Germans in Hamilton County, Ohio

United States Ohio  Hamilton County  Resources  Germans in Hamilton County, Ohio

German immigration to Hamilton County
German Dunkards were among the first settlers in Hamilton County, arriving with Benjamin Steitz (Stites) from New Jersey in 1788, but immigration was slow at first. In 1820 Germans made up just 5% of the population.

Mass immigration began in the 1830s with Cincinnati's boom in the meatpacking and shipping industries and brought political refugees after the 1848 Revolution in the German states. Between 1840 and 1850, the German population increased almost tenfold, and in 1860, 30% of Cincinnati’s population was of German stock.

The biggest wave of German immigration to Cincinnati occurred in the 1880s. In 1890, 57% of the total population of nearly 300,000 was either born in Germany or had German parents.

People in Cincinnati at the beginning of the 20th century had a two in five chance of meeting someone who could speak to them in German. There were three German morning newspapers and one evening paper. German was taught in all 47 schools. Seventy churches held services completely or partly in German. In 1915 there were 110 German societies with affiliations including mutual aid, athletics, trade unions, sharpshooters, music, culture and charity.

Further waves of German immigration took place in the 1930s (particularly German Jewish immigrants) and after World War II. At the turn of the 21st century, approximately half of Cincinnati's population was of German descent.

Origins of German immigrants in Hamilton County
Before 1830, Germans immigrating to Hamilton County came from the southwestern area of German-speaking Europe, particularly from Württemberg and Switzerland, as well as Baden, Alsace and northern Germany, especially Oldenburg. German-Americans from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey also settled in Hamilton County in this early period.

Between 1830 and 1870, German immigrants to the region came from the same areas as in the early period, but increasingly from northern Germany, particularly Hannover and Oldenburg (specifically, Damme and Diepholz).

Many Germans in Hamilton County came from the Osnabrück district in Hannover, now Niedersachsen. Approximately 20% of the nearly 100,000 people who left this area came to Greater Cincinnati. Between 1830 and 1890, over one half of the emigrants from the Osnabrück town of Venne, at least for a period of time, were residents in Cincinnati. Of the 318 founding members of Cincinnati’s North German Lutheran Church in 1839, 80% came from the Osnabrück district.


 * Surnames of families described in the book Venne in America are listed in “Venne – Emigration History”
 * Two articles in the Hamilton County Genealogical Society’s Tracer 26:2 explain the strong connection between the Osnabrück region and Hamilton County: Jim Dempsey, “Osnabrücker Land” and Udo Thörner, “Venne, Osnabrücker Land - Emigration History”

The 1870 census, which most often records the German state of birth, shows the origins of the 49,442 Germans in Cincinnati as shown below. 5,831 Germans lived in Hamilton County outside Cincinnati in 1870.

The large percentages of Prussians and Bavarians are somewhat misleading. Until after World War II the state of Bavaria included the Rheinpfalz near the Rhein River, far west of Bavaria in southeastern Germany. About 90-95% of Bavarians in Hamilton County actually came from the Rheinpfalz rather than the Bavarian home of Munich and the Alps. This is a crucial distinction for researchers seeking Bavarian origins, who are probably looking in the wrong area if they concentrate on the place known as Bavaria today.

In 1870 the province of Prussia included Brandenburg, Hannover, Hessen-Kassel, Hohenzollern, Nassau, Ostpreussen (East Prussia), Pommern (Pomerania), Posen, Rheinland, Sachsen, Schlesien (Silesia), Schleswig-Holstein, Westphalen, and Westpreussen, as well as many smaller states. Although some of these states are mentioned by name in the 1870 census, many others are not specified.

Compared to all Germans in the U.S., in Cincinnati in 1870 there were seven times as many Oldenburgers, two and half times as many Hannoverians, one and a half times as many Bavarians, and the same proportion of Badenese. On the other hand, there were half as many Brunswickers, Hessians, and Saxons in Cincinnati compared to the rest of the U.S., and even fewer people from Nassau and Mecklenburg. Most of the Hannoverians and Oldenburgers in Ohio lived in Cincinnati.

A search of “Germans to America Passenger Data File, 1850-1897” results in entries for 10,218 people coming to Cincinnati whose passenger records specified origins other than Germany and the U.S.

These percentages aren’t precise. Many ship lists did not record the origins or destinations of passengers, and it’s likely that many people from Westfalen and other states reported Prussia as their state of origin. Only 67 passengers coming to Cincinnati are listed with Westfalen (part of Prussia after 1815) as their state of origin in this database, although many more Westphalians came to Cincinnati. At any rate, this list points out the prevalence (67%) of north German states in the origins of over 10,000 passengers coming to Cincinnati between 1850 and 1897.

At least thirteen regional assistance societies were established in Cincinnati by 1915. These societies and their dates of founding include Baden (1872), Rheinpfalz (1874), Bayern (1875), Schwaben (1875), Schleswig-Holstein (1880), North Germany (1884), Sachsen (1887), Germany-Hungary (1910), Rheinland and Westfalen (1891), Germany-Austria (1891), Hessen (1897), Oldenburg (1898), Siebenbürger Sachsen (1907).

In the 1950s many Germans arrived in Hamilton County, including Donauschwaben (Danube Swabians) and others from the ethnic German areas of southeastern Europe.

The Emigration section in this article will have references to lists of immigrants to Cincinnati with birthplaces.

Locations of German immigrants in Hamilton County
In 1825, most Germans lived in the southeastern area of Cincinnati near the Public Landing. Later Germans moved north toward the city line, where property prices were lower, and settled in a neighborhood of brick apartment buildings and row houses north and east of the Miami and Erie Canal (now Central Parkway), called Over-the-Rhine in honor of Germany’s Rhein River. At the end of the nineteenth century, 75% of the residents in Over-the-Rhine were German.

Newly arrived German immigrants often headed to Over-the-Rhine to stay with relatives until they could find a place of their own, but gradually they moved out into the rest of the city. Germans also settled in rural parts of the county at an early period.

In 1850, eight Hamilton County townships had the highest numbers of Germans outside Cincinnati:

These eight townships had 4,794 German residents, out of a total 5,551 in Hamilton County excluding Cincinnati. The remaining seven townships had from 13 to 189 German residents each. *The townships marked with an asterisk no longer exist since they were absorbed by Cincinnati.

By 1910, Germans had settled throughout Hamilton County, especially on the west side. In 2000, the most German area was Green Township in western Hamilton County.

The list of churches arranged by city neighborhood and county locality in this article will indicate the areas where there were enough Germans to found churches. Areas without churches that were heavily German included Wooden Shoe Hollow near Winton Place, Camp Dennison (originally called New Germany) in eastern Hamilton County, and Sweetwine and the Wolfangel Road area in Anderson Township.

Migrations of German immigrants from Hamilton County
Hamilton County was not the final destination for many immigrants, who stayed a few years in Cincinnati and then moved on to other locations, especially up the Miami and Erie Canal corridor and along the Ohio River. Many German immigrants settled in Covington and Newport, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

Cincinnati churches were sometimes responsible for encouraging settlement in other areas. In 1837 Father Joseph Ferneding, founder of numerous German Catholic churches in Cincinnati, invited two men from Oldenburg, Germany to plat the village of Oldenburg in southeast Indiana. Advertisements in Wahrheitsfreund, the German Catholic newspaper published in Cincinnati, appealed to people who had recently emigrated from northern Germany to settle in Oldenburg. Birth, marriage and confirmation records of those who later settled in Oldenburg may be found in Cincinnati’s Holy Trinity and St. Mary’s Catholic churches.

German Protestant immigrants to Cincinnati also migrated to southeast Indiana, particularly those who had attended the Cincinnati churches of St. John’s, St. Peter’s, North German Lutheran, St. Paul’s and Trinity Lutheran, and later appeared in many southeast Indiana churches. St. John’s Lutheran Church in Batesville, founded by immigrants from Venne, Hannover in 1837, records the deaths of children in the 1840s and 1850s who were born in Cincinnati.

Colonization and settlement societies formed in Cincinnati established daughter settlements across the country, including Teutopolis, Illinois (German Land Company, 1839); Guttenberg, Iowa (Western Settlement Society, 1844); New Ulm, Minnesota (Cincinnati Turner Colonization Society, 1854); Buffalo City, Wisconsin (Colonization Society of Cincinnati, 1856); Tell City, Indiana (Swiss Colonization Society, 1858); and Windhorst, Kansas (German Catholic Aurora Homestead Association, 1878).


 * Meier, Marga. Swiss Colonization Society Records in German: A Translation Project (Utica, KY: McDowell Publications, 1990). 1858-1860 minutes, not indexed, in PLCH, LDS.
 * Daniels, Janet. “German Land Company of Cincinnati and Teutopolis, Illinois.” Tracer 21:3.

Birthplaces of Hamilton County Germans
Many types of records may provide the birthplaces of Germans who came to Hamilton County. Details will eventually be provided in this article for each category.


 * German newspapers
 * German society records
 * Civil War records
 * German histories and biographies
 * Emigration records
 * German church records
 * Cemetery records
 * German orphanage records
 * City directories
 * Libraries and museums

Names of Hamilton County publications and repositories are abbreviated as follows:


 * ARB: University of Cincinnati’s Archives and Rare Books Library
 * CHLA: Cincinnati History Library and Archives
 * OHS: Ohio Historical Society, Columbus
 * PLCH: Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
 * Tracer #:#: journal published by the Hamilton County Genealogical Society, with volume and number. 1979-2008 issues are available on a CD and an article index to these issues is on the HCGS website.

German newspapers
A total of 177 newspapers and journals were published in the German language in Cincinnati, many for only a few years. Notices of death, marriage, inheritance, and society membership can provide information about German origin.


 * Arndt, Karl, and May Olson. The German Language Press of the Americas, Volume 1: History and Bibliography, 1732-1968. München: Verlag Dokumentation, 1976. Cincinnati newspapers are described on pages 433-459.

Secular newspapers
The Hamilton County Genealogical Society has an index to death notices in four German newspapers before 1920. The online index gives the decade and newspaper title. An asterisk after a name in the published index indicates that the person’s birthplace is given in the death notice. A plus sign before the newspaper’s title listed below indicates that it is included in the online index. A copy of the published index entry (not the obituary) may be ordered from HCGS.

Locations and published indexes of secular newspapers:


 * Anzeiger, 1880-1901, PLCH.
 * +Freie Presse, 1874-1964, PLCH, CHLA, ARB, microfilm. This book indexes 38,000 Freie Presse death notices, marriages and missing heirs: Jeffrey Herbert, Index of Death and Other Notices Appearing in the Cincinnati Freie Presse, 1874-1920, Parts I and II (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1993).
 * +Volksblatt, 1836-1918, PLCH, OHS, CHLA, ARB, microfilm. This book indexes death notices in the largest German newspaper west of the Alleghenies in the late 1800s: Jeffrey Herbert, Index of Death Notices Appearing in the Cincinnati Volksblatt, 1846-1918 (Westminster, Maryland: Heritage Books, 2008).
 * +Volksfreund, 1850-1908, PLCH, CHLA, microfilm; GenealogyBank ($), 1863-1904. Primarily read by German Catholic readers, this newspaper is indexed in: Jeffrey Herbert, Index of Death Notices and Marriage Notices Appearing in Cincinnati Volksfreund, 1850-1908 (Cincinnati: Hamilton County Genealogical Society, 1991).
 * Westliche Blätter, 1865-1918, Sunday edition of Volksblatt, PLCH, OHS, CHLA, ARB.
 * +Zeitung, 1887-1901, PLCH, CHLA, microfilm. This book indexes the labor Zeitung’s 20,000 death entries including many people in institutions; Jeffrey Herbert, Index of Death Lists Appearing in the Cincinnatier Zeitung, 1887-1901 (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1999).

Religious newspapers
Obituaries in religious newspapers are often detailed.


 * Christliche Apologete, 1838-1941. This German Methodist newspaper has advertisements for missing relatives as well as obituaries. Issues are in CHLA Nippert Collection (Mss 873, Series 5), with indexes for many volumes, and Archives of Ohio United Methodism at Ohio Wesleyan University.
 * Die Deborah, German Jewish newspaper, 1855-1902, PLCH, American Jewish Periodical Center at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati.
 * Haus und Herd, 1873-1918, German Methodist newspaper, PLCH, OHS.
 * Protestantische Zeitblätter, 1849-1879, United Lutheran and Reformed Congregation newspaper. 1853-1865 issues are in CHLA, PLCH, and ARB, which has an article subject index (not every-name), 1853-1864.
 * Wahrheitsfreund, 1837-1907, first German Catholic newspaper in the U.S., PLCH and ARB.
 * Overton, Julie. The Ministers and Churches of the Central German Conference (Methodist), 1835-1907. Thomson, Illinois: Heritage House, 1975. This book has abstracts of long obituaries, most with birthplaces, for ministers in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

German society records
Hundreds of German Vereine (societies) have been formed in Cincinnati since 1819 to serve a wide variety of purposes, and thousands of Germans became members – sometimes leaving a paper trail. Before World War I over 100 Vereine were active: 12 singing societies, 12 trade unions, 59 mutual aid societies, 3 marksmen clubs, 3 Turnvereine, 13 cultural organizations, 7 charitable organizations, and 3 central organizations – in addition to 80 Catholic religious societies. In 1915 it was estimated that these societies had 11,800 members. Today there are still 30 active German-American societies in Greater Cincinnati.


 * Gorbach, August. Deutscher Vereins-Wegweiser von Cincinnati, Ohio. Cincinnati: S. Rosenthal & Co., 1915. This book describes the history of 115 German societies, with 77 portraits of officers.
 * Gorbach, August. Das Hilfwerk und Cincinnatis deutsche Vereine. Cincinnati: S. Rosenthal & Co., 1917. Digital version. This book includes a list of 110 German societies in 1917, with their officers and meeting locations.

Deutsche Pionier Verein
Deutsche Pionier Verein (German Pioneer Society) was the largest and most influential German society in Cincinnati. The Society required its members to be male immigrants at least 40 years old, who had lived in the Cincinnati area for at least 25 years. Over time these requirements were relaxed. By 1875 members could live anywhere in the United States for 25 years, and by 1930 members could be born in the U.S. and only had to speak German. Members worked in labor, the trades, business and the professions.

Deutsche Pionier Verein (DPV) was established in 1868 to nurture friendships and to preserve the history of German immigrants to America for future generations. For 18 years DPV published a nationally recognized historical journal, Der Deutsche Pionier, featuring scholarly articles about German-American settlements and American history, biographies of famous and local German-Americans, essays on German culture, and poetry. Its successor, Vorstandsbericht über das Vereinsjahr deutscher Pionier Verein von Cincinnati, published detailed obituaries, many with illustrations.

By 1877, DPV had nearly 1,000 members. Branches were formed in Covington and Newport, Kentucky, in 1877 and Dayton and Toledo, Ohio, in 1878. DPV continued until 1961, when it had only 60 members. The records and periodicals of this society have detailed genealogical information.


 * The Deutsche Pionier Verein membership records, 1868-1950, in which 4,695 members reported their birthplaces, are in CHLA manuscript collection Mss fD486. An index by Kenny Burck and Deb Cyprych is in Tracer 22:3 – 28:4.
 * Andrusko, Samuel M. Der Deutsche Pionier: Membership Lists (1869-1887) of the Deutschen Pionier-Vereins of Cincinnati and Branches in Dayton and Toledo (Ohio) and Covington and Newport (Kentucky), With Selected Additional Biographical Information from Obituaries and Biographies in the Deutschen Pionier. In ARB and Library of Congress.
 * Herbert, Jeffrey. Index of Death and Other Notices Appearing in the Cincinnati Freie Presse, 1874-1920. Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1993. Part II, Appendix B, of this book indexes the names of new DPV members for whom information was printed in Freie Presse between 1874 and 1929, usually including their birthplace and birthdate.
 * Deutsche Pionier, journal, 1869-1887, in PLCH, CHLA, and ARB. 1869-1878 issues are indexed, with some article abstracts, in Clifford Neal Smith, Early 19th Century German Settlers in Ohio (Mainly Cincinnati and Environs), Kentucky, and Other States (Baltimore, Maryland: Clearfield Publishing Co., 2004), in many libraries and on Ancestry.com ($). 1869-1887 issues are indexed by name and place on the website of the University of Oldenburg’s Research Center, German Emigrants to the USA.
 * Vorstandsbericht über das Vereinsjahr deutscher Pionier Verein von Cincinnati, annual with obituaries, 1888-1938, is in PLCH and ARB. 1929-1937 issues are indexed in Tracer 8:2, 8:3, 11:1, 11:2. A typescript index to 1928-1938 issues is in the PLCH Cincinnati Room.
 * Deutsche Pionier and Vorstandsbericht obituaries are indexed in the PLCH Local History Index card file.
 * Portraits of 475 DPV members, taken before June 1875, are in CHLA photographic collection SC 105. Their names are indexed in Tracer 22:1. The “Ratterman” binder in CHLA has thumbnail images of the portraits in alphabetical order. Images from a poster with the portraits, now in the Campbell County Historical and Genealogical Society in Alexandria, Kentucky, and a digital version of a Deutsche Pionier article about the portraits, are available at the University of Oldenburg’s Research Center, German Emigrants to the USA..
 * Burck, Kenny, and Cyprych, Deb. “Deathdates of Deutsche Pionier Verein Members,” 1868-1909, Tracer 29:1 – 30:1; 1909-1954, Tracer 29:4 – 30:3.
 * Sell, Rainer. “Der Deutsche Pionier-Verein von Cincinnati, Heinrich Armin Rattermann, and Der Deutsche Pionier: A Nucleus of Nineteenth-Century German-America.” Yearbook of German-American Studies 20 (1985), 49-60, digital verson at the University of Oldenburg’s Research Center, German Emigrants to the USA.

Other German societies
The Cincinnati Central Turners, the oldest surviving German society in Cincinnati and the first Turner society in America, was formed in 1848 by immigrants fleeing the 1848 Revolution in the German states, to promote physical and mental health. The Central Turner Society in Over-the-Rhine had 450 members in 1875. There were six other Turner societies in Cincinnati, in Cumminsville (1870-1895), West End (1881-1910), North Cincinnati/Corryville (1881-1932), Lick Run (1881-1888), and Norwood (1905-1938), as well as the German Hungarian Turners (1916-1918).


 * Central Turners, 1848-1948, CHLA manuscript collection Mss fT954, includes membership rosters. Volume 1, 1848-1861, has name, date of admission, and remarks on membership status, with an index at the back. Volume 2, starting in 1866, and Volume 3, starting in 1881, list birthdate, citizenship, military regiment, village and state of birth, date of admission, business or trade, and remarks, for about 3,000 members. Entries are arranged by first letter of surname in Volumes 2 and 3.
 * Gollmer, Hugo. Namensliste der Pioniere des Nord-Amerik. Turnerbundes der Jahre 1848-1862. St. Louis, 1885. This book has information for 84 members in Greater Cincinnati including occupation, province and year of birth, date of emigration, former and current Turnvereine and years of membership, Civil War regiment.
 * Woellert, Dann. Cincinnati Turner Societies: The Cradle of an American Movement. Charleston: History Press, 2012.

The Donauschwaben Society, formed by the Danube-Swabians who came to Cincinnati from Eastern Europe, still exists and has its own clubhouse.


 * Reichert, Anna. Die Donauschwaben in Cincinnati. Cincinnati, 1984. This book lists the names and birthplaces of members born in Europe on pages 102 to 107. In PLCH and the Library of Congress.

The Bavarian Beneficial Society was formed in 1875 and still exists. Its original goal was to support members in sickness and their survivors in case of death, help further the German language and customs and hold social get-togethers. By 1878 there were 253 members.


 * Record of Benefits, 1883-1924, Film 1548045, has personal information, occasionally including place of birth.
 * The German Heritage Museum in Cincinnati has the society’s original records.

Deutsche Literarische Klub (German Literary Club) was the premier society for German intellectuals in Cincinnati, founded in 1877. On November 6, 1927 the sole remaining German newspaper in Cincinnati, Freie Presse, printed a special issue in honor of the club’s 50th anniversary, with photographs of members.


 * Deutscher Literarischer Klub, 1874-1940, CHLA manuscript collection Mss 512, contains membership records, 1899-1914, records of the club with membership list, 1878-1891, and other records.

Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Humboldt Lodge, No. 274, was established in 1855 in Cincinnati as a German-speaking IOOF lodge. The lodge had 355 members in 1892.


 * IOOF Humboldt Lodge, No. 274, Records, 1908-1922, CHLA manuscript collection Mss 915, contains membership rosters and other records. An index is provided in the CHLA manuscript register for over 500 members. Entries include initiation date and age, recommending member, and sometimes deathdate or location of previous lodge.

CHLA also has manuscript collections for Cincinnati Männerchor (Men’s Choral Group), Unterstützungsverein Deutscher Männer (German Men’s Relief Society),Deutschen Mandolin Klub, and Deutschen Schutzengesellschaft (German Shooting Society).

The German Heritage Museum in Cincinnati has the records of Frauenstadtverband and Herwegh Gesangverein. The Museum also has group photographs, with each person identified, for members of Deutsch-Ungarische Arbeiter Männerchor, Deutsch-Ungarische Gewerbe Unterstützungsverein, Badater Deutschen Frauen Kranken Unterstützungsverein, and Deutsch-Ungarische Damen Kranken Unterstützungsverein.

Civil War records
The 9th, 28th, 106th and 108th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiments were composed of Cincinnati Germans. The Turners organized the 9th OVI. Other Ohio regiments with Cincinnati Germans within their ranks included the one-hundred-day 165th Volunteer Infantry Regiment, an all-German unit; the 47th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, half German; and the 10th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, an Irish unit with two German companies. The 1st and 2nd Kentucky Volunteer Infantry regiments were formed in Cincinnati when Kentucky was still neutral and also had Cincinnati Germans in their ranks.


 * Simon, Jack. “Grand Army of the Republic Posts in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine.” Tracer 28:4. This article lists members of two German-American GAR posts.
 * Tolzmann, Don Heinrich. Cincinnati Germans in the Civil War. Milford, Ohio: Little Miami Publishing Co., 2010.
 * 9th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Records, CHLA manuscript collection Mss 505, contains numerous records including a descriptive roll printed in Fraktur type that lists the birthplace and state for each of the regiment’s 1,155 officers and soldiers, including 1,014 born in Germany, 56 born in Switzerland, and 25 born in France. Each entry includes personal description, occupation, enlistment date, remarks.
 * Grebner, Constantin. Die Neuner: eine Schilderung der Kriegsjahre des 9ten Regiments Ohio Vol. Infantrie, vom 17 April 1861 bis 7 Juni 1864. Cincinnati: S. Rosenthal & Co., 1897. This book lists the names of each of the soldiers in the 9th OVI. A translation by Frederic Trautmann omits some of the names in the original narrative (not in the list of soldiers), with the titleWe Were the Ninth (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1987).