““… in the heart of every man there is an instinct for
prosperity and greater happiness. Our Slovenian emigrants,
who are leaving for larger cities, either in Germany or in
America, are not pale, drained, hungry and desperate but
are strong, blooming, young men who are full of life and
strength, and the most vigorous women. On the sad road,
taking them out of their homeland they are not accompanied
so much by despair but rather by happy expectations and
the awareness of their own forces and strength… They are
aware of their spiritual and physical strength and that they
could prosper with it. At home they see with sadness that all
their intelligence and diligence are in vain, that it is
impossible to develop one’s powers as they should be
developed and therefore they hurry abroad, where they
intend to attain happiness and wealth more easily.””
Using last July’s post as a lead-in, I thought it would be interesting to investigate the process my Slovene ancestors used to emigrate to America focusing specifically on Anton Pene however the process was similar for his wife Johanna Kocijancic. I had big plans to spend hours researching the topic however within the first hour I found a website that had already done all the work-Ljubljana-Crossroads on the Way to the World by Marjan Drnovšek, PhD. as well as an informative PDF. You are welcome and encouraged to browse and read these on your own as I will be referencing them in this post. Many thanks to the author for making these valuable works available online!!
ss KAISER FRIEDRICH built 1897 by Schichau for Norddeutscher Lloyd- source Wikipedia
Anton Pene started his journey to America in March, 1899 but I don’t think he was alone. I believe he was with Alois Skrlj and Johan Skul, number two and three on the manifest seen below. All three men were from the same area in Slovenia and all traveling to Eveleth, Minnesota. Furthermore, Alois Skrlj was most likely a cousin. Was the idea of traveling to America new or had he been planning it awhile? John F. Kennedy writes, in his book , A Nation of Immigrants, “There were probably as many reasons for coming to America as were people who came. It was a highly individual decision” however generally three main reasons were political oppression, religious persecution and economic hardship (1). Historically the custom of primogeniture (firstborn, legitimate son inherits parent’s entire estate) determined land distribution in Slovenia and Anton was the second born son. His brother Franz would inherit the family home in Veliki Slatnik making Anton’s options limited.
The first portion of his journey would have been the 6 kilometers from Veliki Slatnik to Novo Mesto. Since the rail route from Novo Mesto to Ljubljana was completed in 1894, Anton would have purchased a ticket for the 70 kilometer journey. Had he traveled to Ljubljana before? Could this short trip have been the longest in his life so far? Once in Ljubljana there were many people waiting for emmigration trains and the area was surrounded by shops, pubs and hotels all catering to emmigrants. In some instances, if a man had not fulfilled the military requirement, he would need to avoid Ljubljana and the municipal police patroling the area for illegal migration and use alternate railroad stations outside of Ljubljana.
Assuming Anton left from Ljubljana and browsing his ship manifest record it was then necessary to acquire a ticket to Bremen, Germany and then a rail connection, free of charge, to the port city of Bremerhaven when on March 14 the SS Kaiser Friedrich left port to America. Looking at the railroad maps though Europe during this time, there are two probable train routes Anton would have taken from Ljubljana: Ljubljana-Vienna-Prague-Dressen-Berlin-Bremen or Ljubljana-Frankfort-Cologne-Bremen.
Once on board the SS Kaiser Friedrich he would have made his way to steerage class generally below deck or between decks. The average cost of a ticket in steerage was $30. There is a great deck plan and cabin layout of the ship here. The harsh steerage class was the most economical voyage to America and was usually very cramped and at times the stench was unbearable.
Anton Pene’s immigration record is on line 4. The “ST” in the left column means he was in steerage.
The SS Kaiser Friederich was owned by Norddeutscher Lloyd/North German Lloyd and the route was routine-Bremerhaven to Southhampton to New York City then back again. Departing immigrant passengers have been described as silent and pensive while on deck watching their homelands fall out of view but upon arriving cheers of happiness, most likely for a chance to get off the ship. The ship arrived in Southhampton, England on March 15, took on passengers and promptly departed arriving in America on March 23 after nine days at sea.
“”Upon arrival in New York City, ships would dock at the Hudson or East River piers. First and second class passengers would disembark, pass through Customs at the piers and were free to enter the United States. The steerage and third class passengers were transported from the pier by ferry or barge to Ellis Island where everyone would undergo a medical and legal inspection.”
-https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/ellis-island-history”
My great grandfather should have been processed through Ellis Island if it were not for a fire on June 15, 1897. Re-opening wasn’t completed until December 17, 1900, therefore, immigrant processing reverted back to the Barge Office, a processing center from April 19, 1890 until December 31, 1891, located on the southeast tip of Battery Park. There are many accounts of immigrant arrival experiences through Ellis Island but I haven’t been able to find any for the Barge Office during this time.
Barge Office, circa 1900. Photo from The Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection. (https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/det/item/2016808419/
Upon arrival to New York, ships stopped at the entrance to the Lower Bay of New York Harbor, the quarantine area, where medical inspectors would board and check cabin passengers for contagious disease. After the inspectors left, the ship was free to continue to the Upper Bay, past the Statue of Liberty and on to Ellis Island or in Anton’s case, Battery Park.
Statue of Liberty from immigrant’s vantage point. Photo used from NPS.com, (https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/the-immigrants-statue.htm).
Steerage passengers, with their name tag and manifest number attached, would now have to wait, wait and wait for their turn through inspections. The immigration interpreters proved invaluable, most speaking six languages/dialecs, helping the arrivals through the questioning with the registry office, physician and final test with the primary-line inspector who had two minutes per immigrant to verify the 31 questions on the ship manifest although I only count 27 questions on Anton Pene’s manifest. Here I should mention, immigrants names were not changed upon arrival, most likely immigrants themselves changed their names afterward to sound more American. Of course, not every immigrant was cleared and some were detained for further examination and others just deported. In all, about twenty percent of immigrants were detained and only two percent denied admittance. According to the ship manifest is doesn’t appear Anton was detained.
Once receiving a landing card, the next step was money exchange and railroad ticket office. It’s unclear if Anton Pene had pre-arranged a ticket to Eveleth. Some men signed contracts to obtain train and steamship tickets before even leaving their homeland. Looking at the ship’s manifest, however, Anton stated that he purchased his own passage, had $3.00 in his pocket and was joining an “acquaintance” in Eveleth, Minnesota. Perhaps with only $3.00 left he already had the train ticket? Making arrangement for baggage to his final destination was the last detail. With admittage papers, railroad ticket and box lunch in hand Anton Pene had made it to America. Train travel from New York City to Northern Minnesota in 1899 was approximately 1 week, depending on connections. Some kind of route from NYC-Chicago-Minneapolis-Duluth makes sense but in the end there is no way we can know for sure. Anton did make it to Eveleth and began working as an iron miner.
The 1900 United States Census has him boarding with John and Anna Shank along with eleven other men on Missabe Mountain. One, Peter Kerze, would become his brother-in-law and two others Frank and Joseph Blazic were prrobably cousins-Anton’s mother’s maiden name was Blazic!
What an incredible journey! What an incredible story! I’m sure Anton Pene wasn’t thinking about all the future generations lives he was changing when he set off on his journey to America but I am forever grateful for his decision.
Previous posts on Anton Pene-Anton Pene, 50 Years Together, and two really nice video clips in Vintage Christmas Photographs and An Immigrant from Slovenia.
Footnotes
(1) Website, http://www.ohranger.com/ellis-island/immigration-journey
Sources
http://www.revisionist.net/hysteria/german-exodus.html
http://www.aei.org/publication/maps-of-the-day-travel-times-from-nyc-in-1800-1830-1857-and-1930/
http://www.ohranger.com/ellis-island/immigration-journey