1903- Ottilie and Erwin Come to America

By Frederick Erwin Walton Copyright (C) 2013

Column from The New York Sun, July 1, 1903

On July 1, 1903 Ottilie (Mühlwitz) Packheiser led her 5 year old son Erwin across the crowded North German Lloyd (Norddeutscher Lloyd or NDL) pier in Hoboken, N. J., directly across the Hudson river from Manhattan, New York. NDL owned 3 large docks in Hoboken, reconstructed after a disastrous 1900 fire. This was considered their "New York" home. [1]

The hot July sun, beating down on a busy pier, bustling with activity, had heated the air into the high 80's. Storms the previous night brought with it a high pressure system that swept warmer breezes up from the southern states and the heat was expected to last for the next several days.[2] Welcome to America! Northern Germany seldom got this hot. Ottilie and Erwin had finally arrived in New York after enduring a week long ocean voyage from Bremen, Germany on the luxury passenger steamship Kronprinz Wilhelm, the same ship that brought her husband, Rudolph, here nearly one year previously.

Erwin Rudolph Packhieser 
about age 7 

Ottilie and Erwin traveled as second class passengers and would have enjoyed some of the comforts the ship had to offer, including a private room. This would have made traveling with a young child healthier, safer and easier than a cheaper passage in third class (I.E. "Steerage"), where privacy and space were not always guaranteed. They also avoided the scrutiny of intrusive and humiliating inspections out on Ellis Island, since it was assumed that immigrants that could afford the higher fares of first or second class were less risky and were not "likely to become a public charge". This was one immigration concern of Americans in 1903. If you could not take care of yourself and your family, America didn't want you. There was no public welfare system and the government was careful not to overload religious charities and poor houses with needy foreigners  This was tricky ground for president Theodore Roosevelt and his commissioner of immigration, William Williams. As America entered the 20th Century, it did not want to totally prevent immigration, but it planned to use Ellis Island and other ports of entry as a way to screen out undesirable immigrants. Roosevelt supported immigration law that would let in "really good immigrants" that would continue to build America's future, but sift out "very unhealthy elements" that would drag down our society and pollute the gene pool for generations to come. [3]

Ships arriving in New York from Europe would dock at the Hudson or East River piers. The first and second class passengers would disembark, pass through Customs at the piers and enter the United States. Steerage or third class passengers were then transported from the piers by ferry or barge to Ellis Island, where they would undergo a medical and legal inspection before being allowed to enter the country or "land", a process that normally took 4 or 5 hours, but could result in a longer stay if there were any issues. Even though an Immigrant was physically standing in America, on Ellis Island, they were still considered "outside" U.S. boundaries. Passengers who failed these inspections would be sent back to Europe and not allowed to land in America. [4]

Perhaps Rudolph's detention at Ellis Island, the previous year, prompted him to pay the higher fare for his family, to spare them from a similar or worse fate than he may have experienced spending a night in the stuffy dormitories in the humid heat of a New York July night. [5]

An example of a typical second class cabin of the period 

But the trade-off was a significant increase in cost. The question one has to ask is, could the Packheiser's afford this luxury? Did Ottilie and Erwin follow a year later so they could have time to save up for the more expensive cost of second class passage? Or did Ottilie have a sponsor that helped defray the cost? A ticket to America in Steerage may have cost as little as $10-$25, second class was as much as double that and First class was significantly more. [6] By 1915 the rates for first class where between $85 to $120, Second class (or Cabin) $50-$60 and Steerage  $35-$46. [7]. What a  HUGE difference that extra $20 or $30 dollars would make in the quality of your treatment and comfort...if you could afford it!

I recently spoke to my mother, Jeanne Ottilie (Packhiser) Walton, who was named for her grandmother. She recalled stories about the Mühlwitz's being somewhat wealthy. They owned some sort of business in their hometown of  Königsberg in East Prussia. Perhaps future research will help us identify this. As an indicator of their wealth, my mother recalled that they owned their own pew in the church and had a carriage. Neither may sound very impressive today, but a century ago, most people couldn't afford these luxuries. [8]

Reading room in the Kronprinz Wilhelm

While researching the ship they came over on, I was surprised to find an abundance of information on the internet. (which you can find too if you Google "Kronprinz Wilhelm".) Much is written about the beautiful appointments and luxuries for the non steerage passengers, like the reading room pictured above. Ruthann and I love to cruise and have taken many vacations aboard ship. When not exploring ports, we wander around the ship and try to see as much as we can. I always wander down the hallway where the luxury staterooms are on the off chance that the door is open for cleaning and I can sneak a peak inside. I wonder if my great-grandmother was as nosy as me? Perhaps she peaked in this lovely reading room (above) or as a second class passenger, could she simply have taken  a seat and made herself at home? Her dinners would be served to her on china in the second class dining room, not slopped onto a tin plate in a "soup line" in steerage. Her room may have had a port hole to allow fresh air into her private compartment and she could have taken walks on the segregated and reserved passenger deck rather than suffering in the stifling heat and bearing the unspeakable smells of the hundreds of passengers packed into the tight space in steerage.

Looking at her immigration manifest (transcribed below), you may notice it is slightly different than the one in use only the year before. (See Rudolph's manifest). Her age is listed as 28 (field 3) which means she would have been born in 1875. Her newspaper obituary lists her birth date as "15 November 1872". [9]  Her grave stone lists 1872 as well. If this is correct, then her age at immigration should have been 31. But who can blame her for this "mistake". She would not be the first woman to shave off a few years off her age on her way to start a new life in America.

She listed herself as married (field 5) and she listed Michalowo, located in present day Poland near the Russian border, as her last residence (field 10). According to records in the Packheiser family bible in my mother's possession.[10] Michalowo is where they got married, I would guess this was their village. The nearest big city was Bialystok, which Rudolph claimed as his last residence the year before when he arrived. Bialystok had a textile industry, so perhaps this is where he worked as a silk dyer. Ottilie married Rudolph Packheiser on 18 May 1896. Their son Erwin was born on March 26, 1898.

Rudolph and Ottilie Packheiser's 1896 Wedding Photo

Reverse of Photo Showing where it was Taken

 This made me ponder, how did the Bible and these photos get to America? Did Rudolph or Ottilie hand carry them when they immigrated? Were they sent later? How much luggage did they travel with? One often thinks of immigrants as impoverished,  arriving with only the clothes on their back, but as a second class passenger, I doubt Ottilie and Erwin fit this bill. They would have had luggage, maybe even a trunk. Again the question of cost arises. If she could afford to pay a porter, then she may have brought many things with her.

One object that was passed down to my mother was a large, brass Russian Samovar or Tea urn. Was this brought to America by the Packheisers, purchased here or sent to them after they were settled?  These questions may never be answered but I will discuss them with Jeanne and Dee to see if we can come up with a list of Packheiser heirlooms from the old country and speculate how they got here.

The scanty official records leave many other questions unanswered. Was Rudolph waiting for his bride and their son when she arrived? If not how did they get to Boston? We know her final destination is Boston because this is also specified on her manifest (Field 16):  Husb[and] Rudolph Packhiser, 112 Brookside Ave, Jamiaca Plains [Boston] 

For Erwin entry it simply says "father".

Columns showing amount of money Ottilie Packheiser Carried ($6) and her destination

Speaking of money, Ottilie arrived with just $6.00 (Field 14). This doesn't seem like a lot of money today, but what was it worth relative to the cost of living in 1903?  I found several price surveys on the web for 1903, the following is a sample.

• Average annual salary, postal worker: $924
• Average annual salary, schoolteacher: $358
• A night in a hotel: $2
• Houses for rent-Morristown, NJ, 7 rooms and bath, $12.50/month
• Men's suit, serge, $5.75-6.50/each
• Beef, sirloin steak, .20/lb
• Soda, Hire's, ginger ale, .09/bottle
• Couch, $4.00-5.00/each
• Refrigerator, $4.75-15.00/each
• Railroad tickets, Newark-San Francisco, $67.00/round trip ticket
• One pound coffee: 13 cents
• Loaf of bread: 5 cents
• Stamp: 2 cents

A more useful comparison may result from  analyzing what her fellow passengers brought with them. I reviewed a number of randomly chosen second class manifests and found a wide range, from $6 to several thousand dollars. Ottilie was among those passengers with the least amount of money. At least, the smallest amount declared. Did she have an emergency fund sewn in the lining of her coat perhaps? The most common amount declared seemed to be in the $20 to $50 range. By 1909, Commissioner Williams had specified a minimum of $25 was needed to prove the immigrant would not become a public charge. [11]

The manifest tells us where they were going, but not how they got there. She didn't have a prepaid ticket to her final destination (field 12). Was one waiting for her and her young son? What mode of transportation took her on the final leg of her journey? The July 2, 1903 "New York Sun" contained an ad for a railroad "Parlor car" [12] from NY to Boston for a fare of $7, one dollar more than she had reported. The same paper also advertised steamship tickets to Boston and a Special 4th of July vacation trip to Boston for $3. We may never know how she decided to travel, but it would be a long, hot journey before she was finally reunited with her husband, after a year of being apart.

The remaining items in the manifest either have fairly predictable answers or are useful for confirming what we may already know. I have transcribed their complete manifest below.

---

Immigration Service
form 1500 A.

Saloon, Cabin and Steerage Aliens must be Completely Manifested.

This sheet is for Second Cabin Passengers 

_______

List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the U.S. Immigration Officer at Port Of Arrival

List No. __ 30

Required by the regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, under Act of Congress approved March 3, 1903, to be delivered to the U.S. Immigration Officer by the Commanding officer of any vessel having such passengers on board upon arrival at a port in the United States.

SS Kronprinz Wilhelm sailing from Bremen, June 23rd 1903 Arriving at Port of New York [ June 30, 1903]

Field Name	Data: Ottilie  Data: Erwin (if different)	My Comments
(1) No. On List:	8 9	This is on a page labeled "List Number 30" There are 30 names on this page
(2) Name In Full:	Ottilie Packheiser Erwin "
(3) Age	28 5	my records indicate Ottilie  is born in 1872 which  would make her 31.  Erwin was born in 1898
(4) Sex	F M
(5) Married or Single	M S	Married 18 May 1896
(6)Calling or Occupation	None
(7) Able to read/write	Yes/Yes
(8) Nationality (country of last permanent residence)	Russia	Probably considered himself German. In my research,all Passengers from Bialystok are labeled Russian, even though they came from diverse cultures
(9) * Race or People	German	New question on the 1902 form. Race was intended to indicate a  cultural bias rather than a color.
(10) Last Residence	Michalowo, hezbulka ?	Located within Russian Empire in 1903,  Rudolph answered Bialistock in 1902
(11) Final Destination  (State, City or town)	Boston, Mass.
(12) Whether having a ticket  to such final destination	No
(13) By Whom was passage paid	Self Mother
(14) Whether in Possession of  $50, and if less,how much?	$ 6.00
(15) Whether ever before in US	No
(16) Whether going to join a relative and  if so what relative or friend ,  their number and address	husb Rudolph Packheiser 112 Brookside Ave Jamaica Plain, Mass father
(17) Ever in Prison, Almshouse or supported by Charity	No	standard answer
(18) Whether a Polygamist	No	standard answer
(19) Whether an Anarchist	No	standard answer
(20) Whether coming by reason of any offer, solicitation, promise, or agreement, express or implied, to labor in the  United States.	No	standard answer.  Labor Unions did not want  employers to import  cheap foreign labor.
(21) condition of Health	good	standard answer. Americans had a  real fear that immigrants would  bring disease and plagues to  their cities if not inspected.
(22) Deformed or Crippled	No	standard answer

* "Race or People" is to be determined by the stock from which they sprang and the language they speak. List of Races will be found on back of this sheet.

---

"Race or people" is to be determined by the stock from which aliens sprang and the language they speak.  The original stock or blood shall be the basis of the classification, the mother tongue to be used only to assist in determining the original stock.

LIST OF RACES OR PEOPLES

African (black). Armenian. Bohemian. Bosnian. Bulgarian. Chinese. Croatian. Cuban. Dalmatian. Dutch. East Indian. English. Finnish. Flemish. French. German.

Greek. Hebrew. Herzegovinian. Irish. Italian (North). Italian (South). Japanese. Korean. Lithuanian. Magyar. Mexican. Montenegrin. Moravian. Pacific Islander. Polish. Portuguese.

Roumanian. Russian. Ruthenian (Russniak). Scandinavian (Norwegians,  Danes, and Swedes). Scotch. Servian. Slovak. Slovenian. Spanish. Spanish American. Syrian. Turkish. Welsh. West Indian (other than  Cuban).

---

 Sources:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norddeutscher_Lloyd
2.  The New York Sun, July 2, 1903, Page 3, Weather
3.  Cannato, Vincent J.,American Passage, The History of Ellis Island, 2009, Harper Collins, NY, pg 129
4.  www.ellisisland.org
5  Record of Detained Alien Passengers, SS KronPrinx Wm, July 22, 1902, Sheet 151,  Line 29, Packhieser, Rudolf (sic)  www.ellisisland.org
6.  http://www.thegreatoceanliners.com/kpw.html,
7.  Cannato, Vincent J.,American Passage, The History of Ellis Island, 2009, Harper Collins, NY, pg 299
8. Phone conversation with Jeanne Ottilie (Packhiser)  Walton  on 19 Jan. 2013
9. Middletown Times Herald, Middletown, NY, September 3, 1949,  Page 3, deaths and Funerals, Mrs. Rudolph Packhiser.
10. Packhiser family bible in  possession of Jeanne Walton. Photos may be seen at https://picasaweb.google.com/104920865641639603179/PackhiserFamilyGermanBible?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOrg_4mxmNPpVQ&feat=directlink
11. Cannato, Vincent J.,American Passage, The History of Ellis Island, 2009, Harper Collins, NY, pg 196-197
12. Parlor Car- A railroad car for day travel fitted with individual reserved seats.