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The German Immigrant Henry Heise (1842 - 1917)

Introduction
Henry's Birthplace
Private Correspondence re:Emigration
Transportation
The Heises Emigrate to Preston, Canada West
Henry Heise Becomes a Master Cabinetmaker
Henry Heise in Business for Himself
Family of Henry Heise and Dorothea Stumpfle
Descendents Remember Henry Heise
Footnotes

Introduction

Henry Heise (1842 - 1917) is an early Ontario immigrant worthy of studay because he is typical of the c. 15,000 German immigrants to Canada in the period 1846 - 1860. [1] Canada West, in which most of these arrivals settled, "owes something of its social stability and industrial prosperity to the industry and sterling charater of the German element in its population". [2] Critical studies of the Ontario-German community consistently note economic advances, traditional lifestyles, a deep interest in education, and artistic prowess.

This paper will consider the German immigrant Henry Heise, with reference to primary social, genealogical, and business records. It will conclude with a description of Heise, as related in the oral tradition of his descendents, together with a comment on the implications of this tradition.

 

Henry's Birthplace

Henry was born April 10, 1842, in Mülhausen, Thuringen, Königreich, Prussia. [3] He was the youngest child of Christoff (b. 1806) [4] and Maria Mierstedt (b. 1810) [5] Heise, who were married in the Lutheran Church in 1830. [6] His three siblings were Martha (b. 1832) [7], Carl (b. 1834)[8], and Christian (b. 1840). [9]

Mühlhausen is an ancient Haufendorf (a large, nucleated home-town, in the midst of an open-field farming system) dating back to the Great Migrations of the fifth century, when the Thuringian tribe settled in Thuringen. It is in a fertile lowland known as the Goldene Aue, and is perched on the northern edge of the escarpment which circumscribes the Thuringian Basin. This is potato land. In the eighteenth century Goethe observed that local people eat "potatoes in the morning; at lunch in the soup; at dinner baked; potatoes all the time".[11]

The Gothic Marienkirche in Mühlhausen was a pilgrimage centre [12] which Henry would have visited on occasion. The structure, with its double aisles and stained glass windows, impressed everyone. Thomas Münger, one of the radical reformers of the sixteenth century, was captured and defeated in the vicinity, and executed in the square before this church. In local lore Münzer is consider to be a "seditious fanatic and leader of the German Wiedertaufer" [13] (Mennonites) who overthrew the Mühlhausen city council in 1524 and organized a peasant revolt in Thuringen in 1525.

From the fourteenth century, Thuringen remained a part of Saxony, a great state whose secular prince was one of the seven electors who chose each successive Holy Roman Emperor, until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 (the year Henry's father was born). The electorate of Saxony was a relatively compact territory with good natural resources at the junction of two trade routes; Hamburg to Austria, and Rheinland to Poland. Its population was large, and its characteristic community was the home town rather than the landed estate. Most people were Lutheran, but the monarchy remained Catholic.

In 1792 Prussia and Austria declared war on France, but Saxony stayed neutral and so kept itself free from war and its costs. After Napoleon's victories in 1805, however, there was no room for neutrals and Saxony joined the victorious Napoleon. When Napoleon was defeated in 1815, two-fifths of Saxony -- including Thuringen -- was awarded to Prussia at the Peace of Vienna.

"The soldierly and warlike spirit, which was stronger and more inherent in the national temper and tradition of Prussia than in any other German state", [14] was now forced on Thuringen. The army bill introduced by Hermann von Boyen (1771 - 1848), the Prussian minister of war, provided for universal conscription. Christoff Heise, like all young men, had to spend three years in continuous service, and two more years in army reserves. When war was called, all men up to age fifty-five had to serve. And there were many wars. Gneisenau, the renowned Prussian general who helped defeat Napoleon, had said: "The Prussian army is demoralized by peace. If you want to be a military state, you must engage in war, for war is an art and every art needs practice." [15]

When Frederick William IV succeeded his father to the Prussian throne in 1840, Liberals hoped for constitutional reform which would deal with such issues as military conscription. The new king contented himself with half-measures that satisfied no-one. On March 18, 1848, a revolution flared up in Berlin which terrorized and humiliated the aristocracy for half a year. Then, in November, 1848, the Prussian troops marched unopposed into Berlin. The following month Frederick William IV proclaimed a Constitution for Prussia that satisfied at least some of the demands of the liberals.

Shortly after the violent outbreaks of Berlin had occurred, a self-appointed committee of fifty-one representatives from the different German states met in St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt. They deliberated about the most suitable ways and means to give Germany both national unity and constitutional unity. Prussia vacillated. She rejected cooperation with the National Assembly, yet would not lead an anti-revolutionary crusade. In this way she alienated the sympathies of England and France, she caused great offence to Russia and her lack of action brought about the diplomatic cooperation of other powers and her own complete isolation.

After thirteen months of deliberations, the Frankfurt Parliament was finally dissolved. The Prussian constitution of December 5, 1848, was annulled by royal edict. And by the end of 1849, "Germany stood poised on the brink of civil war".[16] The fears of war were founded in the revival of Austria as a great power, and the refusal of the secondary German states to give support to Prussia. In January, 1850, Germany was divided into two rival camps. On the one side stood Prussia, supported by Baden and the lesses states of northern and central Germany, the other the league of the four kings (Bavaria, Württemburg, Saxony and Hanover) backed by Austria. During the autumn of 1850, Austria was concentrating military forces in north-western Bohemia. Prussia, although unprepared from a military view, was determined to defend her alliance. An open clash was averted, but this was another of the wars postponed but not avoided. The war was fought with very similar grouping in the summer of 1866.

The Federal Diet of the German Confederation was restored in 1851, in yet another victory of Conservatism over Liberalism. The decade from 1850 to 1860 found the patriots in silence or open despair. A new wave of censorship and persecution forced many to leave their native land, to continue the struggle for the ideals of freedom and national unity in the New World. Many of these emigrants dedicated their lives to the defense of the American Union during the American Civil War and fought for the liberation of black slaves. [17]

Henry's father, Christoff, was a home town guild arisan. He was a wood turner who sold his own products on the same premises where he produced them. In Thuringen a home town (population 5,000 to 20,000) occurred about every 1.5 square German miles, compared with Prussia as a whole, where the frequency was only one town per 4 square German miles. By 1840, about 50% of the German population lived in home towns. Henry could pass through the streets of Mühlhausen and

"...never know, from external evidence, that either shop or warehouse ministers to local needs. Places of this kind were there in sufficient number, but there was not a sign-board, much less a display of goods, to devote their whereabouts--nothing in fact--to distinguish them on the outside from private dwellings. The streets were cobbled right across from house to house; well-kept gardens graced the homes of the tradesman and labourer alike; there were no obtrusive boardings, no sky-signs, no placards of any kind, save the decorous announcements of the administrative or police authorities."[18]

A contract existed between the home town guildsman and his civic community so that advertisement was, at the least, superfluous. The guildsman would provide goods and services of acceptable quality and in acceptable supply in return for the security of his market and his price. Merchants and pedlars both tried to circumvent the guild system, but they were of alien production and raiders of the home town economy.

Handwerk (artisanry) dominated the home town economic system, whereas a different system, Manufaktur (manufacturing) dominated the cosmopolitan economy. What distinguished the two was the scale of the enterprise. Manufaktur employed more workers in a single enterprise than guild ordinances allowed, contained a division of labour, and had a market that included customers that the producers never saw.

The hometownsman was far more intimately involved with the total life of his community than either the city dweller or the peasant. Peasants knew one another but did not need one another, and their politics were passive and rudimentary. City men needed one another, but did not truly know one another, and politics were remote, formal, and abstract. The hometownsman both needed his neighbours and he knew them, and his politics incorporated both needs and knowledge into a stable and circumscribed world. The community always regarded him as one personality: citizen, workman, and neighbour. The home town, then, with its intimate population, was the territory of guilds and master artisans. Prussian figures for 1828 show that master artisans were twice as thick in the home towns as they were in the city or country.[19]

Between 1849 and 1861 the number of master artisans in Thuringen declined about 15%. This was the result of a decline in population growth in the home towns after 1830; there were more apprentices and journeymen awaiting mastership than were being absorbed, and they became mobile wage earners "who were socially depressed and excluded from the community".[20]

Walker lays out the home towns' social problem in these terms: Suppose an apprentice began his training at age fourteen, with the expectation of becoming master, citizen, and husband at about thirty, then remaining an active master until his sixties. Within this pattern of expectation there should be half as many helpers as masters to keep the system going. Modify this now to include gross population growth during a master's careet, 1820 - 1850. Prussian population grew about a third in those years, so that at the end of that time the right proportion of hired help rises to sixty-seven for every hundred masters. In the 1830's, shortly after Christoff Heise became a master, Prussia had already passed this figure. [21]

Intensification of agriculture, notably the increased use of the potato, had helped to stave off social change. With the potato famines of the later forties, the dislocations that should have been spread out over the past thirty years came all at once; [22] peasants poured into the towns, where they joined earlier outsiders as "overpopulation". Journeymen, unable to find accredited masters to employ them, tramped from town to town, and their demands at each place for their traditional Zehrpfennig (taken subsidy) before moving, became hardly distinuishable from a mass invasion of sturdy beggars.

Until the Conservative restoration of 1851, the hope remained that unemployment could be solved by economic legislation. The home towns' economic principles (i.e. to prevent entrepreneurial expansion at the cost of the small, independent tradesmen, and to uphold restrictions on occupational mobility to protect their members' security) were making it worse for the unemployed. The Liberal bureaucratic goal (i.e. an economy in which the individual workers would produce a margin of profits beyond his own consumption, unrestricted economic expansion and profit) was ultimately to produce a factory system which would absorb all the unemployed. After the triumph of Conservatism in 1851, however, the unemployed were left no option but to emigrate. [23]

Private Correspondance re: Emigration

The following letters written by August Mierstadt to his brother-in-law Christoff Heise, describe the personal circumstances which prompted the Christoff Heise family to emigrate to America:

-------------

Louisville, Kentucky, August, 1850.

Dear Brother-in-law and Sister!

I received your letter of the 26th of April on June 19, and I see from it that you are still healthy and happy. It pleases me most to hear that my mother is still alive, though if I had her here, I could provide for her better than you do in Germany. I think of her many times while sitting at the table. I wrote to her once, but did not knkow what to think because I did not receive any answer to my letter. It would be

best if you wrote at once and mailed it right away instead of waiting for an appropriate opportunity.

I do not have much good news to report to you now. We were visited by cholera. At the time I received your letter it began gradually to spread through St. Louis and Cincinnati, and it even entered Louisville where many people died in a part of the city of about 60 houses in extent. In 24 hours 30 people died, so that in two days all those houses were empty: the survivors left for other parts of the city or travelled away into the country. Now, however, they are returning, and every day more come back.

I hope you write immediately, if you have not already done so when you receive this letter. If I do not die in the next two or three months -- and even if I should die -- send Karl and Martha here as soon as possible. After about a year or so, you can follow. People like you can make a better living here than in Germany. At any rate, life here cannot possibly be worse than Germany! You can earn more here, and with a good wage you must only be thrify to become rich.

I heard of a Frenchman who was a carpenter by trade. He had been here for fourteen years, and could earn as much annually here, as he could in a lifetime in France. Two years ago he began to buy up old furniture, clean it, repair it, and sell it at a profit of 1600 dollars per year. Last week he died in the cholera epidemic. If you want to be rich and earn a lot more money than you do in Germany, leave Germany. Where you are now, there's no opportunity for advancement. Here a person can choose his work.

If a man is without business property, he can live here 10 years without paying a penny of tax. I have still not paid any tax: You won't be sorry if you come to America! People like you in Germany have little prospect to better themselves. It is much better here.

My little Maria came down with cholera on July 27. I went immediately to the doctor when she showed signs of illness. In spite of all the help, however, she grew sicker with the passing of every hour. She was a corpse already at 2:20, July 29. My wife is inconsolable, and I don't know what to do. This incident was too hard for me, and I feel helpless and lost.

My baby was a joy and entertainment for me. She was beautiful and of immearsureable worth. She understood her parents very well. When I held your letter and showed her Karl's name on it, and said that it was her cousin's name, she kissed the name many times. And after that, whenever I gave her the letter, she kissed the name more than a thousand times. She had a tender, small physique, but it was well-formed. She had beautiful blue eyes, beautiful hair and beautiful feet. She had already been sick twice, but had pulled through both times with the help of the doctor. But this time she could not rescure herself. She was born 9:30 a.m. on March 15, 1849, and died at 12:30 p.m. on July 29, 1850. Her life lasted 1 year, 4 months, 13 days and 15 hours. It seemed to me that life was no longer worth living. I have wished many times that the cholera would have taken me instead. I have not yet given up the idea of following her, and this feeling will not leave me so long as I live. Indeed, maybe I will get rid of that notion. Maria's death has bent me, but not broken me! My mother-in-law lived to bury 4 of her own children!

This time I've got to close. Greet my dear mother many times, and tell her what a tragedy I have experienced. Greet you children and Barbara Elizabeth and her children, many times. And Karl -- you must come to America as soon as possible. Germany offers you nothing! If you have the time, learn some English. The cholera epidemic will have passed in 2 or 3 months. Then I will write again. Until then, wait for mail. Live well and stay healthy.

This I wish you from the heart.

Your August Mierstedt.

------------------

Louisville, Kentucky, November 21, 1850

Dear Brother-in-law, Sister, and Karl!

Your two letters of April 29, 1850, arrived here on June 19. It was a real joy to hear from you again after such a long time. I answered your letter July 24. That was a very troubled time for me, however, with the cholera epidemic and the depression of my wife. My little Maria came down with cholera and died within 48 hours. The tragedy caused me the same hurt as it did you, when you lost your dear child.

You asked me about Katharine's reticence to come to America, whether it would be better to allow her to stay where she is,

or to pressure her to come with you. This question is easy to answer. The past and present circumstances in Germany have been bad. And you know better than I, how much worse the future looks.

I think you have already abandoned the notion of bettering yourself in Germany. You have suffered want and misery, and your children have endured the same thing. If not all the immigrants to America have become rich, certainly the majority have prospered. Katharine's complaints are without foundation.

I have blessed the hour a thousand times, in which you confided your intention of going to America. You said that you had made that resolution long ago already. You probably bless that hour, too. Before God, I have wished you here a hundred times.

Leave quickly as soon as you sell everything that you have. Be as thrifty with the money as possible, and don't wait long before you catch a ship. Perhaps it will be too late in one year. I also don't believe it would be possible for Barbalisin to wait a couple of years, either, before she sells out and comes here. When her boys are grown, they can easier earn a living than in Germany.

I must end this letter. Sincere greetings to my mother, all the relatives and friends. And you, Karl, write me a good long letter about conditions in Muhlhausen. I would really like to hear. I hope and pray that we will see each other again and have a good talk. Until then, live well, and don't forget your,

August Mierstedt.

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Transportation

Between 1820 and 1854, about six million Germans left Europe. The exodus jumped from 60,000 per annum in the early 1840's, to 130,000 annually in the years 1847-54. MacDonald cites "a series of crop failures with near famine conditions and rising prices"[24] as the catalyst responsible for this increase.

The founding of the first great German transoceanic lines in 1847, however, appears to be the greatest single factor which doubled emigration figures in that year. The fact that this number remainder constant for seven successive years--until 1854--further indicates that the disposing factor was not conditional (eg. the Thuringian potato famine which lasted only two years) but socio-political in nature.

The first steamship line between Germany and the New World was financed with American capital in Bremen in 1847, and a second line was established in Hamburg later that year. [26] The Congress of Vienna (1815) had restored Hamburg's privileges as a "Free City" and had thereby greatly stimulated the commercial initiative of the partician merchants there. The office of the Hamburg-America Line bore the symbolic inscription: Mein Feld ist die Welt ('My field is the world"). The Hamburg merchants were among the most outspoken advocates of Free Trade policies, and encouraged the drain of German labour to America.[27]

Germany had the most organized business of emigration in all of Europe. [28] The steamship companies had their agents in every town and village of the Confederation. And emigrants who were successful sent back large sums of money to help relatives leave the country.

The German government, however, encourage by the vocal native press and large landowners, opposed large-scale emigration. It censored propaganda which encouraged emigration, and exposed solicitors to a fine or imprisonment. The Times of London reported that "The German Government makes short work with eccentric persons and cracked fools of emigration agents". [29]

Canada didn't work very hard to attract German immigrants. She circulated advertisements along the Rhine, sent special agents to direct emigrants to Canada, and granted European vessels free passage in American waters. But it was not until 1857 that the privileges of British subjects were extended to German immigrants. And Canada, which had no permanent agency in Germany, worked through the Allan Line which sailed from Liverpool and had no direct connection with German ports of embarkation. German steamship agents hesitated to work for indirect lines, because their licenses clearly instructed that they had to book passengers to the New World by the direct route--which eliminated Canada--on German ships.

The Heises Emigrate to Preston, Canada West

Henry's two eldest siblings, Martha (19 years old) and Carl (16 years old), booked passage from Hamburg to New York in Spring, 1851, through the Thuringischen Verein für Deutsche Auswanderung zu Weimar (The Thuringian Club at Weimar for German Emigrants).[30] Upon arrival in America, Martha made preparations to continue north to the village of Preston, Canada West -- where her fiance August Plothner [31] was now living -- and Carl headed towards his Uncle Mierstedt's home in Louisville, Kentucky.

Preston was located on the north bank of the Speed River, north of its junction with the Grand. It was at the terminus of important roads from Dundas, Waterloo, and Woolwich Township, and lay on the Huron Road which linked it with Guelph. Its site offered the best water-power resources in Waterloo County, as well as room for urban growth on the wide, level terrace of the Speed's south bank. Before the incorporation of Berlin, Preston attracted more European immigrants that any other local village. [32] In 1851, 72% of the population was German or of German descent. The successful development of Preston in these years has been attributed to an immigrant labour force already skilled in the trades and industry, which could make full use of the available resources in the neighbourhood. [33]

August Plöthner was an established weaver in Preston, and Martha set up a millinery business at the front of his shop. Friederich Guggisberg operated a furniture factory just down the road by the Speed River, where Carl Heise came to work as a cabinet-maker late in 1851.

On August 15, 1852, Henry (aged 10) and Christian (aged 12) emigrated with their parents Christoff and Maria Heise to Preston via the Hamburg-New York steamship line. Christoff found employment as a woodturner with Guggisberg, [35] and the two boys went to the village school operated by Otto Klotz.

Economic opportunities looked promising. Preston had been incorporated as a village on January 1, 1852. Later that year Preston subscribed $40,000 worth of stock in the Galt and Guelph Railway Company, in exchange for the promise of a station at Preston. Preston seemed to be on an equal economic fotting with all other Upper Canada centres -- even Toronto stood out mainly for its administration functions rather than its commercial activity. [36] It was thought that any place with railway connections had the same advantages for industrial location as any other. [37] "In the next decade, however, the growth of grain export trade, the increase in local commerce, the rise of towns, and the coming of the railway began the transformation of Upper Canada. A scattered community of backwoods settlements was becoming an integrated, commercial, agricultural society, in which the business class was steadily rising to prominence, and through which the meetropolitan pull of the city of Toronto was making itself felt ever more strongly". [38]

The population of Preston was essentially German. Henry studied in English at school, but upgraded his native language in the Saturday morning German classes, and learned to sing English and German songs in harmony. "The singing teacher, whether old Jacobs with the patriarchial beard, or Robert Blackwood, was proficient on the violin or fiddle, making the learning of a song thereby very easy, besides giving swing and verve to the music".[39]

Punishment was of the heroic kind -- physical suffering. The teach generally had an armful of blue-birch switches about six feet long in a corner beside the desk, supplied on demand by a boy or boys, from the woods behind the school. These were applied to the outstretched hand, and would wear shorter and shorter, until a new switch was requisitioned. Another form of punishment was benchery, almost exclusively confined to boys. The teacher would firmly grasp the victim's neck, hold the head on the desk, and beat him on the bottom with a ruler.[40]

Henry probably knew from memory the German poem composed by a neighbour, Jacob Benner, which was reprinted many times and recited at village festivals. Following is a versified translation:

German [41]

To be German is my pleasure,
For I'm German to the core;
Those who fill the German measure,
Are the ones whom I adore.

German I shall be forever,
Since a German I was born.
Reading, writing German ever,
Shall my heart and hand adorn.

German customs, German manners,
German prayer and sermon too,
Wave o'er German ways their banners,
Since in them they're ever new.

German press and German learning,
Held aloft the German name.
Who can cease his German yearning,
Forever it exerts its claim.

German drink and fare I favor,
German dress is unsurpassed:
It's the German way I long for,
From the first until the last.

What is German, let us cherish,
We whose German blood runs true,
So that German here may flourish,
And from age to youth renew.

May then German seeds be growing,
In our North America;
Might its joys to us be flowing,
Here in Upper Canada.

Henry belonged to the Preston Turn-Verein (Athletic Club) which promoted physical development, anti-Semitism, and German culture. During the summer months, practices were held on Tuesday and Saturday evenings under the supervision of a Turnwart (trainer). The Turn Platz (practice grounds) was located at the corner of present-day Hamilton and Wellington streets. Exercises were performed on the horizontal bar, parallel bars, spring board, climbing pole, suspended iron rings, and turnstile. At times the evening exercises conclued with a Dauerlauf (endurance test) where, in a game of follow-the-leader, the group would jog for miles until they returned to the starting point with a few missing who had given out on the test. [42]

Every year there was a Turn Fest (Athletic Festival), generally of a day's duration, and every few years there was a Turn Fest of all the Vereine which would extend over two days. "The Turners would gather all dressed in white, form a procession, and headed by the village band and banner would parade the main street, then assemble at the Turnplatz for an opening address followed by athletic competitions with prizes". At times there would be a Vogel-Schiessen (Bird-Shooting Contest) with crossbows and dummy bird. A huge eagle was assembled of detachable pieces of wood with score values, and erected as a target on a high pole". [43]

There was invariably drama in the evening, followed by a dance. Beer was the only beverage, accompanied by pretzel and smoked sausages. The plays were conducted in German, with local talent, on the stage in Roos' Hall. The Fussler (prompter) sat within the wooden covered hood before the stage". [44]

Shortly after ten the theatre ended, chairs were moved to the side of the hall, and dancing began. The children were sent to bed.

In his final year of school, 1856, Henry entered a public competition to be held in the Berlin Court Room on July 20, for the twenty-seven best students in Waterloo County. [45] Doctor John Scott, Warden of the County of Waterloo, engaged Mr. John Sangster as the examiner. Henry placed first in English Penmanship and Calligraphy, first in German Penmanship and Calligraphy, and second in Linear Drawing. He did not place in the test for Mental ARithmetic, Practical Arithmetic, Theoretical Arithmetic, English Grammar, German Grammar, Geography, English History, Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, Algebra, or Geometry. [46]

With his theoretical education behind him, Henry Heise set his mind to learning a trade.

Henry Heise Becomes a Master Cabinetmaker

The German immigrants were industrious and thrifty. No one was rich, but most of them followed trades. Christoff Heise did not have enough money to open a shop in 1852, so he worked as a wage-earner at Guggisberg's Furniture and Chair Factory, until funds were secured to establish an independent business. Thus he heeded his native saying: "Drive not thy nail into the air". Where other Canadians set out shade trees, the Germans in Preston planted fruit trees; where other planted shrubs, they raised vegetables; and while others played games, they tilled their gardens".

On January 10, 1855, Christoff Heise purchased a one quarter acre plot on the south-east corner og King and Argyle streets in Preston. [47] He probably continued to work at Guggisberg's factory during the next year, while he erected the building which was to serve as house, work-shop, and store. The place needed to be equipped with tools, machines, and finishing materials. And a small inventory of stock had to be assembled before the opening.

An independent company opened a railway line from the Great Western Railway at Galt, to Preston on November 28, 1855. [48] Trade relations between Canada and the United States proved a boon to Canada's prosperity and economic growth. (The intimate relations between the two countries had influenced Canada in 1853 to replace its pound sterling currency system with the American dollar). And the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 allowed Canada to fill the American demand for her goods caused by the Crimean War, the construction of railways, and the Civil War. [49]

Christoff Heise opened an independent furniture business sometime in 1856. Carl joined him early in the venture, and ownership was placed in his name. After Henry was confirmed (April 6, 1856) and graduated (July 20, 1856), he served a seven-year cabinetmaker apprenticeship here, under his brother Carl. A set of stencils cut by Carl, and possibly designed by him as well, have been reproduced in a book entitled Stenciling in the Heise Family, privately published by Edna Smith in 1966. The originals descended through Henry Heise's family, which indicates that Henry learned to use them, and kept them after he set up business for himself in 1864.

A business card dating from the time of Henry's apprenticeship reads as follows:

"Charles Heise and Company [50]
Cabinet-Makers
Undertakers and Dealers
In Furniture
Preston, C.W.

Beg leave to inform the public that they have and
always keep on hand at their New Wareroom, a large
variety of
Chairs, Bedsteads, Tables, Bureaus, Sofas, etc.,
which they offer to the public at exceedingly low
prices. A liberal discount allowed to parties
purchasing large quantities.
Lumber and Farm Produce taken in exchange for
Furniture.
Intending purchasers are respectfully invited, and
will find it in their interest to give them a call
before buying elsewhere.
Remember the Place--Opposite the Schoolhouse
in Preston."

Henry developed the skills of a craftsman during the term of his apprenticeship, and in 1863 he made a Meisterstück (Masterpiece) which established his credibility as a full-fledged mechanic. This massive cherry wardrobe is the masterpiece of Ontario-German cabinetry as well. It is the only known example in this tradition to have the tedious technique of marquetry inlay employed in its construction.

Marquetry was a form of inlay carried out in veneer and, since the entire process was done with a fine saw, fine and elaborate designs could be constructed. Hayward describes the cutting process:

In early marquetry various coloured woods were used and, the patterns having been pasted to the background and the various packs of wood, the outline was sawn round on a device known as the marquetry cutters' donkey. This had a sort of framesaw with superfine blades running in guides. The veneer pack was held vertically in a pair of chops controlled by a pedal, and the craftsman twisted the work round in whatever position was required for the direction of art. He sat astride the machine, and controlled the chops with a pedal. Any man doing a particular job over a number of years develops considerable skill, and this was certainly true of marquetry cutting, for although the parts were cut separately, they made a perfect fit, one within the other. [51]

The veneer Henry used was burled walnut--a difficult wood to work with at any time--cut by hand with a frame saw to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. As much wood was lost in the saw dust as was used in the actual veneer. The veneer and groundwork (here a long board intended as a vertical panel between the wardrobe's doors) were both glued, and the veneer placed in position.

A flat board known as a caul slightly larger than the groundwork was thoroughly heated and cramped down over the surface, the pressure applied at the centre at first, the object being to liquefy the glue and drive the surplus towards the edges and bring the veneer into close contact with the groundwork. To heat the caul a shaving blaze was used, shavings being piled into a brick enclosure and set alight. [52]

It was necessary for Henry to have one horizontal joint in this veneer. "The caul method was used, the edges were planed true on the shooting board, held together with a strip of glued paper, and the whole put down in one operation". [53] The paper stuck over the joint was to prevent it from opening as the glue dried out.

Henry also employed intarsia inlay in his Meisterstück. "The method used would have been to draw out the whole design and make tracings which would enable repeat patterns to be made. Many of the scrolls, for instance, were identical and as many as would be needed would be cut out of thin wood with a saw having a narrow blade". [54] Henry took these thin walnut and maple shapes, laid them down on the panels, and traced their designs with a pointed awl. The patterns were chopped, gouged, and chiselled, and a router was used to bring them to an even depth. The inlaying of these fine intricate shapes was a challenge to Henry's skills. A twentieth century critic comments that elaborate scrolls with acute or involved shapes--of the type in Henry's Meisterstück--would not be possible". [55] After the inlays were glued in place and had set, the whole surface was planed smooth.

A third type of inlay which Henry used is known as bandings. Bandings were long strips of decorative wooden patterns. They were used in veneer thickness only, but were made up in quite thick blocks of solid wood and were sawn into veneer thickness. They would have been available commercially by 1863--in the same way as moulding and wooden hardware--but Henry would have been required to make the bandings for his Meisterstück.

As the apprentice of a country cabinetmaker, Henry had to develop proficiency in trades such as turning and carving, in addition to joinery (the trade to which a town master cabinetmaker would restrict himself). Henry turned pilasters, finials, and feet for his Meisterstück. In the centre of the architecture he applied an acorn bud with fronds, and on the pediment he carved an acorn in full blossom.

Henry was an artist, and his Meisterstück is an expression of himself, his homeland, and his age. The images he created may be provincial, the perspective unscientific, and the proportions awry. But they constitute a work of art, a fusion of the Peasant Baroque tradition of rural Germany, with the Victorian tradition of backwoods Ontario. Henry was never alone, for his creations which spoke to him of life, were for him alive.

Henry's Meisterstück was the medium through which he expressed his beliefs, values, and life. It represents the fruition of his dream to become an independent master artisan.

The only example of Ontario-German cabinetry sharing stylistic characteristics with Henry's Meisterstück, is a wardrobe said to have been found in Grey County, Ontario, where two of Henry's brothers lived.

Henry Heise in Business for Himself

Late in 1863, Henry began to work independently in the family furniture business. [56] Sutherland's County of Waterloo Gazeteer (1864) lists five Heises at this site. Christoff was a turner, Christian and Henry--cabinetmakers, Charles--moulding maker, and an unknown relative named John--labourer.

An account book kept by Henry Heise for the year beginning June 6, 1866, describes his success as an artisan. The diary begins: "Sold W. Schlüler one wheel barrow, took a diary and paper in exchange; went down to Galt to get a cutter in exchange for furniture but didn't get it". The diary mentioned is probably the one in which the account was written. Henry calculated his wages at 12 1/2 cents per hour, and gross sales at $601.36. The profit margin is not clear. Following is a sample of the entries:

"Ground 9 lbs. yellow ochre @ 18 cents per lb. and 7 lbs. brown ochre @ 20 cents per lb. for Mrs. Bitschy".

"Bought 5 gallons boild (sic) oil from Eby, Bridgeport, @ $1.12 1/2 per gal."

"Bought 1423 feet common pine @ $10 per thousand and 450 feet clear @ $15 per thousand".

"Bought 32 pounds of wool from Mr. Breithaupt, total $10.66".

"Bought one envelope with stationary for 25 cents".

"Received 100 lb. flour from Mr. Hoffman on account".

"Ground 15 lbs. of paint for Mrs. Bitschy; are going to take it out tonight if it does not rain".

"Pattern for John Clare, received 50 cents".

"Received for cane seat rocking chair, $5.00".

"Received for bedstead, $2.50".

"Received for French bedstead, $5.50".

"Received for 12 upholstered chairs and rocking chair, $63.50".

"Received for sink, $3.50".

"Received for bureau, $18.00".

"Received for 2 blinds, $5.00".

"Received for washing machine, $5.75".

"Received for rolling pin and potato masher, 25 cents".

"Received for shuttle propeller, 6 cents".

"Gave one dollar to mother".

Henry Heise's diary is probably representative of his annual business during the period 1865-1880. After that time, however, "the traditional industries catering to local market disappeared, while the decline of the rural population and the improved transportation system resulted in a smaller demand for services from the villages and small towns. The large towns and industries grew at the expense of the smaller ones". [57]

On September 14, 1869, [58] Henry Heise was married to Dorothea Stumpfle (b. March 27, 1850) [59] in St. Peter's Lutheran Church by Emmanuel Wurster. Dorothea was a daughter of the first potter in Preston (established 1834), [60] Michael Stumpfle from Wurttemburg. The names and birth dates of Henry and Dorothea's children are as follows: [61]

Maria	b.	June 26, 1870
Elizabeth	b.	April 24, 1872
Johann Henry	b.	April 23, 1874
Emma	b.	March 20, 1876
Dorothea	b.	February 23, 1878
Louisa	b.	April 11, 1880
Charlotte	b.	March 5, 1882
George	b.	February 6, 1885
Wilhelm	b.	February 5, 1887
Clara	b.	December 1, 1891

Christoff Heise died on April 24, 1870. [62] Henry bought out his brothers' interest in the property, and took personal control of the business. The 1871 census evaluates it as follows: fixed capital $500., floating capital $200., raw materials $150., annual sales $900. The source of energy was horsepower.

The Heises continued living above the furniture store until the 1890's when Henry built a big house. As soon as the children were old enough to work, they had to put in their time in the workshop. The girls were all taught to cane chairs and finish furniture. The boys learned to help with furniture construction. Even with this cheap source of labour, Henry found it increasingly difficult to produce furniture at competitive prices. In the early 1880's he resorted to piece work and poorer workmanship to stay in business. He manufactured wooden shingles, clothboards, and cabinet parts for the Singer Sewing Machine Company in Guelph. [63]

Then in 1887 Henry Bought a steam engine with the hope that it would increase the profit potential of his industry. [64] It did. He was now able to produce all kinds of turning, sawing, and planing to order; the turnover of his piece work was increased; and he stilled had time to construct the custom furniture of which he was proud.

About 1895 [65] Henry built a handsome Victorian home south of the shop. That was the custom for successful businessmen. He was not comfortable in such luxury, however, and in 1904 sold the furniture business from under Henry Jr.'s nose -- who was now in active control ot it -- and bought a shack in Freeport. [66] "He thought when he bought this place that Dorothea would move there with him. But I think that was the first time she refused him," [67] related a descendent.

Henry affectionately named his new home Viel Nadich (Much Needed), and his neighbours called him "The Mayor of Freeport". He looked after 20 chickens, did a little gardening, and kept busy in his workshop. Dorothea visited him regularly, once a week, on the streetcar which provided a direct line between Preston and Freeport. She always brought food with her. [68]

In 1917, Henry had an accident and gashed his leg. He wouldn't go to a doctor and gangrene set in. The March 23, 1917 issue of the Berlin News Record reports: "Mr. Henry Heise died at his home in Preston on Wednesday evening, after several weeks of suffering, due to shock received after the amputation of his leg five weeks ago".

Descendents Remember Henry Heise

Henry Heise is remembered as "a real Prussian with his thumb down on everybody. He was a real hard worker and expected everyone else to be a hard worker. He was really strict," says Mrs. Thiel. "He was a stern, hard man, "relates Henry's last surviving daughter, Mrs. Riley, "and the children had to speak German at the table". Henry Jr. was apparently a bright and hard-working tradesman, "but his father never gave him credit for anything".

I have made the following observations of Henry Heise's descendents, which may be applicable to all descendents of Germans who immigrated to Canada in the period 1846 - 1860:

They:

1. retain mainly negative sentiments about their ethnic past;
2. are against authoritarianism;
3. consider the Prussian Officer as the German stereotype;
4. criticize the German work ethic;
5. do not equate Lutheranism with specific cultural values;
6. accept with strong reservations the praise heaped on German pioneers by contemporary historians;
7. are very kind, considerate, and helpful.

In the context of the Heise family's experience, it appears that immigration took place to preserve a way of life threatened by a changing world. The second generation gradually changed their lifestyle in response to some of the same changes (eg. industralization) which were the catalyst for immigration in the first place. Then the second generation became distressed that the third generation perpetuated this new lifestyle. The memory of this generation conflict remains clearly in the minds of descendents.

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Footnotes

1...Leibbrandt, Gottlieb, Little Paradise, (Kitchener: Allprint Company Ltd., 1975), p.29.
2...MacDonald, Norman, Canada, Immigration and Colonization 1841-1903, (Great Britain: Aberdeen Press, 1966), p.215.
3...Henry Heise Family Bible Genealogy.
4...St. Peter's Lutheran Church M.S. Records.
5...Ibid.
6...Ibid.