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ECONOMICHISTORY On the Waterfront BY BETTY JOYCE NASH

t’s 8 a.m. at Fells Point in and Russians, Ukrainians and Poles, Two million , and people are wash- Greeks and Czechs, among others. Iing windows or unloading beer at Immigration effects reverberated, immigrants taverns in the salty breeze. If it weren’t producing, for example, insurance for rehabbed waterfront warehouses based on ethnic efforts to protect the entered the and homes selling for upward of newcomers, or the German concept of $300,000, it could be 1817. Back then, graduate school, unknown in the United States via though, the waterfront reeked of United States before the 19th century. waste and runoff. Also missing from Baltimore still absorbs immigrants. Baltimore in the the 2006 tableau are sailing ships with The old ethnic neighborhoods, with a cargoes of immigrants from war-weary church on every block, festivals, and 19th century Europe or famished Ireland, some restaurants, exist alongside Spanish with money in hand to buy farmland, Town, the most active Hispanic others redemptioners whose time enclave in the state, says Ellen von would be sold for the price of passage. Karajan, executive director of the Those bakers, butchers, iron Preservation Society in Fells Point. workers, cabinetmakers, laborers, Among other projects, she is working retailers, shipbuilders, and financiers to save from the wrecking ball a Polish built Baltimore, its turnpikes, sanctuary on the second floor of bridges, the B&O Railroad, and many, the 1880s-era St. Stanislaus church. many houses. The city grew from “Baltimore has always been hospitable 13,503 people in 1790 to 212,418 in to immigrants and still is,” she says. 1860 to become the nation’s third “Immigrants are always city builders. largest, behind New York City and That is still going on.” Philadelphia. A quarter of Baltimore’s residents that year were foreign born, West by Water among them 15,536 Irish and 32,613 The snakes inland German, according to history professor from the Atlantic to Baltimore, Dean Esslinger of Towson University. the farthest west that immigrants He has written of Baltimore’s little- could venture via ship, farther west known immigration history. than Philadelphia, farther west than They were drawn by the same Charleston. The point of Fells Point forces that have always drawn immi- grants — the opportunity to work and improve their lots in life. Baltimore’s influx never reached the likes of Ellis Island in New York Harbor, or its predecessor Castle Garden. But by some estimates, as many as 2 mil- lion immigrants arrived through Fells Point and later Locust Point between the late 18th century and World War I, forever branding the city’s character. The earliest immigrants after the Immigrants wait for English were primarily Irish and a train at the German. Starving Irish, reports one B&O Baltimore author, “arrived at Thompson’s Sign facilities at the of the Harp on Ann Street near Locust Point, Pier 9 Thames in 1847.” Later came Italians or “Immigrant Pier.” PHOTOGRAPHY: FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF THE B&O RAILROAD MUSEUM RAILROAD OF THE B&O THE COLLECTIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHY:

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hooks out into the Bay; the land further improved its position by estab- grants by 1846. “Such effort and suc- was settled by the Fells family, lishing the nation’s first commercial cess could only have bolstered Quakers from England. steam railroad,” writes Esslinger. Many Baltimore’s reputation as a favorable Early on, the planter economy headed for the Midwest or even far- port of entry when immigrants wrote needed only river landings to load sup- ther west. Before rails became reality, home to their friends and relatives,” plies and product. But as the first canals to move goods inland were Esslinger writes. Germans drifted south from under construction, providing work. Many newcomers — some esti- Pennsylvania to western , By 1867, the B&O Railroad joined with mate half — did stay to ply trades or they brought wheat farming, establish- the North German Lloyd Line and work in construction jobs in growing ing mills near the rivers and streams offered one ticket from Bremerhaven, Baltimore, especially in the trans- that emptied into the Chesapeake. Germany, to Baltimore and beyond. portation industry. Major turnpike, Historian Dieter Cunz wrote: “The “Baltimore was the favorite port rail, and canal projects, under way to grain farms of the west demanded an for Europeans and especially for keep goods (and money) circulating, intermediary, a port of deposit, an Germans during these decades, partly required strong backs. For immi- urban center.” And demand for grain because of the tobacco trade, partly grants in bustling Baltimore, there in the sugar colonies of the West because of the close relations that was construction galore on houses, Indies was growing. existed between Baltimore and streets, bridges, and wharves. Esslinger By about 1800, there were a dozen Bremen,” writes Cunz in his 1948 book notes that some 2,000 houses a grain mills on a 14-mile stream on the The Maryland Germans. Germans had a year were going up in Baltimore by nearby Jones Falls, a stream that taste for American tobacco. Ships mid-century. stretches from northwest Baltimore loaded with tobacco sailed down the With the multi-ethnic labor force, County to the harbor. Converted later Chesapeake and returned “down the though, tension sometimes erupted to textiles, there were some 350 mills mouth of the Weser packed full of over competition for jobs. For by the mid-19th century. Some made German emigrants.” example, Irish workers attacked canvas for the U.S. Navy sailing ships, As early as 1783 a German Society German-built sections of the C&O including the famous Constellation. had been founded to care for the Canal in 1839, according to reports. Baltimore gained from the War of mistreated and indigent. Immigration Federal troops shot rioters, razed 1812, and the city was feeling its eco- dwindled during the Napoleonic wars, worker shanties, and took prisoners. nomic oats. Fells Point had become but by 1817, the society was revived Wages dropped to 87.5 cents a day famous for the Baltimore Clipper as immigration gathered steam from $1.25, according to Baltimore: ships, many of which were privatized and redemptioners suffered abuse The Building of an American City by for great profit during the war. (Some once more. Sherry Olson. Free black workers 126 privateers used Baltimore Harbor Here’s an often-told story: A ship really felt the brunt of depressed during that war, seizing more than anchored in the Bay in a February wages as white immigrants took 500 British ships. Many investors freeze in 1817 offered passengers’ labor unskilled jobs as caulkers, or coal and made fortunes on cargoes of wheat or to would-be buyers with these words: brick yard workers. In some yards, flour at wartime prices.) “These people have been fifteen weeks the black caulkers’ $1.75 per day jobs Besides the growing maritime on board and are short of provision. went to whites who worked for 50 industries of shipbuilding and Upon making the Capes, their bedding cents less. sailcloth-making, there were clothing having become filthy, was thrown By the Civil War, immigration and manufacturers. The spate of wars also overboard. They are now actually Baltimore’s economy had slowed. “Its had stoked the chemical industry, perishing from the cold and want of only growth sectors were closely tied including powder mills. Government provision.” In a move that speaks to to its role as a strategic transporta- pamphlets in boom times advertised how influential the German Society tion center,” according to Olson. The Maryland in Western Europe to had become, it pressured the state Union plopped troops on Baltimore’s attract workers. Legislature to pass laws drawn up by Federal Hill to ensure control of the The National Road beckoned the society to supervise the redemp- vital harbor. immigrants to Baltimore. The road tion system. Later, the society Some businesses prospered, how- was completed from the coast to the collected $1.50 from each immigrant ever, Olson wrote. “William Wilkens Ohio River at Wheeling in 1818, and to support the poor; the Hibernian was another enterprising German immigrants flocked to Baltimore Society (Irish) did likewise. immigrant of the ’40s. In the ’50s, he knowing the path inland was cleared. Ethnic societies also established had sent agents to the battlefields of “From only a few hundred immi- employment bureaus, among other the Crimea, and now he followed the grants per year, the total of newcomers services. For example, the German Army of the Potomac to Richmond climbed to nearly two thousand by the Society’s Intelligence Bureau formed and Petersburg, to clip the tails from end of the decade. In 1828, Baltimore in 1845 and found jobs for 3,500 immi- dead horses. At his curled hair factory

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on the Frederick Road, horsehair and example, 12,000 arrived in 1868. cakes,” he says. The brothers worked hog bristles were spread out like hay And so by the 1870s, Baltimore in their off hours building their own over the hillsides to dry.” exuded a German flavor and feeling. furniture business, replicating fine The German community was active Earlier generations of German immi- Colonial furniture. Potthast Brothers politically, and many opposed slavery. grants had become entrenched, with closed in 1975. Potthast Brothers fur- German newspapers editorialized four German American banks, facto- niture pieces remain in museums and against the practice, making them ries, breweries, German newspapers, private collections nationwide. targets of attacks by nativists and churches, clubs, halls, and opera Immigration through Baltimore Southern sympathizers in this border houses, as well as German housing was largely managed through private town. developments. And Germans ran their enterprise. For example, between own schools, many connected with 1868 and 1914 the steamship compa- From Bremerhaven to Baltimore churches. “But the success of the nies contracted with a woman named and Beyond German educational institutions iron- Mrs. Koether to run a boarding house After the Civil War, Baltimore’s ically produced their decline: by on Locust Point. For each immigrant economy rebounded. The steam popular demand, the city in 1872 she fed and housed, she received 75 age accelerated manufacturing and added to its public schools a cents a day, according to Esslinger. immigration, too, as it speeded trans- network of ‘German-English’ schools,” The boarding house did not inspect atlantic service and reliability. With Cunz wrote. passengers, as stations in New York better connections, Baltimore became The German American Society in did, because officials boarded ships at even more attractive to German immi- Baltimore is active today, with many the mouth of the bay and examined grants. In September 1865, Olson descendents carrying vivid memories passengers and papers before arrival reports that 18 first-class steamers of forbearers’ tales. Ted Potthast grew in Baltimore. made regular trips to Havana and up in the furniture-making business But by 1913, with immigrants Liverpool, the latter city being one of founded by his grandfather and three averaging some 40,000 a year, the the hubs of the Industrial Revolution. great uncles, Potthast Brothers. federal government constructed In 1867, the B&O Railroad and the The first brother, Vincent, arrived three buildings to process immigrants. North German Lloyd Line teamed up in Baltimore on the Lloyd’s Line in World War I shut down immigration, to offer immigrants one ticket that 1892, and Potthast relates the family and Germans were viewed with special would take them from Bremerhaven legend: Vincent got in a bar fight in suspicion, virtually ending Baltimore’s into the prairie states via steamer his hometown and, thinking he role in reception. The structures and B&O passenger train. More than had dealt a fatal blow, fled upriver to became military hospitals. 10,000 immigrants entered through Bremerhaven. Even as he was prepar- All but forgotten, Baltimore the port in 1867 compared with fewer ing to depart his native land, friends immigration deserves recognition, than 4,000 in the previous year, arrived to report the victim simply according to people who are raising according to Esslinger. knocked out. Vincent emigrated money for a memorial. But the But a casualty of the steamships anyway. “He was a cabinetmaker, and necessary $4.2 million is hard to was Fells Point, as they docked at there was plenty of work,” Potthast come by. Locust Point. Fells Point’s shipyards says. Germany was in a depression Brigitte Fessenden is working on folded and were replaced by the lum- and work there was scarce. Three the project and is also president of the ber, canning, and packing industries, brothers joined Vincent and all German Society of Maryland. “This all of which needed workers. worked at the Knabe factory, a build- memorial will not only honor and Most immigrants coming through ing of seven stories that covered a commemorate those who came Baltimore via the Lloyd’s Line in the city block, where the Orioles play before us, but also today’s immigrants immediate post-war years hailed baseball today, Potthast says. whose dreams and aspirations from somewhere in what was then “In those days, the only entertain- are probably not so much different the Austro-Hungarian empire, ment was music and every family had a from those of their predecessors,” including modern-day Germany. For piano, so pianos were selling like hot- she notes. RF

R EADINGS

Browne, Gary L. Baltimore in the Nation. Chapel Hill: University Esslinger, Dean R. “Immigration through the .” of North Carolina Press, 1980. In Stolarik, M. Mark (ed.) Forgotten Doors: The Other Ports of Entry to the United States. Philadelphia: Balch Institute Press, 1988. Cunz, Dieter. The Maryland Germans. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1948. Olson, Sherry H. Baltimore: The Building of an American City. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

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