A Reputation of Respectability: Social and Cultural Aspects of Immigrant Life

Donlon, Regina

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-78738-1_6

Regina Donlon²

330 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter discusses the social and cultural characteristics of both the German and Irish immigrant communities. German social and cultural pursuits exhibit a pronounced secularity that is not evident in the Irish community. Sources relating to the German Turnverein movement and a variety of singing societies highlight the transnational elements of German society and culture. In the example of the Irish, social and cultural elements were inextricably linked with the Catholic Church, and because of that, most social, cultural, and even sporting outlets had a religious dimension which ultimately added to the overriding sense of cohesion among the Irish immigrant community. The chapter concludes with the importance of cultural events like St Patrick’s Day and emphasizes its significance in creating an ethnic presence.

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Notes

1.
Tyler Anbinder, Five Points: The Nineteenth Century Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World’s Most Notorious Slum (New York: Free Press, 2001), 183−89.
2.
Kevin Kenny, The American Irish: A History (New York: Routledge, 2000), 148−49.
3.
Giles Hoyt, “Germans,” in Peopling Indiana: The Ethnic Experience, ed. Robert M. Taylor and Connie A. McBirney (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 1996), 160.
4.
For more on the victim motif, see Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland the Irish Exodus to North America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985).
5.
Die Westliche Post , June 14, 1888.
6.
Ibid.
7.
Ibid.
8.
Ibid.
9.
Carl Rahkonen et al., “European American Musical Cultures,” in Musical Cultures in the United States: An Introduction, ed. Ellen Koskoff (New York: Routledge, 2005), 175.
10.
Ernst D. Kargau, The German Element in St Louis, ed. Don Tolzman (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2000), 159.
11.
Ibid.
12.
Johann Lewalter, Deutsche Volkslieder: In Niederhessan aus den Munde des Volkes Gesammelt (Hamburg: G. Fritzsche, 1892), 9, 60.
13.
Rahkonen et al., “European American Musical Cultures,” 173.
14.
Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, June 25, 1885.
15.
Silver Jubilee Program of the Frier Männerchor, August 19, 1888, Workingmen’s Singing Society, S237/42/4/1, State Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri, St Louis, MO.
16.
History of the Harmonie Gesängverein , St Louis, Harmonie Singing Society Papers, S033/1/4/2, State Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri, St Louis, MO.
17.
Ibid.
18.
German American Biographical Co., Toledo und sein Deutschtum (Cleveland: German American Biographical Co., 1899), 78.
19.
Jim Sack, “The Germans,” in History of Fort Wayne and Allen County , Indiana, 1700−2005, ed. John Beatty and Phylis Robb (Fort Wayne: M.T. Publishing Company, 2005), 686.
20.
Stephen Erdely, “Ethnic Music in the United States: An Overview,” Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council 11 (1979): 121.
21.
Rahkonen et al., “European American Musical Cultures,” 163.
22.
Ibid., 176.
23.
German American Biographical Co., Toledo und sein Deutschtum, 78.
24.
Fort Wayne Gazette, April 16, 1885.
25.
Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, June 24, 1885.
26.
Ibid.
27.
Ibid.
28.
Robert Wild, “Chapters in the History of the Turners,” The Wisconsin Magazine of History 9 (1925): 125. Wild argues that the aim of the organisation was to foster patriotic ideals by encouraging physical activity in a fraternal environment.
29.
Robert Knight Barney, “Forty-Eighters and the Rise of the Turnverein Movement in America,” in Ethnicity and Sport in North America: History and Culture, ed. George Eisen and David Kenneth Wiggins (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1994), 19.
30.
Ibid., 20.
31.
Annette R. Hofmann, “Lady Turners in the United States: German American Identity, Gender Concerns and Turnerism,” Journal of Sport History 27, no. 3 (2000): 383.
32.
Kargau, German Element, 217.
33.
Wild, “Chapters in the History of the Turners,” 131.
34.
James M. Bergquist, “German Communities in American Cities: An Interpretation of the Nineteenth Century Experience,” Journal of American Ethnic History 4, no. 1 (1984): 17.
35.
Kargau, German element, 217.
36.
Ibid.
37.
Ibid.
38.
Gould & Co., Gould’s St Louis City Directory, 1900 (St Louis: Gould & Co., 1900), 2485.
39.
Annette R. Hofmann, “Between Ethnic Separation and Assimilation: German Immigrants and Their Athletic Endeavours in Their New American Home Country,” The International Journal of the History of Sport 25, no. 8 (2008): 998.
40.
Verfassung des St Louis Turnvereins (St Louis, MO, 1860), 4. St Louis Turnverein Papers, 1852−1933, A1449/1/12, Missouri History Museum, St Louis, MO.
41.
Note in St Louis Turnverein Minute Book, February 1900, St Louis Turnverein Papers 1852−1933, A1449/1/20A.5.4, Missouri History Museum, St Louis, MO.
42.
Hofmann, “Lady Turners,” 39.
43.
Barney, “Forty-Eighters,” 21.
44.
Hofmann, “Between Ethnic Separation and Assimilation,” 999.
45.
Wild, “Chapters in the History of the Turners,” 129.
46.
Annette R. Hofmann, Turnen and Sport: Transatlantic Transfers (Münster: Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2004), 94.
47.
Wild, “Chapters in the History of the Turners,” 130.
48.
Sack, “The Germans,” 686.
49.
Jay Dolan, The Irish Americans: A History (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2008), 197.
50.
William Barnaby Faherty, St Louis Irish: An Unmatched Celtic Community (St Louis: Missouri History Museum Press, 2001), 113.
51.
Ibid.
52.
Ibid., 114.
53.
1900 US Federal Census Record for Michael McDermott, 1900 US Federal Census, St Louis (Independent city), MO, Ward 3, ED 46, 3, Ancestry.com, accessed June 20, 2013, www.ancestry.com. See O’Laughlin, Michael, Missouri Irish: The Original History of the Irish in Missouri (Kansas City: Irish Genealogical Foundation, 2007), 105.
54.
Sandra Brunsmann noted that the annual membership of the AOH was $100, while Emmons makes the point that the prominent members of the organization could secure employment for other members provided they had a relatively high skill level. See Sandra M. Brunsmann, Early Irish Settlers in St Louis Missouri and Dogtown Neighborhood (St Louis: Sandra Brunsmann, 2000), 9; and Emmons, Beyond the American Pale, 276.
55.
Faherty, St Louis Irish, 111.
56.
Missouri Democrat, March 16, 1872.
57.
Missouri Democrat, March 18, 1880.
58.
Ibid.
59.
Gould & Co., Gould’s City Directory of St Louis, 1900, 2477.
60.
Thomas Logan, “The Irish in Fort Wayne,” in History of Fort Wayne and Allen County , Indiana, 1700−2005, ed. John Beatty and Phylis Robb (Fort Wayne: M.T. Publishing Company, 2005), 729.
61.
Fort Wayne News Sentinel, April 17, 1890.
62.
R. L. Polk & Co., Fort Wayne City Directory, 1895−1896 (Fort Wayne: R. L. Polk & Co., 1895), 56, 390, 561.
63.
Emmons, Beyond the American Pale, 282. See also Deirdre M. Moloney, “Combatting Whiskey’s Work: The Catholic Temperance Movement in Late Nineteenth Century America,” US Catholic Historian 16, no. 3 (1998): 7.
64.
Moloney, “Combatting Whiskey’s Work,” 6.
65.
Faherty, The St Louis Irish, 111.
66.
Gould & Co., Gould’s City Directory of St Louis, 1900, 2476.
67.
Moloney, “Combatting Whiskey’s Work,” 17.
68.
Faherty, The St Louis Irish, 111.
69.
Missouri Democrat, March 16, 1872.
70.
Moloney, “Combatting Whiskey’s Work,” 5.
71.
Kenneth Moss, “St Patrick’s Day Celebrations and the Formation of an Irish-American Identity, 1845−1875,” Journal of Social History 29, no. 1 (1995): 137. See also Mike Cronin and Daryl Adair, The Wearing of the Green: A History of St Patrick’s Day (New York: Routledge, 2002), 65.
72.
Dr. R. Emmet Kane ‘Let Erin Remember’ in Ellen Dolan, The St Louis Irish (St Louis: Old St Patrick’s, 1967), 56.
73.
Missouri Democrat, March 18, 1880.
74.
Ibid.
75.
Mather notes that this event symbolised the first ‘modicum of acceptance’ the Irish received in Fort Wayne after years of nativist sentiment. For more see: George R. Mather, “Fort Wayne’s First St Patrick’s Day Celebration,” Old Fort News 55 (1992): 1.
76.
Mather, “Fort Wayne’s First St Patrick’s Day,” 3.
77.
Fort Wayne Sentinel, April 17, 1899.
78.
Missouri Republic, August 20, 1895.
79.
R. L. Polk & Co., Fort Wayne City Directory, 1895, 60.
80.
Edwards & Co., Edwards Directory for the City of St Louis for 1870 (St Louis: Edwards & Co., 1870), 88.
81.
Ibid., 85.
82.
Dolan, St Louis Irish, 28.
83.
O’Laughlin, Missouri Irish, 112.
84.
Faherty, St Louis Irish, 111.
85.
Fort Wayne Weekly Democrat, February 24, 1869.
86.
Ibid.
87.
Kennedy & Co., Kennedy’s St Louis Directory for 1860 (St Louis: Kennedy & Co., 1860), 14.

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Maynooth University, Maynooth, Kildare, Ireland
Regina Donlon

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Donlon, R. (2018). A Reputation of Respectability: Social and Cultural Aspects of Immigrant Life. In: German and Irish Immigrants in the Midwestern United States, 1850–1900. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78738-1_6

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78738-1_6
Published: 30 June 2018
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
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Online ISBN: 978-3-319-78738-1
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