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
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
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?
(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).
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).
Friday, February 13, 2009
Village Names – Clues (3)
AHSGR, Clues, 1978 Edition
Names of Families Residing in the Volga Villages
Submitted by Gerda S. Walker
(MY NOTES: This is in no way a complete list. The following contains only family names which may or may not lead to blood relatives. I will expand this list later on, need be.)
(Excerpts)
(Page 70)
KUKKUS (Rssn. name: Wolskoje, also Neu-Brabant) Kanton: Kukkus, Wolost: Stepnaja.
Est. in 1767 by 181 settlers, Ev. Lutheran colony. Located on the Wiesenseite in the E-4 quadrant on Stumpp map #6.
Sent in by Mrs. Marie Margarete Kukkus of Laurel, Montana, Route 1, Box 3 and published in Die Welt Post on 28 Sept. 1939, p. 8. (Jacob Volz did not know if all spellings were correct and all names listed.)
A second colony Kukkus, Kanton: Lyserderhöh, later Kanton: Pallasowka. Located on the Wiesenseite in the F-7 quadrant on Stumpp map #6. Population in 1926 was 84.
2. Bekker
36. Otto
Population:
1897 – 3618
1912 – 3796
1926 – 2459
(Page 71)
KUTTER (Rssn. name: Popowka) Kanton: Balzer, Wolost: Sosnowka. Other German names were: Brehning, Pfaffenkutter and Neumann.
Founded in 1767 by 353 Lutheran settlers. Located in C-4 quadrant of Stumpp map #6.
Published in 14 Sept. 1939 Die Welt Post, p. 8. Pastor Hagelganz of Portland, Oregon wrote to Jacob Volz; “Upon receipt of your postcard I went to see my countryman, Ludwig Boekel, who also knew them well and the two of us made a pilgrimage in spirit to the colony of Kutter, our old home.
We went from house to house and visited all, but naturally we could only tarry long enough to get their names. We would have liked some information as to how those dear ones over there are, but we could learn nothing further. Here is the list of family names:”
53. Wagner
Population:
1788 – 482
1798 – 574
1816 – 850
1834 – 1398
1850 – 2042
1857 – 2191
1860 – 2412
1886 – 2357
1891 – 3279
1894 – 3191
1897 – 4031
1905 – 4108
1910 – 4178
1912 – 4260
1926 – 2065
LAUWE (Rssn. Name: Jablonowka) Kanton: Kukkus, Wolost: Stepnaja Lauwe, also was sometimes called Laube.
Est. in 1767, 179 settlers, Lutheran colony. Located on the Wiesenseite in the D-4 quadrant on Stumpp map #6.
Names sent in by Mr. Gottlieb Schleicher of Lincoln, Nebr. to Jacob Volz and printed in 12 Oct. 1939, p. 8 of Die Welt Post.
Old Family Names:…
These families also lived in Lauwe:
21. Wagner
Population:
1897 – 2551
1912 – 2680
1926 – 1954
(Page 73)
MESSER (Rssn. name: Ust Solicha), Kanton: Balzer, later Kanton: Kamenka, Wolost: Sosnowka.
Founded 1766 by 397 Ev. Lutherans. Located on the Bergseite in the C-5 quadrant on Stumpp map #6.
These family names sent in to Jacob Volz by Mr. Friedrich Meisinger of Flint, Michigan…
Names from other sources:
1. Weber
2. Goegel/Göbel
3. Springer
Population:
1788 – 581
1798 – 619
1816 – 960
1834 – 1828
1850 – 2704
1857 – 3327
1860 – 3403
1886 – 3102 (?) [sic]
1891 – 4260
1894 – 4627
1897 – 5204
1905 – 5057
1910 – 5196
1912 – 5295
1926 – 3575
(Page 74)
NORKA Kanton: Balzer, Wolost: Norka.
Est. 15 Aug. 1767 by 215 families; 501 male and 456 female, total 957 settlers, Lutheran-Reformed colony. Located on the Bergseite in the B-4 quadrant on the Stumpp map #6.
Sent to Jacob Volz by Henry Hölzer, Georg Koch, Lorenz Pfenning and Wilhelm Glanz. Pub. on 31 Aug. 1939 in Die Welt Post, p. 7. Additional 15 names sent in by Mr. Georg Yost, Billings, Montana who was also working on a village plat. Pub. 21 Sept. 1939, p. 5 in Die Welt Post.
6. Baecker
12. Bott
110. Weber
Population:
1788 – 1358
1798 – 1660
1816 – 2509
1834 – 4113
1850 – 5951
1857 – 6300
1860 – 6894
1886 – 7641
1891 – 10,200
1894 – 10,518
1897 – 13, 416
1906 – 13,500
1910 – 13,623
1912 – 14,236
1926 – 7210
(Page 75)
ROSENBERG (Rssn. name: Umet-Ilowlinskijumet), Kanton: Kamenka, later Kanton: Erlenbach, Wolost: Slowlin.
Founded 1850 on the Bergseite, Luth. Located in B-7 quadrant of Stumpp map #6.
Names as sent in by Mr. Georg Heimbuch to Jacob Volz, who corrected spellings. Pub. in Die Welt Post, 21 Mar. 1940, p. 8.
59. Weber
Population:
1857 – 796
1860 – 808
1886 – 1173
1890 – 1714
1894 – 1833
1897 – 2685
1910 – 2910
1912 – 3000
1926 – 1913
(Page 76)
WALTER includes Walter Chutor (Rssn. name: Gretschinnaja Luka) Kanton: Frank, Wolost: Frank.
Est. 25 August 1767 (Julian) by 99 families, 431 settlers, Lutheran colony. Located on the Bergseite in the A-4 quadrant on the Stumpp map #6.
As given by Mr. Jacob Alles of Flint, Michigan in Die Welt Post, Thursday, 14 Dec. 1939, p. 5.
56. Weber
57. Walter
58. Weber
Note: This list was sent to Mr. Jacob Volz of York, Nebraska who had asked his countrymen to list the family names of their home villages in Russia. No date is given for the time period in which these families lived in Walter and it must be assumed that Mr. Jacob Alles was listing those names with which he was familiar when he emigrated.
Population:
1897 – 5900
1912 – 6660
1926 – 2739
Names of Families Residing in the Volga Villages
Submitted by Gerda S. Walker
(MY NOTES: This is in no way a complete list. The following contains only family names which may or may not lead to blood relatives. I will expand this list later on, need be.)
(Excerpts)
(Page 70)
KUKKUS (Rssn. name: Wolskoje, also Neu-Brabant) Kanton: Kukkus, Wolost: Stepnaja.
Est. in 1767 by 181 settlers, Ev. Lutheran colony. Located on the Wiesenseite in the E-4 quadrant on Stumpp map #6.
Sent in by Mrs. Marie Margarete Kukkus of Laurel, Montana, Route 1, Box 3 and published in Die Welt Post on 28 Sept. 1939, p. 8. (Jacob Volz did not know if all spellings were correct and all names listed.)
A second colony Kukkus, Kanton: Lyserderhöh, later Kanton: Pallasowka. Located on the Wiesenseite in the F-7 quadrant on Stumpp map #6. Population in 1926 was 84.
2. Bekker
36. Otto
Population:
1897 – 3618
1912 – 3796
1926 – 2459
(Page 71)
KUTTER (Rssn. name: Popowka) Kanton: Balzer, Wolost: Sosnowka. Other German names were: Brehning, Pfaffenkutter and Neumann.
Founded in 1767 by 353 Lutheran settlers. Located in C-4 quadrant of Stumpp map #6.
Published in 14 Sept. 1939 Die Welt Post, p. 8. Pastor Hagelganz of Portland, Oregon wrote to Jacob Volz; “Upon receipt of your postcard I went to see my countryman, Ludwig Boekel, who also knew them well and the two of us made a pilgrimage in spirit to the colony of Kutter, our old home.
We went from house to house and visited all, but naturally we could only tarry long enough to get their names. We would have liked some information as to how those dear ones over there are, but we could learn nothing further. Here is the list of family names:”
53. Wagner
Population:
1788 – 482
1798 – 574
1816 – 850
1834 – 1398
1850 – 2042
1857 – 2191
1860 – 2412
1886 – 2357
1891 – 3279
1894 – 3191
1897 – 4031
1905 – 4108
1910 – 4178
1912 – 4260
1926 – 2065
LAUWE (Rssn. Name: Jablonowka) Kanton: Kukkus, Wolost: Stepnaja Lauwe, also was sometimes called Laube.
Est. in 1767, 179 settlers, Lutheran colony. Located on the Wiesenseite in the D-4 quadrant on Stumpp map #6.
Names sent in by Mr. Gottlieb Schleicher of Lincoln, Nebr. to Jacob Volz and printed in 12 Oct. 1939, p. 8 of Die Welt Post.
Old Family Names:…
These families also lived in Lauwe:
21. Wagner
Population:
1897 – 2551
1912 – 2680
1926 – 1954
(Page 73)
MESSER (Rssn. name: Ust Solicha), Kanton: Balzer, later Kanton: Kamenka, Wolost: Sosnowka.
Founded 1766 by 397 Ev. Lutherans. Located on the Bergseite in the C-5 quadrant on Stumpp map #6.
These family names sent in to Jacob Volz by Mr. Friedrich Meisinger of Flint, Michigan…
Names from other sources:
1. Weber
2. Goegel/Göbel
3. Springer
Population:
1788 – 581
1798 – 619
1816 – 960
1834 – 1828
1850 – 2704
1857 – 3327
1860 – 3403
1886 – 3102 (?) [sic]
1891 – 4260
1894 – 4627
1897 – 5204
1905 – 5057
1910 – 5196
1912 – 5295
1926 – 3575
(Page 74)
NORKA Kanton: Balzer, Wolost: Norka.
Est. 15 Aug. 1767 by 215 families; 501 male and 456 female, total 957 settlers, Lutheran-Reformed colony. Located on the Bergseite in the B-4 quadrant on the Stumpp map #6.
Sent to Jacob Volz by Henry Hölzer, Georg Koch, Lorenz Pfenning and Wilhelm Glanz. Pub. on 31 Aug. 1939 in Die Welt Post, p. 7. Additional 15 names sent in by Mr. Georg Yost, Billings, Montana who was also working on a village plat. Pub. 21 Sept. 1939, p. 5 in Die Welt Post.
6. Baecker
12. Bott
110. Weber
Population:
1788 – 1358
1798 – 1660
1816 – 2509
1834 – 4113
1850 – 5951
1857 – 6300
1860 – 6894
1886 – 7641
1891 – 10,200
1894 – 10,518
1897 – 13, 416
1906 – 13,500
1910 – 13,623
1912 – 14,236
1926 – 7210
(Page 75)
ROSENBERG (Rssn. name: Umet-Ilowlinskijumet), Kanton: Kamenka, later Kanton: Erlenbach, Wolost: Slowlin.
Founded 1850 on the Bergseite, Luth. Located in B-7 quadrant of Stumpp map #6.
Names as sent in by Mr. Georg Heimbuch to Jacob Volz, who corrected spellings. Pub. in Die Welt Post, 21 Mar. 1940, p. 8.
59. Weber
Population:
1857 – 796
1860 – 808
1886 – 1173
1890 – 1714
1894 – 1833
1897 – 2685
1910 – 2910
1912 – 3000
1926 – 1913
(Page 76)
WALTER includes Walter Chutor (Rssn. name: Gretschinnaja Luka) Kanton: Frank, Wolost: Frank.
Est. 25 August 1767 (Julian) by 99 families, 431 settlers, Lutheran colony. Located on the Bergseite in the A-4 quadrant on the Stumpp map #6.
As given by Mr. Jacob Alles of Flint, Michigan in Die Welt Post, Thursday, 14 Dec. 1939, p. 5.
56. Weber
57. Walter
58. Weber
Note: This list was sent to Mr. Jacob Volz of York, Nebraska who had asked his countrymen to list the family names of their home villages in Russia. No date is given for the time period in which these families lived in Walter and it must be assumed that Mr. Jacob Alles was listing those names with which he was familiar when he emigrated.
Population:
1897 – 5900
1912 – 6660
1926 – 2739
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Village Names - Clues (2)
AHSGR, Clues, 1978 Edition
Names of Families Residing in the Volga Villages
Submitted by Gerda S. Walker
(Excerpts)
(Page 64)
FRANK (Russn. Name: Medweditskij or Medwedizkoi Krestowoj Bujerak), present name is Medweditza, (see Work Paper #23, p. 3). Kanton: Frank, Wolost: Frank.
Established May 16, 1767, 115 families, 525 settlers. Lutheran Colony on the Bergseite, located in A-4 quadrant in Stumpp map #6.
As given by Mr. Carl Eckhardt, Hastings, Nebraska in Die Welt Post, 19 Oct. 1939.
(MY NOTES: This is in no way a complete list. The following contains only family names which may or may not lead to blood relatives. I will expand this list later on, need be.)
28. Hartung
74. Wagner
“Some names are not written clearly.” – Jacob Volz, to whom this list was sent.
Population:
1897 – 11700
1912 – 11577
1926 – 5195
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON FRANK
Surnames found in Frank, Russia. Based on list given by Mr. Fred Grosskopf of Greeley, Colorado in 1968.
4. Bath, Bott
14. Elenberger
63. *Wagner
64. Webber, Weber
* Fred Grosskopf thought these families came from Saxony.
RELIGIOUS HISTORY
The Parish of FRANK (Wedwedizko-Krestowoi Bujerak) was founded in 1768. (From Die Kirchen und das Religiose Leben der Russland-deutschen, page 344.)
28,039 Parish members in 1905….
(Page 66)
GRIMM (Rssn. Name: Lesnoi-Karamysch) Kanton: Balzer, later Kanton: Komenke, Wolost: Sosnowka.
Est. 1767, 179 settlers, Lutheran Colony on Bergseite. Located in B-5 quadrant of Stumpp map #6. Names as sent in to Jacob Volz by Mr. Jacob Geist, Fort Collins, Colorado. (Jacob Volz thought this list was pretty complete.) Die Welt Post, 11 Apr. 1940.
5. Batt
8. Bott
Names for Grimm from other sources:
3. Wagner
Population:
1788 – 962
1798 –1125
1816 – 1701
1834 – 3130
1850 – 4452
1857 – 4497
1860 – 5074
1886 – 5746
1891 – 8233
1894 – 9257
1897 – 10761 (?) [sic]
1905 – 10374
1910 – 10934
1912 – 11788
1926 – 5300
(Page 67)
HUCK (Rssn. Name: Splawnucha) Kanton: Balzer, Wolost: Norka.
Founded in 1767 by 380 Lutherans. It was located on the west side of the Volga River (Bergseite), B-4 quadrant of the Stumpp map #6.
From Die Welt Post, 7 Sept. 1939, p. 8, as given by Mr. P.H. Hein of Harvard, Nebr. He writes, “I have been in America since 1887 but I can still recall the names and have done what I could,” –in a letter to Jacob Volz.
2. Becker
44. Weber
Population:
1788 – 570
1796 – 643
1816 – 1209
1834 – 2120
1850 – 3491
1857 – 4241
1860 – 4328
1886 – 5191
1891 – 7384
1894 – 7309
1897 – 9169
1910 – 9433
1912 – 9600
1926 – 4921
(Page 68)
KAUTZ/KAUZ (Rssn. Name: Werschinka) Kanton: Frank, Wolost: Oleschna.
Located on the Bergseite, in the B-5 quadrant on Stumpp map #6. Founded 1767 by 141 Lutherans. Names as sent in by Mr. Jacob Geist, Ft. Collins, Colorado to Jacob Volz. Pub. in Die Welt Post, 11 Apr. 1940, p. 8, col. 5. (Jacob Volz does not believe these are all the names even though Kauz was a small village.)
Families living in Kautz, Russia in 1913, at the time J. David Frank left Russia. A detailed plan was drawn from memory and the names of the families listed. There were 3 streets listed: Main Street, Upper Street, and Back Street.
Weber………………………………3 families
2 Frank’s Stores
1 Friekel Store
1 School
1 Teacher’s House
Note: The bottom of the legal size original copy was folded back and missed the copy machine. The name of the person submitting this list was thus not on this sheet.
(Page 69)
KRAFT (Rssn. Name: Werchnaja Grjashnucha) Kanton: Kamenka, later Kanton: Dobrinka, Wolost: Ust Kulalinka.
Est. in 1767 by 246 settlers, Ev. Lutheran Colony. Located on the Bergseite in the B-7 quadrant on the Stumpp map #6.
Sent in by Mr. George Heimbuch of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. In the 21 mar. 1940, p. 7 issue of Die Welt Post.
31. Wagner
These names were sent to Jacob Volz who published them but questioned some of the spelling and whether it included all the names of Kraft.
Population:
1788 – 362
1798 – 432
1816 – 670
1834 – 1336
1850 – 2036
1857 – 2514
1860 – 2531
1886 – 2779
1891 – 3967
1894 – 4593
1897 – 5759
1905 – 6387
1912 – 6572
1926 – 2759
Names of Families Residing in the Volga Villages
Submitted by Gerda S. Walker
(Excerpts)
(Page 64)
FRANK (Russn. Name: Medweditskij or Medwedizkoi Krestowoj Bujerak), present name is Medweditza, (see Work Paper #23, p. 3). Kanton: Frank, Wolost: Frank.
Established May 16, 1767, 115 families, 525 settlers. Lutheran Colony on the Bergseite, located in A-4 quadrant in Stumpp map #6.
As given by Mr. Carl Eckhardt, Hastings, Nebraska in Die Welt Post, 19 Oct. 1939.
(MY NOTES: This is in no way a complete list. The following contains only family names which may or may not lead to blood relatives. I will expand this list later on, need be.)
28. Hartung
74. Wagner
“Some names are not written clearly.” – Jacob Volz, to whom this list was sent.
Population:
1897 – 11700
1912 – 11577
1926 – 5195
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON FRANK
Surnames found in Frank, Russia. Based on list given by Mr. Fred Grosskopf of Greeley, Colorado in 1968.
4. Bath, Bott
14. Elenberger
63. *Wagner
64. Webber, Weber
* Fred Grosskopf thought these families came from Saxony.
RELIGIOUS HISTORY
The Parish of FRANK (Wedwedizko-Krestowoi Bujerak) was founded in 1768. (From Die Kirchen und das Religiose Leben der Russland-deutschen, page 344.)
28,039 Parish members in 1905….
(Page 66)
GRIMM (Rssn. Name: Lesnoi-Karamysch) Kanton: Balzer, later Kanton: Komenke, Wolost: Sosnowka.
Est. 1767, 179 settlers, Lutheran Colony on Bergseite. Located in B-5 quadrant of Stumpp map #6. Names as sent in to Jacob Volz by Mr. Jacob Geist, Fort Collins, Colorado. (Jacob Volz thought this list was pretty complete.) Die Welt Post, 11 Apr. 1940.
5. Batt
8. Bott
Names for Grimm from other sources:
3. Wagner
Population:
1788 – 962
1798 –1125
1816 – 1701
1834 – 3130
1850 – 4452
1857 – 4497
1860 – 5074
1886 – 5746
1891 – 8233
1894 – 9257
1897 – 10761 (?) [sic]
1905 – 10374
1910 – 10934
1912 – 11788
1926 – 5300
(Page 67)
HUCK (Rssn. Name: Splawnucha) Kanton: Balzer, Wolost: Norka.
Founded in 1767 by 380 Lutherans. It was located on the west side of the Volga River (Bergseite), B-4 quadrant of the Stumpp map #6.
From Die Welt Post, 7 Sept. 1939, p. 8, as given by Mr. P.H. Hein of Harvard, Nebr. He writes, “I have been in America since 1887 but I can still recall the names and have done what I could,” –in a letter to Jacob Volz.
2. Becker
44. Weber
Population:
1788 – 570
1796 – 643
1816 – 1209
1834 – 2120
1850 – 3491
1857 – 4241
1860 – 4328
1886 – 5191
1891 – 7384
1894 – 7309
1897 – 9169
1910 – 9433
1912 – 9600
1926 – 4921
(Page 68)
KAUTZ/KAUZ (Rssn. Name: Werschinka) Kanton: Frank, Wolost: Oleschna.
Located on the Bergseite, in the B-5 quadrant on Stumpp map #6. Founded 1767 by 141 Lutherans. Names as sent in by Mr. Jacob Geist, Ft. Collins, Colorado to Jacob Volz. Pub. in Die Welt Post, 11 Apr. 1940, p. 8, col. 5. (Jacob Volz does not believe these are all the names even though Kauz was a small village.)
Families living in Kautz, Russia in 1913, at the time J. David Frank left Russia. A detailed plan was drawn from memory and the names of the families listed. There were 3 streets listed: Main Street, Upper Street, and Back Street.
Weber………………………………3 families
2 Frank’s Stores
1 Friekel Store
1 School
1 Teacher’s House
Note: The bottom of the legal size original copy was folded back and missed the copy machine. The name of the person submitting this list was thus not on this sheet.
(Page 69)
KRAFT (Rssn. Name: Werchnaja Grjashnucha) Kanton: Kamenka, later Kanton: Dobrinka, Wolost: Ust Kulalinka.
Est. in 1767 by 246 settlers, Ev. Lutheran Colony. Located on the Bergseite in the B-7 quadrant on the Stumpp map #6.
Sent in by Mr. George Heimbuch of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. In the 21 mar. 1940, p. 7 issue of Die Welt Post.
31. Wagner
These names were sent to Jacob Volz who published them but questioned some of the spelling and whether it included all the names of Kraft.
Population:
1788 – 362
1798 – 432
1816 – 670
1834 – 1336
1850 – 2036
1857 – 2514
1860 – 2531
1886 – 2779
1891 – 3967
1894 – 4593
1897 – 5759
1905 – 6387
1912 – 6572
1926 – 2759
Village Names - Clues (1)
AHSGR, Clues, 1978 Edition
Names of Families Residing in the Volga Villages
Submitted by Gerda S. Walker
(Excerpts)
(Page 58)
In 1940 Mr. Jacob Volz or York, Nebraska, collected the following lists of names of families residing around 1900 in the Volga villages. He did this at the suggestion of Dr. Karl Stumpp who had already begun his work of collecting the names of the German immigrants to Russia. Dr. Stumpp hoped that Mr. Volz would be able to collect the names of the Germans from Russia who migrated to America. Mr. Volz found this to be an impossible task but made an appeal through the German language weekly newspaper, Die Welt Post, requesting individuals to send in the lists of names of families as they remembered them at the time they left Russia. The lists that follow are the result of this effort. Although collected in 1940 they should prove helpful to many who are trying to determine their ancestral village.
(MY NOTES: This is in no way a complete list. The following contains only family names which may or may not lead to blood relatives. I will expand this list later on, need be.).
(Page 59)
BAUER (Rusn. Name: Karamyschewka, also Karamyschka), Kanton: Kamyschin, Later Kanton: Kamenka, Wolost: Sosnowka.
Founded in 1766 by 231 Ev. Lutherans. Located on the Bergseite in the B-5 quadrant of the Stumpp map #6.
From a letter sent to Jacob Volz by Mr. Heinrich Schumann, 2009 A.R. 8th Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 21 Sept. 1939 and published in Die Welt Post, 28 Sept. 1939, p. 7, col. 4,5.
2. Becker
Names from other sources:
1. Gärber
2. Gellerut
3. Mohr
These three men signed the letter asking Catherine II to make Bauer a Crown Colony, for it was being mistreated by deBoff as a Private colony.
Other population figures:
1788 – 331
1798 – 385
1816 – 696
1834 – 1272
1850 – 1874
1857 – 2196
1860 – 2284
1886 – 2617
1894 – 3437
1897 – 4496 (?) [sic]
1905 – 4303
1910 – 4521
1912 – 4596
1926 – 3210
“The origins of the first (Colonists) were from different areas of Germany, for instance the STIEBEN, SCHRÖDER, SCHMIDT and GELROTH’s from Hamburg; the BRUG, FISCHER, STETTINGER, REIS, SCHLUNDT, MOHR and FERTIG from the Palatinate; the EHRHARDT and EIDEMÜLLER’s from Hesse-Darmstadt; RENA from Saxony; KRÜGER, 31 years schoolteacher, 1826-1857, ren (sic) Odenwälder, and the WAGNER’s came from Switzerland. This is the entire ‘Bestand’ composition of the colony Bauer from the beginning of the immigration until the Bolshevik time.” Report of Heinrich Schumann, 2009 A.R. 8th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
ADDITIONAL DATA ON BAUER
From a letter by Mr. Heinrich Schumann of Milwaukee, Wis. and pub. in Die Welt Post 21 Sept. 1939, p. 7, col. 4 and 5.
A report from the year 1854 gives the following information: “The colony Bauer was composed of 55 families in the beginning. The first church was built in 1807. At first they had an old ‘Kronshaus’ which they had bought themselves from a Catholic village for use as a Prayer and Schoolhouse.”
Their second church was built 1873-1874 and was dedicated on July 14, 1874 by the esteemed Pastor “Boneswetsch. [sic]”* There were two crosses, one of the steeple and the other on the Sacristy. It was a much too windy day to put up the crosses…
(Page 60)
*There were 3 Bonwetsch pastors:
Christoph Heinrich Bonwetsch was Probst of Norka Parish, 1845-1876.
Samuel I. Bonwetsch was pastor at Galka near Bauer, 1858-1874.
Nathanael Gottlieb Bonswetsch, pastor, Adj., Bergseite Volga, 1871-1874.
Pastor at Norka 1876-1877.
NEU-BAUER There are two colonies by the name of New-Bauer listed in the 1955 Stumpp list and map:
1. New-Bauer, Kanton of Krasny-Kut, later Kanton Eckheim, Wolost Jeruslan, founded in 1859. It was located on the Wiesenseite, Ev. Lutheran and located in the F-4 quandrant of the Stumpp map #6.
2. The other Neu-Vauer listed is also on the Wiesenseite in the Kanton of Krasny-Kut, location F-5 on the map with only 86 persons in 1912.
The following is from the 11 April 1940, p. 8, c. 5 & 6 of Die Welt Post. From a personal visit with Mr. Alexander Wagner of Clearfield, S. Dak., who was born in Neu-Bauer on the Weisenseite of the Volga: “It was founded by settlers from the Mother colonies in the years 1850/52… Wagner came with a number of families to Mexico in 1900, and because the immigrants were not accustomed to the climate many of the died of Fever (Malaria?). They quickly left the area and crossed the border into the U.S.A. where they separated. He moved first to Oklahoma and later to South Dakota. The family has a dozen children, ten daughters are married and one son and one daughter are at home.” Jacob Volz.
Population:
1897 – 2042
1912 – 2344
1926 – 1002
(Page 61)
BRUNNENTAL (Rssn. Name: Kriwojar) Kanton: Seelman, Wolost: Bisjuk.
Brunnental was founded in 1855 by families which resettled from the villages of Walter, Frank, Norka and Kolb, with perhaps a number from other villages. It is located on the Wiesenseite in the D-5 quadrant on the Stumpp map #6. Names of families were published in Die Welt Post, 22 Fe. 1940, p. 8, col. 5.
(MY NOTES: This is the complete list given in this particular publication.)
1. Melcher
2. Braun
3. Baum
4. Block
5. Hergert
6. Steinmetz
Nagel is listed but a correction was sent in 14 Mar. 1940 by John Brehm who said Nagels came from Norka.
Population:
1897 – 4520
1912 – 4944
1926 – 2411
(Page 62)
DINKEL (Rssn. Name: Tarlykowka) Sometimes known as: Oberholstein.
Founded in 1767 by 179 Ev. Lutherans. Located on the Wiesenseite, east of the Volga River in D-4 quadrant of Stumpp map #6.
Pub. in Die Welt Post, 15 Feb. 1940. Jacob Volz does not say who sent in the names.
46. Wagner
47. Weber
Population:
1897 – 3050
1912 – 3586
1926 – 1711
DÖNHOF (Rssn. Name: Gololobowka, also Alt Gololobowka) Kanton: Balzer.
Est. in 1766 by 151 people, Ev. Lutheran Colony. Located on the Bergseite on the B-4 quadrant on Stumpp map #6.
Published 21 Sept. 1939, p. 6, col. 2 in the Dakota Freie Presse. Submitted by John Becking and Henry Kraus of Windsor, Colorado.
7. Becker
Names from other sources:
1. Kaiser/Keiser
2. Stecker/Stecher
3. Wagner
Population:
1788 – 711
1798 – 870
1816 – 1436
1834 – 2508
1850 – 3846
1857 – 4465
1860 – 4593
1886 – 4886
1891 – 6499
1894 – 6416
1897 – 7833
1905 – 7516
1910 – 8017
1912 – 8330
1926 – 5039
Names of Families Residing in the Volga Villages
Submitted by Gerda S. Walker
(Excerpts)
(Page 58)
In 1940 Mr. Jacob Volz or York, Nebraska, collected the following lists of names of families residing around 1900 in the Volga villages. He did this at the suggestion of Dr. Karl Stumpp who had already begun his work of collecting the names of the German immigrants to Russia. Dr. Stumpp hoped that Mr. Volz would be able to collect the names of the Germans from Russia who migrated to America. Mr. Volz found this to be an impossible task but made an appeal through the German language weekly newspaper, Die Welt Post, requesting individuals to send in the lists of names of families as they remembered them at the time they left Russia. The lists that follow are the result of this effort. Although collected in 1940 they should prove helpful to many who are trying to determine their ancestral village.
(MY NOTES: This is in no way a complete list. The following contains only family names which may or may not lead to blood relatives. I will expand this list later on, need be.).
(Page 59)
BAUER (Rusn. Name: Karamyschewka, also Karamyschka), Kanton: Kamyschin, Later Kanton: Kamenka, Wolost: Sosnowka.
Founded in 1766 by 231 Ev. Lutherans. Located on the Bergseite in the B-5 quadrant of the Stumpp map #6.
From a letter sent to Jacob Volz by Mr. Heinrich Schumann, 2009 A.R. 8th Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 21 Sept. 1939 and published in Die Welt Post, 28 Sept. 1939, p. 7, col. 4,5.
2. Becker
Names from other sources:
1. Gärber
2. Gellerut
3. Mohr
These three men signed the letter asking Catherine II to make Bauer a Crown Colony, for it was being mistreated by deBoff as a Private colony.
Other population figures:
1788 – 331
1798 – 385
1816 – 696
1834 – 1272
1850 – 1874
1857 – 2196
1860 – 2284
1886 – 2617
1894 – 3437
1897 – 4496 (?) [sic]
1905 – 4303
1910 – 4521
1912 – 4596
1926 – 3210
“The origins of the first (Colonists) were from different areas of Germany, for instance the STIEBEN, SCHRÖDER, SCHMIDT and GELROTH’s from Hamburg; the BRUG, FISCHER, STETTINGER, REIS, SCHLUNDT, MOHR and FERTIG from the Palatinate; the EHRHARDT and EIDEMÜLLER’s from Hesse-Darmstadt; RENA from Saxony; KRÜGER, 31 years schoolteacher, 1826-1857, ren (sic) Odenwälder, and the WAGNER’s came from Switzerland. This is the entire ‘Bestand’ composition of the colony Bauer from the beginning of the immigration until the Bolshevik time.” Report of Heinrich Schumann, 2009 A.R. 8th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
ADDITIONAL DATA ON BAUER
From a letter by Mr. Heinrich Schumann of Milwaukee, Wis. and pub. in Die Welt Post 21 Sept. 1939, p. 7, col. 4 and 5.
A report from the year 1854 gives the following information: “The colony Bauer was composed of 55 families in the beginning. The first church was built in 1807. At first they had an old ‘Kronshaus’ which they had bought themselves from a Catholic village for use as a Prayer and Schoolhouse.”
Their second church was built 1873-1874 and was dedicated on July 14, 1874 by the esteemed Pastor “Boneswetsch. [sic]”* There were two crosses, one of the steeple and the other on the Sacristy. It was a much too windy day to put up the crosses…
(Page 60)
*There were 3 Bonwetsch pastors:
Christoph Heinrich Bonwetsch was Probst of Norka Parish, 1845-1876.
Samuel I. Bonwetsch was pastor at Galka near Bauer, 1858-1874.
Nathanael Gottlieb Bonswetsch, pastor, Adj., Bergseite Volga, 1871-1874.
Pastor at Norka 1876-1877.
NEU-BAUER There are two colonies by the name of New-Bauer listed in the 1955 Stumpp list and map:
1. New-Bauer, Kanton of Krasny-Kut, later Kanton Eckheim, Wolost Jeruslan, founded in 1859. It was located on the Wiesenseite, Ev. Lutheran and located in the F-4 quandrant of the Stumpp map #6.
2. The other Neu-Vauer listed is also on the Wiesenseite in the Kanton of Krasny-Kut, location F-5 on the map with only 86 persons in 1912.
The following is from the 11 April 1940, p. 8, c. 5 & 6 of Die Welt Post. From a personal visit with Mr. Alexander Wagner of Clearfield, S. Dak., who was born in Neu-Bauer on the Weisenseite of the Volga: “It was founded by settlers from the Mother colonies in the years 1850/52… Wagner came with a number of families to Mexico in 1900, and because the immigrants were not accustomed to the climate many of the died of Fever (Malaria?). They quickly left the area and crossed the border into the U.S.A. where they separated. He moved first to Oklahoma and later to South Dakota. The family has a dozen children, ten daughters are married and one son and one daughter are at home.” Jacob Volz.
Population:
1897 – 2042
1912 – 2344
1926 – 1002
(Page 61)
BRUNNENTAL (Rssn. Name: Kriwojar) Kanton: Seelman, Wolost: Bisjuk.
Brunnental was founded in 1855 by families which resettled from the villages of Walter, Frank, Norka and Kolb, with perhaps a number from other villages. It is located on the Wiesenseite in the D-5 quadrant on the Stumpp map #6. Names of families were published in Die Welt Post, 22 Fe. 1940, p. 8, col. 5.
(MY NOTES: This is the complete list given in this particular publication.)
1. Melcher
2. Braun
3. Baum
4. Block
5. Hergert
6. Steinmetz
Nagel is listed but a correction was sent in 14 Mar. 1940 by John Brehm who said Nagels came from Norka.
Population:
1897 – 4520
1912 – 4944
1926 – 2411
(Page 62)
DINKEL (Rssn. Name: Tarlykowka) Sometimes known as: Oberholstein.
Founded in 1767 by 179 Ev. Lutherans. Located on the Wiesenseite, east of the Volga River in D-4 quadrant of Stumpp map #6.
Pub. in Die Welt Post, 15 Feb. 1940. Jacob Volz does not say who sent in the names.
46. Wagner
47. Weber
Population:
1897 – 3050
1912 – 3586
1926 – 1711
DÖNHOF (Rssn. Name: Gololobowka, also Alt Gololobowka) Kanton: Balzer.
Est. in 1766 by 151 people, Ev. Lutheran Colony. Located on the Bergseite on the B-4 quadrant on Stumpp map #6.
Published 21 Sept. 1939, p. 6, col. 2 in the Dakota Freie Presse. Submitted by John Becking and Henry Kraus of Windsor, Colorado.
7. Becker
Names from other sources:
1. Kaiser/Keiser
2. Stecker/Stecher
3. Wagner
Population:
1788 – 711
1798 – 870
1816 – 1436
1834 – 2508
1850 – 3846
1857 – 4465
1860 – 4593
1886 – 4886
1891 – 6499
1894 – 6416
1897 – 7833
1905 – 7516
1910 – 8017
1912 – 8330
1926 – 5039
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