My
Grandfather, whose given name I do not know, was a Schoolmaster in the town
Thalheim, Kingdom of Wurttemberg. He was the father of one son and one daughter.
This daughter I never saw and do not know anything about her. The son, whose
name was Christian Michael Schuh, was born in the year 1790, and became a
student in the University of Tubingen Wurttemberg (Schiller's home) and a
graduate in Theology. His first appointment was the Pastorate in a very small
town (can not recall the name just now) located in the Oberamt Suiz, but was
soon transferred, or promoted, to Leidringen, also situated in Oberamt Suiz,
which position he held unto his death in 1858. In 1817 he was united in marriage
with Augusta Geyssel of Tuttlingen, born in the year 1800, who was one of seven
daughters of Jacob Geyssel. There was only one son in the family by the name of
Jacob, whose son Adolph married in the year 1863 Azalie Leypold, a stepdaughter
of my sister Amalie, and it happened while I was out in Germany in 1863, on a
visit, and it further happened that I was chosen Brautfuhrer (bestman). He had a
great wedding ceremony and feast in Tuttlingen when this only son got married.
This Adolph Geyssel had lived for many years in Paris. He died many years ago,
but his wife, Amalie Geysuel, is still alive in Tuttlingen.
About two
years after my father was married he moved to the town of Leidringen. He liked
it well there, and the inhabitants all were very such attached to father, and
especially to our mother. Consequently father never applied for another charge.
There were eleven children, seven girls and four boys.
The oldest,
Augusta, was married to a merchant by the name of Steidinger, doing business in
Dornhan O.-a Sulz, but lived only about six years after the marriage. This
sister of mine had two girls, one died at the age of four. The younger one,
Mathilde, is still alive. She married into the Leypold family, a stepson of my
sister Amalie, who was a Druggist, and who carried on a Drug Store on the
Bodensee (Lake Constance). This Mathilde Leypold has two sons and two daughters
all alive, one son in the Government service, a Notary Public. The other is
employed in Schramberg Baden in a watch factory, has a fine position, is married
and has three children. The younger son is still single, and so are the two
daughters.
The second oldest of the family was Nane, who married Pastor
Wills, and had no children. He lived to be over eighty and my sister was
eighty-six years old when she died.
The third of the family was
Charlotta. She emigrated in the fall of 1853 with uncle Dr. Carl Roesch and
family to Texas, where she married Mr. Schorre, with whom she had three children
– Wilhelm, Max and Emilie. During the Civil war Schorre disappeared never to
show up; and after struggling along in poverty Charlotta married a farmer by the
name of Meisenhelder, and after his death she lived with her daughter Emilie
until she died eighty-five or eighty-six years old. Her three children are all
married and doing well, but Emilie lost her husband a long time ago, and is
living now in Runge, Texas.
The fourth one was Carl Alexander, who
followed the business of merchandising until th revolutionary uproar of 1848,
when he emigrated to the United States. Unable to find employment in New York,
he was obliged to look for work elsewhere, and he got up North into
Massachusetts, where he worked for some time in a Broom factory, but he started
South again later, and finally found a good position at Paston, Pa., with a
German by the name of Klusmeyer, who operated a Grocery Store and Hotel, and who
caned a good many Canal Boats. While in his employ he married Lena Helmel, but
soon after he moved to Slate Dam (Laurie's Station, as it is now called) where
he was engaged as Lock tender for the Lehigh Valley Canal Co., which position he
held until he moved to St. Louis, Mo. where he was engaged in different ways,
most of the time in lumber yards, until he finally came to Cairo, when I got him
a position as clerk in the Medical Purveyors office, where I was also working at
the time. He afterwards started in the Grocery and Boarding house business until
he died in the year 1869 or 70. He left a widow and six children, five sons and
one daughter, of which all are living except Frank, who died several yars ago at
Charleston, Mo., where he was engaged in the Grocery business. Their names are
Harry _., Payl H., Herman C., Otto and Augusta Metzger, all well known by every
citizen of Cairo.
The fifth was August, who left home on the same day
with Brother Carl, but he started for Italy, worked at his trade as
Confectionery at Milan; sometime afterwards he went to Barcelona, Spain, then to
Madrid, Seville, Saragossa and maybe other cities in Spain, working at his
trade, till he finally got married and settled down in Madrid working for Matias
Lopez, till he died about fifteen years ago. His widow and two sons, Domingo and
August, are still alive, living in Madrid, both employed in the same factory of
Matias Lopez, are married. August has two girls and Domingo one boy.
The
sixth one was Amalie, who married Obermatman Leypold, of Rottweil. She gave
birth to three children, one boy, who died young, and two girls, both of which
are still alive in Rottweil. One of them, Emma, is married to a Mr. Schwarz. The
other, Augusta, is single.
The seventh was Pauline, who lived to be about
sixty-two years of age.
The eighth was Louise, who like Pauline, lived a
single life, and reached the age of about forty years.
The ninth was
Herman, who followed the business of a Druggist. He also emigrated to the United
States by way of New Orleans, where he clerked a short time, when he started for
St. Louis, locating there permanently. First he clerked several years, and then,
in company with cousin Roesch, established themselves at the corner of Broadway
and Webster. This store he sold to Otto D'Amour, and moved to Columbia, Ill.,
where he conducted a Drug Store a few years only, when he died of quick
consumption, leaving a wife and two children, one boy who died when about
fifteen years old, and one girl, Hermine, who married Gustav De MaCarty. She
lives in Durham Center, Conn., and is the mother of six children, five boys and
one girl.
The next child was Marie, who died when about four years old.
The eleventh and last one is Paul Gustav, who is me, and who is the only
survivor today. I was born January 8th, 1838. After quitting our town school in
Leidringen, I started to attend the Latin school in the town of Rosenfeld, about
four miles distant from my home. There were no Bicycles those days, consequently
I had to foot this distance for four and a half years, summer or winter, rain or
snow, every day until March 1853, when I quit school and emigrated to the United
States. I joined a "caravan" of emigrants from our town and several neighboring
towns and started with them by wagons westward to Strassburg, then by Railroad
to Paris and Havre, where we boarded the three master sailing vessel Oregon, and
after a pretty fair voyage of thirty-four days we landed in New York. From there
I went by rail as far as Raston, then by Canal boat up the Lehigh Canal to Slate
Dam, where brother Carl was then living. After a rest of a month I started for
Mauch Chunk on a Canal boat, and was employed by Weiss Lippincott & Miner in
their Machine shop and foundry, receiving one dollar a week and board. There
were fourteen apprentices in this establishment, and one day after I had been
there for about a year and a half, all fourteen boys were discharged for
misconduct of the boys, over which I had no control, and I left there for
brother Carl's home, where I stayed a few days and then got a job in Catasqua,
near Allentown, in a machine shop owned by Schulz & Michel, where I received
$7.00 per week. I worked there until the firm closed down on account of hard
times.
Soon after that brother Carl and family concluded to go west to
St. Louis, and I went with them. We started for Philadelphia, from there we took
an Emigrant train for St. Louis, and it just took us six days to make the trip.
In St. Louis I got a job in a Machine Shop owned by McCoy on the levee front,
making from $10.00 to $12.00 per week, as long as it lasted, which was a little
over a year, when the hard times also struck St. Louis, and nearly all the hands
were let out. After tramping all over the city for weeks and weeks, and finding
no employment of any kind I accepted a position as nurse in the City Hospital,
which place I held for about eight months. After leaving the Hospital I worked a
few weeks in a Nail Factory, pulling the cinders and ashes out from under the
different furnaces, when I broke down in the back, which disabled me for several
weeks.
The next job I undertook, or rather was forced to undertake, not
finding anything better to do, was the job of a roustabout on the steamer
Brazil, on which I made two trips, one up the Illinois and the other up the
Missouri and Osage rivers. On my return to St. Louis I was completely knocked
out, could not speak a loud word, only whisper. My brother Herman, who had been
looking for me, informed me that he was about to start a branch drug store at
Edwardsville, and offered me a chance to study Pharmacy, all of which was
acceptable to me. I entered upon my duties at Edwardsville, and after brother
Herman sold this branch store to a former clerk, Mr. John Trares, he transferred
me to his St. Louis store on Broadway and Webster, where I made myself useful
until July 1860, when I severed my connections with brother Herman and accepted
a position with Dr. Delaw in Alton, Ill., where I received the magnificent
salary of $15.00 per month and board. I held this lucrative position until March
1861, when I joined the Alton Jaeger Co., and enlisted with this Company in the
9th Illinois Regiment at Springfield as a High private. Our Regiment was ordered
to Cairo, where we arrived on or about May 3rd, 1861. Some time in June I was
detailed by Dr. J. P. Taggart, acting Medical Purveyor, who was looking for a
Druggist to help him supply the different regimental Hospitals with Drugs, Etc.
This position I held until Dr. Taggart was relieved by a regular United States
Medical Purveyor, and was appointed Surgeon of the Post Hospital at the corner
of 12th and Washington Ave. Dr. Taggart had a new detail made out for me, and
transferred me to the Hospital as Prescriptionist. In January 1863 I received my
discharge, and started a little drug store on Commercial Ave., three doors below
sixth street, in which place I remained about seven years, when I moved to 609
Commercial Avenue; this room I occupied for about eight years, when I bought the
adjoining lot 607 Commercial Avenue and built the two story brick thereon, in
which place I am still doing a retail drug business under the name and style of
Paul C. Schuh & Sons.
During the years 1880 and 1890 I was doing quite a
nice wholesale business on account of Barclay Bros. going out of the wholesale,
as well as the retail drug business, and finding my quarters too small I
interested Harry W. Schuh and the balance of the Schuh family, in the creation
of a new wholesale drug house. We bought the two lots corner tenth and
Commercial and built a three story brick building thereon, incorporated the
Schuh Drug Company, and on October 1st, 1893 we shipped out our first or
________ able fair success ever since, nearly tw____ prospects for the future.
In the year 1866 I married Miss Jul___ she died three years later, leaving
to my care a ___ Paul, who had reached the age of one and a half yea___ of her
death. She was buried in the cemetary of Evansv___.
Three years later, in
1872, I was married again ___ Adelina Clottu in Chicago. We have been living
together here in Cairo ever since, in fairly good health. There were two
children born to us, Carl H. in the year 1873, and Alma E. Both children are
married. Carl has one son, and Alma Murray one son and one daughter. All are
enjoying good health.
Contributed 2022 Jun 14 by Derek Sherman, from typed manuscript (7-page pdf)
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