Lovise´s Life

From where do I come from?

My Great-grandfather was a noble man. Fell in love with his maid and married her, and had to enunciate his title, but were allowed to take name from one of his castles. Information about that should be in the church-book from Sta um Aller 1820, my mother has said. That year was my grandmother born, but her mother died in childbirth. The child was named Charlotte Lovise Olmütz. Some times later the father married again. When little Lotte was old enough, her stepmother sent her out to serve and then she was almost forgotten. When she was 20 years old she married Knud Bruhn from Aabenraa. He was a carpenter. They got many children. In what order they came, I don't know. I have only known one of them beside my mother (born in 1844) and she was one of the oldest and should as a girl, most of the rest were boys, help with nursing when she was 6 years old and hardly could stand on her feets. They spoke to a wise man about her. But he said he couldn´t help her. On the way from the house, the wise man talked with the farmer who asked if there wasn´t anything that could help the little girl. The wise man said that if she could get a jug of fresh warm milk from a cow every day, then it would help, but it had to be the same cow, and the family didn´t have the money for that. A year went by and the wise man came back and visited the family and asked about the little girl. \ldblquote Well, that is her" , her mother said. "How did that happen? What have you done to her?" the wise man asked. "Nothing, she had just been getting a jug of fresh and warm milk every day from the farmer" the mother said, and now the wise man knew she was doing fine. In the meantime Lotte' s father had past away, but she was first notified 2 years later. Her father had told her stepmother not to forget Lotte, because she was also his child. She said that she wouldn´t forget and that there was plenty to inherit both money and all the farms. There is enough farms for all the children, and they had many children. Only Lotte got nothing. So when Lotte found out that her father was dead, she went home to her stepmother. The stepmother said to her;" Well, we have divided everything, there is nothing for you, but you can get a cow of mine, that is all I can give you" . And Lotte went away with the cow. Lotte came to think that it didn´t matter. Her husband would drink up all the money anyway. He was bad at drinking. Once she had made a wonderful bacon omelette, and put it on the table. All the children were sitting by the table and thought that they would taste that big omelette . But they saw how their father eat it all, and they had to eat the dried bread if they were hungry, but they were healthy and eat it with milk or water.

In the summer they were sent far away south to herd cows. They started at the age 7. They got around 5-6 mark, but when the administrative officer of the county came by in the summer, they got each a mark if they could stand on their head. They could make a lot of money that way, but they were also many children. The boys went to school, but not in the summer. My mother did not go to school. At that time children were not forced to go to school. Mother did only go to school the year she was going to be confirmed. And as she couldn´t read, her brothers read her homework and she memorised it. They could get confirmed if they knew their prayers. The vicar saw have badly she was dressed, so his wife changed an old dress so it fitted her, and then she had a fine dress to wear the day she got confirmed. Once mother was walking home from the vicarage, she got stocked in some deep snow, but she managed to go up. But she was only a girl so it didn´t matter, and she had to herd cows as the boys. One year a child was killed, and the money taken from her. Her mother was afraid that something should happen to her children too, so she told mother to asked the farmer´s wife to hide the money on her. On the way home she met a man and he asked her where she had been. She told him that she had been herding cows, and he said that she would have money on her, but she told him that her father already had been there and taken the money. And the man let her go. They were far south and had a long way home, and one-day they were picked up by a carrier and they sad under the tarpaulin at the back. The weather was terrible. When they came to Flensburg (Now in Germany), they wanted to visit an aunt, but she wouldn´t let them in. Their father had already been there and told the aunt that the children were dead. When they came to an inn in Slesvig (Also in Germany) they heard their father talking, and they rushed home and lay peacefully in the beds when he came home. Father had brought at stranger with him home. The stranger could sleep in the children´s bed, because they would never see the children again, but then mother said that they were home. Mothers´ brothers went to school and she only went to school during the six month before she was confirmed. She taught herself to read when she was 36 years old. She cut letters out from the newspaper and put them together. She was at the hospital at that time, or else she wouldn´t have had the time to do it. But mother was great at mathematics, even though she had never learned it at school. She got a job right after she was confirmed.

There was a lot of power in people coming from Jutland. Grandfather was the strong carpenter from Markus Bekkers timberyard in Aabenraa. On brother of my mother was no. 2 Jutlandic smith. Mother was serving at a mill. One day she was going to get something for pigs and went into the mill and asked for it. "You are so strong, so you can take two of these sacks" said one of the workers, and so mother did. She took two sacks of wheat and had already given the pigs´ one sack-full, when the miller found out, and the worker had to pay for it. And he never gave her any false instructions again. Grandfather collected the money the children earned by working. When mother was 18 years old, he still came and collected her money. But now she was at a new place. And when he asked the lady of the house, to give him the money, she said to him, that mother needed some new wooden shoes, and yarn so she could knit new socks, a new dress and skirt, and she would make sure that mother got it. Then grandfather said that he needed the money. "Then you have to earn it yourself" she said.

In ´64 mother was at a place where there were some Germans. One of the soldiers wanted to date mother but she was already engaged. Then the soldier said to her; "If you don´t want me, I will shoot you" She said; "You just shoot, but it is an honest Dane you will be shooting" and she went through the door. One of the other soldiers pushed him away just as he fired his gun and the bullet went right into the door just above mothers´ head. And the soldier was removed from the place. Another time when mother and the daughter of the house was out walking, some soldiers told them to stop, but they didn´t and then they shot at them, but they got home without getting hit.

Grandfather was very strict and his belt especially beat the boys. One time some of the children were playing pitch with father, one of them said that father cheated, and grandfather got angry and told the boy to take down his trousers so he could beat him, and he did. "But you still cheated" the boy said when he had got his punishment. "What did you say boy? Take down your trousers again" grandfather, said. "No I won´t, you have beaten me for the last time now" Said the boy. He was 20 years old at that time. Grandfather became so angry that he tried to strangle the boy, but did put him down on the ground again, my so hard that fathers trousers split, and grandfather never forgave the boy for that. Shortly after that episode, Christoffer, mothers´ brother, went to England in 1864 and from there to Australia and came to a place with many snakes.

From England he sent money to his wife and children, so they were able to live until he had the money to pay for their tickets. First he came to a place where they were digging for gold. He and another man found a lot of gold, so now they thought they had enough to live their life. Uncle took the first night shift, but when he came back in the morning, the other man was killed and the gold was gone. Then uncle wouldn´t dig for more gold. He wouldn´t risk his life for it. So he got a piece of land instead, and he worked real hard and had some sheep´s and every thing was going in the right direction. At that time his wife and children had come to Australia. One day a man came and wanted to buy his piece of land, but uncle said no. But uncle had made a mistake. He had bought the land, but not a road leading to it. The man bought all the land around uncles piece of land, so he could not go out or in, and had to sell his piece for almost nothing. He did get another piece of land and stayed in Australia until he died as a British citizen (The information comes from his wife´s brother).

Two of mothers other brothers went to America. One came home to visit mother but died a year later. We never heard from the other one. Grandfather was also on a trip to America. He was gone for about 10 years, but came back and died at the hospital in Griffenfeldsgade (a street in Denmark) in the late ´68.

Grand father had been at the Ryes brigade when they fought the battle at Fredericia, but lived for the next 40 years, men they all came from Slesvig and had to leave the country (Germany). One of my uncles was wanted by the German military, because he had sung " The Dane has won and the German has dirt in his pocket" a song which were forbidden to sing after ´64. My mother and father had to leave the country because my father had been a Danish soldier in ´64.

It wasn´t the best marriage they had. Mother had to work at some farmers to be able to feed the children, and she lived several years in Kolding. At a time she lived in Tingsko Hede. From there she had 4 miles to the nearest neighbour. She found a job where she also could stay. At that time she was pregnant with her third child. When she travelled through a city the official performing certain judicial functions in the parish said to her, that she should leave the town immediately, because they did not want to feed her child if it was born there. Mother got angry. The man was one of them who had got her inheritance. And she said " If you, and your relatives gives me, what I am entitled to have, then you won´t have to feed me, or my children". The man got angry at her, but she just said to him; " I am telling you that my mother is Charlotte Lovise Olmütz", and he kept quiet and gave her permission to stay till the next morning if she promised not to tell anyone. And she left the next day because she had to go and find work.

Later on she came to Kolding and there she worked at a brewery and at night she washed for some of her colleagues. One day when she was working with the laundry in the kitchen, father sat in the living room, drinking beers with some friend. There were no more beers and one of the friends said; "The bitch can get us some beers". "Did some one say anything?" mother asked. "Yes, you ain´t so pretty" the friend said and the mother kicked him out in the yard. "Is there anyone else, who has got something to say?" she asked, but no, they all left the house fast. Mother thought it was enough for her to pay for all the food and clothes, but beers was not something she wanted her money to be used to.

To Be Continued