1867 00
Submitted By Roy Pfeiffer
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Letter from a friend of Anton Pfeiffer
advising him of conditions in Germany and the financial circumstances of his
mother-in-law.
FRICKENHOFEN 1867,
(( THIS WRITER SEEMS TO BE ANOTHER
LEONARD HÄRRING FROM FRICKENHOFEN. THIS
WILL REQUIRE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE ORIGINAL.))
DEAR FRIEND,
I WOULD HAVE WRITTEN SOONER BUT I COULD
NOT AS I DID NOT KNOW YOUR ADDRESS. AS NEWS I WILL WRITE THAT YOUR
BROTHER-IN-LAW ERHARD DEINHARDT, INN KEEPER IN LAABER, DIED THREE YEARS AGO AND
HAS LEFT 2 CHILDREN. HIS WIDOW HAS
MARRIED AGAIN WITH THE MILLER'S SON, MICHEL KIRCHENSTRINER FROM ANTZONHOFEN AND
YOUR MOTHER-IN-LAW IS NOT ANY MORE IN LAABER, BUT LIVES IN NEUMARKT IN FURNISHED
ROOMS AND SHE LIVES FROM AN INCOME WHICH SHE DRAWS FROM THE INN AT LAABER AND
SHE HAS TO LIVE ECONOMICALLY AS LODGINGS ARE EXPENSIVE, AND AS I READ YOUR
LETTER, SHE SENDS YOU MANY GREETINGS WITH TEARS IN HER EYES AND COULD SCARCELY
STOP FOR JOY THAT SHE HAS HEARD AGAIN FROM YOU AND SHE ASKS ME TO WRITE TO YOU
WHEN IT IS POSSSIBLE AND LET HER HEAR FROM JOHANN DEINHARD AND BARBARA DEINHARD
AND FROM OTHER ACQUAINTANCES WHEN YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THEM.
DEAR FRIEND, SINCE YOU TOOK LEAVE FROM
US HAVE HAPPENED MANY THINGS IN GERMANY. I
WAS A SOLDIER IN 1848; THERE WAS REVOLUTION IN ALL TOWNS AND INCITEMENT TO
FREEDOM AND EQUALITY AND THERE WAS A CAMPAIGN TO SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN AGAINST
DENMARK IN WHICH I TOOK PART AND FROM WHICH I RETURNED SAFELY, THANKS GOD, AND
IN 1866 THERE WAS A CIVIL WAR, PRUSSIA AGAINST THE WHOLE GERMAN FEDERATION,
WHICH HAS COST MANY LIVES, A REAL GERMAN MASSACRE. THE PRUSSIANS HAVE MARCHED ON
NURNBERG AND WARZBURG AND IN FRANCONIA THEY HAVE BOMBARDED SEVERAL TOWNS AND
VILLAGES AND ALL CROPS DESTROYED SO THAT THERE IS GREAT DISTRESS AMONG THE
PEOPLE; BUT THE YEAR 1867 IS PEACEFUL AND GOD GIVE THAT IT WILL REMAIN SO
ALWAYS.
AND IN CONCLUSION WE GREET YOU ALL
CORDIALLY AND I REMAIN IN THE HOPE TO
RECEIVE AN ANSWER SOON.
LEONHARD HARUNG, FARMER
IN FRICKENHOFEN