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Note: This interesting bit of Beise Memorabilia was written by Dr. Henry C. Beise of Windom, Minnesota. It is his Grandfather (Heinrich Gottlieb Beise) and father (August Frederick William Beise) that are referred to in the saga. Only minor changes have been made in the original script. It is reproduced in this fashion in the hope that other Beise's will enjoy reading it as much as I did.
Prepared by George A. Beise, 1973
It Happened in Germany - 100 Years Ago - 8 Children - 800 Dollars to America
There are few things in this world more important than the doings of men. Some are good and some are bad; but all must be counted and the recordings. like fingerprints, are personal and cannot be forged, imitated or copied. They are a Personality . . . And so in tracing family genealogy, use caution. We like to trace back until we find a True Type - This may be disappointing for as Dr, George Williams says, "We may find them living in trees.". The Beise family line tracings show the Historic German was largely a creature of environment living in the deep forests among hidden lakes. These he regarded in a worshipful way and trees were named with sacred unction. His natural surroundings (Germany's 1st crop) ministered to his physical needs, and so they hunted and fished for a livelihood. They basked in superstition and many stories and fables came to us out of early German folklore. A Beise grandfather recited many of these in a son's early boyhood. Until the primitive German began to move out of his native haunts, but little came to him in the pursuit of Agriculture. Soil cultivation for better living was Germany's 2nd crop. A great "uncle" ascribed himself as "Aus dem Wald" (Out of the forest). It is interesting to note how environment evolves into inheritance and into national life and habits. The outdoor life and pursuit imbibed and ingrained occupational expression. This "wild-life" pursuit of the primitive and early German developed a hardy, robust stock with a profound and warlike sense of self domination and defense that grew to a military orgy given to conquest and conquer. This carry-over finds expression in the Prussian constabulary for World War I and II. The Beise Great Grandfather (Joachim Frederick Beise) lived in the more northern part of Germany at Kautrack, Kreis Comine. On his side of the house, they were coachmen and gardeners on the large estates of "Guts Besitzer" (landowners). On the grandmother side, they were "Yachters" (Hunters and fishers). They seem to have dwelt pretty much as a tribal or a unit family. About 150 years ago (1800) they migrated to Pomerania - Altsarnow in the circuit of Stettin - where Grandfather, Heinrich Gottlieb Beise, grew from youth to manhood. Later they lived at "Sarnow und Reisnow" in Hermanstahl, where father, August Fredrich William Beise, was born in 1835. Grandmother was a native of Neu Tessanc. They were married at Martintene in 1832. Their church was "Von Sarnow und Reisnow" the circuit church where the family worshiped and received ministrations in Holy Sacraments. The father received confirmation at this church at the age of 13. At this time all Germany was in a state of upheaval. Political, civil and military life were at a crisis. Grandfather considered migrating to Poland under a more liberal governmental setup. He was employed, under supervision, as a forest ranger and Tree Surgeon in the great Prussian Forest Reserve on the Oder River in the "Bescherk" Stettin, Pomerania. He was privileged to cut and use portions of the condemned trees and logs, as service bounty. Suitable logs were cut by hand into lumber, thus adding to his meager income for family support. Their possessions consisted of a log cabin and a small acreage where he did much gardening. His family line occupation, out of which he and his son as a young boy gained experience and knowledge of soil cultivation, farming- - were ministered to their success in later life. The Grandfather's good fortune came out of an unfortunate happenstance in the life of his older brother, who was a soldier with rank in military service. The Governmental Revolt in the Berlin Revolution of 1845 created many a brawl and great dissension among men in high Prussian Military Rank and those contending for a liberal, constitutional governmental setting. The secret duel was quite the prowess to settle bitter political contentions. This brother of Grandfather was pressed, with special favor and renumeration, to substitute for an "uncle" in a duel combat to settle a political grievance. This "uncle" (no blood relative) was an officer of high military rank. Dueling in Germany student life was a popular athletic feat but rancor forbade indulgence as an act of disloyalty in military vogue. The duel combat was outlawed under severe penalty in military behavior. This daring feat of secret indulgence was a defiance of the law and brought the brother under whispering suspicion and he was alerted by his sponsor to free himself of the law by making his escape to England thus alienating himself from his family and relatives. His underground stay in England was brief and soon he gave himself to travel on the high seas for a season in the employ of the merchant marine. This put him in observation of world conditions at home and abroad through making ports and coastal contacts with the Americas. These reports so envisioned him that he made a secret undercover visit back to his homeland in which he carried glowing reports to the Grandfather and family. He counseled the Grandfather and family not to go to Poland with its mongrel population and Russian imperialism, but rather to join the Westward trek to America with its march of freedom and opportunity for his growing family. With this mooding, the brother took his departure in darkness in his secretly conveyance to Berlin believing that the Transplanted Vision would bring far reaching results to the Grandfather and his family. This incident, with its family secret, was the parting scene of the brothers with no further knowledge of each other for 100 years from the birthday of the Grandfather's son. "Young men dream dreams and your old men see visions" reads the Psalmist. With this, the exiled visitor slips away under the cover of time. Out of the secret bowls of time, we, this day, turn our eyes and ears to the voice of a Transplanted Vision - The Beise's in America. I, as a grandson, was a young boy working with my father about the farm when this bit of history in the family line was related with the thought that some day the undisclosed verdict of the "uncle" and his family projection would be a revealed mystery. It was in the late autumn that Grandfather was moved to action and very seriously counseled with Grandmother with the thought that conditions in Germany were in a state of chaos. "For the sake of our children we must act on the brother's advice." he said. Grandmother had pondered this matter and retorted with "Germany has only the sword and military life to offer to our children. We can look on no longer, we must act now." The year 1849 came and with sealed resolution, determination, and conviction, Grandmother pressed the issue more resolutely than Grandfather. He looked on his financial uncertainty with a family of eight children; my father 14, and a sister 15 (the first in the family line succession), and the youngest not quite out of infancy. But the urge pressed the issue for an all out final effort with the result that by March 1st, 1849, all property was now in available cash and with all savings accounted for, their sum total on hand was $800.00. This, with home foods of dried meat, fish, cheese and zwieback, to last the family for a journey as a major food portion, completed their arrangements and they were on their way as emigrants to America - The Sunrise of the West. This is a time and occasion when heroism, fortitude and sacrifice are placed on the altar of God. Here and now is the time when rugged individualism blossoms into Faith and Hope; sets aside the old, and fearlessly accepts the new. At the port of Hamburg, with passport and transportation in steerage on a sailing vessel, the family is jostled and crowded with hundreds of others into small quarters with steerage accommodations by way of Hamburg to New York. The voyage in a sailing vessel at this season of the year was likely to be rough and a slow trip. The ship was not built for speed. The trip might require weeks and even months to reach New York Harbor - their destination. It was indeed a rough sea and reverse sailing, the spring-time clouds hung low, the waves dashed high at the bow and at times dashed over the deck. At times the vessel was in the deep then rolling high billows. The scow battled the storms for days and little progress was made in distance. Seasickness threatened, the food was stale and distasteful and the air in the dark and crowded quarters was stifling. Men came in and poured tar on red hot irons that sizzled and belched forth fumes to cleanse and fumigate the atmosphere, a choking sensation filled the nostrils and air passages. The children complained and fanned the air for more free breathing. The ship was rolling and tossing against an angry sea. The storm grew apace, the sails flopped and were torn loose from their lashings. The seamen were tense and there were mutterings for the vessel's safety. Grandmother grew sick with fear, and complete exhaustion gave way in sighs and was overcome in a swoon. No doctor was on board to aid, but stimulants were administered. After some hours the convulsive state passed into a threatening coma. Nerve exhaustion was evident and for months and over a year, those convulsive spells threatened her state of health and gave evidence of a severe nerve shock of this overtaxing voyage that lasted for a period of nearly two months. However, thru peril and storm, with hope and renewed vigor, the family was now in a new world. With grateful and thankful hearts, they began to think and plan what, and where in these United States of America, would be opened to them the door of opportunity and life. They were advised enroute by friends and locating agencies with convincing literature and reports, and were directed by a colonizing agency operating out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. To this they yielded themselves and on landing there, they were placed in a conveyance that took them some fifty miles north and west of Milwaukee for land opportunity in a heavy hardwood section in Dodge County, Wisconsin. Milwaukee was a thriving little city with few brick structures and gave promise of thrift and industry. Settlers were crowding in on every hand for new ventures in business and home making. Mother's father was employed in this city and had resided here with his family several years, landing in New York in 1840, where my mother was born in 1842. Of this family we shall learn later as they come into the family line by marriage to my father. The wooded section where my grandfather and his family were now prospecting under a Land Grant for a home had a special appeal for Grandfather. With his experience in the forest abroad, he understood timber and lands. So with ax in hand in company with my father , he took directions from the Locating Agent for an area in which to find a location for erecting a log house for the family. This was soon sighted and while the family was breathing "Freedom's Air" for health and strength, Grandfather lost no time in felling the hard maple trees that stood thick and dense in their beauty in this month of May 1849. Bringing the trees with their wide spreading tops to the ground was a task that the experienced "Tree Surgeon" with his ax could well accomplish and in which my father received well earned experience in swinging a broad ax that in later years he could do, with the precision of an experienced saw miller squaring a log. The capital stock of $800.00, was now on its way out, but mind, hand, and heart had invested it well for immediate and long time usury. It was making returns 100-fold like the talent in the hands of HIS trusted and profitable servant in the sacred parable.
THE WORLD IS JARRED BY THE SUNRISE IN THE WEST - - - WISCONSIN IS ON THE MARCH!
The great centers of population are massing and teeming like a swarming hive of bees clustering about a Queen Bee, who is about to form a new colony. New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, the sighting of St. Paul and her twin sister, Minneapolis, and the miraculous 1849 "EL Dorado" is climbing the heights.
Back in Dodge County, Wisconsin, Grandfather was beginning to cash in on his brother's "Transplanted Vision" in the 1850's and was singing the song of "The Woodland Echoes". The "home fires" were burning with the great logs that were drawn on the huge hearth by a steady yoke of oxen. The family was moved in a worshipful way by the receipt of the church certification signed, sealed, and witnessed by the Pastor of the church "Von Sarnow und Reisnow" back in Deutchland. This was a record of the sacrament of Baptism administered in the family up to the emigration to America. To their number, three more members were added by American birth, one having passed away in infancy, leaving the family number with five girls and five boys to grow to adult age. From these there is a catalogue of sixty-two first cousins. The great social enjoyments in this Dodge County family home was the naturalization and education as American citizens and the union with the Lutheran Church in worship and ministrations. Also, the services of Dr. Sauerherring, the family doctor, as a pioneer physician whose name was a common family word even in my day, some twenty years later. The family had now grown in numbers and ages. The rural school and the social aspects of early day life in Wisconsin must be noted and rehearsed in its long reaching effects. The spinning and weaving in almost every home was not only a necessity, but the "hum" an the "click" of the spinning wheel and hand loom brought together many a housewife to clatter and chatter of filial exuberance, while the great outdoor bustle of the "sugarin' off" spring time season held an important place. And, of course, there were such things as "Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party" and tripping the light fantastic to a midnight frolic. The sugar season was freighted with its laborious tasks from early morning until the late hours at night, gathering in the sap in barrels on improvised runners, called "Go Devils", drawn to the boiling kettles and vats by the patient and trusted ox or ox team, not always too trusty when barrels and oxen tangled among the thick and fast flowing maple sap tubs and pails. My mother told of the neighbor's cows breaking out of corrals to drink the crude sap out of the containers. Their own family cow broke loose from her moorings and indulged in sap drinking until "bloat" threatened her life and she was moaning with her "Barrel" bulging to capacity and her legs stiffening when a well directed trocar in the hands of my Grandfather permitted the gasses to escape and the cow survived her "drinking spree". Amid these vicissitudes of life my father and mother joined hands in 1859 and began their experiences of home making. My mother, a young neighborhood lady school teacher of 17, whose parents had recently joined the westward trek from New York to Milwaukee where they lived for a short time, had recently moved to a small holding on a timber lot near where my father began as a young Wisconsin farmer. The towns and villages of Mayville, Horicon, Beaver Dam, Iron Ridge, Fond du Lac, and Juneau, were now growing centers of population and business concern. My Grandfather's family was now becoming a real asset in his farming business. Wheat growing had shown him the way to profitable agriculture. He began to look westward toward the "New Sunrise in the West", and the rich open prairie of the near West Mississippi River Valley lands in Minnesota for wheat farming. In this direction he enlisted the interests of his sons and daughters, who by now began to feel and accept the responsibilities of life in their several individual relationships. So my Grandfather acquired and operated land holdings in Minnesota in Winona County and with the enlisted aid of his sons expanded his wheat farming by turning the rich soil, as pioneer farmers, for quick returns which proved a profitable venture. My father having improved and developed several farms in the Wisconsin area turned these holdings with profit, and sought new lands to conquer. He moved his young family to Minnesota in 1866 and by successive changes in farm holdings he pioneered his way to southern Blue Earth County where he gained the well earned reputation through rugged individualism as a successful agriculturist and progressive citizen. In 1870 he moved to his lifelong Medo Township farm, where I was born. My Grandfather on my mother's side came to southern Minnesota. After a short residence, Grandmother died at Winnebago Agency in 1869. Grandfather then lived with my father's family until his death. A bit of memory of my Grandfather on my father's side - - my mental picture of him as a boy of 5 years as he visited at our house. I recall him as a large broad shouldered genial face and pleasant man. His "monkey ring beard" with shaven lips and chin gave him a broad round face. He loved to do for children and presented to my younger brother and myself each, a dark sailor brim felt hat with an eye catching gold anchor on the crown band. My first hat to wear with boyhood pride. This was one of his periodic visits from Wisconsin to Minnesota. He noted with pride and satisfaction the homes and progress his sons and sons-in-law were making in the pursuit of agriculture and meted out to them his choice occupational blessing. This proved to be his last round before returning to his home state of Wisconsin. On his way home he was stricken with pneumonia and came to his end with the profound satisfaction that the "Transplanted Vision" of his exiled brother, whose face never again appeared, had born fruit 100-fold and that he was ending life in peace and happiness for his family to live on here in America. His Wisconsin son-in-law writes this letter to my father and family on his passing:
Herman, Wisconsin June 11, 1878
"Our and your beloved father passed away today. Yesterday he signed his last will and testament, received Holy Communion and peacefully fell asleep with full confidence in his Lord. His four daughters and mother were tenderly with him to the end and as was his desire, will accompany him to his resting place for burial at Schlasingerville."
He bequeathed his wife, my grandmother, with property appraised at $25,000.00, the final estate of his investment of his life years in America, suggesting "Life begins at Forty". My Grandmother lived most of her retirement in her daughter's home in Minnesota and for years carried $400.00 in gold coin as a memorial find to be used for her burial. She passed on at the age of 91. She expressed a desire to rest by the side of her husband in Wisconsin, but accepted as her final resting abode the little wooded cemetery at Good Thunder, Blue Earth County, Minnesota, not too far distant from the final resting places of her five sons, all in southern Minnesota.
How majestic stands the hillside oak That plants his acorns from above; And folds them under autumn's cloak, That they might share potential love; And growing to life their leafy arms to Him above In gratitude and silent prayer. That they might with the "Father's Tree", Who sends His blessings from above, and That each might share, His Cloak, His Love, His Prayer, His Life, for me.
Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s Record about H. G. Beise Name: H. G. Beise Year: 1850 Place: New York Family Members: Wife Friederike; Child Wilhelm; Child Minna; Child Alvina; Child August; Child Emilia; Child Albert; Child Carl Source Publication Code: 8657 Primary Immigrant: Beise, H G Annotation: Provides 2,200 names, with occupation and birthplace of each emigrant. All except two of the sailings were to New York in 1850. Source Bibliography: SMITH, CLIFFORD NEAL. Reconstructed Passenger Lists for 1850: Hamburg to Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, and the United States. (German and Central European Emigration Monograph, 1, in four pts.) McNeal, Ariz.: Westland Publications. Part 2: Passenger Lists 26 through 42. 1980. 86p. Page: 46
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