Weekly Newspaper Mercurius, Sittard region, dated June 13, 1863
We are asked to publish the following letter; although there is no doubt about the postmark, address and writing, so there is no doubt about the authenticity, we still warn not to trust the contents of this letter unconditional, because of the low spirits of it and the contradiction to the writings of other trustful people, so that we strongly believe that this letter is somewhat over done.
The Editor.
" Scheske (!).
Today May 17, 1863, my dearest parents, I let you know that we are fit and healthy and we hope to hear the same from you, dearest parents, the reason we haven't written before is because we left New York immediately after we arrived and now I will tell how things are in America. Jaspers picked us up in St. Paul and invited us to stay with him and so we stayed for 9 days, it has cost me 4 dollar, from there we went to Lambert and there we are now me and Peter Ramakers from Echt. Frans stayed behind in Karva (!) to work with a smith earning one dollar a day for his own living. I too would like to work but there is no work and for the money I have I can't buy anything with which I can earn my living, I could buy as much as 20 acres here but all the money is gone on which we had to live for at least 2 years. In the summer it would be possible to earn a living but in the winter there is only a short period one can work because winters are long over here, heard that there is winter here with bad cold weather for at least 7 months. Experienced it myself because I noticed that the soil was still frozen on May 16. So don't call Frenken a liar because he didn't make it more worse as it really is over here. They also wrote that they when visiting a Lord didn't need to take there cap of, that is thru, because even the judges over here don't have a decent pair of trousers to wear because he even has to work harder than a day laborer. As for the Religion, there are 13 churches but only one priest so you can imagine how often there is mass in each church, we have been to the home of Meghel, wife of Tis Koenen, they had a child, which was 7 weeks old and still wasn't baptized. There are children here 17 to 18 years old and still have not done their first H. Communion.
Vanderloo bought 2 acres, what you mow in the marches at home is even better than the hay over here, for in America you find one mountain after an other, and some so high you can't even climb them, and at the foot of these mountains you find so many marshes that it is not possible to visit your neighbors. To tell the truth that even one who has murdered his own father and mother is too good to go to America. Peter and I are still together and are both thinking of returning to Europe before winter comes and we will tell you much more then. Many greetings to father and mother and to my in-laws to sister and brother and further to the whole family and all our friends, your faithful son,
Wilhelmus Paulussen "
P.S.: Peter Rademakers leaves Echt with wife and 3 children in March 1863, heading for America. In September of the same year he returns and moves into the same house as he lived in before he left. He indeed came back "home".
