TABLE OF CONTENTS THE JOHN HENRY BISCHOFF FAMILY HISTORY As Told to Garnot Bischoff ...... 1 MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE OF THE GERMAN COLONISTS IN THE SARATOV AND SAMARA PROVINCES Alexander Dupper ...... 13 FIRST DAKOTA CONFERENCE GERMAN BAPTIST CHURCH Garvin Bertsch ...... 17 THE GERMAN SETTLEMENTS IN THE CRIMEA Th. Eisenbraun Translated by Jo Ann Kuhr ...... 19
BOOK REVIEW Adam Giesinger ...... 27
IT WILL SOON BE TOO LATE Dona Reeve s-Marquardt ...... 28 SUMMARY OF AND PROBLEMS RELATING TO DIALECTAL AND ETHNOGRAPHICAL STUDIES OF GERMAN SETTLEMENTS IN THE U.S.S.R. Viktor Maksimovich Zhirmunskii Translated by Alexander Dupper ...... 29 FROM THE DIARY OF WALTER BUROW Translated by Solomon L. Loewen ...... 33 BOOKS AND ARTICLES RECENTLY ADDED TO THE AHSGR ARCHIVES Frances Amen and Mary Lynn Tuck ...... 40 THE VOLGA-GERMAN CATHOLIC VILLAGE OF JOSEFSTAL Edward Roy Gerk ...... 45
THE STORY OF CHRISTINA TETZ NEFF GOURLAY Flossie Libra ...... 51 MEETING OUR RELATIVES IN BRAZIL Ann (Geier) Herrman As Told to Lawrence A. Weigel ...... 57
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Advertisement for the Hermann Neufeld firm in Halbstadt as found in the 1907 Haus- und Land- wirtschaftskalender fuer deutsche Ansiedler im suedlichen Russland. In addition to producing beer, vinegar and soft drinks, they also dealt in metals and machinery. See the article beginning on page 33 of this Journal. THE JOHN HENRY BISCHOFF FAMILY HISTORY As Told to Garnot Bischoff
This family history was compiled by Mrs. Bischoff from conversations she had with her in-laws, Lisbet and Henry Bishoff; Henry's sisters, Mollie Hansen and Katie Kraus; and Pauline Graf Tidd. Note how the family name is spelled differently among family members. Three Bischoff brothers, Henry, Gottfred, and George, migrated from their German homeland into Russia and settled in the Volga area. Henry had a son named John Henry. We have no record of Henry's wife at this time. The Bischoff brothers lived in an area where there were dry-land farms, and there was little or no timber. This meant that women and children would gather up animal "platters," better known as "chips," mix them with straw, and stack them to dry to be used later for heating and cooking. Evidently they did not have or know of any coal nearby that could be used for fuel. John Henry got married and had a boy, John Henry Jr., and a girl, Katherina. The first wife died, and he married another lady (Mary Erlich). They had two boys, Godfred and Alexander. They also had a daughter, Mary. She married George Henry Graf. Katherina was evidently married to George Henry's brother Godfred. John Henry Jr. married Katherina Elizabeth Niewirth. Each spring the father would be allotted so many acres of ground to plant, according to the number of sons he had. The "acres" were much larger than the acres in America [1 dessiatine == 2.7 acres]. Katie Kraus said, as she remembered, her great-grandfather Henry was a fairly wealthy man. He owned a flour mill, which went to one of his sons. Young Henry (John Henry Jr.’s first son) related that his father (as a descendant of the first Henry Bischoff) was allotted about ninety acres of ground for planting each spring. The men who did not have any boys would have to follow another line of work until some boys were born. Then they would receive an allotment of land. The family lived in tents on the farm land during the summer and then would move into the small community of Neu-Weimar in Samara Province, where they lived in the winter in houses made of brick and stone. These houses had to be built very snugly, as the winters were so very cold and long. The summer season was much like that in Idaho, according to young Henry Bishoff. The hams and other meat were hung in the attic of the house during the winter. The family built another small, two-room building with a stove, which was called a "summer kitchen." The lambs, calves, and goats were kept in this building in the winter to keep them from freezing; then in the spring it would be cleaned out and whitewashed so that it could be used again as a kitchen. Young Henry said that the reason the people lived in the village in the winter was for protection. The wolves would come down into the communities when they were hungry to kill the livestock, so the people kept them penned in corrals or barns in the village. He told of wolves chasing the sleighs through the snow. I thought maybe he was pulling my leg until I saw the film Dr. Zhivago, in which"' wolves were shown running around the barn where the livestock was housed. Henry said that the winters were much longer and colder than in Idaho and that one of the prettiest sights to see in Russia was the three-horse hitch, or troika, on a sleigh in the wintertime. He told me that Russia was a beautiful country, but that he had no desire ever to go back there, as he had no faith in the Bolsheviks, as he always referred to the Soviet regime. When Henry found that I was interested in his family history and life in Russia, he began to talk freely about his life there. He said that the Germans did not keep any written records of any kind, as they did not trust the Russian government. When he was telling me of his life in Russia and America, I noticed that he had not gotten over his distrust of having anything he said put down in writing. When I tried to take notes, he would not tell me anything more, so I would keep paper and pencil in the car, and as soon as I got out there, I would try to write down all he had told me. They raised all kinds of grain in the heavy, fertile soil. A very large canal or river ran near the farm, where the boys and girls could swim. Young Henry said he could not remember any hay, lucerne [alfalfa], or clover like in Idaho. The men would cut the wild hay for the livestock in the winter. They used large scythes to cut the hay and grain, and the women and girls would follow the cutters to gather up the grain and tie it in bundles with some of the straw so that it could be set up in shocks. Then it was taken to a harvesting place, where the grain was laid on a round platform. A team of horses or oxen would pull a large stone around the platform to thresh or separate the grain from the straw. The women would follow to shake the straw and chaff to better separate it from the grain. It would then be stacked in the village to feed the animals during the winter. The farmers always donated to a central stack, which could be used by the people who had no farms or who ran out of feed during the winter. These farmers also contributed to a central grain bin for those who might need it and then sold their extra produce. The wild hay was also divided among the families for feed. The women and girls worked just as hard as the men did in the fields. They wore head scarves and long, dark dresses with many petticoats, which were very hot in the summer but warm in the winter. There were quite a few ground squirrels or "chislers" on the farm ground, so a job for the youngsters would be for one person to pour buckets of water down one hole while other people crouched by the other holes in the vicinity with clubs. Then when the squirrel would try to come out of the hole for air, it would be clubbed on the head. They did this to try to keep the squirrel population down. Very large gardens were planted with cabbages, potatoes, and other vegetables as well as big acreages of large, beautiful watermelons. Some watermelons were eaten, and the extra ones were made into watermelon jelly and stored in barrels for use and for sale. Watermelons were also boiled down into a syrup to be used for sweetening. People also raised various berries and apple and other fruit trees. They raised their own beef, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese. They used oxen, horses, and camels for work animals. Any man who had camels was considered wealthy, as they were so much better than oxen to work with. The camels were used mostly as leaders on the plows, with someone riding the animal to guide it and turn it on the corners. Katie Kraus said she had the job of riding the lead camel and would get so tired after hours of sitting on the beast. She said they used four to six oxen, with two camels for the leaders. The farmers would work night and day to get the crops in. Henry said that the land allotted to his father was thought to be a lot of farm ground, considering the primitive methods of farming at that time. John Henry Bischoff was fairly well-off, so he had a hired man to help on the farm, as young Henry, the oldest boy, was only fourteen when his father decided to move the family to America. Henry said that the German people had plenty of meat, vegetables, and grain for food, so they ate well. The German ladies were marvelous cooks and saw to it that their families were well taken care of. Delicious sauerkraut was made from the cabbage shredded into tubs or barrels and tromped by the children to work out the juice. There were small shops in the little community, where you could purchase sugar, coffee, and matches if you had the money. The houses also had outdoor ovens made of mud and bricks, where the baking could be done. Any lumber the people used had to be bought, as there was so little timber for use. Some of the other Germans lived in areas where there was plenty of timber for fuel and building. I was told about the large, beautiful Catholic [Russian Orthodox] churches used by the Russians. Another time Henry told me about the Czar having eventually deeded the land to the people, but the Bolsheviks had taken it away again when they came into power. Once he was talking about his mother's family. She was Katherine Niewirth and had three brothers. Alex Niewirth's father was her brother. She also had three sisters named Emma, Marie, and Natalie, who had remained in Russia.
Bethel Weimer, wife of Fritz Weimer, and mother of Katherine Elizabeth Bischoff (Bes Betel) Bischoff. She was Henry Bishoffs maternal grandmother. She stayed in Russia.
One fall John Henry loaded with grain two wagons drawn by oxen and took Katie and young Henry with him to the large city, where he would sell the grain. It would then be loaded on barges and shipped down the Volga River. It took about a week to drive to market. After unloading the wagons and being paid in bank notes for the grain, John Henry let Katie pick out cloth for dresses and blouses for her mother and sisters, while he bought cloth for shirts and pants for the boys and himself. Then they started the long trip back home. It began to rain hard as evening fell, and John Henry knew they would have to look for a place to say. He noticed some lights in the distance and drove that way. When the man of the house came to the door, John Henry was distressed to find that they were in a Russian community. However, the man was very friendly and invited them in out of the storm, so they entered the house. The man kindly asked them to stay the night, so after eating, Katie and Henry were put to bed by the mother in the same bed with her children. John Henry stayed up all night playing cards and visiting with his host in his limited Russian. He was carrying all his money in a belt around his waist and was fearful of being robbed. In the morning, after breakfast, the Bischoff family started on their way home after inviting the kind Russian man to visit with them. The man did visit with the family a few times and always created a commotion when he arrived in the German community. The children were always curious to see a Russian person and would run up to watch him. Because of the language difference, the two groups of people did not have much in common, and little visiting was done, so the children rarely saw a Russian person, and Russians were a real curiosity. The boys and girls had to attend school. There they sat on benches and were taught mostly from the Bible by German male teachers. They used pencils, papers, and slates in the schoolwork. The German people were very religious, so the children had to go to church whether they wanted to or not. Henry's mother said that the people tended to stay within their own little group—the more wealthy people associated with other people of means, and the poorer people stayed with their own group. They even married within their own groups. A wedding could be quite an affair, with much cooking in preparation for the party after the wedding. When a young man and woman married, they moved at first into one of their parents' homes. They became a part of the family with very little trouble, for it was clearly understood that the father was regarded as the head of the house, and his authority was honored by all the family. The mother was also regarded as the head of the family along with the father—and subject to him, of course—and the children tried to make life easier for her. When the father received payment for the crops or livestock sold, he would divide the profits with the children. Later, the father would start the son off by turning over the allotment of ground received for him to help him establish his own farm land. The mothers and daughters, in addition to working in the fields, had to sew the clothing for the family. Katie Kraus said it was quite a job to hand sew about twelve yards of cloth for a dress. A shoemaker would come around once a year to measure the family members' feet so that he could make up shoes for them. Katie said that he always made two pairs of shoes for each person so that everyone would have a pair for everyday and a pair for best to wear to church. He always stayed at the family's home until he had all the shoes made. Henry said that in the winter the people wore warm boots, which were made of camel hide with the fur on the inside for warmth. Jacob Weimer, his wife, and their sons David (and his family), Louis, and Krist had moved to America when Katherine Elizabeth (Lisbet) was about seven years old and wrote about the opportunities in the New World. When the Bolsheviks began stirring up the Russian people against the Czar, the German communities did not want to get involved in the unrest. However, the Bolsheviks came into the villages, took over the schools, and told the Germans in Russia that they would have Russian teachers. That meant that the spoken language would be Russian too. Young Henry said he refused to go to school then. John Henry Bischoff began thinking of moving to America after hearing from the Weimer family about the advantages there. Then his friend, a Mr. Utz, also wrote to encourage him to emigrate. In 1903 he reached the decision to move to the United States with his wife Katherine and six children—Katie (Kraus) about fifteen years old, Henry about fourteen, Jigar (Jacob or George) about five, Mary (Holstien) about four, David about two, and the baby Mollie (Hansen). The oldest daughter, Angina (or Agnes) had married a young German, George Klauser. His parents were old, and he was the only son in his family, so they decided to stay in Russia. Before the Bischoff family moved away, they had a photographer take a family picture. When the pictures arrived in America, the family saw that the photographer had cut Jigar, who was standing by his sister Angina, out of the picture, so that his hand on her arm is the only thing shown in the picture.
Bischoff family picture taken in Russia around 1904, before the family left for America. Back row left to right: Katherine Bischoff, John Henry Bischoff, Henry Bischoff(Bishoff), Katherine Elizabeth (Niewirth) Bischoff holding Amalia (Mollie) Bischoff, George Klauser with his hand on his wife’s shoulder. Front row left to right: David Bischoff standing between his fathers knees, Maria (Mary) standing in front of George Klauser. Seated is Angina (Agnes) Bischoff, who was married to George Klauser. Only Jigar’s (Jacob’s) hand can be seen holding onto his sisters arm, as he was cut from the picture, At this time the Bolsheviks began conscripting the German men into the army and levying taxes on the people. It was an opportune time to leave Russia. In the fall of 1904, John Henry sold his livestock and his house in the village (along with what machinery he had) and gave up his allotment of farm land in preparation for the trip. He figured he had enough money to take care of his family, so he loaned some money to two other Germans so that they could also come to the new country. He traveled with his family to Liverpool, England, according to young Henry, where he was refused passage on a ship because Henry had sore eyes (or perhaps pinkeye), and Jigar was sick with what the family later thought had been appendicitis. John Henry and his family settled at a place called Libau [Liepaja, Latvia] and planned to try again to make the trip later on. He ran short of money and was not repaid by one of the men to whom he had loaned money, so he wrote to Jacob Weimer for a loan to get him and his family to America. The money was sent, and the family traveled to Rotterdam, Holland, where, on about December 7, 1906, they boarded the freighter, SS Pretoria, on Permit No. 3620, traveling third class, and started the ocean journey. Katie said her father had bought the children some animal crackers before they boarded the ship. The children filled up on the crackers, and all became seasick after the ship sailed. Mollie said her mother told her that much of their luggage was stolen while they were on the voyage. Young Henry was sure that the ship had docked at Ellis Island, because he could remember seeing the Statue of Liberty. When David tried later to get proof of their admission, he found that the ship had docked at Halifax, Nova Scotia, as Katie had remembered, where the family was admitted under a Certificate of Admission of Aliens on January 6,1906. So perhaps Henry saw the Statue of Liberty as the ship sailed past New York Harbor. The record shows that a head tax was paid by Mr. Bischoff. All of the family members were in good health, and their sponsor (and friend) in America was an uncle, Jacob Weimer, in Sugar City, Colorado, which was their stated destination. The family was so glad to get off the ship, and Henry related that he was so sick that he would never again get on a boat in the water, and Katie felt the same way! The family traveled by train through the United States, finally arriving in Sugar City, where Mr. Bischoff rented a large acreage and planted sugar beets on it. Mrs. Bischoff had been pregnant at the time of the journey and gave birth to Fred on February 25, 1906, making him the only natural-born citizen in the family. While they were in Sugar City, Jigar became very sick again and died. He is buried in the cemetery there. The family did not like the water in Sugar City, and after burying Jigar they moved to Garden City, Kansas, where Jacob Weimer had settled with his family. Lisbet said that John Henry worked for her father and also farmed with his children. He had trouble with what he thought was a pimple on his upper lip. It became quite painful, and, because he did not believe in doctors, he opened it up with a needle. Evidently he got blood poisoning, as he died about five days later. He was about forty-seven at the time of his death in 1907. The baby Fred was about a year old. Sixteen- year-old Henry and nineteen-year-old Katie took over the farming operation. That fall Henry would plow out a large amount of sugar beets while Katie topped them. Then they would load up a wagon, and he would haul it to the sugar factory while she kept topping more beets. She told me that it was such hard work for a woman. A young neighbor man from Russia, Henry Kraus, courted Katie, and they were married on January 15, 1908. Young Henry courted Lisbet Weimer, and they were married on September 4, 1910, at Deerfield, Kansas, when she was sixteen and he was nineteen. Lisbet told me that she had been troubled with weak legs from the time she was a little girl, and her mother worried about her getting married and raising a family. She said she and her mother cooked and baked for about five days to get ready for the wedding party, and it lasted about three days. From the way Henry talked, everyone had a great time at the wedding parties. A custom was for the men to pin some money on the bride's shoulder for the privilege of dancing with her. This was a big help for the young couple in starting their married life.
David and Katherine (Maier) Weimer, parents of Katherine Elizabeth (Lisbet) Weimer Bishoff, Henry’s wife. Henry Bishoff and his bride, Katherine Elizabeth (Lisbet) Weimer. Another time Henry told me that funeral services in Russia were much like the services in America. The sugar company was trying to encourage good farmers to move to Idaho to raise sugar beets. Jacob Weimer and his son David had moved to the Rexburg area and liked the land, so they wrote suggesting that the Bischoff family make the move too. On New Year's Day 1911, the Kraus and Bishoff families boarded the train for Idaho. The sugar company encouraged them to move up into the Snake River Valley, so Henry settled his family at Hibbard, out of Rexburg, Idaho. As he was the oldest male in the family, every move he made included his mother, younger brothers, and sisters. Mollie (Hansen) told me that when he would rent a house, he would give the extra rooms to his mother and her family while he and his wife would keep their family in the two rooms left. Grandmother Bischoff was so good to help Lisbet when her babies were born, and Lisbet thought the world of her. Mollie loved Lisbet, too, and was so appreciative of the way Henry and Lisbet treated her mother and family. After the younger Bischoff children were grown and had their homes, the little grandmother lived with them. She died when she was eighty-three years of age on December 16, 1949. Henry respected his mother so much that he never smoked in front of her. He laughed about meeting her and one of his sisters on the Rexburg sidewalk one day when he was smoking a cigar. He quickly stuffed the cigar and his hand into his pocket and burned his hand quite painfully before he could get away from them. His own sons respected him enough that they would not light a cigarette in front of him. He told me of his amusement when he noticed smoke rolling up from behind a shed, and when he walked around to see what was going on, there were some of his sons, looking so innocent and not a cigarette in sight. Henry and Lisbet's oldest child (Katie) was born at Hibbard on May 15,1911. Another girl (Katrina) was born February 8, 1912, and died on February 21. She is buried in the Rexburg Cemetery. A few days later Lisbet's mother gave birth to a girl who also died. David Weimer did not have a lot in the cemetery, so he asked Henry if his baby could be placed with the Bishoff baby. The grave was opened and the Weimer baby's casket was placed on top of the Bishoff baby's. The Bishoffs moved to Burton, where Henry Jr. was born December 2,1913. Another girl, Katrin, was born in the late summer of 1914 and died within a few hours. When the little casket was lowered into the grave, Lisbet was heartsick that it was set in water and insisted that that was the last child she would allow to be buried where the water table was high. Alexander was born April 29, 1915, and then David arrived March 19, 1918. Lisbet told me that her labor pains started while Grandmother Bischoff was visiting with her in her kitchen, but she said nothing, and then after Grandmother had walked back to her part of the house, Lisbet prepared her bed for the delivery. Henry was away from home at the time, so she was there alone, except for Katie, Henry, and Alex, who were playing outside. She told Katie to watch the little boys and then lay down on the bed to await the birth. Later Alex opened the door to come in, and she told him to go get his grandmother. He was so small that he just went back to play with the other children. Lisbet went through birth alone and told of her astonishment when she noted that David was born with a "cap" or "cradle" on his head. She understood that this meant something special about the baby. David started to cry; Grandmother Bischoff came running and scolded her for not telling her that she was expecting the baby so soon. When Henry got home that night, he was surprised to find that he had a new son. The family had moved from Hibbard to Burton before Henry was born and lived there seven years before moving to Independence for one year. Ruben was born on February 9, 1919, and died February 10, 1919, and is buried in the Sugar City Cemetery. Then Henry rented some land from Henry Martin Garn in Moody and moved his family into a small house way back in the field by a large canal. He rented this farm from Mr. Garn for sixteen years and remarked what a fine landlord he was. They had a written lease for the first year, and after that it was renewed each year by a handshake. Lisbet told me about taking her small children and baby with her to the field when she and Henry were weeding and working otherwise with the crops. She would lay the baby in the row with a blanket or sheet over the plants to keep the sun off and caution Katie and the other children to take care of the baby while she worked. When it was time to change and feed the baby, she would lie on a blanket on the warm soil while the baby nursed, and Lisbet was so tired that she often would drop off to sleep. Then Henry would have to come and wake her so she could help him again in the field. It was a hard life. They had to work so hard all the time. After working in the field during the day, Lisbet would do her cleaning and baking. This was after she had already gotten the family settled in bed. Henry laughed about how he tried to milk a cow once when he was young, and when he couldn't get any milk, he quit in disgust and never did milk again. However, he always had milk cows, and Lisbet milked them until the children were large enough to take over the milking job. As soon as the boys were old enough, they worked in the fields with the crops. George was born May 4,1920, and Pauline on May 16,1922. John arrived on January 18,1924, and Lydia on February 8,1925. Fred was born July 26,1928, and died October 2,1928. He is buried in the Sugar City Cemetery with Ruben. Emma was born July 14,1929, and Ruben was born July 19, 1931. Ruby was delivered on August 2,1932, along with her dead twin. Helen was born October 18, 1934. She became very ill with bronchial pneumonia when she was about sixteen months old and died February 10,1936. Lisbet told me the snow had drifted in the farm lane, and the hearse could not get into the house to pick up her body, so Henry Jr. and Alex took the little body on a bobsled to the highway, where the hearse was waiting. The death was a terrible loss for the mother, as the baby had been such a lovely little girl. Alex used to joke that you could throw a child through the cracks anywhere in the walls of the little house, but like so many other people who lived under similar circumstances during those hard years, they managed to survive. Harry was born February 23, 1936, just thirteen days after the death of little Helen, and he was Lisbet's last baby. He was born on her forty-second birthday and meant so much to her. While Henry was renting the land from Mr. Garn, he saved his money and then bought the Huskinson farm in East Wilford. He continued to raise large acreages of sugar beets and then began to plant potatoes. Lisbet told me that she would work out in the field with the older boys while Katie stayed in the house with the small children and baby. The boys would get to scuffling and quarreling like all young children, and she would try to keep them quiet and working so that Henry wouldn't paddle them. When Pauline and Lydia were large enough, they had to work sometimes in the field with the boys, and Lydia told how they would cry up one row and down the other with the boys scolding them to try to get them to work faster and harder. They would complain to the mother, who would tell the father, and he would get after the boys, but that did not stop the harassment-just typical brothers and sisters. When the Garner farm on the Teton Highway came up for sale, Henry had saved enough money to buy it, so he moved his family there. Lisbet really enjoyed her modem home on the highway, where she could see the cars go by and be near her children as they married and settled down. After Henry Jr. married Mary Krebs, they lived in the two-room house on the Huskinson place for several years. Then Henry purchased a nice, large house that John Farrimond had built in Twin Groves and had it moved to the Wilford farm. After Henry Jr. had moved to a farm he had bought, Henry tried to get Lisbet to move to Wilford. The house was nicer than the Sugar City home—with a furnace and better arrangement—but Lisbet refused to move from the highway. She continued to like sitting on the west screened porch to watch the passing traffic. Henry told me that George Klauser was killed during World War I, and his sister Angina wrote to the family telling them that she now wanted to come to America with her three children. The family sent money to help her live until they could get the necessary papers for her to leave Russia. She wrote back that she had bought a cow with some of the money but that it had been taken from her by the Bolsheviks. The family kept sending her money and working to arrange passage through the government, but she finally sent word to them that her mail was being intercepted, and the money was being taken. After that, she asked them not to write any more, as it was not helping her, so they heard no more from her. They found out later that one of the uncles had refused to turn over his small shop to the communists and had been sent to Siberia, and the family wondered if this had happened to her as well. When the first Russian Germans came to America, they tended to stay in their own little communities or groups, as did all other emigrants from the Old World. As a result, Lisbet and Henry and others in the family learned to read and write in German but not in English. Henry learned to figure and write his name and such, and because he was a very intelligent man, he was able to conduct his business with other people. Since he and Lisbet could not read the English-language newspaper, he would have his children read it to him. He followed the news on the radio, and when television came, it was a blessing to him and Lisbet. They could keep up on all the news events, and Henry was always ready to discuss politics with his children. German was spoken in the home when the older children were young, and this created a problem when they started to school at Moody. They would usually have to stay in the first grade an extra year to learn to speak English before they could handle the schoolwork. This had happened to some of the children before Henry realized what was going on; then he said no more German would be spoken so that the children would learn English and have an easier time in their classes. The younger children did not understand German, as they did not hear it in the home. This seemed a shame to me, because I felt that knowing more than one language was a plus for the children. Henry was proud to be an American citizen, and his citizenship papers were hung in his living room. He had filed his Declaration of Intent [for Citizenship] on November 18, 1914, and became a citizen February 7, 1921. After he had filed, he noticed that his name was spelled as Bishoff instead of Bischoff. When he drew this to the attention of the official in charge, the man said that it would not make any difference, but Henry figured he would have to spell his last name the way it was shown on the form, so he changed the spelling of his name to "Bishoff," and his children all spell their last name the same way except for Alexander, who had noticed how his name was spelled on his church birth and baptismal records, so he insisted on spelling his name with the "c." Henry was not too pleased about it and tried to get him to change it, but when an immovable force meets an equally independent object, nothing is solved! Henry was so interested in the voting process that he even took some of his boys to vote for the first time to encourage them to exercise their right to vote. He and Lisbet took each of their children through the confirmation school in the Lutheran church but were very broad-minded when some of the children married and joined another faith. The parents were interested only that they try to be good people. Henry was always prompt in paying his bills and was honest in his tax payments. He remarked that they were so lucky to live in America and earn a good enough living to pay taxes. Some of his sons thought that he carried this a little too far when he insisted on reporting on the sale of his share of the strawstacks on his land, as this meant they also had to report on their shares. Henry did not believe in purchasing anything until he had the money or at least most of it to pay for an item, so he tried to instill this in all his children. Katie Kraus said that John Henry had taught his children to be honest and always pay their debts, so Henry had learned a good lesson to pass on to his own children. Henry was a good farmer who respected and took good care of his land. His fences were always tight, his grain and hay fields clean, his potato and beet rows straight, and he did not like to see weeds in among the plants or around the field. His home and outbuildings were painted, and his yards were always neat and orderly. He maintained that if his family had stayed in Russia, he would have been unable to own anything. He had arrived in America with nothing and with hard work, good management, and thrift was able to retire with two prosperous farms. He always said that anyone could do this if he were willing to work hard enough and be thrifty. Lisbet was an equally hard-working lady, whose world centered around her home and children. She told me the happiest time of her life was when her children were young and at home with her. She was always busy with her chickens and geese and also raised large gardens. She plucked the breast feathers from the geese for pillows. She was a good cook, and her headcheese, sausages, butterballs, and homemade noodles were delicious. She was a clean, neat lady, and as her daughters grew up, they were each trained to be good housekeepers. When the children were growing up, it was not uncommon for their friends to be at the family table for meals. One man said that at one time in his life he thought he ate almost as many meals at the Bishoff table as at his parents' home. The family was so large that it was like feeding a threshing crew continually anyway, and one more at the table didn't seem to make much difference. Lisbet laughed when she told me about the times the older boys would "go on the bum," as they called it. They would decide to hop a freight train to see the country and would be gone until they got so hungry and homesick that they would head for home, and she would be so worried about them all the time they were gone. She said one time David had a set-to with his father and coaxed Alex into leaving with him. One of the children told her, and she hurried out to Henry to ask him to bring them back. By that time he was so disgusted that he said they could just go. He wasn't going to bring them back. But Lisbet pleaded with him until he drove her to the Rexburg train depot where the two boys were waiting for the freight train. She got out of the car, and when she told Alex to come home, he went right over to the car and got in. She knew he didn't want to leave anyway, but Dave was another matter. He refused to go to the car with her, and she ended up crying and pleading with him to come with her. She even got hold of his arm and pulled until he gave up and came to the car. She told about how obstinate Dave was about being left at home when she and Henry would go to town for groceries or to visit. The other children would accept the fact that they were to stay home, but Dave always insisted he wanted to go. One time they got down the road some distance when Henry noticed a lump in the back seat. He stopped the car, and when he opened the door, Dave leaped out and dashed through the fields for home. Dave enlisted in the army November 3, 1939, and then reenlisted November 23, 1940. He came home for a month's furlough before being transferred to Fort Mills in the Philippine Islands. Henry and Lisbet drove him and Don Mace back to the army base in California. The Japanese attacked the Philippines around December 10, 1941, and Dave and Don were taken prisoner at Corregidor on May 6,1942, and then transferred about August 1942 to Mukden, Manchuria. Dave died there on January 3, 1943. His family worried a long time about him before receiving word that he had died, but his parents did not really give up hope until his friends came to see them after the war had ended to verify his death. The government contacted them to see if they wished his body to be brought back home for burial, but it was decided to let him rest in the beautiful Punch Bowl Cemetery in Hawaii. Lisbet felt badly that she was not able to take flowers to his grave.
Henry Bishoff family portrait taken sometime after 1970. Back row left to right: Pauline Bishoff Taylor, Alex Bischoff, George Bishoff, Harry Bishoff, Ruben Bishoff, Henry Bishoff, Ruby Bishoff Tolley, and Katie Bishoff Raymond. Front row left to right: Lydia Bishoff Clark, John Bishoff, Mother Bishoff (Lisbet), Dad Bishoff (Henry), and Emma Bishoff Klingler. Henry and Nels Hansen, Mollie's husband, owned two threshing machines and worked together for years. Henry was very fond of Nels. Later, they each took one of the machines and worked independently of each other. Henry and his sons did custom threshing for neighbors for many years, and his thresher is still at the part of the Wilford farm that is owned by Ruben Bishoff. Henry told me that his mother had lost a baby in Russia, and this was verified by Mollie Hansen. He also told me that his group of Russian Germans spoke a Low-German dialect. A federal auditor told me many years ago that Bischoff was a very common name in Austria, sort of like Smith or Jones in America or England. I noted on the map the town Weimar, near Gotha and Naumburg [now in the German Democratic Republic], Also I found that the town of Bischofswiesen is located not far from Salzburg, not far from where Hitler had his beautiful lodge in the Berchtesgaden area [Federal Republic of Germany] in the Bavarian Alps near the border with Austria. I have also been told that the origin of the name "Bischoff" is "Bishop." Perhaps the first Bischoffs or Bishops were church leaders. When they were quite old, Henry and Lisbet purchased headstones for their dead babies. There were errors made on the birth and death dates on the stones. I was able to correct these errors for this family history after I checked with the Flamm Funeral Home in Rexburg, Idaho. Henry and Lisbet had been married sixty-two years when he passed away peacefully in his sleep at home on December 1,1973, at eighty-three years of age. Lisbet stayed on in her home with her children watching over her each day until they got her to visit with each of them for a time so that she would not be alone. When the Teton Dam broke on June 6,1976, she lost her home and all the outbuildings on the Sugar City farm. She continued to visit with her children until her health failed in December 1977. She was taken to the Rexburg Memorial Hospital, where she remained until she died on February 19, 1978. Her funeral was held on her eighty-fourth birthday, February 23,1978. Both Henry and Lisbet are buried in the Sugar City Cemetery with Helen, Ruben, and Fred. "Little" Lisbet had given birth to seventeen children and had raised twelve of them to maturity. She and Henry were survived by five girls and six boys. The boys had the honor of serving as pallbearers for their father and mother. I wish to express my love and respect to Henry and Lisbet. I have always said I couldn't have picked nicer in- laws. At one time Alex and I had a little disagreement, and during the "discussion" he asked me why I had married him. I immediately replied, "To get your mother and dad." That stopped the argument. I thought it fascinating to know of the changes in history they had lived through—living in Russia, where both men and women worked very hard in the fields and homes to make a living, then sailing across the Atlantic Ocean toward a new life, knowing they would probably never see the oldest girl Angina and other relatives again. How hard it must have been for the little grandmother Katherine [Bes Betal) to lose her second son Jigar in Colorado and then move to Kansas. Just think of the hard struggle she had to carry on after John Henry died, leaving her with a small baby and trying to hold the family together. Then the family moved to Idaho to make their permanent home there. They had advanced from the hard hand labor in the fields in Russia and America to binders, with threshing machines and eventually to combines, from horse labor with wagons and bobsleds to big trucks and nice cars, from crowded little houses with wood stoves and lamps or lanterns to warm, comfortable homes with modern conveniences. They had lived during the time of the stories of the man in the moon and lived to see men actually fly to and walk on the moon. They had lived in an exciting and changing world and had seen and learned so much. Katherina Elizabeth Bischoff (Grandmother Bischoff) had been called "Bes Betal" by her family and had been a midwife for most of the George Henry Graf family.
George Henry Graf is holding George. Henry stands on the left of his father. John is between his parents. Mary Bischoff Graf is holding Mary. This picture was taken in Deer-field, Kansas, in 1909 or 1910. Mary Bischoff Graf was John Henry Jr. 's half-sister (Henry's aunt). George Henry and Mary Bischoff Graf were Pauline Graf Tidd’s parents.
10 According to Pauline Graf Tidd (step-cousin to young Henry Bishoff), the other Graf man who had settled in Idaho was named Alexander and was the son of Godfred Graf, George Henry's brother. This Alexander was called "Little Graf," and he told Pauline that his mother's maiden name was also Bischoff. His sister had married David Kraus, who was a brother to Henry Kraus Sr. Pauline thinks that Godfred Graf must have been one of the Graf boys who died in Russia, as she has a picture of Katherine Bischoff Graf with her four children (two boys and two girls), but no husband was in the photograph. This Alexander ("Little Graf") was the oldest boy in the family. Three of the Graf brothers of Pauline's father, George Henry, had died in Russia all at once in an epidemic of some kind, leaving him with three living brothers. The George Henry Graf family had emigrated from Russia through Liverpool, England, to Quebec, Canada, in 1905 and farmed in Teton, Idaho, before moving to Nampa and then Burley, Idaho. A note about the rest of John Henry Bischoff s children: Mary (Maria) Bischoff married Gottfred Holstien, and they lived in Montana. She passed away in December 1964. David Bischoff married Eva Laupan, and they lived in Idaho Falls and Boise. He died in October 1981. Mollie (Amalia) and her husband, Nels Hansen, live near Rexburg. Katie Kraus and her husband, Henry Sr., lived near Rexburg, where they raised their family. Katie died July 30, 1974, at eighty-six years of age. Fred Bischoff married Delia Kerbs, and he also lives near Rexburg.
FOLKLORE FORUM The "Folklore Forum" in the Spring 1987 Journal will focus on weather lore (traditional beliefs, customs, and expressions of the Germans from Russia dealing with the weather). The Folklore Committee is appealing to AHSGR members and Journal readers to collect information on this topic to contribute to this article. Here are a few examples of the kind of information being sought: BELIEF: "If one dreams of a friend or relative who has died, it will soon rain." (Volga area, Protestant colony of Kolb) CUSTOM: To foretell the weather, place twelve slices of freshly cut onion in a row and place a small but equal amount of salt on each slice. This should be done either on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve. The following morning, the slices that contain the most moisture indicate the next year's wettest months. (Black Sea area, Catholic colony of Landau) EXPRESSION: "Juli trocken und heiss, Januar kalt und weiss—If July's dry and hot, January will be cold and white." (Black Sea area, Bessarabian colony of Tarutino) Please remember to include the place of origin of all weather lore items (i.e., region and colony in Russia, if known) as well as the name of the individual who contributed each item. If contributors are unfamiliar with written German, they should spell out dialect German words/phrases phonetically and supply English translations. (Tape recorders and good quality cassette tapes also can be used.) Send all folklore contributions to Timothy J. Kloberdanz, in care of AHSGR, 631 D Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68502-1199. In order to appear in next spring's Journal all submissions must be received by December 31, 1986.
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Facsimile for the first page of the “Insurance Policy" for Heinrich Kaiser.
12 MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE OF THE GERMAN COLONISTS IN THE SARATOV AND SAMARA PROVINCES Alexander Dupper The importance of old documents in researching our Russian-German heritage can hardly be overemphasized. By pursuing these documents, we can often gain surprising insights into what our ancestors' lives were really like. The existence of the German farmers in Russia was constantly threatened by natural disasters. There was the spring runoff with raging rivers sometimes flooding whole villages. This was often followed by summer drought, with resulting crop failure and starvation; epidemic diseases like smallpox and typhoid fever also plagued the colonists. Perhaps the disaster most feared by the German settlers was fire. It always came suddenly and unexpectedly. Fire could totally ruin a farmer. However, the German farmers did not give up; they fought all the natural disasters collectively, with all the strength they could muster. The occurrence of a natural disaster in a village, though unfortunate, most of the time had the desirable effect of making the German settlers forget their differences and work together in fighting the common problem. The Russian government passed a law in 1864 to establish mutual fire insurance for the farmers in colonies. Mrs. Laura Strackbein of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sent us a copy of a fire insurance policy for Heinrich Kaiser of Neu-Norka, Kamyshin District, Province of Saratov, issued in 1910. We thank Mrs. Strackbein for sharing this document with us. We bring a translation of the insurance policy and its regulations below. It is interesting to note that the insurance paid as compensation for fire loss was only three-quarters (75 percent) of the appraised value. This was done, no doubt, to discourage anyone from committing arson. The rules were strict. But, even with only a 75 percent compensation for the fire loss suffered, a farmer could avoid total ruin and had a chance to rebuild his household again. The fire insurance was not perfect, but, as the saying goes, it was better than nothing and perhaps helped many German settlers to recover from disaster. Page 1 of the insurance policy reads as follows: No. 13 in the mortgage book INSURANCE POLICY (see facsimile)
Of the settler-proprietor Heinrich Sebastian Kaiser of the village of New Norka, drawn up in the month of May 1910, for a term of ten years, that is, up to January 1, 1920. Specific provisions: the owner of this policy is obligated: 1. Within three days of receiving this policy, to register a complaint with the Village Head, in case he disagrees with the evaluation of the buildings on his property made by the appraisers; after three days, no complaints will be accepted; 2. To report immediately any change (loss or gain) in the value of the buildings, in order that the proper correction can be made in this policy and be entered in the mortgage book of the village; otherwise, he will have to bear all incurred losses by himself; 3. To personally satisfy himself that this policy agrees in every detail with the original mortgage book and acknowledge this with his signature under this policy; and 4. To present this policy to the Village Head for the required entries in cases such as borrowing money to pay the premium on the policy; the case of the owner desiring to borrow money from the village emergency fund; or if he becomes a guarantor for people who pursue the same aim. I herewith certify with my signature that I have read these provisions and found this policy in accordance with the mortgage book. Heinrich Kaiser. On pages 2 and 3 are shown the sequence number and the plot number of the insured property, also the name of the insured and the name of the previous owner. Heinrich Kaiser bought the property from Johann Adam. There follows a list of buildings and structures insured against fire and their appraised value: 1. House of raw bricks with a wooden roof, 4V2 by 2V2 sazhen. 2. Appraised value: 50 rubles. [1 sazhen = 7 feet]
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U 2. Wooden stable with a board roof, 3 by 2V2 sazhen. Appraised value: 85 rubles. [We don't know why the stable is appraised at a higher value than the house.] 3. Wooden fence, 12 sazhen long. Appraised value: 8 rubles. The total appraised value of the insured buildings and structures was 143 rubles. There is also space for exclusion of buildings and structures from the mutual insurance and space for entries of estimated compensation for fire loss- This is certified by the signature of the Village Head and the affixed seal of the village administration. On page 4 are: RULES AND REGULATIONS (see facsimile) concerning mutual insurance of buildings against fire in the colonies of foreign settlers in the Saratov and Samara provinces, ratified by His Excellency, the Lord Minister of Government Properties, on July 8, 1864. The mutual insurance of buildings against fire is established in the Saratov and Samara colonies on the following basis: 1. Each colony, as a separate colonial community, is to form a special insurance association against fire. Each association is obligated to give compensation to its members for incurred fire loss; if the fire losses exceed one-twentieth of the cost of all insured buildings in the colony, then the cost of compensating the fire victim in excess of that sum will be spread out over all insured buildings of other colonies of the region in which the community suffering the fire loss is located and will be collected from the specified colonies according to their allotted share. 2. All buildings located in the colony must be insured, except: (a) all public buildings; (b) buildings and establishments located outside the colony, which, at the wish of the owners, may be included in the insurance but only by special resolution of the community and with the permission of the Regional Authority, and (c) buildings and establishments insured by one of the existing fire insurance companies in Russia. 3. All households and buildings subject to insurance, according to Paragraph 2, are to be entered in the mortgage book with the estimated value of each building in a given form established by each colony. 4. For that purpose, a general appraisal of all buildings subject to insurance must be carried out in the order indicated in Paragraph 6. Such appraisal is to be repeated after five to ten years at the discretion of the community and with the permission of the proper Regional Authority. 5. Buildings newly constructed after the general appraisal are appraised upon completion in the same way and then added to the other insured property. Buildings reported by their owner to the Village Administration as sold, removed, or otherwise destroyed must be excluded from the insurance, beginning on the day the change is reported; an appropriate note describing all those changes must be made in the mortgage book, indicating the exact date, month, and year; these notes to be validated with the proper signatures and according to Paragraph 6. Note 1: Repairs or additions to the insured buildings, if they are not completely rebuilt, may not constitute a reason to change the insurance appraisal. Note 2: The owner, whose buildings burned down before they were appraised, has no right to ask for compensation based on these regulations; by the same token, buildings not yet appraised cannot be included in the share collection for the benefit of other fire victims, 6. The appraisal of buildings subject to insurance and the estimation of fire losses are done upon inspection by appraisers who were elected by the community. Their testimonies are briefly and clearly entered in the proper place in the mortgage book, indicating also the appraised amount of the loss, and certified with the signatures of the appraisers, the owner of the buildings, and the Village Administration. 7. An owner of buildings who is not satisfied with the appraisal is allowed to invite, at his own expense, outside appraisers from the neighboring colonies; this is permitted only when both the elected appraisers of the community and the dissatisfied owner of the buildings, in a signed 15 statement made in the Village Administration, recognize the invited, outside appraisers as trustworthy and commit themselves to accept unconditionally their new appraisal as correct and final. Until such appraisal is carried out and entered in the mortgage book, in the manner prescribed in Paragraph 6, the appraisal made by the elected community appraisers retains its full power. 8. The victim of a fire loss will be paid a compensation in the amount of three-quarters of the total appraised value of the damage to the insured property, according to the mortgage book. If the building is not burned down totally, but only partially destroyed, the owner will receive three-quarters of the value of fire loss estimated by the elected community appraisers. Note: It is, of course, understood that an owner who intentionally sets a fire deprives himself not only of the right to any compensation but will also be turned over to a court for prosecution to the full extent of the law. One may also lose his compensation by a community resolution if it is found that he, by ignoring the warnings given him by the Village Administration, caused the fire through noncompliance with the police and fire regulations, even if he did so unintentionally. 9. The required amount of compensation for the fire victims is collected on the basis of Paragraph 1, according to the proportional share of all insured households, which did not suffer from the fire, based on the appraised value of each household in the mortgage book before the fire. 10. After the fire the Village Authorities and the elected appraisers immediately determine the incurred losses, decide (Paragraph 8) the amount of compensation due every victim and the required amount to be collected, according to the proportional share (Paragraph 9), and present a drawn-up document, with the required signatures and approving resolution of the community, to the Regional Authority for examination and approval. 11. Based on the proportional share determined and approved in this manner, the required amount is collected at the same time as the collection of taxes; after the collection of the required sum, the Village Administration grants a receipt to every fire victim, which is safely kept by the Village Administration with all other documents regarding the fire. Concerning the changes caused by the fire in the insured households, a comprehensive record is entered in the mortgage book, according to Paragraphs 5 and 6. Note 1: A possible surplus of money, which may result during computation, is, to avoid small fractions, to be kept in the community safe until the next fire and then be taken into account at the next estimation of insurance compensation. Note 2: In case the community is required to borrow money from the emergency funds of the entire region to satisfy the victims of a fire with the amount of compensation due them, this loan, with the required interest, must be paid off from the insurance collection, according to Paragraphs 9 and 10. AU litigations and misunderstandings that may arise between the colonists in respect to the mutual insurance program, whose resolution the present rules may not adequately expedite during review in the Village or Regional Headquarters, can be peacefully resolved by an arbitration court with conscientious finality. 16 FIRST DAKOTA CONFERENCE GERMAN BAPTIST CHURCH Garvin Bertsch The first Dakota Conference of the German Baptist Church was held at Johannestal Church in June 1909. Johannestal Church belonged to the Jewell Churches, which consisted of five churches: Jewell, Johannestal, Bertsch Station, Long Lake, and Freudental. Johannestal, Long Lake, and Bertsch Station were in McPherson County, South Dakota; Jewell and Freudental were located in North Dakota. People from the Dakotas had requested that they have their own conference and split away from the Northwest Conference, which included Wisconsin, Minnesota, and part of Iowa. There was a controversy as to whether they should allow it. Some leaders said this would be a grave mistake, but the Jewell Churches of the Dakotas had no doubts that their conference would be successful and continue to grow. The Johannestal Church was located 3 miles west of Highway 45,1 mile south of the North Dakota border, and 16 miles from Eureka, South Dakota. To get ready for the conference, they secured a 60-by-90 foot oval tent and put a platform in the middle. The seats were in a half circle around the platform. The seating consisted of planks on nail kegs. The barn was scrubbed, and three cook stoves were brought in for cooking. The church was used to serve the meals. Most of the members of the Jewell churches were given 50 pounds of flour, with which they baked bread and kuchen for the meals to be served. The conference started on a Tuesday, and people came to Eureka by train. There they were picked up by Henry Nies and other church members. Others came to Ashley, North Dakota, and they were met by Gottlieb D. Bertsch and other church members. Ashley and Eureka had to have two extra passenger cars to accommodate the people. There were about 600 to 800 people at the conference each day and 1400 on Sunday afternoon. All of these people were fed without charge. Lodging was provided by the local churches. The David Bertschs and Andreas Bertschs (David's son) put up forty-eight guests. Gottlieb D. Bertsch had twenty guests, and his son Adam said he had to sleep in the granary with nothing but his prairie jacket to cover himself at night. Most people slept on the floor without a mattress. The people came in buggies and parked in a one-mile diameter. There was one automobile; it had to park one-half mile away so it would not scare the horses. Breakfast was served every morning from 6 o'clock to 8 o'clock. All the bread and kuchen baked by the local church members was brought to Andreas Bertsch1 s summer kitchen for storage. David and Andreas Bertsch lived next to each other about one- fourth mile from the church. Water was transported to the church in a 500-gallon water tank. Beef was butchered by John Guthmiller and hung in a shallow well to keep it from spoiling. Some food was donated by individual members. A freewill offering was taken to cover some of the expense. Some of the kuchen that was left over at the end of the conference was sold to the people. Chairs to be used in the chapel were collected from all four churches. This was the place where everyone was fed. The chapel was not big enough to accommodate all at once, so they had to eat in shifts. It must have taken a lot of time to feed the 1400 people on Sunday. There was repetition of the same food each day. Some of the food served included beef, sausage, soup, cheese, potatoes, rice, mixed dried fruit, pickles, coffee, and kuchen. The main cooks were Mrs. Christ Weisser from Jewell Church, Mrs. Andreas Bertsch Sr. and Mrs. John Guthmiller from Johannestal Church, and Mrs. Gottlieb Brietling from Bertsch Station. Some of those who served food were Mrs. Adam (Lydia) Bertsch, Sophia (Bertsch) Lechner, Elizabeth (Bertsch) Fischer, Magdelena (Schauer) Gruenich, Karl Bertsch, Christ Fischer, and Ben Arlt. The tent used for this occasion was purchased with the help of the North Dakota Association. This tent was white in color, and they found acoustics were such that everyone could hear. On Sunday 1200 people were counted inside the tent while others were standing outside. Light was furnished by kerosene lanterns. The Reverend Burgdorff was the pastor of the five churches. He, Gottlieb D. Bertsch, and his brother, Jacob D. Bertsch, were the main leaders of the local arrangements. The Dakota Conference consisted of sixteen churches from North Dakota and six from South Dakota, with 2994 members. Some of the South Dakota churches had not joined the conference at this time. There were eight separate conferences in the United States. The Dakota Conference was the sixth largest when it was founded. There was great participation at the first conference, not only by preachers and delegates, but also by all present. The main topic of discussion was the mission 17 Some of the people attending the first Dakota Conference German Baptist Church in June 1909. The Johannestal Church in the background was used to prepare food for those attending. The people in white in the foreground were the cooks, waitresses, and waiters. in the conference area. The high point of enthusiasm was reached on Sunday morning in the mission session. Some of the leaders of the General Conference stated this was the greatest mission session ever held in connection with one of our conferences. Pastor Pfeiffer preached his mission sermon over Romans 10,1. It was a serious sermon, which went straight to the heart. Pastor Schulte, Secretary of the General Conference, gave the people an opportunity to make a collection for this mission. It took two men to write down the names, and in thirty-five minutes $3600 were pledged by those present. Those people of the Northwest Conference and General Conference who had opposed the forming of the new conference stated they had made a mistake. They wished the new conference the blessing of God. They stated, "You are our sister, and may you grow by baptizing thousands more, and may your seed conquer the gates of your enemies." This was a happy time for the people. The weather was favorable with no rain and good temperatures. This also was one of the first times many saw each other since they had left Russia as long as twenty-five years earlier. They sat on their buggies and visited with each other. The German Baptist Church has changed its name to the North American Baptist Church. All five churches have since been disbanded and have joined the Ashley Baptist Church as of this writing in 1986. Authors note: This article was written with the help of information from Adam G. Bertsch of Ashley, North Dakota, who was eleven years old at the time of the conference, and Lydia Bertsch, Bismarck, North Dakota, who was fifteen years old. Also used was an article written by Pastor Schulte in the chapter "This and That" from his book Recollections. 18 THE GERMAN SETTLEMENTS IN THE CRIMEA1 Th. Eisenbraun Translated by Jo Ann Kuhr I. Economic Development The first massive immigration of Germans to Russia took place in the middle of the eighteenth century under the Russian Empress Catherine II. The immigrants came mainly to the eastern part of European Russia and founded the German colonies along the Volga River. During the reign of Empress Catherine II, the Crimea was won from Turkey and attached to Russia. The Crimea was populated mainly by Tatars (Mohammedans). At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the God-fearing emperor, Czar Alexander I, ruled. He is said to have visited the southern parts of Germany often and had a special interest in the Briiderschaften [brotherhoods]. In his appeal to the German farmers, he invited them to come to South Russia, where he promised them complete religious freedom and held out the prospects of large economic advantages. Many Germans from Wurttemberg, Baden, Alsace, and other areas of South Germany moved to Russia. They were mainly vineyardists and handworkers who, however, were also familiar with agriculture. My great-grandfather with his wife and five children from Geradstetten, District Schomdorf, also made the trip into the unknown, praised land. The document registered by the mayor and judge in Geradstetten on May 18, 1804, reads, "that they want to emigrate and go to Podolia and that they are not in bondage to anyone. As far as their possessions are concerned, after deducting debts they are worth 229.57 guilder." With this small bit of cash, Great-grandfather began the distant, difficult trip. A Bible and songbooks were also taken along. More than one hundred years later I also read the old songbooks brought along from Germany. The first destination, Podolia, did not suit them particularly. To be sure, a portion of the emigrants did settle there, but the other part, after staying one year, set out again, and the Crimea was chosen as a second destination. They had a longer stay on the west shore of the Black Sea in the city Odessa. Here they also met compatriots who had already settled not far from the city. Again several emigrants became recreant and remained here; the rest, however, boarded the ship and traveled across the Black Sea to the Crimea. They did not come to land again in Eupatoria [Yevpatoriya] nor in Feodosiya. They did not land again until the last Black Sea port Kerch. Illness had broken out while they were aboard ship, and many found their last resting place m the tides of the Black Sea. Therefore, they had to remain in quarantine in Kerch for several months. Entire families died out on the trip. In the papers of my great-grandfather, there was a document with the name of Klinger, but this name is not represented among the settlers of the first three colonies. After the state of health among the settlers had been somewhat restored, they continued on by means of Tatar oxcarts via Feodosiya through the northern part of the Crimean Mountains and beyond the Tatar city Karasubazar [Belogursk]. About 10 km beyond this city, they left the main road and turned towards the south into the mountains. There in the mountains lay three ownerless Tatar estates. These were given to the Germans for settlement. Around them were mountains and forests, from which springs and small brooks flowed into the valleys with clear, good, drinking water. Nature here reminded them so fervently of the old homeland left behind in Germany. Here the first three German colonies in the Crimea were established. On the largest estate, Chukurcha, arose the German village Neusatz; on the second estate, Khan-Takus, Friedental was established; and on the third estate, Shoban-Oba, Rosental was founded. Settlers of the first two colonies belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran faith and those in Rosental to the Roman Catholic faith. 19 Along a street about 20 meters wide, the farms SAMAU, CRIMEA were placed side-by-side in the form of a rectangle 1930 covering an area of about 2 morgen. The dwelling, with the gable toward the street, had in addition to the 31 Farmsteads vestibule three more rooms: a Vorderstube [front 35 Families room], kitchen, and Hinterstube [back room]. 190 Souls Following and built onto the house were the sheds and stalls. The women had their flower beds between house and street wall. In the middle of the village was the schoolyard with the church. In Neusatz there were thirty to forty families; in Rosental and Friedental twenty to twenty-five each. The Russian government established a committee, which directed the entire settlement and also found the necessary means for the settlement. At the head of the committee was the inspector, who had his office in Neusatz. Here the pastor also lived, and thus Neusatz became the parish O.Enget J.77W/- J ""• || %\ T^^'^M village. Later, Friedental also received a church, and the pastor conducted the Sunday services alternately in these two villages. »» ^.30 13 gg zLJ./^^/te/ The question of land caused our courageous Chr.Prfebr ^ 7 Ehentffaun^w pioneers not a little cogitation. The Russian government provided each family or farmstead 100 B.Prieb \ 1 - A/ I dessiatines of land. A dessiatine was the earlier •li w ^HamaMf- Russian measure of land. One dessiatine is somewhat TftI 0 !G. [ m 2 Sf\ 4-1 Ei$e»brwn larger than one hectare or four morgen. According to Vwbmv^^^ | k- +-> 4, this contract, each family was to receive 400 morgen 4 Ch. E/SCff^ of land, consisting of fields, meadow, and forest. -1 C/l . , , f,KWe[ ms^A^.LeHrpri bwv^i\ "Was solle mer mit soviet Land mache, des koenne mer jo gar net bearbeite” ["What are we to do with A^oFwanSt^ 26 '^lml£. so “much land, we can't work it all" ], they said and +' were against this contract. After lengthy negotiations 0.0achtler Cross street they agreed with the Russian government to 26 dessiatines or 104 morgen per farmstead or family. Thus they received more land than they wanted and R.Eisenbraun. SdimWe (h.Har-,\ without any payment. In addition to this field- and meadowland, each community received a community Ph.Weidner ^3 Well •'" wardr\ forest. The pastorate also received a woods covering an area of 360 morgen. \eiwbmhi I u B ^GM/ O.Eiwbraun ^ years already, they made the sad discovery, that they }/v^ 11. could expect no success in this area and had to give up viniculture. Grains and potatoes were planted in ^ 19 U H.Weidmr I I the fields; winter wheat especially was sown. The first settlers, who were now called "colonists," had to H.Hern leer learn much. They learned the hitching up of the oxen J.Se/fwrei'eh/www+ by watching the Tatars. Two oxen were hitched to a 16 wooden yoke, to which a moveable shaft was Sl K.Trosf- & fastened in the middle. They likewise took over from ^ the Tatars the custom of threshing on a 73 e.Mu/ler 17 ^ /4 G.AlWer leer K.HQrwarsff'16 fS //- fisff Division of a Farmstead Small garden watchman, water drawer, and men's .House and farm buildings tailor ^Threshing-floor 9 - Cooperative (No. 30) 'Vegetable and fruit garden Village plat courtesy of the Lands mannschaft der Key to Symbols Deutschen aus Russland. •^ — » Community houses for the cattle and sheep herders, night 20 threshing place with a stone roller with six or seven ribs. Straw, chaff, and hay were placed in the open in stacks m the back yards, probably also according to Tatar custom. Our forefathers got along well with the Tatars, and soon the Tatars were their servants. As early as the second generation, men as well as women spoke the Tatar language fluently. In the stores and markets, everywhere, Tatar was spoken so that our forefathers in reality did not come to Russia but rather to Tatar country. All village affairs were handled in village meetings with the helpful support of the committee. Here the Schulz [mayorl conducted the meetings, and the teacher officiated as clerk. The pastor was also the school inspector. At his side were the church warden and the moral overseer. A warehouse or storeroom was located in the schoolyard. Here a supply of winter wheat was stored by the village, which, in the event of a bad harvest, was to be distributed among the community members. Fortunately, this provision turned out to be superfluous, and the storeroom was soon used for other purposes. The German village Beshui-Kodshambak in the Crimea, 1910. (Photo courtesy of the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland.) The various privileges, which the Russian government allowed, were a great fortune for the colonists. As already stated, they needed to make no payment for the land given them, indeed, they also received a certain sum for establishing the farm. They were free from taxation and military service. The classes were taught only in the German language. These privileges were proclaimed in the year 1762 by Empress Catherine II. In the Russian text, the time of duration is said to have been given with the Russian word vek [century, epoch]. In the German language this word means "eternity," but in the Russian language, one hundred years were meant by it. Thus these privileges were effective until 1871. From this year on, all German colonists in Russia were subject to the general Russian laws of state. The committee was abolished. In addition to taxes a considerable sum had to be paid each year for the land. All male persons born after 1855 were called to military service. The Schuiz was placed under the Oberschuls, and Russian language instruction was introduced into the schools. The Russian school inspector was now the school teacher's superior; he seldom inspected the schools, however. The administrative office (volost), to which our three German colonies belonged, was in a Russian village (Zuya). A good portion of the Russians had been forcibly resettled in the Crimea from the interior of Russia. For them, the Crimea was a place of exile. All transactions at meetings were mainly in the Tatar language. Only the clerk had to have a command of the written and spoken Russian language. It wasn't long before the district had a German as Oberschuiz [chief official]. My maternal grandfather, Georg Schamber, was the Oberschuiz uninterruptedly for nine or twelve years. The three justices of the peace at the district office were elected at the annual meeting for three years. Here, too, the Germans were favored above the other two ethnic groups. Yet the main role at court was played by the district clerk. In addition to the three German colonies, the district had three Russian 21 and eight to ten Tatar villages. Here the Obersckulz was like a little autocrat, and the clerk was his right hand. The fields had their special names. I still remember the Klingacker. With wet weather one could do no work in the clayey fields. When the fields had dried off in the spring, the field work began. When the rainy season came in the fall, the work in the fields ceased. If snow fell in the winter, then wood was cut and brought home. Yet at this time Father preferred to go hunting. There was no ban on hunting. Whoever owned a flint with powder and shot was a hunter. The area that he could see with his eyes was his game preserve. The hunting dog was also necessary. In the morning the hunters went into the woods, and in the evening they often returned home again in unison. One could hear them coming from afar. Through the woods into the village the song rang out, "Sein Hund der jagt, sein Herz das lacht, seine Augen, seine Augen leuchten wie zwei Sterne!” [His dog, it hunts; his heart, it laughs; his eyes, his eyes shine like two stars!"] One winter my mother made a list of all deer and rabbits entering the household as a result of my father's hunting. In five months there were ten deer and over one hundred rabbits. On the north side of the Crimean Mountains, three more colonies were started by Germans: Zuerichtal, near Feodosiya, was founded by Swiss; Heilbronn, in the same region, was a Swabian village; according to their dialect, the settlers in Kronental, near Simferopol, came from the Rhineland. The people in the first two colonies were of the Evangelical Lutheran faith; Catholics and Evangelicals [Protestants] lived peacefully together in the last village. Here wine was grown with good success. Thus the Neusatz parish encompassed five villages. The privations and difficulties of the long trip meant that only very healthy people could reach the destination. That manifested itself within the second generation with prolific families. My grandfather even had to share the farm of 26 dessiatines with his brother. My grandfather had seven sons and three daughters, and the brother had five sons and several daughters. So it was with most families. Soon the first colonies were overpopulated and the land designated did not suffice. Outside the mountains Tatar landowners had larger estates. There things were planted in tenths. Of every ten piles harvested, one to three piles had to be given to the owners. The rest of the harvest could then be taken home. There was a lot to transport with that. On this occasion our farmers learned how one can make the Crimean steppe a source of income. Most of the steppe was used by the Tatars primarily as pasture, and no plow had disturbed the virgin soil. This land was primarily black dirt but was, however, difficult to plow up. A pair of horses and three pairs of oxen had to work hard in order to set the plow in motion. The plow, on which only the colter and the plowshare were of iron, had to be held constantly by a strong man. Once the field had been turned in April, then it remained black until fall. In September winter wheat was sown by hand, the seed harrowed with wooden harrows, and, with God's blessing, in the next year there was an abundant wheat harvest. Thus our colonists became wheat farmers, and the land for it was on the Crimean steppe. Now, they all turned their attention to the flat, desolate steppe, and an unspoken saying developed, "Runter von den Bergen— hinaus auf die Steppe.9' ["Down from the mountains—out onto the steppe."] Camels and water barrels used to procure water for the German farmsteads in the Crimea. (Photo courtesy of the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland.) 22 Until the Crimean War in 1855, the Tatars still hoped that the Turks would free them from the Russian yoke. They were very disappointed when the Crimea still belonged to Russia after the war was over. They took to heart Mohammed's wise saying, "If the mountain will not come to you, then you must go to the mountain," En masse they emigrated and went to Turkey. The steppe land was now for sale for little money. Who, other than the colonists, should buy this land? The young farmers got together and bought a Tatar estate according to their means. Now it was no longer a matter of 104 morgen for a family; every head of household now wanted to call 300 to 400 dessiatines (i.e., 1200 to 2000 morgen) his own. The first estate, Okrech, was bought for 8 rubles per dessiatine. (At that time, 1 ruble was equal to 2 marks, that is 16 marks for 4 morgen.) My two uncles, with 400 dessiatines each, also took part. After this purchase, land prices increased until my father, the youngest of his six brothers, had to pay 22 rubles per dessiatine for his 360 dessiatines in 1879. Not only Crimean colonists bought the land; German farmers from almost all parts of Russia came into the Crimea and founded here the German steppe villages with Tatar names. The estates had all been entered into the state offices with the Tatar names, thus the Russian government would allow no renaming. Even though the land was cheap, the settling of a village on the steppe area was fraught with various difficulties. Difficult to solve almost everywhere was the question of procuring water. The Tatar wells were very primitive and usually already dilapidated. Not every individual farmer was in a position to dig a well for himself. Therefore, a well was dug for the entire village. A hole or shaft 3.5 to 4 meters in diameter had to be dug up to 70 meters deep and reinforced with a stone wall. Well diggers from the interior of Russia were brought in for this work. The top furnishing of the well was done by the community. Two large wooden water buckets holding 50 to 60 liters were fastened with a strong iron connection to long, strong ropes. They were raised and lowered by means of a balanced drum. Horses were used for power. It would have been very troublesome if each farmer had brought up the water for his own use. Therefore, a water drawer was hired who had to draw the water for the entire village. The new settlers were not in a position to put all the land under the plow, therefore they raised sheep on the side. For that they needed more money. There were, to be sure, among the colonists those who had saved a goodly sum of money, but I believe not a single one was so situated that he could establish the village without outside help. All had to take out a loan. By their honest character and by their diligence, the Germans had unlimited credit with the money lenders: Jews, Greeks, Armenians, and so forth. The German name and a German word had a good reputation. Only with larger sums over 1000 rubles was a contract drawn up. With smaller sums the German word sufficed with the businessmen. I never heard, either, that a German had to stand before the judge because of financial circumstances. There were also poor harvests and cattle illnesses; there were years of grasshopper and insect plagues, but always our Germans succeeded through thick and thin. The most, and to be sure, the best land on the Crimean steppe was soon in German hands. From the desolate tree- and waterless land, the German farmers created a land of culture. Their villages with the massive stone houses and farm buildings, which were surrounded by fruit and acacia trees, by lilacs and flowers, gave evidence of a healthy, prosperous peasantry. The continuing improvement of the agricultural equipment and the use of mowing and threshing machines brought the German colonies to their full bloom. The entire Crimean populace now ate white wheat bread, and soon wheat trade developed abroad. From the harbor cities Eupatoria and Feodosiya on the Black Sea, ships took our wheat to Greece, France, and England. The Braun estate in Tohaily, Crimea, (Photo courtesy of the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland.) 23 Once my great-grandfather had left Geradstetten with 229.57 guilder; his seven grandchildren [children of my grandfather] now possessed in various villages in the Crimea about 300 dessiatines of land (that is 12,000 morgen), and each had a respectable farmstead with the necessary living and stationary inventory. It was similar with [his] five other [sons]. I must point out, however, that our family did not count among the richest families. There were families that owned much more land; Rapp, Kaiser, Stoll, among others, owned small estates. The Rapp family had a saying, "There was no Rapp under 1000 dessiatines. If a Rapp had less than this amount, then he was a 'Raepple' (Little Rapp or Rapplet] and not a Rapp." We, the fourth generation, continued to develop the inheritance of our forefathers until 1914. In 1806 the first German farmers stepped onto the land of the Crimean peninsula, and by the start of the first World War, the German rural population, divided according to religious confession, had reached the following size with land possession: Religion Communities Population Land in Dessiatines Evang. Lutheran 186 20,913 279,770 Catholic 22 5,063 28,189 Mennonites 29 3,260 32,199 Separatists 10 1,575 19.339 Total 247 30.811 359,497 = 391,851 hectares The statistical data is taken mainly from the Odessaer Kalender of 1909, and what I can remember is added. It is quite possible that many German communities were forgotten, so that our numbers are to be considered low rather than high. II. Church and School Among the colonists, church and school belonged together like the Lord's Prayer and the Blessing did in church. When the colonies were founded, a place for the schoolyard was provided in the middle, where later in the larger villages the church was also built. The schoolroom, which was used as a prayer house on Sundays and holidays, was under the same roof as the teacher's dwelling. After 1855 each pastor also had the responsibility for religious instruction and the German-language instruction in our village schools. He insisted also that the confirmands had to be able to read and write German and be qualified in the required knowledge in Biblical history and the small catechism. Our pastors with few exceptions came from the provinces along the Baltic Sea, or the Baltic States, and received their education at the University of Dorpat [now Tartu in the Estonian S.S.R.]. On the other hand. the teachers came predominantly from among the colonists. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zuerichtal, Crimea. To the left of the church is the school, to the right the parsonage. The church was built on a hill in the middle of the village in 1860 and restored in 1892. It was the largest church in the Crimea. (Photo courtesy of the Lands mannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland.) 24 In the beginning, there was only one parish in the Crimea. As, however, the colonists founded so many and widely scattered villages in the steppe, new parishes also arose. Zuerichtal separated from Neusatz as the second parish. The few Estonian Evangelical Lutheran villages were served by the pastor in Dyelal. In 1910 a relatively large church was built in Byten, and soon afterwards a pastorate with modem— for that time—furnishings was built. Pastor A. Hansen, who was known to us from Dyelal, was called to Byten from Arzis, Bessarabia, and Byten was the last parish to break off from Neusatz. The Estonian villages were also taken over by this parish. So it was that in one century from one parish with five villages there were now five parishes, each of which encompassed more than twenty villages. In praise of the pastors, it must be said that they, with few exceptions, did not know their community members only in their Sunday best, but they also took an active part in our community life; they were especially active for the furthering of the school system. We have them to thank mainly that we have retained our Germanity undefiled and pure. Because, in addition to religion and the German language, other subjects also had to be taught in our school in the Russian language, we needed teachers who commanded both languages in speaking and writing. We needed teachers who had been prepared especially for our situations. The German teacher seminaries and the Russian secondary schools were out of the question. We needed our own advanced schools, and these were the so-called Zentralschulen [central schools]. A colonist in Bessarabia by the name of Werner became relatively wealthy and had no children. This man had his heart in the right spot and also had a keen insight into the future. He received permission from the Russian government to found the first Zentralschule in Sarata [Bessarabia] with the stipulation that the German colonists could establish this type of school elsewhere also. It was a general school for continuing education with a four- year course of study. All subjects were taught in the Russian language, but a sufficient number of hours were set aside for religion and the German language so that these subjects were not neglected. This school served only for the education of the village teachers for the Evangelical Lutheran schools in South Russia. The good man not only built the school, but he also left a sizeable fund for the education of gifted boys whose parents were not in a position to gather the necessary money. Our first better-prepared elementary schoolteachers came from this Zentralschule. Only boys who had finished the Volksschule [elementary school] with good success and who had passed the entrance exams were accepted. Whoever finished the Zentralschule had to take the teacher's exams at a Russian city school or Gymnasium. The first Zentralschule in the Crimea was patterned after this type of school [and located] in the inspector's vacant house in Neusatz in the '70s. The teachers educated in the Zentralschule were not torn away from the village life, and contact with their sort—the colonists—was not interrupted. In the cities the farmers' sons would perhaps have received a fine external polishing but would also have learned much, which would not have contributed to the continuation of the German character. Thus the Zentralschulen were the right nurseries of Germanity for the colonists and also for the Mennonites, who had their own Zentralschulen. The Zentralschule in Spat, Crimea. (Photo courtesy of the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland.) 25 The Zentralschule in Neusatz was under the guidance of the local pastor. The pastor played the main role even with its founding. The county administration of Simferopol allotted 2000 rubles of taxes a year for the upkeep of the school. This was not enough by far, especially when larger repairs or new construction had to be undertaken. The missing money had to be gathered by freewill taxing of the land of the German colonists. Collections also had to be taken, especially for the poor students. The thick-skulled farmers' heads couldn't always understand that the pastor had only their good in mind and was collecting the money for the benefit of the community. They often offered hard resistance. Our Neusatz Zentralschule prospered greatly when the estate owner, Emil Dinzer, was president and Pastor Horachelmann the soul of the school board. A new building with a large hall, three bright classrooms, and teachers' room with a library were built. The Internat [boarding school] was expanded. The housefather had a new apartment, with a relatively large kitchen and dining room for the charges. And three teachers' homes were grouped around the school and the Internat The head of the teachers college was the Russian teacher, but it was the German teacher whose opinions decided the issue during negotiations. Our German teacher, Friedrich Steinwandt, whose election motto was "Die Schule—bin ich" ["I am the school"], achieved much especially for the spiritual elevation of the Neusatz Zentralschule. He worked, if I am not mistaken, from 1892 to 1920. Most of the students who had the fortune to study German language and also mathematics and geometry in the Russian language under Fr. Steinwandt praised their teacher as an illuminating model. In his instruction, conscientiousness and thoroughness were standard and went without saying. The German character found in his being an expression worthy of imitation. Many of his students later were effective as village teachers in the spirit of their beloved and esteemed teacher so that his elec- tion motto "I am the school" was justified. Pastor Horschelmann and Fr. Steinwandt enjoyed with their contemporaries the highest respect and esteem, which were expressed best at the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of their offices. In the Zuerichtal parish, where the farmers were richer than in the other parishes, two schools for higher education were built at the same time in the beginning of the twentieth century. In Zuerichtal it was a Zentralschule with Internat and in Okrech the girls' Progymnasium, likewise with an Internat. With the rise of the schools for higher education, the village schools also improved. There was not one little German village so small that one could not find a school. The Russian government gave us no money for school construction, nor did I ever hear of a school law for the German colonists, but they also placed no obstacles in our path. Among the Germans there existed the moral duty that the parents had to send their children to the village school from their seventh until the fifteenth year. Among the Germans in the Crimea, there were also no illiterates; on the other hand, many a farmer's son became a physician or lawyer with a university education; also engineers were to be found, who received their education in Mittweida [now in the German Democratic Republic]. So it was for our Crimean farmers until 1914. To be sure, not everything always glittered gold; many a splinter of glass also glistened in the bright sunshine. In many farmsteads the "should" did not always agree with the "have." But, thanks to God, these were only exceptions. In the long run, we felt like a mighty, hundred-year-old oak tree, which could withstand all storms. Yet soon we had to realize, as the poet Friedrich Schiller expressed the truth when he said, "Ans Vaterland, ans teure schliess dich an, hier ist die starke Wurzel deiner Kraft. Dort in der Fremde stehest du allein, ein schwaches Rohr, das jeder Sturm zerknickt." ["Hold on to the Fatherland, the cherished; here is the strong root of your strength. There in a strange land you stand alone, a weak reed, which every storm breaks in two."] And then came a hurricane that destroyed the oak tree like a weak reed, and only the splinters are left of the Crimean German farmers. Translator's Notes 1. This is a partial translation of the larger article "Ausschnitte ueber die Ansiedlung, sowie die wirtschaftliche und kulturelle Entwicklung und der Untergang der deutschen Siedlungen in der Krim," Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Russland, ed. Dr. Karl Stumpp (Stuttgart: Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, I960), pp. 5-33. 2. A "morgen" was the amount of land which could be plowed in one "Morgen" (morning) and varied locally from 0.6 to 0.9 acres. A dessiatine is equivalent to about 2.7 acres, and a hectare is equivalent to about 2.4 acres. 26 BOOK REVIEW Pauli, Ingo-Rudolf. Luebeck-Kronstadt-Saratow: Schicksalsweg der Wolgadeutscken 1763-1921 (Flensburg: Skandia-Verlag, 1985), 260 pp. Reviewed by Adam Giesinger The author tells us in his Vorwort (Foreword) that he is of Volga-German origin and that the material in his book came from his family's records and the publications of other Volga-German writers, whose works were in his late father's library. He tells us further that extracts from the works of others were used verbatim, "since one cannot always state facts better in one's own words." That he did this rather extensively becomes very obvious later to any reader familiar with the works of well-known Volga-German historians. The plan of the book is explained in the Vorwort as follows (my free translation): The text of the book consists of three major parts, followed by a conclusion and an appendix. The first part gives to all properly oriented readers a requisite summary of information in concise form. In the second part the first part receives its completion through a detailed description of the course of the colonization. The third part deals with the prerevolutionary period, the years before and during World War I, when there was increasing hatred of Germans, and finally the return of many Volga colonists to western Europe. In conclusion my own reflections on the events described should move the reader to give comparative thought to the past and the present. Part I, pages 17-33, which has the general heading, Der Kohnialstatus der Wolgadeutscken, is a brief summary of the history of the founding and development of the Volga colonies, the eventual loss of privileges with the resulting immigration to the Americas, and finally, during the Communist era, the establishment of the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (German Volga Republic) and its liquidation in 1941. At the end of this section, Pauli informs us that it is an extract from an article by Dr. Georg Geilke, entitled "Rehabilitierung der Wolgadeutschen," which his bibliography, p. 259, tells us appeared in Jahrbuch fuer Ostrecht, Band VI, Teil 1, 1965. On reading Part II, pages 34-208, the major portion of the book, it becomes immediately obvious to anyone familiar with Volga-German historical writings that most of this material is taken from Beratz, Die deutschen Kolonien an der unteren Wolga in ihrer Entstehung und ersten Entwickelung. Comparison with the original shows that the borrowing was verbatim! Not all of Beratz is there, but large sections of it are, and they are unchanged from the original. It surprises me that the two writers who have reviewed the book in Volk auf dem Weg, J. Kampen in the January 1986 issue (p. 13) and Reinhold Keil in the April 1986 issue (p. 15), did not notice the plagiarism. Although the material taken from Beratz occupies the major portion of his book, nowhere in all these pages does Pauli give credit to that indefatigable researcher who gathered all this material from the musty archives of the Volga-German villages and laboriously put it together into a book, a well-documented and well-written book, generally recognized as the best of the Volga-German historical works. Lifting so much material bodily from the Beratz book without giving credit to the author appears to me to be an unpardonable sin. If credit had been given, the Pauli book might have been welcomed as a partial reprint of a valuable work now long out of print; in its present form we can only regret its publication. Perhaps some good will result from this plagiarism, as happened in an earlier case, which played an important role in my life. From June to November 1947, there appeared once a month in a literary supplement of Der Nordwesten, a Winnipeg German newspaper, instalments of a "Geschichte der deutschen Kolonien in Russland." My father, then living in Saskatchewan, who subscribed to .Der Nordwesten, sent me copies of the issues that contained this history. In these instalments, which I found quite fascinating, I received my first knowledge about Germans migrating to the Volga and founding settlements there! I had not previously read or even suspected the existence of any written history on the Germans in Russia! My interest aroused, I began to search for more material and gradually acquired a large collection on the history of our people, with results that are well known to the readers of the Journal. During the course of my research, I obtained a copy of Beratz on microfilm from a library in Germany. On reading it, I discovered that the 1947 articles in Der Nordwesten, which gave me the impetus for research in this field, were taken word-f or-word from Beratz! 27 Part III of the Pauli book, pages 208-246, which deals with the pre-1914 era and the war and Revolution, is taken from a variety of sources, which I have not attempted to identify. Some items in this section will be found interesting; others are philosophical reflections in rather awkward German, which are difficult to follow. The conclusion, pages 246-249, also philosophical reflections, is followed by an appendix, which contains a reprint of Catherine's manifesto of July 22, 1763, taken from Beratz. At the end of the book, there is a brief bibliography, which lists a few books and articles on the Volga Germans, including the works of Bauer, Beratz, Reimesch, and Schleuning, of which there are copies in the AHSGR Archives. IT WILL SOON BE TOO LATE1 Dona Reeves-Marquardt Linguistics and Oral History Committee How many children in your family speak German? How many of you speak German as your mother and father did? Last year the AHSGR Linguistics and Oral History Committee embarked upon a project to tape-record German as spoken by our people. We intend to collect as many German dialects as possible for our Heritage Center while we still have people who can speak them. This valuable part of our heritage will soon pass as did the fur hats and boots that were once so familiar to us. You can help us. Anyone who has a simple cassette recorder and knows someone who still speaks as our ancestors spoke at home can take a few minutes to record texts that will remain valuable to our posterity. Speakers may talk about anything: life experiences, family, work, school, holidays, church, travel, retirement.... This project can be completed by an individual, by a pair of speakers, or by a chapter. Imagine the fun two sisters might have remembering a Hochzeit or their first family car! Or think of the possibilities as an uncle and nephew recall a particularly irritable horse! Why not gather around the family photograph album with a cassette recorder and let recollections flow? Not all of us are good interviewers or speakers, but everything we have to say in German is important and interesting. Inevitably, speakers will mix English with German—no matter! Twenty minutes of German before a cassette recorder will preserve untold memories for generations of future Germans from Russia in America. The Committee has prepared simple guidelines and suggestions if you need them to help you get started. A packet is available from Headquarters or from the chairperson of the Committee, Dona Reeves-Marquardt, Rt. 2, Box 239A, Buda, TX 78610. The important thing, however, is to begin—now! Tapes should include the name of the speaker(s), their birthplace and date, and the date and place of the recording. Further information that would be valuable to the listeners includes the ancestral village in Russia, if known, and any family moves. Tomorrow will be too late. Don't delay. This is our unique heritage. We trust you will find a way to help in a project that will continue to benefit us all—long after our German dialect has disappeared. 28 SUMMARY OF AND PROBLEMS RELATING TO DIALECTAL AND ETHNOGRAPHICAL STUDIES OF GERMAN SETTLEMENTS IN THE U.S.S.R. Viktor Maksimovich Zhirmunskii Translated by Alexander Dupper Translator’s Preface The following article is a translation from the Russian. The paper, written by Professor Viktor Maksimovich Zhirmunskii, was originally published in Sovetskaia Ethnografiia, No. 2 (1933), pp. 84-112. The year of the original publication is important. It is the year when Adolf Hitler became dictator of Germany, which brought ever-increasing persecution to the Russian Germans and eventually stopped all research work concerned with that ethnic group in the Soviet Union before World War II. The paper is a summary of what had been done in research until that time, and it also proposes a tremendous research plan for future study of the Russian Germans in the Soviet Union. We do not know how much of this plan was carried out, but there are indications that in the archive of the University of Leningrad a great amount of primary source material concerning the Germans in Russia (Soviet Union) must have been collected. It may be that, under more favorable political conditions in the future, access to that archive will be possible. The political-administrative structure of the Soviet Union, as described by Zhirmunskii, has undergone some changes since World War II and therefore does not correspond in every detail to the situation described in the text. Professor Zhirmunskii personally visited almost every region containing German settlements in the Soviet Union (Leningrad, Volhynia, Black Sea, Crimea, Caucasus, and Volga). During the 1920s he repeatedly undertook research trips to Germany, and in 1929 he addressed the Congress of German Folklorists in Berlin. As mentioned in the Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia (AHSGR), Vol. 6, No. 4, p. 30, Zhirmunskii wrote many scholarly papers and books about Russian Germans in both the Russian and German languages. After World War II he continued his study of the German language and its dialects. He was a member of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. and became a corresponding member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin in 1956, the British Academy of Sciences in 1962, the Danish Academy of Sciences in 1967, and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in 1970.* The mass deportation of the Russian Germans to Siberia and the Central Asian Republics of the Soviet Union during and after World War II adds a new dimension to the study of German dialects in the U.S.S.R. It would be interesting to follow the struggle to retain these German dialects in the new environment after World War II, before they are completely absorbed by the Russian, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Tadzhik, Turkmen, and Uzbek languages. The five chapters of this manuscript will be appearing in serial form in this and subsequent issues of the Journal. The poems and songs in Chapter 4 are presented in their original German and Russian (transliterated) version, paralleled by a line-by-line English translation. In order not to exacerbate possible confusion, the author's footnotes in German have been left as they are; those in Russian have been transliterated into the Roman alphabet. Some descriptive passages have been translated into English. Names appearing in the text are given in their original German spelling. The translator's explanatory notes appear in brackets within the text. There is a copy of this paper in the original Russian in the AHSGR Archives. *Great Soviet Encyclopedia (New York: Macmillan, Inc., 1975-79), Vol. 9, p. 640. 29 Professor Viktor Maximovich Zhirmunskii (1891- 1971) Chapter 1 At the present time there are not less than two thousand German settlements ("colonies," according to old, official terminology) in the territory of the U.S.S.R., totaling 1,000,000 inhabitants. In 1926, according to the census of that year, there were 1,238,486 Germans living in the Soviet Union, of whom 184,769 resided in cities, and 1,053,717 in rural locations.1 It is impossible to determine more accurately from those data the number of former farmer-*'colonists," because the cities include such big colonist centers as Marxstadt [formerly Katharinenstadt] on the Volga, Luxemburg (formerly Katharinenfeld) in Transcaucasia, and others. In the larger regions of German settlement, there are, according to the census: the Volga German Autonomous Republic— 379,630 Germans 30 Settling all these general theoretical issues requires, of course, considerable time and work in collecting and describing the ethnographical material. The beginning of more scientific research in that field understandably belongs to the Volga German Autonomous Republic. At the central enthographical museum of the German Republic in the city of Engels (Pokrovsk) and under the authority of the Linguistic Commission of the Narkompros [Peoples' Commissariat of Education] of the V.G.A.S.S.R. (Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic], materials on the dialectology, folklore, and ethnography of the Volga Germans are gathered, collected in numerous expeditions, and summarized from questionnaires (papers by Professor G. G. Dinges, Assistant Professor A. P. Dulzon, and others). Of those materials the most important ones are the compilation of the Volga-German dialectal dictionary (close to fifty thousand entries), manuscript maps of a linguistic atlas of Volga-German dialects, and the vast collection of folk songs in recordings and scores of old and new versions. For the settlements of the Black Sea area (southern Ukraine, Crimea, Transcaucasia), similar work was planned, organized, and carried out at my initiative during 1926-1930. With funds granted by the Narkomprosy of the Russian S.F.S.R. and the Ukrainian S.S.R., according to a plan that I had devised, the Institute of Linguistics in Leningrad, in collaboration with other scientific institutions, sponsored a number of expeditions with the objective of conducting preliminary investigations of all those old German colonies, which were established by settlers who had emigrated directly from Germany (so-called "Mutterkolonien"), emphasizing dialectolology, folksongs, and ethnography. As outlined in the plan, the investigation of the southern Ukraine (formerly New Russia)2 was carried out by me and my student, A. N. Strom (now a professor in the German department of the Odessa I.N.O. [Institut Narodnogo Obrcuzovaniia = an institute of teacher education]). What's more, I undertook several excursions into the old colonies of the former regions of Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Nikolaev, and the Moldavian Republic, and also the Swabian settlements near Berdiansk.3 With A. N. Strom I went to the colonies of the Melitopol, Mariupol, and Zaporozh areas. During 1929-1930 I collected some additional materials, partly in districts that I had previously investigated. Additionally, in the Ukraine my assistants, L. R. Sinder, T. V. Sokol'skaia, and V. P. Pogorel’skaia, were active. At various times they investigated the Belovezh colonies in the northwestern Ukraine (1927), the German colonies of the so-called "Schweden group" (Berislav County on the Lower Dnepr, 1929), and the mixed resettlements of the Dnepropetrovsk Region (1930). In the Crimea during 1926-1929, my scientific collaboratrix, E. G. Johannson, worked under my guidance. Since 1928 the study of the Crimean-German dialects has been carried on by the various linguistic institutes of Moscow under the guidance of Assistant Professor E. A. Meyer. An expedition into the Transcaucasian colonies was undertaken under my direction in the summer of 1928. Of the German settlements within the limits of the R.S.F.S.R., the best researched are the colonies around Leningrad, which, because of their proximity to the city, have served continuously since 1924 as a laboratory for researchers from various Leningrad scientific institutions, who thus prepare themselves for voyages to more- distant areas. Special expeditions into remoter colonies in the Leningrad Region were organized in 1928—into Kingisepp County—and into the former Novgorod Region in 1930. The old colony Riebensdorf (in the Ts.Ch.O {Tsentral’no Chernozemnaia Oblast' == Central Black-Soil Region] was studied during 1928-1929 by the teacher, E. A. Karlblom. Finally, in 1930 the Narkompros of R.S.F.S.R. organized a reconnaissance expedition— including Inspector Comrade Tseliasko and our collaboratrix, E. G. Johannson—to the resettlement colonies in western Siberia and Kazakhstan. Work done by these expeditions from the research center helped to organize and activate scientific research in the local places. In the Ukraine such work is presently concentrated at Odessa University, which is closest in the territorial sense to the German settlements in that area. The Odessa Commission of Regional Ethnography at the U.A.K [Ukrainskaia Akademiia Kraevedeniia = Ukrainian Academy of Regional Ethnography], upon hearing my report given in September 1926,4 established a special German section, which organized research in colonial history (R. Mickwitz), dialectology and folklore (A. Strom), and ethnography (T. Steinwand), and which published the first collection of their papers.5 Of special importance among the papers issued by the Commission is the map of German colonies in the Ukrainian S.S.R., compiled by R. Mickwitz, which has to replace the very incomplete map of German settlements in the Black Sea area (within the limits of the former New Russia) published in Germany by Karl Stumpp, which was based on prewar information.6 The supplemental material to the map will include the information collected by Comrade Mickwitz concerning founding dates of the colonies, number of inhabitants, history of immigration (among 31 both old colonies and resettlements), etc.7 Compiling such a map is a necessary prerequisite to an exhaustive dialectal and ethnographical investigation in the area of German migration and settlement. Furthermore, the German department of the Odessa I.N.O., with the participation of the above-mentioned scientists, established seminars in regional studies on German colonies. The study of German dialects in Volhynia, based in Odessa, is proceeding under the guidance of Professor A. N. Strom (1931). In Transcaucasia the local center for ethnographic work is the museum of regional studies in the colony of Helenendorf, built at the initiative of J. Hummel, principal of the local school.8 In order to interest local citizens in collecting and in cultural research, the leader and participants in these expeditions repeatedly gave popular lectures and talks in local institutions of regional studies and at teachers' conferences, retraining courses for teachers of ethnic schools, and the like, thanks to which these expeditions could always count on active assistance from volunteer collectors and helpers. With the aim of familiarizing greater numbers of German teachers with collection methods of related tasks, I put together, on assignment by the inspection board for ethnic schools in the Ukrainian S.S.R., a popular booklet dealing with the history, dialectology, and ethnography of the colonies—including results of preliminary investigations into their origins— done during the last years.9 The scientific problems of colonial dialectology and ethnography were outlined by me in an address given in 1929 at the Congress of German Folklorists in Berlin.10 This article presents an informative report about the results of the research in its first stage and of further perspectives of scientific work. Chapter I Notes 1. See Narodnost' i rodnoi iazyk naseleniia SSSH (Vsesoiuznaiia perepis' naseleniia 17 dekabria, 1926 g, Kratkie svodki. vyp. IV), Izd. TsSu SSSR, M. (1928). 2. For the plan to investigate the Ukrainian colonies, see: V. Schirmunski, "Volkskundliche Arbeit in den deutschen Kolonien der Ukraine," Vistnik Odes'koi komisii Kraeznaustva U.A.N. [Ukrainskaia Akademiia Nauk == Ukrainian Academy of Sciences] (Odessa, 1929), Ch. 4-5, sektsiia nimets'ka, Ch. 1, pp. 7-14; V. Zhirmunskii, "Zvit pro naukovu komandirovku do nimetskikh kolonii Ukrainy," Nauka na Ukrainy, 2-4 (1927), pp. 337-439. 3. A description of one of those trips is given by my companion, the colonist writer, H. Bachmann, Durch die deutschen Kolonien des Beresaner Gebiets (Charkow: Zentralverlag, 1929). 4. Published in the collection of papers of the German section, pp. 7-15. 5. Visnyk Odes'koi komissii kraeznavstua pri U.A.N., Ch. 4-5, sektsiia nimets'ka, vyp. I (Odessa, 1929). Karl Stumpp, Die deutschen Kolonien im Schwarzmeergebiete (Stuttgart, 1922). 7. R. Mickwitz, "Bericht ueber den Verlauf der Arbeit zur Herstellung einer Karte und eines Verzeichnisses der deutschen Siedlungen der Ukraine," Visnyk, Ch. 4-6, str. 6 sl. Jakob Hummel, Das Heimatliche Museum zu Helenendorf (Moskau: Zentral-Volkerverlag, 1929). V. Schirmunski, Die deutschen Kolonien in der Ukraine. Geschichte, Mundarten, Volkslied, Volkskunde (Moskau-Charkow: Zentral Volkerverlag, 1928). 10. V. Schirmunski, "Volkskundliche Forschungen in den deutschen Siedlungen der Sowjet-Union, Sammlung Deutsche Volkskunde im ausserdeutschen Osten (Leipzig, 1930). WE HOPE TO SEE YOU IN OKLAHOMA CITY FOR THE 17TH INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION JULY 14-20, 1986 32 FROM THE DIARY OF WALTER BUROW Translated by Solomon L. Loewen I. My Flight From Siberia The train that was to leave from Omsk depot during the night of January 23-24, 1918, delayed its departure until the morning of January 24. We spent the waiting period in the overfilled second-class lounge. During this time a military transport train from the Ural arrived, from which troops of the First Czechoslovakian Division disembarked, with whom I here came in contact for the first time. I consciously went out of their way in order not to be recognized by them as a German. The Czechoslovakian Legion was composed of former Austrian prisoners of war of Slavic nationalities who, together with the Russian army, fought first against Austria and Germany; later, after the beginning of the October Revolution in 1917, they transferred their activity to the Far East in the immediate vicinity of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. One leader among others was General Gaida, a former Austrian medical sergeant. About 7 o'clock in the morning, our train also arrived and continued its journey at about 8 o' clock. Accommodation on the train proceeded without difficulty. Our compartment was not overly filled, so we could sit comfortably. Our fellow travelers took no notice of us. During the day of January 24, we passed through the larger stations Petropavlovsk and Kurgan and arrived in Chelyabinsk in the morning of January 25, 1918. This was the last larger station on Siberian soil and where we had to change trains. Here we spent our time getting tickets for further travel and buying some food to eat on the way. In the evening we found the second-class passenger lounge, which was already so overfilled that we just barely found a place near the door and had to use our baggage for a seat. We had already learned that a sharp check was made of passengers and passes here at the entranceway to Bolshevik Russia. Indeed, this control was not delayed very long. At 20 o'clock a commissar came with four Red soldiers with projecting bayonets, posted one at the door, and permitted no one to leave the room. An examination of the baggage was undertaken, whereby they looked particularly for guns. This examination passed us by easily. We opened our baggage and could close it again after a thorough examination by the commissar. Yet he did stop for a moment, grabbed my arm, but let go immediately when he was convinced that what I had in my hand was not a revolver but a padlock. They took the swords and shoulder pieces from the officers; some [officers) were also taken away. In an hour the search was ended. About 22 o'clock a new control official entered who examined the traveling papers. I now became very uncomfortable. I did not want to submit to this search if at all possible. Suddenly a favorable opportunity presented itself. Two women residents of Chelyabinsk received permission, to leave the lounge. While the sentry opened the folding door and thereby stood between the wall and a fold of the door, so that he had no freedom of movement and could not use his weapon, I slipped out of the lounge behind the ladles and disappeared in the darkness. After I had been out of the station area about two hours, I returned to the lounge and joined my partner. In the meantime the surveillance had been completed, and the commissar and the Red soldiers had withdrawn with a large number of persons under arrest. A further search did not occur again. In the forenoon of January 26, 1918, the overfilled train moved on. I had the good fortune of finding a place on the upper deck. It was terribly hot on the train, and next to me lay a half- naked muzhik who constantly scratched himself because of lice. It was a strenuous, highly uncomfortable trip. We passed through the Urals on January 27, and passed Ufa, Belebey, and Samara; on January 28, we rode over the large Volga bridge at Syzran and further touched Kusnetsk; on January 29, Penza; on January 30, Morshansk, Ryazhsk, and Skopin. Early on January 31,1918, we arrived at Tula, where we had to leave the train, for it had reached the end of its route. In one corner of the lounge, an Austrian had set up a barber stand, and from him I got a shave, which a few hours later could have become fatal. I then went out to look around the part of Tula near the railroad station and bought some dark bread, which was getting hard to get and expensive here. The weather had changed suddenly; thawing weather had set in. From Kursk down to Halbstadt it rained—although it was wintertime. We waited for the express train, which at that time traveled daily from Petrograd via Moscow to Sevastopol. The train finally arrived at the Tula station toward 14 o'clock—a few hours late—and was terribly overfilled. A nice, long, second-class Pullman car appealed to me, but, because of the press of the crowd, it was impossible to enter by the door. Hence I did not wait long and climbed in through the window of the restroom. I had to remain in the restroom because the aisle was full. After the train had started, a young non- 33 commissioned officer forced his way through the crowded aisle towards me in the restroom and asked me to leave the place. He eyed me critically from top to bottom and challenged me, "You are a German!" and pushed me out. When he appeared again, he spoke to me and claimed that I was a German. I showed him my pass and told him that I was a Pole. He still did not want to really believe it. Then a strange Russian soldier came to my aid and got involved in our argument. He had stood near me and my partner for a long time and had often listened to our conversation. I doubt very much, however, that he understood anything. This soldier then spoke to the noncommissioned officer, "That is right, Comrade. He speaks Polish but understands German very well." I was saved. I gave the noncommissioned officer some cigarettes; he went away and left me in peace. If I had not gotten a shave at the railroad station, nobody would have recognized me as a German. The noncommissioned officer belonged to a machine-gun commando, which was traveling from Petrograd to the Kiev/Kursk front (the Red army against the Ukrainians). In addition, there was in the car a delegation from the Baltic Sea fleet that was on its way to Sevastopol to pursuade the Black Sea fleet to join the Bolsheviks. The delegation consisted of dashing ensigns, dock workers, sailors, and nurses, There was no chance to sit down. The journey was extremely strenuous. I would stand first on my right foot and then on my left foot. I could hardly stand any longer; my legs were badly swollen. We passed Orel, Kursk, and Belgorod and arrived in Kharkov at noon on February 1, 1918. There we were thrown out of the train by the delegation and therefore had to use a local train for further travel; it left for the South about 14 o'clock. There were short stops at the larger stations: Lozovaya, Pavlograd, Sinelnikovo, and Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye), where we arrived toward 19 o'clock. Here I left the train with the idea of interrupting my travels for a few days in order to visit relatives of Mr. Harder of Omsk and to give them some small items Harder had sent along with me. Aleksandrovsk made a poor impression on me; besides, the railroad station was heavily patrolled by police so that I preferred to return to the train and go on. On the train I became acquainted with some Mennonites from the Greater Tokmak area, whom I joined. Toward 1 o'clock early on February 2,1918, we reached Fuedorovka [suburb of Novobogdanovka], where we had to leave the train in order to continue our route from here on a branch line of Fuedorovka/Verkhne-Tokmak. Here I parted from my Crimean comrade. Because the train we were to take had left right in front of our noses, we could not leave for Halbstadt until about 22 o'clock in the evening. We had, therefore, a full twenty hours of time on our hands. One of the Mennonites took me to a Russian barber near the depot. He received us warmly. We then really slept for a while, then cleaned ourselves, changed clothes, cut our hair, and shaved. This revealed that I had picked up a good supply of vermin on the train. I threw the lice-infested clothing into the garden, but my colleague was sorry about this good clothing and picked it up and took it along for his servant, I, however, arrived at Halbstadt without a louse. The barber had provided well for our needs. At noon he served us roast chicken. All in all, with night lodging, etc., I had to pay him 10 rubles. At 22 o'clock we left Fuedorovka. We arrived at HaIbstadt/Polugorod Station about 24 o'clock. Here I took a cab that took me to Alt-Halbstadt and to Neufeld's place. That was at 1 o'clock on Sunday morning, February 3, 1918. The watchman came right away and took me immediately to the house where the German maid Martha soon opened the door and took me to a large, ground-level dining room. Soon Uncle August Hamm appeared and then also Katja herself. We greeted each other and talked for a while, and then I was taken to a temporary bedroom on the main floor to the so-called small office, between the living quarters and the main office. My escape from Siberia till here had been successful. I had traveled approximately 4000 kilometers in exactly ten days. II. Halbstadt First, more about the place Halbstadt and then about the Neufeld family in particular. As a church village [parish center], Halbstadt, until the end of the Czar's regime, belonged to the Gouvemement [Province] Taurida. to the Berdyansk District, and was the seat of the volost office Halbstadt of the same name. In 1918 it had a population of about three to four thousand, mostly German, if a person included the villages Neu-Halbatadt, Alt- Halbstadt, Muntau, and Petrovka (a Russian settlement), which lay quite near each other. It was named after the village Halbstadt in the Danzig area, the place where most of the forefathers of the Mennonites that lived here had come from. It was founded in 1804 by Prussian Mennonites and was, except for the Old Colony [Alt- Kolonie] Chortitza, 34 which was founded already in 1788 [sic] during the time of Catherine the Great, the oldest German-Mennonite colony in South Russia. During World War I all German settlements received Russian names, and Halbstadt received the Russian name Molochansk, because it lay along the stream Molochnaya. In Halbstadt during my time, there were three churches (two Mennonite and one Russian Orthodox), one girls' high school, one school of commerce with recognized certificate, one central school {Zentralschule), and three elementary schools. Larger industries were: Franz & Schroeder (Aberle's uncle), farm machinery; Heinrich Schroeder A. G., motor factory; A. C. Willms & Co., grain mills; Herman Neufeld estate, beer-vinegar brewery (our business) and iron dealers; Heinrich Epp and Herm. Neufeld estate; and others. In addition, in Halbstadt there were one bank, the Molochna Credit Union, and one cooperative. Furthermore, Halbstadt was the center of the German Mennonites in Russia. It had a beautiful, agricultural setting settled in the valley of the Molochnaya. The Heinrich Schroeder Motor Factory in Halbstadt. (Photo courtesy of the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland.) III. Khutor Kazanchi—Neufeld, Crimea In the year 1912 shortly before World War I, my father-in-law bought the khutor Kazanchi, 400 dessiatines, for 160,000 gold rubles from a German by the name of Goerzen. He thus paid 400 rubles per [dessiatinel, including stationary and living inventory. The khutor was 2 km from the Kitay Station, 27 km north of Simferopol in the Crimea. Even today the way by train leads from the station Kitay across the land of the former Janzen estate directly to Kazanchi. I was manager there in 1919-1920 with interruptions and had Johann Wall from Menlerchik as helper. In my time the livestock count was as follows: 22 milk cows (black-and-white spotted marsh cattle and brown Holland cows), oxen, 1 bull, young cattle (heifers and calves)—all together 45 to 50 head; horses: 4 carriage horses, two riding horses, 16 work horses—together with colts about 40 head. Hog holdings were not large—one boar with about 4-5 sows and 12 piglets. No record was kept about poultry. Guinea hens were my specialty. Large buildings present were: one machine shed without a floor but with three small living rooms and a kitchen, one large shed with grinding stone, one large horse barn, a cattle barn, and a hog barn. A house was yet to be built but was delayed because of the outbreak of the war in 1914. Large machinery on hand included: three Massey-Harris binders; one large Heinrich Lanz engine and threshing machine, an Austrian-Hungarian machine made in Budapest with elevator, chaff, and straw blowers; one grinding stone; and others. 35 The Mennonite village Menlerchik in the Crimea. (Photo courtesy of the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland.) The land is not particularly fertile. The Crimea falls physically into two regions: one monotonous plain—the Crimean steppe—a continuation of the south Pontic steppe, which extends over three-fourths of the entire peninsula and primarily supports grazing cattle, otherwise producing little; and a hilly region, which occupies the southern part and presents the most magnificent and beautiful landscapes. South of Simferopol the land takes on a rich character in the elevated hills; grand meadows alternate with fields, gardens, and wooded areas. [Here are] young limestone hills, from which also is taken building material for buildings, etc. Square (cubical) stones are simply cut from the stone quarry with a special saw. It is very evident that this rock weathers and disintegrates readily, especially on the exposed side, so that it must be replaced soon. In the southern part of the Crimea, the isolated Taurus Mountain chain arises, the most interesting part of which are the Yayla Mountains with the Roman-Kosh, 1543 meters high, and the Chatry-dag, 1525 meters, as the highest mountains. This last one is especially dear to me. I could not get my fill of seeing it. From my home this mountain stood so majestically as it rose from the horizon in the south. It was constantly before my eyes as it stood there in the form of a tent, or drawn-out saddle, or mesa. In 1921 this entire property was expropriated without compensation and entered into the hands of the state. Later the four properties adjoining one another (Janzen, Epp, Neufeld, and the Tatar estate on the other side of the railroad) combined into a 5000-hectare sovkhoz Kitay. There sheep and hog breeding were dominant. In my opinion, this was right, as the land was not suited for grain crops. In 1920, 110 hectares of wheat fields produced only 400 hundredweights of wheat. The production of oats and barley was especially good this year. The great lack of water added much to this condition. We had to draw water from a well 40 meters deep. When I examined this state property in 1942,1 saw windmills everywhere, which were a big improvement over the old method of drawing water with horsepower. Wind is plentiful in the Crimea. It blows constantly from any one of the oceansides. I like to remember the Crimea, where I spent my first year after marriage, in spite of the restless and anxious times. This and also my homesickness for the sight of Chatry-dag gave me reason to visit the Crimea in the summer of 1942. Well, more of this later! IV. The Murders of Uncle August Hamm and Brother-in-law Heinrich I now return to my arrival at the Neufelds'. After a full night's rest, I found myself in the morning in the dining room and became acquainted with the other family members, dwellers in the home, and house guests. By-and-by they all found themselves together around the coffee table: my future 36 mother-in-law, Katja's mother Emilie Neufeld, nee Hamm; Katja's brothers Herman and wife Anna, nee Willms, and Heinrich and wife Genia (Henrietta) from Poland; Katja's seventeen-year-old sister Maria (Mica), later Mrs. Willms; Uncle August Hamm, single, cousin of my mother-in-law and procurator of the firm; a sister-in-law of my mother-in-law, Helene Hamm, nee Schellenberg, who was a guest at the Neufelds'; the children of brother Herman: Heinz, Herman (Harry), Alexander (Sascha), Jakob (Jascha), and daughter Elvira; Heinrich's son Wilhelm (Willi) and also two students at the School of Commerce: Hans Derksen, the son of the administrator at Emilyanovka (Caucasus), and an orphan boy Huebner who was being reared by the Neufelds. I was now assigned a special room for my living quarters in the so-called revenue room in the back yard. The first days in Halbstadt I spent walking with Katja, visiting the brewery, etc. I got acquainted quickly and got to know many well-known people in Halbstadt, among whom was my fatherly friend, Professor Benjamin Unruh, and Mr. Franz, the uncle of Edmund Aberle, who asked me immediately why I hadn't brought his nephew along. Already on February 14, 1918, I became engaged to Katja. The time passed in the best of harmony, otherwise nothing sensational happened. Halbstadt was lying in deepest peace. A street scene in Halbstadt, Tauria. (Photo courtesy of the Lands mannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland.) But all at once the picture was to change. The Revolution, misunderstood by many people, produced quite unstable conditions in the public life through the failure—or even a complete lack—of a decisive authority. Surprise attacks were the order of the day; bands were formed, which terrorized the peaceful populace, and against which the locally formed Soviets, with a few energetic exceptions, could do nothing. It was about 15 o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday, February 16,1918, when my future brother-in-law Andrusch (Heinrich) looked me up in my room and informed me with some excitement that that morning a group of eighteen armed men had arrived at the Halbstadt Station and had gone immediately to the district office in Neu- Halbstadt. There they had taken control of the volost Halbstadt and, to strengthen their numbers, had formed a militia from among the local working people. He was in doubt as to what he should now undertake: should he stay or go away? I comforted him by saying that in my opinion the situation would not turn out too seriously. They would 37 take the usual contribution, and therewith the case for Halbstadt would be settled. He left then and I did not see him again that day. A social event had been arranged in the School of Commerce for 19 o'clock that evening. A fine program was in progress, when suddenly an order was given by the local jurisdiction that the program was to end immediately and that all should go home at once, because martial law had been proclaimed for Halbstadt, and no one should appear on the streets after 20 o'clock in the evening. During the night of February 16-17,1918, nothing happened. It was strange, however, that throughout the night there was continuous coming and going in our yard. Early Sunday morning, maybe about 9 o'clock, we were drinking coffee, and Katja told me that she had had a remarkable dream. She had seen two coffins. In one was her brother Andrusch; the other corpse she had not been able to recognize. Both had had bandaged heads. She had barely finished her story, when people bearing arms passed by the windows of our dining room, which was on the level with the ground, and then entered our yard. In a few seconds they stood in our dining room. They indicated that they were going to search our home for hidden goods. The doors to the outside were posted, and nobody was permitted to leave the house. A search began upstairs in the living rooms, and everything was thrown helter-skelter into a pile. Katja a objected and made some remarks, whereupon an armed man spoke up, "Be happy that the commissar didn't hear you. He would have shot you on the spot." Katja noticed that it was serious, very serious. She had a cup of milk in her hand at the time. Suddenly she fainted and fell backwards flat on the floor, pouring the milk all over her. She recovered immediately, however. The search in the house continued. Anna sat in the middle of the room on the floor in the midst of the scattered clothing, linens, etc., and tried with tearful eyes to save what could be saved. A number of items they gave back to her, but the best was taken from her. About 11 o'clock the so-called commissar came in, a young Pole of about twenty-seven years, who had marks in his ears that indicated he had been incarcerated in the prison (Peter and Paul Fortress (in Leningrad]). For this reason he always let the earflaps of his winter cap hang down. He demanded again and again the whereabouts of Andrusch, and said that he would shoot him if he were found. Mother-in-law Neufeld, who was suffering from a heart condition anyway, fell into deep unconsciousness. When Mica wanted to go and call a doctor, the man posted at the door prevented her from doing so and remarked, "Let the old lady die; she is already old enough." After a long while Mother Neufeld regained full consciousness again. The commissar made the rounds in the brewery with Herman. The first scene took place already in the barn. The commissar pushed Herman to give an account, with the coachman sleeping in the barn, whether that was a worthy residence for a human being. Yet the coachman's bedroom was a separate room. Herman's explanation, that it was generally customary that the coachman slept hear the horses because they would often kick each other, he found as not satisfactory but just a lazy excuse. He used terrible profanity, had Herman stand against the wall, and shot into the wall twice with the pistol, once to the right and once to the left of Herman's head. In the sleeping rooms of the workers in the back yard, he made a second scene because of the beds, etc., etc. Good and well, it could have been about 13 o'clock when he arrested Herman and had him taken to headquarters. About 17 o'clock in the afternoon, a representative of the commissar showed up, a man of about 40 years, who was very cross-eyed in one eye; He drank coffee with us. He spoke at some length about Andrusch and remarked a number of times that Andrusch would not get across the border but there—and he pointed with his finger to the ground. Otherwise he remained quite civil and conversed with us. We found out that he had been in Siberia for many years and had worked in Katoga as a slave. The whole evening we were left in peace. About 19 o'clock we received news that Andrusch had been apprehended in nearby Petershagen and already taken to the headquarters in Halbstadt. Furthermore, we found out that in Neu-Halbstadt three persons had already been executed and that a number of property owners, etc., had been arrested. On Monday, February 18,1918, about 9:30 in the forenoon, the commissar came to the yard with Andrusch (Heinrich) and went with him into the small office, where there was a small safe mortared into the wall. As we discovered later, apparently in order to gain more time, Andrusch had told the commissar that he had hidden some gold in the ground and that there was some in the safe. Now he and the commissar (and around them both Mama Neufeld and Sister-in-law Anna and some employees) stood before the safe, which could not be opened, because Herman, who had also been arrested, had the keys with him. The commissar demanded categorically from Andrusch that he should 38 open the safe. That, however, was impossible! The commissar did not want to admit this and demanded again and again. Anna and Mama Neufeld got involved, begged, and cried; the ladies brought all their golden adornments, watches—in short, they brought all their valuables to him. Nothing helped! He did not permit himself to be swayed. On the contrary, he gave an ultimatum, "Where is the gold? I give you five minutes' time, and then you will be shot!" In the meantime, other people, curious, had come into the small room and onto the steps, so that it was crowded. Andrusch used this situation and escaped from the commissar; he ran through the shop, through the iron warehouse and out the back door unnoticed, across the yard, and into the kiln, where he hid. Now the devil was loose! The commissar threatened to kill all of us. We were driven into the rooms that were posted with watchmen so that no one could escape. In the iron warehouse through which Andrusch had escaped, the commissar met Uncle August Hamm. With the words, "You have helped him escape," he had August Hamm taken captive and had two of his men take him into the yard and shoot him there. I saw how Uncle August Hamm held his head in his two hands and said something unintelligible as he was taken down the steep stairway. After a time there was a shot. The bullet killed Uncle August, with the shot going through his head. He collapsed in front of the steel bin. Witnesses reported that in the yard the commissar had commanded a German by the name of Kroeker (Mennonite), "Shoot, or I'll shoot you'' Kroeker shot the kneeling and praying Uncle August from nearby. The bullet entered at the cheekbone and left the head by way of the cerebellum, smashing the back of the head. Then they dragged the corpse by the legs across the yard up to the veranda by the front door. In the meantime they had flushed Andrusch from his hiding place by the kiln and had captured him again. A young Czech working in the malt room had heard the large steel door clang shut and had reported this to the commissar. Escorted by two militiamen, Andrusch was to be taken to headquarters. A large crowd of persons had gathered on the street before our entrance gate. While they were taking Andrusch past this crowd, he suddenly escaped from his escorts and ran directly into the crowd, which scattered immediately. One of the militiamen chased Andrusch immediately, raised his gun and shot him through the head, so that he slumped dead in front of our dining room windows. Just shortly before the shot was fired, Andrusch had turned around and had looked at his pursuer. Then, when he looked more- or-less directly into the gun barrel and put his hand fearfully in front of his left eye—but only for a short moment—the shot followed. Here, also, the bullet entered through the cheekbone and left by the cerebellum, and, as in the case of August Hamm, the entire back of his head was destroyed. The corpse was dragged back into the yard and placed near Uncle August's body on the veranda left of the front door. The rest of us had to step forward and were then taken to headquarters, where we were to be interrogated. When we left by the front door, we were made conscious of the two corpses. Their bodies were still warm, and vapor was rising from them because we had a temperature of 15 degrees below zero [Celsius] on that day. * n. * Little is known about the author of this diary, Walter Burow. He was obviously a German national who had been imprisoned in Russia during the first World War. It may be, that as a noncommissioned officer of the German army he was stationed in the Halbstadt area during the German occupation. At this time he must have gotten acquainted with Katja Neufeld, and they fell in love. When he left Siberia, his destination was obviously not Germany but rather Halbstadt, where he was reunited with and eventually married Katja. It is also unknown if they remained in Russia or eventually went back to Germany. When he revisited the former Neufeld estate in 1942, it may have been that he was again with the German army of occupation. Walter's son Egon recopied this diary in 1972. If anyone has any information on this family or knows where the rest of the diary may be found, please inform the editors of the Journal 39 BOOKS AND ARTICLES RECENTLY ADDED TO THE AHSGR ARCHIVES Frances Amen and Mary Lynn Tuck PLEASE NOTE: When a number has an R before it, that indicates that the item does not circulate. This means that patrons may use the item in the AHSGR library itself, but they may not check it out for use elsewhere. The items mentioned below and other library materials may be borrowed from AHSGR Archives through the interlibrary loan services of your local public or college library. Most of the items below are not for sale by AHSGR. Please consult your current Order Form to see what is available for purchase. JV6450 .A565 X985 Several individual biographies and auto- Allen, Leslie. biographies of family members are included in Liberty, The Statue and the Dream (New York: the book. The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc., 1985), 304 pp. Donated by publisher. D809. E36D35x A pictorial and historical account of the DeMarais, John C. millions of immigrants who landed at Ellis Island The Organization and Administration of the between 1892 and 1954. To these and their Central Immigration Office of Germany 1939-1945 descendants, the Statue of Liberty became an (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Thesis, enduring symbol of hope. It depicts the courage, 1968), 88 pp. Donated by author. sacrifice, and hard work that built America. The careful research in this thesis provides an important, concise resource for those wishing to CS71 .A664 1984x know about policies regarding the millions of ethnic Germans living outside the boundaries of Appelhanz, Isadore, compiler. Germany and Austria (1939-45). The German A Genealogy of the Jacob Jay and Barbara M. Reich both expanded its borders to encompass (Hefner) Appelhanz Family (n.p., 1984), 44 pp. large numbers of ethic Germans in its new Photos, map. Donated by compiler. territorial limits and also carried forward plans to The colony of Rothammel was the Russian "liberate other Germans living outside the Reich" home of the Appelhanz family. The book includes (in Europe). DeMarais concentrates on the a map of the colony (circa 1930). In 1910 the organization of the Central Immigration Office family came to the United States and settled in for those ethnic Germans who were being Kansas. In addition to the family history account, resettled; on cultural, social, and political policies; there are six stories (similar to fables or folk tales) on racial policies; and on regional and special that the compiler's father told him. operations. Conclusions and a bibliographic note CS 71 .A972 1900zx follow. Aschenbrenner, Steven L. CS71. D466 1984x The Aschenbrenners (n.p., n.d.). Typewritten, 26 pp. Photocopy. Denning, Victor J., compiler. Chiefly family group charts and copies of The Story of the Five Denning Brothers Who documents. Ancestral colony was Norka, Volga Sailed to America From Russia 1892 (n.p., 1984). Region, Russia. Typewritten. Photocopy, 79 pp. Photos, documents. Donated by compiler, CS71 .B464 1980x This Catholic family's ancestry dates back to the 1830s in Herzog, Russia. When they came to Benert, Richard and Lorelei (Bartel) Heuer, America, they settled in Ellis County, Kansas. Bartel Family History. Typewritten, 1980. The book includes family group charts, obituaries, Photocopy, 70 pp. Kristian and Amalia (Patzer) Bartel were both and news clippings. born in Poland. They migrated to Russia with CS71. D474 1980x their parents, where they met and married. They settled in an area near Zhitomir. Kristian was a Derksen, S.A., compiler. miller and woodworker. In 1893 the family left My Father's House (n.p., 1980), 74 pp. Russia and began a new life in Madison, South Photos, maps, family charts. Donated by Dakota. compiler. These Mennonites families, the Derksens, the Buhrs, the Dycks, and the Harders all 40 originated in the Netherlands area of Europe. (n.p., 1986), 41 pp. Donated by compiler. Later, for the sake of peace and religious freedom, Useful to anyone needing to locate places they moved to Poland. From there they decided to quickly while using Dr. Giesinger's book. migrate to Chortitza in the Black Sea area. Eventually some of them left for the shores of BX7255 .B54P54 1968x America and settled in Minnesota and Canada. Funeral Records of Pilgrim Congregational Church, Billings, Montana. Typewritten. CS71. B786 1978x Photocopied and donated by Elaine Frank Descendants of Brunz (Bruntz or Bruns) Family, Davison, 1985, 576 pp. All Born in Merkel, Russia (n.p., n.d.). Typewritten. Arranged in alphabetical order. Some entries Photocopy, 7 pp. include funeral remembrances. One biography—Mary Wambolt Bruntz. Genealogy listings of Brunz family. DK651. S574G47 1982x Gerk, Edward Roy. CS71. E374 1979x A History of the Volga-German Catholic Ehrlich Family History, Shattuck, Oklahoma — Village of Josefstal Typewritten manuscript, Second Book (n.p., 1979). Typewritten, 180 pp. 1982, 10 pp. Donated by Glen Mueller. This village was located on the Bergseite Peter Ehrlich, ancestor of this family in (hilly side) of the Volga River. Schwabenchutor Shattuck, was born in Shcherbakovka, Russia, in was its German nickname. The history includes a 1819. He and his sons were engaged in the tanning description of the church and school, a partial industry. In 1878 he brought his family to map of Josefstal as remembered circa 1925, and a America and settled in Kansas. There are many list of some of the family names. The Summer family photos in the book. 1986 issue of the Journal includes as one of its articles this history in large part. CS71. E473 1984x F687. R8H47x Eisenbeis, Clyde T., compiler. Herrman, Mrs. Gerald and Mrs. Lester Herr- Eisenbeisz Family Genealogy (n.p., 1984). man, compilers. Computer printout, 55 pp. Donated by compiler. St. Joseph Cemetery, Liebenthal, Kansas. Chiefly genealogical tables. Typed and indexed 1982-84, 67 pp. Donated by CS71. E575 1982x compilers. The introduction provides an interesting Ensminger, Raymond, compiler. history of the cemetery. Names are listed ac- Jakob Ensminger (1852-1924) Family History cording to sections and rows of the cemetery plat. (Edmonton, AB, n.p.). Typewritten, Dec. 1982- Included is an index for all surnames and burials Dec. 1985, 27 pp. in this particular cemetery. A collection of newsletters written to record the history and current news of the Ensminger CS71. B473 1983x family. It includes a family group chart, photos, Hornbaker, Mike. and copies of documents. The Bergen History (n.p., 1983). Typewritten, 120 pp. Photos, maps. Donated by author. CS71. F728 1969x The Bergen family ancestry begins with Mennonites who lived in the colony of Molochna, Frankenhauser, Victor John, compiler. Russia. In 1876 they migrated to the U.S. and Frankenhauser Family History (Richardton, ND: settled in Kansas. The book lists many families privately printed, 1969), 63 pp. Donated by who are descendants of Bern-hard, Anna, and compiler. Aganetha Bergen. The research in this family history covers a period of more than two hundred years. It includes CS71. E579 1972x a map of Wuerttemberg from which the family's Janzen, Helene Classen, compiler. ancestors originated, a family photo, and family The Ensz Family. Typewritten. Photocopy, group charts. 1972, 6 pp. Map. GR 1870 (perm.) An oral history recorded by the compiler and copied by Mrs. J. P. Janzen. This Mennonite Freeman, Margaret, compiler. family's origin was Holland. They migrated to Index to Place Names Found in From Catherine to West Prussia, where they de- Khrushchev by Adam Giesinger 41 veloped the lowlands by building windmills and ing a Hammed Earth Wall (Greeley, CO: dykes. After coming to America, the family Published by authors, 1980), 64 pp. Photos and settled in California. drawings. Donated by authors. This manual presents the rammed earth DK34. G3K83 1913x building method quite clearly and is substantiated by the fact that the authors have lived in a Kufeld, Johannes. rammed earth house since 1946. It does not cover Die deutschen Kolonien an der Wolga. Photocopy possible technical and engineering problems. of unpublished manuscript, 298 pp. Donated by Emma S. Haynes. CS71. A343 1962x Intended to be printed during World War II, Neuharth, Karl and Rosina Neuharth, this manuscript remains in its present form compilers. because of Germany's defeat in Russia. Pastor A History and Record of the Ackerman Kufeld was the minister of the Protestant church Family (n.p., 1962), photocopy, 41 pp. in Reinhard (Osinovka) and for many years was Courtesy of Erwin Ulmer. editor of the religious magazine, Friedensbote, in Family traces its origin to Rohrbach, South which he printed many worthwhile articles on the Russia. In 1888 they migrated to the U.S. and early history of the Volga colonies. This settled in Sutton, Nebraska. Book is chiefly manuscript provides a comprehensive look at genealogical in content. various aspects of colony life. This copy of Pastor Kufeld's manuscript is apparently one of four in CS71. S738 1985x existence today. Parent, Isabella (Stengler), author/compiler. CS71 .L562 1984x The Stengler Family Tree (Published by Lind, August A., author/compiler. author/compiler, 1985), 66 pp. Donated by Anton Family Tree Presenting Ours in a Forest of Stengler. Kindred Families Grafted-Graphed Together This family history begins in Franzfeld, As One. Typewritten, 1984,131 pp. Donated Russia. In 1910 Raymond and Dorothea Stengler immigrated to Saskatchewan, Canada, along with by author/compiler. other Russian-German families. The book lists the Uniquely put together as an arbor, in a loose- genealogy of succeeding generations and gives leaf graphic method. The family's roots go back to brief histories. life in the Volga area of Russia. Includes some detailed history and an alphabetical index to CS71. B385 1984x genealogical listing of families. F737 .D4M26x Pivernetz, Amelia Baum, compiler. Descendants of John (Johannes) Baum and MacDonald, Marie. Susanna Maria Debus 1848-1984 (n.p., n.d.). Glendive—the History of a Montana Town Typewritten, 43 pp. Photocopy, photos. (Glendive, MT: Gateway Press, 1968), 120 pp. Donated by compiler. Donated by Emma S. Haynes. Brief history of John (Johannes) Baum <1848- An interesting history of the Glendive Basin 1926) and a compilation of family genealogies. and northern Plains, including the "Indian Past" and the penetration of the white man in 1742. By CT1218 .R42A3 1985x 1881 the Northern Pacific Railroad had Reber, Arnold. established a round-house in the town, thereby Heimat? Ein Buck vom wahrhaftigen Leben making Glendive a division point. In 1904 a large hinter eisernen Vorkaengen (Hannover, W. group of German-Russian Mennonites came to Germany: Verlag und Herausgeber Karl-F. take up homesteads. Many photos are included, Bangemann, 1985), 887 pp. Although this book does not deal specifically with This book is largely an autobiography. The Volga Germans, it does give a lot of background author relates his experiences and observations on the area where many Volga Germans came from the beginning of Stalin's regime and for after 1900. many years thereafter. He was one of those who was forcibly deported to Siberia. Fifty-seven GR 1871 (perm) years of bitter experiences are depicted. Reber no longer lived in the Soviet Union when he wrote Miller, Lydia A. and David J. Miller. the book, rather in West Germany. In the book he Rammed Earth Homes—Manual for Build also tells 42 anecdotes about love, dreams, jokes and other val, 1983), 46 pp. Donated by Evelyn Cook. sorts of humor, illusions, etc. The first German pioneers were lured to the Rocky Mountains by stories of gold discoveries. OVERSIZE Between 1885 and 1887 Evangelical Volga HV88. J434x Germans from Nebraska and Kansas settled in the Records of the Jefferson Park (Chicago) Globeville area north of Denver. In 1890 some Zvonarevka (Schwed} Gemeinden of Aid to the Black Sea Germans migrated from Scotland, Famine-Stricken Villagers of Schwed, Russia South Dakota, to settle in Kit Carson County. The [1921-26], 29 pp. (photocopies). Donated by Ann historical account includes statistics and Smith. photographs. This collection consists of photocopies of translations and original records of aid sent to the CS71. B544 1982x Volga-German village of Schwed on the Karaman River on the Wiesenseite by Schwed immigrants Scheck, Florian, compiler. to Jefferson Park (Chicago), Illinois, and other The Billingers (n.p., 1982). Typewritten, 90 pp. communities during the famine of the 1920s. Photos, documents. Donated by Floyd Scheck. These records were acquired through the courtesy Chiefly a listing of family generations. Some of Mrs. Lydia (Degraf) Jesse. copies of obituaries included. F655. R48x OVERSIZE Reutter, Winifred. GR 1858 (perm.) Early Dakota Days (n.p., 1962), 264 pp. Donated Schneider, Ludwig. in memory of Emma S. Haynes. This book is DAS Kolonisationswerk Josefs II. in Galizien. made up of many stories and pictures directly Darstellung und Namenlisten. Historische contributed by the pioneers themselves. It Gesellschaft fuer Posen [Poznan] (Leipzig: includes the fascinating history of the cattle- Verlag von S. Hirzel, 1939), 409 pp. (photocopy). raising industry, homesteading, coping with the This volume includes 6 tables and one map of Indians, and establishing schools and churches. the German settlements in Galicia in addition to a list of the names of the colonies. The history F657. M45R4 includes Galicia up to 1772, Galicia under Austrian rule, recruiting colonists, organizing the Reutter, Winifred. colonies and establishing borders, tunes of need Mellette County Memories. Golden Anniversary and misery, the second cut-off (1802-1805), the Edition, 1911-1961 (n.p., 1961), 96 pp. Donated private colonization, over-all estimate of in memory of Emma S. Haynes. immigrants and a list of the colonists' names. An interesting word-picture depicting the way of life during the homesteading days in Mellette PT2615. A632I5 County, South Dakota. It includes a map and many photos and stories collected from either the Schwarz, Alexander. homesteaders themselves or their descendants. In Wologdas weissen Waeldem—Ein Buck aus dem bolschewistischen Bann (Altona-Elbe, BX8117. N67R52 1984x Germany: Hans Harder Verlag, 1934), 224 pp. Donated by Tom Haynes. Richert, Katherine Siemens. A moving account of the bitter experiences Go Tell it on the Mountain (Fresno, CA: and deprivation of the German families who were Published by author, 1984), 189 pp. Photos. forced to leave their homes in the Volga area. The Donated by Ruth Siemens Dunn. long trek through the forest during the winter The story actually has its roots in South months, the cold barracks, the lack of food and Russia, where most of the missionaries were born the spiritual hunger of their souls are told in who came to America to begin their Christian detail. service in the Appalachian Highlands of western North Carolina. F755. G3S43x F785, G3R62x Shearer, Rose, author/compiler. Times Past (Post Falls, ID: B. and R. Rock, Kenneth W. Printing, 1983), 37 pp. Donated by Rowena German Footprints in Colorado (Denver, CO: Shearer. Committee for the German Heritage Festi This book includes information about a 43 German-speaking Seventh-Day Adventist church TX715. T32x and its cemetery. The group that organized the Tabitha Society of the Biola Congregational church had migrated to Idaho from the Dakotas. Church Cookbook. Compiled by the Tabitha Their German ancestors had migrated to South Society, Biola Congregational Church, Biola, CA. Russia before coming to America. Also included (n.p., 1982), 199 pp. Donated by Dr. Larry are family charts, obituaries, and a drawing of the Metzler. cemetery and names of people buried there. Includes recipes passed down from families: all the usual sections in a cookbook plus German BX8143. S54A3x dishes and an informative "household and Siemens, Nicolai K. cooking hints" section. Heartcries and Blessings... the Reflections of a Russian-Born Servant of God (Seattle, F702 .B5B52x WA: Crista Press, 1985), 134 pp. Donated by Their Story: A Pioneer Days Album of the Blaine Ann Roetcisoender. County Area (Oklahoma City, OK: The book is divided into three parts: Personal The Heritage Book Committee, 1977), 287 pp. Experiences (about living in Russia), Articles Many photos. Donated by Central Oklahoma (religious writings), and Poems (on a variety of Chapter. subjects). Siemens began writing articles in An interesting collection of stories and family Russia, but he started writing poetry only when he histories pertaining to the first thirty years of the was much older and was living in the United Blaine County area. The first part of the book States. deals with the early history and development of this Oklahoma settlement. The family histories C871. D854 1900z are arranged in alphabetical order. Sons and Daughters of George Jacob Dumler (n.p., n.d.). Typewritten, 12 pp. Photocopy. PZ7. V8678 Har Donated by Alma Wiederrich Washburn. Chiefly a genealogical record. Vogt, Esther Loewen. Harvest Gold. Ed. by Janet Hoover Thomas CS71. B444 1983x (Elgin, IL: David C. Cook Publishing Co., 1978), Stone, Helen Smith and Amelia Baum 128 pp. Donated by author. Pivernetz, compilers. This is a sequel to the award-winning Turkey Bell Family Genealogy, 1983 (Bourn, Bell, Red. It is the story of some of the heartbreaking Hess, Metzker). (n.p., 1983). Typewritten, 42 experiences and the sustaining faith of a pp. Photocopy, photos. Donated by Amelia Mennonite family in Kansas. Baum Pivernetz. Genealogy listings of the descendants of CS71. J369 1984x Christian and Katherine E. (Bell) Metzker and Conrad and Elizabeth (Becker) Bell from Voth, Frances Janzen. the Volga area. The House of Jacob (Published by author, 1984), 433 pp. Donated by author. F784. S8S83x Sugar City Book Jacob Janzen was born in the Ukraine, Russia, Committee. in 1822. He became active in the Mennonite Attached to Sweetness—Sugar Beets Chronicle of settlement of Huttertal. In 1876 he brought his Sugar City—Past to Present (Sugar City, CO: wife and eight children to America and settled Sugar City Book Committee, 1982), 114 pp. first in Bon Homme Colony in South Dakota. Donated by Imogene (Wolfe) Bauer. Later he claimed a homestead northwest of A fascinating history of a town in the wide- Freeman, which was sometimes referred to as 1 open prairie of Colorado, which became a famous "Jakobs Ruhe” (Jacob's Rest). The book contains location for the sugar beet industry. In 1900 the maps, documents, photos, genealogies, and in- National Sugar Manufacturing Company teresting family histories. established the factory, and officials began encouraging German Russians living in Kansas and Nebraska to move to Sugar City. The book includes many interesting photographs. 44 THE VOLGA-GERMAN CATHOLIC VILLAGE OF JOSEFSTAL Edward Roy Gerk Josefstal was a Volga-German Catholic village located in the Kamyshin district of the Province of Saratov in Russia. The village was situated on the Bergseite, or hilly side, of the Volga River. This settlement lay on the left bank of the Sukhaya Ol’khovka River. Josefstal was 174 versts (184.4 km) from the provincial capital Saratov, 35 versts (37 km) from the county seat Kamyshin, 20 versts (21.2 km) from the administrative district city Rosenberg, and 11 versts (11.7 km) from the railroad station at Avilovo. The geographic coordinates were 50°17' N and 45°06' E.1 Around 1833 several colonists from the district of Kamenka settled here and founded a khutor (farm). The main crop cultivated was wheat. The last name of one of the original settlers was Schwab; that is why the settlement was given the nickname of "Schwaben-Chutor." The settlement's official Russian name was "Skripalovo," although many of the surrounding Russian communities nicknamed it "Skripalevka." The reason apparently was due to a group of fiddle players residing in the newly founded community. The name is derived from the word skripachi, which means fiddle or violin. Thus it was named "Skripalevka," or "Fiddle Town." The year 1852 saw more groups of settlers arrive from Kamenka County and Norka. The settlement was officially founded and given the name of Josefstal, in honor of Saint Joseph.2 In the year of founding, 1852, all new settlers were given 14.5 dessiatines, or 39.15 acres, of land. The land was divided the typical way, according to the number of males in the village. All together, 4,493 dessiatines, or 12,131 acres, of land were given out.3 In 1857 there were 80 homesteads, divided into 103 families, with 351 males. In 1862 there were 54 homesteads, with 352 male and 265 female villagers.4 According to the 1871 statistics for Josefstal, 336 people were given 4,834 dessiatines (13,051.8 acres) of good land and 1,929 dessiatines (5,208.3 acres) of poor land. It was divided thus: allotted community land including farmyards, pasture and unproductive land—3,715 dessiatines (10,030.5 acres); meadow land—72 dessiatines (194.4 acres); forest—171 dessiatines (461.7 acres). All of the community land was in one big area. The workable land was around the settlement, some as much as 20 versts (21.2 km) away. Although the hilly countryside had eighteen deep ditches running through it, it was still used for cattle grazing.6 In 1886 there were 143 homesteads, with 472 male and 415 female villagers—all of whom were Germans. There were also 76 people living elsewhere, but they had full community rights and privileges. Twelve of the villagers at this time were shoemakers, and five were tailors.6 The village statistics for 1890 show a population of 1,147. There were 603 males and 544 females. Seven of the villagers were of the Russian Orthodox faith; the rest were Roman Catholic. There were 124 houses—83 were made of stone, 40 of wood and one of mosaic stones. All of the houses had roofs constructed from wood or from manure, straw and clay blocks, etc., except for 22 that were covered with hay. Also, in the village there were 144 plows and 3 winnows. The animal population was as follows: 402 horses, 150 oxen, 263 cows, 137 bulls, 145 calves, 1,271 sheep, 350 pigs and 114 goats. Some of the villagers also owned camels. There were eighteen businesses, including one Kabak (drinking establishment) and two general stores.7 The Siemon Family in Josefstal. (Picture courtesy of Edward Roy Gerk.) 45 46 In 1894 there were 130 homesteads with 911 buildings: 408 of wood, 503 of stone and brick. The village plan was laid out in blocks of four farmyards each. There were 615 males and 591 females in 1894. There were one sewing shop, one shoe store, two buggy makers, two blacksmiths, two weavers, one carpenter, one brick burney (factory), one water mill and one windmill.8 The soil in the area is mostly loam, some of it being sandy black soil, some rocky clay, and underneath red loam. The land in Josefstal was divided among the members of the community according to the censuses. This was done until 1879, when they started dividing the land according to the number of eligible males in the village. In 1878 there were 491 eligible males; however, 53 of them (from 28 families) were absent. The one water mill in the village was owned by the community. It had two mill stems and was situated on the Sukhaya Ol'khovka River. A person paid 45 rubles to use it. There was another water mill situated on the nearby Mokraya Ol’khovka River. This was in the nearby village of Erlenbach (Remennaya). This mill was built for the use of the villagers of Josefstal. A person had to pay 35 rubles to use it for a year. There were also two flourmills in the village. Special housing was provided for the person who milled and for his assistants. The Stanskaya mill had three wooden buildings, and three males and six females lived there. It was one verst (1.06 km) away from the village on the Sukhaya Ol’khovka River. The Shechtelskaya mill had one wooden building and two stone buildings. Three males and three females lived at this mill. It was situated 4 versts (4.24 km) away on the Mokraya Ol'khovka River.9 Most of the produce and other products were sold at fairs and bazaars in Kamyshin and Avilovo.10 Susan Hoffman Blattner (standing) and Catherine Hoffman Dieser (sitting) in Josefstal. Catherine has a rosary in her left hand, and both ladies are carrying their prayer books. {Picture courtesy of Edward Roy Gerk.) 8 Below are the population statistics for Josefstal, according to various Russian censuses:11 Year Population Year Population 1857 553 1894/97 1,206 1859/62 617 887 1911/15 1,283 1886 1,147 1926 1,333 1890 47 If you notice the population figure for 1926, Josefstal was one of the few villages along the Volga to experience an increase in population. This was probably due to the fact that many of the people came from the larger cities to escape the tribulation occurring in them after the Revolution. In 1885 Josefstal paid 4,445 rubles in taxes to the government. Other yearly figures are not known.12 Church and School Josefstal was part of the parish of Marienfeld. The village of Marienfeld was only 10 versts (10.6 km) away. This meant that both villages shared one priest and that Sunday mass was alternated between villages. The village of Josefstal had a Catholic prayer house at the time of its founding. However, a church was built and dedicated in 1870. It was made of wood but covered with metal.18 In 1904 the parishioners in Josefstal built a new church, also made of wood, in the typical German-Russian style. At each corner of the churchyard stood a small chapel, or Kapelle. These chapels were used on special holy days. The church also had a large belfry in front, detached from the church. It was three tiers high. The church bells would ring to mark the death of a villager, to warn the village of danger, to guide a lost soul through a blizzardy night or to announce to the village that it was time to pray. Josefstal, like some other German villages in Russia, had specific times during the day designated for prayer. The villagers could always decipher what the message was.14 On a hill in Josefstal stood the fourteen Stations of the Cross. The villagers would partake in the services at the fourteen Stations on Roman Catholic holy days. These would usually be sung by the local schoolmaster. Some villagers had to walk on their knees to the Stations to fulfill their penance after attending confession. It was the natural custom in those days for the younger members of the congregation to kneel on the floor or to stand during mass. Only the older members could sit, unless one sang in the choir. The congregation was always placed according to age and sex—males on the right and females on the left. There were always four ushers sitting at various points in the church, making sure that the younger members were behaving themselves. It was not uncommon for an offending party to be given a stern look or a cuff on the ear. There was a large, beautiful altar in the church, with a large statue of the Virgin Mary surrounded by roses. There was also a large statue of Saint Joseph in the church.15 The priests who served the parish were: Johannes Knutschko—about the year 1887 Franz Loran—1897-1901? Nickolaus Maier—1901-1905 Ferdinand Hirsch—? -1909 Alois Oks-1910-1914 Franz Rauh—1914-as administrator Alois Kappes—1914-1922? Father Alois Kappes was parish priest in Marienfeld, in which parish Josefstal was located. After a trip to Germany in 1922, Fr. Kappes became parish priest for the newly independent parish of Josefstal. (Picture taken from Joseph Schnurr, Die Kirchen und das religioese Leben der Russlanddeutschen. Katholischer Teil, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart: Selbstverlag Joseph Schnurr, 1980), p. 367.) 48 Josefstal became an independent parish in 1919. The Catholic church in Marienfeld had been destroyed by fire shortly before. The priests who served in the new parish of Josefstal were: Alois Kappes—1923-1924 (about 10 months) Johannes Falkenstein--1925-1931?16 The church in Josefstal was officially closed in 1934.17 However, it had been used for a number of years previously as a barn and a theater by the local communists. Mass was usually said in the rectory during this time.18 The church in Josefstal eventually suffered the same fate as so many other churches in Russia; It was destroyed in 1937.19 Across the street from the church stood the local school. It was built in 1852 and operated by the village community. In 1890, 103 boys and 83 girls were attending school. Other yearly figures are unknown. School was compulsory, and the family had to pay a fine if their children did not attend. In 1885 a separate school was opened, which allowed children to study at home. In 1886 there were nine boys taking advantage of this, and in 1887 there were twelve boys.30 The cemetery in Josefstal was well kept, but usually only at Easter. The custom was to place flowers and white sand on the graves, but usually only on special occasions. The crosses were repainted and weeds dug up. There was a large cross in the middle of the cemetery, as was the case in most Catholic cemeteries. Most of the graves had wooden crosses on them, although some had steel ones. They were painted light blue or black, depending on the age of the deceased, i.e., light blue for the younger members. Most had the name and date of death on them. A shack was located on the cemetery property. It contained the necessary equipment for burial. It was also used to store the deceased, but usually the body was kept by the family, who held a vigil day and night until burial. There were no morticians as we know them. The caskets were made by the local carpenter, or sometimes by the family itself. They were lined with fine material and were not closed until burial, when the lid was nailed on. There were also those who were buried outside the cemetery—by the fence. If one was not a good Catholic and did not keep up certain Christian standards, one could not be buried inside the cemetery.21 Emigration Through the years many reasons for leaving the village arose. Many villagers were dissatisfied with poor conditions and the government's broken promises. Some simply left to forge a better life. Others left because of wanderlust. Some of the emigrations from the village were: In 1864 one family left for the Kuban Region in the Caucasus area of Russia. In 1865 thirty-five people left for Semenovka, also in the Kuban Region. In the same year, twenty people left for the village of Rudny'a.32 In 1872 six people left for other villages in Russia, including the village of Ilov'ya (Leichtling). Mention should also be made that among the original founders of the Volga village of Streckerau, in Samara Province, there were people from Josefstal. This village was founded in 1863.23 In 1873 three people left for the village of Kohler, just north of Josefstal. In 1877 six families and four single persons left for America. September of the year 1878 saw the arrival of 130 Volga colonists, some from Josefstal, in the German colonies of Johannisdorf and Mariental in Parana, Brazil.24 In 1883 one person left for Kamenka and one person for Stavropol Province. In 1886 four males took out emigration passports and left for America,28 The years 1911-14 saw many of the colonists leave for freedom and to escape the rumblings of war and revolution. Many of them settled in the Fort Dodge, Iowa, area of the United States. They were joined by villagers from Marienfeld.26 The Russian Revolution and the famine of the 1920s also caused many of the villagers to leave Russia. Some emigrated in groups together, such as the group that found its way to Aurora, Illinois, or the one that went to Austin, Minnesota.27 There were a number of other emigrations from Josefstal, but exact statistics are not known. One thing is certain: If the Josefstal villagers did not take the opportunity to leave before the mid- or late-1920s, they likely never again got the chance. The villagers had suffered through severe famine in the early 1920s, in which many starved to death. According to a Volga Relief Society report dated February 9, 1922, there were 350 children being fed relief food through the auspices of the Volga Relief Society and the American Relief Administration.28 Thousands of Germans and Russians perished along the Volga at this time. 49 Letters received by relatives in America told of a new famine in the early 1930s.29 But the Soviet government under Josef Stalin would not admit there was one. Many more perished. Most of these letters from relatives in the U.S.S.R. stopped in 1933, as the iron curtain was clamped tighter. And, as the final blow, in the late summer of 1941, the government of the U.S.S.R. accused the entire Volga-German population of being spies. They were thus herded onto cattle cars and sent to areas of Siberia, Kazakhstan and other far-off regions. Josefstal was still listed on detailed American army maps as late as 1963. However, one former resident still living in the U.S.S.R. returned in 1971 to the place where Josefstal had been located. Not much was left. A big well where the center of town used to be and the overgrown cemetery were all that remained of Josefstal. Its German identity was lost forever, to be remembered no more.30 Notes 1. Aleksandr Nikolaevich Minkh, "Istoriko-geograficheskii slovar' saratovski gubemii" (Saratov, 1898-1901), pp. 362-66. 2. Saratovskiia Gubernskiia Vedomosti (Saratov Provincial Reports) No. 46 (1890), p. 367. 3. Minkh, pp. 362-66. 4. Ibid. 5. Saratovskiia Gubernskiia Vedomsti, p. 357. 6. Minkh, pp. 362-66. 7. Ibid. This is also found in Konrad Keller, "Die deutschen katcholischen Kolonien auf der Bergseite der Wolga in Russland," in: Deutsche Erde (1910), No. 6/7, pp. 190-91. 8. Minkh, pp. 362-66. 9. Ibid. 10. Keller, pp. 190-91. 11. Andreas Mergenthaler, "Tochterkolonien an der Wolga," unpublished manuscript, p. 44; also Minkh, pp. 362-66. 12. Ibid. 13. Ibid. 14. Elisabeth Gerk (nee Dieser), Interview (January & March 1979), cassette tape. 15. Ibid. 16. Joseph Schnurr, Die Kirchen und das religioese Leben der Russlanddeutschen. Katholischer Toil (Stuttgart, 1980), p. 245. 17. Mergenthaler, p. 44, 18. Elisabeth Gerk, Interview. 19. Johannes Gerk, Correspondence to the author (Feb. 15, 1984). 20. Minkh, pp. 362-66. 21. Elisabeth Gerk, Interview. 22. Minkh, pp. 362-66. 23. Schnurr, pp. 273-74. 24. Friedrich Wilhelm Brepohl and Wilhelm Fugmann, Die Wolgadeutschen im Brasilianischen Staate Parana (Stuttgart, 1927), pp. 45-47. 25. Minkh, pp. 362-66. 26. Richard Sallet, Russian-German Settlements in the United States (Fargo, ND, 1974), pp. 61-62. 27. Ibid. 28. "Correspondence for August 1921 to June 1926," p. 51. 29. One letter, written January 12, 1933, reads as follows: "God be with you. Hearty greetings from me, your mother or mother-in-law Ditzer to you, dear children, Paul and Elisabeth, with your two children. We have the dear Lord to thank that we are still healthy and wish you the same health as we have. Amen. Further, dear children, I want to inform you how things are here. I am very poor because there is nothing more to eat here, dear children. If one does nothing, then there is nothing to eat [no work, no food], Dear children, if you wish, then you could come to my aid. Perhaps you want to know how, I can tell you with dollars. People have sent dollars to us here, and for two dollars one can buy flour in Kamyshin, Dear children, be so good and help me with dollars so that I won't starve to death, and if it is only five dollars, then, dear children, I beg you again to be so good and come to my aid as soon as possible, for there is nothing to eat here. except for what I beg for here and there. Some days I get something to eat, and some days nothing. So you can imagine how poor I am, dear children. If you can, help me so that I don't starve to death. I want to tell you where Father is with (Kaeler) in the Gabegas [Caucasus?], and they cannot help me, because they get only as much as they can have [i.e., they have only enough to get by on themselves]." 30. Johannes Gerk. 50 THE STORY OF CHRISTINA TETZ NEFF GOURLAY Flossie Libra Christina Tetz was born November 25,1882, in Borodino, Bessarabia, to Johann Tetz and Friederika Hess. Johann was descended from Johann Karl Tetz of Lichtenberg, Mecklenburg, the first generation to come to Bessarabia at the invitation of Czar Alexander I. Friederika Hess was descended from Adam Hess of Eich in the Palatinate, also among the first generation of Germans in Bessarabia. My mother's was the fourth generation of Germans to live in Borodino. She was baptized and later confirmed in the local Evangelical Lutheran Church, the latter just before emigrating from Russia and coming to the United States at the age of 16. When she was 10 her father died, and, according to custom, the mother no longer had rights to the children. They were given guardians. It was with the family of one guardian, Andreas Janke, that she came to the United States. He was the husband of her mother's sister, Justina (or Susanna) Hess. Another guardian, Jakob Sigloch, sent her her inheritance, referring to himself as Uncle and to his wife as Aunt Margaretha. He might have been married to another of her mother's sisters. The other guardian I do not know, but I have been told that there was no relationship involved. Life after her father died was very hard. She often told of being sent across the Black Sea to live, to the Crimea (perhaps to another relative). There, besides being very homesick, she was worked harder than ever before. Among other things she recalled being hitched to a rake in the fields and, after harvest, turning the fanning mill until 3 a.m., almost until she dropped, and then getting up early to start work again. During harvest work was done in the fields most of the night if there was moonlight to see by. Meals were brought out to the fields, and in the dark many grasshoppers got into the soup. They joked about getting meat to eat. However, she returned home before the year was up, as they were afraid she would die of homesickness, finally not being able to eat at all. She said she returned with the same small bag of candy given her upon leaving; it was all moldy. As she came up the walk, her mother met her at the door and said, "What are you doing here?" She was another mouth to feed, and times had been very hard for the widow. Both my mother and my aunt spoke of their mother as a "hard" woman. I'm sure they felt so with justification. Others spoke of this hardness as survival in a hard life. After her husband died she was very poor, and, although her four oldest children were sons, thus being able to help in the fields, the land was no longer hers. Income from it was put aside by the guardians for the children, who would inherit at age 21. Friederika remarried, sometimes the only solution for widows. Her second husband, Arthur Mauch, had three children of his own, and they were to have two more, Berta and Olga, my mother's half sisters. Arthur Mauch was reported to be either Russian or part Russian, thus adding to criticism of Friederika. The German colonists just did not mix with Russians. Friederika was the natural mother to thirteen children and stepmother to three. After her second husband died, she spent her last years in the home of her son, Christian Tetz, in Marievka. When asked to look after the grandchildren, she said she had had enough; she would rather look after a crazy goose. The family of Friederike Hess Tetz and her second husband, Arthur Mauch. His children from a previous marriage are standing in the back. Their two daughters, Christina Tetz’s half sisters, are on the sides. Bertha is standing on the left, and Olga is seated on the right. 51 Friederika was considered the equivalent of a doctor. She was called to set bones, tend the sick, and even lance wounds. When she was six months old, my mother had a growth on her neck. Her mother lanced it and then could feed her only by dropping liquid (usually whiskey) on her tongue. To see if she lived, a mirror was put in front of her mouth to catch any steam from her breath. Christina survived not only this but also cholera at a later age. She was so sick that she recalled almost nothing. She awakened one day alone but feeling better and very hungry. Weak, she half-crawled to the cellar and down the steps, finding only moldy bread and wine, which she managed to take to the top of the cellar, where she sat in the warm sun to eat. Nothing had ever tasted so good! Improvement then progressed rapidly. My mother was the fifth child and oldest girl: Johann, Andreas, Jakob, and Christian were older; Katherine, Karl, and Emilie younger. Another girl, Eva, died at the age of 10, and Samuel, born after his father's death, died as an infant. Katherine was to die at the age of 19 from burns. She worked at the home of a minister named Peters (in a neighboring village). While cleaning up after dinner, she got on a stool to put a plate on a shelf, fell, knocked over the lamp, and set herself on fire. The two youngest children were given to their father's brother, Friederick Tetz, who was childless and had asked for them before their father's death. Thus Emilie grew up in the village of Marievka. She did return to Borodino after marrying her first cousin, Gottfried Tetz, son of her father's brother, Konrad Tetz. Her brother Karl would not stay but returned eventually to live with another uncle, I think in Borodino. After their father died in 1892, Emilie Tetz was sent to live with her Uncle Friederick Tetz in Marievka. Emilie and Christina did not see each other again until 1946. After her first husband, Gottfried Tetz, died during World War I, Emilie married Ludwig Lehman. This family moved to Alberta, Canada, about 1928, Emily was the only one of Christina's family to come to North America. Although the two girls had grown up separately, the family remarked on the many mannerisms that they had in common. They never saw each other again after this meeting in 1946. Emilie is on the left and Christina on the right. Being the oldest girl meant my mother cared for the younger ones. She could not remember a time when she did not have an infant tied to her hip as she did dishes or herded geese, etc. (When all hands were needed in the fields, babies that couldn't be taken to the fields were wrapped and left in the house, to be tended again ,at meal time.) But for most of her early years, Christina cared for the smaller children. On awakening in the morning, her foot would automatically go out to rock the cradle beside her bed. She never forgot one morning when groggily she set the cradle to rock, and her mother said quietly it didn't matter anymore. It was then she noticed her grandmother also sitting nearby. The infant had died in the night. 52 But there were also good memories, too, and the happiest day of her life, she claimed, was her confirmation day. The bishop came from Kloestitz, she had a new dress, there was a feast, and she did not have to do any work. After the service the bishop took the confirmation group for a walk into the fields. Christina remembered being so elated as almost to float and "being very near to Heaven!" She always remembered her father with great affection. When alive he had always protected her, she said, and on returning from a trip to Odessa had once brought her a string of amber beads, supposed to have come from the Black Sea. She never took them off all her life except to repair and clean them. We buried her with the string of beads still on, but there were only a few of the original beads among them. Her father was a cattle herder, although I also understood he worked with horses. His early death at the age of 40 was caused either by being kicked in the chest by a horse or stepped on after being thrown, thus causing the consumption, to which he succumbed several months later without leaving his bed. My mother was so afraid of death, she could not pass without running past the door of the room in which he had died, and she was so desolate. I believe this was one of the reasons she was sent to the Crimea, to get her out of the house where she was so miserable. Her sister Emilie, who was only three at the time, remembered fondly playing around her father's bed. Stories of death told by the older people were partly responsible for this fear. They told stories of ghosts and werewolves and of people being inadvertently buried alive and pulling their hair out in their graves. I also remember my sheer horror when many years later my mother spoke of these stories. I just did not want to hear them. Their village was arranged with the fields laid out in strips. The houses were in town. Her parents raised hay, flax, grain, grapes, sheep, poultry, and other stock. The grain was for the stock and for flour, the flax for spinning. They also raised vegetables for food. Their cash crop was champagne [sic}. Grape growing was most important, and the champagne-like wine was made from the white grapes. It was sealed in kegs and left undisturbed for a specified period. The red wines were consumed in the household as a beverage. Wine was also served hot on their cereal (cornmeal mush) upon coming back from the church on Sunday mornings. I suspect the red wines were not fermented so much and thus were used more quickly. She often spoke of being almost overcome by the fumes when going into the cellar. When the men came in from the fields, they went first to the cellar to quench their thirst. They also used milk and loved to eat "sweet" clabbered milk with sugar, if available. It was offered to guests on a hot day, and I can still see my mother enjoying it. The daily fare was simple—bread, cheeses, cooked cereals, potatoes, soups, and stews. For feast days geese were killed, as were sometimes sheep, pork, or beef, although these were often included in the daily fare, particularly mutton. Special sweets were also made for holidays. I remember the pumpkin tarts my mother baked for nostalgia's sake, along with her regular American pumpkin pies. Wild rabbits and partridges were gotten for Christmas, as well as the usual smoked geese and roast lamb. Cheese was made with their own rennet. When a calf was to be butchered, it was given three liters of milk to drink. After butchering, the rennet bag [fourth stomach] was taken out with the curdled milk, which was then dried and used for cheese. Yeast for bread was made from fermented wine and corn flour mixed and dried in the sun. The only foods bought were coffee, tea, sugar, salt, and sometimes fish. Herbal teas were made from rose hips or other plants gathered wild. Wild Jerusalem artichokes, known as wild potatoes, were also eaten. It was a breach of hospitality not to offer food to visitors. In the evenings and on Sundays and holidays, neighbors stopped to talk, or the women worked together on needlework. However, my aunt spoke of sometimes sitting with the light out so no one would think she was home, if she were too tired after a summer day in the fields to fix food for visitors. Wool was spun from their own sheep and knitted or woven into garments. Linen thread was spun after the flax was soaked and beaten to separate the fibers. The coarse linen was used for grain sacks and the finer for underwear or shirts, etc. Spinning and weaving were done mostly in the evenings or winter months. Ashes were used to make soap for washing. Sometimes the very poor had only one set of garments, which were washed and put back on. Candles were dipped from tallow. Fabrics were dyed from the juice of crushed plants and set with urine. Houses were heated with peat or corn cobs and dried cow manure—unless the family had a village woodlot. Houses were built of bricks made of stamped straw and the wet clay-type soil. They were 53 whitewashed inside and out each year. The huge clay ovens were also handmade and large enough to hold many large loaves of bread. (They never ate their bread until the next day, as they felt the fresh yeast gases were unhealthy. If there was not enough old bread on hand, it was borrowed from a neighbor and the favor returned later.) The oven was a special memory of my mother's, as she slept on it in the winter, since it held the heat for a long time. In the summer a separate kitchen, called the summer kitchen, was used to keep the heat away from the house—as well as the flies. Besides the oven, these stoves also had a cooking surface in which iron pots could be set. Sometimes the oven was in the yard itself. Shutters were closed on the main house in the summer in order to keep it cool and clean. Grain was stored in the loft over the house. It was reached by a ladder from the storage room (or an outside window) that was located between the house part and the barn. My mother, indicating how strong she was, proudly spoke of picking up a grain sack over her shoulder and running up the ladder to the loft. She could also pick up a tub of wash water to empty it. These feats were to cost her dearly in later life, as she suffered many ailments related to overwork. She attended school only the three months in the winter before her father died and not at all afterwards. Although attaining only the first grade in Russia, she studied on her own in this country to learn to read and write and do arithmetic. Almost a hundred pupils attended the village school, which made it almost impossible to maintain order. The language used was Russian, which she did not understand before going to school. Her memory of school consisted of only the sentence in Russian, which the teacher used when switching the students. She recalled overhearing the Jewish children in their quarter being taught to bargain with customers. Their teacher said, "Gentile say so much, you say so much." The Jewish people were merchants, since they could not own land, and they lived separately in the villages. That is not to say that the German people did not bargain— they loved to—and my mother had the habit all her life when shopping. On Christmas Eve an old woman dressed in black and carrying a switch came to the door with a soldier. She poured candy and nuts on the floor, switching the children's hands as they grabbed for it so they would not get more than their share. It was supposedly a gift from the Czar. Weddings and baptisms were scheduled for the visiting minister's regular round, or they drove in wagons to Kloestitz to the nearest bishop. The minister was brought in a carriage, but all others went to church in an open wagon with seats put in one behind the other. The wagon was painted green. My aunt did remember being driven to Kloestitz for her second wedding in a Federwagen [wagon with springs). The driver sat in front, and there was a covered seat behind for the passengers. For the wedding feast, neighbors would bring their own benches or chairs and also add to the food. My mother immigrated to the United States in late 1898, arriving with her uncle's family in the town of Ritzville, Washington, where his cousin lived. On their arrival the cousin went to the cellar for a box of apples. He set them on the floor of the living room, and they quickly disappeared, as the group had had nothing to eat on the train from New York. They had traveled by train from Odessa, Russia, to the ship in Antwerp, Belgium. On the Antwerp dock one of the bundles her mother had given her for her dowry was stolen from under her as she sat on them to protect them. She did bring a huge feather pillow and one of the striped, coarse blankets children were carried in by the mother. They wound the blanket around the baby and themselves in such a way that their hands were free. I saw a picture of a mother and baby in such a blanket in a museum in Stuttgart, West Germany, in 1979. At last I realized what it was used for. Years in a cedar chest had dispelled the odor, but when a child, I was sure I could smell the urine with which the color had been set in the yarns. Soon after her arrival Christina went to work as a maid. The "strong" German girls just off the boats were in great demand as workers. Often they were kept only for housecleaning and then let go. As soon as she learned English and how to cook, she did better, and finally her cooking enabled her to pick and choose her places. She also had good fortune in some kind employers who helped her with her lessons, although it was not easy even then. I recall one story of her working for an elderly couple and being sent out to pick gooseberries, which have thorns. Later in the day the man came out to tell her to quit and get supper. She misunderstood the word "quit" and thought he had said "quick." She tried to work faster, but he only said again to quit. She tried desperately to hurry, her fingers by now bleeding from the thorns. Finally he came out and said his wife wanted her to quit and get supper. Then she understood! 54 This picture of Christina Tetz was taken between 1900 and 1911. In the beginning her uncle came each payday to collect her wages until he was paid back for her passage. He collected even once when she was in bed with pneumonia from having the soles out of her shoes in the winter. After that she lost track of this family, as she began to establish her own life and to enjoy it, as a young girl should. Years later I was to locate the uncle's family. His daughter told how kind her father was and how he had cared for her mother in her last illness. It seemed like they were speaking of two different people. His daughter spoke of how hard it was for him to keep food for his family and to establish his farm west of Ritzville. He was later to lose it and to move eventually to California. This, too, would account for the lack of contact. In time, Christina became wholly American, forgetting even a great deal of her German language. She learned to keep house and to cook American, to wash and iron all the fine clothes and lace of the family. On her own she purchased books and studied to become literate in her new home. She joined the Rebecca Lodge in Sprague, Washington, and had many good times when she got a few days off from work. She often spoke of the Crab Creek picnics, what good times they had on the community picnics, and how friendly the people were. Her lodge sisters also cared for her in two serious illnesses: one was diphtheria, and one was when she had a growth removed from her thigh. The wound had to be seared out each time it was dressed, thus keeping her from working for several months. In October 1904 she married Fred Neff of Sprague, Washington, and moved to a homestead north of Colville in timbered country, quite different from the wheat lands of Ritzville and west of Sprague that were so like her native Bessarabia. Her husband died in six months, leaving her to finish "proving up" alone. She lived on the homestead in winter, and summers she was back on her old job of cooking on the Lakin ranch west of Sprague. In those days the wheat farms needed many men to handle the large teams used to pull the plows and combines, etc. Harvest brought many more men. A cook wagon would then be moved to the fields to be close to the work. 55 The cook wagon used on the Lakin Ranch near Sprague, Washington. This picture was taken in 1909. Christina Tetz Neff is inside the wagon. My mother loved to cook and prided herself on the table spread for company or hired hands. Cooking alone for a harvest crew was a huge job. Her routine went thus: After breakfast and before the dishes were started, the bread would be set and pies made. Then dishes were washed, the mid-morning lunch made, which someone came in for. After that the vegetables were peeled for dinner, the bread was finished so it could be baked as soon as the pies came out of the oven. Ham might also have been baking, or chicken roasting from before breakfast, something she would have started at the crack of dawn. The men came to the cook wagon for dinner, then there was cleanup again and cakes to bake for supper and a mid-afternoon lunch, finally supper was fried potatoes left from dinner, cold cuts of leftover meat, pies, cakes, breads and rolls, even jelly she had made fresh from the peelings of the apples for her pies that morning. If she were lucky, she might have had time for a nap in mid-afternoon—but that was seldom. I remember this routine in our own family for the threshing crews, when Mother set up the great table in the big kitchen, and we kids could take the lunches out to the threshing crew—and wash dishes! On July 3, 1911, my mother married my father, Robert Gourlay, who had a farm near her homestead. There she lived the rest of her life. She had three children: my brother Samuel Thomas, my sister Blanche, and me. She and my father worked hard to raise us properly and most of all to give us a good education. He died in 1956, and Christina died in August 1965. She is buried in Colville, Washington. My great regret is that I did not take more note of my mother's stories of her homeland. It seemed so hard, that I did not want to think about it. It also seemed unreal until I grew much older. I was also busy with my own life. But with this I will have saved what I can. I can finally pay tribute to her great courage and endurance, not the least leaving all that she knew to journey irrevocably into the unknown. But especially do I want to preserve the memory of her love of life, something she never lost. She was always willing to join in fun and a new adventure, yet she retained the warm softness of a Mother. Yes, she had her faults—but so do I—or any of us. She was worthy of tribute, and I pay it gladly. 56 MEETING OUR RELATIVES IN BRAZIL Ann (Geier) Hen-man As Told to Lawrence A. Weigel For years I had a dream of meeting my relatives in faraway Brazil. My brothers, Anton (Tony) and Florian Geier, of Garden City, Kansas, shared this dream with me. In November of 1985 our wish became a reality, when my brothers and I traveled to southern Brazil and were able to become acquainted with our Uncle Pedro Bach and his family. For me and my brother Florian, it was a first meeting; for my brother Tony it was a reunion. Tony was born in Russia and left as an infant, while Florian and I were born in the United States. The story begins in a little village called Graf, Russia. It was located along the Karaman River about 50 versts or 30 miles east of the mighty Volga River on the so-called Wiesenseite. Graf was founded by German colonists who accepted the invitation of Catherine the Great to come to her land in search of a better life. The promises given by Catherine in her manifesto were very inviting. Among other things, they were promised travel costs, religious freedom, thirty years free from taxation, interest-free loans to get started, self-government, and freedom from military duty for an indefinite time. (Some interpreted it as forever.) Because the Seven Years' War had just ended, because poverty was rampant, and being tired and weary of war, the people were only too happy to accept Catherine's invitation. Even though there was much resistance from the various German principalities, the project became a success. From 1764 to 1767 approximately 8,000 families consisting of about 25,000 people gathered in Luebeck, Germany, on the Baltic and began the long trip to Russia. Russian sailing ships transported the colonists from Luebeck to Kronstadt on the Gulf of Finland, where the long trek across Russia then took them to the Volga River. My forefathers were among the group that came to Graf in the mid-1760s. The little village was founded June 10, 1766. In 1773 there were 178 inhabitants, and in 1912, 2002 people lived in the village.1 From the dialect spoken by the Graf people, researchers have concluded that they came from Southwest Germany, from the present-day province of Rheinland-Pfalz [Rhineland-Palatinate]. It is the same dialect that is spoken by the Herzog and Rohleder people. These villages are located very close to Graf along the Karaman River.2 My mother's ancestors, as far back as we know, lived in Graf along the Volga River. Her parents were Gottfried Bach and Elisabet Dreiling. Her fraternal grandparents were Peter Bach and Elisabeth Klucker. Our parents, Katherine Bach and Peter Geier, were born i-n Graf. Dad was born May 27, 1880, and Mother was born October 22, 1887. They were married in Graf, Russia, on October 10, 1906. My brother Anton (Tony) was born in Graf in 1907. In 1904 Japan went to war against Russia, and our dad was called to serve. Peace was made in 1905. In 1908 our parents decided to go with their son Tony to Canada where, it was believed, life would be better than in troubled Russia. When Mother said goodbye to her parents and loved ones, she hoped that they would meet again. But, unfortunately, this never happened. However, my brother Tony, even though he was only an infant when they left Russia, was to realize a reunion with some of our relatives many years later, in far-off Brazil. Our parents left Saratov, Russia, March 6, 1908, and arrived in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on April 2, 1908. They stayed a short while in Canada. In October of that year, they left for Hays, Kansas, in the U.S.A., where other Germans from the Volga Region lived. Later they moved to a farm north of Holcomb, Kansas, where they raised their ten children. At the time of their death, they lived in Garden City, Kansas. Conditions in Russia did not improve, and in 1912 our mother's family decided they, too, would seek a better life elsewhere. Our grandparents, Elisabet and Gottfried Bach, and other members of the family went to Brazil, where they settled near a remote mountainous town called Cerra Largo, in the province of Rio Grande do Sul. On January 31, 1929, Dad received a letter from Conrad Wagner, which said that 125 men and 3 women had been executed in Graf, Russia. Among them was Dad's brother Frank. Others were Joseph and Anton Bach, John Miller, and Gottfried Bollig. Even though Mother would never see her family again after the separation of 1908 in Russia, she did communicate with her family in Brazil by letters in German from her home in Kansas. After 57 Mother's death in 1964, we received no letters from the relatives. Tony wrote a letter in English telling of Mother's death, but no reply was received. Over the years we lost contact with our relatives in Brazil. Then in the summer of 1986, I met a woman in La Crosse, Kansas, where I live, who had been an exchange student in Brazil. Her name was Leslie (Mrs. Earl) Legleiter. She had learned to read and write Portuguese, and I asked her if she would be willing to write to my relatives. She agreed. Leslie then wrote four letters in Portuguese, two to her friends and two to my relatives at the old address I had. About six weeks later I received a letter from a grandson of my uncle, Pedro Bach. I was overcome with emotion when Leslie translated the letter for me. I had at long last heard from my relatives. When I told my family in Garden City, Kansas, they were overjoyed. More letters in both Portuguese and German were exchanged. Lawrence A. Weigel of Hays, Kansas, wrote the letters in German for me. In November of 1985, my brother Tony made a phone call to our relatives in Brazil and, after much difficulty, was able to locate and speak to our uncle Pedro Bach, the brother of our mother. Uncle did not have a phone, making the contact rather difficult. One can imagine the joy and the excitement for both my brother and for Uncle Pedro when they heard each other's voices. It didn't take long for me to decide to go to Brazil to visit and meet our relatives. My brothers Tony and Florian were just as enthusiastic as I was to go. When we wrote our relatives that we planned to come to visit them, they told us that we should not expect too much and that they were very poor. However, they said they would be delighted to have us come. They suggested we come in November, when the weather was more pleasant. On November 6, 1985, my husband Leonard and I left our farm home in La Crosse, Kansas, for the trip to Wichita. I met my brothers there, and we boarded a plane and flew via Memphis to Miami. As we boarded the plane bound for Rio de Janeiro, I felt a little apprehensive, not knowing what was in store for us. But I felt I was in good hands with my brothers as travel companions. Our parents used to say, when they began a trip, "In Gottes Namen, let's go on." And so, at last, we were headed for South America. When we landed in Rio, I realized we were far from home. But each hour brought us closer to our relatives. Excitement began to build up in our hearts. In Rio we boarded a plane for Porto Alegre, where we changed flights to Santo Angelo, the nearest airport to where our relatives lived. We were now only 50 miles from our destination. Our overnight stay here after the long trip was really enjoyable. We met some very wonderful people. A school teacher named Barbara, Stephan Bleye, and his wife joined us for dinner. For all the food and drink we had, the cost was about $15.00 in our money. The restaurant was operated by a Mr. and Mrs. Siede. They said they were Germans from Russia. They also mentioned names such as Yost, Braunz, Wuerfel, and Gruehn. We conversed in German, and these folks were very patient with us and our German dialect. On November 8,1985, Mr. Bleye took us in his station wagon to Uncle Pedro's farm located near Linka Atolosa (not far from Cerra Largo). We paid him $60.00. It was worth more than that, as it was 50 miles to travel one way. Mr. Bleye spoke German and also Portuguese. He said that his parents had come to Brazil in 1950. It was evident that the people in the area were poor. Already a few miles from Uncle's home, when we stopped a man driving a pair of oxen with a wagon to ask directions, we could sense what to expect. They had warned us that they were poor, but we were not prepared for what met our eyes. It was hard for me to describe the excitement, the fulfillment, and the anticipation as we got out of the car and were face-to-face with our relatives. It was obvious that they were thrilled and delighted to see us. More than one tear was shed on both sides as we embraced and kissed. Uncle Pedro is the brother of our mother, and for him to embrace his sister's children from North America was something he had never dreamed would happen. Our tears of joy were also mixed with tears of sadness at the poverty that was evident. When we arrived we were met by the most severe heat wave since 1916. The subtropical country was very humid. But we paid very little attention to all of this. All that mattered was that we had met our relatives at last. It turned out that they were a very loving and happy people in spite of their poverty. In no time at all, we felt at home, and they made every effort to make us as comfortable as possible. We soon learned that all the families have much love and respect for one another. There is so much reverence 58 for their elderly. Jose, Uncle's youngest son, and his wife Iria and two children live with Uncle and Aunt and will continue to do so until they die. Putting a parent into a nursing home is unheard of in the entire area. In fact, they asked if we had anyone living with us to help with the work and take care of us when we are old. They were surprised when we told them no. Of course, we then explained that in North America a different system of taking care of the elderly prevails. Uncle's home soon was filled with many people, both young and old. There were at least twenty-eight first cousins and their spouses and more than three hundred relatives for us to meet during our two-week stay. Their living conditions were sad. They had water piped to the home from a spring in their pasture and electricity, but they had no screens on the windows and doors; flies and bugs were everywhere. There was no bathroom or toilet in the house. The beds were comfortable, and Florian slept in a bed with a cornhusk mattress. Both of my brothers had chicken-feather quilts. Our relatives work hard for what they have, and they must be very frugal to survive. All the food they eat, they raise themselves. They seemed content and happy. Most of our relatives are farmers, and they scratch their living from the red soil. The fields are small, hilly, full of tree stumps and rocks, making it necessary to work the land with oxen. They do have a small tractor, but it can be used only in a few areas. Obviously, they depend very much on the weather and rain to survive. Uncle Pedro 's youngest son Jose with his team of oxen and wagon. The animal and tractor sheds can be seen in the background. Next to the wagon is Ann (Geier) Herrman. The small tractor is also used to go to church. It has a platform built on the three-point hitch where Uncle Pedro and Aunt Catherine sit. The church is simple, but adequate. They have simple benches. The women sit on the left side and the men on the right. They had a modern mass in Portuguese and sang some German songs. They also sang a Portuguese song with the melody of "Onward, Christian Soldiers." The food they served us was very good. For breakfast, we had kuchen, Schmierkaese [soft cheese], thick cream, cane syrup with fruit mixed in it, hot milk and coffee. Generally, the food served for dinner and supper was basically the same. We had soup made from the bones of fried-down meat that was put down in lard. It was very delicious. Other dishes included fried-down beef or pork, black beans, rice, and manioc [cassava]. Manioc is one of the most staple and useful plants they raise. It looks like sweet potatoes but tastes like stringy potatoes. They eat it and make flour and starch out of it. The larger portion of the plant is cooked and mixed with other grains to feed the hogs. The bushes or tops of the plant are fed to the cattle and horses. The stems are saved and cut into 9- to 10- inch lengths in order to plant again. They also served noodles, potatoes, rice, hot coffee, and hot milk. While we were guests, they served Coca Cola, beer, and something that tasted like 7-Up. 59 Included in the crops they raise are corn, wheat, soybeans, sugar cane, rice, alfalfa, and black beans. In addition, they grow their own cucumbers, melons, and potatoes. They have fruit trees and raise plums, peaches, pears, lemons, and oranges. Bananas and pineapple grow wild. Some of the products they sell are soybeans, wheat, and some milk. They buy their rice and white flour and hope they can sell enough products to pay for these and the electric bill. Their livestock consists of cows, chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, oxen, horses, and guinea fowl. In Kansas in the early days, our forefathers had a stove or oven called a lehma Ova [adobe oven] located in the house, which was used for baking and heating. Here in Brazil we found a similar oven or stove, only it was located outside. It was made of brick. Iria fired the oven with wood, and, when it was burned down, she removed all the ashes and saved them to spread in the fields. She then threw in a dry cornhusk to test the temperature. When it burned she waited a short while and threw in another; it burned, but more slowly. Then she threw in a third, and it curled. The fourth one she threw in lay flat and was toasty brown. Now the oven was ready for baking. About an hour later we had eleven delicious loaves of wonderful bread. For us, one of the most interesting events took place daily at rising in the morning and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. It was "mate time," and we were treated to mate tea and kuchen. Mate appears to be a national drink in Brazil. The tea is made from the yerba plant, which they grow themselves, and is a social drink. The plant looks like holly. A brown container made out of a gourd is called a goya. The straw (die Pfeif) is actually a bambilla and is about 8 inches long with a strainer on the lower end to keep the tea leaves from getting into the person's mouth. It appears to be made of chrome or stainless steel, with a brass or gold tip, and is ornamented with ruby- colored stones at the point where it is gripped. The tea tasted like green tea from China. It is placed into the goya, and hot water is added. They all drink through the strainer/pipe as the cup is passed around from person to person. Uncle Pedro and Aunt Anna are getting ready to drink mate tea. The goya is passed around, and everyone drinks from the strainer/pipe. The tea is green tea, which they raise. Iria cleaned the house with a scrub mop made of a bamboo pole inserted into a piece of wood with a hole in the center. A piece of gunny sack was wrapped around the end. She scrubbed the floors every day. Washing clothes was done by hand. Iria had a concrete, sectioned tub in the wash house. She used a plain board to wash the clothes with a brush, lye soap in the water, and lots of rubbing. She then soaked the wash in the largest section of the tub until all pieces were scrubbed. Then she continued to wash the pieces and rinse them, and when she was finished, she had beautiful, clean, white clothes. This is a far cry from the electric washers and dryers we have in North America. Before we left we bought Iria an old-fashioned washboard, which she appreciated very much. 60 Josefs wife Iria is shown here washing clothes on a board in the wash house. Note the handmade soap on the concrete tub. To shower, they use a 5-gallon can with a water spout under it. They place warm water in the can, hoist it up, and shower. The natural spring water was very good to drink and was soft. We noted that the small children speak German. When we asked about this, Uncle said that German comes first and Portuguese will come later. The children have to go to school until they are twelve years old or out of the fifth grade. The upper grades go to school in the morning, the lower grades in the afternoon; the older children are needed in the fields in the afternoon. It is hard for the children, because they speak German at home and Portuguese in school. One of the highlights for them was the tape recorder and tapes I had brought for them to enjoy. Friends and relatives gathered to listen. Because it was too hot in the house, I played one of the polka tapes, and we danced outside. They had a great time. Iria later wrote that one of the tapes with songs sung by the Ellis County German Choir was played in their church at the mass on New Year's Day, and the people were pleased and happy to hear the German songs from Ellis County, Kansas. It was apparent to us that they show much respect and reverence to their dead. We were edified at the beauty of the cemeteries we visited. The graves are adorned with beautiful grave markers. They are made of poured concrete, ornamented with crosses, little statues, and flowers, and otherwise beautifully decorated. Fresh and artificial flowers are evident throughout the cemetery. Ann Herrman and her brother, Florian Geier, stand at the graves of their grandparents, Gottfried and Elisabet Bach. This cemetery is in Linka Atolosa. 61 Some of the names we found on grave markers in the area cemeteries were as follows: Bach, Weyh, Eckert, Frank, Schastaina, Moneiser, Rohden, Hudges, Zott, Lenhart, Lunges, Spies, Sausen, Sauer, Hartman, Schitz, Haab, Roos, Miller, Vogt, Schastean, Bard, Welter, Bonnet, Menzel, Schiefelbein, Ausumann, Knob, Hanasuer [Hansauer?], Klein, Rohleder, and others. Names of relatives we met and names of spouses of first cousins were: Yunges, Schito, Stein, Renner, Schmitz, Rupp, Herrman, Wessner, Vesner, Hack, Dill, Thomas, Erig, Welter, Hansel, Katem, Spies, Bach. Frank, Schitz, Rohleder, and Schtaldeker. We could see that our people were happy and content as long as they had enough to eat. In spite of their lack of material things in life, they did not complain. They have enough to eat only as long as it rains and their crops produce, because they are more or less self-sustaining. Being together with them and sharing hugs, kisses, and love made the whole trip worthwhile. On January 1,1986, Lawrence Weigel of Hays, Kansas, received a letter from Jose and Iria in which they wrote: "We cannot thank Anna, Florian, and Anfcon enough for all they did for us. They were always so happy; we never thought we had such good relatives in North America." In a letter to me after our return, Iria wrote in German: "When I wash, I think of you; when I pray, I think of you; when I eat, I think of you; when I drink, I think of you; when I visit, I think of you. In that way, I will never forget you." What more could they have said? The letter to Lawrence concluded on a sad note. Iria wrote: "Here with us, it is so dry, that many people have no water. It rained only a very little one time in the last three months. Our plantings are all dead, and it is very hot. If it continues, then there will be a famine in Brazil." It was a beautiful summer day as we climbed into our cousin Darcisia's car (wife of Rogue Thomas). We now began the trip to Santo Angelo, where we boarded our plane for our trip home. Our visit had been very special. As we said goodbye, thoughts of 1908 came to mind, when Mother said farewell to her family in Russia and never saw them again. Somehow we, too, felt that this was the last time we would see our relatives. But the memories of these happy, loving, wonderful people— unser Lait— will remain in our hearts and minds for as long as we live. Brazilian relatives of Ann Herrman, Tony Geier, and Florian Geier attending a farewell gathering held in Santo Christo, Brazil, at the home of their cousin, Barbara Wessner Schmitz. Notes 1. Joseph Schnurr, ed., Die Kirchen und das religioese Leben der Russlanddeutschen (Stuttgart: Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, 1972). 2. Dr. Thomas Kopp in Wolgadeutsche Siedeln im argentinischen Zwischenstromland (Marburg: N.O. Elwert Verlag, 1979) says that the Graf dialect indicates as origin in Germany "das linksrheinische Gebiet des rheinfraenkischen Raumes " ["the area on the left side of the Rhine River of Rhenish Franconia"]. The noted Volga-German scholar, Georg Dinges, gives the same area on the [linguistic] map published by AHSGR [number 30]. In the present-day political subdivision of Germany, the area is referred to as the Rheinland-Pfalz [Rhineland-Palatinate]. Professor William Keel of Kansas University, Lawrence, Kansas, reaches the same conclusion from the research he has done. 62 Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia Vol. 9, No. 2 Summer 1986 On the cover: Katherine Elizabeth Weimer Bischoff holding her granddaughter Katie Bishoff Raymond. Seated by Katherine is her youngest child Fred. Standing are Amalia (Mollie) Bischoff Hansen (with the hat on), Maria (Mary) Bischoff Holstien, and David Bischoff. Katie is Henry and Lisbet Bishoff s daughter. These people are featured in the article, "The John Henry Bischoff Family History," which appears in this issue of the Journal Published by American Historical Society of Germans From Russia 631 D Street • Lincoln, Nebraska 68502-1199 • Phone 402-474-3363 Edited by: Ruth M. Amen, Jo Ann Kuhr, Mary Lynn Tuck © Copyright 1986 by the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. All rights reserved.