Manks Family

DAMMAN, MANKS, REDMAN

Posted By: JCGS Volunteer
Date: 9/16/2019 at 11:31:58

Manks Family
From Germany to America
Will Live Under Stars and Stripes
From her faraway home in Breman, Germany, Wilhemina Manks and four children, Ida, Gusta, Charley and William, arrived Saturday morning to make Newton, Iowa, their home. She has a mother, Mrs. Fred Damman, living northwest of Newton, near Laurel, and a brother, Mr. Redman, who lives near Newton.
Mrs. Manks and her children have been on the way three weeks. She is the mother of eleven children, leaving seven in the old country. One son, about twenty-one years old, is enlisted in the German army. One of the children she left in the care of relatives and the others, as we understand are old enough to work. Her husband is dead, and circumstances were such that she desired to come to America.
Neither the mother nor her children were able to speak a word of English and it is indeed very interesting to hear them talk in their quaint, native tongue, but here we must add that our language sounded just as quaint to them as did theirs to us. The reporter of course could not converse with them, but very fortunately there were persons at the depot who could speak the German language and served as very satisfactory interpreters.
It is the German custom with the people to shake hands with everybody when they leave and so when their relatives came for them, they cordially shook hands with all with whom they had been conversing and gave a very knowing nod of the head, which made us understand that they were saying “Good Bye.”
They were met at the depot by her brother.
Source: Newton (IA) Journal; October 10, 1906