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Swiss Mennonite Cultural and Historical Association |
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Political, religious, and socio-economic turmoil was certainly not alien to Kansas
in the 1860’s, and at first glance one would wonder why Russian-Germans in search
of peace and quiet and a stable economy would move to an area notorious for its
lack of law and order and infested with grasshoppers. In general terms the reason
can be found in the achievements of that decade. America and Russia were both witnessing
rapid population increases, but in the United States land was available and economic
progress was remarkable. Kansas changed in the 1860’s not only through the establishment
of new frontier homesteads, but especially by the development of urban market centers
and, in connection with this, the phenomenal advance of railroad construction across
the state.
Acts of congress set aside eight and a half million acres of Kansas prairie to promoters
on condition that railroads be built through the territory. The successful accomplishment
of this task by 1872 gave the two giants, the Kansas Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka,
and Santa Fe the right to claim seven million acres in alternate sections 20 miles
on both sided of their rights of way. The railroads had not only acquired good agricultural
land, but had also contributed to no small degree to the creation of a more civilized
urban environment. The change that occurred in the unruly frontier cowtowns was
quiet remarkable. For example, one of the wildest of them all, Newton, was quickly
tamed by the combined forces of the Santa Fe, the Newton Kansan (beginning publication
in 1872), and the Temperance League; a local reporter boasted of the progress achieved
by August, 1873, just before a small delegation of Russian-German Mennonites toured
the area under the guidance and care of railroad agents. [17] Besides acres and
acres of prairie grass, the visitors must have been impressed by the commercial
bustle of the towns, the pace of new construction, and the efficiency and determination
of both workers and officials.
But why did Russian-Germans choose Kansas over other possibilities? To answer that,
perhaps other questions are relevant: what brought C. b. Schmidt and Noble Prentis
to Kansas, and what inspired Boston capitalists to stick with a nearly bankrupt
venture and pull the Santa Fe out of the 1873 depression?
Kansas was already well advertised by this time, though, of course, not all of the
publicity was of a favorable kind. The establishment of the Kansas Immigration Society
in 1871, the collection and publication of information by the State Board of Agriculture,
and the promotional activities of local newspapers, in particular by the Topeka
Commonwealth, did much to extend and improve the image of the state as a suitable
home for immigrants and a profitable place for railroads. [18]
With this encouragement the railroads, particularly the Santa Fe, began a gigantic
advertising campaign to sell their recently earned land. They were motivated in
the first instance by the need to meet payrolls and pay interest on massive floating
debits, thereby avoiding collapse. Boston bakers, Joseph and Thomas Nickerson, in
association with Kidder, Peabody and Company, manipulated the debts of the Santa
Fe through the squeeze of 1873, while in Topeka, at 6th and Kansas, A. E. Touzalin
directed the activities of the rapidly expanding passenger and land departments.
[19] In the latter, at the beginning of 1873, Touzalin set up an immigration office,
headed by Carl Bernhard Schmidt, a native of Saxony who arrived in Kansas in 1868
and, prior to his joining the Santa Fe, operated a grocery in Lawrence. [20] Schmidt
soon established communications with German ethnic groups in the country, and, through
Mennonite colonies in other states, learned of the desire of Russian-Germans to
emigrate. An American Mennonite leader, Christina Krehbiel, was particularly instrumental
in guiding the reconnaissance mission from Russia to Kansas in the summer of 1873.
This delegation, which included Jacob Buller and Leonhard Sudermann, looked at land
in several Midwestern states, but after their tour of the Santa Fe territory in
the Arkansas valley, Schmidt committed them to a preliminary purchase agreement
at the end of October. [21]
Railroad land sales went hand in hand with other efforts to sell the state of Kansas.
Noble Prentis arrived in Topeka in 1869 to begin a long and distinguished journalistic
career. He became well known throughout the region for his feature articles and
editorial craftsmanship. It was either Prentis or someone inspired by his example
who first brought an awareness of the Russian-German Mennonites to the people of
Kansas. The following is an excerpt from the Topeka Blade of November 10, 1873,
very much in the Prentis style:
The Mennonites are a class of citizens that will become more readily Americanized
than many of our best classes of foreign citizens. They are liberal in sentiment,
frugal and industrious in habits, peaceful from their principle, and can readily
be brought to understand and adopt our American manners and customs. We may regard
them as one of our very best classes of citizens. Added to this, though this is
emphatically the home of the poor man, where all can get homes at a nominal cost,
and by frugality, industry and perseverance, almost arrive at a competence; yet
it is no disparagement to this class of citizens, nor to our young and growing State,
that these settlers are nearly all well off in this world’s goods. Few of them have
less than $2,000 or $3,000, while many are reported to be worth $10,000, $20,000
and even more. They will make the beautiful valley of the Arkansas blossom as the
rose. [22]
The writer assumes that Russian-Germans are coming to Kansas, that they will be
good for the state, and that they have money, the beginning of an emphasis on the
wealth of the Russian-Germans that persisted in the press through the 1870’s. What
began in 1873 was a two-sided publicity campaign, selling Kansas to the Russian-Germans
and the Russian-Germans to Kansas.
This kind of exposure of the Russian-Germans prior to their arrival, no doubt assisted
by more private and direct pressures from the Santa Fe, contributed to the passage
by the Kansas legislature in March, 1874, of an act amending the militia law exempting
those who objected on religious grounds from military service upon signing of a
simple declaration in the county clerk’s office. [23] Soon afterwards David Goertz,
a Russian-German Mennonite temporarily residing in Summerfield, Ill., published
a pamphlet in German describing the Arkansas valley and including the texts of the
new Kansas military exemption provision and the preliminary sale terms. [24] Most
likely the emigrants did not receive any copies prior to departure from Russia,
but they probably obtained them along the route before their arrival in Kansas.
During the winter and spring of 1874 the findings of the Mennonite delegation to the United States circulated through South Russia. The Krimmer Mennonite Brethren, the Alexanderwohl church, and other groups of Swiss-Volynian Mennonites living in Russian Poland prepared to leave for America. They were able to sell their farms, with crops in the field, at good prices to other Mennonites, and the sale of meeting houses, shares of mutual insurance funds, and other community property provided additional sources of funds. Packing personal belongings in trunks, baskets, sacks, etc., they made their way be caravans to the nearest railroad connection and from there by train to Odessa, the transfer point for the trip across Europe to Hamburg, and from there they sailed by ship to New York. Arrangements for the mass transit were made by railway and shipping agents in Odessa and Hamburg.
The first group of around 800, composed mostly of the Krimmer Brethren but including
some Swiss-Voynian Mennonites, departed home in June and arrived in New York in
late July, a journey of about five weeks by cart, train, and ship, which cost each
family around 250 rubles ($200). [25] Staying in New York only long enough to change
rubles for dollars, most of the Russian-German Mennonites stopped along the route
with American Mennonites in Indiana and Illinois. Only 200 were at first expected
to settle in Kansas. A few families arrived in Marion county in the second week
of August and settled in the vicinity of Hillsboro, while another group of 240 traveled
directly to Peabody. [26] Then the main party, led by Jacob Wiebe, arrived in Topeka
on September 8, where they spent one night encamped at the King bridge shops before
resuming their journey to Marion county to found the town of Gnadenau. [27]
A larger party of 1,100, mostly from Alexanderwohl in the Molochna colony, landed
in New York in August on the Teutonia and stopped at Summerfield, Ill., before journeying
farther west. They at first intended to settle in Nebraska, where they were offered
lands by the Burlington railroad, but reports from those who had already arrived
in Kansas, some unfavorable aspects of the Nebraska location, the salesmanship of
C. B. Schmidt, and perhaps the Goertz pamphlet persuaded the Alexanderwohl community
to come to Kansas. [28] Arriving in Topeka on September 23, they were joined two
days later by another shipload of 800. Not having made any advance arrangement for
the purchase of farmland in Kansas, this party stayed in Topeka for a longer period,
housed at the King bridge shops, while leaders inspected the terrain and bargained
with the Santa Fe. [29] Several more smaller groups passed through the Kansas capitol
in November and December, raising the total in the state at the end of the year
to around 3,000, perhaps as many as 4,000. According to the Commonwealth, 6,356
Russian-Germans arrived in North America in 1874: 2,980 to Kansas, 1,000 to Dakota,
750 to Eastern states, 400 to Nebraska, 75 to Minnesota, and the remainder to Canada,
but these figures probably did not include 600 who passed through Topeka on New
Year’s Eve. [30]
If the number of Mennonites immigrating in 1874 greatly exceeded local expectations,
that of 1875 fell far below an optimistic projection of 6,000, [31] as departure
from Russia became complicated by drought conditions. In addition, the imperial
government’s decision to allow alternative service late in 1874 may have arrested
the desire of many to leave. The departure of 15 percent of the Russian-German population
of South Russia would have alleviated some of the population pressure, and there
was a natural tendency to wait and hear how things were going in the United States.
In fact, letters extolling the benefits of the new land did contribute to continued
migration in later years. The disruption of communications in South Russia by the
Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), the difficulty of selling land to those remaining,
the decline of the ruble, and increased restrictions by the Russian government also
slowed emigration. The Santa Fe immigration chief claimed that by May, 1877, 8,000
"Mennonite and other Russian-Germans," had settled on Santa Fe land in Kansas, purchasing
a total of 88,000 acres, but he also noted that additional Russian-German colonists
were more likely to come from the Volga region. [32]
By the time the first large groups of Mennonites arrived in Kansas, representatives
of the Volga Germans were inspecting lands in the United States. After meetings
in Herzog and nearby villages in the spring of 1874, a delegation was sent to survey
settlement possibilities. Perhaps instinctively, these Russian-Germans concentrated
their search farther north in Canada and the Dakotas, but some took soil samples
from western Kansas and Russell county. [33]
The trek of the Volga Germans was generally more difficult than that of the Mennonites,
because they did not move in established church communities. In the case of the
Roman Catholics, for example, parish churches were left behind in Russia and new
ones had been established under a local diocese in this country. On the whole they
were not able to command as many resources since land holdings around the Volga
were smaller and values lower than in South Russia. This is probably the reason
why the majority waited until after the harvest of 1875 could be sold before departing
Russia, but the delay added extra hardships of traveling and finding new homes in
winter. Another problem was the slower and more awkward transport from the Volga
region and the Volga Germans did not have the opportunity to secure free lodging
en route as did the Mennonites. But like their Russian-German predecessors in Kansas,
the Volga Germans did tend to come from particular towns and villagesHerzog, Katherinenstadt,
Liebenthal, Pfeifer, Schoenchen, Obermunzorand found towns of the same or similar
names.
The first contingents of Volga Germans left Katherinenstadt in October 1875, and,
traveling via Bremen and Baltimore, arrived in Topeka on November 28. While the
families lived in temporary quarters in North Topeka, the leaders searched for suitable
lands to purchase. They first went with C. B. Schmidt to inspect Santa Fe territory
around Great Bend but considered the price ($5 an acre) too high. Then with the
assistance of Adam Roedelheimer and Martin Allen they were attracted to lands of
the Kansas Pacific in Ellis county. [34] Even there, however, many depended on homesteading
rather than purchasing from the railroad. [35] Settlement began in February 1876,
with the arrival in Hays and Victoria of the first families. [36] Other groups followed
the path of the first, arriving at intervals during the spring and summer, especially
in August. By the end of the year about 1,200 Roman Catholic Volga Germans had located
in Ellis and Rush counties, and another group of Lutherans had settled along Landon
creek in Russell county. [37]
After 1877 it is more difficult to distinguish large immigrant parties of Russian-Germans,
either from South Russia or the Volga region. They were no longer as newsworthy,
and, in fact, the paths to the new frontier were both numerous and well charted,
once the Russian border was passed. By this time, too, many were branching away
from the first areas of concentration and finding homes in a large number of counties
of central and western Kansas. The total number of Russian-German immigrants to
Kansas in the 1870’s can be estimated at about 12,000. [38]
End of Part II of IV
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