Take, for example, the Kempe family of Sayda, Germany. In
1854, the family’s eldest son, Wilhelm, 26, and eldest daughter, Auguste, 20,
decided to seek a new life in Texas. They left behind in Sayda their widowed
father, August Kempe, 52, and a 10-year-old sister, Bertha, and eight-year-old
brother, Alwin.
Letters written by the place-bound father, the younger
sister, and the younger brother in Europe to Wilhelm in Texas over the next
decades provide poignant insights into how their lives were changed – and the
sacrifices they had to make – as a result of the emigration of Wilhelm and
Auguste to America. The letters, translated from German to English, and
explanatory narrative are the subject of my book Man of Two Worlds.
The federal blockade of southern ports probably prevented
the exchange of letters during the Civil War, but many came in the following
decades. Some reveal that Wilhelm’s father August remained heartbroken about
losing Wilhelm even after the son had lived in Texas for 15 years, with a
growing family of his own.
“I wish I could visit
you once. Then my biggest wish would be fulfilled. If I could be younger, I
would do it and would not care how much money I have to spend, because my
longing for my children gets bigger and bigger. I regret so much that I ever
let you go and to think that I would die without having seen you again makes my
heart heavy,” August writes to Wilhelm in an undated letter probably written
in 1869.
August is also becoming concerned about the future and the
Kempe family legacy in Germany. He wonders which of his sons will take over the
farm when he is no longer able to manage it. Alwin, who is in his mid 20s in
1871 and recently returned from military service, has no interest in it. Bertha
is reaching her late 20s that year, when she writes to Wilhelm again, telling him of their father’s
worries on this issue.
“Father wants [Alwin]
to be here and take over the farm but he doesn’t want it. So often Father says,
if only Wilhelm could come over here and take my property over, him I could
trust. I wonder if you couldn’t sell your property and come back home. It would
make us so very happy, but if you and your dear wife could not decide to come
home, then dear brother could you not come for a visit so we could see each
other and talk about so many things that should be straightened out,”
Bertha tells her brother in Texas.
In January 1873, Alwin also writes to Wilhelm about the family
difficulties back in the Homeland: “I wish I was with you to help you, but
Father does not want me to leave. …If I had the money myself I still might come
to you and start something. My dear Wilhelm, I sure wish you could come and see
us again. It sure would help. I just cannot talk with Father and get along like
you, that is the reason I am leaving [the family home in Sayda] this week
again.”
In another letter from Bertha, in 1875, she appears to
suggest sarcastically to Wilhelm that she chafes a bit at having been left by
her siblings to take care of their aging father. “It is a good feeling
to be able to take care of your parents in their old age and I know if you were
here you would do the same,” she writes.
In the same letter, Bertha notes that she plans to marry
Dietel, a man from a nearby town, but only if he can get a transfer to her
village. “Dietel’s father is getting a
nurse from the city to take care of him, so he can put in for a transfer to
Sayda. If they will acknowledge that, we can get married. After all, I cannot
leave Father alone, so will have to settle down here in Sayda …” she
writes.
Clearly, these family members left behind in Europe faced
challenges of their own as a result of emigration from German lands. In fact,
their sacrifices – exemplified here by the need for Bertha to take on family
responsibilities left for her by older siblings who wanted to pursue a new life
in America – played a crucial role in allowing at least hundreds of thousands of
Europeans to make their way to Texas and other states. It was a crucial role,
and one that is often unheralded and unappreciated.
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