Emigration from Luxembourg to the United States peaked between the 1840s and the early 1900s, driven by land scarcity, political instability, and the pull of cheap farmland in the American interior. Minnesota drew a significant share of those settlers, drawn by familiar terrain and climate. They built churches, farms, and businesses from Saint Cloud to Saint Paul to New Trier to Winona to Rollingstone.
Some highlights of the history of Luxembourgers in Minnesota include:
- Rollingstone: A Luxembourg settlement in Winona County, founded in the 1850s, that remains one of the most documented Luxembourg-origin communities in the country.
- The Iron Range connection: Luxembourger workers followed iron ore from the Minett deposits of southwestern Luxembourg to the ranges of northern Minnesota.
- Sister Alfred Moes: A nun from Remich whose response to a tornado in Rochester led directly to the founding of Saint Marys Hospital — and, by extension, the Mayo Clinic.
- Invisible in the census: Luxembourg-born settlers were routinely classified as German or Dutch in U.S. records, making the community statistically difficult to trace and historically easy to overlook.
This page will grow. Longer features on the history of Luxembourgers in the Upper Midwest will be published here.