The twelfth day of October, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight, is a memorable one in the history of the firm of Oelrichs & Company, New York. It marks the completion of a century of honorable and uninterrupted business life, upon which its members look back not only with just pride but also with devout thankfulness for the prosperity vouchsafed to it, as if in response to the prayer of its founder, who, on the twelfth of October, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight, invoked a divine blessing upon his undertaking.
The name of the firm, owing to the early laws of the State of New York, has undergone several changes, but it has been one continuous business, and, with the exception of about twelve years during the minority of its present senior, Herman Caspar von Post, grandson of the founder, Caspar Meier, his family has always been represented in the firm.
The lapse of a century has brought with it many changes in the nature and methods of the business, but not in the underlying principles of conservatism and commercial honor laid down and consistently followed by its founder. These business principles, steadfastly adhered to by his successors, have carried the house with an unblemished record through all the many vicissitudes and commercial crises of the century.
CASPAR MEIER belonged, both on his father's and his mother's side, to families well known and distinguished in the history of the City of Bremen, where he was born September 20th, 1774, the eldest son of Diedrich Meier, Senator, and afterwards Burgomaster, of Bremen, whose wife was a daughter of Burgomaster Diedrich Smidt.
After receiving his school education the young man, on July 7th, 1790, entered the office of Daniel Tideman in Bremen and remained there as clerk until June 16th, 1796, by which time he had made up his mind to seek his fortune in the New World.
On July 5th, 1796, he took leave of his relatives and friends and reached sea on the 13th on board the ship "Olive," J. Hovey, Jr., Master, bound for New York, at which port he arrived September 7th, 1796.
In a memorandum in his handwriting, relating to some prominent events in his life, are recorded his first impressions in a strange country, as follows:
"Hier war ich gleichsam wie vom Himmel gefallen, indem ich mit keinem Menschen bekannt war und fand es in einem fremden Lande nicht so angenehm wie ich es mir vorher vorgestellt hatte; allein ich war einmal hier und musste mich in mein Schicksal ergeben. Endlich gelang es mir Condition zu bekommen, welche den lOten October, 1796, bei Peppin & Satterthwaite antrat. Nachdem ich nicht mehr miissig war, gefiel es mir auch besser hier."
("Here I was as if dropped from the skies, not knowing a single person, and a strange country did not seem to me as pleasant as I had imagined; but I was here and had to make the best of it. At last I succeeded in obtaining a situation with Peppin & Satterthwaite, whose office I entered October 10thr 1796. Now, as I was no longer idle, I liked it better here.")
The house, Peppin & Satterthwaite, in which he thus found employment, is recorded in the New York City Directories of 1796 and 1797 as "Merchants, 87 Water Street," and is succeeded in the Directory of 1798 by "Thomas W. Satterthwaite, Merchant, 87 Water Street," whose son in later years became President of the New York Mutual Insurance Company, a corporation of which Caspar Meier was one of the early directors, and which did a marine business.
In the summer of 1797 some friends in Bremen sent him consignments of goods for sale, and he left the employment of Peppin & Satterthwaite July 17th, 1797, in order to enter upon mercantile life on his own account.
With that object in view, having disposed of the goods and invested the proceeds in bills of exchange, he returned to Germany in order to seek connections with houses from which he could expect consignments of merchandise for the commission business which he intended to establish in New York. He sailed October 2nd in the ship "James," E. Brown, Master, for Hamburg, and arrived there November 17th, proceeding to Bremen. Here he supplied himself with letters of introduction, and, returning to Hamburg in January, 1798, opened business relations with some houses there, then attended the fair at Brunswick, making purchases, and returned to Bremen. His friends were not just then prepared to give him consignments, but in the spring he succeeded in collecting a considerable amount of goods, which he put on board the Bremen brig "Frau Anna," Captain Gronninger, taking passage in her himself. The brig put to sea May 31st and had a passage to New York of not less than one hundred and thirty-five days, experiencing very heavy weather, during which the cargo shifted, the decks were swept and water casks carried over board, so that a supply of fresh water had to be obtained from a passing vessel. The day of his arrival, October 12th, 1798, Caspar Meier notes as the date of his establishment as a merchant in New York.
He had upon arrival reason to feel reconciled to the length of his voyage, for he thus escaped the peril of landing in the height of the disastrous yellow fever epidemic of that year, which had carried off many victims, including the first three friends he inquired after. It was still causing deaths daily and had brought business to a standstill.
The yellow fever of 1798 was the severest of a number of visitations of that pestilence which the city endured between the years 1791 and 1823. There had been a bad attack in 1795, costing 735 lives, and when, in the latter part of July, 1798, the disease suddenly broke out again with great violence, the recollection of that previous experience created a general panic; all who were able, fled the city, most of the stores were closed and the greatest suffering was endured by those who had not the means to enable them to flee and were deprived of employment by the cessation of business. Until the beginning of November, when the epidemic ceased, there were 2,086 deaths reported, which must have been a large percentage of those that remained in the city.
The water used by the citizens was procured from wells, in many cases impure, and it was the absence of sanitary arrangements in that and other respects which promoted the spread of yellow fever, as it did in after years that of cholera. The insufficiency of the water supply had been recognized before, and under the effect of this additional experience an attempt at improvement was made the next year through the creation of the Manhattan Company, organized for the purpose of supplying the city with pure water, but fifty years elapsed before the problem was solved by the introduction of Croton water.
The ground occupied by the City of New York was at that time bounded on the north by a line drawn from about the foot of Harrison Street at the North River to about the foot of Rutgers Street at the East River, crossing Broadway a little above what is now the northerly line of City Hall Park. Greenwich Street bordered the North River from the Battery to Cedar Street, and Front Street the lower part of the East River. But within these limits the city was by no means built up; on a large part of the area the houses were widely scattered, interspersed with gardens and vacant lots. The Custom House was in the a "Government House" on Bowling Green, the Post Office in the private house of the Postmaster at the corner of William and Garden Streets (the latter now Exchange Place). There were two banks, the Bank of New York, chartered in 1791, and the Branch of the United States Bank, incorporated in the same year, to which was added in 1799 the Bank of the Manhattan Company. Of insurance companies there existed the New York Mutual Insurance Company and the Mutual Fire Insurance Company, both incorporated in 1798, to which was added in 1801 the Washington Fire Insurance Company. All of these were located in Wall Street.
According to a census taken in 1790 there were then 33,131 inhabitants in the County of New York, comprising the whole island. Within the limits of the city the figures given by other contemporary authorities are: 13,330 males, 14,429 females, 2,263 slaves; total, 30,022.
The political situation of the country was not more satisfactory than the condition of the city at the time of Caspar Meier's arrival, the relations with the French Republic having become so threatening that Washington, who the year before had finished his second term as President, was, on July 3rd, 1798, recalled from the retirement of private life and appointed to the command of the army, which he was then engaged in putting on a war footing.
The outlook was therefore not encouraging when Caspar Meier on the day of his arrival made his first entry in a private account book in these words:
"Inventarium meines Vermögens, sowohl an Baarschaft und Waaren als auch an Schulden und Gegenschulden, so ich heute als den Tag meiner Ankunft alhier besass, und womit ich in Hoffnung eines göttlichen Seegens meine Handlung anfing, New York den 12. October, 1798." ("Inventory of my property in cash and goods, as also of debts and credits, belonging to me to-day, the day of my arrival here, and with which I began my business, hoping for a divine blessing, New York, October 12th, 1798.")
The assets enumerated in this inventory consist of goods brought over with him for his own account, comprising German linens, bags, candles, hats, caps, etc., and 493 boxes of claret, the whole amounting to
the sum of … $7,252.20
and of cash on hand … $55.20
--- $7,307.40
Against which he specifies as his liabilities:
Money borrowed from relatives in Bremen … $4,200.00
Balances in accounts current … $1,508.20
Passage money for two persons from Bremen … $200.00
Ten per cent, tax due in Bremen on his capital … $127.20
Leaving a balance to his credit of … $1,272.00
--- $7,307.40
This balance of $1,272 he places to the debit of his capital account.
He now hired a store in Gouverneur Lane for three and one-half years, took lodging with a Mrs. Graham in Water Street, and as business improved with the abatement of the epidemic, was able to sell to advantage his own goods and those with which his friends had entrusted him. Other consignments followed and his business prospered.
In the following year his younger brother Hermann Henrich followed him. This brother, who was born September 15th, 1779, arrived in New York November 25th, 1799, and was employed by him in his office.
On November 1st, 1800, Hermann Henrich was taken into partnership and the firm name changed from Caspar Meier to C. & H. H. Meier, the junior partner returning to Bremen the following- month for the purpose of looking- after the interests of the house abroad.
In 1801 Caspar Meier married a daughter of the Rev. John Christopher Kunze, D.D., Pastor of the Lutheran Church in New York, whose wife was a daughter of the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg;, D.D., the Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America.
On February 12th, 1803, the year the corner stone of our present City Hall was laid, Caspar Meier became a citizen of the United States.
Hermann Henrich Meier married in Bremen, and returned with his wife in November, 1802, remaining in New York until April, 1805.
In a copy of the New York "Morning Chronicle" of April 4th, 1805, hanging framed in the office of Oelichs & Co., C. & H. H. Meier, 143 Greenwich Street, advertise the Bremen bark "Europa," H. Mehrtens, Master, for Varel, or for Bremen, if the latter port is not blockaded. In this vessel H. H. Meier, with his family, returned to his native city to found there an offspring; of the New York house under the firm of H. H. Meier & Co., which, in co-operation with the New York house, took the lead in the development of the business of Bremen with the United States, and retains its original name to this day, the present partners being a son and a grandson of its founder.
Before they parted, the two brothers executed an agreement, dated April 6th, 1805, which is declared to be binding for ten years: "Concerning the dissolution of co-partnership of the two parties and the establishment of two trading houses, the one to be continued in New York and the other to be established at Bremen, for the benefit of the two parties concerned." The articles of this agreement commence with the statement that the co-partnership established by a contract dated November 1st, 1800, was dissolved by mutual consent on December 31st, 1804; then goes on to prescribe the mode of settlement of pending business; provides that Caspar Meier shall continue the firm of C. & H. H. Meier in New York "for his sole and own account" until January 1st, 1808; that H.H. Meier is to transact the business in Bremen "for his own and sole account" under the firm name of H. H. Meier & Co.; that any business done by either party for his own account between Europe and America shall be considered as for joint account; "such business for joint account must be governed by circumstances and no particular rules can be laid down for it; it is therefore agreed that, as an unlimited confidence is to take place, each of the parties shall consent to any shipments made by the other party for joint account between this place and Bremen, unless they are of a hazardous nature, it being; expected and understood that neither of them would enter into any business which would, reasonably expected, not meet the approbation of the other party." Provision is made for the conduct of business under the circumstances of either country becoming engaged in a war, and it is stipulated that neither party shall take a partner without the consent of the other.
The "unlimited confidence" expressed in this contract between the two brothers remained the corner stone of the relations between them and their successors. Every succeeding contract was founded on that "unlimited confidence" as its basis, and even the conditions expressed in the different paragraphs remained substantially as first agreed upon. These contracts between the New York and Bremen firms form an uninterrupted series for sixty years, finally expiring December 31st, 1864, under the influence of the changed conditions which the lapse of time had brought into the business between the two cities.
This contract of April 6th, 1805, between Caspar and H. H. Meier remained in force until superseded by a new one after the admission into the Bremen firm of Johann Helfrich Adami, who, while on a visit to this country, executed it on behalf of himself and partner. These new "Articles of Agreement" made on April 14th, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, between Caspar Meier, trading in New York under the firm of C. & H. H. Meier, on the first part, and John H. Adami, as well for himself as for Hermann Henrich Meier in Bremen, trading in Bremen under the firm of H. H. Meier & Co., on the second part are like those of the old contract and were intended to be binding for ten years from January 1st, 1818, but came to an earlier termination by the death of H. H. Meier, which occurred April 27th, 1821.
Caspar Meier now resumed his original firm name, Caspar Meier, and on the occasion of a visit to Bremen the next year signed a new contract with J. H. Adami, the sole remaining representative of H. H. Meier & Co., dated March 28th, 1822, which contract continued former business arrangements for a term of five years; Caspar Meier, however, reserving the right to terminate it at any time, should the name of the firm cf H. H. Meier & Co. be changed. No reason for this reservation is given, but with a knowledge of the affectionate relations that existed between the two brothers it is not difficult to account for it. Caspar Meier had not parted with his brother's name in his own firm until after his brother's death, although the latter had for the previous sixteen years no interest and no funds in it. To Caspar Meier's attachment to his brother's memory was added the interest which he felt in the career of his brother's children, and while arranging for the continuing of his business relations with his brother's partner he was using his influence towards securing for the children their succession in the firm which their father had founded.
Two of the sons eventually became members of the firm of H. H. Meier & Co.: Diedrich August, born April 23rd, 1806, who died January 9th, 1852, and Hermann Henrich, born October 16th, 1809, the most distinguished citizen of Bremen, who is still the senior of the firm. As he entered it January 1st, 1834, he has now for more than sixty-four years been a member of one and the same firm. His career as a merchant has been as uncommon in duration and importance as his long-continued activity in public affairs has been pre-eminent in benefits to his city and country.
On the occasion of his visit to Bremen in 1822, Caspar Meier found in the office of H. H. Meier & Co. a young man who afterwards became his partner and son-in-law, Laurence Henry von Post, also belonging to an old Bremen family, son of Simon Hermann von Post, Dr. Juris, and Metta von dem Busch, daughter of Senator Laurenz von dem Busch. He was born in Bremen February 3rd, 1800, and at the early age of fourteen became a clerk in the office of H. H. Meier & Co., where he was no doubt seen and engaged by Caspar Meier in 1822, for he arrived in New York in November of that year and immediately entered his office. There he soon gained his principal's confidence and became an indispensable assistant.
On December 28th, 1825, a contract was signed by which he became a partner on January 1st, 1826, when the firm was changed to Caspar Meier & Co. In the spring of that year L. H. von Post went to Europe on business and while in Bremen confirmed and extended the scope of the agreement between the firms, returning to New York late in the same year. On the outward trip he was accompanied by Caspar Meier's only son, John Diedrich, born December 22nd, 1807, who remained in Bremen and was received in the office of H. H. Meier & Co. He had been educated in Dr. Eigenbrodt's school at Jamaica, Long Island, and afterwards in Columbia College, where he distinguished himself, but where he remained only two years, his father then sending him to Bremen, as he had made up his mind to become a merchant. He stayed in the Bremen office until 1830, returning home toward the end of that year and entering the office of Caspar Meier & Co., where he became a partner in 1832; he died two years later, May 21st, 1834.
In 1833 L. H. von Post, who in 1827 had married the eldest daughter of Caspar Meier, again paid a visit to Bremen, accompanied by his wife and two of their children.
Caspar Meier had, in 1822, found among the clerks in the office of H. H. Meier & Co. a future partner; L. H. von Post did the same thing on the occasion of this visit. In a letter to Caspar Meier, dated November 23rd, 1833, he mentions "young Oelrichs" as the most experienced and efficient clerk in H. H. Meier & Co.'s office, and expresses a favorable opinion of his character and business capacity, especially of his qualifications for success in this country. This opinion was given in connection with a project, then under consideration, for the sending out to New Orleans of a capable young man to become the resident agent in that city of the New York and Bremen firms. Nothing came of this plan, but Hermann Oelrichs was afterwards offered a place in the office of Caspar Meier & Co., which he entered in December, 1834.
In 1836 Hermann Oelrichs was admitted into the firm. He was also a native of Bremen, born April 10th, 1809. His father, Johann Gerhard Oelrichs, was a merchant in Bremen and Colonel in the Bremen militia. His mother's name was Catherine Holler.
Caspar Meier died February 2nd, 1839, at his residence on the Bloomingdale Road overlooking the Hudson River. He had come to this city a stranger, friendless, with scanty means, but possessed of enterprise, good sense, an excellent business education, an upright character and steady perseverance, by the exercise of which qualities he achieved a high rank among the merchants of New York. The business principles which he laid down for himself he never departed from. The example or advice of friends who allowed themselves to be carried away by the speculative periods of his times never tempted him astray, and thus he not only brought his own business safely through all critical periods, but became an example for the younger merchants, especially for the young Germans, who looked up to him as their patriarch and always found him ready with advice, often with more substantial assistance.
Caspar Meier was a director in the New York Mutual Insurance Company and was a vice-president of the German Society, in the founding of which his father-in-law, Dr. Kunze, had been prominent. Descendants of his have taken part in the management of both of these institutions. He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, which possesses his portrait, copied from an original, painted in 1824, when he was fifty years old. He was Bremen Consul for the Port of New York from June 12th, 1827, until 1837, when L. H. von Post succeeded him. This office continued to be held by a member of the firm as long as a Bremen Consulate existed at this port; L. H. von Post being succeeded by Hermann Oelrichs, he by Edwin A. Oelrichs, and the latter by Gustav Schwab.
As has been already mentioned, Caspar Meier's private account book shows that he commenced business October 12th, 1798, with a capital which he estimates at $1,272. Two years later, on November 1st, 1800, the day he admitted his brother to partnership, he was possessed of $5,800, and during the next four years $7,425 were added, for his balance sheet of January 1st, 1805, after dissolution of the partnership, shows a capital of $13,225. The period of the Napoleonic wars was necessarily a trying time to a prudent merchant engaged in foreign trade; embargoes and blockades interrupted commerce, neutral property was not safe from arbitrary seizure on the high seas, and constant interference with the rights of our merchants kept alive a long series of disputes with France and England, culminating in ?? thewarof 1812-1814 with the latter power. Under such circumstances it is not surprising to find that Caspar Meier, sometimes for several years, made but little more than his expenses, and at other times closed his year's work with a loss. Many years passed after the restoration of peace before ?? he had reason to feel that business was satisfactory.
In 1814 he possessed $29,200, and it was not until ten years later that he passed that figure, having in the meantime once been down to $21,500.
His business at first was with Germany, but he soon extended it to other countries and had his correspondents in Holland, England, France, Spain, Sweden, the West Indies, besides places within the United States.
In the early balance sheets there are mentioned accounts for tobacco, hides, coffee, tea, sugar, cigars, linen, wool, cotton, hemp, claret, gin, brandy, stoves, glass, ivory, pictures, hosiery; and there were many other articles included among those with which he had to do, for the transactions of a merchant in this city were then quite diversified compared with what they are now. There was then no such subdivision of business as we now know; the merchant who had connection with foreign ports was able to handle every article coming from or going to those ports. It was probably not much before 1826 that the importation of dry-goods became a special branch of business, for in a private business letter of L. H. von Post of that year he says that cloths and silks are no longer in the line of business of the firm and are not wanted on consignment. Other articles of manufacture, however, continued to come to the firm for many years after, and part of the office floor of the Broad Street store was fitted up as a sample room. Hosiery and school slates the present senior remembers to have been provided with out of that sample room.
The export business from this country to Bremen embraced not only our own produce but also that of the West and East Indies; and how actively the New York and Bremen houses were jointly engaged in it is shown by the mention in a private letter of L. H. von Post, dated June 27th, 1832, of the fact that so far in that year twenty-five cargoes had already gone to the consignment of H. H. Meier & Co. Diedrich August Meier, who was in this country from January, 1829, to March, 1832, and afterwards on a short visit in 1836, and Hermann Henrich Meier, who succeeded him from 1832 to March, 1838, acted under supervision of the New York house as agents in procuring business for the Bremen house in other parts of the United States, and spent much of their time in Boston, which was an important place for that purpose.
Among the names figuring in the early balance sheets of Caspar Meier there appear firms still existing, some without change of name, with whom the New York house is still in correspondence.
The first name is that of St. Liirman (now St. Lurman & Sohn), Bremen, which appears in 1800. In 1815 is added C. Melchers & Co., Bremen; in 1816 I. H. & G. F. Baur, Altona; in 1823 C. A. Heineken, Baltimore (from 1829 Heineken & Schumacher, now A. Schumacher & Co., the Baltimore agents of the North German Lloyd). In 1828 appears D. H. Wätjen (now D. H. Wätjen & Co.), Bremen; in 1831 Cruse & Hirschfeld (now Cruse & Fils Freres), Bordeaux.
His correspondents in Bremen were numerous, and we recognize many familiar Bremen names, such as Tideman, Bagelmann, Thorbecke, Hagedorn, Pagenstecher, Lameyer, Moller, Ruyter, Delius, Gildemeister, Schone, Loning, Meinertzhagen, Finke, Schroder, Noltenius, Treviranus, Topken, Schumacher, Focke, Gloystein, Warneken, Schrader, Hirschfeld, Quentell, Waite, Dreier, Plate, Caesar, Rosing;, Albers.
In 1810 we find the name Prime & Ward, New York. Yearly from 1805 to 1824 there is mention of C. F. Herreshoff in Bristol, R. I., the grandfather of the famous yacht builders John B. and N. G. Herreshoff, who was a German by birth and probably an old Bremen friend of Caspar Meier.
In 1819 the first mention is made of Joh. Bernhard Hasenclever & Sons in Remscheid, manufacturers of a certain grade of steel used chiefly by scythe makers, which they shipped to the New York firm regularly until 1886, when they discontinued its production. The last lot was sold to the old scythe manufacturing firm, David Wadsworth & Son, Auburn, N. Y., the father of whose senior, Joseph Wadsworth, had begun the business in 1817, and who had used this same German steel from the earliest times. Thus for sixty-five years or more this article passed from the same foreign producers through the hands of the same importing merchants into those of the same manufacturing consumers, all three firms in existence to-day, a record which is perhaps unique in the mercantile history of this country.
In 1821 occurs the name Alex. Barclay & Co., in Gothenburg, one of the several Swedish firms with which a large business was afterwards done in Swedish iron, once an indispensable article in blacksmiths' shops. In 1823 is found the name I. I. Roosevelt & Son, New York, afterwards C. V. S. Roosevelt, and still later Roosevelt & Sons, for whom, during a long series of years, orders were executed for looking-glass plates made by German manufacturers. Of these I. Bippart, a correspondent of Caspar Meier as early as 1803, furnished the small sizes of plate glass used to cover daguerreotypes, of a quality not produced elsewhere, of which the Roosevelts for some time held the monopoly here.
With their London bankers, Messrs. Fredk. Huth & Co., the New York house has been in continuous relation since 1837. Even prior to that year, as far back as 1829, there were occasional indirect transactions between the two houses.
The banks with which Caspar Meier did business were, in the year 1800, the Bank of New York and the Manhattan Company. His balance sheet of that year shows a deposit of $1,222.25 in the former and $1,592.41 in the latter. To these two banks was added in 1803 the Branch Bank of the United States. In 1806 appears an account with the Merchants' Bank, in 1811 with the Mechanics' Bank, after which, until 1834, the Mechanics' Bank and the Bank of New York appear to be the only banks in which he kept accounts. When the present senior entered the office of Oelrichs & Krüger as clerk in 1849, the funds were kept in the Bank of New York and the Merchants' Bank. After he joined the firm in 1852 the Bank of New York account was discontinued and an account opened with the Bank of America, where his uncle, James Punnett, was then Cashier and afterwards President. In 1861 an account was reopened with the Bank of New York for the North German Lloyd business, which was afterwards transferred to the Merchants Bank. From that time until now the firm's accounts have remained in the Bank of America and the Merchants' National Bank.
The death of Caspar Meier, February 2nd, 1839, left the business in the hands of his surviving partners, L. H. von Post and Hermann Oelrichs. They would have retained the name of the old firm if it had been possible, but the laws of the State of New York did not at that time permit the use of a name in the firm after the owner of it had ceased to be a member. But for this obstacle the firm, which on February 14th, 1839, was changed to L. H. von Post & Oelrichs, would have remained Caspar Meier & Co. to this day. In the spring of that year L. H. von Post made a trip to Europe, returning in August. His health had suffered, and although his stay in Bremen and at the waters of Ems appeared to have been of benefit, the symptoms later in the year were such as to induce his physicians to send him to the West Indies, with the result that the sufferings of a nineteen days' passage in a small brig so reduced his strength that he died at Havana, December 19th, 1839, four days after landing.
Hermann Oelrichs, thus left alone in the firm, took into partnership his friend, George William Krüger, then agent in New York of the house D. H. Watjen & Co. in Bremen, and a change of the name to Oelrichs & Krüger took effect March 21st, 1840.
Geo. W. Krüger, son of a merchant of the same name in Bremen, was born in that city September 5th, 1810; in 1827 he entered the office of Mr. Sattler in Bremen, and after spending some years there, obtained through the friendship of Daniel Meinertzhagen a place in the office of Frederick Huth & Co., London. While in London, the New York agency of D. H. Wätjen & Co., Bremen, was offered to him, and he embarked in 1836 for New York, where his friend Chr. Wätjen installed him in his agency, which he retained until he entered the firm of Oelrichs & Krüger. During a large part of the ten years that he remained in the firm he was its actual head manager on account of the failure of the health of Hermann Oelrichs.
In 1844 Edwin Adalbert Oelrichs, brother of Hermann Oelrichs, entered the firm of Oelrichs & Krüger. He was born in Bremen March 20th, 1815, had been in the office of Joh. Lange Sohn's Wittwe & Co. of that city, and had come to New York in June, 1837. In 1846 he married Agnes Palmer, daughter of John J. Palmer, President of the Merchants' Bank.
In 1850 George W. Krüger retired from business and settled in Bremen, marrying there a second time and residing there the remainder of his life. He died July 9th, 1889, and is survived by his widow.
The retirement of George W. Krüger left the business in the hands of the brothers, Hermann and Edwin A. Oelrichs, who changed the name, of the firm to Oelrichs & Co., which name it has since retained. Hermann Oelrichs, who, after in vain seeking relief from asthma in other climates, had been for some years leading the life of an invalid in Bremen, died there December 8th, 1851.
Edwin A. Oelrichs, thus left the sole survivor, took into partnership, April 1st, 1852, Her man C. von Post and W. August Fritze, both at the time clerks in the office. Thus, after an interval of over twelve years, during which the premature deaths of John D. Meier and Laurence Henry von Post had left the firm without a member of the family of its founder, his lineage resumed place in the person of his grandson.
Herman Caspar von Post, the eldest child of Laurence H. von Post and Henrietta Margaretta, eldest daughter of Caspar Meier, was born in New York, March 22nd, 1828. The early death of his mother in 1836 and of his father in 1839 having left him and his four sisters orphans, the instructions left by his father were carried out and the children sent to Bremen in 1840, there to receive and complete their education.
In 1844 young von Post entered the office of H. H. Meier & Co. as clerk and remained there five years. In 1849 he returned to New York and entered upon a position offered him in the office of Oelrichs & Krüger, advancing, as above stated, to partnership in the firm, whose name had meanwhile been changed to Oelrichs & Co. in 1852. He became its senior January 1st, 1861, through the retirement of Edwin A. Oelrichs, and is its senior to-day, but since 1878 he has left the active management of its affairs to other hands.
In 1853 he married Jane Scott Whitlock, daughter of William Whitlock, Jr.
W. A. Fritze withdrew from the firm January 1st, 1859, in order to establish himself in business in his native place, Bremen, where he died November 26th, 1896, leaving a widow. He was succeeded in the firm by Mr. von Post's brother-in-law, Gustav Schwab, with whom Mr. von Post had already been associated for a time as fellow clerk in the office of H. H. Meier & Co., and with whom he had later become united by family ties.
Gustav Schwab was born in Stuttgart, Germany, November 23rd, 1822. He was the second son of the well-known German poet and author of the same name, whose wife Sophie was the daughter of Professor Gmelin of the University of Tubingen.
A mercantile career would seem the last one to have been selected by young Schwab, but special circumstances influenced his choice. Lucie Meier, the widow of H. H. Meier, of Bremen, Caspar Meier's brother, had, after her husband's death in 1821, removed to Stuttgart and lived there for a number of years. An acquaintance with the Schwab family grew into a close friend ship between Lucie Meier and Sophie Schwab. This friendship was the influence which directed Gustav Schwab's life work away from the pursuits to which he seemed born to those of a merchant. It became a settled arrangement between the two mothers, in which he acquiesced as he grew older, that he should go into business and should receive his first training; in the office of H. H. Meier & Co. In 1838 he left the study of Latin and Greek in the Stuttgart Gymnasium and journeyed to Bremen, where he was installed as clerk in the Meier office. From Bremen he was called to New York by Oelrichs & Krüger in 1844 to fill a vacancy in their office staff.
After serving this firm for about five years as clerk, he availed himself of an opportunity to become independent by joining his friend, C. L. Recknagel, under the firm name of Wichelhausen, Recknagel & Schwab, which name was subsequently changed to Recknagel & Schwab. May 8th, 1850, he married Elizabeth Catherine, eldest daughter of L. H. von Post, whom he met in the old Bloomingdale homestead, where she was visiting her grandmother, the widow of Caspar Meier. This connection led eventually to the severing of his partner ship with Mr. Recknagel and his joining the firm of Oelrichs & Co. as partner January 1st, 1859.
For twenty-nine years, until incapacitated by his last illness, Gustav Schwab devoted his untiring energy to the interests of the business, which grew and broadened under the stimulus of his enterprise. Constantly occupied, however, as he was with the work and cares of the business, he still found time to devote himself largely to philanthropic and other public interests and willingly responded to the calls which were made upon his time and energy. He was a member of the Board of Management of the Produce Exchange and a trustee of its Gratuity Fund, a director and finally, as the oldest member of the Board, Vice-President of the Merchants' National Bank, a director of the Central Trust Company and the Washington Life Insurance Company, and held many other positions of trust. Of the Chamber of Commerce, which he joined in 1860, he was from the beginning an active member and indefatigable in commit tee work, where his services were always in request.
Edwin A. Oelrichs retired from the firm of Oelrichs & Co. January 1st, 1861. He had removed to Bremen in 1859, where he died August 1st, 1886, and where his widow still resides.
Herman C. von Post and Gustav Schwab, being thus left in possession of the business, admitted into partnership his brother Henry Oelrichs, born in Bremen, October 13th, 1810, who had been brought up in the office of Joh. Lange Sohn's Wittwe & Co., Bremen, and had, in 1834, gone to Baltimore, where he became a member of the firm of Oelrichs & Liirman and married Mrs. Julia McRa, daughter of Dr. Jno. Fredk. May, of Washington. Henry Oelrichs was a director in the Mechanics' National Bank and in the New York Mutual Insurance Company. He remained in the firm of Oelrichs & Co. until his death, June 28th, 1875.
July 1st, 1876, a younger generation was admitted to membership in the firm, in the persons of Henry Oelrichs' eldest son, Hermann Oelrichs; Gustav Schwab's eldest son, Gustav Henry Schwab; and Theodore Rose. The latter was a native of Brunswick, Germany, where he was born January 17th, 1838, and had been, since September, 1857, a clerk in the office, where his intelligence, efficiency and devotion to the firm's interests had won him a position of confidence and trust. He took a leading part in the management of the business until carried off by an untimely and sudden death old home in Germany, July 1st, 1886.
Hermann Oelrichs had joined the office force as clerk in November 3rd, 1873, ?? November, 1871, Gustav H. Schwab together with his brother Hermann Caspar Schwab, who was admitted to partnership, January 1st, 1878.
On August 21st, 1888, Gustav Schwab died. A protracted illness, which had confined him to his home since the previous January and deprived his business associates of his active assistance, had prepared them for their loss. Memorial resolutions adopted by the Chamber of Commerce and by numerous other corporations and associations bear testimony to the esteem in which he was held by the community and to its appreciation of his character and worth.
On March 6th, 1898, Hermann Caspar Schwab died after a short illness of one week.
He was the second son of Gustav Schwab, and was born in Brooklyn, on January 5th, 1853. When eleven years of age he was sent to Stuttgart, Germany, with his elder brother to lay the foundation of a thorough education in the Gymnasium or Latin School of that city under the supervision of Professor Schwab, his father's brother. After spending five years at school, where he distinguished himself in his studies, he entered the office of Warneken & Sohn in Bremen, a tobacco house, for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of this article, which then formed one of the chief staples in which his father's firm dealt. After an apprenticeship of more than four years Hermann Schwab returned to New York with his brother in the fall of 1873. He assumed the chief management of the commercial part of the firm's business, as distinguished from the steamship branch, after the death of his partner, Theodore Rose, in 1886, and devoted his energies with eminent success to the promotion of his firm's interests.
While taking an active part in preparing the material for the celebration of the firm's one hundredth anniversary, in which, as one of the great-grandsons of the founder he felt a lively interest, he was suddenly removed by an untimely death and passed away in the full strength of his manhood, leaving behind him the memory of a life well spent.
On April 1st, 1898, Benjamin William Schwab, one of the younger sons of Gustav Schwab, who had been a clerk in the office for a number of years, was admitted to the firm, constituting the last accession to the list of its members.
During the one hundred years of existence which the house achieves on October 12th, 1898, the founder, Caspar Meier, was its senior forty years; his grandson has been with it forty- nine years, and its senior for nearly thirty-eight years. Two of the founder's great-grandsons and the nephew and namesake of one of his partners represent the fourth generation.
Time, which in this country particularly is continually effecting changes, has worked a complete revolution in the methods and nature of the business since it was begun. As the years passed by, old connections dropped out and new ones have taken their place. New conditions have called for new methods, new fields for commercial enterprise have arisen; but the principles on which the business was founded a century ago have remained the same. The conservative policy instituted by Caspar Meier has been duly observed by his successors. As a consequence of it, the credit of the house became firmly established at home and abroad, showing itself conspicuously in bad times, when it has occurred that its drafts were sought for at the same time that those of leading bankers were unsalable.
The credit which the house enjoyed brought it considerable banking business, chiefly with Bremen, credits being opened with the New York house against purchases of American produce. There was also for a number of years a considerable business done in investments in American securities, which, about 1854, had grown to such importance as to induce the issuing- of periodical circulars for distribution in Germany, where the firm gained credit by warning- against certain classes of securities then offering tempting rates of interest, which warnings were justified by subsequent experiences.
Later, after the establishment of the German Empire, the firm was for some years, in connection with H. H. Meier & Co. in Bremen, the agent of the German Post Office Department for the payment of money orders issued by German post offices and the issuing of money orders payable by them, an arrangement which preceded and led to the Postal Money Order system now prevailing between the United States and Germany.
The merchandise business of the house, as has been stated, embraced in the early years the import and export of every variety of goods, both raw and manufactured; but, as time progressed, it gradually narrowed itself down more and more to certain lines, to which special attention was devoted. From small beginnings the importation of hides and wool has grown, until it now occupies the front rank in the merchandise business of the firm. Both articles appear very early in the meagre records existing of Caspar Meier's transactions. In 1800 he charges "Hides Account" with a loss of "two cents," a loss which may have deterred him from future business in the article, for we do not find it mentioned in his later balance sheets. In 1805 he debits the sum of $1,081.49 to "Wool Account." Whether the investment was in domestic or foreign wool does not appear, nor what was the result of the venture. As in the case of hides, wool does not again appear in his balance sheets. In spite, therefore, of their very early mention on the books, it cannot be claimed that these two articles of present importance to the firm have always been a feature in their business. Their regular hide importing business probably took its start toward the end of the first half of the century, for the earliest letter copy book in existence shows them in 1845 already actively occupied with consignments of hides from Angostura (Ciudad Bolivar), Venezuela. This business with Angostura continued until recent times.
The business convulsion which started in this city with the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance & Trust Company, in August, 1857, and rapidly spread over this country and Europe, causing many failures and disarrangements in the commerce of the whole world, brought them new connections in San Francisco, Cal., and in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and in 1858 they began to receive hides and other produce from these ports. The San Francisco connection remained a valuable one for a number of years; that with Rio Grande do Sul continues to this day. To these sources of supply of hides others have since been added.
Wool, so far, had not figured in the business of the firm. In 1855 they received samples from correspondents in San Francisco, but they discouraged shipments, saying that the article was uncertain and the buyers unsatisfactory. In January, 1856, when opening correspondence with Rio Grande do Sul, they requested that no wool be shipped them for their account, because, as they write, "we are not sufficiently familiar with the article and the class of buyers does not make importations seem desirable?
It was not till 1859 that they received the first lot of wool from Rio Grande do Sul, which was followed during the subsequent five or six years by further occasional small shipments. In the meantime they had begun in 1861 to receive regular and large consignments of scoured California wool from San Francisco.
The Civil War gave a great impetus to the manufacture of woolen goods, and from that period dates the great expansion of the woolen and carpet industries of this country. Foreign wool now became an article worth attention, the importations from Rio Grande do Sul increased to respect able proportions, and Oelrichs & Co. began to look around for new fields to develop. In several directions they became the pioneers of the wool importing trade, and also in their methods they inaugurated a new system. Hitherto the business of importing and that of distributing clothing wool were in separate hands. The importer as a rule sold in cargo lots to dealers, the latter to the manufacturers according to their requirements. Oelrichs & Co. began the system of selling direct to manufacturers, combining their functions as importers with those of the dealers, who were eventually forced to leave the field or become importers themselves.
In 1871 Oelrichs & Co. opened direct business in Australia, sending out their own wool buyer, Mr. Lavoisier Hill, with orders partly for account of manufacturers. The first direct shipment by sailer from Australia to this country was made that year and came to them. In the same year they began buying wool at the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1873 they sent Mr. James Cass there as their resident buyer. His selections acquired a reputation in the trade here. He remained at the Cape ten years and returned home in 1883, eighty years old.
Their Donskoy wool business was begun in 1875, when Mr. Ludwig Heuermann went as their agent to Rostow-on-Don to inaugurate and superintend it, returning each season for the following seven years.
The crisis which attended the breaking out of our Civil War was the cause of the addition to the business of the firm of what grew into an important branch of it. The agency in New York of the North German Lloyd, Bremen, was, when the Company started in 1856, placed in the hands of a banking house connected with a bank in Germany, influential in the early financial affairs of the Company. This banking house failed upon the breaking out of the war in 1861, and Oelrichs & Co. were, at the instance of H. H. Meier, the prime originator of the North German Lloyd and until 1888 its President, suddenly called upon to take over the agency.
The Company at that time possessed two ocean steamships of a combined tonnage of about 4,600 tons. It has now afloat an ocean fleet of 55 steamers of a total tonnage of 286,705, of which 18 steamers of a total of 137,121 tons are regularly, and 14 steamers of a total of 67,195 tons are periodically or occasionally, engaged in the trade of the Port of New York.
Circumstances in 1861 were beginning to favor the Company, and Oelrichs & Co. were fortunate in coming into the agency just at that time. Whatever the management of affairs in New York may, during the following twenty years, have contributed to the success of the Company, the credit for it is entirely due to Gustav Schwab, who from the outset undertook the direction of that branch of the business, conducting it alone for many years, and afterwards, until a short time before his death, superintending it with the assistance of his son Gustav Henry Schwab, who succeeded him as the head of that branch of the firm's business.
The agency of the North German Lloyd forms a natural sequel to the earlier history of the house, for from its infancy it had been engaged in the shipping trade with Bremen, vessels from which port came to the consignment of the firm from the first years of its existence. After H. H. Meier had established himself in Bremen the two houses maintained regular communication by sailing vessel between Bremen and New York until sail was supplanted by steam.
In an agreement signed in Bremen June 1st, 1 826, by L. H. von Post and J. H. Adami on behalf of their respective firms, it is stipulated that Caspar Meier & Co. u enter the firm of H. H. Meier & Co. as silent partners with a one-half interest, which interest, however, is confined to the ownership of the brig "Constitution" and the brig "Franklin" carrying the Bremen flag." The "Franklin" was then building and made her first voyage in 1827; she was lost in 1829. The "Constitution," the pioneer of the line of packets which the two firms kept up for many years between Bremen and New York, is the vessel by which Caspar Meier returned from Bremen in the spring of 1822, and L. H. von Post took passage for New York in the fall of the same year. She appears to have been kept running until about 1331 and was then laid up as a hulk in the harbor of Vegesack, afterwards serving in the river as a landing stage for steamers.
About the time of the loss of the "Franklin" Caspar Meier & Co. bought in New York from Peter Harmony the American ship "Isabella," which was transferred to the Bremen flag, retaining the name that had been originally given her in honor of the Queen of Spain who was the patron of Columbus. In Bremen she was acknowledged to be the finest vessel that had ever flown the flag, and the Bremen ship wrights used her as a model. She soon became a favorite by reason of her speed and her accommodations for passengers, which, cramped as they would now appear to us, were admired as uncommonly roomy and luxurious. One hundred Rix dollars was not considered too high a rate for cabin passage by her, and she had a long and successful career. Caspar Meier and family took passage to Bremen in her in 1831 and returned in her in 1832. L. H. von Post and family crossed in her in 1833, returning in 1834 in the new "Constitution," a bark launched at Vegesack November 7th, 1833, which started on her first trip from Bremen in February, 1834. The bark "New York" had previously been added to the fleet and was followed a few years later by the ship "Pauline," which in 1840 took L. H. von Post's children to Bremen. As the emigrant business increased in importance, larger vessels were built, such as the "Meta," "Westphalia," "Alex, von Humboldt," "Emigrant," "Agnes," "Kosmos;" and regular monthly sailings from Bremen were kept up through the season, the return cargoes, when not obtainable in New York, being procured in other ports, frequently in the James River, with tobacco and stems on consignment.
These vessels were well built, well fitted out and carefully handled; with the one early exception before mentioned none of them was ever lost between New York and Bremen, in spite of the dangers of North Sea navigation, which were then, for want of adequate aids to navigation, greater than now. To the German emigrant they offered advantages not to be found in the ports and on board the ships of other countries whose language he did not understand and who obliged him to furnish and cook his own provisions, which were not included in the price of passage. On board the Bremen vessels meals were served by the ship to the steerage passenger as well as the cabin passenger; provisions had to be carried sufficient for all contingencies, and the Bremen laws even compelled the owner to secure by insurance sufficient funds for the carrying of the passenger to his destination in case by any accident the voyage should be interrupted.
The American-built "Isabella" remained in the service until sold in the latter part of the year 1847. Her crowning piece of good luck was her arrival in Bremerhaven in June of that year just in time to save a profitable sale of her cargo of rye. It had been bought in New York at a price then considered high, but before the report of the purchase was received in Bremen an enormous advance in the German markets had been caused by government purchases. A high price was obtained "to arrive" from the agents of the Prussian Government, but a close limit of time for arrival had to be conceded, which it was the "Isabella's" good fortune to hold, with nothing to spare. The price had by that time materially declined.
A couple of years later the ship "Alex, von Humboldt" made a profitable exit from the service under peculiar circumstances. Having1 the vessel on their hands at a time when political disturbances prevented the obtaining of a cargo for any European port, the New York house accepted a charter from Howland & Aspinwall to carry a cargo of coal to Panama for the use of the newly established Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and to bring back a cargo of guano from the Chincha Islands. The ship sailed from New York June 18th, 1848, and after putting into Rio de Janeiro for repairs, arrived at Panama December 31 st, 1848. Here she was kept waiting for her clearance month after month, the charterers' agents being, as it afterwards appeared, unable to obtain a guano permit from the Peruvian Government and calculating upon getting rid of the vessel by a breach of the charter on the part of the captain, for which there was no want of temptation. The California gold fever had broken out and Panama was overflowing with adventurers seeking transportation for San Francisco. Offer after offer was made to charter or buy the ship, but old Captain Wachter was not easy to move and quietly waited for his instructions from New York, meanwhile protesting against the detention and every day collecting his demurrage at the agent's office. Finally in May he sold the ship for $60,000, receiving $48,218 in gold and the balance in a draft on Howland & Aspinwall "subject to arrangement," with which, and such of his crew as had not started for the gold fields, he returned to New York. The draft represented the penalty which the charter party stipulated for a breach of contract and was protested, but, after some delay, was finally paid. The ship would not have been salable in any other port in the world for more than $20,000, at which sum she was valued for insurance.
In the same year the ship "Emigrant," with a cargo of 710 hogsheads tobacco and stems from Richmond, Va., for Bremen, was captured by the Danes off the mouth of the Weser and taken to Copenhagen, but after a detention of some months was released.
All these vessels sailed under the Bremen flag and were the property of the Bremen firm, the New York house investing no money in them, but they were treated as joint property with respect to results, no commission being charged on either side and profits and losses being equally divided, the Bremen house rendering a specified account of each voyage. The vessels were profitable until about 1850, when the course of business between the two cities was becoming such that there appeared to be no inducement for the replacing of those that dropped out of service, and the last one in which the New York firm had an interest was disposed of in 1862.
Oelrichs & Co.'s other experiences as ship owners were not profitable. In 1855 they built in New York the bark "John J. Palmer," in 1856 the bark "Wilhelmina." The former was wrecked in 1859; the latter was sold in 1861. Three small vessels were employed by Oelrichs & Co. for a series of years in the Rio Grande do Sul trade on joint account with their correspondents there: the "Ella," an American-built brigantine, bought while under the British flag, the bark "Pepita" and the brig "Flora," both built in Germany. These vessels generally carried profitable cargoes, but although credited full rates of freight, their earnings rarely covered their expenses.
In the course of the hundred years of its existence the office location of the business house has been frequently changed, but the changes have mostly been within a small radius, comprising what was early in the century the centre of the business portion of the city and what is now its extreme southern end. When Caspar Meier established himself October 12th, 1798, he hired a store in Gouvemeur Lane, near Water Street, for three and one-half years, at the expiration of which lease, in 1802, after having for the last two years had his office at 97 Water Street, he removed to 143 Greenwich Street, the lower part of which street at that time fronted on the North River. This was the only period when the business was located on the west side of Broadway. In 1805 the firm removed to 55 Stone Street, in 1810 to 38 Mill Street, which street embraced the then existing portion of what is now South William Street and Mill Lane. The house in Stone Street is known to have been Caspar Meier's residence as well as office, and the same was probably the case with the previous Greenwich Street house. In 1812 he permanently removed his residence to the house in Bloomingdale, which he had built in 1808, and had until then occupied only during the summer. From 1818 to 1823 the directories give the address as 1 and 3 Slote Lane, which must have been at or near the present southeast corner of Beaver and William Streets, in 1824 and 1825 as No. 11 Slote Lane, which building Caspar Meier owned. In a letter dated February 7th, 1824, he mentions that in order to get rid of the uncertainties attending the occupation of a rented store, and to establish himself permanently in the best business neighborhood, he had just purchased a substantial building with a vaulted cellar, 40 feet square, 4 stories high, situated in Slote Lane, next to the comer of Han over Square, to be delivered and paid for on the first of May, which would cost him $7,000 and require an additional outlay of $500 for alterations and improvements. Slote Lane later became Exchange Street (now Beaver Street), and by the cutting through of that portion of Garden Street which is now Han over Street, what was before No. 11 Slote Lane became known in 1826 as Exchange Street, Corner of Garden Street; the locality about corresponds with what is now 74 Beaver Street, corner of Hanover Street.
As regards permanency of location, Caspar Meier was disappointed, for the widening of the street deprived him of a portion of his building, and in 1826 we find him occupied in erecting two new stores, one No. 42 Broad Street, and the other in the rear on New Street, at that time a mere alley. The business must have been removed to this locality by May, 1827, as the directory for that year gives the address of Caspar Meier & Co. as 42 Broad Street. The rear building served as a ware house and also contained on its ground floor stable room for the horse and wagon which Caspar Meier was in the habit of driving between his office and his residence on the Bloomingdale Road.
For eighteen years the business remained at this place, the buildings, which were Caspar Meier's private property, being, after his death in 1839, rented from his estate by his successors, L, H. von Post & Oelrichs and Oelrichs & Krüger. While occupied by the latter, on July 19th, 1845, at 3 A.M., a fire broke out in a store in New Street two doors off. Although there appeared to be no imminent danger of its spreading beyond the building in which it originated, it was considered prudent to remove the books, and Edwin A. Oelrichs, assisted by a friend, Adolph Groning, both of whom lived in the neighborhood, and by the porter and a laborer, proceeded to take them out of the wall-safe in which they were kept. While Mr. Oelrichs had stepped out to see whether the fire was making any progress, an explosion in the burning building utterly destroyed No. 42 Broad Street by throwing the adjoining store on it, and all within lost their lives. Adolph Groning, no trace of whose body was ever found, was a native of Bremen, had been in the office of Caspar Meier & Co. as clerk, and after then spending some years in Laguayra, had returned to New York and established himself with Edmund Pavenstedt, under the firm of Pavenstedt & Groning, predecessors of the present firm of Mosle Brothers. Remains of the bodies of the porter and laborer were found among the ruins, and of all the books of the firm only a few charred fragments. A letter bearing the name "Caspar Meier & Co.," which had been among the old papers stored away in the garret, came to the shore on Staten Island. The fire, which was almost subdued at the time the explosion took place, spread rapidly in consequence of it and extended from near Wall Street as far as Stone Street, covering the ground between Broad Street and Broadway and destroying 345 buildings. It even crossed Broadway and endangered the house No. 3 Morris Street, in which Hermann and Edwin A, Oelrichs lived, so that their furniture was removed to the Bremen ship "Alex, von Humboldt," which was then in port. Oelrichs & Krüger had only $12,000 worth of goods destroyed, which were covered by insurance, but the loss of their books was a calamity, causing for some time great inconvenience in their business.
Upon the rebuilding of the burnt district the dry-goods merchants, who could afford to pay higher rents than others, were attracted to that part of Broad Street, and by an arrangement between the executors of Caspar Meier's estate and Mr. De Rham, the owner of No. 44, Nos. 42 and 44 were rebuilt as one store and rented to the dry-goods trade. New Street was converted from a mere lane into a business street, and Oelrichs & Krüger, after occupying a temporary office at No. 9 Broad Street, moved into the new store, No. 38 New Street, built on the site of the old warehouse in the rear of No. 42 Broad Street. From 1847 to 1851 they were at No. 72 New Street, from which place their successors, Oelrichs & Co., moved to No. 89 Broad Street and in 1854 to No. 66 Pearl Street. The dry-goods merchants were about this time moving farther up town; and No. 68 Broad Street, comer of Beaver Street, becoming vacant in 1856, was taken by Oelrichs & Co. jointly with J. W. Schmidt & Co. and occupied until 1871. In the latter year they purchased the building, No. 2 Bowling Green, and moved into their present offices.
Bowling Green was once the fashionable part of the city, and No. 2, with the other houses in the same row, was counted among the finest residences in town. On the site of No. 2 Bowling; Green stood originally the fort built by the Dutch for the defense of New Amsterdam, and at the time Caspar Meier established himself in New York the ground was occupied by the "Government House."
The firm in its long existence has enjoyed the loyal help and co-operation of many faithful clerks, their connection with it extending in many instances over a great number of years. Of those now in the office, one has been with the firm uninterruptedly for over thirty years; another entered the office in 1865, and, deducting six years during which he was otherwise engaged, has been connected with the business twenty-seven years. Twelve others have been in the office over ten years, viz.: 26, 25, 22, 21, 20, 17, 16, 15, 13, 12, 11 and 10 years respectively.
Three honored and trusted employees of long standing have passed away within the last few years and are sadly missed at the celebration of the house's centennial.
Chas. G. Eschen for twenty-eight years faithfully fulfilled the duties of head bookkeeper in the general office, until failing health in 1892 compelled him to retire from work. He died May 17th, 1894.
Henry Haas devoted forty years to the service of the firm and occupied for many years, until his death, January 13th, 1896, the responsible position of cashier in the Steamship Department.
To the same department Hugo Coenen gave twenty-seven years of active and conscientious work, until his health broke down and he died July 6th, 1397.
Finally, mention is due to an old porter and janitor, Friedrich Kruse, who served the firm faithfully and well for thirty-three years, from 1848 until 1881, and who died in 1882. During; the last twenty years of his service he ranked as the senior of the establishment, having- been connected with it longer than any of its principals or of his fellow employees.
| NAME OF FIRM | From | To | MEMBERS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caspar Meier | Oct. 12 1797 | Nov 1, 1800 | Caspar Meier |
| C & H.H. Meier | Nov 1, 1800 | Jan 1, 1805 | Caspar Meier, Hermann Heinrich Meier |
| Jan 1, 1805 | Jan 1, 1822 | Caspar Meier | |
| Caspar Meier | Jan 1, 1822 | Jan 1, 1826 | Caspar Meier |
| Caspar Meier & Co. | Jan 1, 1826 | 1832 | Caspar Meier, L.H. von Post |
| 1832 | May 21, 1834 | Caspar Meier, L.H. von Post, John D. Meier (died May 21, 1834). | |
| May 21, 1834 | 1836 | Caspar Meier, L.H. von Post | |
| 1836 | Feb 14, 1839 | Caspar Meier, (died 2 Feb 1839) L.H. von Post Hermann Oelrichs I. | |
| L.H. von Post & Oelrichs | Feb 14, 1839 | Mar 21, 1839 | L.H. von Post (Died Dec 19, 1829) Hermann Oelrichs I. |
| Oelrichs & Krüger | Mar 21, 1840 | 1844 | Hermann Oelrichs I Geo. W. Krüger |
| 1844 | Dec 31, 1850 | Hermann Oelrichs I Geo. W. Krüger Edwin A. Oelrichs | |
| Oelrichs & Co. | Dec 31 1850 | Dec 8, 1851 | Hermann Oelrichs I (died Dec 8, 1851) Edwin A. Oelrichs |
| Dec 8, 1851 | April 1, 1852 | Edwin A. Oelrichs | |
| April 1, 1852 | Jan 1, 1859 | Edwin A. Oelrichs Hermann C. von Post W. August Fritze | |
| Oelrichs & Co. | Jan 1, 1859 | Jan 1 1861 | Edwin A. Oelrichs Hermann C. von Post Gustav Schwab |
| Jan 1, 1861 | Jun 28, 1875 | Hermann C. von Post Gustav Schwab Henry Oelrichs (died June 28, 1875) | |
| June 28,1875 | July 1, 1876 | Hermann C. von Post Gustav Schwab | |
| July 1, 1876 | Jan 1, 1878 | Hermann C. von Post Gustav Schwab Hermann Oelrichs II Gustav H. Schwab Theodore Rose | |
| Jan 1, 1878 | July 1, 1886 | Hermann C. von Post Gustav Schwab Hermann Oelrichs II Gustav H. Schwab Theodore Rose (died July 1, 1886) Hermann C. Schwab | |
| July 1, 1886 | Aug. 21, 1888 | Hermann C. von Post Gustav Schwab (died Aug 21, 1888) Hermann Oelrichs II Gustav H. Schwab Hermann C. Schwab | |
| Aug 21 1888 | March 6, 1898 | Hermann C. von Post Hermann Oelrichs II Gustav H. Schwab Hermann C. Schwab (died Mar 6, 1898) | |
| March 6, 1898 | April 1, 1898 | Hermann C. von Post Hermann Oelrichs II Gustav H. Schwab | |
| April 1, 1898 | Hermann C. von Post Hermann Oelrichs II Gustav H. Schwab Benjamin W. Schwab |
Soon after his arrival in New York Caspar Meier became acquainted with the family of the Rev. John Christopher Kunze, D.D., the Lutheran Pastor of the city and Professor of Oriental Languages in Columbia College, a man highly respected and of uncommon attainments both in and outside his profession. He was born August 5th, 1744, in Artem, near Mansfeld, came to this country in 1770, and after officiating fourteen years in Philadelphia in connection with the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, D.D., whose daughter, Margarethe Henriette, he married, accepted in 1784 a call from the Lutherans in New York and became the pastor of Christ Church, then established at the corner of William and Frankfort Streets, in a building" popularly known as the u Swamp Church," he himself living- in the neighborhood at No. 100 Chatham Street. As early as 1799 Caspar Meier was an admirer of Dr. Kunze's eldest daughter, Eliza Catherine, born October 4th, 1776, to whom he became engaged April 25th, 1801, and whom he married May 21st, 1801, in the presence of her mother and sisters, of Jacob Sperry and wife, Henry Muhlenberg, David Grim and P. Schumacher, Dr. Kunze officiating.
The young couple took a house for the summer on the Bloomingdale Road near Harsenville, their occupancy of which, however, came to an abrupt end in consequence of an accident to Caspar Meier, whose horse ran away with him September 9th, 1801, in the lower part of the city while on his way home, upsetting the vehicle and breaking both of his legs, the left one in two places. He was taken to his father-in-law's house and thence two months later to his own house in the city. In setting the broken bones one leg was slightly shortened, and although his personal activity was soon regained, he limped a little for the rest of his life.
In May, 1802, Caspar Meier and wife made a trip to Philadelphia and Norristown, where he became acquainted with members of the Muhlenberg family, with which his marriage had connected him. The Muhlenbergs descend from a noble race of princely origin, once powerful and numerous, possessing large domains in Saxony and Silesia, but impoverished and greatly reduced in numbers by the wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, especially the Thirty Years' War. Of a branch which moved from Saxony to Eimbeck in Hanover, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the grandfather of Mrs. Meier, was born in that city, September 6th, 1711. He studied for the Lutheran ministry, was ordained in Leipzig, and, having accepted a call from the scattered and disorganized Lutherans in Pennsylvania, came in 1742 to this country, where he devoted his life to the, at that time, very arduous labors of his profession, justly earning the title "Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America," under which his memory continues to be revered. He married in 1745 a daughter of the noted pioneer, Conrad Weiser, and died in 1787. Of his three sons, all distinguished in American history, the Hon. Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, who had served in the Continental Congress, in the Pennsylvania Legislature and in the House of Representatives, of which he was the first Speaker, had followed his father in 1801; the other two were still living in 1802, viz.: Gen. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, of the army of the Revolution, who, at the beginning of the contest, exchanged surplice for uniform, was in active command through out it and instrumental in ending it at Yorktown, and the Rev. Gotthilf Henry Ernest Muhlenberg, D.D., a learned divine, of extended reputation as a botanist. Of the many noted descend ants of these three brothers, one whose name is best known in this city is the Rev. William Augustus Muhlenberg, D.D., the founder of St. Luke's Hospital, who was a grandson of the Hon. Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg.
Caspar Meier's first child, Amelia Henrietta, was born December 7th, 1802, and died January 4th, 1804. For the summer of 1804 he hired a house on the Bloomingdale Road beyond Harsenville, which went by the name of the "Somerindyke House," in which was born, Sunday morning August 19, 1804. Henrietta Margaretta, my mother, who was baptized September 20th by her grandfather, Dr. Kunze, the godparents being Dr. Kunze and wife and Caspar Meier's brother Hermann. The house, a red brick building situated on the west side of and near the Bloomingdale Road, I remember to have been pointed out to me when as a child I frequently passed it. The city residence of Caspar Meier was in the following year moved to No. 55 Stone Street, where on April 20th, 1806, was born his daughter, Emily Maria, who in 1825 married Dr. Albert Smith and lived until March 21 st, 1872. She was baptized by her grandfather May I2th, 1806, the godparents being his son, Dr. Henry Kunze, and his daughters Catherine (afterwards Mrs. Oakley) and Margaret (afterwards Mrs. Lorillard), the latter acting for her sister Maria. In the same house, No. 55 Stone Street, was born December 22nd, 1807, Caspar Meier's son, John Diedrich, who, Dr. Kunze having died July 24th of that year, was baptized by the Rev. H. Runkel, the godparents being Mrs. Kunze and Seer. Dr. H. H. Meier in Bremen, the latter represented by Caspar Meier. In 1809 was born a daughter, and in 1811 a son, both of whom died in infancy; a daughter, Eliza Catherine, born in 1814, died in 1831; Mary Kunigunde, the youngest child, born October 8th, 1816, who married James Punnett, well known in this city as cashier and president of the Bank of America, is still living, the sole representative of her generation.
In 1807, the year that saw the first steamboat navigating the Hudson, Caspar Meier bought on the banks of that river at 118th and 119th Streets a piece of land of about five acres, extending from the Bloomingdale Road to the water, historically interesting as part of the ground on which was fought the most important of the series of engagements that took place September 16th, 1776, in which Washington's army met with its first success after the loss of the battle of Long Island, and the consequent evacuation of the city. Here in 1808 Caspar Meier built a house which served as his summer residence during the next three years, in 1812 became his permanent summer and winter home, was enlarged to nearly double its original size in 1823, and in which he lived during the rest of his life. The house, with the garden, terraces, roads and walks as laid out by him, the great weeping willows, the cherry trees along the lane, the apple orchards, all of which he planted, the woods with path to the river, remained unchanged for many years after his death. He was greatly attached to this home, and with the exception of the time spent on his trip to Bremen in 1822, after the death of his brother Hermann, and of the year that he was abroad with his wife and youngest daughter in 1831 and 1832, there were but few nights that he could be induced to pass under any other roof. The distance from his office, over eight miles, was no obstacle to his daily attention to business. Robust in health, delighting in the open air, considerations of weather never interfered with his duties. The accident that befell him the year of his marriage created an ineradicable distrust of the two-wheeled vehicle then called a "chair" with which he would never afterwards have anything to do, but it did not diminish his love of spirited horses and his fondness for riding and driving. Rising betimes and often breakfasting before the rest of the family was astir, an early hour found him on the Bloomingdale Road, as Broadway above Union Square was called in my young days, when from that point northwards it was a pleasant rural road lined with country seats and out-of-town residences. Among his near neighbors were some of his German friends. John W. Schmidt, of the firm of John W. Schmidt & Co., Prussian Consul-General, some of whose children were among my early playmates, adjoined him on the south, and Theodore Meyer, father of Louis G. Meyer, later of the firm of Meyer & Stucken, occupied before my time the place on the north, which afterwards went into the hands of Mr. Clibborn, and still later became the property of Eli White. Caspar Meier's brother-in- law, Jacob Lorillard, established himself in 1835 not far off, on the heights to the north of Manhattanville, where the Roman Catholic Convent is now situated.
Long before the Bloomingdale place was sold, after the death in 1863 of my grandmother, who had continued to reside in it, the character of the neighborhood had greatly changed from what it was during my grandfather's lifetime. The old residents had mostly moved away and some of their fine houses had degenerated into brandy-and-watering stations for the drivers of fast trotters, who for a series of years claimed the Bloomingdale Road as their race-course. The road has now disappeared and the Riverside Drive and Park have swallowed up the old place, excepting a piece of ground on the easterly side of the Drive, where the stone wall that bounded the Bloomingdale Road, and the lane from the Road to the house, can still be traced. On the slope from the Riverside Drive, which occupies the site of the house, to the river, there existed until recently the remains of the well and pump, of the steps leading to the garden, of garden paths and hedges, all of which the grading and laying out of Park walks have now caused to disappear.
Caspar Meier's health gave way in November, 1838, under an attack of typhus fever, and after a partial recovery a relapse ended his life February 2nd, 1839. His last years were saddened by family afflictions. His only son, John Diedrich, a universal favorite of whom his father was justly proud, contracted smallpox and died May 21st, 1834, at the age of 26; his death was followed by a failure in eyesight of his mother, who before her husband's death became totally blind, and to these trials was added in 1836 the death of my mother.
Caspar Meier was confirmed March 23rd, 1791, by Pastor Brokman, of Unser Lieben Frauen Church in Bremen, and upon leaving his native city provided himself with a certificate of good standing in the Reformed Church, which is dated June 25th, 1796, and signed by "Chr. Geo. Ludw. Meister, Dr. und Professor der Theologie und Pastor Primarius in U. L. F. Kirche." Evidently there was on the part of Dr. Kunze a fear that Caspar Meier's membership in the Reformed Church might result in his daughter's being persuaded to leave the Lutheran for the Reformed Church, for we find in Caspar Meier's record of his visit to Dr. Kunze for the purpose of gaining his approval of the engagement, "Ich musste diesem wtirdigen Mann mit einem Handschlag versprechen seine Tochter nie zu uberreden die Kirche und das Glaubensbekenntniss zu verlassen worin sie aufgebracht war, welches ich mit gutem Gewissen und festem Vorsatz mein Wort zu halten that;" i.e., "I had to give this worthy man my hand on it that I would never persuade his daughter to desert the church and the profession of faith in which she had been brought up, which I did with a clear conscience and a firm intention to keep my word." No doubt, during Dr. Kunze's lifetime, they both attended his church. Afterwards, when they moved to Bloomingdale, there being no German church of any kind within reach, Caspar Meier attached himself to the Reformed Dutch Church at Harsenville, of which he became an elder. This church, a plain, square, stone building on the east side of the Blooming dale Road, near 70th Street, was swept away by the opening of the Western Boulevard, and after a lapse of years was succeeded by the Reformed Church now standing at the comer of the Boulevard and West 68th Street. In the graveyard attached to the old church, which was also destroyed, Caspar Meier owned a vault, in which he and members of his family were buried. The contents of it were transferred to a new family vault in Trinity Cemetery, at the door of which lies the stone which originally marked the entrance to the old Hansonville vault.
Laurence Henry von Post and his brother, Simon Hermann von Post, who established himself in Valparaiso, are the first merchants that appear among the descendants of the merchant Simon von Post, who lived from 1663 to 1730, the intervening ancestors having belonged to the learned professions. This Simon von Post was an eminent citizen of Bremen, to whom in 1719 the German Emperor, Carl VL, issued a patent of nobility entitling the family previously known as "Post" to the use of the prefix "von," to which, however, according to some accounts, there already existed a right by virtue of descent from an ancient noble race in Westphalia.
Simon von Post was wealthy, and bestowed a careful education on his only child, Hermann von Post (1693-1762), who studied law in Utrecht and Leipzig, and after, at the age of 23 years, gaining his degree of doctor at Erfurt, spent nearly two years in travelling for his further improvement in Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands. He possessed a taste for antiquarian- research, which he everywhere took occasion to develop and which, after his return to Bremen, led him to apply himself to the study of the history of the city, his investigations of the archives yielding results of such value as to induce the Senate to secure his permanent services for the state by creating for him the new office of "Archivarius," in which, during the rest of his industrious life, he accumulated a great amount of important documentary information. His assistant during his last years was his son, Simon Hermann von Post (1724 to 1808), who succeeded him in the office and whose fifty years of service to the state in that and other capacities were considered worthy of public recognition by act of the Bremen Legislature in 1803. Public office was also held by his son, my grand father, another Simon Hermann, who lived from 1764 to 1815.
My father, Laurence Henry von Post, was born in Bremen, February 3rd, 1800, and fourteen years later became a clerk in the office of H. H. Meier & Co., in that city. At the age of 15 he lost his father, five years later his mother, and was then placed under the guardianship of his uncle Doctor Archivarius Heinrich Gerhard von Post, to whom were joined in that capacity two other members of the family, Burgomaster C. H. Schone and Burgomaster S. H. Nonnen. In 1822 he left the Bremen office and in a little brig called the "Constitution" owned by the firm, the pioneer of the line of packets afterwards run between the two ports, arrived in New York in November of that year, entering at once the office of Caspar Meier, by whom he had been previously engaged.
Like Caspar Meier in 1798, L. H. von Post in 1822 arrived in a yellow fever year, although too late in the season to be in any danger. The first case in this, the last visit of the epidemic to New York, occurred on June 17th, and the disease spread so rapidly as to cause a panic; but, thanks to the extraordinary measures taken, the number of deaths was restricted to a few hundred. The lower part of the city was pronounced an infected district and fenced off; the public offices moved uptown, the banks to "Greenwich Village" where they remained until November 2nd, leaving in the name "Bank Street" a still existing remembrance of their visit. David Ogden, an old New York merchant, told me that this yellow fever epidemic broke out first among some boys of his acquaintance, who had been digging for eye-stones in sand-ballast discharged at the foot of Rector Street by a vessel from the West Indies.
An account of my father's early impressions of his adopted country is contained in a letter written to his brother in Bre men, dated April 6th, 1823. He was getting accustomed to the ways of the country and was well contented with his position and with his relations to his principal. His chief business at the office was the German correspondence, which however he had to copy and duplicate himself, the other clerks understanding no German. He comments on the absence of constraint in the intercourse between principal and clerks, the free and easy way of keeping on the hat and other evidences of a certain feeling of equality which could not but strike anyone fresh from the more ceremonious manners and stricter subordination of a Bremen "comptoir." What he found difficult in getting reconciled to was the disregard by the business community of such holidays as Good Friday, Easter Monday, etc., and also the tediousness of the American Sunday of the period.
In the same letter L. H. von Post refers to some of the sights which he had taken his friend C. A. Heineken to see, who, formerly his fellow clerk in Bremen, had followed him to this country. They went on board the new packet-ship "Canada," which, owing to the rivalry between the packet lines running between this port and Liverpool, had been fitted up in a manner to attract crowds of visitors while she was lying at the wharf preparing for her first trip. He mentions the luxury of the appointments, the separate ladies' cabin, the fourteen staterooms, mahogany doors, silk curtains and mirrors, and that the vessel, probably as large a merchantman as was then built, measured as much as 135 feet in length and had a capacity of 520 tons. They also crossed the East River to the navy yard in a ferry boat, the motive power of the engine of which consisted of eight horses, and went on board several men-of-war, the largest being the line-of-battle ship "Ohio" of 108 guns, 208 feet long and 2,700 tons burthen.
L. H. von Post soon gained the entire confidence of his principal, in whose house at Bloomingdale he was from the beginning a welcome guest. Caspar Meier's offer of partner ship came quite unexpectedly, my father having at that time other plans in view, and was accompanied by the frank avowal that his principal's own interests prompted him to make it, as he felt the necessity of trustworthy help; that while he felt certain the connection would be of advantage to himself, he had hopes that it would also prove to the advantage of my father. It did eventually prove to the advantage of both, but it so happened that during the first years of their partnership neither was able to lay by anything, and it was only in 1831 that an accumulation of any consequence began.
L. H. von Post entered the firm January 1st, 1826, and in the spring of that year made a trip to Europe in the interest of the business, talcing advantage of a return via Havre to see something of Paris, where there was enough to interest him during a ten days' stay. It was at that time forty hours by diligence from Brussels to Paris, and in the latter city the Hotel de Montmorency, 18 Rue St. Marc, was the headquarters of the Americans. D. A. Meier, who was staying in Havre, where he was employed in the office of P. Delessert & Sagory, engaged passage for him in the packet ship "Edward Quesnel" (passage money, frcs. 750), by which he returned to New York in November. On March IOth, 1827, he pro posed to, and May 24th, 1827, married Henrietta Margaretta, eldest daughter of Caspar Meier. The wedding was at 8 P. M. in the Bloomingdale house in the northwest parlor; my father's brother-in-law Dr. Albert Smith and a schoolmate, Mr. Dunte, of Bremen, were the ushers and there were two bridesmaids. Of the thirty-five persons who witnessed the ceremony there is living my friend Henry Meyer, who, as a boy of thirteen years, was present with his father and mother, Geo. A. Meyer and wife; his uncle, Theo. Meyer; and his cousin, Louis H. Meyer. There was a bridal trip with horse and wagon to Newark and Paterson and after the return a reception in Bloomingdale, ending with a dance. During the reception the newly wedded pair and the two bridesmaids sat in a row on the sofa and remained seated while the guests were presented to them as they came in. The sofa which did duty on this occasion is still preserved in the house of my sister on Morris Heights, and the mantel-piece of the parlor with the mantel-pieces of two other rooms in my house in Fifty-seventh Street.
The summer of 1827 was spent in Bloomingdale, where my father thoroughly enjoyed the family life, and soon accustomed himself to the Caspar Meier habit of rising at 5 A. M. for an early start for the office. For the following winter board was taken in a house in Cortlandt Street, where I was born, March 22nd, 1828.
After the summer of that year had been spent in Bloomingdale, a house was hired in Walker Street, from which a move was made to No. 19 Prevost (now Franklin) Street, where my sister, Eliza Catherine, was born November 26th, 1829, and where our friend and cousin, Diedrich August Meier, the following January spent his first night in America.
On January 1st, 1830, L. H. von Post puts down his capital as only $1,051.59. So poor was the business in the first years of his married life that the aggregate of his interest in profits for 1827, 1823 and 1829 amounted to but $3,448.56, which did not cover his expenses, moderate as they appear to us; for in 1827, the year of his marriage, he spent only $976.09, and in the succeeding years until 1833, while supporting a family, paying board and house rent, his outlay varied annually only between $1,458.60 and $1,581.98. Even in the last years of his life his yearly expenses appear from his account book to have never reached $3,000. Housekeeping in New York did not cost then what it does now.
In May, 1831, Caspar Meier and family went to Europe and L. H. von Post and family took their place in the Bloomingdale house during their absence, excepting part of the winter spent with Dr. Albert Smith and family in their house in Bleecker Street, where my sister, Henrietta Margaretta, was born December 15th, 1831.
In the summer of 1832 New York was visited by the cholera. L. H. von Post writes in a letter dated August 1st, 1832, that there had been 2,000 deaths by it in the city; he attended the office daily, but had hardly anything to do and kept but one clerk, business being almost at a standstill. His neighbor De Rham went to the city but once a week, and many stores were entirely closed.
Caspar Meier and family returned that summer, and in December, 1832, L. H. von Post moved into a floor in Murray Street, remaining there until April 21st, 1833, when he returned to Bloomingdale in order to spend in Caspar Meier's house the time that remained until the sailing of the ship "Isabella" for Bremen. Eliza stayed with her grandparents; the two other children accompanied their parents.
The "Isabella" sailed May 12th and arrived at Bremer haven June 9th, the family reaching Bremen with post-horses at 8 P. M. that day and being received at the house of Senator Iken, who had married my father's sister, Clementine, and lived on the Wacht Strasse, the site of his house being now covert by the Bremen Exchange building. Leaving us children with relatives in Bremen, L. H. von Post, with his wife and his sister Amalie, made a nine weeks trip in Germany, travelling with post-horses, there being no railroads in those days, going as far as Dresden, Stuttgart and Baden, and getting back to Bremen September 2nd; they stopped at Anspach to see Kaspar Hauser, a mysterious celebrity of those days, by some believed to be a stolen child of the grand duke of Baden, by late investigators pronounced a fraud. In Bremen apartments were hired over the Raths-Apotheke on the Market Place; the house was burnt down since, but has been rebuilt in the old style. There were two front parlors, two rear bedrooms, four small rooms and a kitchen; rent for six months was one hundred Rix-dollars ($79). In this house my sister Clementine was born November 12th, 1833.
The family returned to New York by the bark "Constitution" leaving Bremen July 18th, and arriving at New York August 30th, 1834. They lived at Bloomingdale until October 20th, and then moved into the house, No. 36 Laight Street, opposite St. John's Park, which L. H. von Post hired for the winter from his friend Isaac Iselin, of the firm of De Rham & Iselin, the next-door neighbors in Broad Street of Caspar Meier & Co. My sister Emily was born in the Laight Street house January 5th, 1835.
On May 1st, 1835, the family moved into a house bought by L. H. von Post at No. 20 Varick Street, close to St. John's Park, a two-storied building surmounted by a steep shingled roof with dormer windows, which was removed to make place for an additional story and an attic with a flat metal roof. Work was begun on this alteration May 4th, and L. H. von Post mentions with satisfaction that already on the 12th the old roof had been removed, the walls raised, and the new roof put on, all without incommoding the family. The work was finished in June, on the 18th of which month the family was on a visit in Bloomingdale while the inside was being painted. Our friend and cousin, Hermann Henrich Meier, was the first occupant of the guest-chamber in the reconstructed house. It was and still is a red brick building of about 25 feet front and 50 feet deep, of the type common in those days, with the inevitable two parlors, connecting by a sliding door, the "tea room" extension and the front basement dining-room, which latter, however, in our case was not used for that purpose, the rear parlor serving as dining-room.
On the occasion of a recent visit of my two sisters from Germany we went to see our old home, now a tenement house, and found it in its general features but little changed, the Italian marble mantel-pieces and solid mahogany doors of the first floor looking strange in their changed surroundings. The freight station of the Hudson River Railroad stands on the ground which was formerly St. John's Park, then shaded by fine old trees and surrounded by a high iron fence with locked gates, to which only the houses of the vicinity held keys. The house, No. 20 Varick Street, cost $12,000; the alterations amounted to $1,727.81.
In this year began the rise of real estate which culminated in the wild speculations of 1836 and was followed by a disastrous reaction. On May 16th, 1835, Caspar Meier writes that he could get as much as $20,000 for his Bloomingdale place, and $35,000 for his stores in Broad and New Streets. On February 28th, 1836, L. H. von Post writes that although during 1835 as many as 800 new dwelling houses had been built, while only 150 had been destroyed by the great fire in the business district in December, houses for rent were extra ordinarily scarce and he congratulated himself on having a roof of his own. The building facilities of the city were absorbed by the reconstruction of the burnt business district, where an active speculation in lots was going on. L. H. von Post mentions as an instance of it that there had just been sold at auction by the Post estate for $750,000, twenty lots, which, three months previously, then with new warehouses on them, were valued at $600,000. This fever of speculation was going on during a winter of exceptional severity and of great suffering among the lower classes, of whom there were in February over 3,000 in the poorhouses. There was great scarcity of wood for fuel, and L. H. von Post quotes as extra ordinary such prices for food as: Flour, $8 a barrel; butter, 29 cents; veal, pork and mutton, 12 cents; beef, 15 cents per pound; eggs, 3 cents each. The severity of the weather was such as even to keep Caspar Meier occasionally at home; snow lasted in the streets until the middle of April.
During the summer of 1836 the health of my mother began to fail. In August my father took her on an excursion to Niagara Falls in hopes of benefit; they went by steamboat to Albany, thence by carriage to Schenectady, by the new rail road from Schenectady to Utica, then by canal-boat to Syracuse, and by stage to destination, returning from Niagara by steam boat to Oswego. They reached home again on August 18th, the following day celebrated my mother's birthday at Bloomingdale, and on the 22nd returned to the house in Varick Street, where a few days later she was taken seriously ill, and died on November 3rd.
The certainty of a fatal result of the disease had been apparent for some time, and on October 8th my father had written to his sisters Amalie and Betty in Bremen, asking; them to come over and help him in caring; for his five young" children. They responded promptly to his appeal, left Bremen on December 9th, were detained at Bremerhaven until the 21st, then on board the bark "Constitution," Capt. Volckmann, at anchor in the roads until the 24th, when the vessel got to sea, and after a perilous voyage arrived in New York February 10th, 1837. After my father's death they took entire charge of us according- to his wishes, and most faithfully performed the duties they had assumed. My aunt Betty died in Bremen, December 20th, 1847; her sister Amalie saw us all married and settled, living; until April 27th, 1877.
After the death of Caspar Meier, February 2nd, 1839, L. H. von Post, leaving; his children in charge of his sisters, crossed the ocean once more, arriving- in Bremen in May and spending- five weeks there, then going; with his sister, Mrs. Iken, to the baths of Ems, returning home by way of England. The benefit to his health from this trip was not lasting and his physicians recommended a winter in the West Indies. He sailed from New York, November 27th, in the brig "Hellespont," but met with bad weather during- the first part of the voyage and suffered greatly, arriving in Havana, December 15th, 1839, in so enfeebled a condition that he died there four days afterwards. The last piece of his handwriting which I possess is an affecting farewell letter to his sisters, dated on board the vessel, December 11th.
My father, of whom there is no portrait in existence, was of slender build, five feet eleven inches tall, with blue eyes, dark hair and prominent features. He was domestic in his tastes, a devoted husband and father. Among strangers he was inclined to be quiet and retiring; among the family connections and his numerous friends his warm-hearted and affectionate disposition, pleasant manners and sense of humor made him a general favorite. He was fond of riding and driving, of life in the country at the ever-hospitable Bloomingdale mansion, and of excursions with his family in the neighborhood of the city, a favorite one being by the ferry from the foot of Canal Street to the rural region of Hoboken, where a foot-path along the river, passing the place now occupied by the North German Lloyd Steamers, led to the "Sibyl's Cave" and the "Elysian Fields."
Among- my earliest recollections is the trip to Europe on which I accompanied my parents in 1833, when I was five years old. During the nine weeks which they spent in travelling; in Germany we children were left in charge of relatives in Bremen, and before their return my sister Henrietta had entirely and I had almost entirely forgotten English, so that my mother, who was never very proficient in German, at first found difficulty in coming to an understanding with her own children. However, English, which had always been the language of the house, soon got the upper hand, and after we had left Bremen German was gradually forgotten, so that afterwards we had to learn it a second time.
In Bremen I had attended the boy-and-girl school of Meimerich Kindt in the Catharinen Strasse. In New York my school education began at the Academy of Forrest & Mulligan in Franklin Street, between Church Street and West Broadway, a short distance from our house in Varick Street. "Billy" Forrest, as the boys called him among themselves, had old-fashioned notions of discipline and used the rattan on the hand, in aggravated cases varying the application by taking the culprit across his knee. That rattan was naturally an object of interest to us boys, and although I seldom came in contact with it, has remained in my memory as clearly as anything else connected with that school. Forrest bought his rattan in bundles and cut it into proper lengths before our eyes; it was a bad day for the boys when a worn-out stick went into the stove and the desk was unlocked to bring out a fresh one.
From this school I was advanced to the Grammar School of the University, situated in the northerly part of the ground floor of the University Building on Washington Square, which has recently been taken down and rebuilt for other purposes. Dr. Mason was the Principal, Leckie and Edgar were the chief teachers. Latin, which I had already commenced in the upper class of Forrest & Mulligan, was the only foreign language to which much attention was paid; there were lessons in Greek and there were some lessons in French as a private course, but so little was thought of modern languages that not half a dozen scholars joined me in that course. Washington Square in front of the school, at that time surrounded by a wooden picket fence with gates to keep out the pigs which roamed about the streets of the city, was our playground, and we also used for that purpose the vacant lots in the vicinity, of which there were many. We boys were much interested in politics and in elections, and were strong partisans in the rivalries between the fire-engine companies, then volunteer organizations who, when called out, sometimes fought each other instead of fighting the fire. Like many a voter of the present day we understood nothing about the questions at issue in the elections, but were on that account none the less firm in our convictions; almost all the boys were Whigs, and at election time the few Demo crats had to suffer. All this was in striking contrast to my later school life in Bremen.
My vacations were generally spent at the Bloomingdale place, and frequent visits were made there at other times, my grandfather, who often called at our house on his way in and out, being fond of taking me with him in his buggy or sleigh to spend Sunday. Snow then remained on the ground longer than the traffic of the present day permits, and the streets being often impassable for wheeled vehicles, sleds and sleighs had to take the place of carts, omnibuses, and even covered carriages, the body of a barouche being sometimes put on runners when a covered conveyance was wanted. I find mentioned in a letter of my father that in 1823, as late as March 31st, Caspar Meier drove in from Bloomingdale in his sleigh.
In Bloomingdale on Sundays grandfather took me to the Reformed Dutch Church at Harsenville, where I occupied a corner of the great square pew held by him as church elder. Sometimes I accompanied other members of the family to St. Michael's Church on the Bloomingdale Road, afterwards burnt down and replaced by another wooden building, which in recent years gave way to the present stone edifice at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 99th Street. I remember also at that period to have been in St. Mary's Church in Manhattanville, which is still standing and of which my nephew Laurence Henry Schwab is at present the rector. In the city we attended St. John's Church, in which our pew was afterwards taken by Eli White, who lived at No. 34 Beach Street, opposite the Park; at No. 32, next door, lived William Whitlock, Jr. My acquaintance with both families began later.
The last illness and death of my mother in 1836, the arrival of my aunts Amalie and Betty in 1837, the death of my grand father in 1839, are events which cannot fail to remain impressed on my memory, no less than the arrival of the news of my father's death, which occurred in Havana, December 19th, 1839.
When leaving New York on that unfortunate voyage my father, under a premonition that it would be his last one, wrote a letter of instructions for his sisters, in which he directed that his children should be taken to Bremen, knowing that they would there find better educational facilities than this country then afforded, and also, no doubt, feeling assured that his sisters would prefer a return to their native place. We accordingly embarked for Bremen May 11th, 1840, by the ship "Pauline," Capt. Jurgen Meyer, arriving June 7th. Here we were welcomed by many relatives and hospitably received by my uncle and aunt, Senator and Mrs. Iken, in their country house at Rockwinkel, in the immediate vicinity of which a summer home was found for us, which we retained for a number of years. In the city a house was bought on the Alten Wall, No. 10 E.
During the first winter I was put in a private school in order to learn German, so as to become qualified for entry into the Handelsschule next year. There I went through the three classes, being taught by a better and more thorough system than that in use in New York, learning French and forgetting a good deal of Latin. English also was among the studies, but there being little for me to learn there, I was exercised in correcting the boys' compositions.
After finishing the Handelsschule and being confirmed by Dr. Pauli of U. L. F. Kirche, I entered, in 1844, the office of H. H. Meier & Co., relieving my friend, Anton Adami, of the position of youngest clerk. It was not a great many years before my time that this position in some houses comprehended such duties as sweeping the office and fetching the principal's wife home from a party, marching before her with a lantern to guide her steps in the badly lighted and sidewalkless streets. I was not called upon to do anything of that kind, but I had to be in the office the first in the morning to arrange the papers on the desks and mend the pens of my principals, who, like most of us then, wrote with quills. In the evening I was the last to leave and had to enjoy my own company for some time after everybody else had gone, for it was the rule that the youngest clerk should remain on guard until 9 P. M. This rule and that of requiring him also to spend the Sunday forenoons in the office originated, according to office tradition, at a remote period when it was said to have happened that an American captain, arriving- at an unusual hour with the intention of consigning; his vessel to the firm, had found the office closed and consequently addressed himself to a rival concern. Adherence to precedent was the rule of the office and everything was done in a certain invariable way; the strictness of discipline was not always appreciated by the clerks, but the system was of value to them, and I am indebted to the thoroughness of the education I received and to the kindly interest which my principals took in me, for an excellent foundation to my acquirements as a merchant.
The firm then consisted of Johann Helfrich Adami, who had recently been elected Senator, Diedrich August Meier and Hermann Henrich Meier, of whom the first took no part in the running business, generally, however, showing himself at the office for a short time every day. At about noon the principals were in the habit of going to their club at the Museum, and at 1 P. M. they were invariably on 'Change, attended by one or two of the upper clerks. Every mercantile house was represented on the floor of the exchange and had its own fixed place there; most of the business in buying and selling of merchandise or bills of exchange was transacted there, and punctuality in attendance was attained by closing the doors at 1 P. M. and exacting a fine for admittance after that hour. Two o'clock was the invariable Bremen dinner hour, and between two and three o'clock every office was closed. That of H. H. Meier & Co. was then on the ground floor of H. H. Meier's residence on the Stintbrucke, since sold to the Bremen Bank.
My advancement took place in the regular course, and much of the letter writing in German and English was given to me; there was abundance of opportunity afforded to get the run of mercantile expressions by the great amount of letter copying that was required. There were no copying presses in those days; not only had every letter to be copied by hand into the letter book, but transatlantic correspondence was frequently triplicated, sometimes even quadruplicated, in order that advantage might be taken of opportunities by fast sailing vessels from various ports, chief among which were the New York packets from Liverpool and Havre.
It was the custom of H. H. Meier & Co. to require from every clerk a written agreement that he would stay six years. In my case this was not asked, but I was considered to be under some sort of obligation to that effect, and when, in the spring of 1849, I was offered a place with Oelrichs & Krüger in New York, I was told that my services could not then be dispensed with. A leave of absence was afterwards granted to enable me to accompany my uncle, S. H. von Post, my aunt Amalie and my sisters on an excursion, in the course of which a serious illness that befell me detained us for some weeks in Salzburg in the Tyrol. After our return to Bremen I obtained my discharge and took passage in October in the Steamer "Washington" the pioneer of the Ocean Steam Navigation Company Line, which had been established for the business between New York, Southampton and Bremen. The steamer remained in Southampton long enough for me to spend a couple of days in London, where my father's cousin, Hermann Otto von Post, of the firm of John Henry Schroeder & Co., kindly helped me to see the sights. Among my fellow passengers in the steamer was Carl Traub, on his way to Cuba to assist in establishing the house of R. Fritze, Traub & Co. in Trinidad de Cuba, by whom and by whose successors, R. Fritze & Co., many cargoes of sugar were shipped to us in New York, for account of our friends, W. A. Fritze & Co., in Bremen.
Among the first to greet me in New York, where we arrived after a seventeen days' passage from Southampton, was my friend, Gustav Schwab, who had left the office of H. H. Meier & Co. a few months after my entry there, and had also preceded me in the office of Oelrichs & Krüger. He was at that time a member of the firm of Wichelhausen, Recknagel & Schwab and became my brother-in-law the following May.
The vacancy in the office of Oelrichs & Krüger which was offered me in the spring had been in the meantime filled by my friend, George Mosle, and I was in the beginning but a supernumerary. The firm then consisted of Hermann Oelrichs, Geo. W. Krüger and Edwin A. Oelrichs, of whom the two latter resided in New York, while the former, a great sufferer from asthma, which prevented him from lying down, necessitating his remaining all night in a chair, had settled in Bremen, where, during my last years there, I had had frequent opportunities of meeting him and of seeing the interest which he felt in my career. The retirement from business of G. W. Krüger in 1350 was followed by the death of Hermann Oelrichs, December 3th, 1851, leaving as only surviving partner his brother Edwin, who then offered me a place in the firm.
Hermann Oelrichs' interest in my welfare was prompted not only by the relation in which he stood to me as one of my guardians and an executor of my father's will, but especially by the memory of the cordial friendship that existed between him and my grandfather and father, and his appreciation of their treatment of him from the time when, as a young man without means or prospects, he entered their office. His brother Edwin understood and valued these memories and recognized the obligations connected with them. It was my duty also to remember them when opportunities arose to reciprocate towards other members of their family.
On February 21st of the following year I became engaged to, and on December 5th married, the youngest daughter of William Whitlock, Jr. The family being in mourning for the death of the mother, the ceremony, performed by Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, D.D., which included the marriage at the same time of another daughter to James L. White, took place in the presence of only the nearest relatives and friends, at the house, No. 32 Beach Street.
During part of the years 1856 and 1857 I travelled with my wife in Europe, visiting her sister, Mrs. Punnett, in Havre, my own relations in Bremen and Stuttgart, and seeing some thing of France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and England. We crossed the ocean both ways in the steamer "Arago" Capt. Lines, belonging to the New York and Havre Line, which was started as part of the Ocean Steam Navigation Company and was then running the boats "Arago" and "Franklin" between New York, Southampton and Havre. After our return from this trip we accompanied Mr. Whitlock, with his unmarried daughter and James L. White and wife, in a move from No. 32 Beach Street to a house which he bought in Thirty-sixth Street between Madison and Park Avenues where we lived together until after the Whites had gone into a house of their own, and Susan Whitlock had married Dr. Metcalfe in 1867, when the house became too large for our reduced number and was sold, we, with Mr. Whitlock, moving into No. 18 West Thirty-fourth Street. This house (now pulled down to make room for the Astoria Hotel) was our home until, after Mr. Whitlock's death, which occurred in 1875, we built in West Fifty-seventh Street, moving into the new house in 1877.
At the time when my friend and former schoolmate, W. August Fritze, who entered the firm with me, concluded to retire from it, my senior partner was preparing also to leave the business. I was thus the one chiefly interested in the choice of Fritze's successor and it was very satisfactory to find my opinion of my excellent brother-in-law so fully shared by Edwin A. Oelrichs that he proposed him to me himself.
Soon after the establishment of the new partnership Edwin A. Oelrichs transferred his residence to Bremen, notifying his partners that on January 1st, 1861, he should withdraw from the business, leaving it to them to continue it for their own account. He afterwards asked them to admit as a third partner his brother Henry Oelrichs, who remained in the firm until his death in 1875.
The name of the firm would have been changed upon the withdrawal of Edwin A. Oelrichs, if there had been any desire on the part of Gustav Schwab or myself to put forward our own names. We had no such desire and we recognized the facts that the name came down to us from a partner of the founder of the business, and was honorably known at home and abroad. Thus it has now existed unchanged for forty eight years.
In the beginning of April, 1861, I left New York with my wife, on board the packet ship "Logan," Capt. Marsh, belonging to my father-in-law, bound for Havre, taking advantage of a good opportunity to cross the ocean in a first- class sailing vessel, a craft which always interested me more than a steamer. We had a passage of thirty days, contending against northeasters almost all the way across, and narrowly escaping shipwreck by a collision in mid-ocean which destroyed the other vessel, whose crew we brought in. Political excitement appeared to be calming down at the time of our departure and we were little prepared for the events that so suddenly followed. When the Havre pilot, who boarded us off the Jersey Islands, answered our demand for news from home with "dans 1'Amérique on se bat," which was all he could tell, we would not believe him.
My first impulse after learning the turn affairs had taken was to return immediately. But our business in New York was in safe hands and there seemed to be no good reason for giving up our trip, so that eventually we stayed abroad until September of the next year, undergoing two "cures" at Langen- Schwalbach, seeing our relations and friends in France and Germany, and extending our travels as far south as Palermo and as far north as Edinburgh. I had intended this time to see something of the countries bordering the Eastern Mediterranean, but did not like, under the existing circumstances, to put that distance between ourselves and home. We returned by the Steamer "New York," Capt. Wenke, of the North German Lloyd Line, the business of which had gone into the hands of my firm soon after we had started from New York.
Gustav Frederick Schwab, born in Stuttgart, Wurttemberg, Germany, on November 23rd, 1822, was the second son of Gustav Benjamin Schwab, the popular writer and poet, belonging to the romantic school of Uhland, who has always been known as Gustav Schwab. Following his father's example the son dropped his middle name. The grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Johann Christoph Schwab, occupied a prominent position as professor of philosophy and mathematics at the Karlsschule in Stuttgart in the latter part of the last century and is known as one of the first and most thorough critics of Kant's ?? Critique of Pure Reason." His review of that famous system of philosophy is still cited as a classic and testifies to his philosophical training; and keen insight. His reputation was such that he received a call from Frederick the Great to Berlin as a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and professor at the Ecole Militaire, which he felt constrained to decline, however, as he was unwilling to leave his native land. His son, Gustav Benjamin, was born in 1792, and at an early age showed signs of the poetical genius that he developed in later years. This son received a thorough education in the Gymnasium or Latin School of Stuttgart, and when 17 years old entered the University of Tubingen, where he took up the study of theology. After his graduation he entered the ministry, but in 1818 received an appointment as professor at the Gymnasium in Stuttgart, and married a daughter of Professor Gmelin of the University of Tubingen. After a number of years he returned to the ministerial office and combined with it the literary labors that have made his name famous. His son, Gustav Frederick, at an early age decided to adopt a mercantile career, a decision prompted by the close friendship existing between his mother and Mrs. H. H. Meier, the widow of a prominent merchant of Bremen; but previous to entering upon it he laid the foundation of a thorough education by diligent study of the classics while at the Gymnasium at Stuttgart. It was arranged between the two friends that the young man should enter the counting house of H. H. Meier & Co., there to serve the customary apprenticeship of six years. Careful preparation was made by his anxious mother for his well-being, and in 1838 he left the parental roof on his journey northward. He proceeded by way of Cologne, partly by stage coach and partly by steamboat down the Rhine, visiting friends in various cities to whom he had been given letters of introduction, and finally arrived in Bremen on May 5th, heartily welcomed by Mrs. H. H. Meier's daughter, Mrs. Noltenius, and her husband, in whose hospitable house he was to live.
His business education began in the thorough painstaking fashion which characterizes German mercantile life and forms the foundation of the remarkable success achieved by German merchants in every quarter of the globe. For nearly two years his occupation was that of copying letters, running errands and the like. In the pleasant home of the Noltenius family he was well cared for, both physically and spiritually, and initiated into the social life of the city, while his mother's friend, Mrs. Meier, kept a watchful eye over her young charge. After her death her sons maintained the same warm interest in him. Having passed two years of drudgery as youngest clerk, his duties became more responsible and he found more leisure for physical exercise and social enjoyment. He learned to ride, and records in his letters to his mother his experience on his first ride into the country, during which he managed to keep his seat in the saddle. He gratified his love of music by joining a singing society, the Sing-Akademie, and took part in the choruses of oratorios and other musical works.
It was at this time, in 1840, that Bremen first became interested in deep-sea steam navigation by the establishment of an English line of weekly steamers between London and Bremerhaven, which received a grant of six thousand thalers from the city of Bremen in consideration of an agreement to continue this service for five years. At the end of the year 1842, having worked faithfully in the various branches of the business of H. H. Meier & Co., and having been rewarded by gradual promotion, Gustav Schwab received permission to visit his parents in Stuttgart. On his return from this visit he had his first ride on a railway, a novel experience in those days. A year later he made a short trip to the neighboring city of Hamburg, where he saw with much interest the first screw steamer, a new invention.
As the end of his term of service in the office of H. H. Meier & Co. approached, the question of his future became a pressing one. The firm proposed that he should avail himself of the first opportunity to enter the service of the firm of Oelrichs & Krüger in New York, who were intimately connected with H. H. Meier & Co., Bremen, and this opportunity soon presented itself. Word came from New York at the end of June, 1844, that, owing to the departure of one clerk and the illness of another, Messrs. Oelrichs & Krüger desired him to come over immediately. After a hasty leave-taking from his parents he proceeded to Bremerhaven in readiness to sail. The sailing vessel u Meta/' Capt. Meyer, on which he had taken passage, was however detained by contrary winds, and it was not until July 29th that she passed out to sea.
After an uneventful voyage of forty days the "Meta" reached New York, September 8th, 1844, and Gustav Schwab on landing was enthusiastically received by several German friends who had preceded him, and was escorted to Brooklyn, where he took up his temporary abode with one of them. He presented himself at the office of Oelrichs & Krüger, where he was promptly put to work, and later called on Mrs. Meier, the widow of Caspar Meier, the founder of the firm, for the purpose of presenting- the letters he had received in Bremen. His reception in the office and in the house of Mrs. Meier was a pleasant one, and he set out with a stout heart to master the duties of his new business position. At the time of his arrival in New York, Trinity Church, at the head of Wall Street, was nearing- completion; the Astor House, with its 360 rooms, was the monster hotel and wonder of the city; the Merchants' Exchange was then in the building- in Wall Street now occupied by the Custom House, and the latter was in the Sub-Treasury building. Castle Garden was the fashionable concert hall and restaurant of the city.
Gustav Schwab's first mercantile experience was co-incident with the marked industrial and commercial advance made by the United States in the forties. His observing mind did not fail to take note of the rapid changes occurring here at that time. In a letter to his mother he says: "The great advantage that this country offers to the student of commercial affairs is that it is in a condition of continual change every year; eight years ago, for instance, the United States imported grain and had hardly any manufactures; since then the production of grain has increased sevenfold, so that the United States now export grain, and to-day there are nearly one million people employed in the northeastern states alone in manufactories. Their cotton fabrics now drive the English article out of the markets of China." Business was very active, and his time at the office was fully occupied, as the whole office force consisted of but two clerks. The variety of his duties was consequently great and gave him a thorough insight into many branches of commercial activity.
The loss of important books and documents by the great fire of 1845, and the mutilated condition of those which were recovered after the fire, made it necessary to reconstruct and rewrite many of the firm's books, a work that occupied Gustav Schwab for several months and kept him confined to the office until late at night.
In the year 1846 an American company was formed, under the name of "The Ocean Steam Navigation Company," for the purpose of maintaining a steamship line between New York and Bremen, and in the autumn of that year the keel of the first steamship to run in this line was laid in one of the New York shipbuilding yards. Gustav Schwab watched her construction with great interest, and relates in his letters that this steamer was of enormous size (240 feet in length by 38 feet beam, with engines of 2,000 horse power). On January 30th, 1847, he witnessed the launch of this new steamship, which received the name of "Washington" and which sailed in May on her maiden trip to Bremen, followed by the "Hermann" in March, 1848. The New York agency of this new line of steamers, until the company established an office of its own, was in the hands of Oelrichs & Krüger, which involved a considerable addition to the small office force of the firm as well as increased labor and responsibility.
Gustav Schwab's capacity and industry had early won the confidence of his employers and he was entrusted by them with a large part of the conduct of the business. In the autumn of 1848, in the absence of the partners, two being in Europe and the third obliged to undergo treatment at a watering place in the interior, he was left in sole charge of the business of the firm for a period of six weeks, involving an amount of work that occupied him until late every night—fortunately, however, without unfavorably affecting his health.
He had for some time considered various plans for the future and finally decided to accept a proposition made to him by his friend, C. L. Recknagel, to enter the latter's drug importing business in New York.
At this period Gustav Schwab, in his visits to Mrs. Meier at Bloomingdale, met the grand-daughter of the latter, Eliza von Post, who, having finished her education in Bremen, had returned to visit her relatives in New York, her native city. He was attracted to her and soon decided to offer her his heart and hand. His suit, which was favored by the New York relatives, was successful, and on May 8th, 1850, they were married. This proved to be a most fortunate event in his life, for it not only brought him domestic happiness, but it also created a relationship which a few years later led to an advantageous change in his position as a merchant. After a short wedding trip the young couple sailed for Europe on the packet ship "Gallia," bound for Havre, where they landed July 4th. After spending several months with his parents in Stuttgart and in travelling through Europe, Gustav Schwab and his wife left their relatives, intending to set sail again for New York, but were called back by the sudden death of his father and did not reach New York until January 1st, 1851, on the steamship "Baltic" after a long and stormy voyage, during which the steamer ran ashore on Cape Cod, but escaped without damage.
On December 31st, 1851, the senior member of the firm, Mr. Wichelhausen, withdrew, and the business was continued by the two remaining partners under the name of Recknagel & Schwab. Years of active work followed, during which the operations of the firm met with continued success.
In March, 1855, Gustav Schwab accepted the position of President of the German Society of the City of New York—founded by his wife's great-grandfather in 1784—with the understanding, however, that he should only be called upon to keep this office for a few months, and should then be relieved of its duties, as he had for some time planned a voyage to Europe with his family. He left New York with his wife and three children in May of that year. After spending a year and a half in Europe, during which time he made a number of business trips, he returned to New York with his family in December, 1856, and found his business flourishing and in good condition.
In the spring of 1857 he took a house in the upper part of the city, in what was then the country, on the Hudson River, near 110th Street, with the desire of securing the country air for his growing family. This country life proved so beneficial that, together with some friends and relatives, he purchased land on Fordham Heights overlooking the Harlem River, where he proceeded to build a permanent home, which was finished and occupied in the spring of 1858.
The commercial crisis of 1857, the result of overtrading in consequence of the gold discoveries in California, was the cause of great anxiety, involving the firm of Recknagel & Schwab in considerable loss. Prices of all staple articles fell rapidly, hundreds of failures occurred daily, confidence was succeeded by universal distrust, the rate of interest quickly ran up to an abnormally high figure, and even then no money was loaned except on the very best securities. The results of this panic were far-reaching, and owing to the slowness of the means of communication with distant countries, with which Recknagel & Schwab did business, as compared with the present time, many months elapsed before orders could be countermanded and certainty could be reached as to the losses actually incurred. The year 1858 passed in ascertaining the extent of these losses, and towards the autumn of that year Gustav Schwab received an offer of a partnership in the house of Oelrichs & Co., the new style of the former firm of Oelrichs & Krüger, which he accepted, entering the firm on January 1st, 1859. The new position he now occupied in the business world brought him into closer contact with the best activities of commercial and public life of the city and afforded him opportunities for the employment and development of his talents such as he would not have found if he had remained in a more restricted sphere.
In 1361 the breaking out of the Civil War brought forth confusion and disaster in commercial circles. The opinion was frequently expressed in the North at the beginning of the war that the struggle would be quickly ended, but in his letters Gustav Schwab declared his conviction that a long and destructive war appeared inevitable, owing to the large extent of territory involved and its unfavorable climatic influences. He regarded it as the divine will that the terrible question of slavery, which had defied all human plans and compromises, be righted by the sword. His confidence in the ultimate victory of the North was strong, and he gave expression to the hope and belief that the rebellion would be finally suppressed. In the year 1861 the question of Sunday observance in New York was widely discussed. A large majority of the German element favored an endeavor to secure more liberal laws. Gustav Schwab, on the other hand, took the position that the American custom demanded a stricter observance of Sunday than the people of the continent of Europe were accustomed to, and that as long as the custom in this country was of such a character, the adopted citizens of German birth were bound to observe it. The prominent position he took on this subject, maintained with the characteristic courage of strong convictions, brought down upon him the wrath of the would-be leaders of German opinion in this country, and involved him in controversy and no small measure of personal abuse for several years.
The firm of Oelrichs & Co. in 1861 were appointed agents for the North German Lloyd of Bremen, and Gustav Schwab undertook the management of that branch of the firm's business, devoting to the interests of the company his energy, his talents and his time. About the same time he was, on the suggestion of the Hanseatic Minister in Washington, Dr. Schleiden, appointed Consul of the City of Bremen in New York, an office in which he succeeded Edwin A. Oelrichs and which had been held by a member of the firm since the time of Caspar Meier. He retained the office, which occasionally called for considerable work, until the appointment, in 1868, of a Consul-General for the North German Confederation, by which the Bremen consulship became extinct.
His great capacity for work and his willingness to under take labor for the public weal now subjected him to increased demands outside of his business. The Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, in the deliberations of which he took an active part, sent him to Chicago in the spring of 1863 with a delegation of members of the Chamber to take part in a convention on increased canal facilities, and in the same year he accompanied a party of gentlemen belonging to the Sabbath Committee, of which committee he was then a member, to Washington, to urge upon the President and the Secretaries of War and the Navy the restriction of work in the army and navy on Sunday.
His private correspondence between the years of 1861 and 1865 is largely filled with the events connected with the Civil War, which at that time was the absorbing topic of interest and a cause of anxiety to business men.
In the spring of 1866 he accompanied his family to Europe and after spending a part of the year in Switzerland and making a short trip to Italy with his brother, he left his family in Stuttgart and returned to New York, where he remained alone for a year. In the autumn of 1867 he sailed to join his family and on the way to Stuttgart visited the Paris Exposition of that year. After spending the following winter with his family he returned with them to New York in the spring of 1868.
When the Franco-German war, which broke out in 1870 and paralyzed the German shipping trade, forced the North German Lloyd temporarily to discontinue their New York service, Gustav Schwab endeavored to secure the passage of measures for the protection of the steamers in charge of his firm. The United States Government urged the French Emperor, through the United States Minister in Paris, to recognize the Lloyd steamers as neutral, in view of the fact that they carried the United States mails, but without success, as the Emperor refused to make the concession. In repeated visits to Washington Gustav Schwab urged the importance of taking this opportunity to repeal or modify the antiquated navigation laws, in order that American citizens might avail themselves of the conditions then obtaining and secure the transfer of a large tonnage of German steamers and sailing vessels to the United States flag. President Grant sent a special message to Congress impressing upon that body the rare opportunity that was thus offered to acquire thousands of merchant vessels and to re-enter the field of ocean competition, but this appeal to Congress was of no effect. The American shipbuilding interest was too strong and exerted its influence successfully in preventing action on the President's recommendation. Towards the end of September the chances appeared propitious for the resumption of regular sailings, and three of the six Lloyd steamers that had been detained in New York by the fear of French cruisers were dispatched and reached Bremen in safety. At the end of October regular weekly sailings were resumed without trouble. Gustav Schwab followed the events of the war with the liveliest interest and rejoiced in the signal victories of the German armies and in the final proclamation of the German Empire in the royal palace at Versailles.
The corruption then existing in the administration of the Custom House in New York was a source of trouble at this time and drew him into a controversy with the Administration. The struggle continued for several years and involved chiefly the General Order privilege in connection with the steamship business. After frequent representations to the Government a senatorial committee was appointed in 1872 to examine into the charges made against the Custom House management, and finally Gustav Schwab secured the recognition of the principle for which he had contended, although a majority of the com mission made a report that left the root of the evil untouched.
The position of President of the German Society of the City of New York, which he had temporarily occupied in 1855, was again tendered him in 1873. The office was then a very onerous one, as the President of the German Society was ex-officio member of the State Board of Emigration, and for want of time he was obliged to decline the offer.
In the autumn of 1873 his three elder sons returned from Germany where two of them had been prepared by a course of business training to enter the firm and thus to relieve their father of part of his responsibilities, an event that he looked forward to with increasing desire, as he felt the growing burden of his work.
The panic of 1873, which resulted in the failure of many railroad enterprises and the embarrassment of others, called forth inquiries from his friends in Europe whose investments in this country were threatened. He was requested by a committee of German bondholders to accept the position of director of one of the large railroads that had defaulted in their payments, as a representative of these German bondholders, but he unhesitatingly declined, as he felt that to be of any use in such a position he would be obliged to neglect his own business, and he never regretted this refusal.
The admission of three new partners to the firm on July 1st, 1376, relieved him somewhat from the pressure of office work and enabled him to devote more time to matters of a public character. His public spirit led to his appointment on many committees of commercial and charitable bodies, in which his readiness to work, his habit of mastering every subject he studied, his careful and conscientious attention to every detail, generally forced him to take the laboring oar. Most of the work in connection with these bodies he performed in the evening at his country home, frequently remaining at his desk until long after midnight. His health suffered from this over burdened condition, causing sleeplessness and loss of appetite, and by the advice of his physician, and yielding to the urgent request of his wife and children, he decided upon another trip to Europe. Accompanied by his wife and two of his children he sailed in the summer of 1877, and spent five months in visiting his numerous friends and relatives in Germany and England. On his return he found business depressed and general distrust prevalent among business men, owing to the threatening cloud of free-silver coinage that then began to appear above the horizon, as well as the attempts that were made to repeal the law providing for the resumption of specie ?? payments. He took part in the vain attempt of a delegation of New York merchants to arrest the silver agitation in Congress, which body before the end of that session adopted the first silver bill providing for compulsory monthly coinage.
At the request of the publisher of the New York "Nation" Gustav Schwab compiled an article on the New York-Antwerp Rules of General Average formulated by the International Conference on the Codification of the Laws of Nations, and another article on the sugar duties, both of which subjects required considerable research and investigation. Work of this kind he considered an enjoyment and a relaxation, as well as profitable in the special knowledge acquired by the study of such questions.
His health, which had been excellent, began to show signs of failing in the spring of 1879, when the physicians discovered indications of incipient kidney disease, the result of nervous strain and severe work, combined with the lack of proper exercise; they therefore induced him to take a respite from his business and sent him to Atlantic City for a short stay, from which he derived much benefit. He had so far not been able to take a regular summer vacation, but after the change in his firm he made it a rule to accompany his wife and younger children to the mountains during part of the summer, and after 1878 chose Lake Mohonk and Lake Minnewaska in the Shawangunk Mountains for his resting place during the heated term.
His participation in public affairs continued, and he acquired valued experience as member of the Rapid Transit Commission appointed to lay out routes in the annexed district. His duties in connection with this office, on committees of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, on the Board of Management of the Produce Exchange, as trustee of the Gratuity Fund of the Produce Exchange, as director of the Merchants' National Bank, of the Central Trust Company, of the Orient Mutual Insurance Company, and of the Washington Life Insurance Company, kept him fully occupied when not busy with his own firm's affairs. In addition to his other duties he had accepted the position of Commissioner of Education and also that of Treasurer of the German Hospital, both of which made demands upon his time. Work was a necessity to him and he enjoyed this activity and the opportunities thus afforded of making himself useful.
Among the public matters that occupied his mind at this time the tariff question, then under discussion, was the most prominent. He introduced and carried resolutions in the Chamber of Commerce endorsing the plan of tariff reform pro posed by the Hon. A. S. Hewitt in the House of Representatives, which provided for free raw materials and duties on manufactured articles, scientifically laid to counterbalance the higher cost of American labor, a plan which he considered a wise and rational solution of this great question. This plan was unfortunately defeated in Congress and in its place a Tariff Com mission was appointed to present a plan of tariff reform.
In 1883 he was offered the nomination as Aiderman for his district by the Democratic party, with the assurance that he would be elected President of the Board, and in 1884 he was urged to accept the nomination as Comptroller on the municipal ticket. He declined both of these offers for business reasons, and on account of the state of his health, which created some anxiety.
In the summer of 1883 he undertook a trip to the Pacific Coast as one of the guests invited by the President of the Northern Pacific Railroad to witness the completion of that road, and on his way home he visited the Yellowstone Park. His travelling companions were a number of prominent Americans, Germans and Englishmen, whose company he greatly enjoyed. In the spring of 1887, at the solicitation of his family, he undertook another trip to Europe with his wife, a daughter and his two youngest sons, returning in October of that year.
The affection of the kidneys became more serious after his return from Europe, and early in 1888 he was obliged to give up active participation in business and was confined to his home. The illness to which he finally succumbed, and for which no medical skill could devise a remedy, developed further during the spring and summer, causing much discomfort and symptoms of distress, but no severe pain, and his mind remained clear until a few hours before his death, which occurred on Tuesday, August 21 st, 1888. He passed away surrounded by his family and mourned by a large circle of friends and by the business community in which forty-three years of his active life had been passed.
The resolutions adopted on the occasion of his decease by the numerous associations, commercial and philanthropic, to which Gustav Schwab belonged, unite in laying stress upon his great willingness to do honest, hard work, his business capacity and his readiness to give his services for the public good when appealed to by the commercial and charitable interests of his adopted city and country. Until the very last this desire to make himself useful and employ the talents that God had given him was manifested. A few months before his death, when he was too ill to leave his room, he sent to the Chamber of Commerce a report on an important public question. In one of his letters early in life he declared that but few things contribute more to happiness on this earth than an active life. In business as well as in public matters the one characteristic that rendered his work most valuable, and that therefore caused his services to be in great demand, was his thoroughness and the careful attention that he devoted to the details of every subject he approached and that was only equalled by his conscientiousness. The reputation which he thus acquired, as well as his willingness to oblige others, brought upon him requests for his opinion on subjects with which he was comparatively unacquainted, and which therefore required considerable study. He was frequently applied to by friends in Europe for reports on American hospitals and other institutions, and was even at one time appealed to for a lengthy opinion on inebriate asylums. His views on economic questions were in frequent demand, as for instance in the year 1881, when international bimetallism was agitated. The German Minister, who was instructed to report to Prince Bismarck on the prospect of favorable action by the United States at that time, consulted him on the subject and attached great value to his opinion. During frequent visits in Washington he became well acquainted with many of the Senators and Representatives and was consulted by these statesmen as to his opinion on tariff and other questions. He possessed to a very striking degree a power of concentration on the subject immediately before him, and would pass with ease from intense consideration of some problem to a lighter task. Or he would in social intercourse dismiss from his mind what had previously- occupied it and enter cheerily into conversation and interchange of thought with his friends. It was frequently a subject of remark among those who learned to know him well how broad and varied his intellectual culture was, although his life was spent in mercantile pursuits.
No less noticeable to those who knew him was the beautiful simplicity of his character, his quiet modesty and the straightforward honesty and directness of all his thoughts and actions, which abhorred all pretenses and shams. These characteristics could not fail to exercise an unconscious influence for good on many who came in contact with him in the business community. In his daily intercourse with his fellow beings he was always most benevolent and ready to serve others, even at considerable sacrifice to his own comfort; indeed, it may well be said that love of his fellow beings was one of his marked characteristics, as he said himself at one time after having given large fees in a house where he and some of his family had been staying: "If it depended upon me I would have the whole world happy." He was very fond of children and when his own children were young would often go into the nursery in the evening and sing the babies to sleep in his arms. On Sunday afternoons it was his practice to talk to his children on instructive subjects such as elementary astronomy, illustrating his words with tapers and globes, or showing them pictures of paintings, of architecture and of sculpture.
Although deeply occupied in affairs of the most varied kind, secular and philanthropic, he was able in the seclusion of his country home to find time for extensive reading. He stored his mind with the best literary productions and after business cares found recreation in his books. During the anxieties of the Civil War he sought relief in studying the ancient classics, but his favorite subjects were works of history, theology and philosophy. His memory was very retentive and he found great pleasure in discussing with congenial friends literary and theological topics. The events occurring in his native land he followed with keen interest, carefully reading the reports of the debates in the German parliament and on political affairs in general appearing in German newspapers and periodicals.
He utilized the trip from his country home to his office by train and stage, or later by the elevated road, in reading the daily newspapers. Fortunately his eyes were very strong and never failed him. His papers were carried in a large black bag slung over his shoulder by a strap. This receptacle was used to bring bundles in and out before the days of deliveries from the shops, and later he became so accustomed to it that he carried it from sheer force of habit.
During his frequent visits to Washington on his own or on public business he derived much pleasure from his intercourse with distinguished and interesting men in the Capital. Although his business engagements seldom permitted him to spend more than one or two days on these visits, he made it a rule to call on the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Professor Baird, and to enjoy a brief conversation with him on scientific matters. During the time when his sons were studying at Yale University he had occasion to visit New Haven repeatedly, when he thoroughly appreciated the opportunity thus afforded him of meeting the professors of the university.
After the establishment of his home on Fordham Heights at some distance from the city proper, his participation in the social life of the city practically ceased. In summer it was his delight to spend his evenings on the wide piazza which extends around two sides of the house. Here he enjoyed the cool breezes in quiet conversation with his family and his neighbors and friends. On Sundays and holidays his friends from New York, from Brooklyn, or from other cities often appeared and were made welcome at his hospitable board, which on these days was always surrounded by a large company. The genial nature, the good humor and the attractive personality of the host enlivened these occasions with merry jest and harmless banter or more serious discussion of interesting topics. At times in the intervals of the Sunday dinner he would break out in some German student song joined in by the chorus of his children around the table, to the amusement and delight of his guests. Music was one of his great pleasures, especially in early life, when he acquired the art of playing the flute; but this accomplishment was abandoned in later life owing to the lack of time and opportunity.
Gustav Schwab's attachment to the country of his adoption became closer in the lapse of years, and he proved his love by the many services he rendered. He came to this country imbued with the conservative traditions of Germany, accustomed to the fixed order of an old society, and could not at first feel any sympathy with American institutions, social and political. In his early letters it is evident that he was out of touch with American life, that it grated somewhat upon him, probably because he had no opportunity during the first years of his life to become more intimately acquainted with American character and institutions. He therefore was inclined to magnify the defects of our national character, observing only the surface indications. As he grew older and became more closely allied with the larger activities of national and municipal life he developed warm sympathy with our institutions and appreciated fully the best side of American character. In this spirit he brought up his children to honor their German descent and traditions, but to value even more highly their American citizenship.
His was a religious nature of unostentatious piety. In early life his associations were such as to favor in him a certain religious narrowness, but as he ripened in experience his views became broader and more catholic and he formed bonds of friendship with many whose views he did not share. Born and reared in the Lutheran faith, he became a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church in this country and was for a long time before his death a warden of St. James Church, Fordham, to which he rendered loyal and devoted service for many years.
In his last illness his Christian character showed its highest development. He bore distress and suffering with calm resignation and without a murmur, and when the end came he passed away with a serene trust in his Maker and with a firm belief in the life to come.