The first half of the 1800s saw an ever-growing stream of immigrants flowing into the
United States from Great Britain and Europe. Most had been prompted by economic
reasons. However, a desire for religious or political freedom played no small part.
Many Germans had been influenced by the writings of the American writer, James
Fenimore Cooper, whose book, "The Last of the Mohicans," had been published in
1827 and translated into many languages, including German. Cooper's stories were
widely circulated throughout the lands which were later consolidated into the German
nation and the imaginations of many young men and boys were fired by the exploits of
the American pioneers fighting the Indians.
Another book which was widely circulated among the German states in 1840 was "A
Practical Guide to a Wealthy Life in America." This book related the experiences of 16
German families in the New World and advised newcomers as to how they could strike
their fortunes there.
Travelers were advised what they must take for such areas as Pennsylvania, "the most
hospitable of the states and the most like Germany; Missouri, the state with the most
attractive free land and the greatest opportunity for getting rich; and Texas, the most
exciting land, an independent nation now but likely to become a part of the United
States."
Germans had been entering the United States through the eastern seaboard ports for
some time, but they eventually began entering through the ports on the Gulf of Mexico.
These included Mobile, New Orleans, Galveston and, further down the Texas coast at
Matagorda. The immigrants entering the Texas ports of Galveston and Matagorda
spread inland and settled such Texas towns as Fredericksburg, Weimar, New
Braunfels, Schulenburg and many others. Other families landed at New Orleans and
went up the Mississippi to Missouri and other midwestern states.
A port close to Osnabrück is Bremerhaven. It took 71 days to travel from the port of
Bremerhaven, Prussia, to New Orleans. The ships arriving at the Gulf coast ports
returned to their points of origin laden with American exports, chiefly cotton.
On the 7th of June in 1846 the motorized sailing ship BREMEN arrived at New Orleans.
At that time the port city at the mouth of the Mississippi river had a population
of around 120,000. Although the BREMEN was presumably a German ship, the
captain was apparently not German. He was Captain H. W. Eater and his handwritten
notations on the ship's manifest were in English.
Four days after arrival in New Orleans, a family could arrive at St. Louis by river
steamer. After 1812 St. Louis had attracted many settlers, including a big foreign
element, which in the 1820s and 1830s was predominantly German. However, by 1830
few German immigrants had ventured into the rural areas surrounding the city. In 1846,
St. Louis had a population of around 55,000.
The Erie Barge Canal was formally opened in 1825 and ran 356 miles from Albany on New
York's Hudson River to Buffalo on Lake Erie. During the decade 1840 - 1850, one could
arrive at Toledo, Ohio from Buffalo by lake steamer and then proceed up the Maumee
River and eventually reach Fort Wayne, Indiana.
By way of the old Wabash and Erie Barge Canal, travelers on the Maumee could reach
the Wabash River and enter the Ohio River near Uniontown, Kentucky. Then, by
traveling westward on the Ohio, one could reach the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois. The
Mississippi and Missouri Rivers led to other settlements in the Midwest. Later, with the
coming of the railroads, the canal system was, for the most part, abandoned.
The newly arrived Germans wanted no part of the Southern movement to secede from the
Union. Missouri was a slave state but sentiment was divided between the North and the
South, with the German-Americans opposing slavery.
Possible ship my ancestor boarded
