Our immigration conference begins in Altenburg today, so I am going to be occupied with other things. I do know that we have gotten off to a very beautiful morning. A lot is going on in our nation’s capital these days, so when I discovered this old post that was published on October 26th six … More Day #1 of the Immigration History Conference
Two brothers, both shoemakers, were part of the Gesellschaft that came to America in 1838-1839. They were the Richter brothers from Kolkau, Germany. They came to America aboard the Copernicus. Here we see these two brothers shown on the passenger list of that ship. You can find Kolkau on the map below. It is one of the … More A Capital Wedding
When the research crew at our museum runs across the Mueller surname, one of the first questions we ask is, “Which Mueller family are we talking about?” We usually put a Mueller into one of four categories. In fact, Gerard Fiehler has put together a special binder on the Muellers which is an attempt to … More The Beginning of the Frohna Muellers
It was Palm Sunday in East Perry County, Missouri in 1840. One tradition that came to America with the German Lutheran immigrants was that of conducting the rite of confirmation on Palm Sunday. The first few years after the new settlers arrived were mostly dedicated to survival. They were very difficult years, and much death … More Confirmation Classes of 1840
Seventy-eight days after departing Bremerhaven, Germany, the first members of the Gesellschaft arrived by steamboat in St. Louis, Missouri. They had voyaged across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Copernicus to New Orleans, Louisiana, and then had traveled up the Mississippi aboard the steamboat, Rienzi. Now, on January 19, 1839, they had finally arrived at that … More The First Stephanites Arrive in St. Louis
A Schuricht family history book includes the following paragraph which includes an account of the death of Johann Gottlob Schuricht on January 8, 1839. Based on evidence that we have at our museum, here is what I think happened. Johann Gottlob Schuricht (who appears to already be a Junior in the Schuricht family history) brought … More Buried on the Bank
First of all, today I have a confession to make. I have found it very difficult the past couple of days to come up with blog posts There are several reasons for this. One is that I simply have found it difficult to locate a story that excites me. Also, teaching and museum responsibilities have … More Born at Sea
I am presently traveling in Minnesota and am away from our trusty museum research library. I decided to see if I could find a connection between Perry County and Minnesota. I had heard that Rev. Ernst Moritz Buerger, one of the original pastors who was part of the 1838-1839 immigration ended his career in Minnesota, … More A Minnesota Connection to the Saxon Immigration
My search for a story started this morning by noticing that Johann Christian Poppitz died on this day, May 12, in 1855. One of the places this led me was to the first page of the passenger list of the Copernicus that landed in New Orleans on December 31, 1838. Once I discovered this page, … More A Page Full of Stories
One of the tragic stories of the 1839 immigration was the recording of numerous deaths that took place in the Schlimpert family during and not long after the journey to America. There were two Schlimpert families that traveled aboard the Copernicus, and the fathers of these two families are believed to have been brothers. They … More Early Schlimpert Deaths
