Swiss in Wisconsin

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Frederick Hale

A concise history of Wisconsin's Swiss communities, tracing their catalysts for immigration, their difficult journeys, and their adjustments to life on Wisconsin soil.

80 pages, 6 x 9, 29 b&w photos
Paperback: $9.95 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-377-0
Ebook: $4.99 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-551-4
Publication Date: 7/24/2007

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Description

As the Fohn blew the first breaths of spring into the Alps in March 1845, two Swiss men embarked on a circuitous voyage that took them from the impoverished canton of Glarus in eastern Switzerland to the hills of southern Wisconsin. Their mission: to purchase a tract of land to which the Swiss government could dispatch part of its excess population. Within five years, Wisconsin was home to nearly one-tenth of the total Swiss population in the United States, centered around the town of New Glarus, perhaps the most distinctively Swiss settlement in the entire country.

In this concise history of the Swiss immigrant communities of Wisconsin, author Frederick Hale tells of how an initial purchase of 1,280 acres of timber and prospective farmland in Green County sparked a movement of people from Alpine Europe to a land described by early immigrants as “beautiful beyond expectation,” offering “excellent timber, good soil, fine springs, and a stream filled with fish.” Hale explains why the Swiss left their homeland, how they got to Wisconsin, and what contributions they have made to the state over the course of nearly two hundred years.

Part of the People of Wisconsin series, this book helps to illuminate the many ways that immigrants have shaped our state. Learn about the values and ideas the Swiss people brought with them from Europe and explore their myriad contributions to the culture, economy, and politics of their new home.

Author Bio

Frederick Hale

Frederick Hale graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and earned master’s degrees at Harvard University, the University of Minnesota, and Johns Hopkins University, where he also received his PhD. In addition to three books in the Wisconsin Historical Society's People of Wisconsin series, Hale is the author of five books in the field of Scandinavian immigration and has contributed articles to historical, literary, and theological journals in the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Africa, and the United States.