In the spring of 1889 a young family of German colonists struck out
on a solo journey to America from their home in the Banat region of
Austria-Hungary. Within days of their arrival at the Port of New York,
Johann Braun filed a homestead claim in Stark County, North Dakota,
establishing with his wife, Anna, and their two small daughters, the
first German-Hungarian homestead in North Dakota. What forces led them
to leave their colonial home in the Banat? Why, within a few years,
did other families sell their famrs and follow the Brauns to southwestern
North Dakota?
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David Dreyer
David Dreyer received a BS degree in chemistry in 1954 and a PhD in organic
chemistry in 1960, both from the University of Washington. Upon retirement,
after a thirty year career as a research chemist, he has devoted himself
to the study of ethnic Germans from the former Hungarian province of the
Banat. He is the recipient of a Ehrenbrief from the Landsmannschaft der
Banater Schwaben for his work on various aspects of Banat history. The
originator and primary author of the Banat Family History Series, his
research has also been published in German-American Genealogy, The Federation
of Eastern European Family History Societies Journal and is freely available
via the internet.
Josette Hatter
A descendant of the first German-Hungarian family to settle in North Dakota,
Josette Steiner Hatter grew up in southwestern North Dakota. Her research
in family history led to her collaboration with David Dreyer on this work.
She graduated from North Daokta State University with a B.S. in psychology
and received an M.A. in psychology from Wake Forest University. Employed
as a counselor at the University of California, Irvine, she is also a
free-lance writer. Her previous works have been published in North American
Review and Riviera Magazine and German-American Genealogy. She lives with
her husband in Dana Point, California.
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