Author: Ron Guenther
Written: September 30th, 2013

As I said, grandpa boarded the ship in New Orleans and headed down to Peru. I think that a number of his neighbors were there with him, at any rate, a number of his neighbors went down there at about the same time. Peru was being flooded at that time with Germans and Americans of German descent. In fact, there were so many that they decided they needed a political party to defend their interests. Grandpa joined the party but as nearly as I can tell, was not active in it. At any rate, he later came back with stories to the effect that he met some of the great Nazi leaders like Goering. Of course, he did not, but it was a good story and the children believed it. Grandma Alice told similar stories to make the children feel good. She told them, for example, that they were descendants of Stonewall Jackson. That was not true of course, but they all believed it and when I was in the third grade, I told it to my whole class and believed that until I had a chance to look into it.

After landing, grandpa made it to the Northeastern part of Peru where land was opening up. He bought 10,000 acres for $10,000. I later saw the deed, but like everything else, it was lost in time. Grandpa thought he had made a great bargain and got really prime land, it was high, the weather was mild, he felt it would be a good place for cattle. Moreover there was timber on the place and he could sell that to finance the improvements on the property. The critical thing was, he had to make improvements within 15 years or he would lose the property. So, after finalizing the purchase, he decided that he wanted to see a part of Peru. He looked around for a guide and finally found an Indian who agreed to be his guide, but grandpa would have to carry some farm equipment to the tribe. Grandpa claimed that it was a tractor, but that seems unlikely. Grandpa was a tall, powerful man, though. After we moved out to Kentuck, there was a chandelier in the living room. Only two people had to duck going under that chandelier. One was Doctor Johnson who was six foot four and the other was grandpa who was well over six foot. I know that mom’s brother who was six foot one did not have to duck, so grandpa Sam had to have been over six foot two. Still, packing a tractor on your back seems extreme to me. At any rate, grandpa took the farm equipment on his back and they headed into the Jungle. There were several tribes along the way, but his guide could speak the Indian languages that they spoke and so there was never any danger. The went by the Amazon river, the headwaters of one branch of which are in Peru. There they saw several of the big snakes, the anacondas and boa constrictors, they also came to a village of cannibals. On they went until they came to the tribe his guide was from. But grandpa wanted to see more and so they continued on with lightened loads. The guide promised to take him to places no European had ever seen and eventually, they came to a city of gold, the streets were gold, business was conducted in gold. Grandpa said it was all very beautiful. Everything about the city was wonderful, the people were wonderful, the food was good, the city was beautiful as I said. But they could not linger and so they continued on. They were constantly climbing. They went above the heights that most never went. The Indians from the mounts would come down so far and those from the lowlands would go up to the same place and they would trade. But they they in the twilight of an evening came to the city of the dead. There they witnessed a funeral procession. It was the funeral of a little girl and they brought her casket up to the city gates and then retreated after leaving the casket there. As if by magic, the gates opened, no one saw anyone come out and take the casket but it was carried by unseen hands into the city and the gates closed. At that point, the guide took grandpa to a road going south to Lima and said he had to leave him there. So, grandpa headed in that direction. But he was not feeling well himself and somewhere on the road to Lima he collapsed and spent over the next year and a half recovering from a tough bout of mountain fever. Aunt Berchion always rolled her eyes when she talked about mountain fever, but anyway. After recovering from this near fatal illness, he got the ship back to New Orleans and headed up to Baton Rouge. But there he found that his family had already left for Iowa. I have a feeling that at least one of his brothers had settled there. After leaving the farm, his brothers went in various directions, most toward the South. One brother became a judge in Denver, another one went to New Mexico and so on. Two of his sisters went to Washington, I believe another one went to California. At any rate, he then went back to Iowa and one evening just at supper walked in and said, I bought 10,000 acres in Peru, we are moving there. But then he had a terrible shock. His wife, Grandma Alice, was sick, she was very sick.

To be continued.