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Castle Garden, Ellis Island- the bldg, ca 1870 FB20160823PLG

FaceBook/Mosch-Kortz Family Descendants
Paul Lynn Gardner
August 21 at 10:57am · Duncansville, PA
THE VOYAGE TO AMERICA
The year was 1870 Karl Herman age 33 and Caroline Scheider Mosch age 36 with their four children,
- Herman Carl age 11,
- Karl Earnest age 9,
- Emil Earnest age 6 and
- Lena Mosch age 3 left Germany.
They headed for the British Isles and boarded The St. Louis at Liverpool for a long difficult voyage to America.

Donnie Mosch Thompson writes, quoting her father Otto: “My dad, who was eleven when the Mosch family left Germany, told of the tedious, dreary months, the hunger, sickness, and fright they endured in crossing the Atlantic on the crowded ship, The St. Louis, which was lost at sea on the return voyage. Dad remembered the way his mother attempted to tidy up the younger children as they approached New York City; she brushed their hair, unfolded a wash cloth, then cried at the sight of their little faces, once plump and rosy, now pale and hollow, Grandfather put his arm around her, and the little family looked toward the harbor, the tall buildings, and the land of opportunity - the promise of a better life.”
It was May of 1870, 16 years before the Statue of Liberty was unveiled, Our Mosch Grandparents arrived at the southern tip of Manhattan in New York City. Castle Garden was America’s first immigrant receiving center, welcoming more than 8 million immigrants between 1855 and 1890. Castle Garden previously served as a fort, theater, opera house and immigrant receiving station before Ellis Island opened in 1892. Today, Castle Garden is called Castle Clinton National Monument and serves as the ticket center for ferries to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
We can only imagine what it was like, stepping off that boat that spring day in 1870. A strange new place, with that “we can’t turn back now” feeling in their souls. A bitter sweet justification of giving up their Lippersdorf home which was no longer able to give them freedom and subsistence. Bringing with them their few seeds of hope, dreams, life’s savings and old German determination and plant them on those steep hills of Germania, Potter County. Those seeds produced some hearty Mosch stock that we all know too well. I can remember my Grandmother Hertha Mosch McElroy on the subject of work, and there was no excuse: “many hands make work light… verstehen?” Yes, this single family from Lippersdorf did lay an extremely strong foundation for generations to come. God bless their determination.
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John Christy Wetzel
John Christy Wetzel Do you know what drew them to Potter County?
Like · Reply · August 22 at 1:06am
Luke Mosch
Luke Mosch Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I think I read that Karl purchased land through an ad in a magazine. Germania was running ads targeting Germans.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · August 22 at 7:08am
Paul Lynn Gardner
Paul Lynn Gardner John Christy Wetzel & Luke Mosch As written by Donnie Mosch Thompson: "The land around and comprising Germania had originally been bought (and bought very cheaply) by William Raddle of the German Land Co.. His idea was to sell the land, sight unseen, to prosperous German immigrants. He composed an elaborately worded advertisement which glorified the similarities of the Potter County woodland to the renowned Black Forest of Germany and he exaggerated on the actual stage of property development in the village and surrounding area. Mr. Raddle placed the ads in German newspapers and successfully caught the attention of many families eager to make the move."
Unlike · Reply · 2 · August 22 at 10:24am

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