Julins Erasmus Hilgard was born on January 7, 1825, at Zweibrücken, Rhenish Bavaria, where his father, Theodore Erasmus, held for a number of years the position of chief justice of the court of appeals (supreme court) of that province of Bavaria. Born in the initial year of the French revolution and educated under the influence of that remarkable period, the father was a prominent Liberal in the most liberal province of Germany, and, chafing under the reactionary tendencies and measures that had become especially rampant after the futile attempt to overthrow them, made by some of the hot-headed youth at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1833, he conceived the purpose of transplanting his large family to the United States, where he hoped to find the "ideal republic" realized. Despite brilliant offers of advancement from the government, he carried out this purpose in the 'autumn of 1835, accompanied by numerous testimonials of regret and esteem from his constituents, and carrying a letter from General Lafayette commending him to the good offices of the American people.