Name/Title
LedgerEntry/Object ID
1995.007.0001Description
Multicolored cover on black discolored care "reads" Beschlufse-unintelligible-Benicia Cal."
Inside front cover reads "elixir of Lactopeptin & Bismuth at Bawman's 12th & Broadway Oakland in ink. Additional in pencil unitelligible-Journal of some organization written in German.
Benicia German Club "Eintracht"
compiled by Gilbert von Studnitz
There was some difficulty in reading and translating the logbook due to the obsolete German script that was used in writing, and a few very faded pages.
The logbook contains the records of a German language social organization called "Eintracht", which essentially means harmony. The first weekly (and later reduced to monthly) meeting listed was held on 24 March 1879, while the last recorded one was on 3 April 1880. There are minutes for a total of 20 meetings.
The first meeting included 12 members as follows:
Joseph Fischer, President
Wilhelm Gabriel, Vice-President
Charles Oechsner, Secretary
John Rueger jr.
Gottfried G. Cellarius
Theodore B. Bohlen
Gustav Gnauck
Richard Massle
August Wolf
Julius Opperman
Georg Dieffendoerfer
John Rueger sr.
Other members that joined later:
Emil Sender
Reinhold Pusse
Eugen Bandel
Georg Heller
Dr. Valentin Neumark
Friedrich Hauesser
Herman Irvan
Eduard Reichert
Karl Fisher
Johann Hermann
Karl Lenton
Over the life of the club I saw a total of 24 members, though it never had anywhere near that many attending at any one time.
Some of the names as listed for the same people in the logbook vary in different minutes from German to Americanized style, such as Fischer and Fisher, or Carl and Charles.
In a typical organized German manner, the club had various statutes, agendas, minutes, and dues (the latter being 50 cents monthly per member). There were some committees formed, such as the "picnic arrangement" one, where the wives of members were also involved. The club organized musical and singing events, and members were also invited to attend events of the similarly named Eintracht of Oakland, which was called the Benicia club's "elder sister". The Oakland Eintracht had been formed in 1870 and besides being a social organization, had mutual assistance insurance benefits.
Occasionally members would be removed, most usually for non-payment of dues, I saw at least 6 such cases listed. The last one admitted, Karl Lenton*, joined in January 1880 and was removed the next month.
Both income and expenses for the whole period of the club's existence are exhaustively listed, though the entire total came to less than $100.00.
After the minutes of the last meeting (3 April 1880) there are a number of pages ripped out of the logbook. While it is doubtful, it is possible the club continued after that date. I believe the club died out due to dwindling membership and lack of funding.
President Joseph Fischer was the owner of the Fischer-Hanlon house. The similarly Swiss born John Rueger sr. was a brewer as well as Masonic Lodge and City Treasurer in Benicia. German born Gustav Gnauck (later Benicia Mayor and husband of a Rueger daughter) and Richard Massle bought Rueger's brewery in 1881. Gnauck became sole proprietor in 1886. Karl Oechsner had served as a soldier at the Benicia Arsenal and then became a saloon keeper here. Eugen Bandel was a Prussian born US Army 1st Sergeant and then civilian master machinist at the Arsenal who became a notary public in Benicia. Prussian born Valentin Neumark had been a hospital steward at the Arsenal until becoming a physician in San Francisco in 1868, and did not move his practice to Benicia until 1887, dying two years later. Karl Lenton was a Benicia watchmaker who was accused of stealing a number of items and "decamped" in 1880, which may well have been the reason for his exclusion from the club.
* The 06/05/1880 Weekly Butte Record has an article which says that Charles Lenton the Benicia watchmaker who decamped with a number of customers watches last March, was captured on a sheep ranch in Monterey County. Mr. Lenton is later shown in the 1880 census record in Fairfield, CA as a prisoner. He was 35 years old in 1880 and occupation was shown as "watch maker".
NAMES IN ENGLISH card insertion: Book of minutes frat. org. Benicia 1879
"Eintracht of Benicia" - German ClubCollection
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