Reverend Conehead
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I own an old English/German dictionary that originally belonged either to by grandfather or his brother, my great uncle. It was published in 1882, the same year my grandfather was born, and it's printed in that old-style German script. It was given to me by my uncle, who was the husband of my dad's sister and was a farmer in western Kansas. I found old notes inside of it like a shopping for a feed store/farmer's supply store and some old receipts.
My great uncle immigrated to the US from Switzerland in 1900. Per his advice, my granddad followed him over in 1903. They both lived right here in Omaha, Nebraska, and then later moved to western Kansas to start their own farms.
In 1914, my granddad returned to Switzerland to find a wife, where he found my grandmother. As you know, that was the year World War I was starting up, and so the trip was not without problems. The government of Switzerland at the time did not know if the country would end up getting sucked into fighting in that war or if it would be invaded, so they tried to get my grandfather to serve in its military, which was mandatory for all Swiss men at the time. However, he showed them his American passport, proving he was an American and so they let him go.
Then when they arrived at Ellis Island in New York, they were not allowed into the country because they were not married. But my granddad was resourceful. He somehow found the paper work and an official who could write up a marriage license, and he found a preacher to do the ceremony, so he married my grandmother there on Ellis Island.
It would have been urgently important for my grandparents to learn English. In Omaha they would have found some German speakers here, but you really needed to be good at English to get around. His first boss at a meat packing plant was a German man, so that gave him a head start. But this German/English dictionary that I own and was probably his would therefore have been an extremely important book for him. It's an honor to own it. It may have belonged to his brother, but even so, my grandfather would have owned another one a lot like it. So it was either my granddad or my great uncle studying this book at night.
Getting good at English had to have been at lot of work because both my granddad and my great uncle had to work tough jobs during the day. And it was during World War I when there was a lot of anti-German sentiment, so it was urgent to speak English well. Like I said, at first my granddad worked at a meat packing plant. Later, he got a job delivering milk for a dairy company. We would have been the guy with the horse-drawn wagon taking bottles of milk door to door like they used to back then. I know less about my great uncle, so I don't know what his job was back then. Father Flannagan was on my granddad's milk route, btw, as a customer. If you've seen the old Mickey Rooney film, Boys Town, you know who Father Flannagan was. He founded Boys Town to help orphaned and troubled kids. My granddad delivered his milk and knew him.
Your turn. Do you own any old item that has a history behind it?
My great uncle immigrated to the US from Switzerland in 1900. Per his advice, my granddad followed him over in 1903. They both lived right here in Omaha, Nebraska, and then later moved to western Kansas to start their own farms.
In 1914, my granddad returned to Switzerland to find a wife, where he found my grandmother. As you know, that was the year World War I was starting up, and so the trip was not without problems. The government of Switzerland at the time did not know if the country would end up getting sucked into fighting in that war or if it would be invaded, so they tried to get my grandfather to serve in its military, which was mandatory for all Swiss men at the time. However, he showed them his American passport, proving he was an American and so they let him go.
Then when they arrived at Ellis Island in New York, they were not allowed into the country because they were not married. But my granddad was resourceful. He somehow found the paper work and an official who could write up a marriage license, and he found a preacher to do the ceremony, so he married my grandmother there on Ellis Island.
It would have been urgently important for my grandparents to learn English. In Omaha they would have found some German speakers here, but you really needed to be good at English to get around. His first boss at a meat packing plant was a German man, so that gave him a head start. But this German/English dictionary that I own and was probably his would therefore have been an extremely important book for him. It's an honor to own it. It may have belonged to his brother, but even so, my grandfather would have owned another one a lot like it. So it was either my granddad or my great uncle studying this book at night.
Getting good at English had to have been at lot of work because both my granddad and my great uncle had to work tough jobs during the day. And it was during World War I when there was a lot of anti-German sentiment, so it was urgent to speak English well. Like I said, at first my granddad worked at a meat packing plant. Later, he got a job delivering milk for a dairy company. We would have been the guy with the horse-drawn wagon taking bottles of milk door to door like they used to back then. I know less about my great uncle, so I don't know what his job was back then. Father Flannagan was on my granddad's milk route, btw, as a customer. If you've seen the old Mickey Rooney film, Boys Town, you know who Father Flannagan was. He founded Boys Town to help orphaned and troubled kids. My granddad delivered his milk and knew him.
Your turn. Do you own any old item that has a history behind it?
