Primer, Sylvester

Wisconsin native Sylvester Primer (1842-1912) moved to New York with his parents in 1850 and enlisted in the 108th New York Infantry at the start of the Civil War.

After being severely wounded at the battle of Antietam, Primer was discharged from the army in 1862. However, once healed, he reenlisted with the 15th New York Cavalry and served with both General Custer and General Sheridan from 1863 to 1865. Following the Civil War, Primer studied at Leroy (N.Y.) Academy until 1868 and the Phillips Exeter Academy until 1871. He received his A. B. from Harvard in 1874, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and immediately traveled to Europe where he attended the universities of Leipzig, Göttingen, and Strasburg in Germany and the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1880, he earned a PhD from the University of Strasburg, specializing in philology.

Primer returned to the United States in 1880 and taught at Brown University (1880-1881), the College of Charleston (1881-1890), and the College of Colorado (1890-1891). While at Charleston, he married Lula Martha Muckenfuss in 1895; they had one son, Benjamin (1900-1975). In 1891, Primer moved to Austin, Texas, where he worked as an Adjunct Professor of Teutonic Languages at the University of Texas. He eventually became an Associate Professor and then chairman of the School of Romance language. Eventually, he became the chair of a separate German department at UT. Primer died in 1912.

Lula Martha Muckenfuss Primer, the daughter of a Charleston dentist and public official, lived in Austin until her death in 1951. Following her husband's passing in 1912, Lula survived by taking in boarders and working in the interlibrary loan office at UT until her retirement in 1941. Additionally, she was an active member of the University Methodist Church, the University Ladies Club, the Austin's Women's Club, and the Travis County Council of Women.

Benjamin M. Primer, Sr., the son of Sylvester and Lula Primer, attended medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and completed graduate work in public health at Harvard. In the 1920s and 1930s, he worked as a city public health officer for a number of towns and cities in Texas, including San Saba, Amarillo, and Austin, where he worked from 1938 until his retirement in 1970. Additionally, he served as the secretary of the American Public Health Association. Primer was married to Lottie Williams, a nurse trained in New Orleans; they had two children: Benjamin M., Jr. and Charles Austin.

Source: "Primer, Sylvester," Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.