many who in various capacities became empire builders in America. But in
all that related to the Lutheran church New York at this time took a
subordinate place. Philadelphia was the first city of the land. The
construction of railroads and the opening of the Erie Canal carried the
active and ambitious men far into the interior. The church life of New
York still flowed in sluggish currents. After 190 years, from 1648, when
the first appeal for a minister was sent to Amsterdam, to 1838, our
enrollment consisted of two congregations, the German-English church of
St. Matthew, and the English church of St. James.


In the Nineteenth Century
1839-1865

Immigration began to assume large proportions. It did not reach its
climax until the following period, but it was sufficiently large to
awaken attention. In 1839 21,028 immigrants arrived here from Germany;
in 1865, at the close of the Civil War, 83,424. Most of these were
bound for the interior, but many who had only stopped to rest a while
in New York decided to make this their home.

The East Side became a little Germany and even on the West Side Germans
began to appear in increasing numbers.

At the beginning of this period an event occurred, unnoticed at the
time, which proved to be the beginning of a great movement, "a cloud out
of the sea, as small as a man's hand." In 1839 a thousand exiles arrived
from Germany under the leadership of Pastor Grabau. Most of them went to
the interior, some to Buffalo, others, the wealthier members, to the
neighborhood of Milwaukee. Ten or a dozen families remained in New York