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Excerpt from Kenyon College Term Paper
for the course Immigrants to America
Family Social History
By
George N Holloway
April 29, 1977
Chapter III. German
III. German
John Seastrand is the only immigrant ancestor of mine that I know of who showed
a strong attachment to his native land. He was not a farmer and lived in
moderately populated towns with other Swedes. He immediately settled down and did
not shift around like the English did. He became politically active like many of
the English did. The Germans, after some shifting, eventually did settle down
but not in a previously settled area; they chose their homes away from the towns
and the politics. These Germans, while living in isolated locations began to
lose much of their "Germanness". There is no evidence of any ethnic attachment
to Germany or community (except language) such as the Swedes showed. One reason
may be the fact that my German ancestors came from very different parts of Germany,
Wurttemberg and Pomerania. But little could be found on their life in Germany.
In the German genealogy (See
Feind,
Robish and
Keller)
four different individuals or groups came to America:
First, Michael Keller who apparently came over alone; next is the Robish family,
J. George and his wife Elizabeth Banker; then the Feinds, Julius and his wife
(their baby girl and an older sister of Julius also emigrated), and finally the
Haag family, including Johann George, his wife and their children. The Haags
and Michael Keller were from Wurttemberg (a region of Southwest Germany). The
Feinds appear to be descended from the Pomerania region in Northeast Germany
(near Poland). We do not know what part of the country the Robish family came
from. [From research since this paper was written, the Robishes may have come from
Bavaria.]
J. George Robish was a farmer born in Germany in 1813. "He migrated to America
about 1840, and located about a mile and a half east of what is now Jefferson City
(Wisconsin), there being then two small shanties on the present town site". He
lived in a log cabin. When his oldest son enlisted during the Civil War, he moved
into Jefferson to start a mercantile business (he also operated a meat market),
not being able to farm by himself.[61] His son John (born in America in 1848; note
anglicized name) started farming in 1869 and worked on his father's farm from
1871 to 1876, when he bought a meat market in Jefferson City. In 1883 he left
for Hamlin County, South Dakota, filing a home claim and a tree claim.[62] Timber
claims were one reason why so many settlers were suddenly attracted to this area
at this time. In 1878 Congress passed a law "to encourage the growth of timber
on the western prairies... any person who would plant protect, and keep in a
healthy growing condition ten acres of timber, might secure title to a quarter
section".[63] Of course, the Homestead Act of 1862 was
the primary reason why this land was going fast. But it was not until after 1878
that this part of the prairie could be farmed profitably; since in that year the
Winona and St. Peter branch of the Chicago and Northwestern railroad was rebuilt
so that its terminus was at Watertown, S.D., approximately 20 miles from where
John Robish filed his claims. Another railroad (Wisconsin, Minnesota and
Pacific Railway Co.) had its western end at Watertown by 1884.[64]
The settlers needed transportation to their homesteads as well as transportation
ut to the grain markets. The railroad fulfilled this need.
John Robish was a Republican and a member and trustee of the Evangelical
Association.[65] He married Catherine Keller in 1869. Her father was Michael
Leonhard Keller, born in Wurttemberg in 1812 (or 1813). He came to America about
1833 and spent seven years as a blacksmith in New York and Ohio. After a year
back in Germany, he farmed in Jefferson Co., Wisconsin until 1889 when he moved
to Hamlin Co., S.D. His sons Charles and George J. had come there in 1883,
when the Robishes and Kellers formed the "nucleus" of a church congregation
which grew to become a part of the Dakota Conference of the Evengelical
Association in only a year or so.[66] There was still no church building until
1898 when George Keller donated land for the building which is still used today.
Soon after these Germans came to South Dakota, George established on his land a
store and post office which was identified as Kellerton.[67] George was an itinerant
minister serving the church he belonged to and others nearby.[68]
Michael Keller married Rosina Haag in Wisconsin. The Haag family is also from
Wurttemberg. Johann George was born in 1788 and he and his sons were cabinetmakers
who had traveled to many European cities to learn this trade. They followed
their second son, Johann Adam, to Milwaukee, in 1846 and settled among other people
from the same part of Germany. They "bought land there, farmed, sold cord wood,
made coffins, traded with friendly Winnebago Indians." In 1868 Johann led the
family to Sumner, Iowa to settle there.[69] Rosina was the fifth child of Johann
George, being born in Germany in 1826.
Julius Feind came to America to farm near Jefferson, Wisconsin around the year
1873. His daughter Augusta was born in Germany. But his son Edward was born in
Wisconsin. Edward came to Hamlin County in order to work for John Robish who
probably knew him in Jefferson. Augusta married Charles Wendling who owned land
adjacent to the Robish farm and to a man named Wolfmeyer, who married a member of
the Keller family and eventually sold his land to Edward.[70] Therefore in the area
around what is known as Kellerton, there was a rectangular piece of land divided
into four quarters each owned by a member of this extended family. (See Diagram 1 Kellerton Land Ownership).
Language and customs at first were probably very important to these people.
They spoke German but did not try desperately to hold onto their language. Michael
and Rosina Haag Keller each have tombstones in the Kellerton Church cemetery which
have German inscriptions. Julius Feind spoke just a little English and wrote
letters in German to his son, Edward. Edward and Rosa Robish Feind had eleven
children and it seems that the whole family "knew German pretty well". But
the family was bilingual since Rosa taught school in English. German was
spoken with only a little English by the two oldest sons John and Ernest, my
grandfather, but when they went to public school the family began to use English
almost exclusively.[71] Education of the children represented the most experience
these people had had with American ideals and language. That they were able to
adjust so quickly and completely to the English language is illustrative of
the overall German experience in America. At first language (and custom) was
very important, much more so than politics. They spread out in farms thus
discouraging or else showing the lack of a need for German "benevolent" societies.
These four groups of German immigrant lived together in the absence of any
outside American influence in South Dakota for a few decades at the turn of the
century. These people have become so well assimilated into American society that
despite 1) the fact that Ernest Nelson Feind (born S.D. 1898) lives with us in
Philadelphia, 2) being one quarter German, and 3) the irrelevant fact that we
lived in a section of the city called Germantown since 1958, I know almost
nothing of German customs, present or past, not to mention the language.
Yet this is the only change I can see in the history of these German relatives
until the generation of my parents. While ethnicity and language have declined
greatly in importance, their dedication to both religion and farming has not. My
grandfather is a minister, having come east to study theology at Princeton. Other
members of the family are ministers, also. The post office and store are gone
but the Kellerton Church remains. Across the gravel road, Edward's farm is still
farmed by two of his children. Most of his children live and farm in Hamlin
County. Of course, my mother represents the first generation in her family
which has lived in a major American city, has not farmed, and has settled a great
distance east of her place of birth. Thus, as far as my family is concerned,
the "giant migration" of Germans, Swedes and Englishmen in America is over.
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Footnotes
61Memorial and biographical record, an illustrated compendium of
biography, including biographical sketches of hundreds of prominent old settlers and representatives
citizens of South Dakota, Geo. A. Ogle, Chicago, 1898. Transcribed in 1954 by L. M. Holloway,
"John G. Robish", p. 1016 ff.
62H. S. Schell, History of South Dakota, Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1961, p. 172
63Ibid., p. 164
64Frank P. Donovan, Jr., Mileposts on the Prairie, Simmons-Boardman, New York, N.Y., 1950, p. 66
65Memorial and biographical record...,, op cit., p. 1016 ff.
66Memorial and biographical record...,, "Charles W. Keller", p. 765
67Alice Feind (ed.), Kellerton United Methodist Church, 90th Anniversary, 1883-1973, "History"
68Tape Recording of Conversation between Ernest, Alice and Walter Feind,
and L. M. Holloway, Phila., Pa., Jan., 1977.
69M. Arthur Haag, Historical Sketch and Genealogy of the John Adam Haag Family,
printed privately, St. Louis, Mo., compiled by L. M. Holloway, June, 1954
70Tape Recording, op cit.
71Ibid.
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