Dr. Gertrude Helmecke: A Young German American Woman's Life in Denton Texas, 1916–1917

Abstract

Dr. Gertrude Helmecke:A Young German American Woman's Life in Denton Texas, 1916–1917 Steven M. Collins (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Letter by Gertrude Helmecke, January 18, 1917. From Gertrude Helmecke Letters, 1916–1917, Woman's Collection (University Archives, Texas Women's University, Denton, Texas). [End Page 300] In 1916, German American Dr. Gertrude Helmecke arrived at the College of Industrial Arts (CIA, now Texas Woman's University) in Denton, Texas, to begin her faculty position as the college's new physical education teacher. By this time in her life, she had a strong record of academic accomplishment. At the University of Michigan (1910–14), Gertrude was vice president of the German Club (Deutscher Verein), secretary of the French Club (Le Cercle Français), and was active in sports.1 In 1911, she earned the fourth highest individual score in the annual girl's indoor meet, which consisted of thirteen events, such as marching, rope climbing, dancing, and the high jump. In 1914, she graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor of arts degree in physical education.2 In 1916, she received her doctor of osteopathy (DO) degree from the Sargent School of Physical Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts.3 Osteopathy is a theory of medicine that began in the late nineteenth century and posits that vertebral displacement is the cause of most diseases and whose elimination through spinal manipulation would allow the [End Page 301] unobstructed flow of blood, remove symptoms of pathology, and enhance the body's natural curative powers. As late as the 1890s, contemporary medicine relied on bloodletting and toxic pharmaceuticals, like arsenic, to treat diseases. As a result, many states refused to recognize osteopathy as a legitimate health field and denied medical licenses to its practitioners. This situation attracted many women to the field of osteopathy, particularly those denied entry to traditional male dominated medical schools.4 However, it was not disdain for osteopathy that concerned her in her in letters from Denton to her parents in Michigan in 1916 and 1917, but rather how the prospects of war between the United States and Germany affected the lives of people, like Gertrude and her family, that were both German and American. In 1902, Gertrude's father, Stephen Helmecke of Braunschweig, Germany, came to the United States to work for the Globe Wernicke Company, a library furniture manufacturer located in Cincinnati, Ohio.5 His wife, Marie, and children, Carl Albert (age twelve) and Marie Gertrude (age nine), arrived later that same year from Germany on the passenger liner the Graf Waldersee of the Hamburg-Amerika Linie.6 The Helmecke family resided in Cincinnati for five years before moving to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and both Carl and Gertrude later attended the University of Michigan. The Helmecke family spoke German at home and rented a room to German immigrants such as public school teacher Amy Broome. Retaining their German heritage, particularly in the home, was common among German Americans who often viewed their culture as an integral part of their identity. For many German American immigrants, the emphasis was on the first part of their dual identity, they were Germans who sought to become Americans without relinquishing their German-ness. Between 1820 and 1924, more than five million German immigrants arrived in the United States, making them the largest non-English speaking immigrant group. In 1910, 174,776 Texans stated that German had been the language of their childhood home.7 Many German Texans settled in a broad, fragmented belt that stretched from Galveston and Houston on its eastern edge to Kerrville and Hondo in the west, with additional pockets [End Page 302] of German communities scattered about the state, including Muenster and Lindsay in North Texas.8 In 1914, after German troops marched into Belgium, the Texas German-language newspapers Fredricksburger Wochenblatt and the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung blamed the war on the Allied Powers (Britain, France, and Russia) and expressed confidence in a German victory. The pro-German viewpoint of these newspapers was possible due to freedom of the press and because of the United States' official position of neutrality in the First World War...