American Historical Society

Of Germans From Russia

Work Paper No.15 September 1974 Price $2.50

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PRESIDENT'S LETTER .............................................……………………………………................. i 1974 CONVENTION GROUP PICTURE ...............................………………………….................. .ii ADDRESSES

The Past is Prologue-Come Grow With Us ..............................……………………............. .1 Miss Ruth M. Amen

Germans from Russia in American History and Literature ..................……….............. .4 Mrs. Emma S. Haynes

The Third Migration-A History of the Germans from Russia in Lodi, California .......................................…………………………………................ .21

Otto H. Hieb Additional Convention Addresses ..........................…………………………………............................24 INTERNATIONAL AHSGR STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

Bibliography and Research .......................................………………………………….................25 Chapter Organization ..............................……………………………………................................25 Finance ..............................……………………………………………..........................................26 Publications ..........................................…………………………………………...........................26 Membership .........................................…………………………………………............................27 Religious History ...................................………………………………………............................ .28 Translations ..................................................……………………………………………................29

SPECIAL EVENTS Wie's Daheim War ......................................................……………………….……………...........31

A play presented by the Golden Gate Chapter A Picture Story of Convention Highlights ......................…………………………….....................32

ADDITIONAL REPORTS TO THE CONVENTION Secretary's Report for 1973-1974 ........................……………………………….......................... .34 AHSGR Nominating Committee ...............……………………………….................................... .34 Resolutions Committee ...............................……………………………………........................... .35 AHSGR Foundation ..............................………………………………………...............................36 AHSGR Foundation Nominating Committee ................................…………………………........ .37

AN ADDITION TO THE LOAN COLLECTION ...............................………………………............. .38 Review by Nancy Bernhardt Holland GENEALOGY REPORT .............................................................40

Mrs. Gerda S. Walker Can You Help? ...............................................…………………...................41 Phil B. Legler Genealogical Profile of First Generation Germans from Russia ............................. .42 Dr. Paul G. Reitzer Surname Exchange ..........................………………….....................................45 Phil B. Legler Passenger Ship Lists ..............................………………………...............................49

Gwen B. Pritzkau

Cover: Stage scene for "Wie's Daheim War" See story on page 31

Published by

American Historical Society of Germans From Russia

615 D Street Lincoln, Nebraska 68502

PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

Dear Friends in AHSGR: How can the true flavor of a convention of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia be

conveyed to those who were not present? There are several approaches to a .complete accounting of what happened. There are newspaper stories and telecasts that describe major events. There are the minutes carefully prepared by the secretary. There are tape recordings of all the sessions. There are the reports made by enthusiastic attendants at chapter meetings. There are pictures — snapshots, slides, and movies. There are the printed speeches, committee reports, and special happenings. Each of these is but a small segment of what really occurred and even the sum total of them falls far short of telling the story.

The convention held last June in Fresno, California, like the four conventions which preceded it, cannot be fully described. Can one really tell of the friends made and the fellowship experienced around the breakfast table? Is it possible to convey the excitement and feeling of pride generated by a good speaker? How does one express the thrill of singing with several hundred others a favorite German hymn which reminds one of yesteryear? How does it feel to meet a "cousin" you didn't know you had and to learn something new about one's forefathers? What words will adequately picture the beautiful displays which tell so much about the history of Germans from Russia?

What is a convention? It is everything that takes place beginning with the invitation. In this case the bid was presented in Boulder in 1972. It includes the planning, the deadlines, the frustrations, the waiting for people to register, the committees, the letters that must be written, the arms that are twisted sometimes to do a job, the successes, the slip-ups, the money raising, the room arrangements, the meeting of planes, the building of fires for a barbecue so that the steaks so carefully selected and aged can be ever so carefully prepared for everyone's enjoyment, the people who arrive early and stay late to savor it all, the get-togethers after the evening programs, and the member on crutches and legs in a cast who travels more than 2,000 miles because he is determined not to miss another convention.

The 1974 convention had 625 registered. Each year the attendance gets larger and this is as it should be. Our membership is growing too. Most of those present made it a point to be at every session. We would like to name all those who helped stage a memorable week but that is impossible. Dr. Norman S. Bitter, the chairman, and G. Ray Schwabenland, the president of Central California Chapter who lived and breathed convention for two years, know how to involve many people and get a big show on the road.

This Work Paper cannot tell it all. There is no way to report on slide presentations, for example. You have to be there. Most of the dialogue is on tapes and perhaps you can listen to some of these some day. Included in this issue are but a few of the highlights. Perhaps we can add summaries of more of the sessions in future issues. The wine tasting hosted by the California chapters and the chapter visitations were a lot of fun but they won't fit between the covers of a publication like this.

We have a brief word of advice. Make your plans now to be in Lincoln, Nebraska, for the Sixth International Convention, June 17-22, 1975. You won't be disappointed and that's a promise!

Sincerely,

Ruth M. Amen

THE PAST IS PROLOGUE - COME GROW WITH US Keynote Address by President Ruth M. Amen to the Fifth International

Convention at Fresno, California, June 20, 1974 We have a glorious past, my friends, in whatever terms we wish to view it. If we consider our past the sum total

of our rich heritage, we have a right to burst with pride. Our forefathers wrote upon the annals of time a history filled with tales of industry, courage, respect and love. They worked unceasingly and hard for the things that mattered — to build a home that would provide for them and their families a life of contentment. They demonstrated by their willingness to pioneer that they were made of what it takes to survive. They dug the caves and broke the sod with their bare hands, moving across continents and oceans with only those things they could carry on their backs. They faced the unknown and braved the unseen with the confidence that only a strong belief in God and his goodness could bring. They did it all for love of home and family. They did it with a determination to live according to their convictions, holding to their principles, remaining strong in their faith, trusting the Almighty.

Wherever our ancestors went they left their mark and a record to be proud of. What is more they brought up their children and their children's children to carry forward these fine traditions down through the years. Look around Fresno, Denver, Saginaw, Portland, Saskatoon, Lincoln, Greeley, Chicago, Sacramento, Winnipeg, Detroit. Wherever you choose to look, you will find Germans from Russia in high places. They hold the most important offices; they are leaders in their communities; they work hard in their churches; they heal; they teach; they preach; they serve; they build; and, whatever they do, they do it well.

Yes, we have a rich heritage and we take pride in adding to that strong base of achievement. The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia also has a glorious past - albeit a very brief one. It is

less than six years since a small group of courageous individuals laid the foundation for what has become a very effective instrument for preserving the history of Germans from Russia. Last year David J. Miller, after five short years as the first president of this organization, stood in this place and told us how this society came to be. You can read about this in our Work Paper #12. I would like to add that all of us can point with great pride to what has been accomplished during these years of our infancy.

It is less than six years since we came to be. Reflect for a moment on these facts: 1. Here we are in Fresno, California, attending our Fifth International Convention — with every prospect that

there will be more than 600 of us assembled before this day is over. Can you name another society which in less than six years can boast about having had five international conventions?

2. Before we were three years old we had committed ourselves to the publication of a book on emigration which would help many Germans from Russia trace their family histories back to the time when they left Germany as much as two centuries ago. Our members contributed more than $ 10,000 and thereby set up a revolving fund for publications that we will undertake in the future, one of which will soon be made available to all of you. Can you name another society which in less than six years has done as well?

3. In May of this year AHSGR mailed its 14th issue of the Work Paper to its members, a publication which has found its way into libraries all over the world. Some members have said they would give up every other periodical which comes into their homes, but never the Work Paper of this society. They are interested not only in the articles which pertain to their own background but also those which tell the history of other Germans from Russia. Our most recent additions to institutional memberships are the University of Chicago Libraries and the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. These are prestigious locations for our materials. Do you know other societies that have done better?

4. By June 13th of this year AHSGR had received 1523 votes of confidence in a program that brings to its members the information they have been searching for through its publications and conventions like this one. Would you say that this is an indication of real progress in a very short time?

Of course we have friends who say, "This should have been started 30, 40, 50 years ago." I say, "Yes, but it wasn't and that just means we have to work harder and run faster in our effort to catch up.

Yes, too many of the primary sources are gone, but AHSGR is attempting to keep others from slipping away. We live in the present and some of the circumstances which kept us from speaking up in the past are history. We have said there were reasons for not organizing earlier - we were a group that was discriminated against because of our heritage. But we are not intimidated by these things any longer. We're Americans, we're loyal citizens who pledge allegiance to our country and we mean it. To us it means even more because

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of the hardships our parents suffered to come to this land of opportunity. Yes, we have a past that bears exposure. Recently I was told that a person who is a German from Russia had said he would not belong because he is an

American. I took delight in having our mutual friend give him daily reports on new memberships. I said, "Tell him that today six Americans joined AHSGR." The next day the report was, "Four Americans joined today." After a number of reports I'm sure he got the message. Good citizenship includes an appreciation of one's heritage.

I must tell a little about our immediate past. The year since our convention in Portland has been an exciting one — one that has flown by much too quickly. There were times when we wished for a few more hours in a day, a few more days in a month. It has been a year of accomplishment that could only be achieved by hard work on the part of many.

It was a year of opportunity and challenge that started when six of us went to Greeley, Colorado, to pack up the society's belongings and to prepare them for shipping to Lincoln, Nebraska. There were cartons and cartons, a desk, steel files, a typewriter, recorders, an addressograph which weighs a ton, a graphotype which weighs a half-of-a-ton, metal shelves, wooden shelves (thank heaven for those wooden shelves), boxes and boxes of supplies, publications. We took a deep breath the morning of the third day when it was all loaded and the van drove away. We would have liked a day to relax after our trip home but at 8 o'clock the next morning the phone rang. The mover was ready to unload.

What followed was like solving a puzzle that is a combination jig saw, crossword, checker game and tic tac toe. We called in helpers to do a job and then conned them into doing three. We painted, papered, varnished, scrubbed, sprayed, climbed up and down ladders, ran around in circles, crawled on hands and knees, moved furniture, pounded nails, hung curtains, sawed off doors and laid carpet. You name it! We did it! But on September 18 we were in business and ready to open the front door to visitors. AHSGR's first real international headquarters was set up. Of course by this time we had worked around the confusion to mail out Work Paper #12, several hundred cookbooks and a goodly number of letters,

Then we sat back and took life easy. Don't you believe it! There was a Newsletter coming up; another Work Paper to publish. Dues renewal notices had to go out, a new membership file was to be set up, and every day brought a new stack of mail.

There was a three day period when we received nothing in the mail. Then the next day there were 56 pieces of correspondence. It took us weeks to recover. We kept saying, "It will level off soon." But the backlog of correspondence increased. Each letter brought a new challenge. I'll tell you a secret. Give us a first rate scolding and you'll hear from us by return mail. Thank goodness, most of our members are understanding.

Has the correspondence leveled off? "No!" Let me give you a couple of figures. In the four week period from May 20 to June 14 we placed in the mail 434 pieces of correspondence, most of them individual letters. We also carried to the post office 75 packages that ranged from individual books to 50 cookbooks. Add to this 1,445 Newsletters that went into bulk mail on June 4, That, my friends, is a bundle, and those four weeks were not the peak period.

We mention all this not to tell you how hard AHSGR members work, but to let you know something about the phenomenal growth this society has experienced in less than six years.

This is our past, folks, and now we say THE PAST IS PROLOGUE. We are proud of our beginning but that is history, it's only the beginning, it's the foundation on which we will build. We've only started. We've barely scratched the surface. Our real growth lies ahead. We say to you and to every German from Russia and all those who are interested in Germans from Russia-COME GROW WITH US.

How do we grow? In many ways. Do we grow in numbers? Indeed we do! The more members we have, the more we can do for each other. A

member writes, "The Work Paper arrived yesterday and I sat right down and read every word. It's great! I just wish we could have one every month." That takes money; money that we don't have.

Another writes, "The pictures in the Newsletter introduced me to a lot of friends I hope to meet at the convention."Pictures take money too.

"Thanks for introducing ‘The Book Shelf,' says another." And, "We were so happy to see you feature Ray Schwabenland." Then there are many comments like "We like hearing what other chapters are doing." Newsletters take cash too. We get cash from new memberships.

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Whose job is it to secure new members? It's everybody's. It's your Job. It's mine. You don't assign that job to the membership chairman and a committee and then sit back and fold your hands. If you haven't enrolled at least one new member in 1974, you aren't doing your part. It's easy, really. Tell the story, show a Work Paper but get them to join to read it. Some of us are too timid about offering membership opportunity to people we know. We don't have to apologize for our program or publications!

Do we grow in number of chapters? Of course. Whose responsibility is it to see that we have a chapter in an area where there is a concentration of Germans

from Russia? It's mine. It is yours. If there are six people at this convention from the state of Washington where we have 65 members, they should get together for a few minutes this week. Do it at breakfast, or sit together at lunch and talk over how to proceed to organize and then meet with the chairman of the Chapter Organization Committee. It's a lot easier that way than doing it all by mail.

If there is one member here who lives within 50 miles of Darrouzett, Texas, he ought to get over there during the weekend of July 6 to spread the word of AHSGR when they are having a German Russian festival.

There has to be a way to get the ball rolling in Kansas and if you claim that great wheat state as your home, you may have that nugget of an idea on how to get things going. There just can't be a better time than this year when so much attention is being given to the contribution made by Germans from Russia in bringing Turkey Red Hard Winter Wheat to the United States.

How else do we grow? We grow in stature in our communities. We have come into our own as a people. People are ready to listen to

our story. Have you thought of establishing a speaker's bureau in your chapter? It need not be an elaborate set-up. There must be three or four people - members who would be willing to address a history or political science class in the high school. The PTA is looking for programs. So are the service clubs.

Another way to tell our story is to establish a chapter museum. Your community will be glad for this new community resource. Teachers will be glad to bring groups of children. Leaders will bring their Camp Fire Groups and Scout Troops. But have them sit down to listen to a story about Germans from Russia before they look. We want to interest the young and this is one way.

We have a number of memberships in libraries and local historical memberships. We can tell about ourselves by placing our publications in college and university collections. We need to do this all over the United States. There are Germans from Russia everywhere. Our chapters should be placing Work Papers and Clues and our Newsletters in school collections. Do this along with other materials that tell the history of our people.

Both locally and internationally we need to look for opportunities to work with institutions of higher learning on research projects. We have spoken of this before but we must do more than mention it. History students are looking for subject areas that haven't been explored over and over again. Our young people are interested in folklore and ethnic studies. Language students can be called upon to translate materials.

Fellow members, we invite you, your children and your children's children to COME GROW WITH US. The history of Germans from Russia has no ending. Much has been written and we are proud that many of our own members are busily engaged in adding to that record as authors of materials yet to be published. Several new titles are in this convention's book store for your examination and purchase.

But all of us are making history, too. We are doing this as individuals and as an organization. This too must be recorded. It behooves us to think of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia as an organization that will be here long after we are gone,

The foundation has been built using the best stone and mortar to honor our forefathers in the way they deserve to be honored. It is for us and those who take our places as the years go by to build story after story in a way that will preserve for all generations to come the history of Germans from Russia.

I say - THE PAST IS PROLOGUE. It had its growing pains along with its great successes. The long road lies ahead and we invite you, one and all to - COME GROW WITH US.

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GERMANS FROM RUSSIA IN AMERICAN HISTORY AND LITERATURE An Address by Emma Schwabenland Haynes to

the Fifth International Convention at Fresno, California, June 21, 1974

Mister Chairman and Friends: I should like to extend greetings to this 1974 AHSGR convention from the chairman and board of our sister organization in Germany, the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland. On the weekend of June 2nd, the biennial meeting of the German society took place in Wiesbaden. Nearly 4,000 Russian Germans were present, with about 25% of them people who had arrived in Germany from the Soviet Union during the past few years.

On Sunday morning Lutheran, Catholic, and Brotherhood church services were held in three separate places. The Lutheran service was especially interesting because it was conducted by two ministers who had spent long years in Soviet concentration camps: Pastor Eugen Bachmann, a Black Sea German, and Pastor Johannes Schlundt, a Volga German.

At the convention I was able to speak to a man and wife named Franzen who had recently been expelled from Russia on charges of making propaganda on behalf of the Soviet Germans. The wife had been a member of two delegations which went to Moscow in 1965 to request the restoration of the Volga German Republic. I also met a man named Heinrich Schwabenland who had arrived in Germany just a few weeks previously and was still living in a temporary refugee camp with his wife and children. He had been born in the colony of Straub and his mother's maiden name was Metzler. Although he was only eight years old when the deportation of the Volga Germans occurred in 1941, he was able to tell many interesting things about what had happened in the colonies at that time. Because of the presence in Wiesbaden of these newly arrived Soviet Germans, the whole weekend proved to be a very moving experience.

I am also bringing special greetings from Dr. Stumpp and Dr. Hagin. Both men have told repeatedly how much they appreciated the hospitality and kindness shown to them-when they were guest speakers at previous conventions.

RUSSIAN MENNONITES

The title of my talk, "Germans from Russia in American History and Literature," may have puzzled some individuals. The chances are that no school textbooks of American history ever mention Germans from Russia. But if one broadens the meaning of the title and thinks of English-language books dealing with Russian Germans, an extensive bibliography could be compiled, especially of the many outstanding volumes connected with Russian Mennonite history. In my talk tonight I should like to mention some of these books.

The first one, Exiled by the Czar, was written by Gustav Reimer and G. R. Gaeddert. It tells the fascinating story of Cornelius Jansen, a prosperous Mennonite grain dealer who had left his native Prussia in 1856 and settled in the south Russian port city of Berdyansk. While there, he kept his Prussian citizenship and even served for a time as Prussian consul. Through diplomatic connections Jansen learned m 1870 that universal military service would be introduced in all German colonies of Russia including those inhabited by Mennonites, In his opinion, immigration to America was the only way by which his people could maintain their basic religious principles of non-violence. For that reason he wrote to settlers and government officials in the United States to ascertain where open prairie land was still available for purchase and what assurance the Mennonites would have of not being called upon for military service. Similar letters were mailed to Canadian and British officials.

Replies to such letters were then printed in Danzig as a fifty-six page pamphlet and smuggled, one small batch at a time, into Russia. These activities did not go unnoticed by Russian officials who had no desire to lose their industrious Mennonite citizens. On March 27, 1873, Jansen was visited by a uniformed officer who notified him that he was to be expelled from Russia in seven days. Through the intercession of Prussian authorities, the term was extended to two months. But by this time a committee of twelve Mennonites was already in the United States on a scouting expedition in search of suitable farmland,

Several of these scouts kept diaries of their trip. The one maintained by Tobias Unruh of Polish Volhynia was translated in 1970 by Abe J. Unruh of Montezuma, Kansas, and printed as a twenty-five page booklet, Great Grandfather's Story. From this booklet and from C. Henry Smith's The Coming of the Russian Mennonites, we learn that the twelve delegates were divided into three groups which did not cross the Atlantic together nor always travel together. However, they were always able to contact each other at the

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homes of American Mennonites in Illinois and Indiana, and they had all agreed to come together in Fargo, Dakota Territory, on June 10, 1873. There they would meet with American railroad agents who would show them land still available for purchase;

Mr. Unruh's diary for June 10 gives the following information: Dakota has an abundance of good level land suitable for raising wheat and adaptable for all crops .. . Wheat planted March 17 stood 18 inches high ... We drove along the railroad viewing the land; occasionally we'd stop, walk into the field. There is a stretch of land 60 miles long and 30 miles wide on each side of the railroad to be had. It's all good land.

On June 13 the entire party, accompanied by Canadian immigration agents and friends, left by boat on the Red River for Manitoba, The June 17 entry reads:

Arrived at our destination. Left the boat and walked into town. This city is fortified and called Winnipeg. Both the city and fort were built only four years ago. Upon our arrival Mr. Hespeler (one of the Canadian agents) and Sudermann (a delegate from the Molotschna) spoke with the governor. He was very friendly and exrtended a hearty welcome . - -

On the next day five wagons were brought, three to be used by the delegates and their hosts, and the other two for food, tents, and equipment. The party then set out on a four day inspection trip of the East Reserve townships. In The Coming of the Russian Mennonites we are told that the delegates "picked their way through the watery waste fighting mosquitoes every minute of the time, both night and day." By the time the party had returned to Winnipeg, Mr. Unruh and three other delegates concluded that "they had quite enough of Manitoba."1 On June 21 these four men returned to the United States. Then came an additional week in Dakota Territory, an inspection tour of Minnesota, and a train ride to Nebraska. Lincoln was described as a city of 6,000 inhabitants which had been founded six years previously. Level land was still available around Hastings and a tour was made of southern Nebraska, but Unruh complained that there were no woods, no hay, and that very deep wells had to be dug to obtain water. On July 21 he wrote, "My choice is Fargo."

Before sailing from New York in August, several of the Mennonite delegates had an appointment with President Grant to discuss their concern about military service. The president assured them that the American constitution guaranteed religious freedom and would not override a man's conscience. All of the delegates returned to Russia with favorable reports. Plans for widespread emigration immediately went into effect.

Since the Canadian government had granted the Mennonites exclusive control over their schools, complete military exemption, and separate townships in which to settle, the most conservative groups chose Manitoba. The first large body of settlers reached Winnipeg on the steamship International on July 31, 1874. They followed a route later taken by thousands of other Mennonites. It led across the state of Minnesota from Duluth to Fargo-Moorehead and down the Red River to Canada.2

In the book by E. D. Francis entitled In Search of Utopia: The Mennonites of Manitoba, we are told that south of Winnipeg in the East and West Reserves, the early pioneers tried, as much as possible, to reproduce the life which they had previously led in their Russian colonies. Living conditions were hard; building material was far away; winters were long and cold; and for several years settlers suffered from grasshopper plagues. In addition, their funds were insufficient and they had to borrow $100,000 from the Canadian government at 6% interest. But the money was paid back, and as time went on, they expanded westward into other provinces.3

About eight thousand Mennonites are said to have come to Canada in the ten year period following 1874, but an estimated ten thousand chose the United States, with more than half settling in Kansas.4 Contrary to expectations, Fargo, North Dakota, never became the focal immigration point. Between 1874 and 1876 three groups of Hutterites, nearly one hundred families in all, did establish communal households in the south-eastern part of Dakota Territory. Even today each of these households, called a "Bruderhof" is a complete, almost self-sufficient unit. There is no private property and all earnings go into the common treasury. The story of the Hutterites has been beautifully told by Victor Peters m his book All Things Common: The Hutterian Way of Life.

Swiss Volhynian Mennonites also settled in 1874 in this same general area near Yankton. Their homes, family life, and marriage customs have been delightfully described by Mr. Reuben Goertz at recent AHSGR conventions. Both Mr. and Mrs. Goertz are direct descendents of this pioneer group of Swiss Mennonites.

After being expelled from Russia, Cornelius Jansen brought his family to the New World. But he wasn't 5

impressed with the Fargo area,5 and he considered Kansas hot and humid. For that reason he bought two sections of land in Jefferson County, Nebraska, and built a spacious home in nearby Beatrice. From then on he became one of Nebraska's most loyal boosters, praising its climate and farmland in letters which he sent to Russia. Other Mennonites followed his example. In 1874 thirty-five families numbering over two hundred people bought land in Hamilton and York Counties, Here the town of Henderson soon developed.

The state of Kansas also had its vociferous boosters. By the fall of 1873 Bernhard Warkentin had already bought land near Halstead in Harvey County. From then on, whenever Kansas was criticized for its long hot summers, somebody was certain to point out that in hot weather there were no fuel bills to pay and the growing season simply lasted longer. In the summer of 1874, Elder Jacob Wiebe led his flock of Crimean Mennonites to twelve sections of railroad land which he had purchased south of Hillsboro. The book Grace Meadow. The Story of Gnadenau, written by David V. Wiebe, the father of one of our board members, tells the story of this interesting colony.

During these years all of the western railroads were in competition with each other in their attempts to sell millions of acres of land to newly arrived immigrants. However, at no time was there a more dramatic confrontation than that which occurred on August 27,1874, when the SS Cimbria steamed into New York harbor bringing nearly six hundred Mennonites from the wealthy Alexanderwohl congregation of the Molotschna area. Waiting at the docks were C. B. Schmidt of the Santa Fe Railroad and Mr. Touzalin of the Burlington. By previous arrangement, the whole group was brought to Lincoln, Nebraska, and quartered in a large building on the fair grounds outside the city. Ten delegates were then chosen to examine the land being offered by the Burlington Railroad. However, Mr. Schmidt had stayed with the group all the way to Lincoln and had exacted the promise that they would come to no decision without first looking at land in Kansas.

After making a thorough study of both states, the delegates returned to Lincoln and called a meeting out under the open sky. They themselves sat on chairs facing the people. Mr. Touzalin remained in front of his rig but Mr. Schmidt stood among the immigrants. The leader of the delegation arose and made the momentous announcement: the group would settle in Kansas.6

The land which they had picked lay in western Marion and eastern McPherson Counties. Five large Emigration Houses were built there as temporary quarters, and in these houses the people cooked, ate, and slept with very little regard for individual privacy. An extremely interesting sketch showing the interior of one of these barn like houses was made by a reporter for Leslie's Illustrierte Zeitung in New York in March 1875. It shows clothes hanging up to dry from the ceiling; wicker baskets and trunks piled up against the walls; and mattresses which doubled as a place on which to sit during the daytime. A woman stands cooking at a center stove and in the foreground a mother nurses her baby.7

The chances are that C. B. Schmidt never dreamed what a favor he was doing the state of Kansas when he persuaded the Mennonites to settle there. But in the wooden trunks, which had been brought by immigrants both from the Molotschna and the Crimea, there were several thousand pounds of Turkey red winter seed wheat. According to the Forty-Fourth Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture for 1960-61, the introduction of this winter wheat by the Mennonites was "possibly the most significant event in Kansas history."8

The year 1974 is, therefore, being celebrated in Kansas as the centennial for the introduction of Turkey red winter wheat. In addition, over fifty centennial and Mennonite historical committees in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas are all celebrating the arrival of the Mennonites in North America.9

During the 1920's a second Mennonite emigration from Russia occurred. The two most important books dealing with this period are Frank H. Epp's Mennonite Exodus and John B. Toews' Lost Fatherland. In their books the authors tell how the establishment of a communist regime in Russia plus the general poverty resulting from many years of revolution and famine created a widespread desire for emigration.10 Thanks to David Toews of Saskatchewan, president of the Colonization Board of the Mennonite Church, a contract was signed on July 21, 1922, with the Canadian Pacific Railway. According to this contract, Russian Mennonites who passed a health examination could be brought to Canada on credit by using steamships belonging to the railway. In this manner approximately 20,000 Mennonites came to Canada between 1922 and 1927. The cost of their transportation amounted to nearly two million dollars, but before David Toews died in 1947, his confidence in the honesty of his fellow-Mennonites had been justified. All of the money had been repaid.

After 1928, legal emigration from the Soviet Union became virtually impossible. Nevertheless, in 1929 some 13,000 German refugees consisting primarily of Mennonites, but including Lutherans and Catholics as

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This 1875 drawing shows interior of an immigration house built by the Santa Fe Railroad. It was used by Russian German Mennonites upon their arrival in central Kansas. A replica of the house has been built in Goessel, Kansas, as a part of the centennial commemorating the bringing of the Turkey red hard winter wheat to Kansas.

well, converged upon Moscow in an attempt to escape from Soviet tyranny. Their plight attracted world-wide attention and eventually six thousand were allowed to come to Germany from where they were transported primarily to Brazil and Paraguay but with 1,344 admitted to Canada.11

Both authors also describe the enthralling story of how in December 1930 an entire Mennonite village in eastern Siberia crossed the Amur River into China using fifty-six sleighs. The people left on a night when the ground was covered with three feet of snow and the temperatures had fallen to 40 degrees below zero centigrade. After many hardships, the group worked its way to Harbin where by 1933 over one thousand Russian German refugees had gathered. Most of them settled in South America but 243 Mennonites were brought to the state of Washington and to Reedley, California.12

The final chapters of Frank Epp's book describe the various deportations of 1928-1941, the events connected with World War II, and the attempts now being made through the Red Cross to re-unify those families which were torn apart.13 The book contains many interesting pictures, but none more dramatic than the photograph of Mr. Cornelius Penner, a citizen of Winnipeg, being prevented by American security guards from presenting a petition to a startled-looking Khrushchev, when the latter attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 1960. In his petition Mr. Penner requested that his wife and four children, from whom he had been separated since World War II, be allowed to join him in Canada.

In honor of the current centennial celebrations, many additional books have already been printed and many others are being prepared for publication. Within the limits of this paper it was impossible to give more than an inkling of the wealth of material which is available. The scholarship revealed is almost always impeccable and the contribution to American and Canadian historical knowledge truly impressive.

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The remainder of this paper deals with the much larger group of non-Mennonite Germans. About one-third of them were Roman Catholic and the remainder Lutheran, with a few Reformed congregations both on the Volga and in the Ukraine.

THE BLACK SEA GERMANS

In the case of the Black Sea Germans it wasn't necessary to send scouts to North America. As early as 1849 Johann Ludwig Bette, a former inhabitant of the colony of Johannestal in south Russia, immigrated to the United States with relatives and a small group of friends. Bette became quite wealthy as a winegrower on Kellys Island, which lies in Lake Erie near Sandusky, Ohio. In June or July of 1872, he returned to Johannestal on a visit. A description of the excitement created by his arrival is given in the book A Son of Colonia the Forgotten by Gustav G. Wenzlaff. Bette's stories of America were particularly interesting to his brother-in-law Johannes Sailer, who was the father of seven sons and had no desire that any of his boys be drafted into the Russian army. For that reason, Johannes Sailer, as well as another brother-in-law named Jacob Steiger, and other relatives, left for America that same summer. Meanwhile, rumors had reached Johannestal that the czar's police were looking for Bette. Friends hurriedly disguised him in German-made clothing and he thus crossed the border safely. A second group of colonists departed for the United States in October and a third group in November. All of these people spent their first winter in Sandusky.

In March 1873 scouts were sent by the group to examine land in various Midwestern states including Michigan and Nebraska. But it was only in the neighborhood of Yankton, Dakota Territory, that they found what they wanted; farmland resembling the steppes of southern Russia and homesteads cheap enough for the poorest families. All but four of the families accepted the recommendation of the scouts. They left Sandusky in several railroad cars about the middle of April and took up homesteads seventeen miles northwest of Yankton. A Centennial Anniversary in honor of these first Black Sea pioneers in Dakota Territory was celebrated last June in Bismarck at the convention of the North Dakota Historical Society of Germans from Russia.

Approximately W/o of all Black Sea Germans settled in the Dakotas, but, as James Ruben Griess points out in his book The German-Russians: Those Who Came to Sutton, a small minority chose Nebraska. One such group, which arrived in the United States in the summer of 1873, included two wealthy Black Sea German Protestants named Johann Grosshans and Heinrich Griess who had been the owners of large estates in Russia. In order to provide for future colonists, 16,200 acres of railroad land were purchased near Sutton at a total cost of $112,480.00.1

The wives and children of these first Nebraska pioneers remained in Lincoln while the men proceeded to set up a "Dorf" (or village) in typical Russian German style. Houses were built two stories high with two rooms on each level and with a side room on the ground floor to serve as a kitchen. While these homes were under construction, the men began preparing the fields. They slept in haystacks at night and during the day broke the sod, built fences, and dug wells. Some of them traveled to Missouri to purchase horses and to Texas for long-horn cattle. However, the idea of living in a "Dorf soon proved impractical and eventually the houses were loaded on wagons and moved to private holdings.2 James Griess also points out that although the first Russian Germans in Sutton came from the Black Sea area, Volga Germans from Balzer soon arrived after having spent a brief period in Red Oak, Iowa.

Two books describing the Black Sea Germans as seen through the eyes of their American neighbors are the novel The Land They Possessed by Mary Worthy Breneman and Along the Trails of Yesterday: A Story of McIntosh County by Nina Parley Wishek,

Most of the events described in the Breneman novel take place in Eureka, South Dakota, from 1887 to 1894 at a time when Eureka was the northern terminal of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul railway. This made it the largest inland wheat-shipping point in the world. Forty-two grain elevators handled as many as four million bushels a year, and in a single day one thousand farmers might converge on the town, often by ox team, bringing their wheat from farms that could lie seventy-five miles away.

The novel actually begins with the year 1885 when John Ward, an old-stock American brings his wife Mavis, his teen-age daughter Michal, and a younger daughter Faith to their new home on a homestead and tree claim near Leola, Dakota Territory. On the way he introduces his wife to their next door neighbors, a Black Sea German family named Haar who were still living in a dugout. John Ward later explained that the family had arrived from Russia five years previously with nothing but good seed wheat, sheepskin coats and featherbeds, but that they worked all the time and were rapidly moving ahead financially.

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In the ensuing months Michal developed a close friendship with Katy Keim, a Russian German girl from Eureka, who was related to the Haars and visiting them, but the Wards soon let Michal know that although she should always be polite and show good manners, Germans from Russia were not, as they expressed it, "our class of people."

In the summer of 1887 John Ward's crop was completely destroyed by a bad hailstorm. He then decided to sell his house and property to Herman Haar and move to Eureka to engage in business. In the ensuing chapters the exciting story of the development of Eureka is told. The famous blizzard of 1888 is described, as well as prairie fires, and periods of drought. Underlying the entire novel is the love story of Michal and a Russian German boy named Karl Gross. To escape the opposition of both sets of parents, the young couple runs away to get married and find happiness with each other. It is an engrossing story and will surely hold the attention of every reader.3

Incidentally, the 50th anniversary of the founding of Eureka was celebrated in 1937 with a colorful parade in which a large group of Black Sea German women wearing "kopftücher" and the dark dresses of their mothers and grandmothers formed an important contingent. Four pages of outstanding photographs in Life magazine for August 2, 1937, showed the faces of many pioneer Russian Germans who were still alive at that time. One of the pictures carried the following caption:

This is the face of the man who broke the northern plains. He is Wilhelm Schumacher of Eureka, South Dakota. Eager for freedom in the new world,... he chose his land, filed his claim and built himself a sod house with shiplap finish inside. His first stove was of sod and stone built in the ground. His first farm tools were a yoke of oxen, a secondhand wagon, and a breaking plow bought on credit. His first trip to church services at a neighbor's was made on a stoneboat driven by oxen. Despite poor land and tornadoes, Wilhelm Schumacher prospered moderately and raised eleven children. One of them, August, is today mayor of the town to which his father came as an immigrant... Today at 92, he is the Patriarch of Eureka.4

The second book, Mrs. Wishek's History of McIntosh County, is particularly important because much of it is based upon contemporary newspaper stories and the memoirs of early pioneers. Mrs. Wishek arrived in Mclntosh county in 1887 with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Albert W, Parley, when she was eighteen years old. Germans from Russia had already begun entering the county a few years previously, and from 1889 to 1891, Nina Parley, as she was then known, taught Russian German children in rural communities, receiving a salary of $32.00 per month. She describes her experiences with these words:

My first position was eight or ten mites east of Ashley at the home of Daniel Rienke. It was the usual tan-gray sod building with just one room in which to live, eat, cook, sleep, and have school. Another smaller end room which was not heated was used for storing straw and "mischt" to fire the big home-made oven that projected into the center of the living room. Here in the same room with the family, I taught seven or eight youngsters. Here stood my hard cot bed covered with bedding I had brought from home. Often during school hours the family entertained company at the other end of the room, and their conversation, which was Greek to me, was eagerly followed by my distracted pupils ... I had a long home-made table with wooden benches on either side for the pupils. A small home-made blackboard hung on the wall at the end of the table. There were no books except the material I had brought from home.5

She then asks the rhetorical question, "What could be done when a group of children knew no English and I understood no German?" She explains that the first task was to teach the alphabet, the names of numerals, and the English meaning of objects in the room. From this, the children progressed to simple reading, spelling, and arithmetic. In those days, school terms never lasted more than three months. Miss Parley's next job was at the Christian Becker family east of Ashley. This family had two rooms. Consequently, teaching was now easier because family activities were carried on in the kitchen, and teaching done in the combination living room and bedroom. The following year she taught in Antelope Valley in a small room to the rear of the church, to which nursing mothers could bring crying babies on Sunday mornings. This was followed by a term in Moscow township in a real schoolhouse with real desks and better equipment.6

After 1937 when Gustav Wenzlaffs book was published, a long period of time ensued in which not a single Black Sea German wrote a book connected with the history of his people. Then, in 1964, two volumes: Msgr. George P. Aberie's From the Steppes to the Prairies and Adolph Schock's In Quest of Free Land suddenly appeared. From the forwards of the two books, it seems obvious that neither author knew of the other person. Prof. Schock was teaching at San Jose State College in California at the time, and Msgr.

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Dr. Adam Giesinger autographed his book From Catherine to Khrushchev for those who made their purchases at the convention. The book is reviewed on pages 38-39 in this issue of the Work Paper.

Aberle was living in Dickinson, North Dakota. Both books emphasized the history of the Black Sea Germans. Nevertheless, the two volumes complimented each other perfectly. Msgr. Aberle limited his attention almost entirely to Russian German Catholics, whereas Adolph Shoock, who has a Protestant background, devoted more pages to the arts and crafts and home life of the early pioneers. Msgr. Aberle gives practically no references and some of his statistics are questionable. But errors such as these can never detract from the great contribution which he made in helping to awaken an interest in Russian German history at a time when knowledge of the subject was in danger of disappearing.7

The ten years which have elapsed since the publication of the books by Schock and Aberle, have been the most exciting, culturally speaking, in the history of our people. In 1966 Prof. Joseph S. Height published an English translation of an outstanding book by Dr. Karl Stumpp under the title The German-Russians: Two Centuries of Pioneering. This was followed by Dr. A. Becker's translation of Father Conrad Keller's two volume history The German Colonies in South Russia.8

In 1972 Prof. Joseph S. Height published Paradise on the Steppe an extremely interesting history of all the Catholic colonies of the Black Sea area. The book is generously illustrated with fascinating pictures beginning with old prints from Alsace and the Palatinate, from where many of the colonists originated, and ending with photographs of German women in the lumber camps of Siberia, Every phase of colonial life in Russia as well as recent events under communism is discussed.

The North Dakota Historical Society of Germans from Russia sponsored not only Prof. Height's book but also two monographs; Theodore C. Wenzlaffs Fateful Danube Journey, a translation of letters describing the trip of pietistic families from Switzerland and southern Germany to Russia, and the Armand Bauer translation of the autobiography of Rev. Peter Bauer who served Russian German Reformed churches in the United States from 1893 to 1936.

Early in 1973 Dr. Karl Stumpp's long-awaited book, The Emigration from Germany to Russia in the Years 1763 to 1862 was ready for distribution. Publishing costs were defrayed to an appreciable extent by donations from interested Americans, and the English-language edition was published under the auspices of our society. On page 119 of the Mennonite Quarterly Review for January 1974, the book is described by Dr. John B. Toews of the University of Calgary as "an indispensable reference work for present and future generations."

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During the summer of 1973 Fred W. Gross of Sacramento, California, put on sale his autobiography The Pastor: The Life of an Immigrant. He tells how he arrived in Hebron, North Dakota, in 1914 as a nineteen-year-old youth carrying all of his belongings in a reed basket; how he served in the American army during World War I, was ordained as minister in the Congregations] Church in 1922 and then began a long career, not only as a pastor in the United States and Canada, but also as a missionary in South America.

The present year 1974 will be remembered in Russian German publication history because of the book From Catherine to Khrushchev: The Story of Russia's Germans. This is by far the most complete account of the Russian Germans to have appeared so far in the English language. Every other book has emphasized a definite religious or geographic group or has openly dealt with a segment group. For the first time, all Germans in Russia, including the Baltic Germans, are presented objectively and in proper focus within the confines of one volume. The three major religions of the Russian Germans (Evangelical Lutheran, Mennonite, and Roman Catholic) are presented in three consecutive chapters. There are four most interesting chapters dealing with Russian German history under communism, and a final chapter on Germans from Russia in North and South America, The book may be obtained from Dr. Giesinger in Canada. It sells for $10.75 and is well worth the price.

Another book which should be off the press by the time this article is printed, is Richard Sallet's Russian-German Settlements in the United States, which was translated into English by Dr. La Vern Rippley and Dr. Armand Bauer. Although the volume describes Volga German as well as Black Sea German settlements, Armand Bauer is of Black Sea German descent. For that reason the book is mentioned in this section. The English-language volume will include a biography of Dr. Sallet, over sixty illustrations pertaining to the general contents, and twenty separate state maps showing Russian German settlements in the United States. It will sell for $9.50 and may be ordered from the Institute for Regional Studies, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota. This is another book which belongs in the library of every member of AHSGR regardless of the section of Russia in which his ancestors originally lived.

THE VOLGA GERMANS

In the Volga colonies, just as on the Black Sea, there was a feeling of indignation over the repeal of the special privileges originally granted to the German settlers by Catherine II. In the spring of 1874 about three thousand Catholic colonists are said to have gathered at Herzog on the Wiesenseite (east side) of the Volga, and a similar meeting took place in Balzer on the Bergseite. Fourteen scouts were thereupon chosen to go to the United States, with five coming from Catholic villages on the east bank and the remaining nine from the opposite side of the river.

The entire group sailed from Hamburg on July 1, 1874 on the SS Schiller. In view of the year-long celebration now being held by the Mennonites in honor of their pioneers, it is only fitting that we who are of Volga German descent should also pay tribute to the 100th anniversary of the arrival of these fourteen scouts.

Shortly before World War I, Father Francis S. Laing, a teacher in a monastery at Victoria, Kansas, wrote the valuable treatise "German-Russian Settlements in Ellis County, Kansas" in which he gave the names and place of origin of the five Catholics from the Wiesenseite: Peter Leiker (age 37, Obermonjour), Jacob Ritter (49, Luzern), Nicholas Schamne (29, Graf), Peter Stoeklein (49, Zug) and Anton Wasinger (52, Schoenchen). Father Laing also mentioned Anton Kaeberlein (27) from the Catholic village of Pfeifer on the Bergseite. The remaining eight were Protestant.1

Several years ago I was able to obtain Xerox copies of the names of all the scouts from passenger shipping lists in Hamburg as well as from files in the National Archives of Washington D.C. Both in Hamburg and in New York the nine men from the Bergseite said that they were from Russia, but in Hamburg the five Catholics claimed that they came from Poland, and in America they said they were from Prussia. One can only conjecture as to the reason for their answers. Perhaps it was a simple misunderstanding, or perhaps they were afraid of future difficulties with the czar's police.

The Catholic scouts seem to have spent most of their time in Nebraska but the Protestants are said to have visited Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and possibly Arkansas. Father Laing tells that the Catholic delegation brought back to Russia about one pound of soil, some prairie grass, American paper money, and literature descriptive of the land. He also tells that in December 1974 two additional scouts spent about a week in Kansas. He then gives meticulously prepared lists of the names of all families who left their homes between 1875 and 1878 and eventually founded the colonies of Herzog, Munjor, Schoenchen, Catherine, and Pfeifer

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Catholic Scouts from the Volga. Pictured from left are: Peter Stoecklein, Jakob Ritter, Nicholas Schamne, Peter Leiker, and Anton Wasinger.

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in Ellis County, Kansas. For the past sixty years this information has been used by every student of Catholic Volga German history.

Unfortunately, the Protestant Volga Germans had no Father Laing who performed a similar service for them. The names of their scouts are known to us from the shipping lists. By combining information from a variety of sources we also know that Johannes Krieger (29) and Johannes Nolde (26) were from Norka, Georg Kähm (25) and Heinrich Schwabauer (28) from Balzer, Christoph Meisinger (48) from Messer, and Johann Benzel (36) and Franz Scheibel (39) from Kolb. That leaves Georg Stieben (26) unaccounted for. If any member of our society can throw light on his background, please contact either Gerda Walker, Genealogical Chairman, or me.2

It would certainly be a worthwhile project if the names and place of settlement of all Protestant Volga Germans who arrived between 1874 and 1878 could be compiled for a booklet similar to the one written by Father Laing. But it will require a cooperative effort on the part of many of our members. Some of the questions which need to be answered would be: (1) Was there any immigration at all in 1874? If so, on what ships did people come and where did they settle? (Richard Sallet believes that such an immigration took place, but it is only through shipping lists and census figures that this can be verified.) (2) What was the exact date of arrival in America of the first Volga Germans who settled in Red Oak, Iowa? And on what ship did the Konrad Reuscher party sail after leaving their homes in Norka in 1875? (This is the group which came to Pettisville, Ohio.) (3) What were the names of the first Protestant Volga Germans in Kansas? 3

Although Sutton, Nebraska, was for a time the most popular arrival point for Protestant Volga Germans, it was soon replaced by Lincoln because of greater opportunities for employment in the latter city. In fact, one could almost call Lincoln the "mother colony" from which many families moved on to Denver, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; and other western towns and cities. On the other hand, immigration of Protestant Volga Germans from the Wiesenseite to Fresno did not begin until 1887 because the land shortage was not as acute on the east bank of the Volga.

In the spring of 1914 a young married woman, Hattie Plum Williams, who was working on a doctoral dissertation at the University of Nebraska, initiated a private census of the 6,500 Russian Germans then living in Lincoln. Cards were filled out for each family head giving his name, place and date of birth, date of arrival in Lincoln, and such information as education, marital status, number of children, size of house, and degree of home ownership. The results of the study were then used by Mrs. Williams in her dissertation, A Social Study of the Russian German, printed in 1916. Much interesting information thus comes to light: the fact that with very few exceptions all 6,500 of the Russian Germans in Lincoln were Volga German Protestants, and that the main colonies from which they had emigrated were Norka, Frank, Balzer, Beideck, and Huck in that descending order. Nearly 50% of all these Volga Germans had arrived in Lincoln between 1909 and 1914; 65% had come on pre-paid tickets; and within five years of their arrival in America, 75% of the people owned their own homes either free or mortgaged. We are also told that in spite of the crowded conditions in the homes, they were almost always extremely clean. In the words of Mrs. Williams, "The Russian German housewife is a persistent and furious scrubber."

In addition to this sociological study, Mrs. Williams wrote an unpublished history of the Volga Germans. The first three chapters of this history describing events to the year 1874 will be published soon under the title The Czar's Germans.

Among the early pioneers who came to the United States from both the Volga and the Black Sea area were many families who were strongly influenced by the Brotherhood Movement. Dr. George J. Eisenach, for many years a professor of theology at Yankton, South Dakota, describes this movement in his book Pietism and the Russian Germans in the United States. Dr. Eisenach, himself of Volga German descent, wrote with the same scholarship, meticulous accuracy, and thorough documentation which one finds in the books of many Mennonite authors. The religious beliefs of the Brethem sometimes led to emotional excesses and hair-splitting dogmatism, but their story is always told by Dr. Eisenach with sympathy and understanding.

The background of the next book, A History of the Volga Relief Society, Portland, Oregon, which describes the famine years 1921-1922, is being presented as an example of how careless we non-Mennonites have been in not making more of an effort to preserve valuable historical material. During these famine years in the Volga colonies, Mrs. George Repp acted as secretary of the Portland organization. As such, she maintained voluminous files consisting of letters and reports from her husband, who was in Russia doing relief work at the time, and from Volga German pastors and schoolteachers who described conditions in the colonies and the expansion of American relief activities.

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On his initial inspection trip Mr. Repp wrote, for example, of the absolute quiet of the German villages which he entered. The ordinary sounds of shouting children, barking dogs, or moving wagons were all gone, and the only signs of life were a few people moving listlessly around. The files also included poignant descriptions of the wonderful day when the first American child feeding kitchens were opened. One pastor wrote that in his village the children began gathering two hours early. Another letter told that when extra pieces of bread were passed around, one little girl seemed afraid to take a piece. The pastor mentioned that evidently the child could not understand the meaning of it all. She had always heard about the strange men who came and robbed the people of their bread and now strange men had arrived and brought some bread.

In the summer of 1940 all of these letters, bulletins, and reports were still being preserved in the Repp home. It was they who asked me to go through the files and write a book describing the activities of the society. Unfortunately, both Mr. and Mrs. Repp are now dead and none of these letters and reports have been saved. It is only one of the many sad examples of how in previous years important historical material was destroyed because Germans from Russia had no historical society comparable to AHSGR.4

As the Volga Germans began moving westward from their original settlements, the sugar beet industry of Colorado became one of their main occupations. In 1935 Hope Williams Sykes of Fort Collins wrote the novel Second Hoeing which takes place against such a background. The main character, a teen-age girl named Hannah Schreissmiller, wants desperately to escape from her crowded parental home and particularly from the tyranny of her father. But when her mother dies in childbirth, the burden of caring for the younger brothers and sisters falls upon Hannah's shoulders. Her father remains dictatorial and demanding. He seems to begrudge every day the younger children are forced to attend elementary school. There is also a description of how Hannah is whipped unmercifully after dating a wealthy American boy of whom her father does not approve. Eventually she and this boy become engaged, but after her father's death, a feeling of responsibility toward her younger brothers and sisters induces her to break the engagement and marry a widower of her own people.

Volga Germans have reacted to the book in various ways. One woman told me that her step-father was exactly like the man in the novel, but others claim that never have they met anyone resembling the father, My own feeling is that although the events portrayed could have occurred, Mrs. Sykes does not sufficiently balance good traits with unpleasant ones nor does she present a well-rounded picture of a typical Volga German community.

Catholic families from the Volga can also be found in the beet fields of Colorado. A nun, Sister Michael Marie, who comes from the Sterling area, published in 1949 a widely-acclaimed book of verse entitled You Have Filled the Days which has been quoted in the New York Times and the Congressional Record. Sister Michael Marie died in 1960 at the age of thirty-six after a long and painful case of cancer. Many of her poems deal with death and physical suffering. I am indebted to Timothy Kloberdanz, a student at Colorado State University, for information about Sister Marie and also for the following beautiful poem which is given in slightly abbreviated form. It is called "Mother."

My mother was not one To speak or show her love, And I who hungered for a sign Grew up most strange and quiet With loneliness . ..

I went away from her, From her brown face and hands, Thinking I would not care Ever to return again.

But I lengthened in years and thought And I wondered how I missed The softness and clearness of her eyes And the beauty of her hands.. .

Often I ache In sickness and in pain To see her crumpled house

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With the chickens in the yard And the children in the sun, And I want to hear her say, "Come in, you look so pale - Lay down and rest you up."

“. . Lay down and rest you up .." How sweet — How sweet.

No group of Volga Germans has had its history more thoroughly documented than the Catholic Volga Germans of Ellis and Rush counties in Kansas.5 In 1966 Victor Leiker edited and published Conquering the Wind by Amy Brungardt Toepfer and Agnes Dreiling in which both the Russian background of the group and the pioneer years in Kansas are described. The primary desire of the authors and editor was to present a readable, interesting story without being concerned with references and footnotes. The book sold extremely well and has recently appeared in a third edition.6

In the near future Fred Koch of Olympia, Washington, plans to publish a book on which he has been working for many years. It will bear the title Farewell My People and will be the first complete English-language history of all Volga Germans from their earliest beginnings in 1764 to the present time. Please watch future issues of our Work Papers for further news about this very important event.

During the past ten years much has been accomplished, but even more needs to be done. There is certainly no more worthwhile task for our branch societies than to compile all available information on Germans from Russia in their own communities. Richard Scheuerman of Endicott, Washington, has set an outstanding example in his excellent new book, Pilgrims on the Earth: A German-Russian Chronicle, in which he tells the story of the Volga Germans of Whitman County in Washington. Much of his material is based upon interviews with pioneer citizens or comes from old newspapers.7 Susan Yungman did the same service for Volga German onion growers outside New York City in her book, Faith of Our Fathers, written in 1972. But, to the best of my knowledge, nothing has been printed, not even as a magazine article, about Volga German communities in Chicago, Illinois; Saginaw, Michigan; Portland, Oregon; or Billings, Montana, to mention just a few places.8

In California there is an excellent unpublished Master's thesis about the Russian Germans of Fresno , written at Redlands University in 1949 by Noel Frodsham.9 Outstanding theses on the Volga Germans of northern Colorado were also written in 1938 by C. H. Becker at Colorado State College in Fort Collins (now Colorado State University) and in 1959 by Alton David Hill, Jr., at the University of Colorado in Boulder, but for the most part the whole field of Volga German research (and particularly that of the Protestant Volga Germans) has remained untouched by scholars.

Shortly before my father died, I asked him to write a brief autobiography. In this way he happened to tell a story which I had never heard before: of how as a teen-age boy in Russia he wanted to study for the ministry. He had even gone to Warenburg to ask the parish minister to recommend him and had received an affirmative answer. The pastor then added that he must also obtain the consent of his parents. However, they replied that he was the oldest son and was needed for farm work. In his autobiography, written in Fresno when he was eighty-eight years old, my father wrote, "God knows, as I can never forget, how I stood behind a door where nobody could see me and I wept - oh so bitterly." But in 1891, when he was twenty years old and economic conditions had become extremely bad in all the German colonies, his parents did agree that he should leave Russia for California, and sixteen months later he was already able to begin his ministerial studies.

The group of people with whom my father came to America sailed from Bremen on the SS Ems and arrived in New York on December 22, 1891. Included in the party was another young man from the Volga German colony of Straub. His son, Ted C. Wills, is today mayor of Fresno, California.

In the families of every member of AHSGR equally interesting stories of life in Russia and of experiences during the early years in America could be told. Let us all cooperate in making certain that neither the background history of our people nor the story of our parents' personal experiences are lost to posterity.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MENNONITE BOOKS READ FOR THIS PAPER

* 1. Epp, Rank H., Mennonite Exodus. Altona, Manitoba, D. W. Friesen and Sons, 1962. 2. Francis, E. K., In Search of Utopia; The Mennonites in Manitoba. Altona, Manitoba, D. W. Friesen and Sons,

1955. * 3. Krahn, Cornelius, ed., From the Steppes to the Prairies. Newton, Kansas, Mennonite Publication Office,

1949. * 4. Peters, Victor, All Things Common: The Hutterian Way of Life. Minneapolis, Minn., U. of Minn. Press, 1965. 5. Peters, Victor, Nestor Makhno: The Life of an Anarchist. Winnipeg, Canada, Echo Books, 1970. * 6. Priess, Anita, Exiled to Siberia. Steinbach, Manitoba, Derksen Printers Limited, 1972. * 7. Reimer, Gustav E., and G. R. Gaeddert, Exiled by the Czar. Newton, Kansas, Mennonite Publication Office,

1956. * 8. Smith, C. Henry, The Coming of the Russian Mennonites. Berne, Indiana, Mennonite Book Concern,

1927. 9. Smith, C. Henry, The Story of the Mennonites (Fourth Edition Revised and Enlarged by Cornelius Krahn). Mennonite Publication Office, Newton, Kansas, 1957.

*10. Toews, John B., Lost Fatherland: The Story of Mennonite Emigration from Soviet Russia, 1921-1927. Scottdale, Pennsylvania, Herald Press, 1967.

*ll. Unruh, Abe, Great-Grandfather's Story (Translation of German diary kept by Tobias Unruh 1873-1875). Montezuma, Kansas, 1970.

*l2. Wiebe, David, Grace Meadow: The Story of Gnadenau and Its First Elder. Hillsboro, Kansas, Mennonite Brethren Publishing House, 1967.

13. Wiebe, Rudy, The Blue Mountains of China. Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970. This bibliography merely lists the English-language books which were used in preparing this paper. Readers interested in additional titles might write to Faith and Life Press in Newton, Kansas, for the bibliography of Cornelius Krahn and Melvin Gingerich entitled The Mennonites: A Brief Guide to Information. In view of the broad scope of my topic, it was impossible to mention such outstanding unpublished dissertations on Mennonite history as the one written at Stanford University in 1933 by Dr. David G. Rempel of Menlo Park, California. Neither was I able to refer to the many scholarly articles in the illustrated quarterly Mennonite Life, published by Bethel College in Kansas. *Volumes in AHSGR Loan Collection.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BLACK SEA GERMAN LITERATURE AND BOOKS WRITTEN OR TRANSLATED BY BLACK SEA GERMANS

* 1. Aberle, Msgr. George P., From the Steppes to the Prairies. Bismarck, North Dakota, Bismarck Tribune Co.,1964.

* 2. Bauer, Peter, Experiences from my Missionary Life in the Dakotas, translated and edited from the German by Armand and Elaine Bauer. NDHSGR, 1973.

3. Breneman, Mary Worthy, The Land They Possessed. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1956. 4. "Eureka, S.D. was once the World's Wheat Mart," Life magazine, August 2, 1937. pp. 19-23. * 5. Fateful Danube Journey, translated from the German by Theodore C. Wenzlaff, Henderson, Nebraska,

Service Press, 1973. First printing in German 1819; new German edition edited by Friedrich Fiechtner, Stuttgart, 1970.

* 6. Giesinger, Adam, From Catherine to Khrushchev: The Story of Russia's Germans. Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1974, * 7. Griess, James Ruben, The German-Russians: Those Who Came to Sutton. Hastings, Nebraska, 1968. * 8. Gross, Fred W., The Pastor: The Life of an Immigrant. Philadelphia, Dorrance and Company, 1973. * 9. Height, Joseph S., Paradise on the Steppe. Printed in Germany, 1972. *10, Keller, P. Conrad, The German Colonies in South Russia, translated from the German by A. Becker. Volume

I, 1968; Volume II. 1973; Saskatchewan.

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*11. Sallet, Richard, Russian-German Settlements in the United States, translated from the German by La Vern Rippley and Armand Bauer. The North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies, Fargo, North Dakota, 1974. 12. Schock, Adolph, In Quest of Free Land. The Netherlands, Royal Vangorcum Ltd., 1964.

*13. Stumpp, Karl, The Emigration from Germany to Russia in the Years 1763 to 1862. Tubingen, Germany, 1972.

*14. Stumpp, Karl, The German-Russians, translated from the German by Joseph S. Height. Printed in Germany, 1967.

*15. Wenzlaff, Theodore C., "The Russian Germans Come to the United States," Nebraska History, Vol. 49, No. 4, Winter 1968. pp. 379-399. 16. Wishek, Nina Parley, Along the Trails of Yesterday: A Story of Mclntosh County. The Ashley Tribune, 1941.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF VOLGA GERMAN LITERATURE OR BOOKS WRITTEN BY VOLGA GERMANS

* 1. Eisenach, George J., Pietism and the Russian Germans in the United States. The Berne Publishers, Berne, Indiana, 1948. 2. Frodsham, Noel. A Study of the Russian-Germans in Fresno County, California. Unpublished M.A. thesis,

Redlands University, 1949. (Many unpublished theses on the Russian Germans deserve to be printed. The title of Mr. Frodsham's is given as one example. This thesis deals with both the Mennonites and the Volga Germans of Fresno County but the major portion of the dissertation concerns the Volga Germans.)

* 3. Golden Jubilee of the German-Russian Settlements of Ellis and Rush Counties, Kansas, 1926. * 4. Johannes, Sister Mary Eloise, A Study of the Russian-German Settlements in Ellis County, Kansas. Catholic

University of America Press, Washington, D.C., 1946. * 5. Laing, Francis S., "German-Russian Settlements in Ellis County Kansas," Kansas Historical Collections, XI

(1909-1910). pp. 489-528. * 6. Scheuerman, Richard, Pilgrims on the Earth: A German-Russian Chronicle. Ye Galleon Press, Fairfield,

Washington, 1974. * 7, Schwabenland (Haynes), Emma D., A History of the Volga Relief Society. A. E. Kern & Co., Portland,

Oregon, 1941. 8. Sister Michael Marie, You Have Filled the Days. Bruce Humphries, Inc., 1949. 9. Sykes, Hope Williams, Second Hoeing. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1935.

*10. Toepfer, Amy Brungardt and Dreiling, Agnes, Conquering the Wind. Published and edited by Victor C. Leiker, Garwood, New Jersey, 1966.

*11. Williams, Hattie Plum, A Social Study of the Russian German. Lincoln, Nebraska, 1916. *\2. Yungman, Susan M., Faith of Our Fathers. New York, 1972. This bibliography, as well as the ones for the Mennonites and the Black Sea Germans, is restricted almost entirely to the titles of books. A more complete English-language bibliography would of necessity include all important articles in magazines, in historical journals, and in the AHSGR Work Papers, as well as all important unpublished dissertations dealing with Germans from Russia.

NOTES AND REFERENCES - RUSSIAN MENNONITES

( 1) Smith, The Coming of the Russian Mennonites, p. 59. ( 2) The 100th anniversary of the arrival of the Russian Mennonites in Manitoba is being celebrated this year

(1974) in Canada. In the brochures distributed by the Mennonite Centennial Committee, a photograph of the steamboat International as it arrived in Winnipeg on July 31, 1874, its decks crowded with Mennonite immigrants, is prominently displayed.

( 3) See Francis, pp. 50-79 and Smith, The Story of the Mennonites, pp. 637-641. ( 4) Smith, The Story of the Mennonites, p. 636. ( 5) He was concerned about the water problem. See Reimer and Gaeddert, p. 86.

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( 6) Smith, The Coming of the Russian Mennonites, pp. 115-119, 138-147; Reimer and Gaeddert, pp. 119-120. ( 7) This sketch has been reproduced in many publications including From the Steppes to the Prairies (1874-1949)

edited by Cornelius Krahn, and Grace Meadow by David V. Wiebe. Cornelius Krahn identified the sketch as "Scene in Immigrant House, Alexanderwohl, northwest of present-day Goessel, Kansas," whereas the caption in the David Wiebe book reads, "Interior of a temporary immigrant residence at Gnadenau." It would be interesting to know if the artist visited both settlements.

( 8) Quoted by Raymond F. Wiebe in material mailed to AHSGR board members on April 16, 1972. The story of the bringing of Turkey red winter wheat is told by Smith in The Story of the Mennonites, pp. 651 and 655; by David V. Wiebe, pp. 75-76; and by Kendall Bailes in his article, "The Mennonites Come to Kansas," in American Heritage for August 1959, pp. 102-105,

( 9) Letter dated May 21, 1974 from Raymond F. Wiebe to Emma S. Haynes. (10) The depredations of Nestor Makhno in 1919-1920 (described by Victor Peters in his biography of the

anarchist leader) were especially severe in the Sagradovka and Nicolaipol Mennonite colonies of the Ukraine.

(11) Epp, pp. 229-239, (12) Epp, pp. 239-260; Toews, p. 199. This incident also provides the title for Rudy Wiebe's engrossing novel,

The Blue Mountains of China in which the escape across the Amur River and the further difficulties of the refugees are described on pp. 117-140.

(13) The book Exiled to Siberia by Anita Priess gives additional information about the Siberian forced labor camps to which so many Soviet Germans were deported during and after World War II.

NOTES AND REFERENCES - BLACK SEA GERMANS ( 1) Theodore C. Wenzlaffs outstanding article in Nebraska History gives his English translation of the memoirs of

Friedrich Mutschelknaus (1852-1929) and Peter H. Griess (1851-1917) which had originally appeared in the German-language newspaper Dakota Freie Presse. Friedrich Mutschelknaus's father was one of the Black Sea German pioneers who settled in South Dakota in 1873 and Peter H. Griess was the son of Heinrich Griess who came-to Nebraska. (The 1974 AHSGR convention in Fresno was attended by three direct descendants of these first Black Sea German pioneers: Mrs. Armand Bauer of Fargo, North Dakota, whose ancestors, came to Dakota Territory in 1873; and Mrs. Dorothea Kerr of South Gate, California, as well as Mrs. C. R. Krieger of Sacramento, California, who claim Heinrich Griess as one of their ancestors.)

( 2) Griess, pp. 103-105. ( 3) According to an article in the Aberdeen American News (Aberdeen, South Dakota) which appeared shortly

after the publication of The Land They Possessed^ the pen name Mary Worthy Breneman is a mother-daughter combination. Mary Worthy lived in Eureka in her youth and later married a man named Thurston, Muriel Breneman is Mrs. Thurston's married daughter and was living in Aurora, Colorado, when the book was published.

( 4) Life, August 2, 1937, p. 22. ( 5) Wishek, pp. 180-181. ( 6) One of the unexpected pleasures of the 1974 convention was to meet a son and grandson of Nina Parley

Wishek. The two men had come to Fresno as part of the AHSGR delegation from Lodi. I should also like to express my appreciation to Herman Wildermuth of Yucca Valley, California, and to Max Wishek of Ashley, North Dakota, for making a copy of this fascinating book available to me.

( 7) Msgr. Aberle is also the author of three additional books which deal primarily with Black Sea German Catholics of North Dakota: Pioneers and their Sons, Vol. I, 1966; Vol. II, 1968; and Anecdotes of the Prairies, 1973. All three books are obtainable from the AHSGR Loan Collection in the Greeley, Colorado, public library.

( 8) Dr. Becker has performed a most commendable service in translating these two volumes. The original German books by Father Keller were printed in Odessa, Russia, in 1905 and 1914. Hardly any of them were brought to the Western World. In 1973 Dr. Karl Stumpp gave his two volumes to the Institute fur Auslandsbeziehungen in Stuttgart, but no American library seems to possess copies of the

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German edition. Dr. A. Becker is also the author of a very fine article, "St. Joseph's Colony, Balgonie," Saskatchewan History, Winter 1967, pp. 1-18, in which he describes the coming of Black Sea German Catholics to this section of Canada in 1886.

NOTES AND REFERENCES - VOLGA GERMANS (1) Many contradictory statements (based upon the imperfect memories of elderly people) have been printed about

the Protestant Volga German scouts. Compare the story told by Richard Sallet, Russlanddeutsche Siedlungen in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, University of Chicago Press, 1931, p. 31, with the two versions related by Prof. Georg Rath. On page 27 of the Heimatbuch 1963 of the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, Prof. Rath states that a delegation consisting of twelve individuals was chosen in Balzer in 1872, but in an address given at the 1969 World Conference on Records and Genealogical Seminar in Salt Lake City, Utah (reprinted in AHSGR Work Paper No. 5 for February 1971) he gave the correct figure of fourteen scouts from both sides of the Volga who came to the United States in 1874. Prof. Rath deserves much credit for his long years of effort in painstakingly collecting information on the immigration of Russian Germans to America. He is, for example, the first historian who identified the steamship on which the Volga German scouts sailed, but in 1969 he failed to notice that one of the Bergseite scouts was from a Catholic village.

(2) The names of the colonies from which the Protestant delegates came were obtained from the following sources: Pastor J, Hölzer in "Die ersten Wolgadeutschen in Sutton und ein Teil ihrer Geschichte," Kirchenbote

Kalender 1927 (Redfield, South Dakota, p. 44) tells that Johannes Krieger and Johannes Nolde were from Norka.

On pages 6-7 of his Festschrift der Balzerer Wiedervereinigung (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1938) Jacob Volz tells that Georg Kähm and Heinrich Schwabauer came from Balzer. The shipping clerk in Hamburg spelled Kahm’s name as Köhn and in New York it was written as Köben, but such mistakes were often made by busy employees.

Prof. Georg Rath in "Die Russlanddeutschen in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nord Amerika," Heimatbuch 1963 (Stuttgart, Germany, p. 27) tells that Christoph Meisinger came from Messer. Prof. Rath also mentions a Johannes Lich of Schilling, but no such person sailed on the SS Schiller with the other delegates.

Johann Benzel came from Kolb. This information was given to me by Fred Koch of Olympia, Washington, and Peter Koch of Portland, Oregon. Franz Scheibel came from Kolb. See AHSGR Work

Paper No. 3 for Feb. 1970. The unknown author of this article was undoubtedly Andrew Wamboldt from Dietel.

Georg Stieben - colony still unknown. In the Work Paper article mentioned above, the "unknown author" states that one of the scouts came from Frank. Is the family name "Stieben" familiar to any of our members from Frank? Or could Georg Stieben have come from Balzer? Jacob Volz stated that three delegates from Balzer came to the United States in the summer of 1874.

(3) Outstanding research on the Protestant Volga Germans who settled in Kansas in the 1870's is being done by Esther Heinze Miller of Independence, Kansas, whose grandfather Heinze came to Kansas in 1875. Thanks to Laurin P. Wilhelm of Lawrence, Kansas, information has now come to light proving that Peter Brach, one of the early Protestant pioneers, left Russia in September 1876 just one month before his 20th birthday. He and his bride joined a group of forty Volga German families who settled on land north-west of Great Bend, Kansas. Credit should also be given to Roy Oestreich of Ritzville, Washington, for his careful research on the Volga Germans who came to Franklin County, Nebraska in 1876; and to Mrs. Alex. Kildow of Omaha, for initiating a widespread interest in the pioneers of Red Oak, Iowa. But it is only by combining such information that a complete picture of Protestant Volga German immigration to America can develop.

(4) Financial records of the Portland society have been preserved by the family of the treasurer. Arrangements are now being made for this material to be transferred to AHSGR headquarters. It might also be mentioned that the three Volga German communities which played a particularly important role in collecting money for famine sufferers were: Portland, Oregon; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Fresno, California.

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(5) The most important of these publications is a doctoral dissertation by Sister Mary Eloise Johannes which was printed in 1946. It describes in interesting fashion how the Volga German culture which was brought to Kansas in 1876 differed from that of either contemporary Germany or Russia, and also from that of the surrounding Anglo-American communities. It would make an interesting epilogue to her study if Sister Johannes (who is still alive) would undertake a present-day survey of Ellis County, using the same community, parish, and family questionnaire that she printed as an appendix to her dissertation.

(6 and 7) On sale at AHSGR headquarters in Lincoln. 3ee Newsletter, June 1974, p. 3. (8) These communities are, of course, mentioned by Richard Sallet, but no books, magazine articles, or

dissertations seem to have been written about the Volga Germans who live there. (9) Mr. Frodsham was responsible for the interesting story about John Conrad Metzler's first silver dollar as told

on page 6 of Work Paper No. 14 for April 1974.

AVAILABILITY OF PUBLICATIONS As indicated in the above articles, many of the references listed are available to

members through inter-library loan from the Archives of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia located at the Greeley Public Library, Greeley, Colorado 80631. The AHSGR Loan Collection now consists of more than 600 titles. Anyone wishing a complete listing of these materials may order the Bibliography of Loan Collection and the Supplement Bibliography of Loan Collection from international headquarters for $1.00 each.

Additions to the collection are an ongoing project of this society. Members of the Acquisitions Committee are Mrs. Emma S. Haynes, Oberursel, West Germany; Mrs. Clarence T. Olson, Denver, Colorado; Dr. Adam Giesinger, Winnipeg, Canada; and. Miss Esther Fromm, Greeley, Colorado, the librarian for the collection. They welcome suggestions for materials that should be added.

Some of the references, as well as other publications, are also available for purchase at international headquarters. A new Publications List which will be mailed to all members is in progress. It will include contents of each Work Paper published by the society, 19 maps, and many titles of books by author members.

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THE THIRD MIGRATION A HISTORY OF THE GERMANS FROM RUSSIA IN

LODI, CALIFORNIA An Address by Otto H. Hieb to the Fifth

International Convention at Fresno, California, June 21, 1974

There are few of our "Landsleute," wherever living in our country, who have not heard of the attractive town of Lodi nestled in the heart of the great central valley of California. And there are many who have relatives and friends living there now.

This town has been a "mecca" for our people since the first settlers arrived there at the turn of the century. Yet, upon careful investigation there appears to be no documentation or literature within our society providing details of how and why this town was selected by our earliest pioneers and why it is still drawing numbers of our ethnic group today from all parts of the country.

Since I was one of the first children to be born into one of the earliest families in the town, I have embarked on a research mission to collect what information and historical details are still available, which I hope will stimulate further research among interested persons of the community.

The name "Lodi" is rather interesting itself. It is not a Spanish name like so many others in California, which is evidence that it was not founded at an early date in California history. It is not the proper name of some founding family nor does it identify some geographic landmark or element of nature. Neither is it named after some great hero or local personage in history.

Its location between the larger cities of Stockton and Sacramento, the state capitol, is one of those chance events which has placed many of our towns and cities where they are today. In this case it was the construction of a railroad line connecting to major trunk lines, one passing through Sacramento and one through Stockton.

An "x" mark was placed by a railroad construction engineer at a point near a river called the "Mokelumne," named after a tribe of California Indians in the locality. For want of another name the proposed town was called "Mokelumne Station.” This was in the year 1869. However, the name conflicted with another town with the name of "Mokelumne," and in 1874 the name was changed to "Lodi." Some say this name was suggested in honor of a well known race horse of the time! I am more inclined to believe that it was proposed by a member of one of the Italian families in the area who had fond memories of their home city in Northern Italy - "Lodi."

In any event, the station was built and the town began to grow from store to store in order to serve the farmers in the area. The crops until the turn of the century were mainly wheat and other grains and a great. quantity of melons which seemed to thrive in this climate of warm days and cool nights and especially the high water level in the soil. The farmers and merchants were mostly former gold seekers and their descendants who decided to settle in this fertile valley after the gold rush had run its course.

It is understandable that because of its favorable climate and soil conditions the area would prosper and grow quite rapidly. So we find many families of various ethnic origins, especially Italian, German, Japanese, etc. settling here during the seventies and eighties stimulated of course by the usual promotion of the railroad agents.

Our "restless" German immigrants from Russia were already firmly established in the mid-west states of North and South Dakota, Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska where they had emigrated in great numbers from the Volga and Black Sea areas starting in 1872. Some had already come to California, the first group to Fresno, directly from Russia by way of Kansas in the year 1887. It is interesting to note here that one German family had emigrated from Southern Russia to China and later came to California by way of the Pacific Ocean during this same period.

With these early settlements word soon spread to the Midwest concerning the favorable climate and the availability of abundant fertile soil. This was also fostered by the vigorous promotion of the railroads which now extended through most of the Great Central Valley of California.

It was quite natural, therefore, that some of our immigrants should be looking rather longingly towards the west as the "Paradise" which their ancestors had visualized for so many generations. The news from the earliest settlers here was most encouraging and the stories and pictures of the railroad agents were very tempting.

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The first move was made by a group of farmers in South Dakota who found the appeal of California to be irresistible and who decided to investigate the possibility of migrating to this "Golden Paradise." It was four hardy pioneers who arrived at the railroad station in Stockton, California in the Spring of 1896. They were Wilhelm Hieb, my father's cousin; Gottlieb Hieb, my father's brother; Ludwig Derheim and Jacob Mettler. They were all successful farmers with large families located in McPherson County in the north-central part of the present state of South Dakota.

They were met by a real estate agent named Otto Grunsky who spoke German fluently. He represented a bank in Stockton which was holding considerable foreclosed property in the Lodi District. This meeting was by pre-arrangement, since Mr. Grunsky had already done some extensive promotion among the farmers in the Dakota area.

The four farmers were taken to Lodi, a distance of thirteen miles north of Stockton, where the farming areas were shown by Salesman Grunsky. Although he probably elaborated extensively on the superior merits of the climate and soil, this could not have made a great impact on these shrewd farmers. They already possessed a considerable heritage of farm and soil knowledge. Like their earlier ancestors, they probably picked up some soil, rubbed it in their hands, smelled it and tossed it in the air. They also noted the mild climate, warm days and cool nights, and no snow in the winter time. They liked the small town with its merchandise stores, schools, and medical facilities. The price was right - from $25.00 to $35.00 per acre.

These alert farmers were much impressed and they decided that this attractive area was the place for their future homes. Mr. Derheim purchased a half section immediately and planned to bring his family to Lodi the same year 1896. However tragedy struck the family when Mr. Derheim died suddenly. His widow and sons settled on the farm the following year.

Wilhelm Hieb also purchased a farm and settled with his family in the following year, 1897. He is considered the discoverer of Lodi and was called "Columbus Hieb" by the later settlers.

My father Friedrick Hieb and his brother Gottlieb purchased farms and brought their families early in the year 1900. I was born in the Fred Hieb family in Lodi in 1904. Jacob Mettler also brought his family in the same year 1900. Other families soon followed - among them were the Handels, Presslers, Schmiedts, Kirschmanns, Knolls, Freys, Nieses, Bettners, Benders, Suess, Wiegums and many others.

It is interesting to reflect at this point upon the difference in the conditions and motives of this "third migration" with the first and second which took place earlier.

First let us compare the important reasons why our ancestors departed from their long established homes so abruptly and undertook the hazardous journeys to different and unknown lands. In the first migration from Germany to Russia the reason was suffering and distress caused by frequent wars and oppression. The second migration, over one hundred years later, was also the result of distress, the edict of Czar Alexander II, to "Russianize" the German colonists and take from them their precious freedom.

But what prompted the migration from the Midwest to California? The conditions of this third migration were quite different from the first and second with their difficult journeys and their early hardships in the endless Russian Steppes and the vast Midwest plains. They were not young men and women as was the case in the previous migrations. They had large families and were mostly in their forties. Also, they were not poor, but as in the case of the earlier settlers in the Fresno area, they had ample capital to purchase farms and to start farm operations. Their journey west was a comfortable train ride of only a few days and when they arrived there were already buildings on most of the farms so they were not required to build the crude "semljanka" shelters.

It must be noted that this movement of our "landsleute" to California was not a mass migration, as in the first two situations, but a choice made by individual families. This choice was often common for a number of people. One of these was a feeling of restlessness, a characteristic inherited from our early ancestors which affected some people more than others. It involved the appeal that somewhere "beyond the sunset" there was a better land, even a paradise which offered a "better life."

Another cause was the loneliness and isolation of the homestead farms. This was endured in the early years when there was little other choice. But when they achieved a certain degree of prosperity, they were able to make this important decision.

From my mother I learned another important reason which I am sure applied to many Dakota settlers. This was the heartbreaking tragedy of death to so many children due to frequent epidemics which swept this area especially during the severe winters. Diphtheria, typhoid fever, smallpox and scarlet fever sometimes devastated complete families in the early pioneer days. There is no doubt that these tragic events

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left a lasting mark on many families and caused them to turn their sights toward a better land and climate. So, the first settlers arrived in Lodi, California, and proceeded once again to establish themselves in their new

surroundings. These alert and experienced farmers soon recognized that the soil and the climate was more suitable for grapes and fruit rather than grain crops. So their early plantings included vineyards and fruit orchards in addition to grain crops.

Wilhelm Hieb planted the first vineyard and had a small home winery for processing his own grapes. But, as the first large vineyards planted by the other settlers produced their crops, it became necessary to provide a large scale winery since there was none available in the Lodi District.

My father and his brother, whose farms were centrally located among the new settlers, built the first large winery in the year 1906 and the first crop of grapes was crushed and processed during this year — a memorable event since Lodi is today one of the largest wine producing centers in the state.

Several years later a spur track was built through the present town of Victor and it was found to be more economical to locate a winery near these tracks. This new winery was built on the Jacob Knoll farm, also one of our "landsleute," and all the Hieb processing machinery and equipment was moved to this winery. I understand that the winery is still there but has not been in use for many years.

Conditions were very favorable for the early farmers. More land was acquired and more vineyards planted each year. However they continued to operate complete farming activities including dairying, livestock, hogs, poultry, rabbits, and of course the usual large vegetable gardens. The families grew very rapidly. Six more children were born into our family making a total of eleven living together on our farm.

I have many pleasant recollections of our early farm life. Life seemed to revolve around the family and the church. The town was relatively unimportant and served only as a convenient place to sell the crops and to purchase the staple necessities which could not be produced on the farm. Since my father and mother spoke almost no English, there was very little contact with people of the community outside of fellow settlers.

The story of early life on the farm and the importance of the church must be told at another time. Suffice it to say here that these industrious farmers were well rewarded for their patience, their thriftiness, and their deep never-failing devotion to God. In good times the expression was "Got sei dank"; during adverse conditions it was "Es est die wille Gottes."

But now let us have a look at the thriving and prosperous town of Lodi today which has become the home of thousands of our "landsleute" and their descendants.

A glance at the latest telephone book will reveal the extent to which our people have adopted this town: 1. There are 55 family names of our "Landsleute" with 6 or more listings each. 2. There are 14 family names with 20 or more listings each. These are as follows:

28 Baumbachs 26 Preys 25 Handels 24 Reimkes 23 Schmierers 22 Bauers 20 Bechtholds

41 Mettlers 41 Reiswigs 40 Benders 37 Seibels 34 Goehrings 33 Hiebs 29 Schmidts

Although most of our people are still occupied in some form of agriculture, there are many now prominent in the

business and professional life of the community. An equally large number are retired senior citizens from all parts of the Midwest. Of course the favorable climate has attracted many of the retirees, but there are two other factors which are also important.

One is the large population of fellow "landsleute" many of whom still speak German fluently. "Maistub" even for the later generations is an important ingredient in the pleasure of social life and can be enjoyed to its fullest here.

Another factor is the Church. This is particularly important for the senior group who still adhere strongly to the influence of religion in their lives. No matter what religious persuasion our people may have adopted or may be seeking, it is available here. It has been my observation that among the many churches in this community those founded by our ancestors and still operating today are the most prosperous and best attended.

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Although I appear to emphasize the influence and numbers of our ethnic group in this community, I wish to point out that our people are no longer an isolated island as they were for many generations in Russia and as they were in the pioneer days in the Midwest and also here in California. A casual observer arriving here will find Lodi a typically clean American town with all ethnic groups so well assimilated that any difference in customs, language and traditions are observed only by careful study. This is a very significant condition in our interesting history for us to contemplate. Many of us were born into families who still spoke the German language and adhered to the same customs, traditions, and way of life as our ancestors in Germany two hundred years ago. Yet we find ourselves today completely integrated into the mainstream of American life along with the third and fourth generations born here. As a result, we see in our lifetime the end of those characteristics which our ancestors carried with them in their migrations and to which they clung so tenaciously for so many generations,

Our heritage is most interesting and unique among the many ethnic origins in our country. So, I as one beneficiary of the heritage greatly commend those "landsleute" who had the foresight and zeal to organize our society in order to preserve and document our interesting history for our enjoyment and for the benefit of future generations.

ADDITIONAL CONVENTION ADDRESSES In future issues of the Work Paper we hope to publish some of the other convention addresses such as the

description of the "1973 Visit on a Collective Farm" by Dr. Peter J. Klassen of Fresno and the presentations by Rev. J. B. Toews of Fresno and Rev. Fred W. Gross of Sacramento at the Sunday morning heritage and song festival.

Some presentations illustrated with slides cannot be reproduced, but for the historical record we will list them here.

"Wedding Bells Ringing, Skeletons in Closets Jingling" by Reuben Goertz of Freeman, South Dakota.

The Russian travelogue by Larry Metzler of Fresno, California.

The address at the Genealogy Symposium by Ron Bremmer of Salt Lake City, Utah.

"Germans from Russia in South America*' by Rev. Herbert Schaal of Lodi, California.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY AND RESEARCH COMMITTEE I. Bibliography

Materials relating to the history of Germans from Russia are widely scattered. Comprehensive lists of available materials usually do not exist. Suggested course of action:

Chapters could appoint local bibliographers who would try to compile lists of materials in that area. Local libraries could be used as starting points; then, a survey of homes of members (and others) could be undertaken. Information gained in this manner could be made available in mimeographed pamphlets.*

Also, members could urge local libraries to acquire various books that are readily available (and that deal with the history of Germans in and from Russia).

II. Research A great deal of archival material needs to be analyzed (see, for example Dr. Adam Giesingers's report on "Captured German Documents" in Work Paper No. 13, 1973, p. 12). Some of these materials are in the Library of Congress; others are in West Berlin and West Germany (see Emma S. Haynes' report on the vast number of documents in the Berlin Documents Center in Work Paper No. 14, 1974, p. 47). Suggested course of action: 1. Local chapters could develop programs for collecting data (e.g., oral interviews) and writing local histories.

Perhaps various firms, foundations, etc., would be interested in underwriting the expense of producing such studies.

2. The national headquarters might consider the possibility of approaching the U.S. Office of Education, National Endowment for the Humanities, for the purpose of obtaining funding for scholarly analysis of archival materials, as in Washington and West Berlin.

3. Regional histories of Germans from Russia could be commissioned by chapters. When completed, these histories could be placed in local libraries so that communities would be made more aware of the cultural and historical dimensions of ethnic groups in their areas.

4. Local libraries could be urged to purchase relevant books already available. 5. Interested members could be asked to translate various studies already available in German. These could be

published by the Society and advertised for sale to libraries and individuals. The Bibliography and Research Committee meeting at the convention endorsed the above suggestions and made this addition: The Work Paper should continue to carry short reviews and notices of books dealing with Germans from Russia. Also, research notes could be published so that members would be aware of what is being done.

Respectfully submitted, Peter J. Klassen, Fresno, California Chairman

* Editorial note: Such a bibliography was published during the past year by the Central California Chapter. The list was compiled by Dr. Peter J. Klassen and Mrs. Elsie Sturges.

CHAPTER ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE

We salute our AHSGR chapters. They make a wonderful contribution to the progress of our Society. Since 1970, it has been one of our ambitions to organize chapters in various locales where there seemed to be a

goodly number of our members interested in our heritage. To date we are pleased to have a chain of twelve active, thriving chapters. During the year many new contacts were made and much helpful material was mailed to leaders where a new chapter seemed feasible. We always live in expectation. We know our potential is great as we try to organize new chapters in all of our states and in Canada. California has out-ranked all states. They have four booming chapters and those of us here at this convention are enjoying the harvest of their efforts in their wonderful planning and hosting of our 1974 Convention.

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Now it is my pleasure to announce the organization of our fifth California chapter, namely the new Sacramento Chapter. Thus we add another link and have thirteen chapters. How wonderful! Their members, including their officers, are here. They have met the two requirements for affiliation with International AHSGR. The Sacramento Chapter has the same purposes as International and all their members are members of AHSGR. Their Bylaws have been approved by the International Board of Directors and they now look forward to receiving their charter.

Their officers are: Rev. Fred Gross, Honorary President; Dr. Emil Toews, President; Mrs. Adeline Weston, Vice-President; C. R. "Bob" Krieger, Secretary-Treasurer. We acknowledge the work of Rev. Fred Gross. He gave much of the final "push" that made the Sacramento Chapter a reality. All of us welcome and congratulate them heartily and wish them much success.

In closing, several members in attendance here have expressed the hope of organizing a chapter where they live. Be assured we stand ready to give you any assistance we can and we look forward to more new chapters in the coming year,

Respectfully submitted, Mrs. Theodore E. Heinz, Greeley, Colorado Chairman

FINANCE COMMITTEE

Since the last convention our fiscal year was changed to coincide with the calendar year. Memberships are on the calendar year so this is helpful in accounting and in preparing a realistic budget.

Since our income is derived for the most part from membership dues, much of the discussion at the finance committee workshop centered on how to increase enrollment. The following suggestions were made:

1) That we push life memberships as well as supporting, contributing, and sustaining memberships. 2) That we encourage a feeling of competition between chapters and states. 3) That we cultivate the younger descendants of membership families through special programs and urge them

to join. 4) That we continue our efforts to attain the goal of "400 more in '74," Some discussion pointed up the possibility that with increased costs we may need to consider raising the

membership fees after 1975.

Respectfully submitted, Lester Harsh, McCook, Nebraska Chairman

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE During the past year the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia published three Work Papers,

three Newsletters, and the 1974 Edition of Clues, our genealogical resource. All of these were sent to all members. In reporting to this convention, a strong plea is made for more textual material to be incorporated into our

workpapers. To publish workpapers of maximum interest to all of our readers, these requested contributions should cover all segments of AHSGR. It is most difficult to accomplish this if no "inputs" are received from the membership. Then, too, let headquarters know your likes and dislikes. Rest assured, every such letter received will be heavily weighted and serve as a guideline in the preparation of future workpapers.

It should also be reported that this past year a special effort was made to improve the appearance as well as the reading material of the workpapers. An area which will receive major attention during this coming year is the issuance of publications in a more timely manner.

Respectfully submitted, Phil B. Legler, Denver, Colorado Chairman

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MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

"400 More in '74." By this time all of you are familiar with this slogan. What it means is that we would like to end 1974 with 400 more memberships than we had at the end of 1973. This would bring us to 1,800 memberships with well over 4,000 individuals enjoying the program of AHSGR.

A look at some membership statistics should be of interest to all of you. A comparison of paid membership totals: Membership groupings as of June 12, 1974:

June 13, 1974 1,523 New Members in 1974 319 June 15, 1973 1,218 Life Members 1 December 31, 1972 885 $25 Supporting renewals 31 . $10 Individual and family renewals 1,172 . Exchange Memberships ____3

Total 1,526 Non-Renewals in 1974:

In Chapter Areas 126 Outside Chapter Areas _ 92

Total 218

Institutional and Organizational Members — 15 Canada - 30 Germany — 7 Number of States represented - 39

10 States with the most memberships

1. California 298 2. Colorado 294 3. Nebraska 253 4. Oregon 153 5. Michigan 71

*Areas leading in new memberships for 1974: California 91 Nebraska 45 Colorado 40 Oregon 28

65 44 42 34 21 16 16 15 11

6. Washington 7. Kansas 8. North Dakota 9. Wyoming

10. Illinois

Washington Michigan Kansas Canada

During the past year we have tried these approaches: 1. We have made an extra attempt to contact persons with Russian-German names in organized groups such as

churches and professions. 2. We have done several mailings to former members. 3. We have sent special letters to lists of prospects submitted by members. 4. We have followed up on people who have purchased our publications by sending them further information and a

brochure. 5. We have made brochures available at special events. 6. We have stressed gift memberships. 7. We have revamped the brochure to make it a self-mailer with a membership enrollment form attached.

The committee meeting at the convention made these suggestions: 1. That we place a membership brochure in all books sold to non-members. 2. That every member follow up on the recommendations made by our president in her speech to the convention

— that every member take the responsibility of securing one new member in 1974. Respectfully submitted, Mrs. Delores K. Schwartz, *Lincoln, Nebraska Chairman

*In the absence of Mrs. Schwartz, Mrs. Elsie Whittington chaired the committee meeting and presented this report to the convention.

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RELIGIOUS HISTORY COMMITTEE The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia encourages the discovery, the identification, the

preservation, the translation, the duplication, and the interpretation of our religious history documents, church membership books, church business meeting minutes, letters between priests or pastors and their parishioners, and other related books and manuscripts,

The religious writings of the spiritual leaders active in Germany, Holland, and Switzerland, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries formed a basis for encouraging the religious and church life of our forefathers, both in Russia and later in North America. The proviso in the Privilegiums which restricted the winning of the native Russian population to the Germans from Russia denominations may have assisted with strengthening our own groups: Roman Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran, Separatist, and Mennonite.

The German village pastor and the village school teacher often were the leaders in the literary and demographic record keeping endeavors during the pioneering, developmental, and maturing periods of the German, Dutch and Swiss colonies in Russia. The civil authorities often relied upon the ecclesiastical officers for the accurate recording of various dates and names including births, baptisms, confirmations, marriages, separations, divorces, membership transfers, deaths, and burials with locations, Therefore the religious history documents and records which we have today form a rich primary resource for studies in church history, family genealogies, and the various movements and migrations of the Germans in and from Russia.

Much progress has been made in discovering and collecting the surviving religious history artifacts at various locations in North America. Miss Esther Fromm, Director of the AHSGR Library Loan Collection at Greeley, Colorado, reported at the 1972 convention that more than 184 books had been received and catalogued. Many additional volumes have been received and are available for use by our membership. At least one-fourth of these books could be classified as dealing with religious history. The following are examples of the materials which are on file.

Kessler, Joseph Alonsius, Geschichte der Diosese Tyraspol, S.R. Deffner, Rev. L.H., ed., A Century of Blessing: Centennial History of the Kansas district of the Lutheran Church

- Missouri Synod 1861-1961. Basyrfamka: Eine Deutsche Gemeinde am Schwarzen Meer: 1891-1940. Funk, Ray N., Bruderthal Church, 1873-1964, 99th Anniversary. The "Gemeinde Bucher" required to be maintained by the pastors and priests in the Danzig area of Prussia and

southwest Germany form another reservoir of facts and information for use in AHSGR research, A number of our members have been to western Europe and brought back valuable data on the religious background of our peoples.

Religious motivations and desires played an important role in the migrations from Central Europe to Russia, Fateful Danube Journey, edited by Friedrich Fiechtner and translated by Theodore C, Wenzlaff, graphically describes the trials of a group of German Pietists who migrated to the Caucasus region of South Russia. Some religious yearnings, centered around the hope for the second coming of Jesus Christ resulted in the famous treks from the Volga and Molotschna regions of Russia to Central Asia by Dutch-German Mennonites. The first wagon caravan left the Am Trakt settlement in Samara Province on July 3, 1880, and arrived in Tashkent on October 18, after a very difficult and adventurous trip through the desert. Additional group treks occurred until finally the two permanent new colonies were founded in Asiatic Russia of Aulie-Ata and Ak-Mechet by 1884, The Roman Catholic Seminary in Saratov may have sent missionaries to various German speaking villages and these activities need to be recorded or translated into English. The Roman Catholic and other confessions surely have similar stories to tell of migrations and resettlements for the sake of conscience and religious values,

The duplication and reproduction of religious history materials presently preserved and still in the Gothic or the German cursive script should have a top priority as a goal of this society. The slogan, "there is safety in numbers," definitely applies to the records preservation activities of our members. Xeroxed or other photo static copies are being and should be exchanged between our members and the new historical libraries being developed by some of our local chapters. These additional copies of materials will make them more available to volunteer or professional translators. We trust that our society will be successful in procuring some fund grants from either public sources or private foundations so that many of these handwritten documents can he translated. For example, four Xerox copies of the first church book of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Hillsboro, Kansas, have been prepared during 1974 through the cooperation of Arthur E. Flegel, Raymond F. Wiebe, and Fred Foth. Mr. Foth is the present owner of this original 60 page document

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which contains a wealth of information on a number of German from Russia immigrant families for the 1874 through 1904 time period. These copies will now be made available to researchers and translators.

The North American Baptist Convention (German Baptist) has a group which is writing its denomination's history including events in Germany, Russia, and North America. German Congregational Conferences existed in the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Colorado. Their records need to be codified and copies should be filed in the AHSGR library. The German from Russia Catholic people in Ellis and surrounding counties in Kansas have good records which are included in the official Salina and Wichita diocese publications.

This brief review is designed to whet our historical appetites and to encourage us to share this religious heritage with the present and future generations. A more active program in the area of religious history studies can supplement and support the already excellent work being done in genealogy and folklore by our society.

Respectfully submitted, Raymond F. Wiebe, Hillsboro, Kansas Acting Chairman

TRANSLATIONS COMMITTEE Numerous books and articles dealing with the history of and life in the German Colonies in Russia have been

published in the German language. The most complete list of these publications has been compiled by Dr. Karl Stumpp and published under the title Das Schriftum uber das Deutschtum in Russland* Some of the shorter articles have been translated and have appeared in such publications as the AHSGR WORK PAPER and HERITAGE REVIEW of NDHSGR. Only a few books or longer articles have been translated and published. Among these are the following:**

1. The German-Russians Two Centuries of Pioneering by Dr. Karl Stumpp, translated by Dr. Joseph Height. 2. The German Colonies In South Russia 1804 to 1904 by Rev. P. Conrad Keller, translated by Dr. A. Becker. 3. The German Colonies In South Russia, Volume II by Rev. P. Conrad Keller, translated by Dr. A. Becker. 4. Fateful Danube Journey edited by Friederich Fiechtner, translated by Colonel Theodore C. Wenzlaff. 5. The Emigrations From Germany To Russia In The Years 1763 To 1962 by Dr. Karl Stumpp, with parts

translated by Dr. Joseph Height. 6. Hundert Jahre Deutscher Baptismus In Russland by Eduard Hornbacher, translated by Dr. Albert W. Wardin.

Books presently being translated include; 1. German Colonies On The Volga by Gottlieb Beratz. The translator is an AHSGR member of the Oregon

Chapter. 2. Chronik Of Teplitz by Herbert Weisz. The translator is Mr. T. J. Schmierer of Albuqurque, New Mexico. Book-length German publications dealing with the Germans from Russia in the Western Hemisphere are

relatively few in number as compared to those of the German Colonies in Russia. At least two of these have been translated, the first one indicated is published and the other will appear in July 1974. These are: **

1. Experiences From My Missionary Life In The Dakotas by Rev. Peter Bauer, translated by Armand and Elaine Bauer.

2. Russian-German Settlements In The United States by Dr. Richard Sallet, translated by Drs. La Vern J. Rippley and Armand Bauer.

Arthur Flegel is continuing to translate the Eugene Gustav Schmidt letters. These letters portray conditions and events in the German Colonies of the North Caucasus during the period 1911 to 1933.

The Translations Committee discussed two problems relative to translation of books. The first of these was: whether financial support for publication will be provided by AHSGR, assuming support is needed. The consensus was that each project should be considered individually and that the AHSGR Board of

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Directors would need to make the final determination of extent of support. The second question dealt with editing book-length translations. It is recognized that a translator is often placed

in a role of interpreter and that not all translators necessarily agree to the exact intent of the author. It was agreed among Committee members that it would prove advantageous and add a degree of authenticity to the translation if the comments of editors would appear as a prefix to the translated publication. It would seem reasonable to expect translators to make their own arrangements for editing. This need for editors points up another definite reason why more people should consider making their services available in the area of translations.

The Committee has not prepared a priority list of books and other articles to be translated, but rather leaves the choice of translation to the individual. (The Committee however can make suggestions upon request.) It is felt that volunteer translators should proceed with items that are of interest to them.

There is a definite need for more people who have the ability to translate to make their services available, especially those who were, or are, familiar with the culture of our people. We believe that more effort should be directed to translations in order to provide more of the history of the German Colonies in Russia and the early life in the Americas for those generations unfamiliar with the German language. Only by providing information in the language of the people can the Society expect memberships from these generations.

Respectfully submitted, Armand Bauer, Fargo, North Dakota Chairman

* This publication is available from AHSGR Headquarters at Lincoln, Nebraska, ** Those interested in these publications can write to the translation committee or AHSGR Headquarters for more

information.

AHSGR STANDING COMMITTEES The above reports represent but a few of the standing committees of the society. We hope in the coming

year to involve more of the membership in work pertaining to our program. The recently revised AHSGR Bylaws list the following standing committees; Finance, Membership, Public Relations and Publicity, Publications, Genealogy, Translation, Program, Research and Bibliography, Folklore, Library, and Chapter Organization.

If you are interested in helping with these by serving as a committee member, please write us at AHSGR headquarters, 615 D Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68502.

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"WIE'S DAHEIM WAR"

"Wie's Daheim War" ("The Way It Was Back Home"), a one-act play written and performed by members of the Golden Gate Chapter of AHSGR was a highlight of the Fresno Convention.

The action takes place in Bessarabia in 1890 in the home of Jakob (played by Michael Rombs) and his wife, Maria (Maria Philipps) and their two children, Margaret and Stephan (Margit Rombs and Steven Niessner), Like many fellow colonists who migrated out of Russia because of the revocation by Tsar Alexander II of special colonists rights and privileges, Maria and Jakob are preparing to leave for the United States. The children play dominoes in the family's nearly bare living room while their parents finish packing.

Neighbors Johann (John Philipps) and Gretel (Lydia Gemmet) arrive to see them off. The friends talk in the "Schwabisch" dialect about the good old days and changes which have taken place since the Tsar's decree. Land is now scarce and expensive and the Russian language is being forced into colonial schools and churches. They discuss the fate of friends and relatives who have left for Siberia and the Americas. Johann is skeptical about stories of easy wealth abroad and remarks that he plans to stay put.

Other neighbors, Heinrich (Robert Niessner) and Rosel (Roswita Niessner) and their son Hans (Mark Niessner) arrive. After the restless children are sent outside Heinrich reads a letter from his Uncle Peter who has settled in Fresno where he is prospering. The family owns their own land, a cow, two horses, hogs and chickens, and have built a new home. Uncle Peter earns $2 a day working for August Schwabenland planting new vineyards and plans a vineyard for his own forty acres. He does complain about the fact that in America the men are expected to milk the cows!

Rosel voices her hope that Jakob and Maria will find a church to attend in the United States since she has heard that many people do not go to church there.

The children re-enter and Hans wants to know why his family is not planning to go to America. His father explains that they do not have enough money to emigrate and that they cannot leave their aged grandparents in any case. Rosel reminds Heinrich to present the parting gift of homemade sausage and sunflower seeds they have brought for their friends.

Other neighbors arrive and all join in singing "Tief drin in Böhmerwald," "Grosser Gott, Wir Loben Dich," and "Gott ist die Liebe". During the singing of "Evening Bells" in Russian, Jakob, Maria and their children leave. The play ends with the family arriving in Fresno to the singing of "America the Beautiful".

Editorial Note: This play was presented as the luncheon program on June 21, 1974.

TIEF DRIN IM BÖHMERWALD

O holde Kindeszeit, Noch einmal kehr zurück, Wo spielend ich genoss Das allerhöchste Glück, Wo ich am Vaterhaus Auf grüner Wiese stand Und weithin schaute auf Mein Vaterland.

Tief drin im Böhmerwald, Da liegt mein Heimatort, Es ist gar lang schon her, Dass ich von dort bin fort. Doch die Erinnerung, Die bleibt mir stets gewiss, Dass ich den Böhmerwald Gar nie vergiss.

Refrain: Es war im Böhmerwald, Wo meine Wiege stand, Im schönen, grünen Böhmerwald, Es war in Böhmerwald, Wo meine Wiege stand, Im schönen, grünen Wald.

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INTERNATIONAL SECRETARY'S REPORT

The International Board of Directors and officers met five times between the 1973 and 1974 conventions. Meetings were held in three different states. The first meeting was held August 18-19, 1973, at Mr. and Mrs. Chester Krieger's home in Wheatridge, Colorado. At this meeting the board changed the fiscal year of AHSGR to coincide with the calendar year, January 1 through December 31. The financing agreement between AHSGR and the Lincoln Chapter was consummated for the current year. This was to be reviewed at the end of the year. Mr. Jake Sinner will act as liaison between the Lincoln Chapter and International AHSGR.

The second meeting was held November 2-4, 1973, in Lincoln, Nebraska, at our new International Headquarters, 615 D Street. This was an historical event with the offices and museum being dedicated on November 2, 1973. Rev. Edwin Berreth gave the invocation which was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Kristin Taylor. Our own Honorable Mayor Sam Schwartzkopf and Ralph Giebelhaus, Chapter One President, greeted members and guests and expressed pleasure and confidence in having International AHSGR Headquarters located in Lincoln, Nebraska. Mr. David J. Miller, a founder and AHSGR's first president, cut two ribbons, one for international headquarters and the other for the Lincoln Chapter museum.

Mrs. Katherine B. Weber, Treasurer, reported that she has placed the financial records of the Society on a calendar year basis as approved by the Board at the August 1973 meeting,

The third meeting was held on January 26, 1974, at International AHSGR Headquarters located at 615 D Street, Lincoln, Nebraska. At this meeting the board was informed that the balance in our International AHSGR Foundation fund had reached $1,043.15. Also, Ruth M. Amen, announced selections to the Foundation Board of Trustees.

The fourth meeting was held on March 29-31, 1974, in Freeman, South Dakota, in conjunction with the annual Schmeckfest. Mr. Jake Sinner recommended that the new Hilton Hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska, be the convention site for 1975.

The recommended revision of the Bylaws was discussed and agreement reached for presenting them to the Board for final approval at the May meeting.

The fifth meeting was held May 3-4, 1974, in McCook, Nebraska, during German Heritage Days. This was a significant meeting in our brief history-the Board adopted the final revision of the by-laws governing the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia.

Respectfully submitted, Edward Schwartzkopf, Lincoln, Nebraska Secretary

INTERNATIONAL AHSGR NOMINATING COMMITTEE The following individuals are hereby nominated to the International Board of Directors of the American

Historical Society of Germans from Russia: Mrs. Rachel Amen, Loveland, Colorado Phil B. Legler, Denver, Colorado Miss Ruth M, Amen, Lincoln, Nebraska Jerry Lehr, Denver, Colorado Dr. Armand Bauer, Fargo, North Dakota Mrs. John L. Long, Jr., Greeley, Colorado Jack Deines, Portland, Oregon David J. Miller, Greeley, Colorado Reinhold Eichler, Yakima, Washington Mrs. Marie M. Olson, Littleton, Colorado Herbert Engel, Berrien Springs, Michigan Edward Scheldt, Sanger, California Arthur E. Flegel, Menlo Park, California Gordon L. Schmidt, Henderson, Nebraska Dr. Adam Giesinger, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Edward Schwartzkopf, Lincoln, Nebraska

Reuben Goertz, Freeman, South Dakota Jake Sinner, Lincoln, Nebraska Lester Harsh, McCook, Nebraska Miss Ruth K. Stoll, Yuma, Arizona Mrs. Emma S. Haynes, West Germany Mrs. Gerda S. Walker, Denver, Colorado

Mrs. Theodore H. Heinz, Greeley, Colorado Mrs. Katherine B, Weber, Lincoln, Nebraska Mrs. W. E. Hieb, Henderson, Nebraska Mrs. Elsie Whittington, Lincoln, Nebraska Arthur Kiesz, Milwaukee, Oregon Raymond F. Wiebe, Hillsboro, Kansas Miss JoAnn Kleim, Fresno, California Herman Wildermuth, Yucca Valley, California

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Honorary Members: Mr. H. J. Amen, Honorary President, Lincoln, Nebraska Dr. Karl Stumpp, Honorary Chairman, Tuebingen, West Germany

Respectively submitted, Mrs. Clarence T. Olson, Denver, Colorado, Chairman

Jack Deines, Portland, Oregon Miss JoAnn Kleim, Fresno, California Jacob Michel, Saginaw, Michigan Mrs. Elsie Whittington, Lincoln, Nebraska

Editorial Note: All the above were elected.

1974 RESOLUTIONS COMMITTEE No. 1:

RESOLVED: That as a method of sharing the inspiration and values received at this convention, we will during the next year redouble our efforts to research, trace and record our genealogy, collect and preserve artifacts and memorabilia brought over to this country from Russia by our forefathers, and to continue to gather historical documents, including old family Bibles, German books, newspapers, early personal letters and commercial records of this country's pioneer businesses.

No, 2: WHEREAS, the interest in our people and Society continues to grow,

RESOLVED: That we encourage and solicit opportunities to speak to schools, organizations and interested groups about the history of the Germans from Russia.

No. 3: WHEREAS, on June 23, 1973, the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, an organization

dedicated to the preservation of the cultural heritage of millions of German forefathers in Russia and in North and South America, caused to be sent to the President of the United States a telegram in the form annexed hereto, and WHEREAS, the President of the United States will shortly meet again with USSR leaders in Russia, on matters of mutual concern between their countries,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED: That the members of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, now meeting at their fifth annual convention in Fresno, California, again express to the President their concern for the restoration of civil rights to a sizable minority group, the ethnic Germans living in the Soviet Union, including the right to live and travel in any part of the USSR, or to return to their traditional home areas if they so desire.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the President again be requested to discuss with USSR leaders the possibility of making available to this society for its historical and genealogical research the 1769 census records taken by the Imperial Russian Army, and contained in the Archives of the Soviet Union.

No. 4: WHEREAS, we owe our protection and growth in America during the last 100 years to our Heavenly Father, and WHEREAS, we are a religious people with appreciative hearts, NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED: That we acknowledge His divine guidance and ask for His help in teaching to our children the Christian principles of the faith of our fathers.

No. 5: WHEREAS, Emma Haynes Schwabenland accepted the invitation to participate in this Fifth Annual

Convention of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, and noting her contribution toward the continued establishment of preserving our heritage,

RESOLVED: That thanks and appreciation be extended her for her efforts and future endeavors.

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No. 6: RESOLVED: That our honorable President, Ruth Amen, be extended our deep gratitude and appreciation for generous and devoted service.

No,7: RESOLVED: That we extend our appreciation to Convention Chairman, Dr. Norman C. Bitter, and other

members of the Central California Chapter, who, with the assistance of the Golden Gate, Southern California and Lodi Chapters, have made this Fifth Convention a memorable event.

No. 8: WHEREAS, the facilities of the Sheraton Inn have been the site for this Fifth Annual Convention and WHEREAS, the manager and personnel made it possible for us to enjoy good food, a pleasant

environment and prompt attention to our many needs, RESOLVED: That we extend our thanks for their assistance.

No. 9: RESOLVED: That inasmuch as the International Board of Directors has accepted the invitation of the

Lincoln Chapter to host the 1975 Convention, that all of us make plans to attend and enjoy the fellowship next year in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Respectfully submitted, Arthur Kiesz, Milwaukie, Oregon, Chairman Mrs. Rachel Amen, Loveland, Colorado Dee R. Cole, Niles, Michigan Mrs. Cleora Flegel, Menlo Park, California Mrs. Dorothea P. Kerr, South Gate, California

THE INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION OF THE AMERICAN of the HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF GERMANS FROM RUSSIA

GOOD NEWS is ours at this Convention. Beginnings often are slow. I am pleased to report progress. It has been said that one of the greatest things we experience in life is an IDEA. The value of an idea cannot be

measured. Its influence, of course, depends solely upon its purpose and service to others. The idea of an AHSGR Foundation was presented to our International Board of Directors in January, 1971. After reviewing many other existing foundations and evaluating their benefits, a committee was appointed to explore the possibility of establishing a foundation, the funds of which would be used to further the work of our society's historical research, to support educational efforts and publications and to help provide repositories for the safe keeping of records and memorabilia.

In May, 1973, we launched our first efforts to establish our foundation. A brochure clearly designated its purpose. We invited all our members to become Lamplighters. By making a donation of twenty-five dollars or more you would become a Lamplighter and help light the path of the foundation. Its funds would do great things for our society. Many of you responded. We sincerely thank you for your interest and goodwill. We also suggested that memorial gifts honoring loved ones be made to the foundation.

Now it is our privilege to inform you that as of March 25, 1974, the Articles of Incorporation of the International Foundation of AHSGR as a non-profit organization were duly filed in the State of Colorado. Twelve members were designated on the first Board of Trustees. They are- Dr. Armand Bauer, Dr. John L. Dietz, Alexander Dupper, Reuben Goertz, Mrs. Theodore E. Heinz, Mrs. Clarence T. Olson, Mrs. Raynold Schmick, Edward Schwartzkopf, Miss Ruth K. Stoll, Don C. Vowel, Albert Wardin, Raymond F. Wiebe. Trustees are to be elected at this convention as follows: four members to serve for three years, four members for two years, and four members for one year. These members may be re-elected.

In addition, the International President, Miss Ruth M. Amen. and the General Counsel of AHSGR, David J. Miller, were designated to serve ex-officio. This makes a total of fourteen members serving on the Board of Trustees, Mrs. Clarence T. Olson of Denver, Colorado, will serve as Secretary and Dr. John L, Dietz of Greeley, Colorado, will serve as Treasurer.

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The Board of Trustees had three business sessions during this convention to complete and approve the Foundation Bylaws and review our future goals. It was suggested that we strive for funds amounting to $15,000 this coming year. If every member and every chapter makes just one donation this year, we will easily reach our goal.

A new brochure is in the making and will be available for distribution. Also, appropriate forms acknowledging donations will soon be printed. As of June 1, 1974, our bank deposits totaled $1,238.77. (The Golden Gate Chapter has already donated $197.75 during this convention.) Last December Northern Colorado Chapter donated $116.42 during its Christmas holiday dinner meeting.

All of us are dedicated to AHSGR. Time is of the essence. OUR HERITAGE IS FOR POSTERITY AND FOREVER. We invite every one to participate and support the foundation. You will be glad you did.

Respectfully submitted, Mrs. Theodore E. Heinz, Greeley, Colorado President, Foundation Board of Trustees

AHSGR FOUNDATION NOMINATING COMMITTEE The Nominating Committee of the International Foundation of the American Historial Society of Germans from

Russia submits the following nominees for election to the Board of Trustees: For 3 year terms: Mrs, Theodore E. Heinz, Greeley, Colorado Edward Schwartzkopf, Lincoln, Nebraska Don C. Vowel, San Mateo, California Raymond F. Wiebe, Hillsboro, Kansas For 2 year terms: Alexander Dupper, Lodi, California Reuben Goertz, Freeman, South Dakota Mrs. Clarence T. Olson, Littleton, Colorado Albert W. Wardin, Lake Oswego, Oregon For 1 year terms: Dr. Armand Bauer, Fargo, North Dakota Dr. John L. Dietz, Greeley, Colorado Mrs. Raynold Schmick, Saginaw, Michigan Miss Ruth K. Stoll, Yuma, Arizona Also serving on the board as ex-officio members: Miss Ruth M. Amen, International President of AHSGR David J. Miller, General Counsel of AHSGR

Respectfully submitted, Mrs. David J. Miller, Greeley, Colorado, Chairman Clarence Krieger, Fresno, California Mrs. Albert W. Wardin, Portland, Oregon

Editorial Note: The above nominees were elected.

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AN ADDITION TO THE LOAN COLLECTION

From Catherine to Khrushchev: The Story of Russia's Germans by Adam Giesinger. Marian Press, Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada, 1974, 443 p., hard cover.

In this monumental work, Doctor Adam Giesinger of Winnipeg, Canada, himself a Russian German, has provided the most complete, authoritative and well-written history of "unser Leute" to have yet appeared in English. He has, within the confines of one volume, dealt specifically and intelligently with all German settlements in Russia and all religious groups among them,

And he writes with a historian's objectivity. He deals equally with Volga and Black Sea colonies and the many other, although less well-known settlement areas within Russia's huge confines. Professor Giesinger's work is largely free of the opinionated editorializing that has marred so many previous contributions to the history of the Russian Germans. The book is never dry, although it is certainly scholarly. Professor Giesinger has documented his history with a bibliography of 176 books and numerous periodicals which is itself a source book for studies in Russian German history. Much of the material from which he draws has heretofore been unavailable to persons without a reading knowledge of the German language, and much of that material has been widely dispersed among scarce periodicals and out-of-print editions. Professor Giesinger has meticulously researched and wrestled the often fragmentary reminiscences and sometimes conflicting reports of his voluminous sources into a logically organized survey.

While the conciseness of the book's treatment of a long time period and a huge geographic area is one of its strong virtues, the reader is often left with the desire to know what it was like, in human terms, to actually experience the events Giesinger describes. The copious notes which follow the text refer the curious reader to original sources which can sometimes satisfy the interest that is piqued by Giesinger's account.

One wonders whether considerations of euphony or modesty prompted the author to title his volume "From Catherine to Khrushchev" since his comprehensive history ranges much further than that. Actually the history covers the period from the time of Ivan the Terrible (1553-1584), when German artisans were already established in their own suburb of Moscow and Baltic Germans had been the ruling class for centuries in an area later annexed to Russia by Peter the Great, down to the present time. Giesinger's book is, in fact, the first history to deal comprehensively with both the colonists of the manifesto eras and the earlier individually settled "servants of the Tsars."

The first chapter gives a careful explication of the deplorable conditions in the loosely-knit and war-torn principalities of the Holy Roman Empire from which "unser Leute" originated and the attractive provisions of Catherine's manifesto which lured them eastward. Chapter II recounts the process of recruitment of Germans for Russian emigration, their arduous trek to the new land and the unimaginable difficulties they faced in their new homes on the Volga: lack of housing; short supplies of food, seeds, and farm equipment; adverse weather; unscrupulous Russian "directors"; restrictive regulations; the scourge of robber bands; the Pugachev rebellion and raids by the Kirghiz and Kalmucks who pillaged, murdered and often carried colonists off into slavery.

Chapters III and IV cover Catherine's expansions of Russian territories and her efforts and those of her grandson Alexander I to entice more German colonists to the new regions. These resulted in immigrations of the first Mennonites to Russia and the foundation of the Black Sea and Bessarabian colonies, and smaller settlements in Volhynia and the South Caucasus. Chapter V details the life and governmental organization of the colonists while Chapter VI describes the founding of daughter colonies,

Chapter VII, "The Empire They Built," is perhaps the most useful portion of the volume. It provides a sort of mini-handbook giving descriptions and concise histories of ALL the colonial settlements with maps locating the dörfer included in each area. This is particularly useful to persons whose knowledge of their ancestry includes only the name of the "dorf grandmother came from." Each dorf is listed in its proper colony, providing a key to further research.

The pre-colonial Germans in Russia are dealt with in Chapter VIII. The center section of the book details the religious history of the Russian Germans, dealing separately and objectively with the various factions of Protestants, Mennonites, and Roman Catholics.

Chapters XII-XVI continue the history of the Russian Germans through the abrogation of privilege under Alexander II, the emigration fever which spread as a consequence, the persecutions of the first world war, repeated famine, the deportations and slave labor camps of the Stalinist regime, the liquidation of the German colonies in European Russia, the changing fortunes of the second world war which doomed even

38

former colonists who had escaped to the Fatherland and had accepted German citizenship to servitude in the labor camps of the USSR and the final expurgation of Germans as a Russian people—even from the history of the Soviet Union.

Although events of the Russian Revolution and civil war and the later purges of the Stalin era will be well known to most readers, especially those who are familiar with the writings of Robert Conquest and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Professor Giesinger gives a most readable and concise account of the struggle for power among the revolutionary and post-revolutionary factions and delineates what their succession to power meant to the fate of the Russian Germans.

In "Survivors in Russia," Professor Giesinger explains how the Russian Germans, although exonerated by Khrushchev from charges of collaboration with the Nazi invaders, are prevented from re-settling in their former colonies. Giesinger gives the present location of Germans in Russia and details their current economic, cultural and religious conditions and their negligible success in seeking permission to emigrate.

The final chapter, "Relatives Overseas,” covers exhaustively the various emigrations of Germans to the Americas-beginning with those 18th century Germans who chose to colonize the United States while others of their countrymen were responding to Catherine's Russian invitation. The second great migration, from Russia to America, which began as early as 1849, is recounted, including lists of delegates sent exploring in North and South America in preparation for the later mass emigrations from Russia to the New World. Further migrations within the Americas spread Russian Germans from the western prairies of Alberta to the pampas of Argentina and Brazil. An account of the treatment of these immigrants, especially during the two world wars, is given.

The book also includes 27 pages of maps and much useful tabular and reference information. Although an index of names of German dörfer in Russia would have been a helpful addition, the index has been carefully prepared and is most valuable in a work of such inclusiveness.

Professor Giesinger ends his history with references to the work of the "Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland" and the American sister societies, AHSGR and the North Dakota HSGR, and the hope that "something of the heritage of this people will be preserved in America." Professor Giesinger's From Catherine to Khrushchev goes a long way to make that hope a reality.

Reviewed by Nancy Bernhardt Holland Editorial Note: This book was donated to the AHSGR Archives by the author. It may be purchased at $10.75 per copy (U.S. funds), postpaid from the author, 645 Oxford Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3M 3J3.

AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT This Work Paper along with the two previous issues has been edited at AHSGR headquarters with proof

reading done by several volunteers including Mrs. Elsie Whittington, Mrs. Gerald Willis, Phil B. Legler and Mrs. Nancy Holland. During this time we have been searching for someone to assume the editorship, a very important and responsible assignment in our society. AHSGR expects and receives a lot from its volunteers and has been extremely fortunate in finding individuals who are willing to give many hours of service in the interest of preserving the heritage and recording the history of Germans from Russia.

We are pleased to announce that we have scored another success. Mrs. Nancy Bernhardt Holland has agreed to edit the next two issues of the Work Paper. We hope that she will be able to continue beyond that time. Mrs. Holland lives in Kearney, Nebraska, and spends several days each month at international headquarters. She has a background of experience that qualifies her for this position, having taught English at Hiram Scott College in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and having written for the Work Paper. Her review of Dr. Giesinger's book appears above.

Mrs. Holland is eager to receive articles for possible publication and hopes members will respond with ideas for improving the Work Paper. She may be addressed at 1709 W. 38th St., Apt. 91, Kearney, Nebraska 68847.

Please note: We will continue editing the Newsletter at headquarters. Please address all news items for this publication to 615 D Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68502.

39

GENEALOGY REPORT

Dear Fellow Researchers: The Fresno convention is now a happy memory of bright sunshine, meeting friends old and new, an especially

delicious barbecue picnic in the park served up by Ray Schwabenland's crew of men from the Free Evangelical Lutheran Cross Church, the outstanding genealogy symposium given by Ronald A. Bremer on family "Research Aids for the Germans from Russia," baskets of sweet tree-ripened fruit and-bright sunshine!

One of the important accomplishments at our genealogy business meeting was the recruiting of additional members to work on the committee. If you would also like to research a certain village or area, please let us know. There are many more areas that need someone's interested attention,

The following members volunteered their services at Fresno: Bertha Cardwell, Coos Bay, Ore. (unassigned) Alexander Horst, Tacoma, Wash. (Research on Kolb and eastern Wash.) Anne Starkel Johnston, Fresno, Calif. (Norka) JoAnn Kleim, Fresno, Calif. (Secretarial) Esther Heinze Miller, Independence, Kan, (Dreispitz & Strassburg) Betty Engel Muradian, Kingsburg, Calif. (Anton & Kukkus) Amalia Werre, Sherwood, Ore. (Indexing) Henry Werth, Hastings, Minn. (Neu-Norka) Hermann D. Wildermuth, Yucca Valley, Calif. (Lichtental/Bessarabia)

Names of other members of Genealogy Committee: Elaine Bauer, Fargo, N.D. (North Dakota area) Alice Essig, Denhoff, N.D. (The Dakotas) Arthur E. Flegel, Menlo Park, Calif. (So. Russia & Germany) Reuben Goertz, Freeman, So. Dakota (Hutterites & Volhynia) Kermit Karns, Kansas City, Mo., (Names for Mclntosh County, N.D., and McPherson County, S.D.) Lorraine Kildow, Omaha, Nebr. (Census) Conrad Krening, Portland, Ore. (Research) Dr. Solomon L. Loewen, Hillsboro, Kan. (Mennonites) Gwen Pritzkau, Riverton, Utah (Hamburg Shipping Lists) Betty Ohihauser, Calgary, Alberta, Canada (Obituary Index) June Schwabauer, Portland, Ore. (U.S. Records) Florence Valentine, Golden, Colo. (Typing) Roseann Stroh Warren, Helena, Mont. (Kutter) Raymond F. Wiebe, Hillsboro, Kans. (Mennonite)

Please continue to send your letters to our headquarters address where your query will be sent to the person best able to answer it.

40

CAN YOU HELP?

By Phil B. Legler

Queries are accepted from members for publication at a charge of 5¢ per word. Do not count your name and complete address. Make checks payable to AHSGR and mail with your query to Mr. Phil B. Legler, c/o Windsor Gardens, 680 South Alton Way, Denver, Colorado 80231. The Genealogy Committee reserves the right to edit. Include at least one date and one location. Answers should be directed to the inquirer, but it is suggested that copies of unusual problems solved should be sent to the Committee also, to be published for the benefit of others. Remember, long and involved queries loose their effectiveness. Be specific! For abbreviation key, please see Page 62 of Work Paper No. 7. Don't forget to courteously acknowledge any replies. An asterisk before the surname indicates the query is appearing for the first time in the work paper.

41

41

GENEALOGICAL PROFILE OF FIRST GENERATION GERMANS FROM RUSSIA by Dr. Paul G. Reitzer*

Assistant Vice-President for Academic Affairs Baptist College at Charleston, South Carolina

The problems of tracing ancestry are multitudinous, and often frustrating, when one begins to research probable sources of information. Too often gaps occur that seemingly become impossible to fill.

Some of the information gaps on Germans from Russia came about by conditions forcing these people to become dispersed. First of all, the dire living conditions in Russia sometimes forced them to become scattered in order to survive. Then, when the opportunity arose to emigrate, friends and families became separated as they made their way to the various seaports. As the seaports, subsequently, a scattering further occurred as people boarded available ships that carried them to different points of destination. Upon arrival in the New World, the immigrants then made their way to different points of destination, and these points not always becoming their so-called permanent homes.

The following material may serve as another source of information in establishing ties between related people and friends who may have become separated over the years. This genealogical profile is a record of Germans from Russia who at some time during the ministry of the Rev. Dr. William Reitzer held membership at the Immanuel Evangelical Reformed Church of Fort Collins, Colorado, the years of the ministry being 1937 to 1959. The list is confined to immigrants and those children of immigrants born in places other than in the Northern Colorado area. The latter is included to provide a point of contact with other areas where immigrants initially settled. While dates of marriages, baptisms, and confirmations, are not included in this article, they may be obtained upon request.

* Quoted below is portion of a letter received from Dr. Paul G. Reitzer, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs, Baptist College at Charleston, South Carolina:

"Attached is an article I thought might be of value to the AHSGR membership. It contains a source of information that might cause members to search other church records. Church records often give more exact information on birth dates, places, and names.

In writing this article it became apparent to me that this information would open opportunities for making ties with people originating from the same communities. With this they could contact each other for possible family ties not previously realized."

42

SURNAME EXCHANGE

By Phil B. Legler

Since the last issue of the Work Paper, 58 new researchers have been added to the surname exchange. We now have a total of 462 members searching for the roots of their family trees. Several of these new researchers have asked, "How do you start?" or "How long will it take?" Our answer is to start with yourself and go backward by collecting all the information you can from older relatives, family Bibles and records. Eventually this will involve books, maps, military records, newspapers, church records, passenger lists, etc. You must become an amateur detective, diplomat, a snoop, and a scholar. Above all, you must be an accurate reporter. Those new researchers who do not know in the beginning, soon learn that it takes patience, initiative, and courage to follow your ancestry through the pages of time. In spite of all that, we feel you will find your new undertaking challenging and worthwhile.

This surname exchange is published as a self-help aid to those of our members wishing to contact and exchange information with others searching a similar surname. Please keep in mind this list contains only those surnames appearing on the completed Data Membership Sheets we have received in the calendar year of 1974. To reap the optimum benefits from this surname list, we strongly urge you to use it in conjunction with the special 1974 edition of CLUES which was mailed to you in February of this year as a bonus.

Additions, corrections, deletions, as well as suggestions to improve the surname exchange, are solicited. HOW TO USE THE SURNAME INDEX: SECTION I of the SURNAME INDEX lists the surnames upon

which researchers listed in SECTION II are working. SECTION II contains the names and addresses of the researchers of the surnames listed in SECTION I.

Look up the family name, or names, on which you are working in SECTION I. Note the lettered numbers following each surname. These are the keys to the names and addresses of those in SECTION II who are working on these surnames.

By way of illustration, let us now check the surname of SPECHT. Under SECTION I of the list below, we find the following entry: SPECHT - H29. In checking SECTION I of the 1974 edition of CLUES, we find on Page 12 the entry, SPECHT - S72. Upon checking SECTION II of this new surname list and that of the 1974 edition of CLUES, we learn two of our members are doing research, or are interested in the surname SPECHT; namely, Mr. and Mrs. George J. Heberlein, P.O. Box 518, Ault, Colorado 80610, and Mr. and Mrs. Leon E. Scheuerman, Box 177, Deerfield, Kansas 67838 (the latter name and address appear on Page 20 of CLUES). A major aid of genealogy research can now be started by the exchange of information by these two families through correspondence.

45

SECTION I ACHIZIER - T6 ADAMS-Al 8 AGNES - H48 AMEN - A15, A18, A21, W38 ANDREAS - G24 ANDREWS-Al 9 ANTHONY - B40 ASCHENBRENNER - C13

BACKMAN-N12 BAHL - B40 BALL-11 BARTHULAY-P19 BASTRON - U2 BAUER - B38, S69 BÄUERLE - L25 BEACH - B37 BECKER - B39, G26 BEITELSPACHER - H53 BEKKER - V2 BENDER - B38, Y5 BENNER - H52 BENTZ-N12 BITSCH - B38 BITTEL - B40 BLEHM - L26 BOLTE - B39 BOPP-H51 BOSNEE-W41 BOSSERT - J4 BOUDERS - A20 BOWMAN - Y5 BOXBERGER - B35 BRACK - L26 BREHM-A18 BROSZ-F18 BROTZMAN - T5 BROWKOWSKI-F19 BUERKLE - H53 BURKHARD(T) - H52, W41

CANNON-C13 COON-C14 CORNELIUS - V2 COYKENDAHL-A19 CROUCH - U2

De GROF - H53 DEIBERT - G26 DELL - V2 DENGES - B40 DENNING - B40 DERHEIM-N12 DETTER - L26 DICKHOFF-F18 DICKS - V2

DIEL-H51 DIETZ - K33, L26 DOBBSEN-A19 DRAGEN-I1 DREUTH-P19 DRIETH - L33, M30 DUDENHEFNER - S75 DURR-A19

ECKHARD(T) - L26, S69 ECKSTEIN - M33 EHNISZ - B38 EICHENVERRY - Y5 EISENACH - U2 ELLIOTT-E15 ENGBRECHT - V2 ERTEL-R19 ESZLINGER - B38 EURICH - B39

FAHN - V7 FAHRENBRUCH - U2 FEMRITE - H53 FERNSTROM-F17 FEY-F18 FISHER-Fl 9 FLEHNERT - V2 FLUCKEY-A19 FREY - W40 FRIESE - L23 FUHRMAN-R19

GARTNER - H48 GAUS (Gauss) - G26 GELLNER-N12 GERLINGER-H51 GLASS - H48 GLEIM - G26 GOMKE - G23 GROSSHANS - B38 GRUNAU (Gronau) - G25

HAAS - L26 HALL-A19 HALTER - H53 HAMAN (Hamann)-H53 HANNAY-H51 HARR-R19 HARRLES - H48 HARTUNG - S69 HASSELBACH - H46 HEARST (Hurst, Horst) - G26 HEBERLEIN - H29 HEGELE(?)-F19 HEIER-P18 HEIL-F19

HEIMBIGNER - H29 HEINZ - W42 HELLER-Fl 7 HENKE - H48 HENNING - H47 HERBER - H49, H50 HERMANN-Fl 8 HERRMAN-W53 HEUSEL - H48 HEYN - H48 HIEB-N12 HIRSTEIN - S77 HOFFERBER - W42 HOGER (Hoeger) - H48 HOHNSTEIN-F16,R18 HOLZWART(H) - B38, S69 HORG-C14 HORNBACHER - H53 HORST (Horch) - C13, L26, S79 HUBER-H49 HUBERT (Not Huebert) - H48

IGGULDEN-I1

JAHREN-F17 JARRA-F17 JOHANNES-C14 JOHNSTON - J5 JOST - H48

KAPP - H48 KAUFMAN - V2 KERBS - L26 KETTERLING-W41 KIHN - B40 KINDSVATER - S78 KLUNDT - S69 KNIPPLE - J5 KRAMER-N12 KRAUS - K34, S82 KRAUSCH - G26 KREICK - Z5 KRIEGER-E15 KROMBERG - G24 KUHHORN (Horn)-L25 KUHLMAN - K35 KUHN(Coon)-C14 KULM - B35

LACHENMEIER - B38 LAUBE - W33 LAUCK - L23 LAUER - H48 LEBSACK (Libsack) - L21, L26, U2 LEHMAN-R19 LETS - W42

46

LENANDER - L24 LENGENFELDER - H48 LEONHARDT - J5 LEPPERT - L25 LESSING-F17 LISSMAN - L27 LOCK - L26 LOVINA-A19 LUNG - G26 LUTZOW - H46 LYE - L22

MAI-L26 MARKLIM-H48 MAUCH ~ H48 MEISNER - K33 MELCHER - A20 MENGES - H48 MENKE - L25 MESMER - H48 METZGER - M33 MEYER - L22 MILLER (Muller, Mueller) -

A 19, B40, L26, M31,P19,R19

MINDE - H48 MORRONE-N12 MURSCHEL - M32

NAZARENUS-A15,A21 NEUMANN-N12 NICKLAUS - H48 NITSCHKE-F18 NOLTA-E15

ODENBACH - H48 OESTRIECH - T6 OHLHAUSER-F19 OSTERMILLER - A15, A21 OSWALD - S80

PAFF-R19 PAULY-A18 PFAFFENHUT - H48 PFEIFF - S69 PFEIFFER (Pfeifer) - B35 POPP - B39, L26 PROPP-P18.W42 PULACH - S75

QUARTIER-F19

RAMSPOTT - T6 RATHJEN-F19 RAU-W41 REDDELIN - H48 REHN-L27.R21

REICH - H48 REISIG - R20 REIZT-C14 REMICH (Remmich) - H48 RICHERT - V2 RODEL (Roedel) - H48 ROESLER - H53 ROHMIG - L22 ROHN - L27 ROHR - B40 ROTT - H48 RUDDEL (Rueddel) - H48 RUDY - S76 RUF (Ruff) - H29, H49, H50

SANTER - H53 SCHAEFER - H53 SCHAFER (Schaffer) - H47, J5, M30,

N12, U2 SCHAN-I1 SCHAUERMAN - U2 SCHEAFNER - A20 SCHEIDT-C14, S78 SCHIEBECHU-H51 SCHIEDEMANN-E15 SCHILE-I1 SCHLAGEL - S76 SCHLUETER-F17 SCHLUNDT - W42 SCHMIDT - B40, C14, M33, S69, S78 SCHMUNK - K35 SCHNEIDER - L23, S75, S77, T6,

W39, Z5 SCHNELL-A18 SCHOCK - B38 SCHUKMAN - S78 SCHULZ - S82 SCHUMANN - H46 S(CH)WARTZKOPF - A19, W42 SCHWEITZER - V7 SELLINGER - Y5 SIEGEL - S78 SIEWART-F18 SIMON - H46, K34 SPECHT - H29 SPERLING - V2 SPOMER-S79,S81 STAMMER-N12 STARKEL-J5 STARNICH - H48 STEINER - H48 STEINHAUER - B37 STICKEL-H53 STOHRER - H48 STOLER (Stoller) - R19, S69 STOTTKO (Stokow, Stoko, Stotka, Stotkow,

StOtko, Stovka, Stutico, Szczatka)-A19 47

STRAUB - H53 STRAUCH-M31,S79 STREITT-N12 STUBBS - S80 STULLKEN - L26 STUMPEL - L25 SUNDWALL-A19

TEAKFINE - H48 TANZER-K35 THAUT - T6 THAYER - T5 TJART — T4 TRAUTMAN-R19 TRIEBELHORN - S79

UHL-U2 ULMER - Y5 URACHLETT - L26

VOELKER-P19 VETTER-F18,V7 VOGEL - R20 VOLGER - H48 VOLK - V7 VOTH - V2 VOLZ - B39

WACHTEL-R19 WAGENLEITNER - G25 WAGNER - G26, L26, W42 WALKER-W3 8 WALTER(S)-A20,C14 WASCH-N12 WEBBER - M30 WEIDEMAN-A18 WEIGANDT-C14 WEIGEL-I1 WEISSENBURGER-I1 WEISZ-W41 WEITZEL-F16,R18 WELL (Will)-Fl 9 WENINGER - V7 WERNER-W41 WILHELM - W39 WINK - W42 WINKLER - W40 WOLFF (Wolf) - H48

YEAROUT (Jahraus, Jahraous, Yearaus) - Y5

YOST - H48

ZANDER - H48 ZITTERKOPF - Z5 ZORN - B40

SECTION II A-l 5 Miss Frances D. Amen, 2519 South 34th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68506 A-l 8 Delbert D. Amen, 2400 Ashley Drive, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73120 A-19 Mrs. Richard Stottko Andrews, 315 Alberta Way, Hillsborough, California 94010 A-20 Mr. & Mrs. Jim (Valine) Adkins, 44649 N. Gingham, Lancaster, California 93534 A-21 Mr. & Mrs. Robert J, Amen, 45 Sunshine Avenue, Sausalito, California 94965

B-35 June Brown, 477 S. San Antonio Rd., Los Altos, California 94022 B-36 Ruth Boxberger, P.O. Box 2684, Greenville, North Carolina 27834 B-37 Peter Beach, 4549 N.E. 39th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97211 B-38 Melvin Bender, 201 Woodman Avenue, Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada T1A 3H2 B-39 Mrs. Ivan A. Bolte (Katherine Becker), 5726 Madison Ave., Lincoln, Nebr. 68507 B-40 Donald H. & Barbara A. Bittel, 963 E. 10th Ave., Broomfield, Colo. 80020

C-13 Mrs. Vance C. Cannon, 2756-K Pali Highway, Honolulu, Hawaii 96817 C-14 Mrs. Leilani J. (Morse) Cross, 235 Old Ranch Road, Santa Cruz, Calif, 95060

E-15 Anna Marie Krieger Elliott, Star Route, Box 166, Rosburg, Washington 98643

F-16 Mrs, Marion (Hohnstein) Ford, 355 So. Wheeling Way, Aurora, Colorado 80012 F-I7 Theresa Fernstrom, 58 Westdale Avenue, Hillsdale, New Jersey 07642 F-18 Mr. & Mrs. Ernest (Delories) Fey, 1729 West Kent, Missoula, Montana 59801 F-19 Joy R. Fisher, 8057 Nardian Way, Los Angeles, California 90045

G-23 Rev. Edwin C. Gomke, 9616 Melrose Avenue, Elk Grove, California 95624 G-24 Emma J. Gordon, 2000 Rancho Road, Redding, California 96001 G-25 Clifford Grunau, Route 1, Box 8, Baiko, Oklahoma 73931 G-26 William & Regina G. (Gauss) Gleim, 1005 Aster Ave., Sunnyvale, Calif. 94086

H-29 Mr. & Mrs. George J. Heberlein, P.O. Box 518, Ault, Colorado 80610 H-46 Alexander Hasselbach, 10613 Newville Avenue, Downey, California 90241 H-47 Dorothy Schafer Henning, 4229 N. Keystone, Chicago, Illinois 60641 H-48 Mrs. Judy A. Hubert, 3374 S. Lucile Lane, Lafayette, California 94549 H-49 Dr. Leo Herber, Thief River Clinic, 109 LaBree Avenue South, Thief River Falls, Minnesota 56701 H-50 Dr. Raymond A. Herber, Loma Linda, California 92354 H-51 Mr, & Mrs. James H. Hannay, 701 Catalina Way, Los Altos, California 94022 H-52 Mrs. James A. (Jean K. Benner) Hurst, 604 West 3rd St., Maryville, Mo. 64468 H-53 Edward F. Hainan, 68 Venus Avenue, Gladstone, Oregon 97027 H-54 Henry E. Herrman, 3104 Tam O'Shanter Drive, Hays, Kansas 67601

1-1 Mrs. Delores Ann Catherine (Schan) Iggulden, 146 38th St., Milwaukie, Ore. 97222

J-4 Mrs, Janice B. James, P.O. Box 243, Coarsegold, California 93614 J-5 Mrs. Anna Starkel Johnston, 720 E. Michigan Avenue, Fresno, California 93704

K-33 Mrs. Othelia (Meisner) Knutson, 322 11th St., WaKeeney, Kansas 67672 K-34 Philip Kraus, 205 East 8th Street, Muscatine, Iowa 52761 K-35 Huldrich H. Kuhlman, Box 477, Collegedale, Tennessee 37315

L-21 Fred John Lebsack, Jr., 212 West 8th St., Cheyenne, Wyoming 82001 L-22 Mr. & Mrs. John Lye, Pavillion, Wyoming 82523 L-23 John D. Lauck, 3018 Bonney Briar Drive, Missouri City, Texas 77459 L-24 Gerald & Roslyn (Schoenwetter) Lenander, 2726 Terry Ave., Billings, Mont. 59102 L-25 Norbert A, Leppert, 2008 Winston Avenue, Louisville, Kentucky 40205 L-26 Frederick & Ethel (Brack) Lock, P.O. Box 7, Ulysses, Kansas 67880 L-27 Mrs. Keith Lovell, 905 Antelope Drive, Riverton, Wyoming 82501

48

M-30 Mrs. Margery Dreith McCombs, #3 Old Phillips Hill Rd., New York, N.Y. 10956 M-31 Reinhold G. Miller (Muller), 1583 Montrose Ave. E,, Jacksonville, Florida 32210 M-32 Clarence & Rose Murschel, 334 Melinda Drive,South Elgin, Illinois 60177 M-33 David G. Metzger, 287 South State Street, Orem, Utah 84057

N-12 Mr. & Mrs. Ronald K. Neumann, 9710 Kitsap Way, Bremerton, Washington 98310

P-18 David Propp, 146 Logan Crescent West, Yorkton, Sask., Canada S3N OW5 P-19 Mrs. Marguerite Palmquest (Nee Dreuth), 5330 Butternut Tree, Flint, Mich. 48504

R-18 Mrs. Curtis (Betty Hohnstein) Renfro, 918 Cahill Drive, Cheyenne, Wyo. 82001 R-l 9 Mrs. Judith Ellen (Fuhrman) Rogers, 307 W. Alpine, Box 706, Snowflake, Ariz. 85937 R-20 Mrs. Ada Reisig Ryan, 818 Logan St., Apt. 501, Denver, Colorado 80203 R-21 Henry J. Rehn, 613 West College Street, Carbondale, Illinois 62901

S-69 Clayton H. Schmidt, P.O. Box 293, Cascade Locks, Oregon 97014 S-75 Joseph J. Schneider, 1110 4th Street, Devils Lake, North Dakota 58301 S-76 Mr. & Mrs. Jake Schlagel, 801 Lincoln Street, Mt. Vernon, Washington 98273 S-77 Jacob & Othelia Schneider, 2041 Evergreen Lane, Rt. 3, Hartland, Wise. 53029 S-78 Richard & Carol Siegel, 4465 E. Indianapolis, Fresno, California 93726 S-79 Peter John Spomer, 737 W. Quincy Avenue, Englewood, Colorado 80110 S-80 Mrs. Ruth Jane (Ostwald) Stubbs, 5300 Salt Valley View #10, Lincoln, Nebr. 68512 S-81 John Spomer, 175 Hillboro Drive, Birmingham, Michigan 48010 S-82 Mrs. Robert H. Smith (Ann), 5040 W. Gunnison Street, Chicago, Illinois 60630

T-4 Peter Tjart, 1317 Ranike Drive, Anderson, Indiana 46012 T-5 Mrs. Lena Thayer, 8450 Kennedy Road, Sebastopol, California 95472 T-6 Mrs. Betty J. (Ramspott) Trausch, Route 1, Box 50, Juniata, Nebraska 68955

U-2 Mrs. Richard (Crouch) Uhl, P.O. Box 172, Farmington, Utah 84025

V-2 Mrs. Mary D. Voth, 5644 So. Waterbury Rd., Des Moines, Iowa 50312 V-7 Frank Vetter, 913 Franklin Avenue, Harvey South Dakota 58341

W-38 Arlene E. Walker, West Maple Terrace, Apt. 208, Longview, Washington 98632 W-39 Margaret Wilhelm, 2411 Louisiana, Devenshire 44, Lawrence, Kansas 66044 W-40 James Lee Winkler, 834 N. Capitol, Lansing, Michigan 48906 W-41 Mr. & Mrs. Adam Weisz, Rt. 3, Box 257-K, Bonifay. Florida 32425 W-42 Richard W. Wink, 844 So. 8th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508 Y-5 Glenn A. & Maybelle Yearout, 1040 Independent Ave., Grand Junction, Colo. 81501 Z-5 Dennis Zitterkopf, 13 Midhurst Road, Silver Springs, Maryland 20910

PASSENGER LISTS Gwen B. Pritzkau

(Continued from Work Paper No. 14, dated April 1974, Page 50)

Note: Number appearing after given name indicates individual's age. 30 October 1884 SCHMIDT Same Ship Vessel: Moravia Jacob, 25 From: Freudenthal, Russia. Route: Hamburg, Germany, to New York, Christine, 26 There are two villages by this name - one

U.S.A. Rosina, 4 located in Area of Odessa, formerly From: Woldendorf, Russia (Writing very Kherson, in District of Grossliebental;

clear, but who can help us locate it Phillip, 18 (Brother) the other a daughter colony in the better? Need name of area and district.) Crimea, founded in 1849.

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BECKER August, 29 Elisabeth, 25 Juliana, 73

Same Ship From; Worms, Russia, located in Area of

Adessa, District of Beresan. FUHRER

Jacob,26 Elisabeth, 25 Jacob,5 Alexander, 3/12

BRONNEMEYER Phillip, 21 Dorothea, 21

Same Ship From: Rohrbach, Russia, located in Area of

Odessa, District of Beresan.

FALT Jacob,41 Anna,31 Johann, 9 Anna, 9/12

Same Ship From; Gotthau, Russia, Who can help us locate

it better? JEHRKE

Ludwig, 46 Ernestine, 49 Wilhelm, 13

KOCK Carl, 23

Same Ship From: Johannesthal, Russia.

Two villages by this name - one in District of Beresan and the other a daughter colony founded in 1864 near Mannheim in the Kutschurgan District, in Area of Odessa,

KRANS Johann,33 Barbara, 31 Lydia, 11/12

LUTZ Andreas, 28 Elisabeth, 25 Gottlieb, 2 Jacob,11/12

ULMER Christian, 32 Catherine, 30 Carl, 9 Catherine,7 Elisabeth,5 Christina,2 Christian, 11/12

MUTSCHELKNAUS Karl. 51 Louisa, 50 Catherine, 21 Jacob. 19

Carl, 17 Christine, 15 Christian, 9 Gottieb, 7

Same Ship From: Güldendorf, Russia, located in Area of

Odessa, District of Beresan.

KRIEG Johann,27 Maria, 27 Catherine, 2 Margretha, 11/12

HUBER Jacob, 40 Johanna, 42 Christine, 14 Georg, 5 Margretha, 3 Elisabeth, 11/12

FISCHER PhilUpp, 25 Barbara, 25 Barbara, 2 Regina, 2 Joseph, 3/12

RENZ Jacob, 34 Barbara, 32 Conrad, 9 Margretha 8 David, 19 Carl 22 Elisabeth, 19

HEINE Phillip, 39 Julianna, 39 Jacob, 20 Phillip, 18 Eva, 17 David, 13 Christian, 7 Heinrich, 5 Sophia, 2 Jacob,11/12

28 March 1888 Vessel: Polynesia Route: Hamburg, Germany, to New York, U.S.A. From: Eigenfeld, Russia, a daughter colony of the Mariupol settlement in the North

Caucasus Area. OSTER

Adolf, 18 Christian, 19 (Brother)

OSTER Adam, 34 Dorothea, 40 Adam, 9 Amelia, 7 Alexander, 5 Eduard, 11/12

OSTER Christian,43 Theresia,42 Elisabeth, 22

Johann,14 Martin, 9 Gottlieb, 8 Benjamin, 7 Eduard, 5 Adam, 2 Wilhelm, 10/12

RICHTER Friedrich, 33 Dorothea, 32 Rosina, 9 Eduard, 7 Sophia, 3 David, 11/12

EBERLE Andreas, 19

WIESS Martin, 42 Eva, 43 Anna, 9 Natanial, 8 Helena, 7 Catherine, 4 Gustav, 2

27 April 1888 Vessel: Hungarie

No such ship listed in fleet list of passenger ships in book, Passenger Ships of the World, by Eugene Smith.

Route: Hamburg, Germany, to New York, U.S.A.

From: Saratow, Russia, located on Bergseite, Bezirk Saratow, of the Gouvernement Saratow.

APPEL Johannes, 46 Louise, 42 Leopold, 16 Rosalie, 9 Eugene,8 Maria, 5 Oswald, 3 Johannes, 11/12

FUCHS Georg, 32 Sophie, 32 Maria, 9 Heinrich, 4 Johannes, 11/12

PFAFFENROTH ' Peter, 24 Catherina, 23 Catherine, 3 Maria, 11/12

LUFT Conrad, 27 Anna, 20 Anna,3/12

SCHMIDT Adam, 19

SCHMIDT Johannes, 32 Maria, 26 Elisabeth, 4 Adam, 2 Heinrich, 9/12

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LANGLITZ Conrad, 36

SCHEUERMANN Heinrich, 34 Maria, 34 Catherine, 9 Heinrich, 8 Elisabeth, 6 Maria, 4 Julianne, 2

SCHEUERMANN Adam, 38 Maria, 36 Maria, 18 Johannes, 16 Maria, 9 Maria, 4 (Same given name as above) Heinrich, 9

LUFT Heinrich, 19 Maria, 19 (Sister)

21 October 1888 Vessel; Rhaetia Route: Hamburg, Germany, to New York,

U.S.A. From: Selz, Russia, located in the Area of

Odessa, formerly Kherson, in the District of Kutschurgan.

ULM Sylvester, 60 Catherina, 59

Same Ship From: Kandel, Russia, located in the Area

of Odessa, formerly Kherson, in the District of Kutschurgan.

MEYER Peter, 42 Maria, 39 Michael, 5 Maria, 2 Barbara, 6/12

REISS Anton,17

8 May 1890 Vessel: Columbia Route: Hamburg, Germany, to New York,

U.S.A. From: Rohrbach, Russia, located in Area of

Odessa, District of Beresan.

MOOS Heinrich: 18

BOHLER Johann,20 Elisabeth, 20

FUHRMAN Jacob, 37 Eva, 24 Catherina, 9 Jacob, 7 Anna, 4 Peter, 11/12

WÜST Johann, 20

15 May 1890 Vessel: Augusta Victoria Route: Hamburg, Germany, to New York,

U.S.A. From: Petersthal, Russia, located in Area of

Odessa, District of Grossliebental.

OBERLANDER Eberhardt, 45 Ottielia, 45 Adolf, 20 Daniel, 19 Johannes, 9 Anna, 9 Jacob,4 Eduard.5/12

KLEIN Ludwig, 22 Barbara, 20 Sophia, 11/12

Same Ship From: Paulsthal, Russia. Who can give us additional information as to its location?

SCHATZ Adam, 30 Margretha, 23 Barbara, 9

STRAUB Emil,37 Catherina, 35 Margretha, 3 Carl, 11/12 Emfl, 1/12

Same Ship From: Gross Lichenthal, Russia.

Need additional help to better locate this village. Able to locate Lichtental in the Bessarabien Gebiet.

HARR Daniel, 30 Catherine, 26 Jacob,4 Carl, 3 Georg, 11/12

Same Ship From: Worms, Russia, located in Area of

Odessa, District of Beresan.

BENDER Georg, 32 Christine, 28 Christian, 9 Catherina, 8 Wilhelm, 5 Georg, 4 Jacob, 11/12

WERCHLER Barbara, 60

MAUCH Georg, 19

DEUTSCHER Jacob, 20

Same Ship From: Rohrbach, Russia, located in Area of

Odessa, District of Beresan.

WÖHL Phillip, 21

Same Ship From: Josephsthal, Russia. There are 3 villages

by this name - a daughter colony of Bergseite, in Gouvernement Saratow, northwest of Kamyshin; a second one as an isolated Black Sea Colony 10 versts north of Ekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk); a third one founded in 1804 and located in Area of Odessa, District of Grossliebental. Note: Dr. Giesinger spells it as Josephstal in his book while Dr. Stumpp uses the spelling of Josefstal.

BACKMANN Jacob,35 Magdalena, 26 Theresia, 5 Clementine, 4 Andreas, 11/12 Regina, 1/12

22 May 1890 Vessel; Normania (Should be Normannia)* Route: Hamburg, Germany, to New York,

U.S.A. From: Norka, Russia, (Known by its Russian

name) located on Bergseite, in Canton of Balzer (Golyj Karamysch), Gouvernement Saratow.

KRUGER Catherina, 23 Adam, 18 Elisabeth, 8

KRUGER Peter, 38 Elisabeth, 38 Carl, 17 Anna, 11 Christine, 8 Johannes, 6 Conrad,4

KRUGER Carl, 34 Christine, 35 Johann,9 Anna, 7 Heinrich, 3 Mathilda, 11/12 Christine, 1/12

SCHEIDERMANN Johann, 36 Anna, 32 Conrad,4 Catherina, 3 Elisabeth, 6/12

SCHNEIDER Dorothea, 77

KRUGER Catherina, 47 Heinrich 25 Catherine, 27 Christina, 2 Elisabeth, 6/12

ENSEL Johannes, 72

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Same Ship From: Nieder - Mondshu (Probably should be

Nieder - Monjou (Bobrowka) on Wiesenseite, located in Canton of Marx-stadt, Gouvernment Samara, Russia.

MULLER Martin, 18

HERBER Phillip, 21 Anna, 22

MULLER Heinrich, 20 Mathilda, 17

30 May 1890 Vessel: Scandia Route: Hamburg, Germany, to New York,

U.S.A. From; Saratow, Russia, located on Berg- seite, Bezirk Saratow, of the Gouverne- ment Saratow.

FISHER Jacob,31 Anna, 27 Peter, 6 Catherine, 11/12 Johann, 1/12

Same Ship From: Norka, Russia, (Known by its Russian

name) on Bergseite, located in Canton of Balzer (Golyj Karamysch), Gou-vernement Saratow.

GIEBELHAUS Johannes, 48 Margretha, 45 Catherina, 8 Anna,5

DICK Georg, 56 Conrad, 23 Johanna, 21 Conrad, 9/12

5 June 1890 Vessel: Columbia Route: Hamburg, Germany, to New York,

U.S.A. From: Kulm, Russia, one of the Bessarablan Colonies.

LUKAS Jacob,36 Maria, 36 Ottilia, 8 Jacob,6 Maria, 4 Emmanuel, 2 Soloman, 1/12

Same Ship From: Neu - Lustdorf, Russia, a daughter

colony in Area of Odessa, District of Grossliebental,

HELFENSTEIN Carl, 31 Elisabeth, 28 Carolina, 3 Justina, 1 1/2 Gottlieb,7/12

ALBRECHT Conrad, 30 Suzanne, 25 Paulina, 4 Justina, 2 Rosina, 2/12

Same Ship From: Grossliebental, Russia, located in Area of

Odessa, District Grossliebental. HELFENSTEIN

Peter, 36 Justina, 30 Peter, 4 Regina, 3 Jacob,11/12

10 July 1890 Vessel: Augusta Victoria Route: Hamburg, Germany, to New York,

U.S.A. From: Wittenberg (Malojaroslawetz), Russia,

one of the Bessarabian Colonies.

BÖHNERT Friedrich, 29 Maria, 29 Paulina, 5

BOHNERT Bemhard, 44 Anna, 35 Bernhard, 14 Johannes, 5 Anna,2

STUBER Friedrich, 47 Catherine, 38 Friedrich, 15 Johann, 11 Christian, 9 Andreas, 5 Louise, 4 Dorothea,3 Child, 11/12 (Can not read it)

Same Ship From: Neu - Elft (Neu - Fere - Champe-noise),

Russia, a Bessarabian Colony. WENDLAND

Andreas, 26 Catherina, 23 Rosina, 18 Gottlieb, 3/12

3 April 1898 Vessel: Patria Route: Hamburg, Germany, to New York,

U.S.A. From: Kassel, Russia, is a Glückstal Colony, located in Area of Odessa.

GRAMM Jacob, 46 Margretha, 40 Margrstha, 18 Christina, 17 Barbara, 14 Rosina, 10 Carolina, 7 Gustav, 4

SATTLER Jacob, 22 Georg, 18

ECKMANN Friedrich, 24 Catherine, 24 Carolina, 18 Rosina, 4/12

HAASE Wilhemi, 62 Wilhelmina, 49 Mathilda, 16 Wilhelm, 13

WAHL Adam, 26 Magdalena, 26 Catherine, 7 Philip, 19 Margretha, 17 Christina, 3 Jacob,11/12 Catherina, 1/12

Same Ship From: Krasna, Russia, a Bessarabian Colony

MIX Johann, 22

BASE Daniel, 19 Mathilda, 19 (Wife)

Same Ship From: Kulm, Russia, one of the Bessarabian

Colonies.

SCHLENKER GottUeb, 40 Dorothea, 34 Gottliebe. 10 Christopf, 9 Martha, 2 Christina, 8 Maria, 3

SPERLING Daniel, 39 Anna, 40 Gottfried, 16 David, 11 Carolina, 8 Ottilia, 3 Maria, 9/12

BICH Jacob, 52 Justina, 46 Johann,17 David, 11 Salome, 9

HILLE Christian, 32 Maria, 29 Gottlieb, 7 Johann,5 Magdalina, 3 Louise, 11/12

WINTER Johann, 27 Wilhelmina, 21 Bertha, 6/12

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GROSS Gottfried, 35 Justina, 33 Gottfried, 8 Daniel, 6

Gottfried, 4 (Same name as above) Reinhold, 3 Mathilda, 11 Wilhelmina, 62

LEISCHNER Gottlieb, 28 Elisabeth, 24 Emelia, 6 Gustav, 17 (Brother)

HILLE Gottlieb, 77

PFLUGAN Mathilda, 14

LOBE Gotuieb, 44 Wilhelmina, 36 Gustav, 22 Emelia, 13 Salome, 11 Magdalina, 8 Maria, 6 Nathaniel, 3

Same Ship From: Saratow, Russia, located on Berg-

seite, Bezirk Saratow, of the Gouverne- ment Saratow

MICHAELIS Johann,27

SCHWINT Heinrich, 34 Sophie, 27 Anna,9/12

5 April 1898 Vessel: Pennsylvania Route: Hamburg, Germany, to New York,

U.S.A. From: Leipzig, Russia, a colony located in

south central Bessarabia.

PAHL Jacob,19

MULLER Regina, 44

RAUGUST Given name not listed, 30

Carolina, 30 Michael, 7 Mathilda, 4 Paulina, 3 Theresia, 11/12

GULKE August, 48 Friedricka, 50 Christian, 20 Paulina, 17 Louisa, 11 Jacob,9 Johann,8

KUHN Daniel, 33 Carolina, 30 Maria, 8 Julianna, 4 Mathilda, 3 Daniel, 2

BESSLER Christoph, 32 Maria, 31 Christina, 7 Mathilda, 4 Suzanne, 2

HILSCHER Jacob,27 Julia, 26 Mathilda, 4 Heinrich, 1 Daniel, 4/12

KRAFT Jacob,59 Justina, 5 3 Christnia, 20 Samuel, 18 Carolina, 14 Julianna, 10

PFENNING Friedrich, 38 Maria, 37 Friedrich, 13 Johann,9 Hermann, 6 Michael, 4 Daniel, 2 Jacob,4/12

PRODEL Mattias,28 Louisa, 22 Gottfried, 6/12

SCHULTZ Johann,23 Louisa, 24 Gottfried, 3 Mathilda, 3/12

SOMMERFELD Jacob, 27 Wilhelmina, 3 3 Mathilda, 6/12

Same Ship From: Landau, Russia, a Beresan colony, located about 100 versts northeast of

Odessa. KRAUSE

Jacob, 23 27 April 1898 Vessel; Sorrento (Original name was Guadeloupe)* Route: Hamburg, Germany, to New York,

U.S.A. From: Saratow, Russia, located on Berg-

seite, Bezirk Saratow, of the Gouverne- ment Saratow.

DIEHL Heinrich, 40 Sophie, 39 Wilhelm, 19 Heinrich, 17 Conrad, 15 Georg, 5 Maria, 18 Georg, 6/12

* Researched by Genealogy Committee.

Genealogy Committee’s Note: The information shown in passenger lists is copied from the original manifests and no changes have been made by the Committee. If difficulty was experienced in reading the manifests, notations will appear in parenthesis stating the problem encountered, or a question mark will appear, indicating that some doubt exists as to the accuracy in reading the information shown. If any researchers feel that the information shown on these passenger lists is erroneous, the Committee would be glad to hear about it and disseminate the information. In submitting your corrections, be sure that your line of reasoning is absolutely proven. If you can not prove it, from a genealogical standpoint, it is better not to change the information shown on these passenger lists. To be continued in the next work paper.

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Announcing the SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION of the AMERICAN

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF GERMANS FROM RUSSIA

* * *

June 17-22, 1975

* * *

The Lincoln Hilton Hotel

Lincoln, Nebraska Registration materials will be mailed in February. Mark your

calendars now and plan to attend.

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