Author: George Nielsen

WHAT TO PACK FOR THE VOYAGE?

Logistics is a term for something we do frequently, such as taking a family vacation, and it is as old as Hannibal moving elephants from Carthage to attack Rome. There may be a simple definition, but it is a complicated process. How do you move people or goods...

The Household of Faith

Helping fellow members of the faith has a long history with the Texas Wends. Both German and Wendish newspaper articles that reported the departure of the 1854 migration from the Bautzen train station also stated that the poorer immigrants received financial support from those who were well-to-do. And...

St. Peter Lutheran Church at Serbin and Rev. Johann Pallmer

In the two previous issues of the TWHS Newsletter, I attempted to show how the religious environments of Prussia and Saxony contributed to the creation of the first St. Peter church in Serbin. While this first separatist group remained small and the congregation was short-lived (1858 to 1867),...

Prussian or Saxon (Part 2)

Prussia It was in 1817 that the Prussian king, Friedrich Wilhelm III, decreed the creation of a single church that merged the two Protestant faiths-Lutheran and Calvinist-although participation was voluntary. Compliance was anemic, and the king did little more than make the change at the garrison church in...

Prussian or Saxon (Part 1)

Because some of the Texas Wends originated from Prussia and some from Saxony a question could be asked if origins made a difference. Does political geography influence the way people think and act? If you were asked about your origins, would it make a difference if you said “United...

It Pays to Advertise – and to Read Ads

Robert Wuchatsch, a researcher and writer of Australian Wends, found about a dozen notices placed in the classified section of the 1854 Budissiner Nachrichten several months prior to the departure of the Ben Nevis migrants. These little advertisements show once again that every bit of evidence, no matter...

Zombie Ideas

A working definition of the word zombie would be “the walking dead.” If such a being or beings could actually exist, I suppose there could also be zombie ideas. These would be ideas that are not valid and previously had been duly buried, but continue to emerge in...

Folklore of the German-Wends in Texas

On the morning of December 16, 1854, the immigration authorities at Galveston went out to meet the Ben Nevis, an English sailing ship, which had arrived in the harbor. On board they examined the papers and the physical condition of the five hundred some Wends who had come...

Death on the Irish Sea

The optimism of the Wends as they left their European homeland for a new home in Texas was soon tempered by the recurrent deaths within their group. The first death took place in Hamburg on September 10 even before they boarded a ship. That death may not have...

Serbin

How do you get to Serbin? Here are the directions Pastor Johann Kilian gave to Pastor Th. Brohm in 1870 for finding his way from New Orleans to Serbin: “When you come to Galveston go to J. Kauffman & Co. with whom I have dealt for many years....