Individual Details
Anna Elisabeth "Elise" Faymonville
(2 Sep 1862 - 4 Feb 1943)
Elise wrote a letter in 1914 from Krinkelt, Belgium to her cousin Maria Catherine (Breuer) Deuhs in Minnesota, USA. It is reprinted in "The Girgen Family History" and a copy was sent to me via Phillip Jares from Bob Sather.
May 6, 1914
My dear Cousin and Family -
It is now more than 6 weeks since I received your dear letter. What a joy! A letter from our families in America! Who would ever have dreamed of it? So often have we spoken of you here, so Frequently we have thought of you, and never, never did we hear anything from you. Oh, if only my dear Mother could have lived until now. However on May 20th it will be 18 years since she died and on July 9 13 years since Father has gone to his final rest. In earlier years [i.e. soon after you left] we wrote you 2 letters but received no answers and assumed that the address was incorrect or that the letters had been lost en route. So we could not inform you of the deaths of our parents because we did not have your address.
But, dear Cousin, did not Aunt Sibbilla ever long for our mother? I musts assure you that our mother never forgot her sister. How often she wept for her distant sister! After all, each of them had only the other one and they had seen so much with their stepfather. Besides very few roses bloomed in my mother's life, for life (or fate) dealt many severe blows to my parents and finally this good woman was struck by a horrible disease, namely cancer of the stomach and in spite of all medical efforts she finally starved to death. Even this was endured by this sorely tried dear woman with patience and without a word of complaint until the good Lord released her from her suffering on May 20, 1896; and Father died from a stroke in July, 1901.
During the last days of Mother's life she kept calling for her sister. Two step-brothers of my mother and her step-sister Kreutz are living in Belgium. There are 9 brothers and sisters in our family. 3 sisters live in Belgium, 2 brothers and 1 sister in Aachen (Aix), 1 brother in Dusseldorf, one sister in Montjoie which is 4 hours form here, and I myself, the 4th child live in the family home. The brother in Dusseldorf has been a widower since 1909, the oldest sister in Vernier, Belgium was widowed in 1910, and four weeks your cousin died. He was the son of your father's sister Magdalena and he was married to my sister, also in Belgium. Otherwise all is well with all of us; naturally we have to slave away (or) [keep our nose to the to the grindstone] because one cannot get rich as quickly here as in America.
I have 11 children - 6 boys and 5 girls. My sixth daughter died. The oldest boy is 20 and has been serving as a volunteer in the army since last autumn. Six have finished school. and five are still going. The youngest will be six years old in June but all are strong and very industrious. One daughter has been living in Aachen since fall and one in Belgium. Two grown sons and one daughter work with my husband on the farm and in our entire business. Because of the death of my brother-in-law I was unable to answer your letter any sooner. All of the brothers and sisters were at the funeral and they all send warm greetings to you and your whole family. After that I had a communicant, then it was seed-
time and everyone was busy out of doors and with the best intentions it was not possible for me to find enough time during my housework to write to you, for which I must now beg your pardon. But, dear Maria, I hope that we shall be writing oftener to one another. And now tell me how do your sisters happen to be in California? That must be a great distance from you and that is surely where one goes to look for gold. According to my figuring you are all widely separated, whereas we can all get together in 4 hours by train. Is everything really still so good in America? Are your brothers making a success of farming? Is the price of land high, also the price of cattle? also the crops and produce?
Here land is very high-priced - 600 marks per acre in average condition, in poor condition it is naturally cheaper. For the past 3 years the price of cattle has been high, not infrequently the price of a good cow was 500 - 600 marks and even more, heavy plow oxen 600 - 750 marks. This year the price has gone down considerably but hopefully it will go up again. Wages by the day and especially wages of laborers are also high around here. We own 50 acres of land and when it is in good condition we can raise 40 head of cattle. Until 2 years ago my husband also ran a tannery through which he also earned good money. At that time the tannery was burned out and since the building was not adequately insured and the contents (goods) not at all, we then suffered a great loss.
Since none of the sons had any enthusiasm for the tannery, we did not rebuild but have been more occupied with farming. As your husband is a business man, a thought has just come to me. have you ever heard anything about Bernhard Faymonville or have you ever seen his address anywhere? If so, please send it along next time you write for he belongs to the family of my late father. Almost i forgot to thank you for the obituaries of your dear parents. I have distributed them as fat as they reached. Obituary notices are not so customary here, so we did not have any made, therefore I cannot send any in return.
Now, dear Maria, you can pass the time by reading my letter and I must close. Give warm greetings to your husband, and to all the children, and also to all your brothers and sisters and their families from all of us, and most especially do you yourself receive most cordial greeting from Cousin Elisa Kupper
May 6, 1914
My dear Cousin and Family -
It is now more than 6 weeks since I received your dear letter. What a joy! A letter from our families in America! Who would ever have dreamed of it? So often have we spoken of you here, so Frequently we have thought of you, and never, never did we hear anything from you. Oh, if only my dear Mother could have lived until now. However on May 20th it will be 18 years since she died and on July 9 13 years since Father has gone to his final rest. In earlier years [i.e. soon after you left] we wrote you 2 letters but received no answers and assumed that the address was incorrect or that the letters had been lost en route. So we could not inform you of the deaths of our parents because we did not have your address.
But, dear Cousin, did not Aunt Sibbilla ever long for our mother? I musts assure you that our mother never forgot her sister. How often she wept for her distant sister! After all, each of them had only the other one and they had seen so much with their stepfather. Besides very few roses bloomed in my mother's life, for life (or fate) dealt many severe blows to my parents and finally this good woman was struck by a horrible disease, namely cancer of the stomach and in spite of all medical efforts she finally starved to death. Even this was endured by this sorely tried dear woman with patience and without a word of complaint until the good Lord released her from her suffering on May 20, 1896; and Father died from a stroke in July, 1901.
During the last days of Mother's life she kept calling for her sister. Two step-brothers of my mother and her step-sister Kreutz are living in Belgium. There are 9 brothers and sisters in our family. 3 sisters live in Belgium, 2 brothers and 1 sister in Aachen (Aix), 1 brother in Dusseldorf, one sister in Montjoie which is 4 hours form here, and I myself, the 4th child live in the family home. The brother in Dusseldorf has been a widower since 1909, the oldest sister in Vernier, Belgium was widowed in 1910, and four weeks your cousin died. He was the son of your father's sister Magdalena and he was married to my sister, also in Belgium. Otherwise all is well with all of us; naturally we have to slave away (or) [keep our nose to the to the grindstone] because one cannot get rich as quickly here as in America.
I have 11 children - 6 boys and 5 girls. My sixth daughter died. The oldest boy is 20 and has been serving as a volunteer in the army since last autumn. Six have finished school. and five are still going. The youngest will be six years old in June but all are strong and very industrious. One daughter has been living in Aachen since fall and one in Belgium. Two grown sons and one daughter work with my husband on the farm and in our entire business. Because of the death of my brother-in-law I was unable to answer your letter any sooner. All of the brothers and sisters were at the funeral and they all send warm greetings to you and your whole family. After that I had a communicant, then it was seed-
time and everyone was busy out of doors and with the best intentions it was not possible for me to find enough time during my housework to write to you, for which I must now beg your pardon. But, dear Maria, I hope that we shall be writing oftener to one another. And now tell me how do your sisters happen to be in California? That must be a great distance from you and that is surely where one goes to look for gold. According to my figuring you are all widely separated, whereas we can all get together in 4 hours by train. Is everything really still so good in America? Are your brothers making a success of farming? Is the price of land high, also the price of cattle? also the crops and produce?
Here land is very high-priced - 600 marks per acre in average condition, in poor condition it is naturally cheaper. For the past 3 years the price of cattle has been high, not infrequently the price of a good cow was 500 - 600 marks and even more, heavy plow oxen 600 - 750 marks. This year the price has gone down considerably but hopefully it will go up again. Wages by the day and especially wages of laborers are also high around here. We own 50 acres of land and when it is in good condition we can raise 40 head of cattle. Until 2 years ago my husband also ran a tannery through which he also earned good money. At that time the tannery was burned out and since the building was not adequately insured and the contents (goods) not at all, we then suffered a great loss.
Since none of the sons had any enthusiasm for the tannery, we did not rebuild but have been more occupied with farming. As your husband is a business man, a thought has just come to me. have you ever heard anything about Bernhard Faymonville or have you ever seen his address anywhere? If so, please send it along next time you write for he belongs to the family of my late father. Almost i forgot to thank you for the obituaries of your dear parents. I have distributed them as fat as they reached. Obituary notices are not so customary here, so we did not have any made, therefore I cannot send any in return.
Now, dear Maria, you can pass the time by reading my letter and I must close. Give warm greetings to your husband, and to all the children, and also to all your brothers and sisters and their families from all of us, and most especially do you yourself receive most cordial greeting from Cousin Elisa Kupper
Events
| Birth | 2 Sep 1862 | Krinkelt, Liège, Prussia |  | ||
| Marriage | Abt 1891 | Kupper | | ||
| Death | 4 Feb 1943 | Krinkelt, Liège, Prussia | |
Families
| Spouse | Kupper ( - ) |
| Father | Johann Faymonville (1827 - 1901) |
| Mother | Anna Margarethe Langer (1827 - 1896) |
Endnotes
1. Girgen, Catherine Piasecki., The Girgen family history : fourteen generations from the mid-1600's to the present. (Lander, Wyoming: Valley Printing. 1993.), p. 100.
2. Girgen, Catherine Piasecki., The Girgen family history : fourteen generations from the mid-1600's to the present. (Lander, Wyoming: Valley Printing. 1993.), p. 100.
3. Girgen, Catherine Piasecki., The Girgen family history : fourteen generations from the mid-1600's to the present. (Lander, Wyoming: Valley Printing. 1993.), p. 100.