EARLY DAYS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON:
EXCERPTS FROM THE CHRONICLES OF
NAZARETH
edited by GEORGE RUPPEL, S.M.*
"The Chronicles of Nazareth"
is a manuscript history of the first
thirty years of the present University
of Dayton. It was written by
Brother John A. Brueck in the latter
years of the nineteenth
century as an informal record of the
Society of Mary in America
and of the school for boys begun at
Dayton in 1850. The
"Nazareth" in his title comes
from the name given to the hundred-
acre farm on the outskirts of Dayton
where the central house for
the order was established and the
school started. The excerpts
reproduced below are taken from the
first pages of Brother Brueck's
"Chronicles." They furnish an
interesting account of the humble
beginnings of this now flourishing
university.
The Society of Mary, of which Brother
Brueck writes, is an
international society of priests,
brothers who teach, and brothers
who do manual labor. Its members are
known as Marianists. They
conduct all kinds of schools from the
grade to the university level,
in all parts of the world. They were
founded at Bordeaux in 1819
and came to the United States in 1849,
where they opened their
first grade schools at Cincinnati, and
then in Dayton, Ohio. Since
the Europeans came from Alsace, they
worked in German and
French areas, where at least half of
the subjects were taught in the
native language. This accounts for the
structure of some of the
sentences in the following
"Chronicles," and perhaps for some of
the punctuation. It is not known
whether the author, Brother
Brueck, was born in this country or
not, although he was fifteen
or sixteen when he joined the society
in 1855.
In the early part of 1849 Rev. F. X.
Weninger, applied to Mr. Sigwart
Muller, leader of the Sonderbund in
Switzerland, to mediate in his behalf
for obtaining some Brothers for
Cincinnati.1 What gave occasion to this
* Brother George Ruppel is a Marianist,
a member of the Society of Mary. He is
at present a candidate for a Ph.D. in
history at the University of Pittsburgh.
1 The Sonderbund was an alliance of
Catholic cantons in a religious conflict between
the Catholic and Calvinist cantons, in
which the minority Catholics were defeated, the
Sonderbund dissolved, and the leaders
exiled.
378
Chronicles of Nazareth 379
request was the following. Rev. F. X.
Weninger who had become acquainted
with our Brothers [the Marianists] in
Freibourg, was driven with his
confreres out of Switzerland and having
crossed the ocean to America, was
sent by his superiors to Cincinnati. He
spoke with Rev. Clemens Hamner,
then pastor of Holy Trinity's Church
about these Brothers, that they were
successful in teaching and that it would
be advantageous to have them in
their parishes. Father Hamner, who came
with Bishop Baraga to America,
had seen our Brothers at Strasbourg.
With the authorization of Baptist
Purcell, bishop of Cincinnati,2 he
applied towards the close of 1848, to the
above mentioned Sigwart Muller, who
happened to be in exile in Ribeau-
ville, Alsace, where we had a
flourishing establishment for many years....
[By the summer of 1849 the preliminary
arrangements were complete,
but the superior general decided to send
the Rev. Leo Meyer and Brother
Charles Schultz to Cincinnati, where
they would make sure that the
promises of local authorities would be
fulfilled before a contract for
supplying teachers would be signed.]
Rev. L. Meyer left Havre on a sailing
vessel [the Ohio, an American
ship] and arrived in New York July 4th
where he proceeded to the
Redemptorist Fathers, by whom he was
kindly received and hospitably
entertained. There he learned that the
cholera was raging frightfully at
Cincinnati, but he was not frightened.
He did not stay long in New York,
but departed for Cincinnati, passing
through Albany, Buffalo and Sandusky
(Ohio). During the whole of his journey
he wore his three-cornered hat
and his soutane [cassock] as he had been
in the habit of doing in France.
. . .Having laid aside his cassock, and
dressed in the civil costume, as the
other priests of the country, Rev. L.
Meyer was presented to the Archbishop
of Cincinnati who received him very kindly.
The cholera was at the time
making great ravages in Cincinnati and
in the United States. In one parish
in Cincinnati alone were reckoned 40
deaths in a day ....
[Two of the parishes wished to have
Marianist teachers, and it was
agreed that each of these would be
supplied with two Marianists as soon
as the teachers could be brought over
from Europe. It was possible to expect
the new men, who would be Alsatians, to
begin their teaching as soon as
they arrived in Cincinnati, because the
population of the parishes concerned
was solidly German, and the teaching was
almost entirely in that language,
rather than in English.]
It was on the 9th of October, 1849, that
these four brothers started on
2 John Baptist Purcell had been bishop
of Cincinnati for over fifteen years. He was
named archbishop in 1850.
380
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
their journey from Ebersmunster; they
were accompanied to the railroad
station by Bro. A. Klein and his
postulants, they proceeded to Strasbourg.
Here they bought part of the provisions
for the journey. They intended to
take the cars for Paris; but instead of
being taken to the railroad depot, as
they asked, they found themselves
traveling by stage to Paris before they
were aware of it. In this part of the
journey they were joined at Nancy
by3 a German Jew, who appeared to feel uneasy
to be
alone in company with four priests as he
fancied. But when he saw them
performing their different devotions, he
was encouraged to do the same.
When he and the Brothers were through,
he expressed to them how happy
he was to have for traveling companions
persons in whose presence he
could say his prayers without exposing
himself to be laughed at. At Paris
they remained about 12 hours. From Paris
they took the stage to Rouen,
and from thence the car to Havre, where
they arrived on the 13th instant.
... At Havre they had to remain three
days, waiting for a favorable wind
to set sail. While there, they lodged in
the hospital of the Sisters of Charity.
The fifteenth they embarked on the old
sailing vessel "Alfred" which re-
turned to the United States without any
freight, for New York. The voyage
lasted forty-two and a half days ....
During their voyage they studied the
English language, with which they
were still unacquainted. We will here
give an account of the journey,
furnished by one of the party, Bro. D.
Litz.4
There was no question of a steamer, even
the ordinary packet-boat was deemed too
luxuriant [sic] for poor
religious. We got aboard a rickety old merchantman in which,
a sort of den was made of rough boards
to hold us four originals.
We did not sail, we rolled over, and
rolled it in 42 1/2 days. I was the first among the
passengers who discovered land. Bro.
Edel was sick of disentery [sic] nearly during
the whole time. I myself got sea sick at
every roll. (Bro. Edel relates, that in a severe
storm, the vessel received such a severe
shock, as to make Bro. Litz jump up and cry
out 'Salve Regina'.) Bro. Zehler was
once flung from one side of the ship to the
other, and was badly hurt. Of the
passengers on board, the most were infidels,
Protestants and renegade Catholics; the
latter were the worst. At one time however,
when an experienced old tar expressed
fears for our box some of the bad Catholics
felt the pangs of conscience and though
they often had ridiculed the long brown coats,
they now came to make their confessions.
Poor fellows they could not have the
consolation, as there were no priests,
which they took us for. They got better disposed
anyhow, and after this when I would come
on deck with my "Following of Christ"
they eagerly listed to my reading and
explanation. We had to provide for our own
meals, and though we had plenty of
provisions, our food was just good enough to
3 There are a number of blanks in the
story. The original word has been erased,
and it is not possible to determine what
had been there.
4 The letter is imbedded in the
"Chronicles."
Chronicles of Nazareth 381
keep a dog or hog alive, for most of our
things were spoiled by the contents of a
barrel of lime water, by the waves
coming down. P.S. Our wine had turned into
vinegar. There was poor accommodation
for cooking, so that most of the passengers
could get something cooked but once a
day; continual strife about the hearth; the
waves rolling over would quench the fire
and upset everything. Once when their
dinner was just about to be placed upon
the table, the ship received a severe shock,
and all was thrown on the floor. We
endured it all with galgenhumor. There is no
time in our lives when we laughed so
much. We made our spiritual exercises in
common, just as in the convent chapel.
That dear old ship; we were all homesick
after it. There is a piece of moral in
this: we had suffered intensely on "Alfred",
hence we loved "Alfred"; those
also hold their order or congregation most dear, that
have suffered most for them. As Jesus
loves us in proportion to His sufferings for us.5
The four brothers reached New York on
the 27th of November at
2 o'clock A. M. where they were detained for
two days on account of Bro.
Edel, who was still suffering from
disentery. They lodged during these days
with the Redemptorist Fathers at Holy
Redeemer's. The good fathers regretted
not to be able to lodge them all;
however one of them gave up his room to
Bro. Edel, and the others found a
lodging with a member of the congrega-
tion. While Bro. Edel was obliged to
remain at home, the other three went
to see the city, little dreaming that
two of them would successively become
directors at the same congregation,
where they had taken lodging.
From New York they took the steamer to
Albany where they arrived on
St. Andrew's day, November 30th at 3
o'clock A. M. ... At 1 o'clock P. M.
they took the cars for Buffalo; but
being unacquainted with the custom in
this country they were put into emigrant
cars, while for the same [money]
they could have traveled in better ones.
The emigrant cars, were mean things,
poorly constructed, open on all sides,
and that in December. Truely [sic],
they had a stove in the middle of the
car, and besides heated red hot, but
5 The
word galgenhumor literally means "humor of the gallows."
Brother Damian Litz, the author of the
letter, was destined to be the best remembered
of this group because of his administrative
ability, and especially because of his writ-
ings for publications. He appealed to
the German immigrants who were in a strange
land, with customs, newspapers, and the
like which they did not understand. To fill
this void, German language newspapers
were a godsend, and Brother Litz was the
"Poor Richard" for those
people. He wrote brief essays of a philosophical, pedagogical,
or humorous nature. This was possible
because he had the experience of opening
schools in such widely flung places as
New York, New Orleans, and Cleveland. How-
ever, he is best remembered in
Baltimore. At the age of sixty-nine he retired to San
Antonio, Texas.
He wrote first and most frequently for
the Baltimore Volkszeitung, but contributed
regularly to Cincinnati's Wahrheitsfreund, besides
other German weeklies, such as the
Philadelphia Nord-Amerika. From
1870 to 1903 he contributed to several newspapers
simultaneously, sending duplicate
articles only twice. When he died there were over
a thousand unpublished essays among his
papers. They are almost all in German.
Further information may be found in A.L.
Saletal, S.M., "Damian Litz and the Catholic
German-American Press 1870-1903"
(M.A. thesis, Catholic University, 1929).
382
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
what was that? For seats they had rough
benches. All kinds of people
were so to say huddled in these cars.
Besides four brothers there were in
the same car a woman with six children
and a drunkard who was making
the already unpleasant cars still more
so by his screaming. Bro. Edel lost
patience at last, and taking his stick
went up to the fellow and said: "If
you are not quiet I'll give you a sound
beating," whereupon the drunk
cooled down a little. Bro. Edel suffered
much from his sickness in these
cars as there was no accommodation for
such cases. From Buffalo, Dec. 1st at
10 P. M. they took the
steamer for Sandusky; but having heard that a short
time before a vessel had been wrecked,
Brother Stinzi divided the money
among the brothers, so that if any
accident should occur, all the money
would not be lost. Bro. Litz was in this
part of the journey once thrown
on his back by a shock of the ship when
a roll in the opposite direction
stayed him. At 10 o'clock, on Sunday
night Dec. 2 they landed at Sandusky.
Next morning they started for Cincinnati
on the only
cars in the State. The cars were as good
as they are now [1880's] on most
of the lines, but the road was in such a
bad condition that the passengers
had to take hold of the backs of the
seats not to be thrown down. The
brothers gazed at each other with
significant looks and prayed to God to
deliver them from American railroads.6
It was 11 o'clock at night, Decem-
ber 3, 1849 that they reached the Queen
of the West.7 They had been told
that they would be able to distinguish
Holy Trinity's school by a little
steeple on its roof, but as they had no
other direction they were unable to
find it during the night and had to take
shelter in a miserable little bar
room, which, from the continued smell of
the worst cigars was rendered
a very unpleasant abode.8 Feeling
very restless Bro. Edel went out early to
find the school house. He did indeed
find such a one, and went back full
of joy to his companions saying, "I
have found it." The others accompanied
him to the place, knocked on the door
and Bro. Stinzi calling Father Meyer
and Bro. Schultz, but no answer. They
found that they had been mistaken.
They continued their search for some
time longer, but without success; at
last they asked a man who came along,
whether he knew where they could
find Holy Trinity's. He appeared at first
astonished to see them, but
presently said: "O yes, I know
where Holy Trinity's is. I know Father
6 The Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad
and the Little Miami Railroad, which made
connections at Springfield, formed the
only route that ran clear across the state. They
were, however, not the only railroad
lines in the state at that time.
7 Brueck evidently means "Queen
City of the West," which is the title Cincinnatians
gave to their city.
8 Actually they were lodged in a small
room above the barroom.
Chronicles of Nazareth 383
Meyer also. Come along." Thus the
brothers at length arrived at their
destination, where they received a
hearty welcome.
"... Rev. L. Meyer promised the
first brothers to Holy Trinity's school.
In the meantime he went to Dayton, Ohio
to see Rev. Junker [pastor in
Dayton], after[wards] Bishop of Alton,
Illinois. The cholera was making
fearful ravages in Dayton; but Rev.
Meyer displayed during this epidemic
great courage and zeal, and gained the
hearts of all by affable manners and
his simplicity. . . . During the time
Rev. L. Meyer resided at Dayton he
became acquainted with Mr. Stuart a very
good Catholic and intimate
friend of his Grace, Archbishop Purcell
and of Rev. Junker. The latter
knowing that Mr. Stuart wished to return
to France [and] to sell his
property, called "Dewberry",
consisting of 100 acres, engaged Rev. L.
Meyer very urgently to try to purchase
the place, for which $12,000 were
asked. Nothing was done in the summer of
1849.9 In the autumn Rev.
L. Meyer returned to Cincinnati. ...
At that time there existed at Cincinnati
a board of examiners, whose duty
it was, to examine all the teachers to
be employed in the German Catholic
schools. But the Brothers were quite a
new care for them, as they did not
present themselves on their own account,
but were sent by their superiors.
[Still] Rev. Schonart, pastor of Holy
Trinity's was unwilling to be the only
priest of the city, whose teachers did
not undergo an examination . . .
As three of the Brothers were more
French than English, their superior was
far from anxious that they should be
examined. Happily for the Brothers,
the president of the board Rev.
Unterdiener, Superior of the Franciscan
Fathers at St. John's Church showed a
great reluctance for examining the
brothers. After a few days of parley, it
was agreed on by all parties, that
on a certain day, the brothers employed
at Holy Trinity's Brothers Edel and
Litz should teach school for some time
in the presence of the president of
the Board, the pastor of the Church, and
five trustees of the congregation
which was done to the satisfaction of
all ....
Towards the end of February, 1850, Rev.
J. Junker, pastor of Emmanuel's
church, Dayton, O., asked Father Meyer
to take his place. He being already
acquainted with the place he gladly
accepted the charge; the more so as it
gave him [Junker] an occasion to absent
himself from his congregation for
a couple of weeks, and that he [Meyer]
was more able to negotiate the
purchase of Nazareth [Dewberry Farm].
The parish priest, seeing that it
was serious, and that Father Meyer was
beginning to have friends in
9 John Stuart was related to the royal
family of Scotland. He wished to return to
the family chateau in northern France.
384
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Dayton, feared to lose something if Father Meyer would
buy the place, he therefore endeavored
to dissuade him from buying the
farm, but Father Meyer was too much
taken up with the place and would
not give way.10 On Father
Meyer's return to Cincinnati the little com-
munity held a deliberation on whom to
send to Stuart's farm. Then it was
agreed on this: Bros. Zehler, Edel and
Schultz should go with Father Meyer
to Dayton. . . . On the 7th of March
Bro. Edel arrived at Nazareth.
. . When he arrived at Dayton he engaged
a drayman who was acquainted
with the place, and he brought Bro. Edel
and his trunk to the farm for
50 cts. Bro. Zehler came on the 19th.
They were obliged to take the stage,
there being not as yet any
railroads from Cincinnati to Dayton. It
took them 24 hours to make the
journey. . . . After some weeks he
[Father Meyer] arrived at last to take
up his permanent abode at Nazareth. The
Stuart family still remained on
the property and did not leave until the
commencement of May. Father
Meyer had his room in the building, and
the three brothers lived on a little
hill in a frame house, which existed
until the winter of 1870, when through
want of foresight on the part of the
brother who had charge of the vineyard,
it burned to the ground. It contained
two rooms which served for oratory,
study room, kitchen, dormitory, etc.
There was but one bed for the three
brothers.11 The kitchen utensils
consisted at first of a small pot, which they
had brought from the ship, and small
sauce pan, a painted piece of wood
served as a large fork, and another
flattened and rounded for stirring the
potatoes, the only vegetable, with flour
and corn. Sometimes Mr. Stuart
would give them some milk and eggs.
Notwithstanding their poverty they
were happy and contented. When good
Father Meyer arrived, March the
18th, they did not wish to be the last
to give him a good reception. They
set to work to make an extra meal, as
was but proper. And now to use the
words of the narrator [the cook, who was
probably the narrator, was Brother
Charles Schultz], "see what we had
for dinner. First, a soup made of
potatoes, then a dish of potatoes, and
lastly three kinds of
pancakes baked in the memorable sauce
pan. The first cake was made of
water, flour and salt; the second of
water, flour, salt and potatoes; and the
third of water, salt and cornmeal:
"When Father Meyer saw this he said:
"You are very kind to make so many
things and to go to such an expense
for me." "Very well," we
said, "the rule allows something extra at the
10 It seems that Father Junker began to
feel that Father Meyer, the visitor, was be-
coming too popular, and that if Father
Meyer could be convinced that he shouldn't buy
the Dewberry farm, he would leave Dayton
permanently.
11 Since there was but one bed, it is
commonly believed that the other two slept on
the floor, probably on straw.
Chronicles of Nazareth 385
visit of a superior." They ate with
good appetite, but no one could tell
what taste those cakes had. Next day the
19th of March, . . . the deed of
purchase was drawn up.
The farm consisting of nearly a hundred
acres, [was sold] for $10,000.00
and the house, furniture, barn, cattle
(livestock) for $2,000.00, the whole
payable in twelve years; interest at 6%,
payable semiannually. The first
payment was in May and the second in
December. It would seem naturally
that the brothers would never be able to
pay that sum in the appointed time;
but as has been already stated Father
Meyer placed himself entirely in the
hands of Divine Providence, and to the
management of St. Joseph; and
besides he had been authorized by his
superiors in France to make the
bargain. As Father Meyer had no money to
pay, he gave Mr. Stuart a medal
of St. Joseph saying, "St. Joseph
will pay." And St. Joseph did, in truth,
pay all the $12,000.00, together with
interest up to the last cent ....
Mr. Stuart left with his family for
Europe in the beginning of May;
Father Meyer with his three brothers
immediately took possession of the
house, a fine brick building; there was
a good barn, three horses, two cows,
six swine and some poultry. Father Meyer
and the Brothers resolved to
call the place Nazareth in honor of the
abode of the Holy Family, J.M.J.
[Jesus, Mary, Joseph]. The brothers
commenced to plow and work in the
field, but the utensils seemed to them quite strange, they
were different from those they had seen
in Europe, still they succeeded.
Mr. Patterson their neighbor [whose two
sons founded the National Cash
Register Company some years later] came
one day to see what kind of men
those monks were. He found them engaged
in spreading manure, each one
working silently and without troubling
himself about those, who passed by.
He acknowledged that those monks were
not like other men, that they had
a different spirit and that he was wrong
in the idea he had formed about
them. From that time he had a great
esteem for the brothers, assisted them
by his counsils [sic], and helped
them materially and in many circum-
stances. . . 12
12 Monks, properly so called, are
men who live the monastic life and have no contact
with the workaday world. Such a
designation for the Marianists was not correct, as
they are an "active order" of
teachers, with some members who do only manual labor.
The term "monk" was incorrectly
used for many years by the people of Dayton because
they didn't understand the meaning of
the word.
From the earliest times there has been a
close spirit of cooperation between the
Pattersons and the Marianists. After the
death of the father, when the two boys
decided to found the National Cash
Register Company, Mrs. Patterson is reported to
have told them that she would allow them
to use the family fortune to make cash
registers if Brother Maximin Zehler
thought that it would be a good business proposi-
tion. He was the principal of the school
at Nazareth. After he had heard the argu-
ments of mother and sons, he told Mrs. Patterson that
he thought there would be a
great future in the cash register
business.
386
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
In June 1850 school was opened in the
small frame house on the hill.
There were neither benches nor desks,
for a blackboard they had a common
drawing board; and the scholars sat on
planks nailed together. The teacher
had at the same time to see to the
horses, cows, and pigs. .. .13
When [after] the farm had been purchased
in March, Father Meyer
wrote to the Administration in Bordeaux
for reenforcements to work the
farm. The superiors destined Bros.
Anthony Heitz, Ignatius Kling and
Andrew Dilger for that purpose. They had
left their native country on the
13th of August, 1850 and reached New
York on the 18th of September,
from whence the canal boat to Pittsburgh
and this was the dreariest [?]
part of the journey. Near Hollydaysburgh
they were detained over Sunday
because the men refused to continue
their journey. As they had no provisions
with them, they went out to buy some
bread. They tried to obtain some at
a bakery the owners of which were
Methodists, but were refused on the
pretext that it was Sunday.
"But," replied the brothers, "we are on a
journey and must have something to
eat." All was useless. "We don't sell
on Sundays." "Then give us some as a present."
At length, when they
saw that we [sic] would not go
without some bread, they consented to
sell us [sic] some bread. The
Alleghany mountains they crossed in quite a
novel manner. At the top there was a
house in which there was a machine.
To this machine was fastened a rope, and
to that a rude car, in which pas-
sengers were transported to the top of
the mountain; at the same time
another car went down with a heavy load.
At Freeport they had to stop
two days.14 At first they
lodged in a house, where they were charged a
quarter a meal; but on the same day they
found a protestant family who
agreed to lodge them at 5c a person.
Rev. Father Stiebel, afterwards pastor
of St. Mary's [,] Alleghany [,]15 and vicar-General of the diocese of
Pittsburgh, traveled with the brothers;
and they had also a Jew in their
company. When the traveling party came
to this protestant family, the Jew
said to the proprietor: "The priest
(Father Stiebel) must sleep alone; it
13 The school then was similar to the
one room schoolhouses which are now history.
Classes were begun in September,
boarders paid six dollars a month, and the numbers
of each increased during the year.
Records of enrollment disappeared in the fire of
December 26, 1855, but at the
commencement of June 1851 we know there were
fifteen graduates from the first class,
as the highest class was then known.
14 They were using the Pennsylvania
system of railroad, canals, and inclines. The
Hollidaysburg lift consisted of a series
of inclined planes between that city and Johns-
town. Frequently, the inclines did not
operate on Sundays, and breakdowns were quite
common. Thus the supposedly shorter
route between New York and Cincinnati took
them two weeks. The longer route by way
of the Hudson River, the railroads between
Albany and Buffalo, Lake Erie, and the
Sandusky to Cincinnati railroad took five days.
15 Alleghany, now a part of Pittsburgh,
was a separate city until 1907 and was
included in the Pittsburgh diocese.
Chronicles of Nazareth 387
is not proper to make him sleep with
others." At meal time, the same Jew
also took care that Father Stiebel
obtained the place of honor. The entire
party was [made] perfectly at home by
that family. The husband ate with
them, and he himself served wine to the
party. The Jew, who had shown
himself so kind and benevolent to our
brothers, accompanied them to
Dayton where he became acquainted with
Father Meyer. He lived for some
time with the brothers in Nazareth, made
all the spiritual exercises with
them, worked with them, and was willing
to abjure Judaism, but as he
had some relatives in Cincinnati, who
opposed him, it was thought that it
would be best to postpone his baptism,
and give him some time to reflect.
Father Meyer, by the advice of
Archbishop Purcell, told him therefore, that
it would be good for him if he would for
sometime [sic] establish some busi-
ness in Dayton. He consented, and was
willing to have in Dayton a small dry
goods store. He rented a place, and went
to Cincinnati, where he had some
relations, to buy dry goods, and there
he disappeared and was heard of no
more. Later on Father Meyer paid a visit
to this Jewish family in Cin-
cinnati to inquire about him; they
answered that they never saw him, nor
heard of him. God knows what became of
him.
At Pittsburgh the brothers remained two
days and then took a steamer for
Cincinnati, where they arrived on the
7th of October, 1850. In Cincinnati
they remained one day with Bro. Stinzi
and Bro. Litz at Holy Trinity's. Next
day at 3 P. M. they departed for Dayton,
which they reached by canal on the
following day, Wednesday, at 1 P. M.
Rev. L. Meyer met them at the door,
wearing his big strawhat [sic]. The
first dish he placed before them was
green beans. After the meal he took his
basket, and told them to accompany
him to the orchard for picking up
apples. This was their first introduction.
As there were neither beds nor bedsteads
ready for them, they had to con-
struct rough bed-steads of boards,
saw-bucks and ropes; and Bro. Kling had
to sew the bags for putting in the
straw.