Meixner Family History #10 - The Journey (Part 5)

In late August, 1881, the Meixner Family was at Castle Garden in New York harbor.  They were ready to make a new life in their newly adopted homeland.  But realizing their dream was not easy.

Castle Garden was the entry point for emigrants coming to the United States, the melting pot of the world.  In 1881 some 455,600 immigrants came to the United States.

Collection of Maggie Land Blanck.
Castle Garden.  Photographed by and Published by B.W. Kilburn - Littleton, N.H., 1891.


There are several accounts about the Meixner's journey that were given to me by relatives.  They are:

 - A child died of typhoid in their homeland.
 - A child died of typhoid on the trip.
 - Once the family was at Castle Garden a crook stole or swindled them out of their money and they were left with only $40.
- The family came to Texas and worked on the Horatio "Rasche" Hearne plantation.

First I think it is very likely the first or second accounts, and possibly both, are true.  If you look at the pattern of ages of the children: 2, 5,6,7,8,10.  The gap between 2 and 5 is obvious.  Given the frequency of births at that time in history and the gap between these two ages, I think it is quite possible a child was born between those two children.  Also, it is quite possible a child was born after the child that was then age 2 and a half.  Possibly Theresia was pregnant and lost the child at birth on the trip or maybe they had a small baby that died on the trip.  Those things I don't know but it would not be unusual for them to have lost a child by this time due to the high mortality rates of that era.

The third  story above I had always discounted a little just because I didn't think they would let that happen.  In reading stories in the New York Times newspaper and other accounts of the time I can better understand how that could have happened.  These accounts tell of large numbers of people that stayed around Castle Garden working every type of thievery and swindling that you can imagine.

The last story has always held the most mystery for me.  Why did they come to Texas?  Through the years, as I did research, I became quite puzzled as to why this family would come to Texas number one and secondly why would Frank be working on a man's plantation instead of having his own farm.  The majority of immigrants from the area they came from settled in Wisconsin and Minnesota.  Very few came to Texas.  Many Germans from other areas came to Texas but not ones from this area of Bohemia and usually they started farming their own farm or farmed for others.

Only last week I e-mailed my cousin Claudia Brown.  She is Alberta (Meixner) Neve's daughter.  Alberta is my dad's younger sister and was known to me as Aunt Peaches.  Claudia has been researching longer than I have and we used to collaborate on researching our family history.  I mentioned to her I was doing a blog and told her about my desire to know why the Meixner family came to Texas.  Well to my surprise she wrote me back with the answer.  Here is the story she sent to me written as she had heard it from her mother:

 "The story goes like this:  When they landed in New York on the SS Ohio, they were taken by some con artists who came to them, spoke their language, and said, 'Let us exchange your money for you.  You can't spend this money in America.  We will bring you American money.'  Well, they didn't come back.  Grandmother Meixner (Theresa) had some money hidden in between the quilts she had packed to bring to America and they survived on it for a while."  

When I did my post a couple weeks ago I did not know this story.  I did not include in the description of the trip through Castle Garden about the exchanging of money, the legitimate exchange.  There were legitimate people on site that did money exchange at a discounted rate that allowed them to make money off the transaction and converted the immigrant's money into dollars.  However, articles in the newspapers of the time and other first person accounts talked about the fact the new immigrants could not speak our language and did not always know what was going on.  They were barraged by people trying to sell them things and trying to swindle them in some way.  If someone came to them and spoke to them in their language and offered to help exchange their money for U.S. dollars I can see they could easily have been taken in.  They knew they had to convert their money and would have thought this was what they needed to do. I can see how this very easily could happen and how it must have happened to thousands of immigrants.

Caption:  "Castle Garden"
Source:  Puck Magazine
Date:  June 14, 1882
Artist:  Frank Opper

"The prevalence there of various cheats and swindlers was one of the principal arguments for development of Ellis Island in 1892."

museum.msu.edu/exhibitions/virtual/immigrationandcaricatue/exhibitionsection.html

Now the second part of the story:

  "A man from Hearne, Texas named "Rasche" Hearne owned a plantation.  1881 was enough years after the end of the Civil War that the field hands who stayed with their masters after being freed had died out, and the young ones had left the farm, so to speak.  Mr. Hearne went to new York City to recruit farm hands from the scores of immigrants who were coming to America and would pay passage on the train to Texas.  Some how Frank Meixner got in on this deal.  They rode the train from New York to Waco (per Herman Meixner who heard the story from his father Frank Meixner, Jr.)  and then took wagons and buggies to Hearne.  Hearne, Texas is named after the Hearne plantation.  They lived and worked on the cotton farm."

Remember in the last post I wrote about the Labor Exchange at Castle Garden.  My guess is that Hearne went to the Labor Exchange and Frank, desperate for a job now that his money was gone, went to the Labor Exchange and received an offer of work from Mr. Hearne.

Print Collection of Maggie Land Blanck.

The Labor Exchange - Emigrants on the Battery in Front of Castle Garden, New York.  Harper's Weekly, August15, 1868.


This is an amazing story.  Think about it.  A random act by a swindler in New York City is probably the reason I am here today.  If Frank had not lost his money and had to take a job with Mr. Hearne and maybe gone on to Minnesota I would not be here.  WOW!!!  Let that sink in a little.  Who knows but it is very interesting to think about.

Next time we'll continue the 1650 mile journey across the United States and finally get the Meixner family to Texas.

Google Maps

Reference:
maggieblanck.com/immigration
Immigration, Dennis Wepman, New York, N.Y.: Facts on File Inc. , Copywright 2008.