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Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

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Beyond National Concerns: A Limnologist And World Peace, Arthur D. Hasler

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

I have just returned from a four month tour of duty in Germany where I had opportunity to talk with a fair cross section of Germans and to visit some biological laboratories. In Munich I visited the Zoologisches Institut built by Rockefeller for Professor K. van Frisch. It was here van Frisch and his students investigated the problems of sensory physiology: hearing, color vision, smell, taste, "Schreckstoff" in fish; here also was produced a classic work in animal behavior, "Die 'Sprache' der Bienen," an experimental analysis of the methods of communication among bees. This Institut is badly bombed; only the …

Book Review: An American Apprenticeship: The Letters Of Emil Frey 1860-1865, Shirley J. Burton

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

In the autumn of 1860, twenty-two-year-old Emil Frey left his native Switzerland for America, apparently under the shadow of an impending scandal, possibly a duel. He arrived in the U.S. at a time when the economy was in a deep slump, and finding himself unable to get work, Frey enlisted in the Union Army in July, 1861. Despite the brutalizing experiences of the war, which included a year and a half as a prisoner of the Confederates, young Frey's arduous American "apprenticeship," as editor Rappolt describes his sojourn, served him well. Returning to Switzerland after the war, he spent several …

Danebod Family Recreation Camps, Otto G. Hoiberg

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"The family that plays together , stays together !" Implied conversely in this generalization , one finds at least a partial explanation of the troubled waters presently navigated by the family in America. Whereas in years gone by , much recreational activity was enjoyed jointly by the various members of a family , in this day and age each member tends to go his own way to satisfy his leisure time needs and desires. After the dinner hour , Dad has a bowling engagement , Mom goes to a meeting of her Study Club , Susie heads for a Girl …

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Marcus Lee Hansen Returns To His Roots, John Robert Christianson

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Marcus Lee Hansen (1892-1938) was the founder of modern immigration history. He established new frameworks in time and space for the study of the peopling of North America.

A Transplanted Dane Looks Back On 80 Years, Ludvig Christian Mosbaek

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Ludvig Christian Mosb~k (1855-193B) was one of the founding fathers of Askov , Minnesota . Coming to the Danish colony when it was called Partridge, he took active part in establishing its church , school , creamery , and first cooperative . But , above all, he was a skilled nurseryman. He created a market for wild ferns , brought in the stock of various trees hardy enough for the northern climate , raised perennials and evergreens from seeds , and introduced rutabagas to the American market. For some years he combined farming with a nursery business, but gradually gave …

The Travels Abroad Of H. C. Andersen, Don Mowatt

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A complete appreciation of Hans Christian Andersen has always been limited to Danish-speaking readers because so much of his private life is most clearly revealed in his letters, diaries, and travel books which remain largely untranslated into English. There is a handful of exceptions, the majority of which are mid-nineteenth century translations from England.

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Enok Mortensen's Major Fiction, Dorothy Burton Skardal

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Enok Mortensen' s literary career was strangely divided. In the 1930s he published a play and three books of fiction in a first burst of activity that began after most other Scandinavian immigrant authors had ceased to publish or had died. After 1936, however, he abruptly ceased to publish fiction except for scattered short stories , and for many years wrote historical works in English instead. In English too was his charming autobiographical account of A Danish Boyhood in 1981. Who would have expected, then, that his last book would return to the novel form after nearly half a century …

Enok Mortensen As Preacher, Thorvald Hansen

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Unless one were aware of it, one would not be likely to guess that Enok Mortensen was an immigrant. Even when one was aware of it, one tended to forget the fact. In his speaking and in his writing, Mortensen did not portray the usual marks of a Danish immigrant. His pronunciation of English was flawless and he was no stranger to English grammar. He was as much at home in one language as the other and he was as much a part of America as he was of his native Denmark.

Enok Mortensen As Archivist, Thorvald Hansen

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One cannot say with any degree of finality why Enok Mortensen became the historian and archivist of the Danish, later the American Evangelical Lutheran Church. This much, however, is obvious--he was interested in it. Only a genuine interest could have caused him to work diligently at it for a long period of time and to write the history of the church with which he had become intimately familiar. The records do not indicate that he received any monetary reward for his efforts, nor that he sought any. He hoped that others would share his interest and do whatever was in …

Enok Mortensen And The Danes Worldwide Archives, Inger Bladt

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Enok Mortensen, whose death was a loss not only for the Danish community in America but also for Denmark, was one of the last of Denmark's sons to have intimate connections to immigrant activities at the beginning of the century, for he spent his life in a close bond with the Danish American colony.

Enok Mortensen And The History Of Danish Immigration To America, Eric Helmer Pedersen

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Enok Mortensen is probably best known in Denmark through his activity as a guest lecturer at Askov Folk High School in the 1960s and 1970s. Within the confines of a small group of Danes with friends and family in America he also had a name as a writer of fiction. It is true that his first work Mit Folk (1932), a collection of short stories, was published in Askov, Minnesota, but his next, the novel Saledes blev jeg hjeml0s (1934) was published in Holb

The Danish Immigrant Experience In The Fiction Of Enok Mortensen, Rudolf J. Jensen

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Here are several short quotations from Enok Mortensen 's fiction for the purpose of showing its primary themes: " . .. for you emigrants, nothing is ever as good as it was in Denmark . .. you always have to compare . .. Over here one always possesses a peculiar unrest-only another hundred dollars, a thousand, or a million dollars more. In the old country everything was ordered and secure . .. Sons followed in the footsteps of their fathers, but as a rule they didn't get any farther either . .. Here in America it was the Golden Chance …

Book Review: Historia De San Jeronimo Norte: Una Colonia Agricola-Ganadera De Inmigrantes Suizos En La Republica Argentina, Paul Neufeld Weaver

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

In the second half of the nineteenth century Argentina experienced a demographic explosion due to immigration which was unrivaled in the Western Hemisphere. Between 1857 and 1930, 3.5 million people immigrated to Argentina, almost all of them Europeans. Simultaneously, Argentina experienced a prolonged period of sustained economic growth, and by 1914 its Gross National Product surpassed that of many European countries.

Book Review: Klimageschichte Der Schweiz 1525-1860 (Vol. I), Bevolkerung, Klima Und Agrarmodernisierung 1525-1860 (Vol. Ii), Ernest Menolfi

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Although long ago many historians realized the significance of weather information and the great impact of climate on demographic, social, economic, or agricultural development, they have up to now mostly not been in a position to make more than an episodic and illustrative use of it, since the random data was scattered in innumerable diaries, parish registers, yield records, communal and municipal archives, private observation records and the like. Most of those entries, however, do not make sense as individual bits of information (e.g. the cherry blossom time, the beginning of the vintage in one particular year). Yet by systematically …

Book Review: Anthology Of Modern Swiss Literature, Ernest Menolfi

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

After the publications on Yiddish, Swedish, and Austrian literature, the Anthology of Modern Swiss Literature is the fourth volume in the above-mentioned series. According to the editor, the main purpose is "to bring to the notice of readers of English some examples of the writing of present-day authors from Switzerland; underlying this aim is the conviction that these authors have their own particular messages and style, offering writing which is of a lively and varied nature. Modern Swiss literature has a range and quality that should be capable of arousing a positive and enthusiastic response among students of literature." He …

Book Review: From Stambach To Berlin (Ontario) And The Descendents Of Rev. John W. Stoeckle/Steckle (1802/1879), Delbert Gratz

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

This work is an excellent account of a Bernese family who because of their Anabaptist faith was obliged to leave their Schwarzenburg home in 1748 and settle in the Palatinate. Since little better conditions existed there for non-state-church families, the next generation made the great move to Pennsylvania some 80 years later. After a few years in Pennsylvania they moved to the Berlin (since World War II called Kitchener) area which most of the family has called home for the past century and a half.

Book Review: Schweizer Statt Sklaven. Schweizerische Auswanderer In Dem Kaffee-Plantagen Von Sao Paulo (1852-1866), Sylva Brunner

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

In her doctoral dissertation B. Ziegler describes in great detail an interesting chapter of Swiss emigration history, the mid-nineteenth century movement of Swiss to Brazil. Although Swiss emigrants to countries overseas had mainly chosen as their destinations domains of the United States, Brazil emerged for a time as a close second.

Book Review: Bern, Kansas. Memories Of The First 100 Years, Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

In text and pictures this nicely produced book presents "an account of some of the events that helped shape the Bern community during its first 100 years" (iv). On the basis of newspaper accounts, interviews, and pictorial treasures hidden in attics or scrapbooks, the author has summarized events in twelve chronologically arranged chapters that consist of vignettes and provide a mosaic-like overview. Except for chapter one featuring "Days of Pioneers (1842-1884)," each section covers a decade identified by some major event as, for instance, "The World War II Era (1940-1949)". General contexts are considered; the last chapter thus opens with …

Book Review: Notes In Brief

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Includes Notes in Brief for the following titles:

• Turning Swiss: Cities and Empire, 1450-1550
• A Castor Family in America, or: The Descendants of Hans Georg Gerster/John George Castor
• Schwester Gertrud Leupi, 1825-1904
• Fur Trade Letters of Francis Ermatinger, written to his brother Edward during his service with the Hudson Bay Company 1818-1853
• "Schweizerische Uberseeauswanderungen 1816- 1913. Ein quantitativer Ansatz
• "People of Choice: Decision Making in an Eighteenth Century Swiss-German Peasant Family"
• "'One's Own Hearth is Like Gold': A History of Helvetia, West Virginia"

Congratulatory Note, Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

On January 5, 1988, Arthur Davis Hasler, Professor Emeritus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will celebrate his eightieth birthday. The Swiss American Historical Society is honored to add its congratulations and best wishes to the many he will receive on that occasion not only from family, friends, and scholars in the United States, but also from distinguished scientists and admirers abroad.

Book Review: The History Of The Imperial Valley Swiss, Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

"The most unlikely place in the world you might expect to find a Swiss colony is below sea level in a flat, hot, dry desert such as the Imperial Valley in Southern California," this book's editors rightly observe (v). The region, located a good 110 miles east of San Diego, is a large section of the Colorado desert and its center, the Salton Sea, lies 235 feet below sea level. The climate is hot and ranges from 130 degrees to 20 degrees. At flood stage the water of the Colorado River would pour into the region. "As the water dried, …

Book Review: Alma On The Mississippi 1848-1932, Ernest Menolfi

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

In 1848 two settlers from Switzerland, Victor Probst and John Waecker, on their way upstream from Galena, Illinois, arrived at a site then called Three Mile Bluff, on the Mississippi in Western Wisconsin. They decided to stay, and soon made a living by cutting firewood for the steamboats. In subsequent years other Swiss immigrants were to follow, principally from the Grisons and the Canton of Berne, but also from the native village of one of the first settlers, namely Biberist in the Canton of Solothurn. So the early census lists contain numerous familiar Swoss names like Berni, Ganz, Marti, Neukomm, …