Adolf E. Schroeder
The Westphalia Historical Society would not be where it is today without the guiding hand of Dr. Adolf Schroeder, Professor Emeritus of German Studies at the University of Missouri. Dr. Schroeder died March 29, 2013, in Columbia, Missouri, at the age of 97. He was interested in German, French, and other European settlements in the state and collected many photographs and oral histories relating to immigrant life in Missouri. He was largely responsible for re-establishing the Missouri Folklore Society in the state in 1977 and became widely recognized for his contributions to the preservation of the state’s cultural history and folklore.
Dr. Schroeder's book Hold Dear, As Always... tells the story of
Henriette Geisberg Bruns. Bruns was twenty-three when she arrived in 1836 at the isolated Westphalia Settlement in central Missouri with her husband, baby son, two brothers, and a maid. Jette, as she was known to her family and friends, had not come to America by inclination, but from duty. Her husband Bernhard, a physician, had fallen victim to the emigration fever sweeping Germany in the 1830s and was convinced that he could provide a better life for his family in the American Free States where land was plentiful, the soil was fertile, and taxes were low. Born into a large, prosperous, closely knit family, Jette had set out for the New World reluctantly; but once in Missouri, she was determined not to give up and go back home, as a neighboring family did.