Little attention has been paid to the settlement of Germans in Kansas, and Roberta Reb Allen's Once We Were Strangers helps to fill that void. It is both the saga of an immigrant family told within the larger social, political, and economic context of the day and a scholarly exploration of the settlement patterns and the diverse choices made by German pioneers. Starting in the small village of Ebhausen in the Black Forest of the Kingdom of WUErttemberg in what is now Germany, Allen follows the fortunes of the Lodholzes who journeyed across the Atlantic and eventually settled on the plains of the Kansas Territory in Marshall County.Based on nearly 200 family letters and documents translated from Old German, Once We Were Strangers chronicles, through the pens of ordinary people, the conditions in WUErttemberg which led to emigration and the sweep of American history from the 1850s to the nominal end of the frontier in 1890. In addition, Once We Were Strangers provides the unusual opportunity to follow a German immigrant family for an extended period, almost from cradle to grave. Using remarkably rare documentary evidence, Allen explores the largely untold story of German assimilation, uncovering the pressures the Lodholzes faced and how they responded to the antebellum Midwest. This family's story is full of hardship, endurance, joys, and sorrows, and is interwoven with the history of westward expansion, German migration, and Kansas, with a particular emphasis on German settlement patterns prior to the Civil War.
Roberta Reb Allen holds a master's in history from the University of Chicago and is a retired professional in education.
Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Coming to America: From Ebhausen to Terryville, Connecticut, 1819-57 2. The Journey West: Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas, 1857-58 3. Life in Kansas and Connecticut, 1859-61 4. War, Gold, Growth, Death, and Trouble, 1861-73 5. Change, Tragedy, and the Female Frontier in Marshall County, 1874-90 Epilogue: The Lodholzes, the Rebs, and the German Immigrant Experience-The Story Continues Appendix A. Legal and Illegal Emigration Appendix B. Total Population and German-Born by County: 1860 Federal Census Appendix C. German-Born Place of Birth by County: 1860 Federal Census Appendix D. German-Born Population, County and Township Statistics by Category: 1860 Federal Census Appendix E. Number of German-Born by Page: 1860 Federal Census Appendix F. Kansas State Census Non-Population Schedule 2: Foreign-Born by County and Township for Year Ending May 1, 1865 Notes Index
"Local history of the best kind: an engaging story of a well-documented immigrant family, always told keeping one eye on the big picture and asking big questions in small places."-Walter D. Kamphoefner, author of Germans in America: A Concise History "Once We Were Strangers is an enthralling family history that recreates the hardships and uncertainties that surrounded nineteenth-century German immigration to Kansas. In a narrative that perceptively weaves together dozens of family letters and documents, along with impressive historical research, Roberta Reb Allen breathes life into the names associated with them. Her family's stories are poignant, inspiring, and unforgettable!"-Ginette Aley, coeditor of Union Heartland: The Midwestern Home Front during the Civil War "No ethnic group was larger or more influential in the American Midwest during the nineteenth century than the immigrant Germans, but they have been lost to history. We are blessed to have a major new treatment of the German experience in the Midwest by historian Roberta Reb Allen. She is in the vanguard of the new midwestern history, taking the field in critical and much-needed directions by telling the stories of German families who became Kansas pioneers. Allen's work deserves the highest praise."-Jon Lauck, author of The Good Country and editor in chief of Middle West Review "Roberta Reb Allen reconstructs the experiences of the Lodholz family and their migration to the United States in exceptional detail, constructing a vivid portrait of their lives and communities in the nineteenth century. Being able to follow one family across so many years in such detail is a rarity, and helps illuminate the human stories behind migration statistics."-Kristen Anderson, author of Abolitionizing Missouri: German Immigrants and Racial Ideology in Nineteenth-Century America
