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GERMAN IMMIGRANTS AND NATIVISM IN VIRGINIA 1840—1860 By KLAUS G. WUST Speaking of German immigration to Virginia most people will invariably think only of the settling of the Shenandoah Valley and the southwestern region of the State which received a large influx of German-speaking immi- grants during the 18th and the early decades of the 19th century. Virginia is seldom thought of when the great Atlantic migration of the last century is discussed. Its share in the spate of this mass movement of people was small and, compared to that of most of the northern and midwestern States, rather insignificant. Yet there was a time when one third of the inhabitants of Richmond were foreign born, and throughout many years during the period immediately preceding the Civil War the German element of Rich- mond accounted for almost 25 per cent of the total white population in this city. The presence of a large German group together with other immi- grants, notably the Irish, contributed to the rise of nativism during the two decades before the Civil War. Virginia historiography has shown little con- cern for non-Anglo-Saxon minorities in the State. Only in recent years the scholarly findings of the Shenandoah Valley historian, Dr. John W. Way- land,¹ have been incorporated in general histories of the Old Dominion. The attempt of Herrmann Schuricht to write a history of the German ele- ment in Virginia² lost much of its effect through its inaccuracies and exaggerations. On the other hand it helped to preserve a great deal of information which would otherwise have been lost, particularly on the period following the Civil War. For the years between 1840 and 1860, when the German element of Richmond and other Virginia cities was stronger in number and importance than after the war, very few sources are extant. Almost all files of the few German newspapers published in Rich- mond before 1860 were lost. Most records of organizations and churches were destroyed during the war—either through the actual fighting or out of caution on the part of the parties concerned. This study represents an attempt to piece together from various primary and secondary sources the factors and events that led to the rise of nativistic feelings against the Germans. At the same time it tries to reconstruct some of the history of the Germans in Virginia in the years prior to the War between the States. The wave of intense nativistic feelings during the middle of the last century was never concerned with the old stock of German, Swiss and Alsatian immigrants and their descendants. The epithet damned Dutchmen which originated in Virginia when Captain John Smith bestowed it upon four treacherous German laborers way back in 1609 ³ was occasionally applied to one or more of their number when quarrels arose, yet it never really had a collective connotation until it was added to the political vocabulary around 1850. 1 John W. Wayland, The German Element of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia (Charlottesville, 1907). By the same author: A History of Rockingham County, Virginia (Richmond, 1912); Virginia Valley Records (Strasburg, Va., 1930); Historic Harrisonburg (Staunton, Va., 1949). 2 Herrmann Schuricht, History of the German Element in Virginia (Baltimore, 1898, 1900), 2 vols. 3 John Smith,  The  Generall Historie of  Virginia, New-England,  and  the Summer Isles  (London, 1624), 82. [31] The mass migration of Germans into the Valley of Virginia began soon after 1725. While a few came directly to Virginia from the Old Country— as it was the case with the Germanna and Germantown colonies and several Swiss groups—the majority had sojourned for some time in Pennsyl- vania, New Jersey or New York prior to their coming to the Shenandoah Valley. Although originating in various parts of the German-speaking countries of Europe, they represented a homogeneous stock. They were Protestants, either Lutheran, Reformed or Pietist sectarians, essentially a rural element, and they were united in their common desire to find land on which they and their children would live quietly and prosperously. Being unaccustomed to even the mildest form of self-government in their native principalities back in Europe, they brought little political ambition with them and conformed readily with the Eastern Virginia rule which prevailed in their new home. Only slowly did they assume the rights of citizens in a free society. During the Revolutionary War they bore their full share of sacrifices and burdens. After the war their names began to appear on the rosters of public officialdom. Their integration into American life took a course typical of rural groups: they became Americans long before they gave up their own language and customs. They learned the language of the country but retained their own vernacular for home, church and school use during many decades. Writing about Strasburg and Wood- stock in the Shenandoah Valley in 1833, Samuel Kercheval observed: "To this day the German language is in general use, though the English language is now generally understood, and also spoken by the inhabi- tants." 4 In 1837, when a group of 33 German laborers who had been engaged for the construction of the James River Canal left their jobs to make their way to the West, they were surprised to find a solidly German settlement all the way from Staunton to Winchester. Farmers and town- folk received them with kindness and helped them along. "It was like traveling in Germany," Heinrich Foss, one of their group, wrote in his diary. 5 Still in 1866, the Baltimore Catholic Mirror in an article on the Shenandoah Valley stated: "In many portions the German language is yet the vernacular." 6 In a few instances (particularly in Rockingham County) descendants of the early settlers actually use their German dialect at the present time in the family circle although their families have been American for more than seven generations. 7 The presence of such a large segment of non-English-speaking people in Virginia during the 18th and the early part of the 19th centuries remained without serious political repercussions. To be sure, history records a few incidents where some resentment over the linguistic differences became evident, such as the Winchester riots 8 involving the Germans and the Irish, or the Bartgis-Bowen controversy over the establishment of a Ger- man newspaper in Winchester in 1789. 9 The Valley Dutch—as the Old German stock in Virginia came to be called—were fully accepted by their neighbors of Anglo-Saxon extraction. They merely represented a different shade of the colorful native American population. They had settled on virgin land at the same time the English and Scotch-Irish located there. None of the three elements had a claim to this land antedating that of the 4 Samuel Kercheval, A History of the Valley of Virginia, 4th ed. (Strasburg, Va., 1925), 176-177. 5 Der Deutsche Pionier, XI (1880), 402. 6 Quoted in The Rockingham Register and Advertiser, February 9, 1866. 7 Heber M. Hays, "On the German Dialect Spoken in the Valley of Virginia," Dialect Notes, III (1908), 263-278; Henry L. Mencken, The American Language (New York, 1945), 619. 8 Kercheval, op. cit., 176. 9 Klaus G. Wust, "Matthias Bartgis' Newspapers in Virginia," American-German Review, XVIII (1951), 16-18; Winchester Virginia Centinel, June 24, July 1, 1789; Winchester Virginia Gazette, July 1, July 17, July 22, August 12, 1789. [32] other. The sentiment expressed by one of the greatest Virginians, Thomas Jefferson, may stand for the general benevolence with which German- Virginians were viewed by their Anglo-Saxon neighbors. Jefferson, while touring the Rhineland, stopped to write home to his secretary, William Short: "The neighborhood of this place is that which has been to us a second mother country. It is from the Palatinate on this part of the Rhine that those swarms of Germans have gone who, next to the descendants of the English, form the greatest body of our people. I have been continually amused by seeing here the origin of whatever is not English among us." 10 THE ARRIVAL OF THE URBAN IMMIGRANT The presence of a large rural German element in the State not having caused any noteworthy hostile reaction, it will be surprising at first that a much scanter influx of Germans after 1830 should have aroused animosities theretofore unknown in Virginia. A great wave of German immigration to the United States started in the decade after 1820. Considering the total number of Germans who crossed the Atlantic between 1820 and 1860, Virginia was scarcely touched by the tide. Alexandria and Richmond were immigration ports of minor importance. Most of the Germans arriving directly in the Virginia ports hurried on to the newly opened western terri- tories where cheap and good land was abundant. The vast majority of the tens of thousands of Germans and other nationals seeking a new home in America, however, came through the four principal ports of debarkation, New York, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Perusing European works on North America written during that period and aimed at prospective emigrants, one is not surprised to find that hardly any German peasants turned toward Virginia during the three decades following 1830. The following two examples may serve to illustrate the opinion generally shared by European observers with regard to immigration prospects for farmers in Virginia. A German traveler, Dr. Ernst Brauns, stated in his guide for emigrants published at Göttingen in 1827: 11 "No German who wishes to attain longevity should settle south of the left bank of the Potomac." The German revolutionary Julius Fröbel who sojourned in America from 1850 till 1857 wrote, after mentioning that most of the soil available for settlement in Virginia was completely exhausted: "Whoever has the moral strength or the good habits to take upon himself the task of settling in this State—as Pennsylvania-German farmers have done—may go thither, if he feels compelled to do so. He will help to erect for himself an enduring memorial of fame in the history of this world. Other people, however, who lack such characteristics will only help to increase either the number of Virginian slave-holders or that of the white Virginian proletariat. For their own sake and for that of the rest of the world it is to be wished that they stay away." 12 Several attempts to bring over rural settlers for the exhausted soil of tidewater Virginia failed, notably the efforts of the "Immigration Society" of Richmond of 1849/50 which tried to induce Saxons to settle in Virginia. 13 A small group of Tyrolian Catholics who made their home in Lunenburg County a hundred years ago seem to have braved all adversities as the presence of several of their descendants in and about Meherrin testifies today. 14 The lure of the 10 Cited by Marie Kimball in Jefferson:   The Scene of Europe 1784-1789 (New York, 1950), 239. 11 Ernst Brauns, Ideen über die Auswanderung nach Amerika (Göttingen, 1827), 440. 12 Julius Fröbel, Aus Amerika (Leipzig, 1857), 122-123. 13 Schuricht, op. cit., II, 55-56.   The Richmond Society corresponded with the "Emigration Society " at Meissen, Saxony. 14 Ibid., 57. [33] West could not be matched by occasional "planted" articles in European newspapers about the low price of land in Virginia. 15 Even many of the old stock German farmers of the Shenandoah Valley left their old home- steads to go West. Nevertheless, some 10,000 Germans tried their luck in Virginia during the three decades following 1830. Most of them, however, came from cities and towns in Germany and Austria. Their ranks included artisans and mechanics, adventurers and traders who had little in common with the homogeneous group of the 18th century settlers who avoided the urban centers and made their way into the wilderness. Though the old type immigrants often came in groups, they were strongly individualistic. They banded together only for their protection against the Indians in the early days, and later to build churches and organize schools. There is no evidence of any organization other than ecclesiastical or educational founded by the old German immigration. 16 The new immigrants were individuals who had very little in common apart from their German language and a certain cultural background similar to all German states. Some were Protestants, many Jews and Catholics, others so-called "liberals" ranging from those indifferent to religion to ardent atheists and freethinkers. Almost all corners of Central Europe were represented among their numbers although Hesse, Bavaria and Saxony seem to have furnished the majority. While a few brought with them sufficient resources to establish a business, a greater percentage were people with little or no means in search of jobs and trades that would be better than the opportunities their native land could provide. Purely eco- nomic considerations led the Germans to cast their eyes in the direction of Virginia. Several wholesale houses of Bremen sent their representatives to Richmond with a consequent increase in the export of tobacco to Germany. As many as six or eight German vessels were, before the middle of the century, to be seen at one time in the port of Richmond. Then, in the course of the fourth decades, the German element, particularly in Richmond and in several county towns, received large additions. As soon as they reached a certain number, the Germans tended to found a great variety of organizations of their own. The Richmond Germans fol- lowed this pattern which characterizes the 19th century German immigra- tion in the entire country. The first step was generally the forming of separate religious congregations. As many a newcomer did not adhere to a particular faith or was reluctant to join a church entirely supported by the financial sacrifices of its members, he sought social contact with fellow immigrants through a Verein. Such societies were generally of four types, Unterstützungsverein (mutual aid society), Schützenkompanie (rifle com- pany), Turnverein (gymnastic society) and Gesangverein (singing soci- ety). This development of a separate German social life in a city, the creation of a "Little Germany," was then accentuated by the appearance of newspapers in the German language. 17 15 Ibid., 55. In 1848 the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung reported "On the James River good land is sold for four dollars an acre." 16 The Rev. Johannes Braun (1771-1850), noted Reformed Church leader in Virginia, attempted to found a German Bible Society in 1812 but realized soon that a purely German endeavor had no future. Cf. his Circular-Schreiben an die Deutschen Einwohner von Rockingham und Augusta (Har- risonburg, Va., 1818), 2-3. 17 Cf. Dieter Cunz, "The German Americans: Immigration and Integration," Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland, Reports, XXVIII (1953), 35-36. [34] THE BEGINNING OF RICHMOND'S "LITTLE GERMANY" The first sizeable number of Germans in Richmond arrived about 1835. The roll of St. Peter's, the only Roman Catholic Church, mentions two Germans, Anthony Krishman and Henry Müller for the first time in 1834. 18 Likewise German names begin to appear on the membership list of the Jewish congregation Beth Shalome. 19 A few years later, immigrants from German states represented the majority of the congregation, yet the traditional Sephardic mode of worship was continued to be used. German Lutherans who arrived also from 1835 on found no local church to their liking, the existing Anglo-Saxon congregations being alien to them in doctrine, worship and language. Almost simultaneously, all three faiths began to prepare the founding of their own religious institutions. The German Israelites were accustomed to the German ritual. In 1841, two years after they had joined the Beth Shalome congregation, they founded their own separate organization, Beth Ahaba, which soon outgrew the older congregation in numbers and importance. The newly elected Rabbi, Maxi- milian J. Michelbacher, a native of Bavaria, created a German school for the Jewish children in 1846 which was officially called "The Richmond German, Hebrew, and English Institute." It was the first German-language school ever established in Richmond. 20 On May 8, 1843, fifty German Lutherans met for the purpose of organiz- ing their own Evangelical Church, Deutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische St. Johannes Gemeinde. 21 From their midst they elected the first church council which consisted of Carl Nordmeyer, president; O. A. Strecker, treasurer; Albrecht Appelius, secretary; John Kloeber, Jacon Freyvogel, Martin Kress, Dr. A. Caspari, August Schad and Carl Mau. After several months of futile search, the council was able to find a German pastor, the Rev. Strater, who preached his first sermon in October, 1843. The services were held in a double house, nos. 412 and 414 East Marshall Street. Within a little over a year after the founding, sixty-two new male members joined St. John's. In 1845 another sixty men signed up for membership. For reasons unknown, the Rev. Strater was dismissed and a call was extended to the Rev. John C. Hoyer, a liberal clergyman who served as an assistant to Pastor Henry Scheib at Old Zion Church in Baltimore from 1841 until 1844. 22 Pastor Hoyer preached his inaugural sermon in January, 1845. During the twenty subsequent years he served at St. John's and became one of the leaders of the German element in Richmond. His unorthodox attitude in ecclesiastical matters kept the church from joining any Lutheran synod. Many of the liberal immigrants were welcomed in his congregation which grew steadily during the first years. At Christmas 1847 a newly erected church building at the corner of Jackson and Fifth Streets was dedicated. A German parochial school was organized, chiefly through the efforts of John Kloeber and Eduard Frank. A few Catholics from Southern and Eastern Germany as well as from Austria came to Richmond in the thirties. By 1840 their ranks were unex- pectedly reinforced by a large group of German laborers who had helped in the building of the James River Canal. Three years earlier a shipload of them had been imported directly from Bremen to Rockets by the Canal 18 Joseph H. Hodges, St. Mary's Church Centenary 1851-1951 (Richmond, 1951); Ignatius Remke, Historical Sketch of St. Mary's Church (Richmond, 1935). 19 Herbert T. Ezekiel and Gaston Liechtenstein, The History of the Jews of Richmond (Richmond, 1917), 94-97. 20 I