Mud Poppers and Leaf Whistles: Journey of a Young Austrian Immigrant

By Janet M. Gagnon

Mud Poppers & Leaf Whistles; Journey of a Young Austrian Immigrant is an historical fiction book written from the viewpoint of a young Austrian boy.

Follow twelve-year old Johann and his family from a small farm in Eastern Europe to the port in Germany where they board a ship for the harrowing trip to America. They settle in Kansas and battle the elements to establish a new home.

During the sixty-two years that Ellis Island was open, more then 2.2 million people from the Austro-Hungarian Empire immigrated to America. Today there are millions of their descendents residing in America. Are you one of them?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 7, 2007
• ISBN: 9781465323286

Book preview

Acknowledgements

I wish to extend special thanks to the following: To my husband, Wilfred, for his support throughout this entire process. To my children and grandchildren—their many questions inspired this book. To all my friends and relatives who helped with editing and illustrating—there are too many to mention. To my husband, children and grandchildren for their help with the illustrations. To the members of the Bukovina Society for their help with the German language and the history of our common ancestors, and especially to my ancestors—without them there would be no book.

Cover picture: Dolls dressed in authentic Austrian costume

Mud Poppers

and Leaf Whistles

Journey of a Young Austrian Immigrant

Janet M. Gagnon

Copyright © 2007 by Janet M. Gagnon.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

42620

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

1. A Farm in Austria—Late 1800’s

2. Disaster Strikes

3. Farewell to Europe

4. The Voyage

5. Welcome to America

6. Onward to Kansas

7. The Dugout

8. A Farm on the Prairie

9. The One-Room Schoolhouse

10. Spring Arrives

11. The Golden Road

Austrian-German Translations

References

Dedication

To my parents, Agatha and Joseph H. Weber and all the immigrants who made this difficult trip.

Preface

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, over 40,000 German-speaking people from the Bukovina Province in the Austrian Empire left their homes to seek a better life in America. This story is about such a boy. The names are fictional and any similarity to an actual person is coincidental. The historical facts have been researched from printed material and oral histories. The characters and dialogue are fictional.

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1. A Farm in Austria—Late 1800’s

Johann jumped out of his warm bed into the bitterly cold room.

Klotzig, he muttered, as he kicked his glass of water and sent its icy crust skittering across the bare floor. How clumsy.

Brr, he chattered through his teeth as he strode into the warm kitchen, picked up the poker beside the big black cook stove and stirred the coals. A pot of mamaliga was bubbling on the stove. He filled a bowl with the corn meal mush, added some milk and dug in.

Mama had the long sleeves of her dark dress