First home   Carl de Haas, Richard McMillan’s great-grandfather, emigrated to Calumet, Wisconsin, in 1847. This image of his first homestead comes from Winke fur Auswanderer, his book of advice for emigrants, widely sold in Germany.

Winke für Auswanderer: Hints for Emigrants
V. First view of Calumet

With baggage and belongings stashed in Milwaukee, Carl, Richard, and Eduard traveled by stagecoach to Fond du Lac, arriving July 27 in the evening. They went on foot to the Calumet settlement, where they stayed with Johann Mentis. Carl describes the topography in detail, with advice on how to find suitable land. After an exhausting expedition to see more of the territory, he bought a 40-acre farm next to Mentis.

I had brought a letter for Johann Mentis from his relatives. Since Fond du Lac county and especially Calumet had been recommended also in Milwaukee by several men who were impartial and well acquainted with conditions there, it was decided immediately after our arrival in Milwaukee, that Büttner and I should go to Calumet to deliver the letter and look over the colony for ourselves. In the event that we saw our hopes fulfilled, we planned to come back for the others and the baggage.

On July 25 we left Milwaukee by stagecoach. We began in a rather small but elegant and practical coach; later we got a very poor one, which jolted us so badly on the roads — partly very bad corduroy roads —that the whole company cried out. The stagecoach does not travel directly to Calumet, but first goes almost west and inland to Watertown, a beautiful little town about 50 English miles from Milwaukee. From there the road divides, west to Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, and northeast to Fond du Lac. We arrived in Fond du Lac, the county seat in the county of the same name, on the evening of July 27th and the next day went on foot to the settlement Calumet which lies 14 English miles north.

The region around Milwaukee made no particularly favorable impression on us. As soon as we got deeper into the country, however, the aspect of the land changed. Swelling wheat fields whose stalks could scarcely bear the heavily laden ears and cornfields whose wide fanlike luxuriant stalks towered above our heads alternated with the most splendid woods, mostly of thick-stemmed oaks. Herds of beautiful cattle covered the natural rich pastures, pretty log cabins looked out from among trees, fruits everywhere, and before them farmers were working with joyous faces — and whole flocks of children, domestic animals, fowl, pigs, etc. could be seen. Fifteen miles from Milwaukee the road passes a series of small lakes and winds along between them over pretty hills. One of them especially stands out because of its charming location, and there is a beautiful building near it. The lake is called Silver Lake and our coachman pointed out the building as a theological seminary. We passed through several small towns, which seemed to me with their comfortable little houses like lovely flower buds that were about to burst open.

We saw no prairies on the first half of our trip, but beyond Watertown the first high prairie charmed us, a sea of fruit, completely level except for a few hills, which was framed by high forests. Unfortunately, not all parts of this beautiful prairie have sufficient water. The beautiful little town Fond du Lac lies likewise in a large prairie which has been used until now only as pasture, having high grass. Fond du Lac lies at the southern end of this prairie; at the northern point of it and directly on the shore of Lake Winnebago, lies another town, Taycheedah, which has only 20 houses. A steam mill is being built there and two small steamers travel from there to the settlements and towns around the shore of the lake, which extends about 30 English miles in length and 12 miles in width to the north and west of Taycheedah. From this town the road leads to Calumet through dense woods, which lie on the east shore of the lake. About in the middle of this shore is the village Calumetville, which is just forming, and around it in a circle of about 10 English miles is the colony or settlement of the same name. The justice of the peace lives at Calumetville, and from here a road leads to Sheboygan, a town on Lake Michigan, which is about 30 English miles from here directly to the east.

Sheboygan owes if not its origin, at least its rapid development to the prosperity of the settlements on Lake Winnebago. It already has more than 350 houses, large stores with all that the emigrant needs, inexpensive and comfortable inns, and there will soon be a sufficient number of drivers to take care of the transportation inland. The pier costs are small in Sheboygan. Emigrants who are planning to settle here or in this region will do well — and will have only half the expense — if they take tickets from Buffalo to Sheboygan, get out at Sheboygan and make the trip from there in one and half to two days with a bought or hired wagon. The trip from Sheboygan to Milwaukee takes eight hours with the steamer, from Milwaukee to this point takes four to five days by ox cart.

As for Calumet itself, the region and its inhabitants so appealed to us both, that we decided on it the first day. Mentis received us very hospitably and even gave up his bed in the living room to us; he and his wife slept in the attic. At his house too, as everywhere, we found many children (it is the usual thing here, that young couples have at least one child a year), and one can well imagine that his log cabin, consisting of living room and attic, was somewhat crowded by our presence. Later we decided to go to the only inn there, at a spot called Pipe Village (so named because it is marked for the location of a town) about one and a half English miles from Calumetville. At present this village has only a store, an inn and a school. The doctor lives at the inn. At Caton’s (the innkeeper, who is also a lawyer and farmer), one can live very well for 4 1/2 shillings a day.

We used the six days of our stay to inspect the settlement and to look for suitable land. The latter task is no easy one. Although quite pleasant, it is very hazardous if one is without an informed and impartial advisor. Success with this task can greatly affect one’s future well-being. It is impossible to describe to the immigrant exactly what characteristics the farm or the land he is choosing for his residence must have. We found that the suggestions usually given in books were so trivial that they could be taken for granted or were of merely relative importance. A piece of perfect land, as such books usually describe, is seldom found. One piece has a certain advantage which another lacks or a drawback which the other does not have. There are a hundred different things to be weighed and considered before one can decide. I shall give only a few tips concerning things whose importance became clear to us in choosing our land. First, one should be sure that the land has good, pure water or that good water can be had within 1,200 paces. The unhealthy water often found in America is due to the water standing in the rich surface soil where decomposition is taking place. That can be recognized by the gaseous odor of decay. Well water coming from some depth is almost always free of such organic materials. One must investigate more carefully spring water and most carefully brook water. In this investigation taste is the best means of judging. Second, one must make sure that a sufficient quantity of wood is present, and third, that one is getting at least a small piece of natural pasture. The first condition must absolutely be fulfilled; one need not insist on the fulfillment of the other two if the land in question has other important advantages.

We had come here with the intention of buying Congress land directly from the government (the price is $1.25 per acre, 80 acres are 100 Prussian Morgan). We learned however that all the land within about eight English miles of Lake Winnebago was already sold or claimed. As long as one is not yet a landowner, one can claim any piece of Congress land — i.e, land which the government has not yet bought — immediately without payment under the following conditions. First, that one pay the Congress price within a year, which is $1.25 per acre. Second, one must make the legally prescribed improvement on it (this is mainly that one must work on the land the first three days, even if only cutting down a few small trees, and in the first months one must put up a house or a small hut where one must spend at least a few nights). The government wants to give immigrants the opportunity to earn the money before they have to pay for the land.

This claiming is done frequently. Nevertheless, we set out July 29th at dawn, accompanied by two farmers who knew the territory, to at least look at the land beyond this region. We took food along so that we could spend the night out there if necessary and have our meals, also a flint to be able to light a fire and a small compass which would show us the way in the virgin forests and prairies. Soon we were in the densest woods. We went farther and farther, for our guide had heard the rumor that there was a beautiful prairie there, and whoever is looking for land goes eagerly after prairie land. We went through swamps frequently up to our knees, through fields of sedge so high and extensive that for a long time we saw nothing of each other except head. Then we went through dense bushes where we had to force our way with our hands. Our feet had to do the hardest work where the path led over piled up tree trunks which covered the ground. This dead creation lies at the feet of the living, which stretches its green crowns toward the sky until storm or age plunges them down on their predecessors, already gone back to soil. The fallen trunks are partly still firm, partly however so rotten, that when one is misled by their outward appearance to expect a firm footing, one sinks to the knee in decay.

Our guide was very skillful in overcoming all these obstacles, but his skill had the unpleasant consequence for us, that we soon could not go on for exhaustion. Then rainstorms came one after another, so that the bushes and grass became damp and the plan of sleeping on the ground was, if not impossible, at least unpleasant and dangerous for us pampered city people. Therefore, we announced categorically to our guides, who were pushing ahead to the rumored prairie, not to be stopped in their land-seeking zeal, but that we wanted to, had to, turn back. At midnight we arrived at Mentis’ hospitable home, wet through, clothes torn, faces and hands scratched. We had spent a day in the virgin forest.

A few days later I bought a farm situated next to Mentis, 40 acres surrounded by a strong fence, with a new two-story log cabin, under it a stone-walled cellar, a walled well 12 feet deep, 10 acres of the best sort of cleared farmland, about the same amount of pasture land, level and dry in the summer, with sweet grass two to three feet high. The rest is partly opening (land where only scattered trees are growing) and partly woods. I paid $300 for it this year and must pay $100 in a year. Our house is more comfortable than most houses in Germany (a good picture of our log-cabin is facing the title page). It is surrounded by a green terrace and around it is the most beautiful forest, meadow and field. A large, splendid prairie, which one can tell at first glance was once the bottom of a lake, ends a few hundred paces beyond our house, and gives a view into the distance. In the evening, when the fog is dense on this meadowland, it still gives the illusion of a lake, which offers, especially at sunset, a splendid spectacle. We are not lonely here, for our neighbors are upright and friendly people. Back in Germany most people remain strangers, neighbors often do not know each other. In Berlin one rarely knows even all the people in the house one lives in. Here everyone is acquainted, all feel themselves brothers, visit one another, and come and go as wish and leisure permit.

IV. Inland to Milwaukee      Top of File      VI. Citizenship and home