A: Family Networks

        Besides the efforts of the Kansas Bureau of Immigration and various railroad companies, German immigrants were also brought to Lawrence by a close kinship system. John Bodnar has pointed out that "kin and friends were free to assist each other in entering America by providing access to jobs and houses and supplying important information of labor market conditions."| #1 | Although Bodnar's work concentrated on the role of kinship systems in industrial regions such as the coal mine, mill, railroad, and other industrial areas, kin relations can easily be found in migration to agricultural areas as well.| #2 | Robert Ostergen, for example, has illustrated the kinship networks of a Swedish community in their move from four villages located in the parish of Raettwick, Sweden, to Minnesota and Dakota.| #3 | Immigrants relied on kinship ties for knowledge of work opportunities and available lodging. As mentioned above, immigrants wrote back home to friends and relatives to inform them about living and working conditions in certain areas. Often, husbands, fathers, brothers and sisters sent back money for relatives to join them in the United States. After their arrival "relatives stood ready to assist. Whether one needed a place to reside, a contact through which to acquire a job or financial and emotional support, a relative was invariably involved."| #4 |

        In the move to Lawrence, Kansas, many Germans relied heavily on kinship networks for support to cross the Atlantic. In her family history, Louisa Albert Mueller recalls that her father William Albert left Germany with his cousin August Hartmann in June 1882 to immigrate to the United States. Both men went from Bremen to New York and continued their journey to St. Louis, Missouri, to stay with their uncle Chris Keiser. In January 1883, they visited another uncle in Lawrence, Kansas, where they finally settled. Before William Albert had left Germany, he had promised his sweetheart Dorothea Bueker that he would send for her as soon as he had saved enough money for her fare. One year later after William had left, Dorothea, together with William's sister Lena, was on her way to Lawrence, Kansas. Both women stopped again in St. Louis before they reached their destination. Soon after their arrival, William and Dorothea were married in Lawrence.| #5 |

        Family ties remained important to the immigrants' adaptation to Lawrence. Especially among Lawrence business men, one can find a number of German brothers who established shops together. Among the many examples are Theodor and August Poehler who left Germany together in 1850. They settled in Burlington, Iowa, before they moved to Lawrence to open a grocery business in 1866. Another example are the Boener Brothers. Before 1893, William Boener had established a grocery store on Massachusetts Street. In 1896, William sold his store to William Hickox when his brother Henry joined him in Lawrence. Both men started a successful cigar factory in which a third brother, Johan, joined his older brothers. The business was known as the Boener's Brothers Cigar Manufacture.| #6 | Alexander Marks, one of the early German settlers, was joined by his stepbrother Salomon. Both brothers worked together for a number of years until Salomon opened his own jeweler shop only one block south of Alexander's. In this case, Alexander provided Salomon with employment and, probably, with capital to finance his business.

        But kin networks provided more than just employment in Lawrence; it also secured housing. A large number of Germans lived with other German families at one point in their lives. Newly arrived family members stayed with relatives or friends until they had found their own housing. Others shared houses to split costs. In later years, extended families lived together. It was not uncommon for daughters and sons-in law to move in with parents. As mentioned above, Loise Oesch's family first shared a house with her mother's cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Preisach. In later years, Mr. and Mrs. Oesch shared a house on Ohio Street with their daughter and son-in-law, William Wiedemann and their children. Sharing a house meant pooling resources and an increase in the standard of living. Cooperation of family members was important to secure rapid economic success in Lawrence.

B: German Settlement Patterns in Lawrence

        Where were the houses located that German families shared? Did Germans in small towns like Lawrence settle in clusters as they did in large urban areas? Or did the small town atmosphere prevent certain areas from being turned into ethnic enclaves? Kathleen Conzen has argued in her book Immigrant Milwaukee that "almost three quarters of all German households in 1850 reside in areas of German dominance, over four fifth by 1860."| #7 | James Bergquist also agreed that Germans in urban areas settled in distinct German neighborhoods. In a description of a German district in Philadelphia he states that, typically, the German area began not far from the central business district, and extended outward to more newly settled neighborhoods, including small acreages on the edge of the city. Within it a visitor could walk for blocks, perhaps for miles, hearing little else but strange Teutonic sounds. The pervasive "foreignness" of the district was reinforced by the sight of shops bearing signs in German, restaurants and public houses advancing their German fare, German bookshops and newspaper offices, German physician, grocers and bank houses.| #8 |

The illustration above demonstrates a very independent and self contained community.

        In Lawrence, German settlement patterns took a different form. In my discussion about residential areas in Lawrence, it is important to clarify some terms. I will talk about East and West Lawrence, taking Massachusetts Street as the dividing line. Therefore, the area identified as East Lawrence is the region east of Massachusetts Street to Delaware Street running east and west, and present day Sixth and Eleventh Streets running north and south. This area has also been called "the Bottoms."| #9 | I will call it the Lawrence Lowland. The region identified as West Lawrence covers the area west of Massachusetts Street to Maine Street running east and west, and present day Sixth and Eleventh Streets running south and north. This area I will call the Lawrence Highland. The linkage of city directory, census, and tax roll information for the years from 1860 to 1915 make it possible to assess residential concentration or separation in the town. German landownership in the years mentioned above has been illustrated in maps four to nine.

        From the early days of settlement in Lawrence, the east and west part of town had developed differently. According to Kathy Ambler, in the first years of settlement, East Lawrence lay in a disputed area of town claimed by John Baldwin as well as by the Emigrant Aid Company. Therefore, the Town Association did not develop the area until the dispute was settled before a commission in 1855. In the meantime, growth had been taken place to the west of Massachusetts Street.| #10 | By 1865, the Lowlands were still considered a less desired place for settlement as the tax records of the year indicate. Lowland property was valued only $ 2.00 per lot whereas Highland properties were sold for $ 5.00 per lot.| #11 | The low price might have been the reason why German families started to move into the area as early as 1860. By 1861, Henry Martin, a German, had built a house on the 800 block of Rhode Island Street. The 1860-61 city directory indicates that seven out of twelve German families listed in the book lived east, and only three families lived west of Massachusetts Street.| #12 | The remaining two families lived on Massachusetts Street. In the remaining discussion, I will classify families living on Massachusetts Street as residents of a mid area of settlement. Since Massachusetts Street was the main business district, it cannot be seen as a residential area.

        By 1865, the number of German families listed in the city directory had increased to 18, of whom ten lived on the east side, five lived on the west side and three families lived on Massachusetts Street. This indicates that twice as many families lived in the Lowland area as in the Highland area. The tax records of the same year also indicate that out of 28 lots owned by German families, 15 were located east and only 8 were located west of Massachusettses Street. 5 lots on Massachusetts Street belong to Germans.

        Throughout the succeeding years, the number of German families and German landownership rose and finally leveled out on both sides of town. In 1875-76, 20 lived on the east side and 14 on the west side of town; 7 families resided on Massachusetts Street. By 1885, the number of east and west German residents were the same. Thirty German families lived on both sides of Massachusetts Street. The same result can be found in 1905, where 23 families lived east and west of Massachusetts Street. By 1915, the numbers were still about even. East Lawrence had sixteen German families and west Lawrence had seventeen families, (see Table 1) According to the information above, German families lived broadly diffused on both sides of town.

        Why then was East Lawrence thought of as a German neighborhood? The answer can be found in the tax records. Although not all German families lived in the Lowland area, a great number of German families owned land in this area. In 1875, for example, August Poehler lived on Tennessee Street, the west part of town, where he owned six lots. But he also owned 1 lot on New York Street, 1 on New Hampshire Street, 1 1/2 on Massachusetts Street, 1 on Vermont Street and 8 on Ohio Street.| #13 |

        Over the years, German land ownership in east Lawrence increased, although many owners lived throughout town. One reason for the concentration is that the railroad built their depots on the east side of town close to the river on Delaware Street. Many Germans who were merchants on Massachusetts Street purchased land to build storage facilities for their goods close to the railroad lines. John Rahskopf, for example, owned the south half of one lot on Massachusetts Street as well as lots 79 through 85 on Pennsylvania Street; the Menger family must have been one of the wealthiest German families in town in 1895, when they owned thirty-six lots in East and West Lawrence.

        Another reason why East Lawrence was considered a German neighborhood, is that east Lawrence Germans lived closer to each other than did West Lawrence Germans. Although the numbers on both sides of town were not significantely different, the density in which Germans settled was higher on the east than on the west side. Ward divisions do not explain this clustering. The numbers of German families in wards one and two or West Lawrence and the numbers in ward three and four or East Lawrence are about the same. But Germans lived in closer proximity to each other in wards three and fourth than one and two. Whereas in the Highland area, one German family lived at least one block from each other spread over all eight Streets running east-west (Massachusetts to Maine Street), in the Lowland area, German families lived mainly on three streets (New Hampshire to New York Street). Therefore, the density and "visibility" of Germans on the east side must have been greater than on the west side.

        Another factor why East Lawrence was connected with German immigrants is that the German Turnverein, the German Methodist Episcopal Church and German Lutheran Church (at least until 1896) were centered in the Lowland area. Many German social activities centered on Rhode Island and New York Streets. They settled there because when they were founded more German families lived on the east than west side. In 1896, when the German Lutheran Church built their own church, they moved to Illinois Street, on the west part of town because a number of their members lived over there. The separation of the German social centers also indicates that Germans did not cluster in Lawrence but settled throughout the town.

        The division was not based on class distinctions. Although the east part has been stigmatized as a "working-class neighborhood" because of its diverse ethnic and racial population, most German residents cannot be considered members of the working-class. They were merchants or craftsmen who owned stores on Massachusetts Street, just like their friends on the west side. Frederick Deichmann, who ran a meat market, Charles Achning (hardware store), Julius Fischer (ice-house) and the Steinberg brothers (clothing store) were all residence of Rhode Island Street. These people were not only owners of their lots on Rhode Island but also landlords of their properties on Massachusetts as well as many other properties in town. The advantage of their location was that they were only a few blocks away from their work place. Julius Fischer's ice house was only two blocks away from his home. The others could also easily reach their stores on Massachusetts Street on foot.

        After 1900, when the reputation of East Lawrence declined, many first-generation Germans were too old to move. They had spent most of their lives in their neighborhood and were not ready to move even after parts of east Lawrence were known as the Red Light District.| #14 | Younger German families and second-generation Germans usually made the move to the west side when they were old enough to establish their own families and homes.

        Ethnic settlement patterns in small towns seem to be different than urban areas. German homes in Lawrence were broadly diffused throughout town whereas Germans in urban areas were more likely to cluster in separate areas. One reason for this phenominon might be connected to the premigration experienece of German families who moved west. Most families had lived in other parts of the country before they moved to Lawrence. Therefore, they were usually aquainted with American life and did not need much support from a German neighborhood. Although Germans in Lawrence lived throughout town, the district east of Massachussetts Street, between New Hampshire and New York Street, was recognized as main focal point of German institutions. In early years, the Turnverein and the Geman-speaking Methodist Church had erected buildings here which signaled to other residents that German social life centered in this district. East Lawrence had further gained a reputation of being a German neighborhood because much of the land which was close to the railroad lines was owned by German merchants.

        East Lawrence was not so much German as it was ethnic. During the time when the railroad was built, Irish, Canadians and Blacks moved to Lawrence to work for the railroads or other industries. According to Kathy Ambler, "these men and their families joined the other foreigners in Lawrence settling east of Massachusetts Street near their work and near boarding houses. The location of this neighborhood of working-class men and women was important as they could easily walk to employment on Massachsussetts Street and booming industrial areas along the river's edge."| #15 | Closeness to shopping and working places was important to all social classes since the streetcar and the automobile did not reach Lawrence before the late nineteen century. But since Germans shared their area with other ethnic groups in East Lawrence, they settled closer to Massachusetts Street. The area east of New York was either taken by storage facilities or other ethnic groups. Therefore, Germans in East Lawrence settled more closely to each other than did Germans in West Lawrence.

C: The German Boarding House

        A common form of housing was the boarding house. Many newcomers who could not stay with friends or relatives, or came to Lawrence without a network, rented a room or bed in one of the numerous boarding houses in Lawrence until they found a permanent home. Family units usually used boarding houses for shorter periods of time than did single men and women. Boarding houses have a long tradition in Lawrence. The very first house erected in the city was the "Pioneer Boarding House" in 1854. It was established right after the first party of settlers arrived in Lawrence and is described as an "A" shaped structure which had walls out of cloth. The building housed the first settlers until the saw mill arrived to cut timber for the construction of cabins and houses.| #16 | In April 1856, the Emigrant Aid Hotel was completed which also housed travelers and new arrivers to the area.

        In 1860, the city directory announced only one boarding house and five hotels. The boarding house belonged to Henry Martin, a German settler, and was located on the 800 block of Rhode Island Street. At the time, it was the only building on the block. His residence was listed as boarding house in the 1860/61 directory, but he also was listed as a saloon keeper on Massachusetts Street. In the 1865 census, he is only listed as saloon keeper and by then, the family had moved to the location of the saloon on Massachusetts Street. This might suggest that Elizabeth Martin ran the boarding house while her husband ran the saloon. From 1868 on, the number of boarding houses and hotels rose to meet the housing demands of newcomers.

        The boarding house located on the north-west corner of New Hampshire and Warren Street (Ninth Street), later 845 New Hampshire, is worth special attention because it was owned and run by a German family for thirty years and hosted mainly German boarders.

        The Biebusch family was one of the early German families in Lawrence. Henry Biebusch was born in Prussia, Germany, in 1821. At home, he learned the building trade and emigrated to the United States when he was eighteen years old. Anna Kaittenberg was a native of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and came with her family also at the age of eighteen. Anna and Henry were married in March 1857 and came to Kansas. After their arrival, Henry Biebusch soon found work as a carpenter in Lawrence, and at the time of Quantrill's Raid in August, 1863, he had purchased a lot and just completed a house on the corner of New Hampshire and Warren (Ninth Street). The new house was completely destroyed by the raiders, but soon rebuilt again.| #17 | By 1865, Henry Biebusch was engaged in the boarding house/hotel business. The "Germania House," as it was called in 1865, boarded primarily German-born guests. Most of Biebusch's renters were single males and females of various ages. Women were primarily employed as domestic servants; men were engaged in various crafts and trades ranging from carpenters, clerks, plasterers to day laborers. Although the "Germania House" can be seen as a boarding house for German people, the renters came from all different parts in Germany. In 1865, 15 out of 20 renters were German-born, coming from Wuerttemberg, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony.| #18 | Nearly all of the names only appear once in the census material or the city directories which makes it difficult to draw an exact picture of the renters. It seems that single men and women were more mobile than family units which seemed to stay for longer periods of time inone place. Therefore, the "Germania House" must have had a quick turnover in renters every year.

        In 1867, Henry Biebusch purchased the lot next to his on New Hampshire Street and built a huge house. The 1883 Sanborn map shows the house spreading over both lots. The part of the house facing New Hampshire Street was two stories high and built of brick, whereas the back of the house and the storage house facing the alley toward Massachusetts Street were made of stone. Across the street, on the north-east corner of New Hampshire Street and Warren (Ninth Street), the "Germania House" faced the more prominent "Place Hotel" which also covered two lots. Both houses were about the same size.

        In 1875, the Biebusch's renamed their boarding house "New Hampshire House", indicating a closer connection to the location on New Hampshire Street than to the origins of its inhabitants. Although the number of German renters declined and the number of American renters increased, German boarders still made up a large proportion in later years. In 1885, still 14 German of the 21 renters were Germans. In 1883, the Biebuschs changed the name of the place to "Biebusch House." This name was continued until 1888, when Henry and Anna Biebusch retired and the advertisement disappeared from the city directories. On February 24, 1891, Henry Biebusch died. Anna Biebusch advertised her lodging house again for at least three years from 1893 to 1896 at the same address as the old one. She died in 1908.

        The Biebusch house played a central role in the Lawrence German community. First of all, it was located in an area which was densly populated by German immigrants. From its key location on the corner of New Hampshire and Warren (Ninth Street), boarders found the Lawrence business district on Massachusetts Street as well as the Turnhalle and the German churches within walking distance. Furthermore, the Biebusch house made it possible for newcomers to stay in a German atmosphere. Surrounded by other Germans, renters probable used their native tongue to communicate among each other and with their landlord/lady. Rent agreements and other business affairs could, therefore, be managed in a familiar way and without a language barrier. It is also likely that the food served in the house was prepared according to German recipes. Overall, Anna Biebusch had lived in Germany until she was eighteen and received most of her domestic education such as cooking, sewing, etc. at home.        

        But the role of the Biebusch house centers not only around the business but also around the Biebusch family. As one of the early Lawrence settlers, Henry and Anna were familiar with Lawrence and its inhabitants. They certainly knew many Lawrence residents and must have been informed about employment and living situations in town. They could assist newcomers in finding work and permanent living quarters. More important is that the Biebuschs were key figures in the German community. During his residence in the east, Henry Biebusch was a member of a Turnverein. After moving to Lawrence, Henry decided to organize a Turnverein himself which met in his yard until they built their own hall in 1858.

        The Biebusch House and family gave newcomers the opportunity to adjust slowly to the new American life style and English language. Boarders worked in a world still strange to them, but they lived in a more familiar atmosphere. Through Henry Biebusch, a key figure in the Turnverein, newcomers found an entrance door into the German community. His connectionss within the community offered opportunities to new Germans who had just gotten off the train and were looking for a new life.

D: German Women in Lawrence

        Women played an active role in shaping the community and their part must be included in the history of the community. This study seems to be male orientated only because most historical materials focused more on the lives of men than women. Biographical sketchbooks printed in the late nineteenth century only included men. In these sketches, the writers concentrated on the family history and economic success of men rather than women. Women were only mentioned as wives or daughters but further information on them was usually omitted. Even in family histories which were, interestingly, mostly written by women, we find that the female writers also focused on the lives of grandfathers or fathers rather than grandmothers or mothers.

        The new social history and the new history of the west as it emerged in the 1970s have begun to pay more attention to lives of women. Scholars started to discover an abundance of material written by females about their lives. Dairies and letters of women are being republished, such as, E. Stuart's Letters of a Women Homesteader| #19 |. The stories of Native American and Black women, white middle-class and working-class, women from all different ethnic backgrounds, mothers, wives and prostitutes add to the complex picture of the west and make everybody realize that women played an important part in western history.

        In the collection of material on the Germans in Lawrence, the little information on German women which I found reveals that their lives were as complex and interesting as their husbands and fathers. Although Lawrence might be considered a western town in geographic terms, in many respects it resembles its eastern counterparts. Founded by settlers from New England, its character and urban development has always borne eastern features. After its foundation, middle-class citizens established public parks, playgrounds, churches and other social activities to make life in an urban environment as pleasant as possible. The roles of Lawrence's women, therefore, were similar to the roles of eastern women. Instead of female homesteaders, we find women engaged in family life, business, factory work and domestic services.

        As we have seen before, many women came to Lawrence via a network system of friends and family. Many followed their husbands, while others came as part of a greater family movement. Since German settlement mainly occurred in family units, German women entered the Lawrence scene from the beginning of German settlement. They had faced the same difficulties and unpleasant moments as men to reach Lawrence by ship and wagon and had used their creativity and wit to establish homes. At the time of Quantrill's raid, families were well established and women had helped their partners to buy businesses or farms. During the raid, women demonstrated their courage and wit, when many of them saved their husbands and sons from the guns of the raiders by holding up the murderers which gave men time to hide.

        Anna Biebusch, the wife of Henry Biebusch and landlady of the Germania House, showed her courage when the raiders knocked at their house after they had burned down their newly completed house on the corner of Warren and New Hampshire. According to a biographical sketch, the raiders "also visited the family residence, but Mrs. Biebusch - instructing her husband to hide, met them at the door and they left the place without doing any harm."| #20 | The fact that Anna Biebusch instructed her husband Henry to hide suggests that Henry must have been paralyzed by fear and was unable to act whereas Anna stayed calm and protected him.

        After the raid, one can easily imagine that women nursed the sick and wounded and gave emotional support to men to start over again. At least three German women lost their husbands in the massacre and were left alone to support themselves and their children. To avoid the unpleasant role of a single-parent family, young widows married again or went back to the east where they found more support from their family.

        But women were more than just companions to their husbands. They carried the responsibility of raising the children. This does not seem to be a difficult task since it has always been the duty of women to do this. As a German family living in an American society, the rearing of children takes on a different dimension. The mother faces the dual task of handing down ethnic and family traditions at the same time as she tries to assimilate her children into the host culture. Language, religious beliefs and moral values were taught to children by mothers or other female kin. The separation of home and work-place sent men away during the day and left mothers and children at home. Furthermore, domestic work involved a great deal of physical labor. Traditionally, women kept large gardens and grew vegetables and fruits which were harvested and preserved for the winter month. Oftentimes, families also kept a cow, a pig and a few chickens on their lots which also had to be cared for. Clothes were usually sown or knitted by females themselves and the house had to be kept clean.

        German women who lived on farms outside Lawrence did farm labor. Henriette Deichmann, the wife of Frederick Deichmann who owned a butcher shop and stock yard in Eudora and later in Lawrence, came to Eudora before 1860. After her marriage to Frederick, she began to assist him in all of his enterprises. Her work was described as follows:

        When she settled in Eudora, she was obliged to cut the bushes down, in order to make the land open to travel. For years the lived in a small log hut, meantime working outdoors in the cultivation and clearing of the land. Early and late she toiled in the fields, shirking no work that would aid the development of the place. Indians were numerous in the early days, and she became familiar with their language so she would converse with them.| #21 |

        This description reminds the readers of the sod-buster stories of frontier men and women as they can be found in John Ise's Sod and Stubble or Howard Ruede's Sod House Days:Letters of a Homesteader.| #22 | It illustrates that Henriette was engaged in physical labor. She was responsible for making the land suitable for living and farming.

        In the city itself, we see a great number of women engaged in the boarding house business. We have already seen Anna Biebusch running the Germania/Biebusch House together with her husband Henry. After Henry's death, Anna ran the lodging house herself. Besides the "professional" boarding house, one can find many families taking in boarders. In Lives of their Own, the authors explain the common practice among ethnic groups to take in renters. In their work they write: "to the women fell the responsibility of cooking, cleaning, washing, mending, and generally caring for the family plus a number of unrelated boarders. The income produced by taking in boarders often meant the difference between deprivatation and starvation."| #23 | They further argue that families with small children were more likely to take in boarders because grown children usually were able to work and support the family, and mothers could combine running a boarding house and raising the children. In her memoirs, Marie Jastrow, a German immigrant to New York City, remembers that "bachelors took a room with a family. Everybody had a boarder 'to help pay expenses.' Room rent was a dollar fivty to two dollars a month. With eight dollars a week wages, the extra money was essential. Usually, the boarder ate with the family. Weekday meals were twenty-five to thirty-five cents. Sunday dinners were more."| #24 |

        In Lawrence, one can see that especially widows or single women liked to take in renters so they were not dependent on outside employment. In the 1865 census, we find that Mrs. Ellis, who had lost her husband in Quantrill's Raid, had taken in three other German renters. Other occupations in which single German women were engaged were, washer, dressmaker, seamstress or milliner.

        A further and very common occupation among young women who had just arrived from Germany was that of domestic servants. Women usually spent the time between their arrival and their marriage in other people's households. In the 1885 census, 19 out of 36 single women were classified as domestic servants. Newspapers and word of mouth played an important role in the search for employment.| #25 |

        Life as a domestic servant was oftentimes hard. Domestic servants were looked down on and classified as inferior to their female employers. The stereotype of domestic servants as simple-minded and stupid girls existed both in big cities and in Lawrence. In 1869, the Republican Daily Journal of Lawrence published a series of articles from April to May in which "The Great Domestic Problem" was discussed by two women who employed domestic servants. The articles demonstrate clearly the negative and often hostile attitudes of female employers toward their female employees. The writer of the first article claims:

Not only are we [employers] rendered uncomfortable in our homes by the ill-cooked food, the untidy kitchens, and the general unreliability of the majority of servants, but their expense is appalling to householders of moderate means. The wages paid them is a small item compared with their wastefulness, the fuel they burn, and the room they occupy in our small houses, and the constant care required for their oversight.| #26 |

        In a reply to the article, the second writer attacked this attitude and offered the following solution to the problems between mistresses and servants:

When hired girls are treated as human beings, when they are made to feel that their interests are identified with those of their employers, we will have a very different state of things; an altogether different class of girls....

        Although it might appear as if the first and second writer's attitudes differ sharply from one another, the second writer also stated:

But even admitting that we must continue to employ as at present both stupidity and ignorance - we are children of one common father.... | #27 |

        In defense of herself, the first writer replied:

The girl in my kitchen may be a good, honest, faithful being and I should remunerate her in a just and liberal manner...; but for all I could not enjoy her companionship any more than she could enjoy mine. We have little in common.| #28 |

        On May 2, 1869, an article written by a "hired hand and foreigner" finally entered the discussion. The article is written anonymously but the fluent English suggests that the writer must have been a native speaker of English. In her introduction she wrote:

I am a humble, simple girl, have worked for my living ever since I was able... and consider it no degradation to work with my hands to make an honest living. To a right mind nothing seems more disgusting than the insolent claims of some of the native born population whose fathers or grandfathers crossed the ocean a few years in advance of others... . All white people are immigrants or foreigners on this American soil... . In general the young girls of foreign birth prefer drudgery in the kitchens, to moral degradation. Their time is too precious to be wasted in poring over the polluted pages of modern novels... . We working girls have souls and capacities to enjoy knowledge and virtue while our hands are busy with household duties.| #29 |

        The discussion in the paper describes the difficulties between employers and employees. Domestic servants faced hard working conditions, low pay and even lower prestige. In Seven Days a Week, David Katzman states that the service for young girls "provided something of a home environment. It was seen as an environment intermediary between their past and future lives, less restricted than the parental home but more structured than the lodging house independent working women live in."| #30 | Domestic service was seen as the preparation for working-class women's work in their own households after marriage.

        In Lawrence, a large number of German domestic servants were employed in German households. In 1885, 13 out of the 19 servants were employed and lived with German families. When Lena Albert and Dorothea Buecker came to Lawrence to join their brother and future husband, Dorothea worked for the Jaedicke family, a hardware merchant, even after she married William Albert. Lena found work in the Isemann household until she married Henry Kersting and moved to a farm in Stull, Douglas County. Mary and Anna Schurr also both found employment in German households. Mary worked for the Poehler family and Anna lived with the Hase family.

        Working for German families had the advantage that newly arrived women were not confronted with a language barrier. They could communicate freely with family members and mistresses. Furthermore, they were able to cook German food, and knew German costumes and manners.

        In her novel My Antonia, Willa Carther described how Bohemian and Scandinavian girls went into domestic service to help their families clear off debts:

The Bohemian and Scandinavian girls could not get positions as teachers, because they had no opportunity to learn the language. Determined to help in the struggle to clear the homestead from debt, they had no alternative but to go into service. ... A result of the family solidarity was that the foreign farmers in our county were the first to become prosperous. After the fathers were out of debt, the daughters married the sons of neighbors - usually of the like nationality - and the girls who once worked in Black Hawk kitchens are to-day managing big farms and fine families of their own; their children are better off than the children of the town women they used to serve.| #31 |

        Just like the Bohemian and Scandinavian girls in the novel, German women worked until they got married to German men. After they had earned enough money, German families bought land and built houses in Lawrence to establish their own households. Others moved away to a farm in Douglas County to cultivate the land and become prosperous farmers.

        Women in Lawrence were also employed as seamstresses in the Wilder shirt factory or as cigar rollers in the Boener cigar manufacture. By the beginning of the twentieth century, second generation German women found work as salespersons and clerks in many stores on Massachusetts Street. Since many businesses were owned by Germans, wives and daughters worked for husbands and fathers.

E: German Merchants

        Reflecting on her childhood in Lawrence, Louise Albert Mueller remembers, "in those days we had German merchants all over the city and as mother said, it is no wonder she did not learn the language as well as father as everywhere she went were German speaking friends. Most of the German people who came to America were craftsmen of one kind or another."| #32 | Indeed, the large number of German merchants in the city was very noticeable. In 1860, only 12 men out a total number of 53 over the age of seventeen were classified as laborers. The rest were employed in diverse trades. German immigrants established shops as soon as possible after their arrival. Even in the early settlement period, German shops started to appear on Massachusetts Street. Before Quantrill's Raid, Preisach and Stick had already opened a furniture factory, "producing furniture, office desks and bookcases for a local clientele."| #33 |

        As mentioned above, the arrival of the railroad and the construction of a number of roads which connected Lawrence to other towns in Kansas and Missouri opened new opportunities for enterprises and attracted many businessmen. Many German merchants entered Lawrence with a good deal of business experience. John Bodnar has pointed out that, "in nearly all cases immigrant entrepreneurs had some business experience in their premigration lives which facilitated the transition to such ventures.... The greater the premigration experience the more likely the newcomer would engage in entrepreneurial activity in this country."| #34 | In the case of Lawrence German merchants, we find that it is not so much their business experience in Germany which introduced them to their profession but their premigration experience before they moved to Lawrence. Many Germans had finished their apprenticeship in their trades in Germany but shortly after had left the country. Theodor Poehler, for example, who later became one of the biggest wholesale store owners in Lawrence, came to the United Sates at the age of seventeen. He worked on a farm in Iowa until he found work as a porter and later as a clerk. In 1855, at the death of his employer, he bought the business and opened his own. In 1866, Theodor and his brother August moved to Lawrence to conduct a wholesale business which was prosperous until theearly twentieth century.| #35 | A similar story can be found in the business history of Jacob House who became the owner of a large clothing company in Lawrence. In 1855, Jacob House emigrated to the United States at the age of twenty-one. He sought employment as a clerk in a mercantile business in Ohio and St. Louis. In 1859-60, he was in business in Hempstead, Texas, where he engaged in a general mercantile store. In 1862, he moved to Lawrence, where he established himself in the clothing trade.

        But German merchants did not only come to Lawrence to start new businesses; they also established branches of businesses which existed elsewhere. For many years it was thought that Lawrence would become a major industrial center for the Midwest. Describing the manufacturing industries, Andreas expressed the assumption that, "owing to the peculiar facilities for transportation, combined with its close proximity to the raw material, and its superior water-power, Lawrence is designed to become the leading manufacturing city in the Missouri Valley."| #36 | Simon Steinberg, a native of Nuernberg, Germany, came to the United States in 1846. After he took several positions as a clerk in clothing companies in New York, Rhode Island and California, he entered a partnership with Charles Rosenbaum in Wakefield, Rhode Island. In 1864, the business was so successful that Steinberg and Rosenbaum opened branches in St. Louis, Warrensburg and Pleasant Hill, Missouri. After they took in Simon's brother, Leo Steinberg, they opened a further branch in Lawrence in 1865 and Topeka in 1866. After Charles Rosenbaum retired in 1866, he left the stores to the Steinberg Brothers. The Lawrence clothing store was known as the "Headquarters for Military Clothing" because they kept a large assortment of military clothing besides the usual clothing items| #.37 |

        According to John Bodnar, in metropolitan areas, such as New York or Chicago, different ethnic groups dominated certain trades and occupations. Italians were predominantly found to be employed in meat markets and grocer shops in New York, Jews were engaged in the banking business and department stores, and Greeks were often owners of restaurants or in the wholesale distribution of fruits and vegatables.| #38 | Since Germans were the dominant ethnic group in Lawrence, they could be found in a range of different businesses and occupations. The range of employment stretches across the whole business spectrum, including wholesale businesses, ice houses, candy manufactures, shoe stores, hardware stores, breweries and other businesses.

        Central Drug Store or Deutsche Apotheke. German Store on Massachusetts Street in the nineteenth century: Courtesy of the Douglas County Historical Society, Lawrence, Kansas.

        Once a business was established, it did not mean that the owner would run it forever. It was very common that people changed their occupations and business involvements over the years. Julius Fischer, for example, was a carpenter by trade. He later engaged in a retail ice-business before he became interested in the shoe-business. A further story of shifting business interest can be found in the biography of John Walruff (originally John Walraff). During his life he worked as a mechanic, farmer, politician, banker, and brewer. He had learned the locksmith and mechanic trade in Germany. After leaving Germany, he worked as a mechanic in Connecticut; later in Chicago, where he married Elizabeth Dietrich. In 1857, the Walruff and the Dietrich Families came to Kansas to claim land in southern Franklin County. After seven years, Walruff quit farming and entered politics in Ottawa. By 1867, he and a partner established the First National Bank of Ottawa, of which he was assistant cashier. In 1872, he took the management of the Lawrence Brewery, of which he had been previously a silent partner and became sole proprietor.| #39 | Shifting employment can be found when immigrants thought that a new position could improve their financial and social status and when they had the opportunity to do so.

        Many German businesses were run by German partners or family members. According to Bodnar, "the early business activity was not simply the result of individual quest but depended heavily on family associations. Partnerships of family members were formed; relatives were a common source of credit and capital."| #40 | In Lawrence, we can see that partnerships were often founded among brothers. As we have seen above, Leo Steinberg joined his brother Simon Steinberg to form the Steinberg and Brother clothing store; Alexander Marks and his stepbrother Solomon Marks engaged in the jeweler business, Thoedor and August Poehler started a wholesale business, Henry, William and Johan Boener founded a cigar manufacture, to name only a few of the examples.

        German merchants usually employed other German immigrants in their stores. John Fritzel, for example, worked for the Barteldes Seed Company before he started his own dairy business; Phillip Ernst was employed in the Achning hardware store before he opened his own hardware store; Willy Gnefgow worked for William Wiedemann, and Fred Lahrman was employed in August Menger's shoe store. The cooperation of German employers and employees had the advantage that merchants could assist newcomers to get jobs and establish themselves in the community. The employee, on the other hand, had the chance to learn business practices from his more experienced employer. Kathleen Conzen has noted that immigrants "needed time to learn English, to acquire a knowledge of American taste and products, to establish business connections and learn methods of selecting, pricing, and selling goods - a whole new 'tone' of bargaining and selling was required."| #41 | These skills were needed so German immigrants could establish their own stores. Many German businessmen had been introduced to American methods during the time they lived in the East. In Lawrence, experienced Germans introduced fellow Germans to American business secrets.

Menger's Shoe Store ca. 1893-94. In the picture are John Fischer, Otto Fischer, Ollie Colwell, Fred Lahrmann, Mrs. Otto Fischer and Erna. Courtesy of the Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.

        As second generation Germans grew up, sons and sons-in-law became business partners. Theodor Jr. and Lewis Poehler were both employed by their father, Theodor Poehler in 1885. After Thoedor Poehler's death, Thoedor Jr., together with Fred Smithmeyer and Georg Kirchhoff, his sons-in-law, took over the business. Jacob and Arthur House were both employed in their father's clothing store, and Clara and Francis Jaedicke worked for their father's hardware-store.

        Over the years, the German presence on Massachusetts Street, Lawrence's main business area, became stronger. By 1880, Germans had acquired prominent positions in Lawrence economic life. The following table shows the evolution of business on Massachusetts Street from 1865 to 1915. The information is taken from the city business directories of the years 1865 to 1915. Until 1885, the house numbers were neither organized according to the block-system nor to the lot-numbers. Therefore, the shops belonging to Germans are listed according to their numbers given in the directories. After 1885, the first column indicates the house-number organized by blocks, the second column gives the name of the business owner and the third column lists the type of business.

        Over the years, the number of German merchants increased significantly. In 1865, fifteen business which were owned by Germans in Lawrence could be found on Massachussetts Street. Thirty years later, the number had doubled to thirty. Germans offered all kinds of services and goods to their customers. After 1895, the number of German businesses started to decline. In 1905, we find only twenty-six, and in 1915 only twenty German shops on Massachussetts Street. By this time, first-generation German immigrants started to retire and die. The following are only a few examples out of the large number of German merchants. Philip Preisach, the oldest German funiture manufacturer in town, died in 1891, Theodor Barteldes (Barteldes Seed Co.) died in 1889, and Theodor Phoeler died in 1901. Their stores were taken over by sons and sons-in-law but the hey-days of German merchants on Massachussetts Street were over.


Former House of the Barteldes Seed Company on the 800 block of Massachussetts Street.

Bottom: Former House of William Wiedemann's candy and ice-cream parlor on the 800 block of Massachussetts Street.

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