From: aol.com
Date: Sat, 7 Jun 1997 13:58:42 -0400 (EDT)
To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
	[email protected], [email protected]
cc: J [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
	1 [email protected]
Subject: Joseph RoederLetters

HERE ARE ALL HIS LETTERS. THEY ARE VERY INTERESTING, BUT HE NEVER TALKS ABOUT HIS WIFE 
AND KIDS, AND THE THINGS THEY DO, OR HIS BROTHERS AND SISTERS (such as my mother), ETC.

These five letters were written by Joseph Roeder between March 1920 to February 1922. 
It was thru these letters that Karl Roeder (in Germany) wrote letters to Schulenburg, Texas 
in hopes of finding Roeder descendants of Joseph Roeder.
The letters were written in German, and translated to English.
Virginia Helweg of Shiner, Texas had them translated by a friend of hers.

From: Joseph Roeder (oldest son of Ferdinand and Anna Roeder) of Freyburg, Schulenburg, TX
To: Franz Roeder, Jr. in Austria. (the son of Franz Roeder, Sr., who is
Ferdinand's brother).	..
NOTE: Karl Ludwig Roeder of Rosenheim, Germany is the Great Grandson of Franz Roeder, Sr.

LETTER NO.1

March 5, 1920

Dear Frank,
             I have received your letter and since I have a rest period I will answer 
right away. We are all sick with the flu. I have had it for a week and still feel quite 
bad; my hands tremble somewhat as I write. Many people have died from the flu during 
these last two years. All of us are still living, except mother, who died Aug. 1915. 
Father is still living, but is also quite sick. He is now here at my house where I can 
take better care of him. 
      Rheinhold, Louisa and I are married; Rudoph, Christina and Anna are single. 
Rudolph was in France for about a year. Strange isn't it! It was so terrible, where 
brother fought against brother. It was high time for the fighting to end; otherwise 
all of us would have to go. Now, thank God, the war is over. But things have gotten 
worse than better. Prices rise daily and those who have nothing to sell, as the 
laborers, must live from hand to mouth, everything goes higher and higher. 
For example; potatoes are 7 or 8 cents per pound, which has never been before. Meal is 
cheaper than potatoes. Shoes and clothes are much higher. A suit (or coat) that 
usually cost $10  in  1914 now costs $50 to $60. Shoes are the same. Meat is ten times 
higher, and so with everything. But for you, as we read in the papers, even with much 
money, there is nothing you can buy. Here during the war, we had to be patient. We can 
be happy tho that we were not interned (detention camps) since we are not naturalized 
citizens of America. Only Rudolph is an American citizen. We have been here for 20 years 
and I know very little English. Here where we live almost everyone is from our home 
country; low-german Maravians, etc. The Bohemians who came from Europe were the worst 
German haters. The Americans were not so bad. Therefore we have to be satisfied, even 
if we have to almost work ourselves to death. I wish I could send you some bacon and 
lard, but I know little about sending such things. It is said that goods that are sent 
overseas are never received.It goes into the wrong hands.
       
	Dear Frank, you write asking if I still remember all of you. Do you think that I would 
forget you so soon? During the four years of war, I thought of you often; my cousins 
and all of my school comrades, if all of you were still living. It made me very happy 
when I received your "living-letter". 

      Dear Frank, father would like to know if the other brothers are living. I now have 
a nice establishment(home). I have seven children; 4 boys and 3 girls. Two boys have died. 
Now in all we are 9.  I am a little heavy (fat); been married 15 years. I have 136 
acres offarm land for which I paid $4,000.00 which is now worth $10,000.00. I have
4 good horses and one foal. We milk 10 cows and butchered 5 hogs. Each weighed from 
300 to 400 pounds. 
That is so different from Gaisdorf. We had only one goat and no hog. Uncle Karl and 
Josef; how are they? 
They are probably not living like they did in Vienna now that they are living on the 
land (in the country).

Dear Frank, I'm sending $5.00. It is not much, but will perhaps arrive before Easter 
so that you can buy a little something for the children, if there is anything to buy. 
Please write to me how many Kronen you got for $5. The newspaper says that the money 
changers give 300 Kronen for $1.00. 
Now I need to stop writing. It is getting so long, even tho I would like to say more, 
but my hand is trembling since I'm still weak from the flu. I can write more next time. 
So I close with hearty greetings from us and hope that you will soon have better times.

    								Josef Roeder
    								Schulenburg, Rt.2
    								Fayette Co., Tex.
    								North America




LETTER NO.2

Schulenburg, Texas, 28 June 1920

Dear Frank
	Since I am doing some writing, I will write you a little letter. We are now 
having quite a bit of work and when one works all day, at night, one is too tired to 
write. Lately I have had much work. I have built a new barn which cost $800.00. If I 
had built it 4 years ago, it would have cost $400.00; at that time lumber cost 4 cents 
per square foot. Now it costs from 8 cents to 12 cents. But during the war, lumber 
could not be bought at all; the government used all the lumber for ships and barracks.
	Dear Frank, is it better now with you? Now in Austria it should be 
harvest time. Now you must be getting more bread. Hope you will have a good 
harvest.
	Here the prospects for a harvest are good, namely cotton and corn 
which we raise, but it is raining quite a bit. That is not good for the cotton. 
You should see a cotton field, how pretty it is; cotton is blooming now. All the 
flowers bloom white the first day, and in the second day, red. Then they fall off, 
and the fruit (ball) stays. If it rains in the flower, it falls off along with 
the fruit. Therefore it should not rain now. Then we also have an insect called 
boll weevil. It does greaf damage when the weather is so damp. When the sun shines, 
it is too hot for the weevil which he can't endure.
	How are you? Wouldn't you and your family like to come to America?
	In this country in the cities, laborers earn 8 to 10 dollars per day 
for 8 hours of work.
	I close for this time with greetings.






LETTER NO.3:

27 December 1920
 Dear Frank,
	As I received your letter I  remembered that I had not  answered your last
letter. You will have to forgive me since I am a lazy writer.
	        We had a happy Christmas, and soon we go into the new year. What will it 
bring? I wish we could be like we did before the war, and it seems that it gets worse 
instead of better.
                Here, it is not very good. Of course we are not hungry, but everything 
the farmer wants to sell is cheap, but what he needs to buy is as expensiveas during the 
war. Last year at this time the cotton cost 40 cents per
lb., but now we are offered only 10 cents. Clothing still costs as much aswhen cotton 
was 40 cents. The same is true with wheat. Wheat is cheap,but bread is expensive. I sold 
most of my cotton for a good price; itbrought 30 cents per pound; some farmers wanted more 
so they held theirs for a better price, but they suffered a loss. I harvested 15 bales 
(550 Ibs.- ginned wt. per bale). Isold 12 bales and kept 3; on those 3 bales I have 
already lost $300.
                I have bought an automobile for $850. If it were not for the "big water",
I would come to Vienna. I could bring bacon and lard; we have enough for
all of us. We butchered four rather large hogs and I still have two. There is no shortage 
of food.
                Since the times are still bad for you, I am sending you a little something;  
$5 for father and $5 for Rheinhold.We should have sent itsooner, so that "

(Note:  here the letter ends;---the next page is probably lost)	



LETTER# NO.4:

Schulenburg, Texas 
10 March 1921

Dear Frank,

	In December, between Christmas and New Years (the date is not definite) I
sent a letter with $10 enclosed. Since I've neard nothing from you, I suppose you 
did not receive it, since you have not written to me about it. Maybe the letter 
was lost; it would be a shame if you did not get the money. The letter was registered. 
You should have received it by January 20 or 25, 1921. Here you can buy very little 
for $10, but you could get 4 or 5 times more. Here food has gotten cheaper since 
the war. Rice is 5 cents per pound, bacon and lard are 12 cents, sugar 10 cents, 
meat 10 to 12 cents in the country, but 20 to 25 cents in town, meal for 6 cents. 
We have more bacon and lard than we need; we do not need to buy meat since we 
butcher each week from March to November, a calf of 200 pounds. We eat what we need 
and divide the rest for 10 to 12 cents per pound. We are not in need. Just so we 
are healthy. I wish I could give you something also, But it seems that packages 
and letters are getting lost. Last week we sent Carl Munster $10 in Bodenstadt. 
Father sends greetings to Uncle Josef. He should write sometime.
 	We greet all of you and wish you a Happy Easter.
	Josef Roeder



LETTER NO.5:

Schulenburg, Texas
28 February 1922

Dear Frank,
	.	Since I have not written for a long time, I must write. Postponing 
writingis what I do since I am "writing-lazy".
                There have been some changes here in the past time. 
Father died on Nov. 17, 1921. During the last year he was sickly, but I didn't 
think he would leave us so soon. He had stomach cancer. He was confined to 
bed for 4 weeks.
                
                When there was war, we always said if the war were over things 
would be better, but the war is over a long time, but times seem to be even worse. 
Everything one buys is expensive and what you sell is so cheap. For example; 
a cow that cost 50 to 100 dollars, now costs 5 to 10 dollars; a yearling calf was 
25 to 30 dollars; now is 6 to 8 dollars; hogs were 18 to 20 cents, live weight, 
now 6 cents; bacon and lard was 30 cents per lb., now is 8 cents. Then also last 
year we had a bad harvest. In July we had a terrible storm that ruined everything. 
What we did harvest was so cheap. Cotton brought 20 cents per lb. But we harvested 
very little. Corn could hardly be sold; it was hardly worth gathering.It was all 
blown to the ground. That was miserable work; but we have enough to eat; we are 
not hungry. 
	As we read in the paper it is still a bad condition for you; even worse 
than during the war; your money is almost worthless. Each week I read the 
Vienna correspondence in the newspaper.
               Dear Frank, how is your family. Hope all of you are well. I would 
like to write to cousin Josef Roeder in Gaisdorf, but I don't know his address. 
Maybe you know.
               				
               				So for this time I close with greetings.
		   				J. Roeder

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