Saint Paul Journeys

Immigration, Kinship, and Settlement at 408 Erie Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota

For many in this story, Bohemia had been home. Situated in the heart of Central Europe, the kingdom stretched across lands that included Bohemia proper and neighboring regions. Prague had once stood at the center of Bohemia’s imperial power, and its people carried a deep sense of history, language, and place. By the nineteenth century, however, political upheaval, population pressures, limited access to land, and economic instability made survival uncertain for many families. Those who had worked the same trades for generations found themselves with no clear future for providing for themselves or their children. People from Germany, Hungary, the Scandinavian countries and others, driven by many of the same pressures and uncertainties as those from Bohemia, set out as well to look for new opportunities.

After 1830, waves of European immigrants crossed the Atlantic, drawn by the promise of land ownership, employment, and personal freedom in the United States. The Homestead Act of 1862 proved especially influential, offering 160 acres of land at no cost to those willing to settle and improve it. This legislation was a powerful pull factor for people eager to escape overcrowding and land scarcity. Though immigration slowed during the American Civil War, as many young men feared conscription into a conflict they had had no role in creating, the pace surged again after the war’s end.

The journey to America was long and grueling. Many immigrants first traveled by rail to ports such as Bremen or Hamburg, Germany, then boarded large passenger sailing barques or later, steamships, bound for New York, or sometimes Canada or even New Orleans. Most crossed in steerage enduring crowded conditions and weeks at sea. Yet the hardship was borne with hope: the chance to build a future which had become impossible in their old world.

By the 1860s and 1870s, Minnesota in particular was actively encouraging immigration and promoting its farmland, jobs, and better prospects. Newcomers found their way to Saint Paul, especially the neighborhoods along West Seventh Street, where work and community took shape side by side. Men labored in breweries, railroads, quarries, icehouses, and workshops, laying the physical and economic foundations of the city. Skilled artisans practiced trades such as shoemaking, tailoring, masonry, blacksmithing, and brewing. Lesser-skilled workmen did the backbreaking jobs that kept everything going. Women kept the home and reared the children. Churches and cultural and fraternal organizations offered a sense of belonging and mutual aid.

Immigration is not only a movement of people but a reshaping of place. The stories of the men and women who immigrated to Saint Paul began with departure from a home overseas, but it was ultimately a story of arrival. Unfamiliar streets became neighborhoods, though memory and tradition survived distance.

The full story of these immigrants who made their way to 408 Erie Street is available here as a PDF. It was originally self-published by the author, but is being made available here to facilitate search terms. Below is a list of tags for the purposes of search engines, since they do not search individual PDFs. The ISBN number for the original publication is ISBN 978-0-1234-6578-8, copyright 2026 by Kathi C. Wong.

Tags:

  • Mississippi River
  • Minneapolis
  • Upper Landing
  • Lower Landing
  • Fort Road
  • West Seventh Street
  • Valley of the St. Peters, St. Peters River, Saint Peters, Minnesota River
  • Seth Eastman, artist
  • native Americans, Dakota tribe
  • Mnísota, Ȟaȟáwakpa, Bdote, Wakpá Tháŋk
  • native Americans, Ojibwe tribe
  • Mid-west, Upper Mid-west
  • European fur traders
  • French Empire, British Empire, American Empire
  • U.S. Army
  • Fort Snelling military reservation
  • Canada
  • pioneer families
  • Pierre “Pig’s Eye” Parrant,” French-Canadian
  • Fountain Cave
  • John Vanek
  • Benjamin Gervais, Genevieve Gervais
  • William Beaumette
  • John Miller
  • Vetal Guerin
  • François Leblanc
  • Abraham Perry, Marie Anne Perry
  • Peter Müller,
  • Carver’s Cave
  • Father Lucien Galtier
  • Mendota
  • St. Peter’s, Saint Peters, Pierre River
  • squatting on public land
  • land acquisition, land speculation
  • Minnesota Territory
  • Richard Freeborn
  • Federal Bureau of Land Management General Land Office, St. Croix, Saint Croix
  • Henry Jackson
  • Henry S. Fairchild
  • Stinson, Brown, and Ramsey Addition
  • (first name unknown) Winslow
  • (first name unknown) Rice
  • Cascade
  • James M. Goodhue, Minnesota Pioneer
  • Saint Paul growth, population, census
  • Max Strobel, artist
  • Michigan Street, Saint Paul
  • steamboats, steam railroads, Saint Paul as capital,
  • Public Land Survey System
  • map, Counting House Map of the City of Saint Paul (1869)
  • Justus C. Ramsey