Germans flooded the upper Midwest during the 1800s
By Pat Norby
The Catholic Spirit
Pius Becker and Francisca Stadtmueller traveled separately from Stupfrich Baden, Germany, to St. Michael, Minn., where they met and married in 1885, and raised 10 children on a modest farm near the Crow River. No one immigrant group surpassed
the Germans in numbers, as numerous people migrated to the upper Midwest, according to “Pride in the Past, Faith in
the Future: A History of the Catholic Aid Association,” written by St. Joseph Sister John Christine Wolkerstorfer. It was a common story for many of the German immigrants who arrived in Minnesota, said Zita Eull, whose father, the late Joseph Becker, was the third-oldest of the Becker kids. “He grew up down by the Crow River, where the first church was built,” said Eull, 74, who with her husband Kenneth is a member of St. Michael parish in St. Michael, where they raised six children who attended St. Michael School. Although she was raised in St. Albert parish in nearby Albertville, her roots run deep in St. Michael, where her father walked a couple of miles to St. Michael School each day.
“There were Notre Dame nuns here, and many kids [from out of town] would stay with the nuns,” she said. “I think it was the only Catholic school here,” she said. “The boys would do the chores,
bring in wood and fire up the stove and bring up the water. That’s how [Joseph] started his schooling.”
Many German immigrants, like the Beckers, were farmers, who sought rich land along river bottoms, notes the CAA history book. Because they wanted to maintain their language, faith traditions, music and customs, Germans often were set apart from other immigrant groups and 19th-century Americans. And, their allegiance to Roman Catholicism made them targets of antipapist
groups. With threats of rejection and open persecution, they formed their own settlements, churches, schools, businesses
and social groups. Germans valued education, Eull said.
In those days, students progressed by the books they completed, not by school years, Eull said. In St. Michael, they spoke German in class and prayed in German at church. “In Albertville, we spoke English, with Mass in Latin,” she said. Language separated
the two communities for many years. “When we went to school, I
remember throwing bats and balls at the kids from St. Michael.” She also noted her own reluctance fit in at St. Michael when she first moved to the community with her husband. “I was a stubborn German. I used to drive through St. Michael, past the grocery store, to shop in Albertville,” she said. After a short time, Eull realized the foolishness of the action and settled into
her father’s home community. The Beckers and many other German settlers came to America and followed a train or a river to find a place to settle, she said. “My mom’s dad, the reason he
and his dad came, was because they escaped Germany and the military.”
The Germans wasted little time building
a church and school in St. Michael. “Twenty-eight families built this church — they must have had terrific faith,” Eull said.
The church was the hub of activity and recreation for the community. “Going to church was our recreation — that was where you met people,” Eull said. “And nobody balked about it — it was their out.” May was always a big deal, she said,
with the crowning of Mary and devotions. “I bet every family said the rosary at home.” And fall brought the annual harvest festival that continues today. Church was so important to the Beckers, that among all the 10 children, every family produced a nun or a priest or more, Eull said. The young Joseph Becker worked as a carpenter and built most of the barns around St. Michael, Eull said. He married Cecilia Kolles in August 1917 and the two moved to a farm in Albertville in 1924 to raise eight children, one boy and seven girls. The last was Zita.
“My mom had cancer while she carried me,” she said. Zita was born in February 1930, and her mother died in November. Joseph never remarried. But, Zita said, “We had the most beautiful
family life. We had no money but we were very happy.”
At Christmas, her family would visit each of her dad’s nine siblings, and each family, in turn, would return the visit.
The other affiliation her family maintained was with the Catholic Aid Association, which Joseph founded in Albertville and remained an officer of until his death at age 83.
“Catholic Aid was a big part of our life,” Eull said. “Catholic Aid was very German.” In fact, the original state association —
The Mutual Life Insurance Association of the German Roman Catholic Benevolent Societies of Minnesota — was created
in 1878 to raise funds to care for German widows and orphans, according to the CAA history book. Many German settlers in the area needed insurance, but couldn’t get it from secular insurance
firms. In 1923, it was renamed The Catholic Aid Association of Minnesota. The original association was available only for German-Catholics, who were conversant in the German language.
That changed as World War I brought on anti-German hysteria and prompted many young Germans to adopt the English
language. During World War II, German Americans supported the war effort, despite their repulsion of going to fight their kinsmen. Joseph Becker would have been among those soldiers, until he learned that Cecelia was pregnant. The family still has his government-issued prayer book, medal and rosary. Today, St. Michael is building a new church for its 1,700 households.
“We have over 800 kids in the religious education program,” said Eull, who teaches fourth-graders in the program, along with serving as a parish trustee, participating in women’s group,
cleaning the church and more that she declined to include.
“I need to pay back,” she said. And like her German predecessors, Eull continues to give to the Catholic Church.
Pius and Frances Becker gathered
their 10 children for this family
portrait in the early 1900s.
Joseph Becker, Zita Eull’s father,
is in the center