Castle Garden: The Precursor to Ellis Island

When we think of U.S. immigration, we often think of Ellis Island. But Ellis Island didn’t come into play until 1892. Millions of people came to the United States in the years prior.

From 1790 to 1820, immigration was virtually unregulated. It is estimated that between 5000 to 6000 people came freely to the young country. (These numbers do not include enslaved people.) Due to frequent overcrowding and often inadequate provisions on the ships that transported the newcomers, many of them arrived ill and exhausted.

In an effort to improve the conditions on these ships, captains were required to provide passenger lists to the U.S. customs officials beginning in 1820. Mostly, localities were left to help the new arrivals through entities like New York City’s Commissioners of Emigration. A July 24, 1855 New York Times article characterized the situation:

The “land sharks” included swindlers, thieves, or purveyors of undesirable jobs and atrocious accommodations.

The State of New York opened the first immigration station in the country at New York City’s Castle Garden in 1855 in an attempt to combat these problems.

Castle Garden began life as a military fort known as West Battery, constructed on an artificial island off the southern tip of Manhattan in the lead-up to the War of 1812. In 1815, it was renamed Castle Clinton in honor of the city’s mayor. Through an act of Congress, the fort was ceded to the city of New York in 1822. Two years later, it opened as an entertainment center called Castle Garden.

By the time Castle Garden began processing immigrants in 1855, the city had filled in land to connect it with Manhattan. It served as the main immigration depot in the United States for the next 35 years.

In addition to accounting for the immigrants, procedures were put into place to check the spread of contagious diseases by assessing their health conditions while still on the ship and then being rechecked once they arrived in Castle Garden.

Translators were provided for arrivals who did not speak English so they could be accurately registered. They could send letters or telegrams. Food and drink were available. Immigrants could exchange money and buy railroad tickets without fear of being swindled. Welfare agencies assisted those planning to stay in New York in securing legitimate employment and satisfactory accommodations.

By the time Castle Garden was closed in 1890, more than 8 million people had passed through its doors.

Today, Castle Garden is operated by the National Park Service as the Castle Clinton National Monument.

In my August newsletter, the third installment of the prequel to The Legacy details Anna's experience at Castle Garden. Sign up for my free newsletter at: www.annmarkim.com

Ann Markim

 Website

Facebook

    Buy Links:      Paperback at Amazon    Amazon Kindle 

It's All in the Family by Ann Markim

     I have friends who can trace their heritage back to the 1200’s. Others can demonstrate how they’re related to famous people as 14th or 17th cousins. Both are interesting and impressive.

    But for me, the most fascinating part of researching my family history is learning small details of their day-to-day lives and the reasons why my ancestors made significant, life-changing decisions.

    Since my mother was the child of one of the younger offspring, she had no recollection of her grandparents on her mother’s side. Years ago, we set off on a quest to learn as much about them as we could. We visited many of her oldest living cousins.

     I started those visits off with a few prompting questions, then let the cousins talk about memories and family stories. All the while, I had my video camera (this was in the era before smart phones) rolling. Not only did I learn a lot about my family’s history, but I also felt much more closely bonded with relatives I had barely known before.

           My great-grandparents (who inspired THE LEGACY) and their 10 children

 Here are some of the tidbits I’ve picked up while researching my family history:

• ·         My mother’s maternal grandfather came to America to escape conscription into the German Army when South Jutland was occupied by the Germans. This land area was not returned to Denmark until after World War I.
• ·         My mother’s paternal grandfather died when my grandfather was fourteen. Mom’s paternal grandmother and her children continued to operate the farm successfully, and my mother and her siblings grew up on that farm.
• ·         One of my mother’s aunts taught high school in Sioux City, Iowa for many years. Among her pupils were the twins who became Dear Abby and Ann Landers.
• ·         One of my mother’s cousins used to love to go to town with his dad to pick up supplies, especially kerosene. In those days, gumdrops were used as stoppers in the spouts of kerosene containers. Mom’s cousin volunteered to ride home in the back of the wagon with the supplies so he could eat the gumdrop. If he ate it too early, he had to put his hand over the spout to keep the liquid from sloshing out.

    These are just a few of the fun facts I’ve uncovered about my family. I love to speculate about what life was like through the generations. The first two items on the list served as inspiration for my historical novel, THE LEGACY. Although THE LEGACY is entirely fictional, I’ve tucked many of the tidbits I’ve discovered about my ancestors into the story. This made the manuscript fun to write.

Buy Links:      Paperback at Amazon    Amazon Kindle      

What fascinating tidbits have you learned about you ancestors Do you have any fun family stories?  How have they inspired you?

Ann Markim

 Website

Facebook

INCORPORATING FAMILY HISTORY INTO OUR STORIES by CHERYL PIERSON

Have any of you ever incorporated your family history into your writing? Do you like to read books that are based, however loosely, on factual happenings?

My mom was the oldest of eleven children. She knew everyone in our family and how they were related. Because she and my dad grew up together in a tiny little town in southeast Oklahoma (their high school had a graduating class of twelve), she also knew quite a lot about his side of the family as well.

But when I was younger, I was not interested in the stories she told me. It was only later, when I
was grown and had children of my own, that I began to wonder and ask questions, and by that time, her memory had already begun to decline.

If you have ever read the book, The Education of Little Tree, (by Forrest Carter) or seen the HBO movie, this story might sound familiar. When Andrew Jackson decided that the Indians were to be assimilated into the white man’s world, he put lots of plans into action that would take years to snowball and evolve into what they eventually became—a truly shameful period in the US governmental policies and procedures. One of Jackson’s plans, besides Removal, that was carried through into subsequent presidencies, was the idea of assimilating Native American children in white homes to integrate them more completely. The Native American children were taken from their villages
and given to willing white families (along with a tidy little government stipend for their troubles) to raise.

My great-great-great grandfather was one of these children. We don’t know his real name. It was changed when he was delivered to his new “family,” a Presbyterian minister and his wife. Their last name was Walls. So his name was changed to Walls, and he was given the first name, David. Forbidden to speak his language, he was forced to forget all the ways of his People, and dress in white man’s clothing, go to white school. But he was never going to be white, and his place in the world was divided so drastically that he could not fit in anywhere. Eventually, the Rev. Walls sent David to medical school in Missouri. When he returned to the small town where he’d been raised, he was a doctor who rode to his patients on horseback. Later, he married and had children, but it was not a happy union and his son, my great-great grandfather, became an alcoholic whose own children, in turn, left home as soon as they possibly could. My great grandmother, his daughter, married at 13. Her older sister left home one day and never returned. No one ever knew what became of her. This is a picture of my great grandmother, Josie Belle Walls McLain Martin (1882-1972). She was around the age of 25 when this was taken in 1907. (Not a lot to smile about--she had four children and her first husband had been killed in an accident. She married a man who had 6 children of his own, and they eventually had 7 together...times were really hard.)

JOSIE BELLE WALLS MCLAIN MARTIN--made around 1907 when she was 25 years old. Already getting gray.



I’ve often thought of these children that were abducted by our cavalrymen, and taken away to their white “families”, forbidden everything familiar and forced to adopt completely new and different ways, even down to their speech and childhood games—and their own names. Can you imagine it? To never be allowed to see your mother and father again. Siblings separated and “given” to different families, their heritage and connection with one another lost forever. How many tears must they have shed? And how lonely and separate they must have felt, how isolated, even into adulthood…so that most of them, I imagine, never were able to fit in anywhere in the world.

ONE MAGIC NIGHT by CHERYL PIERSON (Cover by Livia Reasoner)

Thanks for stopping by today! I will leave you with an excerpt of ONE MAGIC NIGHT, and a look at the brand new cover (which I am in love with!) I'm giving away TWO COPIES of ONE MAGIC NIGHT! Leave a comment with your contact information in case you are one of my winners!


BLURB:

Dr. Shay Logan has just returned to Talihina, Indian Territory, from medical school in Missouri. Shay
hopes to settle down and make a life for himself, but how? He doesn’t belong to either world, Anglo or Indian He's made the acquaintance of Katrina Whitworth at the July 4th town social, and the attraction is mutual from the very beginning. Shay begins to have hopes and dreams that may be out of the question…but Katrina seems to have stars in her eyes for him as well. Will she risk everything to be with him?

THE SET UP: Katrina makes a social blunder, and Shay follows her into the woods to apologize to her, but when they return, Katrina's drunken father humiliates her. To make matters worse, her former beau shows a side of himself she had not seen before. Can Katrina and Shay have a life together that they so badly want?

FROM ONE MAGIC NIGHT:

As his hand started its descent, Katrina turned away. But Shay’s arm shot out, grasping Whitworth’s hand and holding it immobile.

“You will not.”

Three words, quietly spoken, but with a heat that could have melted iron, a force that could have
toppled mountains.

Katrina’s father’s face contorted, his teeth bared, finally, as he tried to jerk away. He didn’t utter a word. He stared up into Shay Logan’s eyes that promised retribution, as the seconds ticked by. Finally, he lunged once more, trying to pull free, but Shay still held him locked in a grip of steel. Only when he released that grip was Whitworth freed.

“You presume too much, Doctor Logan, unless you are assuming the care and responsibility of my
daughter.”

“Papa! Oh, please!” Katrina felt herself dissolving into a puddle of less than nothing beneath
stares of the townspeople of Talihina. What had started as an exciting, beautiful evening had become an embarrassing nightmare. It was torture to think that she was the cause of it all. How she wished she had stayed home with Jeremy as she’d first planned, before Mrs. Howard had volunteered to keep him company.

Now, Papa was saying these things that she knew he would regret later. It was always this way when he drank too much. These accusations had gone beyond the pale of anything he’d ever said before. But Shay Logan wouldn’t realize that. He wouldn’t know that Papa would be sorry tomorrow.

Evidently, there was one thing Shay did recognize, though. She saw the very slight flare of his nostrils as he drew in the scent of alcohol on her father’s breath, and in that instant, there was a flash of understanding in his eyes.

“You’ve had too much to drink, Mr. Whitworth,” he said in an even tone. “I will overlook your behavior toward me because of that, but not toward your daughter. She has done nothing, yet you would strike her, and cause her shame.”

“She’s my daughter,” Whitworth replied sullenly.

“But not your property, Whitworth. Never that. You owe her an apology.”

“No, Shay, really—” Katrina began, then as her father whirled to look at her, she broke off, realizing her mistake. ‘Shay,’ she had called him. As if she had known him forever. As if she was entitled to use his given name freely. As if she were his betrothed.

“‘Shay’ is it, daughter? Not, ‘Dr. Logan’? Shay.” He spat the words out bitterly. He drew himself up, looking Shay in the face. “I’ll not be apologizing to her—or to you. And I’ll expect nothing less than a wedding before this week’s end. Do you understand me, Doctor?”

Shay had lost any patience he might have harbored. “You understand me, Whitworth. You will not dictate to me, or to your daughter on such matters of the heart. As I say, the alcohol has got you saying things you’re going to regret, and—”

“Threatening me, are you? Threatening me?”

“Truman.” Jack Thompson stepped out of the crowd and smoothly came to stand beside Katrina. “Let’s put this…unfortunate incident…behind us, shall we?” He confidently tucked Katrina’s hand around his arm. “I can see that the church auxiliary ladies have almost got everything set up for this wonderful Independence Day meal—” he frowned at Mrs. Beal, nodding at the picnic tables behind her. She jumped, motioning the other ladies to resume the preparation.

He gave a sweeping glance around the group of onlookers. “I, for one, am ready to eat! How about you all?”

Katrina was swept along at his side as he walked toward the tables, speaking to acquaintances and friends, laughing and…and seething with tense anger the entire time. She could feel it in his body, with every step he took and the tightness of his grip as he covered her hand with his. Katrina glanced back over her shoulder, hoping to catch a glimpse of Shay, but the crowd blocked her view.

“Smile, my dear,” Jack gritted into her ear. “I’m hoping we can still salvage your virtue, no matter what happened, really, between you and the good doctor. If I see him near you again, I’ll kill him.”



For more great new releases from PRAIRIE ROSE PUBLICATIONS, click here!
www.prairierosepublications.com