The Holyland (Wisconsin) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Holyland is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

region located mainly in northeastern Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin

Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin

Fond du Lac County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of 2000, the population was 97,296. Its county seat is Fond du Lac. The United States Census Bureau's Fond du Lac Metropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Fond du Lac County. The county name is French for "bottom of the...

and southern Calumet County

Calumet County, Wisconsin

Calumet County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is included in the Appleton, Wisconsin, Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010, the county's population was 48,971. The county seat is Chilton.-History:...

. The area is known for its distinctive agricultural landscape, a close-knit community life, and deep Roman Catholicism brought by Germans

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

who began settling the region in the 1840s. The area has been studied as an example of chain migration

Chain migration

Chain migration has multiple meanings. It refers to the social process by which immigrants from a particular town follow others from that town to a particular city or neighborhood, whether in an immigrant receiving country or in a new, usually urban, location in the home country...

. It has been called "The Holyland" since at least 1898.

Location

The Holyland area is located in the region east of the southern end of Lake Winnebago

Lake Winnebago

Lake Winnebago is a freshwater lake in eastern Wisconsin, United States. It is the largest lake entirely within the state.-Statistics:...

and it crosses political boundaries. It is primarily in Fond du Lac

Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin

and Calumet

Calumet County, Wisconsin

counties, with a small area in the northwest corner of Sheboygan County. Towns include Taycheedah

Taycheedah, Wisconsin

Taycheedah is a town in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 3,666 at the 2000 census. The census-designated places of St. Peter and Taycheedah and the unincorporated communities of Peebles and Silica are located in the town...

, Calumet

Calumet, Wisconsin

Calumet is a town in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,514 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated communities of Calumetville, Garnet, Johnsburg, Marytown, and Pipe are located within the town.-History:...

, and all of Marshfield

Marshfield, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin

Marshfield is a town in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,118 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated communities of Calvary and St. Joe are located in the town...

in Fond du Lac County and Brothertown

Brothertown, Wisconsin

Brothertown is a town in Calumet County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 1,404 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated communities of Brothertown, Charlesburg, Eckers Lakeland, Jericho, Maple Heights, and Quinney are located in the town...

and New Holstein

New Holstein (town), Wisconsin

New Holstein is a town in Calumet County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 1,457 at the 2000 census. The City of New Holstein is located in the town, but the two are politically independent. The unincorporated communities of Meggers and St...

in Calumet County. Communities include Calvary

Calvary, Wisconsin

Calvary, Wisconsin is an unincorporated community located in the town of Marshfield, in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. The community was originally know locally as Calvary Station since the community was built around the railroad depot for Mount Calvary...

, Charlesburg

Charlesburg, Wisconsin

Charlesburg is an unincorporated community in the town of Brothertown, Wisconsin in Calumet County, Wisconsin, United States.-Location:Charlesburg is located on St. Charles Road at its intersection with Washington Road. It is considered part of the Holyland region in southern Calumet...

, Jericho

Jericho, Wisconsin

Jericho is an unincorporated community in the town of Brothertown in Calumet County, Wisconsin, United States. Jericho is located at the intersection of County highways C & H. Jericho is part of the Holyland region in Wisconsin.-References:...

, Johnsburg

Johnsburg, Wisconsin

Johnsburg, Wisconsin is an unincorporated community in the Town of Calumet in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. The community is located on County Roads Q and W, approximately east of Lake Winnebago, southeast of Pipe and northwest of Malone. Johnsburg is part of the Holyland region in northeastern...

, Marytown

Marytown, Wisconsin

Marytown, Wisconsin is an unincorporated community in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, in the town of Calumet. Marytown is located at the intersection of Fond du Lac County highways G and HH...

, Mount Calvary

Mount Calvary, Wisconsin

Mount Calvary is a village in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 956 at the 2000 census, up from 558 residents from the 1990 census.-Holyland:...

, St. Anna

St. Anna, Wisconsin

St. Anna is an unincorporated community in Calumet and Sheboygan Counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It lies in the towns of Russell and New Holstein. The name of the community is pronounced "St...

, St. Cloud

St. Cloud, Wisconsin

St. Cloud is a village in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States, along the Sheboygan River. The population was 497 at the 2000 census. St. Cloud is part of The Holyland region in northwestern Fond du Lac County.-Geography:St...

, St. Joe

St. Joe, Wisconsin

St. Joe is an unincorporated community in the town of Marshfield in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States. The community is located on County Highway G in the northeast portion of the county, northwest of St. Cloud and northeast of Mount Calvary. It is considered part of the Holyland.The...

, and St. Peter

St. Peter, Wisconsin

St. Peter, Wisconsin is an unincorporated census-designated place in the Town of Taycheedah in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. It is located approximately northeast of Peebles and south of Silica. It was located on Wisconsin Highway 149 before the highway was decommissioned and turned over to...

. Eden, Wisconsin

Eden, Wisconsin

Eden is a village in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 687 at the 2000 census. The village is located within the Town of Eden.-Geography:Eden is located at ....

is not considered part of this region.

Origin

Reverend Casper Rehrl was a missionary who founded Roman Catholic churches in the area. Between 1841 and 1870, ten German Catholic parishes were established in the Holyland. The church sites, which were mostly named after saints, eventually grew into communities. German-speaking Roman Catholics immigrated to the Holyland from the Vulkaneifel region of Rhenish Prussia

Rhine Province

The Rhine Province , also known as Rhenish Prussia or synonymous to the Rhineland , was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822-1946. It was created from the provinces of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg...

in the late 19th century. Many of the immigrants came from the municipalities of Daun

Daun (Verbandsgemeinde)

Daun is a collective municipality in the Vulkaneifel district of Rhineland-Palatinate. The seat of the Daun Verbandsgemeinde is in the municipality of Daun.- Constituent municipalities:# Betteldorf# Bleckhausen# Brockscheid...

and Adenau

Adenau

Adenau is a town in the High Eifel in Germany. It is known as the Johanniterstadt because the Order of Saint John was based there in the Middle Ages. The town's coat of arms combines the black cross of the Electorate of Cologne with the lion of the lords of Nürburg...

. Smaller communities and hamlets in that area include Kaperich

Kaperich

Kaperich is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

, Nitz

Nitz

Nitz is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

, Kirsbach

Kirsbach

Kirsbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

, and Mürlenbach

Mürlenbach

Mürlenbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

. Because the area had limited land available, experienced periodic crop failures, and was undergoing changes to its industry, immigrants left to find better economic conditions. According to M. Beth Schlemper's translation of Joseph Mergen's work Die Amerika Auswanderung aus dem Landkreise Daun, "[In 1838], the yield of potatoes was only average in quantity. The wine harvest hardly reached a fourth of a usual, average year and was at the same time of poorer quality. The fruit completely failed". Land had been divided among heirs for so many generations that farms were too small to be viable.

In another region of Prussia, Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

to the north was battling Prussia to the south in the 1840s. Emigrants from that area also found their way to the Holyland, especially in the area around New Holstein

New Holstein, Wisconsin

New Holstein is a city in Calumet County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 3,301 at the 2000 census. The city is located within the Town of New Holstein.-History:...

Settlement in Wisconsin

Immigrants began settling in Wisconsin in the 1830s. To get to Wisconsin, they typically traveled across the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, then up the Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...

to the Erie Canal

Erie Canal

The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...

, and followed the Erie Canal across New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

state to Buffalo

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

. From Buffalo they traversed the Great Lakes

Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

to Wisconsin. Those who settled the Holyland traveled across forested land to a settlement in Calumetville

Calumetville, Wisconsin

Calumetville is an unincorporated community that straddles the county line between Calumet and Fond du Lac counties in Wisconsin. The main part of the village in Fond du Lac County lies in the Town of Calumet, Wisconsin and that part in Calumet County lies in the Town of Brothertown,...

. Calumetville's hotel had been established by George White in 1835. It was on the only road through the region, a north-south military road. White became friends with immigrant Ferdinand Ostenfeld, who described the poor conditions in his original homeland. White asked Ostenfeld to return to his original homeland with him in late 1847 to convince others to come to America. White later sold land to some of these immigrants.

A ship left Prussia on April 2, 1848 carrying 198 passengers, with almost every passenger an immigrant from Prussia or Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...

. The group arrived in New York on May 12. Their Great Lakes

Great Lakes

vessel arrived in Sheboygan

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

-Airport:Sheboygan is served by the Sheboygan County Memorial Airport, which is located several miles from the city.-Roads:Interstate 43 is the primary north-south transportation route into Sheboygan, and forms the west boundary of the city. U.S...

on May 22 and they arrived at Calumetville on May 25.

A second settlement formed at Johnsburg, and within two years the group had founded a church called St. Johannes Gemeinde (German for St. John's Congregation, now St. John the Baptist). Johnsburg church historian Benjamin Blied said, "Most of [the immigrants], more or less antagonistic to being governed by Protestant Prussia ever since the defeat of Napoleon, left their homes along the Mosel River between Trier

Trier

Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC....

and Koblenz

Koblenz

Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...

hoping primarily to better their economic condition in the new world." Over the next few years, Johnsburg became the core for the growing area. A second wave of immigrants arrived in the 1860s and 1870s, some with families and friends from the first wave. The Capuchin

Order of Friars Minor Capuchin

The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is an Order of friars in the Catholic Church, among the chief offshoots of the Franciscans. The worldwide head of the Order, called the Minister General, is currently Father Mauro Jöhri.-Origins :...

religious order selected the Holyland for its first permanent American settlement. They founded a seminary

Seminary

A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...

(now St. Lawrence Seminary High School

St. Lawrence Seminary High School

St. Lawrence Seminary High School is a preparatory high school operated by the Province of St. Joseph of the Capuchin Order at Mount Calvary, Wisconsin. The school is within the Archdiocese of Milwaukee...

) in 1856 to train young men to become priests. Between 1841 and 1870, eleven parishes were founded in the Holyland. They were built as territorial churches to serve the people in the vicinity, not as national churches to serve immigrants of a particular ethnicity.

The introduction of the Sheboygan

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

-Fond du Lac

Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

Fond du Lac is a city in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States. The name is French for bottom of the lake, for it is located at the bottom of Lake Winnebago. The population was 42,203 at the 2000 census...

Railroad helped develop the communities, but the railroad declined after trucking became more cost effective.

Chain migration

is a process whereby early immigrants to an area send back information encouraging their relatives and friends to immigrate. An example is this letter from Michael Rodenkirch from December 26, 1846,

Another influential item was Carl de Haas's 1848 report Nordamerika, Wisconsin, Calumet: Winke für Auswanderer (Calumet, Wisconsin, North America: A Prospect for Emigrants) which was published in Elberfeld

Elberfeld

Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929.-History:The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "elverfelde" was in a document of 1161...

, Germany. After living in Calumet (now Calumetville) for six months, he prefaced the report, "Upon my departure from Germany I faithfully promised friends and acquaintances that I would send them within the year, a complete report of my observations during the journey from Elberfeld, Germany to Calumet, Wisconsin, and particularly of my experiences here." His account included detailed information for those considering immigrating, including provisions to bring along, conditions in Wisconsin, travel advice, and description of the land and wildlife. He described which ships to take from Germany and how to purchase and use farmland after arrival in Wisconsin.

Museum

The history of the Holyland region is preserved in the Malone Area Heritage Museum

Malone Area Heritage Museum

The Malone Area Heritage Museum is a historical museum in Malone, Wisconsin, United States. The museum documents the history of immigrants into the Holyland region of Wisconsin. The museum is affiliated with the Wisconsin Historical Society. It has been in existence since 2005...

. The museum is located in two buildings in Malone

Malone, Wisconsin

Malone, Wisconsin is an unincorporated community located in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin near the Sheboygan River and Mt. Calvary, in the towns of Marshfield, and Taycheedah. Malone is located in The Holyland region of Wisconsin. It is home to a post office....

. One of these buildings was the train depot for the community; it is the only remaining depot left from the railroad that is not being used as a commercial structure. Malone, originally named St. John, was renamed after railroad official H. T. Malone.

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