Heinrich Brenner, his wife Suzanna and his children arrived in New York in 1843. How did they get to Platte County, Missouri from New York City, a distance of over 1200 miles on modern roads?
They arrived in New York on 27 Jun 1843 on the bark Baltimore (a sailing ship) sailing from Le Havre, France. In this post I will discuss how they might have traveled from New York to Platte County, Missouri. Why they might have come and what it was like on the sailing ship crossing the Atlantic around 1843 will be discussed in later posts.
I have looked at all pages of the immigration record and found at least 32 familiar-sounding names, as well as 4 of my ancestors on the Batimore arriving 27 Jun 1843. My ancestors on that ship were Heinrich and Peter Brenner and Christof and Eva Groh. 1 They all came from Neuhofen, Germany. Neuhofen is in Germany near the Rhine River a few miles south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. In 1835 the population of Neuhofen consisted of 1015 persons (826 Evangelical, 186 Catholic, 4 Jewish).
So after landing in the big city of New York, what did they do? It wouldn’t be very long before the trip could be made by railroad, but I think that was not possible, even only to St. Louis, in 1843, but I believe by 1843 it was possible to go entirely by waterways to Platte County. Some had suggested they probably had to travel by land, but it could have been done entirely by waterways.
Most of my information on this subject comes from Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America by Gottfried Duden 2. This book was widely read in Germany.
According to Duden: “Coming from the Atlantic coast he has to turn first to the Ohio in order to use the steamboats, which are reasonable, comfortable, and can convey him quickly. He has the choice of reaching the Ohio either at Pittsburgh or in Wheeling. … If one lands in New York then one takes the Hudson upriver to Albany, then the great canal to the city of Buffalo on Lake Erie and from there to the city of Erie… . As soon as the canal is finished through the state of Ohio to lake Erie, then one can take the water route from Buffalo and will get to the Ohio River way below Pittsburgh (near Portsmouth). “
The Ohio and Erie Canal was fully operational by 1833. This canal traveled through the Cuyahoga Valley on its way to connecting the Ohio River with Lake Erie. “In the wake of the canal came prosperity, a national transportation system, and a national market economy.”
I did find a representation of the Ohio & Erie Canal in the 1880s.
Once on the Ohio, you travel to the Mississippi, then the Missouri and on to probably Westport Landing (now Kansas City) or Liberty Landing.
It is possible, even likely, that the group used a service in America to arrange the trip, but I’ve not yet found out what organization was in operation at this time and to this location.
“The following decade was a time period of emigration groups and societies, where often entire villages banded together to come in safety. In that decade over 120,000 Germans immigrated to the U.S., with at least one-third of those or 40,000 coming to Missouri. Perhaps this was in response to Duden’s book. At least one-fourth of those settled in St. Louis alone, which is why it is known to anchor the city in the “German triangle” of the U.S., along with Cincinnati and Milwaukee. The other 30,000 spread out along the beautiful Missouri River valley. ” 3
We don’t know who greeted them when they arrived. In some cases we know one person was sent ahead of the family, but in this case I’m not aware of who might have already been there to arrange for their arrival.
- Heinrich Brenner 54, Suzanna 46, Peter 24, Elizabeth 22, Catharina 18, Margaretha 14, Eva 11, Johan 8, Philipp 5, Martin 2; Adam Renner 32, Anna 26, Jacob 8, Adam 6 Valentin 4 Wilhelm 2; Jacob Renner 52, Anna 44; Christof Groh 48, Philipp 26, Peter 23, Daniel 15, Anna 18, Eva 20; Jacob Klam 24; Peter Groh 55 (older brother of Christof Groh), Maria 5x?, Heinrich 20, Christoph 14, Michel 11; Jacob Reimer 52, Anna 44. Henrich Krenner in the New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists.
- Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America and a Stay of Several Years Along the Missouri (During the Years 1824, ’25, ’26, and 1827) by Gottfried Duden and James W. Goodrich
- The German Heritage of Missouri