HANDING DOWN THE FARM - VALUES, STRATEGIES, AND OUTCOMES IN INHERITANCE PRACTICES AMONG RURAL GERMAN AMERICANS

This article examines inheritance practices among German Catholic immi grants and their children in Stearns County, Minnesota It argues that fairness, embedded within an ''ethic of equity'' and rooted in Catholi c sacramentalism, provided the guiding principle in distributing prope rty. Farmers modified strategies to meet the demands of rural capitali sm but still managed to preserve key family values. However inheritanc e strategies varied according to the wealth of individual farmers and their German home districts. Wealthier farmers and settlers from areas where partible inheritance was the norm seemed to have been more aggr essive in pursuing land for their sons and more often opted to hand do wn the home place to a younger child. Middling farmers and those from impartible regions were more conservative and generally selected the e ldest son as the primary heir These strategies also informed mobility patterns, and these in combination with differences in inheritance reg imes effected a stubborn egalitarianism, one that persisted throughout the frontier phase well into this century.