In Pursuit of Religious Freedom: Bishop Martin Stephan's Journey

by Stephan, Philip

  About one half year ago, I found a German lawyer, a Mr. Koerner in Bellville, Illinois, who is taking care of me, but on account of the great divergence and impoverishment of the robbers who have taken away my money and goods, the lawsuit is connected with great difficulties. Until now I have not received one article of my property.

  Meanwhile, I am living in the most abject poverty. I am unable to earn anything. I am living among hard hearted people. A few express their sympathy, but that does not remove my distress. For several months I have been preaching to a few German Lutherans at their request and they have subscribed a few dollars for me, but that is not sufficient to protect me even against the most pressing needs. I am in want of all of the necessary things of life. My daily food consists mainly of a water-gruel, potatoes and dry bread. During the summer months I received some curdled milk with my bread; that is welcome refreshment for me. I taste very little meat because I have no money to buy it. As the impious congregation has robbed me of all my possessions, I am in want of all the necessities of life. I have no whole vest, no warm jacket, no warm stockings, no warm quilt, for they robbed me of my blankets. I have no warm shoes. My shirts are also going to pieces, for I was robbed of my best ones. During the winter months, I am shivering with cold day and night because I have no warm clothing.

  A few days ago my attorney, lawyer Koerner, told that public papers in German were telling their readers that I had turned Roman Catholic. This story belongs in the category of the craziest falsehood, which has been spread among the general public against me during the past four years. This story has probably been invented by my malicious persecutors to make me despicable and hated by such of my German fellow Lutherans who still retain a friendly feeling toward me.

  My attorney also informed me that Vehse had written a book about the Emigration which even my enemies here in America declare to be one-sided. As Dr. Vehse told me the most brazen lies to my face, I assume that he will have no scarcity of them at this present remoteness.

  It requires very little nerve and courage to defame me in every possible manner, as I am placed in a situation in which I cannot defend myself. I have been robbed of all my stationary; I have neither pen nor ink, and find it very hard to even pay the postage on this letter to New York.

  I am willing to give the strictest account of my conduct to any and every honest and fair-minded person; all that I ask in return is that they will also give me an opportunity to be heard, and not [by] only my accusers. [Emphasis is Koepchen’s.] In consequence of the distress and great poverty in which I live, I am as if I were buried alive.

  My attorney, lawyer Koerner, is doing his utmost for me, but he is lacking personal funds and I cannot contribute a penny, many legal proceedings against the pilfering robbers cannot be carried out; the necessary means are not at hand. If I had entered my suit a year earlier, my persecutors would have landed in prison, as several lawyers and also Koerner, have assured me. The prison servitude has now become superannuated by the statute of limitation. I would also have salvaged more of my property, because most of the people were still in the colony and but few had returned to Germany. Now, however, I can only hope for a small portion of my belongings and then not before the month of February of the coming year. I, therefore, will again be compelled to freeze during the next winter months because I have no warm blanket, no warm stocking nor jacket.

  From this short statement, you, honored Mr. Consul, will perceive the disconsolate situation into which I was hurled without any fault of mine. In the 65th year of my life, I am compelled to suffer the direst need of all things necessary for life. This need has greatly affected my health. I cannot earn my livelihood by manual labor. I still could perform the duties of an Evangelical Lutheran pastor, but there is little opportunity for this, as but few German Lutherans live in this region, and for these I conduct a public service every two week in the Court House.

  After more than thirty years of service in the holy ministry, during which I conscientiously tried to conduct my office according to the best of my knowledge before God and man, I was robbed of all my possessions, outrageously driven into misery and by the most malicious slander in America and Europe made contemptible and detestable by those who owed me thanks and love. That is the reward which the emigrated Saxon Congregation gave me for the great concern, which I showed for its welfare.

  My sad situation may serve as my excuse, if I dare address the plea to you, Mr. Consul, that you help to free me from my present predicament. Rest assured that you will not be wasting your effort upon an ungrateful person.

  And now but one more favor: I would like to have some information about my family in Dresden; how are they getting along; I have my misgivings about writing to them at the present time, neither can I pay the postage.

  I would also like to have my attorney in Dresden, lawyer Krause, inform me about my affairs. You will also, please give my greetings to Dr. Stuebel, senior, and inform him of my disconsolate situation. He was a loyal friend to me in Dresden.

  In giving you this short presentation of my misfortune of which you my make any use you may see, I testify before God and man that I have written the truth.

  With due esteem,

  I am your obliging,

  Martin Stephan,

  Exiled Lutheran Preacher.

  Kaskaskia, Illinois

  North America,

  Oct. 15, 1841

  Sent to Dr. J. G. Fluegel, the United States consul in Leipzig via New York, to Havre, to Leipzig,1 it arrived in Leipzig two-and-a-half months later, December 2, 1841.

  Martin recounted to Fluegel his whole painful story. Of course he did not mention some of the salacious details that are talked about to this day. It is not surprising that almost three years after his excommunication, Stephan’s pen overflowed with sadness, anger, and hurt. What is surprising is that he wrote such a succinct story in spite of all the convoluted and intriguing events involved. He was frank in his disbelief, hurt, and outrage at being robbed. But perhaps the greatest theft of all was that of his reputation, respect, esteem, and love. Those were stolen that appalling day, May 29, 1839.

  NOTE

  1 Martin Stephan to J. G. Fluegel, Leipzig, Stephan Family Archives, 1841, 1–7. The letter from Martin Stephan is translated and typed from the original. It is held by the Stephan family. William Koepchen is credited for some of the original typing. William Koepchen, appendix to “Martin Stephan and the Saxon Emigration of 1838” (unpublished ms., Stephan Family Archives and Concordia Historical Institute, 1935), 1–13.

  30

  Justice Delayed

  These brutal years were full of turmoil for Stephan. The struggles since 1838 had taken an even greater toll on Martin than perhaps he himself realized. As he fought to overcome pneumonia, he scrambled to find a way to regain some of the personal belongings that he had gathered over a lifetime: his land, money to live and bring his family to him, and of course, the chalices, those symbolic reminders that he was a servant of the Word and sacraments. To that end, Martin sought legal counsel to reclaim his stolen property.

  One major barrier prevented him from retaining counsel: he had no money. For two years, Martin searched fruitlessly for someone to take his case without an up-front retainer. Then, one day in March or April 1841, he heard about attorney Gustav Koerner who practiced law in the town of Belleville, Illinois. He wrote a letter and begged Koerner to take his case. Koerner agreed to do this, even though he already refused influential American businessmen’s requests to help Martin.

  Attorney Koerner, himself a native of Frankfurt, Germany, was a thirty-two-year-old son of a well known German bookseller and publisher. Koerner had studied at the universities of Jena and Munich and was graduated from the University of Heidelberg in 1832. He immigrated in 1833 with his fiancée’s family by the name of Engelmann and continued his studies for the U.S. bar at Transylvania College in Kentucky. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1835 and developed a distinguished career in law and politics
. He authored a number of books on the law in the United States and the influence the German culture had on shaping U.S. law.

  Attorney Koerner agreed to take Martin Stephan’s case for no pay, because he wanted to “right an injustice.” Stephan described the particulars of his case to Koerner; the suit was filed in May of 1841 and settled in June of 1842. Martin Stephan had written a letter to Dr. J. G. Fluegel, U.S. consul in Leipzig, requesting help for his pitiful existence in poverty. Dr. Fluegel had replied, and attorney Gustav Koerner responded to Dr. Fluegel’s letter.

  Koerner’s letter contains a detailed description of the legal actions he took to restore Stephan’s property, a work he undertook to correct a violation of his individual rights. The attorney’s letter opens with the usual kind felicitations and thanks to Consul Fluegel for telling him about the moral character of Pastor Stephan. He explains that he understands the reason for the Saxons emigration and voyage to America, and that he prefers to keep his opinions to himself in those matters, because his greatest concern was Martin Stephan’s legal situation. The remainder of the letter details how Koerner attempted to negotiate and resolve the suit that Pastor Stephan had filed under his guidance.

  Stephan was living in a pitiable condition, subsisting on the scanty gifts which came from the public treasure of Kaskaskia, a locality within my circuit. It was an unpleasant task for its citizens to support a pauper, driven to them from another state, and I was frequently compelled to hear caustic remarks, which were exceedingly distasteful to me as a German. Even a local paper reproached the authorities for supporting at the expense of the County, a stranger, the head of a large congregation whose primary duty would seem to be to provide for their spiritual leader.

  Several influential men, American, asked me to help him regain his property. As I was unwilling to comply with their request, Mr. Stephan finally appealed to me by letter, and pleaded with me to help him get his belongings.

  At my next visit in Kaskaskia, during the session of the court, I called on him and found him living in truly wretched circumstances. He had no proper clothing, no furniture, very little firewood, subsisting on the poorest of poor food, a time virtually suffering with hunger.

  The means of support given him by the leaders of the colony at his deportation were according to his statement exhausted before he came to Randolph County.

  Attorney Koerner’s first moves were to get Martin Stephan some sort of funds in order to prevent him from sinking even deeper into poverty. The description of his living situation pointed to dangerous threats to Stephan’s health. Koerner attempted some sort of negotiation out of court, but apparently it was not successful.

  I resolved to make an effort in his behalf, and therefore went to Perry County in May of the past year, and visited the German settlement. I found the people very friendly toward me and a number of them deeply distressed on account of Stephan’s extreme poverty, but unwilling to deliver to me, as Stephan’s agent (I had introduced myself as such) that part of his property which was still there and the five hundred Prussian Thaler taken from him at his expulsion from the colony. This matter had been looked upon as an affair of the entire congregation and I fully realized that the individual members, whom I had approached, could not take it upon themselves to act for the colony.

  At his deportation, Stephan had been forced to surrender all his belongings and it was assumed that these assignments could be upheld as contracts. No attention had been paid to the fact that the congregation had not even been incorporated, that it, therefore, had no legal right to make contracts, not to mention the fact, that Stephan had ceded his property under stress.

  In the whole procedure against Stephan, the congregation had acted without any knowledge of the law of the land. It is my opinion that almost all acts of the congregation, from its organization to its purchase of the land were carried out without proper knowledge of the conditions and laws of our country. A certain Bimpage, now deceased, managed everything. He was known to be a man of very superficial knowledge and totally confused in American laws. As an illustration, I will give but one example.

  Mr. Stephan had from time to time received presents from the members of his congregation. Some of these dated back many years. After his expulsion from the colony, these donors took these gifts back. Lawyer Marbach is said to have told them that in Germany a gift is indeed a contract and transfers this property, but according to American law such gifts may be taken back at any time.

  How can a lawyer like Marbach, who is said to be gifted and learned, believe such fairy tales?

  I accomplished nothing on my first trip and as the time to bring the proper lawsuit was fast approaching the statute of limitations, I at once, (May 22, 1841) entered suits for “Trover and Conversion” and for “Trespass, Vi et Armis,” against such individual who were still in possession of Stephan’s property or who had been connected with his expulsion. [See note 6 on this chapter for more details on the suit.]

  I made every effort to bring about a compromise and in so doing I availed myself of the assistance of Mr. Doederlein, of whose business talent and courtesy I wish here to make grateful mention.

  In October of last year [1841], I again appeared in Perry County for the session of the court. The opposing party had engaged the services of an efficient lawyer, who at once took various exceptions to the introduction of this lawsuit. In this he was not successful and had many of his objections decided in Stephan’s favor. This wrangling about preliminaries, however, necessitated a postponement of the case until a few weeks ago [June 14,1842]. A few hours before the case was to be argued in the court, and many witnesses had already put in their appearance, the accused decided to make a compromise, which I advised Stephan, who also was present, to accept.

  I then again journeyed to the settlement on the Mississippi, at the mouth of the Brazos [Brazeau], and brought the matter to a close. Mr. Stephan received such [some] of his former possessions, which were still there [in Perry County], and the sum of $210. This relieved him from the most pressing needs, but self evidently only for a short time.

  Permit me to explain to you in a few words the legal relation of Stephan to his congregation.1

  Here Koerner lists everything in Stephan’s possession at the time of the expulsion: money, land, salary arrangements and personal items, and the circumstances under which Stephan had acquired them all. He notes that a decision to return Martin’s land “would be deplorable because the colonists have, in incomprehensible thoughtlessness, erected a number of dwellings on this tract of land and also made other improvements.” Koerner goes on to describe some personal notes about the case.

  It will be an easy matter to see which side is in the right according to law. That he was ordered to leave Missouri and was transported to Illinois against his will is not denied, on the contrary this procedure is even deplored by most of the members of the congregation. Among these persons I have learned to know very upright and honorable men. I mention men like Loeber, Keyl, Gruber, Wege, Boehlan, Doederlein, Nitzschke, and Pfau, who regretted that they had been deluded in many things and above all, had lost all confidence in Stephan.

  It is not for me to judge. Mr. Stephan is of an impassioned nature and I have often pleaded with him to control his temper.

  As a lawyer, I have nothing to do with the religious or other opinions of my client. I know that I have fulfilled my duty. I have faithfully assisted Stephan, without any hope of ever being reimbursed for my expenditure, which were large. These have now been paid, but on account of the poverty of my client, it was impossible to properly reimburse me for all my work. I care nothing about Mr. Marbach’s opinion. He does not know me personally, but only as the lawyer of his enemy. My German citizens in America and the Americans have quite a different opinion about me than Mr. Marbach deigns to express. I will gladly place their judgment over against his.

  Your enclosed letter of Mr. Stephan, I have forwarded by mail, as many months may pass before I will see him again. The privilege
to read the letter before I forward it, was made use of, but let me assure you, that Mr. Stephan is not the man to be moved by emotions, such as you hope to arouse.

  Regarding the desired autographs, I can send you many things, but I must wait my opportunity. I have the autographs of Lawless and Rosati. I have some of Van Buren, Secretary of State Forsyth, Woodberry, the governors of Illinois, and of the member of our Congress, also some Germans of standing as Shelling and others. I also have some of American scholars and will gladly be of service to you.

  With great friendship and devotion,

  Gustav Koerner2

  Koerner’s letter revealed so much because it offers impressions of an outsider with nothing to gain or lose. It indicated all the legal actions taken against the Society while exposing how off course the community was in its legal functions. This misdirection was mostly due to the fact that the group’s key legal advisor was Marbach, a German trained attorney, who knew little or nothing about the United States law. Koerner found some people in the Society “were decent and honorable men.” Not everyone was angry and inclined toward revenge against their former pastor.

  Here is a summary of the court’s decisions. Stephan was robbed of his 3,000 Thaler, just as he had said. If criminal charges had been filed, a U.S. court would have charged the Society with robbery, because force was used to take the money. Some in the Society, including the treasurer, Marbach, and the pastors decided to reclaim Stephan’s salary and the money allocated to him for his administrative expenses. These items were deducted from the 3,000 Thaler the court said was owed Stephan. What they eventually gave him was about 40 German Thaler or US$210.3 It was obvious that the document he signed renouncing his claims was considered a legal document.