Charles Wacker and his three children. Wacker Family Papers, Newberry Library. View collection guide
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German Immigration
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The family stories of a rural farmer, an abolitionist journalist, and a wealthy urbanite demonstrate the diversity of experiences among German immigrants to the Midwest.
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Above: Charles Wacker and his three children. Wacker Family Papers, Newberry Library. View collection guide
The Walters
In 1852, Johann Nikolas Daniel Walter packed all his worldly belongings into this trunk and left Hanover province, Germany, with his wife and three small children to settle in Pope County, Illinois. Their journey took them on an eight-week voyage across the ocean to New Orleans by ship, then up the Mississippi River and east on the Ohio River by steamboat before they reached their destination. The Walters were among the millions of Germans who immigrated to the United States in the 1850s to escape economic hardship and political unrest at home. —Illinois State Museum
The Rasters
Born in Germany in 1827, Hermann Raster graduated from the University of Leipzig in 1846 and the University of Berlin in 1848. Raster took part in the revolutions of 1848, writing passionately against church and monarchy. He was forced to flee to America with fellow revolutionaries to escape prison. Raster worked as a journalist in New York State for fifteen years. His pro-union, anti-slavery, and anti-temperance stances proved influential in leading German Americans to switch to the Republican Party in 1856. In 1867, he accepted a position as editor of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung, a German-language newspaper prominent in the Midwest. He lived and worked in Chicago for another 24 years until his death and was survived by his third wife, Margarethe, and their three children, Anna, Edwin, and Walther.
Hermann Raster family papers, 1851-1930 (box 8). Newberry Library. View at Internet Archive
Help make the Raster Family papers—including correspondence and diaries (as shown above) from Margarethe Raster, Anna Raster, and Lenore Raster—more accessible by transcribing them at Newberry Transcribe.
The Wackers
Businessman and philanthropist Charles Henry Wacker was born in Chicago in 1856 to German immigrants Frederick and Catharine Hummel Wacker. Frederick Wacker founded the Wacker and Birk Brewing and Malting Company in Chicago, and Charles became president after his father’s death in 1884. Charles married Ottilie Marie Glade in 1887 and they had three children: Frederick Glade, Charles Henry Jr., and Rosalie Wacker. In 1893, Charles served as a director for the World’s Columbian Exposition, and he later served as the Vice Chairman of the General Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. Charles played a prominent role in promoting Daniel Burnham’s plan for improving Chicago. Appointed Chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission in 1909, he served in this role until 1926, when Wacker Drive was named after him.
