I’m 3/4 Swiss. During the 1840s there was massive unemployment in Switzerland due to the invention of the automated Jacquard Loom in France. Cloth making was cottage industry with cloth being made on hand looms. the Swiss government created 2 immigration societies, one was sent to South America the other to the US. They were put on a boat traveling the Rhine to the port in the Hague where they boarded a ship which took 7 weeks to cross the ocean. Landed at Philadelphia, walking to Pittsburg where they boarded a boat sailing the Ohio river West. During the journey the chose 2 men which they tasked to find suitable land for the group. The two set out from Indiana while the main group continued on to the Mississippi and St Louis. Strief and Durst walked across Indiana and Illinois not seeing anything they felt suitable. Talking to locals they heard there was land in Wisconsin. They set out for Wisconsin. At Mineral Point they were told there was land to the East of there 30 miles or more. Going there they found what reminded them of home: pine trees, hills and rocks. They went back to Mineral Point which had the land office for the area and purchased the land. Sending word back to the group in St Louis they met at Galena walking together to their new home which they called New Glarus. With winter coming on they set about building shelter for everyone then divided up the land purchased according to what each put into the fund. Not having skills for farming they contacted the county extension office which taught them well. In five years they had prospered enough to pay back the Swiss government in full. In my genealogy search I have Strief and Durst, but not directly those two. My Great Grandfather Strief came soon after correspondence with them and settled in Iowa.
