Account of a Trip to Germany (1901)

by Marguerite Schubert

When I was five years old, my parents Magdalene and Andrew Schubert made a trip to Germany. As I may have previously said, my father had run away to avoid conscription in the army. His Aunt, Mrs. Fisher lent him the money and he and a cousin also named Andrew (Schubert) left without saying good-bye in order not to have their parents implicated in the scheme. This was then in 1901 - and I can remember some things very well.

We were on the Kaiser(ine?) Maria Theresa, ?loy German ship and I was seasick on the Fourth of July and missed a wonderful party - The Big Fight between ______ happened that day-

We visited with my Grandmother Schubert in Geuser, a little village of 12 families whose farms lay outside the village. I had a ride on an oxcart with which they were gathering hay - and the cart tipped over and my grandmother was beside herself for fear her American grandchild was hurt. She was a tall, dark complected erect woman -

When we first got there, we had climbed the hill from Wallenfels and grandmother put a feather bed out doors in the orchard. And I went to sleep. When I awoke, all my little cousins were around me, together with some goats, anxious to have me wake up. They were all surprised that Mother and I could speak German. Mother used to say that they thought father had married an Indian. Those same goats got me into trouble because I took some bread back to feed them. That was considered a terrible waste.

Grandma’s house had a crucifix on the front wall outside - a hollow log into which a spring floweed. I met my Uncle George Schubert and family - My Aunt Margaret Vogel and her family.

We made a walking tour of ten miles to Marieu Weier [Maria Weser?] a pilgrimage shrine through the woods. Grandma’d gave us a lunch of dark bread, hard boiled eggs (which she had dyed by putting them into a coffee pot), butter wrapped in a cabbage leaf to keep it fresh - winter radishes, salted

The remainder of the document is lost

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