Bernard: Off to America
Click to find out more on Rudolf
The first Imwalle to leave Rieste was Rudolf's older brother Johannes Bernard. He left Rieste headed to Bremen, which was a port city near the North Sea. This was the largest port of emigration in Germany, and 7,200,000 people departed from these harbors between 1830 and 1974!
An overseas trip to America in those days took anywhere from 40-90 days, depending on the weather at sea. It was very important for Bernard to pick a reliable shipowner to transport him across the Atlantic Ocean. The Bremen government had laws about the amount of food and supplies that should be provided for each passenger. Some other shipping companies in other towns did not have these types of procedures.
So, Bernard boarded a ship called the "Itzstein &Weicker." Bernard's ship left Germany and headed to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he arrived on December 18, 1856. He then took a steamboat to Cincinnati, Ohio.
Everything was a first experience for Bernard, as he had never been to America. At that time, Cincinnati, Ohio, a river town, had a large German population and was the largest city west of the Allegheny mountains. Bernard had been a farmer back in Rieste, but was able to become a grocer in America, and within a few years owned property in Cincinnati.
An overseas trip to America in those days took anywhere from 40-90 days, depending on the weather at sea. It was very important for Bernard to pick a reliable shipowner to transport him across the Atlantic Ocean. The Bremen government had laws about the amount of food and supplies that should be provided for each passenger. Some other shipping companies in other towns did not have these types of procedures.
So, Bernard boarded a ship called the "Itzstein &Weicker." Bernard's ship left Germany and headed to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he arrived on December 18, 1856. He then took a steamboat to Cincinnati, Ohio.
Everything was a first experience for Bernard, as he had never been to America. At that time, Cincinnati, Ohio, a river town, had a large German population and was the largest city west of the Allegheny mountains. Bernard had been a farmer back in Rieste, but was able to become a grocer in America, and within a few years owned property in Cincinnati.
Steamboats traveled up and down the Ohio River. Bernard would have ridden aboard a boat much like this in 1856 from New Orleans.
Click on the PDF file below to see what sort of food and supplies were on Bernard's ship to America!
| provisions.pdf |
