The Pomeranian Immigration to Freistadt
How forty families from Pomerania, Prussia, found themselves in the Wisconsin wilderness in 1839 — a story of religious freedom, told in five parts.
How did a group of 40 families from Pomerania, Prussia, find themselves in the wilderness of what would become Wisconsin in 1839? Although we learned in history class that people emigrate for many reasons, including economic opportunity and famine, the people who came to the future Freistadt came for religious reasons.
Wilhelm Iwan wrote an account of the immigration to Freistadt in 1840, as recorded in Altlutherische Auswanderung. Those books have been translated; the full three-volume set — "Old Lutheran" Emigration of the Mid-19th Century from Eastern Germany (Mainly Pomerania and Lower Silesia) to Australia, Canada and the United States — is available from our Publications page.
LeRoy Boehlke, a long-time historian at Trinity Freistadt, summarized this part of Iwan's writings. His work appears in The Hidden Historical Treasures of Trinity Freistadt Lutheran Church, also available on the Publications page.