NEW GLARUS - The book "Glarners in America - Stories of Immigrants and their Descendants from Canton Glarus, Switzerland " by New Glarus native Robert A. Elmer went on sale in Canton Glarus earlier this summer. Copies of the book are now available from Amazon.com.
New Glarus, founded in 1845, is far from being the only destination for Canton Glarus, Switzerland immigrants bound for America. Canton Glarus people, known as Glarners, have been living in America from as early as the mid-1700s. Over the years, these Glarner immigrants could be found in most corners of America. There were Glarner immigrants who settled on the eastern seaboard, along the Gulf of Mexico, in the Republic of Texas and in early California when it still belonged to Mexico. Although those immigrants from Glarus were only a minuscule percentage of the total immigrant population of the United States, there are many notable contributions made by these Glarner people and their descendants during the country's development.
Over the decade-long project, Elmer collected the stories of these Glarner immigrants and their descendants for the book, which contains about 100 short biographical sketches that explain how these people with Canton Glarus roots played a role, whether big or small, in the development of this country. The book, published in collaboration with the Historischer Verein des Kantons Glarus (Historical Society of Canton Glarus), is presented in English and German due to interest on both sides of the Atlantic.
Some examples provide the wide-ranging scope of these Glarner immigrant/descendant stories. Rev. Abraham Blumer was the minister of Allentown, Pennsylvania's Zion's Reformed Church at the time of the American Revolution. The historic Liberty Bell was hidden beneath the floorboards in Blumer's church, saving the bell's capture from British troops advancing on Philadelphia. Heinrich Lienhard, employed by Captain John Sutter in 1848, was witness to the earliest days of the California gold rush. In the Civil War, Lt. Col. Martin Tschudy, already a third-generation Glarner-American, was killed at Gettysburg defending the Union at the very focal point of Pickett's Charge. And shortly after the war ended, Caspar Knobel and fellow Union comrades captured a fleeing Jefferson Davis.
Represented in the various books chapters are entrepreneurs and philanthropists, scientists and educators, and artists and authors all of whom have Glarner roots. Not all of the biographical sketches are from days long past: Alice Kundert ran for Governor of South Dakota in the 1980s. The presidential yacht U.S.S. Sequoia (on which President John F. Kennedy celebrated his last birthday) was designed and built by John Trumpy. And the recent National Park Service's Superintendent of the Statue of Liberty and nearby Ellis Island was David Luchsinger, a fourth-generation Glarner-American.
A limited number of copies are for sale at the Green County Genealogical Society room located in the Monroe Public Library. The GCGS is open Tuesdays and the third Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on the first Saturday of the month from 1 to 3 p.m. The telephone number is 608-328-7436.
New Glarus, founded in 1845, is far from being the only destination for Canton Glarus, Switzerland immigrants bound for America. Canton Glarus people, known as Glarners, have been living in America from as early as the mid-1700s. Over the years, these Glarner immigrants could be found in most corners of America. There were Glarner immigrants who settled on the eastern seaboard, along the Gulf of Mexico, in the Republic of Texas and in early California when it still belonged to Mexico. Although those immigrants from Glarus were only a minuscule percentage of the total immigrant population of the United States, there are many notable contributions made by these Glarner people and their descendants during the country's development.
Over the decade-long project, Elmer collected the stories of these Glarner immigrants and their descendants for the book, which contains about 100 short biographical sketches that explain how these people with Canton Glarus roots played a role, whether big or small, in the development of this country. The book, published in collaboration with the Historischer Verein des Kantons Glarus (Historical Society of Canton Glarus), is presented in English and German due to interest on both sides of the Atlantic.
Some examples provide the wide-ranging scope of these Glarner immigrant/descendant stories. Rev. Abraham Blumer was the minister of Allentown, Pennsylvania's Zion's Reformed Church at the time of the American Revolution. The historic Liberty Bell was hidden beneath the floorboards in Blumer's church, saving the bell's capture from British troops advancing on Philadelphia. Heinrich Lienhard, employed by Captain John Sutter in 1848, was witness to the earliest days of the California gold rush. In the Civil War, Lt. Col. Martin Tschudy, already a third-generation Glarner-American, was killed at Gettysburg defending the Union at the very focal point of Pickett's Charge. And shortly after the war ended, Caspar Knobel and fellow Union comrades captured a fleeing Jefferson Davis.
Represented in the various books chapters are entrepreneurs and philanthropists, scientists and educators, and artists and authors all of whom have Glarner roots. Not all of the biographical sketches are from days long past: Alice Kundert ran for Governor of South Dakota in the 1980s. The presidential yacht U.S.S. Sequoia (on which President John F. Kennedy celebrated his last birthday) was designed and built by John Trumpy. And the recent National Park Service's Superintendent of the Statue of Liberty and nearby Ellis Island was David Luchsinger, a fourth-generation Glarner-American.
A limited number of copies are for sale at the Green County Genealogical Society room located in the Monroe Public Library. The GCGS is open Tuesdays and the third Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on the first Saturday of the month from 1 to 3 p.m. The telephone number is 608-328-7436.