When did Friedrich Trump emigrate to the U.S., and through which port did he travel?
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Executive summary
Friedrich (Frederick) Trump emigrated from Kallstadt, Bavaria, to the United States in 1885 at age 16 and arrived in New York in mid-October of that year; contemporary accounts and family memoirs place his departure on October 7, 1885 and his arrival in New York about 12 days later (arrival often cited as October 19) [1] [2] [3]. Multiple historians and journalists note he entered through New York’s pre‑Ellis Island immigrant depot (Castle Garden/Castle Garden Immigrant Landing Depot) rather than Ellis Island, which did not open until 1892 [2] [3].
1. Arrival and dates: the commonly cited timeline
Primary secondary accounts and later family recollections concur that Friedrich Trump left Germany in 1885 as a 16‑year‑old and traveled to New York that October. History.com reports he boarded ship on October 7, 1885 and “less than two weeks later” arrived in New York; some retellings give a specific arrival date of October 19, 1885 [1] [3]. A modern passport‑history writeup aligns with those dates, saying he departed Bremen aboard the steamship Eider on October 7 and reached Castle Garden on October 19 [2].
2. Port of departure and point of entry
Sources identify Bremen as the German port from which Friedrich likely departed and Castle Garden in New York as his port of entry. The passenger record reconstruction cited by the passport site names Bremen and the ship Eider, and emphasizes Castle Garden as the immigrant landing depot before Ellis Island opened in 1892 [2]. Contemporary narrative accounts and modern summaries also describe his entry through New York rather than Ellis Island [3].
3. Why the dates and ports matter: draft‑avoidance and later consequences
Friedrich’s 1885 emigration is closely tied to his motive: avoiding compulsory military service in Bavaria. Biographers and archival finds link his 1885 departure to draft avoidance; later, when he returned to Germany with his family around 1901–1904, Bavarian authorities determined he had illegally emigrated and moved to revoke his rights—events historians uncovered in regional archives [1] [4] [5]. Those later documents reference 1885 as the year he originally left Germany [4] [5].
4. Documentary sources and their limits
Available accounts rely on family memoirs (Friedrich’s own translated letter), secondary biographies (Gwenda Blair, others), news reporting and reconstructed passenger data. Harper’s published a translated personal letter in which Friedrich says, “I emigrated in 1885, in my sixteenth year,” and that he later obtained U.S. citizenship in 1892 [6]. Modern reconstructions that name a specific ship and arrival date come from historians and hobbyist passport/immigration researchers; the sources differ slightly on exact arrival day but agree on month and year [2] [3].
5. Competing details and where reporting diverges
Most sources agree on 1885 and New York/Castle Garden; disagreement is limited to specifics of ship and exact arrival date. History.com gives October 7 as the boarding date and “less than two weeks later” as arrival [1]. The passport‑collector piece specifies departure from Bremen on the Eider on October 7 and arrival at Castle Garden on October 19 [2]. Not every major outlet lists the ship name; some simply state the year and place of arrival [1] [4].
6. Broader context: immigrant flows and legal frameworks
Friedrich arrived in the midst of a large wave of German migration to the United States; historians note nearly a million Germans came between 1880 and 1885 and many immigrants used established family networks to settle [1] [7]. Castle Garden was the principal New York entry for immigrants until Ellis Island began operations in 1892 [2]. Bavarian and German laws of the period also punished those who emigrated to avoid military service, which explains the later Bavarian decree barring his return [4] [5].
7. What available sources do not mention
Available sources do not mention an original, contemporaneous ship manifest (as a scanned archival image) in the set supplied here; they offer reconstructions and secondary citations naming the Eider and arrival dates but do not include a primary manifest image in these search results [2] [3].
8. Bottom line
Consensus across the reviewed reporting and historical summaries: Friedrich Trump left Germany in 1885 at age 16 and entered the United States through New York’s Castle Garden in October 1885, with departure from Bremen and an arrival commonly recited as October 19, 1885 in some reconstructions [1] [2] [3]. Discrepancies are limited to the precise day and the surviving documentary trail cited by different researchers [6] [2].