Making the Transition: Irish and German Immigrants Arrive in the Midwest

Donlon, Regina

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-78738-1_3

Making the Transition: Irish and German Immigrants Arrive in the Midwest

Regina Donlon²

Chapter
First Online: 30 June 2018

362 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter is broadly divided into three sections. The first section discusses the attractiveness of the American Midwest as an immigrant destination and explores the economic, social, and political landscapes into which German and Irish immigrants arrived. The second section of the chapter examines the departure process from both donor societies. The final section of this chapter explores the process of migrating to the Midwest upon becoming immigrants. A variety of Emigrant Guides are used to highlight the popularity of the Midwest as an immigrant destination. Possible routes to both St Louis and Fort Wayne are suggested in the last section of the chapter based on the most popular birth places of immigrants’ children derived from analysis of US Federal Census Schedules between 1850 and 1900.

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Notes

1.
Henry Neill, Kentucky to Samuel Neill, Co. Down, November 16, 1840. Centre for Migration Studies, Irish Emigrant Database (CMSIED), accessed May 4, 2013, http://ied.dippam.ac.uk/records/44663.
2.
Ibid.
3.
Joyce O. Appleby, Capitalism and a New Social Order: The Republican Vision of the 1790s (New York: New York University Press, 1984), 9.
4.
David Goodman, Gold Seeking: Victoria and California in the 1850s (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), ix.
5.
Jon C. Teaford, Cities of the Heartland: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Midwest (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), 48.
6.
Ibid., 49.
7.
1900 US Federal Census Compendium, ‘Table LXXXIII-Foreign-Born Population of Certain Cities Distributed According to Principal Countries of Birth: 1900,’ clxxvi–ix.
8.
Walter Nugent, Crossings: The Great Transatlantic Migrations, 1870–1914 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992), 162.
9.
Teaford, Cities of the Heartland, 58. Teaford notes that by 1890, Milwaukee had a smaller population of native white residents than any other American city of over 100,000 population.
10.
Nugent, Crossings, 153.
11.
J. Anderson, Ohio to his parents in Balinrees, Coleraine, March 26, 1837. Centre for Migration Studies, Irish Emigrant Database (CMSIED), accessed May 4, 2013, http://ied.dippam.ac.uk/records/52161.
12.
W. Porter, Chicago to his brother R. S. Porter, Co. Down, June 4, 1855. Centre for Migration Studies, Irish Emigrant Database (CMSIED), accessed May 4, 2013, http://ied.dippam.ac.uk/records/26634.
13.
John S. MacDonald and Leatrice D. MacDonald, “Chain Migration, Ethnic Neighbourhood Formation and Social Networks,” The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly 42, no. 1 (1964): 90.
14.
Loretto Dennis Szucs, They Became Americans: Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Incorporated, 1998), 28; see also Roger Daniels, Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants Since 1882 (New York: Hill & Wang, 2004), 3.
15.
Lawrence F. Kohl, The Politics of Individualism: Parties and the American Character in the Jacksonian Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 5.
16.
William G. McLoughlin, Revivals, Awakenings and Reform: An Essay on Religion and Social Change in America, 1607−1977 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1978), 106−108.
17.
Judith W. Meyer, “Ethnicity, Theology and Immigrant Church Expansion,” Geographical Review 65 (1975): 181.
18.
Ibid., 92−93.
19.
Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 556.
20.
Robert Lynd, Home Life in Ireland (London: Mills & Boon, 1909), 120.
21.
Nicholson, Ireland’s Welcome, 92.
22.
Lynd, Home Life, 121.
23.
Miller, Emigrants and Exiles, 556.
24.
Reisepass, Forschungsstelle Deutsche Auswanderer in den USA, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, accessed February 23, 2013, http://www.nausa.uni-oldenburg.de/.
25.
Rev. John O’Hanlon, The Irish Emigrant’s Guide for the United States (Boston: Patrick Donahoe, 1851), 33; James M. Bergquist, Daily Life in Immigrant America, 1820−1870 (Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008), 66.
26.
Terry Coleman, Passage to America: A History of Emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland to America in the Mid-Nineteenth Century (London: Penguin, 2001).
27.
Agricultural Statistics of Ireland, 1857−1865, Emigration Statistics of Ireland 1866–68, House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, accessed February 23, 2013, www.parlipapers.chadwyck.co.uk/.
28.
Karl Andree, Globus: Illustrierte Zeitschrift für Länder–und Völkerkunde (Hildburghausen: Friedrich Viewweg und Sohn, 1868), 190.
29.
James S. Donnelly, The Land and the People of Nineteenth Century Cork: The Rural Economy and the Land Question (London: Routledge, 1975), 146. During the early 1860s, Ireland experienced heavy summer rains and bad harvests as well as a return of the potato blight for three successive years.
30.
For an overview of European migration trends see Nugent, Crossings, 27−33.
31.
Stephen de Vere to Earl Grey, 30 November 1847 in Papers Relative to Emigration to the British Provinces in North America, H.C. 1847−1848 (932), xlvii, 13.
32.
Ibid.
33.
Letter from Sir Vere Foster to Lord Hobart, Emigrant ship ‘Washington’, copy of a letter from Lord Hobart to the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners; enclosing letter detailing the treatment of the passengers on board the emigrant ship ‘Washington’, on the passage to New York ; with the answer returned by the commissioners, and correspondence with the emigration officer at Liverpool on the subject, H.C. 1851 (198), xl, 2, 433.
34.
Ibid.
35.
Frederick Gerstäcker, The Wanderings and Fortunes of Some German Immigrants, trans. David Black (New York: D. Appleton, 1848), 2.
36.
“De Vere to Earl Grey, 30 November 1847,” 13.
37.
Gerstäcker, Wanderings, 13.
38.
“De Vere to Earl Grey, 30 November 1847,” 14.
39.
“Sir Vere Foster to Lord Hobart,” 3.
40.
Ibid., 4.
41.
Gestäcker, Wanderings, 17.
42.
Theoador Friedrich Brohm Diary, 1838−1839 (Saxon Immigration Papers, M0015/1/23/1, Concordia Historical Institute, St Louis, MO).
43.
Ibid., 2
44.
“Sir Vere Foster to Lord Hobart,” 5; see also Gerard Moran, Sending Out Ireland’s Poor: Assisted Emigration to North America in the Nineteenth Century (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2004), 91−123.
45.
Gestäcker, Wanderings, 12. An interesting point to note here is how the process of emigration was evaluated and the contrasting perceptions and experiences that were recorded by commentators.
46.
Ibid., 40.
47.
Henry Bradshaw Fearon, Sketches of America: A Narrative of a Journey of Five Thousand Miles Through the Eastern and Western States of America (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1819), 11.
48.
John Regan, The Emigrants Guide to the Western States of America, or Backwoods and Prairies (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1852), 113; see also Paul Boyer, Urban Masses and Moral Order in America, 1820−1920 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978), 4.
49.
Regan, Backwoods and Prairies, 113.
50.
Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Vierter Synodal-Bericht der deutschen Ev.-Luth. Synode von Missouri, Ohio u. a. Staaten vom Jahre 1850 (St Louis: Druck der M. Niednerschen Buehdruckerei, 1876), 132.
51.
‘Auszug der wichtigsten Verhandlungen und Beschlisse aus den Protokollen des Ministeriums’ in J. Nicum, Geschichte des Evangelisch-Lutherischen Ministeriums vom Staate New York und angrenzenden Staaten und Liindern (New York, NY, 1888), 449.
52.
Carl S. Meyer, “Lutheran Immigrant Churches Face the Problems of the Frontier,” Church History 29 (1960): 453.
53.
Ibid., 455.
54.
Sr Mary Evangela Henthorne, The Irish Catholic Colonization Association of the United States (Champaign: The Twin City Printing Company, 1932), 30.
55.
Malcolm Campbell, Ireland’s New Worlds: Immigrants, Politics and Society in the United States and Australia, 1815−1922 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2008), 69.
56.
Henthorne, Irish Catholic Colonization Association , 31.
57.
“Circular from Onahan Scrapbook” 1879, quoted in Henthorn, Irish Catholic Colonization Association, 37.
58.
For an extensive discussion of this scheme see Gerard Moran, “In Search of the Promised Land: The Connemara Colonisation Scheme to Minnesota, 1880,” Éire/Ireland 31, nos. 3&4 (1996): 130−48.
59.
Rev. J. L. Spalding, The Religious Mission of the Irish People and Catholic Colonization (New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1880), 191.
60.
For a more thorough discussion see Leonard P. Riforgiato, “Bishop John Timon, Archbishop John Hughes and Irish Colonization: A Clash of Episcopal Views on the Future of the Irish and the Catholic Church in America,” in Immigration to New York , ed. William Pencak, Selma C. Berrol, and Randall M. Miller (London and Philadelphia: Balch Institute Press, 1991), 27−56; see also David S. Bovee, The Church and the Land: The National Catholic Rural Life Conference and American Society, 1923−2007 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2010), 10.
61.
Bovee, The Church and the Land, 10.
62.
Spalding, The Religious Mission, 198.
63.
Holditch, The Emigrants Guide to the United States of America, 43.
64.
Ibid.
65.
Thomas J. Archdeacon, Becoming American: An Ethnic History (New York: Free Press, 1983), 36.
66.
For an extensive discussion of its significance, see Gillian Houghton, The Transcontinental Railroad : A Primary Source History of America’s First Coast to Coast Railroad (New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2003).
67.
Philip S. Bagwell and Gordon E. Mingay, Britain and America, 1850−1939: A Study of Economic Change (New York: Routledge, 1970), 71.
68.
R. A. Burchell, The San Francisco Irish, 1848–1880 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), 37−42, 52–70.
69.
Waldo P. Johnson, “‘Financial Position of the State and Countries of Missouri’ Read Before the Missouri State Immigration Convention,” Immigration to Missouri Collection 1834−1947, A0747/1/1/1, Missouri History Museum, St Louis, MO.
70.
Ibid., A0747/1/1/3.
71.
J. H. Colton, The Western Tourist or the Emigrant’s Guide Through the States of Ohio , Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri and the Territories of Wisconsin and Iowa (New York: J. H. Colton, 1846), 45−59.
72.
Ibid., 43−47.
73.
Regan, Backwoods and Prairies, 30.
74.
W. C. Lange, Zur Richtschnur für Auswanderer, Circular c.1890, Immigration to Missouri Collection 1834−1947, A0747/1/2/1, Missouri History Museum, St Louis, MO.
75.
Ibid.
76.
Ibid.
77.
Notes on the Mullanphy Family, Bryan Mullanphy, Mullanphy Family Papers 1780−1950, A1108/1/14/4, Missouri History Museum, St Louis, MO.
78.
Lange, Zur Richtschnur für Auswanderer, Immigration to Missouri Collection 1834−1947, A0747/1/2/1.
79.
1900 US Federal Census Compendium, ‘Table LXXXIII- Foreign-born population of certain cities distributed according to principal countries of birth: 1900’, clxxvi-ix, 1900 US Federal Census returns for St Louis (Independent city), MO, wards 3 & 8 and 1900 US Federal Census returns for Fort Wayne, IN, wards 2 & 6.
80.
1880 US Federal Census Record for Michael Carroll and Family, 1880 US Federal Census , St Louis (Independent city), MO, Ward 9, ED 92, 42, Ancestry.com, accessed February 23, 2013, www.ancestry.com.
81.
Figures derived from 1900 US Federal Census returns for St Louis (Independent city), MO, Wards 3 & 8. Table reflects birthplaces of ethnically German and Irish-Americans that had migrated to St Louis, MO by 1900.
82.
Figures derived from 1900 US Federal Census returns for Fort Wayne, Wards 2 & 6. Table reflects birthplaces of ethnically German and Irish-Americans that had migrated to Fort Wayne by 1900.
83.
Regan, Backwoods and Prairies, 114.

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Maynooth University, Maynooth, Kildare, Ireland
Regina Donlon

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Donlon, R. (2018). Making the Transition: Irish and German Immigrants Arrive in the Midwest. In: German and Irish Immigrants in the Midwestern United States, 1850–1900. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78738-1_3

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78738-1_3
Published: 30 June 2018
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-78737-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-78738-1
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