FROM WAGON TRAILS TO IRON RAILS:
RUSSIAN GERMAN IMMIGRATION TO THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
By Richard D. Scheuerman
(Excerpts)
(Page 37)
It was in 1881 that eight weary families from the Volga’s Wiesenseite set forth from Kansas to San Francisco by rail, then to Portland by steamship and finally, the following year, by covered wagon to eastern Washington. Simultaneously a group from the Bergseite crossed trails with them in 1882 at Walla Walla after having gone form Nebraska to Utah by rail and then over the Oregon Trail in a wagon train to Oregon and Washington. The epic journeys undertaken by these and subsequent Russian-German groups have all the elements of a frontier western—complete with Indian horse-raiding parties, hazardous trail drives, near fatal mountain crossings and the unsavory business practices by land speculators to which our people sometimes fell victim…
MY NOTES: I have included excerpts that pertain to Kansas because I remember a conversation with my grandmother in which she had mentioned that on their travel west (from the east coast to Oregon), they had stopped to visit relatives in Kansas. Unfortunately, I am the only one who seems to remember this, so it is possible I could be in error. However, my grandmother arrived in the United States in late December, 1913, and her mother had given birth to a baby boy on the ship. His birthplace is given as Portland, Maine, January 1, 1914. He was not christened, however, until October of that year, in Portland, Oregon. Where were they for those ten months in between?
(Page 39)
Russian German immigration to the Pacific Northwest was first undertaken by Volga Germans. It is the exploits of these pioneer families which we will celebrate in 1981 on the centennial of Russian German settlement in the American West. In the often repeated story of the original trek to the broad Volga steppes, thousands of Germans, from Hesse and the Rhineland responded between 1764 and 1767 by establishing 104 villages near Saratov on the middle Volga river. (MY NOTES: Brunnentahl is located just southeast of Saratov.) After a difficult period of adjustment these too generally prospered on both the hilly west bank (Bergseite) and the eastern plains side (Wiesenseite). As their countrymen did so later in the Black Sea region, the Volga Germans maintained their German identity in the sea of Slavs and Mongol tribesmen. Although the colonies generally remained aloof from the political affairs of the Russian state, they too became alarmed at the 1871 repeal of the settlement terms originally granted by Catherine the Great for “eternal time.” Many responded by immigrating to the Americas as early as 1874 when the grace period for universal military conscription was annulled by the Russian government.
Of the fourteen Volga German scouts selected to explore potential areas of settlement in the United States, one was Franz Scheibel, a schoolteacher in Kolb who was originally from Messer. Other Protestant delegates were from Norka, Balzer, and Messer. Prairie grass and a soil sample were retrieved to confirm their optimistic report upon their return to the Volga as was technical information regarding the various modes of transportation and land purchase. Franz Scheibel returned to America in August, 1876 aboard the S.S. Donau along with the families of Heinrich Bauer, Heinrich Kanzler, and Heinrich Rehn.19 This group eventually settled in Franklin county in southeast Nebraska and founded the village of Campbell. The settlement expanded in 1878 when a number of famlies who had crossed the Atlantic on the S.S. Wieland in May arrived from villages on the Bergseite. Passengers on this voyage would form the other major segment granted to the Pacific Northwest. Families aboard the S.S. Wieland transport included, from Kolb, those of Frederick Rosenoff, Jacob Thiel, and his sons George and Johannes, and from Frank, the Conrad Kiehns and Heinrich Amen. Additional families on the same trip include Heimbigners (Norka and Frank), Schösslers (Walter), Hoffs (Frank), Müllers (Kolb), Dewalds (Hussenbach) and others. 20
NOTES:
19 S.S. Donau Manifest (to New York, August 5, 1876).
20 S.S. Wieland Manifest (to New York, May 22, 1878).
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