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Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

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Biography Of J. J. Von Grueningen, John Paul Von Grueningen

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

My father, Johann Jakob von Grueningen, who for thirty-four years served as pastor of the Reformed Church at Sauk City, Wisconsin, was born in Gstaad, Saanen Parish, Canton Bern, Switzerland, November 23, 1845, and died at Sauk City, May 23, 1911. From the time of his college days at St. Chrischona he used the older spelling of his family name. In explaining the variant spellings of the name, he writes in his memoirs:

Front Matter

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

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Introductory Remarks, Heinz K. Meier

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

This, the first nurrber of the fourteenth volume of the SAHS Newsletter, contains only two parts, the report of our 1977 annual meeting in Philadelphia and a biographical account of the life of J. J. von Grueningen, a 19th century Swiss immigrant to Wisconsin, by his son John Paul von Grueningen who was an active member and officer of the SAHS during its Madison years (1940s). I find this biographical sketch not only lively and colorful but moving at times and full of descriptive insights into the hardships of 19th century immigration.

The Fourteenth Annual Meeting Of The Swiss American Historical Society, Bruno Gujer, Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

The fourteenth annual meeting of the reactivated SAHS was beld on Saturday, October 29, 1977, at the Faculty Club of the University of Pennsylvania, located on 36th and Walnut Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Some Thoughts On Acculturation, Otto G. Hoiberg

The Bridge

Three years ago an important work entitled Flight to America - The Social Background of 300,000 Danish Emigrants was published by Kristian Hvidt(1), Head Librarian of the Danish Parliamentary Library in Copenhagen. Dr. Hvidt's painstaking demographic study of 58 handwritten volumes of data ralating to America-bound Danish emigrants between 1868 and 1914, together with computer analysis, revealed a wealth of interesting information relating to the age, sex, family status, occupation, motivation and other characteristics of the people concerned.

Front Cover

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Inside Cover

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Table Of Contents

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Do Your Homework!, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

I once heard a young American ask a Danish visitor whether or not he was acquainted with the inquirer's uncle in Denmark. It quickly developed that the only thing which the young man knew about his uncle was his family name. Incredible as it may seem, such things happen and though to a lesser degree, they happen frequently when a search is made for overseas ancestors. Denmark is a relatively small country and the unspoken assumption is often made that everyone there knows everyone else and, therefore, one need only know the name and the fact that an ancestor came …

Elfrida Pedersen Collection, Clinton M. Hyde

The Bridge

Elfrida Jensen, born September 13, 1886, in Horsens, Denmark, came to Seattle with her parents ca. 1904. Within a short time she had a role in a Danish play presented by the Danish Young Peoples Society "Dagmar". Her association with this Danish Dramatic Club (later called Harmonien) lasted a lifetime. Besides playing the lead roles in many Danish plays, "Frida", as she became called, wrote and adapted scripts, wrote songs and poems in Danish and English for the stage in Washington Hall in Seattle and for parties and wedding anniversaries.

Danes Came To Central Wharton County In 1894 Bringing Church, Language, Culture, John L. Davis

The Bridge

The grass reached to the bottoms of the wagons when the first group of Danes came to central Wharton County, Texas, in 1894. Land had been bought by J. C. Evers, an agent for the Danish Folk Society, to be resold to immigrants. The Dansk Folkesamfund was interested in founding an agricultural settlement in which the Danish culture and language, and the Lutheran church, might be preserved. Like many people who came to Texas, the settlers were looking for a new place to live - a place they could farm and raise their children .

Dark Nights And Long Days: Myths Of The North, Erik S. Hansen

The Bridge

The following is a "retelling" of the major tales of Norse mythology. It seemed that a periodical of a society devoted to heritage might well pay homage to the deepest roots of our history, to the beginnings of it al/, to the earliest records of our forefathers and foremothers, who first grappled with who they were and where they came from . The author notes that "people need to be reminded that the Norse gods were not just a bunch of unruly pagans -- they were GODS in their own day, and not only that, they were a lot like …

Full Issue

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Editorial Statement

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Looking Back And Looking Forward, Enok Mortensen

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If the newly formed Danish-American Heritage Society is to accomplish what it so boldly visualizes it must focus on two primary aims.

It must somehow convince, it not thousands, then at least a substantial number of Danish-Americans of the importance of its stated purposes, so that the Society can be adequately supported and become a vital force. Secondly, it must solve the difficult problem not only of collecting archivalia, but of maintaining central depositories, museums, or at least some kind of cultural service center. Swedish-Americans have their fine institute at Minneapolis, Norwegians their St. Olaf's and Decorah, and Finnish-Americans have …

Heritage, Johannes Knudsen

The Bridge

The term "heritage" brings up associations of "heredity" and this again reminds us of genes and the genetic code. Heritage in this sense is terribly important. We are programmed by our genes. Our appearance and condition are pre-determined in many ways, ranging from the color of our eyes to the state of our health and the potential of our mind, and including negative as well as positive features. Genetic heritage can be a blessing and it can be a burden. It has the greatest significance for the individual, but is also an important corporate factor. Ethnic groups have genetic features …

The Limits Of Ethnicity, Irving Howe

The Bridge

Americans have often defined themselves through an unwillingness to define themselves. In the work of our greatest writers, notably Melville and Whitman, the refusal to succumb to fixity of definition comes to seem a cultural signature.

In opposition there has arisen a native industry of America-definers who offer a maddening plenitude of answers. But people in a hurry with answers have usually not even heard the questions. And finally it all comes to the same thing: many answers equal no answer.

Oscar W. Lund (1862-1953) A Memoir, Harald Hans Lund

The Bridge

He was twenty years old when he stepped aboard the S.S. Hekla in Copenhagen to work his way to a country where he had no acquaintances and did not know the language. Fifteen days later Oscar Lund landed in New York City.

"There were streets which it was almost impossible to cross because of the great number of vehicles of all sorts," he notes in his diary. "One feels that he has come to the great free America."

The Danes In Winther's Trilogy, Norman C. Bansen

The Bridge

The harsh and forbidding aspects of immigrant life pervade Sophus Keith Winther's trilogy dealing with the experience of the appropriately named Grimsens, a Danish farm family in southeastern Nebraska, from the late 1890's through approximately the first quarter of the 20th century. Prominence is given to the struggle against economic odds and the problems of social adjustment in an area where there are not many Danes, so few, in fact, that the religious needs of the community are served through monthly visits of a Danish Lutheran pastor from Omaha. Den danske Pioneer provides the family with reading material and the …

Ribbons Of Memories, Ed Sundberg, Gerda Sundberg

The Bridge

Gerda and I are in our mid-fifties. We have survived and enjoyed nearly thirty-five years of marriage, three sons, three daughters-in law, and four grandchildren.

We are not sitting back in our rocking chairs waiting for the kids to drop by or bemoaning the fact that each year our hair is a little greyer. We don't have time for that. And we're not flying off to Timbuktu, Shangri La, or any place else to "start a new life."

Membership Form

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Please enroll me as a member of the Danish American Heritage Society.

The Massacre In Thistle Valley, Albert Winkler

Faculty Publications

War broke out between the white settlers of Utah and the Ute Indians in 1865. Before the whites could gather for better defense, the Ute Indians struck a house made of willows in 1865. All six members of the Given family were killed, and they were all buried in a the same wagon box in the Fairview, Utah, Cemetery.

Notes To Our Members, Heinz K. Meier

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

1. The 1977 SAHS Annual Meeting

This year's annual meeting will take place on October 29 at the Faculty Club of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. A separate invitation with program will be mailed to our members in October.

Contents

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

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Book Review: Zwingli, Heinz K. Meier

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

G. R. Potter, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History, University of Sheffield, has written what is probably the best one-volume biography of the great Swiss humanist and reformer Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) in any language. This achievement was possible because Potter, at the height of a long and distinguished career, immersed himself in the mass of available materials and came up with a product that is scholarly and at the same time eminently readable. The scholarship is reflected in the numerous footnotes on every page as well as in the bibliography. Potter is at home in the libraries and archives of Zurich …

Book Review: The United States In Norwegian History, Max Silberschmidt Zurich

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

This book is significant for a number of reasons. It is not generally known that after Ireland Norway "is the European nation which has sent the largest percentage of its population to America." The number of emigrants is not impression as such because Norway is, in population today four million, a very small country. "Norwegian America," however, is a factor in Norway's history, of more weight and of greater importance than Swiss-America is Swiss history, for the simple reason that the United States was the land of emigration for Norwegians. Naturally enough, because it is, transatlantically speaking, its direct neighbor!

Book Review: The History Of Folsom, New Jersey 1845-1976. Bicentennial Edition., Heinz K. Meier

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Gertrude M. Eckhardt, a member of our society, has produced a handsome volume on a small New Jersey community which her grandfather helped found back in the late 1840s. The community was then called New Germany and consisted of a few doxed German immigrants. They founded their Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1853 and went about earning a living out of the abundant forest lands of their neighborhood. Later in the century a small group of Italian immigrants joined the original group, bringing with them new flavors and new skills. The borough never grew into a big settlement but stayed a …

Guest Workers As An "Automatic Stabilizer" Of Cyclical Unemployment In Switzerland, W. E. Kuhn

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

In the early 1970's, in excess of 5 percent of the total population of France, Germany, Britain, and Switzerland were immigrants, The extreme case was Switzerland, where one person in six had come from a foreign country. Between them, the four mentioned countries had nearly 10 million immigrants; this accounts for more than nine-tenths of the West European total of nearly 11 million. This estimate may be on the low side; Feurer indicates that in 1972 some 8 million guest workers lived in Europe who together with their families comprised about 13 million people, contributing some Sfr. 80 billion (about …

Jean Jacques Vioget The Forgotten Swiss Of Early California, Mary Jean Aerni, Ph.D.

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

What makes a hero? Do heroes exist in themselves, or only insofar as they are valuable in the folk mythology of their time? What criteria are used to label one man as an important historical personage, whose name and rank are to be noted and memorize, while a contemporary of greater personal achievement is consigned to oblivion?