Joseph L. Schade was 47 years old when he and his wife, Anna Maria Falker, 40 years old, left Hopsten, Westphalia, Germany along with their five children. They climbed aboard the Saxonia on August 8, 1875 which was captained by Mr. Nielsen out of Hamburg. The ships' papers listed the Schade's family destination as San Francisco. Quite unusual route since the Panama Canal was not built and opened until 1914. Many people anxious to get to California during the gold rush era took this route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Saxonia was bound for Colon/Panama where the Schades then departed and headed to the western coast of Panama and boarded another ship(unknown at this time) to San Francisco. Joseph was listed on the ships registry as a farmer in Germany.
The family's story tells of their decision to leave their home country for serious political reasons. Their oldest son, Henry, was 16 years old when they all emigrated to the U.S. and certainly close to the drafting age into chancellor Otto von Bismarcks' army. Joseph Jr. at 14 was also vulnerable to the war draft. Joseph Sr. and Annie/Anna must have felt that a major move was necessary.
There are 5,000 people in Hopsten today. In the 1870's it was famous for linen trading. The town was known to have a relatively high state of wealth because of long trading tradition in linen.
