My grand aunt had this from her father.

REMINISCIENCES OF MY EARLY LIFE by Peter Ting

My grandmother came from the city of Reims in france, with her mother, during the great French Revolution in 1792 and settled in Carthous, a small community with a large kloster (cloister) by the same name. Here my mother was born, in one of the German inns.

My grandmother married a Philippi of Roman descent a very thrifty people of hotel keepers, weavers and farmers.

My grandfather on my father's side came from the mountains, on the left bank of the river Mosel. He was a charcoal burner and a trapper. He moved on the right bank of the Mosel and settled on a forestry at Alten Hofe near the village of Aach. My father was born in this little town, better known for its antiquities than for its great people. The town was built near the Roman Wall which was built to keep back the Teuton hordes. Right near the village of Aach is situated the wall which formed a trap and where many battles were fought. The name Aach comes from the word aqua. In this village my father was born. Later, the family moved to a place on the highway from Trier to Cologne. The place was called Hohensonne from a large inn at the same place with that name.

Here my father married my mother in 1855. Eight children were born. First, Nicolous, who died when three years old. Then second, John, who owns the home place now. Next, Helena, became a nun, and died in a cloister. Then myself, born in 1863, on April 5th. Next a son (5) Nic the second. The next child was (6) Anna Maria, who has been Mother Superior in a cloister, for many years. The seventh was John Peter, and Last, Jakob, who died between 3 and 4 years old. He died of scarlet fever.

Being a family with six children, and times generally hard, we all started to work at an early age. At age ten I had to take the cows to pasture at 3:00 a.m., taking my books along, mostly catechism or revised Bible, fit for children to read. Of course, we had all other studies, too. Between 6 and 7 a.m. I brought the cows home. Had a light breakfast consisting of the food raised that year. If potatoes were plentiful, we had potatoes with a little bread. If milk was plentiful, we had milk soup, or if we had a good harvest in wheat we had more bread, but never quite all we wanted.

Our parents kept us busy working on the farm, or building roads for a change. I also had the job of furnishing the stove wood. This work I liked better than any other, for it took me ouy into the woods where I soon knew every bird nest. Another boy and myself hunted wild honey and berries.

Our school started at 8:00 a.m. We always had to go to church first if possible. The school was in the village of Aach - we had one teacher for 100 children. I did not do very well the first few years because the teacher could not even look after that many children. Later, I was very good in history and geography, I was very good in arithmetic, but could not concentrate on mental arithmetic. The more I tried, the more I forgot the problems. I had a great charge of the school. I stood very high with our priest, who came to school once a week. He wanted me to become a teacher and offered to help me in my preliminary studies. But when the inspector came, our school made a very poor showing and he gave the teacher and his assistant, the minister, some strong advise. Our priest became offended and didn't talk to me again about teaching.

My parents and the church wanted me to become a priest, as I was smart and had a fine singing voice, But I didn't like the idea and doubted if they could raise the money. My parents were very strong Catholics. At fourteen, I left school and worked at home. At sixteen, I started work in a hotel dairy and bakery in Pallien, a suburb of Trier. This threw me into all kinds of company and tested my make-up very much. I think I came out of it about even. Here I worked for 2 years and took quite a liking to the bakery on account of the nice warm place in winter and good eats.

At this time, I took a notion to join the Army. One Sunday, I visited a high officer that I knew by being his hunting boy a good many times. I met his servant first and he discouraged me so much that I gave up the idea. "Thank God".

After my two years were up at the hotel, I took an apprenticeship in Saarburg to learn the bakery trade. Here, I had some of the best times of my life. A great many of the young people here were connected with river and canal boating, which took them all over the country as far as Paris. They were a jolly lot and the town lies in the beautiful Saar Valley with an old burg on the hill. I don't think there is a prettier small valley in the world.

At this time, my Aunt Philippi from Los Angeles came over on her second visit to Germany. She always seemed wonderful to me, plenty of money, pretty and full of life. When I met her she asked me if I would like to go to America, and I was ready. My apprenticeship was not quite up but my boss let me off. I borrowed $100.00 from my uncle, John Philippi in Carthous and my brother and I made arrangements to leave together. We both being of military age, made plans to leave in the night for Luxemburg. Our house was only one mile from the boundary. So when the time came, my father and oldest sister carried our belongings, after a long and sad farewell to my mother. We landed in a town by the name of Wesserbilligin Luxemburg. Next morning, we had another farewell with my father and sister. During the day my brother was taken with terrible homesickness - so much so that he acted as if he would lose his reason. The blood rushed to his head, but he had enough presence of mind to poke a straw up his nose, to make it bleed. After that he felt better, but he went back home. The next day a crowd of people, mostly young, started out on the train for Antwerp. From there we took the steamer, Belgian on September 9th, 1882, and landed in New York on the 21st. From New York, I started to hunt for an uncle of mine in Wisconsin near Milwaukee. I had trouble finding him since there were two towns by the same name, Menomime Falls. They had no knowledge of my country, but when they saw me, they knew I was a Philippi.

Here I stayed and worked for two months husking corn and I intended to enter school in the winter. I always regretted that I did not get that schooling; it might have changed my life, as I had many offers that I might have filled, if I had a good course in English. Here I enjoyed myself very much, everything was about the same as in Germany. Plenty of apple cider, young people to dance with and to go to church.

But my belief in the Catholic Church was rather weak. I began to doubt when I was about sixteen, and went to my last confession at seventeen.

About this time, my uncle Jakob Philippi came on a trip to meet his wife in New York on her trip back from Germany. She had taken another steamer than I. They visited awhile with my uncle Autan Philippi and urged me to come to California. He said he would advance me the money. I agreed rather reluctantly as I liked it in Wisconsin, and also had a girl cousin who loved me very much. I thought she would never let me go. Well, at last, in November, my uncle and aunt and myself left for Chicago. We stayed a week taking in the sights and theatres. We stopped at the German House and it was quite a treat for me. Well, my uncle bought me an emigrant ticket to Los Angeles. It took me 13 days from Kansas City to Los Angeles. The train was so slow that going over the mountains we walked beside the train. I finally arrived in Los Angeles, roomed at uncle Jakob's home and boarded with John Philippi. I had a hard time finding work unless I wanted to dig sewers. I had just about decided to take it, when my uncle Peter Philippi of San Fernando came into Los Angeles one day in his big wagon and invited me to go out and visit him awhile. That just suited me, for I had heard in Germany about his great bee apiary. He had just killed a grizzly bear. I stayed on about a month, hunting quail and pulling sunflowers. I never felt the heat so much in my life as I did here pulling sunflowers. Finally, my uncle and aunt arrived home and I went back to Los Angeles. After waiting a little longer, I got a job in a winery. By this time I was $230.00 in debt. But, the work in the winery did not agree with me. I had to transfer the wine from one tank to another, and the constant smell gave me a dull headache. In about a month I got a special delivery letter from my uncle saying a job was open for me in a bakery at $30.00 a month, room and board. I jumped at the chance, and soon got $40.00. I held the job for 10 months and then lost it. But, I had paid all my debts, and had money in the bank. I soon took another job and was foreman at $55.00 and room and board. I saved between $600 and $700 and went into business for myself with a young German by the name of Schmitz. We were in business about 3 days, when we were burned out. But, we started again in a better location, and did well from the first day. This was in the city of Pomona. After six months we bought the building. About this time, I became acquainted with Bessie. We sang together in the church choir. I also became interested in reforms of all kinds religious and political. Through Mr. Miles, Bessie's father, I joined the Kaweah Colony in 1886. I stayed there at Kaweah, above Three Rivers in Tulare County for six months. I went back to Pomona on a visit and my customers and friends wanted me to go back in business. So I went back in the bakery business and on July 21, 1887, Bessie and I were married. She and her mother helped me in the business. These were boom times and we did a big business. In 1889, in July, we sold out again and started out overland in a wagon with our horse Fritz, Bessie, her sister Mabel, and myself. We started with a dog, a cat and three rabbits. The bird, we took back soon, it was smothering from the heat. We also lost the cat the first night. The dog got sore footed and left from San Fernando in the night for home. The rabbits we lost at Bakersfield. It took us seven days to make the trip, but we enjoyed everyday. We stayed in the colony just one year. Italia was born there in the tent house under the oak trees, surrounded by redwoods. During July 1890, we took a trip to the coast to Pismo. On our way back, Mr. Fox induced us to buy some land from him at Lemoore and we went into the raisin business. The land proved bad, full of alkali and besides, the price of raisins dropped so that they fed them to the hogs. Well, we finally left the ranch and moved into Lemoore and I started another bakery. We did fairly well but the town was small and there had been so many dry seasons on the Westside from where came a lot of the trade. Darwin was born here in Lemoore on November 6, 1892. So in 1893 in March we came to Porterville. I had heard about the good oranges raised there. I bought out Fred Ackerman's restaurant and bakery. At first business was very good. I had to get new trade because most of his trade was saloon trade and others. But the Cleveland panic came in 1893 and in July there was no more business. This year monica was born in Santa Monica on September 26th. We had to move the family to quarters back of the restaurant to save extra rent, besides doing all of our own work except for the Chinese cook, Bing Ah. In about 1895 and 96 business improved. But just then came the Porterville fire and we were burned out again. Ackerman put up a small building and I kept the bakery. In 1895 I traded my Pomona property and $500 in cash for the orchard and homeplace at Plano, valued at $1500. The house was large, redwood, roomy but very primitive - we had inside water, electricity and one zinc bathtub in a curtained room.

In the early 1900's we built the big white house with four bedrooms upstairs, a large hallway with handsome stairway leading up. There were open verandas across the front, above and below. The home was in the center of the grove, with a lawn and flower gardens on each side and front. On the west side, were a large Australian fern tree, and a huge pepper tree - in the back were several large mission fig trees, a row of pomegranates, with a reservior for water storage further back - a large wire fence around it was covered with grape vines, logan and black berries. To the east was an acre of family fruit orchard and vegetable garden.

The year following our friend, Mr. Bartlett, a noted horticulturist, planned a park in the east in front of the family orchard. It was designed to have some shrubs blooming each month of the year. The center of the plot was open and several stone benches were placed there. We called it "Lover's Retreat".

The last thing I wanted to tell was in regard to my health. I was born sick. The folks thought I would not live, so I was baptised immediately, so I could enter heaven. But some thought the nurse did not do a good job, so I was baptised again. Later, I was baptised by the priest for the third time. All my younger years until I was about seventeen, I looked sick and new people I met would always ask if I were sick. Since I became fifty my health has greatly improved.

This is for the first fifty years. The next years you children know and can finish writing.