We have just returned from a Christmas visit to my family in Memphis, TN. Attended church services at a beautiful old church on Third St. and Market St., St. Mary's. In a brochure about the church we learned that a large, German-speaking (only) community in Memphis began to build their church in 1864. To quote the brochure, "In 1852, fearing war and to escape military conscription, many Germans fled the homeland; as many as 1,400 had settled in Memphis. Many spoke little English, and they began working to form a German parish ..." There is a list of names - some of the founders: METTE, HANDWERKER, HERBER, HAAGAS, CRONE, GUNTIS, BRENNER, THOMA/WALTERS, ZIMMERMAN, MONTEVERDE, WALSH, ZANONE, O'CALLAGHAN. My grandfather, Otto Frederick RICHTER, emigrated from Germany to Memphis about 1885. He came as a teen-ager and lived with a family from the same village in Germany as he. Gustavus Adolphus PALM was the head of this family. Mr. PALM served in the Civil War in a Mississippi infantry regiment. He was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh. Memphis 1910 directories show Mr. PALM living near Jackson Ave. My grandfather earned his living as an artist, painting murals in the homes of wealthy Memphis families. When health problems developed, probably due to lead in his paints, he opened a saloon, "Otto's Place" in Memphis. He died in 1908. I think perhaps there were other German artists in Memphis during his time. We have a large oil painting of the Rhine River in Germany that was by a "friend." The painting hung on the wall of "Otto's Place." I would very much like to contact anyone researching the German community in Memphis. Best wishes, Cora McDonnell jdm9717@tlh.fdt.net