CHAPTER 3                                                                                                                       Page 91

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An assessment of the Santa Bárbara group

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This last chapter seeks to make a general assessment of the group of American immigrants formed in Santa Barbara, after the end of the Civil War. Here, we took the opportunity to reconstruct the trajectory of some families that settled in the municipality, as well as to recover the news inserted by these immigrants in the reality of the region, where their influence on religion and education are well noted. There is also the controversy over the introduction and manufacture of the American type plow, which we will seek to explore in this chapter.

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Was the influence of this group great on the local population? And did the local population manage to strongly influence this group? The evidence is that, after a first moment of cultural defense, the Americans gradually began to insert themselves into the local community, losing many of their values ​​and customs, becoming “Brazilianized”.

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Families, Religion, Culture and Technology                                                        Page 91

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One of the first families to settle outside Santa Bárbara was the Norris family. Initially, Colonel William H. Norris and his son Robert Cícero Norris came, settling in the lands of Fazenda Machadinho, where the city of Americana is currently. As explained in the previous chapter, these lands were part of Santa Bárbara at that time.

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The Norris were farmers, with a large cotton plantation in Alabama, and were Civil War veterans. The Colonel was over sixty when the war started, so he did not go to the front, but his five oldest children fought, including Robert. The Colonel became a senator in the United States.

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Robert and his father arrived in Brazil on December 27, 1865, According to Jones, they brought some belongings to make a small crop and money, in gold dollars. The rest of the family arrived on April 19, 1867, aboard the Talisman (his wife Mary Black and the children) . Col. Norris was a neighbor of John Cole and Orville Whitaker.

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There are six people from the Norris family buried in Cemitério do Campo, in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste. Colonel Norris passed away on July 13, 1893, at the age of ninety-three. He still resided in Santa Bárbara at that time. His wife died a few days later, on August 3 of the same year, at the age of eighty-two. Robert died in 1913 at the age of seventy-six. On their tombstone, proof that they were Confederates: “Dr. Robert Norris / A Confederate Veteran / 7.3.1837 / 14.5.1913 ”. According to Jones, the Colonel died of pneumonia and his wife had been in bed for four years, unable to walk because she had tripped over a cat and fractured her hip.

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Robert was born in 1837, married Martha Temperance Steagall (better known as Pattie), who came to Brazil in 1867 at the age of 18, accompanying his family who had left Texas. She was the daughter of Henry Farrar Steagall, a veteran of the Civil War, and Delia Elizabeth Steagall, who also settled in Santa Barbara. Robert and Pattie were married in August 1869, and, according to Pattie, they were the first to get married in Santa Barbara. Before them, “there was another wedding, but they had to go to São Paulo on horseback, for the ceremony.” And this was because they were Protestants and the pasyors in the city had not yet been authorized by the State to celebrate weddings.

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Thus, we know from Pattie that the first marriage between North Americans to be held in Santa Barbara was hers with Robert Norris. In May 1870, Robert and Pattie's first son, William Henry, was born. In 1873, Robert bought a piece of land at the Bom Retiro site in Santa Bárbara. In the years 1875, 1883 and 1895 Robert purchased land in the municipality of Campinas, at the site called Cinco Patentes

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Robert was a lawyer and was studying medicine when the Civil War broke out, and for that reason he came to Brazil without finishing his studies. However, in 1890, he returned to the United States to complete them, and when he returned to Brazil again , exercised the profession of doctor, more for the spirit of charity than as a way of life. In addition, in Santa Bárbara, he was responsible for organizing the Masonic Lodge. When he died in 1913, he was Grand Master of the Santa Bárbara Masonic Lodge. It was that Colonel Norris, his father, was a Mason before he even came to Brazil and, around 1874, he founded the first Masonic Lodge of Santa Bárbara, the Washington Society, and became Grand Master of it. Then Robert succeeded him on the job. This was a place for political discussions and a meeting place for Americans. The society was allowed to operate and make its reports in English.

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Despite being a Civil War veteran and having decided to leave his country of origin after the Confederate defeat, Robert did not give up his American citizenship. As mentioned, he returned to the United States to complete his medical studies and more than that, he did not accept Brazilian citizenship in 1889. Years later, Dr. Robert Norris must have accepted citizenship, since he became a voter in the third block a from 1894.

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Pattie's family, the Steagalls, bought land in Santa Bárbara, on the Bom Retiro site, in 1872. In 1893, Henry Farrar Steagall, Pattie's father, died. According to Jones, the widow, Dª. Delia Elizabeth Steagall reportedly sold the property to Zeke Pyles (Ezequiel Pyles) and moved to São Paulo with younger daughters, who would have greater opportunities to study and work. In our research, we find that the widow Delia Elizabeth, along with the heirs , sold the farm to Guilherme Pierce Steagall, one of their sons. Before that, she had leased these lands to Ezequiel Pyles, but she did not sell them anyway. After the sale of the property we found no record of Dª. Delia in the researched manuscript documents. She probably went to São Paulo with her younger daughters.

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One of the first families to settle in Santa Barbara, along with the Norris, was that of Major Robert Meriwether. He had come to Brazil with Dr. Shaw in November 1865, representing the Southern Emigration Society of Edgefield, South Carolina. We do not know if Dr. Shaw came to emigrate, but we did not find any references to him in Santa Barbara and not even arriving through the port of Santos with or without Major Meriwether. The major came to Brazil with his family on board the Douro, and disembarked in Rio de Janeiro on September 1, 1866. On the 6th of the same month he went to Santos, from where he went straight to Santa Bárbara. In Santa Bárbara Meriwether he bought, on October 28, 1866, a farm of 315 fathoms from Joaquim de Godois Bueno and his wife, and from Firmino de Godois Bueno and his wife, for two contos de réis.293 This is his first writing. purchase and sale registered at the Santa Bárbara registry office, among North American immigrants. The deed does not give the location of the site, but Jones states that it was located “on the banks of the Piracicaba River, (in place) called Funil”. Still according to the author, Meriwether would later have settled in Botucatu. According to the documents searched in the First Registry of Notes of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, there is only a power of attorney for his son, Guilherme, in 1875, for the end mortgage a site that they owned at the end of Botucatu. After that, there is only one reference by Meriwether in the notary documents, in 1881, making a friendly division of his site with the sites of Guilherme McFadden, Edwin Britt, Roberto McFadden, Malachias da Silva, João da Silva Leme and Miguel Florêncio dos Santos. There is no record that he sold the Santa Bárbara site.

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In Botucatu, according to Jones, Meriwether would have bought land, slaves, cultivated a hundred thousand coffee plants and set up a sawmill that prospered. After the liberation of the slaves, business would have started to decline and, after the major's death in Botucatu, the family would have moved to São Paulo.

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Another family that settled in Santa Barbara was that of Wilber McKnight. They were from Texas and his father, Calvin, went to war leaving him at home with the responsibility of looking after the family when he was just twelve or thirteen. Wilber was to marry, in Santa Barbara, Caroline, the adopted daughter of John and Margaret Perkins. She was the daughter of an Italian couple and her father was killed during the Civil War. The family, with many children, began to be in need, and the Perkins, who had no children, adopted Caroline and came with her to Santa Barbara.

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Wilber's family, when they came to Brazil, intended to go to the colony formed by McMullan and Bowen, which was close to Dunn's Lizzieland. However, when they arrived in Rio de Janeiro, one of Calvin's daughters became ill and died. As soon as they buried her, they realized that there were no regular vapors for Iguape, and when they received a proposal to manage a farm near Angra dos Reis, the family decided to stay there. Then they decided to go to Santa Bárbara. According to Jones, the reason the family decided to leave Angra dos Reis was because of an ambush prepared for Calvin McKnight by a settler who was his subordinate on the farm. Calvin not only survived, but killed the ambush author, having been tried and acquitted for killing in self-defense. From that episode on, the family decided to move close to Campinas, since their daughter Josephine was studying at Colégio Internacional e Wilber had come to accompany her.

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Wilber and Caroline were married on June 17, 1875, with an evangelical ceremony conducted by pastor William C. Emerson. At the time, Wilber was 27 years old, while Caroline was 17. As mentioned above, Wilber and his family were from Pennsylvania, but had moved to Texas before deciding to emigrate.

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Also in 1875, Wilber appears in the Santa Barbara registry office, hiring “comrades” for services in the fields. In 1883 he became the owner of twenty bushels of land at Fazenda São Luís, becoming a neighbor of Charles Hall. Demonstrating his prosperity in Santa Barbara, in 1888 there is a power of attorney from his wife, Caroline, appointing him as his attorney to make an agricultural pledge for a machine purchased from Lidgerwood. In 1894 he bought several portions of land at the Costa site, Invernada site and Barrocão site. In 1895 Wilber bought another ten bushels of land at Fazenda São Luís, making a total of thirty bushels of land on this site alone, with neighbors, in addition to Charles Hall, the Americans Pyles & Irmão and Leonidas S. Bowen. And, as already mentioned, he appears signing a sale contract with Joaquim Fernandes Estrada, a dealer in São Paulo, in the years 1898 and 1899.

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In Santa Barbara, Wilber was a councilor from 1896 to 1898. According to Jones, he was the “first American to take an active part in politics.” He was on the list of voters on the seventh block of Santa Barbara, along with his father, Calvin. Wilber he died in 1935, four years before his wife Caroline, at the age of eighty-seven.

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Another important family in Santa Bárbara was the Hall family. Harvey Hall lived in Georgia with his seven children and wife Jane Catherine Ives. Four of his sons fought in the Civil War. After the end of the war, his wife died and he decided to come to Brazil with his children and arriving here, in May 1866, he bought land in Santa Bárbara. He bought a farm that had already been set up, with several crops, animals and even a cotton processing machine. Harvey Hall was murdered by Jesse Wright, another American, after a quarrel on October 29, 1877,306 As already mentioned, Charles Hall, one of Harvey's sons, was an important businessman in the county. Owning several types of businesses, such as lumber mill, plow depot, dry and wet warehouse, he was still an important creditor, both of other North Americans and of local residents.

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Charles Hall married Mary Elizabeth Miller, also an American, who lived with her parents, James and Sarah Miller, in Campinas. They were married on July 15, 1873. Charles aged 26 and Mary aged 17. The pastor who performed the ceremony, “for the religious rite of the evangelical church” was Pastor Eduardo Lane, an American established in Campinas.

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Like Robert Norris, he refused Brazilian citizenship in 1889,308 Charles Hall lived in Americana, and since the first collection of property taxes in this village, in 1894, carried out by the Santa Bárbara Chamber, he appears among taxpayers, with a property located “outside from street". In 1900 he appears as the owner of three properties, one at Rua da Ponte Carioba, another at Rua Basílio Bueno Rangel and the third, which was his address, at Rua da Palma. Charles Hall died in 1916, a year before his wife Mary Elizabeth.

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John Domm (in the João Domm manuscripts) was German and had emigrated to the United States. There he joined the group of Americans who decided to go to Brazil and came with his family to Santa Bárbara. Her daughter Helena Paulina married Abraham Whitaker Currie, another American immigrant. João Domm was connected to the Americans of Santa Bárbara, both by bonds of friendship and by ties of kinship after his daughter's marriage. According to Jones, he, along with Henry Farrar Steagall, were the first to manufacture the American type plow in Santa Barbara.

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Like Charles Hall, João Domm was an important creditor in the municipality, especially assisting Americans in financial difficulties, such as the widow Helen Dumas. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge founded by Colonel Norris. João Domm accepted Brazilian citizenship and appears as a voter in the second block of Santa Bárbara, from 1892, He died on August 6, 1900 and is buried in the Cemitério do Campo in Santa Bárbara, along with other North Americans.

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Abraham Whitaker Currie, his son-in-law, was born in Mississippi and died on September 27, 1889 in Santa Barbara. According to Jones, after his death, the family would have returned to the United States. However, in our notarial searches we found Dª. Helena Paulina Currie, the widow, buying land at Santa Bárbara Station (now Americana) in 1893 and, in 1898, her father, João Domm, constitutes her attorney, with the special purpose of receiving from the Mogyana Railway Company and Navigation the payment of dividends corresponding to the semester ended 06/30, indicating that the family remained in Santa Bárbara, and more, the immigrant João Domm owned shares of the Mogyana Company. This shows that probably João Domm, and perhaps other North Americans, had if adapted to the new pattern of wealth that came into force in the last decades of the 19th century, previously represented by slaves, lands and animals.

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Dr. Crisp bought land adjacent to Harvey Hall. He was a widower and had children Alexander and Richard (Dick) and daughter Kennie. Dr. Crisp died around 1888, having spent a lot of time in bed, due to paralysis. Alexandre does not seem to have stayed in Santa Barbara for a long time. According to Jones, Alexandre never married and also did not maintain contact with his compatriots who lived in the Santa Bárbara region. In the purchase and sale records we researched in the First Notary's Office of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, we found that, in the In 1876, Alexandre sold his entire property and four more slaves to his father, who also assumed a debt of his son to creditors Martinho Prado & Wright, from São Paulo, in the amount of eleven contos, four hundred and nine thousand, seven hundred and five réis, to be paid in two years. Dr. Crisp also bought a slave that Alexandre had already passed on to his creditors, the slave Félix. Probably Alexander was having trouble paying his creditors, since he had already sold a slave to them. In 1881, Dr. Crisp leaves testament to the said slaves to his son Alexandre.

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We know from the same documents that Richard Crisp lived in Bom Retiro, and in 1887, together with his father, he sold these lands to Ezequiel Bento Pyles. With the death of his father, he inherited a part of land in a place called Brejo. In 1890 we found Richard still single, living in the village of Santa Bárbara, on the seventh block, from the Igreja Matriz. In 1888, he sold all the wood on the farm inherited from his father to Alfredo de Moraes Leme, and in 1895 he formed a partnership with Guilherme Pierce Steagall for the planting of cane and the manufacture of brandy in this same place. Guilherme entered the society with the machinery and would still be the manager of it. According to Jones, Richard had six children, who “did not leave the house anywhere and ended up marrying, all of them, with the children of his Brazilian neighbor named Bueno”.

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Colonel Asa Thompson Oliver was from Alabama and settled in the place called Campo, with his wife Beatrice and his daughters. The wife and daughter Inglianna had tuberculosis and could not resist the long journey and the winter weather when they arrived in Brazil. Dª. Beatrice died on July 13, 1868; their eldest daughter, Inglianna, on April 19, 1869. The couple's other daughter, Mildred, struck by the recent family losses, also did not resist and died before Christmas, on December 17, 1869. The creation of the Cemetery do Campo, which will be discussed later, is directly related to the death of Dª. Beatrice. The Colonel married again, with Dª. Dursila Daniel. He was a wealthy man and had slaves to work his land and help with domestic services.

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In 1873 the colonel was murdered, according to Jones, the victim of one of his slaves, which he scolded for stealing his sweet potatoes. The slave murdered his owner with the hoe he was using to steal the potatoes. When the rest of the Americans learned of the colonel's murder, they gathered and the boys hung the slave on a farm tree.

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In 1873 and 1875 the widow, Dª. Dursila, sells five slaves, all to other Americans who lived in Santa Barbara. He also appoints Mr. Thomas Gonçalves Gomides Sobrinho to sell four other slaves to his attorney, and Dr. Manoel de Moraes Barros to request the search and seizure warrant for the slave slave, who was on the run. Dª. Dursila must have been very frightened after the death of her husband, victim of one of her slaves, since she sold not only the slaves she owned, but also a piece of land in this municipality. After that, she must have left Santa Barbara, since there was no record of his burial at Cemitério do Campo and no notary record after these sales.

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Edwin Britt also settled in Santa Barbara. He came alone, without a family. He bought slaves who could help him with the housework and farming tasks on the farm. According to Jones, he was very "compassionate" with slaves. The author claims that he bought and took care of a slave who had gone to the Paraguayan war, under the promise of liberation. He was not released and, being very thin and sick, he managed to recover his health thanks to the care of Edwin Britt. At the end of his life, his owner would have left his property in testament to this slave, named Manoel, who sold it to Dr. Cícero Jones and today is part of the author's website.

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As we saw above, Britt was single and, having no family in Brazil, he left part of his inheritance to five slaves: 50 $ 000 individual for Francisca Maria, Rosa Mozambique and Cândido Antônio, and 100 $ 000 for each of the slaves Manoel Grande and Manoel Pequeno . The rest of the assets, including a piece of land acquired in 1867 and a farm in Piracicaba, were left to his brother John G. Britt who lived in the United States, in the state of North Carolina. According to the researched documentation, the part of land located in Santa Bárbara was sold through the attorney João Domm to Robert Daniel. We found no reference to the slave Manoel. If Dr. Jones acquired these lands, he must have done so only later, since until 1900, the year in which our research ends, we found no record at the Santa Bárbara registry office.

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The Dumas family was from Mississippi. According to Jones, John Dumas was in poor health and died soon, leaving his wife with young children. The oldest daughter, Catherine, was Bony Green's wife, and it was from him that Helen Dumas bought the family farm in 1889. The the site was purchased with money borrowed from Charles Hall, through a mortgage deed of July 8, 1889, in the amount of seven hundred milreis. On August 1, 1890, this deed is paid off with a new mortgage, but this time the loan was granted by João Domm, in the amount of seven hundred and eighty milreis. In 1893 João Domm gives full payment of that mortgage and, in 1896, the widow appears to borrow two contos de réis from José S. Green, mortgaging this same place. This mortgage was repaid the following year, and in 1898 Helen sold the farm to Bony Green, her son-in-law.

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Irving Louis Miller was from Alabama and came with his family to Espírito Santo, to Gunther's colony. He was a very wealthy man before the Civil War. According to Jones, he received twenty-five slaves into his marriage. He came to Brazil with his seven children. After passing through Espírito Santo, they came to Santa Bárbara, to live close to Henry Farrar Steagall. They became known as the Miller Miller, for having gone first to Rio Doce, in Espírito Santo.

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One of Irving's sons was Lingard, who married a Brazilian, Francisca. They reportedly went to live in Campinas after the wedding, where they gathered some money and then returned to Santa Bárbara. In 1890, Lingard formed a partnership with José Machado de Campos to plant cane and manufacture brandy, on the site that belonged to the late Captain Manoel Francisco da Graça Martins, which was leased to the same partner José. In the following year (1891) Lingard bought two pieces of land in the same place from the late captain Maneco. In 1893 he sold the farm to Joaquim Auto de Godois Faustino, full of improvements and with a value five times higher than he had paid. He then bought the Cabreúva farm, which was owned by Joaquim Pedroso das Neves, and which also had many improvements. The purchase deed includes a sugar cane mill, with iron mills and water mills, stills plus belongings, nine settlers' houses, a warehouse, surrounded by pau-a-pique attached to the warehouse. The production of brandy must have brought many gains to Lingard, who, in 1896, bought another, more modest site on the road from Santa Bárbara to Piracicaba, not leaving the Cabreúva site until 1900, the final period of this work. Lingard Miller he accepted Brazilian citizenship, as did his two brothers Hylliard and Robert Miller and, in the registration of voters in 1890, his name was inscribed in the second section (which included the third and fourth blocks of the municipality). Hylliard was enrolled in the same section as Lingard, but he lived on the fourth block; Robert, for his part, lived on the seventh block and was enrolled in the third voter section of Santa Barbara.

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In addition to the sweet Miller, there was another family in Santa Barbara with the same surname, but they were not related. They became known as the sour Miller, as opposed to the former. It was James Miller's family. James was married to Sarah B. Miller. Her daughter Anna married Leroy King Bookwalter and daughter Mary Elizabeth married Charles Hall, son of Harvey Hall. The family spent a short time in Santa Bárbara, having moved to Campinas.

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The Hawthorne family was of Irish origin. Fighting for Irish independence, the father of the family, Michael Charles Hawthorne, was considered a dangerous element and had to flee his country. Came to Brazil. Knowing about the group of Americans who lived in Santa Barbara, he went there and:

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“(...) he settled near the Norris; he became so friendly with everyone and identified himself so well with the refugees who spoke his language, to the point of being considered one of them. Years later, his sons married the daughters of the Americans and his grandchildren were 'de facto' part of the colony.”

In the 1890s, other Americans also came to Santa Barbara, mainly from Alabama and Florida. Among them came Dr. Cícero Jones. He was from Alabama and came to Santa Barbara in 1891. In the region, he started to practice medicine together with Dr. Robert Norris, his future father-in-law. Dr. Cícero Jones would later marry Dr. Norris' eldest daughter, Mary, on February 1, 1893. However, the marriage was short lived. Mary passed away suddenly, deeply shaking the joy of her father and her husband. It was December 2, 1894. The girl was only twenty years old. A few years later, Dr. Jones married the sister of his first wife, Martha Whitaker. Dr. Jones lived in Americana and Piracicaba, and during that time he attended patients from all over the region, dying in 1924.

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The Smith family, whose father is Alfred Smith, married to Mrs. Sarah Jane Smith, had seven children, among them Sarah Belona Smith, who in her diary tells a large part of the family's trajectory, from the United States to Brazil.

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The Smiths initially went to the Frank McMullan colony on the south coast of São Paulo. Alfred was a music teacher in the United States and had immigrated to Texas under the influence of McMullan. Then, at the end of the Civil War, the Smiths came to Brazil, under the influence of the same McMullan.

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Along with the Smiths were the Tarvers, Mr. Nelson and his wife Dª. Sarah Elizabeth Tarver. They had five children, and they also belonged to Frank McMullan's colony. After the leader's death, they joined the Smiths in search of a new place to live. They went up the São Lourenço river and decided to settle close to its tributaries. The Smith family settled on the banks of the River Areado. They lived on the left bank of the river and planted on the right. According to Goldman (1957), they planted coffee, tobacco, rice, corn, beans and cane, and even built a mill with a water wheel. The Tarver family settled on the banks of the Azeite River, while the Cel family. Bowen settled on the shores of Areado. Also according to Goldman (1957), the three families would have spent a short time on the coast of São Paulo, having settled in Campinas.

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In the primary sources we researched, we found Mr. Alfred Smith buying land in the municipality of Santa Bárbara, on the Morro site, in 1871. Mr. Tarver, in turn, bought land on the Bom Retiro site, in Santa Bárbara, in 1872, at the same place where Colonel Bowen also bought land in 1873, in partnership with Cristovão Colombus Johnson.

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Once established in Santa Bárbara, the North American community sought to maintain sociability and personal relationships within the group itself. According to Goldman (1972), the first attitude of immigrants was cultural defense.339 For this reason, most marriages were held among North Americans, avoiding marriages with people outside the American circle. According to Harter: “Those who defied the code were sometimes marginalized, were not invited to family gatherings and had to endure crises of lack of tenderness for some time.”

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In the records of marriages of non-Catholics we surveyed, we have data available from 1873 to 1887 and during the period 17 marriages “celebrated by the religious rite of the Evangelical Church” were recorded. Among these marriages, only two were not held among American immigrants. This demonstrates the initial isolation attitude of immigrants, seeking to keep the culture of their country of origin alive.

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Therefore, in the first and second generation, marriages between American immigrants themselves predominated. In the second generation, some mixed marriages have started to appear, however, it is from the third generation that mixed marriages became more common. According to Gussi: “... the alleged isolation of the first generation, followed by dispersion and the merger with the local society”.

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Mixed marriages mark the beginning of the integration of North Americans into local society, and also their loss of identity. When marrying Brazilians, immigrants gradually lost their typical customs, they stopped speaking English, and even changed their religion and started to integrate themselves with parties and local society. A measure of this greater integration with Brazilian culture is reflected in daily life, as demonstrated by Gussi: “... as the descendants moved to the cities and married non-descendants, they began to participate in Catholic festivals , watching cinema sessions, going to dances in clubs and playing in the lowland football teams ”.

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An inconsistency observed by Hill refers to the fact that the North American immigrants who came to Brazil, despite repeatedly showing their disgust to the United States, whenever they had problems here, they appealed to the American ministers and consuls who lived and attended in several Brazilian cities.

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“It would be easy to point out many amusing inconsistencies in the conduct of the southerners who went to Brazil. Although they professed to leave the United States because of fear of anarchy and demoralization, still at critical times they appealed to the consuls and ministers of this anarchistic government. Interestingly enough, the American official agents were occasionally instrumental in getting relief for their distressed countrymen”.

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In addition, as Hill (1927) well observes, many immigrants did not want to accept Brazilian citizenship, which was easy to obtain after the Proclamation of the Republic in Brazil.

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“Foreigners could acquire citizenship by oath after two years‟ residence, with perpetual exemption from military service except in the provincial militia”.

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“Finally, it may be observed that many of the southerners evaded the easy road to naturalization in Brazil and clung to their American citizenship”.

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In our research, we found that from January 1, 1890 to September 14 of the same year, 37 North Americans residing in Santa Bárbara made the declaration, registered with a notary, stating that they did not accept Brazilian citizenship, wishing “to remain a citizen of the United States of North America, the country of his birth ”.

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In 1890, voter registration began in Santa Bárbara and, in that year, 33 North Americans were registered as voters in the municipality. In the registrations of 1892, 1894 and 1899, there were, respectively, 39, 35 and 32 North Americans as voters in the city. unmistakable proof of the integration of these immigrants into local society, including in the exercise of full political power, such their involvement in the new reality.

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As an example of this, see Adoniram Judson Pyles and Ezequiel Bento Pyles, who, among others, at first did not give up on remaining as American citizens, and who, over time, already duly involved with the new land, chose by naturalization (according to tables A1 and A2 in the annex).

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The influence of American immigrants in Brazil was limited to the places where they settled, and even in those places, this influence was not very great. The great contribution of the Americans took place in the religious and educational fields. There was an increase in the number of Protestant missionaries and churches in Brazil and schools were also created that used teaching methods different from Brazilian ones. “Consequently, the contributions of southern immigrants to the religious and educational life of the country were far greater than might be expected from such a limited number of people”.

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Most of the immigrants who came to Brazil were Protestants, and among them were Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians. Here in the new land, they tried to follow their faith, preserving the same religion adopted in their country of origin. At first, they had almost no pastors to preach. Among the immigrants there were some who were pastors in the United States, and even without the designation of their host church, they preached to the other immigrants, seeking to give them spiritual comfort. Gradually, and in the face of insistent requests, they were receiving pastors. Those who had come as immigrants preached only in their spare time, as it was necessary to take care of their land in order to obtain their livelihood, since as they were not yet appointed pastors in Brazil, they could not count on any remuneration from that profession.

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Here it is important to emphasize that we do not want to lead the reader to believe that it was with the arrival of American immigrants to Brazil that these religions developed in the country. Long before the first immigrants arrived, there were already some missionaries in Brazil, trying to spread the Protestant faith and religion. Proof of this are the reports of the missionaries Kidder and Fletcher, who had already been in the Empire in the late 1830s and early 1840s. The importance of the arrival of American immigrants in relation to religion lies in the fact that, taking advantage of the presence of these immigrants in the country, the American Protestant churches found a fertile ground for the spread of their faith in the country, having advanced with greater force on the country with a Catholic majority since then.

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Gradually Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches were founded in the Santa Bárbara region. But missionary work was not limited to the spread of the Protestant religion; an important contribution of Protestant missions in Brazil is linked to education: “... one of the greatest contributions of Protestant missions to Brazil was destined to be in the field of education. Even members of the Catholic Church who have acknowledged the indebtedness of Brazil to the North Americans in this field.”

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As far as knowledge is concerned, the Americans were very concerned with education, and as soon as they settled down, they took care to first educate their children at home. In the poorest families, it was the mother herself who taught her children. Some mothers had graduated as teachers before leaving the United States. The wealthier families hired teachers who lived as households in the house. Teaching was done entirely in English.

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But soon the Colégio Piracicabano (in Piracicaba) was founded by a North American, where the children of the immigrants from Santa Bárbara started to study. They were created by North Americans as well, the International College of Campinas (in 1869) and the College Mackenzie (in 1870). Despite being the last to be founded (in 1881), Colégio Piracicabano was of greater importance to the residents of Santa Bárbara, perhaps due to its greater proximity. Colégio Piracicabano later gave rise to the Methodist School, today the Methodist University of Piracicaba (UNIMEP) and the Mackenzie College became a Higher Education School.

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Americans preferred these schools founded by Protestants to enroll their children, as they followed their customs and faith. Rural schools had not yet been created and, studying in these colleges, they could continue to follow Protestant and American customs. In addition, this was a way of differentiating the teaching of Americans from barbarians. But, over time, the integration with Brazilian culture, and the institution by the government, of rules for foreign schools, Colégio Piracicabano started to be directed by Brazilians and the teaching became similar to the Brazilian one. The Americans lost their differentiation and started to receive an education like that of the population of the region.

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Around 1900, Colégio Piracicabano continued to be the preferred school for North Americans. According to Jones:

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“Colégio Piracicabano was still the place where the youth was most found. All the families that could, sent their children there. Those who could, paid the full price, those who could not, worked at the school to pay for their studies ”

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One of the striking problems since his arrival in Santa Bárbara was the fact that the majority of North American immigrants professed, as has already been seen, the Protestant faith, which imposed some uncomfortable limits on marriages and burials within the community. Thus, on the death of the first American in Santa Barbara, the wife of Colonel Asa Thompson Oliver, Dª. Beatrice, the Catholic Church, which took care of the Municipal Cemetery, did not allow her to be buried there, because, at that time, burials of Protestants were not allowed. The solution found by the family was to bury her in a field, on the farm's own land. There they made a fence, so that the animals would not go there to graze. Thus the Campo Cemetery originated. It was July 13, 1869. From then on, many burials were carried out on the site, and that space, in a short time, ended up becoming a social space of the colony. There, a church was erected where services were held on Sundays, followed by picnics. It was the meeting place, recreation and prayer for Protestant Americans.

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Currently, a traditional party is held annually at the cemetery. It is called the Confederate Party, which brings together descendants of the first immigrants, as well as the local population, in a celebration of the coming of the Americans to Santa Barbara. The party seeks to remember the past, with presentations of typical southern dances, in which men and women dress in the costumes of models used at the time, and typical foods from the southern United States are served.

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Modernization: the plow                                                                                              Page 109

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North American immigrants brought to the Santa Bárbara region an agricultural implement that was very different from the one used until then: the American type plow. This plow was more modern and easier to handle than the Brazilian. This was a breakthrough for agricultural planting techniques at the time. Colonel Norris, for example, brought some agricultural implements with him and even taught classes to those interested in the region, having made a lot of money from it. According to Jones:

“The plow was the big news in the region and the news spread quickly that some Americans had an instrument to prepare the land for planting with much more advantage than the hoe. Many came to see how the Americans planted their land, others wanted to learn. Without realizing it, the colonel soon had a good practical agricultural school. The students worked on the teacher's farm while the teacher taught them how to handle donkeys and hold the plow firmly on the ground; and still paid for the privilege. The old letters say that he ran three or four farms and taught many men to work with the new tools he had brought. In a letter to his son Frank, the colonel said he had earned $ 5,000 that year, just for teaching others how to farm their land. ”

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The plow itself was not new to the Brazilian population, but this type of plow brought by the Americans was different from what was used in the country. Farmers in the region were curious to see how the new plow worked. “The interest was so great that they were invited to make a public demonstration in São Paulo, at Parque D. Pedro II and summoned farmers from all corners to that very important demonstration”.

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However, this agricultural modernization is contested by Silva (2007), who states that, in fact, these techniques end up impoverishing the soil with its use over the years. That is why the author opposes the fact that the plow can be considered an innovation, or a symbol of modernity.

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“Such techniques involved the use of the plow, whose relationship with the„ superior ‟nickname we object to, as it is now widespread among Brazilian agronomists the idea that direct planting, compared to plowing, allows for greater layer retention organic soil".

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In fact, it seems to us that this argument used by the author is more recent, being a later discovery by agronomists. At the time of the introduction of the plow in North American farms at the end of the 19th century, it seems to us that it was really an innovation, something superior. Finding out later that this type of planting technique impoverishes the soil or is less effective than other techniques, does not invalidate its innovative character at the time of its introduction into the crops here. For this reason, the author's argument, in opposition to the modernity of agricultural techniques and implements brought by the Americans, as it is placed, is not convincing. What is true is the fact that the plow used until then was an instrument of colonial times, very heavy, and that in its movement it removed the humus from the earth, in addition to needing the help of a good team of oxen, or at least less than one. The plow introduced by the Americans was more modern, lighter and its operation required only the driving force of a mule or donkey.

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Jones also points out that the manufacture of plows in Santa Barbara started with two Americans: Henry Farrar Steagall (Pattie Norris's father) and João Domm. Steagall owned a sawmill out of wood and made the wood parts, while Domm was a blacksmith and made the metal parts. According to the data found, they probably disbanded the society in the 1890s. João Domm went to work with Niels Nielsen, a Dane who had come to Santa Barbara in 1890. Nielsen first worked with the Pyles at the cane mill, and then he went to work with João Domm in the manufacture of plows. According to the handwritten documents of the municipality of Santa Bárbara, in 1897, João Domm appears as the owner of a blacksmith's tent, in association with Niels Nielsen. Of this association, there are records up to 1900. In 1898 there is a record of a wood sawmill for Steagall & Irmão, however we do not know if this Steagall is Henry Farrar, since there was only discrimination of the corporate name, and not the names of the owners.

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In 1900 João Domm passed away and Niels Nielsen moved to Vila Americana. There he set up his own factory and continued to produce plows. In Jones' words: “The Niels factory was large for the times, with several employees. It made the kind of plows that the Americans had brought years ago. ” He probably used the techniques learned from João Domm.

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However, Silva (2007), points out that the production of plows would not have been carried out by North Americans in Santa Bárbara; in fact, the Americans were importers and not manufacturers of plows in the region.

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“American plows and mourners Imported by Currie, Domm and Steagall Villa de Santa Bárbara Eugenio Rozo, agent in this city Rua do Comércio, right corner, Piracicaba” (BPMP, Gazeta de Piracicaba, microfilm 31, 10/24/1883).

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Thus, Domm and Steagall would be importers, not producers of the plows. Regardless of whether they were the first manufacturers or not, we know from the bibliography that it was not the Americans who made the plowing business, but the Italians. According to Goldman (1972), the main producer of plows in Santa Bárbara d ' West was the Italian Francisco Matedi, and this put Santa Bárbara as a great producer of plows of the time: “For many years Santa Bárbara and Americana served as an industrial and commercial center for plows and equipment for farming”.

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Conflicts with Brazilians                                                                                              Page 112

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Silva (2007), made in his work a very interesting analysis of the criminal processes involving the Americans established in Santa Bárbara. The author presented several conflicts involving North Americans and the local population, as well as internal conflicts, involving people within the group of Americans. However, we could see that they were almost always members of the same family that caused the disagreements. The Tanner family managed to make several enemies in the region, because their spirits were very high. In addition to their explosive temper, the members of this family were also given to drinking, which worsened their disorderly spirit. Among the incidents that occurred with members of this family, the worst of them, in our view, was Eduardo Tanner's attempt to kill his own father, Mathew Luis Tanner.

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In addition to the Tanners, Jesse Ross Wright also appeared to be a disturbing type of order. During his trip to Brazil, being part of the settlers who came with Frank McMullan, in the sinking off the Cuban coast, he shot and killed a boy who was trying to steal part of the emigrants' luggage. When they had to return to the United States and wait for new steam for Brazil, Jesse was in a new mess. Having a crate with hunting dogs, this crate was stolen from the warehouse where they were waiting for their trip. Jesse managed to find his dogs in a bar nearby and, with his revolvers in hand, managed to bring them back. In Santa Bárbara, after a quarrel with Harvey Hall, because of a donkey that he believed Harvey had killed, he went to his farm and murdered him.

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After that, Jesse returned to the United States and asked his friend Wilber McKnight to sell his farm and ship his family back to the United States. Wilber did his friend's will, so he had to put up with the resentment of Charles Hall, son of Harvey. Years after the incident, Wilber received news that Jesse and his children were living in Texas, where Jesse became a sheriff.

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The relative success of Santa Bárbara                                                                    Page 113

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The entire bibliography on the subject agrees that the group of North American immigrants who settled in Santa Bárbara was the most successful. According to Weaver (1961), what differentiated this group from the others and allowed him to be more successful was the fact that its leader, Colonel Norris, was a man of means, which allowed him to help the first immigrants who were in front of financial difficulties.

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“In many ways the emigrants comprising the group in and near Villa Americana, as the settlement came to be called, were the happiest and most successful group in Brazil. This was perhaps due to the homogeneity of the group and to the fine and unselfish leadership of the Norrises, father and son, who were men of sufficient means to help the settlers overcome the first financial difficulties”.

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According to Jones, the colonel would have brought gold with him. It is unclear what the amount would be, as there are many exaggerations in the stories she heard.

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Silva (2007), argues that the success of North American immigrants in Santa Bárbara is associated with their insertion in the slave trade market. However, when, at a certain moment (at the turn of the century), immigrants started to be left out of this circuit, dispersion occurred.

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“The failures and misfortunes in the different confederate colonies were associated with the difficulties in reestablishing the connection they had with the mercantile-slavery circuit. The only colony that prospered was one located in a region with one of the main captive markets in imperial Brazil: the colony of Santa Bárbara, in the region of Campinas ”.

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The proximity to other compatriots, certainly, must have made adapting to Santa Barbara easier. Immigrants lived close to each other, and even when this distance was greater, it still allowed more or less frequent visits. That way, they were sure of helping each other if necessary. Furthermore, as they were all experiencing similar adaptation difficulties, they knew the needs and the type of comfort they needed. According to Jones, for immigrants who settled in Santa Bárbara, “life went on without the need to seek outside the patricians for the comfort and warmth of friendship. For years and years they preserved the mother tongue and customs of their ancestors”.

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And from the point of view of integration with the local population, can we say that American immigrants were successful? In the first years after their establishment in Santa Bárbara, they made an attempt at isolation, in order to preserve their manners and customs and not be influenced by Brazilian culture, including avoiding marriages with Brazilians and miscegenation. However, little by little they were being influenced by the local population and from then on the integration with São Paulo society was great, being influenced by Brazilian culture.

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Although long, Jones' quote is interesting to analyze how, gradually, North American immigrants of the second and third generations were adapting to Brazilian culture:

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“The first generation of Americans, that is, those born in the United States, had conformed to life in Brazil, although it was very different from what they had imagined. Gradually they started to make their social life more or less similar to the one they had led in their homeland, and with the passing of days and the succession of years, they limited themselves to trim the edges (...) The second generation, those born in the Brazil, of American parents, until the time to leave home and study further, when they were young, did not know any culture other than the American one. The Brazilian world in which he lived outside the home was different, but it had so many attractions, that he soon got used to it. He came to live in two worlds at the same time, serving as a link between them. He brought the American influence to his school and his work, at the same time that he brought the Brazilian influence to his homes (...) The third generation found the way open and accepted Brazilian life much more naturally. Many, due to different circumstances, moved away from American culture to adapt comfortably to Brazilian. It was not without much struggle that the second generation kept the third linked to their customs. Those who saw the importance of conserving the maternal culture, fought for it tooth and nail, in a daily battle that lasted a lifetime. Those who were fortunate enough to grow up in homes like these had the advantage of speaking both languages ​​just as easily. This opened up many more opportunities for them at work (...) These opportunities were not in the fields, nor in the neighborhoods of Santa Bárbara and Vila Americana, they were in the big cities where commerce and industry were developing. The descendants of the Americans went there, both for these branches, as well as for the liberal professions and the teaching profession.”

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This problem of not conserving the parents' language, English, and also the culture, is mentioned by Gussi, who emphasizes that this occurred even more frequently when one of the parents was not a descendant. There was no determination to maintain American culture in these cases.

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In Santa Barbara, the Americans also took part in politics. In the 1890s John Steagall and Wilber McKnight were councilors. Later Roberto Pyles and Oliver Ferguson were also elected to that position, while John E. McKnight was temporary mayor.

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In the 1880s and 1890s, other waves of immigrants arrived in Santa Bárbara. In 1880, Italian immigrants arrived, who came to Brazil, to serve as labor in the coffee plantation. Santa Bárbara, despite not dedicating himself to coffee growing, received a large influx of these immigrants. We are not sure how many Italian immigrants came to Santa Bárbara, but in the census data for foreigners from the province of São Paulo, in the municipality of Santa Bárbara, in 1886 there is a foreign population of 213 people, among whom there were 20 Italians. According to a municipal document, the questionnaire answered by A. Orlando & Comp, from Villa Americana, on February 7, 1915, had approximately 600 settlers in Santa Barbara and, of these, 200 were Italian and 400 were of other nationalities. According to the same questionnaire, the predominant nationality was Italian. Therefore, we can see that one third of the total number of settlers was Italian, which shows us that there was a significant entry of these immigrants into the municipality, although in the first years of 1880s, these were few. In other words, we want to say that, with the passing of the years, new waves of immigrants arrived in Santa Barbara and the American influence became secondary in face of that.

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“If the number of people involved is the only point of consideration, the settlement of the ex-Confederates in Brazil was of no real importance. In contrast to the many thousands of Europeans who have come to Brazil to establish colonies, the approximately four thousand Southerners appear insignificant – too small a number to have influenced the racial strain of the country. Moreover, the major portion of these people stayed in Brazil less than five years. The contributions which the small remnant of colonists made to their adopted country were generally restricted to the immediate area in which they lived”.

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From the 1910s onwards, there was a marked dispersion of the North Americans of Santa Bárbara. According to Jones, “Americans changed a lot. Only older couples stayed on their properties.”

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Jones mentions that this dispersion was caused by several reasons, such as employment, marriage, moving to a place close to other relatives, new opportunities, etc.384 According to the author:

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“The descendants of the Americans were not limited to staying in the Santa Bárbara region. The movement was dispersed. There were so many opportunities elsewhere and the more distant, the more promising they became. Several went to the distant northeast and the things that counted from there were to excite the adventurous spirit of any young person.”

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With regard to the professions in Santa Bárbara, at the beginning of the 20th century, large producers began to dominate the production of cane and agricultural instruments, which were previously also occupations of the Americans. The Santa Bárbara, Furlan and Cillos plants monopolized the production of sugarcane, absorbing small and medium-sized properties in the vicinity, among them, there were North American properties. And the agricultural instrument industry started to be concentrated in the workshops of Américo Emílio Romi (which would later become the Romi Industry, very important in the city) and João J. Sans. Faced with this situation, according to Gussi, the way out for American immigrants from Santa Bárbara was:

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To dedicate themselves to other professions, but for that it was necessary to study (...) The sons and daughters of American farmers, highlighted the social chronicles of the barbarian newspapers, trained agronomists, engineers and teachers in renowned schools, such as Mackenzie College, the Piracicaba Agricultural School and the Piracicabano College ”.

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For Gussi, along with the dispersion there would also have been a change in the composition of the heritage, which went from being rural to being urban, a trend that we verified in the last years of our research. With the death of the parents, the rural properties were divided, and the children inherited the lands divided into small bushels, which made agricultural production uneconomical. And, “as a consequence of this, the families' patrimony was shifting from rural properties to the real estate heritage of cities”.

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In 1954, in order to keep the memory of this immigration adventure alive, the American Descendency Fraternity - the FDA - was founded in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste. This institution is a civil association that seeks to preserve the heritage of Cemitério do Campo, as well as to promote friendship, philanthropy and mutual cooperation between descendants.

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According to Jones, the descendants of the families Norris, Steagall, McFadden, Demaret, Jones, McKnight, Cullen, Vaughan, Mathews, Smith, Hawthorne, Carlton, Fenley and Minchin are still in Americana and, in Santa Barbara, descendants of the McKnight, Carr, Pyles, Vaughan, Bookwalter, Cullen, Miller, Weissinger, Steagall, Keese, Tarver families.

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Many of these families have their names remembered in the street names in the municipality of Santa Bárbara, in a clear reference to the lives of these Americans in Brazil and in the municipality. The city's museum also tells a lot of its history. Called "Museum of Immigration" it contemplates the history of several immigrants who went to Santa Bárbara in the 19th and 20th centuries. However, a large part of its collection consists of photos, objects and letters that refer to the trajectory of the Americans. Although it was not the nationality that immigrated to the locality in greater numbers, the American nationality marks the history of the municipality. It is its distinctive feature. Immigrants of Italian origin were much more numerous in the municipality and we find many references in the handwritten documents that we researched, but Italians came to the entire state of São Paulo, located in almost all cities in the Santa Bárbara region. American immigrants were much rarer in the region, but no less important than Italians, especially for the history of Santa Barbara.

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This work was dedicated to recounting the trajectory of these North American immigrants in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, seeking to appreciate the network of relationships built by these immigrants.

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Final Considerations                                                                                                      Page 121

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In our dissertation we seek to rescue a little bit of the history of an immigrant community that, in a way, differs from the standards of other immigrant contingents that came to Brazil at the same time, that is, from the second half of the 19th century. Rebuilding the displacement of thousands of Americans to the Brazilian Empire, where they came from, their motivations and how they were organized here, can lead to mistakes and mistakes that, as far as possible, we try not to commit. After all, we were fully aware that our object of study has been out of place for over a century nowadays, which would require the reconstruction of a reality lost in time, without making it - the reconstruction - fanciful. If so, we would simply be building, or rather, fueling a myth that would have nothing to do with the very history of these immigrants.

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For this reason, based on the existing bibliography and data collected from notary sources, we seek to build a new interpretation, or at least, an attempt to build it. In the specific case of the group of North Americans from Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, whether homogeneous or heterogeneous, confederate and enslaved or not, the exhaustively researched primary documentation allowed us to show how individuals, family groups and longest-reaching group - the American “colony” - and its relations with the barbarian community itself.

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The emigration of Americans to Brazil after the end of the American Civil War was a remarkable event, especially for its exceptionality, since the United States of America was constituted at the time, due to its economic opportunities, in the most important center of attraction immigrants and not to expel their citizens. The thousands of individuals who decided to emigrate did so, much more for political and moral reasons than for economic reasons, although they may have benefited from some advantages granted by the Brazilian Government when they came. However, his motivation to leave his country of origin was fundamentally the wounded pride at the end of a bloody war and the loss of influence over the decisions of the political power.

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The immigrants who came to Brazil, and mainly to Santa Bárbara, did not constitute a homogeneous group, formed by people from all walks of life and from various professions. Although the group is quite heterogeneous, the evidence points to the majority as being composed of southerners, with some relationship with the Confederation (if they did not fight directly for the cause, they were at least sympa-thizers with it).