This collection contains 9 documents, 2 letters, and a journal related to German immigrant Carl Christ Wilhelm Gallwitz and to the Mathes family, Alsatian immigrants who were later related to the Gallwitz family by marriage.
The first 5 items, all in German, are 3 baptism certificates, a printed poem about baptism, and a document. The poem is surrounded by a colored printed floral border, and the document is written on a sheet with a colored illustration of two birds in a floral setting. Other documents are a naturalization certificate for Martin Mathers [sic], issued in Wooster, Ohio (April 2, 1855), and a German and French document from the 1860s certifying the 1833 birth of George Mathes to Martin Mathes and Marguerite Rott of the Alsatian town of Wissembourg.
Correspondence includes a German letter from Martin Mathes, Jr., to his father (July 19, 1850) and a letter signed by several men in Coloma, California, about the death of Martin Mathes, Jr., and funeral costs (December 8, 1850). A manuscript poem in German and an illustration of the Sun are undated.
Carl Christ Wilhelm Gallwitz kept a journal (459 pages) between March 22, 1820, and January 1832. He documented his travels in Europe and in the United States, as well as his life in Ohio. Gallwitz wrote brief entries almost daily between 1820 and 1822, and less frequently through January 1832. Gallwitz occasionally drew illustrations, including a kite's stringing system (July 1, 1820, p. 68), various types of fish (July 4, 1820, pp. 71-73), a "May apple" plant (August 6, 1820, p. 94), and an unidentified mammal (19 August, 1820, p. 99). The journal includes a list of cities that Gallwitz visited while traveling between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New Orleans, Louisiana (pp. 270-271), as well as several pages of watercolor and ink manuscript maps of his traveling route, usually made on riverboats (pp. 273-299). A translated copy of the journal and Gallwitz's itinerary are housed with the collection.
The journal also includes a colorful illustration of a man painting the portrait of a woman in an interior setting, featuring details such as a patterned rug, a side table with teacups, and paintings hung on the wall (p. 486). Two additional illustrations depict store signs for "L. Weeman & Comp. Store" and "1823. L. Ewing's Office" (p. 491). The inside of the back cover bears a pencil sketch of three figures at the base of a bluff.
Carl Christ Wilhlem Gallwitz (later Charles Gallwitz) was born on March 11, 1800, in Ansbach, Germany. He later lived in Koblenz, Germany, and he moved to the United States in the spring of 1820. After opening a school in Canton, Ohio, he traveled throughout the country between January 1821 and May 1822. He settled in Ohio permanently after a brief return to Germany in 1822. On September 28, 1824, Gallwitz married Margaret Mueller (or Miller). They had three daughters: Mary M. (ca. 1839-1916), Caroline Charlotte (ca. 1841-1918), and Louisa Wilhelmina (b. ca. 1842).
Georges Pierre Mathes (1833-1916), an Alsatian immigrant, gained United States citizenship in 1855 and lived in Ohio, where he was a farmer. He married Christina Haas in 1860 and they had 4 children: Alice Arminda (1864-1913), Emma Clarette (1867-1913), Ida Jane (b. 1869), and Martha Matilda (b. 1871). After Christina's death, George married Louisa Gallwitz on February 17, 1875, and they had 2 children: Jessie Dell (b. 1877) and Charles Bennet (b. 1879).
