Volga Village Life

AHSGR, Work Paper No. 6, May 1971

The Pacific Northwesterner
Volume 8
Fall, 1964
Number 4

Inland Empire Russia Germans
By Harm H. Schlomer

(Excerpts)
(Page 58)
The homes were heated with a combination of two kinds of fuel. The “Lenne” tree was cut into cord wood for heating. The long burning fuel, however, was made from a mixture of horse manure, straw and water, compressed in forms and dried in squares. Sunflower growing was one of the main crops. In one larger village there were twenty-two (Oelmuehle) oil mills producing cooking oil. The sunflower seed was peeled. The kernel was ground to a pulp, heated and compressed. The oil would then run out of a tube at the base of the compressed container. The colonists used sunflower oil exclusively for cooking purposes.

Making pig sausage was a specialty among the colonists. The hogs were cut up, the pieces run through a sasuage grinder, then seasoned expertly with salt and pepper. Success in following the recipe included frequent tasting to get the flavor “just right.”…

On the plains (Wiesenseite) (MY NOTES: Brunnentahl) of the Volga, watermelons and Zuckermelon, like catelopes, were important crops. The summers were warm and the season right to mature large delicious melons. Wheat, rye and barley were the principal crops. The housing conditions were crowded. Up to eighteen people lived in one house. The father, mother, children and the oldest children with their wives or husbands often shared one house. Harmoney was maintained by strict training – that each member of the household must respect the rights of every other member….

Dr. Conrad Weitz, in 1913 (MY NOTES: The year the Ehlenbergers were told to flee while they could), knew that war in Europe was about to break out. Like others before him, he left on a limited pass. The Russian government sent him a telegram upon his arrival in Belmont, New York, to return immediately to report for military duty. Instead, Conrad proceeded to Endicott, Washington. The Russian government located him in Colfax. He received a second telegram to report for duty. Roy LaFollette, Conrad’s attorney in Colfax, helped him take out his first naturalization papers. This stopped the Russians…. (MY NOTES: You can see why the Ehlenbergers still feared what Russia might do, even though they had returned to America. There are several stories in this article about Germans who avoided the Russian military draft in this method—leaving on limited passes and never returning. Many came to America because the land parcels were continually being divided and became too small to be profitable.)

(Page 60)
Among the established families of the Inland Empire from the Volga colonies at Ritzville, Odessa, Endicott and Colfax, one will find the family names Becker… Wagner… Weber… These, and others, are folks who first answered the call of Catherine II, in July 1763, to come to Russia to colonize the Volga regions….