Background
August Spies was born on December 10, 1855 in a ruined castle converted into a government building on the mountain Landeckerberg in the Central German state of Hesse. His father was a government forestry official.
Spies later recalled that he had a pleasant and privileged childhood, one filled with recreation and study. He was educated by private tutors and trained for a career following in his father's footsteps as a government forester. His father died suddenly in 1871, however, ending the comfortable financial situation for his mother, and August determined to set out for a new life in America, a country in which he already had a number of financially successful relatives.
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