I've read Texas by James A. Michener (but that was quite some time ago, when it came out as pocket book in German - 1986, 1988? I don't want to look now). So I don't remember much.
I remember a lot of Germans in Pennsylvania, but that's about it. I remember you telling me about your German family though.
Otherwise I've seem a lot of films about the wild wild west; though that isn't the same as history.