Los Angeles herald., 1907-04-19
MIXING OF SIX TWINS
MAKES REMARKABLE FAMILY
Special to The Herald.
PHILADELPHIA, Apr

SpeclaI TO ne E1eTdiu'
PHILADELPHIA, April 1S-There is
unique family living out on a great
farm on the Carondolet highway,
northeast of Pepperton, N. ia family
/ that deserves more than a passing
notice.
Ninety years ago in Posen, Germany,
Frau Hertha Muesselman, wife of Hal
bert Muesselman, gave birth to trip
lets-three fine, bouncing boys, strong
and healthy, who grew to manhood,
pursued the even tenor of their eX-
istence through middle age and are
easily and poyfully vending their way
down life's decline without ever hav-
ing experienced a days sickness or any
accident resulting in the breaking of a
bone or other serious injury.
When the three boys were 10 years of
age their parents emigrated to this
country and settled near Pepperton on
small tract of land. and here, on the
day that the young men-Jacob, Karl
and Paul-were Is years of age, they
were married to three sisters-Anna,
Maria and Gertrude Lamm, daughters
of a farmer whose land adjolned that
of Mr.. Muesselman, and all three mar
ried couples went to live in the same
house, a large building that was once
used as q WaySide hotel and stood on
the highway three miles from Pepper
ton. Within a few weeks of two years
later and with only two days inter-
vening between the first and last birth,
the three young Muesselman women all
presented their respective husbands
with a pair of twin boys apiece-siX
little boy babies that all looked as
much alike as did their fathers, the
Muesselman triplets, and all of whom
looked as much alike as did their ia
theirs and uncles as it is possible for
children to do.
The young mothers were Immediately
filled with anxiety lest the children
should in some manner become mixed
so that 1t would be impossible to tell
one from another again, but instead
of marking them with ink so that no
mistake would be possible they de-
pended upon marks affixed to the chill
dren's clothing, and one night vicious
nurse who had been notified that she
would have to leave the house on the
following day, went silently and swift
ly from room to room, and, gathering
the six babies all together in one place,
she stripped them of every vestige Of
clothing, burned the garments, and
then went away, leaving any amount
of trouble behind.
1t was a terrible shock to the three
mothers. They were wholly unable to
form the least idea as to the identity
OF lIle CHlluIeH. IACIe Was not Il SIN
gle mark of any kind by which one
could be told from the others. To ev-
cry one of the mothers it was almost
as though her twin boys had died, and
so great was their grief, coming sud-
denly upon them when their physical
condition was such that they were i'll
prepared to bear up under 1t, that they
all went into a rapid decline and with
in a month from the time the babies
phonnoI tho fhraa - n
and the three triplets were left alone
with the six mixed twins, unable to
say which one was the father of what
two children.
They solved the problem in the cool,
calm manner that has been character
istic of their every act in life and de-
Cided that, inasmuch as they could not
tell the children apart they would keep
them together as long as they could,
and they, therefore, set up housekeep-
ing in common making no difference in
| the children and soon coming to feel
none and not to care to learn their
! identity.
And so they have lived ever since and
! live today, The triplets did not marry
again and none of the six twins ever
married. but for the last seventy years
they have continuously made their
home on the farm where they now live,
except that they have travelled consid-
erably to foreign lands and in the most
interesting portions of our own country.
| The fathers at the age of 80 years
and the sons at 70 now all look almost
exactly alike, all being entirely bald,
with long, white full boards flowing
down their breasts, and inasmuch as
the fathers are somewhat more rugged
In health than the sons there is now
scarcely the least difference in their
appearance as 70 age, and only close
observer can tell whether he Is looking
| at one OF three fathers or one OF the