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Note: th German Lloyd line and of other shipping companies. This firm had been founded in 1842 as Edward Kauffman and Co., by Edward and Julius Kaufman, who had begun to conduct business in the city two years earlier. In subsequent years the name of the firm was changed to Julius Kauffman and Co., Kauffman and Klainer, Kauffman and Wagner, and finally Kauffman and Runge in 1873.
Julius Kauffman was the driving force in the company until his death in January, 1880. He had considerable skills as a merchant, importer, and shipping agent. A native of Bremen (Erfurt - ECD) , he used his contacts there to develop and strengthen the Bremen-Galveston connection over the years. Through arrangements made by the Kauffman house, Germans or Czechs already living in Texas could prepay the transatlantic passage for relatives and friends, either by paying in full or by taking a note on tickets at 1 percent per month on the unpaid balance. Also funds for the purchase of necessary items could be made available to the immigrants at their port of embarkation or at their arrival point of Galveston before their inland journey. When the Verein Zum Schutze deutscher Einwanderer (German Immigration Society) was organized in the 1840’s by German capitalists to promote German immigration to Texas, Edward Kauffman was appointed it fiscal agent, and it was in this capacity that he and Julius Kauffman arranged consignment of space aboard sailing vessels to immigrants. In these early years these German emigrants were shipped from Bremen first to Galveston and then by smaller vessels to the nearby port of Indianola, Texas. It should also be pointed out that the Kauffmans and the Verein itself were taking advantage of laws passed by the Republic of Texas in 1841 and 1842 that sanctioned and encouraged the colonization of French, English, and German groups in Texas in order to discourage military intervention by Mexico over disputed borders.
In the meantime another native of Bremen was beginning to take on a prominent role in the German immigration scheme. Henry Runge came to the United States through Baltimore in 1836, moved to New Orleans in 1841, and in 1845 pooled his resources with the Verein to support its Texas colony. In 1848 he established a shipping business and bank in Indianola - some claim it was the first bank in Texas. Runge moved his base of operations to Galveston in 1868, and he formed a partnership with Kauffman in 1873, shortly before Runge’s death. By the time the two Bremenites, both who had maintained political ties to Europe , held a near monopoly on the immigration business in Texas. As early as 1858, if not much earlier, Kauffman held the title of the foreign cosul at Galveston for Austria, Saxony, Bremen, and the Netherlands. Similarly Henry Runge had been appointed consul at Indianola, Texas, for the city of Hamburg in 1851. Runge died in 1873, but his nephew and son-in-law Julius Runge was appointed consul for the German Empire at Galveston in 1875. Julius Runge’s unsuccessful attempt to corner the U.S.- European cotton market in 1884 was rumored to be backed by Kaiser Wilhelm II and the “Iron Chancellor,” Bismark, himself. When Julius Kauffman dies in 1880, his Austrian consular title was transferred to his son Julius Kauffman, Jr.
Perilous voyages: Czech and English immigrants to Texas in the 1870s
edited by Lawrence H. Konecny, Clinton Machann, 2004. Pages 107-108
Note: In Galveston the immigration businerss was dominated by the Kauffman house, agents of the Nor
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