A: 1854 - The Peak of Pre Civil War German Migration to the United States

        Charles Ulrich caught the moment of arrival in the United States in his painting, In the Land of Promise, Castle Garden. Painted in 1884, he depicted the experience of many thousands of immigrants from Europe who entered the United States every year. In the picture a fair-haired woman sits on a wooden trunk and quietly breast-feeds her baby. She gazes into the emptiness of the air. She is surrounded by a number of men and women who are resting on benches to recover from their long journey over the ocean. Boxes, trunks, sacks, bottles and cooking utilities are piled up on the floor. The rules and regulations of the Emigrant Landing Depot are posted behind her. The white chalked room is filled with noise, talking, anxiety and fear. Castle Garden, New York, was one of the main ports of entry to the United States from 1855 until 1890. In 1892, it was replaced by Ellis Island. | #1 |

        During the period in which Castle Garden was in full operation German immigrants were among the largest of ethnic groups entering the United States through its doors. For centuries, Germans have provided a constant stream of immigrants to the United States fleeing poverty, wars and unsatisfying social and personal conditions to a world that promised a better life (for statistical data on German immigration to the United States, see Appendix I).

Map I: United States of America. Source: Mary Norton, David Katzman, Paul Escott, Howard Chudacoff, Thomas Paterson, William Tuttle. A People and A Nation: A History of the United States. (Boston, 1982), p. 978.
[For an on-line map showing U.S. territorial growth to 1860, go here.]

        In 1854, when Congress declared the Kansas Territory open for settlement, German immigrants had replaced the Irish as the number one ethnic group entering the United States. German immigration reached its pre Civil War peak in 1854 when 215,000 Germans entered the North American ports. | #2 | What had happened in Germany to cause this exodus?

        The question why Germans left their home states to come to the United States has been explored in much depth by a number of scholars in the field. | #3 | Many push- and pull-factors have been identified to explain German immigration. Here, it will be only my responsibility to remind the reader of these general factors to set the German emigration to Kansas in a broader context.

        Among the many reasons for German mass immigration in the nineteenth century was the changing economic situation in Europe. The industrial revolution caused a shift from a feudal to a capitalistic market economy. Technological innovations, commercial agriculture and urban and industrial growth in many European countries lead to severe economic and social transformations which broke many traditional patterns. New urban market demands forced small farmers and farm hands to leave the land which was taken over by large commercial farmers.

        Additionally, rising land prices made it difficult to buy land, so that people had to find other ways to support their families. Thus, many peasants moved from rural to urban areas where they expected better living-conditions and work. Although manufacturing was growing at that time, it could not absorb the surplus of laborers.| #4 | Therefore, many people decided to leave their countries.

        Furthermore, the end of the Napoleonic wars not only restored peace in Europe but also brought an end to the "continental system of restricted trade."| #5 | The opening of the borders of the German states allowed cheap, industrial-made, foreign products to enter the markets and threaten the position of the local craftsman who could not produce so cheaply. These economic changes led to the upheaval of the 1830 revolutions and subsequent political repression which also led to the exodus of many individuals or small kinship groups.

        The failure of the 1848 revolution produced a whole group of German immigrants known as the Forty-Eighters. They favored establishing a democratic government for Germany. After the attempt of the liberals was bloodily suppressed, thousands of them fled the country to avoid arrests and prison sentences. Others decided that they would rather live outside Germany than be suppressed by the government. This caused a stream of political immigrants who turned to the democratic structures of the United States for their future. According to LaVern Rippley, the number of Forty-Eighters was still relatively small in comparison to the total number of German immigrants. Only 4,000 to 10,000 revolutionists left the country, which Rippley notes, is small in comparison to the 1,186,000 who left Germany from 1820-60.| #6 |

        Furthermore, the Irish famine in the 1850s and general European crop failure resulted in further economic problems which forced many people to leave Germany.

        On the other side of the Atlantic, in the United States, the same economic system as in Europe was at work and created urban growth and industrial expansion. But whereas in Europe the new market economy could not absorb the whole working population and left many unemployed, in North America the system needed more workers. The digging of the Erie Canal, the extension of the railroads, and other great projects required work forces and offered opportunities to newcomers in the United States.

        Furthermore, improved sea-travel conditions made the journey from the old to the new world easier and more tolerable. Instead of terrible conditions on board a sailing ship, overcrowding, the risk of shipwrecks, fires and diseases, travelers had more space, better food and less risks on most ships in the later part of the nineteenth century. Improvement began around 1832, when the Bremen Senate (Bremen, besides Hamburg, was one of the great German emigration ports) "enacted revolutionary legislation requiring shipping companies to provide emigrant passengers with sufficient food for the Atlantic crossing." | #7 | This law soon made Bremen the center of German emigration. To keep up with the competition, Hamburg also introduced legislation protecting transatlantic travelers. In 1847, the Hamburg-America Shipping Line was founded by Hamburg merchants who had among their vessels two steamships in 1853. In 1848-49, the National Assembly at Frankfurt placed emigration under the control and protection of the central government and encouraged the establishment of an Emigration Office (Auswanderungsamt).| #8 | These measures suggest that the German government supported and promoted emigration. At the same time, many private emigration societies in Germany and the United States were established to foster emigration. One society in Germany, for example, was the Adelsverein which helped German immigrants settle in Texas. In the United States, one can find, for example, the Neuer Ansiedler Verein of Chicago which founded Eudora, Kansas, seven miles east of Lawrence.

Map II: The German States before 1871. Source: Zentralinstitut fuer Geschichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften, Atlas zur Geschichte, (Leipzig, 1973), p.93. 1: 6,000 000.
[For an on-line map of Mitteleuropa 1815-1918, go here.]

        These push and pull factors have generally been accepted for the main body of immigrants. Other, more local factors in many German states also led to migration. Regional economic, political or religious problems, such as the vintage failure in Wuerttemberg in 1850-53 also have to be kept in mind as reasons for immigration.

        Scholars have emphasized that most immigrants entered the United States through a network established by families and friends. Bodnar has illustrated the migration network in detail. He points out that: "... immigrants seldom left their homelands without knowing where they wanted to go and how to get there. Relatives and friends constantly sent information back regarding locations to live and potential places of employment." | #9 | As we will see later, this network worked not only for the migration across the Atlantic, but also for migration to second and third locations. Often, one family member was the "pioneer" of the family, going one place first and then reporting his experience back to family and friends. If his report was favorable, the family decided to move. During the migration to Kansas, this network phenomenon worked as well as in any other place in the United States.

B: Immigration to Kansas

C: Early Lawrence History

        The town of Lawrence, Kansas, was established in 1854, very soon after the new territory was opened for settlement. In opposition to the strong pro-slavery influences, the Aid Emigrant Company of Massachusetts assisted northern settlers in establishing a town close to the Missouri border to mark an abolitionist presence. The first settlement group, or the "Pioneer Party" as Andreas called it, arrived in Lawrence in early June of 1854. According to Louise Barry, there was already one German-born emigrant among the twenty-nine men who made up the group. The other members of the party consisted of nineteen people from Massachusetts, three men from New York, five men from Vermont, one settler from Washington, D.C., and one from Wisconsin.| #19 |

        The first German-born settler was Arthur Gunther, listed as a clerk from Wisconsin. In Barry's remarks beside the name in the list of the first settler group is written: "settled in Douglas County; native of Germany and emigrated from Massachusetts according to the 1855 census; was captain, Company H., Second Kansas Cavalry, 1862-1865."| #20 |

        The early settlement did not include many Germans. The second Emigration Party arrived in Lawrence September 11, 1854, numbered 67 people, and did not, according to Barry's list, include any German-born settlers. The third party reached Lawrence on October 7, 1854. This group numbered 86 individuals, among whom were several foreign-born: one immigrant came from England, three from Switzerland and one entire family from Germany. German-born Peter Teason from Charlestown, Massachusetts, arrived with his wife and his three children Rebecca (16), Henry (11) and Louise (4). Although one might suspect that the early German settlement was founded by this family, one has to keep in mind that most of the very early settlers did not stay close to the settlement but moved further away from Lawrence to live on farms. Three more emigrant parties arrived in the year 1854. | #21 | Many of the emigrants came to Lawrence only to leave again to go to other parts of Kansas. The Company claimed that some 750 individuals traveled to Kansas in its parties of 1854.| #22 |

        The earliest census, taken by C.W. Babcock, Lawrence's first postmaster, in February 1855, revealed that Lawrence had a population of 400. Forty-one of the inhabitants were foreign-born. Only seven of those foreigners were German-born. It is interesting to note that all seven individuals came from Massachusetts, presumably with the assistance of the Emigrant Aid Company.

        In 1855, the New England Emigrant Aid Company sent out a total number of 900 emigrants who came in ten more parties between March 1855 and July 1855. After May 1955, the numbers of emigrants declined due to severe droughts in Kansas in the winter and spring of 1854-55. The lack of timber and the scarcity of mills also added to the disappointment of emigrants, and news of their discouragement traveled back east to their friends and family members. The rising boat fares on the Missouri river which were due to difficult navigation caused by the droughts, also discouraged newcomers.

        Although the problems outlined above discouraged new emigration to Kansas in general, the Lawrence population steadily rose. One reason for the development of Lawrence is that the settlers organized a government and institutions almost immediately. In 1854, a constitution was adopted, officers were appointed, and on October 6, 1854, the settlement was named "Lawrence City" in honor of Amos A. Lawrence.| #23 | By October 1854, the town was already laid out and by October 15, 1854, the first Congregational Church was formed.| #24 |Early in 1855, three Kansas newspapers were established. One was the Herald of Freedom which appeared on October 21, 1854. The second was the Kansas Free State, which published its first issue on January 3, 1855. The third, the Kansas Tribune, started publication on January 5, 1855. By 1855, the first houses replaced tents and the Free-State Hotel was built by the Emigrant Aid Company. Growth continued; town people established three more churches in 1855. On January 16, 1855, they opened the first school.| #25 |

        For the first few years, the little town by the Kansas River enjoyed prosperity. Weekly, new emigrants arrived and new businesses were opened. In 1861, when the slavery question was settled and Kansas became a free state, the fighting between abolitionists and pro-slavery-men stopped and peace entered the area. Many "political" emigrants who had settled in Kansas to fight for their political view, sold their land and returned home.

        Additionally, the general business decline which existed throughout the country was felt in Kansas as well as in other parts of the nation. Business faltered and many merchants who had hoped for new emigrants as customers were disappointed. In 1858 and 1859 a number of businesses had to close down and the owners moved back east.| #26 |

        In 1860, a terrible drought lasting thirteen months - from September 1859 to October 1860 - destroyed much of the crops throughout Kansas and led the territory into an even greater economic depression. A description conveys the situation:
        In April, the ground was dry as ashes. Seed sown in the garden did not even come up in many cases, and in some cases came up the next spring, hale and hearty. On the rich bottom lands below Lawrence, and a few other favored spots, there was little corn grown in the fields that were sown early and well cared for. But over the country generally there were thousands an acre from which not an ear was gathered.| #27 |

        During the years of hard times, a great number of German emigrants entered Lawrence. The exodus of many settlers and the economic downturn had caused land prices to fall; young farmers and businessmen could now afford to buy land. Furthermore, peace in the territory removed an obstacle to settlement. Many Germans looked for land where they could grow their crops and live in peace, or to practice their religion, as in the case of many Mennonite communities. Since many of the emigrants did not file their citizenship papers right after their arrival, they could not vote and hence, could not participate in the campaign for a slave-free Kansas. According to the Lawrence voting list of 1859, only 16 out of a total German male population of 55 had the right to vote. So in 1858, when the political troubles had leveled out, Germans moved into the territory in greater numbers. Among the emigrants were many businessmen and craftsmen who preferred to settle in towns.

        By 1860, according to the United States federal census, 84 people out of the total population of 1,670 in Lawrence were German-born.| #28 | Two-thirds of the German population belonged to family units (twenty-three family units in total). The biographical sketches of two German emigrants in that early German settlement suggest that most German-born emigrants in Lawrence were the children of parents who left Germany in the 1850s. Many Lawrence Germans emigrated in their youth with their families. Alexander Marks, for example, "was born in Germany on January 6, 1844. His parents immigrated to the U.S. and settled in Albany, New York in about 1855. He finished his education in Albany. In 1858, he settled in Lawrence, Kansas, where he learned the watchmaking and jeweler's trade with David Prage." Marks worked for Prage for nearly five years before they became partners in 1862. After Quantrill's Raid, Prage sold his interest to Marks and moved to Leavenworth. After the raid, Marks ran the business by himself until he was joined by his brother Salomon.| #29 | The name Marks is among the few German names from that early period of German settlement that has survived into the late twentieth century; Mark's jewelry shop is still on Massachusetts Street today.

        A similar picture is drawn of August Menger who "was born in Wildenspring Schwarzburg Rudolfstadt, Germany, on January 6, 1844. His parents came to the United States in 1856, locating in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1857, they moved to Kansas and settled on a farm twelve miles from Lawrence. In 1860, he sought work in Lawrence and learned the trade of boot and shoe making."| #30 |

        The 1860 census also indicates that many German families lived in other parts of the country before they came to Lawrence. Looking at the places of birth for many children, one can see that, for example, the oldest son of the Baker family, three-year-old John, was born in Ohio whereas their two-year-old daughter Catherine was born in Kansas. Two- year-old William Grunniermann was born in Illinois, his two-month-old brother John in Kansas. Among the States from which Germans immigrated to Kansas were Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

        After their arrival, many German families lived with each other. In later years, German boarding houses were established to host newcomers until they found or built houses of their own. Louise Oesch recalls that she, her parents and two sisters, shared a house with her mother's cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Preisach and his business partner, Mr. Stick. On the first floor of the house, which was located on Massachusetts Street, Preisach and Stick ran the first furniture store in Lawrence. Until the early twentieth century, many families lived in the same structure as their businesses. Preisach and his partner, like many Germans, were craftsman and merchants. Among common occupations were bakers, wagon-makers, saddle-makers and grocers.

        In 1857, a number of Germans established a Turnverein which was an athletic club as well as a social club. They built a hall on the southwest corner of Tenth and New York Streets in an area east of Massachusetts Street, the main business street. It is important that such a club was founded at an early date. Within four years of the town founding, Germans marked their existence by establishing a separate establishment. This indicates that there were already enough Germans in town who felt a need to create a distinctly German society. Moreover, despite industrial needs to establish houses and start businesses, they raised money to erect their own building. Obviously, they viewed a Turner Hall as important enough to fund it (see, Chapter Three: A Place like Home: The Lawrence Turnverein).

        The pre-and post-1860 German settlement of Lawrence cannot be explained without considering the influence of other German settlements in Douglas County. The small town of Eudora, seven miles east of Lawrence and the farming community of Stull, formerly known as Deer Creek, between Lawrence and Topeka, played important roles in the development of the Lawrence community. Eudora was founded as a mostly German town. In the summer of 1857, an association which was very similar to the New England Emigrant Company, called Neuer Ansiedlungs Verein was formed by Germans in Chicago, Illinois.| #31 | In March, 1857, a committee was appointed to find a suitable place for settlement and soon after the return of Heinemann, Barteldes and Schleifer, the first settlement party was sent out to what is now Eudora. The party arrived in Eudora on April 18, 1857, and houses, businesses and churches were soon erected.| #32 |

        Since Eudora and Stull were primarily farming communities, the settlers traded in nearby Lawrence. As Lawrence's business life on Massachusetts Street quickly developed as the area's largest commercial center, many Eudora and Stull Germans came to Lawrence to do their major shopping. But Eudora Germans soon founded their own clubs, such as a Turnverein, and German speaking churches. Stull Germans often went to Topeka in later years. Therefore, few Eudora or Stull Germans took part in Lawrence's German activities. Nevertheless, in later years, many Eudora and Stull Germans moved to Lawrence to learn trades and open businesses and, therefore, became part of the Lawrence German community. Julius Fischer, for example, was one of the founding fathers of Eudora and a member of the Eudora Town Company in 1857. He helped to lay out the town of Eudora and started the first saw mill during the early settlement period. In 1868, he settled in Lawrence, where he built an ice-house and opened a retail ice-business. Later, he became engaged in the shoe business. Another example is Frederick and Henriette Deichmann who were married in Eudora in 1861. At that time, Frederick ran a butcher shop and a stockyard in the little town. After Quantrill's Raid, they closed up their store and moved to Lawrence, where they opened a meat market.

D: Lawrence Germans during the Civil War and Quantrill's Raid

        Only three month after Kansas became a state in 1861, the conflict between southern and northern states escalated in the outbreak of the Civil War. In general, Germans as an ethnic group sided with the North, and German participation in the war was widespread. Most viewed the North as a place of democracy and freedom. Germans regarded the South, on the other hand, as a place in which there was a rigid class system similar to the German states and was a reason why many had left Germany.

        Furthermore, economic factors influenced them. In the industrial north, workers were needed to staff the factories whereas in the south, plantation owners opposed European migration. The southern system seemed static, and did not welcome independent wage-workers. Slaves provided the labor needed to work the fields, so an influx of immigrants would have caused a surplus of laborers.| #33 |

        Additionally, Germans opposed the separation of the country. Being familiar with the situation in Germany, most of them had just felt the disadvantages of a Kleinstaat system. The thought that their new home would be as fragmented as the German states gave them reason to fight for the Union.

        Another factor which has been pointed out by LaVern Rippley, is the arrival of a large number of young men who were especially suited for the military. "German immigration to the United States at that time included a preponderance of males of military age," Rippley explains. "Such young men often arrived without jobs and with no family ties. Bounties for enlistment seemed to be the perfect interim solution to their financial and domestic problems."| #34 |

        Furthermore, scholars have argued that many Germans were already familiar with military life prior to their arrival. Numerous men were trained in German regiments and a great number had already participated in the Napoleonic Wars and other wars. The belief that "service in the army also meant full American citizenship without the fuss and delay of papers and applications" was also widespread.| #35 |

        A study compiled by Benjamin A. Gould, Actuary of the United States Sanitary Commission in 1869, summarized enlistments according to the place of birth.| #36 | According to his calculation, there were about 176,817 German-born soldiers in the Civil War on the Union side. Faust and Rippley both note that this number is low, since the place of birth was not asked for in the early enlistments. Dietmar Kuegler estimates the enlistment of German-born soldiers around 200,000.| #37 |

        Since so many Germans participated in the war, one is not surprised to find exclusive German regiments in the armies. It has been estimated that around 36,000 German soldiers served in all German units.| #38 | Most German regiments could be found in states such as New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin.| #39 |

        With the outbreak of the Civil War, the state of Kansas found itself in another struggle against southern sympathizers. Richard Cordley described that Kansans felt that the war "was only a continuation and extension of the struggle which had been going on in Kansas for the six years."| #40 | Twenty-two Kansas regiments entered the service of the Union army during the war. Cordley estimates that out of the total population off 107,206 in 1860, some 22,000 enlisted in the army.| #41 |

        The exact number of Lawrence men enlisted is not known today. Although the Adjutant General's Report lists soldiers in each regiment by name, age, place of birth and date of enlistment, some companies are omitted from the report. Therefore, an exact estimate is not possible. From the remaining information, it is evident that men from Lawrence enlisted in all twenty-two regiments. A great number of Lawrence soldiers can be found in the First Regiment Kansas Voluntary which was recruited between May 20 and June 3, 1861.

        Without complete data on Lawrence men, it is not possible to give the exact number of enlisted German-born men. Data from the Adjutant General's Report and the 1865 State Census shows that at least twenty-seven Germans from Lawrence enlisted. The majority were single males; only three out of twenty-seven were married. Nevertheless, the total figure of twenty-seven underestimates the number. Information in Henry Albach's History of the Lawrence_Turnverein states that: "Forty-four of the forty-eight members enlisted in the Union Army."| #42 | It is impossible to verify Albachs's statement because he does not include any names of members in his history. However, involvement of Turners in the Civil War was a common phenomenon. Rippley points out that "on the whole, the Turner or German athletic society were quick to volunteer, frequently as a bloc."| #43 | The all-German regiments, mentioned above, were often made up exclusively of Turners, such as the Ohio Volunteers and the 20th New York regiment.

        During the Civil War, the town of Lawrence was in a difficult situation. Only forty miles from the Missouri border and with an distinct reputation as a Free-State town, Lawrence was aware of the danger of the ongoing war. Rumors that southern troops were ready to attack Lawrence circulated frequently. Small Missouri bands terrorized the towns along the border, and many of them suffered from the danger and destruction caused by these bands.

        On August 21, 1863, a group led by William Clarke Quantrill raided Lawrence. About 300 men organized in four companies destroyed most of the town site and killed many male citizens and soldiers. The raiders, in bands of six or eight, systematically took the town street-by-street. When Quantrill and his men departed from Lawrence, he had left the town in total destruction. Richard Cordley describes the horrible picture after the raid:

Massachusetts Street was one bed of embers. On this one street, seventy-five buildings, containing at least twice that number of places of businesses and offices, were destroyed. The dead lay all along the sidewalk, many of them burned that they could not be recognized, and scarcely be taken up. Here and there among the embers, could be seen the bones of those who had perished in the buildings and been consumed. On two sides of another block lay seventeen bodies.| #44 | Cordley estimates that 150 people lost their lives and nearly two hundred houses had been destroyed.| #45 |

        Numerous stories about narrow escapes and the raid have been preserved by many families. As Quantrill's Raid took on mythic proportions, it bound the inhabitants together. As "survivors" they shared a common past. Their tales of escape became the basis for their shared experiences.

        The German citizens of Lawrence shared the misfortune of the raid with all other people in town. Quantrill's raiders did not distinguish their victims by nationality. Being German might even had been a disadvantage because Germans were widely known as anti-slavery people. According to Cordley's list of people killed during the raid, at least nine of the victims were German.| #46 | In his history, we find the following report about the death of two of them:

E: Post Civil War German Immigration

        After the Civil War, a new wave of German immigration to the United States set in. Two factors that accelerated immigration after 1865 were the passage of the Homestead Act in the United States and the ongoing Franco-Prussian Wars in Germany. Under the Homestead Act of 1862, up to 160 acres of land were available to settlers who agreed to settle and cultivate the land for five years. This made the United States even more attractive whereas in Germany, military duty and other pressures caused by wars led to an increasing number of immigrants. In 1871, German immigration reached a high of 150,000 and in 1882, the number exceeded 250,000.

        The victory of the North over the South at the end of the Civil War proved to Germans again that America was the land of freedom and of unlimited opportunities. One symbol of freedom and financial success was the American West. The western states and the expanding railroads had skillfully managed to transform the image of the West by a vast amount of propaganda. What was formerly thought of as a desert was suddenly described as the Garden of Eden. Western states were anxious to populate their land, and railroads wanted to bring in settlers who would create passenger and freight traffic for their lines. As part of their construction contracts railroads had received over 180 million acres of land from Congress which they could sell on cheap terms to immigrants.| #49 | Therefore, they produced English as well as German advertisements to lure settlers to the western states. Many states established boards of immigration or immigration commissions and sent agents directly to Europe to recruit potential settlers.| #50 |

        In February, 1864, Kansas State legislation established a Bureau of Immigration. According to the first paragraph of the law, the governor could appoint two commissioners of immigration to constitute the bureau. The main purposes of the bureau were, ... to have power to appoint one or more agents to visit Europe for the purpose of encouraging and directing immigration to this state, to make contracts with railroads and packet companies, for the purpose of securing low rate of fare to immigrants, and to perform such other functions as may be necessary to secure the ends aimed at in this act.| #51 |

        Furthermore, the act required the Bureau of Immigration to compile an annual report to the legislature including all statistics and facts relating to the character and resources of the state, to collect daily meteorological records, and to report on the amount of land vacant or cultivated in the counties. The act appropriated $ 5,000 to the Bureau of Immigration to pay agents to go to Europe and to cover any other expenses of the bureau.

        In 1884, C.B. Smith, Kansas Commissioner of Immigration published a pamphlet called Official Facts about Kansas. In his introduction he claimed that:

Once called a "desert", the state is now a garden. The coyote is displayed by the Marino. The mustang is succeeded by the Norman. The buffalo has turned over the prairies to the Burham. Corn tassels wave where Osage danced. The wheat crop grows over the old prairie dog village. The sun that crept over wigwam and cottonwood, shines on orchard and meadow. Yet there are few who have begun to realize the comparative greatness of the State. The pamphlet is to show actual, statistical comparison, that Kansas is a worthy colleague of the first states in the Union.| #52 |

        In his characterization of the state, Smith proudly illustrated how the landscape had been transformed to suit white settlers. He used the traditional image of the garden to indicate Kansas' fertility, order, and beauty. Native animals and plants had been replaced by animals and crops known to white settlers. To illustrate that Kansas was not inferior to the eastern states, the author used statistics to convince his readership of the qualities of the state.

        The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad company, in connection with their Land Department, created a branch for foreign immigration work under the management of a federal Foreign Agent. This officer sent out agents to all European countries equipped with pamphlets and maps in German, French, Dutch and other languages. Furthermore, railroad lines invited prominent representatives of the press to Kansas to visit the state as guests of the company. These press excusions also insured advertisement in foreign- papers.| #53 |

        Most literature about Kansas, which was mainly directed at future farmers, included a detailed description of the quality of soil, the character of climate, statistics on cultivated land and available areas, tables on the corn and wheat harvest in different counties, and how much stock existed. Information also included details on churches, schools, mining and manufacturing in the different counties.

        Many materials were directly aimed at European emigrants. In an advertisement for Kansas which was published in 1875, the author Wayne Greiswold claims that:

Kansas presents the finest chance in the world for the European emigrant. To the millions of laboring men and women all over Europe, who are struggling for a mere living, with little hope of bettering their condition, emigration presents a certain guarantee for food, cheap homes for themselves and families, and that in a free country, where liberty rests upon constitutional law, giving all equal rights. Nearly 50 million acres remain, rich in soil, prairie, and valley, spread out in beauty and grandeur, invite, yea, entreating, all the sons and daughters of Europe to leave the useless life-struggles beneath the imperial governments of the Old World, and come to free America, and get themselves independent homes on the vast, rich fields of Kansas ... With ordinary care and labor, you are certain to secure good homes and independence for yourselves and children - come, then, one and all.| #54 |

        Here, the author pictures Europeans as people deprived of basic living-conditions and civil rights. To escape their poor standards, Greiswold suggests immigration to Kansas to secure minimum living-conditions and equal rights. In contrasting both political systems, he states that in an imperial government, men and women have to "struggle" for their lives whereas in "free America," care and labor promise success and freedom. It is obvious that the writer exaggerated the situation in both countries. In advertising the rich soil of Kansas, he forgot to mention the droughts which had occurred not only in 1860 but also in later years. For many years, before and after the great waves of emigration, grasshoppers, droughts, dust storms, tornados, and other natural disasters swept Kansas. Although Kansas soil is still rich today, the crops need a lot of water and irrigation remains a problem. Nevertheless, the advertisements attracted many people to Kansas.

        Advertisements usually implied that the settlers had only to bring their energy and their labor to make a comfortable living. However, not only did advertisements promised riches, but riches were needed to settle in Kansas in the first place. To buy land, equipment and build houses, the new settler needed sufficient funds to create his future fortune. It was known to most settlers that money was needed before they could move west. Neuestes von Kansas (The latest News from Kansas), a German-language pamphlet published by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company in 1881, promoted immigration, especially for farmers, and plainly laid out the finances needed for settling in Kansas. Besides the usual description of Kansas, the author writes:

Maenner mit Kapital sind erforderlich, weil dieselben hier durch das mit der Viezucht so vortheilhaft verbundene System der Landwirtschaft den allerbesten Gebrauch von ihrem Geld machen koennen. Mit einem Kapital von 4000 Mark kann sich hier ein Landwirth eine Farm anlegen, doch um sich ordentlich einzurichten, ist ein Kapital von 6000 bis 7000 Mark erforderlich.| #55 |

        Economics thus played the most vital role in emigration. German emigrants who moved from the older states of the Union to Kansas were primarily economically motivated. Due to a growing population in states such as Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, prices for land rose significantly. The price increase made it difficult for both newcomers and older settlers to buy land. Families with more than one son had to split their farms because the purchase of new farms was difficult. By selling their farms in the older states at high prices, many families were able to buy land in Kansas which was up to 20 times larger than those they had left. Therefore, many German-born emigrants came from other parts of the country to purchase cheap farmland.

        The population increase and the completion of railroads and roads also attracted many merchants to towns like Lawrence. The rapid urban development of the town promised financial success to many shopkeepers who expected Lawrence to become a major western trading point. The establishment of the University of Kansas also brought new people, students and faculty members, into town. To many Easterners, the presence of the University ensured that education and culture would not be neglected in the "west" and promised a culturally rich life.

Abstract | Introduction | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Conclusion | Appendix | Bibliography