Once We Were Strangers
Description
Little attention has been paid to the settlement of Germans in Kansas, and Roberta Reb Allen's Once We Were Strangers helps to fill that void. It is both the saga of an immigrant family told within the larger social, political, and economic context of the day and a scholarly exploration of the settlement patterns and the diverse choices made by German pioneers. Starting in the small village of Ebhausen in the Black Forest of the Kingdom of Württemberg in what is now Germany, Allen follows the fortunes of the Lodholzes who journeyed across the Atlantic and eventually settled on the plains of the Kansas Territory in Marshall County.
Based on nearly 200 family letters and documents translated from Old German, Once We Were Strangers chronicles, through the pens of ordinary people, the conditions in Württemberg which led to emigration and the sweep of American history from the 1850s to the nominal end of the frontier in 1890. In addition, Once We Were Strangers provides the unusual opportunity to follow a German immigrant family for an extended period, almost from cradle to grave. Using remarkably rare documentary evidence, Allen explores the largely untold story of German assimilation, uncovering the pressures the Lodholzes faced and how they responded to the antebellum Midwest.
This family's story is full of hardship, endurance, joys, and sorrows, and is interwoven with the history of westward expansion, German migration, and Kansas, with a particular emphasis on German settlement patterns prior to the Civil War.
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Person
Roberta Reb Allen holds a master's in history from the University of Chicago and is a retired professional in education.
Content
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Coming to America: From Ebhausen to Terryville, Connecticut, 1819?57
2. The Journey West: Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas, 1857?58
3. Life in Kansas and Connecticut, 1859?61
4. War, Gold, Growth, Death, and Trouble, 1861?73
5. Change, Tragedy, and the Female Frontier in Marshall County, 1874?90
Epilogue: The Lodholzes, the Rebs, and the German Immigrant Experience?The Story Continues
Appendix A. Legal and Illegal Emigration
Appendix B. Total Population and German-Born by County: 1860 Federal Census
Appendix C. German-Born Place of Birth by County: 1860 Federal Census
Appendix D. German-Born Population, County and Township Statistics by Category: 1860 Federal Census
Appendix E. Number of German-Born by Page: 1860 Federal Census
Appendix F. Kansas State Census Non-Population Schedule 2: Foreign-Born by County and Township for Year Ending May 1, 1865
Notes
Index
