Page:1883 Annual Report of the German Society of the City of New York.djvu/7

 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE GERMAN SOCIETY

OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.

With the year 1883 the “German Society of the City of New York” ends the first century of its activity. Founded in the year 1784, by thirteen noble-hearted Germans, after the pattern of the German Society of Pennsylvania, which had been in operation in Philadelphia since 1764, it has encountered many difficulties, and repeatedly undergone severe struggles for its existence. Nevertheless, it has steadfastly pursued its aim, to afford the German emigrant advice, protection, and, as far as in its power lay, assistance, allowing itself to be deterred by no obstacles or hostile actions from fulfilling its self-appointed charge, and extending the field of its operations.

At the suggestion of the present Board of Directors there will shortly appear a work by Mr. A. Eickhoff, with contributions from other well-known authors, entitled “In the New Home,” the appendix to which will contain a detailed history of the activity of the German Society. They feel sure, however, of meeting a general wish, by presenting to the members in the following pages, independently of the above-mentioned work, an account of some of the important events connected with the German Society, drawn from the Minutes and Annual Reports, and arranged in chronological order.

The first operations of the Society were necessarily limited to very slight assistance given to indigent Germans; the number of members was small, and it was only through the exertions of a few, whose names appear frequently in the Minutes, as well as through the annual festivals, that the organization was maintained. With the beginning of the attempts at colonization, and the arrival of the ship “Henry and George,” in 1792, the main task of the Society, the protection