Why Did the Wends Immigrate to Texas?
The first Wends came to Texas in 1849, and other small groups arrived in 1852 and 1853. The largest group arrived in 1854. But the events that led to their desire to leave their homes in Lusatia for Texas began well before that. The religious climate in nineteenth-century Prussia was a major factor in the decision to immigrate, so we will begin with the Lutheran Reformation.
Timeline images utilized below are in the public domain, and taken from Wikimedia Commons.
Luther’s 95 Theses
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, initiating the Reformation.
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The Ninety-Five Theses
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (Image is in the Public Domain)
The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession
On June 25, 1530, the Augsburg Confession, which summarized the faith of the Lutheran reformers, was presented to Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire.
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Presentation of the Augsburg Confession
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (Image is in the Public Domain)
John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, Converts to Calvinism
In 1613, John Sigismund, the Elector of Brandenburg, took communion according to the Calvinist (or Reformed) rite. Though he wished for all of his subjects to become Calvinist, most did not wish to follow suit. His wife, Anne of Prussia, also remained a faithful Lutheran and sided with the other Lutherans. Eventually, he agreed to allow his subjects to choose whether they wished to be Calvinist or Lutheran.
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John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (Image is in the Public Domain)
Creation of Brandenburg-Prussia
After the death of Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia on August 28, 1618, Prussia comes under the control of the Electors of Brandenburg, and Prussia inherits the problem of having both Lutheran and Reformed state churches.
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Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia
Brandenburg-Prussian
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (Image is in the Public Domain)
Frederick I Crowned King of Prussia
Bradenburg was technically part of the Holy Roman Empire, but Prussia was not. Once Frederick became King of Prussia, the entire territory functionally became the Kingdom of Prussia, even though the Holy Roman Empire did not cease to exist until 1806.
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Frederick I, King of Prussia
The Holy Roman Empire
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (Image is in the Public Domain)
Friedrich Wilhelm III Becomes King of Prussia
Friedrich Wilhelm III ascends to the throne of Prussia on November 16, 1797. He is Reformed, but his wife is Lutheran, and they are thus unable to commune. Previous rulers have been unable to unify the Reformed and Lutheran churches in Prussia, but Friedrich Wilhelm III is determined to finally solve this thorny problem. His first step in this direction, taken the following year, is to decree the creation of a new common worship agenda that can be utilized by both Lutheran and Reformed congregations.
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Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (Image is in the Public Domain)
First Union Congregation in Potsdam
On September 27, 1817, Friedrich Wilhelm III announced that the garrison Reformed and Lutheran congregations in Potsdam would be united into a single Union congregation on October 31, 1817. This date, the 300th anniversary of the Reformation, was chosen intentionally. The following week, he announces that he would like for all churches in his realm to follow suit and form Union congregations.
Many Lutherans are displeased, as are some Reformed Christians. Traditional Lutheran and Reformed theologies are fundamentally incompatible. For Lutherans, the Union means de-emphasizing distinctives such as the real presence in the Lord’s Supper. For the Reformed, the Union means adding certain elements to the service that they regard as “too Catholic,” such as making the Sign of the Cross.
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Remembering the 200th anniversary of the forced union of Lutheran and Reformed churches in Prussia
The Prussian Union of Churches
Old Lutherans
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (Image is in the Public Domain)
Publication of First Common Agenda
During the Christmas season in 1821, the new common agenda begun in 1798 was completed; that same year ministerial candidates were required to support the new Union church. By 1822, all congregations were directed to utilize the new agenda. Opposition to the use of the new agenda as well as the Union is fairly strong, and despite Friedrich Wilhelm’s efforts, for the most part it remains a union in name only for the next eight years.
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The Prussian Union of Churches
Old Lutherans
German “Worship Wars” and the 1830
Anniversaries of the Augsburg Confession
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (Image is in the Public Domain)
Revised Edition of Common Agenda Published
Because of continued opposition to the new common agenda, a revised edition was published in 1829 that incorporated more Lutheran elements was published. Although this satisfied a number of opponents, many Old Lutherans felt that the king would continue his campaign to compromise Lutheran belief and practice.
The 300th Anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession
Friedrich Wilhelm III directed all state congregations in his realm to celebrate the Lord’s Supper using the most recent revision of the common agenda on the 300th anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. Opposition among Old Lutherans increased as a result, and later that year the first independent Lutheran congregation is organized in Breslau.
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German “Worship Wars” and the 1830
Anniversaries of the Augsburg Confession
Friedrich Wilmelm III Compromises
By 1834 it had become increasingly clear that the opposition from the Old Lutherans and Reformed conservatives was not going away. That year, Friedrich Wilhelm III announced that churches would be allowed to retain their Lutheran or Reformed identities, though independent congregations were still forbidden.
Wendish Immigration to Australia
During the 1840s and 1850s, some Wends immigrate to Australia. An example is Peter Zieschang, who helped found the community of Hochkirch near Victoria in Australia.
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The Wend who Immigrated Twice
Friedrich Wilhelm IV Becomes King
In 1840, Friedrich Wilhelm III dies and is succeeded by his son, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who released pastors from prison and allows the formation of independent congregations. Many Old Lutherans, including Wends like those who eventually immigrated to Texas, still remain distrustful of the Prussian government.
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Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (Image is in the Public Domain)
The Wends Immigrate to Texas
Small groups of Wends begin to immigrate to Texas starting in 1849, usually as individuals. These folks seem to have all settled around Industry, New Ulm, and Frelsburg.
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The Wends In Germany and In Texas
The Voyage of the Reform
In 1853, a small group of Wends first plann to immigrate to Australia, but later decide to immigrate to Texas instead. On September 4, 1853, they sail from Bremen on a brig named the Reform. Things don’t go as planned, and they end up shipwrecked off the coast of Cuba, though they finally do arrive in Galveston. Some of these Wends eventually settle near Industry. Despite their misadventure near Cuba, they are pleased with their new home, and they write favorably about it to their friends and family in Lusatia.
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The Last Voyage of the Brig Reform
Jan Kilian Called as Pastor
Jan Kilian was born on March 22, 1811. He studied theology at the University of Leipzig and initially served as a pastor in the state Lutheran church of Saxony. In the 1840s when Friedrich Wilhelm IV began to relax restrictions on Old Lutherans, many Prussian Wends started independent congregations. Kilian eventually began serving a number of these churchs.
On March 25, 1854 a group of Wends organized an association for the purpose of immigration as well as a Lutheran congregation. This group issued a call to Kilian to serve them as pastor on May 23 of that year.
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John Kilian
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (Image is in the Public Domain)
The Voyage of the Ben Nevis
About six hundred Wends join the group planning to immigrate to Texas. They first travel to Liverpool, where they sail for America on the Ben Nevis. Their voyage is delayed, though, due to exposure to cholera; for three weeks they remain in Ireland where the sick are cared for and the ship is cleaned. By the time they are finally able to set sail for Texas, seventy-three of their group have died.
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The Wends in Germany and in Texas
What to Pack for the Voyage?
Image from the Archives of the Texas Wendish Heritage Society
Arrival in Galveston
The Ben Nevis arrives in Galveston on December 15, 1854. The city is in the midst of a severe yellow fever epidemic.
Texas in the middle of the nineteenth century is a very different place than it is today. There is exactly one railroad in the state, that ran from modern-day Houston (the third-largest city, with a population of around twenty-three hundred) to near modern-day Sugarland. There are only a handful of organized Lutheran congregations.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (Image is in the Public Domain)
Winter in Houston
The Wends, short on financial resources, make their way to Houston, where the Rev. Caspar Braun, pastor of the Lutheran congregation there, does what he can to aid them through the harsh winter. Many are forced to camp outside in the cold.
Kilian and Braun begin what will become a lifelong friendship. Braun is the president of the fledgling First Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Texas, but Kilian declines to affiliate with this group. While he and Braun see eye-to-eye on many theological matters, the Texas Synod is a part of the larger General Synod (an affiliation of regional Lutheran synods). The General Synod has among its members some more liberal synods that tolerate the same sort of mixed Lutheran-Reformed doctrine that Kilian and his fellow Wends left Germany to avoid.
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Caspar Braun Historical Marker
Plan of the city of Houston, map, Date Unknown; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth32934/: accessed March 16, 2020), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Star of the Republic Museum.
Wends Settle in Serbin
On March 20, 1855 the Wends purchase land in what was then Bastrop County from Absalom Delaplain, a veteran of the Texas Revolution. There they establish a community they call Serbin (“Wendish Land”) and set aside land for a church.
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The Absalom Delaplain League
The Prussian Union wasn’t the only reason that the Wends immigrated to Texas. They also felt that their language (Sorbian) and culture were threatened by the constant pressure to “Germanize” to which they were exposed on account of their living in Germanic realms.
Also, while some of the Wends who traveled to Texas on the Ben Nevis were from the Prussian portion of Lusatia, others were from the Saxon portion, where the Catholic rulers largely left the Lutherans to fend for themselves. While Old Lutherans in Saxony didn’t have to contend with government pressure to compromise their faith and practice via a forced union with Christians who did not share their theology, they were concerned with the increasing influence of rationalism and liberal theology in the Lutheran Church in Saxony.
For Wends such as Pastor John Kilian, his wife Maria Groeschel Kilian and her family, and organist and cantor Karl Teinert, the preservation of their language and culture and the preservation of traditional, confessional Lutheran faith and practice were intertwined.
However, it is important to remember that although these were motivating factors for some of the Wends that immigrated to Texas, they may not have been motivating factors for all of them, and the degree to which they motivated any given immigrant almost certainly varied. Other factors such as economic opportunity and the chance to start fresh in a new land also played a part.
Next: The Churches
Further Reading
The following books contain more information about the Wends in Lee County and other parts of Texas.
These links are Amazon affiliate links; if you purchase a book after clicking on one of these links, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.
