John William Weiland, born in 1833 in Bertrange, Luxembourg, made the difficult decision to leave his friends and family and journey alone to a new land of promise -- America.
A flood of immigrants surged to the United States from Luxembourg and the rest of Europe during the 19th century. John and farmers like him felt they had no future in a country where the population was growing as the size of their farms was dwindling. Poor harvests only contributed to the urge to search for a brighter future. At the same time, there was a perception that America was a sort of paradise, where there were opportunities for social advancement, land ownership, and political freedom.
John and others like him sought a place of refuge similar to their homeland, and he found it with the numerous other Luxembourgers who settled on the rich Midwestern farmland of Ozaukee County, Wisconsin.