Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/440

 368 HISTOBY OF GOODHUE COUNTY The tirst gunner of the Olympia, who fired the first shot in the Battle of Manila, was Leonard G. J. Kuehlein. Rear Admiral Louis Kempff is German. Some of the prominent Germans after the close of the Revolu- tionary and Civil War : Oswald Seidensticker and Gustav Koer- ner, historians ; Ferdinand Pettrich, the sculptor ; Isak Leeser. English author; Charles Sealsfield (Carl Postel), English and German author; John August Roebling one of the foremost engineers of modern times; John Jacob Astor, founder of the Astor Library; Albert Bierstadt. America's greatest landscape painter ; Emmanuel Leutze, historical painter ; Carl Schurz. states- man, orator and soldier ; Conrad Xies, foremost German Ameri- can author; Thomas Nast, H. A. -Ratterman, Franz Hoffman (Hans Busehbauer), Christian Roselius, M. Hahn, Gustav Mem- minger and E. A. Zuendt. Theologians: Dr. Phillips Schaff, Win. Xast. Dr. C. F. W. Walther. Pedagogues: Hugo Muensterberg, Harvard; Kuno Franke, Harvard; Frederic Hirth, Columbia; Herman von Hilprecht. University of Pennsylvania; Paul Haupt, Johns Hopkins University; John Ilanno Deiler. University of Louisiana; Julius Goebel, Harvard; II. E. von Ilolst. University of Chicago. The most of the early German settlers of Goodhue county who took claims or bought land and followed farming came from the rural districts of northern Germany principally from the provinces of Pomerania, Mecklenberg, Hanover, Westphalia and Saxony where, with the exception of Saxony. Low German, or Plattdentch. is spoken almost exclusively. They were not gentle- men by birth, who came here in search of adventure and gold and would in the course of time go back again. They were not taught how to swing the axe in the dense forest, or how to clear the land for cultivation, but they were experienced farmers, healthy and robust, and well suited for the hardships and priva- tions which the early pioneers experienced. They did not own farms in Germany, but were tenants of lords who owned vast tracts of land, and paid them a mere pittance for a living. They therefore left their fatherland and came here, where they were better rewarded for their labor. In many cases they had not the means for the whole family to come over at once ; but one of the family would come, and after he saved enough, would send for the rest of them. It often required several years to accomplish this. But Low German thrift, energy and endurance finally conquered all obstacles. The country at large, as well as our own country, needed just such men to clear timber lands and break prairies for culti- vation. Most of the early settlers in the fifties had neither horses