HISTORY: 15 million came to America; some came to Portland, and stayed

Published 2:08 pm Wednesday, July 2, 2025

From 1900 to 1915, more than 15 million immigrants traveled to America – drawn by labor opportunities and a chance for a new start in life.

The majority came from Southern and Eastern European countries – first arriving on the east coast, and later moving into the Midwest, with some continuing the journey to the Pacific Northwest.

In last month’s issue of THE BEE, I explored the stories of the newcomers who came from China, Japan, and from the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway.

But the immigration story continues – this month, with people from Germany, Italy, and Poland – and also those of the Jewish faith, as well as other nationalities who came from eastern sections of Europe.

For centuries Germans have struggled through the hardships of religious persecution and involvement in political wars. In the mid-1700s, German families fled conditions in their homeland – specifically seeking to escape Roman Catholic domination. Many migrated to the Volga region of Russia. There, half a million German families were granted free land, received an opportunity to establish German-speaking schools, were given an exemption from military service, and received permission to administer their own civic and church affairs.

But, arrangements like that are often not permanent. By the 1800s, new Russian leadership felt no need to continue the previous concessions granted to these new citizens. So, still seeking religious freedom, and wanting to avoid army conscription, and also driven by crop failures in the 1880s and 1890s, The Volga Germans again sought greener pastures elsewhere.

Seeking to draw needed labor to the United States, the Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railroads hired native-speaking agents who were familiar with the Volga region to go there with pamphlets, and encourage these expatriate Germans to re-settle here in the Pacific Northwest.

Many who came were not excited by the prospect of railroad work, and sought to settle in the agricultural areas of the valleys in western Washington and western Oregon. However, many newcomers found little farmland available to buy in the Willamette Valley, so they turned – at least temporarily – to earning cash working for the railroad companies. German men also became streetcar conductors, and worked in the repair shops of Portland’s transit system. Others could be found spending exhausting days cutting, sawing, and hauling lumber for the numerous lumber mills along the Willamette River. The majority of these immigrants arriving in Portland chose to live in the Albina and Brooklyn neighborhoods.

Brooklyn’s population in the 1880s was predominantly European immigrants – a mixture of skilled and unskilled laborers – mostly of made up of single men, with only a relatively few families. Germans, Scandinavians, Italians, Poles, and Irish briefly occupied homes on a rental basis until they could find higher-paying jobs, and then acquire better living quarters. Others chose to move on to other communities in the Northwest, where they could find countrymen who spoke their language and had similar backgrounds.

But for those who decided to stay in Portland, there were small cottages, temporary rental homes, and a few boarding houses to choose from, in the Brooklyn neighborhood. With the Southern Pacific Railroad shops located nearby along S.E. 17th Avenue, and the large Streetcar Barns just two blocks away at 17th and Center Street, employees of both companies could easily walk to work. However, it was the Inman-Poulsen Lumber Mill at the west end of Powell, by the Willamette River, that was the largest employer of all, for the newcomers arriving from Western Europe and abroad.

Although the work hours were long – sometimes 12 hours a day – and the pay was low, immigrants soon acquired expertise in their chosen field, and this allowed many to earn enough money to build a house locally, or to move on to better prospects. Brooklyn remained a “melting pot” of different nationalities, working together to integrate into American culture, and striving to become model citizens.

German stores and shops began popping up on Milwaukie Avenue between S.E. Holgate and Division Street, while a second commercial district was forming to tahe east on Powell Valley Road. German merchants usually offered services in both the English and German languages; residents in the area were able to buy from Urfer’s grocery, John Kunz’s meat market – as well as Matt Lohr’s bakery, where they would find the German delicacies of Apfelkuchen, apple cake, soft pretzels, and fresh-baked pumpernickel bread.

Louis Feurer was pursuing a real estate development just east of Milwaukie Avenue, where he named the new streets after places in the country he’d come from. Small single-family dwellings and bungalows could soon be found on the streets of Frederick, Karl, Frankfort, Rhine, and Rhone.

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, though, patriotism here led to a drive to change German street names. Frederick Street was changed to Pershing; Frankfort was to be called Lafayette; Bismark became Bush; Karl was turned into Haig. The streets of Rhine and Rhone – named after romantic and scenic rivers in Germany – were allowed to remain the same.

German-born Fred G. Urfer and his wife Teresa arrived in Brooklyn in the early 1900s. Fred was in the grocery business for over eighteen years; his store was at the corner of Milwaukie and Beacon Street (now Franklin Street). Besides groceries and German goods, the Urfer store offered hardware and paint to the public. He was also an active member of the neighborhood’s Brooklyn Improvement League, and his wife Teresa regularly attended the Brooklyn Parent and Teacher Association meetings. The Urfers were among the first residents of the city to register an automobile in Portland!

On Saturday nights, Urfer’s Hall – just down the street from the store – was a lively social gathering place for the German community, alive with dancing, Oom-Pah-Pah music, and the sweet aroma of dark Rye bread and homemade sausage and sauerkraut, served at dinner.

It was also a popular place for hand-rolled cigar shops – Matt Lang’s, The Brooklyn Cigar Shop, and Lubbin’s were just up the block on Powell Valley Road. Jewish residents, and Italians from the west side of the river, traveled across the Ross Island Bridge – after it was constructed in the 1920s – to regularly purchase baked goods at Matt Lohr’s Bakery.

Bellart’s Saloon at Milwaukie and Powell, along with Anton Sechtem’s Last Chance Saloon, provided plenty of beer, schnapps, and camaraderie for the men just getting off the night shift. In the book “History of Sacred Heart Parish 1893-1993” it is revealed that after an exhausting ride on his white horse, visiting and recruiting people for his congregation, Father Anselm Wachter occasionally stopped in at Sechtem’s Last Chance Saloon for refreshment.

Families gathered during the weekend for sermons and religious meetings at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the Mizpah Presbyterian Church; but it was the Sacred Heart Catholic Church at 11th and S.E. Center that dominated the neighborhood. Many German and Italian immigrants attended services at the church, and they also contributed to the construction of the Benedictine Sisters Convent, Rectory, Sacred Heart School, and Gregory Hall. German-born Joseph Spelderich was commissioned to be both the architect and builder of the Sacred Heart Church.

The Portland City Directory recorded a large percentage of German surnames here – among them, Oderkirk, Hemmrich, Klapper, Reifschneider, Schroeder, and Steizenmueller. There was a indeed a major German presence in Portland, but there were other major immigrant groups here as well.

Eastern Europeans of the Baptist and Methodist faiths, along with Mormons and Mennonites, left their original homelands in search of religious freedom, and were often drawn to localities in the Pacific Northwest. Eastern European Jews also came to escape religious persecution, and quickly assimilated into the American melting pot. Experienced in petty trade and peddling, these new arrivals became truck farmers: Peddlers of goods and vegetables. Many Jewish newcomers also found jobs as expressmen, tailors, and proprietors of second-hand, retail, and grocery stores.

A large enclave of Jewish families could be found in Southwest Portland, living in rental homes and boarding houses. Many Jewish men left the security of their South Portland community to venture where opportunities were better – as merchants, they opened small shops in numerous sections of Portland. Proficient in the English language and familiar with American society, they were welcomed in many Oregon neighborhoods, where they established their own businesses.

During the 1890s, Jewish peddlers traveled through our neighborhoods with horse and wagon, many of them proficient as knife sharpeners, ethnic goods dealers, and collecting unwanted items thrown out by families. Housewives anticipated the arrival of the Fish Wagon on Fridays, and the popcorn and candy wagon that traversed the streets of East Portland attracting hordes of children. The delivery of snacks and desserts by vehicle was already thriving from Jewish immigrants long before the ice cream truck became popular in the 1930s.

Jewish residents soon became prominent in political affairs and were establishing well-known businesses. Among those whom today’s Oregonians might recognize was Aaron Sigmund, who sold goods from a pack he carried on his back – he eventually opened his own store in Portland. Aaron later joined Emil and Sigmund Frank in building one of Portland’s most successful department stores – Meier and Frank.

Jewish and German immigrants often left their European homes because of religious prosecution, but the nine million Italians who emigrated to the United States between 1900 and 1910 did so for an entirely different reason – because severe droughts in southern Italy had made their farming impossible. Family and friends who already lived in America beckoned other relatives to move to the “land of opportunity”.  Salesmen – or “landsmen”, who are those from the same village – were often paid to entice their countrymen to come to the United States.

William Toll wrote, in his article “The Italians and Jews of South Portland 1900-1940”, that “Many Italians were so poor that they could barely scrape together the small sum of twelve dollars for the voyage from Italy.”

But when they did arrive, many Italians discovered that this “land of opportunity” wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Relegated to finding whatever work they could in the big cities of Pittsburgh, Chicago, New York, or in the Midwestern states, often the only positions offered to these Italian immigrants involved long hours working in garment-making sweatshops, coal mines, foundries, grimy factories, and even slaughterhouses.

Ten to twelve hours a day were not unusual work hours in such places, and many in those jobs were forced to live in dilapidated dwellings or boarding houses. It wasn’t uncommon to find a two-bedroom and one bath apartment or living area that was occupied by a family of six or eight. At times life seemed unbearable, and many of these immigrants gave up and returned to Italy – but others stayed, generating income that generated economic growth, and demanding better housing for newcomers to this country.

Many arriving on the east coast moved to the Pacific Northwest, where better jobs were attainable, and where farmland was available for Italians who were experienced in this kind of work. The largest contingent of Italians in Oregon was in Portland, scattered across the sprawling east side of town.

Open space lots and large sections of land in Ladds Addition, and near Reed College, offered an opportunity to grow vegetable and berries. It was in the part of town starting at Hawthrone Boulevard and running south to Powell Boulevard, and from the Willamette River to S.E. 50th Street, that Italians banded together to share familiar foods and a common language. This section of Portland, which included part of the Hosford-Abernethy neighborhood, was also home to a section of Greek, Scandinavian, and German immigrants.

A common practice among the Genoese Italians was to purchase inexpensive land on the east side of Portland, and bring it under cultivation. At Ladds Addition a large farm was established made up of individual gardens with which many Italian families supplemented their income. Newcomers from the Italian regions of Calabria, Abruzzi, and Sicily rented or purchased a home in this section of Portland, often ensuring that on the property there was additional space to start a garden for themselves. Some Italian gardeners even looked for homes near vacant lots which they could use to grow a variety of produce, much as they did on a regular basis back in the Old Country.

Additional produce that couldn’t be consumed by families was taken to a privately-owned public marketplace on the west side of Portland, where farmers’ stalls lined the block selling everything from fruit, flowers, poultry and vegetables, to butter and eggs.

Historian Richard Engeman wrote, in his essay about the Portland Public Market for the Oregon Encyclopedia, that the market was located between S.W. First and Second Streets, and between Ankeny and Ash. It was later moved to S.W. Yamhill, and is remembered by past Oregonians as the Yamhill Street market.

Italian farms from as far away as Parkrose and Gresham, along with Ladds Addition and the Rivelli and Montecco farms near Reed College among others, brought their produce to sell on a daily basis at that Portland Public Market. Any excess produce was placed back into wagons to sell throughout the city or to sell to store owners in the area. The shout of “Fresh Fruit today” could be heard down many neighborhood streets, as enterprising farmers drove wagons pulled by horses down the avenues of Inner Southeast Portland laden with vegetables and fruit for sale.

Italians were so successful in the produce market that an Italian Ranchers and Gardeners Association was established. In 1906, a new produce market opened on the east side of the Willamette, covering a complete block between S.E. Madison and Main, fronting on Union Avenue – which is now known as Martin Luther King Boulevard.

As more people from Eastern Europe moved into the southeast part of Portland, they brought with them the skills and trades they learned in the old country. The streets along Division, Clinton, and Hawthorne featured small cafés and bakeries selling their own home cooking and baking to customers – or selling it to grocery stores willing to stock specialty items from Italy, Germany, and other European markets.

Italian and German workers offered services as carpenters, electricians, plumbers, blacksmiths, tailors, and shoemakers. You could even find an Italian stone mason shop or two along the commercial streets.

Annual activities and festivals were held at Oaks Park, in which Italian families and the public had their choice of listening to the music of Palacios’, De Caprio’s Band, or the ever-popular D’Urbano Royal Italian Band, while feasting on such favorite Italian dishes as Risotto, Lasagna, Polenta, Pasta al Forno, Bolognese and Ribollita.

St. Philip Neri Catholic Church opened in 1916 offering Sunday services, and also a Catholic School located at S.E. 16th and Division Avenue, for Italian families in the area.

Sellwood never received a large influx of Italians, but a family or two or three might move in close by each other, or nearby on the same block.

Just across S.E. 17th from the community of Garthwick, at the very south end of Sellwood, once were the “Sellwood Gardens”. This area, from Ochoco Street south to the town of Milwaukie, was all vegetable gardens. With nothing but fields of green in the way, a person standing on 17th Avenue could see all the way over to McLoughlin Boulevard and beyond – nothing but gardens, filled with luscious produce, until World War II began. At that point the gardens were dug up and special defense-oriented residential housing was built on that land.

Much as did the other nationalities which left their homelands during the 1900s, the Polish people and Greeks traveled overseas on ships also carrying Germans, Austrians, and Scandinavians – all seeking economic prosperity and religious freedom. Poverty was rampant in Europe, and an explosion in population there led to a massive shortage of food.

Poland was at war with Russia, and as the Polish government began to fall, many Polish citizens migrated to nearby countries, and journeyed to the United States. With little capital, and few other countrymen to depend upon once they disembarked at Ellis Island, most Polish immigrants took whatever menial jobs were available – jobs that most Americans had turned up their noses at.

Those who found their way to Portland found fellow countrymen in North Portland; and, there, they banded together in a chapter of the Polish National Alliance, finding employment in the lumberyards and shipyards. With the dedication of the Polish Catholic Church of St. Stanislaus in 1907, and the opening of the Polish Hall in 1911, Polish immigrants gained places to socialize, to celebrate Polish holidays, and to find countrymen who spoke their language.

Meantime, those of Greek heritage often didn’t speak the English language, and since many were also illiterate, Greek immigrants were often discriminated against, and relegated to low-paying jobs: Installing telephone poles for the power and phone companies, grading and paving streets, and installing sewer and water lines – but in such work, these Greeks managed to become part of the American Dream. Finding acceptance among the other immigrants newly arrived in East Portland, small groups of Greeks settled in housing near the waterfront, just north of Powell Valley Road (today’s Powell Boulevard).

The first Greek Orthodox Church in Oregon was the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, still today standing proudly – with its golden dome – in the Hosford-Abernethy neighborhood, at the corner of 17th and S.E. Taggart.

Immigrants and their descendants were integral in contributing to our country, and in helping to build the United States into one of the world’s greatest nations.

From as early as the 1800s, immigrants from the world over came and built our railroads, managed our streetcar system, paved our roads, and built our neighborhoods. They became our essential work force, managed our forests, fished our shores, shared their cultures, offered diversity on foods and constructed bridges, opened hospitals, supported colleges and helped create a strong middle class. They designed new fashions, inspired our art, created songs, and participated in our sporting events.

Many immigrants made great strides in the construction jobs and in the engineering field, became inventors, introduced new products, ran hotels, operated restaurants, opened banks, and helped build one of the strongest economies the world has ever seen.

They fought in our wars, joined in our tears and sorrows, shared their culture, and became a part of our own heritage. Immigrants are the backbone of what we call America today.