“Well, I came to America because I heard the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, I found out three things: first, the streets weren’t paved with gold; second, they weren’t paved at all; and third, I was expected to pave them.” (Italian immigrant story posted at Ellis Island Immigration Center Museum)

As I stood at the southern tip of Manhattan in the New York City harbor this past August and got my first look at Castle Garden, my eyes teared up with emotion. This was the receiving station for more than 8 million immigrants between the years of 1855 to 1890. Jacob Riis (Danish-born urban reformer and writer), Samuel Gompers (cigar-maker and founder of the American Federation of Labor) and all four of my grandparents entered the United States through Castle Garden. This receiving station was closed in 1890 due to a public outcry against the abuses at this state-run facility and due to the public demands for a regulated flow of immigrants into this country.

Control passed from the state of New York to the federal government when a new immigration station was built on Ellis Island, in upper New York Bay near the New Jersey shore for a total cost of $500,000. It formally opened on New Year’s Day 1892. During the period between the closing of Castle Garden and the opening of Ellis Island, immigrants were processed at the Barge Office in Battery Park, next to the Castle Garden site.

As I surveyed the landscape, I tried to imagine what Grandpa Gudmund (who arrived in 1885 at age 18) and Grandpa Jonas (who arrived in 1880 at the age of 17) would have seen and how they would have felt as they entered this new land. They were Norwegian, and their ethnic culture demanded that feelings be kept close to the heart and “not be worn on your sleeve” for all to see. The skyscrapers that now tower over Castle Garden would not even have been envisioned in their wildest imaginations. The boat bringing them from Stavanger would have undoubtedly passed close to the Statue of Liberty. And they may, or may not, have known that the copper skin on the statue came from a copper mine very near to their parental homes. When I look up at the statue I see a Frenchman dangling from his parachute which caught on the flame of the torch as he tried to perform his daredevil attempt for “15 minutes of fame.”

My grandfathers never talked about or recorded anything about going through the processing station. They were teenagers, each traveling alone, but probably masking any fear that they felt. Once ashore they waited in turn to talk to a registry clerk. When each gave his name to the clerk it was cross-checked with the passenger list. They also had to give their age, sex, marital status, occupation, nationality, last residence, destination and whether they could read or write. Additionally, they were required to indicate whether they had paid their own passages, had money to travel to their final destinations, were under contract to work in the United States, had ever been in prison or a poorhouse, suffered from any deformities or illness, and whether they were polygamists.

What kind, if any, abuse did they endure? Because of the rise of immigration during the 1880s attitudes toward newcomers were becoming increasingly negative. In 1885, labor unions succeeded in getting a law passed to stop businessmen from importing men willing to work for little money, which undercut the wage minimums of the unions. The Alien Contract Labor Law was administered by federal agents, working side by side with state authorities at Castle Garden. During this period, concern for the welfare of immigrants declined. Although, earlier, New York officials had fenced off Castle Garden in order to maintain control of swindlers who accosted immigrants, these fences were removed, allowing rampant cheating and stealing. Swindlers made offers of housing, food, and railway tickets as the immigrants stepped off the boat, and now they were also allowed inside the station.

Grandma Elisabet came in 1885, at the age of 22, with two of her sisters. I cannot imagine my great-grandparents sending their daughters off to an unknown country, and without a man along to protect them. This was the 1880s when women were very protected — and needed to be for their safety. I had a hard enough time sending my daughters off to college at the other end of the state. I certainly would not have sent them across the ocean. Grandma carried her spinning wheel with her (it now resides in my home) because spinning was the only thing she knew how to do — and she needed to make a living once she got here. One year later, these young women had earned enough money to send boat tickets to their parents so that they could join their daughters in America.

Grandma Ella Serine was only 10 years old when she arrived in 1880 with her parents. Clinging to her mother’s hand as they proceeded down the gangplank, her mind probably was still overshadowed by her memory of coming close to being lost at sea. During a violent storm on the Atlantic, the wind tore her from her mother’s arms and sent her rolling along the deck from side to side until a brave sailor risked his life to save her.

As they continued through the process of entering the United States, they would have all headed for the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, walking to the end of the lines for boarding trains to one that read “To All Points West.” Each of them, in their own historical time, would have sighed with relief to have made it through Castle Garden, and eagerly looked forward to reaching their desired destinations.

Source: Ellis Island Museum plaques and pamphlets.