Friedrich Ernst (settler)

Letter from Friedrich Ernst from 1832 with publication from 1834
("The Winedale Story", Center for American History)

Johann Friedrich Ernst , born as Christian Friedrich Diercks (born June 18, 1796 at Gödens Castle near Neustadtgödens (today: Sande (Friesland) ), Duchy of Oldenburg ); † between May 16 and July 10, 1848 in Industry , Austin County , Texas , USA was one of the very first German settlers in Texas with his family and became the " father of immigrants ".

family

He was the son of Meine Dierks († 1800) and Sybille Grimms. But since his escape from Oldenburg (1829) he called himself Friedrich Ernst from then on .

Diercks married on October 25, 1818 in Oldenburg Luise Gesine Auguste Weber (born July 30, 1800 in Ovelgönne , Duchy of Oldenburg, † 1888 in Industry, Austin County, Texas, USA), the daughter of Jacob Ludwig August Weber and Friederike Catharina Sophie Meyer. The couple had 7 children, including their daughter Caroline Ernst . After the death of her husband (1848), Luise married Constantin Stoehr († around 1858) on February 7, 1849. Luise Ernst / Stoehr later told a reporter for the newspaper " Texas Post " in Galveston about her life. These memories were also published in German in 1884 in the magazine “ Der Deutsche Pionier ”.

Life

Soon after the death of his father (1800), who was a servant at Gödens Castle, his mother moved with him to Varel (Duchy of Oldenburg). At first he worked as a simple gardener. But in February 1814 Diercks entered the Regiment Oldenburg of Duke Peter of Oldenburg and served there as a soldier until 1819. As such, he took right at the beginning or at the Sixth Coalition War against Napoleon Bonaparte in part. In June 1819 he left the military with the rank of quartermaster and the duke made him an official in the ducal post office in Oldenburg.

But ten years later, in September 1829, Diercks had to flee with his wife and his 5 children (two children had already died) because he was being persecuted by the new Grand Duke August von Oldenburg for embezzling a large sum of money. From now on he only called himself Friedrich Ernst.

The Ernst family fled via Bremen , Osnabrück and Münster to Brussels ( Belgium ) and boarded a sailing ship in Le Havre ( France ) to New York , where they arrived at the end of the year.

For the first time they stayed in a boarding house in New York, where they met the German Charles Fordtran. Ernst and Fordtran became friends and decided to go to Missouri together. But on the ship to New Orleans they read a brochure about the excellent conditions and the land allocation in the west of the colony of a certain Stephen F. Austin in Texas (now Austin County), immediately changed their plan and got on the schooner " Saltillo " in New Orleans “ Moved to Harrisburg, Texas . They reached Texas as the first German settlers on March 9, 1831.

On April 16, 1831, Ernst took possession of 1,600 acres of land in Austin's colony on the west bank of a tributary of Mill Creek, about 50 kilometers northwest of San Felipe, Texas, and Charles Fordtran became his neighbor.

In February 1832, Ernst wrote a long letter to a friend in his German homeland, in which he glorified the living conditions in Texas and, to a certain extent, painted Texas as paradise on earth, although he himself only lived in a hut with a thatched roof and no windows with his wife and 5 children or doors lived. After his forced escape, the opposite would have been a shame. With this letter, but Ernst triggered unconsciously and unintentionally emigration wave in northern Germany from: The letter was scattered there widely, even in some newspapers and in 1834 published a booklet and encouraged to other emigrants mainly from the Duchy of Oldenburg, from Holstein and Westphalia - whether from economic or political reasons (see " Thirties ") - to emigrate to Texas.

In the period that followed, Ernst became a real benefactor for his compatriots: he made his house available to the newcomers, entertained them and even supported them financially as far as he could. This is how his nickname " Father of Immigrants " came about . Even Robert J. Kleberg and Albrecht von Roeder with their families were among its first guests. In later years, Ernst served as Austin County's Justice of the Peace .

In 1838 he sold shares of his land holdings to new immigrants. Industry (Texas), the first German city in Texas, gradually emerged from this growing settlement. Austin County thus became the origin of the relatively closed German settlement area ( German Belt ) in Texas. Former neighbors in Germany were often neighbors again in Texas, so the German language, customs and traditions continued to be cultivated.

Over the years, Ernst worked in a wide variety of fields: He planted fruit trees, cultivated tobacco and made cigars, which he sold in San Felipe (Texas) , Houston and Galveston (Texas). The developing cigar industry later gave his hometown the name " Industry ". Ernst recorded the weather data (precipitation and temperatures) on his farm. In 1841 he founded the German " Teutonia Order " with the residents of Industry and Catspring (Texas) . He campaigned for the promotion of German immigration at the Texas Congress .

The Texan President Mirabeau B. Lamar (1798-1859) even wanted to send him to the Netherlands as an envoy . But Ernst died in 1848 at the age of 52.

literature

• Miriam Korff York: Friedrich Ernst of Industry . Published by Giddings, Texas 1989
• Detlef Dunt (ed.): Trip to Texas, along with news from this country; for Germans who intend to go to America . Publishing house Carl Wilhelm Wiehe, Bremen 1834

Web links

• Biography in the Handbook of Texas