Chapter 7
-- Compiled by the Cumberland Women's Club
and Published by the Cumberland Advocate
1874-1974
(used by permission of the Cumberland Advocate)
Donated by Linda Mott
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German History
Submitted by Mrs. Robert Froehlich and Mr. Fred Behne, thru Reverend Martin Luecke.
Friederick and Anna Behne emigrated to America about 1895, from Strassfurt, Germany, a city of 30,000. In their schools they had one hour religious training each day. Boys and girls had separate classrooms and playgrounds.
Mr. Behne came to Mankato, Minnesota originally and found work in a brick yard. An uncle, who arrived earlier helped with this job. Since this was a seasonal job, they made wood to burn in the dry kiln, during the winter months. The Behnes read German newspapers (Wolks-Blatt des Westerns) which carried advertisements inviting people to come to Wisconsin. They told of the many lakes, the beautiful woods and the cheap land. Many an immigrant was fooled by these ads. Though there were many fish in the lakes, woods very beautiful, and land was cheap, unless you had some money, or a very good friend who could help get money from the bank, it was very hard to make a living.
Friederick Behne came to this area in 1900 and bought land 3 miles northeast of Cumberland. The first winter they stayed in town with a kind real estate man by the name of Peterson. He met them at the station and offered to house them. Later, they were asked to take care of a farm 4 miles north of McKinley, for a real estate man. They did this for two years and then moved to the land they had bought.
There were no roads, only narrow logging trails through the woods. In the beginning there was no income, but from wood. Four foot maple, which was shipped to the Cities and logs. But wood products were so cheap as everybody had wood. Creamery and cheese factories were few and far apart. Transportation was also a problem.
In his early school days at district number 4, Town of Lakeland and Cumberland, there were no children who spoke German. About 1910 a family by the name of Carl Aigner, moved to a farm north-east of the city, and they spoke German. Another family by the name of Krueger, had a boy who went to school with Fred Behne, and spoke German.
As it was difficult to get to church, most of the instruction was done at home by parents who taught them the Bible and singing. When they could go, it meant a walk of about three miles, with small children. The church members in these early days would meet new people at the station, and very often keep them in their homes until they got settled.
In the early years, Western
Avenue was called "Cabbage Hill" because of
its German population. Carl, Herman, and Julius Neumann,
the Fritz Brandts, and others all lived there
and worked in the sawmill, a big industry at that time. It was located
on what is now called "Mill Hill." In the
late 1880s these folks organized the first original German Evangelical
Lutheran
Congregation, which they later
called St. Paul's Lutheran Church. The Herman Neumann
home,
now owned by the Behnes, on Western Avenue was divided in two parts. The
south half to be their church and the north half the dwelling of Herman
Neumann. One of the first weddings to be held in the newly organized church
was that of Martha Neumann.
After the mill closed, one by one, these folks went to St. Paul seeking work.
In 1906 a Norwegian Congregation, not affiliated with the First Lutheran in Cumberland, merged with St. Paul's Lutheran Church, and built a new church where the Lakeview apartments now stand. This was sold to the government for low-rent housing project in 1964. St. Paul's built their new church on highway 48, east of town.
Some early settlers were Carl
Aigners, Kruegers, Albert
Huehn, Reinhold Huehn, Fred
Behne, Dr. Grinde, Thorsness
family, Peterson family, the Herman
Richter family. He worked at the Evangelical Lutheran Colonization
Company at Cumberland. Herman Cart and family,
Mr. Cart being the creamery man.
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