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OBITUA.TI 0 F JOHN 71. SEIDEN
I was born on the 29th day of April, 1880 in
I1nnburg, Jep.:lany. [,ly parents were quite wealfuy at that time
and I went f:;hroush pri vate s chools. where I Ie arned to speak
Higb and Low German, Ellflish, French, and mastered the Latin
langua ge.
When I just; :=.bOl {; finished schooling, the panic of
the early 90's broke out and it practically 'vir-ed out my parents.
I lost all the :noney that I had and my t,arents 'l.ere left with
1 itt 1 e or n othiY1g •
We 11, I al ways had an id ea th at I wante c1 to co;ne to
tl1e Dn:tted States. We had S011e friends livin[. in Doon, Iowa,
and they said that if I ever wanted to C01e over bere that they
w01.1~d :":iv8 :ne a job. So then I decided to come to the United
States. I s ta::'ted omt on the ship by the name of
on tl.:e 17t':1 day of February, 1897. 'l'here were on this ship the
steerage passengers, second class Dassangers and the :ness crew.
HaVing Ii ved ne 1011' t he sea all my 1 He, I was sort of used to it,
and I did not set sick but the rest of the crew were all quite
sick 6.S the sea was rough am the Harth Sea was pa rticularly rough.
Vessels of fifty years ago were not as seawo1'tl1r as they are today
and not as Is rge. I met the captain and he of fered, if I v.ou Id
relp out thb mess crew with the mess that he would put me in the
second class passenGer crew. The advantage was then more simple
as to what it is todayas I would then not have to fa throUf:-h the
im:nigration circles going as a second class passenger when £oing
through Ellis Islam. However, we did not have much trouble
to get through and bes ide s the Captain said he would see that I got
through the Inmigrstion office. and that is the way I arrived in
the United States as a secom class passenger instead of steerage
pass engel'.
The voy'age was rather rough and we encountered three storms
-1-
Object Description
| Rating | |
| Title | Seiden, John Biography |
| Description | An autobiography of John Seiden who owned and operated the Seiden Drug Store in Lewistown, Montana |
| Creator | John Seiden |
| Genre | books |
| Type | Text |
| Language | eng |
| Date Estimated | Date Unknown |
| Subject (keyword) | Seiden, John; Seiden Drug Store; |
| Rights Management | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ |
| Contributing Institution | Lewistown Public Library, Lewistown, Montana |
| Geographic Coverage | Lewistown, Montana. Fergus County, Montana |
| Digital collection | Central Montana Historical Documents |
| Digital Format | application/pdf |
| Physical format | Typed Manuscript |
| Digitization Specifications | Canon MX310 300dpi |
| Full text of this item | OBITARY OF JOHN W. SEIDEN I was born on the 29th day of April, 1880 in Hamburg, Germany. My parents were quite wealthy at that time and I went through private schools where I learned to speak High and Low German, English, French, and mastered the Latin language. When I just about finished schooling, the panic of the early 90’s broke out and it practically wiped out my parents. I lost all the money that I had and my parents were left with little or nothing. Well, I always had an idea that I wanted to come to the United States. We had some friends living in Doon, Iowa, and they said that if I ever wanted to come over here that they would give me a job. So then I decided to come to the United States. I started out on the ship by the name of _______________, on the 17th day of February, 1897. There were on this ship the steerage passengers, second class passengers and the mess crew. Having lived near the sea all my life, I was sort of used to it, and I did not get sick but the rest of the crew were all quite sick as the sea was rough and the North Sea was particularly rough. Vessels of fifty years ago were not as seaworthy as they are today and not as large. I met the captain and he offered, if I would help out the mess crew with the mess that he would put me in the second class passenger crew. The advantage was then more simple as to what it is today as I would then not have to go through the immigration circles going as a second class passenger when going through Ellis Island. However, we did not have much trouble to get through and besides the Captain said he would see that I got through the Immigration Office, and that is the way I arrived in the United States as a second class passenger instead of steerage passenger. The voyage was rather rough and we encountered three storms on the Atlantic and of course the North Sea was a stormy all the way. As a matter of fact we used up all the fuel and had to stop at Sandy Hawk to refuel the vessel to get us into the New York Harbor. The voyage took about fourteen days at that time. On the ship I got acquainted with an old fellow who had been in this country before and recently lived here. Said he was going through Mexico and he says “If you want to come out with me when we get off the vessel, I will see what I can do for you.” The ship landed at Hoboken across from the river New York and we went to Neagele’s Hotel, where then I got a job as a dishwasher. That wasn’t so bad because I could at least get some good and that was all right. The work was rather strenuous as I had to get up early in the morning and worked until late at night. In those early days, fifty years ago, fifteen hours was considered a day’s labor. Well, anyway, I saved some money, as I got a little pay, and then I went over to New York. At my first sight of New York City, and you can imagine the buildings at that time, the _________________ Building was the largest building in New York and that was not much taller than our Montana Building, about one-half at tall. Well, Main Street was the 14th street running East and West. The Great White Way was really not known at that time, and 5th Bronx Street was where the rich people lived. Sometime later I will tell you about it as I have been back there quite a number of years and will tell you just what took place. There I got acquainted with a fellow and he wanted to go out and see the West, and that the best way to travel would be side-door only, now known as box cars. So, I decided to go with him and we travelled together, stopped off at different places, here and there, washing dishes along the road whenever we stopped and we always found a good restaurant and washed some more dishes so that we could get something to eat. It took us about ten days to make the trip from New Jersey to Chicago. Then we moved on further in box cars to Iowa and finally, the last rip we made was by regular train into Doon, Iowa. There I saw Ross, the man I was talking about in the beginning. He was running the Ross Mercantile. They were glad to see me because at that time they were exploiting quite a few of these young fellows from Germany. So, I got a job with him. It was a general grocery store and I had to get up about five o’clock in the morning, sweep out and everything like that, then I got some breakfast. At noon I got off for half an hour for a meal and then in the evening I would get off for another meal, but I had more time, and then I had to work until ten or eleven o’clock at night. I did put in a pretty long day but there was one nice thing about it, I did not have to work on Sundays. I got acquainted with the Otto Weofills and the barber and I used to go out with them on Sundays. They had a horse and buggy and we had some real recreation in that way, riding around. Then, the Spanish American War broke out. I wanted to enlist. In fact, there were two or three that were going to enlist in Doon, Iowa and were going on to Rock Rapids, Iowa , which was the County Seat of Lyon County, in which Doon is situated, take their physical and sign the papers and everything like that. However I was taken sick and it turned out to be that I had typhoid fever, and the result of it was that I did not enlist nor did I go over to Rock Rapids. Well, then, there was great deal of talk about Alaska and its gold discovery. As I did not like this place, Doon, I decided to go on. So I went to Rock Rapids. And went out into the country and helped some of the farmers with their work, doing farm work in more ways than one. Of course, in my travels around Iowa, I was always on a look out for a job and then I went to Rock Rapids and went to work for a drug store. I worked there for a while. It was very pleasant and all that but I still had the urge to go on and then the next time that I turned up was in Astoria and started to work in a drug store, and while in Astoria, I took the State Board of Pharmacy examination that I had been studying for. They raised most of the questions pertaining to the group quiz compends, etc. I was lucky and passed the board examination. In those days it wasn’t much of a job as it is today to pass the examination, and they gave me a number. It was 6067. Then I again got the fever to go to Alaska and so I quit my job and went over to Minneapolis and worked there for a while in Vaevillie’s. Finally, I had enough money saved to go out to Montana so I took the train in the winter of 1900 and arrived in Montana on January 12th, at Butte, Montana. I became somewhat liberal in spending my money coming from the east. Of course I did not travel but by plain cars but the eats were high. When I got to Butte after spending ten cents for a street car fare, I went to the old Finley Hotel and got a room there. The clerk looked me over, and I did not look any too well nor did I look any too prosperous, and said it was a $1.00 and that I would have to pay it in advance. I said, “all right”, paid him the $1.00 and took my old suitcase with me to the room. After I had paid him I had only a nickel left. Well, I got to have something to do. So, I asked the clerk what kind of work was there in Butte. “Well,” he said, “there is a lot of mining.” However, having passed my State Board examination in Iowa, and I didn’t want to go out mining, I said, “I will see if I can find a job”. I went down town that evening and I saw some nice fresh doughnuts in the window, but I had only a dime. So I went into the restaurant, sat down at the counter, and a gentleman came up and says, “Well, young fellow, what would you like”, I says, “I haven’t had anything to eat today and I would like to get a couple of those doughnuts and a glass of water.” “I have only five cents but I need something to eat.” So, (Wahley was the man’s name, he is dead now) he asked me some more questions, where I come from, what I was doing, etc., and then he says, “Just a minute.” He went out, then pretty soon he came back and was talking to me some more about this and that and then I got to worrying what was the matter because I told him I only wanted a couple of doughnuts and a glass of water. Then all of a sudden, he came out with a great big tray. There was a T-bone steak and French fried potatoes and just about everything that you can imagine was on this tray. I told this man, “I didn’t order this, I haven’t the money to pay for all of this, I only ordered couple of doughnuts and a glass of water.” He says, “Well, young fellow, you just go ahead and eat this.” The tears then came streaming out of my eyes because I never had been treated like this before. I had eaten everything that he brought out, except the plate, and he would not even accept the nickel. I told him then that I wanted a job, that I had passed the State Board of Examination in Iowa and that I had a number. He says, “You go up to Newboros in the morning and see if you can get a job with them.” So, the next morning I went there and they gave me a job. They said to go and see Dave Moffat and he can set you to work because right now we have a little job and at least you can help out. So I went and saw Dave Moffat, and he says, ��you can bottle some herpicide. So that was my first real job in Montana, bottling herpicide. Anyway I worked there for a while. I don’t know how long but anyway until the end of the year. Then I met a Dr. St. Jean and he says that they wanted a man in Anaconda to run a store for them there and that they thought it was a pretty good job. So I went over there and I ran the drug store for them with Jim Kennedy and I also had a button. The State Board of Pharmacists that fall met in Anaconda. So I made my application there with them. They said it was all right and so I took part of the examination. I told them that I was registered in Iowa and so they told me that between this examination here and the one in Iowa, we will pass you here. So they did and gave me a number, 315. Of the 12 men who passed the examination in 1900, there are about five or six of us left and I believe that I am the 5th or the 6th pharmacists in this State. Well, one of my friends, who was among the last few of us, passed away last year. His name was Charles Chapple. I worked around in Anaconda with Dr. St. Jean and Mrs. Kennedy and there I met a fellow by the name of Hafbauer. He said, “I believe we can go down to Billings and buy a store there from Williams.” We then decided to go down there and take a look at it. After we got there we found out that we could buy this store of Williams, so we bought it and that’s how I came to be in the business in Billings until about 1903, and then through some unfortunate circumstances my partner got to using dope and it became a matter of our separation. We decided that as long as he was married he would stay in Billings with the Store, and I would go on. I then again tried to go to Alaska because that was in my mind all the time. I went back to Livingston and met a fellow by the name of Hank Owens. Hank Owens wanted to go to Alaska also but that I would have to leave my truck behind and just take my old grip and light clothes. Him I would stay around for a day or two and sort of do some visiting around, and then I decided to go back to Butte. Well, I had worked in Butte and knew a number of the pharmacists there and druggist, so I stayed a round there for several days and then one evening I got a phone call from Livingston from a man by the name of Scheuber who owned a drug store that and he wanted to know if I could come over and help them out for two or three weeks because one of his men wanted to take a vacation. So I told him I would come down. He says, “We would like to have you come over right away.” So that evening I took the train and went to Livingston, and instead of staying two or three weeks it turned out to be about four years, three and a half to be exact, because after I got there, one wanted to take his vacation and then the other, etc and so they took their vacations and I stayed on. Then one never came back, and as I was sort of young and was well, the store was turned over to me and I was in charge of it and managed to make a pretty good success of it. There at Livingston I met Mrs. Seiden. She was then working for the Telephone Company and so in August ____, 1907, we were married in Livingston. After we were married we decided to take a little vacation and so we went to Butte as I knew quite a number of the people there, and then I thought we might as well go on the Milwaukee railroad which they were building to Miles City and Roundup and on. So we got on the train and we saw some new country. We left Lombard in the morning, and on through the canyon those sixteen miles, then turned off so that we could get to the summit. Why, in those days we used to have to get out because the train could not pull us up a hill, but them on top the hill was an eating house where the trains always stopped for a but an hour or so and then went down on the other side of the road. We got started on our way and then the engine blocked. Of course, they again had to stop and take the part that was damaged off, and there were again on our way and got as far as Lennep, and by golly if we did not stop on dead center. We scurried around there a second to get the thing a going but just couldn’t make it. So we waited until a freight train came along and gave us a pull and then we were on our way again, and went as far at Two Dot It stopped again and as I remember it, we had stopped dead center again. Well, anyway, we had to wait there again until another freight train pushed us and we could get to Harlowton. Well we figured that we would stay over at Harlowton over night but the whole town of Harlowton had burned off and there was no place to stay. The conductor suggested that we go into Lewistown. Well, they fiddled around, changing this and that and finally the put the Freight engine ahead of the passenger engine and threw some freight behind and pulled us into Lewistown. They had to bring the freight engine into Lewistown because this was the only place that they could get repairs. Well, we arrived in Lewistown four o’clock in the morning and we stayed at a rooming house. There was no Burke Hotel then, as they were not built in those days. The next morning we decided to look the town over and visit several drug stores here. Among others there was a drug store owned by Wilson and Lewellyn. We walked up the street and a fellow yelled from a corner from where the Old National Bank was, “Hi, there, what are you doing here.” It happened to be W. J. Johnson who was the cashier of the First National Bank here at that time. He had been a paying teller in Butte and that is how he happened to know me because the National Bank at Butte was just a group of men from the Newboro Company and I used to cash my checks there, after I got my job at Newboros, bottling herpicide, Well, anyway to go on, he says, “What are you looking for.” I said, “I am not looking for anything. We are just on our honeymoon and we road on the train up here.” “Well, he says, “would you like to buy a drug store” and I says, “I might be interested in that”, and he says, “We own a store here, the Wilson and Lewellyn drugstore.” We have a mortgage on it and practically own it. Take a look at it and see what you can do with it.” Well, I thought I would go up and see what it was like. Wilson was a very nice fellow. So then I went in and talked with Wilson and Lewellyn and finally decided that Lewellyn would take part of the stock and go to Harlowton and start a new store down there and Wilson and I would form a corporation and start a drug store in the same place, or take this store over. I then went back to Johnson and he says “you can have this store and I will give you five years to pay for it and no interest.” That was a pretty good deal I could hardly over look. Lewistown was then a small town of about 1200 to 1500 people, and I thought, well, anything can come out of it. We took it over and it became the Wilson-Seiden Drug Company. About six years later, or perhaps more than that, Wilson was taken sick and his condition finally developed into cancer. On the 14th day of March, 1907, I had taken it over and have run it ever since. I don’t think there is any necessity of talking about Wilson and that part. During the years of 1912 and 1913 there was a great deal of building going on on the railroad and the Milwaukee was building from Lewistown to Great Falls, and a party by the name of Boone who was then County Commissioner from that section of the County had been furnishing the construction crews of the Milwaukee with meat and other things. He got an opportunity to buy the bunk house lumber in those bunkhouses for a very reasonable sum and so I got in with him and built the building over there at Denton, 75 feet wide and 90 or 100 feet long. The building is still standing over there. We built on and added a drug store in the corner. Boone’s meat shop was in the middle and the other place was the hardware store. We moved our old fixtures from our store over there to Denton and got to have a very fine store over there. The store was doing well, in fact it was really doing real well and Denton in those days was booming. I then made up my mind to buy a store in Grass Range but before that could materialize, the First World War broke out. Well from that time I had quite a time with the men over there. My partner died and I was left alone. I had men hired there and the first thing I knew they would get drunk and I never knew how I stood or what happened. Finally I found an opportunity to sell this store, which I did through the banker over there. He went into it without a dollar but his family was all working and I got my money okay. I still owned the building but about six years later I sold it. And, as far as any interest is concerned at Denton, there is none there. Well, then going back to Lewistown, in 1920 we revamped the store completely, put in new fixtures and most of the fixtures that are in the store now are the fixtures that I bought in 1920. In 1920 I spread out quite a lot and put in a lot of stock and after a year we were doing fairly well. Then came bank failures. The first bank failure was on the 10th day of December. That was on a Monday and on Sunday before that I had written a lot of checks for the items that we owed so that we would have them all paid by the 10th, but on the 10th of the month the bank was closed and all those checks that I had written came back, and there were quite a lot of them. That fall, I had been to New York and I saw where there were some graphonolas for about one-third what the graphonola people were trying to sell me here. Somebody was making a profit so I did not buy any. As it was, here it was the 10th of December, the banks closed and I had two dozen graphanolas on hand and over a thousand records and all the other accessories that ago with it, besides all of the other things, I did not know what would happen now after the banks closed. So we decided we would try to sell all we could during the month of December. We sold quite a number of things and in January we made up our minds to get rid of all that stuff. So, we put in a partition just a little alcove in the back and decided to put everything we could and sell it at one-half price so as to clean up everything and get a little ready cash, which we did and the sale was successful. Then we thought we might as well clean up everything and hold an auction sale the first part of February for any items left. Well. This auction sale was to come off Saturday afternoon at one o’clock. That morning at ten o’clock the other bank closed and here we sat. The boys said, “What are we going to do now, we will just have to go through with this auction sale and get rid of everything we can.” Surprising as it may be, we sold everything we had but at a very low price, $10.00 worth of records for a dollar, etc. We did not make any money but nevertheless we got rid of the stuff which was a good stunt, and out of that whole transaction, I remember that I sustained a loss of about $25,000 in more ways than one, which was quite a loss at that time, and then too, on top of it, I was stricken with Angina Pectoris (heart attack) which crippled me for several years. I was crippled for a while, about four or five years. Then I got out of it in pretty good shape but had to be very careful in all ways. Then after I got over it in pretty good shape in 1932, the Mrs. Had a stroke. She never got over that stroke and it always bothered her to a very large extent. Her stroke contributed to mine in 1941. And, so the years stepped by, some years were good, some were bad and some extremely bad, but I got out of all of them all right by being conservative and working along. One thing I know. I acquired a pretty heavy debt at that time, but today I don’t carry any debt at all. In 1935 or 1936, the corner burned off where we are now and I bought it. It was a 50 foot lot, and on it is the present store. The lot is 30 feet by 90 feet. We moved into it and have been there ever since. That is the story as far as that part is concerned. Now, since the Mrs. Has died, I have no relatives left in Germany. In fact they are all dead. Most of them died shortly after the First World War. I may have some nieces and nephews there but I don’t know anything about them as I have not corresponded with them for twenty-five years or more and that is the reason why I left my property to those I mentioned in the Will. In regards to my life as a Pharmacist, as I said before, I was registered in this State in 1900 and my number is 315, and I am either the fifth of sixth pharmacists still practicing in the State. Now, I have always taken a great interest in the Pharmacists Association. I was twice the President of the Pharmacists Association and I was a member of the State Board of Pharmacy in 1922 and up until 1936. I was with the exception of one year the President of the Board and during my life perhaps a thousand young men have become pharmacists in this State. During this term we have raised the standards of Pharmacy from a one year course to a four year course at Missoula. We now have an established course in the University which is recognized anywhere in the United States of America. This year we have between sixty to seventy students at the University. We now have our own building. It is a very fine building and very fine looking. It is the _________ Building. During the time that I was President, all of these changes took place. Then I was for a great many years, about twenty years, Chairman of the Legislative Committee of the Pharmacists Association and during that time with the assistance of other, we passed the laws. All the laws pertaining to pharmacy are of my making. I am the author of all the pharmacists’ laws in the statues of the State of Montana. As I said before I always took a very active part, until the last few years because I was getting tired, and after all, after twenty-five years you get a little tired of things. That is as much as I think is necessary to say about it. In the Church work, well, I was raised a German Lutheran. My wife was an Episcopalian and of course my mother-in-law who lived with us for a great many years, was also an Episcopalian. She came from England. While George Hurst was here, he asked me to join the Church and so I joined the Episcopalian church here. I don’t recall exactly when but it was early in the 20’s. Somewhere a round there maybe a year or two afterwards George Hurst wanted me to become a member of the Vestry and I have been a member of the Vestry ever since and the last few years I have been Senior Vestryman. In the Masonic work. I was raised a Master Mason. In 1904 I belonged to the Ashlar Lodge at Billings, Montana, and between the years of 1905 and 1907, I became of the York Right Bodies and the Scottish Rite Bodies in Livingston and also a member of the Algerian Shrine in 1907, which I organized, and I am the only chartered member living of the Cavalry Commandery No. 14 of Lewistown, Montana. I am also the oldest past Commander of the Commandery here. I am a member of the Blue Lodge, Lewistown 37, Hiram Council No. 14, Hiram Chapter No. 15, Cavalry Commandery, No. 14. I am also Past Patron of the Order of the Eastern Star, and also Past Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery of the State of Montana. In 1909, I decided I would take up a homestead, east of here. The reason I went east was because the surveyors of the Great Northern were going out east and had established a camp, while they were surveying the land east and west, on some land, which then became my homestead. They asked me. “Why don’t you take this land up where we are camped. Next to it is another section. Well, I thought it might be a pretty good stuff so that how we took up homesteading. For five years we enjoyed homesteading, going back and forth. We had a little house, 24 X 24. At first there was only a tar paper shack which we turned into a blacksmith shop and then I made another place for the horses, then by the house we dug a well. Dug it forty feet and got ten feet of good well water, which also made a nice cooler for our stuff. We enjoyed the trips out there and in the beginning and the first four years why we had to go out with horses and a buggy. It would take four days to make the trip with the wagon. We had to cross the Musselshell, going across as well as other creeks, as in those days there were no bridges and most of the time we had to cross the creeks and if you don’t think that was a good job, you are then mistaken. Well, anyways, in 1914, while the Mrs. and my mother-in-law were out at the homestead, I surprised them, I bought my first Ford. We had saddle horses and we could go from one place to another and go visiting. Well, anyways, in 1914 I bought my first ford. I often wished I had kept it. It was one of those old Model T’s. It had no batteries, no electric lights, only kerosene lamps, old hard rubber tires, brass radiator that was trade-marked and the engine was real balky, but it carried us through. It took us only a day to make the trip to the homestead but that was better than three to four days. We had to take our gasoline with us because there was no place between here and there where we could buy any gas and where the town of Winnett stands. Many a time I slept near the creek as there was nothing there but the Winnett buildings and the barn but I was used to sleeping outside, there always was plenty of sleeping room but those were very happy days. I have enjoyed every one of them, so did the Mrs. It didn’t mean anything to us, we were young people and we enjoyed taking it all in. I have lived a period of life which is very interesting in more ways than one. Just look back from 1900. We now have electric lights, buses and all kinds of transportation, highways, streets, streamlined cars, trains, airplanes, and all of that and a great many other things that have taken place, and to say, that I have lived through three wars, the Spanish American War, the First World War and the Second World War. They used to say that it would be impossible to fly; that there is no such thing that could fly. But, it all came about just the same. Take Lewistown, and see all the improvements, etc. There is another thing I would like to mention and that is I never had any desire for politics or gone into them, I could have gone into them many times. E. G. Ivins used to kid me all the time for not getting into politics but I never had the desire. I served twelve years as director of the Central Montana Chamber Commerce. Probably the longest term that anyone ever served on the Chamber of Commerce. Out of the twelve years, eleven years I was the Treasurer of the Chamber of Commerce and one year I was the President and during the year I was President, we bought the municipal airport, not the one that we have now, but the one that we had before, but it was the beginning of an airfield in Lewistown. Afterwards we traded part of the land for the new land that was traded and we now have a regular airport, and if it had not been for me we wouldn’t have built it. They said “What does Seiden want with that. He wants it for his own personal use” but I was interested in aviation at that time, but, it was the same, I had the first enclosed car that came to Lewistown. It was a Dodge. And they used to kid me “There goes Seiden and his glass showcase.” And so on. |
| Local Identifier | SC 6.174 Seiden, John |
Description
| Title | Seiden, John Biography 1 |
| Type | Text |
| Contributing Institution | Lewistown Public Library, Lewistown, Montana |
| Digital Format | application/pdf |
| Digitization Specifications | Canon MX310 300dpi |
| Full text of this item | OBITUA.TI 0 F JOHN 71. SEIDEN I was born on the 29th day of April, 1880 in I1nnburg, Jep.:lany. [,ly parents were quite wealfuy at that time and I went f:;hroush pri vate s chools. where I Ie arned to speak Higb and Low German, Ellflish, French, and mastered the Latin langua ge. When I just; :=.bOl {; finished schooling, the panic of the early 90's broke out and it practically 'vir-ed out my parents. I lost all the :noney that I had and my t,arents 'l.ere left with 1 itt 1 e or n othiY1g • We 11, I al ways had an id ea th at I wante c1 to co;ne to tl1e Dn:tted States. We had S011e friends livin[. in Doon, Iowa, and they said that if I ever wanted to C01e over bere that they w01.1~d :":iv8 :ne a job. So then I decided to come to the United States. I s ta::'ted omt on the ship by the name of on tl.:e 17t':1 day of February, 1897. 'l'here were on this ship the steerage passengers, second class Dassangers and the :ness crew. HaVing Ii ved ne 1011' t he sea all my 1 He, I was sort of used to it, and I did not set sick but the rest of the crew were all quite sick 6.S the sea was rough am the Harth Sea was pa rticularly rough. Vessels of fifty years ago were not as seawo1'tl1r as they are today and not as Is rge. I met the captain and he of fered, if I v.ou Id relp out thb mess crew with the mess that he would put me in the second class passenGer crew. The advantage was then more simple as to what it is todayas I would then not have to fa throUf:-h the im:nigration circles going as a second class passenger when £oing through Ellis Islam. However, we did not have much trouble to get through and bes ide s the Captain said he would see that I got through the Inmigrstion office. and that is the way I arrived in the United States as a secom class passenger instead of steerage pass engel'. The voy'age was rather rough and we encountered three storms -1- |
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