Karl Stehlin to the Bourgermaster and Council of Basleville, April 20, 1868

Report of Mr. Stehlin, trustee of Mr. Berry, to the Bourgermaster and Council of Basleville.

The humble undersigned feels himself under the sad necessity to apply to your honors to have his ward Charles Berry placed in the house of correction at Kalshrain.

The reasons forcing me, with the consent of the mother and other relations of my pupil, to apply for this most extreme measure have their foundation partially in a time past, but partially and specially the present. Charles Berry showed after his majority such a light character, such an inclination to extravagance, and so little desire and ability for any sort of labor, and suffered himself to be deceived and taken advantage of by so-called friends in such a manner, that in the year 1857 application had to be made to declare him deprived of his civil rights, and the application was granted by the court of wards on the 7th January, 1858, and I was appointed as his trustee. The property which I held in trust then amounted to 25,000 francs and is the same yet.

The adventures and lot of my ward during the last eleven years have been various. At the beginning, the director of a college, Mr. Kettiger in Weltingen, attempted his education, but in vain. Berry then entered the military service of the kingdom of Naples, and, it is said, behaved himself well. The events of 1860 forced him to return home. I kept him occupied at first in my own office with copying. Colonel H. Wie-land employed him for the same purpose, but he unfortunately could not hold this position by reason of culpable offense. Military service had to be sought for, as only such continual discipline would suit a character like his, and he had no objection thereto. He concluded to go to America and to enter the armies of the United States. During the civil war there all went on well, but as soon as Berry quitted the service and was thrown on the pavement of New York, the misery recommenced because he could not get accustomed to any orderly civil occupation. In the fall of 1865 he surprised his family with the news that he had married; giving the name of his wife as “Bertha Uimer,” and speaking of her in the most tender and affectionate terms. At the same time he requested the delivery of his property or a part thereof for the purpose of buying a so-called cafe-saloon in New York, and demanded the restoration of his civil rights. I could hot respond to his wishes, but his mother let him have 5,000 francs and with them he purchased one of those numerous establishments in New York. Not long after, in the beginning of 1867 he tried again to force the delivery of his property, basing his claim on his rights as an American citizen. First, a notary received a power of attorney to collect the money, then the American consul. I declared to both of them that I would not deliver the property and titles confided to me without a judicial sentence to that effect.

In the meantime my ward had to abandon the management of that cafe-saloon and was deprived of all honest means of subsistence, once more upon the streets, his pretended wife with him. This seemed to have induced her to come to Europe in order to manage personally the delivery of the money. She made her appearance in August, 1867; was lodging, being in bad health, for several weeks in a hotel, till Madame Berry-Bruderlin resolved to take her to her house at Zurich. The original intention, to return to New York, was given up by her, when she saw that the obtainment of her husband’s property met with invincible obstructions. It was therefore resolved that Berry should come to Europe also.

During her sojourn here, Bertha Ulmer presented a certificate of marriage signed by a Rev. Toelke of New York, and dated October 23, 1865, according to which her name was Bertha Ulmer, born on the 29th of June, 1843, at Ludwigsburg. Beside this, she stated that her father had been adjutant of the 7th regiment of infantry of Wurtemberg; that her parents had died and that she had emigrated with her uncle to the United States in 1851 and had lived with him on a farm in Rockland county, State of New York, until she became acquainted with Charles Berry.

The reimbursement of debts and expenses of Berry, with which the firm Meyer & Leber was charged, offered various difficulties; one creditor, having procured a writ for the arrest of his person, and carried on a law-suit against him. This creditor was one Mr. Sporry, of Zurich, who, by the intervention of some other Zurichois, transmitted to the family of Berry a number of documents relative to that law-suit. These were depositions of witnesses and of a most injuring character for Bertha Ulmer. They stated that this person had lived in New York as a public courtesan for several years and under different names, viz: “Bertha Freundlich,” &c., that she was married to one Peter Weber, who is living now in Norfolk, Virginia, and that by the marriage with Charles Berry she committed bigamy. As a proof of this latter fact a copy of the certificate of marriage, dated May 14, 1864, was annexed, in which the person was named Bertha Freundlich, born on the 29th of June, 1845, at Hamm, district Worms, Grand Duchy of Hessen.

The authority and validity of these statements seemed to me to be questionable, the much more as Bertha Ulmer, whom I interrogated on the subject, denied everything, and weakened the import of these statements by the assertion that such certificates could be bought for a few dollars, if such a man as Sporrey should find it in his interest to do so.

With such a state of affairs, I dared not to take decisive steps, but I endeavored to obtain reliable information in Europe as well as in New York, in which the honorable city clerk assisted me with obliging readiness.

The first result at Hamm, district Worms, was, that no “Bertha Freundlich” was ever born there; that this name was entirely unknown in the register of births of that community.

A twice repeated application at Ludwigsburg had also a negative result. A “Bertha Ulmer” was nowhere to be found, even after the original declarations about her parents were given.

In the meantime one of my agents in New York succeeded in getting Berry released from prison, paid his debts and transported him to Europe. He arrived here at the end of November. Before this, it was arranged that Bertha Ulmer should get in person the papers from Ludwigsburg, necessary for her admission to the Basle citizenship, and, as she alluded to the support of some of her relations there and of a paternal friend, it was decided to have her take up her abode there first.

With this intention Charles Berry and Bertha Ulmer left Basle on the 9th December, 1867. The next letter did not come from Ludwigsburg but from Stuttgart, and it was therein said that they chose rather to live in Stuttgart.

The transmission of the required papers was long delayed; finally, on the 2d of February last, they arrived and were, viz:

1. A certificate of birth;

2. A certificate of marriage.

These papers set forth:

a. That the name of this person is not Bertha but Catherine Ulmer;

b. That she was not born at Ludwigsburg but at Klein-Ingersheim;”

c. That her father was not an adjutant of a Wurtembergian regiment, but a peasant;

d. That the name of her mother was not Bertha Blankenhorn, but Susanna Johannes Wacker, &c., &c.

Private information from a friend of Madame Berry-Bruderlin proved that the mother of Bertha Ulmer was living yet, and, in truth, in very poor circumstances; that Bertha, respectively Catharine, did service in Stuttgart, or, more clearly said, was a public courtesan of the lowest sort; that she was sent by her community to America about seven years ago; that she wanted now a certificate to acknowledge her as a native of that town, in which her father should be designated as an “officer.” She declared her husband to be a Count Charles de Berry, a direct descendant of that ducal family de Berry of France. These papers and private information showed that Charles Berry was the victim of the meanest deceit. However, I tried, assisted by the city clerk to. have these private statements officially confirmed. The magistrates of Klein-Ingers-heim and Besigheim confirmed in all the main points that which the Mend of Madame Berry-Bruderlin had stated.

In the mean time the statement of an officer of the detective police in New York in regard to her history there had been received. These statements, which seem to me to be absolutely trustworthy, confirm not only the depositions of the witnesses in that law-suit, but state a number of facts of the most serious kind; especially they set aside all doubts about the marriage between Bertha Ulmer and Peter Weber.

How much of all this Berry knows, I cannot decide, but I cannot believe that he had no knowledge whatever of these facts. And I also believe that such a condition of affairs would not be suffered if the family and the authorities had knowledge thereof; and for the termination thereof I have no other and better means to propose than that of placing Mr. Berry temporarily in a house of correction with compulsory labor. I shall therefore induce him to come here, in order that the measures prescribed by law may be taken, and especially the police may be addressed thereon.

By such provision we would at least accomplish the separation of Berry from a cast away person, who had so deceived him by means unknown to us, not, however, by her personal gracefulness, and on the other side Berry would get accustomed to work. Perhaps he will make up his mind again to enter military service, the only occupation for which he is qualified. In his letter from Stuttgart he asserts that he teaches the English language and that he has several pupils, but this believe who may.

Submitting to your honor’s consideration my proposition, I have the honor to remain, &c., &c., &c.