In 1851, Jacob Sternberger (1822-1889), a young man from the town of Kaaden (Kadaň) in northwestern Bohemia (today in the Czech Republic) walked across Wisconsin to find land to purchase and farm, eventually settling near Portage. He had studied mining and law at the University of Prague where he was involved in the failed uprisings of 1848/49. Jacob Sternberger’s large cache of letters and other documents is now housed at the Max Kade Institute. It provides unique insights into the world of those who lived in America and Bohemia in the second half of the nineteenth century, their motivation to emigrate (or not), as well as the experiences of new settlers in the Midwest. Scans of transcriptions of the Sternberger Correspondence are available online.
This presentation is part of a two-day event, September 24–25, 2022, the Sudeten-German Weekend organized by the Island Church Foundation, in Waterloo, Wisconsin. Click here for a full program. The event will provide an in-depth look at the history of a people that migrated twice, first from Southwestern German states to Bohemia, and then to Wisconsin. Key settlement areas of these Sudeten Germans were Jefferson, Dodge, and Dane counties, Wisconsin. The program includes lectures on the earliest settlement area, which is in the Town of Waterloo, Jefferson County, Wisconsin, as well as a tour of two original pioneer structures, St. Wenceslaus Church (the so-called “Island Church”) and the log home of Vincent Faultersack.
REGISTRATION for the entire weekend event is REQUIRED. CLICK HERE to REGISTER.