A Mother's Quest For A Better Life

AHSGR, Vol. 9, No. 1, Spring 1986

A Mother’s Quest For A Better Life
By Harold D. Kauffman

(Excerpts)
(Page 34)
Heeding the invitation of a former German princess, Catherine the Great, who had assumed the throne of the Tsar, they fled poverty and the greedy dukes who conscripted their young men and sold them as mercenaries to the highest bidder. Their homes and small fields had been destroyed repeatedly by the ravages of European wars, and the legions who had bled upon them were made up of their sons.

Knowing the desperation of her countrymen, Catherine appealed not only to their land hunger but also promised freedom of religion and language, financial aid and transportation costs, a tax-free existence for years, and above all, freedom from military conscription in perpetuity. Although some came from other parts of Europe, 27,000 had set out from Germany, abandoning whole villages and frightening their dukes into banning further emigration.

Among these Rhenish and Saxon settlers had been the ancestors of Maria Dorothea and Martin Gruenwald who had helped to found the village that lay southwest of Saratov on the Medveditsa River. The Russians called it Medveditskoi-Krestovoi-Buerak, but the German settlers knew it by the name of its first mayor—Frank.


In 1871 their families had taken them at age 13 to new lands on the east side of the Volga River where they joined a new colony—Krijovar, or as it was known to the German residents: Brunnental, Spring Valley.

(Page 35)
…The lives of the young people followed the seasons. A short period of hard work during the brief Russian summers was followed by the severe winters. Situated in an area that was open to both east and west, the colonists found themselves living in a mixed culture. Although Brunnental was staunchly Lutheran, near it were Roman Catholic, Mennonite and Reformed villages. Interspersed were Orthodox villages of Russians.

Each summer Muslim tradesmen and artisans would come form the area around the Caspian Sea, and it was at Martin’s home that they often stayed while in Brunnental. The settlers realized that the camel was probably well suited to their land, and soon the tall dromedary joined the horses and oxen of their tradition. Camels would eat the Russian thistle and thrive, and so these were gathered in the summer while tender and piled on shed roofs where they provided fodder for the camel in winter.

The broad, splayed hooves of the camels made them sure-footed in the snow, and their wool grew thick and luxurious in the winter cold. In the spring this provided the housewife with a rich crop of wool for spinning into soft, warm garments and blankets.

…As early as 1871 (MY NOTES: 5 years before David Ehlenberger’s birth), the privileges granted by Catherine the Great were revoked. A new interpretation of “perpetuity” was accepted and, after one hundred years, the final blow came in 1874 with the conscription of young men from the German villages for a five-year peiord of military duty.

Maria Dorothea’s eldest son was among those called up in 1901, and upon his return in 1905, he told of the disaster of the Japanese war and of the uprising he had witnessed while on duty in Kiev. As the new head of the family, he convinced his mother that the time had come for emigration. Early in 1907 the second son and his bride departed for Kansas and then Nebraska, preparing for the family to follow the next year.

(MY NOTES: Why is this relevant? David Ehlenberger fought in this same war, and also emigrated in 1907. Additionally, I remember my grandmother [David’s daughter] mention that they stopped to visit relatives in Kansas/Nebraska while en route to Oregon from the east coast on their return from Russia in January of 1914.

Also interesting, is that this story refers to a “David” who was Maria Dorothea’s cousin, who helped her across the frozen plains when her husband died. He saved her life. I have come across very few “David”s in my research of Brunnental, other than this story and my great-grandfather.)

(Page 36)
As the hot summer days wore on, another danger reappeared: cholera raged across the Russian countryside. Anna, Maria Dorothea’s daughter-in-law, began to fear for the lives of her three sons, her own life and loved ones. Adamantly she pleaded that they leave immediately, that winter would be too late.

In concert with relatives and friends, including David, the faithful cousin (MY NOTES: this would eliminate him from being David Ehlenberger because David Ehlenberger emigrated in May, 1907 on the Umbria. There could still be a connection, however.), the widow made arrangements, selling unharvested crops and other possessions for a pittance. In late August thirteen people set out by rail on the first leg of their trip to America.

Conditions on the train were crude. Benches ran down each side of the car; above these were shelves for baggage, and in the aisles lay the large bags and bundles of the emigrants upon which many sat and slept. Lice infested everyone. On the third day, Anna, the daughter-in-law, her guard momentarily lowered, purchased some fresh fruit from a peasant along the route. Within three days she was seized by the horrible disease she so feared.

The entire Brunnental party was put off the train at a small Ukrainian town and lodged in the station. Anna was placed in a rail car on the siding, and her husband and another young man cared for her. On the second day the three were taken by freight car to the nearest city. Upon arrival, they were placed in quarantine on a siding, and the young mother died.

…Once reunited, the party continued to Libau, where on Oct. 7, 1907, they were to embark upon the Russian East Asiatic Steamship Co.’s vessel, Estonia. Twenty days later they arrived in New York after a stormy North Atlantic voyage, during which the barrels of salted meat spilled, spoiling most of the dry staples. Upon arrival at Ellis Island, smallpox was discovered on the ship, and all its passengers were quarantined on a neighboring island for several days.

(Page 38)
…Maria Dorothea had grieved for her missing daughter for years. First came the hardships of World War I, followed by communist Revolution which raged back and forth across the German colonies for several years, both sides wreaking retribution upon the detested Germans.

Surviving this era and the starvation years of 1920 and 1921, Anna Margaret’s husband was executed or deported as a kulak, and his considerable property was confiscated. Another period of deprivation followed in 1928 through 1932 during the first five-year plan when Stalin’s forced collectivization of farm land resulted in another severe famine…

Researching Russia-German Names

AHSGR, Clues, 1986 Edition—Part 2

Genealogy – Special Problems For The Advanced Researcher
By Arthur E. Flegel

(Excerpts)
(Page 24)
…Another significant aspect of names is the contraction of given names. This custom that was taken along to Russia was very common to the regions where our ancestors originated in Germany. As a matter of fact, during the ancestral period of history we are researching, it was custom to give children double names, which were later shortened or altered according to the whim of family members.

All male members of a given family might begin with the Christian name, “John” (Johann) followed by the second name which was the primary one, such as: Johann Conrad, Johann Jakob, Johann Georg, etc. However, that person would never be called Johann. Instead, within the family circles, he would be referred to as Conrad or Jakob or Georg, etc., which could be confusing for the novice researcher. The contraction of the name Johann Georg to Hanjerg was another common occurrence. Should a young man be named Johannes, he would normall not have a second name and would be called either Johannes or Johann.

In the case of women, the combination names normally included an Anna or Maria such as Anna Elisabeth, Anna Margaretha, Maria Katherine, Maria Elisabetha, etc. From time to time, I receive ancestral charts indicating someone’s great-grandmother as being named “Alice.” This is definitely an error, for the name “Alice” was unheard of among our ancestors. In fact, the name was Anna Elisabeth, which having been shortened to “Annalies,” eventually became “A’lies” and was then translated “Alice.” Anna Margaretha could become “Anna-grete,” with further corruption to “Amagrete.” Maria Elisabetha commonly became “Marilies” or “Maralies.”

Another curious custom was the practice of identifying the feminine gender by adding an “in” to the woman’s maiden name, thus for Schmidt, “Schmidtin,” or for Gross, “Grossin” or for "Weberin for Weber" etc. This could lead to the entry of an incorrect surname in the researcher’s records. Unelss special attention is given to these peculiarities, frustrating research problems can develop. But, let us always remember that these customs are very definitely a part of our valued heritage. They were not uniquely German from Russia, but instead had originated in the Rhineland, Hesse, and Palatinate regions of Germany from whence they were taken into Russia and eventually brought along to the Western World…

Büdingen, Germany 1766 Document

AHSGR, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 1980

A Document of 1766 Found in Büdingen, Germany
By Emma Schwabenland Haynes

(Excerpts)
(Page 1)
In Work Paper No. 9 for October 1972 on page 50, I described a very interesting document dated October 30, 1766 which is in the library of Büdingen Castle east of Frankfurt, Germany. During the past year several people have written to ask for further details of this historic paper, which lists the names of twenty-five heads of families who left Germany for the Volga.



Since not all members of AHSGR possess early issues of our publications, may I repeat that Büdingen was the most important “Sammelplatz” or gathering place of those Germans who wanted to emigrate to Russia in the late eighteenth century. The town was headquarters for a Russian commissioner named Facius who moved to Büdingen after being expelled from Frankfurt. Numerous edicts had been passed by the rules of south-western Germany prohibiting emigration. But in spite of their efforts, it is presumed that approximately 27,000 people left for the Volga after 1763.

The Russian government preferred that stable citizens settle in their domains, and for that reason 375 marriages took place in the Protestant church of Büdingen between February and July of 1766. In 1971, shortly after our Society was organized, I made a trip to Büdingen to look at these marriage lists…

At the same time, I also went to the castle of Büdingen, which is used as a home by members of the family. They have hired a full time archivist, Frau Dr. Reimers, to take care of the manuscripts and books belonging to the castle. I asked Dr. Reimers for documents and other material going back to the year 1766 when hordes of would-be emigrants converged on the city. To my great disappointment she said that nothing remained except five pages listing the citizens of Düdelsheim and Rohrbach who had left for Russia.(1) At my request she made a copy of the document, three pages of which are reproduced in this issue of the Journal.

At the top of the first page… may be roughly translated as, “A report most respectfully submitted to the highly esteemed government chancery of the Count of Ysenburg- Büdingen.”

The document then goes on to say that all of the subjects who left the country for Russia have sold their goods and peroperty and have paid the necessary taxes, with the exception of:

(MY NOTES: The following is the complete list given.)

1. Johann Stephan Claus, who has given everything to his step-son, Johann Henrich Menges, on condition that if he arrives safely in Russia, his step-son will pay off his debts.

2. Andreas Klink. His parents have recently died and their estate is still not settled…

3. Johann Peter Claus, who went to Russia as an unmarried traveling artisan, has given his share of the family property to his brother Johannes to be used until he returns home again or writes that his part should be sold.

4. Conrad Raab has sold his possessions but this will scarcely pay for all of his debts.

5. Johann Henrich Scheyd with his wife made so many debts through disorderly living that he could hardly repay them. In a few years he would have had to go begging or else become a shepherd’s servant at the home of his father-in-law Hohnstein. He would not have been good either for his master or for the community. At his departure he turned over all his goods to his brother, Johann Adam Scheyd to pay the interest which must be met before other payments are made….

(MY NOTES: The following is NOT a complete list given. I have listed only names that may or may not be directly related.)

From ROHRBACH: All were citizens.

Casper Weber’s widow


(Page 2)
…I was very excited to discover that thirteen of the families from Düdelsheim and three form Rohrbach were listed as settling in Balzer.(5) There names and dates of arrival as given by Merkel follow:

From ROHRBACH:

Anna Margareta Weber [presumably of Casper Weber]
August 8, 1767.


NOTES:
(1) Both Düdelsheim and Rohrbach belonged to the “Grafschaft” or earldom of Isenburg- Budingen.

(4) For a complete list of those people who settled in Balzer see Hattie Plum Williams, The Czar’s Germans, published by AH”SGR in 1975, pages 102-105.

(5) My article in 1972 was based upon Jacob Volz's booklet which is not completely accurate.

Family Names – Clues (1)

AHSGR, Clues, 1979 Edition

Names of Families Residing in the Volga Villages
Submitted by Gerda S. Walker with additions by Arthur E. Flegel

(Excerpts)
(Page 70)
The 1978 issue of Clues listed families and other pertinent information about 27 Volga villages. We were pleased to receive favorable comment and additions from our members who found this material helpful in their research.

Following is a continuation of this project…. We plan to continue with further listings for villages from all areas as they become available.

BALZER (Rssn. names: Pancyr; Balakowo; Golyj Karamysch) Kanton: Balzer
Balzer was a Lutheran village established 1765 with 479 in habitants. Located on the west side of the Volga river (Bergseite) in the C-4 quadrant on the Stumpp map #6.
These family names for Balzer were published in Die Welt Post, 19 Oct. 1939. Jacob Volz collected the history of Balzer when he was a member of the Volga Relief Society dlegation which administered relief work among the Volga colonies in 1922-1923. Lists of the original colonist to Balzer may be found in the Emigration from Germany to Russia in the Years 1763-1862, by Dr. Karl Stumpp and in The Czar’s Germans by Hattie Plum Williams.

(MY NOTES: This is in no way a complete list. The following contains only names which may pertain to known relatives. I will expand this list later on, need be.).

49. Weber


(Page 72)
BRUNNENTAL (Rssn. name: Kriwoijar) Kanton: Seelmann
Burrnental was founded in 1855 by Evangelical colonists who came from overcrowded mother colonies to the new land granted by the Crown to the German colonists. It is located on the east side of the Volga river (Wiesenseite) in the Kanton of Seelmann, Samara district. Located in the D-5 quadrant on the Stumpp map #6.
These surnames are found in a history of Brunnental by the Rev. John Block, Die Welt Post, 22 Rebruary 1940, and in AHSGR records.
Rev. Block wrote that “all settlers to Brunnental came from mother colonies on the Bergseite (west side) of the Volga, Saratov district. The main colonies were Frank, Norka, Kolb and Walter, also Huck. An especially large group came from Frank.

3. Becker (Kolb)

This additional list of names for Brunnental was compiled by the late Rev. Elias Hergert in the 1930’s.
9. Becker

22. Elenberger

35. Hartung

99. Wagner

102. Weber

Population:
1897 – 4520
1912 – 4944
1926 – 2411


(Page 73)
DEHLER (Rssn. name: Beresowka) Kanton: Kukkus.
Dehler (Deller) was founded 1 July 1767 by 55 Roman Catholic families from southwestern German lands. There were 85 males and 86 females under the direction of LeRoy an dPictet. Located near the brook Beresowi on the Wiesenseite of the Volga river, in the C-4 quadarant on the Stumpp map #6/
A history and map of Dehler may be found on page 74 of the 1966 Heimatbuch, Landmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, Stuttgart O, Diemerhaldenstr. 48. The history is written by a former resident of Dehler, Dr. M. Hagin. Dr. Hagin states that the names Chevalier, Martell, Masson and Hagin were of French extraction.

3. Becker


(Page 74)
DIETEL/DITTEL (Russn. Name: Oleschna.) Kanton: Frank.
Founded by the Evangelicals. Located on the Bergseite in the B-5 quadrant on the Stumpp map #6.
These family names were known in the village around 1900 – 1923. The list is a combination of names extracted from letters written by Pastor A. Möllmann, of Dittel, to Mr. Jacob Weber of Lincoln, Nebraska concerning the Volga Relief packages sent to Dittle in 1922-23 and a list of family names by the mother of Mr. Richard K. Lackman of Moorhead, Minnesota. It is interesting to note that Pastor Möllmann and the village clerk always wrote “Dittel” while those in the United States spelled the name “Dietel”. We wish to thank Mrs. Victor Weber of Lincoln, Nebraska for allowing us to use the Möllmann letters sent to her father-in-law.

5. Batt

Population:
1788 – 445
1798 – 502
1816 – 939
1834 – 1739
1850 – 2561
1860 – 3181
1886 – 3510
1904 – 5565
1912 – 6569
1926 – 3016


(Page 77)
ADDITIONS TO SURNAMES ALREADY LISTED

The following additions were submitted by Mr. Harold D. Kauffman, Alexander Weber, and Mike Apker….

FRANK:
1. Batt

GRIMM:
2. Weber

Immigration to the Pacific Northwest (3)

Journal of the AHSGR, Vol. 2, No. 2: Fall 1979

FROM WAGON TRAILS TO IRON RAILS:
RUSSIAN GERMAN IMMIGRATION TO THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
By Richard D. Scheuerman



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? I have also included information on the Albina district in Portland, where my grandmother was raised.

(Excerpts)
(Page 42)
Some Volga Germans of the Nebraska colony had considered moving to Washington Territory as early as 1880. In that year the group at Culbertson had written to J.E. Shepherd, the immigration agent of the Oregon Railway and navigation Company in San Francisco and the letter was forwarded to Villard himself. In it the farmers indicated their discontent with conditions in the Midwest:

I am the Russian interpreter of our colony and am instructed by the Father of the colony to write inquiring about the country of Washington Territory. We are one hundred and sixty families strong, and our reason for leaving here is that the wheat crop has failed here for three years past, and the indications are strong for another drought, as we have had no rain since last September and the cattle here are in bad way for want of grass, which is very scarce; and the people here are all leaving. We live on the open prairies and the heavy winds that prevail here are unendurable. Our houses consist of “Dug Outs” and “Sod houses.” Our people are all discouraged and homesick, but too far to go back to Russia, and we want to see… the Territory we have heard so much of its great yielding wheat fields and wonderful Fruit Country. We understand the Navigation Company has Rail Road land for sale. There are 160 families here, and 70 families in Clay Co. this state, and 100 families coming from Russia this fall. I think we can locate 230 families there this fall and winter. We are desirous of seeing this country first, and our minister Mr. Kansler and myself wish to go out and see the country. And we wish to know whether you can furnish passes for two persons out and one to come back and head the colony. We are a good, honest, straightforward, hard working class of people, and the colony also instructs me to state that the two passes will be paid back to the Company after they are located, so as to be sure of our honesty of intention… (33)

…Without a pair or oxen to pull his wagon, Conrad Wolsborn, a shoemaker in his native Frank, fashioned a special harness uniting both horse and ox. Also in preparation for the trip, the women had sewn garden seeds into clothing to ensure good plantings in their new home.

The caravan encountered the usual hazards associated with pioneer travel, enduring intense heat on dusty trails which often led through areas infested with rattlesnakes. Marie Thiel, wife of John, went into confinement in Baker, giving birth on April 10, 1882, to twins, only one of whom, Jacob, survived. They entrusted their earnings from work on the railroad to a former Nebraska sheriff who accompanied them by near the end of the journey he absconded with the funds.

However, they remained steadfast in their faith, never traveling on Sundays but, rather, gathered their wagons into a large circle and held worship services with an elder reading the lessons in German. (36) Upon arrival in Pendelton some members of the party decided to go on to Portland although most continued north to Walla Walla, the first wagons rolling in late in the summer of 1882. They decided to winter in Walla Walla while investigating the various possibilities of settlement in the region…

(Page 43)
…Only days earlier the newspaper also reported on the progress of the Kansas colony from Portland:

Kansas Colony – Gen. Tannatt is in receipt of a letter today from Phillip Greene, the agent of the Kansas colony, stating that these people would be at Texas Ferry in a day or so, and asking for several four-horse teams to convey them to Plainville [a point between Colfax and Endicott]. Mr. Greene states that he wrote home setting forth the fact that the land, climate and general outlook of this country, was all that could be desired. He writes Gen. Tannatt that three other Kansas colonies have sent inspectors or agents with the present party, who are to locate land for other coming immigrants. There is to be an exodus from Kansas this fall. (39)

(Page 44)
…In 1988 the city (My Notes: Walla Walla) already had a population of 3,588 and a visitor that year reported:

The people were bright, intelligent and pleasant to meet, but not without the ambitious and progressive natures of other places we had visited. The feeling of self-satisfaction, possessing the thought that Walla Walla was the hub of the universe, was like the old feeling of the Bostonian for his beloved Boston. (47)


(Page 45)
…Between 1888 and 1890 Portland witnessed a considerable influx of Volga Germans from Balzer and Frank. This was followed by an even larger movement of those from Norka between 1890 and 1895.(53) Many joined the earlier arrivals living in Albina which was incorporated into Portland in 1891.


(Page 47)
…Meanwhile immigration, which had continued unabated to other points in the greater Northwest until 1914 when war broke out in Europe, decreased to an insignificant rate after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and Civil War in Russia, the victorious Bolsheviks later restricting travel over the borders. By 1920 Russian German immigration had reached throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and southern British Columbia and Alberta. Clearly, the Russian Germans had made a major impact in the region during the dynamic era of pioneer settlement, and continue today to play an integral role in the development of business and agriculture in the Pacific Northwest.


NOTES:
(33) Letter, Carl Brobst, interpreter at Culbertson, Hitchcock County, Nebraska to J.E. Shephered O.R.&N. Co., San Fransciso, California, May 10, 1880; quoted in James Blaine Hedges, Henry Villard and the Railrays of the Northwest (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1930), p. 124.

(36) Ritzville Journal Times, “Adams County Pioneer Edition,” September 15, 1949, pp. 1 – 3.

(47) Carrie Adell Strahor, Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage (New York. 1911), pp. 304-5.

(53) Sallet, pp. 48, 61.

ADDITIONAL FOOTNOTE:
(35) Ritzville Journal-Times, “Adams County Pioneer Edition,” September 15, 1949; Ruth J. Thiel, “Memories of my Father,” unpublished typescript and Roy Oestrich file.
The following listing includes the family heads in the wagon train and their native Volga colonies. Many had married sons who also brought their families. See Oestreich file for family members (MY NOTES: The following represents a complete list from the reading.).

Johann G. Adler, Kolb
Henry Amen, Sr., Frank
Jacob Bastrom, Frank
Mrs. Holfrich Bauer, Sr., Kolb
George Jacob Dewald, Hussenbach
Conrad Heimbigner, Frank
Henry Kanzler, Sr., Kolb
John F. Kembel, Kolb
Conrad Kiehn, Frank
Henry F. Michel, Alt Messer
Henry Miller, Kolb
Johann C. Oestreich, Neu Messer
Frederick Rosenoff, Kolb
Jacob Schaefer, Frank
Jacob Schloessler, Walter
Jacob Thiel, Sr., Kolb
Jacob Wagner, Frank
Conrad Wolsborn, Frank

Additional participants in the journey may have included Schnells (Kolb), Hoffs (Frank), and other Volga Germans.

Immigration to the Pacific Northwest (2)

Journal of the AHSGR, Vol. 2, No. 2: Fall 1979

FROM WAGON TRAILS TO IRON RAILS:
RUSSIAN GERMAN IMMIGRATION TO THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
By Richard D. Scheuerman



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?

I have also included information on the Albina district in Portland, where my grandmother was raised.

(Excerpts)
(Page 40)
…Large gardens provided a variety of vegetables and melons while wild fruits grew abundantly along the river. Unfortunately their contentment was again short-lived as much to their dismay it was soon learned that they had located near the Western Cattle Trail, a major thoroughfare for the Texas longhorn herds which were annually driven up to the northern markets. Their fields and gardens were overrun by the animals and a disastrous drought cycle began on the Great Plains in the early 1880’s. This led many to consider yet another region which would become their ultimate destination, a move being contemplated simultaneously by a group of Russian Germans in Kansas. The place was America’s Pacific Northwest.

The other group of Volga Germas who journeyed to Washington in 1881 were people from the Jeruslan River on the Wiesenseite who had settled in central Kansas in the 1870’s. This “Kansas Conolony” had located on lands along the border of Barton and Rush Counties. The first of this group settled near Great Bend in 1875, having arrived in November on the S.S. Ohio. Thise included the families of Henry Scheuermann, two Conrad Scheuermanns, George Brach, and Peter Ochs. The were soon joined by Henry and Phillip Green and the Henry Rothes, all of whom had arrived on a transport of the S.S. City of Montreal in Janaury, 1876. (23) The Greens were originally from Norka but had relocated to her daughter colony of Rosenfeld; likewise the others were from daughter colonies along the Jeruslan River – Schönfeld, Schöntal, and Neu Jagodnaja. Prior to moving to these villages, the Rothes had lived in Frank, the Scheuermanns in Jagodnaja Poljana and the Ochs and Brachs in Pobotschnaja. (24) In the fall of 1876 the Kansas Colony was joined by others from the Wiesenseite who had arrived in October aboard the S.S. Mosel. These included the families of Johannes, Heinrich, and Phillip Brach; Christian, Johannes, and Phillip Keweno; Henry Litzeberger; Henry Repp; Phillip, Johannes, Johann Phillip, and Peter Ochs and Johannes, Heinrich, Peter, George, and Adam Scheiermann. (25) Intermarriage solidified relationships between the pioneer families who often lived in isolated areas of the Kansas plains to form a close-knit group that would soon migrate to the Pacific Northwest.

The Kansas colony suffered considerably from the effects of the grasshopper plagues in the late 1870’s. Particularly from 1875 to 1877, massive hordes of these insects so infested the fields and air that the Germans were left with little seed to replant. They also noted frightening electrical storms (to which they had not been accustomed in Russia) which were often accompanied by devastating tornadoes. (26) One informant seriously related an Oz-like fantasy in which a cyclone was said to have taken a small lake and team of horses from a Rush County homestead which his father, after he came out of his root cellar, attempted to find. Enroute to town he found the road leading into a new lake an nearby the two horses stood – still harnessed and unharmed. (27)

Interestingly becoming a subject of discussion among disgruntled immigrant groups in the Midwest was the possibility of settlement in the Pacific Northwest. Americans who had worked in the Oregon Country on the Pacific coast railways surveys had returned east and related to some the fertility and beauty of the region. Furthermore, the blossoming transportation companies of that area soon began an intensive advertising campaign to promote the development of what was being termed the “Great Columbia Plain.” As had been the case earlier in American railroad history, a vast source of unskilled labor was needed in construction, and officials again turned to immigrants. Various railroad companies formed associations offering reduced rates to those who would travel westward to settle while guaranteeing employment until such arrangements were possible. The Union Pacific, Northern Pacific, Oregon Steamship Company, and others were particularly interested in encouraging the development of Northwest resources in order to profit not only form passenger service but the anticipated shipment of industrial and agricultural commodities.

The program launched by Henry Villard, President of the NPRR, to induce settlement in the Pacific Northwest east of the Cascades bore fruit among many immigrants in the Midwest, including the Volga Germans. In the case of the Kansas colony in Rush and Barton Counties and the Nebraska colony in Hitchcock County, frustration was particularly evident for reasons enumerated previously. In both places a segment of these groups elected to emigrate, the former in 1881 and the latter in 1882. The Kansas party (28) took advantage of reduced fares over the Union Pacific line and traveled to San Francisco where steamers of Villard’s Oregon Steamship Company transported them to Portland. The group included the families of George and his son Phillip Green, Peter and Henry Ochs and the four Schierman brothers—John, Conrad, Henry, and George. (29) In Portland some labored on the construction of the huge Albina fill while others worked at a local lumber mill…

NOTES:
(22) S.S. Ohio Manifest (to Baltimore, November 23, 1875).
(23) S.S. City of Montreal Manifest (to New York, January 6, 1876).
(24) Leta Ochs, private interview, Endicott Washington, April 23, 1971 and Autobiography of Peter Brach, typescript copy from Laurin Wilhelm, Lawrence, Kansas.
(25) S.S. Mosel Manifest (to New York, October 24, 1786).
(26) Endicott Index, November 29, 1935.
(27) Dave Schierman, private interview, Walla Walla, Washingotn, July 9, 1972.
(28) Grace Lillian Ochs, Up from the Volga: The Story of the Ochs Family (Nashville: Southern Publishing Association, 1969), p. 26; Mrs. Karl L. Scheuerman, private interview, Endicott, Washington, June 8, 1975; and Mrs. Letz Ochs, private interview, Endicott, Washingotn, April 23, 1973.
(29) Ochs, p. 36 – 38.

Immigration to the Pacific Northwest (1)

Journal of the AHSGR, Vol. 2, No. 2: Fall 1979

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?

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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).