Robert T. Gauss - 1912-09-03

(from Robert Gauss of Denver, Colorado, to his brother Charles Henry Gauss of St. Charles, Missouri).

Denver, August 14, 1911.

Dear Henry:

        This being your birthday, it is proper on that account to write you, that I may congratulate you upon its return, which I most heartily do with my best wishes for your future health, prosperity and happiness.
        An additional reason for writing now arises from the fact that I received today several letters of interest to you and other members of our family in Missouri, as well as to myself.  They are from Mrs. Graham, from Will Gauss' wife, and from Cousin Helen who is Will's daughter.  Will's wife, as you probably know is a sister to Mrs. Graham and also to Dr. A. K. Worthington, whom you met here and who, by the way, remembers you very distinctly and with much pleasure.  Mrs. Graham, who has been in Europe for about two years, invited Will's wife and daughter last March to join her in Europe and visit different places of interest.  They accepted that invitation - Mrs. Graham providing the money - and joined her in Naples some time in April, I believe.  They made the tour of Italy and Switzerland and then went into Germany.  In Munich they saw the portrait of Grandfather Gauss, which is in the Museum of Natural History in that city.  They then went to Berlin, visiting different cities on the way.  In Berlin they saw the large statue of Grandfather which is on the Potsdamer Brücke (Potsdam Bridge), and one of their letters to Dr. Worthington gave description of it.  From Berlin they went to Braunschweig (Brunswick) and saw many objects of interest there pertaining to Grandfather.  They then went to Hanover, where they saw some ladies who are cousins of Will Gauss on his mother's side.  after a short stay at Hildesheim they went to Göttingen.  While in Berlin they got into communication with Carl Gauss, our cousin, who lives at Hameln.  From him they learned that the Gauss Tower which had been erected on a small mountain call the Hohenhagen, near Göttingen - about 16 miles distant, I believe, would be dedicated on July 31.  This fitted in very well with their plan of travel.  Carl Gauss also procured for them an invitation to be present at the dedication.  They gladly took advantage of it.
        The enclosed letters are from Will's wife to her son Carl, from Cousin Helen to her brother Theodore, from Mrs. Graham to her brother, Dr. A. K. Worthington, whom she addresses as "Andrew", signing the letter "Mary".  In this letter she refers to her sister (Will's wife) as Helen Sr. (or H. Sr.) and to Cousin Helen as Helen Jr. (or H. Jr.).  Will's wife is named Helen as well as his daughter, hence they are distinguished as senior and junior.  The daughter (cousin Helen) has a fair command of German, both speaking and writing, and Mrs. Graham also has considerable knowledge of German, as you may see from her ability to understand herr Gieseke's speech.  There is also a chatty little letter from Cousin Helen to me.  You will find these letters difficult to read, but if you try hard enough and work patiently you can study them out.  You will see that they contain very interesting account of Braunschweig, Göttingen, and the ceremonies at the dedication of the Tower.  It seems that Cousin Helen wrote a full account of the dedication to her father, which he probably will send me, but I have not yet received it.  Please take great care of these letters and when you are through with them return them to me, or else send them to Sister and ask her to return them to me when she is through with them.  What I think you ought to do is to get Anne to copy them, so that the information they contain may be preserved in the family.  Dr. Worthington said there would be no objection to this.  If Anne has a typewriter she can copy them very easily if you read them to her.  By making several carbon copies she can send on of the carbons to Sister and another to Albert.  If she has no typewriter, she can make at least one copy with pen and ink* and thus preserve their contents for the family.  It would be better to send copies to Sister rather than the originals, for Sis would have a hard time reading the originals.  I am sending you also two pictures of the Tower, which came in the letter to Dr. Worthington and which he has kindly given to me.  You may keep one of them and give the other one to Sis.  There also is a little card which contains a copy of the inscription on a tablet in the room in which Grandfather died.   Mrs. Hermanns sent me a copy of this inscription when she was in Göttingen about four years ago, and I think I sent you a translation of it.  If you have not that translation, you can get someone in St. Charles to make a translation for you.   I shall send you a copy of a German publication which I received last Fall from Herr Gieseke, the man who headed the movement for building the Tower.  It contains an article on Grandfather and, among other illustrations, a picture of the statue in Berlin on the Potsdam Bridge.  I have not asked permission from Will Gauss to send you the two letters in this collection which belong to his two boys, but I have taken for granted that he will not object to me doing so.  This makes it all the more urgent that you send them back as soon as possible.  As for the letter from Cousin Helen to me, you may keep it.  If you have the letters copied, you can send them back promptly, for in that case there will be no need to send them to Sis. You can send her the copies, which she could read more easily anyhow.
        Give my love to Lizzie and all the other members of the family.

Your brother,
R. Gauss

P. S.        I am sending you two other letters from Mrs. Graham, dated July 19 and July 26.  It gives me pleasure to say that information received from Germany shows that the indisposition from which Mrs. Graham is stated in one or two of the letters to be suffering from, was not serious.
 
 

(*She did)