In reality, to call them "Germans" is incorrect, though most spoke various dialects of German. Throughout the nineteenth century, thousands of immigrants left their homes in Germany, Switzerland, and Alsace (northwestern France) and came to America, bypassing the populated Eastern seaboard, and choosing, instead, to settle in the agrarian heartland.  They established communities like Zoar, Sonnenburg, and Pandora in Ohio, Oldenburg in Indiana, and further west into Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas, and as far north as Wisconsin.

Others came from existing Germanic communities in the Eastern United States, particularly Pennsylvania, and came west where land was cheap and fertile. Many of these folks were Mennonites and left places like Soap Hollow for places like Holmes County, Ohio, Elkhart and LaGrange Counties in Indiana, and Kent County, Michigan.

Along with their language, these immigrants brought with them cultural "baggage"
in the form of a furniture style that was often heavy and architectural, sometimes
simple and elegant, and often vibrantly painted.

Principally because of their language, the communities that these immigrants formed
often remained isolated from mainstream American society. As a result,
they continued to produce furniture in styles that had long fallen out of fashion
elsewhere.