Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
ETHNIC SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS
ETHNIC SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS. Early Dubuque settlers developed or brought with them social organizations often linked to their nationality. The Deutscher Kriegerbund von Nord-Amerika (German Warrior Federation of North America) listed as members German-American veterans of the three wars fought for the unification of Germany. German settlers also had the DUBUQUE SOCIALER TURNVEREIN that began as an athletic association and became a social organization. Germans also enjoyed the DUBUQUE SAENGERBUND, a musical and social club that existed until 1945. Dubuque hosted a convention of the group in 1906.
Irish settlers who arrived in the Dubuque area in 1833 developed their Royal Order of Hiberians that reached its peak as a social organization in the 1840s and 1850s.
Both the Irish and German communities in Dubuque had social castes known as "lace-curtain Irish" and "high Germans." Members of these groups were considered socially above "shanty Irish" and "low Germans."
Ethnic identity remains strong in the city with the revival of the Saint Patrick's Day Parade in 1979 and the organization of the German Club, complete with traditional German dances, costumes and bands, in 1977.