeding decades were ones of
comparative rest and relaxation.
About the year 1906 my brother Arthur conceived
the idea of building a pleasure boat for use on the
Mississippi River. Aecordingly, he sent to a boat
supply eompany for plans, The following winter saw
the beginnings materialize, and within the sueceeding
year the boat was built.
The faetory at that time was running well, with
my older brother as superintendent. He supervised
the eutting and assembling of the heavy oak parts
of the keel, which was twenty-six feet long and was
in several pieces firmly bolted together. This was
done during the winter in some upstairs rooms whieh
my grandmother had then vaeated to live in a more
modern apartment.
In the springtime the keel was taken outside into
our baek yard where it was propped up on supports,
and the oak ribs whieh had been eut and bent in
the faetory were firmly attaehed. The next step was
to apply the redwood planking. This was a most
diffieult task, as the boat was to be eanoe-shaped,
29
Boat Under Construction.
with not a straight line in it. This was performed by
attaehing one end of the three-inch wide planks
to the rib at one end, then applying twisting pres-
sure with iron clamps from one rib to the next,
gradually eonforming the plank to the shape of the
boat. My brother Arthur worked all spring and sum-
mer at this job and finally eompleted the hull.
Brother Osear furnished from our faetory the deek
planking, the steam-bent eombing of oak 1 x 12 ineh
boards bent to form the eoekpit. Also he had turned
out about fourteen oak stanehions with whieh to
support the canopy top, as well as the oak spindle
steering wheel.
The Rosalie
Then they installed the engine, a two-eylinder,
two-cycle engine manufaetured loeally by the Sehep-
pele Motor Company, In the installing of the engine
upon heavy wooden bloeks, and the installing of the
transmission and the rudder, Oscar was of great
help. Finally the boat was painted and the oak parts
finished in spar varnish.
When all was ready it was transported to the
river and launehed, and was then ehristened the
"Rosalie," in honor of our sister Rosalie. Father
was enthusiastie about the boat and was always glad
to go on eruises and on fishing trips. For many years
our family enjoyed the pleasures of boating upon
the Mississippi.
Pleasure Boating on the Mississippi-
Trip to Peoria, Illinois
My brother Arthur and I joined the Dubuque
Boat Club, whieh was then a thriving organization.
In July of 1910, Arthur and I decided to join in a
long eruise down the Mississippi to Alton, Illinois, and
up the Illinois River to Peoria, where a big regatta
was being held. (I have written a separate aeeount
of this trip,)
Commodore Ede'. Boat.
The eruise was organized and eommanded by
Commodore St. Claire Ede, who with his beautiful
new ship, the "Elator IV," led the way. We had our
boat, the "Rosalie," paeked and furnished with a
very small ice refrigerator (it was a hot summer),
and ready to start at eight o'cloek on the morning of
June 25th, 1910. The "Elator IV" wasn't ready to
start for about two hours, so we went on ahead. Ar-
riving at Bellevue, Iowa (twenty four miles by river)
at noon, we stopped for luneh. We visited Mr.
Hughey's boathouse and saw the "Red Top II," a
thirty-five foot mahogany speedboat whieh was being
readied to eompete in the races at Peoria, Illinois.
Its eight-eylinder, 250 horsepower engine required
extra supports to be put into the boat's bottom. We
saw also Mr. Kelso's "Comet," a twenty-foot speed-
boat driven by a 110 horsepower engine.
30
Again starting down river, we reaehed Savanna,
Illinois, by six o'cloek and stopped off for supper.
The "Elator IV" eaught up with us there and went
on ahead. We started after it, but as our boat was
slower, we had diffieulty in keeping it in sight. We
had no ehannel ehart, as they did on the Elator, so
as it beeame dusk, we lost our way and went into a
side slough. However, we managed to get baek to
the ehannel without mishap. Besides the ehannel
chart, the Elator had the advantage of having its
pilot house high above the water, from whieh a
mueh better perspeetive of the river was to be had.
The "Elator" stopped and waited for us to eateh up,
then landed on the west shore for the night.
After we had made our boat fast and had put
up a mosquito bar around our eanopy top and had
got our beds ready, we were asked to eome on board
the Elator IV. Mr. O. D, Collis, who was aeeompa-
nying Mr. Ede on the eruise, introduced us to the
ladies aboard (Mrs. Collis and Misses Mary Collis,
Mary Domenig and Lucy Domenig), after whieh we
sat talking on deek while Mr. Ede played the auto
piano down in the eabin. The rieh tones of the piano
sounded partieularly beautiful upon the river.
We were awakened next morning by fish jumping
near the boat. We dressed, ate breakfast, and ex-
pected to make an early start ahead, as we did not
wish to delay the Elator by our slower movement.
Before starting out, however, Arthur decided to
make an adjustment of the alignment of the trans-
mission shaft, whieh seemed to be heating some. He
slipped two pieces of metal sheeting under the
engine base and proceeded to tighten the bolts with
a large monkey wreneh. Then we heard a eraek and
noticed that the base plate of the engine had eraeked.
This east down our spirits a good deal, as we feared
we would not now be able to run at full speed for
fear of shaking the engine loose, We ran slowly un-
til we reaehed the bridge at Lyons, Iowa, just above
Clinton. Passing the long bar between Lyons and
Clinton, we were several times unsure of where the
channel was and touehed the bar in several places.
We were glad when the Elator passed us so we eould
follow her, A few miles below Clinton the Elator
anchored for breakfast and told us to run ahead,
Passing us again, Mr. Ede, wishing to reaeh Bur-
lington in time to meet another boat there, ran quite
fast, and we again had trouble in keeping up. Our
engine began to misfire oecasionally, whieh sounded
to me like knoeking inside. Luekily the craek in the
base seemed not to affect it.
Near Cordova, Illinois, the Elator stopped, and
when we had eaught up, Mr. Ede told us to tie our
boat along side his, as we were soon to enter the
rapids at LeClaire, and we could in this way be
piloted through as one boat. Starting our engines,
Mr. Collis eame and said they eould plainly hear
that one of our eylinders was not firing properly. He
advised us to clean the spark plugs and to feed less
gasoline. We did this, after whieh our engine ran
better.
As thc boats were now lashed together, it was
not necessary for me to steer, so I elimbed aboard the
Elator and enjoyed the view from its pilot house.
As Mr. Ede had engaged a professional pilot to take
us through the fifteen miles of rapids above Daven-
port, Iowa, we eould give attention to the scenery.
On the Iowa side we saw the Inter Urban ears
running between Clinton and Davenport. Next we
saw the immense Bettendorf Car Truek plant. On
the Illinois side we saw the square tower on the
grounds of the Arsenal at Roek Island, the historie
Davenport house, and the heavily-built bridge be-
tween Roek Island and Davenport. Spending only a
little time here and wishing to make up as mueh time
as possible, we decided to leave our boats lashed
together, with engines of both running at full speed.
We went baek oeeasionally to look after the engines.
Now from the deek of the Elator we could enjoy the
sights as we passed several small picturesque towns:
Buffalo and Fairport, Iowa, and Andulusia, Illinois.
Leaving Davenport in the distance, we passed
the flatlands above Museatine, Iowa, where potatoes
and onions are raised in quantity. We were unable to
reaeh Burlington that day, as in mid-afternoon a
menacing storm eame up and forced us to land for
a while. We went on again until dark and anehored
on the Iowa side above Burlington. Arriving in Bur-
lington next morning we were told that Dr. and Mrs.
Dixon and son and daughter had already left on their
stern wheel boat, the "Lad." We ehugged along all
day, passing the Penitentiary buildings at Fort Madi-
son, and eame to Keokuk in late afternoon. We en-
tered the eanal and loeks, skirting the rapids (this
was before the great dam and power plant were con-
strueted there). Entering the second loek, we found
the Lad tied up there. Mr. Dixon introduced us to
his family and showed us about his pleasure boat,
which had a stern paddle wheel and was propelled by
a one-eylinder Diesel engine of eonsiderable power.
Passing through the loeks, his pilot, Captain Wil-
liamson, led the way and soon was far ahead. As it
was beeoming dark, Arthur and I had diffieulty in
following, and soon got into a side solugh where we
grounded upon some roeks, Arthur tried to push us
off, using a long pike pole, but we still stuek fast.
Captain Williamson and Mr. Ede and Mr, Collis
eame up in a rowboat to see what the trouble was,
Mr. Ede and Mr. Collis soon stripped off their clothes,
and swimming under the boat, lifted it off. They
made fun of us for not having done likewise, and
asked us whether we were afraid of getting our
pants wet. I am not sure that either of us eould swim.
Mr. Collis, in view of the fact that we had
touehed some bars whieh the Elator had passed
over easily, was interested to know how big a skeg
we had on our boat. When he reaehed under water
and found it, he said it was big enough for the
31
Steamer Dubuque. It was this skeg, however, whieh
prevented our hull from getting a severe pounding
upon the roeks.
Having tied up for the night near LaGrange,
Missouri, we went up into the town and found a
earnival in progress, but we didn't stay long. Next
morning early we started out again and soon reached
Quincy, Illinois, one of the ports of the Diamond Jo
Packett Line. We saw their large freight houses on
the riverfront. Leaving Quiney, we soon passed Han-
nibal, Missouri, the former home of Mark Twain.
By late afternoon we reaehed the mouth of the Illi-
nois River at Grafton, Illinois. Grafton is about
twenty miles from Alton, Illinois, and about forty
miles above St. Louis, Missouri. Here we met a dele-
gation of boaters from St. Louis, who also were bound
for the regatta at Peoria. The fleet of boats started
out together to go up the Illinois River, but our slower
boat was soon outdistanced and we had to pick our
way in the unfamiliar waters.
Arthur got confused by the reverse position of
buoys on going up river. We got eaught on a dam
and broke one fluke of the propeller, but proceeded
at slow speed with an annoying thump, thump, pun-
ing up at evening, Mr. Collis swam under our boat
and replaced the broken propeller. At Beardstown we
met more boaters from St. Louis enroute to Peoria.
We next stopped at Havana, Illinois, and Quiver
Beaeh for some good swimming and a meal at the
restaurant. We eame into Lake Peoria shortly after
noon on a hot day, (July 3rd) escorted by many
boats (loeal and visiting), and pulled in at the Boat
Club dock where a crowd of people was assembled.
The Regatta on Lake Peoria
A fine wide course was laid out on the lake.
Among the speed boats were the twenty-foot Kelso
Comet of Bellevue, and Mr. Hughey's thirty-five-foot
mahogany speed boat, whieh on eurves threw a
"rooster tail" of spray from twenty to thirty feet into
the air. A boat with a Stanley Steamer engine had
great speed, but broke down before the finish of
the race, Both boats from Bellevue broke world
reeords at the time.
Mr. Ede and Mr. Collis sueceeded in having
Dubuque named as the next meeting place for the
regatta. Next day we took time to visit Starved Rock,
Illinois, and elimbed to the top of the rock and took
photos of the boats below.
We returned home via the Hennepin Canal,
going through thirty-one loeks; in some places the
eanal erossed ravines in eement troughs, I have a
photo of the entire group at one of these interesting
places. We passed nearby Oregon and Milan, Illinois,
and came out at the canal and loek at Moline, Illi-
nois. Mr. Ede had a banner placed on his boat,
advertising the Regatta at Dubuque in 1911.
Regatta at Dubuque in 1911
Mr. Ede and Mr. Collis took the matter before
the Dubuque Boat Club whieh at that time was a
thriving organization. (This was before automobiles
were available to any but the wealthy.) Committees
were appointed and great preparations were made.
Invitations were sent out up and down the river and
far and wide. Grandstands were erected on a river-
bank south of the Harbor. A triangle course was laid
out from below the High Bridge to near Rock Cut.
The night before the Regatta Arthur and I had
our boat deeorated with pennants, and went up to
Cassville to escort visiting boaters to Dubuque. We
all arrived at Dubuque Harbor around noon, amid
great turmoil of boats and a crowd of onlookers at
the harbor. The Regatta drew a large erowd. Thè
waters in our harbor and along the shores on both
sides of the river were ehurning with the rushing
to and fro of hundred~ of small eraft, Of the racing;
boats, ehief interest centered on Mr, Hughey's 35-
foot mahogany speedboat and Mr. Kelso's 20-foot
Comet, eaeh of whieh took first plaee in its class.
Other Interesting Boat Trips
One year in July the 'Rosalie' went on a long
and interesting trip to Minneapolis. Among the high
points of the trip were erossing Lake Pepin, and a side
trip up the St. Croix to Taylor Falls, I stayed home
to take eare of the store, while Osear, Arthur, Robert
Jungk, Frederiek Jungk, Edgar Wieland, and Lester
Diek enjoyed this outing. They wituessed some fisher-
men hauling in a big net. Among the fish eaught
was a shovelbill whieh Oscar took home, skinned
and stuffed. It is now in the Museum.
We enjoyed many family trips on the 'Rosalie,'
including one to Galena with about fifteen aboard.
We went up the Fever River and landed at the
Loek in Galena.
There were many fishing trips, some upriver (be-
fore the General Pike Loek and Dam was built),
but more southward, around Frentress Lake, Nine
Mile Island, and sloughs south of Nine Mile Island.
Sometimes fishing was poor; sometimes good, often
tempting us to stay late and eome up to the harbor
after dark. I was often pilot, and was glad to see
the are light at the top of our 250-foot high Court
House. I also looked for the cottonwood tree on the
Molo property at the mouth of the harbor.
I remember one fishing trip taken by Father,
Uncle Robert, Osear, Arthur, and myself late in
November to one of our favorite fishing spots near
an island on the Illinois side below Nine Mile Island.
The day was clear and cool, but turned windy during
the afternoon, beeoming a stiff breeze by evening.
We kept fishing until quite late. When ready to start
for home, we discovered that the boat had sprung
a leak from the action of the waves against the
roeky shore. We tried to bale it out but the water
eame in faster than we could bale. It was beeoming
dusk, and the prospect of having to stay there over-
night loomed. We sounded our siren for some time
before a fisherman near the distant opposite shore
deeided that this was a distress signal and eame over
32
to inquire. He took us over to the Iowa side about
a mile below Massey Station. After telephoning home
that we were delayed, we started walking up the
railroad traeks. It was a six-mile hike to Dubuque.
We arrived home very late and tired. Next morning
Arthur and Osear secured the services of a local
boatman who went down with them to endeavor to
bring the damaged boat up to the harbor, The storm
had proved to be a wintry blast, and they found the
boat eovered with icicles from the spray. After stuff-
ing the hole with padding, the boat was secured and
towed up to Dubuque, arriving late in the afternoon.
Another interesting trip was up the Platte River
(Grant County, Wiseonsin), whieh enters the Mis-
sissippi about six miles above Eagle Point. We found
that when the stage of water was at twelve feet it
was deep enough to enter this stream under a trestle
of the C. B. & Q. Railroad, but low enough to get
under without striking the bridge with the 'Rosalie's'
eanopy top. We made this trip several times under
these eonditions, going up several miles and stopping
where the highway erosses the Platte. It was usually
in June. We passed some farms of rieh bottomland on
whieh tobacco was grown.
At another time we entered the Platte with a small
aluminum boat belonging to my Uncle Robert. The
party consisted of Frederiek Jungk, Lester Diek, Ed-
ward Sehneider, and myself. As it was evening when
we entered the Platte, we pitehed eamp, erected a
shelter, eaught a few sunfish for supper; then retired
and fought mosquitoes until morning. In the morn-
ing we found that the boat engine had developed
some trouble, so we had to telephone home and
have Arthur eome up with the 'Rosalie' to tow us
home.
During the first years our entire family was usual-
ly aboard the 'Rosalie' for a Sunday afternoon eruise.
Often we met sternwheel raft boats and exeursion
boats, sueh as William Windom, Sidney, Quiney,
Dubuque, St. Paul, and would bob up and down the
rather high waves which would follow their wake for
some time. Our boat, being eanoe-shaped, had a
tendeney to roll baek and forth, whieh made my
mother and Rosalie quite nervous. (My mother had
lost two older brothers by drowning while they were
yet very young.) Later our boating was eonfined
ehiefly to fishing trips, and the party usually was
composed of men folks, including my father, and
sometimes our uncles and cousins. Father always
enjoyed these trips.
The Dubuque Boat Club often had picnies which
featured a pienie dinner, followed by boat races,
On several oeeasions the 'Rosalie' participated in
these races for eanopy-top pleasure launehes. My
father was usually on board, and I remember at
least once we won first prize in our class, a faet
whieh pleased father very mueh.
Over a long period of years we eontinued to use
the boat, making necessary repairs during the winter
and early spring. During the late summer and early
fall months, we were pretty sure to be found on the
river with the boat. For about thirty years we never
failed to spend the Labor Day weekend fishing and
eamping on the river.
Reminiscenses of Life in the Gay Nineties
As I look baek on the life not only of our family
but of the entire community, I should say that the
happiest times were in the period known as the
"Gay Nineties" and the first decade of the 20th
Century. True, we laeked most of the material ad-
vantages, the improvements, the gadgets, the labor-
saving inventions now eonsidered essential to a ful-
filling life, But there were eompensations, and only
those who have lived through this period ean realize
the truth of this statement.
In the first place, laeking many present day labor-
saving devices, everybody was kept very busy just
in making a living. I recall that although our ~ity
was mueh smaller then, the traffie on the streets and
in the stores seeemed, if anything, heavier than that
of today. The traffie was horse-drawn, and moving
mueh more slowly than automobiles, kept the streets
full and cluttered with every type of earriage, buggy,
farm wagon; heavy freight wagons and even street
ears were horse drawn.
Dubuque at that time was not only a shopping
city but a jobbing center of large proportions. These
jobbers supplied merehandise of every kind to the
stores in the smaller towns and crossroads stores. This
was before the advent of large mail order stores
whieh are now centered in only a few of the largest
cities. Farmers could eome to Dubuque or to the
stores in the smaller towns to purchase their needs.
I reeall that for farmers living perhaps ten miles
out, the trip to Dubuque was an all-day affair.
Many of these farmers had on their property hard-
wood trees whieh they would eut during the winter
months, pile in neat piles to dry a season before haul-
ing to Dubuque to sell. Usually the wagon was loaded
with a cord or more of wood and everything made
ready for an early start to town. In the morning the
team of horses was fed and hitehed. Up front, under
the wagon seat, were placed baskets of butter, eggs,
and other saleable produce,
The trip to Dubuque and then to the wood market
would eonsume an hour or two, and by the time the
wood and the farm produets were sold and some
time was spent in eonversation, it would be noon.
There were numerous establishments where you eould
park and feed and water the horses while you had
your noon meal. There were also numerous blaek-
smith shops where horses were shod and harness
shops where necessary items eould be purehased.
Then from the proceeds of the morning the farmer
and his wife eould shop the stores for merehandise
of whieh they were in need. This being accomplished,
they made the trip baek, arriving home in time to do
the ehores and eat the evening meal.
33
Many nostalgic memories of Union Park also eome
to mind: the evening band concerts; the well-lit paths
winding through the valley past various rustie build-
ings; the large amphitheatre upon whose immense
stage many theatrieal and musieal productions were
performed; the large cave on a hilltop (remnant of
the ice age), perhaps two hundred feet long, with
eleetrie lights strung along its high domed ceiling.
This Old World type park was maintained for a
number of years by the Union Eleetric Company,
and no little attraetion was the streetear ride out the
Sageville Road, then turning left and winding through
the valley-with tree-eovered hills about a mile.
One of the big annual events was the Sunday
Sehool Pienie every year in June, beginning in the
morning with a parade down Main Street with many
beautifully deeorated floats. All Protestant ehurches
participated, and at the Park it beeame a great
eommunity pienie.
Float for Sunday School Parade, 1925
The War Years-World War 1-1914-18
Looking baek over the period known as the 'Gay
Nineties' and the first decade of the 20th Century-
the 'Horse and Buggy days,' if you please-the time
when workmen were craftsmen, having learned their
trades and served their apprenticeships; when a
stone mason eould lay a foundation that would not
settle; a brieklayer, a wall with the bricks all even
and in line; a carpenter could set up walls that
were plumb and square and floors that were level;
a tinner could solder joints that would not leak; a
period when people took time to do things right-
these were the happiest times of our lives, the Golden
Age of real prosperity and happiness.
In America agrieulture was still the dominant
industry. The United States had built up a wonder-
ful network of railroads enabling coal and iron
produets to be freely shipped, and the steel industries
to develop, Europe was still dominant in manu-
faetures, trading mueh of these for our surplus food
produets.
In Europe keen rivalry for markets developed.
Aggressive salesmen carried their produets all over
the world. Colonial empires developed. Most of
Afriea was divided between Britain and France, with
Germany and Portugal demanding a share of terri-
tories. South America was likewise divided, with
Spain retaining a dominant interest.
These rivalries for trade territories were bolstered
with military buildups and growing naval forces. I
reeall that during the first deeade of the 20th cen-
tury, serious efforts were made by the dominant
military countries, England, France, and Germany,
to limit their naval eonstruetion. Great rivalry for
foreign trade existed among them and the military
establishments were jealously watched. Comparisons
of the respective naval strengths were frequent items
of news.
I remember that in the first deeade a certain
minor military officer in Germany published a book
in whieh he predicted a World War and aeeurately
predicted the lineup of Axis and Allied powers-
even to say that Italy would line up first with the
Axis and later withdraw. This officer was reprimand-
ed for publishing the book without permission. After
a quarter of a century of eomparative peace, late in
August 1914 the war broke, as out of a clear sky,
I shall not detail the various incidents, starting
with the assassination of Areh Duke Ferdinand.
Rather, I shall try to deseribe its impaet upon the
large German population of middle United States.
At the outset the greatest aetivities in the diplo-
matie departments of the principals, England, France,
Russia, Germany, Austria, and Italy, were directed
toward proving that their enemies were to blame for
starting the war. Numerous traets were printed,
white papers, blue papers, gray books, ete., all en-
deavoring to prove that their opponents started the
war. The very intensity of these efforts, the suppres-
sion of news, and censorship, easts a measure of doubt
as to the truth of the various statements.
I remember the suppression in the United States
of a booklet published, relating the experiences of
Fritz Kreisler, the well-known violinist. He was called
to the front in the Austrian army. He relates how
poorly prepared they were, and how their soldiers
had to mareh several days at forced mareh before
reaehing the Russians, who were then well within
the boundaries of Austria. A few copies of Kreisler's
36
book were distributed, but soon it was ruthlessly
suppressed.
At first President Woodrow Wilson avowed for
the United States a strietly neutral poliey. But Eng-
lish was the dominant language of our eountry. The
closely intertwined financial interests centering in
New York and London, and a large measure of
English control of the United States press gave a
strong Allied bias to the news. However, a large
proportion of people of German origin in the mid-
continent areas were skeptieal. They looked upon the
war as a eonspiraey to destroy the German ability to
compete in foreign trade. While the press of the
country was almost unanimously biased, several large
newspapers in the Midwest, notably the Chicago
Tribune, endeavored to present the news in a more
neutral manner.
Great efforts were made to get the United States
to enter the war on the side of the Allies. President
Wilson won re-eleetion to the presidency on the slo-
gan: "He kept us out of war." Soon after entering
upon his seeond term he began to yield to British
pressure, and made various proclamations referring to
the 'Freedom of the Seas.'
As the extremely bloody war had come to a
praetieal stalemate, and the Axis powers, eompletely
surrounded by enemies, were fighting for their very
existence, the struggle finally depended upon the
German submarine forces destroying the shipping of
war munitions from Ameriea. President Wilson made
various proclamations restrieting the right of sub-
marines to attaek unarmed U. S. vessels. As the
attaeks continued, some of the vessels were armed,
giving them, in Axis eyes, the status of war vessels.
The final aet whieh precipitated U. S. entry into
the war was the sinking of the S. S. Lusitania, This
fine British passenger ship left New York with a
large passenger list and a cargo of war munitions.
Before embarking every passenger received a tele-
gram warning that the vessel was earrying muni-
tions and would be sunk. Nevertheless, they went
ahead. As the vessel neared Southhampton it was
torpedoed by a German submarine with large loss
of life.
This stirred up a tempest of rage against the Axis
powers. A declaration of war was prepared and
rushed through Congress, with only a few dissenting
votes by senators and congressmen whom President
Wilson called "a little group of willful men." Among
them was Senator Robert La Follette of Wiseonsin.
He published a magazine under his own name in
whieh he presented his views, which coincided with
those of many of his eonstituency,
After the declaration of war the Midwest popu-
lation of German descent was ruthlessly suppressed
by the press and by organized groups of vigilantes.
Feelings ran high, many believing that this country
should have stayed out of the war; yet for the most
part people were law-abiding, and but few spoke
out publicly. Those who did were apt to have their
homes or their store fronts painted yellow.
Those newspapers whieh were printed in the
German language were of necessity very restrained
in presenting their views of the war news and of
international polities. I still have nostalgie memories
of a serial letter which had been running for a lon~
time in The National Democrat, a German language
newspaper of Dubuque whieh was established in
1859 by a Mr, Gniffke and was eontinued by his
son, Henry Gniffke. The serial mentioned was a
weekly letter by a fietitious 'Mr. Phillip Sauerampfer.'
It eonsisted of a jargon of English, German, and Low
Duteh. During these trying times Mr. Sauerampfer
went to Washington, D. C. to see President Wilson
to try to influence him to pursue a more neutral
poliey. The humor was largely wasted exeept for
those whose knowledge of the various languages
allowed them to appreciate the subtle interplay of
words.
I cannot refrain from telling of one incident
when the news arrived about the sinking of the
Lusitania. A well-known young man, a doetor from
a family of refinement, having business at our furni-
ture store, started to argue with Mr. Herrmann the
pros and eons of the sinking of the Lusitania, and
beeoming very angry shouted, "The Kaiser is a S.
O. B," "Well," replied Mr. Herrmann, "he is the
grandson of your sainted Queen Victoria." With
that, the young man stormed out of the office! But
I faney I could later hear him say to his frien<1s,
"Boy! Did I ever get a setbaek today from Mr.
Herrmann!"
There followed the drafting and recruitment of
soldiers. Excitement ran high! After short periods
of training they were marehed down Main Street to
the various railroad depots to depart for the war,
While there was mueh shouting and jollity, many an
older person, including my father, had tears in their
eyes, knowing that many a young man would no't
eome baek.
The Axis armies were at the gates of Paris, which
eame within reaeh of their "Big Bertha" guns. The
pressure of the hordes of Russian soldiers on the
Eastern front had been broken down by tremendous
bombardments with what were deseribed as "train-
loads of shells." The extremely hard fighting for
sueh key positions as Verdun and Ypres on the
English Channel produced easualty lists running
daily to many thousands, sometimes 20,000 to 30,000,
In this situation the Ameriean forces, poorly pre-
pared but with high spirit, were rushed in to fill
the gaps in Allied lines. Sheer eourage enabled them
to advance under hellish fire and to turn the tide at
sueh places as Chateau Thiery and Belleau Wood.
The Axis powers soon saw that with the United
States armies against them, their only hope was to
sue for peace. An Armistice went into effect Novem-
ber 11, 1918. The news was greeted everywhere with
37
almost delirious rejoicing. Thereafter eaeh year on
November 11, Armistice Day ceremonies were held.
President Wilson went to Paris personally to rep-
resent the United States in the peace negotiations at
Versailles. He had a preeonceived plan based upon
his list of "Fourteen Points" and upon his plan for
a "League of Nations." He soon found that the nego-
tiators from Britain and France paid little heed to his
ideas, and eoncentrated upon extraeting the last meas-
ure of retribution from the defeated Axis powers.
However, they gave tentative assent to his plan for
a League of Nations.
It was necessary to have this plan approved by
the United States Senate before our eountry eould
enter into sueh a league. As President Wilson's term
of office was nearing its close, the exigencies of
polities took over. Mueh opposition arose in the
Senate, led by Senator Lodge Sr. of the Republicans.
President Wilson exerted all of his powers to persuade
the senators to approve the Peace Treaty and partici-
pation in the League of Nations by the United States.
But all his efforts failed, and the Senate refused to
confirm it. So great a letdown was this for President
Wilson that he suffered a nervous breakdown. He
lived only a short time longer. His Demoeratie regime
was supplanted by a Republican one headed by
Warren G. Harding.
The sudden ending of the four-year war led to
mueh economie eonfusion. Government restrietive
measures placed upon manufaeturers regarding strate-
gie materials in short supply, sueh as steel, eopper,
aluminum and other metals, led to great speeulation
in existing finished produets. The new products,
laeking these materials, were greatly inferior: sueh
as bedsprings with only a minimum number of eoils;
livingroom suites with no eoil springs- to mention
only a few. As a result, eapitalists with money to
speculate were able to buy up the entire available
stoeks. Prices went sky high on all finished merehan-
dise. Furniture prices were higher in 1920 than they
were forty years later.
In 1920 land prices whieh had risen to $300 per
aere for good Iowa land, fell suddenly to less thán
half of that figure, Many a farmer, who had sought
to retire, selling his land to his sons on little down and
the remainder on mortgage, found that the sons gave
up and went to the cities to earn high wages, leaving
the parents to take back the farm.
In 1921 a sharp break in prices of furniture and
other articles for home use eaused great losses for
speeulators. One jobber from whom we were buying
furniture for our store announced that they were
taking a fifty percent markdown of their prices,
During the war the United States floated the
Liberty Loan to pay for the war. Everyone was urged
OUR FIRST DELIVERY TRUCK
Arthur Herrmann in driver's seat
Mrs. R. Hernnan, Rosalie and Selma Herrmann
Miss Emma Nol/man. Note solid rubber tires
to buy as many bonds as he possibly eould. After
the war when the soldiers were returning home, many
young couples desired to purehase home furnishings
on eredit, using these Liberty bonds as down pay-
ment. The result was that we accumulated more
bonds than cash.
Wages and prices eontinued high for a number
of years after the War. Life was gay and money was
spent freely. In the late twenties more and more
people turned to speeulation in the stoek markets.
As most brokers required only ten percent down
payment, taking notes for the balance, it was possible,
with rapidly rising prices, to pyramid a fortune
rapidly, showing large profits on paper. In 1929 the
OUR LAST DELIVERY VAN
Arthur Herrmann-driver
38
,,'
finaneial powers saw that something had to be done
to stop speeulation. Diseount rates were inereased,
eausing a sudden drop in prices. As the brokers
called in their loans and people were unable to
pay, stoeks were dumped, causing prices to hit bot-
tom, Many large speeulators were ruined overnight
and a considerable number eommitted suicide.
To resume the story of the furniture store: After
the liquidation of the Dubuque Cabinet Makers' As-
soeiation and the settlement in whieh my father took
over the retail store, taking in his three sons as part-
ners under the name of R. Herrmann & Sons, he felt
a great relaxation, feeling eonfident that his sons
eould successfully earry on the business while he
acted only in a supervisory eapacity. However, he
eontinued to go to work every day and he continued
to do so until he was ninety years of age.
As we eontinued to have a demand for eustom-
built furniture, my brother Oscar, having the experi-
ence of the faetory, had installed in the store base-
ment a Universal woodworking maehine, a combina-
tion of planer, shaper, saw, and bandsaw. With this
he was able to supply many special orders and many
of the smaller items of furniture. We eontinued to
do repair work and finishing and upholstering, re-
taining workers from the factory for this work.
Arthur continued to work as shipping clerk. We also
employed a teamster to care for a team of horses
and make deliveries until about 1915, at which time
we bought our first auto truek. I eontinued to act as
clerk and bookkeeper. Although I was not a born
salesman, I persevered and in time developed into
a eompetent salesman,
About 1920 we purehased our first eash register
(National), a maehine which gave us very good
service for forty years. Formerly we had used an
ordinary eash drawer in the standing desk, which
was under loek and key.
We Take a Trip to the West
In the year 1915 my father decided that we were
all entitled to a good vaeation. Aecordingly, in early
summer my parents and Arthur went by train to
San Franeiseo for the Panama Pacifie International
Exposition, and from there to San Diego, California,
where the Panama-California Exposition was in prog-
ress, and to visit my two uncles, Otto and William
Jungk. They enjoyed an extended three months' vaea-
tion. Upon their return Rosalie and I made the same
trip, using the Union Pacifie on a ninety-day ticket,
with stop-over privileges. We took in Yellowstone
Park, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco,
Los Angeles, San Diego, Albuquerque, New Mexico,
and Kansas City, Missouri, where we visited cousins.
The entire trip was done in leisurely fashion. We
stopped where we wished, saw what we wanted to
see, then went on to the next place. In fact, we saw
so many wonderful places and enjoyed them so much
that we overstayed our tieket by a few hours and had
to pay some extra, On arriving home we found that
brother Arthur had been injured in a erash between
his bieycle and a motoreycle, so our parents were
very anxious to have us baek home.
Among the more memorable sights were the five-
day earriage trip through Yellowstone Park; the visit
to the Mormon Temple and the Tabernacle in Salt
Lake City; the water power plants and the beautiful
Davenport Hotel in Spokane, Washington; the log-
ging and the Cloek Tower in Seattle, Washington;
the museums of minerals in Denver, Colorado, Spo-
kane, and Portland; the side trips from San Franeiseo
to see the Muir Woods, and the big trees at Santa
Cruz; the University at Berkeley; and of eourse the
two great Expositions eommemorating the opening
of the Panama Canal.
The San Franciseo Exposition was a magnificent
one. The immense buildings in Old Roman style
were eolored a light tan, giving the effect of antiquity.
We stayed in San Franeisco about ten days and
thoroughly enjoyed it.
Uncle WUl and Rosalie in MaxweU Car
Sights Seen on Our Trip West in 1915
Besides seeing the two great Expositions in San
Francisco and San Diego, we visited for several weeks
our two uncles in the later city. We stayed at the
home of Uncle Otto a short distance from the Panama-
California Exposition. Our Uncle Will, who operated
a shop for making art glass windows, devoted mueh
time to taking us in his little Maxwell car to see the
sights in all the surrounding eountry.
Among these were the first Mission in San Diego,
built by Fra Serra in 1660, Ramona's Wedding Place,
the Battery at Point Lama, the beaehes at Del Mar
and Oceanside, the Pavilion at Coronado, a side
trip to Tia Juana in Old Mexico, and an ocean fishing
trip to the Mexiean Islands about twenty-five miles
out from San Diego. In Los Angeles we saw the
Mission Play and visited the La Brea Tar Fields and
the museum of skeletons of huge pre-historie animals
39
that had become mired in the tar beds and were
preserved for future ages to see. Among these were
the Mammoth, Mastodon and the Saber-Tooth Tiger,
We were advised at the site of the diggings not to
take any eomplete bones, but we could have broken
or parts of bones. I found a great many bones about
the size and shape of a fingernail. These I determined
were from the hide of the giant sloth and were the
base of its protective plates. My sister and I gathered
a handful of these, together with a number of the
larger broken pieces of bones. Stuffing these into
my poekets, we took the interurban ear back to Los
Angeles, where we boarded a train for San Diego.
As we arrived at my Uncle Otto's home we noted
that the bones retained a strong odor of tar and
oil, so we were advised to place them outside the
house while we visited there. Arriving in Dubuque
we placed the bones in my father's specimen ease.
They are now in the Ham House Museum.
On the way home from San Diego we visited the
Grand Canyon. I walked down the trail several
hundred yards and eollected a fossil or two from its
walls. In the evening we visited the Hopi Indian
show on the eanyon rim.
Rosalie and Tourists at Petrified Forest
Cousins and author in Swope Park, Kansas City, Mo.
Going from there we took the train to Williams,
Arizona, from where we took a side trip to see the
petrified trees and the Painted Desert. We picked
up a quantity of smaller pieces of silicified trees.
Going baek to the Williams Trading Post we paek-
aged these and sent them home by parcel post. We
also purehased a blaek and white Navajo Indian
blanket about five by seven feet, which we sent
home. These also are on display at the Ham House
Museum.
At Albuquerque, New Mexico, we stopped for
luneh. I took a photo of a young Indian mother and
ehild, giving here a ten-cent tip. Staying over a day
we visited the Indian Sehool on the outskirts of
Albuquerque. I also visited a Masonic Lodge there.
Stopping at Kansas City we visited several days
with our eousins of the Mos family. I still have a
photo of the girls all deeked out in new hats at-
tractively trimmed in fine feathers, You will reeall
that their mother had established millinery stores in
Centralia, Illinois, and Dubuque, Iowa.
Masonic Activities
In looking over my father's autobiography whieh
he wrote in 1906 when he was 57 years of age, I note
that he has devoted thirty pages to his Masonic
aetivities. As he lived thirty-five years longer and
was aetive and loyal to Masonry to the last, I feel
that some observations on his Masonie eareer are in
order.
As noted in his autobiography he beeame a Mason
on September 8, 1873, joining Metropolitan Lodge
No. 49. He soon became very active and worked
in all three of the Dubuque Lodges, so mueh so, he
says, that people often asked him, "Which Lodge do
you belong to?" He soon joined the Consistory and
the Shrine, and he joined and beeame active in the
York Rite bodies, Lodge, Chapter, Couneil and Com-
mandery in 1874, working up to and performing the
duties of the highest office in eaeh. He also served
as treasurer of Metropolitan Lodge from 1898 to his
demise in 1941. Eleeted Seeretary of Dubuque Chap-
ter No.3 and Dubuque Couneil No.3 in 1917, he
40
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43
served for 19 years, being followed in that office
by his son Arthur who served for thirty years, and by
myself for one year, making a total of fifty years that
office was served by the Herrrnanns.
Having early eommitted to memory all of the
ritual of the three degrees of the Blue Lodge, includ-
ing the lectures, he was appointed a distriet leeturer.
His enthusiasm for Masonry was unbounded. It is
certain that the truths taught therein had a profound
effeet on his life. The writer ean personally attest to
his unbounded loyalty to the 'institution,' as I reeall
how often at a family gathering he would say to us,
"I am sorry that I have to go, but there is a meeting
at the Temple whieh I should attend." Or he would
say, "This evening they are having Commandery
Drill praetice and I should go down to help them."
Having passed through the ehairs and presided
at all of the degrees of the York Rite, he took a strong
and aetive part in all of the loeal Masonie bodies
over the years.
R. Herrmann in High Priest's Robe
He was Seeretary of the Free Mason's Hall As-
sociation for twenty-one years and editor of the
Masonie Bulletin from 1914 to 1921. For many years
he took leading parts in the Red Cross and Malta
degrees in the Commandery, and his delivery of the
Prelate's part in the Commandery was most moving.
Having attended many of the sessions of the State
Masonie bodies and received a number of appoint-
ments, and having attended many meetings of the
DeMolay Consistory at Clinton and of El Kahir,
Shrine at Cedar Rapids, he beeame very well-known
among Iowa Masons. In 1926 he was appointed
Grand Chaplain of the Grand Council, Royal and
Seleet Masters of Iowa.
Both of my parents were eharter members of the
Order of the Eastern Star. My father was partieularly
enthusiastie about this dignified auxiliary organiza-
tion whieh brings together the families of Masons in
warm fellowship. Having myself joined this organiza-
tion, I reeall that several entire families belonged,
among them the Kleis family, the Nesler family, and
the Herrmann family. My father was Worthy Patron
in 1896, my mother was Worthy Matron in 1904, and
my sister Rosalie was seeretary for several years.
When my wife, Ada, the mother of my ehildren,
beeame Worthy Matron (1935) my father was very
pleased, and he personally presented a fine gavel
to her.
As he entered his later years my father's enthusi-
asm for the Masonie Institution never waned. He
still attended the meetings and trudged the distance
of over a mile from our home to the Temple in
every kind of weather.
When the Grim Reaper finally ealled him on
April 29, 1941, and he was ealled to give up this
Earthly Life, he was honored by having his funeral
service condueted in the Lodge room of the Masonic
Temple whieh he had so dearly loved.
In eonclusion, let me quote my father as saying
in his later years, "I have contributed a lot of time
and money to Masonry-several thousands of dollars
in fees and dues over the years, and a great deal of
time in attending meetings, and in committing rituals;
but all in all I consider it well spent. You ean't get
anything out of an institution unless you put some-
thing into it. I consider that Free Masonry has done
mueh for me."
He was a Mason 68 years; a member of Chapter,
Couneil, and Commandery fr7 years.
The temple of his inner life,
Erected by level, plumb line and square,
The edifice finally eompleted:-
The Keystone finally seated,
Was of beautiful proportions-
Its beauty admired by a large circle of friends-
Was dedicated to the "One Living and True God."
I remember, when I was still a small child sitting
upon Father's knee, I fingered and admired the beau-
tiful gold wateh eharm whieh dangled from a heavy
gold ehain attaehed to his Elgin wateh. It was a
double-faced Masonie eharm-one side showing the
double eagles surmounted by a triangle eontaining
the number 32, indieating that Father was a thirty-
seeond degree Mason. On the other side was depicted
the Knight Templar eross and erown with the motto
"In hoe signo vinces." Both were mounted upon a
solid gold plate in the form of the Maltese eross.
(See portrait-page IV)
44
~
This beautiful eharm suffered the exigencies of
fate.
One summer evening when I was about ten years
of age and was sitting on the front eurbing watching
the evening parade of earriages go by Father came
out running to eateh a street ear with trailer whieh
was then passing by. As Father had been used to
boarding moving trains, he attempted to board the
trailer whieh had a footboard loaded with passengers
hanging on. As the ears had just then picked up
speed, Father missed his footing and was cast into
the dusty street. I remember seeing his dusty clothes
and hearing him say as he passed me, "Bad luck."
Going into the house, I saw my mother and
Father's mother trying to stauneh the flow of blood
eoming from Father's eyebrow which had been severe-
ly cut by the stones of the maeadam street.
Afterwards, when his injuries had been taken
eare of, Father noticed that his beautiful watch
eharm was missing. He alerted the foreman of a erew
of old men who were engaged by the city to scrape
the mud off the street following rains. Nothing was
found until six months later when one of the men
found the bare gold plate whieh had been the base
for the Masonie emblems.
Years later when I joined Siloam Commandery
No.3 at age thirty-six, he presented me with the
remodeled charm which I have worn ever since. He
had taken the plate to Mr. H. C. Sehneider who
operated a jewelry store at 940 Main Street. Mr.
Sehneider, a competent manufaeturing jeweler, had
seeured emblems of the Chapter and the Command-
ery and fashioned a quite presentable York Rite
eharm from them. His son Edward, a skilled en-
graver, inseribed the personal data. Edward Sehneider
was later to become Past Grand Illustrious Master
of the Royal and Seleet Masters of Iowa. I have worn
this eharm with pride and pleasure ever since and
it has been admired by many.
The Museum
Father tells in his autobiography how it was
that he beeame interested in eolleeting minerals and
geologieal specimens: by seeing a eolleetion whieh
belonged to Mr. Candee, his superior at the Illinois
Central Railroad Shops at Dubuque; how his work
required him to go over the roadbed and enabled him
in leisure hours to observe and colleet fossils from
the euts through roeky hillsides; how in going from
Centralia, Illinois, through Iowa to Sioux City he was
able to assemble a collection of fossils representing
the various periods of developing life from the early
Cambrian at Dubuque to the Cretaceous in northwest
Iowa. Father started collecting about 1870. What
seems most remarkable is that over a period of
twenty-three years, by the time I was five years
old in 1893, he had assembled, classified, and labeled
and arranged in two large double-door display cases
a very complete array of the fossils of Illinois and
Iowa, as well as a ease of spar, minerals and of some
biological specimens.
In 1872 the Ameriean Association for the Advance-
ment of Science held its annual eonvention in Du-
buque. Marking the occasion was a long parade
honoring the eminent scientist Humboldt. Events of
special interest were visits to the Dubuque lead mines
and the spar caves. In his book on geology Mr. Herr-
mann deseribed with enthusiasm his visit to Rice's
Spar Cave near Dubuque.
Among his early aequisitions for his museum
were an exceptionally fine display of spar from Du-
buque, a fine eollection of minerals, and numerous
natural history speeimens including many fine sea
shells, also a very good representation of the Missis-
sippi River pearl button industry, then eentered at
Guttenberg and Museatine, Iowa.
Special exhibits received from friends were: from
Captain Eduard Saek, spears, boomerang, and cere-
monial objects from Australia and the Sandwieh Is-
lands; from Brazil-an early collection of rubber
samples; from Alaska, Esquimaux hunting and seal
fishing implements; from Mr. George Dunn, numer-
ous articles from the Mareusi Indians of Columbia,
S.A. including a blow gun and arrows, feather head-
dress, beaded dress and bracelet of beetle wings.
These are now in the Ham House Museum.
By that time he had also assembled a collection
of Indian buekskin dresses and other articles.
His early interest in Ameriean Indians, their
articles of apparel, their utensils and implements of
warfare, is attested by the faet that in 1876, while
visiting the Centenial Exposition in Philadelphia, he
purehased a miniature eanoe whieh evidently had
been offered as a prize to the holder of the lueky
number. On its sides were embroidered in colored
quills of the poreupine the inseription "Buy a ticket
and win a prize-1876." Reeognizing its future value,
Father purehased it from the winner.
At another time Father heard of a geologieal curio
being displayed in a loeal drug store. Recognizing it
as a tooth of a prehistorie Mammoth elephant, he
made an offer for it and succeeded in purchasing it.
There were also a small collection of Eskimaux hunt-
ing and fishing equipment and a small colleetion of
rubber samples, from Brazil, These were kept in the
lower eompartments of the aforementioned cases. I
remember that we had a eoeoa mat runner in the
hallway where these cases were, After my father had
taken out the articles of Indian clothing whieh were
decorated with small glass beads, to show them to
visitors, I would lie on the coeoa mat next day and
45
Mammoth Tooth
piek from the matting some of the beads that had
fallen off. This was not so many years after the last
battles between the Indians and the white man on
the western plains. The Indian eollection eontinued
to grow from aequisitions and gifts from friends and
aequaintances. To avoid eonstant handling of the
rather fragile Indian articles Father had ordered from
the factory a large double-door case whieh was
placed in the hallway next to the other cases. As the
doors were of glass, it was possible to show the Indian
dresses and other articles displayed therein without
handling them,
While we were yet young Father would take us
out on Sunday afternoons to the south end of town
to a stone quarry, owned by a Mr. Tybee, which was
quite prolifie in the fossils of the Galena formation.
On these outings my father wore a long froek eoat
and earried his stone hammer and ehisels in the
coattail poekets. Another stone quarry whieh we fre-
quently visited was the Beeker quarry on Kaufmann
Avenue. Father would often point out fossils in the
stone walls or in the pavements. His eonstant mes-
sage was "Keep your eyes open so you can see the
beauty all around you." Thus we all learned to look
at the beauties in Nature.
While my father did not live in Dubuque before
1870, he was here early enough to meet and to talk
with many of Dubuque's earliest settlers. He often
engaged them in conversation and learned firsthand
mueh of Dubuque's early history.
About 1890 Father joined the Early Settler's As-
sociation, he being one of its youngest members. For
a long time the group had toyed with the idea of
ereeting a monument to Julien Dubuque, our city's
and Iowa's first permanent white resident. The cost
of a fitting granite shaft was ascertained to be about
$6,000. As there seemed to be no possibility of raising
sueh a sum, the matter was passed over for a long
time. Early in 1897 the matter was brought up again.
My father suggested that perhaps a monument could
be ereeted of the native stone quarried on the spot.
Someone suggested a stone tower like a "Castle on
the Rhine." Mr. Alex Simplot, a loeal artist, drew
a design whieh was submitted to loeal eontraetors,
and a cost of about $600 was determined. Father
started a subseription list with a eontribution of
$100. Next day he went to see several prominent
Dubuque businessmen, and within two or three days
had secured the necessary amount.
The contraet was let to Carter Brothers, who be-
gan work promptly, and who were instructed to be
very eareful to observe and preserve anything per-
taining to the remains of Julien Dubuque or of the
Indians. After digging several days for a foundation
they discovered a few bones, beads, and other arti-
facts. Captain Erwin of the Early Settlers was there
at the time. They eoncluded that this was all that
was left of the remains, as the County History had
reeorded that the bones of our first settler had been
taken away by a relie hunter.
Carter Brothers continued the excavation to get
down to a roek foundation. When they had dug
down to the eight-foot depth they discovered more
bones. They stopped work at once and telephoned
to my father at the furniture store. He left at once for
the site and surveyed the remains of three skeletons,
two within the roek foundation stones of the hut
whieh was on the site in 1830, Father made a careful
survey and took measurements of the position of
the three skeletons, and it was soon determined
that the skeletons were of one white man, an Indian,
and a squaw outside the wall.
Father put the bones into several burlap saeks
and carried them to Dubuque. The earth at the
grave site was earefully gone over and a number of
interesting artifaets were found. Great excitement
was ereated by the find, as the two loeal newspapers
deseribed the remains, the pipe and fine flint points
and other articles, and reported on the progress of
the monument from day to day. The remains were
taken to our home where they were placed on the
floor of an upstairs vaeant room.
During the thirty days that the monument was
being erected thousands of visitors came to see the
skeletons of Julien Dubuque and Chief Peosta. As
numerous physicians were among the viewers, it was
easily determined which was the white man and
which the Indian. Numerous photographers also eame
and took photos of the bones, and a number of
fine close-up photos were made of the skulls of
Julien Dubuque, Chief Peosta, and the squaw Potosa.
Before the monument was completed Father had
made at the Dubuque Cabinet Makers' Association a
burial ease of solid walnut. When all was ready for
the re-internment, Julien Dubuque's remains were
placed in the easket and taken to the gravesite. It
was a fine Sunday in Oetober. The Chieago, Mil-
waukee, and St. Paul Railroad ran exeursion trains
46
to the site, and several ferry boats made trips for
the occasion. Many people walked down the tracks
to the grave site. A crowd of about 2,000 to 3,000
people was present when the remains were re-in-
tered under about four feet of concrete. The Honor-
able J. K. Shields was the orator of the day
a fitting address.
From this time my father was widely
for his contributions to history and for his
which now grew by leaps and bounds. Ma
'1HEN eN NMRN H ,41 UüEUlI? ",A'ATUlHJ.Hls1'(lf{Y
Old Home-2419 Central Ave., Dubuque, Iowa
47
gave
. ed
eum
ople
J, Dubuque Monument with Early Settlers Group
Richard Herrmann in rear row-5th from left
who had relies lying at home decided to bring them
to Mr. Herrmann's Museum. Father purchased from
the old Post Office at 9th and Locust Streets, whieh
was then being renovated, a large walnut counter
ease with many small drawers whieh were formerly
used for stamps. In these he placed the many speci-
mens whieh had now overflowed the downstairs
space. I later noticed on a door of this case a metal
plate saying that it had been made by Carr, Adams &
Eihmer.
My father had retained from the gravesite of
Julien Dubuque the skeletons of Chief Peosta and
of Squaw Potosa, plus many artifacts from this grave
and from that of Kettle Chief, loeated about 47 feet
west of the monument. My brother Osear had care-
fully artieulated the bones of Peosta and placed him
on a stand with his name and data carved upon it.
This was placed at the end of the Indian Room.
This was a big attraetion, and for years many sehool
children eame to see Mr, Herrmann's Museum and
especially the skeleton.
Osear also was active in eolleeting birds' eggs
and in doing taxidermy of birds and fishes. The
speeimens spaced about the Museum added an in-
teresting toueh of nature.
For many years visitors, including students and
seientists, eontinued to come from distant places.
Father took pleasure in showing them through and
he usually asked them to sign the Visitors' Register.
Over the years several books were filled with names,
the number running to many thousands.
As the museum continued to grow and overflow
the downstairs hallway, two rooms on the seeond
floor were added. My father sent from the Cabinet
Makers' factory six rather nice double-door bookeases
whieh were used mainly to display Indian things.
One day at a pienie Father eame aeross a group of
young men who had been looking for Indian artifacts
but said they eould find nothing. Father joined the
group and within a few minutes he pieked up a
very finely formed and polished stone tomahawk
head. This was on a hillside on the east side of the
river. It probably was lost during the Blaekhawk War.
On another oeeasion a loeal man, Mr. Alfred
Meyer, pulled out of the river near Eagle Point a
metal tomahawk and pipe combination sueh as was
traded to the Indians by the early Freneh fur traders.
Reading about it in our newspaper, father went to
see Mr. Meyer and pursuaded him to place it in
the Herrmann Museum. As we ehildren all became
interested and colleeted many specimens-Indian ar-
rowheads, pottery, fossils, and botanical specimens-
he soon had six more double-door eases sent up,
until every available space in these two rooms also
was filled. While father never was financially able
to embark upon a purehasing program he did do
some trading with other collectors. In later years
he purehased some specimens from a Mr. Stillwell of
Deadwood, South Dakota. These were mostly bones
and teeth of some of the dinosaurs that roamed the
.'.
C,;:.",";;,'.
".- .~.
Survey Made by Richard Herrmann at the time of
Finding the Remains of Julien Dubuque and Chief Peosta
48
THE CR:>EB /N 7HZ /tIIl/6ElINl
49
-'
.-
--,
0-
u
""'
7)/ 60F F/ CEANoOR/I WEn CASE.
Cases in the Museum
50
western plains during the Cenozoie Age. He felt
that he needed these to round out his museum. He
also bought some specimens of European fossils
from Dr, Otto Kunze of Iowa City. One in whieh he
took great pride was a slate slab eontaining a fine
speeimen of iethyosaurus quadricissus, representing
the transition from fish to reptile. (See illustration
page 360-61) (This book page 50)
About 1911 Mr. Herrmann received a letter from
Mr. Art Alain of Joliette, Canada, saying that he
had the original eradle in which Julien Dubuque was
roeked, It had been lost for years, but while repairs
Julien Dubuque Cradl£
were being made in the old homestead, a hole was
broken into a wall and the eradle was diseovered in
a vaeant room. Sensing that this would be of inter-
est to the people of Dubuque, Mr. Alain offered the
eradle for a price. Mr. Herrmann aecepted the offer
and had the eradle shipped to Dubuque at his own
expense. It now rests in the Museum at the Ham
House.
In later years the question often arose as to the
eventual disposition of the museum. Visitors some-
times ask "How mueh is it worth?" To whieh my
father replied that he did not consider the money
value but placed more importanee on the edueational
value. Sometimes they would ask, "What are you
going to do with it after you die?" To which he
would humorously reply, "I'm not going to do any-
thing with it after I am dead."
However there were family discussions of the
matter and of ways and means of eontinuance. Some
suggested a small admission eharge or a place for
voluntary eontributions, as well as the sale of sou-
venirs or posteards and pamphlets. But my father
felt that these might lead to tax problems. He
deeided that we should eontinue to admit visitors
free of eharge as he had done for so long.
After my parents had passed away, my sister
Rosalie and my brother Arthur continued to show
the museum at request until they neared the age of
80 and were no longer able to do this. The final
disposition of the Museum to the Dubuque County
Historical Society as trustees for the people of Du-
buque, city and county, we felt was in keeping with
my father's oft-expressed view that his museum is
for the people of Dubuque.
Early Home Life
Having reviewed Riehard Herrmann's very busy
life since arriving in Dubuque in 1870, I turn now
to reeount details of his early home life and tell of
his paramount interest in his wife and four children.
His hobbies and activities included Freemasonry, in
which he was exceptionally active; his colleetion of
minerals and specimens of geological and of natural
history interest; his colleetion of historieal data and
interest in Indian lore; his part in the erection of a
suitable monument to our first white settler, Julien
Dubuque, and in the historic discovery of his remains
together with those of Chief Peosta and wife Potosa;
and, of eourse, his efforts to eontinue the business
in whieh he was engaged, against the desire of the
minor stoekholders.
With all those aetivities, it is understandable
that at times he wished to spend a Sunday afternoon
in complete rest. At sueh times he would eall for his
schlaff-ruek (sleeping coat) and spend an hour or
two sleeping on the gondola lounge in our livingroom.
If the weather were inclement, we boys, ehafing at
being confined in the house, would get into lively
play and sometimes into noisy tussle. Waking, my
father would eall out, "Nieht so viellarrem." (Not so
mueh noise.)
If the weather were favorable he would some-
times find relaxation in going out on a fossil hunting
expedition with his three sons. We walked at a
brisk pace, Father swinging his arms, his body having
a slight list to the right due to an injury to his right
leg while employed on the railroad years ago. His
long eoat tails swung to and fro from the weight of
the hammer and ehisels whieh he earried in the
eoattail pockets. We usually walked several miles to
loeal stone quarries, usually either Tybee's on South
Dodge Street, or Becker's on Kaufmann Avenue.
Arriving, he would point out the various fossil forms
exposed in the broken surface of the roeks, Finding
a fossil of interest and located favorably, he would
take out the hammer and ehisels and begin to work on
it, meanwhile enlightening us ehildren on the best
methods of extraeting the fossil without injury. Some-
51
times my older brother would undertake this work
under his direetion. I ean well remember my father's
enthusiasm when certain fossils were secured in their
entirety. Often visitors viewing his colleetion would
exclaim, "Where do you find all of these fossils?"
He would answer, "Keep your eyes open-you're walk-
ing over them every day!"
Now, returning to our early home life, I should
say that life in the 'Gay Nineties' was strenuous-
making a living was not easy. It required long hours
of work and assiduous application. As I have stated
before, there were few labor-saving devices-every-
thing had to be done the hard way-so most men
had to work at least ten hours a day merely to make
a living. Most homes were primitive by today's stand-
ards, having none of the facilities which we today
enjoy, sueh as central heating, running water, gas,
electricity, telephones, Laeking these, even the ehil-
dren were required to do many ehores before going
out to play, sueh as preparing and earrying in fuel
for stoves, removing accumulated ashes, pumping
water and bringing it in to fill the water buekets,
going to the grocery store for supplies of food (most-
ly in bulk and including kerosene for the lamps).
It was the lot of the girls to see that the lamps were
kept in good order, wicks trimmed and glass ehim-
neys cleared of soot. They also had to assist in pre-
paring the meals, washing dishes, setting the table,
and in washing and repairing clothes.
During the late Nineties Father's work was at
the new furniture store building, erected by Rider,
Burden, and Rider in 1894 at 10th and Main Streets.
(My earliest recolleetion of the retail store was at
429 Main Street, a four-story double-front store
building next to the theatre whieh stood at the comer.
I remember that the office and the president's large
walnut rolltop desk was close to the front door. I
also remember seeing the new building being built.)
Here he worked as chief bookkeeper for the firm's
wholesale and retail departments, doing most of this
at a walnut standing desk, whieh supported the large-
size ledgers. He also did most of the retail selling
and attending to custom work, whieh included re-
pairing, refinishing and upholstering of antique
furniture.
As the noon period for lunch was one hour, and
Father was habitually punetual, the trip to our home
at 24th and Couler Avenue was made via the street-
ear lines whieh at that time had recently been con-
verted from horse-drawn to eleetrie. As considerable
time was eonsumed in the journey both ways, Father
would arrive home expecting to find the noon meal
ready and the table set, However, at times my mother
experieneed diffieulties unknown to present day
housewives. Sometimes the fire in the wood-burning
eook stove would not burn briskly. It was a six-
hole all cast iron one with a large oven and ash
pit extending out in front. Besides cooking and baking,
its ample surfaces radiated a comfortable warmth
in the kitehen. Mother preferred to burn split hiekory
or hard maplewood whieh produced a hot, long-
lasting bed of coals. It was the task of us boys to
keep well-filled the wood box behind the stove.
As I have stated, sometimes my mother experi-
enced diffieulties, sueh as a delay in delivery of
groceries or meat, or an unexpected visit from her
mother. (In the early Nineties my grandparents lived
on a small farm just within the city limits on 32nd
Street, known as Millville Road.) Later they moved
to the seeond floor apartment over our home, a
large stone-walled building whieh was formerly the
Kaiser Vinegar Faetory. (I remember seeing the wine
cellars and some of the barrel staves and hoops fo'r
the casks.) At sueh times my father would become
exasperated and quite eross, as he was eonscientious
about getting baek to work on time to relieve the
other employees. Our house stood far baek from the
street, and sometimes as Father left, the street car
would be eoming and he would traverse our long
front yard at full speed and eall out "Hoo, hool" to
the motorman, hoping to eateh up as he stopped for
the eorner.
In the late eighties our family (parents and four
ehildren) was eomplete, and my father was very
proud of them, partieularly of his eldest son Oscar,
who was very aetive if somewhat irrepressible. My
earliest recolleetion of sehool was at the age of about
three, sitting on top of the large square wood fence
posts out front and watehing the sehool ehildren as
they eame home from the Fulton Sehool, about two
bloeks north of our home.
I received pre-sehool edueation from the faet
that my brothers, partieularly Osear, would recite
at home what reading and history lessons they had
had that day. So I was regaled with the gory inci-
dents of the Revolution and the Civil War. I also
learned to count up to 100 before starting sehool
at age six.
In the early '90's many epidemies of various con-
tagious diseases ran through our city, and my mother,
always fearful of siekness among her family, was re-
luetant to send me off to sehool at an earlier age. As
we had had but little ehildren's eompany in our
home, my first days at sehool were days of bewilder-
ment. But I soon overcame my diffidence and began
to progress nicely. I remember that the teaehers at
Fulton were eompetent, and I soon learned the basies
of reading, writing, and arithmetic.
As I have said, Osear was very strong physically,
a leader of the neighborhood boys in after sehool
athleties, he excelled in sueh sports as running,
jumping, throwing, and in sueh games as Baseball;
Run Sheep Run; Follow the Leader, ete. He ereeted
a turning pole in our yard and both he and Arthur
did stunts of turning to the amusement of neighbor
boys. In all of these sports as ear excelled and was
the leader.
52
At home he was equally aetive in doing and
making things and in experiments in physies, chemis-
try, and eleetricity, Arthur also took part in these
aetivities, but usually under Oscar's direction. I re-
member that for Christmas one year, when I was
still quite small, they made for me a hook and ladder
fire truek, using a pair of iron horses and wheels
from a former fire engine, and making the frame-
work and the ladder from strips of wood, using
matchstieks for rungs. When all were painted red,
they were placed in a eupboard behind the stove
to dry until I reeeived them on Christmas. Christmas,
in our home was celebrated in what, in the "Gay
Nineties," might have been called German style.
Father always brought home a fir tree at least seven
feet high. This was set up in the front parlor and
shut off from view of us youngsters by large sliding
doors between that and the livingroom next to it.
First a six-foot square of white sheeting was
placed on the floor; then, a smaller wooden platform
with a white wooden fence around it. In the center
of this was a plaster Santa Claus properly painted,
In the fold of his arms was a hole into which the
sharpened trunk of the tree was inserted and securely
fastened with plaster of Paris.
Then the task of trimming began. First were hung
the polished apples on strings. Their weight was used
to pull down the larger branehes to a more hori-
zontal position, Then were applied sueh other orna-
ments as nuts and peaehstones covered with silver
foil and gold leaf. Then came the candles held to
the outer branehes by various types of metal holders.
Many cookies, strings of popped eorn, and foam
candies with colored sugar and picture faces were
added. Next, the blown glass ornaments of many
colors and beautiful designs-and finally, an angel
or two and a glass spike top ornament. The finishing
touch was the tinsel whieh, when properly applied,
made the whole tree sparkle-a thing of beauty!
My grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Christian Jungk,
lived in the apartment upstairs. During the holidays
Grandma and Grandpa were invited to come down
and partieipate in the festivities. Grandpa Jungk
was then quite elderly and had to use a eane for
walking, as his legs had become quite stiff. He would
sit in an easy ehair and enjoy the sight of the
Christmas tree glistening in the light of many burn-
ing candles. At such times he would enjoy joining
in the singing of the age-old Christmas hymns, using
the familiar German words. My sister Rosalie would
play the aecompaniments at the old oblong piano
which oeeupied a eomer of the front parlor, The
ehiming of the not too distant ehureh bells also added
to the holiday spirit.
For refreshment on this and the following New
Year's Day hot puneh flavored with mint and nutmeg
warmed the spirits. Candies, eookies, and assorted
nuts were eaten freely.
When all was ready, at the proper time (Christmas
Eve), the sliding doors were thrown open and the
eall "Merry Christmas" invited us to join in the
festivities.
I remember one year One of my uncles, who was
in the business of making art glass windows for
ehurehes and homes, decided to make for me a
Ferris Wheel (this was Soon after the Chicago
World's Fair) 1892-93, where the first gigantic Ferris
Wheel was a featured attraction.)
The wheel, about eighteen inehes in diameter,
was built of metal spokes and tin strips all soldered
together and holding about six tin ears with lighted
candles inside shining through open windows. The
wheel was mounted on wooden towers and eould be
revolved by means of a erank and gear. The entire
ensemble was mounted upon a wooden base sur-
rounded by a white pieket fence.
At this time, or a suceeeding year, my brother
Osear received for a gift a model steam engine with
brass boiler heated with an oil lamp. It had a whistle,
a safety valve, and a fly wheel. By applying a long
eord from the shaft to the Ferris Wheel, the latter
eould be made to revolve.
One of my Christmas gifts one year was a small
eleetrie dynamo whieh, by turning a crank, produced
eleetrie eurrent. Grandpa Jungk, who then was quite
elderly, was pleased to feel from a pair of brass hand-
holds a slight tingle in his hands. At that period,
eleetricity being new, was said to be beneficial for
many ailments.
On one occasion mv Uncle Otto, who had been
living in San Diego, CaÍifomia, came to visit his par-
ents in Dubuque. He brought a tourist souvenir
from New Mexieo, an armadillo basket. As our rela-
tives were talking about it, they mentioned the word
armadillo several times. My grandmother, hearing
the word, asked, "What is wrong with the armadillo?"
The word arma in German means, poor!
Other projeets whieh I remember, were the con-
struetion by my brothers of two telegraph keys, one
plaeed in the living room and one in the kitchen,
being conneeted with insulated wire and powered
by batteries of zine and eopper plates immersed in
sulfuric acid. These worked well, and we all tried
to send and read messages.
As Father liked to do woodwork he very early
provided himself with a fine work bench and an
ample and well-built tool box in which he kept a
full set of eabinet maker's tools under loek and key.
A later projeet undertaken while Osear was in
high sehool was the making of a complete eleetrie
motor-first making a wooden pattern, then having
it east in iron at a local foundry; then the making of
the armature, commutator and other parts; the wiring
and assembling. Patiently working after sehool and
after the ehores were done, this took a long time to
complete, but finally it was finished and tried, and
53
found to work as expeeted. Several ehanges were
made and the results tested. The original armature
was discarded and replaced with a more elaborate
design eonsisting of many individual coils of insulated
wire earefully wound around projeeting eores, whieh
with ehanges in the eopper armature, produeed better
results,
The winters were eold and eonfining as, without
eentral heating, it was diffieult to keep the rooms
warm. We formerly used a large oval woodburning
stove into whieh we kept stuffing good-sized ehunks
of oak and maple wood. Later Father bought a large-
size hard coal-burning heater. This was what was
known as a "base burner." The hard coal was placed
in a bin at the top and would feed down automatie-
ally through a drum to the burning coal below. When
the more volatile gasses were burned off, the baek
damper was closed, making the heat eireulate around
the base of the stove. The niekel trim reflected a
good heat, and there were metal footrests around
the base. If our feet were cold, as often happened
when we had been outside sleigh riding too long,
we would sit with our feet upon the footrests.
Skating and sleigh riding were the ehief winter
sports. Skating was most popular during the early
winter months, from November to January. Then the
many sloughs near the river were frozen solid enough
to make them safe for the weight of many skaters.
When the weather became colder, a lighted ice rink
aeross the surface of the harbor was used for night
skating.
As the winter progressed and snows beeame deep-
er the emphasis turned to sledding-both with single
sleds and with long bob sleds holding many pas-
sengers, As then there were no automobiles, and
wagons and carriages were slower moving, nearly
every hillside street was busy with sledders. To guard
against the danger of erashing into a vehicle, the
boys at the bottom of the hill would yell, "Come
ahead," or "Stay back," as the occasion demanded.
Occasionally this sport was marred by serious
aecidents.
In the summertime during the Eighties and Nine-
ties it was evident that roller skating had become a
popular pastime. Direetly across the street from our
old home was an immense frame building having
across its front the words "Couler Avenue Roller
Rink." A few years later this building was sold to
the Union Eleetrie Company, which used it to store
their summer street cars and trailers.
During the Gay Nineties bieycles were rather
new and bieyeling beeame a most popular sport for
both young men and ladies. For the younger boys
the ehief hot weather sport was swimming in the
lakes and sloughs. At that time Lake Peosta was
located west of the present Industrial Island, having
eut a deep ehannel close to the traeks of the Mil-
waukee Railroad. As the area was surrounded by
high sand hills (deposited ages ago by glacial wa-
ters), and as there were few residents within view,
many of the boys swam in the nude, Sad to say,
each summer took its toll of several lives lost by
drowning.
At this time Osear and Rosalie were in the Du-
buque High Sehool at 12th and Clay Streets; Arthur
was in the Fifth Ward Sehool (Mr. Kretsehmer, vet-
eran of many years teaehing, served as principal);
while I was in the Fulton Sehool in about the fifth
grade. As I was doing well in sehool, receiving good
grades from my teaehers, and Osear was about to
graduate in the class of '99 (the last from the old
sehool at Twelfth and Clay Streets), Father was
greatly pleased and took great pride in the faet that
he was sending all of his ehildren through high
sehool. He thought that this should be enough to
~ve them a good start in life, and he saw no need
to send them on to college.
As Father had taught us ehildren to keep our eyes
open and observe the beauties of nature, we early
learned to admire the wild flowers, trees, ferns, birds
and animals of the present, as well as Indian arrow-
heads and bits of pottery, reminders of the past. We
eaeh developed special interests and hobbies. Osear
led us in observing birds and collecting their nests
and eggs. He made a small leather-covered ease
with drawers filled with cotton in whieh to paek
bird eggs for earrying.
We went on many sueh eollecting trips-always on
foot and to nearby bird haunts, sueh as the farm
home of my grandparents on the Millville Road
(now West 32nd Street), the swamps and islands of
the Mississippi, and to woods on the hills across
the river. During a period of fifteen years (1900-
1915) we eolleeted sets of eggs of perhaps fifty to
sixty of the better known birds. At that time it
was still lawful to do sueh colleeting for scientifie
purposes,
During the sueceeding years Oscar tried his hand
at taxidermy, and sueceeded in mounting a number
of game birds whieh were brought in and donated by
area hunters. He also skinned and mounted a repre-
sentative colleetion of fishes from our area. I re-
member one of his first efforts at taxidermy was to
skin, stuff and mount a great blue heron whieh was
brought in by a fisherman, The long legs and long
thin neck made this a ehallenge, to mount it in a
lifelike pose. This collection of birds and fishes, to-
gether with other specimens of natural history now
rest in the Historical Society's Ham House Museum.
My brother Arthur, sister Rosalie, and I were
interested in flowers. As I was in 1902 attending the
Dubuque High Sehool, one of my subjeets of study
was botany. As our teaeher required eaeh student
to eolleet and properly label at least twenty-five spe-
cies of wild flowers, I applied myself to this aetivity
with enthusiasm. Before the end of the spring term I
had eollected over a hundred kinds.
54
Our teaeher, Professor John A. Anderson, had
offered, as an inducement to study, a promise that
he would take ten of his best students on a camping
trip during the June vaeation. I was one of the lueky
ones ehosen, The eamp site was in Pine Hollow, a
very primeval wooded area at the very western edge
of the driftless area near Luxemburg in the northwest
eorner of Dubuque County,
At the end of the sehool term we boys paeked Our
gear, mine included a portable paper press for press-
ing flowers) and boarded a train of the Chieago,
Milwaukee, & St. Paul Railroad. Our destination was
Turkey River Junetion. There we were met by a
farmer with team and box-wagon, Transferring our
baggage to the wagon, we proceeded over a wooded
and very bumpy road whieh forded a stream many
times. It led us through a deep valley bounded on
both sides with high hills, looking very much like
the hills of Tennessee. In some plaees there were
small farm patehes on the hillsides, but most were
too steep for farming. The woods beeame more dense,
the trees larger, and the places more primitive and
silent. The last habitation was near a crossroads
settlement named Graham Post Office.
From here the farmer drove us up the valley to
the thiekest and most primitive part of the woods.
Here the Professor had seleeted a spot for our eamp
near a good spring. The supplies were quiekly un-
loaded and tents put up,
As the weather was rainy and the woods were
damp, we had some diHieulty in finding firewood,
We built a fire beside the remains of a huge fallen
tree. Though there was a light drizzle of rain, the
oeeasional breezes drove the fire into the dead tree
trunk which was eomposed mostly of punk. Once
started, the light rain could not queneh this fire
and it lasted the whole week through.
As I have said, this valley in 1902 was very primi-
tive; and here and there the hillsides were dotted
with log eabins of such eharaeters as wished to be
far away from civilization. On a hillside near Our
camp lived a hermit who was content to cultivate a
small garden and to work a few days now and then
for nearby farmers. I remember that he had a dog
whieh came down during the night and sniffed among
our food supplies for meat. Next night we hung our
ham high and placed near it pots and pans to set
off an alarm should he come again.
This loeality is in what is known by geologists
as the 'driftless area: It marks the eastern-most edge
of the glaeial drift-farthest eneroaehment of the
pre-historie glaeial ice. Ascending Pine Hollow Creek
to its source near the towns of Luxemburg and
Strawberry Point, we had to aseend a distance of
several hundred feet to reaeh the flat prairie, Further
south the glacial drift reached as far east as Epworth.
Pine Hollow embraces not only good stands of
hardwood timber but also a good-size area of White
Pine trees. Here also, the ferns, mosses, and flowers
are eharaeteristie of pre-glacial areas, and are not
usually found on the Iowa prairies.
I was fortunate to be invited to eamps in Pine
Hollow for four suecessive years. By then I beeame
very much interested in botany. I collected many
species of flowers, ferns and mosses not usually
found in other parts of the state, I eontinued my col-
leetions of botanieal specimens until I numbered
at least six hundred species. This eolleetion is now in
the Ham House Museum,
Another hobby whieh we all pursued was col-
leeting Indian artifaets-stone axes, arrowheads, and
pottery, I amazed my eompanions at Pine Hollow by
pieking up from a roeky hillside an arrowhead no
doubt lost by Indians during a hunt. Often on a Sun-
day afternoon Father would take us out to Eagle
Point, where we would traverse the sand hills along
Lake Peosta looking for pieees of Indian pottery,
whieh we learned to distinguish at a glance. For-
merly Indians used to camp here, and some of the
earliest settlers saw Indian burials here. We usually
could find a number of pieces of pottery, but they
became searcer after we had traversed these hills a
number of times. We also found some mementoes
Indian Pot found W, 32nd St.
of the soldiers' eneampment whieh was at this place
during the Civil War. This collection of Indian pot-
tery is also in the Ham House Museum.
We often were joined on these collecting expedi-
tions by one of my uncles, Robert Jungk, and a
nephew of his, Lester Diek. We often went out West
32nd Street to the old eountry home of my grand-
parents. Their farmland was mostly hilly, with deep
ravines cut by the water from storms. We would tra-
verse these ravines looking for Indian flint ehips and
55
arrowheads whieh might be found in the stream bed
or in its deep-cut banks.
On one sueh occasion I found a hand-size piece
of pottery whieh had fallen to the foot of the bank.
My uncle pointed out a thin semi-cireular line indi-
eating the outline of a pot from which it had broken
off. He sent me to a nearby farm house for a peaeh
basket in whieh to earry home our find. Digging
out the many pieces into which the pot had broken,
we plaeed them into the basket and took them home.
Spreading the pieces out upon a table we set upon
the task of fitting them together. As there were sev-
eral hundred pieces of various sizes and shapes, this
was quite diffieult-somewhat like our modern jigsaw
puzzles. But all of our family worked at it and
...,
gradually succeeded in rebuilding a fine Indian pot
of about one gallon eapaeity. Only a few pieces
were missing, and these Father skillfully supplied
with cement. It was determined that this pottery
was made by early Woodland Indians, and that the
plaee where it was found was probably their winter
village site, it being in a narrow valley with a stream
running through it, and being bounded by high rocks
whose erevices afforded shelter from the winter's
eold. The pottery is of good quality and was deeor-
ated over the outside with their traditional eord
indentations. It was fired by placing hot coals on
the inside. This pot is on display in the Indian Room
of the Ham House Museum.
Continues Retail Furniture Store
The first decade of the twentieth century was an
exceedingly busy time for Father. As president of the
Dubuque Cabinet Makers' Association he strove to
keep this promising manufacturing business alive. In
this aim he was opposed by many of the smaller stoek
holders whose main interest was in getting out their
money. As Father was eonscientious and did not
wish to hurt anybody, he reluctantly gave in to their
wishes, and the turmoil ended with the final dissolu-
tion and sale of the eorporation assets in October,
1908, As explained previously, the retail part of the
business was taken over and continued by Father
and his three sons under the name R. Herrmann and
Sons and persisted under this name for over fifty
years.
It is evident that in the earlier years there was a
eonsiderable earry over of ideas from Europe. Busi-
ness was condueted as a family affair, and the busi-
ness had to be continued under the family name at
all eosts. Letters from Saxony from my mother's rela-
tives said, "We are doing a nice business and we
are satisfied. Of course, we eannot build an addition
to our plant every year or two as you do in Ameriea,
but we are doing a nice business and we are
satisfied."
It was many years before we had developed a
modern eredit procedure. During the early years
furniture was sold on a cash basis or eash in thirty
days. It was not until the seeond decade of this
century that eredit expanded to such an extent that
it was necessary to use legal forms and to sell furni-
ture on the "installment plan,"
Over the years our business expanded and the
aeeounts payable beeame a problem. Our liberal
eredit policies led not only to inereased business, but
also to many unpaid aeeounts eating up the profits.
Consequently we never earned mueh money, but the
amount of aecounts never paid would have been
sufficient to build eaeh of us a eomfortable new
home.
This retail furniture store eontinued to oecupy
two floors and the basement of the Rider & Burden
Building at 1000 Main Street through the uncertain
war years until 1924, when the building was leased
to the Interstate Power Company and we had to
move, Our first removal sale was advertised and the
stoek sold down to a small residue.
After some investigation, we leased the second
and third floors over the J. C. Penney Co. store at
988 Main Street. Aecess was through their store and
by elevator to the furniture department.
Through a vigorous advertising eampaign, a sue-
cessful trade was earried on here for five years,
when it was announced that the building was to be
taken over for a movie theater. The Penney Co. was
to build a new building on Main Street.
We Buy a Main Street Building
On investigation we found that half of the Dia-
mond Building, 537 to 553 Main Street, was for
sale by the Staples Estate for a price whieh we
thought we could manage. Arrangements were made
and we purehased the north half of this building.
Having been vaeant for several years, it needed mueh
in repairs and re-decoration.
Although its narrow (twenty-one foot) width
gave us only half the show window spaee we had
enjoyed in the Rider & Burden Building, its four
floors and basement gave us ample space. Also,
we were happy to own our own store building.
Osear superintended the contraets for redeeorating
and for installing a new lighting system and taking
out an old hand-power freight elevator and installing
a new eleetrie passenger and freight elevator in a
more suitable position. We also installed a new steam
heating plant for the entire building and a cement
56
floor in the basement. Some of this work we did our-
selves. When all was ready we began the task of
moving our stoek to the new building during August,
1928. Here we eontinued doing business until 1962.
As the purehase of this Main Street building re-
quired the financial resources of the entire Herrmann
family, we had to borrow a substantial sum from the
bank to pay the contraetors for refurbishing it, Busi-
ness that year continued good, and we were able
to meet bills for merehandise when due.
In Oetober of 1929 the stoek market crash ehanged
the business outlook and eulminated in a financial
erisis two years later. Banks were closing through-
out the United States, resulting in a great panie.
Store at 545 Main St.
Oscar, Richard, Henry Herrmann
In Dubuque two of the younger banks (Federal
Deposit and Trust Co. and the Union Trust & Sav-
ings Bank) were the first to close, followed quiekly
by two of the larger banks. Of six banks in Dubuque,
only two survived the stringeney, the First National
Bank, sustained by Mr. William Lawther's large hold-
ings in Chieago real estate, and the German Bank,
sustained by Mr. Nie Sehrup's large interests in the
Dubuque Fire and Marine Insurance Company.
Runs on these banks were quiekly followed by
runs on two of our older and more substantial
banks, the Iowa Trust & Savings Bank and the
Consolidated National Bank. Long queues of de-
positors lined up at eaeh of these banks, the deposi-
tors frantie to get out their money. Our cash busi-
ness had shrunk to a mere trickle. While we had
an aecount at the last named bank, Father, who had
been through financial panies several times (1857
and 1877), sized up the situation. Knowing that we
had a loan from the bank, and being aware of the
banking laws, he gathered together what eash we
had on hand and bravely took it to the bank for
deposit, making quite a show of it, while most were
trying to get their money out.
After the bank went into reeeivership, we later
paid off our loan, less what was deposited to our
eredit. We did not lose on the deall Incidentally, this
bank paid off most of its obligations.
Serious financial repercussions followed. In 1932
Franklin Roosevelt, newly-elected President, took im-
mediate measures to stem the erisis. He devalued the
dollar and ealled in all gold holdings and had them
deposited in the vaults at Fort Knox, setting the price
at thirty-five dollars per ounce. As many businesses
failed and many men were out of work, he instituted
the P. W. A.-Publie Works Administration-in a
massive make-work project. These measures and
others of the New Deal helped, but it was at least
ten years before business was restored to near normal.
It was at about this time, when business was still
poor and cash very scarce, that a Chinese salesman
eame into our store and displayed a number of ex-
quisitely earved pieces of jade stone whieh he offered
to sell at very reasonable prices. Beeause of our poor
financial condition we were not disposed to buy any-
thing at that time. However we were persuaded to
purehase several small pieces at under five dollars
eaeh. Meanwhile my father and we sons kept ad-
miring a larger piece, whieh for beauty of conception
and fine execution seemed irresistible at the price
for whieh it was offered. This piece, about twelve
inehes long by six wide and nine high, depieted a
spray of thirteen ehrysanthemum blossoms spread
over a cluster of five vases. Among the flowers were
five blaekbirds pieking out the seeds, and below was
a Chinese pheasant. Although the price asked for
this piece was more than the total of our other
purehases, my father and all of us were fascinated
by its beauty and finally decided to add it to our
deal. I relate this incident to show that Riehard
Herrmann was ever ready to recognize beauty.
Brother Oscar was then managing our store. Seeing
our business slowed down and having some cliffi-
eulty in meeting the bills when due, he decided to
cut baek our wages. We had been getting thirty-five
dollars per week. This was eut baek to twenty-five
dollars per week. As I had then four children going
to sehool (high sehool and the University of Du-
buque ), we had some diffieulty getting along on
these wages. My wife Ada, a fine musician, had a
class of pupils in piano. I undertook to earn a little
extra by selling ealendars and novelties to a few
larger aeeounts. So we managed to survive by serimp-
57
ing during about seven years until business beeame
more normal.
As the business was now being earried on by his
three sons, Father continued to eome to the store,
but shortened his hours. His favorite occupation was
working at the bookkeeping, at whieh he was very
adept. When finished, he would sit in his swivel
ehair and engage in eonversation with aequaintances
who eame in from time to time. Owing to his long
and varied experiences, Father was a good eonver-
sationalist and could talk on a variety of subjeets.
Among his aequaintances were many Masons
who knew him for his extensive work in the Masonie
lodges of Dubuque. Since joining the Masons in 1873,
Father had been a tireless worker for the fraternity
and had been eleeted to all of the offices in the local
bodies and had been appointed to some of the state
offices.
In addition, he had been seeretary and treasurer
of the Freemason's Hall Association for twenty-one
years, treasurer of Metropolitan Lodge for forty-
three years, recorder of Dubuque Chapter No.3 for
eighteen years, and recorder of Siloam Commandery
for a period of years. He was a member of Julien
Chapter O. E. S. and enjoyed both its ritualistie and
its social aspeets. He was also a member of DeMolay
Consistory and of the El Kahir Temple. Ancient
Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
Father was on friendly terms with many of the
priests of the several Catholie parishes in Dubuque.
One day, one of them being in the store to purehase
furniture, seeing Father's Masonie wateh eharm,
fingered it and said, "On this you ought to give me a
pretty good deal." Father replied, "How come you
don't patronize Mr. -. He is one of your good pa-
rishioners-Cross-bearer in the Chureh." The priest
replied, "Business is one thing-religion is another.
We go where we are treated best."
The Later Years
After the building of the Julien Dubuque Monu-
ment and the historie diseovery of the original in-
terment of the remains of Julien Dubuque and his
friend Peosta, ehief of the Mesquaki Indians, Mr,
Herrmann beeam¡j widely known for his Museum of
Natural History, whieh he kept open to visitors
without eharge; for his eontributions to the science
of arehaeology and Indian lore; and for his contri-
butions to local history.
Most of his Sunday afternoons were spent in
showing visitors through his museum, and many
classes from the local sehools were shown through in
the late afternoon hours, The visitors' registers con-
tain the names of many from out of town and distant
places, tourists, students, and professors of the vari-
ous sciences. Mueh of Father's time was spent in
answering correspondence on subjeets historieal or
of natural history or in writing his observations on
these subjeets.
Articles about Riehard Herrmann appeared in
several magazines: Munsey's National (printed in
Des Moines, Iowa); Records of the Pa.st (printed in
Washington, D. c.); and Illinois Central, a maga-
zine for employees of the Illinois Central Railroad.
In addition to his Autobiography, written in 1907,
he wrote three other volumes, all in beautiful hand-
writing and illustrated with beautiful pen and ink
drawings. Of these the best known is his Life and
Adventures of Julien Dubuque, which was printed
in the Dubuque Times Journal and later produced
in booklet form. Five hundred eopies were disposed
of, and there were requests for many more. Two
others of his handwritten books were titled Geology,
a Plea for Higher Education, and a Collection of
Swiss Songs made in eollaboration with a Mr. Hartly
of Dubuque.
For a number of years Riehard Herrmann main-
tained membership in the American Association for
the Advancement of Science. Here it might be perti-
nent to inquire whence came his taste for the arts
and the finer aspeets of life. We have seen that his
father's interests were in meehanies and that he was
a skilled worker in metals. All that I remember of
Father's mother is that she wanted her grandehildren
to be neat and to maintain a proper bearing.
As the family had lived in Chemnitz, Saxony,
whieh was then a prosperous manufaeturing city, I
have no doubt that they had visited the loeal art
exhibits, theaters, and museums, and that they oe-
casionally traveled to the nearby eities of Meissen
and Dresden for the same purpose. I am sure that
it was on sueh visits that Father and his nearest
sister, Selma, absorbed the tastes for the fine arts,
musie, painting, and dancing, which they earried into
their later life.
Speaking of musie, Father had purehased in Chi-
eago a fine violin whieh was made in Cremona by
a noted violin maker, Friederieh August Glass in
1736. How he learned to play it, I do not know, but
some of my earliest reeollections are of him playing
the Strauss waltzes in true Viennese style, my mother
aecompanying at the piano.
Later, when his ehildren were of sehool age, he
taught us boys to play violin, using a self-instruction
book arranged by a Mr. Rastatter, a well-known mu-
sician of Dubuque. He drilled us on the tuneful
exercises and played the second violin parts. He also
saw to it that sister Rosalie learned to play piano.
Osear learned to play 'cello, and for a number of years
played 'cello in Professor Eduard Sehroeder's Sym-
phony Orehestra.
58
Oscar and Rosalie sang in the ehoir of the Im-
manuel Congregational Chureh, and in 1904 joined
with a large group of Dubuque singers who traveled
to St. Louis, Missouri, to sing in competition in the
World's Fair then going on in that city. Arthur be-
came quite profieient in playing violin, but 1 didn't
take it up until several years later. Father was mueh
interested in our musical progress and was proud of
the faet that he himself had taught us.
Father's interest and talent in art was evidenced
in the faet that by the time of my earliest walking
days (about 1890) he had finished the last of four
large oil paintings whieh were hung in four wall
spaces in our front parlor. These were about 40 x 50
inehes and were framed in massive gold finish eove
mouldings. We admired one whieh hung over the
large oblong piano. It portrayed a sailing ship at
anehor near a lighthouse. It was evidently riding out
a storm as the ocean waves were high and menacing.
The sails being furled revealed the intrieate ropes
and ladders of the three-masted ship. Then he put
away his easel and paint box, as there were other
demands upon his time.
The easel was a fine solid walnut one. The paint-
box, of the same wood, was ample and contained a
walnut palette board with a small can for turpentine
attaehed. The paint raeks eontained many tubes of
liquid paints of many shades.
I remember seeing my father's early drawing
books. Starting with simple line drawings of sueh
subjeets as fortresses and old eastles, they pro-
gressed to drawings of horses, their riders, dogs in
various postures, a fox waiting patiently at a rabbit
burrow, and many others. These were fully shaded
pencil drawings and were true to copy, and most
lifelike, Father was equally facile in the use of the
various art media-water color, erayon, and pen
and ink.
On one oeeasion he was asked to give a talk on
geology before a class of young ladies at the Ep-
worth Seminary (Epworth, Iowa). As it seemed im-
praetieable to take along the heavy roek specimens
for illustration, he made a number of eharts in which
he showed a large number of fossils. These were done
in water color and they gave a realistie pieture of
these difficult subjeets. These eharts are on display
at the Ham House Museum.
The water eolor eharts he made depieting the
various fossils in his eolleetion were amazingly life
like. Often he would make a pen drawing of some
article in his museum, later filling it in with crayon
or water color. Before eolor photography beeame
popular I have heard Father say, "I can't get en-
thusiastie about blaek and white pietures. His first
hand-written book, the Life and Adventures of Julien
Dubuque, was filled with fine line drawings. His
Geology, a Plea for Higher Education, contained
about ninety-five hand-drawn illustrations. His auto-
biography written in 1907 was replete with skill-
fully drawn pen and ink pictures. I remember his
friend, Mr. A. F. Fruden, pioneer lumberman, say-
ing after viewing some of Father's drawings, "Diek,
you should have been an artist instead of a business
man."
Charts of Fossils
I remember that during the very early years of
the twentieth century there eame to Dubuque an
Austrian artist named Joseph Walter. He was a
highly skilled portrait painter, but was greatly dis-
eouraged at not receiving many orders for portraits.
Father, reeognizing his talents, invited him to our
home and eneouraged him to stay in Dubuque. He
took him to several homes of prominent Dubuque
families to introduce him. Father gave him eommis-
sions for several portraits: one of my mother; one of
my father; one of my aunt, Mrs. Clara Wieland; and
one for a large landseape of the Julien Dubuque
Monument. These he executed with great skill. We
had also on our walls two watereolor scenes of his
homeland, the Tyrolean Alps. Father next introduced
him to the priests of several loeal Catholie ehurches,
and seeured for him commissions for deeorating their
ehureh interiors. Mueh eneouraged, Mr. Walter de-
cided to stay here. He later married a Dubuque lady
and remained here the rest of his life.
Having been relieved of some of his business re-
sponsibilities, and having completed his hand-written
books, Father again took up his hobby of painting.
His first subjeets were mostly historieal, depicting
scenes of Julien Dubuque's life with the Indians at
the mouth of Catfish Creek. Among these were
Julien Dubuque's log cabin and the Fox Indian
village aeross the ereek. I remember one showing
Julien Dubuque firing a salute to the United States
flag on the ship of Lt. Pike when he stopped there
on his voyage up the Mississippi in 1805. An amusing
incident in eonneetion with this painting was that
Father diseovered that he had painted a stern wheel
steamboat some years before steamboats had been
invented! Father correeted the mistake by repaint-
59
ing it as a sail ship! There was one of Julien Du-
buque burning the ereek to frighten the Indians
into submission. Several were of the lead mining
Lt. Pike Visits Dubuque-1805
operations. One, purporting to be his wedding to
the Indian squaw, Potosa, might be considered con-
troversial, but upon consultation, the well-known
Dubuque historian, Rev. A. M. Hoffman, thought it
quite probable.
Father painted equally well with water colors
or with oil paints. Many of the historical scenes were
ereated from his aeeurate knowledge of the pertinent
faets. Others were copies of well-known paintings.
I remember some of the subjeets whieh he chose
to illustrate; besides numerous pietures of lead mining
and the early lead smelting furnaees, there were sueh
subjects as rafting on the Mississippi, the boatways
at Eagle Point, the Standard lumber yards, the ice
harvest, and eaves in the roeks facing the river at
East Dubuque. There was also one of our boat, the
"Rosalie," entering the harbor.
Julien Dubuque Weds Poto8a
Lead Mine
One painting whieh he copied was George Cat-
lin's pieture of the Julien Dubuque grave site as it
appeared in 1835. Father made a close view of the
interior of the hut (shown in the pieture) as it
appeared to the first settlers in the city of Dubuque.
When the Julien Dubuque monument was built in
1897, Father made an aeeurate chart showing the
exact position of eaeh of the three skeletons found
and of the various artifaets. These artifacts, together
with photographs of the remains of the three persons
interred at the lower levels of the grave site and the
ehart whieh he made showing the exaet position in
whieh eaeh was found, are now on display in the
Indian Room of the Ham House Museum.
Father made good use of his time and his talents.
When not attending Masonie meetings he would
busy himself at home-perhaps puttering in the
museum, cleaning, repairing, or labeling specimens.
He would not leave an objeet unsightly if he thought
he could improve its appearance. Or perhaps he
would start a new painting, in oil or watercolor. His
preference was for historical subjeets, often copies
of well-known paintings. Having seleeted a subjeet,
he worked with coneentration to faithfully reproduce
its eolors and perspective, and in some cases he
probably embellished them a little.
I remember one series of about four water color
pictures showing the arts and erafts of the Zuni and
Hopi Indians. These were about twenty by thirty
inehes, framed in glass, and they hung in our hall-
way many years. Another series, done in soft pencil,
60
beautifully shaded, and most lifelike, depieted sueh
subjeets as "Manifest Destiny," a lively scene show-
ing an Indian on a galloping horse, with bow and
arrow, vying with a white hunter for the last buffalo.
Another, "Art Crities," showed cows, horses, and
other farm animals seanning a pieture whieh an
artist had left on his easel while he went off for a
rest.
Mr. Herrmann anticipated the improvement of
our Industrial Island by many years. In 1912 he
made a water color painting showing the lake filled
in with sand from the river. A river front drive upon
a flood wall with boulevard lights is prominent in the
pieture, whieh was printed in the Catholie Daily
about that time,
However, not always did he paint copies. When
the subjeet was sufficiently ehallenging he would
rise to the oceasion and paint on his own. One such
was a water color painting about three by six feet,
a view of the city of Dubuque from a hilltop directly
aeross the Mississippi River from Eagle Point Park.
This he started during a pienie held by the Order
of the Eastern Star at the farm home of Mr. and
Mrs. Henry Trenk. Using a large sheet of wrapping
paper whieh was taeked on to a screen door, he laid
out the very comprehensive scene, taking in the city
of Dubuque, its hills, buildings, and water front,
spanning from Eagle Point to the Julien Dubuque
monument and the hills beyond, as well as the river
and the Burlington Railroad on the Wiseonsin side.
As the distance was so great, it was neeessary for
him to go baek a seeond time with a field glass to
get the details of the various distant buildings. When
finished, Father had a fine walnut frame made and
plaeed the picture under glass. It hung in our hall-
way for many years and was greatly admired by the
many visitors to his museum.
After a pause of about twenty years, Father again
took up oil painting, After painting a number of
original scenes pertaining to Julien Dubuque and
the Fox Indians, he took to painting enlargements
from blaek and white photographs and eopies of
well-known paintings. Some were historical, sueh as
his eopy of the noted scene "Washington Crossing
the Delaware." Another oil painting showed General
Gates commissioning General Washington in Phila-
delphia.
He made two oil paintings of Masonie interest,
one about three by five feet, depicting George Wash-
ington in Masonie regalia presiding as Master of
Alexandria Lodge No. 22 at Alexandria, Virginia.
This painting now hangs on a wall of the parlor in
the Seottish Rite Temple in Clinton, Iowa. The
second painting of Masonie interest shows Thomas
Jefferson reading his draft of the Declaration of In-
dependence to an assemblage in Philadelphia, While
none of the aecoutrements of a Masonie lodge are
visible, the form and arrangement of the room, the
three steps to the Master's dais, and finally, a group
of three men, one wearing a hat, near the entrance
door, all suggest that the meeting was held in a
Masonie lodge room, and that the three principal
officers had vacated their stations to accommodate
the group. This is a repliea of a well-known painting
by Humphreys, Mr. Herrmann's painting now hangs
in the Masonie lodge room at Independence, Iowa.
Father found relaxation and self expression in
painting. Over a period of about twenty years he
produced over forty oil paintings of about thirty-
by forty-ineh size. Many of these were eopies from
well-known artists, sueh as Frederiek Remington's
and Curtis' scenes of cowboys and Indians, and
Phillip Goodwin's scenes of wild animals and hunters.
One of my favorites was of a moose crossing a lake;
another was of Indians viewing the first train to
eross the western prairies; and another, of Indians
attaeking a stage coaeh. Although eopies, these were
faithfully reproduced to cateh the spirit of the aetion.
At other times Father found relaxation in playing
his favorite violin. This he continued to do until
late in life. At age ninety, his eyesight failing, he
suddenly stopped and said to my daughter, who had
become an aeeomplished musician, "Here, you take
it-l can no longer read the notes."
In his later years Father spent much time in
reading, mostly of sueh subjeets as history, polities,
natural history, philosophy. and religion. He perused
many articles that came to his desk in trade papers,
Masonie magazines, and scientific papers. If he liked
the thoughts and agreed with them, he would take
up pen and ink and take time out to place them
upon paper in his beautiful handwriting. Many of
these are still extant, and it is diffieult to tell which
are his own thoughts and whieh the original writer's,
His interests were universal. He made easual
eolleetions of old coins, medals, postage stamps, and
cigar bands. And although he did not ehew tobaeeo,
he eollected tobaeco tags for a period of about fifty
years.
In regard to eoins, I shall relate a humorous in-
cident. One day a visitor coming to his office said,
"Mr. Herrmann, I hear that you have a eolleetion
of coins. I want to show you one that is rare." There-
upon he handed Father a large eopper eoin. Father
examined it and said, "What's rare about it?" The
man replied, "Why, don't you see? The year 1879
B. C.-before Christl" Father replied, "The B. C. is
for British Columbia. They eouldn't have stamped
it 1879 ß. C. before Christ eame." The man was
crestfallen to think what a fool he had made of him-
self.
In our furniture business, the management- buy-
ing, selling, aecounting, and advertising-now de-
volved largely upon my brother Osear and me,
Father being present in an advisory eapacity. Brother
Arthur was in eharge of the delivery department.
After waiting on retail eustomers, we usually found
several representatiV<'s of our suppliers in the office
61
awaiting an opportunity to show their wares, Father,
sitting in his swivel ehair by his large walnut rolltop
desk, meanwhile had engaged them in conversation.
As this was a daily routine, Father had repeated
some of his stories many times, and they beeame
quite familiar to me.
Among these conversations I remember one which
I might repeat for its local historieal interest-the
famous lawsuit of Riehmond and Jaekson vs. the
Illinois Central Railroad (about 1868). The railroad
had entered into a eontraet with these two gentle-
men, who operated a ferry boat, to pay them for
ferrying grain aeross the Mississippi River to their
elevator at Dunleith, Illinois (now East Dubuque).
The contract, seribbled on a plain pieee of paper,
simply said, "We agree to pay Riehmond and Jaek-
son six cents a bushel for all the grain that passes
through." After the railroad built their bridge aeross
the river, they assumed the eon tract no longer perti-
nent. But the ferry company eounted the cars as they
erossed over, and they billed the railroad a large
sum eaeh month. Riehmond and Jaekson were repre-
sented by the Dubuque attorney, W. J, Knight, who
argued that the eontraet was still in force. Judgment
was rendered in favor of Riehmond and Jackson,
upon whieh the attorney for the railroad said, "I'll
see that grass grows on the streets of Dubuque."
The judge admonished him, saying that the people of
Dubuque were not to blame. The attorney repeated,
"I'll see that grass grows on the streets of Dubuque!"
Afterward, the railroad made W. J. Knight its ehief
legal representative, W. J. Knight lived many years
at 1497 Main Street in Dubuque,
In another lawsuit against the Illinois Central
Railroad, resulting from a eollison near Rockdale, in
whieh a farm wagon and a team of horses were lost,
Father was a witness, having been at that time an
employee of the railroad. Father observed that the
meehanieal drawings submitted in evidence by the
railroad and by the plaintiffs presented two very
different viewpoints. He told how when the engineer
was ealled to the witness stand the attorney for the
plaintiff, shaking his finger at the wituess, said,
"Aren't you the man that when Colonel Cody took
his command out west, he had to come forward on
the train and warn you of your reekless driving?" The
The defense attorney objeeted and the judge yelled,
"Stop! Stop!" But the jury was duly impressed that
the man was a most reekless engineer!
Other conversations oft repeated in various forms
were about the Civil War. Father was about twelve
years of age at the start. He saw Lineoln and heard
him speak from the poreh of the Monongahela House
in Pittsburg. Lincoln was nominated by the Republi-
ean Convention in Chieago. He promised that if
eleeted President, he would abolish slavery. The
eampaign was vigorous on both sides; many speeehes
were made throughout the country. There were
torehlight proeessions with floats depicting Lincoln
as "Honest Old Abe-the Rail Splitter." The argu-
ments about slavery were heated, as many slaves
were spirited aeross the Ohio River and found
refuge in free territory in the north. Answering eom-
plaints from the South, the Northerners would say,
"We are not your nigger catehers."
When Lineoln was elected and left by train for
Washington, it was said, "If he goes by way of
Baltimore, he will never get there alive." But he did
go that way, and, by manipulating train time, arrived
safely. Father told how Confederate sympathizers
had loaded war material from the Federal Arsenal
at Pittsburgh onto boats and had taken them down
the river as far as the Kanawha before they were
arrested, "in the niek of time."
When the war started, the generals of the opposing
sides were reluctant to fight eaeh other, as they had
all studied in the same military aeademy and were
friends. They held baek and said, "This is a matter
for Congress to decide." Lineoln tried one general
after another with little suecess. In faet, the Con-
federates managed to beat baek the Northerners to
near the outskirts of Washington, On a Sunday some
of the Congressmen and their wives thought it would
be a pienie to go out by earriage and'see the battle.
In mid-afternoon they eame rushing back at break-
neek speed to avoid being eaptured by the Con-
federates!
The war dragged on at fearful cost in lives and
in suffering. Lincoln was deeply perturbed and was
greatly eriticized all around. He decided to appoint
Ulysses S. Grant general of the Western Army. Grant
had had experience in the war with Mexieo. His
instructions from the President were to bring this
terrible war to a close at any eost. He at once took
measures to aecomplish this objective. After taking
several of the Confederate forts on the Mississippi,
he decided to move inland. General Sherman was
appointed and given orders to eut through Tennessee
and Georgia, destroying the South's resources, on his
mareh to Riehmond.
On hearing of Grant's appointment, an elderly
lady eame to Lineoln one day, remonstrating. She
said, "Why appoint Grant? I hear he is a terrible
man-he smokes cigars and drinks whiskey." Lin-
coln replied, "Is that so? Well, you let me know
what brand of whiskey he drinks, so that I can send
some to my other generals."
On other occasions, Father would regale my
ehildren with stories of the Civil War and add the
following incident: "One night a large Federal force
eame upon a smaller Confederate force eneamped
upon the top of a wooded hill. They deeided to wait
until morning to attaek. The Greys worked feverishly
all night to improve their defenses. They cut many
logs and pointed the ends toward the enemy. Each
end was painted grey with a large blaek spot in the
middle. At dawn the Northern generals looked up,
and, seeing the hilltop studded with 'large cannon',
62
they deeided to await reinforeements before attaek-
ing!"
Father also told the faet that General Grant,
coming from Galena, Illinois, decided to give large
eontraets to the Ryan Meat Paeking plant of nearby
Dubuque to furnish pork for the Union armies. After
the war the Ryans built fine briek homes on Loeust
Street in Dubuque. One of them was surrounded
with a fine east iron fenee, the posts of whieh showed
Grant's profile on four sides, These were specially
east in a local foundry. Afterward Grant was invited
to visit the Ryans and was delighted with the posts.
Ryan HoWie-1375 Locust St.
Richard Herrmann's 4 Children about 1900
Richard Herrmann Family - 1888 Mrs. Theresa Herrmann among children
Henry Herrmann - babe in arms
63
Silver Wedding
"'Men and women, and especially young fo
that for a eouple to be married, requires but the
ceremony. This is a great mistake, They do no
stand that it takes years to completely marry tw
eVen if at the start they seem the most loving
suited.
The esteem in which both of my parents were
held by many friends among the Masons of Dubuque
and the Order of the Eastern Star, whieh latter order
both assisted in organizing as Julien Chapter No.
125, O. E, S., is welJ brought out in Father's aeeount
of their silver wedding in his autobiography. The
folJowing is his verbatim aeeount:
"'History is made by men and women making things
happen.' It happened around the banquet board at one
of the meetings of Julien Chapter No. 125, O. E. S.
"The Worthy Matron, Sister Alice Brown, remarked
that the ehapter ought to have SOme sort of a sociable
for Washington's birthday, This brought out the faet that
this was the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary of Brother
and Sister Riehard Herrmann. The Worthy Matron then
said, 'Very well, we'U have one on you.'
"Brother Herrmann remarked that he would be glad
to furnish the musie and refreshments, providing the
haJJ eould be proeured. The Worthy Matron and the
Worthy Patron both replied, 'There wiJ] be no diffjeulty
about that'; and so it happened that invitations went
out to every member of the Order (as shown here).
1878
Mr. and Mrs. Riehard Herrmann
invite you to be present at their
Twenty-fifth Wedding Anniversary
February the twenty-third
Nineteen hundred three - at 8 o'cloek
Masonie HaU - corner 10th and Main Sts.
Dubuque, Iowa
1903
Cards
Dancing
"At the appointed time the guests to the number of
over one hundred, together with the immediate family
and friends of Brother and Sister Herrmann, assembled
at Masonie HaU, whieh had been tastefuUy deeorated for
the oceasion.
"Many congratulations were showered upon the happy
couple, and numerous individual tokens in silver Were
presented by admiring friends.
"Promptly at the hour the orehestra struek up the
Grand Mareh in whieh Brother and Sister Herrmann led.
By prearranged signal a halt Was made opposite the East,
where the Worthy Matron, Sister Aliee Brown, presented
the esteemed couple a beautiful silver coffee urn and tray,
in the foUowing words: 'Brother and Sister Herrmann:
upon me devolves the very pleasant duty of presenting
to you this beautiful urn, as a token of Jove and esteem by
your Masonie and Eastern Star friends, As the years roU
by, may you eVer turn baek to this time as heing one of
the bright spots in life's journey. We wish you many
happy returns of the day, and We hope that we may be
permitted to celebrate with you your Golden Wedding.'
"Brother Henry F. Trenk, on behalf of the Masons,
spoke the foUowing,
'And They Were Wed
'From that day forth in peaee and joyous bliss
They lived together long without debate,
Nor private jars, nor spite of enemies
Could shake the safe assuranee of their state.
64
"'Sisters and Brothers: When in the
events one runs across such a sentJrnen
silver wedding, we older ones drift into
as a duek takes to water, or you you
daneing. I quote from William Cox Be
slightly transposed to suit the occasion:
Your wedding ring wears thin, d
Summers not a few, since first
I put it on your finger,
Have passed o'er me and you.
And Love, what ehanges we have
What eares and pleasures tool
Since you became my own, dear
Five and twenty years ago,
Oh, blessings on that happy day!
The Happiest of my life
When, thanks to God, your low sw
Made you my loving wife,
Your heart wiJI say the same, I kn
That day's as dear to you.
That day made me yours, d- wi£
Five and twenty years ago.
How well do I remember now
Your young sweet face that day;
How fair you were, bow d- you w
My tongue could hardly say,
Nor how I doted on you;
Oh, how proud I was of your
Nor did I love you more than now-
Five and twenty rears ago.
Years bring fresh links to bind 'bs, wi£
Young voices that are here;
Young faces round our fire
Make their mother's yet more dear.
Young loving hearts, your care each da
Make yet more like to you;
More like the loving heart made mine
Five and twenty years ago.
And blessed be Gad - all he has given
Are with us yet; around our tahle,
Every precious life lent to us,
StiJ] is found!
I
I
)
Tho eal'es we've known, with bopeluJ h
The worst we've struggled through;
Blest be His Name, for all His love,
For the five and twenty years agone.
Silver Wedding
The esteem in whieh both of my parents were
held by many friends among the Masons of Dubuque
and the Order of the Eastern Star, which latter order
both assisted in organizing as Julien Chapter No.
125, O. E. S., is well brought out in Father's aecount
of their silver wedding in his autobiography. The
following is his verbatim account:
"'History is made by men and women making things
happen: It happened around the banquet board at one
of the meetings of Julien Chapter No. 125, 0, E. S.
"The Worthy Matron, Sister Alice Brown, remarked
that the ehapter ought to have some sort of a sociable
for Washington's birthday. This brought out the faet that
this was the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary of Brother
and Sister Riehard Hemnann. The Worthy Matron then
said, 'Very well, we'll have one on you:
"Brother Hernnann remarked that he would be glad
to furnish the musie and refreshments, providing the
hall eould be proeured. The Worthy Matron and the
Worthy Patron both replied, 'There will he no diffieulty
about that'; and so it happened that invitations went
out to every member of the Order (as shown here).
1878
1903
Mr. and Mrs. Riehard Hernnann
invite you to be present at their
Twenty-fifth Wedding Anniversary
February the twenty-third
Nineteen hundred three - at 8 o'cloek
Masonie Hall - corner 10th and Main Sts.
Dubuque, Iowa
Cards Dancing
"At the appointed time the guests to the number of
over one hundred, together with the immediate family
and friends of Brother and Sister Hernnann, assembled
at Masonie Hall, whieh had been tastefully deeorated for
the oecasion.
"Many congratulations were showered upon the happy
eouple, and numerous individual tokens in silver were
presented by admiring friends,
"Promptly at the hour the orehestra struek up the
Grand Mareh in which Brother and Sister Hemnann led.
By prearranged signal a halt was made opposite the East,
where the Worthy Matron, Sister Alice Brown, presented
the esteemed eouple a beautiful silver coffee urn and tray,
in the following words: 'Brother and Sister Hernnann:
upon me devolves the very pleasant duty of presenting
to you this beautiful urn, as a token of love and esteem by
your Masonie and Eastern Star friends, As the years roll
by, may you ever turn baek to this time as being one of
the bright spots in life's journey. We wish you many
happy returns of the day, and we hope that we may be
pennitted to eelebrate with you your Golden Wedding:
"Brother Henry F. Trenk, on behalf of the Masons,
spoke the following:
'And They Were Wed
'From that day forth in peaee and joyous bliss
They lived together long without debate,
Nor private jars, nor spite of enemies
Could shake the safe assuranee of their state.
"'Sisters and Brothers: When in the course of human
events one runs aeross sueh a sentimental occasion as a
silver wedding, we older ones drift into poetry as naturally
as a duck takes to water, or you young folks take to
dancing. I quote from William Cox Bennett a few lines
slightly transposed to suit the oceasion:
Your wedding ring wears thin, dear wife,
Summers not a few, sinee first
I put it on your finger,
Have passed o'er me and you.
And Love, what changes we have seen!
What eares and pleasures too!
Since you beeame my own, dear wife,
Five and twenty years ago.
Oh, blessings on that happy day!
The Happiest of my life
When, thanks to God, your low sweet 'yes'
Made you my loving wife.
Your heart will say the same, I know
That day's as dear to you,
That day made me yours, dear wife,
Five and twenty years ago.
How well do I remember now
Your young sweet faee that day;
How fair you were, how dear you were
My tongue eould hardly say.
Nor how I doted on you;
Oh, how proud I was of you!
Nor did I love you more than now-
Five and twenty years ago.
Years bring fresh links to bind bs, wife,
Young voices that are here;
Young faces round our fire
Make their mother's yet more dear.
Young loving hearts, your eare eaeh day,
Make yet more like to you;
More like the loving heart made mine-
Five and twenty years ago.
And blessed be God - all he has given
Are with us yet; around our table,
Every precious life lent to us,
Still is found!
Tho cares we've known, with hopeful hearts,
The worst we've struggled through;
Blest be His Name, for all His love,
For the five and twenty years agone.
"'Men and women, and especially young folks, think
that for a eouple to be married, requires but the wedding
eeremony. This is a great mistake, They do not under-
stand that it takes years to eompletely marry two hearts,
even if at the start they seem the most loving and well
suited.
64
<f(1II~,i
t!( rc
Silver Coffee Urn-Gift of Order of Eastern Star
65
leather seat and baek ehairs (the Shiras family ehairs,
whieh Grandpa Herrmann had had restored with new
leather and large brass nails). These were placed
close together, and as these gatherings numbered
usually twenty or more, extra ehairs had to be added
and the smaller ehildren were served at a smaller
walnut table in the regular dining room. (The furni-
ture and perspective of these two rooms, showing
the earved walnut table and the Spanish-style ehairs,
the seeond dining table and ehairs, the seeretary, the
gondola lounge, the hard eoal burner, and the gold-
framed portraits, are all shown in the skillfully-drawn
pen and ink sketeh on page 363 in Mr. Herrmann's
Life Story.)
If the oeeasion were Thanksgiving or Christmas,
the eentral piece usually was an enormous turkey
whieh Grandma baked and filled with delicious dress-
ing and served on her fine Haviland ehina. The long
table was loaded with other tasty foods, eranberries,
salads, coffee eakes, and Christmas breads and
cookies whieh Grandma had learned to bake from
her mother, Great Grandma Jungk, who had worked
in a bakery in her native Germany.
After dinner the party adjourned to the front
parlor where musie, singing, and the lighted Christ-
mas tree were enjoyed, After many sueh oeeasions
Uncle Arthur would get out the furniture delivery
truck, pack in the small children, and take them to
their homes on Seminary Hill.
While many gatherings of this kind eome to my
mind, the one that stands out in memory was the
golden wedding anniversary, February 22, 1928, In
addition to the immediate family and ehildren we
were happy to have with us Father's two surviving
sisters, Mrs. William Nollman of Omaha, Nebraska,
and Mrs. C. V. Mos of Kansas City, Missouri. Also,
Mother's relatives and many Masonie friends ealled
to offer eongratulations. The writer still eherishes
several mementos of the oecasion-several white china
cherubs bearing golden rings. These were on the
long table, adding to the beauty of the large anniver-
sary eake bearing lighted candles.
My mother and father, being of sturdy Saxon
stock, were in good health and were destined to live
many more happy years. Mother continued to do the
housekeeping-purehasing and preparing food and
clothing, assisted only by my sister Rosalie, Arthur
accepted responsibility for home maintenance, heat-
ing, services, and upkeep. Father continued to go
to the store, but on shortened hours. As he was
nearing age ninety we often saw him pace the floor
back and forth from the front door to the elevator
(about eighty feet). This he did to get his exercise
and keep up circulation. At home he spent hours
playing his favorite violin, or at times he would use
his writing ability to make eopies of some piece of
poetry or of philosophy whieh met his approval. I
still have many sueh eopies, and I find included in
his book several whieh I believe expressed very well
his working plan of life.
Both of my parents maintained a happy disposi-
tion throughout their lives, Father was an optimist,
always persuasive about the goodness of life here
in America, and thankful t" the Divine Creator for
the many blessings which he showers upon us. I
heard Father say at the age of seventy-five, "I am
ready to go at any time-but life is sweet and as long
as I have good health and still can putter around,
I should like to hang on." As our home sat far baek
from the street and had a full front poreh, our family
often sat there enjoying the cool evening breezes.
One of our pastimes was eounting the number of
ears that would pass in the space of an hour.
Father continued to be loyal to the Masonie insti-
tution until his late years, often walking the distance
of over a mile to the lodge hall. He eontinued to take
an aetive part in all of the orders, and he often
prompted the officers when they hesitated in reciting
the ritual. Consequently he was held in high esteem
by the Dubuque Masons. He still held offices in the
several bodies until late in life. He was treasurer of
Metropolitan Lodge No. 49, and seeretary of Du-
buque Chapter and Couneil No.3 until, his hearing
failing, he had to give them up. He recited the
lengthy parts of prelate in the Commandery in a
most effeetive manner.
Wh"n the new Masonie building at Twelfth and
Loeust Streets was built, he was quite enthusiastie
about it and made a good eontribution for whieh
his name appears on a bronze plaque eontaining the
names of substantial contributors. When ground was
broken for the new building, he was invited to turn
the first shovelful of earth, and the shovel used is
preserved on the walls of the eard room.
My brothers Arthur and Osear and I beeame
aetive in Masonie work and advanced to the highest
office in all of the loeal bodies, excepting that Osear
did not attain to the office of Master of the Lodge.
After my marriage to Miss Ada Betsy Campbell, I
persuaded her to join the Order of the Eastern Star,
since her mother was a member of that organization.
Ada soon beeame active in the work and advanced
until she beeame Worthy Matron in 1935. Grandpa
Herrmann was very mueh pleased, and at the in-
stallation ceremonies he was happy to present her
with a nice wooden gavel for her use. She graciously
thanked him for it. Ada was a gracious lady, very
tactful, and was loved by everyone who knew her.
Her year as Worthy Matron was most successful.
It had been said among the members that our
local newspaper, The Telegraph Herald, would not
give mueh publicity to news of the Masonie fratern-
ity or the Order of the Eastern Star. Early in her
year it was deeided that near Washington's birthday
the Order would put on an entertainment, using the
downstairs stage in the Temple. The stage appoint-
ments were in early Ameriean style; the aetors were
70
dressed in eolonial eostumes. One of the numbers
was a solo played on an old-fashioned rosewood
spinet whieh formerly belonged to the Order, by our
Richard Herrmann and Three Sons all in Knights Templar
Uniform-192.3.
daughter Grace Rosalie, who was then twelve years
of age. The afore-mentioned newspaper sent up its
photographers, and the photo and aeeount of the
event was spread over the top half of a page of the
Sunday edition! Father was mueh pleased, and was
happy to attend all of the meetings of her very
suecessful year.
Siloam Commandery No. .3 marching up Main St. to St.
John's Episcopal Church-Easter 192.3. Eminent Com-
mander, Emil J. Biasi-front rank. George Ehmer, Standard
Bearer, Henry Herrmann-Captain General.
The golden years slipped by, one by one, until
it beeame time to observe their sixtieth wedding
anniversary. Arrangements were made with the
Masonie Temple board to have a dinner in the smaller
dining room, followed by a program and reception in
the ladies' eard room. A piano was moved into this
room, By this time our ehildren were high sehool
students and had progressed in musie. With their
mother at the piano, they discoursed appropriate
musie for the oecasion, The reception lines were
formed at the door, and Mr. and Mrs. Herrmann
graciously received congratulations not only from
many Masonie friends but also from many long-time
aequaintanees from the city.
Late one winter evening Father was walking to
the Temple, and in erossing the street at Twelfth and
Loeust Streets. he was struek by a car driven by a
seventcen-year-old youth. Father was then about
ninety years of age, and his hearing was rather poor,
Also, he may have been preoeeupied with reciting
to himself the ritual whieh he knew so well. As it
happened, the ear was not traveling fast and the
impaet was eushioned somewhat by his heavy over-
coat. He was pieked up and earried into the Masonic
Temple and a physieian was ealled. A easual exam-
ination revealed no bones broken. The doetor said
he would reeover all right, He was taken home to
recuperate. But his limbs were blaek and blue for
several months afterward!
As there were doetor bills, I felt that I should
eompose a Jetter making claim upon the boy's parents
to reeover these expenses. But Father would not allow
me to send it. Here again Father did not like con-
troversy and was willing to take the other person's
point of view.
Father maintained to the end his enthusiasm for
life in general and in this "land of opportunity" in
partieular. He enjoyed the beauty in the world of
nature, as well as the worthwhile produets of human
effort-fine furniture, fine ehina and glassware, and
fine art as it appeared in books, paintings, and objeets
d'art.
His bookshelves eontained numerous series of
art works which no doubt were reeeived in serial
form, but whieh he later had had beautifully bound
by loeal artisans. Among sueh were two volumes of
Birds of North America, originally published by the
Smithsonian Institute in paper eovers. These eon-
tained many illustrations of birds' eggs, exquisitely
colored, a very fine example of early color printing.
His shelves also eontained numerous books of his-
torieal or of musieal interest, whieh he deemed
worthy of being preserved in good bindings. Also,
he kept besides his own drawings and paintings the
works of well-known artists.
I remember well Father's enthusiasm about the
progress of our city of Dubuque, When new store
buildings appeared on Main Street and Clay Street
in the period from 1885 to 1900, he would talk about
them with enthusiasm.
I remember well how enthusiastie he was about
the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1892. My
parents not only went to see it, but did so several
71
for many years recited several of the lectures whieh
point out the unspeakable beneficence of the Divine
Creator, in both the physieal spheres of nature and
also the metaphysieal, he aehieved a solid foundation
for a beautiful "spiritual building" within, a "house
not made with hands-eternal in the heavens,"
In conclusion let me quote my father as saying
in his later years: "I have contributed a lot of time
and money to Masonry-several thousands of dollars
in fees and dues over the years, and a great deal of
time in attending meetings, committing rituals,
etcetera-but all in all I eonsider it well spent. You
ean't get anything out of an institution unless you
put something into it. I eonsider that Free Masonry
has done mueh for me," He was a Mason sixty-eight
years, a member of ehapter, eouncil, and eommandery
sixty seven years.
Necrology
Shortly after Father passed away Brother Albert Wharton, Seeretary of
Metropolitan Lodge, with whom father had been associated as Treasurer of
the Lodge for many years, wrote a Neerology Report whieh appeared in the
Blaek Fez Magazine for June 1941. Here it is in part:
IN MEMORY OF BROTHER RICHARD HERRMANN
by Albert Wharton
"The noblest eontribution whieh any man ean make for the benefit of pos-
terity, is that of a good eharaeter. The riehest bequest whieh any man ean leave
to the youth of his native land, is that of a shining spotless example.
"It is with these thoughts that I wish to pay tribute to the memory of
our departed brother and Dubuque's oldest Freemason,"
(For the sake of brevity the remainder of Brother Wharton's report is here
omitted since Riehard Herrmann's Masonie activities have been listed in a
previous ehapter.)
Conclusion
by Henry Herrmann
In conclusion the writer wishes to say, as hinted
in the foreward, that his purpose in writing this story
was not to add luster to his father's name-he was
the "Captain of his own Salvation"-but rather to
extol the advantage of living in the United States
of Ameriea-the "Land of Promise and Fulfillment,"
America-the land of the free and the home of
the brave. Ameriea- a land of freedom-freedom of
religion, freedom of eonscience,-free publie sehools,
freedom of opportunity, equality under the law, fair-
ness in competition, fairness in polities-a fair land,
Ameriea!
This was true two hundred years ago-one hund-
red and ten years ago-it is true today and will be
so in the future. The writer feels that fulfillment
does not necessarily eome with the aeeumulation of
wealth but rather from living the Christian eoncept.
Then let us ~ive up the mad quest for more and
more money and the material things that money ean
buy. Mueh of the expensive gadgetry of the present
day is illusive and disappointing in that it does not
brin~ the expeeted happiness.
My father's life story I believe demonstrates that
one does not have to aehieve financial affluence to
live happily. Rather performanee in aeeord with
ri~ht prineiples, living in empathy with one's neigh-
bors, and treating everyone as one would like to be
treated-these are the things that ean aehieve true
happiness.
Then let us all ~ive up the mad rush-~o baek
to the relaxed living of the gay nineties-do a good
deed dailv-and realize the values in true Christian
living. .
74