BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON
AUGUST ARNOLD- INCLUDING HIS RECOLLECTIONS
OF HIS YOUTH IN GERMANY
EDITORS INTRODUCTION
This paper though unsigned almost certainly was prepared by Harold Henry Arnold in 1966 from his review of the 176 page August Arnold notebook referred to in the opening paragraph. Apparently the book had been made available to him by another unknown descendant.
The original manuscript is on 6 legal size pages typed on the author ‘s 1930 ‘s Underwood typewriter. This copy was created by the optical scanning of the original and the use of Optical Character Recognition software to convert to a Microsoft Word (DOC.) file. Since the original copy while good by mid-20th standards was now faded and somewhat fuzzy, there were numerous reading errors in the original output file. These were corrected manually by the editor with the intent of preserving the words and meaning of the original 1966 writing, as accurately as possible. Also the editor has inserted numerous "Editorial Comments" which will help readers to understand the intended meaning of the text. All editorial inserts are distinguished by the use of italicized type. If the text is not italicized, the words are as copied from the original 1966 paper.
In the process of editing this file, text format changes were freely made where such changes appeared to make the text more readable and easier to understand On the other hand the word structure and punctuation of the original were preserved
THE WRITING FOLLOWS
Now, in this year of 1966, there is still in existence the yellowed and worn sheets of what was once probably an old—fashioned "composition book" approximately six inches by almost eight inches, the loose stitching of which barely holds together the 176 pages numbered from 1 to 176, in the upper corner of each sheet so laboriously. It may be that this book was started as early as 1856, but more likely some few years passed before the earlier items were recopied therein by its owner, August Arnold.
Just two years before, in 1854, August Arnold, as a young man of about twenty years of age, had. left his native village of Burghausen in the Grand Duchy of Baden, just a few miles east of what is now the German-French border, to seek his fortune in the great new land of America. Now, at the age of 22 years in 1856, he felt the need to express his faith and hopes through poems to be written thereon at various times and places throughout his life-time. For 1856 is the date inscribed at the end of the first poem, and opposite that verse is another dated 1857.
Most of the items therein were labeled by August Arnold as -STAMBLATT" (?), most of which were evidently dedicated to various individuals, probably at the time members of his congregation or later, after he was no longer a preacher, to friends and even to his sons and daughters. They were mostly poems of inspiration and spiritual advice to the individual, some of appreciation or farewell. Others not reflecting the name of any individual were more serious attempts at poetry.
There are a few English verses among the many in German, the language of at least the first half of his life) and the language in which he had been educated in the Parish schools of Baden. It is to be expected that he was far more fluent in the German Language, and it may be that many of his verses in
that language are quite acceptable poetry. In the English, a language in which he probably faltered for many years after his arrival in America, the following is an example:
CHANGEABLE SKY
Behold, how lovely and how bright
The Stars shine in a cloudless night
Some other night you look again
To see those stars, but quite in vain.
Look where you may, you can see none.
Why is this? Are those stars all gone?
Or, have they all in some dark night
Lost all at once their lustrous light?
0(h) no! Their lights have not died out
But on account of one dark cloud
You seek for them, but all in vain
‘Till this cloud disappears again.
Your prospect too is’ sometimes bright
You see it to your hearts delight.
But this does not forever last
Behold, a cloud is nearing fast.
Then comes the day when you will groan:
"My prospect is forever gone;
I hoped, but lo! I hoped in vain;
I never will rejoice again."
Is your Life like a dismal night?
Have courage — it will soon be bright.
Those clouds have come and they will go
And will take with them -(all) your woe.
Trust in the Lord in days of bliss
And hope on days of gloominess.
Be led. by his almighty hand,
He will protect you to the End.
‘LOOKING FOR A HOME
(For most of the first 20 years of his life in the United States August Arnold lived in such diverse places as New Orleans, Louisiana; Louisville, Kentucky; and sometime before 1875 hr moved to Texas where he lived for a while at Waco and Industry in North Central Texas before settling permanently in a small frame house at 215 Burnet Street in San Antonio. His itinerary over these years can be traced through location and date notations on entries in his notebook as follow)
It is fortunate that he saw fit to show, in addition to the date, the name of the town and State in which he was writing at the time, in many instances. Some of the notations made along side of the individual poems are as follows:
As mentioned above: One Poem "1856" and the second, "1857." No town or State (is) shown Louisville, (Kentucky)- Oct. 24, 1858. (four such notations).
Covington, Louisiana, Sept. 24, 1861. (Covington is in St. Tammany Co.). St. Tammany County (:Parish), Louisiana. (three such notations) also 9/24/(18)61. William Arnold, his oldest son, is shown in this notebook as born in Carrolton, Louisiana, July 27, 1859. In fact, another notation on the family record sheet of this little book shows them going to New Orleans, La., in November 1858. (Today St Tammany Parish and Carrollton are in the Greater New Orleans area)
Another notation shows that his wife returned to Louisville, Ky. in April 1861. We must go to our History of the United States to find the reason (or at least the probable reason) for her return, where we read that Fort Sumter was bombarded on April 12, 1861, to signal the beginning of the Civil War. August Arnold himself, must have stuck it out in the South until August of 1862, when he (too) "traveled to Louisville." (German). (The significance of the word "German" here apparently is saying he translated the "traveled to Louisville "from German. If the author of this passage was in fact Harold Henry Arnold as the Editor believe, he was not real literate in this language being the first generation English speaker. He acquired a limited knowledge of German in high school in San Antonio. The text continues). We feel certain that he had no special interest in the cause of the South; and very probably his sympathies were with the North.
Another contributing reason for the return of Juliana Arnold to the north is revealed in another notation: 1861 Oct. 3rd Maria (Mary) was born in Louisville (Kentucky) (Notation in German.) From their arrival at New Orleans, La. in about November 1858 to the final return of August Arnold, himself, in August, 1862, almost four years had passed.
Another poem is dated, June 8, 1870, but the place is not shown. One is headed, "Waco, (Texas)- April 22, 1875," and another at "Industry (Texas) October 1876." This arrival at Waco is explained through another notation stating that they moved to Waco, Texas, in February of 1874.
Their moving from Waco to Industry (Texas) is also covered by still another record that they
had so moved in 1876. It is clear that this August Arnold was the Pastor of the Perry Methodist
Church (Falls Co., Texas) at the same time he served in the Waco German Methodist Church.
This is printed in the "History of the Perry Methodist Church, 75th Anniversary publication-1872—1947" in which is listed:
"Pastors who have served this congregation, Rev. F. Mumme 1872—1874 (and) August Arnold 1874—1876."
While no poems or verses were seemingly written or at least not identified as such, while stationed as a preacher near Seguin (at San Geronimo Church), there is a notation to the effect that soon after Christmas they came from Industry to Seguin, Year 1877. He probably meant Christmas of 1877, so that would mean that he served near Seguin during the year 1878 and probably part of 1879. Another record of his travels shows that he and his family came to San Antonio in August 1879, and another shows that in October 1883 they entered their OWN HOME (215 Burnet Street). (The editor remembers this property well as a child going monthly with my mother to collect rent from the tenant. Later in the 1960 ‘s the City condemned the front 2/3 of the property including the house for an extension of 7th Street. Finally during the mid-1980 ‘s I remember feeling quite sad when as my father ‘s attorney, I wrote the deed conveying the remaining property to a buyer finally ending a century of family ownership.
Poems showing "San Antonio, Texas" were written on Feb. 16, 1884, Jan. 25th and 28th, 1886, and Oct. 21, 1895. Others, without mention of place, must have been written at San Antonio, and were dated Dec. 28, 1885, Jan. 3, 1886, Dec. 2, 1887, June 17, 1888, Jan. 20, 1889, June 27, 1889, Jan. 13, 1890, May 9, 1891, Nov 6, 1894, Sept. 16, 1895, Apr. 5, 1896, Jan. 2,1898, and. Jan. 20, 1901.
REMINISCENCES OF GERMANY
On page 121 of his note-book, August Arnold begins telling of his reminiscences pertaining to his boyhood in Germany. From a reading of these notes it can be understood that he is writing to his grandchildren, so we are sure that he would be doubly pleased to know that his great-great-(great)grandchildren will now be able to enjoy them. The following recollections were probably written by him fairly late in life. By 1900 he had reached the age of sixty-six, and soon had a cataract on at least one eye. For this operation it was necessary that a resident of San Antonio go to Austin, Texas. It is understood that shortly after the operation and while the eye was in the process of healing, in stooping he struck the eye upon the point of a rather high chair. Thus, the operation was far from a success, and consequently we remember him as having for many years been at least partially blind.
In copying his story (told in English) we (the author) have largely left intact the idiom (possibly reflecting his German-language education) as used by him; but in a few instances have made slight revisions in spelling and punctuation, but with few other revisions except the shortening of detail in places. (In the 1998 edit, the 1966 writing has been preserved even though the frequent use of commas, semi colons and colons instead of periods has lead to many long and sometimes confusing sentence structures. The text continues….)
I was born on April 20, 1834, at a village called Berghausen in the Grand Duchy (Province) of Baden, in Germany. (I want) To speak first of all a few words of my dear parents:. My Father’s name was Bernard Arnold, and my mother’s name Julia Arnold. They were neither rich, nor were they poor; they belonged to the so-called "middle class," but they were god-fearing, strictly honest, and very industrious and benevolent people. They were by everybody highly esteemed.
My father was renowned as a very skillful weaver. From the most ordinary piece of cloth to the finest fancy fabrics such as all kinds of table cloth, most anything, he was known to be able to weave; but it was as a general thing only in Winter season that he worked at that business.
I, myself, when I was quite a little boy, had to sit there in the evening before the wheel to make spools, and had to feed the cattle after school time while most all of the other boys of my age were at liberty to play to their hearts delight. Well, later on, when I was about fifteen years, I was permitted to learn to weave, but I never did get (to be) as skilled an Artist in that work as my dear father was.
Now, to learn how to weave- 0(h) Yes, almost anybody can learn that. You just look at a weaver see how he does it. Then you will surely say: "I can do that too, I can easily do it;" but, to weave, to weave fast, and at the same time to make a good, a nice and even job of it, I will tell you, THAT requires a good deal of practice and a good deal of care, even if you weave only an ordinary piece of cloth. When you intend to weave a (more artistic) piece of domestic you must be very skillful and must have your thoughts on your work. Well, I learned to weave in my boyhood time, but I never got to be a master in that business and much less a skilled artist as my father had been.
Now, my parents, both my father and my mother too, filled out every hour, yes, every moment of their week-days time with work, work, work; and we, their children, whether we have inherited that from our parents, or whether we did it because we were trained to it, I don’t know, but we all did do the same.
There is another peculiarity of which I think just now in looking backward through my life, that bad habit which we call "gossip." "slander," "tattle-tale;" all these naughty habits were not found. at my early home.
My dear mother was very good to the poor people, and all the poor people knew it too; from near and from far, they would always find a kindhearted friend in my mother. But to be just, I must say that my father always did agree with my mother in all these acts of benevolence. So he was of the same mind with my mother in regard to doing good to the poor.
You may ask now: "Well! Grandpa- did you have to go to school too?" Of course-I did have to go to school. Even if my parents would not have had any interest in it, the Church and the State law would have compelled them to send me to school, but that was quite unnecessary because my parents were just as anxious for us children to learn all we could learn. They always encouraged us to do so too.
You ask: "But Grandpa, did you have any vacation sometimes too, as we have?" 0(h) Yes, we had vacation sometimes too, at different times during the year, but I will tell you what. All those vacations were so arranged that we had our vacations always just at the busiest times of the year, in the time of making hay, in the time of harvest, and at some other times when our parents needed us so badly for work. This was our vacation time, and so it happened that our vacation time was no vacation at all for us. No, that was always the time of hard work from early of morning to late of night. Oh, how hard we did have to work, my sisters and myself, in those days which you call vacation.
You ask, "Well, in ordinary times, when you had no vacation, how did you fare then?" How?- four days in the week, - Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, we had to go to school from eight to twelve in the morning and from one to four in the afternoon; on Wednesday and Saturday only of mornings from eight to twelve. But I will tell you- all the time between those school hours were filled out with work which our parents had given us to do. Here is a sample of it. Besides feeding the cattle and similar, my father would tell me at the breakfast table: "August when you come home from school you take the team and get a load of clover for the cattle," or some such kind of work. Oh! there was always more work than I could do, but my dear father was in that line very reasonable. He never expected more of me than I really could do.
Now you may ask: "Well, Grandpa what Church did you belong to? or did you NOT belong to any church at all?" Oh Yes, I did belong to a church; Of course I did. My Parents belonged to the EVANGELICAL CHURCH. That was NOT your Evangelical Association. Your church was then just in its beginning in America, but was not in existence in Germany in those days. The Evangelical Church of which my parents were members was a composition of the Lutheran Church and the REFORMED CHURCH, but the doctrine or teachings of that Church are in all the main points the same as the Doctrine of your church. Now, as that EVANGELICAL CHURCH was the Church of my parents, it was also- it had to be- my church too. I was baptised (the author ‘s spelling) in that Church and I was educated in it too. I received an education as good as time and circumstances permitted it. We all, boys and girls, had to begin school when we were six years old. The girls had to go to school until they were thirteen years old, that was in all seven years; but we boys had to go to school until we were fourteen years old, that was in all eight years. You may ask, "but why did the boys have to go one year longer to school than the girls?" I don’t know. Maybe the girls were brighter in their heads than we boys were, maybe too, that our wise men thought that we boys needed more education than the girls.
In ordinary lessons such as spelling, writing, reading, ciphering or arithmatic (his spelling), in geography, in history, especially in bible and church history, and in singing and learning and casting the notes, and such lessons, I am sure that we were fully equal to the boys and girls of our age in America, only that we have not learned the English Language. Well, we learned in place of it, the German Language. In addition to all this we received a splendid education in the biblical doctrines and in the biblical history and in the catechism and church history, of course only in substance. I have always praised the Lord and thanked that good Evangelical Church for that, that she has given us such a good and blessed instruction in the bible and in spiritual things.
Regular Sunday Schools, we had none, and I doubt if this blessed institution had been in existence in those days. If it was it was then a small institution, whereas it is now spread all over the world. But we got our religious knowledge and training mostly in our day schools. Then on Sundays we had to attend Church and on Sunday afternoons we had to go to church too, not to hear a sermon, but for religious instructions. (So they scheduled their Sunday school) after the morning worship instead of before)
Next to this, and principally, I wish to tell in short sketches how the Lord protected me from childhood up, I had a brother who died when I was not quite four years of age. I always did remember him and loved him ever since as I know by tokens of his love that he loved me too. He was about eight or ten years older than I. One day in Spring a few weeks after he had died, my mother who was then in the flower garden told me what a smart, noble-hearted and good boy my brother Charles had been and that he was now in heaven by Jesus. I can recollect not only the garden, but even the nice flowers too, especially a troop of little red flowers which we called "Blutstroepschen." I being only a boy of four years of age, knew then, just about as well as I do now, what it meant to be in heaven with Jesus. And, myself, loving my Brother Charles so much anyhow and knowing that he was now in heaven, I made up my mind then and there to get to be just as good a boy as he had been, and to live so that I would be taken to heaven too. You can see by this, two things: First, you can see how solemn and sincere a resolution a four-year old boy can make, and then you can see how deep such a resolution can penetrate into the heart of a child so that the recollection of it can never be wiped out.
At this point, August Arnold recalls the indelible impression with regard to a religious experience made upon his five-year old heart and mind through the influence of a "Sewing Girl" in his home, by the use of an old German song and her exhortation to be a good boy.
Next he tells of his narrow escape from serious injury under the feet of a horse driven by a Coachman of a big carriage "coming quite fast." Then he mentions his fall from a wagon through which he broke his shoulder bone. But his closest call seems to have been his fall from a tremendously high nut tree when he was about 15 or 16 years of age. (It‘s a pity but the details of the "Sewing Girl ~" exhortations and the speeding carriage incident were not given. But he continues with the fall from the nut tree story)
That happened late in the fall. My father had on one of his acres a great big nut tree; you call them English Walnuts. One afternoon my father and I went out with the team and with a ladder of exactly twenty-four steps. My father intended to plow, and I was to knock down the nuts from the tree with a pole. In general it was always a great pleasure to climb up into a tree to get the fruit down, and I considered it then not as work, but as a great pleasure to climb up into that tree to knock the nuts down. I had to set my twenty-four foot long ladder pretty straight to reach the lowest limb of the tree as the tree was about sixty-five to seventy feet high. I began my work on the top of the tree, and I was at least sixty feet above ground when all at once this sad experience happened to me. I was used to climbing trees from limb to limb; I was quite fearless too, and a little more than that, I am afraid that I was rather careless too. Well! after I had knocked the nuts down from one limb, I climbed, or better to say, I stepped on to the next limb. I had then good and sharp eyes, and I just wanted to step from one limb to another, reaching out with my hand for a fairly strong limb to hold. I knew that the wood of nut trees is strong, and as I stepped over from one limb to the other I looked at that limb first, just to see if it was strong enough to hold me. Oh Yes, there was apparently no doubt about it. It surely would have been strong enough if it had. only been sound, but it was rotten, as I found out just as soon as I stepped on it. When I put my weight on it, it broke.
Now, to make that step from one limb to another, it was necessary to leave my hold and to reach out for another limb. I was careful enough to look out for all of that. I had already picked out a good strong limb quite near to where I could hold myself again after I left my first safe hold. Almost in the twinkling of an eye I could have had reached that other secure hold., but to reach it, it was necessary to step with one foot on that newly selected foot-hold and to bend my body forward enough to reach that limb, the new hold for my hand. Well, I did make that step, reaching out with my hand for that new hold, but just at that moment when I had no hold with any one of my hands, my newly selected foundation broke, and I naturally sank down. As quick as I was to catch hold of my selected limb for my handhold, I came too late, just early enough to knock the points of my fingers with a terrible force against that limb, but too late to catch it.
It was by that fall that I realized the first time in my life how fast the human brain can and does work on such an occasion………………………………… . (Aparently the dots indicate text
was left out continuing as follows") but that was a very short prayer after all. How long will it take a person to travel through the-air in a fall of about forty feet? Now it was about sixty feet or a little more from the place from which I fell down to the ground …………. (Another break continuing with the following) my mind was very busily engaged with the idea to help myself. Twice on my journey downward I met with some strong branches of which I knew that they would be surely strong enough to hold me if I would only be quick enough to catch them. But both times I found that I was too slow, just fast enough to knock the points of my fingers with terrible force against those branches. I tell you that I did feel it too; my memory made a note of it which I never forgot.
Now that journey through the air, short as it was, was surely not only the most dangerous journey that I ever made in my life, but it was the most wonderful journey too Many years before that accident happened, there were some preparations made for that landing. About fifteen feet above ground that old tree had on one side a kind of a "sprosz" (The German—English Dictionary describes this as "shoot" or "sprout."- In this instance he probably referred to an outgrowth of short soft limbs which had come out in a cluster from the main trunk of the tree, and served to slow down his fall and tossed. him aside to the plowed ground.) (Another break followed by:) as a boy I had often wondered how that "sprosz" happened to get there. While I was up in the tree, my father was plowing and it so had to happen that he had plowed before I fell down, the very ground on which I was drawn in my fall. Now, how came it to happen that I had such a safe landing, with no bones broken or any other serious injuries. I do not know although I made the journey from the beginning to the end. After it had happened, in looking and thinking it over, I came to the conclusion that every endeavor I made to save myself by catching a limb, which proved to be a failure, gave my body in the free air a certain turn, and then besides this I was thrown from one limb to the next one below in a cater-cornered way, and the last limb threw me, also in a cater-cornered way, over on that "sprosz." It was NOT hard like wood so it (deflected) me over on the fresh-plowed field and at the same time it broke off from the tree, and that freshly plowed ground was such a splendid cushion for me that not only was my life saved but I did not suffer any bone break or other serious injuries (except that) for a few days I felt as if every joint of my body was out of order; that was all …………. .