UP THE WESER AND TO THE USA

 

   Based on two historical accounts, it is likely that the Albert Hinrich Rottmann family traveled up the Weser River near Asendorf to the port of Bremen to take the ship Trave from Bremen to Southampton, England and then on to a port at New York for their trip to the USA.  The written record indicates their ship arrived in New York on 24 March 1893.  The family arrived in Berlin, Nebraska four days later on 28 March, 1893. 
   The most important ports of arrival in the United States were New York, from which immigrants were dispersed via Albany and Troy to points throughout the western part of the country.  The new railroad routes from the East that were put into place following the Civil War in the U.S. ran to St. Louis and to the Mississippi River.  Therefore immigrants landing in New York could find direct railroad passage to the Midwest.  
   The data base of German immigrants who came to the United States from 1850 through 1893 is currently housed at the Temple-Balch Institute's Center for Immigration Research at Philadelphia.  According to the Act of 1819, lists of all passengers were to be delivered upon arrival to the local collector of customs, who made copies that were transmitted to the secretary of state and subsequently reported to Congress. Quarterly and annual reports entitled  A Statement of the Number and Description of Passengers Arriving in the United States were published by the Bureau of Statistics or the Treasury Department from 1867 to 1895.    
   The original immigrant lists prepared by German officials for Bremen have been destroyed or otherwise made unavailable, but since lists were also made in the U.S. to record passenger arrivals, the loss of the Bremen lists does not present as serious problem as it might otherwise.  At the New York Port of Entry, visitors are typically told that the Bremen records were among those which burned in the original building for the port. 
    The data for the Rottmann family trip on the Trave to the USA was taken from Germans to America: Lists of Passengers Arriving at U.S. Ports.  Volume 64:  January 1893 - July 1893, Scholarly Resources, Inc., c. 2000, pages 91 - 94.   
   Albert Hinrich Rottmann is listed as Heinrich, age 45 with the profession of farmer;  his wife is listed as Sophie, age 33; his mother is listed as Marie, age 72.  The children are listed as Friedrich, age 9; Marie, age 4; and Meta, age 11 months.  There is also a listing for Wilhelm Rottmann, age 20.  Wilhelm is a nephew for the grandmother and a cousin for Albert Hinrich.   [358 passenger names are listed for the ship, Trave].
   Crossing the Atlantic was a 10- to 14-day trip.  After what must have seemed like endless days and nights, a morning would come when a sudden change in the ship's motion signaled the end of the voyage.  If the U.S. Public Health Service cleared the ship, she sailed past the quarantine hospitals on Hoffman and Swinburne Islands, and the enormous harbor came into view.  Other transatlantic ships, small tugs and paddle-wheeled ferries crisscrossed in every direction.  
   The Trave would steam through the Narrows into New York harbor.  Can you imagine everyone pushing to the rail and straining to see the amazing view.  People would jostle one another to get a better look.  Many would break into tears, crying and laughing at the same time, slapping each other on the back in joy and relief.  One word was on everyone's tongue, Amerika!"
   Passage to a new life in the USA cost about $30 per adult from Bremen [perhaps 5 or no cost for an infant such as Meta and 5 or 10 or no cost for children such as Friedrich and Marie since each was with an adult].  Hope for success in the new land to which the Rottmanns were voluntary exiles was surely high; there must have been fear of the unknown future; there was surely joy that the long-dreaded voyage was over; and sorrow at the memories tugging at their heart strings--must have abounded.  [the husband, father and grandfather had died four years before their departure].  But their was the dream of working their own farm.  There was the happiness to again join family.  
   Agents of the 1870s and 80s scoured the villages and towns of northern Europe seeking passengers for the Western U.S. railroads and settlers for the states that urgently needed people.  The state authorities of Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Iowa distributed leaflets describing the free, 160-acre homesteads, the climate, soil and crop yields, the wages.  The leaflets told of the railroads built and building, of the schools, churches and newspapers that would cater to an immigrant in his own language.  And for Albert Hinrich, his mother and his family--there was already a son and brother with his family in  Oto Counti, Nebraska.  For **Sophie, there were 3 brothers, 2 sisters and cousins yet to come.  And there was the gift of hope and a strong faith in God.   
   Note:  **Sophie's three brothers, Heinrich [Henry], Johann [John] and Dietrich [Dick] and two sisters, Mrs. George Sudmann [Doretta]; Mrs. Wilhelm Kepler [Doris] also came to Otoe County; one sister, Mrs. Hermann Tecklenborg remained in Asendorf with her new husband.  Seven Tecklenborg families are listed in Kreis Hanover, Stadt Asendorf as of Christmas, 2000.  

    

Home Next T of C Comments Email