In Need of a Wife ... and a Proofreader

We've seen before that the immigration station in New York was perceived by some as a place to find marriageable women. Here's another example, from The New York Times of Sept. 1, 1883:

NO RED-HAIRED GIRL NEED APPLY.

Superintendent Jackson, of Castle Garden, frequently receives letters from single men asking him to find wives for them from among the immigrant women at the Garden. The following letter addressed "C.O.D., Passenger Agent, Castle Agent," was received yesterday:

Detroit, August 29.

Dear Sir: I take the plusur of Writing you a few Lines over Wich You May Laugh But I Mean Business and Want to Pay you for your Troubl if tended to I Will pay you ten dollers $10 in money Next Mont. if there is any emegrants from Germany I wis you would make it your Bisness if You could find some deasant Girl who is pratey and from 25 to 30 years of age Who Wished to Get Married in respectble to a Machinist who is 30 years of age and a Germen who has an old Mother livin With him. a Red hair pirson need not aplye if pasably so from Saxon or a Mackleburg or Byron please write to me and then we can come to a better understanding I Will send her a pass When the partie is found. my address is

JOHN KEEL, 435 Lefyett-street, Detroit, Mich.
[Link (pdf)]

Immigration Expert Running for Senate

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning is challenging Senator Chuck Hagel in the next Republican primary. He says that Hagel is all wrong on immigration.

I've got a picture here on my desk of my great great grandfather and my great great grandmother who came to Ellis Island in 1861 and ended up in Nebraska, in the little town of Bruning, by the way. They came in the right way… [Link]

The immigration station at Ellis Island didn't open until 1892, which suggests that Bruning's ancestors bypassed the station at Castle Garden to slip into the country undetected. If Mr. Bruning thinks that that is the "right way" to enter this great land of ours, I have to wonder how many fugitive Taliban leaders he's harboring in his basement.

(As it happens, Bruning's ancestors actually did pass through Castle Garden in 1861, before settling in Thayer County, Nebraska.)

There's No Escaping This Myth

This dubious passage from The Secret Life Of Houdini by William Kalush and Larry Sloman tells of Harry's family arriving in New York in 1878. The family's name in Hungary was "Weisz."

They arrived in New York on July 3 and were processed at the Castle Garden immigration building, where each of them received a new name. Since Cecilia didn't speak English, her responses to the officials were in German. So their names became English variants of German names. Armin became Herman, eight-year-old Natan just had an "h" added, six-year-old Gottfried Vilmos was dubbed William, Erik turned into Ehrich, and Ferencz Dezso was officially named Theo -- later to be nicknamed Dash -- and the family name became Weiss. [Link]

Ehrich must have made a return trip to Castle Garden to have his name changed to "Harry Houdini." Here's a good explanation of why stories like these are bogus.

Cruising for Women at Castle Garden

Despite the superintendent's insistence that the immigration station at Castle Garden had "no matrimonial bureau," men still showed up looking for prospective wives. Daniel F. Shugrue appeared there in August 1884 and asked for a bride.

He was directed to the Labor Bureau, but did not find any female immigrant there who suited him, although he waited patiently in the building from 11 o'clock until 4:30 in the afternoon. Mrs. Boyle, the Matron, tried to cheer him up in the meantime by encouraging remarks, but found this a somewhat difficult task, owing to the fact that Mr. Shugrue is somewhat deaf.

While Mrs. Boyle was offering words of consolation an old man with gray hair entered. "Have you found me a wife yet, Mrs. Boyle?" This man has been calling at Castle Garden with matrimonial intents for the past four years, and has had his hopes dashed at every visit. He is not easily discouraged, however. His name is Michael Martin and he says that he has a good farm near Trenton. He is a widower and has several children. Yesterday the old man unbosomed himself to a reporter. "It's kind of discouraging, you see," he said, "but I'm going to keep at it. There's too much life in me to give it up so quick. The girls I find here don't always suit, and those that do suit don't take to me somehow, 'though I'm only 52 years old. Up on Sixth-avenue there's an intelligence office where they'll find you a wife, but you have to get in with them before they'll do anything for you. I've been trying to get in with them the last two years, and I hope to succeed before I'm two years older. Oh, I ain't going to give up trying."

[The New York Times, Aug. 27, 1884]

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Marriageable Women

From The (Atchison, Ks.) Globe of Mar. 15, 1879:

Last summer a Swedish girl, who had just arrived in this country, walked into the office of Superintendent Jackson at Castle Garden and said, "I want you to marry me." Mr. Jackson was much surprised and somewhat alarmed at this abrupt demand, but was soon relieved by finding that she wanted him to perform the ceremony. The incident got into the papers, and since then the Superintendent has received letters from hundreds of young men, old batchelors, and widowers, asking him to furnish suitable wives for them from the immigrants, and offering him liberal compensation therefor. These letters come mainly from the west, where women are comparatively scarce, but Mr. Jackson invariably responds that there is, unfortunately, no matrimonial bureau attached to Castle Garden.

10 Million Immigration Records Online Monday

From The New York Times:

The Fort That Let Outsiders In

By SAM ROBERTS
Published: July 29, 2005

The government has been keeping tabs on immigrants since 1820, and Castle Garden at the Battery, originally built to defend New York from foreigners, was the city's first official debarkation point. It was the gateway for immigrants until 1890, when federal officials took over responsibility for the newcomers, who were processed first at the nearby Barge Office and, starting in 1892, on Ellis Island.

Ellis Island may claim more of the ancestral spotlight, but Castle Garden was no slouch. More than one in six native-born Americans are descendants of the eight million immigrants who entered the United States through Castle Garden in Lower Manhattan beginning 150 years ago next Monday.

[snip]

On Monday, Warrie Price, the founder and president of the conservancy, a nonprofit group formed to rebuild the 23-acre park, will also begin a free Web site for scholarly and genealogical research, CastleGarden.org, which includes a database of more than 10 million of the 12 million immigrants who arrived at the Port of New York from 1820 to 1892.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]