1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910953192903321

Autore

Hale Frederick <1948->

Titolo

Swiss in Wisconsin / / Frederick Hale

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Madison, : Wisconsin Historical Society Press, c2007

ISBN

0-87020-551-X

Edizione

[Rev. and expanded ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (78 p.)

Collana

People of Wisconsin

Disciplina

977.50043/5

Soggetti

Swiss Americans - Wisconsin - History

Immigrants - Wisconsin - History

Swiss Americans - Wisconsin - Ethnic identity

Swiss Americans - Wisconsin - Social conditions

New Glarus (Wis.) History

Wisconsin History

Wisconsin Ethnic relations

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [ 69] ) and index.

Nota di contenuto

""Map ""; ""A New Home in New Glarus ""; ""Wisconsin's First Glarner ""; ""Earliest Swiss Settlements ""; ""Swiss Settlement Patterns ""; ""Who Were The Emigrating Swiss? ""; ""Crossing The Atlantic ""; ""Agriculture, Old World and New ""; ""Gallery I""; ""Service in the Civil War ""; ""The Political Arena ""; ""Ethnic Relations ""; ""The Swift Current of Americanization ""; ""Religious Life ""; ""Patriotism Tested ""; ""Vital and Respected Citizens ""; ""Gallery II""; ""The Planting of the Swiss Colony at New Glarus, Wis.""; ""Selected Bibliography ""; ""Index ""; ""The Author ""

Sommario/riassunto

As the Föhnblew the first breaths of spring into the Alps in March 1845, two Swiss men embarked on a circuitous voyage that took them from the impoverished canton of Glarus in eastern Switzerland to the hills of southern Wisconsin. Their mission: to select and purchase a tract of land to which the Swiss government could dispatch part of its excess population. With subscriptions from prospective emigrants totaling about 2,600, Nicholas Dürst and Fridolin Streiff ultimately purchased 1,280 acres of timber and prospective farmland in Green County--land fellow immigrants declared "beautiful beyond expectation," offering



"excellent timber, good soil, fine springs, and a stream filled with fish." Thus began the colony at New Glarus, Wisconsin, perhaps the most distinctively Swiss settlement in the United States. A mere five years later, Wisconsin boasted 1,224 of the nation's 13,358 Swiss immigrants. In this concise introduction to the state's Swiss settlers, Frederick Hale traces the catalysts for Swiss emigration, their difficult journeys, and their adjustments to life on Wisconsin soil. Updates for this expanded edition include additional historic photographs and the selected writings of John Luchsinger, who settled at the Swiss colony at New Glarus, in 1856.