Report37Rippleyp4356 - page 1 of 1.pdf

ALEXANDER BERGHOLD, PIONEER PRIEST

AND PRAIRIE POET

By LA VERN J. RIPPLEY

St. Olaf College

The story of the German-language newspapers and periodicals in the

United States has been eloquently told by Carl Wittke and indexed by

Karl J. R. Arndt and May Olsen.¹ The story of German-American belles-

lettres needs to be rescued from oblivion.² Before launching into specifics

of one German-language author in the United States, therefore, let me

make a few observations about the general status of German-American

literature.

First of all, German-American belles-lettres were copius, voluminous,

and extremely varied. Although literature in the German language began

in our country in colonial times, most of the pre-Revolutionary War

products were religious in tone. There were many hymns, inspirational

tracts, and some secular poetry and prose. There were also letters and

travelogues that qualify under the heading of German-American literature.

However, the bulk of German-American productivity came after the

Napoleonic era when writers could travel to the newly established United

States free of political strictures though still restrained by natural haz-

ards. From the 1820's through 1914, therefore, a plethora of all kinds of

writing issued from the pens of Americans writing in the German language.

The first pieces of literature were the travel accounts and descriptions

in the vein of the well-known Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville. There

were also novels, autobiographies, reminiscences, plenty of poetry, and

many anecdotes from pioneer life. In a special category are the letters,

many of which have not yet been categorized as to their relevance for liter-

ature, history, or biography. Some items fall into the realms of politics

or polemic and many literary pieces in all categories were written to laud

the new democracy, to denounce social evils of the day, or otherwise to

comment on the new homeland.

Although blanket statements are dangerous, it is perhaps safe to say

that no American of German birth or descent achieved a distinguishing

international reputation for work written in the United States. Several of

the individuals who have acquired fame, such as Thomas Mann, Bertolt

Brecht and Carl Zuckmayer, did so with the German audiences in Europe

in spite of being in the United States rather than because of it. For, only

in circuitous ways did the emigré authors deal wth German-American

themes.

Undoubtedly the best German literary works that depict the American

setting for its own sake are the ethnographical novels of Charles Seals-

field, the pen name of Karl Postl. Born in Prague in 1793, Postl was

ordained a priest in Bohemia before he took refuge in America between

1822 and 1832. He visited this country many times thereafter until his

death in 1864.³ Likewise, every student of German literature is familiar

with Nikolaus Franz Niembsch who published his poetry of Weitschmerz

[43]

about Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York under the assumed name of

Nikolaus Lenau.

The most popular German-language writer who used

the American setting for his works and published for the European

audience was Karl May. But Karl May never visited the United States

until his magnum opus had been completed, and therefore, he would

hardly qualify as a German-American writer, even if the literary quality

of his contribution were higher.

Mention should also be made of a few German writers who compiled

handbooks, guides, travelers' tips and novelettes about the German immi-

grants and living conditions in the United States. Paramount in this cate-

gory is Gottfied Duden whose famous book Bericht über eine Reise nach

den westlichen Staaen Nordamerikas was published in 1829. Duden's

report mingled fact and fiction, interwove experience and imagination, and

pictured the freedom of the forest, like that of America's democratic insti-

tutions, in contrast to the social restrictions and political encumbrances of

Europe.

As it passed through three editions, more and more Germans

pondered its contents, made up their minds and crossed the ocean.

Though still shrouded in mystery as regards their literary value, the

works of Duden may be credited at least in part with enticing prominent

Germans (Latin Farmers) to take up residence in Missouri during the

1830's and with preparing the soil for the great wave of German intel-

lectuals (the Forty-eighters) who immigrated to America shortly after

the failure of the German revolutions in 1848. The latter, the Forty-

eighters, were indeed the Germans who contributed the bulk of German

language literature to American and European audiences. The heyday of

German literature in the United States, then, should be understood as the

period from 1850 to 1900, an epoch in American literary history when the

Forty-eighters published their newspapers, wrote their books, and lectured

about them to contemporary audiences.

As the nineteenth century wore to a close, the German-American writ-

ers could be classified in two camps. One was the liberal camp, strongly

infiltrated by Forty-eighters, whose members dwelt in the urban centers.

Within the urban setting many of them agitated for social reforms but as

often as not they were themselves transformed into the typical Anglo-

American so that sooner or later their writings were actually quite Ameri-

can in tone even if they were composed in the German language .The other

camp was largely rural, devoid of Forty-eighters and nearly always reli-

gious in nature. It incorporated city dwellers, but only if the latter lived in

tightly-knit German-speaking wards and precincts within the larger cities.

The rural-religious writers enjoyed more homogeneous audiences because

ethnic identity was more easily retained in the isolation of the country.

In particular, these German-speaking writers were blessed with greater

linguistic solidarity—a key factor in the generation of literature. It bears

noting that, to a significant degree, it was the German immigrant church

in America that maintained these homogeneous ethnic communities, be

they rural or urban. Therefore, indirectly, it was the church more than

any other factor in immigrant life which provided us with a strong body

of German-American literature.

All too frequently, we must acknowledge, the German religious immi-

grants—Catholic, Lutheran and other protestants—composed a literature

that was rather too didactic in nature. Models of Christian virtue and

stoic martyr types were given prominent exposure since the ultimate

objective was always that of preservation of the faith, not depiction of

[44]

the human condition as such. Given these prerequisites, the literary qual-

ity of a man's opus was at times tarnished. Although I would not place

the label of didactic on Alexander Berghold, he was clearly a member of

the rural-religious camp of writers.

Berghold was born in Dirnrieth, parish of St. Margarethen, in the

state of Steiermark, Austria on October 14, 1838.

His father, Philip and

mother, nee Josepha Kloescher, moved with the family in 1844 to Peters-

dorf, parish of St. Marien on the Pickelbach River where they operated

a large estate and from where Alexander attended the school of St. Marien

during twenty months of 1847 and 1848. In the fall of 1851 Alexander left

home to attend the normal school at Graz. After passing his final examina-

tions at the latter institution, he entered the theological department of

the Royal Franzend University in 1862. Two years later in 1864 Alexander

Berghold was recruited by the most famous Minnesota missionary of all,

Father Francis Pierz,

to come to Minnesota and work in the German

immigrant missionary field.

Francis Pierz, who had been born in Carniola, Austria, was later ordained

a priest by the Bishop of Laibach in whose Slovenian diocese Pierz labored

until his departure for the United States in 1835. Father Pierz was a

staunch protector of Indian rights and consequently he was opposed to the

advent of white settlers. But once he realized that the tide was irreversible,

Pierz worked zealously to bring German Catholics to Minnesota as well

as German-speaking clergymen to minister to them. It is owed almost

single-handedly to Father Pierz that to this day Stearns County and the

St. Cloud area of Minnesota are largely German and staunchly Catholic,

and that the Benedictine Abbey of St. John's in Collegeville came to the

frontier to administer to the German-speaking Catholic faithful in the St.

Cloud area. A poet and prose writer in his own right, Pierz saw to it that

German-speaking priests were available in other German Catholic areas of

the state as well, one of which was the Minnesota River Valley, the Ger-

man nucleus of which was New Ulm.

Alexander Berghold was not alone in answering the call of Francis

Pierz. Accompanying him when he arrived after a forty-two day sea jour-

ney in New York on May 1, 1864 were fourteen other theological students,

one of whom later became the archbishop of Milwaukee, Frederick Francis

Katzer, and another who became Bishop James Trobec of St. Cloud,

Minnesota.

From New York to St. Paul the students were offered from

600 to 1,000 dollars each as inducement to becoming substitutes for men

who had been drafted for military service during the American Civil War.

After studying English and theology over the summer, Berghold was

ordained a priest on October 26, 1864, by Bishop Thomas L. Grace, and

said his first mass on November 1 at St. Mary's church in St. Paul. Within

a few days he was appointed a priest for the mission churches of Belle

Plaine, Jordan, and St. Joseph in Scott county and for St. John and St.

Scholastica in Le Sueur county. Later he also ministered to the parishes of

St. Thomas in Le Sueur county and St. John in Carver county. At most

parishes which he served Berghold erected churches.

During 1868 Father Berghold returned to Austria to visit his family

and upon his return was sent to New Ulm, Minnesota where he arrived on

December 26, 1868.

Immediately Father Berghold set himself to the task of founding the

new Holy Trinity parish, though not without resistance from the Turner

atheists and anti-Catholic Forty-eighters who dominated New Ulm from

its founding in 1854 to the early 1900's.

Beginning on January 10, 1869

[45]

and continuing until the new brick church was completed in September,

1870, mass was celebrated in Carl's Brewery on South Minnesota Street.

As in the Belle Plaine and Jordan areas, Berghold served New Ulm's

neighboring communities and built churches at Leavenworth, Sleepy Eye

and Springfield. He also conducted worship periodically at West Newton,

Fort Ridgely, Birch Coolie, Beaver Falls, Sacred Heart and Redwood

Falls. After the railroad pushed westward, he occasionally said mass in

Lamberton, Walnut Grove, Fairfax, Marshall, Lake Benton, Kranzberg

in the Dakotas and other Catholic settlements. In most communities he

designed and initiated the building of churches.

Church buildings were by no means the extent of Father Berghold's

enterprising drive. In 1872 he successfully persuaded the Sisters of Chris-

tian Charity to aid him in founding St. Michael's Academy in New Ulm.

Expelled from Germany by Bismarck, the nuns arrived from Wilkes-Barre,

Pennsylvania in time for the dedication of the 40' X 90' three-story struc-

ture on June 2, 1873. A boarding school which also accepted local day

students, the institution fully reflected Father Berghold's ecumenical goals

for the education of his pioneer German community. This concern for all

of his people was reflected in the local non-Catholic press which reported

that the school would open on June 5th and "will be open to all denomina-

tions. Only those who desire it will receive religious instruction."

Erecting the large school, however, was no easy task, for the local

parish was unable to foot the total bill. During 1871, therefore, Berghold

journeyed through the eastern United States soliciting funds. In despera-

tion, like many other Catholic pastors, Berghold appealed to the Vienna-

based Leopoldinen Stiftung for financial assistance.

Founded in 1828 through the initiative of Father Frederick Résé of

the diocese of Cincinatti, the Leopoldinen Stiftung solicited funds from

pious Austrians, and distributed them to needy Catholic organizations in

the United States. Nearly a century after its establishment the foundation

ceased its activities in 1921, having supplied American Catholics with

more than 709,114 dollars. In addition to financial assistance, the society

helped recruit priests who later made the appeals, among them Father

Francis Pierz and, it would appear, also Father Alexander Berghold.

Ever concerned about the total welfare of the immigrant people in his

charge, Father Berghold not only erected schools in as many of his mission

parishes as possible but, again in a remarkably modern spirit of ecumenism,

was concerned about providing hospital care for the citizens of New Ulm.

The impetus to his ultimate success in this venture came on what has since

been known in New Ulm as Schwarzer Freitag. On July 15, 1881 between

4:30 and 5:00 p.m. a vicious tornado ripped through the city wreaking

250,000 dollars damage and destroying 100 homes and many businesses.

Father Berghold's Catholic church, the Methodist church, Hauenstein's

Brewery, the German Turnhalle, St. Michael's school, and many other

buildings were destroyed. Remarkably only three from within the city

were killed outright plus a dozen more from the surrounding countryside.

But there were fifty-three seriously injured.

Immediately the St. Paul Volkszeitung established a fund for the strick-

en city and solicited money nationally. From all over the United States

gifts arrived, including one in the form of a 1,500 dollar telegram from the

German-born entrepreneur, Henry Villard (born Hilgard), who was at

the time engaged in completing the Northern Pacific Railroad from St.

Paul to Portland/Seattle.

In all, over 40,000 dollars were received and

[46]

distributed by the New Ulm Citizen's Relief Committee, whose secretary

was Father Berghold.

The evening the tornado struck, Father Berghold, at the request of

Mayor John Rudolph, converted St. Michael's Convent into an emergency

hospital, prevailing upon his Sisters of Christian Charity to care for the

injured. On August 5, 1881 the local newspaper was optimistic about

the wounded being "In the best of care in the hospital which has been

improvised here in a convent."

Because St. Michael's was inadequate as a hospital for the city's popula-

tion of some 2,500 Father Berghold issued an appeal on July 31, 1883

for funds to construct a regular hospital. With his usual success, Berghold

was able to announce in the local paper on October 19, 1883 that the new

institution, to be known as St. Alexander Hospital, would begin receiving

patients on November 1 of that year. The new building was attached by

a corridor to the main domicile of the Sisters of Christian Charity who took

charge of the hospital. At dedication ceremonies that November, Father

Berghold continued his ecumenical approach to caring for the total per-

sonality of the immigrant: Reverend C. F. Mowery of the First Congrega-

tional church and Frank Randal spoke in English while Father Berghold

and Colonel William Pfaender, the city's founder, spoke in German.

One

year later in October 1884, Father Berghold persuaded the Order of the

Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ of Chicago and Fort Wayne to take over

the hospital on a permanent basis. Later, in 1911, a new hospital building

was constructed and named Loretto Hospital and the former edifice was

converted into St. Alexander Home for the Aged.

Prematurely, Father Alexander Berghold departed from his beloved

city of New Ulm. When he did so on December 4, 1890 the trustees and

parishioners published a resolution of appreciation which thanked Berg-

hold "for his energetic efforts to conserve the German language. We regret

sincerely that the Reverend Pastor has to leave us." Always anxious to

avoid controversy, Father Berghold left few details about the reasons for

his departure. Our best source of information about the incident is Albert

W. Bogen, the editor of the New Ulm Post, who alluded to the difficulties

in his column.

Apparently Father Alexander Berghold was not simply transferred but

actually resigned from the diocese because of strong pressure from the

St. Paul archdiocesan prelate, John Ireland. Since the mid 1880's Arch-

bishop Ireland had become not only a strong temperance proponent who

irked all the German immigrants, Catholic and Protestant alike, but also

a champion of Americanization of the immigrant. In the main, his action

took the form of speeches and writings in opposition to the German Cath-

olic newspapermen, the German American Priests' Society, and in a special

way, opposition to the Catholic parochial schools because these were con-

sidered the singular means by which Catholic Deutschtum would be per-

petuated indefinitely.

In his defense of Berghold, editor Bogen propounded that the German

pastor was not baiting the Irish-American hierarchy: "He was a cosmo-

politan man, which is proven by the fact that he also used the English

language on a continuous basis for the benefit of about four Irish families

in his parish. In that respect, however, it was not a matter of his national-

ity for he was a genuine supporter of German culture in Minnesota."

Bogen continued, pointing out that Berghold had supported the notion

of parochial schools as a means not of halting Americanization but only of

preserving the faith as well as the culture of the German people. Ireland,

[47]

he noted, was opposed to the parochial schools not as such, but inasmuch

as they were largely German-speaking schools. Bogen cited as evidence of

Ireland's "hatred" of things German the fact that he denied requests from

parishes in Springfield and St. Peter, Minnesota for permission to build

German Catholic schools.

Although the original correspondence has not been found, Bogen re-

ports that Berghold exchanged letters with Archbishop Ireland between

September and the resignation in December. Obviously others had de-

nounced Berghold as a vicious proponent of the German language and cul-

ture. The words of Bogen alluded to the use of stool pigeons: "Malicious

letters of zealots which were sent to the Archbishop behind Berghold's

back by the latter's secret enemies, may have contributed to hastening

this pitiable end. ... It is a very bad sign that such a high-placed religious

leader as Archbishop Ireland resorts to tyrannical espionage to run his

diocese."

Editor Bogen continued: "We have read these letters and have dis-

covered such uncouth expressions that we were compelled to ask how in

the world the writer of the same could be an archbishop. Judging on the

basis of these letters, we consider Mr. Ireland to be totally unworthy of his

high clerical office." In his closing remarks Bogen commented that Alex-

ander Berghold had always been extremely tolerant of all groups, religious

beliefs and cultures—as indeed his record in New Ulm seems to bear out.

Bidding Father Berghold goodbye, Bogen expressed the hope that, should

Archbishop Ireland ever be called to Rome as a Cardinal, may he leave

behind as much love and popularity in St. Paul as Berghold has left behind

New Ulm.

On December 3, 1890, Father Berghold departed for Mt.

Angel Benedictine Abbey in Marion County, Oregon.

Following a rest in Oregon and travels to California and Mexico,

Father Berghold was called in 1895 by Bishop Winand Michael Wigger of

Newark to establish the Maria Hilf (Mary Help of Christians) parish and

school at West New York on the Hudson, opposite 66th St.

By 1899

Father Berghold was back in Minnesota, assigned now as pastor to the

Church of St. Nicholas in New Market, Dakota County, where he re-

mained until 1906. Here too he added a chapel and erected an outdoor

Way of the Cross. After leaving New Market, he served for one year as

chaplain of St. Joseph's German Catholic orphanage in St. Paul.

In the

fall of 1907, Father Alexander Berghold opted for retirement to his old

homeland where he lived in Mooskirchen, in the Austrian state of Steier-

mark, until his death at the age of 80 on November 20, 1918.

Seldom has it been possible for the world's activists, whether clerical

leaders or civic officials, hourly wage earners or housewives, to be genuinely

good writers and poets. Nor would any one claim that Alexander Berghold

combined the talents of an administrator with those of poetic genius in

the way that, for example, Goethe was able to do. Nevertheless, Berghold's

contribution as a lecturer, preacher, builder, pastor and as a writer is

impressive. Specific recognition of his many talents came during the last

session of the Minnestoa Legislature in 1876 when legislative members

together with Governor John S. Pillsbury gave him a vote of thanks for

the services Berghold rendered to the State of Minnesota by delivering

addresses in different parts of the United States as a result of which many

new settlers decided to locate in Minnesota. In this respect, Father Berg-

hold was a replica of his recruiter, Father Francis Pierz.

[48]

Among Berghold's published books are the following titles:

Führer für Einwanderer Deutscher Zunge nach Minnesota, 1876. Some

7,000 copies of this volume were distributed in the harbor terminals of

Hamburg, Bremen and Le Havre by the Catholic Immigration Society, the

same organization for which Berghold had lectured in the larger cities of

the United States, and for the remarkable success of which he received

Minnesota's official commendation.

Prärie-Rosen. Gedichte und Prosa (New Ulm, 1880—Druck der Volks-

zeitung, St. Paul) 352 pp. This is Berghold's most significant literary con-

tribution and I shall return to it momentarily.

Land und Leute, Reisebilder und Skizzen (St. Paul: Druckerei des

Wanderers, 1891). Basically this volume combines several genres in which

Berghold describes his travels on four continents, beginning with the year

1885 and ending in 1891, the publication date. Up to that time, many of

the entries had already appeared in a variety of newspapers.

On his

travels within the United States he describes Yellowstone Park, the Pacific

Northwest, Salt Lake City and several places in California. From abroad,

there are sketches from Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, the Holy

Land, and Egypt. Interspersed in the travelogue material is a philosoph-

ical, pedagogical, and deeply religious concern. Berghold lauds mother-

hood, offers advice for the family man, for children, for women and

especially for prospective emigrants. For example,

"Elderly people who are accustomed to drinking their drop—be it wine,

beer or good schnaps—and enjoying life as it comes would do well to

remain where they are; the same holds true for those who despair easily

and become morose or get discouraged, those who are ill or weak of

health, those who have very little or no money but have a lot of children

and older people in their charge. . . . Any one who has the urge to

emigrate, should, before he does so, ponder the following motto at least

a hundreds time and for a hundred days, "A man remains what he is the

world over, no matter where he goes; a change in place does not pro-

duce a change in the man." (p. 360)

Always Berghold advises the German immigrant not to be too quick to

abandon his German language and culture:

"In the case of Germans, that is to say, inasmuch as they remain Ger-

mans with respect to language and tradition, the more German the

better; in this there is a great advantage, everywhere and in all respects.

How often I have heard the comment among older stock Americans

and Irish: "If only we had more Germans among us! This is the super-

ior type of people we need." Take note of this you hairbrained pro-

ponents of Americanization! In the fields of agriculture and gardening,

in areas that concern the good life and in well-matched marriage rela-

tionships, the German is a model for all other nationalities." (pp.

360-1)

Indianer Rache Oder Schreckenstage von New Ulm im Jahre 1862

(New Ulm: Selbstverlag des Verfassers, 1876), 112 pp. In March, 1912,

Berghold wrote from retirement in Mooskirchen, Steiermark shedding some

light on this, his most successful publication. While a student of theology

at Graz in the fall of 1862, he picked up a copy of the illustrated Garten-

laube published at Leipzig which reported extensively about the Indian

[49]

uprising in Minnesota in August of the same year. At the time he was

working on a preliminary draft of a Novelle whose setting was to be

pioneer life on the eastern steppes of Russia. Upon reading the Leipzig

Illustrierte, he immediately abandoned the Russian Novelle and sketched

out a novel that would have New Ulm as its setting. Like many other

Europeans at the time, however, Berghold proposed a romantic, im-

probable narrative about a runaway slave along the model of Harriet

Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Accordingly, a black slave would run

away from his southern master and find happiness with his sweet young

wife in an existence of comparative exile on the pioneer plains of Minne-

sota. After serious thought, Berghold decided to abandon these plans,

because as he put it, he had always considered lying to be sinful and, after

all, his proposed piece of fiction would be just another forum for de-

ception.

Berghold's intention in composing his narrative about the uprising was

to protest against those who were filling their pockets with lurid descrip-

tions about "Indian Horrors, Indian Massacres and Indian Cruelties".

His book was written to present the facts, specifying "time, places, per-

sons, and all the circumstances in connection with the awful deeds

described therein. They are facts, not fancy. Historical facts are ample

enough without drawing upon the imagination in describing the awful

bloodshed and terrible catastrophes here recorded."

As Karl May and many others in the literary world as well as in Holly-

wood have amply proved, stories about American Indians have always

been popular with German audiences. Thus Berghold's Indianer Rache

was a great success in the German language. In 1891, therefore, Berghold

issued an English version which he translated himself and amplified from

the original. No longer was the author required to publish his works

privately. The San Francisco printer, P. J. Thomas was more than delight-

ed to produce an English-language version of The Indian's Revenge. One

year later Berghold published a revised German version with the title now

expanded to Indianer Rache oder Die Schreckenstage von New Ulm,

zweite verbesserte und vermehrte Auflage mit 7 Abbildungen und einer

Kartenskizze, which was issued in Graz by the Verlags-Buchhandlung

Styria, 1892. By 1890 the English-language audience had become so enthu-

siastic about the work that the book was published again, this time under a

new title, A Thrilling Narrative of the Minnesota Massacre and the Sioux

War of 1862-63 by A. P. Connoly of Chicago, 1896. Interest continued but

no new editions were necessary until 1976 when Elroy E. Ubl of New Ulm

issued a fascimile edition of the 1891 San Francisco printing by P. J.

Thomas.

5) In 1912 Berghold reported that he was completing a large manuscript

entitled Dornen und Rosen which was due shortly at the printer. It was

described as a biographical statement about the author's missionary work

over a forty-year period with emphasis on his Minnesota experience.

To date I have been unable to determine whether this manuscript was

ever published.

Alexander Berghold did write other items, especially for newspapers

many of which were intended to attract German-speaking Catholic immi-

grants to Minnesota. He is also credited in his obituary with a knowledge

of eight languages and an indefatigable talent for founding new parishes

as well as planning and executing his designs for new churches and Catholic

schools.

[50]

Let us return now to a discussion of Prärie Rosen, which will be fol-

lowed by a short evaluation of Indianer Rache, Berghold's two major liter-

ary contributions.

Prairie Rosen contains nine chapter as follows: Präirie Lieder, Balladen,

Religiöse Gedichte, Lyrische Gedichte, Lehrgedichte und Satire, Legenden,

Zeitgedichte, Scherzhafte, und Vermischte Gedichte. The book concludes

with a prose piece entitled Schrecken der Präirie, Ein Bild aus der Wirk-

lichkeit aus dem Nordwestern der grossen nordamerikanischen Präirie,

which amounts to a memoir of the author's more sensational personal

experiences on the Minnesota landscape.

In his preface to Präirie Rosen, Berghold states that he wants to bring

the muse to Germany's children across the sea, "in order that in the largest

and most powerful republic of the world, the grandchildren of the great

Cheruscian general may serve as concerned overseers of their national

traditions and language as their mighty nation grows to maturity." He

laments that in the American pursuit of materialism, the poetic muse too

often enjoys as little respect as a step mother. Cut off from German-lan-

guage literature and from native surroundings, Berghold felt, the sons and

daughters of the German pioneers would lose their ethnic solidarity and

eventually their identity.

But perhaps the best of his Präirie Lieder is "Präiriebrand":

Flackernd stirbt der Sonne letztes Schimmern

Auf dem ungeheuren Wiesenplan;

Rings umher ein zuckend, röthlich Glimmern,

Zeigt ein Nah'n des Prairiefeuers an.

Ferne Reiter werfen Riesenschatten,

Flüchtend über hellen Feuerschein;

Und die herbstgefärbten dürren Malten,

Hüllt ein neblicht dunkles Qualmen ein.

Scheue Antilopen flüchten, rennen,

Aufgescheucht im brandbedrohten Rohr;

Bangend weigt mein Pferd die Schlanken Mähnen,

Thurmhoch peitscht der Sturm die Loh

’

empor.

Zischelnd haucht die glüh'nde Riesenschlange

Ihren heißen Brodem her zu mir;

Roß und Reiter wird es angst und bange

Rings bedroht im brennenden Revier.

Muth und Kühnheit können mich nur retten,

Zaum und Sporen zwingt das edle Roß,

Hoch im Sprunge über Flammenketten

Hinzusetzen in das rauchend Moos.

Among Berghold's ballads, I like his "'Chicago's Brand" best. A couple

of sample stanzas follow:

Ha! wie wächst die rothe Feuerschlange!

Schrecklich schwillt ihr qualmend Leib;

Dehnt ihn meilenbreit, und streckt ihn lange,

Zischend wie zum Zeitvertreib.

Hilflos ist an sichern Tod gebunden

Alles, was den heißen Hauch empfunden.

[51]

Wehe! keine Rettung ist zu hoffen,

Meilenweit nur eine Gluth!

Hat der Stadt zu tief in's Herz getroffen

Jene gier'ge Feuerswuth.

Rette nur, wer kann, das nackte Leben,

Wem noch Möglichkeit zur Flucht gegeben!

Berghold's ballad "An die schöne Steiermark" is touching and filled

with self-accusations for leaving the land of his beautiful mother tongue.

There were ballads to the victorious Germans in the Franco-German War

of 1870-71, ballads to German war widows, and more ballads about the

author's idyllic homeland of Steiermark.

There were ballads too of the heart-rendng departures expericenced by

the emigrants:

Nur ein Pietschenknall; die Wagen knarren

Von der großen Kisten schweren Last. —

An den Wegen heut' viel Freunde harren,

Und zu oft hält heut' der Fuhrmann Rast.

Und dort, am Kreuzweg, wo die Linden stehen,

Hält der Zug noch einmal schluchzend an.

Jeder will die Heimat nochmals sehen,

Und, um's grübte Leid ist es gethan.

In his chapter of religious poems, the expected Catholic themes appear.

There is one to the festival of Corpus Christi, and several about Christmas;

poems about the virtues, the church, thanksgiving, the ship of life; a

poem titled "Ave Maria", songs of tears and of death, poems in the

German tradition of the Abendgebet.

In his lyrical poetry there are songs of love, of the stars, about evening,

peaceful winter scenes, springtime, about the poet's homeland, his mother,

and his feelings about being an exile in a strange land. The second stanza

of "Des Verbannten Lied" reads:

Könnt ich die Hügel doch erblicken,

Den Staub an meine Lippen drücken,

Wo Jene längst entschlafen sind,

Die mich geliebt, gewiegt als Kind!

With a touch of German Romanticism, Berghold penned poems to

"Der Postillion," a la Eichendorff, and about "Grabesruhe" a la Novalis.

Always there was the motif of longing, i. e. of Sehnsucht in his numerous

poems "An die Heimat". The sixth and seventh stanzas of one such

Heimatlied read:

Wann kann ich sehen dich, mein Heimatshaus,

Und ruhen in der trauten Laube aus?

Wie lang müsst' ihr noch meiner Ankunft warten,

Ihr Blümlein in dem kleinen Heimatsgarten?

Dann find' ich wieder die gewohnte Ruh'

Kehrt sich mein Schritt der lieben Heimat zu.

Ich hoff' ich seh' und grüße dich bald wieder;

Für diesmal send' ich dir nur meine Lieder.

True to the preconditions for a Romantic, there was also a poem to "Die

Nachtigall."

[52]

The didactic and satirical poems are addressed to the issues of tolerance

and intolerance in the United States, and to less specific human folly, be it

manifested primarily in the United States or elsewhere on the globe.

Berghold questioned the power of reason alone, of the law unto itself, of the

seemingly absolute rights of the powerful to exploit America's natural

resources. The final stanza of "Ein lauter Seufzer eines Grünhorns" like

all of the nine stanzas, begins and ends with a refrain:

Wo bleibt dann das Gewissen?

Es lacht der reiche Spekulant,

Die Taschen voll der Fabrikant;

Es füttern sie der Armen Hände. —

Gebt Acht! dass sich das Blatt nicht wende!

Wo bleibt dann das Gewissen?

Berghold's legends have a typically distant ring, dealing as they do

with St. Francis in Italy, St. Joseph in the desert, and the peaceful princes

of the Middle Ages.

More direct are his poems called "contemporary", for instance, the one

"An Deutschland im Jahre 1876" which contains these stanzas:

Du hast die schönsten der Städte

Du hast ein stattliches Heer,

Du hast die besten der Völker,

Lieb' Deutschland, was willst du noch mehr?

Mit deinen Maiengesetzen,

Hast Manchen geplaget gar sehr;

Du hast ja Bismarck und Falke,

Lieb' Deutschland, was willst du noch mehr?

In another poem "An Deutschland" Berghold decries Germany's banning

of the Jesuits and her treatment of priests and nuns concluding with the

stanza:

Verstand, Vernunft ist in den Koth getreten,

Gerechtigkeit ward eine Gassendirne,

Und ach! Dafür ist keine Hilfe, kein Erretten;

Geschichte schreibt dem Zeitgeist auf die Stirne:

Von diesem Schandfleck und von diesem Fluch

Befreit kein Schwert und auch kein Heldenbuch,

Die Siegespalme brach,

Deutschland, welche Schmach!

In yet another poem Berghold asks "Wer wird Germania's Erlöser sein?"

and calls for a return to the kind of faith exemplified by former inhabitants

of the German lands.

In a contemporary vein, Berghold wrote about his visit to the United

States centennial celebration and titled his poem "Grünhorns Erfahrungen

bei der Weltausstellung zu Philadelphia 1876." (Experiences of a Green

Horn at the World's Fair in Philadelphia 1876). After being cheated by

hotel keepers and bantered back and forth at the exposition, he concludes:

So ging's im Nest der Bruderlieb'.

Mir brannt' die Erde unter'n Sohlen,

Und wenn ich länger noch verblieb'.

Da sollt' mich doch der Kuckuck holen.

[53]

One hundred years later in 1976, the poem may well have been relived.

No less up-to-date is Berghold's view of the American Indian. In the

early chapters of the Indian's Revenge he points out forcefully that the

native Americans had been dealt with most unfairly by the white man.

Yet he indicates time and again, it was not really the U.S. Government

that dealt treacherously with the Indians, rather it was the hordes of

unscrupulous whites who repeatedly deceived the red man for personal

gain. Too often, one must conclude, the local Indian agents and fly-by-

night tricksters were to blame for inciting the uprising of 1862.

True to his cultural heritage, Berghold introduces us to the Indian

tribes of his book with the words: "It is the same tribe mentioned in

Schiller's Nadowessiche Totenklage, for Nadowessies and Dakota Indians

are the same. They are divided into four great tribes: Medawakonton,

Wahpekuta, Wahpeton and Sisseton, who occupy a large territory west of

the Mississippi; and stretching far into Dakota. They are, like most of the

Minnesota, and stretching far into Dakota. They are, like most of the

Indian tribes, of great bodily strength, a slim and pleasing stature, and

remarkable for their shrewdness and deceit."

In the narrative Berghold credits a man named Anton Manderfeld for

supplying him with much of the information he presents about the Sioux

uprising. Anton had been born in the village of Manderfeld, Germany, near

Cologne. Having resided at the Sioux Indian Agency, Manderfeld not

only had a good knowledge of the Indian mentality, but knew the

Indian language well. He was also a first hand witness to the betrayals of

the red man at the hands of Indian agents and their employees. (pp. 97 ff.)

When describing the actual battles that occurred during the Sioux

uprising of 1862, Berghold again demonstrates his classical European

education. The besieged defenders of New Ulm "defended themselves like

the valiant Greeks at the Pass of Thermopylae. They had the courage of

lions, and met with better success than their Spartan prototypes." (p.

133) Epic proportions are claimed when the author, narrating the terrible

fate of women and children, compares the situation to the descriptions

offered by the German poet: "Körner has honored and immortalized a

similar action and his 'Count Zrini, or the Capture of Szygeth' where his

wife and daughter had chosen a similar fate rather than fall into the hands

of the Moslems." (p. 134) When the beleagured New Ulmers set up a

stovepipe contraption as a decoy to lead the Indians to believe that heavy

cannon had been brought into the city during the night, Berghold notes

"This reminds us of the fatal horse of Troy. It was there that strategy

conquered the old city, and here the young city was saved by the same

means." (p. 139)

Concluding his description of the battles, Berghold is rather generous

to the German element. "German perseverance, industry and manners

have established beyond the Mississippi a cradle of culture; and its steady

and rapid progress is due to the untiring hands of Germania's sons. New

Ulm is an almost exclusively German town. . . . Every German province

from the shores of the North Sea to the southern borders of Austria,

and from the banks of the Moselle to the Neva, has sent her representa-

tives; and still there is room for many thousands more." (p. 140-41)

In reporting about the punishment of the Indians, Berghold laments

loudly the fact that white agents who had defrauded the Indians were the

ones who ought to have gone on trial for their misdeeds. "Many of them

are enjoying life in mansions erected by the money that they stole from the

poor Indians, and the cement of those buildings is the innocent blood of

[54]

hundreds of the unfortunate settlers." (p. 142) Some consolation was

taken by Berghold in the fact that of the over 300 Indians initially con-

demned to death, all but thirty-eight had their sentences commuted by

President Lincoln, and of the latter who were hanged, thirty-six became

Catholics.

Yet, from all the suffering and death, Berghold comments, nothing has

been learned. " The Indian outbreak of 1862 should have been the means

of inducing the Indian departments to treat the redskins with more justice

but thus far there has been no change. So long as the principal officers

and leaders are guided by the spirit of a narrow-minded and intolerant

Puritanism, there is no hope for the Indians." (p. 187)

By way of conclusion, we should make several remarks about Berg-

hold's contribution. About his contribution to building the Catholic

Church on the Minnesota frontier—sometimes physically erecting churches

—there can be no question. Much of what he wrote falls into the broad

area of entertainment. Couched in his material in subtle corners, however,

is a great deal of instructional material. There is gentle satire, straight-

forward advice, ethnic consciousness, and at times, ethnic pride. Politics

as such were strenuously avoided by the prairie poet and pastor, but the

art of being politic in dealing with one's fellow man, especially with

the Red Man, as well as with the non-Catholic, was always paramount.

Many stories and anecdotes about his ability to work with the Protestants

and Freethinkers of New Ulm are still being told in that city about their

pioneer priest and prairie poet. Sometimes, this pastor furnished his people

with the physical necessities of life. Always he supplied his flock with

spiritual food, which is equally as important for human life as bread. Some-

times the latter food was the sacrament. At other times, the spiritual bread

amounted to German-language prose and German poetry which was just

as necessary to nourish the immigrant minds in Berghold's charge.

Carl Wittke, The German-Language Press in America (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press,

1957) and Karl J. R. Arndt and May E. Olson, German-American Newspapers and Periodicals 1732-

1955 (Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer, 1961) and its sequel, idem, The German Language Press of the

Americas 1732-1968 (Munich: Verlag Dokumentation, 1973).

See Chapter 12, "German-Language Newspapers and Belles-lettres in the United States"

in La Vern J. Rippley, The German-Americans (Boston: Twyane, 1976), 161-171.

The Sämtliche Werke of Charles Sealsfield (1793-1864) are currently being republished by Olms

Press in Hildesheim, Germany under the general editorship of Karl J. R. Arndt.

For a quick overview see Hugo Schmidt, Nikolaus Lenau (Boston: Twayne, 1971).

See Arno Schmidt, Sitara und der Weg dorthin, eine Studie über Wesen, Werk und Wirkung

Karl Mays (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1969).

See William G. Bek, " Gottfried Duden's Report, 1824-1927," The Missouri Historical Review,

XII (1917), 1-181, XIII (1918) 251-281, and XIV (1919- 1920), 29-73.

Heinz Kloss, "Deutschamerikanisches Schrifttum in USA," Dichtung und Volkstum, XXXV

(1934) 399-403. See also in general John Ernest Rothensteiner, Die literarische Wirksamkeit der

deutsch-amerikanischen Katholikn, eine literarhistorische Skizze, (St. Louis: Amerika, 1922), 558 pp.

My bibliographical information comes from an obituary in the New Ulm Journal (Minnesota)

July 5, 1919. See also Louis A. Fritsche, History of Brown County, Minnesota (Indianapolis, Ind., 1916),

I, 380 ff. and 497-498, the brief historical sketch in the New Ulm Herald, 4 (28 April 1976), back

page, and Franz Brummer, Lexikon der deutschen Dichter und Prosaisten vom Beginn des 19. Jahrun-

derts bis zur Gegenwart, 1975 Kraus Reprint (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1913). See also Rev. Patrick H.

Ahern, Catholic Dakota (St. Paul: Archdiocese, 1964), Heritage in Minnesota, North Dakota, South

Dakota (St. Paul: Archdiocese, 1964), 131-133.

See Sister Grace McDonald, "Father Francis Pierz, Missionary," Minnesota History, X (1919),

107-125 and John Seliskar, "The Reverend Francis Pierec, Indian Missionary," Acta et Dicta, III

(July 1911), 66-90.

See "Frederick Francis Xavier Katzer," in New Catholic Encyclopedia, VIII (New York:

McGraw-Hill, 1967), 135. Born in Gmunden Austria in 1844, Katzer was solicited by Pierz

for the Minnesota missions but later joined the church in the neighboring state of Wisconsin where he

served as archbishop of Milwaukee from 1891-1903. See also "St. Cloud Diocese," Vol. XII, 874.

See Noel Iverson, Germania, U. S. A.: Social Change in New Ulm, Minnesota (Minneapolis:

University of Minnesota Press, 1966), 67.

New Ulm Herald, 30 May 1873.

The society published annual reports entitled Berichte der Leopoldinen Stiftung im Kaisertume

Österreichs. See the letter from Father Berghold in Berichte, XLV (1875), 48-50. See also in general

Benjamin J. Blied, Austrian Aid to American Catholics 1830-1860, (Milwaukee, 1944). It appears likely

[55]

that the recently canonized Bishop Neumann of Philadelpha, Bishop Frederic Baraga, the great mis-

sionary to the Indians and historian,, Father Joseph Salzmann, the founder of the German Catholic

St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee, Father John Stephen Raffeiner of New York and many others came

to the United States as recruits of the Leopoldinen Stiftung.

The tornado is described best in the New Ulm Post, 22 July 1881 p. 2 and subsequently

in the issues of 29 July, 5 August, 12 August 1881.

New Ulm Post, 15 July 1881. The telegram was sent from Altona, Pennsylvania. See also

Nicolaus Mohr, Excursion Through America, tr. La Vern J. Rippley (Chicago: R.R. Donnelly, 1973).

A summary of the founding of St. Alexander Hospital appears in the New Ulm Journal, 6

July 1934.

New Ulm Post, 5 Dec. 1890, back page.

The Ireland plan for converting the Catholic shcools is well known as the Faribault Plan or the

Stillwater Plan. For an overview of the Ireland struggle with the German clergy see Colman J. Barry, The

Catholic Church and the German Americana (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University Press, 1953), 117 ff.

and 187 ff. See also "The German-American schools" in La Vern J. Rippley, The German-Americans

(Boston: Twayne, 1976), 121 ff.

It is generally recognized that Archbishop Ireland was opposed to nationality churches in his

archdiocese. The Germans, comprising the greatest threat, attracted his greatest wrath. In his semi-official

history of the diocese, James Michael Reardon, The Catholic Church in the Diocese of St. Paul, (St.

Paul: North Central Publishing, 1952) 260 writes as follows "In later years Archbishop Ireland had

difficulties with the German priests of his diocese and he tried to solve the problem by placing German

congregations in charge of Slovenian priests who spoke German. [Fathers Berghold, Pierz, Trobec

fit loosely under this designation.] He was destined to play a most important role in opposing the

efforts to segregate the German people in parishes, schools and dioceses under the administration of

German pastors and bishops in the later decades of the nineteenth century. Hfl became in fact the

central figure in a struggle to prevent the Church in America and the Republic itself becoming a

loosely-knit aggregation of nationalities each preserving its racial characteristics and mother tongue."

Archbishop Ireland unmasked his opposition to the German language schools at the annual con-

vention of the German-speaking societies of Minnesota when they met on October 16, 1888 in Chaska.

The full text of his address delivered during the high mass was reprinted in the North-Western Chronicle

26 Oct. 1888, page 1, col. 1 and 2. "... Were I to say—give chief attention in the education of

your children to the German language, let the English come as it may, I would in fact be telling you—

push back your children in the race of life; keep them out of the higher professions, close to them legis-

lative halls, narrow down their business prospects, for the sake of a land they have never seen and will

never see. Your duty, it seems to me, is plain; your schools must give your children an English

education as good, as complete as is given in the land, and teachers not capable of imparting this

education should not be placed in your schools. It is too true that so far in America our Catholics of

German origin or descent have not made in public life the mark which their energy and the

high order of their natural talents call for, and the reason, you will agree with me yourselves, has

been their imperfect knowledge of the language of the country. It is time that plain facts be brought

to your notice, in order that better things be done in the future."

It is obvious that Berghold knew Bishop Wigger as the great protector of the German immigrant.

Himself the son of German immigrants from Westphalia, Bishop Wigger became the first president

of the St. Raphael Society, which cared for German immigrants, and founded the Leo House as an im-

migrant way station for Germans arriving in New York City, Wigger tried unsuccessfully to pass a state

school aid bill for the benefit of parochial schools in the New Jersey Legislature during its 1892-93

session, endearing him obviously to men like Father Berghold. Wigger was also active in the Cahensly

controversy with the American Catholic Church. See The Catholic Encyclopedia, XIV (1967), 905, and

Barry, The Catholic Church and German Americans, 41, 86 ff., and 104 ff.

Letter to the author from Rev. John M. Siebenaler, pastor of Church of St. Nicholas in New

Market, who quoted from the parish centennial booklet compiled by Francis J. Roehl.

Only months later was the news reported to Father Robert Schlinkert in New Ulm at which time

a requiem mass was said and announcement made in the press. See New Ulm Journal, 5 July 1919

Alexander Berghold and Rev. Robert Schlinkert, Geschichte der Hl. Dreifaltigkeits-Gemeinde

in New Ulm, Minnesota (New Ulm, 1919), p. 79. Although this book and the obituaries make mention

of the resoultion of thanks from the Minnesota Legislature in 1976, the Journals of the Minnesota

Legislature for 1876 do not record the action officially, nor have I been able to find reference to it

in the New Ulm newspapers. The first half of the volume, Geschichte, provides many details about

Father Berghold's biography. See also Berghold's "Die Geschichte von New Ulm, Minnesota," in

Der deutsche Pionier, VIII (1876), 378-388 and IX (1877), 30 ff. and 225 ff.

For example, his poetry appeared in Der deutsche Pionier, XII (1880).

Berghold, Geschichte der Hl. Dreifaltigkeits-Gemeinde, 24.

Alexander Berghold, The Indian's Revenge or Days of Horror. Some Appalling Events in the

History of the Sioux (San Francisco: P. J. Thomas, 1891), 3.

The best survey about the Minnesota Indian Wars of 1862 is, Kenneth Carley, The Sioux Up-

rsing of 1862, rev. ed. (St. Paul: Minnesita Historical Society, 1876). In his bibliography, Carley makes

no mention of Berghold's work. See also the entire issue of Minnesota History, XLV (Fall, 1976) which

is dedicated to the Sioux uprising.

Indian's Revenge, 52-53. Further references to this book in the text.

[56]