Family Memorabilia Page

German Book of Sermons

Most Likely Owned and Used by Friedrich Carl Christlieb II

Here is the story of how your newsletter editor and webmaster came upon what is probably the oldest surviving piece of memorabilia from our early immigrant Christlieb family. I, Lee Allan Wise, am the son of Ralph Coleman Wise; son of Almeda Mary Coleman; daughter of Ella Christlieb; daughter of Abraham Christlieb; son of John Christlieb; son of Carl Christlieb; son of Friedrich Carl Christlieb. I point this out to show the trail of this most interesting book.

I grew up in Ravenna, Portage County, Ohio, on a 126-acre farm. The house that I grew up in is on one side of Lakewood Rd., and my grandmother, Almeda Mary Coleman Wise, lived in an older farm house across the road from me. Records show that my great grandparents, Adam F. and Ella Christlieb Coleman lived in the house I grew up in, before my parents moved into that house. This house is relatively large, with full basement, two living floors and a full attic for storage — lots of storage.

My parents retired in 1976 and began traveling to Arizona during the wintertime. Eventually they hired movers to bring most of their furniture, including the Book of Sermons, to Arizona, and from there I carried things of interest from Arizona to La Mesa, CA.

It was in the 1990s when I began corresponding with cousin, W. Ward Christlieb, from Kalamazoo, Michigan. He had been corresponding with my grandmother, Almeda Mary Coleman Wise for many years. He is a first cousin, once removed, of my grandmother. Abraham Christlieb is their common ancestor. I have Ward to thank for introducing me to the Christlieb-Chrislip-Crislip Family Association. He sent me a couple issues of Jacob's Ladder and a brief introduction to the organization. That was also my first introduction to Friedrich Carl Christlieb.

It was a few years before my correspondence with Ward Christlieb, that I began sorting through all the boxes of books in my parents' attic. I do remember looking at that book. It was in German, as were many other books, and I remember looking at the flyleaf with all the fancy scrollwork in it and just thought that I should keep that one. At that time the flyleaf just looked like a bunch of scrollwork, none of which made any sense to me. I thought it was nothing more than just a German Bible, of which there were quite a few amongst all the boxes.

It was about 2000 or 2001, after I had moved the boxes containing that 'German Bible' with the fancy scrollwork, to my place in La Mesa, CA, that we had company. My wife's double first cousin and her husband came to visit from Orange County, CA. The subject of the book came up, and Ben Lochtenburgh said that he would like to see this book, since he was from The Netherlands, and could read some German. So I let him sit at a table to look at the book while I stood looking over his shoulder at the book. When he turned to the flyleaf page, suddenly things came into focus for me. It read Friedrich Charl Christlieb! By then I knew who Friedrich Carl Christlieb was, and I was sure that we had a very important piece of family history in our hands.

Presentation to Ned Crislip and Wendell Lauth at the 11th Biennial Reunion in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

Knowing this Book would be quite a surprise to all who attended the reunion, we planned on having just a little 'ceremony' as we made the presentation. White gloves were given to Ned and Wendell before they were permitted to unwrap this mystery book.

Earnest Thode's translations and interpretations of certain portions of the Book of Sermons.

The following are English translations of selected pages of the Book of Sermons once owned by Friedrich Carl Christlieb. These translations were done by Earnest Thode at the request of Ned Crislip, then editor of the Christlieb-Chrislip-Crislip Family Association newsletter, Jacob’s Ladder. November, 2003.

My best explanation for the symbols used on the ornate page, based on folk motifs used in Fraktur art, symbolism on gravestones, and dream interpretation, is as follows:

Chain – the link that binds the faithful to God
Bird – the soul, or eternal life
Flower – life, beauty; if the flower is a rose, unfailing love
Thorns(?) – difficult, unpleasant times (life’s thorny situations)
Nail(?) – holding things together; Christ’s death on the cross

My hypothetical explanation for the “Ch” in Carl is that it is an error. Based on the spacing of the capital F, (first) capital C, and capital D, the Fraktur scrivener (or maybe Friedrich himself) possibly started by first getting the placement of the capital letters, intending to write Friedrich Christlieb, but then decided to put in Carl, but not until after he had finished the Ch of the beginning of Christlieb. Or maybe the scrivener didn’t know how to spell Carl.

FYI: Historian Ernest Thode, Marietta, Marietta, Ohio, who interpreted the calligraphy and symbolism, said it was his opinion that the book may have been among the possessions that our immigrant family brought with them from Germany, as it was unlikely that such a book would have been commercially available in America. If this was the case, Carl (Friedrich Carl II) inherited the book from this father. In those days during frequent absences of an ordained Lutheran Pastor, it would have been Carl Christlieb's position as Deacon of the church to provide sermons. Once the Book of Sermons became Carl's, it was personally inscribed and put to good use. There remains the possibility that Carl's artistic half-brother, Georg Bock, provided the pen and ink adornments on the flyleaf of the book.

Gift to Cumberland County Historical Society

At the suggestion of Ned Crislip, and after contemplating it for 6 years, Lee and Dorothy Wise agreed to donate the Book of Sermons to the Cumberland County Historical Society during the Fourteenth Biennial Christlieb-Chrislip-Crislip Family Reunion, July 26, 2009. It was decided that the Historical Society would provide the best environment and protection of the book for years to come, and it could be viewed by anyone who stops into their library.

Lee Wise presents the Book of Sermons to the Cumberland County Historical Society.

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