Engelmann Farm

Engelmann Farm’s history began in 1833 when Friedrich Theodor Engelmann, a university educated German, immigrated to America to escape political oppression in Europe. He and his family first immigrated to Missouri but soon realized they could not live in a slave state. Since Engelmann owned 105 acres of farmland in Shiloh Valley, Illinois, the group moved East and settled on the farm. Bachelor members of the group were housed in a log cabin, and Englemann built a home for his large family.

Friedrich’s nephew, George Engelmann, arrived in the new world to collect specimens of flora and fauna of the frontier in 1832. He joined his uncle’s group and moved to the farm where he continued to make his observations and gather plant specimens. In 1833, the family decorated the branch of a sassafras tree, the first Christmas tree in the Mississippi River Valley. George eventually settled in St. Louis and served as Henry Shaw’s main scientific advisor at what would become the Missouri Botanical Garden.

In 2007, the St. Clair County Board elected to buy the 212 acre Engelmann farm to preserve it from being bulldozed to make way for a subdivision. The farm is a living memorial to mark the starting line of the first large wave of German immigration to Illinois, specifically, it provides a focal point to recognize that group of educated, idealistic refugees, nicknamed the “Latin Farmers,” whose deeds radiate to the present, helping shape the American identity.