German-Prussian Immigrants on the Niagara Frontier
About This Essay
Published in the New York History Review on July 7, 2018, this essay traces the migration of approximately 1,600 Lutheran immigrants from Prussia to Niagara County, New York in 1843. It examines why they left, how they organized their migration, and how they built community institutions in the Niagara frontier.
The migration was one of the larger organized Lutheran migrations to the United States in the antebellum period. The immigrants had specific religious motivations for their departure from Prussia, where the state church had imposed a new liturgy that many Lutherans found unacceptable. They sought a place where they could maintain traditional Lutheran worship and community life on their own terms.
In Niagara County, they established churches, schools, and mutual aid societies that helped them maintain their religious and cultural identity through the transition. Dr. Lubienecki draws on church records, immigration documents, and local histories to reconstruct the migration story and the institutions the settlers created.
Publication Details
Publication: New York History Review Date: July 7, 2018 Read online: NYHR Blog