We invite you to visit our German Immigrant Memorial, located just a half-block east of the four-way stop, at 209 East Main in Cole Camp, Mo. This memorial was formally dedicated in June of 2016.
Here you will learn the story of the great immigration into this part of Missouri beginning in the 1830s.
Our memorial was built through an effort of our Plattdüütscher Vereen or Low German Club. It was financed by the sale of engraved bricks. These bricks tell the story of not only the immigrants but also of their descendants. The gray-colored bricks are numbered and are engraved with the names of the German immigrants, where they came from, what year and which county (Benton, Morgan, or Pettis) they settled in.
The red-colored bricks are engraved with the names of descendants of the immigrants.
There are numbers following the names, which indicate the relationship to the numbered immigrant bricks. As an example: 1-12, indicates this person is the son or daughter of immigrant number 12. The grandson or granddaughter would be numbered 2-12.
The Large Monument
The vast majority of immigrants to this area came from the German province of Hanover.
Today this province or state is Niedersachsen or Lower Saxony. The back side of the monument contains a map of this province and the 38 districts within its borders.
These 38 districts or counties are abbreviated on the map, and the coat-of-arms of each is shown on individual, porcelain plaques on the surrounding wall.
The large, encased icons at each end of the wall were recovered from the rubble of the destroyed city of Berlin as it was being restored.