NEW ULM — In 1852, a number of young men and women of Wurttemberg, Germany decided to devote their futures to aiding the development of a new world they called America.

The group emigrated from Germany to New York City, but didn’t like it much, so they moved west to Chicago.

Attending night school to learn English, they created plans to find a suitable place to settle and formed an association to find social independence.

In November 1853, a group of 50 people drew up resolutions and named the organization the “Chicago Landverein.” Later a Cincinnati organization, “The Colonization Society of North America” merged with the Chicago group and formed the German Land Association.

In March 1854, membership grew to 800. Committees including prospective home-seekers toured Iowa and Minnesota to find suitable land for a colony on a navigable river where could be adapted to farming.

Minnesota prospectors were gave more encouraging accounts of their trip than the Iowa group. About 35 men prepared to leave Chicago and establish homes for themselves in Minnesota.

Braunschweig, Germany native Frederick Beinhorn founded New Ulm and was elected president of the land society in 1854. Pioneers began building homes in the spring of 1855.

In the fall of 1855, the Turners of Cincinnati sent a three-person delegation including Wm. Pfaender Sr. to seek a Minnesota location. They were so pleased with the advantages offered by a location near the convergence of the Cottonwood and Minnesota River. They entered into an agreement to bring a colony of Turners to the settlement the following spring.

In 1856, they founded a village of 23 log shanties over a two by three mile area plus a log courthouse. A saw mill was finished the following year, leading to the founding of New Ulm.

Just two years after New Ulm was founded in 1854, the New Ulm Turnervein (Turner association), was founded on Nov. 11, 1856.

The first Turner Hall in New Ulm was built in 1857 as a genuine community enterprise, according to writer Alice Felt Tyler.

Construction work including cutting down trees and floating them downstream to a sawmill.

The first town council consisted of President Wm. Pfaender and village councilors Fredrich Beinhorn, Henry Meyerding and H. Herrendoerfer.

New Ulm’s Turner Hall was the largest building in town, 40 by 70 feet, with small towers at each end. Made of wood, it was used for all Turner activities and as a school until one was built, and for all types of public meetings and many theatrical performances.

The Indians mingled freely with settlers in those days. A large part of money coming into stores was due to the Indians trading furs for whiskey, firearms, tobacco and other items.

The original wooden Turner Hall was destroyed by fire during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 Battles of New Ulm. The current hall is located on top of the location of the original location.

Thirteen of the first settlers spent the remainder of their lives here. Six were killed by the Indians in 1862. The last surviving pioneer pioneer surviver was former Milford Township resident Peter Mack.

Local, German-born architect Julius Berndt built the second Turner Hall on top of the original site in 1866. Berndt was later the architect of the Hermann Heights Monument. A big addition was added to the southern part of the building in 1873 and remains standing.

The first replacement to the building was a separate gym and theater, superceded the 1866 building section that was burned in a fire on Jan. 7, 1952.

The basement of Turner Hall includes a Rathskeller with massive wall murals, originally painted in 1873 by Guido Scheller, the husband of actress Marie Methua-Scheller, depicting German scenes. Other Rathskeller mural artists were Christian Heller 1887, Anton Gag 1901, and Carl Pfaender, among others.

The murals were conserved by Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Grants from November 2012 to June 2014.

The New Ulm Turner Hall was chosen multiple times to host Turnfest, a national festival celebrating the history of the German Americans, Turners and gymnastics every four years as far back as 1865-66.

The facility was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its cultural significance to the City of New Ulm in the late 1970s.

New Ulm Turner Hall and the Rathskeller are used for weddings, celebrations, clubs, festivals and ceremonies in more recent years.

The book “New Ulm, Minnesota Historical Notes Vol. I, II by Elroy E. Ubl contributed to this story.