Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1840-1860, came mostly from northwest Germany and included the legendary
“48ers”—enlightened intellectuals fleeing political persecution. During this wave, as many
as215,000GermansmovedtoWisconsineachyear;by1855,fullyone-thirdofWisconsin's
Germans had arrived. The third wave occurred after 1880 and drew emigrants mainly from
Germany's northeastern region to southeastern Wisconsin, where they worked in the bur-
geoning factories.
Thestate's
French
rootscanbetracedbacktothevoyageurs,trappers,andJesuitpriests.
They started the first settlements, along the Fox and Wisconsin River Valleys. Though
Wisconsin shows no strong French presence in anything other than place-names, the Two
Rivers area still manifests an Acadian influence.
As the
British
and the French haggled and warred over all of the Wisconsin territory,
many crown-friendly British Yankees did move here, populating virtually every commu-
nity. The
Irish
began arriving in the late 19th century in numbers second only to the Ger-
mans. Irish influence is found in every community, especially Milwaukee's Bay View, Erin
inWashingtonCounty,OzaukeeCounty,AdellandParnellinSheboyganCounty,andMan-
itowoc County.
Pockets of
Welsh
and
Cornish
are found throughout the state, the latter especially in
the southwestern lead-mining region of the state. A distinct
Belgian
influence exists in Ke-
waunee County, where Walloon can still be heard in local taverns.
Poles
represent the primary Eastern European ethnic group. The largest contingent is
in Milwaukee, where kielbasa is as common a dietary mainstay as bratwurst. Most Poles
arrived 1870-1910. At that time, Poland was not recognized as a country, so Ellis Island
officials erroneously categorized many of the immigrants as Prussian, Austrian, or Russi-
an. While 90 percent of Wisconsin's Polish immigrants moved into the cities, about three-
tenths of those who arrived farmed, mostly in Portage and Trempealeau Counties; the latter
is the oldest Polish settlement in the United States.
Czechs,
another large Eastern European
group, live mostly in north and east-central Wisconsin, especially Kewaunee and Manito-
woc Counties.
Many
Norwegians
also emigrated to the upper Midwest, primarily Minnesota and Wis-
consin. Most were economic emigrants trying to escape Norway's chronic overpopulation.
MostNorwegiansinWisconsinwoundupinDaneandRockCounties.
Finnish
immigrants
to the United States totaled 300,000 between 1864 and 1920, and many of these settled in
the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and northern Wisconsin.
Swedes
made up the smallest
Scandinavian contingent, the original settlement made up of a dozen families near Wauke-
sha.
