Thanks to Robert Stern, great-grandson of the author, for donating this
eBook.
INTRODUCTION
In 1921, my great-grandmother, wrote this book about how her parents
met, married and began a family. Eva's mother, Ernestine, was
presumably "the little immigrant." The book was privately printed,
and only a few copies survive.
The names of most of the characters have been disguised, although
thinly. In the table below, the fictitious names appear on the left,
the real names, where known, on the right:
Renestine Jewel Ernestine Jacobowsky
Aldine Bilter (her married sister)
Jaffray Starr Jacob Sterne
Lola, the Starrs' first-born Laura Sterne
Ena, their second-born Eva Sterne
Lester Leopold Sterne
Andrew Alfred Sterne
Frank, the youngest child Fred Sterne
Josiah, longtime family slave
Caroline, Josiah's wife
Sarah, successor to Carolina
One name that is authentic is that of Gen. Buell, whom the Starrs put
up during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War and who in
fact was sent to Jefferson following a breakout of violence during
this period.
Eva Sterne, who became the wife of Leopold Stern (with only one e),
was 59 when this book was printed.
THE LITTLE IMMIGRANT
Eva Stern
CHAPTER I
"NAH! Renestine, cannot you come with the skirt and let me lay it in
your trunk? You are dreaming, dreaming all the time. My child, these
things must be ready by midnight tonight."
The girl was thirteen years old and her mother was getting her
possessions together to send her to America to join a sister who had
already gone there and was married and now sent to have her little
sister journey to the States, too.
"Oh, Mutterchen, I do not want to go," burst out Renestine. "I
want to stay with you. I do not want to go."
"Nah! Kindlein, stay then," said the mother, keeping her own
grief away from her child.
Just then the door to the little room flew open and three
excited girls of about Renestine's own age or perhaps one or two years
older, bustled themselves inside.
"Why, Renestine, you are not finished packing yet! We are
ready and our trunks are roped and standing at the door for Laaskar to
put on the post-wagon when he drives by on his way to the post-house
tonight."
The speaker stopped confused seeing that Renestine was silent
with no joy in her eyes and the mother sat quietly with flushed checks
and said nothing.
"What has happened?" said the three girls in chorus. "You are
not going to back out, are you?"
Still Renestine did not look up or make any sign that she was
interested in the preparations for her arranged trip. Presently the
mother spoke and her voice trembled.
"Renestine has changed her mind and will remain at home."
Then the girls broke into a laugh and chided Renestine, saying
she was a baby and would never see the ocean or go to America and ride
in carriages. The mental picture was doing its work. Not ride in
carriages and have pretty clothes and .learn to speak English? That
was too much to refuse. Renestine raised her head, wiped the tears
out of her eyes, brought the skirt neatly folded to her mother and
said: "Mutterchen, finish my trunk. I am going with Yetta, Selma and
Polly to America."
The journey began and Renestine made the voyage over in a
sailing vessel which took six weeks to make her port at Galveston,
Texas, in the early fifties. The girls experienced days of seasickness
when they thought it was better to die than to ride in carriages and
were weary and homesick. But when, at last, they walked again upon
land and were welcomed in Galveston by their relatives, all the
melancholy hours were forgotten. The girls had separated into their
different families on arriving at Houston, but frequently met just as
they had before leaving their home town, and were observing everything
with eagerness and getting their first impressions of America.
One balmy Sunday morning they took a walk and marveled much
that Houston had so many houses and such large ones. While they walked
they chatted and were merry. Finally, they noticed that a great many
looked at them curiously, and some smiled. They were at last spoken to
by an old lady, who reminded them that it was not customary for girls
to walk in the middle of the street. This was a conceit that pleased
them, to walk in the middle of the street just to see people walking on
either side of them.
The ringing of the Sunday morning church bells was a startling
sound and Paula exclaimed, as the three stood still listening: "Oh,
listen to the music box!" Solemnly they walked on and wondered that
the world was so large and full of beautiful things. Itwas a long time
before Renestine realized that they had gone a great distance. "We
will return now," she said. But when they turned to retrace their
steps they found themselves in a wood of large, dark trees with heavy
gray moss dropping from their branches and a solemn stillness over all.
It was growing dusk, too, and the trees looked ghostly in the falling
gloom.
"Do you know which way to go?" asked Yetta.
"Oh, come with me and I will show you," said Paula.
Trustingly they followed Paula. But the brave girl, after a
half hour's vain effort, had to admit that she was puzzled herself and
did not know how to get out of the wood. Yetta showed the nearness of
tears, but Renestine set to work to extricate themselves. Before she
had decided what to do they all three heard horses' hoofs trampling
down bush-wood and dry twigs not far away. The riders, or whatever it
was, came nearer until the girls saw a young man on horseback, a boy
accompanying him. The horsemen reined in their horses and stopped when
they saw the girls standing before them. The older man, who was about
twenty-eight, asked how they came to be so far in the depth of the
trackless woods. When they had told him, he dismounted, throwing the
reins over his arm and leading his horse, he walked along by the side
of the girls guiding them out of their difficulty; the boy followed on
his horse which carried the saddle-bags containing the personal
belongings of both of them. As they walked many questions were asked
and answered and in a little time the woods were left behind and the.
girls were opening the gate of Renestine's sister's home. The young
rescuer, after seeing them safely disappear in the doorway, got on his
horse again and trotted off to his hotel, the boy following.