Schlick Daleiden Family DuPage/Kane Co. Blog

The Daleidens arrived from the port of Antwerp in Belgium in the late 1850s to New York. According to Genealogist Steve Szabados in his book German Immigation to America: The Who, Why, How and Where ( 2020), “. . . Antwerp was an essential trading center in the low countries before it became a major departure port for emigrants“. The city’s “connection to the Rhine River traffic and it’s link to ships traveling to America was an essential factor to attract immigrants“.

There was several developments enabling the surge of immigration to America. Two primary developments were the lowering of costs of travel and the increase of railroad transportation connections to ports. Steerage fares were introduced around 1850. The cost for Steerage was around $16 per person. $16 in 1850 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $581.98 today (2022). For the Daleidens this would have cost $3,491.88 in 2022 ( $96 in 1850s).

Steerage was the “part of a sailing ship below the quarterdeck. Sailors called it the steerage area because the steering tackle ran through this area to connect the helm to the rudder of the ship”. The building of railroads in Europe were used as a convenance by immigrants to Antwerp and other ports of departure. Trade agreements also kept goods moving to America via the immigrant ports and this increased the number of ships traveling available to immigrants traveling back and forth between America and Europe.

The first wave of my Schlick family (Casper and Margaret) arrived from the port of Bremen in Germany in 1852 to New York. Breman was a port of departure for immigrants starting in 1825 and by 1830 according to Szabados, “The port began serving as the embarkation point for the majority of immigrants from central and eastern Europe bound for America“. The port authorities of Bremen, “tried to improve the quality of life for immigrants, and their rules earned a reputation as the best port from which to emigrate“. Ship owners had to supply “Bremen authority’s with passenger lists for each voyage, and the harbor officials required that the shipowners had to absorb the expense for each emigrant who the United States immigration officials rejected“. This information exhibits the fact that the Schlicks left from a well tended Port. Szabados’ book (page 44) offers a great description of travel on a ship in the 1850s. This description provides a sense and some context on what it may have been like to travel thousand of miles to a new home and country:

Steerage passage on sailing ships in the 1850s meant our German ancestors found themselves in converted cargo holds with hammocks strung up to provide places to sleep. These quarters were small and crowded, and many times the passengers shared the hammocks with one or two other immigrants with each taking their turns sleeping. They endured unsanitary conditions, cramped quarters, disgusting odors, and little privacy. Toilet facilities in steerage consisted of a few buckets with private screens. The steerage passengers used cooking stations that were set up on deck to prepare their food that they had brought. Shipping companies did not provide food to the early steerage passengers on the voyage. Illnesses developed quickly among the young and elderly, and diseases spread quickly. Many passengers arrived in their new land sick, and many died at sea.

I encourage you to purchase or locate this book in your local public library for more in depth information on the German Immigrant experience.

In part two of this two part blog together we will look at what life was like coming into America at the port of New York.

St James Farm was central to the family history of Frank and Mae Schlick and then the George and Louise Davis family. I went every Sunday to St James Farm to visit my Grandpa and Grandma Schlick. I rode bikes on the Farm and visited the horses in the Red Brick Stable. Here is a clip on its history that I contributed a short segment.

The Village of Winfield was incorporated as a Village on April 16, 1921. In 2021 the Village celebrated its centennial year of incorporation. “While some still wanted their rural life undisturbed, many felt that improvements now were due. Better commuter schedules was one hope, upgraded telephone service another, but it was the demand for street lights which gave particular impetus to the drive [ toward incorporation]” ( Louise Spanke Winfield Good Old Days: A History (1978) pp 61).

I grew up in Winfield from the beginning of the nineteen sixties through the end of the nineteen eighties. I have witnessed so many changes. I have seen the disappearance of so many familiar buildings that I remember as a child. I can still remember walking each morning to Winfield Elementary School from my home on the east end of Beecher. To me as a young child the school seemed so far away from my home. I remember that there was no stop lights, nor curbing or any sidewalks. Beecher Street, at least the end I lived on, was not paved. The street dust and dirt was kept to a minimum by the Village with an application of a layer of tar topped off with a layer of small stone pebbles. I can still hear the tar and gravel making noise on my dad’s car wheels as we drove down the street. The roadway surface would eventually harden to form a firm surface to drive and walk upon. The roadways were narrower back then.

Louise Spanke in Winfield Good Old Days: A History (1978) provides a brief window into the community of 1921. In 1921 Winfield’s population was only 310 people. Many of the businesses and trades included: “grocery, general merchandise store, confectionary, ice cream or refreshment parlor, meat market, garage, coal business, ice business, photography gallery, junk dealer, auctioneer, electrician, plumber, milk dealer“.

One interesting fact is that with the incorporation of the town there came changes to the street names. Spanke in her book reports the following street name changes: “Only Franklin Street [later to become Highlake] kept its original name under the new regime. John Street was changed to Church, Paul became Park and Frederick Street and Beecher Road were combined to make Beecher Avenue. Warren Road become East Street; Marion, extended east, was designated Washington. Elizabeth Street became a part of Jewell Road, renamed Winfield Avenue, and Gary’s Mill and Manchester Road were combined as Lincoln Avenue. The historic names of Jewell, Gary’s Mill and Manchester Road were restored in 1955“.

The end papers of Spanke’s book contains a two page spread showing “Winfield, Illinois, c. 1905“. The “Map drawn from memory by Lawrence Enders in consultation with George Roger Higgins, Anthony and Cornelia (Higgins) Besch, Alice (Higgins) Neubauer, Jacob and Mary (Schmidt) Zeier, Lena (Schmidt) Higgins, Michael and Laura (Schmitt) Tinnes.”

I remember Mr. Lawrence Enders or Larry as my parents called him. He lived in the second home on the on the north side of Beecher Street east of Church Street. I believe that another generation of the Enders family still lives in this house. My grandfather Frank Schlick told me that Larry’s house was once the barn for Nicholas Ender’s homestead and property. The Nicholas Enders home is now a business called Antiques and Chic (0S125 Church Street). At one time there was also an old stone smoke house on the property. This old structure was used to smoke and to cure meat. The smoke house was disassembled, moved, relocated and reassembled on the grounds of the Stacy’s Tavern Historic Museum (561 Elm St, in Glen Ellyn Illinois). When you have a chance stop and check out this interesting structure.