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ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin
Carl Schurz
Article by Miss
Marcella Killian of the Watertown Historical Society
Article notes some
interesting facts which are little known to most persons.
WDTimes, 04 28 1952
Arrived at 23
Carl Schurz was 23
years of age and his wife 18 when they landed in New. York on Sept. 17, 1852.
They spent a short
time there and then went to Philadelphia because of the presence there of
German friends. Among these was Adolph
Strodmann who had helped him in his first exile in Switzerland. About six months were spent in Philadelphia
and about a year in Bethlehem where Schurz found the climate more adaptable to
his wife's health. It was at this time
that Schurz began the study of English by means of newspapers and a dictionary.
After this he went on to the writings of
Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, Maculay and Blackstone.
Historians have
searched diligently to find clues to the way Schurz maintained himself for a
period of about three years in America. He
may have been able to have saved something from his teaching, lectures and
writings in England, but Easum, in his “Americanization of Carl Schurz,”
writes, ‘“Surely writing and lecturing in German could not be very
remunerative." His pride and egoism
which seemed to have dominated his life must also be taken into consideration. The most probable assumption, although there
is no absolute proof even in his own writings, is that his brother-in-law, Adolph
Meyer, a member of a successful commercial family in Hamburg, may have
grown sympathetic when his wife’s health required her return to England for
treatment and turned over a portion of her share in their own inheritance.
Uncle Established
Here
By 1852 we find an
uncle of Carl Schurz, Jacob Jussen, already here with a prosperous
business in the form of a “new liquor store.” By March of 1856 this business was sold and
Jussen bought the Bermania house which later became known as the Buena
Vista house. During Carl Schurz’s three
trips to the West he spent some time with his uncle and also arranged for his
parents permanent location in Watertown. It is said that he later bought a small place
for his parents, Christian and Marianne Schurz and two sisters on the
banks of Rock river for which he paid $1,000. During his first summer in Watertown and while
planning his own house he lived with his parents.
The years from 1855
to 1856 show Miss Antonie Schurz and sister conducting a high-class
millinery and dress making establishment here. The advertisement concerning the Schurz
sisters conveyed to the public that they had been trained in the best houses in
Europe and had two years experience in Philadelphia. Later Miss Antonie Schurz married her cousin
Edmund Jussen and, in the summer of 1856, moved to Columbus.
First Venture
The first land or
business venture of Carl Schurz was launched in 1855, when he purchased an 89-acre
farm from John Jackson paying $100 an acre. He gave at the same time a mortgage of $8,500
on the farm and had it surveyed for building lots. Karrs-Huegel it was called and the site
is now marked by the residence of the W. H. Fergusons. These were boom days for Watertown, with an
ever-increasing population and with the possibility of it becoming a railroad
center as Schurz thought. However the
financial panic of 1857 brought a crisis to the real estate business and Schurz
lost through foreclosure as did the lawyers and others who had invested with
him.
Schurz however, was
a man of integrity and although he was not legally obliged to do so was
according to his own writings paying back notes and loans as late as 1860. T. C. Palme was his partner in this land
office and they also sold insurance and were commissioned as notaries.
Carl Schurz might
have been happier and more successful had he maintained a professorship in some
college and followed the lyceum platform but about 1860 he joined the radical
wing of the Republican party and from then on entered on a political career.
He had been Fifth
ward alderman in Watertown and his tempestuous outbursts with Chappell who was
then senator from here has been made the substance of several interesting
accounts.
Law Partnership
On Jan. 1, 1859,
Schurz entered the law partnership with Halbert E. Paine in Milwaukee. He had passed the bar examination previously. However, it must be said that his law business
“never filled his ardent expectations.” It never had a chance. In 1860 this office became his political
headquarters when he ran for lieutenant governor and in 1861 both men went off
to national service. Paine encouraged
Schurz to follow his fortune in lyceum work and in politics.
Later Schurz wrote about the first years of his life here as follows:
“I lived in America
for several years in quiet retirement in the happiest family circle; I wish you
knew my wife. She is much better than I
and we have two precious children. Margarethe
and the children are busy in a kindergarten which she has started here and her
home and flower garden occupy the rest of her time. I studied, observed and learned much during
these, the first years of our happy home life.”
Schurz’ career also
included the role of lecturer and editor. He was editor of the New York Post. President Abraham Lincoln appointed him minister
to Spain, but he resigned soon after to enter the army, receiving a commission
as brigadier general. He distinguished
himself at the Second Battle of Bull Run. and was promoted to the rank of major
general. He died in New York on May 16,
1906 and is buried there. A statue of
him has been erected on Morningside drive at 116th Street, New York City. Several cities have named high schools after
him, but Watertown, where he spent his early years in this country did nothing
to memorialize him. His wife, however, established
the first kindergarten in America in 1856.
History of Watertown, Wisconsin