The Holyland (Wisconsin)

[1] The area is known for its distinctive agricultural landscape, a close-knit community life, and deep Roman Catholicism brought by Germans who first settled the region in the 1840s.

[3] The Holyland area is located in the region east of the southern end of Lake Winnebago and it crosses political boundaries.

Cloud, St. Joe Father Casper Rehrl was a missionary who founded Roman Catholic churches in the area.

[6] German-speaking Roman Catholics immigrated to the Holyland from the Vulkaneifel region of Rhenish Prussia in the late 19th century.

[2] Smaller communities and hamlets in that area include Kaperich, Nitz, Kirsbach, and Mürlenbach.

[2] Because the area had limited land available, experienced periodic crop failures, and was undergoing changes to its industry, immigrants left to find better economic conditions.

The wine harvest hardly reached a fourth of a usual, average year and was at the same time of poorer quality.

White asked Ostenfeld to return to his original homeland with him in late 1847 to convince others to come to America.

[2] Johnsburg church historian Benjamin Blied said, "Most of [the immigrants], more or less antagonistic to being governed by Protestant Prussia ever since the defeat of Napoleon, left their homes along the Mosel River between Trier and Koblenz hoping primarily to better their economic condition in the new world."

An example is this letter from Michael Rodenkirch from December 26, 1846, Dear Mother, if you are still alive and if you were here, I do not think you would want to return to Germany; and you, my sisters and brothers, I would like to wish you all over here, if I knew you would be as contented as I am here.

After living in Calumet (now Calumetville) for six months, he prefaced the report, "Upon my departure from Germany I faithfully promised friends and acquaintances that I would send them within the year, a complete report of my observations during the journey from Elberfeld, Germany to Calumet, Wisconsin, and particularly of my experiences here.