19 Dec 2001
Husband: Johann Carl August MULLER
Born: 29 Nov 1801 in Taucha Saxony
Occupation: Ropemaker
Father: Johann Gottlieb MULLER
Mother: Rosina Elizabeth DECKERT
Wife: Johanne Christine SCHROPFER
Father:
Mother:
M Child 1: Carl Gottfried MULLER died at age: 78
Born: 23 Feb 1835 in Taucha Saxony
Died: 10 Nov 1913 in Radebeul Saxony 1
Event: Transferred business to Otto & Carl 2
Occupation: Ropemaker in Chemnitz 3,4
Occupation: Scrap metal merchant 5
Spouse: Henrietta Louise SCHROTH b. 27 May 1834 d. 14 Dec 1914
M Child 2: Julius MULLER
Sources:
(1) Fritz Walter MULLER, Genealogy of Muller family, Then my father could not
help him any more as he had lost much money through Otto, Carl and a man named
Lorenz who had borrowed heavy against mortgages. So all he had left was 40000
marks and a state annuity of 2400 marks annually which was just enough with the
interest of the 40000 for them to live on.
As my sister Liesel and myself had only had a few thousand marks and Carl had
20000 and Otto 50 or 6OOO0 my father wished to leave the rest of his fortune to
us three children at his death. So all he could do was to pay the fare for Otto
and family to Canada which was about 5000 marks. After that my parents lived
very plain and father died Nov.9th 1913 from Apoplexy. He had just come from
the garden and wished a neighbour "Good-night" when he dropped dead.
.
(2) Fritz Walter MULLER, Genealogy of Muller family, My father still had not
retired but supervised the business until l888 when he transferred it to Otto
and Carl and moved to the farm. Wishing to bring home to them the value of such
a business he thought it right not to let them have it too cheap and so they had
to pay him an annual lease of 12000 marks. Realising that this was too much he
reduced this to 10000 and after another six months to 10000 or 8000. But times
had altered altogether and Carl and Otto were really too young to meet all
business difficulties and to see the risks clearly enough and so they sustained
big money losses through some of their customers going bankrupt and they got
into financial troubles themselves. My father raised 30000 Marks for them by
taking a mortgage on his farm.
(3) Fritz Walter MULLER, Genealogy of Muller family, Carl Gottfried MULLER - my
father. Had a very hard stepmother and was punished most severely for the least
misbehavior and sent to bed without supper. Father had to get up at 4 a.m. to
walk to Leipzig on his father's business and be back for school at 8 a.m. It
was a 3 hour trip there and back. (My father told us of some of the punishment
they used to hand out those days, such as kneeling on a bag of beans for hours
at a time. Carl [?Karl Alfred MULLER comment])
Later on he became a rather intimate friend of Carl Russ, who was 7 years
younger than father and had many fights with him in his younger days but their
friendship lasted until Carl Russ died.
When father had finished his school he was employed in his father's trade as an
apprentice and after 4 years apprenticeship was promoted to journeyman. Before
that he that he had to furnish some work called the "Gesellenstuck" by which the
young craftsman showed that he has learned the trade thoroughly. My father made
a roll of fine" extra strong string and I still have a good part of it in my
possession and you would admire it for its accuracy and beauty of work.
At that time every young man had to wander from one town to another asking
craftsmasters if they had any work for them and so they had to wander for some
years before they were allowed to return home and be promoted to mastership. I
still have my father's "wandering book". In this book every one of his masters
had written down a testimonial saying how long my father had stayed and that he
done his work to the master's satisfaction. The book also contains entries from
the burgomaster or police chief by which he was allowed to move to the next
town. The name of the town was mentioned and also the time allowed to get there
and the young fellows had to do a good big march every day in order to get to
the town named by the allotted time. Unless they could prove that they had been
ill they were punished severely and it was presumed that they idled on the
way.
My father's wandering had all been to Bavaria and his favorite place had been
Markbreit, near Wurzberg and he always returned to his old master there when he
had been at neighbouring towns. So that a real friendship sprang up between
them and the master's children and one of them, Margaret, came to visit my
father in 1905 40 years after. I met her. A very fine lady.
In 1863 my father was again wandering from Bavaria to Taucha in order to see his
own folks and when he passed through Chemnitz he read in the paper that an old
ropemaker in Frankenberg wished to sell his outfit. So father set out the same
day, for Frankenberg. About 4 hours walk and saw the old ropemaker but found
the price too high, he having only 2 Thaler(6 shillings)above what he must have
for food for a couple of days. Father was very sorry he could not make the deal
as the outfit was in very good shape.
As he was about to leave the old ropemaker turned to him and said "I like you
and have confidence in you and so I will let you have the outfit and you will
see God's blessing will be with you."
And so my father returned to Chemnitz happy for having the outfit but not
knowing where money wou1d come from to live and buy hemp until he could expect
returns from his work. However some good people lent him some money as they had
faith in him and he began his ropemaking business on a street called
"Sonnenberg"in Chemnitz and was very succesful. Later on he made the
acquaintance of my mother, who was a widow. Her name was Mrs.Lessig then and
she was about 30 years of age. They were married and moved to a village named
Gablentz near Chemnitz. There my father bought a little grocery business in
addition to his ropemaking and this business too was a good one. One night my
father came home from a little party where some drinking had been indulged in
and my mother told him that a cask in the basement was leaking (spirits)and as
he lit a match on his way down she tried to stop him but the whole place
immediately burst into flames and everything including the house burned to the
ground. Father's beard was burned right off and he was lucky to escape alive.
Next day when he realized that this would not have happened had he been sober he
swore never to touch liquor again and kept that oath until his death.
Later on he bought a piece of land at #7 Neue Dresdner Str at Chemnitz in order
to continue his ropemaking business and was very successful there. He built a
fine home and when it was nearly completed it collapsed one night; the cost had
been 100,000 Marks. Again he was ruined in one night. He brought suit against
the contractor in court but it was proved that my father had given the foreman a
sum of money in order to hurry the job up and be able to move in sooner and the
verdict went against him and he had to pay the costs of the lawsuit as we1l
(That is the house I was born in. Carl). He raised enough money through
friends to enable him to finish the house and continue his ropemaking
business.
.
(4) DK, "Carl Russ's good friend Carl Muller, a ropemaker seven years his senior,
did just that [travelled], wandering from the town of Taucha, six miles
north-east of Leipzig, in Saxony, all the way down to Bavaria and back.", 9.
(5) Fritz Walter MULLER, Genealogy of Muller family, His house was situated
near a Jewish scrap metal merchant and he observed that this man, named
Joachimthal, grew very rich. So my father took up this line as well as his
ropemaking business and the scrap metal business was a big success and in 1878
my father bought a large garden on the outskirts of Chemnitz and built a fine
country residence there. Later on he gave up ropemaking entirely and
transferred the scrap business to the new location at 41 Ausere Dresdner Str.
Later he build a smelter there(for pig iron) and done a good business with
English customers. In 1884 he tired of business as he was nearly 50 years old,
and bought a farm near Gablentz near Chemnitz. As my brothers Otto and Carl
were too young to run the business my mother attended to that very eagerly.