Marian Lang Family Chronicles – Before Anna Quint

And so we begin.

It would be helpful if you would refer to the copy of the family tree that we have provided for you.

You will see that Anna Quint was born in 1893. She was the youngest of ten children.  Her Mother, Maria, bore a premature still born girl about two and a half years after Gram’s birth.

Her Father, Joseph was a rope maker and as is the custom in many European countries she came to be known as Anna, the rope maker’s daughter. I am not certain of the spelling, but she was known to her relatives, neighbors and even the “Landsleute” here in America as “Sahler’s (sic – it’s Seiler) Anna” which is the way she always pronounced it. She told me that many people would not have recognized her by her legal name.

John and I are going to try very hard to recall some of the events in the life of Mom.  But where to begin?  From the time that we were little children she would recount stories of her childhood, per parents and relatives.   They were retold at various times of our lives.   At the time they seemed so fragmented and many times we were not too interested. However, the difference between childhood and growing up meant that I came to appreciate and marvel at the courage and stamina, physical and mental, of this woman who was my Mother and my friend.

MARIA HARTER QUINT AND HER SIBLINGS

Mom often talked about her Mother and her relatives, so I think it is important to write a few things about them.  Maria Harter Quint was our Grandmother, the second child of Susan Winter Harter.  Katy was Susan’s eldest, followed by Maria, Christine, Jacobin, and Hans.

Susan Harter was a young widow. She remained so for over thirty-five years.  Mom always added the fact that she already had five children when her husband died, the inference being that had she remarried she surely would have borne ten or twelve.

One of Mom’s favorite stories concerns the birth of Katy, her Aunt.   Katy was born with a caul.  The superstition of the time was that being born with a caul would bring the child a great deal of good luck.  Mom often thought that since the caul was around the baby’s head and face. Perhaps the fact that it survived at all was lucky indeed.  However, as a result of this superstition, Grandma Harter carefully observed the caul and saved it until Katy’s wedding day.

Katy’s wedding day is another story.  You must appreciate the fact that in the small villages of Europe at the time, there were no Marriott, Hilton, or bridal suites in which to spend one’s wedding night.  After the festivities, the newly married couple would often spend their wedding night in the family home.  Now it seems that Katy was reluctant to go to the bridal bed and no amount of coaxing by the groom would change her mind.

Finally, Grandma Harter, tired of the whole scene, enlisted the aid of our Grandma Maria to trick Katy into the bedroom.  Maria went into the bedroom, called her Sister on some pretense and when Katy was safely inside our Grandma bolted out of the door and the groom slipped in. Grandma Harter locked the door from the outside.

When Grandma Harter was preparing the bridal bed, she placed the caul, which she had carefully saved all through the years, under the bride’s pillow. However, before the honeymoon began, the family cat found the caul, ate it, and died.

Katy had bad luck all through her life.

This brings us up to Grandma Harter’s third child, Christine.

I always enjoyed Mom’s imitation of what I would call “Christine’s Complaint”. It was expressed frequently and always with exactly the same wording.

In order to commiserate just a little with Christine we must consider the role that dowry played in the social and economic structure of the time.  As Mom always said, in Europe when she was growing up, what a young couple brought to the marriage often proved to be the only material things that they enjoyed during their entire married life.  So, dowry was quite important.

Christine had a sweetheart. The way I understand it was real love and not the manipulation of the village matchmaker.  Oh yes, the matchmaker figured prominently in the marriages of the day, including that of Maria Harter and Joseph Quint.  Surprised?  Mom often told me about it.

But to get back to Christine.  Christine and her sweetheart were anxious to be married but because her sister, Maria, was older and still not married she would have to wait until a husband was found for her. Enter the matchmaker who found a prospect for Maria. Maria really did not want this man but there was another obstacle. Since Susan Harter was a widow, the important dowry was rather questionable.  This did not suit the first prospect, so he bowed out of the picture.  The matchmaker then contacted Joseph Quint. Maria liked him much better, and they agreed to be married.  This was also agreeable to Grandma Harter because Joseph was not as demanding concerning the dowry.

What has all this to do with “Christine’s Complaint”? Well, when older sister Katy was married, Grandma Harter was able to give her a cow for her dowry.  Maria was fortunate to receive a calf but there was nothing left for Grandma Harter to give to Christine.

Love conquered all and despite the lack of dowry the young couple were married.

Human nature is often petty and perhaps when the first blush of romance began to fade, Christine began her oft repeated complaint.

I can still hear Mom do this great imitation of the voices of the two sisters.  Christine complaining to Maria, “Ja, Katy hat ein kuh, du hast ein kalb und ich hab nichts”.  To which Maria would always patiently reply, Aber Christine, die Mutter hat nicht kenna”.

Aside:   And I can imitate Mom.

Jacobin, ‘Pronounced “Yah-ko-bin”, was Susan Harter’s fourth child.  I can’t recall Mom ever mentioning the fact that she was married.  She might have been, or it is possible that she worked in another village as a domestic.

What I do remember is that Mom always referred to her as Die Arme Jacobin”.  When I would ask her what she meant by that she would always say “She was a poor thing, followed by “And so poor”. I gathered from that statement that Jacobin was not only poor but was not very bright.

Jacobin would walk many, many miles from a neighboring village on Sundays hoping that her sisters would give her something to eat.

It was very important that food be conserved and most times it was not generously shared.  One of the means of a family surviving financially was to save on food.

Boys were apprenticed to the trades at the age of twelve and young girls were sent to be domestics in the homes of the “Herrschaft”.  Many times, this was necessary simply to “Get them off the table.”

Jacobin would make her appearance on Sundays and Grandma Quint would grumble but Grandma always managed to give her something to eat.  She made sure that Jacobin would leave with a small package of food to sustain her on her long walk back home. I sometimes wonder if Jacobin wasn’t brighter than everyone thought.

I am sorry that there is nothing to be written about Hans, Susan Winter’s fifth child.  Mom never mentioned him except to say that he was the youngest of the family.

The infant mortality rate was very high, and it is possible that he never survived childhood.  Whatever the reason, Hans will remain an enigma.  It’s not much but at least he has a mention on these pages.

ANNA QUINT’S GREAT GRANDMOTHER – FRAUENHOFER

I must back track here to tell you about Mom’s Great Grandmother Frauenhofer.  Susan Winter told it to Grandma Quint who in turn told it to Mom.

You will recall that we talked about “getting off the table”. It meant almost literally being pushed out of the house in order to save food.

Great Grandmother Frauenhofer was forced to marry at the age of fourteen. She objected violently to this arrangement but to no avail She would get out of the house and “off the table”. We might smile and think that perhaps the young girl had a healthy appetite but to her it was no joke. Could it be that the prospective bridegroom put a gift of value on the table in exchange for the girl?

She had no choice.  She was married.  Her new husband took her to another town to live with his Mother. The Mother now had a young girl to do most of the work around the house.  The young bride was extremely homesick and often slipped out of the house to chum around with the young girls of the neighborhood. This, of course, did not suit the old witch who scolded her constantly and reminded her that this sort of behavior was not suitable for a “married woman”.

Before the age of fifteen she became a Mother. When we consider the great number of teenage pregnancies today that would not seem outrageous.  It was scandalous at the time. She cried and cried as she cradled her newborn daughter.  Her lullaby?  “Du braughst nicht heiratten”. Translated, “You do not have to marry”.