19th-Century Immigration

The first quarter of the nineteenth century was marked by westward migration into the regions north and west of the Ohio River. Though Wisconsin was initially a distant frontier, the small numbers of French, English, Americans, and American Indians who resided there had nonetheless explored and used the rich land and water resources that would soon bring thousands of immigrants into Wisconsin.

Prior to the Black Hawk War in 1832, Indians primarily inhabited much of Wisconsin. By the mid nineteenth century, though, Indians had been induced to cede most of their lands to the federal government. Some were relocated west of the Mississippi River. Thus, the settlement of Wisconsin by European immigrants was preceded and made possible by the coerced reduction of tribal lands and the forced removal of Indian populations.

Between 1836 and 1850, Wisconsin's population increased from a mere 11,000 to over 305,000. Some of these settlers came from the eastern United States, while others came from Europe. The first immigrants tended to settle in the southern parts of Wisconsin. Economic and social changes in Europe, coupled with natural disasters such as the potato blight in Ireland, increased Europeans' discontent and desire to emigrate. Though each person came to the United States for different reasons, all immigrants sought a better life in Wisconsin. By 1850, one-third of the state's population was foreign-born.

Improving transportation routes and the opening of government lands encouraged the mass migrations westward. Immigrants came by ship, by steamboat, by railroad, on horseback, and in wagons. Milwaukee became a favorite landing place for lake passengers because of its expanding business opportunities and public lands office.

Of the more than 100,000 foreign-born Wisconsinites in 1850, only 48,000 could claim English as their native language. Nearly one-half of these English speakers were Irish. Of the non-English speaking immigrants, the Germans were by far the most numerous. Norwegians constituted the second largest group, followed closely by Canadians of primarily French descent.

Between 1852 and 1855, the Wisconsin Commission of Emigration actively encouraged the settlement of European immigrants in Wisconsin. Pamphlets extolling the state's virtues were published in German, Norwegian, Dutch, and English and were distributed throughout Europe as well as in eastern port cities. Advertisements were placed in more than nine hundred newspapers. By 1855, however, the rise of antiforeign sentiment, or nativism, led to the dissolution of the commission.

Wisconsin's foreign-born population continued to increase, though, owing to the efforts of the Commission of Emigration, the propaganda produced by land speculators, and the letters sent back to Europe by immigrants encouraging friends and family to join them. Although not as statistically significant in the overall population as the Irish, Germans, and Norwegians, many other ethnic groups left their mark on particular areas of Wisconsin, including the Finns in Douglas County, the Danes in Racine County, and the Italians in Kenosha.

[Sources: The History of Wisconsin vols. 2 and 3 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin); Nesbit, Robert C. Wisconsin: A History. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973); "Ethnic Groups in Wisconsin: Historical Background" Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies (online at http://mki.wisc.edu/)]

Original Documents and Other Primary Sources

	The first German women to settle in Milwaukee.
	The first Norwegian immigrants are recalled.
	Madison's Italian community in the early 20th century
	A Polish immigrant recalls coming to Milwaukee as a boy in 1868
	A Connecticut Yankee writes home about Wisconsin's virtues in 1847.
	A real-life "Little House" girlhood in Waupaca County.
	Carl Schurz describes why he settled in Wisconsin.
	Recollections of Old Superior
	Milwaukee's Irish neighborhood in the 19th century
	Theodore Rodolf recounts his life in the lead region in the 1830s
	The early Jewish history of LaCrosse
	Milwaukee's 19th-c. Jewish neighborhood recollected
	The roots of Milwaukee's Jewish community in the mid-19th century
	An overview of Polish immigration through 1896
	The character and activities of Bohemian immigrants, 1901
	A description of the early Polish immigrants to Wisconsin, 1901
	Fifty years of Polish settlement in Portage County, 1857-1907
	Czech immigrants settle in Langlade County in the 1880s
	A Polish couple braves the loneliness to settle Pike Lake
	The history and settlement of Langlade County
	A little bit of Italy in Vernon County
	Recollections of Wisconsin slaves by pioneer settlers.
	Early History of the Brothertown Indians
	A Yankee Childhood in Dodge County
	An Immigrant Who Became a Northwoods Missionary
	A costume from a Racine Purim carnival
	A traditional Ukrainian Easter egg
	A violin becomes a Norwegian fiddle, 1893
	The oldest toast in Wisconsin
	A Norwegian trinket box
	Two sausage stuffers
	Rosemaled Norwegian Immigrant Trunk, 1845
	A teenager's diary of coming overland from Ohio in 1846
	A popular handbook teaches immigrants about Wisconsin, 1851.
	Barron County officials encourage settlers to emigrate to the northwoods.
	Northwoods officials try to attract settlers onto cutover lands, 1902.
	A German immigrant advises others about coming to Wisconsin (1849)
	Promoters describe Superior in its infancy
	Promoters try to entice settlers to Bayfield County
	A survey report of migratory labor in Wisconsin in 1962
	An 1875 history of the Chippewa Valley
	An Abolitionist Recalls Anti-Slavery Days in Wisconsin
	Folklore and folktales collected by Charles E. Brown
	A speech by Brothertown Indian leader Samsom Occom, 1771
	A guide to the Mohican language, 1789
	The state markets itself to immigrants, 1867-1896
	A German emigrant guidebook, 1841
	Horse thieves on the Wisconsin frontier, 1832-1865
	Stories by and about German immigrants.
	Stories by and about Norwegian immigrants.
	Stories by and about immigrants from Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.
	Stories by and about Swiss immigrants.
	Stories by and about Czech and Hungarian immigrants.
	Stories by and about Italian immigrants.
	Stories by and about Dutch and Belgian immigrants.
	An advertisement tries to attract settlers to the cutover region.
	An Austrian painter depicts Wisconsin in the 1850s
	Pictures of John Muir
	A Norwegian immigrant describes coming to Wisconsin in 1840.
	A German immigrant describes coming to Wisconsin.
	30 original manuscript letters of John Muir, 1861-1914
	John Muir's younger brother recalls their boyhood.
	An Austrian painter describes sketches made while traveling Wisconsin, 1856-1860
	Ma Ingalls describes family life in 1861