Cornerstone: George Mondeik
This cornerstone is one of the rare objects that remains from a Latvian colony that existed in Lincoln, Wisconsin (USA). The Lincoln Latvian colony began forming in 1897 and up to 1,000 Latvians lived there in its heyday. The cornerstone is from the colony’s Martin Luther Congregation church – the first Lutheran church built by Latvians in America. Nowadays, only a cemetery remains at the place where the church was once found.
Lincoln Colony in Wisconsin
The Lincoln colony began to develop not far from the cities of Bloomville and Gleason around 1897, when Latvian immigrants from the eastern USA began moving to this region. Read more >
Martin Luther’s Congregation Church
Placing a framed black-and-white photograph on the kitchen table, George Mondeik shook his head and described how a number of years ago he’d pulled this item from a rubbish bin next to a neighbour’s house. Read more >
The Mondeik family today
If not Mondeik himself, then his neighbours definitely call him the Latvian colony’s historian. Mondeik actively participated in the colony’s events and was a witness to them. Read more >
Travel map
Further reading
The first Latvian immigrants to America
Sustained Latvian emigration to the American continent began in the last 20 years of the 19th century. Along with this, the first organizations and congregations were established, firstly on the east coast of the USA (in Boston, New York and Philadelphia), later in the midlands and in the west (in Cleveland, Chicago and San Francisco etc.), as well as in western Canada – in the “prairie provinces” in Manitoba and Alberta.
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