Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 12/02/20
Statement of Significance
The first interment at Primrose Cemetery in Little Rock was in 1848. The cemetery is the resting place of early 19thcentury German settlers who were part of a significant wave of Germanic immigration to southeast Pulaski County. Some of the earliest immigrants traveled to the area by 1829.
There are over 500 burials in Primrose Cemetery, with modern and historic burials intermixed. There is no easily delineated historic section in the cemetery. For this reason, Primrose Cemetery is being nominated to the Arkansas Register under Criterion A, Criteria Consideration D, with local significance as a potent remnant of 19th century Germanic settlement in Pulaski County.
Elaboration
Germans began arriving in the United States by 1608 with more organized immigration beginning in 1683. Wars in Europe and America slowed their arrival for several decades starting in the 1770s, but by 1830 immigration increased.
The Hessian War broke out in the early 1800s and most of the men were conscripted. Many of them refused to fight, as they disagreed on the reasons for war, so they walked to the coast and escaped to America.
Once established in their new homes, these settlers wrote to family and friends in Europe describing opportunities in the United States. These letters were circulated in German newspapers and books, and by 1832, more than 10,000 Germans had arrived in the United States. Political unrest in Germany fueled a rise in immigration again between 1848 and 1852.
Immigration to the United States fell during the Civil War, but the German population rose from 1,143 in 1860 to 1,563 in 1870. Railroad construction, and real estate dealings contributed to further German influx at the end of the 1870s as the railroad reached out to immigrants to help finance further construction. The German population was also welcomed due to the need for men to take over for those who had died or become disabled because of the war. The Lutheran and Catholic churches extended help to those who undertook the journey to America.
The Arkansas Immigration Aid Society was formed in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1865 to reach out to German immigrants. Initially, the society distributed handbooks and circulars touting settlement in Arkansas. Reconstruction stymied efforts for a time but by 1867 the Hamburg Steamship Line announced a connection from Germany to New Orleans. This spurred German citizens to form the German Immigrant Aid Society. The group offered help to new settlers and information to make the transition easier.
In 1868 Arkansas Governor Powell Clayton signed “An Act to Provide for the Appointment of a Commissioner of Immigration and State Lands, and Defining the Duties of that Officer.” This established a state bureau of immigration headed by a commissioner who would work to bring capital and labor to Arkansas by encouraging German immigration. The first commissioner was not totally effective, but in 1870 reports from the office noted that 35,000 immigrants had arrived in Arkansas, bringing a capital gain of $7,000,000.
German citizens took matters into their own hands, establishing a German newspaper and forming the German-American Association for the Promotion of Immigration and the Maintenance of German Habits and Customs in 1872. There was also an Immigration Aid Society consisting of a “nonpolitical group of mechanics and merchants,” with the purpose of assisting and protecting immigrants.
These political efforts as well as those of the German immigrants themselves played a significant role in the development of Arkansas’s economy and in the founding of social, religious, and cultural institutions, even though the number of German immigrants never represented more than one percent of the state’s population. Long after German immigration to the state reached its peak in 1882, evidence of the immigrant’s presence remain and this is evident in Primrose Cemetery and its surrounding area of southeast Pulaski County.
A history of the Primrose Methodist Church in Little Rock notes that a small group of Germans and Bohemians came to Pulaski County by 1829. In 1833 an organized group of Germans came to Arkansas to settle in Pulaski and Saline Counties. Some traveled to Perry and White Counties as well. Out of the original numbers only 140 made it to the state; however, this laid the roots for further immigration.
After the 1848 revolution John Adam Reichardt and John Christopher Geyer were the first of their families to move to Pulaski County from Asch in the Bohemian region. Both names figure prominently in the history of Pulaski County. Between 1848 and 1857 it is estimated that about 28 immigrants came to the county. It is likely that family members came to Arkansas because of information they received from these two men. Several Reichardt and Geyer descendants are interred in Primrose Methodist Church Cemetery.
The land now occupied by Primrose Church and Cemetery was originally granted to John Smith, United States, in March 1855. This was done through “An Act in addition to certain acts granting county land to certain officers and soldiers who have been engaged in the military service of the United States. There has been deposited in the General Land Office, Warrant 14816 for 80 acres, in favor of John Smith – Private Captain Seal’s Company Virginia Militia War 1812.”
In 1860 the United States granted this land to one of the original settlers of the area, Daniel Peil and his heirs. The original signed document, preserved and framed, outlining this transaction, can be seen in the Primrose Church library.
Near the close of the Civil War, newcomers began moving into the community. Among those were Gideon Wright Dorough (Peil descendant) and his wife Margaret Caroline Hale and their five children from Georgia. Since most of the early German settlers immigrated as German Lutheran, the first German Lutheran sermon preached in Arkansas was delivered in 1868 at the home of Mother Anna Peil Sowell (1843-1920). The sermon was attended by the Reichardt, Penzel and Geyer families. In late 1868, the first meeting of German Lutherans was held in Little Rock.
The Methodist Church was organized in Arkansas in 1854, so in 1867, Primrose Methodist Church was formed and named in honor of its first pastor, the Reverend G.W. Primrose. There was no church structure in the area for a time, so worship services were held in a two-story house that Mr. Peil built for his family. In March 1869, George Daniel Peil and his wife Catherine conveyed five acres of their land for a Methodist church (Primrose) and cemetery.
When a church was built, it was a simple one-room frame building which stood for 54 years. It was followed by a red brick building in 1921 and was reported to be the first rural brick church built in Arkansas. In the mid-1940s additions and renovations were made to the church, which included a sanctuary, Sunday school rooms, a basement for fellowship meetings, and a kitchen with running water. This building also included a study for the pastor. This structure was destroyed in the late 1980s when the current church was built.
During the 1950s the Methodist Committee for Overseas Relief relocated 5,000 families from Europe. Reverend James Robert Scott, Primrose pastor from 1954 to 1959, brought this to the attention of the congregation. The church hosted a German couple with two small children. They were guests at the home of Reverend Scott and his wife Helen. The church assumed full responsibility for a home, job, and items that would help the family adjust to life in a new country.
An important aspect of their stay was a visit to Primrose Cemetery as they found German names and inscriptions that provided a link to their homeland.
In 1967 the Pulaski County Historical Society presented a plaque that is mounted on the front of Primrose United Methodist Church, which reads, “This marker commemorates the beginning of the settlement of this community by German and Austrian immigrants in 1833. It also commemorates the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Primrose Methodist Church.”
Biographies
George Daniel Peil (1809-1868) and his wife Catherine Cloos Peil (1805-1876) were part of an early wave of immigrants to the area of Primrose Cemetery, arriving in 1833. Peil was born in Wittlesberg, Germany and at the time of his immigration was living in Hesse, Cassel, Germany. On his arrival in Arkansas he began purchasing land and built a two-story log house. The earliest burial at Primrose Cemetery is that of the Peil’s son John Peil (1847-1848, so it appears that the cemetery grew from a family burial plot to a community cemetery. Peil donated land for the construction of the Primrose Methodist Church in 1867, and later provided five acres for the cemetery. The roundel in George’s upright marble marker features a draped urn. Catherine’s exhibits the same iconography but is further embellished with beveled sides. Their son John’s marble upright marker is carved with a lamb resting beneath a willow tree.
Christopher Reichardt (1828-1881) and Anna Katharina Reichardt (1828-1870), moved to the area of Granite Mountain Springs, south of Little Rock. They established a farm near groups of other German immigrants adjacent to Primrose Cemetery, claiming a 43-acre homestead by 1856, which was expanded several times. Christopher’s marble upright gravestone displaying a Bible in a roundel bordered by foliage, is now laid flat. Anna’s upright marble stone is laid flat also. The roundel at the top of the stone is bordered by a ribboned wreath. A small figure lying atop a box tomb is exhibited in the roundel.
In 1854, Christopher’s parents, Johann Martin Reichardt (1800-1884) and Eva Katherine Keunzel Reichardt (1800-1858) joined them from Asch. In his former home Johann Martin owned a wool textile mill, but when he reached Arkansas, he established a farm near his family. A history of the German Lutheran Church in Little Rock notes that a Mr. J.M. Reichardt was chairman of the First German Evangelical Lutheran Church in that city. Likely it was Johann Martin, but there is no definitive link. This would require further research. Johann’s upright marble stone is laid flat in the ground. It displays no iconography and it includes a German epitaph. Eva’s stone is similar to Johann’s and is also flat on the ground.
Johann Christof Penzel (1806-1857) and his wife Marie Elizabeth Penzel (1803-1865) had established a home in southeast Pulaski County by the 1850s. Research has not definitively indicated when they arrived in Arkansas, but they likely traveled to America to be near their daughter Anna Katharina and her new husband Christopher Reichardt. The only indication of Johann’s occupation came from his great grandson Charles Penzel Wright, Jr., who stated that Johann was “minor nobility.” The couple’s large shared gravestone exhibits a pyramidal die topped with a cross.
The Geyer family was part of the original group of immigrants from Asch, but there are prolific branches who settled in various locations and their connections are cloudy. Kesirah Nail Geyer (1823-1887) was born in Alabama, but she married Isaac Geyer who traveled from Asch in 1853 with his son George, neither of whom are buried at Primrose. George and Isaac moved to a farm near Granite Mountain. Kesirah and Isaac had two sons, Isaac C. Geyer (1857-1901) and George F. Geyer (1860-1913). Kesirah’s upright marble gravestone exhibits no iconography and merely notes that she died near Little Rock. Her husband Isaac was buried at Mt. Holly Cemetery in Little Rock. Kesirah and Isaac’s children engaged in farming as well. Isaac’s granite slant stone atop a rubbled base features no iconography.
Southeast Pulaski County remained a destination for immigrants into the 20th century. Christian Russenberger (1861-1946) and his wife Minnie Sodt Russenberger (1879-1956) of Switzerland and Hamburg, Germany, respectively, came to Pulaski County in the early 1900s.
They purchased land, built a home, ran a small neighborhood dairy, and raised a large family. It is believed they decided on moving to this area because they heard of the already established German settlement. Russenberger family members still reside in the community. Christian and Minnie’s double granite marker displays their birth and death information in matching open bibles topped with primroses.
Statement of Significance
The Primrose Cemetery is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A, Criteria Consideration D with local significance as an important link to the 19th century settlement patterns of Germans in Pulaski County, Arkansas. The families within Primrose Cemetery bring life to the story of their early impact on the cultural character of Arkansas. The mark of German immigration can be seen today in the remembered history of family members of those buried at Primrose. Other links include local roads like Geyer, Russenberger, Dreher and Woodyard and the documented role of the Miller, Kramer, Penzel, Ermentraudt, Reichardt and Rauch families in the economic and religious environment of 19th century Arkansas.
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