To take a look at any photograph, put your cursor on that particular photograph and left click. This will bring the photograph into a new window. As you can read the photograph of the ship's manifest, written by Captain Cornelius Anderson of the barque "Emigrant", on the second page several passengers including Franz Hillenbrand provide their final destination as Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Why would anyone from the small town of Hosenfeld, Germany want to go to the small town of Pottsville, Pennsylvania? The answer lies in coal.
By 1817, a number of small individual coal mines had been opened in Schuylkill County. By 1822 it was reported that 1488 tons of anthracite had been shipped by canal from the Schuylkill region, and the industry, as a business, had its official beginnings. Development was rapid, and by 1825, the Schuylkill Navigation Company had completed the Schuylkill Canal, which allowed for the transport of anthracite from Pottsville to Philadelphia in barges capable of holding 200 tons. In 1842, the first train by the P. & R. Railroad (Philadelphia & Reading) from Philadelphia made the trip to Pottsville to compete for the coal trade. Trains were able to haul three times as much anthracite than barges.
Thus with an economic boom in Schuylkill County competing for labor, foreign advertisement enticed immigrants to promises of a paycheck and economic freedom. It is quite apparent that Franz Hillenbrand took this gamble. Several members of our extended family emigrated from the Fulda region to end up in Schuylkill County. As Franz Hillenbrand stepped onto the docks at Fells Point in the Baltimore Harbor, a new life beckoned and pulled his destination to Pottsville. Next installment, Franz Hillenbrand's trials and tribulations in the New World.
2 comments:
As I read it, passenger #40 is Hildebrand?
You are correct, in that, the ship's captain spelled it with an aberration. However, I checked this with German records of emigrants, and this indeed is Franz Hillenbrand from Hosenfeld, my Great, great, great grandfather. I'm not saying the Captain was lazy in getting the right spelling, however, he did have a lot of passengers to record.
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