Early
German Immigrants Perspectives of Iowa: Part I
[Editors note: This
passage is from an edited volume entitled IMMIGRANTS, O.J. Fargo, editor.
This 1851 excerpt was written by a German immigrant to his friends back in the
homeland.]
The land is everywhere good.
I have seen but few bad spots. Illinois has a great deal of prairie but also
some woods. Iowa, of all I have seen, has the advantage. The Mississippi forms
the eastern border. Smaller and larger towns are located along its picturesque
and romantic banks.
Davenport has a wonderful location.
It was founded 15 years ago. Four or five years ago it was a small place with
scarcely 100 houses. Now it has a population of about 4,000. This year alone
100 new houses have been built. I believe it will rank with the largest towns
of Germany in 10 years for most of the immigrants come here. … It does
not seem to be America, for one hears German everywhere. There is a Catholic
church in Davenport where German is used in the services, and a German Evangelical
Lutheran church is to be built.
In the country there are few woods
except along the streams. It is all beautifully rolling prairie, and the soil
mostly black loam which will produce all kinds of crops, especially wheat, corn,
barley, oats, potatoes, large melons, onions... and all kinds of vegetables
known to Germans. One can buy [land] at the government price of $1
.25/acre.
In general, I would advise all of
my fellow countrymen who have no prospects for a happy and contented future
in Germany to come to our beautiful and free America, the sooner the better.
I of course know the proverb says: Remain in the country, support yourself by
honest labor. But to many thousands in Germany that is not possible, while it
is in America.
I cannot thank you enough my dear Herr Ficke, because you advised me to go to America. I feel free, happy and contented. ...I declared my intention to become an American Citizen and at the same time I renounced allegiance to the king of Prussia. I am not any longer a cowed subject of Prussia, but a free citizen of the USA... Here there is no graded nobility as in Germany; One man is as good as the other.
Mr. Fargo is the Director of Media Services and a social studies consultant for the Green Valley Area Education Agency in Creston. He's also a member of our Humanities Iowa speakers bureau.