A Letter from a Lawyer: A Snapshot of Saxon Lutheran Immigration in Perry County, MO.
Going to the State Historical Society of Missouri to view the archives was probably one of my favorite experiences this semester. This was my first time ever looking at and touching archival objects like this, and I think this artifact is probably one of the oldest things I have ever held in my hands. It was surreal to think that this piece of paper was over 150 years older than me and was still around to tell a story from generations ago.
This object is nothing special to look at. It’s a regular old sheet of parchment paper, delicate and thin, marked by creases, folds, ink blots, and slightly tattered edges. At first glance, it looks like any ordinary letter and not really anything special. But the words– written in an elegantly slanting and curving cursive by the hand of a lawyer, paint a vivid picture of the lives of seventeen German families arriving in Perry County, Missouri, 1839.
If you’re struggling to read the handwriting, I’ll quickly sum it up for you. Killian writes that the heads of these families are petitioning the government for 160 acres of land each. He describes that these families experienced hardship and oppression in Germany, so they came to America to fix themselves in a free land. In doing this, they gave up what little resources they had to make the journey and now need to acquire land to support themselves and their families. They planned to cultivate wine and hemp and help stimulate the local economy by doing so. They also hoped that their success would encourage some friends and family to join them in Perry County and further settle the area.The letter ends with their request, but cuts off mid-sentence right after. It’s written on the front side of a folded sheet, with signatures on the back, which leads me to believe that there could have possibly been multiple pages within the fold that were lost or damaged over the years.
The main thing that interests me is the hardship and oppression that these people were escaping to which Killian refers. Due to the date this letter was written (May 8th, 1839), I can assume that these people came to Missouri with a group of Saxon Lutheran immigrants who sailed from Bremen to New Orleans and up to Missouri with Pastor Martin Stephan. Pastor Stephan united over 600 Old Lutherans, who protested a Prussian State decree unifying Protestant churches and believed in Pietism, which encouraged the return to how the faith was during the Reformation. Shortly after the group’s arrival in Perry County, it was discovered that Stephan was embezzling from the group’s collective funds and was having multiple affairs with both married and unmarried women, which caused great scandal among the settlers. In the Spring of 1839, he was expelled from the settlements, leaving the immigrants without a leader and feeling very troubled and unsure about their futures.
As for the land that is written about in this letter, which is called the Barrens, I also have been able to find some clues as to what it was like. Contrary to what one would believe from the name, this land was not barren but actually rather fertile, the rolling hills and scattered forests reminded the Saxons of the land back home in Baden, and there was access to the Mississippi River as well. While the letter makes it seem like the immigrants are asking for the land to be granted to them, there is some evidence that they actually bought it from the government and from other private parties. This letter could have been their request to purchase the land, but since I only have access to the first page I can’t make a strong conclusion on that. However, a hundred and sixty acres for seventeen families would be 2,720 acres, which would make sense considering the rest of the land was purchased from private owners. They bought so much land so far away from other settlements in order to “keep the non-believers out” and preserve their religious beliefs without the interference of outsiders that had driven them from their homeland.
It’s difficult to find evidence as to whether these people actually established hemp farms and vineyards and were successful in these endeavors, however it does seem that they were able to convince more of their fellow Germans to leave the Fatherland for Perry County. In June, 1839, the land was divided up into separate settlements, including Altenberg, Dresden, Sellitz, Nieder-Frohna, Wittenburg, Paitzdorf, and Johhanisberg. More Saxon Lutherans arrived in December 1839 and more continued to arrive into the 1860s. The settlements continued to expand and grow along with the Missouri Synod, which evolved from the original followers of Stephan to the over 1.8 million members that it has today.
