Eleanor's ethnic heritage is German. All 4 of her grandparents came to America from Germany in the early 1880s as young people without their parents. They traveled to Breman, Germany where they boarded a steamship for the long trip to Baltimore, MD. Altho they probably knew each other, each came at a different time. We have no details of the trips, but some of the "steamer trunks" that carried their belongings have been saved by family members. Eleanor feels honored to now possess the spinning wheel and china coffee pot that Grandmother Bruene brought in her trunk. The spinning wheel is constructed with wooden pegs so that it came apart for the trip.
Since Eleanor's ancestors were farmers, they took a train to Chicago and on to Gladbrook, IA. where each "hired out" to an established farmer. He lived with the family, received his room and board and, in addition was paid a few dollars monthly. Within a few years the thrifty hired man could accumulate enough to purchase land or send some back to help his family or pay passage for brothers, sisters, parents or cousins to America. Germany required young men to serve in the Army; the story is that one of my grandfathers immigrated to avoid service. The other grandfather had 6 brothers and a sister and their father couldn't earn enough as a tailor to support the family. Eventually that entire family came to Gladbrook and each of the boys took title to land to provide a good living for a wife and family. In taking title to land their family name, Koster was spelled with an umlaut over the O and was interpreted 2 different ways. Two brothers signed Koster; the others Koester, adding an e instead of the umlaut O. The brothers farmed as neighbors and succeeding generations have continued the two spellings.
Eleanor's grandparents spoke the German language in their homes and were very active in the German Methodist Church where services were conducted in German; it was across the street from the English Methodist Church. During and following World War I, however German heritage was suppressed and even ridiculed. After this her grandparents often spoke to each other in their native language, but encouraged their children to use English. By 1930 the 2 churches had merged and all services were in English.
While on a Friendship Force trip to Holland in 1985 my husband and I rented a car and drove to Germany. We stayed with a cousin of my Mother's in Kulte and within 24 hours saw the birthplaces of all four of my grandparents! It was hard to believe that all were transplanted from that small area to tiny Gladbrook. It wasn"t hard to believe why they stayed because the German countryside looked very much like the land they chose in Iowa. German families lived in villages where houses and barns for their livestock were connected; they went out to the country to tend their crops. I wish I had asked one of my grandparents why they didn't continue that arrangement in Iowa. We met relatives, saw the tombstones of deceased relatives in beautifully cared for cemeteries, and ate meals of meat, potatoes and sweets prepared very much like my grandmothers and Mother cooked./>
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