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The Long Honeymoon to Haven
by Jim Potter
Richard Karl August Borchert, twenty-five, and Anna Maria Friederike Sophie König, twenty, were married October 24, 1894, in Berlin, Germany.1 They barely had time to change out of their wedding attire before departing for the port city of Hamburg, Germany, located on the Elbe River. For their transatlantic journey to America, Richard and Anna chose a ship that landed at Montreal, Canada, not a major port in the United States. They purchased steerage class tickets to travel on the Hamburg-America Line.
The Borcherts departed Hamburg on October 27 and traveled on a relatively new steamer, the S. S. Sicilia, captained by H. Schmidt.2 Built in 1890 as Stubbenhuk, the company renamed it in 1894, not long before the Borcherts voyage. It was mainly a cargo ship. Its gross registered tonnage was 2,943; length, 329 feet; beam, 41.5 feet, and depth 25.8 feet. It had two decks, a triple expansion engine, and a speed of 11 knots.3
The German word for steerage travel was zwischendeck. It meant the space between an upper deck and the hold of the ship.
Business travelers and tourists tended to go first- or second class. Very poor people, especially immigrants, traveled in steerage, the least desirable category of long-distance steamer travel. Steerage usually consisted of bunk beds in a large hall; each class had its own dining room. Those choosing to travel in steerage usually, if not always, provided their own bedding. Richard and Anna would have bedded together, separated from the single men, and the single women.
Depending on the ship line, after steamships replaced sailing ships in the 1870s, meals were included on the journey for an additional charge. Whereas sailing vessels had taken thirty to ninety days to cross the Atlantic, depending on prevailing winds, steamships could make the trip in ten to fourteen days. The faster travel allowed ships to serve food because it became possible to keep provisions fresh until the end of passage.4
Crossing the Atlantic in the steerage of a ship would have been a memorable honeymoon for the newlyweds. Timbers creaked and strained as the vessel lurched and rolled. The noise of the wind and the rolling of the ship, like a porpoise, took in water. When the sea was turbulent, steerage was sealed to prevent flooding, nearly suffocating the crowded passengers.
Traveling in steerage, especially if it was in the underbelly cargo area of the ship, meant seasickness; crowded, damp quarters; little sleep; a steady stench with limited fresh air, food, and water; but an abundance of lice and rats.
It’s important to note that commercial passenger steamships were not slave ships. Poor people who traveled in the steerage area of ships were treated as customers, not criminals. Steerage passengers had limited freedom of movement, but a bathroom (that always had a long line) was available and regular meals were provided, even though, at times, the food was described as barely edible. Most days were monotonous, not dangerous, except for periods of stormy weather. One example of the consequences of heavy weather at sea to the Sicilia occurred a week after the Borcherts arrived in Montreal. While the Sicilia was transporting 400 head of cattle from Montreal to Antwerp, Belgium, 213 head of cattle died when their cattle pens were smashed.5
At times, the passengers entertained themselves with singing, dancing, playing cards, and reading. Generally, crew members were courteous and fair in enforcing rules. The ship’s daily routine required passengers to rise early, assemble for a physical inspection, and to participate in cleaning living quarters. No ship wanted an outbreak of disease. Besides the loss of life, an epidemic could lead to the ship being refused entry into a country or forced to tie up in port for a lengthy period of quarantine.
On November 9th, thirteen days after departing Hamburg, Richard and Anna arrived in Montreal, Canada.6 Almost immediately, the Borchert’s stepped aboard a train that would transport them west. I don’t know the route the train took, but at some point, the couple crossed the border into the United States where they would have encountered an additional inspection.
Thanks to Richard’s brother, Martin Friedrich “Robert” Borchert, who had immigrated to Kansas a decade earlier, Richard and Anna had a destination: Haven, Reno County, Kansas.
Robert, the big brother, was born in 1857 in the province of Brandenburg, Prussia; Richard, in Berlin, eleven years later.7 When Robert immigrated, Richard was fifteen.
In 1883, Robert, twenty-six, made his transatlantic voyage as an unmarried man. His steamship, SS Hermann, departed from Bremen, Germany, on December 5th, and arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, sixteen days later, on December 21st. The ship’s passenger list revealed that Robert, a landlord, was one of 464 passengers who traveled in zwischendeck.8
In the 1890s, steerage passage from Germany to Baltimore could cost $30 (worth $1,075 in 2024); a second-class berth, $46, while first-class cabins ranged from $112 to $2,000.9 Prepaid steamship tickets were discounted and good for one year.
Most likely, Robert traveled west on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad since it picked up passengers at the Locust Point pier. The railway and North German Lloyd shipping company had a long-standing lucrative agreement to mutually profit on the flow of immigrants to Baltimore and beyond.
Kansas was a welcoming place for Germans who sought a better life. They were the largest European group that settled in the state. The German language was so common that over sixty newspapers were published in the language.10
During the decade that Robert and Richard were separated by an ocean, they would have corresponded about the advantages of a life in the United States, specifically Reno County, Kansas, where shoemakers could practice their artistic craft. Robert would have explained how life in rural Kansas was uncongested. The population of Berlin in 1880 was over a million people while Hutchinson, Kansas, counted 1,540.
I was surprised to learn that Richard and Anna selected a ship that landed in Canada, not the United States. If they had chosen Baltimore as their entry port, like Robert did a decade earlier, the trip by rail to Kansas would have been shorter. It’s also possible the ocean liner company, Hamburg-America, was less expensive; the scheduling more convenient; or the immigration inspection service in Montreal and at the United States-Canada border faster and/or less restrictive.
Every European immigrant who entered the United States had true tales of their personal transatlantic voyage. No doubt, the living conditions, overwhelmingly in steerage, were impossible for former passengers to forget (if they had been older than a baby during the crossing).
Another memorable life event for married adults, the same as today, recalled the circumstances of meeting a future spouse.
Robert Borchert probably met Martha Elizabeth Zimmerman in Hutchinson in 1884, where they both lived. Their first greeting to one another might have been spoken in German, possibly in church or at Robert’s schuster (shoemaker) business. Robert, having been in the country for about a year, would have been a newcomer compared to Martha. Her fifteen years in the country gave her time to be more acclimated to the American culture. The Zimmermans had immigrated to the United States from Germany on August 19, 1868, when Martha was about five years old. They entered the port of New York City on the German sailing ship Bark Palles, captained by F. Meyerdirck.11 Once on land, the Zimmermans were inspected at the Castle Garden immigration station located at the southern tip of Manhattan, before Ellis Island was opened in 1892. After officially being admitted to the United States, they began their journey to Chicago, Illinois.
I’ll bet it didn’t take Elizabeth and Robert very long before they shared their immigration experiences with one another, especially details of their transatlantic voyage. Both had survived the hardships of the steerage class, but Martha’s voyage must have been considerably longer than Robert’s sixteen day journey on the S. S. Hermann, a steamship. The Zimmerman family traveled on a bark (also spelled barque and barc), a sailing vessel with a minimum of three masts, common before steamships.
It’s very likely that German was the main language spoken in Martha’s family home during the years she was growing up, first in Bradford, Illinois, and later in Hutchinson. The 1880 United States Census shows Martha, age fifteen, living with her parents, three sisters, and a niece, in Clay Township, near Hutchinson. Martha’s father, “Bushrod,” died April 4, 1883 at age seventy-four.12
Robert, twenty-seven, and Martha, twenty-one, married in Hutchinson on February 1, 1885.13 A month after their marriage, when the 1885 State Census was counted, Robert’s occupation was listed as shoemaker. The couple moved to Haven, located seventeen miles northwest of Hutchinson, in time to relocate their shoemaking business prior to the community being established on July 4, 1886.
Robert’s younger brother, Richard, may have remained behind in Berlin to help support their parents, if they were both living. It’s only conjecture on my part, but it’s possible the impetus for Richard’s immigration in 1894 was the death of a remaining parent. His father, Gustav Wilhelm Borchardt, died in 1892.14 However, it’s not clear to me if his mother, Friederike Borchert, was still alive in 1894 when Richard left the country. If she was alive, what were her circumstances? Did she live independently, with other relatives, or remarry?15
I don’t know the personal reasons why Richard and Anna left Germany. They may have wanted to move closer to Robert’s family, desired better employment opportunities, avoid political strife in Germany, or had a drive for adventure. Whatever their motivation, Richard and Anna immigrated during one of the most severe financial crises in American history. The Panic of 1893 began in February and was felt worldwide. It was a severe hardship for people in the United States for about four years. Over five hundred banks failed, and fifteen thousand companies closed or went bankrupt. At the peak of the panic, 17% to 19% of the workforce was unemployed.16
Upon Richard and Anna’s arrival in Haven in 1894, Martha would have asked Anna about their travel experiences on the ocean voyage and traveling the rails. “What did you eat on the ship?” Of course, it’s impossible to know her response. Under the best of circumstances, standard items included: salt meat, potatoes, rice, grits, beans, sauerkraut, plums, bread, zwieback (crisp, sweetened bread, made with eggs and baked twice), and butter. Coffee, and even beer and brandy were sometimes served on ships.
Anna may have repeated to Martha and Robert the same advice given to immigrants preparing to embark on long journeys. If travelers could afford it, they departed Germany with smoked meat, zwieback, oatmeal, vinegar, dried apples, and plums.17
I’ve wondered how long Robert, Martha, Richard, and Anna kept their personal inspection cards. The official information included the passenger’s name, ship’s name, date and port of departure, last residence, contract ticket number, and that the individual had passed quarantine. On ship, passengers were required to have their arms inspected for a properly scarred arm (or a pitted face indicating that they had survived smallpox), as proof of being vaccinated for smallpox. If they hadn’t received the injection, the ship’s physician was quick to inoculate them. Immigrants were cautioned about the importance of holding onto their inspection card because without it they could be detained at the destination port’s quarantine and be refused travel on railroads.
When the honeymooners appeared in Haven, brothers Richard and Robert would have had a long hug before family introductions were made. Martha may have formally presented their four children as Helen Edith, seven; William Richard, five; Herman Carl August, three; and the baby, Walter Albert, one. There’s also a good chance Martha and Robert had two servants living with them at the time.
By 1894, Robert was a well-known shoemaker and entrepreneur located near the Haven depot. Can you imagine Richard and Anna’s excitement as they inspected the shoemaking workshop? The newlyweds were preparing for their own joint business venture, willing to do the labor-intensive manual work, well aware that just as in Germany, their custom-made shoes would need to compete with mass production. As they examined the shop’s materials and machinery, and inhaled the earthy, woodsy smell of leather, I can imagine how they bombarded Robert with countless questions about the steps required for starting a business.
Based on his first-hand experience, Robert had a lot of useful business advice to share, but he would have had difficulty making a reliable prediction on the Kansas economy. Between the depression caused by the Panic of 1893 and the crops failing due to hot winds and drought, running a profitable business, especially a new one, would be difficult.
Richard and Anna must have repeatedly asked one another, “To support a family, how can we earn a living selling shoes in America?” Since the question couldn’t have been answered immediately, they might have looked at one another, smiled, and answered in unison, “Aller Anfang ist schwer,” a German proverb meaning “all beginnings are hard.”
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Notes
1. “Berlin, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1940,” Ancestry.com. Richard Karl August Borchert, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2957/records/187599915?tid=&pid=&queryId=17fdb2b1-9285-48ca-b7f4-f62f5fd7366b&_phsrc=rRE2350&_phstart=successSource. Anna Maria Friederike Sophie König, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2957/records/188491075?tid=&pid=&queryId=94a6e334-3545-4dfa-b007-7998f23d1afa&_phsrc=rRE2353&_phstart=successSource.
2. “Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934,” Ancestry.com. Richard Borchert, https://ancestry.com/search/collections/1068/records/443194tid=&pid=&queryId=d7088cbc-b6e8-45b8-af43-13e570a04d56&_phsrc=rRE2371&_phstart=successSource.
3. Wikipedia, “SS Komagata Maru,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Komagata_Maru
4. Shirley J. Riemer, The German Research Companion (Sacramento, CA: Lorelei Press, 2000), 11.
5. Times-Transcript (Moncton, Moncton Parish, New Brunswick, Canada), Dec. 7, 1894, 4.
6. Gazette, (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), Nov. 9, 1894, 8.
7. “Martin Friedrich Robert Borchert,” and “Richard Karl August Borchert,” familysearch.org.
8. Below is a breakdown of how the passengers on the steamship Hermann were distributed in steerage during Robert’s voyage.
- Steerage A for families: 175 adults and 167 children (31 infants) = 273 people
- Steerage B for single women = 54
- Steerage C for single men = 137
- I was surprised by a note on the manifest recording only one death during the voyage. The much higher mortality rates that I expected were typical during the earlier era of sailing ships, before steamship travel, when a voyage could take forty to ninety days due to unpredictable wind and weather. There were also periods of time when highly contagious diseases caused disruption on the immigrant liners. In 1892, Hamburg, Germany had a serious outbreak of cholera that killed many immigrants at sea during their transatlantic journey or while their ships were held in quarantine in harbors.
“United States Germans to America Index, 1850-1897,” FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KD91-M3S : 27 December 2014), Rob. Borchert, 21 Dec 1883; citing Germans to America Passenger Data file, 1850-1897, Ship Hermann, departed from Bremen, arrived in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, NAID identifier 1746067, National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
9. Nicholas Fessenden, “Norddeutscher Lloyd and Baltimore: A Transatlantic Partnership,” The Report, Vol. 48 (2020) 47-55, Society of the History of the Germans in Maryland.
10. The Kansas Journey, Kansas State Historical Society, created Feb. 2011, updated Dec. 2017.
11. “New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists,” Ancestry.com. M. Zimmermann, https://search/categories/40/?name=m_zimmermann&birth=1865_new+york-usa_35. According to the ship’s manifest, M. Zimmerman was three years old, however, if her birthdate was May 11, 1863, Martha would have been five years old.
12. “Member Search,” Ancestry.com, uses this for his date of death. Johann Burghart Zimmermann was commonly called “Bushrod.” His full name was eventually anglicized to John Burkhart Zimmerman, including spelling his surname with only one letter n.
13. Weekly Interior Herald (Hutchinson, KS), Feb. 7, 1885, 3.
14. Haven Independent (Haven, KS), April 28, 1892, 4, announced the death of Robert’s father and age, but did not give his name. I believe he was Gustav “Wilhelm” Borchardt. “Member Search,” Ancestry.com.
15. “Martin Friedrich Robert Borchert,” familysearch.org. Friederike Voight Borchert, listed as the mother of Robert, reportedly died in 1916.
16. Wikipedia, s.v. “Panic of 1893,” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893.
17. August Rauschenbusch, Einige Anweisungen für Auswanderer nach den westlichen Staaten von Nordamerika und Reiseberichte. Dritte Auflage. Elberfeld: Julius Bädeker, 1848, 20.
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Baltimore Immigration Museum
The Baltimore Immigration Memorial has partnered with the Locust Point Community United Church of Christ to establish a museum in the historic Immigrant House. At the museum, you will learn about Baltimore’s immigration history in the 19th and early 20th centuries and the importance of Baltimore as a major port of entry for immigrants, making Baltimore America’s third largest port of entry from 1830-1914.
https://immigrationbaltimore.org/
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You’ve brought this story to life!
Thanks!I can imagine the immigrants who made the long journey with their future unknown. If after settling in the US, and if they had children, one day the parents said to their offspring, “You’ve got it easy compaared to when we grew up.”