"A Trip to Charleytown" tells the intriguing, true story of the German immigrant settlement of "Charleytown" in the northern Missouri Ozarks. Inspired by a reporter's account of his trip to the community in 1896 that was published in the Missouri Volksfreund, a German-language newspaper, the book takes the reader on a trip back in time to the community in its first four decades drawing on contemporary information from 460 letters to the Volksfreund, now translated from German to English, and from archival photographs, German-language prayer books, hymnals, school books, business records, and other local sources.
"A Trip to Charleytown" goes beyond local interest as a case study that brings to life the great migration of millions of Germans who came to the United States in the 1800s and settled what became the "German belt" of mid-America. The 2023 edition translates the historic financial information into 2023 inflation-adjusted dollars to give the reader a sense of the vibrant economy of the era.
