Joseph Bassee Droll and Elizabeth Rheinbold, were married in Steinbach Germany about 1850 and immigrated to the US near the end of 1853. They sailed from the port of Havre, Germany on a ship named the John Curtis which arrived in the port of New Orleans on Jan 16, 1854. Traveling with them was their infant daughter Mary and two of Joseph’s brothers, Carl and Bernard. The three brothers all listed their occupation as farmers.

During the time period between 1815 and 1865, immigration to this country consisted mainly of small farmers, artisans, and tradesmen from Southwest Germany and agricultural laborers from Northwest Germany. They came to the United States in search of cheap land which was abundant in the U.S. at that time. There had been crop failures, an increase in the price of food, famine, political instability, and a general decline in the standard of living of the predominantly rural population which also contributed to the German exodus. Joseph Droll appears to have been a man not much different from the rest, except that he was a man of many talents. Besides farming, Joseph was also a concert musician. For an article on German attitudes and customs see Appendix B.

So after an unsuccessful attempt to make a go of farming in Germany, late in 1853 Joseph and Elizabeth, and daughter Mary, started out for this country with hopes for a better life. This turned out to be a good decision for the Droll’s, because in the U.S., Joseph became a successful farmer, businessman, and entrepreneur.

After arriving in this country, Joseph and Elizabeth Droll operated a boarding house for the Illinois Central at Big Muddy, IL. In July of 1854, they moved to Centralia and there operated a similar boarding house for the Illinois Central. These boarding houses provided early railroad employees a place to stay before they were established in town and also a place for railroad men to layover on long trips. The Droll’s apparently were successful with these boarding houses, because shortly afterward they became the proprietors of the new big hotel in town, The Centralia House.

But Joseph had bigger and better things in mind for his future. He had been successful at the hotel and boarding house business and had saved his money, and now he wanted to go into business for himself. He wanted to make use of his musical skills and his love for entertaining, so in 1860 Joseph Droll started looking for land on which to start his next big adventure. He purchased three acres southwest of the town of Centralia for $500. This land was located in what is now the 500 block of West Fifth Street. Later he purchased three more adjoining acres, which had previously been used as a vineyard. On this land in 1861 he constructed a two story beer hall which measured 40 by 60 feet. Half of the downstairs was a wein and bierstube and the other half served as living quarters for he and Elizabeth. The upstairs was one large room with tall graceful windows, which of course was the dance hall. Joseph called this place the Flora Garden.

The Flora Garden was a beautifully landscaped Beer Garden and outdoor dance area, where people could go to socialize and have fun. Many plays, concerts, and dances were held there both inside and out. The place was landscaped with hedges, tulips, violets, narcissus gardens, tall trees, and vine covered gartenhouses. The outdoor dance floor was surrounded with serving tables and there was even a bowling alley next to the building where the men bowled.. Joseph would rent the Flora Garden out for band concerts, benefits, socials, banquets, and balls. And when he couldn’t rent the place, he organized and put on these events himself. Joseph also did some farming on this property. We know at least two of his crops were strawberries and apples. See Apppendix A for a detailed account of Flora Gardens activities.

Joseph also combined his musical skills with his skill at entertaining and became a charter member of the local Turner Society Band. This band would have been the type that would play at dances and hops put on by the Turners at Flora Gardens.

It was on Feb 18,1899 that the old host, Joseph Droll, died and two months later in May, Elizabeth, inconsolable, committed suicide by swallowing carbolic acid and followed her husband to the grave. She left a note saying that she was tired of living as she was now situated and desired to join her husband in the other world.

The Droll’s had only one daughter named Mary Droll and she married Lawrence Hoffman. Lawrence and Mary Hoffman had four children: Joseph Bassee Hoffman (named after his grandfather) was born in 1871, Ida Hoffman born in 1873, Carolena Hoffman (Known as Lena) born in 1884, and Elizabeth Hoffman born in 1886.

Appendix A

By Dr. George Ross

Imagine, being seated at a table beneath majestic oaks observing the candles in hurricane lamps flicker as they add to the light of the moon and stars on a balmy evening of early summer. The fragrance of honeysuckle is carried to your table by gentle breezes. Waitresses garbed in long skirts and peasant blouses hurry from table to table delivering huge pitchers of home brewed lager and breaking into song as a band renders the melodious strains of German folk songs. Suddenly the band strikes up a Strauss Waltz and the tables empty as each gent leads his lady to the freshly waxed platform which serves as an outdoor dance floor. As the couples whirl about, the floor-length dresses flying, you spy the blue uniforms of furloughed soldiers participating in the festivities of the evening. This colorful scene was not, as one would expect, set in Heidelberg, nor in Vienna, or Bavaria, but rather at the German resort, known as the Flora Gardens, located in southwestern Centralia during the days of the Civil War.

It was in 1853, when Centralia was in its infancy, that Joseph Droll, a concert musician, and his wife, the former Elizabeth Rheinbold, arrived from Baden, Germany where he was born in 1828 and she in 1830. They established a boarding home in Centralia to provide for the early railroad employers. For a short time they served as proprietors of the noted Centralia House. Shortly after 1860, Mr. Droll decided to combine his musical skills with the art of entertaining and proceeded to construct a two story building on what was part of the Fred Heiss estate. The block which is now the 500 block of West Fifth was beautifully landscaped. Its acceptance by the citizens of Centralia, many of whom had come from Germany, was rapid and nearly universal.

Some of the early activities at the Flora described in the newspaper included: The concert of the Centralia Brass and String Band for the benefit of the Ladies Soldiers Aid; Catholic benefit social; Odd Fellow's Ball, Saengerbund banquet and concert; Odd Fellow and Rebekah Century Watch (1900); Turner's Ball; and Lutheran Benefit. The Sentinel of July 27, 1898, recorded that beer made by Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis replaced the brew made locally.

It was on Feb. 18, 1899, that the old host, Joseph Droll died and two months later, in May, Mrs. Droll, inconsolable, committed suicide and followed her husband to the grave. Tony Dunker, who had been a long time hotel operator in Centralia, assumed management and continued the old traditions. Rehabilitation was necessary from time to time, but the old resort continued to operate until the time of World War One when anti German sentiment forced its closing. Many social leaders of the area fulfilled their obligations by hosting private affairs at the Flora. For example, the May 31, 1912 Sentinel records that Mr. and Mrs. C.F. Weldon opened the summer social season with a ball at the Flora Gardens with 86 couples in attendance.

Mrs. Elizabeth Kurth in a 1934 Sentinel recalled the old amusement center "A pleasant resort enjoyed by many Centralia families during the early days was the Flora Gardens or the Biergarten, built and managed by Joseph Droll. The grounds about his large house were beautifully landscaped. Roses and many other pleasant flowers abounded. There was nothing sordid in this resort, and the most respected citizens took their families to sit beneath the trees at the tables arranged there and to enjoy the excellent music and refreshments. "Mrs. Flora Touve Harris gave this account, "Often we strolled out to the Flora Gardens which was a social rendezvous since the 1860s. Many plays, concerts, and dances were held in the upper hall there. I recall the violets, profusely blooming near the hedges, the pretty tulip and narcissus gardens, the tall trees, the vine covered gartenhouses, the serving tables for social repast and the bowling alley to the west of the building where the men bowled." The Sentinel of Aug. 24, 1953 said of the establishment, "Built in the early 1860s, its hall reechoed the laughter of soldiers of the Northern Army on leave during the war and was later to become the amusement center for the city, particularly among the German population."

On Feb. 13, 1868 the Sentinel vividly described the highlight of a masquerade ball given at the Flora, "About eleven o'clock, an interesting ceremony, new to Centralia, was performed in a very impressive manner. It is called the birth of Prince Carnival. A bishop enters waving away all evil spirits with his wand; immediately following him came four bearers carrying upon their shoulders, a frame holding a large nest with a monstrous golden egg in it, as large as a flour barrel. After marching around the room, the nest and egg were placed in the center—tin plates containing Greek fire were placed around it—then while the scene was gorgeous with the brilliant lights, and amid the sound of heavy thunder, at the command of the Bishop, the egg burst open with the report of cannon, and forth stepped the young prince, Carnival, who was immediately seized by the awaiting clowns and carried around the room to make the acquaintance of his subjects and receive their pledges of adherence."

Gone are the Flora Gardens and those who whiled away happy hours on he grounds, but many still exist who would delight in spending an evening of music and dancing under the stars just as it was done in yesteryear.

Appendix B

E. V. Smalley

The number of German-born inhabitants of the chief cities of the United States was found by the census of 1880 to be as follows: New York, 163,482; Chicago, 75,205; Philadelphia, 55,769; Brooklyn, 55,339; St. Louis, 54,901; Cincinnati, 46,157; Baltimore, 34,051; Milwaukee, 31,483; Buffalo, 25,543; Cleveland, 23,170; San Francisco, 19,928; Newark, 17,628; Louisville, 13,463. To the native German element in these cities we must, as I have shown before, add all the children born in this country of German parents. Making this addition we shall find New York ranking after Berlin and Vienna as the third German city in the world, and Chicago, Philadelphia, and St. Louis coming close up to Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Dresden. Boston, it will be seen, makes no figure in the above list. It is the only large city in the country where the Germans are not found in large numbers.

The Germans take an active part in our politics; but they are much less clannish than the Irish, and rarely vote in a body, unless it be to defeat a party or a party leader responsible for some measure of legislation affecting their personal liberty. Two things they insist upon as a class which are contrary to the dominant opinion among the native American element—the right to drink beer and wine in public places at all times, and the right to amuse themselves on Sunday in the ways they were accustomed to in their own country. Most of the hostile feeling which has arisen between them and the native population has grown out of differences on these two points. Beer and Wine the German I looks upon as good gifts of God, to be enjoyed in moderation for lightening the cares of life and adding to its pleasures and Sunday afternoon is devoted, by all who do not belong to the stricter Protestant sects, to recreation. No party supporting a prohibitory liquor law or at severe Sunday law can get the German vote. These two points aside, the Germans differ about as much on questions of state and national politics as do their native fellow citizens. In some localities a large majority of them are Republicans; in others an equally large majority are Democrats; but there is everywhere a majority belonging to the opposite party. The influence of local circumstances or local leaders often controls the drift of opinion among them. In the East, as a rule, the Germans vote with the Democrats. In that section their political bias dates from a period when the foreign immigrant, of whatever race, found in the Democratic fold his natural shelter. The old German element in Pennsylvania is stubbornly Democratic. It got its set about 1830, when the land policy of the Whigs looked to the sales of the government domain in large tracts, and that of the Democrats favored breaking it up into small parcels. This Pennsylvania Dutch element, so-called, can scarcely be included, however, in scope of the present paper, which aims to treat only of that portion of our population which is or German birth or born of German parents. The Pennsylvania Dutch can make almost as good a claim to being native Americans, as can the New England Yankees for some of their ancestors came over in the early part of the last century. Their language is a corrupt patois, which a German can understand only in part and with great difficulty and their customs are a curious mingling of those of the Rheingau 200 years ago and those acquired by their ancestors after their settlement of the finest districts between the Delaware and the Susquehanna.

In the Western states the Germans are for the most part Republicans. They immigrated after the Revolution of 1848, and finding the questions of the freedom of the territories and the restriction of slavery paramount when they began to take part in our politics, they espoused the Republican side. The war confirmed their allegiance. It was slackened a good deal by General Grant's administration and large bodies of them left the party in 1872; but the financial agitation of recent years brought most of these wanderers back again. It would probably not be far from the truth to say that two-thirds of the Germans west of the Alleghenies are Republicans and two-thirds of those in the East Democrats. In the South the German element, which is small and almost wholly confined to the cities and large towns, acts pretty solidly with the Democratic Party. The Germans take as much interest in current politics as the native Americans, and value the ballot rather more highly. The discussion of public questions in their newspapers shows as thorough a knowledge of our institutions and as high an order of thought as are exhibited in the party papers printed in the English language. In their ideas of government most of them go a little further than do our people of old American stock in the direction of applying authority for the benefit of the citizen in the regulation of transportation lines, sanitary conditions, the construction of buildings, etc. Yet they are great sticklers for the largest liberty of individual action. They Would like to have railroads compelled to treat the public fairly, and builders forced to put up structures that will not prove deathtraps, but they want no interference with the right of every man to dance on Sunday and drink beer all the week if he sees fit to do so . . .

Upon the social life of the country the Germans have exercised a more important influence than we of English ancestry can readily realize, unless our memories go back to a time before their presence was much felt. Probably we should in the end have got rid without their help of the old Puritanical idea that amusements of all sorts are devices of the devil, and that a sense of physical and mental enjoyment is essentially sinful; culture and progress would have brought us out of that dismal dilution; but the example of their hearty and harmless diversions helped us along rapidly. The somber seriousness of the New England ideal of life which was reproduced in the Western Reserve of Ohio and to some extent in the whole belt of country peopled by the New England element clear through to lowa, has been modified by them to a marked degree. The austere Presbyterian, Methodist, or Congregationalist condemned the levity of "the Dutch," but his children looked with less prejudice upon their picnics, shooting festivals, singing societies, and other social gatherings, and, if they were not drawn into them, the example was not lost upon them. The German notion that it is a good thing to have a good time has found a lodgment in the American mind. Except in isolated rural localities where the Teutonic immigration has not penetrated, there is no longer any such feeling about dancing, social games, and dramatic performances as was almost universal among respectable people thirty years ago.

Possibly we shall borrow also from the Germans something of their idea of the relations of husband and wife to correct our recent tendency to place woman at the head of the household and make man her servant. The American woman of the better classes has come to look upon her husband as a useful but rather inferior being whose place in life is to work hard all day to get the money for her comfortable maintenance and devote himself to her entertainment in his leisure hours. She must have servants and nurses to relieve her from household and maternal cares, so that she may have time for calls and shopping; and if her husband does not think she has a right to enjoy herself while he is toiling for her support, she looks upon hem as a brute.

Not so the German woman. The husband is the breadwinner, and she gives him reverence and service as well as affection, expecting in return fidelity and devotion, but no sacrifices to her whims, her love of dress, or her fondness for society. She takes her full share of the burden of life, and in a hundred little ways shows that it is her pleasure to aid him in the struggle for existence. We may also borrow to our advantage something of the respect and obedience given in German households by the children to the parents. A little more deference to the opinions of elders, and a good deal more sense of obligation toward those who have brought them into the world and nourished and educated them, would be a good thing for our rampant, independent, self-sufficient American youths . . .

Their influence upon our drink has been far greater than upon our food. They have made us a beer-drinking nation. Within the memory of men of middle age, lager beer was almost unknown in this country; now it is the national beverage. That the beer-drinking habit we have acquired from them is a good thing in itself I will not contend, through something might be said of the beneficial sedative influence of this decoction of hops and malt upon our excitable, overactive American temperament; but it is unquestionably a great improvement on the whiskey-drinking habit it has replaced. If we must drink any stimulating fluid, beer is the best, except light wine; and we are only beginning to learn how to produce good, sound, light-bodied wine like claret.

We are greatly indebted to the Germans for the advance we have made in the cultivation and appreciation of music during the past thirty years. They are our music teachers, our bandmasters, our orchestra directors, and to a great extent our professional musicians. Our American element did not get much beyond simple old-fashioned English songs, marches, dancing tunes, and Negro melodies in its musical culture until the Germans spread themselves over the country and organized their orchestras, their "Gesangvereine" their "Liedertafeln" and their "Mannerchore." Opera, which a few years ago was a foreign exotic that could scarcely be kept alive outside of New York, now flourishes in every city big and little, from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon. Poor indeed in musical resources is now the town which does not possess a fair orchestra and every village boasts a brass band. The quality of our music has improved as much as the quantity. Many educated people used to sneer at everything but the simplest melodies and rather prided themselves on having no appreciation of operatic airs or fine orchestral pieces. To make a concert pass off successfully it was necessary for the soprano to sing "Old Dog Tray," or "Way Down Upon the Swannee River," or something else of the sort. Now no music that is well received in the most cultivated capitals of Europe fails of a ready welcome here. Of course the whole credit for this great change does not belong to the Germans, but a great deal of it certainly does. They are a musical people, and we are only just becoming one. They come of a musical ancestry, while our forefathers thought it worldly and sinful to sing anything besides psalm tunes. We should realize forcibly how much of the music that cheers and brightens our life is furnished by the Germans if every man of Teutonic birth or parentage should suddenly "lay down the fiddle and the bow." Such a strike would disable nearly every orchestra in the country.

The Germans support two excellent theaters in New York, with larger and better-trained companies than can be seen at most of the other houses. The performances at these theaters embrace in the course of a season a wide variety, ranging from opera bouffe and jolly little farces up to the plays of Shakespeare and Schiller. Modern comedies are given with a finish, balance of parts, and naturalness of acting very rarely seen on the American stage. The best actors and singers from the boards of Berlin, Vienna, Dresden, and Hamburg come over to see the New World and gather a harvest of dollars. Outside of New York the German drama is not well sustained. German plays and operas are given every winter in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, San Francisco, Cleveland, and Buffalo; but the performances are intermittent, and the traveling stars (called "guests") must put up with a support organized from amateur local talent or drafted from the variety companies of the beer halls.

In art the Germans have not accomplished much in this country; but in the artistic handicrafts, such as wall painting, engraving, designing patterns, gold and silver work, bookbinding, etc., they have done a great deal. Upholstering, cabinetmaking, and house decoration are favorite trades with them, and, while they do not originate much that is graceful and tasteful, they are omnivorous copyists, and draw upon the whole world for their forms and color combinations, imitating a Pompeian wall, a French stuccoed ceiling, or a Flemish carved mantel, with equal facility. There is no trade or occupation in which they are not represented; but there are some vocations which they almost monopolize. Wherever a bakery is found, the chance is about ten to one that a German runs it. Butchers and market gardeners are pretty sure to betray a German origin. It is the same with tailors and watchmakers, the latter coming chiefly from the German cantons of Switzerland. The trade in fancy goods, toys, and "notions" is carried on principally by German Jews, and in many parts of the country this is also true of the trade in ready-made clothing. In certain lines the importing business, naturally enough, has fallen almost exclusively into German hands.

There is no such thing as a German-American literature; and there never will be, because the German language is destined to lose its hold upon the populations of Teutonic origin settled in this country. The few books published here in German—mainly issued by the religious publishing houses—cannot be said to constitute the beginnings of a literature. In every town containing a considerable German element there are, however, booksellers who keep on their shelves the German classics and the works of favorite novelists, and who receive from importing houses in New York all important new works appearing in Germany; so that the German-American need not be cut off from knowledge of, and sympathy with the literary movements going on in the Fatherland. A prosperous and influential German press exists in the United States, numbering nearly 300 periodicals. Nearly every large city in the Middle and Western states has one or more German daily newspapers. Some of these, such as the News York Staats-Zeitung the Philadelphia Demokrat the Baltimore Correspondent, Cincinnati Volksblatt, the Chicago Stauts-Zeitung, and the St. Louis Westliche Post, compare well for size and ability with the principal American dailies, and surpass, in enterprise and in the amount of news they print, the leading dailies of Berlin, Hamburg, and the other German cities. In their tone they are thoroughly American. They are ardent admirers of the best features of our political system, sharp critics of its shortcomings, and steadfast champions of public order and personal liberty. Their influence in our public affairs is unquestionably a wholesome one. In their editorial writing they discuss questions rather more at length than is the custom of the American journals and with rather more effort at literary style and finish. German weeklies devoted to news and politics, and made upon the model of our country weeklies, are numerous in the West and in eastern Pennsylvania. Several excellent weekly and monthly publications, devoted to stories, sketches, and poems, are issued in New York, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis; and there is in New York a German comic weekly—Puck—which prints an English edition that is well known to most American readers . . .

I cannot better close this article than by translating from the chapter which Friedrich Kapp added to the last edition of his "Geschichte der Deutschen im Staate New York" a few paragraphs on the question of the destiny of the German element in this country—a chapter abounding in keen insight and sound judgment. He says, "The two related Germanic stems, the Anglo-Saxon and the German, after a separation of 500 years, meet upon the American continent and unite in laboring for the extension of the domain of freedom. The German contributes his rich intellectual and social life to the elements of culture, which freely unite upon the soil of the New World to develop a higher civilization. There is still need upon the vast territory of the United States for a united struggle against the rudeness of nature—the battle of civilization against rawness. Here is room for all—for every honorable effort, for every thoughtful brain, for every industrious arm; for the task will not be accomplished by one pushing another aside, but rather by everyone standing in line and struggling with all his strength toward the high goal. Therefore the good of the German settlers does not lie in separation from the elements of American culture, nor in the fantastic dreams of founding a German state in America—a German Utopia. Not on one side of the road, but in the midst of the life and effort of their American fellow citizens, is a successful and happy career marked out for them. A German nation in the American nation they cannot be; but the rich fruits of their genial social life and the treasures of their world of thought they can throw into the scales in the battle for the political and general interests of humanity, and their influence will go the deeper and win for them the greater field the less they follow a peculiar national tendency and the more firmly they hold at the same time to whatever of the great and beautiful Germany has given to the world. Every German has, therefore, to take care in his own circle that the end is not lost sight of in the means, the ideal in the real, the enjoyment in the labor, the beautiful in the useful; he must beware lest humanity loses itself in the crosscurrents of so many great movements. If the German element understands its position in this way, it will allow the excellencies of the American character to work upon it and aid it. It will imitate the energy and activity of the Americans, and will seek to appropriate to itself their healthy materialism and upright manliness, their adaptability to circumstances and their political good sense, so strikingly contrasting with, German dogmatism and faultfinding. As soon as the German and American minds are united in this sense, the absorption of the distinctive German element in the American element will give no cause for sorrow, for it will prove an intellectual resurrection."