One hundred and thirty years ago, on January 1, 1892, the first federal immigration station in the U.S. opened on Ellis Island in New York Harbor. That day nearly 700 immigrants started not just a new year but a new life in a new land (to them). That day led to joys for some and sorrows for others.
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| Ellis Island federal immigration station, 1892~97 |
Annie Moore (1877~1924), an Irish émigré, was the first immigrant to pass through the new Ellis Island station. Here is the link to an informative History.com story about her.
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| Annie Moore statue |
Following Annie, and the 700 other immigrants who moved through the immigration facility on that opening day, that year over 400,000 immigrants were processed at the Ellis Island station.
That original immigration station on Ellis Island was, sadly, destroyed by fire in 1897, but by that time it had processed a whopping 1,500,000 immigrants.
In memory of Annie Moore, in 1997 Irishman
Brendan Graham wrote a poem titled “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears” (which
you can read at this link). Here is the first stanza and refrain of that
poem:
On the
first day of January / Eighteen ninety-two
They opened Ellis Island and they let / The people through
And first to cross the threshold / Of that isle of hope and tears
Was Annie Moore from Ireland / Who was all of fifteen years
Isle of hope, isle of tears / Isle of freedom, isle of fears
But it's not the isle you left behind / That isle of hunger, isle of pain
Isle you'll never see again / But the isle of home is always on your mind
The First Immigrants
Most of the immigrants in 1892, like Annie Moore,
were from Europe. According to this History.com
article, “The reasons they left their homes in the Old World included war,
drought, famine and religious persecution, and all had hopes for greater
opportunity.”
Some did well. Despite the various initial challenges,
many went on to gain what they were seeking in the U.S. The stories we mostly hear,
such as in this YouTube
video, are by or of people who were successful. They, thankfully,
experienced the joys of immigration.
But, unfortunately, there are other stories
also. Many had a terribly tough life. They experienced the sorrows of
immigration. Most of those, perhaps, did not have a life any worse than in the land
from which they came, but it was certainly not the life they dreamed of upon
reaching Ellis Island.
I first began thinking about this matter when
doing research for my blog
post on Walter Rauschenbusch last September. As I wrote then, from 1886 to
1897 he served as the pastor of the Second German Baptist Church, located in
the slum section of New York City known as Hell’s Kitchen.
Many of those people had passed through Ellis
Island, or had come through other facilities a few years before 1892. The unsatisfactory
living conditions of many of those earlier immigrants are depicted in the book How
the Other Half Lives (1890) by Jacob A. Riis.
Last year I read part of Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel, The
Jungle, and I soon will finish reading Mary Doria Russell’s captivating
historical novel, The
Women of Copper Country (2019).
The former “portrays the harsh conditions and
exploited lives of immigrants” in Chicago, mainly in the meatpacking industry,
and in similar industrialized cities.
Russell’s brilliant book graphically depicts
the plight of immigrants who worked in the copper mines owned by the Calumet
and Hecla Mining Company in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Specifically, it
is about the history-changing strike there of 1913-14, of which I had known nothing.
Many of those exploited immigrants had most
likely entered the U.S. at Ellis Island. But their joy upon arriving turned to
sorrow because of the harsh conditions they faced and had to endure for many
years after arriving.
The Immigrants Now
The question for us now is this: how are we
USAmericans treating the many immigrants who are entering our country now? Many
don’t have immigration documents, but neither did the 1,500,000 who passed through
the first immigration station on Ellis Island.
In "The Parable of the Nations" in Matthew 26, I fear the U.S. miserably fails one part of the parable's test: "I was a stranger, and you took me not in." Now and in the past.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Charles, for reading my post and then responding so early this morning.
DeleteI certainly think that there is a lot of truth in what you wrote. There has undoubtedly been much mistreatment/exploitation of immigrants--as well as rejection of those desperate to find/make a new life here.
But on the other hand, there have been multitudes welcomed into this country, people whose lives were greatly improved by being in the U.S. For example, right now there are hundreds of Afghan refugees/escapees here in Kansas City that three organizations (one Jewish, one Catholic, and one Methodist) are working to resettle. My daughter, and to a lesser extent my wife, have been helping one family (of eight!) who are still in a temporary living facility and will soon be moving into a four-bedroom apartment. Kathy and June have been helping them with their English, and Kathy has been assisting them in other way also--and there are surely many volunteers who are helping other families.
Things are rarely all bad or all good, and I wish there was a warmer welcome for all the immigrants into this country, including those desperate people coming across the Southern border. But I am thankful that there are organizations and individuals who do seek to "take in" the "strangers" coming to this country.
The first response I received this morning, shortly before Charles's above, was from local Thinking Friend Sue Wright, who wrote,
ReplyDelete"The series on PBS, Finding Your Roots, had a segment last night on two celebrities whose parents immigrated to the US, one set from North Korea and one set from Cuba. Both people spoke their feelings of growing up in places where they felt themselves different--outsiders. The Korean-American found out his known ancestors can be traced back 1000 years and to a noble family. He was impacted by this knowledge because it gave him a sense of belonging in a world in which he never felt deeply rooted. We just don’t know sometimes, the depth of others’ alienation."
Thanks, Sue, for reading my post and responding so early this morning. -- I have never seen "Finding Your Roots," but I have done quite a bit of genealogical research and have discovered much about my roots--except for the much-desired information that links my ancestors who lived in Virginia in the early 1700s to England, from where they came.
DeleteHere are brief comments from local Thinking Friend David Nelson:
ReplyDelete"My Paternal Grandmother (Farmor), Augusta Johansson, and both her brothers arrived from Sweden and went through Ellis Island and settled in McPherson County Kansas. They all have different last names they were given last names as the passed through.
Some of the people on the YouTube videos I watched told interesting, and even humorous, stories about the naming of some of their grandparents who came through Ellis Island. -- Since I have been unable to find the link between the U.S. and England, I have wondered if my Seat ancestors who came from England and were in Virginia by the early 1700s may really have been named Seaton, which is a name much more common than Seat, and somehow the ending syllable got dropped in the immigration process.
DeleteAnd then these comments were received in a longer email from Thinking Friend Eric Dollard in Chicago:
ReplyDelete"Thanks, Leroy, for your informative comments about the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island.
"Judy and I have been to Ellis Island since it is now a fascinating museum, but all of my great grandparents were in the U S by the 1860s, so I am not aware of any ancestors who passed through Ellis Island."
I have never been to Ellis Island, but the statue of Annie Moore in the picture included with my blog post is located in the museum there.
DeleteMy only great-grandparent not born in the U.S. arrived in New York from Switzerland in 1860 or '61, and a great-great-grandfather immigrated from Germany to the U.S. in 1864 or '65, so I don't have any ancestors who passed through Ellis Island either.
Thinking Friend Glenn Hinson in Chicago shares these comments about his ancestors:
ReplyDelete"Very thought-provoking, Leroy. I don’t know if any of my forebears came through Ellis Island, but I have both Irish and German ancestors. Your blog inspires me to see if I can learn more about their immigration experience. My maternal grandmother’s parents (Helling) came from Westphalia and settled near Union, MO. My maternal grandfather Albert Crow’s mother brought him and his brother Ross from the South to settle near Sullivan during the Civil War. But that is the extent of my knowledge."
My maternal grandmother's grandfather (my great-great-grandfather mentioned above) was John Frederick Hellman (at least those are the first and middle names he went by in the U.S.) and he emigrated to the U.S. from Baden-Württemberg, Germany. (It seems clear that "hell" has a different meaning in German than it has in English.)
DeleteNext, I received these significant comments from Thinking Friend Frank Shope in New Mexico:
ReplyDelete"Leroy, thanks for highlighting Ellis Island. My father’s family arrived from Germany sometime in the late 1800s. I have often thought about what life was like for them and imagine the trip across the Atlantic and arrival in America.
"I cannot say I would have had the fortitude to make the trip. Or the willingness to fight for jobs, housing and all that was required to be an immigrant.
"I have a treasured my copy of 'The Jungle.' I first read the book in the ninth grade. It was a terrible book for me. I seemed to live the story. However, it’s impact on me has had positive outcomes. It has shaped much of my attitude toward immigration and the horrible plight of people wanting freedom, prosperity and a chance at a better life.
"As a young boy my father worked in a meat packing plant, and I remember the stories of his treatment and the bloody environment he worked in. I have often given thanks for my father and his willingness to take any job to try to support our family.
"Some of the most vivid scenes from 'The Jungle' are the rats. I have often viewed the rats as an allegory. The rats are the abusers, non-caring recipients and benefactors of the immigrant’s sacrifice."
Thanks, Frank, for your comments, which I said above are significant, for I think they are.
DeleteOne of the YouTube videos I watched was mostly about the immigrants' suffering on the ships they rode in from Europe to the U.S. Somehow, I had never thought much about that before.
I can't imagine reading "The Jungle" as a ninth grader. It was so upsetting for me (as an old man) to read last year that I decided part way through to just quit reading it--which is something I rarely do with a novel I choose to read.
Everybody knows of the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans during WW2 without trial. But very few know of the prejudice immediately after the war that caused universal rejection of Japanese American volunteers as Japan missionaries. This includes conservative faith mission boards and liberal denominational mission boards, including So. Baptist Foreign Mission Board, that is, your mission board. and mine. This universal race prejudice was so pervasive that finally Japanese Americans created their own mission board, Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society (JEMS), which thrives even today. Reiji H, rejected by So.Baptist Mission Board, went to Japan anyway on his own, becoming a pastor on Japanese salary. Because Reiji was so effective a missionary, missionaries on the field petitioned the Mission Board until he was accepted. Only then was the door opened for us Japanese Americans as Japan missionaries, myself included. My wife, Ellen, was appointed as missionary to Brazil because she was automatically rejected by evangelical faith mission boards as Japan missionary. A Ph.D. thesis should be written on this topic.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, Dickson, and I was interested in what you said about mission boards not appointing Japanese Americans as missionaries to Japan because of prejudice. I had heard other reasons for that, but that was a long time ago and I don't remember it clearly. When we went to Japan as missionaries in 1966, though, Reiji and Asano Hoshizaki were already serving with the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board, and June and I had a delightful overnight stay in their home in 1967.
DeleteBut what you wrote spurred my interest in learning more about Angel Island in San Francisco Harbor. The immigration station that opened there in 1910 "was predominantly used to inspect, disinfect, and detain Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian immigrants who sailed across the Pacific Ocean" (Wikipedia).
I didn't have a chance to read your blog before the Old Curmudgeons Breakfast Club met this morning. I think both sets of my ancestors, mother's and father's (primarily German, English, French, and Irish) came to the USA before the opening of Ellis Island. I don't know whether my West African ancestors were slaves or free, nor when they came. I have been to Ellis Island. It's worth a visit.
ReplyDelete