Strohschiink and Thiel

travel from home to a port city, in and of itself for many people the longest
and most costly journey they had ever undertaken. Next one had to brave the
crossing of the Atlantic by sail or steam, taking a month or two, only to be
accosted by hordes of ticket sellers, hucksters, crooks, and thieves in port cities
like New York before setting out for the North American interior3. Some of the
emigrants knew where they were going, if only in general terms. Others had
a specific location in mind or a job lined up or land which had already been
purchased. Yet others were following relatives and neighbors. But many knew
little or nothing about where precisely to set down their roots.
One Rudolph Puchner, a native of Baden who had just recently graduated
from college, read de Haas's book in 1849 and, having determined to emigrate,
decided on Calumet as his new home. He never quite made it there, however,
for he became lost in the forest and wound up ten miles east of Calumet in the
newly founded settlement of New Holstein. In 1894, when looking back on the
pioneer days of New Holstein, he recalled the halcyon days of early Wisconsin
and of its countless immigrants:
No state in the union could be placed in the same category as that of
the mecca of immigrants, the State of Wisconsin. In the east one would
see caravans of immigrants, of whom the question would be asked:
"Where are you going?" Nine times out of ten the answer would be "to
Wisconsin" with the emphasis on the last syllable.14
This observation is supported by, among other, Alexander Ziegler who in 1847
speaks of the extraordinary attention among Europeans that Wisconsin has
commanded in recent years." Kate A. Everest quotes a citizen of Fond du
Lac who remembered that, in New York around 1848, "every hotelkeeper and
railroad agent, every one who was approached for advice, directed men to
Wisconsin."6
Indeed, immigrants already formed a sizable proportion of the rapidly
growing population of Wisconsin. Still, Wisconsin was only one of several
states and territories competing for European settlers, and the emigrants were
often directed elsewhere. In many cases they were also misguided, misdirected,
and mistreated at every step in the path. How then could Wisconsin attract
13. After the completion in 1825 of the Erie Canal linking the Hudson River to Lake Erie
and thus to the country's interior, New York quickly surpassed Philadelphia as the primary port
of immigration.

14. Rudolph Puchner, Memories ofthe First Years ofthe Settlement ofNew Holstein, 15.
15. 1,200. See pp. 118-121 below for a summary of his book.
16. Kate A. Everest, "How Wisconsin Came by Its Large German Element," 318.

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