John L. Firestone to his brother, Solomon Firestone, from Paris, 1880

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]

John Lower Firestone (1829-1885); Solomon J Firestone (1833-1912)

John L. Firestone to his brother, Solomon Firestone, letter previously transcribed from Paris, France, January 16, 1880 (5 pages); viewed as typed copy, attachment to Shoup correspondence dated 1 June 1998; John L. Firestone wrote the letter while on a trip to Europe, after visiting the Firestone homelands of Berg and Thal; includes prior transcriber’s remarks on the first page. Re- transcription follows.

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-1 Copy of letter from John L. Firestone to

-2 his brother Solomon Firestone of Lisbon, Ohio.

-3 Dear Bro:

-4 I sent you a postal from Munich, and another from Berg

-5 and Thal, Dulingen, Elasass; and now I propose to write you more fully.

-6 I was nearly frozen between Vienna and Munich, spent a week at the

-7 latter place in sightseeing, and then went to Strasburg, a twelve hour’s

-8 ride, where we remained only two days. There is not much to see in

-9 Strasburg except the famous Cathedral of the fortifications. From

10 Strasburg, we took a round-about way Metz, stopping at Berg and

11 Thal. These are the two little villages, or dorfs, as the Germans call

12 them, situated in a Valley. The first contains 567 inhabitants and the

13 latter 324. The first is called Berg because it is at the foot of a

14 very high hill, or berg, and the latter is called Thal because it is

15 in a valley; but in point of fact, Thal lies higher than Berg. The

16 two villages, being only a trifle more than a mile apart, used to have

17 the same government, and hence were always spoken of in connection as

18 Berg and Thal, but at present, each has its own mayor and government,

19 and they are no longer spoken of in connection. These are very old

20 villages, nobody seems to know how old. The whole aspect of the

21 villages give one the impression that the people are living now just

22 as they have lived, and are doing now just as they have done, for

23 centuries. The Fuersteins here are “Bauers” and “Lohndieners”

24 (farmers and laborers) at present, and “bauers” and “lohndieners”

25 I have no doubt they have been, in those villages since 1680,

26 when three brothers Fuerstein came out of Tyrol and located here,

27 and from which have sprung the numerous families of Fuerstein.

28 There are many families of Fuerstein here, and it is difficult to trace

29 the relationship between them. At a very early age, it is said, one

30 of the Fuersteins married a Catholic wife, and half of the children

31 were baptized Catholics. From this have sprung a small branch of [end of page 1]

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-2 Catholic Fuersteins; but the large majority are Lutherans.

-3 When I asked the latter what relationship they sustained to the

-4 former, they hesitated, shrugged their shoulders, and acknow-

-5 ledged themselves branches from the same stem, (the Fuerstein

-6 brothers); but declared the relationship very small. I spent

-7 the better part of two days, the 7th and 8th inst, in Berg and Thal,

-8 staying one night in Berg with the Mayor, Peter Eberhart. In

-9 going and returning I stopped over night in Saar-Union, a town

10 on the river Saar containing 3000 inhabitants, where we got a

11 carriage and rode about six miles over a fine turnpike road,

12 through a splendid farming country, to Berg and Thal. Late in

13 the evening, I told the landlord at Saar-Union that my great-

14 grandfather came from Berg and Thal, and that I was going to

15 visit the place to see whether it was a good thing that he went

16 to America or whether it would have been better if he had re-

17 mained. The next morning we drove out, but the word had proceed-

18 ed us, and some of the Fuersteins knew that an American Fuerstein

19 was on the way to visit them. I was received by all with very

20 great kindness, and they were ready to give me all the information

21 they could, but which was not much. I would scarcely have been

22 able to find out anything if it had not been for the records of

23 the Lutheran Church. There I found that our great-great-grand-

24 father, Nicholaus, was “ein Bauer zu Thal” (a farmer at Thal)

25 that his wife’s name was Catherine, and that his son, Nicholaus was

26 born April 17th, 1734, and was consequently 18 years old in 1752,

27 the date at which great-great-grandfather is said to have

28 emigrated; that grandfather Mathias, was born on the 5th and

29 baptized on the 8th of April, 1744. Uncle Joe, said that his

30 father (our grandfather) was about nine years old when he was

31 brought to America in 1752. Now as there was no Mathias [end of page 2]

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-2 Furestein born for several years before or after the date above given

-3 ((5th of April, 1744), and his father’s nave [sic] was Nicholas, and he

-4 had a brother Nicholas just old enough to be drafted in the army,

-5 I am satisfied that these are our ancestors. I am, however, in

-6 correspondence with the Lutheran Minister at Berg, and can make

-7 further inquiries if deemed necessary. By the way, I did not

-8 tell them it was not customary among the American Firestones

-9 to have children baptized as early as the 3rd day!

10 The Fuersteins received such a stirring up as they never

11 had before. I introduced myself as visiting them to see for

12 myself whether it had been a good thing that great-grandfather

13 left; to compare the prosperity of the American Firestones with

14 those that still remained in the old country. They were more

15 than anxious to find out how it was with us than to tell me how it

16 fared with them. They listened with pleasure and astonishment

17 to the recital of the affairs of our family; how grandfather

18 died a poor man; how each of us (the children) received about

19 8 to 9,000 marks, and that we had added to it until now no one of

20 us was worth less than 40,000 marks, and some (you) as high as

21 300,000 marks. While I was talking the room would fill up,

22 and I would be introduced to sons and sons-in-law and daughters

23 and daughters-in-law. Among the names I heard most frequently,

24 Nicholas, Johann, and Henry and Joseph and Katherine, and

25 Hannah and Mary and Amelia, but I never once heard Ross or Clark

26 or Armada or Olivia or Odessa. At ever interval, I was urged

27 to drink wine and brandy of their own make, and eat something.

28 In all my travels, I never was where I was so well understood,

29 or could understand the people so well. My tongue was loosened

30 at both ends and I talked like a runaway threshing machine. [end of page 3]

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-2 I made the old men feel, and so express themselves that it would

-3 have been better for themselves, and vastly to the benefit of

-4 their children, if they had gone to America in their youths.

-5 And giving them all an invitation to return my visit, I left them,

-6 either ro [sic] go on in the old rut, out of which it is as impossible

-7 to rise them, there, as it is for water to run up hill, or to

-8 better their conditions by going to America. I wrote you and

-9 Dan and Uncle Joe and Weikle from Berg and Thal, but as there is

10 no post office there, I was obliged to mail at Saar-Union.

11 None of the Fuersteins are rich, but none are what are called

12 poor here. Johann and Nicholas, I was told, had each about 30

13 acres of land near town, with buildings on it, and ahouse [sic] and

14 lot in town, with altogether, say 30,000 francs. I was assured

15 by several that they were in comfortable circumstances, and

16 that there were no poor Feuersteins, but they complained they

17 could not make money. “Lebens, mittal habe mir genug, aber

18 Gault habe mir keins:” they said (We have enough to ear and wear,

19 but no money). “Mit de American Feuersteins habe ich gegsagt,

20 es gut” (with the American Firestone I said it went well)

21 To which they answered, “Ya: des glauga wir gewiss, Die K’onnte,

22 nicht so ein grosse reissa machen won sie as nicht gut hatte.”

23 (Yes, that we certainly believe; you could not make such a great

24 travel, if things were not well with you.)

25 I was so used up with the freeze and sightseeing at Munich

26 and Strasburg, and visit to Berg and Thal, that I was obliged to

27 rest four days at Metz before I felt able to come on to Paris,

28 where we arrived on the 13th. The fortifications at Metz are

29 immense. The place had never been taken until Bazine gave it

30 up, and the idea of Bazaine with 170,000 soldiers, provisions

31 and ammunitions giving it up, seems to me such an outrage that I

32 will fully excuse the French if they will yet hang him! [end of page 4]

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-2 We expect to remain only a few days among the jabbering French, and then we shall

-3 go to London. We find the price of living

-4 very high here. The single item of fuel wll [sic] cost us five or

-5 six francs a day, coal being a cent a pound and wood 4/5 cent.

-6 We have a small room hardly large enough to swing a cat around

-7 in, and, consequently, easy to eat. Rose says, as we have no

-8 cat to swing, the room is large enough.

-9 Hoping to hear soon and with love to all, etc.

10 John L. Firestone

11 January 16, 1880 Paris, France. [end of page 5 of 5]

Sources