Marshall Independent

 Author shares Ellis Island stories

By Jodelle Greiner

POSTED: April 18, 2009

MARSHALL - Traveling to America wasn't as easy back in the early 1900s as it is now, children's book author Terri DeGezelle told Marshall Middle School sixth-graders Friday.

DeGezelle has written 64 non-fiction books under the pen names Theresa Longenecker and Sarah Heiman. She wrote "Ellis Island," part of the American Symbols Series.

Ellis Island was the building through which immigrants to the United States had to pass from 1892 to 1954.

Annie Moore was the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island on Jan. 1, 1892, DeGezelle said.

"More than 12 million went through, thousands in a day," DeGezelle said, "more than the population of Marshall."

Immigrants would come by ship from their home countries, then take a barge to Ellis Island, DeGezelle said.

People were sorted into pens, then walked up the Stairway of Separation while clerks watched them to sort out the people who were healthy and strong, so they could earn their own living. DeGezelle said her grandmother, who came to America when she was 16 with her father, got a job as a nanny watching three girls.

Medical exams were performed at Ellis Island, which had what looked like operating rooms, DeGezelle said. Babies were born and people died there.

Sometimes people had to stay at Ellis Island for a few days, if they had a cough or other ailment to give the doctors time to figure out if they had something more serious, like tuberculosis. If they were found to have a disease that officials didn't want to risk spreading in America, like an eye disease they thought was contagious, the immigrants were sent back to their home country, DeGezelle said.

The doctors would put letters on people's clothes with chalk: "C" for cough, "E" for eyes and "H" for heart. DeGezelle said some of the smarter immigrants either brushed the chalk off, turned their coat inside out or just gave the garment to someone else to avoid being held back.

DeGezelle had student Hussein Osman open a heavy suitcase. He was surprised when he found out she'd had him tote three large rocks.

"They did find rocks in suitcases, so it felt like they had brought something," DeGezelle said.

Sometimes, with all the different languages, clerks misunderstood what people were saying, and immigrants' names were spelled differently or changed to Americize them.

Immigrants brought a variety of things with them to start their lives in the New World. Coffee pots were popular, DeGezelle said, because they brought back memories of those left behind.

Other things immigrants brought were tools to work with, seeds, dirt from home, cooking pots from beloved relatives and, quite often, the family Bible, which also would have the family tree recorded.

DeGezelle also showed a slide of a poster inviting people to come settle in Minnesota. The train went as far as Tracy, she said.

DeGezelle told the students she wasn't a good speller when she was their age and works hard to write her books, re-writing them multiple times.

When she thinks her books are done, she sends them to her editor, "like you give it to your teacher," she said.

It comes back marked up.

"The first time it happened, I cried," DeGezelle said.

She learned to work with her editor to improve the books.

"If you have that teacher, that's the hero, the one who teaches you how to read and write," DeGezelle said. "If you can read and write, you can do anything."

Photos Credit: The Marshall Independent
Photographer: Jodelle Greiner

Students from Marshall Middle School, Marshall, MN playing the part of new
immigrates passing through Ellis Island.


Terri showing her book Ellis Island

Terri shows one of the items she's bring along if she were a new immigrate
coming through Ellis Island.


A Marshall Middle School student helping Terri with her suitcase at Ellis
Island.


Terri showing a soup pot that she'd bring along to the new country.

Article and Photos - Marshall Independent, Southern Minnesota's Daily Newspaper.
- Jodelle Greiner