German-American Pioneers in Wisconsin and Michigan: The Frank-Kerler Letters, 1849-1864, by Frank, Dr. Louis F. translated by Margaret Wolff
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German-American Pioneers in Wisconsin and Michigan: The Frank-Kerler Letters, 1849-1864, by Frank, Dr. Louis F. translated by Margaret Wolff. Milwaukee County Historical Society:[Milwaukee, Wisconsin], 1971. Edition: First English edition. Hardcover, 7 by 10.5 inches, 600 pages. Edited, with Introduction and Notes by Harry H. Anderson. Red cloth; maps as end papers; illustrated with black and white photographs.

Condition: Good. Spine ends bumped; small dark stain on front cover; both front and back paste-down endpapers have separated from the covers near the spine, and both have closed tears; the front end paper has been repaired with tape, and is also missing chip, approximately one half by one inch; former owner's small address lable pasted on the inside front cover; spine a bit loose, with mull visible in some places when the book is spread open. Book has a slight musty odor.

Contents: Publisher's Note:

Among the numerous immigrants from South Germany and the Rhenish provinces to reach the American Midwest during this period [1844-1854] were two groups whose correspondence has been brought together in this volume -- the Frank and Kerler family from the Bavarian city of Memmingen. The Frank-Kerler letters comprise a unique contemporary record of the immigration experience of these families, and of the first decade and a half of their life in the pioneer Midwest. First assembled for publication in their original German by Dr. Louis F. Frank in 1911 and now appearing in an English translation, these letters make a contribution both to the larger story of immigration to America and to the history of localities in which they made their new homes.

....

The detail and candor of this extensive body of intimate family correspondence add materially to our knowledge of life in both the rapidly growing urban community of Milwaukee and also of the rural agricultural settins in Greenfield and Titibawassee during the decade and a half in which letters were exchanged. Dr. Bayrd Still, in the bibliography to his scholarly history of Milwaukee, noted with regret that letters and diaries commenting on the social, political and business development of the city and other local matters were "understandably scarce" after the intiial townsite speculation of the 1830's. The Frank-Kerler correspondence now looms large as a primary historical source for the period 1850 to 1864. Written, as they were, to family and friends in Germany and other parts of America, these communications, particularly in the early years, go to great lengths to describe life in this new environment and, later, to detail the agricultural and business enterprise in which members of the family were engaged.

For Milwaukee, the letters have other significance, too. The Franks and Kerlers were contemporaries of a host of other German immigrants who came to the Cream City on the shores of Lake Michigan to find success in a variety of business efforts. It was during this ear that the fruitful ventures of Milwaukee's German business community -- in brewing, tanning, hardware, wholesale merchandising and jobbing and a variety of other activities -- had their foundations.The story of August Frank's remarkable success as a partner in the dry goods firm of Goll and Frank provides an insight into business experience of such German immigrants during their early years.

Nowhere else in the field of Milwaukee historiography is the dual record of commercial enterprise and personal life presented in such abundant detail.

The Kerler's settled in Milwaukee and Greenfield, Wisconsin and the Franks in Saginaw County, Michigan