This
file part of www.watertownhistory.org
website
Sesquicentennial Celebration
Forty-Eighters leave their mark
on Watertown
An influx
of settlers came distinctively from German heritage and Kiessling states, “In
Watertown they outnumbered all other nationalities and were more influential
than the others in determining the character of the town.” This “peaceful penetration” slowly crowded
many Irish, Yankee, and French farmers out of Watertown to make room. Of course, it must be noted that the Germans
were much more successful farmers because of their ability to bring
over-cropped land back to fertility with fertilizers. After fleeing from the revolutions of Europe,
many of these “forty-eighters” were
university men who were forced to take on common jobs as store owners and
druggists when they arrived here. [Source]
Contributed by Charles
Wallman
This was
a two-part series about Watertown's earliest settlers that appeared in the
Watertown Daily Times on
Some
years after the murder of a French fur trader at Ka-Ka-Ree on the banks of
Sin-Sip-Pa, Timothy Johnson settled permanently along the banks of the Rock
River in 1836. His wife and seven children joined him on Dec. 12 that same
year.
The
following year, 1837, found other Yankees locating at Johnson's Rapids as the
settlement became quickly known.
There
was one foreigner among them, a German by the name of Jacob Wiedemann.
Five
more Germans came to the fledgling community in 1843. It was from this nucleus
that the German element rapidly grew.
As the
tiny settlement of Watertown (formerly Johnson's Rapids) expanded, unrest was
sweeping across Europe, especially in the 35 or so German-speaking states.
There were many causes for dissatisfaction among the populace. Perhaps the
greatest single factor was the huge crop failures of 1846 - the potato famines
- and the resulting drop in industrial output and economic depression.
Craftsmen
and their apprentices were anxious to get rid of the restrictions of the guilds
on their professional freedom. Peasants wanted to be freed of their obligations
under the old feudal system. There were intellectuals, lawyers, professors,
students, who wanted freedom of speech, trial by jury, representative
government, a German national state.
And
there was almost total discontent among the enlisted men in the military,
primarily at the elitist officer corps.
Among
this wide-ranging discontent, it was inevitable that people would want to leave
a situation they felt was intolerable. Many chose to follow that path. Some
relocated elsewhere in Europe. Carl Schurz, for example, went to England. Some
went to the New World, either Canada or the United States.
It is
unknown how many of these unhappy individuals came directly to Watertown.
Surely there were some. But it is known that a total of at least 62
Forty-Eighters did come to Watertown. The very first to arrive was a former
student at Heidelberg, Schumann by name. Other than his name and university,
nothing else could be determined about him.
The
first cluster came over a three-year period, from 1848 through 1850. Christian
Fischer attended the University of Gottingen; he used his medical training here
as a physician. Henry Mulberger had a wide background in manufacturing and
locally was a grocer who became a lawyer. Mulberger's family had a long
tradition of service back in Speyer. He and three of his sons were each elected
as mayor of Watertown.
Louis
Ranis came from a well-to-do family and worked as an archeologist in Watertown.
He was a professor at Northwestern College and he farmed. He died in the poor-house
in La Crosse. William Wiggenhorn had been both a businessman and a postmaster.
He came to the city with his wife and eight children. His role in Watertown was
as the owner of the Buena Vista hotel.
Frederick
Hermann was a former student who had also worked in a tannery. He was the first
Forty-Eighter to be elected to public office in Watertown; he was chosen as an
alderman. Later he served as city treasurer. He also had a saloon and beer
garden. Jacob Karst had an unclear background in Europe, but operated a very
popular local saloon in the city. It functioned also as a trading site for real
estate deals and the like.
Arriving
in 1849 were four more dissidents. Louis Bahr, once an economics student, had
managed an estate back home. In Watertown he farmed, and later operated a
saloon. Charles Grote also had a university education. He first had a
distillery here, but later moved north where he had a grocery store and
subsequently became a judge.
Daniel
Kusel had been a tin smith and a manufacturer. He followed those callings in
Watertown as well as having a hardware business. Joseph Stoppenbach had been a
lawyer and notary; he farmed here, had a distillery, later founded a title and
abstract business. He also became the register of deeds.
Theodore Bernhard
·
Prior
to arrival in 1850, Theodore Bernhard had been a
student and private tutor; here he first made cigars, then became an educator
and conducted a private school.
Back
in Bohemia Wenzel Quis was a railroad construction supervisor and a soldier. In
Watertown he operated a saloon and a grocery store. He and his wife ultimately
celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary.
Ernst
Off served in the French army for several years. So it was not surprising that
he rode with the union army's cavalry during the Civil War. After the war he
resumed his work as city marshal in Watertown. He later became sheriff of
Jefferson County.
During
the next several years a small scattering of Forty-Eighters drifted into the community.
They cannot be ignored. Emil Rothe came in 1851, a former University student
who made cigars when he first came to town. He later became a highly successful
lawyer and newspaperman. After living in Watertown for 17 years, he went
to Cincinnati where he gained wide acclaim as editor of the local German paper,
Volksfreund.
·
Henry
Bieber [probably should be William Bieber], an
1852 arrival, was once a university student of theology; here operated a saloon
and served long as Watertown's city clerk. He was the most involved in
local politics of any of the Forty-Eighters.
Leopold
Kadish, another 1852 arrival, had once been a soldier. He turned into a local
merchant and lumber dealer. He originated Watertown's Fair Day in 1860. It
continues as a street market in the city today.
The
next three years brought a surge of Forty-Eighters to the community.
David
Blumenfeld had been both a soldier and printer back home. After his arrival in 1853,
he was first a printer, later a highly regarded newspaperman who founded the
local German press. Another 1853 arrival was Hugo von Bredow who had been a
baron and cavalry officer. Here he was first a farmer, then later a hotel
proprietor. The cockfights he had on Sunday afternoons were quite popular. Also
a newcomer that year was Ernst Grossmann, a former medical student and
postmaster. His calling here was first as a cigar manufacturer, later a land
agent.
Joseph Salick
Rounding
out the newcomers list that year was Joseph Salick, once a soldier, in
Watertown a watchmaker and jeweler. When he retired at age 85 he was the oldest
active jeweler in the state. He had been a co-founder of St. Henry Catholic
Church.
Five more of the former dissidents came in 1854. Frederick Brandt
had been the "mechanical director" for composer Richard Wagner.
Brandt gained a strong reputation in the city as a grocer and later a general
store owner (which had a saloon in its basement). Frederick Hoeper had served
as the business manager to Dutch nobility, but after his arrival in Watertown
he farmed and functioned as a music teacher and director. He later was a
bookkeeper in a brewery.
Charles Palmer's European background is unknown, but locally he was a lawyer and
newspaperman. He left Watertown to edit a Milwaukee newspaper and later
operated a government paper factory in Massachusetts. For Henry Steger
there was little transition needed in America. He had been a construction
engineer and a soldier, and in Watertown he was a civil engineer and surveyor
and county surveyor. Henry Bassinger was a mason in Prussia; locally he
was still a mason as well as a soldier during the Civil War. After seeing dead
mules in a stream during the war, he vowed never to drink water again. He
kept that promise.
There were
Back in Holstein Peter Bodien had been a lawyer; here he became a
newspaperman and a grocer. Charles Jacobi, once a law student and
government official became a farmer, a grocer, then a liquor wholesaler and a
bedstead manufacturer. He also was the president of the local gas company.
Henry Peters continued as a tailor in America, just as he had worked previously. He
was a co-founder of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Oconomowoc. Phillip Schmidt,
once an analytical chemist, switched careers and did fresco painting and
manufactured soap. Most prominent among those Forty-Eighters who came to the
city was Carl Schurz. He had been a university student. In the United
States he was basically a politician, served as alderman of Watertown's Fifth
Ward, was a U.S. Senator, Secretary of the Interior of the nation, minister to
Spain, newspaperman, His wife, Margarethe, founded the first
kindergarten in the United States in Watertown.
Johann Strauss had once been a soldier and shoemaker; in Watertown, he was a farmer
and continued as a cobbler. William D. Sproesser had been a watchmaker
in Wurttemberg; he continued that calling here and was a jeweler as well.
Clemens Eger had attended several universities and had been a physician in Europe;
he continued as one locally. He came in 1856. The following year was marked by
two more arrivals. Hermann (von) Lindermann had been actively involved
in the revolution and was condemned to death. He had been a newspaperman and
soldier. His Watertown career was as a newspaperman, he followed that same
career in St. Louis. Adolf Strodtmann was a former university student.
In America he worked as author and translator and lived with Carl Schurz and
his parents in Watertown.
Carl Feld Sr. came in 1858. The former soldier became a pharmacist and came to
America before the revolution. He returned to Europe and studied medicine, then
came to Watertown and practiced as a physician. John Kube, once a judge in Poland, had a very strong legal background; in
Watertown, he functioned as a justice of the peace and deputy sheriff. He had
frequently brushed with the law, primarily because of erratic behavior.
Emil
Gaebler
·
During 1859 Emil Gaebler, formerly a student, came into the
community. He became a highly regarded organ manufacturer and music director.
His wife was the former Baroness Charlotte von Beust, one of the few members of
nobility to come to the city during these heady years.
An 1862 newcomer was Fr. Max deBeck, a Hungarian-born priest who
had been a military chaplain. In Watertown he was the pastor of the
German-Catholic Church, St. Henry's.
Henry Pritzlaff came
to the growing community in 1864. He had been a soldier but in Watertown he
became a hardware merchant, operated a flour mill, and was a grain and produce
dealer.
Henry Colonius participated in the revolution at the age of 17. He served as the
editor of the Staatzeitung in Wheeling, Va. (now West Virginia), eventually
came to Watertown in 1865, after a brief return to Germany on family business.
He farmed for several years near Richwood then came to the city where he and
brother Carl conducted a commission business. He later became a judge of
Jefferson County for 17 years. Two more Forty-Eighters came in 1867. lgnatz
Jahna arrived from Austria after service as a soldier. He
settled near Richwood where he farmed the rest of his life. George Hugo
Licht came from a very wealthy family and had studied law. He was an art
and music teacher who came to the city because of his uncle, Emil Rothe.
He dissipated his wealth and was widely recognized for his eccentric behavior.
There were a large number of other Forty-Eighters who came to Watertown
at times that could not be determined. One was Adolph Beurhaus who was
both a hotel keeper and saloon owner. He died an unfortunate death when
cleaning his pistol which accidentally discharged and put a shot through his
heart. William Biebermann had been a university classics student. When
in our city he thrived as a shoemaker. Also arriving in the community was a
virtual unknown, a former artillery officer named Boenig. What work he pursued
here could not be learned. Once a professor of chemistry, Paul Creydt
became one of the community's "Latin farmers," and remained in that
work the rest of his life.
Charles "Squire" Ducasse came from France
and had been a civil engineer. Locally he first became a farmer, then later a
hotel owner and did surveying. In the latter work, he also was Watertown's City
Surveyor. Joseph Engelmann had been a theologian and may have been a
clergyman but in Watertown he was associated for a time as a newspaper editor
of the Anzeiger. Franz Graefe was another of those who had been a
university student. With a brother and two others, he operated a distillery
near the Rough and Ready dam. He later returned to Germany. Louis Hillmantel
had been a schoolteacher, back in the old country. In Watertown, he
tuned pianos, later was the calliope player for a circus that came to town.
When he died, he was a high school principal in Milwaukee.
Locally it was believed that Emil Honerjaeger had been a
professor back in the old country. But he made his livelihood here as a tinsmith
who also sold ovens in his store. Otto Linde pursued life in Europe as a
poet and sculpture. Once he arrived in the city, he opened a bakery and a
confectionery shop that were very popular; he often delivered well-accepted
orations at the funerals of other Forty-Eighters. M. D. Marx had once
been a Catholic priest, but was defrocked. He married, had several children. He
farmed for a time, was a saloon operator, later taught school elsewhere, and
was Assistant Register of Deeds for Dodge County. Bernard
"Gentleman" Miller operated
an elegant local saloon, was once a cigar wholesaler and had a flouring
mill. He had been a student prior to the revolution. His nickname came from his
elaborate manners and elegant dress. Charles Paraski dropped the
"von" portion of his family name when he got to America. His European
background is unknown. In Watertown he functioned as an insurance agent,
travel agent, money exchange specialist.
Franz G. L. Struve farmed south of Watertown. He
was also the Jefferson County Register of Deeds for a time, later a member of
the State Assembly. He was also Consul General for the United States in Quebec,
Canada, where he died.
Another of the many university students was Henry Tigler. He was
the co-owner of a distillery in Watertown with other Forty-Eighters, but
returned to Germany where he became the owner of a large brewery. Although he
lived in nearby Waterloo, L. H. Trayser seemed to have identified with
the Watertown community. He had been a cabinetmaker in Hesse and continued that
calling here in America. He was also a furniture dealer. Hermann H. Winter
had been a university student who was also a philologist and theologian. He
farmed south of Watertown and became a member of the State Assembly. On
occasion he was a temporary "leader" of the local Freie Gemeinde, a
"free" congregation.
Watertown's Forty-Eighters were freedom lovers by their very nature.
They had involvement in various ways in the great revolutions which so
dramatically affected Europe. They had come to our city to start new lives.
They contributed in a wide range of social, political and personal ways. But
perhaps the greatest end product of each Forty-Eighters new life in Watertown
was the personal freedom he was able to find and the satisfaction that came
with finding it.
Well,
done Forty-Eighters !!!
