America at Last!

The Arnusch family was finally on their way after paperwork and tearful good-byes.  First there was the train ride then photos before boarding the ship.

  Before leaving Bremerhaven at least two photos were taken. The first shows the Arnusch and Steffans families. Back row, left to right: Nikolas Arnusch, Andreas Arnusch, Katharina Arnusch, Mrs. Steffens, a Steffans daughter, Mr. Steffans and the only Steffans son. Front row, left to right: Hans Arnusch, Franz Arnusch and another Steffans daughter.

The second photo was of the three Arnusch boys.  Left to right are:  Nicholas, Franz and Hans.
  

They traveled aboard the General C C Ballou arriving in New York on 12 April 1952.  Leaving from the port of Bremerhaven, Germany the Arnusch family traveled with some friends, the Steffans family. Although the families were not able to stay in touch it is believed that the Steffans' settled in the east, possibly New York.

From New York the Arnusch family was scheduled to travel by train to Nebraska then on to Colorado by bus.  They had a job working on the farm of the Adolf Lebsack family. 

Our family tells the story that their tickets were to travel by train to McCook, Nebraska then get off the train there to go by bus.  Since they did not speak English it took a few minutes to recognize the name at the stop and the train began to move.  Before they could jump from the train a conductor stopped them, looked at their tickets and told them to stay aboard.  The train would be traveling through Keenesburg although it was not a scheduled stop.  The only day in many years that the train had stopped at Keenesburg was to let the Arnusch family off.