- Settlements in the State of Kansas
In 1873, five Volga colonists were chosen as emissaries to travel to the US to locate possible places to immigrate to. Acts of Congress set aside 8.5 million acres of Kansas prairie to promoters on condition that railroads be built through the territory. The successful accomplishment of the task by 1872 gave the Kansas Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka and Sante Fe the right to claim 7 million acres in alternate sections 20 miles on both sides of their rights of way. The railroads had also contributed to the creation of a more civilized urban environment. One of the wildest towns of them all, Newton, was quickly tamed by the combined forces of the Santa Fe, the Newton Kansan newspaper, and the Temperance League. A reporter boasted of the progress achieved by August 1873, just before a small delegation of German-Russian Mennonites toured the area under the guidance and care of railroad agents.
Kansas was already well-advertised by 1873 by the Kansas Immigration Society, established in 1871, the publication of information by the State Board of Agriculture, and the promotional activities of local newspapers, particularly the Topeka Commonwealth. The Sante Fe Railroad began a gigantic advertising campaign to sell their recently earned land. Boston bankers, in association with Kidder, Peabody and Company manipulated the debts of the Sante Fe through the depression of 1873. In Topeka, A. E. Touzalin directed the activities of the rapidly expanding passenger and land departments of the Sante Fe, and at the beginning of 1873 he set up an immigration office, headed by Carl Bernhard Schmidt, a native of Saxony who arrived in Kansas in 1868. Schmidt soon established communications in the country, and, through Mennonite colonies in other states, learned of the desire of German-Russians to emigrate. An American Mennonite leader, Christian Krehbiel, was particularly instrumental in guiding the mission from Russia to Kansas in the summer of 1873. Schmidt committed them to a preliminary purchase agreement at the end of October 1873.
Articles in newspapers in the newspapers indicating that the Mennonites "will become readily Americanized", that "they are liberal in sentiment, frugal and industrious in habits, peaceful from their principals, and can be readily be brought to understand and adopt to American manners and customs", and probably assisted by the private and direct pressures from the Sante Fe, contributed to the passage by the Kansas legislature in March 1874, of an act amending the militia law exempting those who objected on religious grounds from military service, upon signing a simple declaration in the county clerk's office.
During the winter and spring of 1874 the findings of the Mennonite delegation to the United States circulated through South Russia. The first group of 800 composed mostly of Krimmer Brethren but including some Swiss-Volynian Mennonities, departed their homes in Russia in June 1874, and arrived in New York in late July. Staying in New York only long enough to change rubles to dollars, the stopped along the route with Mennonities in Indiana and Illinois. A few families arrived in Marion County in the second week of August, and settled in Hillsboro, while another group of 240 traveled directly to Peabody. The main party arrived in Topeka on September 8, where they spent one night before continuing to Marion County to found the town of Grandenau.
A larger party of 1100, mostly from Alexanderwohl in the Molochna colony, landed in New York in August. They had intended to settle in Nebraska, where they were offered land by the Burlington Railroad, but some unfavorable reports about the Nebraska land, favorably reports from Kansas, and the salesmanship of C.B. Schmidt persuaded them to settle in Kansas. They arrived in Topeka on September 23, and remained there while leaders inspected the terrain and bargained with the Sante Fe. By the end of 1874, between 3 and 4 thousand German-Russians had arrived in Kansas. Although the number immigrating in 1874 exceeded local expectations, 1875 fell below an optimistic projection of 6000, as departure from Russia became complicated by drought conditions.
In the spring of 1875 some families moved from Marion County to Rush County, settling southeast of Bison. In 1876, their were also settlements in Russell (October 1876) and Barton counties.
The migration of Catholic Germans from the Volga started in October 1875. They traveled via Bremen and Baltimore, and arrived in Topeka on November 18, 1875. From Topeka expeditions were undertaken to Great Bend, Larned, Hays and Ellis. In February 1876 14 families founded the settlement of Liebental, south of Hays, and the settlement of Catherine was established in April 1876. The last of the original six Catholic settlements in Kansas was at Pfeifer. A group of colonists came to Herzog in July 1876, and two months later founded Munjor southeast of Herzog. Other settlements during this same period were Liebenthal, and Schoenchen. By the end of 1876, about 1200 Catholic Volga Germans had settled in Ellis, Rush and Russell counties.
After 1877, it is more difficult to distinguish large immigrant parties of German-Russians, either from South Russia or the Volga region. They were no longer as newsworthy, and the paths to the new frontier were both numerous and well-charted, once the Russian border was passed. The total number of German-Russian immigrants to Kansas in the 1870's can be estimated at about 12,000.
The first Evangelical Black Sea Germans in Kansas settled south of Russell in 1878. Other families from Schoenfeld arrived and settled near Galatia. St. Francis was a community founded by German-Russians in the early 1890's.
By dealing in volume and paying cash, the German-Russians got a better price and other benefits from the railroad management. The Sante Fe provided free transportation for the Alexandwold community, not only for the trip from Topeka to Newton, but also for themselves and supplies for the remainder of the year. In Victoria complaints arose over the granting by the Kansas Pacific of a 50 percent discount to the Volga German grocer. The railroads, as part of the package, provided free land for churches and schools, and in the case of some of the Mennonite groups, temporary housing en route and at places of settlement. During the winter of 1874-1875, the Alexanderwohl immigrants lived in two large "immigrant houses" that were built 15 miles north of Newton. The railroads also provided seed wheat for the first year.
Among the German-Russians were several people of considerable wealth including Bernard Warkentin and David Goertz of Halstead, and among the Volga Germans, the Dreilings and Brungarts of Herzog and John Krug of the Landon creek Lutheran settlement. The richest of all was Andreas Meyer of Katherinenstadt. Meyer's wealth provided capital by buy 5 sections of land from the Kansas Pacific, and set up a lumberyard. Frugality and care in making purchases made dollars go far, and many German-Russians were quite poor upon arrival, and others spent all they had in initial investments. The Volga Germans were able to benefit from the Kansas Pacific's policy of delaying title claims and thereby avoid paying taxes for several years.
Between February 15, 1873 and May 31, 1877, German-Russians paid the Sante Fe $322,509.72. Most of it came in 1874 and may have actually saved the railroad from bankruptcy. It is estimated that the purchase of equipment and new construction at double that of the price of land, that the German-Russians brought one million dollars into a nearly destitute sate in the last half of 1874>
The German-Russians are most famous for having brought wheat to Kansas, more specifically the red, winter, hard wheat called Turkey Red. The real origins of this wheat are obscured by legend, but it is not true that any quantity of significance was brought directly to Kansas by the German-Russian immigrants of the 1870's.
In the early 1900's, the county with the largest German-Russian population was Marion County, followed by Ellis and Rush counties.
AHSGR - Golden Wheat Chapter, Wichita, Kansas
AHSGR - Northeast Kansas Chapter, Topeka, Kansas
AHSGR - Sunflower Chapter, Hays, Kansas
KSGenWeb - Kansas USGenWeb Project
- Settlements in the State of Nebraska
In the spring of 1873, twelve emissaries from the Evangelical Black Sea German colonies were sent to the United States in search of land. They went through Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin before coming to Nebraska. They found suitable land, but it was no longer avilable for free homesteads because it belonged to a railroad company. In June of 1873, a second group of 400 people from Worms and Rohrbach left Russia to come to the US. They landed in New York in August, and were directed on to Burlington, Iowa. From there, they went on to Lincoln, where those that could afford it rented their own house, while the poorer people were taken care of in the Immigrants' House. The price of land had risen to $12 per acre, which complicated plans for all the immigrants to stay together to build their own churches and schools, and prserve their language and customs. Some impatient families moved on to South Dakota, but 22 families stayed and finally found suitable land that they purchased from the Burlington Railroad near Sutton. A purchase agreement was negotiated for 16,120 acres at an average price of $7 per acre. A total of $112,840 was paid for the land, in cash. Eight years later this group had accumulated property collectively amounting to $500,000. In 1873, a small group of German-Russians from Bessarabia settled in the Columbus area. In the early 1900's, the county with the largest German-Russian population was Lancaster County, followed by Scotts Bluff, Adams, Clay and Red Willow counties.
AHSGR - Lincoln, Nebraska Chapter
AHSGR - Northeast Nebraska Chapter
NEGenWeb - Nebraska USGenWeb Project
- Settlements in the State of Oregon
The first Evangelical German-Russians reached the west coast as early as 1881. These early settlers traveled over the Oregon Trail from Sutton and Culbertson, Nebraska.
The oldest and most important settlement of Evangelical Volga Germans in Oregon was in Portland, dating back to 1882. Colonists from Norka, who had first settled in Iowa and Nebraska, traveled by train to San Francisco, then by ship to Portland.
For considerable additional information on the German-Russian settlement in Portland, visit the
Portland, Oregan German from Russia web site
AHSGR - Oregon Chapter
ORGenWeb - Oregon USGenWeb Project
Sources:
Russian-German Settlements in the United States, Richard Sallet, translated by Lavern Rippley and Armand Bauer, North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies, Fargo, 1974. Library of Congress Catalog Number 74-620042.
"The Migration of the Russian-Germans to Kansas", Norman E. Saul, The Kansas Historical Quarterly, Volume XL, Number 1, Spring 1974, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka.