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 SMer^ CTg'brauevei u. &imonabenfat)Yif Hermann JIeufefft m $oiwoM ^Ibt, i ra/ibfiiuTaATi* (TaBpMi. ry<?.), ©tfen^njt ^tifdjib, St. ^ ©. 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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.