George Freyschlag and his wife, Suzanne Fittig, were born in the former district of Frankenthal: George in Sandhoffen, and Suzanne in Grosskarlbach[i], a small town on the Eckbach river, where the couple would marry and have their first 6 children. In 1821 they moved to Mannheim, in order to secure a better education for the children.
In the late 1500s Frankenthal was a popular destination for people from the Netherlands fleeing religious persecution; the town developed an artistic and industrial culture in part from these immigrants. When the Freyschlags were born in the late 1700s, the town was well known for Frankenthal porcelain, a lot of which survives today, mainly in museums. In 1797 the area was conquered by the French during the French Revolutionary Wars. Edward Freyschlag, was born in 1814 under French rule, so perhaps the Mullins family can claim French heritage as well.
George Freyschlag was a farmer, a mill wright, and a distiller of whiskey[ii]. In 1832, at the age of 47, he and Suzanne decided to emigrate to the U.S. We do not know what prompted the family to leave their homeland and make this difficult voyage. The reasons were often economic; however family lore suggests that the Freyschalgs were relatively wealthy when they traveled to America, and even brought a piano with them on the voyage across the Atlantic. George and Suzanne had nine children, all born in Germany; their second child was the next in the Mullins lineage, Edward Freyschlag (1814-1905).
In 1833, George Freyschlag sailed from Le Havre to New York on the ship Poland with his oldest two children, Babette (Barbara) and Edward, arriving in May 1833[iii]. The following spring, Edward traveled back to Germany, and the next son, William Herman Freyschlag, sailed from Le Havre to New York, again on the Poland, arriving in May 1834[iv]. The following year, Edward left Europe with his mother, and 9 siblings, sailing from Le Havre to New Orleans on Les Deux Soeurs, arriving at the Lousiana port on the February 9, 1835[v]. The family then sailed up the Mississippi on the steamboat Veteran, to the White River, and on to Fayetteville, arriving the evening of March 9, 1835[vi], to what must have been a very emotional reunion with George, Babette, and Herman.
In those years, it was fairly common for German immigrants to the U.S. to move to the western frontier, as the Freyschalgs did. In the spring of 1833, Fayetteville was a new town with just a few dozen families, having been founded just 4 years earlier when Cherokee Indians signed a treaty agreeing to leave the land and move further west. We can presume that a new, growing frontier town offered the best economic prospect for a mill wright to construct a new mill that would be appreciated and patronized. By 1840, Fayetteville had about 425 residents. George and his sons constructed their mill about 6 miles northwest of Fayetteville, on Clear Creek. It continued in operation for many years, and was the only mill in Fayetteville that was able to operate continuously through the years of the Civil War. Several members of the Freyschlag family, including George and Suzanne, were eventually buried on the grounds of the Mill, but their graves were lost with time.
One year after arriving in this country, in December 1834, George Freyschlag applied for and was granted U.S. citizenship before the Honorable Thomas P. Eskridge in Fayetteville[vii]. A record of the hearing states that George was required to avow that “he hath never borne any hereditary title or been of any of the orders of nobility [in Europe], and that if any such should unexpectedly descend to him he doth absolutely and entirely renounce the same; that he hath never been heretofore proscribed or been legally convicted, of having joined the army of Great Britain during the late war”[vii]. Such were the requirements of obtaining citizenship in Arkansas in 1834.
George’s son Hermann served in the Mexican American War 1846-1848[viii], under General Winfield Scott, and traveled on a campaign into Mexico. The soldiers would sing “Green grow the rushes, oh…” from which the expression “Gringo” developed. Son Edward probably also served in the military during this war, but we have not found service records to confirm this.
In Fayetteville, several of the Freyschlags worked at the Sophia Sawyer Fayetteville Seminary for Girls. Sophia Sawyer was an Indian activist who established her school for Cherokee girls in 1839, but the school quickly caught on among the white settler families as well, and had the financial support of several influential Fayetteville residents, including Mullins relative Judge David Walker. There is much additional history about Sophia Sawyer on the internet.
Several of the Freyschlags were involved in the Sawyer Female Seminary. An article in the Arkansas Democrat, 16 Feb 1849 mentions the Freyschlag daughter, Hermenia Freyschlag, as Teacher of Vocal and Instrumental Music, and her brother, Herman, as a Dancing Master[ix]. Several others of the family would participate frequently playing violin or other instruments. Edward Freyschlag’s mother-in-law, Jane Walker Hawkins, boarded some of the girls who attended the school. The 1850 U.S. Census shows Flora Ridge living with Jane Hawkins; Flora was the daughter of the famous Cherokee Chief John Ridge, who was slain in 1839. It was after the slaying of Chief Ridge that Sophia Sawyer accompanied his widow and children to Fayetteville, and established her school. Edward Freyschlag was on the founding board of another educational institution in Fayetteville, The Far West Seminary, founded 30 Nov 1844[ix].
Arkansas was a rough place in pre-Civil War days, famous for fatal knife and gun fights. Sophia Sawyer’s school was a welcome outpost of more civilized culture for Fayetteville. George’s granddaughter Sophia Freyschlag and her mother, Lucy Hawkins Freyschlag, attended the school as girls.
It is said that the Freyschlag’s were a musical family, and at times somewhat wild: Suzanne would entertain callers playing operatic music on the piano, dressed scandalously in a sleeveless dress, even on Sundays![i] From the description in one source, the Freyschlags were somewhat controversial among the more staid parents and faculty of the Female Seminary, and their embrace by Sophia Sawyer probably drove off her former assistant, Miss Ann James, who wrote extensively of the Freyschalgs in her memoir. The family is described as fun loving, urging the girls on to dancing and music-making, to the delight of the young women[i].
The Freyschlags were also described as quite clever and multi-talented. George was a millwright, and built the Freyschalg mill with his sons of rough-hewn wood. He was also a farmer, and a distiller of whiskey. Suzanne skillfully played “page after page” of operatic music at the piano. Miss James wrote about the Freyschlag girls that they were “the milliners, corset makers, dress makers, old umbrella menders, in fact did everything that would bring in money, even to assisting their father who was a distiller.”[i]
© 2013 W. Mullins