Immigrants’ stories

“The Immigrants Who Came to the City of Mills” was the program for the May 30 meeting of the Westbrook Historical Society, arranged by Suzan Norton, vice president. She gave a presentation on the French, Irish, Danish and Swiss families who settled in Westbrook. Her interesting talk was followed by Eugene Berg, who gave members and guests an interesting review of his German family.

Suzan told us that the earliest inhabitants who came to Maine did so because many were awarded land grants from the king. Some came later, as they received land for Revolutionary War service. The earliest settlers built homes near the Presumpscot River. They built sawmills, tanneries and grist mills.

The Cumberland and Oxford Canal was built with the help of many Irish workers, who were paid 50 cents per day in scrip, not cash, allowing many to invest in land. As a result, many stayed long after the canal was finished.

At the time of the Civil War, Westbrook’s mills were booming, with the manufacture of duck, which is canvas, for the tents used by the military. With the building of the mills came immigrants from everywhere. There was a suspender factory, a dowel mill, a box factory, Haskell Silk Mill, the gingham mill, a canning factory, paper factories and many more. Haskell fared well throughout the Civil War years, and continued to thrive with a strong workforce of nearly 250, at its peak, owing much of its success to some of its highly skilled foreign workers.

Suzan spoke of several immigrant families in detail. Here are some of the immigrants:

French: Pierre Turgeon came from Quebec. He was born there in Canada in 1845 and died in Westbrook in 1907. He found work in mill cities, first bringing his wife and 10 children to Lewiston, and then he came to Westbrook. He opened a grocery store in his home on Brown Street. His family helped out, getting supplies by horse and wagon in Portland. His son, Wilfred, and wife were grandparents of Diane Turgeon Dyer, one of the historical society’s directors.

Irish: Westbrook was home to many Irish since the early 1800s, with the building of the canal. Among them was Nora Dolly Keating, who came to America in 1905, following three of her sisters who came in 1891. Nora, born in Ireland, was one of 10 children of William and Bridget Skeritt Dolly. The four sisters did well in America. Nora married Arthur Keating in 1920. In 1925, with the help of builder O.C.K. Robinson, a store was built for them, with a home upstairs. Keating died in 1925, but his wife continued running Keating’s Market, on Brackett Street, for the rest of her life. Her descendants are still in Westbrook. Her granddaughter, Kathleen Mailhot, still lives here, and many other relatives are in the area.

Danish: Alex Weinrich Jensen was born in Denmark in 1901, and died in 1975. He took a job on a Danish freighter. In America he disembarked, deciding to stay here, and he eventually made his way to Westbrook. His wife died while the kids were young, and he spent his life raising them. Alex’s son, Marty, remembers that everyone in their home spoke both languages until he was 7 years old. After his mother passed away, they spoke only English. Alex was a supervisor in the mill for 43 years. He was often needed by the Westbrook Police Department to translate when a Danish person needed help. Today some of his descendants have intelligence jobs in the U.S. military, one a linguist specializing in Arabic.

Swiss: Zurich, Switzerland, was the birthplace of Ernest F. Rathgeb, in 1842. (Norton wrote that she was looking through a Bible presented to the society by his granddaughter. She found that our society member Vaun Born had put together a history of the family, and details and old photographs were included, plus a record in the Bible of all the dates of family occasions). Ernest’s son, Jakob, was born in 1875. Ernest became a citizen here in 1890 and Jakob became a citizen in 1908 at the age of 33. Jakob’s baptismal paper, written in old German script, is in the Bible. (Norton has since learned that this man was the highest paid man in the Haskell mill, with the exception of the owners, as he was an expert silk dyer. Rathgeb, along with Ernest Gerhardts, another with great technical skills, helped to make Haskell Silk Mill very profitable through the years).

Rathgeb was a widower, and left his younger son with an older sister to look after him, as he journeyed to America. He boarded a ship in France, bound for New York City. His destination was Patterson, N.J., where he would fill a position at a silk mill. He was valued for his knowledge of dyeing black silk. On board ship, he met Anna Rich, also Swiss. Her father was a cooper and owned a vineyard. Anna first went to Paris to be a cook. She was also venturing to America when she met Rathgeb. She was on her way to take a position with a family from Plattsburg, N.Y. She and Rathgeb exchanged addresses before they departed. But her directions were misread, and she was sent on a journey to Plattsburg, Mo. She ended up working for a farm family in Nebraska. It was not until June 1881 that they were married in Patterson, N.J. Shortly thereafter, the Rathgebs moved to Westbrook. Their daughter, Adele, born in 1884, was a member of Westbrook’s class of 1905. There were three visits back to Switzerland for Anna and her daughter to see Anna’s sister, Ursula.

Members of this family are buried at Woodlawn Cemetery. Ernst Rathgeb died in 1909 at home, and his wife died in 1941, also at home.

German: Suzan wrote, “It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you, Eugene Berg, who will share his collection of what his grandfather, Ernest Gerhardts, left behind. Gerhardts was a loom repairman and specialist at Haskell Silk Mill. Upon seeing his program, you will realize that history is more than just names and dates.”

I do not have a copy of Gene’s talk, and hope to report more later. The artifacts he had on display were fascinating – long pipes, beautifully designed, which were his grandfather’s and a music box, with a tree on the top, which he played for us, playing “Silent Night.”

It was an excellent program, and showed much preparation. Suzan wrote, in handwriting at the end of the notes she gave me, “Presentation by Gene Berg – exceptional!” And it was.

Sour fruit, sweet bread

This recipe is from Jim Oliver’s “Recipes from the Smoke House,” 1995. It is a collection of Oliver family favorites from their restaurant, at the top of Monteagle Mountain, in Tennessee.

RHUBARB NUT BREAD

1-1/2 cups brown sugar, packed

2/3 cup cooking oil

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup sour milk or buttermilk

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2-1/2 cups flour

1-1/2 cups diced fresh rhubarb

1/2 cup chopped nuts

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup white granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix brown sugar and oil, add egg, vanilla, milk, and sifted dry ingredients. Fold in diced rhubarb and nuts. Divide and pour into two well-greased and floured bread pans. Top with mixture of 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes