APPENDIX 19-J
IMPORTANT DATES IN GERMAN-AMERICAN HISTORY

German immigrants were among the followers of Captain John Smith at the colony of Jamestown. They were the first to manufacture tar, glass, pitch, and soap in America.

1620

Four millwrights from Hamburg erected the first sawmill in America in Virginia.

1626

The first prominent German-American was Peter Minuit, director of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, who purchased Manhattan for $24.

1653

Germans from Heidelberg introduced vineyards and winemaking to America.

1683

Thirteen families from the Rhineland, led by a Frankfurt lawyer, Franz Daniel Pastorius, founded Germantown in Pennsylvania, the first German-American settlement in the New World.
German-American schools established at Germantown.

1688

The first protest against slavery issued at Germantown, not in English but in German.

1690

William Rittinghausen established the paper mill in America at Germantown.
Jacob Leisler, born in Frankfurt, was elected the first people's governor of New York, and called the first Congress of American colonies. It was one of the earliest protests against British rule.

1714

The first book on teaching was published, not in English but in German, by Christopher Dock, a German-American teacher. He introduced the blackboard into the American classroom.

1734

John Peter Zenger established freedom of the press by protesting British rule in his New York newspaper, the New York Weekly Journal.

1739

Caspar Wistar built a glassmaking plant at Salem, New Jersey.

1743

The first bible printed in America was not in English, but in German. Christopher Sauer of Philadelphia published it.

1771

First foundry for making type established by Christopher Sauer.

1776

An early publication of the Declaration of Independence appeared in German in the Philadelphia Staatsbote on July 9th.
Congress established a German-American regiment consisting of four companies.

1778

Baron von Steuben wrote the first U.S. Army training manual and helped to organize the U.S. Army.

1789

Frederick A. Muehlenberg became the first Speaker of the newly formed House of Representatives.

1798

Gottlieb Graupner arrived in Boston and became known later as the father of orchestral music in the U.S.

1800

German-Americans voted overwhelmingly for Thomas Jefferson and helped elect him to the Presidency.

1830s

German-Americans introduced gaily-decorated Christmas trees to America.

1834

The richest man in the U.S. was John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant who had organized the American Fur Company.

1835

Wilhelm Wesselhoeft introduced homeopathy to the U.S.

1837

The Pennsylvania legislature began publishing its laws and governor's message in German translation.

1839

Theodore Bernhard organized and introduced the first system of free textbooks at Watertown, Wisconsin.

1846

Maximilian Schaefer established the first great lager beer brewery in America.

1849

Eberhard Faber established in New York the pencil business which still perpetuates his name.
Dr. Abraham Jacobi opened the first free clinic for children in the U.S.

1851

The famous painting, "Washington Crossing the Delaware," painted by Emmanuel Leutze.

1850s

First kindergarten in the U.S. established by Mrs. Karl Schurz in Wisconsin.

1852

The Studebaker Company became the world's largest producer of wagons. It later produced automobiles.

1860

Carl Schurz won the German-American vote for Lincoln by going on a 21,000 mile speaking tour which took him from the middle west to the Pennsylvanian Germans.

1860-65

516,000 German-Americans fight for the Union. 500 officers in the Union army were born in Germany; of the 2,213,363 soldiers in the Union army, over 23% were German-Americans.

1871

Thomas Nast, the first great American Caricaturist, was instrumental in the destruction of the Boss Tweed ring of New York City.

1874

Alfalfa introduced to the U.S. by Wendelin Grimm.

1977

Carl Schurz named Secretary of the Interior by President Hayes; first German-born German-American to belong to the Cabinet. Also, the "original conservationist" because of efforts to prevent destruction of forests.

1884

The Brooklyn Bridge, designed by Johann A. Roebling, was built.

1892-93

German-Americans selected as governors of Kentucky and Illinois.

1898

Admiral Winfield Schley destroyed the Spanish fleet at Santiago, Cuba, during the Spanish-American war.

1917

General John Pershing, a German-American, commanded the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I.

1923

Charles P. Steinmetz became one of the greatest electrical wizards. General Electric Corporation provided him with everything he asked for in his work.

1928

Herbert Hoover becomes first president of German descent.

1929

Some of the greatest stars of baseball history were German-Americans: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Honus Wagner, and Frank Frisch, to mention a few.

1941-45

One-third of the eleven million soldiers in the U.S. armed forces in World War II were of German descent. Eisenhower was of Pennsylvanian-German descent. Other German-Americans were General Carl Spaatz and Admiral Chester Nimitz, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. 700 admirals and generals were German-Americans.

1950

Wernher von Braun became head of the U.S. Army Ordinance Guided Missile Center and paved the way for the U.S. space program.

1958

Formation of the German-American National Congress in Chicago.

1968

Society for German-American Studies established in Youngstown, Ohio.

1974

Association for German Language Authors in America formed to further German-American Literature.

1980

52 million Americans are of German descent, according to the 1980 U.S. census.

1983

The German-American Tricentenniel celebrates the 300th anniversary of the founding of Germantown, the first German-American settlement.

1987

German-American Day was proclaimed; has been celebrated nationally ever since.

2008

The German-American Quadricentenniel will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Germans in America at Jamestown, Virginia.

America's German Heritage, German American National Congress, Cleveland, OH, 1976, adapted by Don Tolzmann