Our museum is always in the business of documenting significant events that occur in and around East Perry County. Today’s post is an effort to document the 2023 Immigration History Conference that was held this past week on October 26-28.

Each day of the conference was begun with a short devotion. Rev. Roger Abernathy, Rev. Paul Winningham, and I were the leaders of those devotions. Each included the opportunity for those attending to sing a hymn along with Trinity’s historic pipe organ.

Our recently-elected president of the Perry County Lutheran Historical Society, Jim Lichtenegger, gave some words of welcome to the people gathered in the church for the first session.

The listing of the first day’s presentations is listed here followed by some photos associated with them. Sorry, I do not have a photo of Steve Richardet.

• “German Immigration to Southeast Missouri – 185 years” – Ken Craft
• “Ten Flags over Perry County – A History of Land Transactions” – Fred Eggers
• “The Work of Our Fathers – Teachers” – Carl Eisman
• “The Work of Our Ancestors – Life and Work Adjustments” – Warren Schmidt
• “The Work of Finish Carpenter Carl Groh” – Stephanie Clemons
• “French Immigration to Perry County – 1840’s – Steve Richardet

Lunch during the first day was a wonderful one with plenty of German favorites provided by some ladies from Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar.

The second day only included one presentation. “The Work of the Bowman Milling Company – Founded 1858”. It was given by Richard Winter. His talk was followed by a field trip to local sites, including the Bowman Milling Company in Pocahontas, as well as the American Tractor Museum and Stonie’s Sausage Shop in Perryville. Here are some photos of Richard’s presentation and the trip to the mill in Pocahontas.

Included in this day’s schedule was a delicious dinner at the American Legion in Perryville.

After lunch, it was a quick drive to visit the American Tractor Museum.

The last stop on the field trip was Stonie’s Sausage Shop. The wearing of hair nets by the participants was required for the tour, and some of these folks may not be thrilled with me putting their photos here in this post wearing them.

After the field trip, I gave a talk in our museum’s research library describing the process I use when writing my blog posts.

The final day of the conference was packed with plenty more presentations in the church.

• “Women’s Work in the 1800’s” – Kathy Berkbigler
• ” My Father’s Work” – Pat Borgmann
• “Perry County Tourism Update” – Trish Erzfeld
• “Lutherans of Cole County Missouri – A History” – Jeremy Amick
• “The Passenger Arrival Index – Digging Deeper” – Ken Craft
• “The Work of our Fathers – Pastors” – Carl Eisman
• “Perry County Historical Society Update” – Bill Hart
• “Let the Children Come to Me” – Warren Schmidt

The closing event for the conference was Saturday evening’s banquet. During the evening’s festivities, a special presentation was made to Timm Yamnitz, who lives in Germany and was not in attendance, for his amazing contributions to our research library. In addition to excellent food, we enjoyed energetic entertainment by Jennie Willamson, who, along with her husband, Brian, are the new ambassadors for the Saxon Lutheran Memorial in Frohna. The music was followed by our keynote speaker, Sarah (Schilling) Ruhland, who is an executive from the Anheuser-Busch Corporation in St. Louis. Sarah is an Altenburg native who comes from the Loebs family. That family has its own history in the beer-brewing industry. Below are some photos taken during the banquet.

We consider the 7th Biennial Immigration History Conference to be a rousing success and look forward to hosting the 8th one in two years. Mark your calendars now for the Thursday-Saturday before Reformation Day in 2025. It will not be long before we start the planning for that event, and we would love to have even more people join us.