Sonoma German Project

German Project

Thus all started with a few phone calls from Bob Parmelee encouraging me to work on a project with him this year. I started out general, with the idea to do something fun and with manageable parameters. Bob had some stuff on Ernst Rufus, who turned out to be a surprisingly important, but unknown to me, figure in North Bay and Central Valley California history. Taking Bob’s cue I worked up an Ernst Rufus timeline.

At first I simply started to survey people with German surnames as I knew I was interested in George and Georgiana Wallman, Otto Schuhmann, the Philip Bill clan, and so any new project could capitalize on work already done plus open up new avenues along those same interests. Bob let me fish a little in his collection. By copying Patricia Cullinan on essays as they emerged, she got back with new resources and ideas. Thanks to Patricia for all her help; she is a great resource.

My first idea in this spate of projects was to develop a survey or census of local German immigrants and descendants. This survey could stand as the basis for future research. Maybe some patterns and connections would show up, some emergent properties. I have done this survey and explored German immigrants to Sonoma in both a general and specific way. Completing a survey of German-speaking immigrants to Sonoma from the 1900, 1910 and 1920 Censuses would finish this general work. 

The east side of town is my sphere of interest, as I happen to live here.  I can’t take on the whole valley, I have my area: the Buena Vista neighborhood, Germania Street (8^th Street East) and the Arroyo Seco watershed.

I was interested to try and define any founder effect and chain migration that may have happened. In one case, that of the Philip Bill lineage, I think I have demonstrated this.

I also wanted to explore why these German immigrants came to Sonoma? In general there were two pulses, the first wave and the second. For the first: Did John Sutter hook them in? Was it the Gold Rush? Was it war and poor economic conditions of the German language area of Europe? Disease? Climate? Was it the frontier mythos? Manifest Destiny? Probably it was some of all the above. The temptation to try and define single factor only causation is a downfall of all academics. In most cases phenomena is complex and involved, not easily reducible to one simple factor. A better model is to think of a pie diagram and what factors have what percentages in any given situation.

The second great wave of migration to the US, from 1880 – 1910, was the largest pulse of immigration in the country’s history. The German speakers who came to the North Bay and Sonoma Valley were a part of this larger phenomenon. Again, multiple causes drove this wave and a study of European and American history in general for this time period will provide a general context. It is easy enough to see how many of these people climbed the ladder of the American dream: Clewe, Duhring, Groskopf, Poppe and how others fell into obscurity or have records of only modest success.

In my essays I try to incorporate something of a sense of how the local socio-economic-technological context changed over time: Rancho Period, Mexican-American war, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the first Industrial Revolution (mass production), the annexation of California by the US, the Gold Rush, the frontier era, the Gilded Age, Victorians, the second (chemical/electrical) Industrial Revolution, the automobile, steamship, the railroads, Prohibition, the Depression, WW2, Japanese internment, up to the post WW2 economic boom, the decline of the US middle class and current state of the valley as an elite wine tourist attraction.  Future work could integrate these formative influences into interpreting how people, Sonoma and its livelihood adapted to the change. What is the current footprint of all those immigrants in Sonoma Valley? Is it more than street names? Is the legacy of Sonoma valley more than wine? Can a rich history be forgotten?

I had wanted to do something on Georgiana Wallman; she was an interesting character.  Women in older Sonoma history are way under represented. I did accomplish this project with her as the central character, with a number of essays and a lot of work on her family. Georgiana’s family crosses over into Swiss and Japanese lineages as well as her native German.   

Having accumulated a lot of research already with my work on the Schuhmann Hotel and the Philip Bill lineage I felt it was time to put it all together and get this material off my computer and into the hands of the local historical groups. Through this effort, in some small way, I get to enter the pantheon of Sonoma history and establish a presence along with all my favorite characters from the past.