German and Wendish immigrants first settled at Westgarthtown in March 1850, most having arrived the previous month aboard the ship Pribislaw after a six-month voyage from Hamburg. Westgarthtown's settlers came from Mecklenburg, Saxony and Silesia, part of a much larger wave of German emigration during the nineteenth century.
Researching a Family Name?
Many of the families named throughout our history articles — Ziebell, Schultz, Wuchatsch, Graff, Maltzahn and others — are also recorded in our Lutheran Cemetery and mentioned across our newsletter archive. Search our Founding Families directory to follow a surname straight through to its records.