Journey from Germany to America

The earliest known movement of Junkermeiers from Germany to America is that of Konrad Hermann (“Herman”) Junkermeier, son of Christian Friedrich Konrad Junkermeier I, who came to the U.S. in 1868, when he was 16, settling first at the Sheboygan, Wisconsin settlement. Christian I’s daughter, Louisa, and the neighbors from Stemmen (the Homeiers) immigrated in 1869. Christian I and his youngest son William, came to the United States in 1874, confirmed by a letter dated October 1, 1875 at the Storm Lake, Iowa post office for Christian (Storm Lake Pilot, v. 5, no. 51, Oct. 6, 1875). Junkermeier descendents from Germany continued to immigrate to the United States for years to come.

The area from which Christian I and four of his five children came, and the area to which they came, are connected with the Lippe settlement in Wisconsin. The original destination was Iowa, but after a perilous voyage at sea and a slow journey by land, the group finally arrived at Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

History

Lippe settlement in Wisconsin

The story of the Wisconsin settlement is told in Jerome C. Arpke’s book, Das Lippe-Detmolder Settlement in Wisconsin (Milwaukee : Germania Publishing Company, 1895, 56 pages). Early in 1847 a number of families of the principality of Lippe in Germany decided to leave their homeland and to seek their fortune in America. They were driven from Germany, not for religious reasons, but by poverty, a poverty which had oppressed these farmers for many generations. On May 4, 1847 they sailed from Bremen on the Agnes von Bremen. There were 24 families, 13 single men and 2 single women; the colony numbered 112 persons altogether. The original destination was Iowa. However, after a perilous voyage at sea and a slow journey by land, the group finally arrived at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There, the immigrants fell into the hands of the land-agents. These told them of the rich pine forests of Wisconsin, near Sheboygan, and contrasting these with the difficulties and dangers that would be encountered on the long journey to Iowa, succeeded in persuading them to choose Wisconsin rather than Iowa for their new home. In the course of years, the settlement, in Herman township, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, grew in numbers and prosperity and with it grew also the desire to set foot on the fertile soil of Iowa.

Movement to Iowa

This desire brought about the branch settlement in Allamakee County, Iowa, and one near Freeport, Illinois. Other branch settlements from Sheboygan were in Clark County, Wisconsin (Greenwood and Neillsville), Jasper County, Iowa (Newton and Baxter), and Jefferson County, Nebraska (Diller). A later settlement from Lippe, especially from the town of Stemmen, came to Hardin County, Iowa (Hubbard) shortly after 1880; this group came directly from Germany, and was not a branch of the Wisconsin settlement.

On April 27, 1870, nine of these immigrant Lippe men left the Allamakee County settlement (from around Waukon and Postville), leaving Waukon by covered wagons drawn by oxen and came to Eden township, Sac County, Iowa, arriving May 17, 1870. More families from the Lippe settlements soon followed.

It was in the context of this movement from Lippe to Iowa that the Junkermeiers left their town of Stemmen, Germany, and came to Iowa. Following is a quote from Arpke’s book, page 52; “A substantial settlement of former members of the Wisconsin colony is in Buena Vista County and Sac County, in the vicinity of Storm Lake and Schaller. Here live families who were formerly members of the Sheboygan settlement, like Junkermeier.” Christian I’s son, Herman, came to the U.S. in 1868, when he was 16, settling first at the Sheboygan, Wisc. settlement, then going with Christian to Sac County, Iowa, at least by 1875, when Herman bought 160 acres in the neighboring Hayes township of Buena Vista County.

Christian I’s daughter, Louisa, and the neighbors from Stemmen with whom she came to this country about 1869 (the Homeiers) immigrated to the settlement at Sheboygan, where she worked in the Mission House of the Reformed Church. In 1875 Louisa married, and she and her husband bought and moved onto their farm in Hayes township, Buena Vista County, next to the farm of her brother Herman, and thus also neighboring the settlement in Eden township, Sac County. Buena Vista County was the home of August and his family, after a one-year stop in the Illinois settlement. When Christian came to this country, he lived in the home of Louisa on sections 32 and 33 of Hayes township, Buena Vista County, Iowa.