Wosos 6 2/11/08 4:52 PM Page 100 Places of Key LAKE Historic site Chapter 6: They Came to Wisconsin Settlement SUPERIOR Modern border Modern city and They’re Still Coming: Immigration and Settlement LAKE SUPERIOR Oulu LOWLAND • Immigration and Migration: Then and Now • Making the Journey • A Stonemason in Cornwall, England, Comes y NORTHERN HIGHLAND a B to Mineral Point n e e r G • Free at Last W • A German Farmstead in Washington County E C S E T N M E T is R R • From Finland to Bayfield County si N A ss L ip p U P i P L A Oshkosh • Lucky to Be in America R L I N iv A e N EASTERN RIDGES r • Bringing Texas North to Wisconsin D AND LOWLANDS LAKE • Mai Ya’s Long Journey from Thailand to Wisconsin N Columbus MICHIGAN Pleasant Kirchhayn • Looking Back at Immigration and Settlement WE Ridge Madison in Wisconsin S Mineral Old World Point Wisconsin 02550 miles 02550 kilometers 1825 1850 1875 1900 ▲ ▲ 18 4 2 Richard Thomas 1857 Koepsell family leaves Pomerania and arrives in Washington County leaves Cornwall and arrives in Mineral Point ▲ ▲ 18 63 Greene family escapes slavery in Missouri 18 93 Ketola family leaves Finland and arrives in ▲ Oulu, Bayfield County 18 6 4 Greene family settles in Pleasant Ridge, Grant County Pomeranian basket, 1850s 100 Chapter 6 Wosos 6 2/27/08 1:54 PM Page 101 Key Words Thinking Like a Historian • emancipated • emigrate In what ways did events that were happening where people were • Holocaust living push them to leave or move away? In what ways did • immigrant opportunities in Wisconsin pull newcomers to the state? • immigration How did newcomers keep traditions they brought with them? • integrated How did newcomers adapt to their new homes and environments? • migrant What were the turning points in the lives of the people you read • migration about in this chapter? • refugees • slave How are the experiences of those who moved to Wisconsin long • slavery ago similar to those of people who moved here more recently? How are they different? How did the strengths that people brought with them help them adapt to and survive in Wisconsin? Typical Hmong storycloth 1925 1950 1975 2000 ▲ ▲ ▲ 1945 Rosa Goldberg is rescued from Germany 1980 Cris and Ann Plata 2004 Mai Ya return to Columbia County ▲ Xiong graduates permanently from the University 1953 Katz family settles in Oshkosh of Wisconsin– ▲ 1980 Mai Ya Xiong is Milwaukee 1957 Cris Plata born in Thailand lives in Wisconsin for the first time Immigration and Settlement 101 Wosos 6 2/11/08 4:52 PM Page 102 Immigration and Migration: Then and Now In this chapter, you’ll find out more about people who were not What is immigration? born in Wisconsin but chose to make their homes here. You’ll learn why they left their homeland, how they traveled here, and Why do people leave their homeland and what their lives were like after they arrived. Some people came settle in another country? Not every immigrant in the early 1800s. Others came more than 100 years later. How or migrant chooses to leave home. Sometimes does your family’s experience fit into this pattern of stories? events push or force people from their homes in one country or some region of this country. Sometimes people cannot find work to help their families survive. They must move to find Who is an immigrant? good jobs. Sometimes a war makes it impossible for people to continue to live in Have you lived in Wisconsin all of your life? Or did their home country. They must leave for their you move from elsewhere? If you came from another own safety. Sometimes, a terrible storm like country, then you are an immigrant. If you moved here Hurricane Katrina in 2005 pushes thousands of from a different state in the United States, then you are a people from their homes. After the storm, migrant. Moving from one country to settle and live in many people lost everything and had to start another country is called immigration. Moving from one over elsewhere. People who leave to escape region to another in the United States is called migration. harm are refugees as well as immigrants. Maybe you have lived in Wisconsin all of your life, but Some people choose to leave to be closer to your parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents moved family or friends who have already moved. here from another country. They are the immigrants in Others leave to take better-paying jobs or to your family. When you read Chapter 3, you learned that buy land that they couldn’t buy in their the ancestors of the Ho-Chunk and Menominee Nations homeland. Opportunities for a better life tend have lived in Wisconsin for thousands of years. Other to pull people from their home country. In this people—or their parents or ancestors who arrived here in chapter, you’ll read about immigrants, migrants, the last 400 years—either immigrated or migrated here. and refugees who settled in Wisconsin. homeland A country where someone was born or has lived immigrant (im uh gruhnt) A person from one country who moves to settle permanently in another country migrant (mI gruhnt) A person who moves from one state or region of a country to another immigration (im uh gray shuhn) Moving from one country to settle and live in another country migration (my gray shuhn) The process of moving from one region to another within the same country ancestors (an ses turz) Members of your family who lived a long time ago, usually before your grandparents refugees (ref yoo jeez) People forced to leave home to escape harm after disaster or war 102 Chapter 6 Wosos 6 2/11/08 5:26 PM Page 103 What is it like to be an immigrant? You’ll discover in this chapter the real stories of seven people who came to Wisconsin. Some came alone. Others came with their families. They each came from different parts of the world. They came at different times in history. And they settled in different parts of the state. Some were pushed from their homes. Others were pulled to Wisconsin. However, they all left familiar places. They all traveled through new, unknown places. They all made new lives in a new land. For some newcomers, this meant learning English. For others, it meant learning new skills. Some felt sad because they had to leave family members behind. Others felt happy because they had escaped from very difficult and dangerous situations. If you are an immigrant, you may recognize some of these experiences. If your ancestors were the immigrants in your family, this chapter may help you understand more about their immigration experiences. Immigration, migration, and settlement in Wisconsin have been going on for thousands of years. Remember reading in Chapter 3 about when the different Indian groups began arriving here to live? Many different groups of people have been arriving here ever since. More people will probably continue to arrive in the future. Immigration and settlement are a big part of Wisconsin’s past, present, and future. These children are celebrating Ethnic Pride Day at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Milwaukee. Laotian, African, Hmong, Indian, Hispanic, and American Indian cultures are all celebrated here. Have you ever been to a celebration like this? Are there special things you do with your family to celebrate your heritage? Ethnic Having to do with a group of people sharing the same home country or culture heritage (hair uh tij) Valuable, important traditions handed down from generation to generation Immigration and Settlement 103 Wosos 6 2/11/08 4:52 PM Page 104 Erie Canal N Making the Journey WECANADA Su ake perio L r S Mohawk River Lake La n ke Ontario a H g i u h r M o c i i n s Lake s M i s e Erie R anal s k Erie C i v i p a e r p L i Hudson How has travel changed over time River ATLANTIC OCEAN Key Canal 0200 miles for people moving to Wisconsin? Modern border 0200 kilometers Until the past 50 years, most people traveled by water across Large numbers of people did not begin to settle in the Atlantic or Pacific oceans to reach the United States from Wisconsin until after the Erie Canal was completed other countries. The building of railroads in the mid-1800s was a in 1825. Many early settlers came from New York turning point in overland travel. Two other turning points—the state. These settlers included the European invention of the automobile and the creation of airplanes—came immigrants who landed in the port of New York City. People could travel up the Hudson River, go early in the 1900s. People didn’t start driving on interstates or through the Erie Canal, reach Lake Erie, and sail to flying as passengers from Europe or Asia until the mid-1900s. a Wisconsin port without having to travel over land. Early journeys to Wisconsin took a great deal of time and effort. Now people can move much more rapidly to Wisconsin from another country or from another place in the er Water-Travel iv United States. When did members of your family R Lake e Routes to c come to Wisconsin? How did they get here? Where Superior Erie n e r Lake Canal w Wisconsin, 1800s a did they settle first? Huron L t. S Superior Prairie du Boston Chien New York Waterways connected people and land Lake Philadelphia Michigan separated them before railroads, automobiles, and planes.