George Kiefer

This research began with a letter that I found in family papers. The letter was from George Kiefer to a cousin or another relative. It was written in Peru around 1881. The letter led me to search further, to find out where he came from and what he did with his life. I have been able to discover only a little about who he was as a person, but at least a little more about what he did and the times in which he lived. I have been able to do this only through the help of friends and complete strangers. And I hope that I will continue to hear from people who can help me with this work.

When I first began this research, all I knew about George, mostly from the letter, is that he travelled with Captain Paul Boyton and they floated down rivers in strange rubber suits. I also knew that he dug up relics in Peru in a place called the Necropolis of Ancon. The Necropolis was within the sphere of the Huari culture around 1000 AD, that produced pottery such as the one here photographed by User:Haylli in December of 2004. (http://www.wikimedia.org/).


I still know very little about George's family or how he came to meet Paul Boyton. In my research, I have built a shell around a man who still remains an extreme mystery. It is possible that George arrived in America around 1857. He probably came from Germany or Bavaria. I expect to know more as this story unfolds.

For the past five years, I have been vicariously living in the Peru of the 1880s. I've met, through books, letters and documents, the people who walked the streets of Lima at that time. I've seen the beautiful public squares of Lima, the ruined towns of Chorrillos and Miraflores, and the remains of those who gave their lives in battle. I've imagined the fear and emotions of the citizens of Lima when rioting broke out within the streets and the Chilean army approached the city.

BUT I have never been to modern Lima, have not walked the desert coast at Arica, nor seen the port of Callao. I've not ridden the railroad from Lima to see the dunes of the Necropolis at Ancon nor visited the mountain town of Matucana. So my view is unfortunately flawed. If I visited Peru, I would only have a vague idea of where I was. To some extent, I think it would be like visitng my birthplace after an absence of 60 years.

This story is a rough draft, with parts missing and no doubt rife with misinterpretations unintended. The events are seen through the lense, as much as possible, of contemporary observers. I can only imagine that each perspective was colored or distorted by the observer's experience or agenda. As you read, I want you to be aware of this.

I am still grappling with documenting each event accurately and identifying timeframes that will help fit everything into an approximate timeline. I am skipping over significant events in the War, only because I have not discovered any relationship of these events to the protagonists in this story. Some of my dates are real and some of them are relative, and some of them may be good guesses. My scholarship is deficient in that regard, so please bear with me as I "give you not my best".