German Community at Valhermoso Springs

Why did August Rump come to north Alabama?  He arrived in America in 1867 (according to later census), probably in New York as he was a sailor on the Norddeutscher Lloyd line which regularly sailed there (documented!).  According to family legend, he shot the captain of the ship who was either stealing from the stores, or "testing the guards", and had to flee.

His wife and children followed, arriving in New York in 1868 (documented on passenger list).  But by July 1870 they were living in Valhermoso Springs, Morgan County, Alabama.

This page mentions a Mr. Moebes who left his native Germany and started a colony of Germans in North Alabama.  Two things in the story are possibly related to the history of the Rump family.  First is the way Mr. Moebes left Germany.

Family tradition has it that the friend, having had too much to drink, was rocking the boat in which he and young Otto were rowing girl friends. Otto demanded that he refrain from splashing the young ladies, and angry words led to a duel. “Grandpa Moebes” was prepared to shoot to the side, but when he turned to face his opponent, he saw the pistol aimed directly at him. He took quick aim, killed the hapless fellow, and arrived in New York on the lam in April, 1868.

Could this be the origin of our family legend?  August Rump went to a colony founded by a German who had killed a man on a boat.  And that got turned into him killing a man on a boat?

The second thing I noticed was in the description of Moebes looking for people to join him in Alabama while wandering around New York City.

“I had been out on the pavement by day and night to look for any kind of work until my legs nearly broke down because of fatigue and exhaustion, when I heard a chaotic mixture of voices sound out of a German beer bar and saw in the bar a lot of Germans from the lower classes … like joiners, shoemakers, tailors, bartenders, brick-layers, and all kinds of craftsmen who wanted to follow an advertisement from the South to acquire cheap land to become farmers.
There was no head and no tail to the whole clan, and since I had read a lot about the South and its conditions, especially like sweet potatoes, sugar cane, and cotton, I asked to speak, and in a short amount of time I convinced the people that I knew the Southern conditions excellently and that I’d be the right Moses to lead them to the promised land."

It is certainly possible that August Rump was in this crowd of German workers and craftsmen, trying to figure out where to go, when Mr. Moebes showed up with the promise of leading them to a land where they could become farmers.  If not, he must have heard about it through word of mouth or maybe a printed advertisement.  But he must have had some reason to go from  New York in 1868 to Valhermoso Springs, Alabama in 1870.  And in 1870 he is living within a few houses of Joseph Giers, who was president of the colony.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17086364/north-alabama-the-german-settlement/