The German Heritage of Carroll County, Iowa
by David Reineke
 

Chapter Fourteen

PAGE TWO

The German Press in Carroll County

Carroll County’s GermanNewspapermen

 

                   Asthe following biographies demonstrate, the German newspapermen of Carroll County came from a variety ofbackgrounds.  Some were born to ratherprivileged families, while others came from more modest circumstances.  

 JohnG. Burkhardt

                    John G. Burkhardtwas the first editor of the CarrollDemokrat.  At present, very littlebiographical information is available concerning him.  He was 23 years old when he arrived inCarroll in 1874.  He had previously beenemployed at the Beobachter am Missouri, Omaha’s first German newspaper.  He was editor, and for a time publisher, ofthe Demokrat until he left Carroll inJuly 1878 to work for a new German paper established by Dr. L. Rick in Kinsley, Kansas.  Hesubsequently worked for other German papers in the “West” including papers in Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma.  Around1900, he worked for the Gainesville Anzeiger in Cooke County, Texas, where there was a large German community,including a number of transplants from Carroll County.

 FranzFlorencourt

                    Franz Florencourtwas a county representative and correspondent for Der Carroll Demokrat when it was established in 1874.  He edited the paper from 1880 until 1891, andagain from 1919 until his death in 1922. He also edited Die Germania for a time during the 1890s.

                    His full name was FranzFerdinand Chassot von Florencourt,and he was born on September 1, 1844 to an upper-class family in Naumburg,Saxony.  When he was5 years old, the family moved to Vienna, Austria, and converted to the Catholic religion.  In 1854, the family moved to Cologne, Germany, where his father, a well-known journalist,established the Kölner Volks-Zeitung(Cologne People’s Newspaper), a leading publication of one of Germany’s political parties. 

                    Franz Florencourtattended school in Cologne, and later he was sent to a Benedictine school in Metten, Bavaria.  He thenwent to a naval academy in Bremen,and when he was 22 years old he entered the merchant marine as an officer.  He served one year as a volunteer in thePrussian Navy, and then served until 1870 aboard various merchant ships,traveling to many parts of the world. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, he was aboard a shipharbored in England, and by the time he returned to Germany his services were not needed.  He came to the United States in December 1870, and then sailed from New York as on officer on the American merchant ship Benefactor on a year-long trip to China and back. 

                    In 1872, he traveled to Michigan, where he met his brother Carl. In April 1872, theycame together to Carroll County and purchased farmland in Wheatland Township.  Franz worked at farming fortwo years, and taught school for three years in Roselle (Hillsdale). He was also with Der CarrollDemokrat as county agent and correspondent beginning in 1874.        In 1886, he married Wilhelmina Von Lück, andthey had four children.

                    As noted above, he edited theDemokrat from 1880 until 1891, andalso edited Die Germaniaduring the 1890s.  He returned to the Demokrat as editor in 1919.  He died in July 1922 due to complicationsfrom an operation for appendicitis.  Hisfuneral was at the Catholic church in Carroll. 

 AloisBecker

                    Alois Becker edited Der Carroll Demokrat from approximately1892 to 1900.  He was born on March 9, 1854 at Calcar, near Kleve, on the lower Rhine River.  In 1856, his family moved to Essen, where Alois attended school and later trained tobe a dentist.  In 1879, he married SophieLouise Viemann, and they eventually had fourchildren.

                    After living in Essen for about three more years, the family immigratedto America and moved to Carroll County, where Mr. Becker at first set up a dental practice.  In 1891, he was named editor and businessmanager of the Carroll Demokrat, andhe remained with the paper until October 1899. The family then moved to Council Bluffs, where Mr. Becker took over the Freie Presse, a Democratic weekly paper, whichhe edited and published until approximately 1908.

 JosephM. Dunck

                   JosephM. Dunck was born in Iowa andraised on his parent’s farm near Maple River, and he received his early educationin the public and parochial schools in Carroll County.  In 1887, he went to Teutopolis, Illinois and attended St. Joseph’s College for two years.  He then returned to work on his father’sfarm, and received further tutoring from Father Roettlerin Mt. Carmel.   In 1894, he obtained his B.A. degree from St. Joseph’s College in Dubuque,and five years later he obtained his M.A. from the same school. 

                    For the next 10 years, heworked as a schoolteacher.  He was thenmade editor of the Carroll Demokrat in1905, and he worked at that until 1918. He was a Demokrat and a member of the Catholic Church.  He died in 1922

 Rev.Lubke Huendling

                    Rev. LubkeHuendling was the founder of Die Ostfriesische Nachrichten,and was also the first pastor of the Wheatland Presbyterian Church near Breda.  He was bornin 1854 in Holte, Ostfriesland(East Friesland), where he attended the public schools as ayouth.  It is said that two of hisancestors, a father and son, were pastors in a Calvinist church in Germany andthat they ministered the same church in the same little town for 105consecutive years, from 1650 to 1755.  

                    TheHuendling family immigrated to America in 1869. After stopping for a time in Freeport, Illinois, they moved to Dubuque,Iowa.  LubkeHuendling enrolled in the German Presbyterian College there, and he graduatedin 1876.  Three years later he graduatedfrom McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. During his summer vacation in 1878, he was invited to preach at theWheatland Presbyterian Church near Breda. After being ordained a minister, he served as pastor of WheatlandPresbyterian from 1879 to 1881.

                    Hethen accepted a position for two years as a professor of languages at theGerman Presbyterian College in Dubuque. During this time, he recognized the need for a German-language newspaperas a means of maintaining connections between the East Frisian populations inthe United States and their family, friends, and countrymen back inGermany.  He began publication of Die Ostfriesische Nachrichten in Dubuque in 1882. 

                    Rev.Huendling moved the operation to Carroll County in 1884, and the paper wasprinted on the presses at the CarrollHerald until 1898, when the paper was moved to near Breda.  As noted above, the newspaper served to connectthe East Frisian immigrants in America with their countrymen back home.  In approximately 1907, Rev. Huendling hiredD. B. Aden to come from East Friesland to assist inediting and publishing the paper.

                    Rev.Huendling married Nellie Daane in Sheboygan County,Wisconsin in 1880.  They eventually hadseven children.  While living near Breda,Rev. Huendling was also active in community affairs and worked to modernize thequality of life in his rural area.  Inthe early 1900s, he advocated the installation of telephone and electricalservice, as well as establishment of a rural postal route.  It is also said that he obtained the firstradio in the community, and one of the first automobiles in the area around1910 or 1911.  As a preacher, he wasknown to walk for miles if necessary in order to minister to the localpopulation.  He assisted in establishingthe Emmanuel Church in Carnarvon, in neighboring SacCounty, where he also preached.   Rev.Huendling died in 1937.  The papercontinued to be published until approximately 1971.

 Berthold Krause

                    Berthold Krause was born on January 4, 1863 in Bohemia, aGerman-speaking area around Prague, and now part of the Czech Republic.  After attending public school in hishometown, he continued his studies at an advanced high school in Saaz (possibly present-day Žatec),where he obtained an excellent classical and liberal arts education.  It is said that he developed a fondness forthe great German playwrights, Schiller and Goethe, and that he then decided to becomea stage actor.

                    He immigrated to the UnitedStates in 1883.  Without funds at first,he worked for a time in a store in Cleveland, and then as a farm hand andrailroad worker.  He then went to Chicago,where he worked with a theatre company and traveled with the troupe throughIllinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Iowa. He later moved to Davenport, Iowa, where he became director of his owncompany, the Davenport Theatre, said to be one of the best German theatres inthe country.  While on a trip to Manningwith his troupe, it is said that Krause greatly enjoyed the thriving littleGerman town.  He quit the theatre andsettled in Manning permanently, where he married and started a family.

                    Krause soon decided to starta German newspaper to serve his new hometown, and the first edition of Der Manning Herold appeared on February2, 1894. His new business faced many challenges in the first few years.  At first, he created his type sets out ofcigar boxes, and a fire virtually destroyed the business in its earlydays.  At first he published the paper inthe Ruhden building, and in 1897 he moved into thesecond floor of the Carpenter building. Through his hard work and dedication, the paper prospered andexpanded.  By 1900, circulation wasapproximately 650, rising to 800 by 1910, and to 950 by 1915.

                    In addition to the newspaper,Krause also published the Manning city directories, and in 1900 he published ahardback History of Manning, whichhad been complied by J. L. Robb.  Krausewas also a member of the school board, and it is said that he worked hard toensure that German was taught in the local school system.

                    BertholdKrause died on June 15, 1907, at the age of 42. After his death, the paper was taken over by Peter Rix,a German farmer who was motivated to carry on the paper because of hisfriendship to Krause as well as love for his native German culture. 

 Peter Rix

                     He was born Hans Peter Rix on November 15, 1870 in the north German town of Stakendorf, near Kiel and the Baltic Sea.  He arrived in New York on July 21, 1887aboard the Thingvalla,sailing from Denmark.  He worked for atime as a farm hand, and he continued in farming after he arrived inManning.  He married Wilhelmina Baak, a native of Schleswig-Holstein, in 1895.

                    Mr. Rixbecame publisher of the Manning Heroldupon the death of the former owner, Berthold Krause,in 1907.  Rixwas said to be motivated in carrying on the business due to his friendship forKrause, as well as his love for his native German language and culture.

                    After approximately threeyears, in 1910, Rix sold the Herold to Paul Werner and Carl Hasselman.  Rix was appointedpostmaster in 1915 and served until 1925. In 1919, shortly after the end of World War I, Rixpurchased an English-language paper called the Manning Monitor.  The Herold was then merged into the Monitor, and thereafter Rix and Paul Werner published the paper together.  The loss of the town’s only German paper wasa sad blow to many German residents of Manning.   Peter Rix retiredfrom publishing the paper in 1945, and her died in 1951.   

 Clemence A. Bohnenkamp

                    Clemence A. Bohnenkamp ran the Breda Watchman from 1894 to 1909. He was born in Breda on February 23, 1877, the eldest son of John H. andCaroline Bohnenkamp.   He attended publicschool and graduated in 1891.  He learnedthe art of typesetting as an employee at the Breda Watchman, an English-language newspaper started in 1890 by J.J. McMahon.  Bohnenkamp became manager ofthe paper and eventually purchased the business in 1894.  He married Christina Ricke in 1898.  The Watchmanwent out of business in 1909 when Bohnenkamp moved to Duncomb,Iowa to start a new paper.

 WilliamLangenfeld

                              WilliamLangenfeld was an editor at Der Carroll Demokrat from 1901 to 1904.  He was born November 24, 1855 at Rübhausen, in the Rhine Province of Germany.  He attended school there until he immigratedto America with his parents in 1869.  Thefamily settled first near Mendota, Illinois. In 1874, the family moved to Carroll County, Iowa, where they farmedabout a mile north of where Halbur is now located.

                     William became a teacher in1878, and during the winter months he taught school in Roselle (Hillsdale) andWashington Townships and later took over a school in Roselle.  In 1883, he married Gertrude Rohlmann, a native of Germany who had come to America withher family in the 1870s.  In 1888, hemoved to Arkansas for approximately three years, and then he returned toCarroll County in 1891. 

                    Upon his return, he worked asthe station agent in Halbur for approximately nine years.  He then moved to Carroll, where he edited Der Carroll Demokrat from 1901 to1904.  In early 1904, he became deputycounty treasurer, and he was elected county treasurer in 1908.  He belonged to the Democratic Party, and heand his wife were Catholics.     

 

CONCLUSION

                    As seen above, CarrollCounty’s German newspapers prospered during the late 1800s and early1900s.  The Carroll Demokrat and the ManningHerold together probably had over 2000 subscribers prior to World WarI.  Both papers, however, went out ofbusiness shortly after the war ended in 1918—the Herold in 1919, and the Demokratin 1922.  Only the Ostfriesische Nachrichten,with its greater circulation around the country, managed to survive.      

                    Anti-German sentiment causedby the war undoubtedly played a role in the demise of both papers.  During and shortly after the war, there was agreat deal of hostility directed at the German population in Iowa, and  Germans were denounced by many politicians andnewspapers around the state.  In May1918, Governor Harding had even gone as far as issuing a proclamation totallyoutlawing the use of all foreign languages in public—this included things liketelephone conversations and even church services.  On numerous occasions, this hostility alsoresulted in acts of vandalism against German property and violence againstpersons of German descent.  People wereassaulted, and homes and business were attacked.  Many “patriots” adopted the practice ofdousing German homes and business with yellow paint.  As seen above, this once happened to thebuilding housing the Manning Herold.  Similar episodes also took place in Carroll,as noted in the following short article printed in the English-language Ruthven Free Press in August 1918:

                    Splattered with three batches of yellow paint, the signon the German Savings Bank at Carroll, stands as mute testimony of thatcommunity’s growing ire against those who control this institution.  This bank is a festering sore inCarroll.  Its stubborn refusal to changeits name is arousing countrywide feeling. This is the third application.

                    In essence, during and evenafter the War, public displays of “Germanness” wereunpopular and even dangerous. Numerous German papers in Iowa, and throughoutthe United States, either went out of business or changed to English-languagepublications during this time.

                    Another reason for thedecline of the German press was the fact that the number of German-bornresidents was declining.  By 1920, many ofthe early German settlers who had come to Carroll County between the late 1860sand 1880s had passed away.  A comparisonof the Carroll County census figures for 1900 and 1920 indicates that thenumber of people actually born in Germany had declined dramatically during thisperiod.  This undoubtedly also led to adrop in the demand for German-language publications.

                    For nearly half a century, however, CarrollCounty’s German papers served to inform, entertain, and unite the Germansresidents in Carroll County.  Duringtheir day, they played a major role in fostering and preserving the Germanculture and language.  They fulfilled therole of the German press, as described in 1900 by Joseph Eiboeck,editor of the Iowa StaatsAnzeiger in Des Moines:

 

Thenewspaper, whether daily or weekly, delivers the up to date information ofevents and information of the present. It is the public observation of the day. It strives to bring everything before the reader in as true and reliablea manner as the prevailing circumstances a permit the editor and publisher topresent.  It brings the reader a pictureof life, how it is, and also how it could and should be.  It grieves with the family when a memberpasses away or when pain or misfortune strikes. It offers congratulations at the arrival of a new baby, and strews roseson the path of the newlyweds.  Itfurthers German clubs, German churches, German schools, and goes to battle formany a German candidate in politics.  Itstrives greatly for the well-being of its patrons, as well as for that of thetown and the state.

 

 

NOTES AND SOURCES FOR CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

Much of the information contained in this chapter istaken from various issues of Der CarrollDemokrat.  The general county andIowa histories used in previous chapters were also used here.  Eventually, I would like to expand thesections dealing with the other papers. Hopefully, additional issues of all of these papers will eventually bediscovered.  Information on the Ostfriesische Nachrichtenwas obtained in the Breda centennial book and from the Wheatland PresbyterianChurch centennial book.  Informationabout the Manning Herold was obtainedfrom the Manning centennial book and from J.L. Robb, History of Manning (Manning 1900).  The outstanding web site maintained by David Kuselof Manning was also extremely helpful: <davidkusel.com>. Information onthe Demokrat, the Monitor, and some German newspapermenwas also obtained from Joseph Eiboeck, Die Deutschen vonIowa und deren Errungenschaften[The Germans of Iowa and theirAchievements] (Des Moines 1900). Dates and statistics for these papers were obtained from Karl Arndt andMay Olson, Deutsch-AmerikanischeZeitungen und Zeitschriften1732-1955 [German-American Newspapers and Journals 1732-1955] (New York andLondon 1955 Reprint).