Adam Stein

clay county histories

Markus Krueger | Program Director  HCSCC

Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildenburghausen had a fairy tale wedding in Munich in 1810. People had such a fun time at the reception that they made it an annual event: Oktoberfest. 211 years later, the party has spread pretty much everywhere people like beer, cheese, carbohydrates, German heritage and polka music. I’m a big fan of Oktoberfest, but you won’t see me saying “Prost” in honor of Ludwig. Instead, I propose a toast to Clay County pioneer Adam Stein, a democratic revolutionary refugee who helped knock Ludwig off of his throne.

I hate to suggest Walt Disney was lying to you, but your ancestors probably hated those fairy tale princes and princesses. We, my American sisters and brothers, are a nation largely descended from the oppressed peasants of the world – those “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” that the Statue of Liberty talks about. Aristocratic dictators lorded over your ancestors, bossed them around and stole their money until they got so fed up that they moved to the USA. The American Revolution was fought because the Founding Fathers and Mothers didn’t want unelected nincompoops running things here.     

But back to Bavaria. 1848 was the great year of revolution all across Europe. Inspired by the American and French revolutions, people from Milan to Stockholm and Paris to Poland rose up against the aristocrats and demanded voting rights, freedom of the press, equality, and more. By this time, the prince whose wedding became Oktoberfest was a very arrogant and anti-democratic King Ludwig of Bavaria. Adam Stein joined a rebel army that demanded democracy from Kind Ludwig.  

Unfortunately, the good guys lost. The aristocrats crushed the revolutions. But those in power had to make some concessions to calm the mobs of angry peasants. They agreed to make Bavaria a constitutional monarchy with laws that restricted the power of the king. Haughty King Ludwig, however, would not accept any limit on his power. He quit.   

Europe was no place for lovers of freedom and democracy after 1848, so tens of thousands of revolutionary “48ers” fled to America as political refugees. Adam Stein was one of them. “I wanted to live in the land of Freedom” he said in his memoir. After bouncing around the country a bit, he befriended fellow German political radical Randolph Probstfield in St. Paul. In 1859, the two decided to seek their fortunes on the Red River Frontier. They stayed and became two of the earliest pioneer settlers of Clay County.

These democratic German revolutionaries came at just the right time for our country. A decade after they put down roots in the USA, aristocratic southern slaveholders tried to overturn the election of Abraham Lincoln through armed rebellion. About 200,000 German immigrants flocked to the Union army, accounting for about 1 in 10 Union soldiers. Adam Stein joined the 4th Minnesota Infantry to ensure, in the words of President Lincoln, that government of the people, by the people, and for the people did not perish from this earth. He was the only recruit from Clay County to survive the war.

So raise a glass of whatever you’ve got to Adam Stein and the 48ers. Prost!