Julius Spindler
Welcome to the page I have written about my great, great, grandfather. It is through this man that a great deal of the knowledge which we have about our family history has come. How to show it all in a home page becomes a difficult task. One of my thoughts was to translate and reproduce the biography which he wrote of his life and which he published on his 80th birthday in 1920. Not being a workaholic and wanting to reach my 80th birthday myself one day, I decided not to do that. Instead this page will concentrate on one particular part of his life - a short period of 19 months which he spent in the United States during the years of 1860-1861 when these states were not so united.
Julius wrote a number of letters home during this time period, and recently three of them have come into my possession through my Aunt Erika. The first was written to his younger brother Gustav, urging him to keep up with his studies and respect his parents among other things.
The second notified his family that he had quit his job on the riverfront of St. Louis, and had enlisted in the Union Army. This letter also commented on the political climate of the day, the inauguration of the new president, Abraham Lincoln, and how a rebel army had laid siege to an island off the South Carolina coast called Fort Sumter.
Julius's third letter was to his father and relayed information about his 3 month tour of duty, which included being shipped by train to the Missouri cities of Rolla and Springfield, and had a report of his involvement in the Civil War engagement at Wilson's Creek, Missouri, a battle won by the Confederates. This letter also indicated that he was willing to accept a job offer with his old employer, as he saw only a military future on the soil of this divided nation where he was currently living.
Julius booked passage aboard a steamer and after a six week journey to the German port of Bremen, soon found himself back home in his parents living room. He embarked upon his chosen career, married Pauline von Hartmann from Dortmund, and eventually founded the firm of Spindler and Schmidt in the town of Saalfeld at Oberestr.2. The couple raised six children, three boys and three girls in this small city in the eastern German state of Thüringen..
His last few years were somewhat bittersweet, as he was able to enjoy the fruits of his years of labor and know that his family benefited from his work during a great depression. He was saddened by the knowledge that all three of his male heirs had preceded him in death, and that his line would not continue, but this knowledge was less painful as he saw great grandchildren being born to his daughters, one of which was my mother Edelgard Dehler. Julius Spindler died in 1936, at the age of 96 years.
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