Diary Entry 2: August 12, 1864

Getting through that first entry was tough and I started to question my sanity taking this on! However, the second entry did not seem to cause me as many problems. The system I created for myself proved to be quite useful and I was able to translate this entry in a single morning, rather than the entire week. This bodes better for the future. I’m not quite getting my hopes up though, the entry is most definitely shorter than the first.

The idea of translating the diary was supposed to be something fun and intriguing (I do love a good mystery, I thrive on solving them actually) to do along side my teaching and fiction writing. I hoped that it might start my creative juices flowing again as this pandemic has been brutal to my writing–as in I found that I couldn’t. I would sit and stair at my screens and notebooks with nothing. I think I’ve written maybe 3000 words over the last 18 months. Insert sad face here. All of my usual block breaking activities were useless.

I have a long commute to the college I teach at and listen to novels on my way. I was listening to Susanna Kearsley’s novel A Desperate Fortune (I do love Susanna Kearsley) and in her novel, the main character is deciphering a diary written in code. I thought to myself, well German is technically a code for me so why not? I bounced the idea off my brother (same one I mentioned before) and he said go for it. So, here we are, one blog post for each entry and all the information I have collected with them. I’m sure not every entry is going to tell me much at all, but I can still share the ride.

The German Transcription

Through my hangman games and lovely Google translate, here’s the (broken) German transcription of the second entry in Julius Hundhausen’s diary:

Freidag den 12 hau August 1864. Nach dam Robert u ich merschiedenn Geschufta besorgts liess ich nuch ein schevaren, und ssin jezs wohl einstnllirter Pay Masters Clerk. Nachem ittags Bekannte ich verschiedenn unter anderen Ashanbachs, und wurde nan Tantchen Aschanbach nut einer guten tasre Raffe bewirshes. Nachdem Nachtessen ging ich ins Theater wurde uber durch den Regan verdrieben, wes helb ich nich nach eine Meile ein Tivoli Jeruntrieb u bald nein Bett auhe sachte. Julius Hundhausen, 1864

Some of this German, I have come to understand, may be exactly what he wrote and I am transcribing it properly because as I said in my post on the first diary entry, standardization of the written German language did not come to fruition until the late 19th century. They still had another 7 years before the foundation of the German empire that inspired this move.

The English Translation

It did not take nearly as much letter swapping for this entry before the google translation made sense. More frequently, actually, Google Translate asked me if I meant a different spelling that indeed did fit the written script.

Friday the 12th of August 1864. After Robert and I did some different business, I had another job done, and now he’s probably the Pay Master’s Clerk. In the afternoon I visited various acquaintances, including the Achenbach’s, and was invited to Aunty Achenbach’s for a good cup of tea. After supper I went to the theater and was overwhelmed by the rain, which is why I didn’t travel the mile to Tivoli and soon looked for a bed. Arin Blackwood translation of Julius Hundhausen’s Diary entry dated August 12th 1864

Names and Places mentioned

Now, Achenbach could be a number of people. There was a Lutheran minister in St. Louis at this time, William Achenbach who had a number of children and therefore at one point a wife. Being a Lutheran minister, considering Julius’ father was also a well-known Lutheran minister, there’s a high probability that this is the Achenbach he is referring to. I will have to try and dig some more. As far as I can tell, there’s no actual consanguineal connection between the Hundhausen’s and this family, therefore the “Aunty” he’s referring to may be what’s called fictive kin. Fictive kin is a term used for close friends like Godparents who are referred to using the same terms as consanguineal or affinal relatives (blood and marriage relations).

Robert, Julius’ brother we know is also enlisted and had a similar story to Julius himself. Funny thing is, when you google his name, he appears in lists of military records and I now have copies of two photographs of him, there’s not much on his life other than his military exploits.

from Colonels in Blue–Missouri and the Western States and Territories by Roger D. Hunt

from the same as above

What I did find out while trying to find more about his life outside of the war, is that he was appointed Pay Master’s Clerk two months before this diary entry was written. So, my translation is a little off. Perhaps it should be something more like “I had another job to get done as Robert is the Pay Master’s Clerk” or maybe it was referencing that Julius got a new job as Robert’s assistant.

Tivoli, Missouri is proving to be an elusive location and my dear friend Google is not helping. I currently am assuming it was a suburb of St. Louis that has been subsumed by the city no as it expanded over the last century and a half. I will most definitely update if I find any new information.

#writing #germanscript #HermannMissouri #Hundhausen #1864 #civilwar #RobertHundhausen