The Bavarian Jeweler

by Zina Abbott

  Both boys did as directed, each standing on either side of Bridget.

  After several seconds of silence, Patrick pointed to the globe. “You bought three of those glass balls. Shouldn’t you be using all three?”

  “Need only one for good light.” Wilhelm used the tip of his etching tool to indicate the bright spot of light that illuminated the ring.

  “What will you be doing with the other two?” This time it was John.

  “Where we go, I do not know if glass balls easy to buy. Maybe one break. I take extra.”

  “What will you do with them if you don’t break them?”

  Wilhelm stopped and turned to John. “My son, maybe from me he learn my trade and use globe.”

  “What if Bridget is only giving you wee colleens?”

  Thomas interrupted with a demand couched as an invitation. “Enough, lads, let’s be leaving the poor man alone to his work, now. ’Tis a find day for a walk, and I’d be pleased to have you with me.”

  With the boys gone, Bridget continued to watch in silence. Once Wilhelm finished, he inspected the ring under the light. Then, with a grin of satisfaction, he handed it to Bridget. “For you.”

  Bridget rose and leaned over the work table. She used the bright light to view the floral design Wilhelm had etched on the ring’s surface. On the inside, she read both her name and Wilhelm’s, plus she saw his jeweler’s mark. “’Tis beautiful, Wilhelm.” She turned to face her husband, awe written on her face. “You can make jewelry, too, can you?”

  “Yes. From my father I learn, before I learn watches.”

  Through the fabric of her gown bodice, Bridget fingered the wedding locket from Wilhelm. “Even lockets like the one you gave me?”

  Wilhelm nodded. “Yes. If the gold I have.”

  Out of concern that he might be robbed if Patrick or John slipped up and said something to the wrong people, Wilhelm had not yet told her or anyone else in the family that the reason the small trunk was so heavy was due to the supply of gold hidden inside the false bottom. He decided early on, only when he and Bridget owned a secure shop, preferably one made of thick brick, would he tell her about his gold to create jewelry pieces, as well as watches.

  That evening, with all members of the family cleaned up and wearing their best clothes, the Ryan and Mueller families walked to the Catholic cathedral. Inside, they found a middle-aged priest happy to talk to someone from his Irish homeland. Once he understood their desire to have a wedding mass to solemnize the marriage in the eyes of the church, he readily agreed to perform it for them. He asked for their identification papers, and he recorded their names in his registry, spelling them as they appeared on the immigration forms. That night, their last in New Orleans, Bridget Ryan and William Miller were officially joined as husband and wife in the eyes of the Catholic Church, and Wilhelm slipped the gold ring he created onto Bridget’s finger.

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  ST. JOSEPH, MISSOURI – JUNE 1850

  EPILOGUE

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  Once they arrived in St. Louis, Wilhelm and Bridget left the steamboat that would take the Ryan family on to their Chicago destination. It proved to be a difficult parting. Not knowing where her only daughter and son-in-law would end up, Mary Ryan made sure she gave Bridget the directions for both her uncle and her brother so she could send letters. Mary encouraged her daughter to write as often as she could, rather than waiting until they arrived at their final destination.

  Just before the two families parted, with an accusing glare, Mary turned to her son-in-law, who, while they traveled and were required to show papers, had grudgingly accepted being called by his anglicized name, William Miller. “And you are still of a mind to be risking my daughter’s life by dragging her into the wilds of America, filled with fierce savages and great beasts, are you? And her already carrying your firstborn?”

  As it turned out, the Wilhelm and Bridget did not continue west to Oregon with its rich farmland or to California with its promise of gold. They left their steamboat traveling up the Missouri River at St. Joseph, known as one of two main jumping off points for the wagon trains heading west. Wilhelm recognized the city as a crossroads of America, due to the commerce and travel up and down the Missouri River and the ferry that did a brisk business taking wagons across to Kansas to start their journeys along the Oregon Trail. However, that was not what persuaded him to travel no farther west.

  Over the years, Wilhelm, who stubbornly decided to continue to go by the name given him by his parents, and Bridget learned much about St. Joseph, Missouri. They learned it started in 1826 as the Blacksnake Hills fur trading post by a Frenchman named Joseph Robidoux. When incorporated in 1843, the name was later changed to St. Joseph after the biblical Saint Joseph. Robidoux named the earlier streets of the city after his eight children and his second wife, streets Wilhelm and Bridget came to know quite well. Due to the gold discovery in California, it became a bustling trade center by the time Wilhelm and Bridget arrived. Its importance increased when the railroads came to St. Joseph.

  The 1859 arrival of the railroad in St. Joseph prompted the city being chosen for the eastern terminus of the Pony Express route that ran from 1860 through 1861. The expansion of the telegraph and the coming of the Civil War put an end to that service. Wilhelm discovered that due to the city being in the middle of the conflict between Missouri as a slave state and Kansas to its west as a free state, it experienced years of tension between those of opposing views. In addition, it was the westernmost point in the United States accessible by rail from the east until after the American Civil War.

  As the railroads expanded west, and with eleven railroads passing through the city, St. Joseph soon became not only a large meat-packing city but a wholesale center for many businesses. Through St. Joseph, goods and people traveled from one end of the country to the other.

  Yet, along with the growth and many notable accomplishments for which history remembers St. Joseph, Missouri, there was another reason, spread by word-of-mouth, why for many decades the city became known nationwide. Those who wished to sell or purchase a locket knew the best place to do so was in the shop of the Bavarian Jeweler. Although his children went by the English surname, Miller, that was on their parents’ marriage record, he was known by his German name given to him at birth. He spoke with a thick German accent that testified to his origins.

  However, for the unique, for the antique, for a fair deal, one must to travel to St. Joseph and visit the Bavarian Jewelry and Watch Repair shop. And, if shoppers were fortunate, they might find for sale a few items of quality lace made by the Bavarian’s Irish wife.

  Wilhelm occasionally took jewelry items in trade which he knew he could turn around and sell in the store for a profit. However, when the string of pearls was offered in exchange for a watch, that same night Wilhelm took the necklace directly to his wife. The pearls reminded him of the Irish lace she crocheted and stitched together. He told Bridget it would please him for her to wear it whenever she wore her gowns she trimmed with her lace.

  Wilhelm and Bridget’s first son, Mattias, was born a week before Christmas, 1850. Their daughter, Mary Johanna, named after both their mothers, was born in 1854. Thomas Miller, named after both Bridget’s father and the brother she lost to the Irish famine, arrived in 1856. The youngest, Catherine, came in 1859.

  Once he reached his later years, due to his arthritis and a palsy that afflicted him, Wilhelm turned the shop over to his son, Mattias, who assumed the title of the Bavarian Jeweler. William’s grandson and namesake trained to eventually take his place in the family business. In her later years, his Bridget often kept to herself, making her lace in their house they still lived in above the original shop.

  Much to Wilhelm’s satisfaction, his son did not design a new mark for his jewelry creations. He continued to use the mark Wilhelm created while still a journeyman in Europe from a combination of Wilhelm’s initials and a remnant of the Bavarian
flag. The touch of Bavaria continued in St. Joseph.

  As Wilhelm’s life drew to a close, he often sat on the bluffs above the river and recalled an earlier time. He reminisced about the event that had convinced him St. Joseph was where he would settle his family and build his business. Although, as head of the family, the decision was his to make, in the end it, it was his love for Bridget that decided him.

  It happened a couple of days after he and Bridget left the steamboat. They talked to several wagon masters and suppliers to find out what was required to cross the miles of plains and the high Rocky Mountains along the long Oregon and California trails. The information left Wilhelm feeling uneasy about making such a journey alone with only his wife and no other family or friends he could depend on for help. He and Bridget joined arms to walk while he analyzed all the considerations.

  That day the weather was clear and beautiful with a gentle breeze. They ventured through the streets of St. Joseph, including those named after founder Joseph Robidoux’s family. Wilhelm did not say much. His thoughts were tied up with the need to decide whether or not he was willing to risk taking Bridget and their unborn child into the American wilderness. Then there was the other concern. If they did not go west, where should they make their home? Where could he build a good business to support his family?

  The two walked west towards the riverbank flanked by trees. Blinded by the sun preparing to set, Bridget ran several steps ahead of him before she plucked from her head her new mop cap. When she made it, she edged it with the lace Wilhelm bought for her rather than allow the Ryans to sell it to strangers. She shook her hair free.

  Bridget—his beautiful Bridget—wearing her white muslin gown and with her loose locks dancing in the breeze coming off the river—twirled around to face him, a smile rich with delight on her face. “Oh, Wilhelm—the sunset. Sure it is a lovely sight, now isn’t it? I could stay here forever.”

  Wilhelm’s eyes did not turned towards the sky ablaze with the golden sunset fading into the purple of the coming night. All he could to see was his dazzling wife starting to grow thick around her middle with their first child.

  She wished to stay in St. Joseph forever.

  She owned his heart.

  She was his home.

  They were home.

  As his father had promised him so many years before, he always kept a little of Bavaria with him. He knew his Bavarian Jewelry and Watch Repair shop would continue with his and Bridget’s future generations. However, he also knew when he departed this life, he would be buried in America—in St. Joseph, Missouri—along with the family he and Bridget created.

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  Thank you for reading

  The Bavarian Jeweler!

  This book is the prequel for the Lockets & Lace multi-author series brought to you by some of the authors who blog for Sweet Americana Sweethearts.

  Each book in the

  Lockets & Lace

  series is a Clean, Sweet Historical Romance. You may find all the books in this series as they are published by searching for

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  LOCKETS & LACE BOOKS

  by

  Sweet Americana Sweethearts

  Blog Authors:

  ~o0o~

  0.5 The Bavarian Jeweler by Zina Abbott

  Sent to America in 1849 to avoid inscription into the Bavarian army preparing for war against Prussia, Wilhelm Mueller, a master jeweler and watchmaker, goes with his father’s promise that he will always have a little touch of Bavaria with him. His British cabin mate on the ship who knows German helps him learn English. He meets some of his fellow passengers, including a group of Irish refugees escaping the potato famine. The lace made by a certain young woman captures Wilhelm’s attention as much as her pretty face and curly hair.

  Upon landing in New Orleans, he finds everything is new in his adopted country, including his name. After sailing by steamboat up the Mississippi River, he stops at what was in 1850 the crossroads of America. It is there he holds to a touch of his homeland by opening his Bavarian Jewelry and Watch Repair shop. Over the decades, as he becomes know for a particular kind of jewelry, he realizes he has gained more by coming to America than what he left behind.

  1. Oregon Dreams by Patricia PacJac Carroll

  Hope Castleberry lives with her aunt and uncle and their two daughters. While an infant, Hope’s mother died, and her father dropped her off at his uncle’s and went on to Oregon. Now, Hope is grown and wants to find her father. The only thing she has to remind her of him is a locket and a piece of lace from her mother’s wedding dress. Since a young child, she’s wanted to go west and find her father and settle in the new land.

  Darren Thorsten has dreamed of going west to Oregon ever since an old trapper told him of the delightful land. He has plans to marry and get acreage by homesteading with a company that is leaving early in April. He’ll have to find a wife. But how hard can that be. He’s a good looking, strong man with big dreams. His family decided to go back to Norway.

  His mother’s only plea was for him to marry a Scandinavian girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. Darren agreed. After all, there had to be plenty of blondes scattered throughout the country.

  His first stop in Quiet, Missouri proves him right. But the two blonde women are already spoken for. Yet, they tell him there is a third daughter.

  Hope comes bounding into the house and Darren’s heart is taken. Only one small matter, she has dark hair and brown eyes.

  Hope and Darren’s trails collide on the journey to Oregon. Can her past and his old ways give in to bridge a path for their future?

  2. Silent Harmony by Caryl McAdoo

  Harmony is a 4-yr-old deaf girl, the niece of my heroine Melody Parker. There are 3 Parker sisters who lost their father and Lucy, the oldest's, husband when they perished in the Civil War. My hero is coming from Great Lakes area to DeKalb TX (near where the Parker sisters live) to open a school for the deaf--His mother's brother offered the old homeplace for his school. She dies abruptly on the way. Then traveling on alone, hero's robbed and beaten and left for dead. The thieves took his mother's locket that his dad had given her. Hero's only photographs of them. It turns up in the Bavarian Jewelry & Watch Repair shop in St. Joseph, Missouri.

  3. Otto’s Offer by Zina Abbott

  In 1868, Otto Atwell has a 160 acre homestead near Abilene, Kansas and a limp as a result of an arrow shot in his low back while with the 16th Kansas Cavalry on the Powder River Expedition in 1865. What he didn’t have was a wife. Then again, what woman would want to marry a cripple?

  Libby Jones comes to Junction City as a mail order bride. Not only does the man who sent for her reject her, he tries to sell her to the local brothel to recoup his fee. Otto offers to marry her, but she rejects him in favor of a job with his relatives.

  Will Otto’s offer still stand when trouble from Libby’s past catches up with her?

  4. Melly Unyielding by Abagail Eldan

  Melly is a woman with secrets. Thatcher is the man with enough patience to unlock them.

  For fifteen years, Carmella Harperson’s life has been confined to a couple of acres in the middle of a large forest. She’s alive but hopeless, each day a struggle.

  William Thatcher Rainer’s past haunts him as he hunts down the man who destroyed his life. His days are filled with memories of the carnage of war; his nights with nightmares of the death of his wife.

  On the road, to fi
nd the man responsible for the misery of so many, they must work together and learn to trust.

  Neither is prepared for what they find at the end of their journey.

  5. Lockets Full of Love by Heather Blanton

  In 1867 Juliet Watts and her husband Hugh are caught up in a vicious Indian raid. On the verge of escaping, though, Hugh realizes Juliet is not wearing a locket he gave her. Risking his life, he heads back to their home to retrieve it and stubborn Juliet follows. Both are captured and Hugh is killed. Juliet survives but now despises the locket and wants nothing else to do with it. She also harbors a deep sense of betrayal with Hugh and God over the whole event. Robert Hall, the young soldier who saved her, however, promises to hang on to the locket in case she ever wants it back. Ten years later, Juliet and Robert meet again in St. Joe, MO where Juliet runs a saloon. He gives her back the locket and she accidentally discovers a secret compartment, but not one easily opened. A trip to the Bavarian Jeweler reveals that Hugh was keeping secrets. A key hidden in the locket starts Juliet and Robert on a journey of mystery and discovery. The closer she gets to the truth about her dead husband, the closer she gets to untangling the lies surrounding Robert. Will her heart survive the revelations?

  6. Tending Trouble by Linda Carroll-Bradd

  Traveling west to become a mail-order bride is the most adventurous act Bostonian Imogene Franklin ever did. Unfortunately, the groom chose another so now Imogene must make her way on her own. Dreading the idea of returning home to continue raising her siblings, she is reduced to waiting tables in the Dorado café.

  Guilt hangs heavy over Reggie Othmann—ever since he brought home a childhood illness that claimed both his parents’ lives. The ink is barely dry on Reggie’s degree when he arrives home in Dorado to establish a medical practice. All he’s wanted since he was ten years old is to help people, but the townspeople have been without a doctor for so long, they don’t flock through his doors as expected.