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Around Christmas 1900 Andrew Carnegie sold his steel company for $480 million to J. P. Morgan, Sr, who combined his holdings with other producers to form the United States Steel Corporation. The new company had assets valued at $1.4 billion, an amount that exceeded the entire U. S. national debt. In 1902, after Vice-President Teddy Roosevelt was sworn in to replace assassiniated William McKinley, Roosevelt moved to reform the world's most powerful men and their holdings. Using the Sherman Antitrust Act, Roosevelt won over 40 cases against large trusts. He also decided the U. S. alone would police all disputes in the Western Hemisphere and moved to do so. By 1906 he earned the Nobel Peace Prize and America's might was recognized around the world.
In 1902 Roosevelt refereed a miners' labor dispute and this set the stage for the Government to be seen as the main guardian of the public interest everafter.
In 1900, 1.3 million telephones were in service; by 1907 the number increased fivefold. During those same seven years Americans and Europeans were taking to flying and the U. S. War Department foolishly refused all invitations to watch.
By 1910, thanks to parcel post and rural free delivery, Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs as thick as the Bible were reaching 10 million households. Woolworth had more than 200 stores. The upsurge in consumer goods worked a miraculous transformation on many American homes. As electricity became commonplace, a steady flow of labor-saving appliances came on the market. It looked like Busch's young children were going to have an easier life than their parents had as young adults in the U.S.
Moving pictures came into being with the first nickelodeon opening in 1905. Vaudeville Theatre with stars like Will Rogers, the Marx Brothers, Sarah Bernhardt and Ethel Barrymore was rivaled only by The Ziegfeld Follies. Literature of the day was primarily romanticism (Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm & Pollyanna) and naturalism (The Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf, The Strength of the Strong). Magazines such as The Ladies' Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Saturday Evening Post were successfully launched. The Busch's children were going to be better informed and know more of the world than their parents had when they were growing up.
Dancers did the bunny hug, camel walk, the buzzard lope and the kangaroo dip to a new rhythm called ragtime written by greats Scott Joplin, Eubie Blake, Jelly Roll Morton, and, of course, Irving Berlin. The Busch's children were going to be exposed to more liberal life styles than their parents had experienced.
In 1900, the Busch parents' ages ranged from Lizzie's 42 to George's 33. Did the Busch parents disapprove (as most parents do) of their children growing up under such influences? The children of three of the Buschs (Hermann, Lizzie, and Will) were reaching their twenties and teens during these bubbly, rebelious years. The remaining three (Garret, Dick, and George) were just beginning to have their children.
By now Garret's jewelry store, Busch & Sons, had been in business 20 years and Hermann, Minnie, and their children were working on their farm in Nebraska.
In 1901 their Mutti Katrine died in Germany. Had she been following her country's political and military news, she would have known that Kaiser Wilhelm, II had vowed to make his navy second to none and that Great Britain saw this as a serious threat to Britain's economic lifelines. British leaders began to talk of war. Russia wasn't too keen about Germany either and new pacts were drawn up among nations while they moved their fleets around the globe like chess pieces.
As tension grew leading up to the war, in August, 1912, with adult children nearing marriage, the Busch brothers decided it was time to reunite. They gathered on Hermann's farm in Mason City, Illinois. It had been 46 years since Lizzie had immigrated and 35 years since they were last together. It was time to reflect on their successes and their growing families.
In 1918, when the second Busch generation
ages ranged from 10 to 30, an influenza epidemic swept the U.S.
and countries in Europe while they were involved in W.W. I. More U.S. citizens
died from the flu that year than died in all the wars the U.S. was involved
in during the 20th century. October was the worst month in U.S. history
with 195,000 dying. At the rate people were dying around the world, the
world's population was predicted to be wiped out before very much longer.
Many people believed this was the end times referred to in the Bible's
Book of Revelation. Then, as mysteriously as it started that Spring, it
stopped in November .. so did W.W. I.
The second generation ended up, much as their parents and grandparents had, living in a time of political unrest. In the U.S. labor union strikes, race riots, and women's suffrage issues were often violent. Whereas their parents experienced leaders fighting over controlling territory and people, this generation experienced fighting over human rights. Considering so many immigrants came to the U.S. over freedom of something, it is no wonder freedom and rights fever refused to die.
As the Busch families grew and prospered in the U.S., in Europe the major powers sparked toward war where they fought over boundaries, colonies, and spheres of influence; they fought for the Balkans, Africa, and theMiddle East. In April 1917 the U.S. joined the Allied Power by declaring war on the Central Powers of Germany, Hungary and Austria.
Involvement had not been universally approved of by Americans, many of whom were recent immigrants and had relatives in Germany, as did the Busch family. Congress enacted a Selective Service Act because only 75,000 volunteers had previously responded to the call to arms.
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Tsarist Russia was on the verge of becoming the Soviet Union. The Allied Powers continued their war against the Bolsheviks in Russia until 1919. The Allied Powers gathered in Paris and drew up the Treaty of Versailles which redrew the map of Europe and created the League of Nations which the U.S. Congress refused to join.
Eight years after their first reunion,
W.W. I had ended. Their oldest children had married (all of Hermann's and
three of Will's) and the grandchildren race was on. The first of their
generation had died the prior year, Hermann's wife, Minnie.
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The war was officially ended, but communists and socialists took advantage
of post war political unstability caused, in part, by the burdensome reparations
demanded of Germany. The value of the German mark began its precipitous
decline. By October 1923 four billion marks was equal to one dollar. Only
the wealthy survived this inflation and the people began to listen to Adolf
Hitler.
| Hermann and Garret returned to Germany between
the World Wars; Hermann in 1920 after his wife Minnie died. Upon his return
to Illinois, he predicted to his family that "evil days are ahead" for
friends and family remaining in Germany. He was glad to have become a U.S.
citizen.
Hermann traveled on a Holland-Amerika Ship
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Five years later Garret took his family to Germany to visit family and old haunts. Afterwards they toured parts of Europe. After his return home, he write of his feelings in a letter to brother Hermann. For a larger view (easier to read, but a LARGE file), click here.
In 1925, Garrett wrote in part, "My Dear Brother Herman: As often as I have crossed the ocean before I never experienced such a smooth sea. The fellow passengers were most all German and from every walk and station in life and most congenial. .. the trip took eleven days and the time did not seem long. .. In this way we reached Bremen in good spirit.
"We then left here in the morning and arrived at Badbergen. At the station I did not find an auto available. I then phoned to the folks who were expecting us but I had not informed them when we would arrive. They at once rigged up their team and with their carriage spick and span, met us at the hotel in Bradbergen, where we had walked in the meantime. (Das wiedersehs sesn) The meeting was most emotional, between sobs and (freudenthranen) tears, we were sometimes speechless. Upon arriving at the homestead we all participated in the well prepared welcome feat and the time was spent to form further acquaintance with all the family.
"The following day we all took a hand in making hay, as it had rained some previous to that time and some more was in sight. .. Of course Johanna and myself, we had our daily talks of all what had taken place during the many years of our separation, we would naturally very often come to points as to how wonderfully all our family had prospered and how the younger generation had in comparison to other neighbors, just as you related upon your return. The girls as well as the boys are a great exception, particular under the trying circumstances as Johanna had to bring them up. Their home in comparison as we had seen it in our young days is remarkable and the whole aspect is a sign of thrift. However, the land and surroundings appeared quite small in comparison as I had always pictured in my mind. This is no doubt due to the fact that we are accustomed to see greater things, all the towns like Gehrde, Badbergen and Quackenbruck, also the old farm houses are all the same as I recalled them forty-five years ago. Even the old cobble stones and the many sidewalks were the same and it seemed as I recognized still the old trees and orchards around the old farms. Our old schoolmates were all gone and I hardly knew anybody around there. .. ."
Birth Dates of the Busch immigrants' children.
