Rain, Waltenhofen the 16th of February, 1898

Rain, Waltenhofen the 16^th of February, 189= 8

My dear brother!

When I searched through my desk a letter of yours came= into my hands. I started immediate= ly writing to you in honor of your Saint’s day[1]. We congratulate you [and wish you] everything, good luck, health, gods blessing, a long life and at last heave= n.[2] Further, do you want to know from = us how we are doing and how many children we have? We are doing pretty well. With the father we are 7 boys and = with the mother we are 2 girls, who all live. In political life our country is do= ing pretty well. We Catholics and= our elected representatives [3] have remained victorious so far. Concerning the economics, we operate with many machines. The salary of daytellers did not k= eep up, but the yearly hired menials and maids have a big salary. A cobbler in the country earns 1.3= 0 M – 1.40 M daily. Do you = also want to know what kind of sickness our brother Martin was suffering? Stomach and heart illness took him= so early away from us.

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His wife received after the death of our brother 5,000= M from his life insurance. Her financial circumstances are very good, she didn’t marry again. She […] away with her 2 chil= dren; Albert, 24 years old, finished military service, Sophia, 19 years old. Joseph Frei, 26 years old, got mar= ried farmers style in spring 1897 on a big farm.[4] He received 6,000 M in cash and trousseau from mother. In tot= al they were 10 children of which 7 died when they were little. In the year 1880 after the fire, o= ur brother build a big nice house and furnished it very nicely with machines.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Shortly after, a cheese dairy [5] with 3 cellars was set up underneath the living room. The living and bed rooms are all wonderfully decorated as you can rarely see it in the country. The property is 36 morgen[6] and in a very good condition. They own 15 pieces of cattle, mostly cows, one horse and pigs. And 800 – 1,000 liters of mi= lk from the neighboring farms are delivered daily to the cheese dairy,

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which is operated by a cheese maker from Waltershofen.= You can imagine that brother Sebas= tian doesn’t want to let anyone know about his circumstances.

Now I want to briefly describe to you a few things. You saw yourself how we were doing= until the year 1870. In the year 18= 76, I already built a pretty big house. Now I own 8 morgen of land and cattle which is in good condition. Since the year 1875 I work as a cruet. In 1886 I was elected = town council[7] and remained it until today. = Apart from these businesses I carry out turnery and hunting. And our mother has enough work as = well.[8] You can imagine how much work ther= e is for a mother when there are so many children and if she already sews all new clothes herself and does the house work with so many boys. Until now, none of us were allowed= for military service; the oldest, Konrad Frei, 24 years old, was too short and = not healthy, but now he is tall and pretty healthy. Mathias Frei, 21 years old, flat f= eet

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and excluded from “Landwehr”[9], is now wainwright apprentice with Zodel in Hilgershofen, formerly Schö= llforn. Karl Frei is 20 years old, was def= erred last year, now serving Nachezer [10] in Hilpershofen, used to be fisher. Ludwig Frei, 17 years old, is mechanical wood pulp factory worker wi= th Garser in the Neumühle [11], formerly…

[very dark paragraph missing here]

Frei used to work for 6 years in in the mechanical woo= d pulp factory and earned 2.20 M daily. Ludwig Frei has a salary of 1.80 M and sleeps and eats at home.

We all greet you from the bottom of our hearts, and wr= ite us soon if you received the letter.

(Signed Engelhard)[12]

Again, many greeting from your loving brother.

Sebastian und Agathe Frei. Fairly prompt response desired, yo= ur dear Sebastian Frei.

[1] Or N= ame day

[2] Literally ‘the kingdom of heaven’

[3] Literally “the central men elected by us”

[4] Inst= ead of farm, maybe homestead or barnyard is more appropriate, but I never heard either one of them used before. It is basically a big farm, with servants, living quarters, farm house, barns, stables, etc…

[5] Small cheese factory

[6] Old = area unit. Depending on the area 1 morgen equals about 2,500 to 3,600 m²

[7] I ma= y be wrong, but my understanding is that this was either a one person council or= he was the head of the council.

[8] Literally “doesn’t miss work”

[9] I can’t find an appropriate translation. The dictionary says “militia” but I don’t think that describes it correctly.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> It is somewhere between militia and military. Literally, the “land military”

[10] I’m not sure about the spelling, but it must be either a last name or= a company name.

[11] “Neumühle” could be translated as “new mill”

[12] Thi= s is written between the lines and I can’t figure out if it belongs anywhe= re.