A Bohemian Migrant's Journey: 1863
A Czech immigrant describes the journey to his new home in America
A few weeks ago, I posted about how the advent of fuel efficient steam engine technology in the early 1880s led to larger passenger ships – and more immigrants.
This week, searching through the Digitizing Immigrant Letters Project of the Immigrant History Research Center Archives, I came across a letter describing in detail an immigrant voyage from Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic) to America before that technological turning point. Since paper, postage, and time were valuable resources and many immigrants had little education, letters home from nineteenth century immigrants rarely include this much detail.
Leaving Bohemia
On December 26, 1863, Jozef Kostlan wrote to his family from his new home in Linn County, Iowa, to inform his family of their safe journey. At the beginning of their travels, from their home in Bohemia to the state of Bremen and then the seaport of Bremerhaven, Jozef and his family buzzed with the excitement of their adventure:
The entire journey from Pardubice to Bremen was very enjoyable since we could not stop wondering at all things and occurrences that we saw. We spent four days in Bremen; it is a very large free city or republic, about four miles around. From there, early in the morning on the 3rd of September, we, along with our luggage, embarked upon four sailboats. Each of them held about two hundred people, and another, a steamboat, towed us out. The sailboats were tied to it in such a way that we could walk from one to another without fear, and at about two o’clock in the afternoon we sailed into Bremerhaven where they moved our luggage chests to the ship. We were there overnight, and then early in the morning a steamboat towed us into deeper water. Bušek and the inn keeper with whom we had stayed, along with two clerks from the Office who had inspected us previously, all escorted us, and before long the steamboat left. Our escort also boarded a small boat, and then we waved our hats with wishes for health and a safe journey, saying good bye to them and to one entire continent.
Ocean Voyage: Unexpected Hardship
As they set sail from Europe, they could see nineteen other boats headed to England or the United States. The two others leaving from Bremerhaven, they knew, were emigrant ships: one carried all Germans, the second had six Bohemian families and the remainder Germans.
“Among us no one died except the Mlejnek’s girl and also one of the German’s.”
Despite their initial excitement, they were unprepared for the difficulties of the ocean travel; earlier emigrants, Jozef complained, had not sufficiently warned them.
The next day it began to rock us so unpleasantly that we could not fall asleep, and just over half of us were choking or throwing up. The crew, or sailors, were nailing and tying down the luggage chests to the posts to prevent them from tipping over. It then first occurred to us that much worse times are awaiting us, but thanks to God the voyage was good. But there was always a day or two when it was rocky, and then it was calm again. This lasted for two and a half weeks, and then it was fine all the way till the end. My weak stomach and constitution were giving me troubles for three and a half weeks. So much so that I could not eat, and as soon as I raised my head, it started spinning, and my stomach was turning, but then I got used to it and food tasted good again. Francek was also in bad shape, although not as long. Anna and Krystýna were also down for about four days, but at least they were not throwing up or were not too sick. Jozífek and Anička were throwing up constantly. That is how it is on a ship, there is fear and stench, thirst and hunger.
All in all, however, their journey was among the more fortunate. On a holiday, they received loaves of white bread, “and they tasted as good to us as the holiday pastries to you.” The sailors played music and danced on Sundays, “and the German passengers with them, for they feared nothing even when the luggage chests were rolling about and water was splashing into the ship. They were just laughing.” No one escapes God’s will anyway, Jozef wrote. “Among us no one died except the Mlejnek’s girl and also one of the German’s.”
Arriving in America
After forty days they arrived in New York, amazed by hundreds of steamships “moving on the water faster than trains on rails. Everyone had forgotten about their suffering, and many were jumping with joy when they saw the flat ground and the beautiful huge city.” After six days train travel, they reached Chicago and then went on to Cedar Rapids, where they joined an existing community of familiar faces from Bohemia.
He hadn’t yet seen enough to tell them much, but the surrounding prairie was “similar to the fields of the Vavras, but you will not find a stone on it. It is good ground, in some places up to 12 feet of good soil.” Game was plentiful too: No deer, and the rabbits were smaller, but pheasants and partridges were plentiful. Cattle could be raised easily, and only the horses needed to be sheltered in the winter, though with no mountains the winds could be very strong.
That was just Iowa, though. “In other states it is all different, for America is very large. The state of Iowa is as large as the entire Austrian empire, and there are 32 such states. And there is still room for entire new states. So if all of Europe moved here, it still would not be as crowded as it is for you.” He didn’t yet urge them to come, though he was eager to see them. The Civil War, certainly, gave reason for pause: “it is still the same here with the war, the state of Iowa is required to send 13,300 men.” But as much as that, he didn’t know if they desired to come, if they would arrive safely, or if they would like it as he did.
One Year Later: The Birth of an American
Over a year later, on March 9, 1865, Jozef wrote again to tell his family more about his new home and how they were getting along. He had a new son, born on New Year’s Day. He had sold his original forty acres before harvesting a crop in order to buy eighty acres of better soil. He had plowed thirty-three acres and soon expected to sow thirty-eight bushels of wheat. He had a small house, eighteen feet long by 16 feet wide, with an additional half-room. The value of the house – $1800 – doubled the value of his property.
‘“As long as I am here, I will always consider good and fair especially this: a poor man gets the same respect as a wealthy one. Second: No person has to bow to another person against their will or conscience.”
I can say that I am very happy here, more than I had expected. For I will be able to have abundant cattle and enough to support it as well as myself in a somewhat secure life (and additionally, to have freedom which is so dear to me. If I could expect that you would be as happy here as I am, I would say “Come” – but some would perhaps think at some point that I said so to gain something from it – oh, no! No such thing is true – so I will leave it to your will.
Jozef frankly told his family that many of the Czech people in his community, both educated and otherwise, had shrugged off religious beliefs. Some found the belief to be outdated; others ascribed perhaps, to an Emersonian transcendentalism (“hold[ing] nature to be God”); still others say “it was only good for life in Bohemia.”
Jozef had contemplated both the benefits and the costs of the “freedom,” and on balance he cherished it as liberation from the conditions he had known and seen in Bohemia:
Although there are many devout people here, but each according to their taste can decide what to do, no one is forced to or prevented from doing anything, everyone can listen to their own reasoning. I am not able now to describe everything here in detail – but I would like to say this much: As long as I am here, I will always consider good and fair especially this: a poor man gets the same respect as a wealthy one. Second: No person has to bow to another person against their will or conscience. Third: If someone – through his or her own fault or God willing – lost all property, then such person could get everything back again through hard work. Fourth: Everyone can publicly express their opinions in the free press. Fifth: No one has to carry loads on their shoulders here for there is an abundance of cattle that can do the work. It often makes me remember those poor brothers of ours who – like the people of Israel – suffer under the yoke of servitude with no hope of being freed. If I could – like Moses – dry out the great sea or if I had enough money to buy passage for them all, I would spare nothing, nor would I fear their complaining of any sort.
True to this spirit of liberty, Jozef neither urged his family to join him nor discouraged it but tried only to “show you the world here like in a mirror – but you do as you are best able.”