My Visit with the Sisters of St. Agnes

I just returned from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin where I visited the Sisters of St. Agnes, who ran the school in Catherine, Kansas starting in 1899.  I interviewed eight sisters.  Some of them were originally from Catherine  and a few just worked in the school (1st-8th grade) between 1946-1951.  While I still need to conduct a few more interviews and compare it with my primary and secondary source research, there are  few conclusions that are important:

1. Why the women joined the Sisters of St. Agnes from Catherine?:  There are a few answers to this question.  First, the women felt a legitimate call from God to join the order.  Second, most of them wanted to be teachers or nurses, which was the primary goal of the order.  Third, joining the sisters offered upward mobility for those who joined.  Almost all of them attended high school and received either college or graduate degree.  In the secular world, during the late 1940s and early 1950s, that was much harder for women to do.

2. Overall, the sisters liked working in Catherine:  Out of the 3 sisters I interviewed who came to Catherine to work (between 1946-1951), only one felt see did not feel completely welcome in the community.  All the sisters I interviewed did not speak German, which was difficult when the whole town spoke that language, and did not interact much with the community due to rules by the order.  The sisters felt the young Catherine students liked learning, were engaging students, and the parents fostered an environment that supported education.

3. When the younger generation stopped speaking German?:  I'm still working on this question.  I think it really determines the shape of the community.  The sisters who arrived in 1946 indicate that the students spoke German and one sister who grew up in Catherine and professed to the order in 1955 claims she did not learn German (the latter sister would be 78).  This means that starting in the early 1950s, parents stopped teaching their children German and the children started to assimilate.  This was most likely an after affect of World War II.

The trip produced some great insights for this project and I want to thank all the sisters at Fond du Lac who helped with the project!

Recommended Reading

For this post, I decided to give a few books that talk about Volga-German immigration and Ellis County, Kansas.  I linked to them on Amazon and the Ellis County Historical Society in case you get the urge to buy them:

History of the Volga-Germans in Russia: From Catherine toKhruschev: The Story of Russia’s Germans by Adam Giesinger. 

This book gives you an inside account of the German migration to the Volga in 1764-1767, some of their immigration to the United States, and what happened to that group when Stalin came to power. 

Volga-German immigration to the United States and social customs: Conquering the Wind:An Epic Migration from the Rhine to the Volga to the Great Plains by Amy Brungardt -Toepfer and Agnes Dreiling. (scroll down on the website to find it!)

This book is very famous in Kansas.  It recounts the the journey of these immigrants to Kansas and talks about some of their social customs and how they adapted to life on the great plains.

Ellis County Life: In UnsereLeute; The Volga Germans of West Central Kansas: Aspects of Their History,Politics, Culture and Language.  Edited by William D. Keel et al. (scroll down on the website to find it!)

This book is a collection of essays that by local authors in Kansas who discuss various topics on Volga-German life in Ellis County including: folk medicine, settlement patters, religious services, etc.  It was produced by the Max Kade Institute for German American Studies at the University of Kansas, which does excellent work in this field. 

Those are some of my picks.  These books are very easy to understand, short, and give you a taste of Volga-German life. 

Steel Crosses: A Modern Invention

When I initially proposed this project, I had the title: "Field of Iron Crosses: A Social History of Volga-German Immigrants, 1876-1900."[1]  I had always seen these crosses as part of the social fabric of Volga-German communities in Ellis County, Kansas.  In most cemeteries, especially Catherine, many of the older graves are marked with these distinctive designs.  I always thought this was a major tradition brought over from Russia. 

That turns out not to be the case.  The steel crosses first appeared in Catherine in 1902 when local blacksmith, Jacob J. Schmidt, wanted to design a special grave to memorialize his mother who passed away in 1885.[2]  Schmidt saw one of these crosses in a Salina cemetery and decided to recreate it.  The first cross took three days to make and most of the steel was imported from Philadelphia.  Eventually, Schmidt started making more of them for others in the town and it became an landmark ensignia for Volga-German communities in Ellis County.

One job of a historian is to put all the facts on the table.  Sometimes those facts do not align with popular memory.  The tradition of these steel crosses has sentimental value to the citizens of Catherine, and I never want to take that away from them.  However, making sure that there is a separation between popular rememberance and the historical record is one that a historian should take seriously. 

Notes:

[1] I will use the term "steel cross" because "iron cross" has an association with Nazi Germany.  I have seen both terms used in the literature. 

[2] Samuel J. Sackett, “Steel Crosses in Volga-German Catholic Cemeteries in Ellis, Rush, and Russell Counties, Kansas," in American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (1975).

Ask Me About My Research, Part II!

Questions:

How long did it take them to get to the U.S.?

How long did it take these immigrants to get citizenship?

Have a question you want answered about Volga-Germans?  Leave it in the comments section!

Ask me Anything!

I'm going to do another edition of "Ask Me About My Research This Weekend!"  I need questions.  Submit them in the comments section, I'll tell you the answer!  Look forward to some good questions!

Happy 4th of July

Today, we celebrate our nation's independence.  We also remember those who built this nation.  I have mixed feelings about the "American exceptionalism" narrative, mainly because it obscures historical facts and there are certainly parts of our history that are not as exceptional.  What I want people who read this blog to think about during your fireworks displays and backyard barbecues is that imperfection and continuity of change that makes Volga-German immigration history so fascinating.  

These men and women left Russia in 1875, after already having a history of migrating to the Volga a century earlier, to come to the United States in search of better farm land, religious freedom, avoiding service in the Russian army, and a chance to make a living.  They gave up their belongings in Russia and left behind family members for an experiment.  It was not predestined that living on Kansas plains would work, nor did they even have settlement picked out.  They could just have easily left after experiencing a few years of drought and economic hardships.  Building these settlements was slow and painstaking.  They also knew their lives would basically be the same as it was in Russia; they continued to be farmers.  It was that risk all these settlers took that I admire most.  U.S. immigration history rests on this principle and many groups did not succeed in living the "American dream."  For those that did make it through hardship, remembering their sacrifice is the very important today.  

The Village Breakup

History Professor at Delta College, Jeremy Kilar writes this about the break-up of Volga-German communities, and rural German communities, in Michigan:

Rural Germans, like those from Russia and others who lived in small towns remained isolated in closed communities until World War I.

In most studies, of rural town disintegration, this is as far as it goes.  Usually, the scholar just speculates when the town broke up and why.  For cities, it is easy to detect individual immigrant neighborhoods breaking up because of assimilation due to jobs, anti-immigrant sentiment, or even upward mobility causing a particular group to move to the suburbs.

What this project hopes to uncover, by studying the specific town of Catharine, is to better understand why these Volga-German communities start to break-up as ethnic communities.  This will hapen through census numbers and oral interviews with older generations finding out why they moved away or stayed in Catharine. 

I've been reviewing the census data for the last few days and noticeably, there is a huge drop in population in Catharine.  The population in 1940 is 775 people.  Then, it drops to 537 by 1950, and to 381 by 1960.  In the span of twenty years, Catharine loses 400 people.  Unfortunately, the statistics only provide numbers and not reasons.  My job now is find out why that drop occurred.  I have inital hunches: World War II ended and the GI bill gave veterans an opportunity to build a life elsewhere, spikes in religious vocations, and farms lost profit.  We will see if I'm right soon enough.

Voices From Early Catharine: Dorothea (Karlin) Beilman

Yesterday, I wrote about the role of women in Volga-German society.  I briefly mentioned one realm that women dominated was folk medicine and midwifing.  The town of Catharine, like most towns in Ellis County, had a local midwife and folk healer.  Her name was Dorothea Karlin Beilman.

Dorothea was born in Katharinenstadt, Russia in 1827 [1].  She was 51 when she immigrated to the United States in 1878, settling in Catharine with her family.  She came to the United States as a widow. Very little is known about her life.  Beilman was known for her services as an herbalist, a bone-setter, and delivered children.  As an herbalist, she helped cure "chest colds, coughts, and fevers."[1]  Being a midwife required that she not only deliver the child, but stay in the house for 9 days to cook, clean, and monitor the newborn's general health.  Being an older woman also provided the "required experience" that new mothers sought in a midwife.

Her specialty was bone-setting.  A bone-setter gently massaged broken bones until it was put back into place.  One reoccuring story in local histories is of a farmer named Jacob Staab, who got his leg caught in the cog of a large wheel and broke it.  Staab could not afford to see a doctor and did not want to apputate his leg.  He consulted Beilman, who did not charge for her services.[1]  Beilman healed Staab's leg after a session.  Beilman was also known for fixing the bones of "deformed children."[2]  She eventually passed on her knowledge of folk medicine to her son-in-law, Jacob Schuetz who continued the practice.  Beilman died in 1915.[1]

Beyond local histories, no primary sources exist to examine this interesting or these medical practices.  All of her charms and herbs were done by memory and what is known comes from oral interviews by those who knew her.  This type of folk medicine was not loved by the Capuchin hierarchy, but it was known by the townspeople that she existed and people engaged her services.  Beilman is an example of developing a feminine identity in Volga-German life by keeping alive these old folk remedies, she perserved a rich cultural tradition. 

Notes:

[1] History Book Committee of the Ellis County Historical Society, At Home in Ellis County, Kansas, 1867-1992, Vols. 1 and 2 (Dallas, Texas: Taylor Publishing Company, 1991), 230.

[2] Timothy J. Kloberdanz, “The Daughters of Shipharah: Folk Healers and Midwives of the Great Plains,” Great Plains Quarterly (Winter 1989).

Volga-German Feminine Identity



Immigration Scholar Linda Pickle offers this point about the Volga-German womens' role in private and public life:

In their everyday activities of cooking and keeping house, women communicated to their families that they were members of a distinct ethnic group with an individual history.

This is not to downplay sexism in the that existed in Volga-German society, although to just criticize it as mysognistic behavior underscores a valuable point.  Volga-German housewives and single women saw themselves as the keepers of culture and, as Pickle notes, their everyday activities reflected that. 

Consider as well that women were often the ones who were folk healers and midwives, most of these practices were done by memory; taught their children prayers; prepared the household for holidays and milestone special occassions, such as weddings.  They also had large families to keep the lineage of the family going, ensuring its survival.  For these women, their home and sexual activities, even if all was in a private sphere, kept the culture alive. 

St. Catherine Church in Pictures

I've been working on writing the first draft for the first section of my paper, so my time to blog has been limited.  Here are some beautiful pictures of St. Catherine Church in Catherine, Kansas.  The Church was constructed in 1892.

Front entrance to the church.

 Statue of the Virgin Mary and St. Francis to the side.  Notice the amount of detail put into these statues.

 The cross below is the original procession cross used by the settlers starting in 1878 before the church was constructed.  They processed up to 8 miles from village to village during certain holy days and held services outside with it.

 From the choir loft of the church.

Ask Me About My Research!

Questions Asked:

1. Where is the largest population of this "people group" now located?

2. Who were "Catherine" and "Victoria" named after?

More Resources: 

Map of U.S. Volga German Settlements

History of various Volga-German localities

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

In order to get a sense of what these Volga-German communities are like, it is only appropriate to compare them with other German communities.  Two cities that interest me are New York's Kleindeutschland District in the lower east side of Manhattan and the Girard Avenue District of Philadelphia.  Both of these cities have large clusters of immigrant, specially German, families living in communities about the size of Catherine.

The chart above is from Stanley Nadel's book Little Germany, which discusses the Kleindeutschland District of Manhattan.  The chart breaks down which German state each immigrant is from, the year of the sample (going from 1860-1880), and which ward of that district they live in.  Notice how while each ward has some group of German immigrants, most them cluster together in one particular ward and make that block their home. For instance, many Austrians live in the 10th and 11th wards and Bavarians live in the 17th and 11th wards.  It shows that thes immigrants like being among their own ethnic group and stay together in one area.  They don't act that much different from the Volga-Germans who, despite living in a rural area, also stay together in one group.  It illustrates that group dynamics really do not change from immigrant group to immigrant group.

Governace of Early Catherine

One major restriction to this project is that early town records do not exist anymore.  Without records like that, it is very hard to get a picture of what political issues plagued the early settlers.  What we do have are deed records and secondary written accounts.  From those sources, we can get a small glimpse into how Catherine was governed.

Catherine did not have an a democratically elected city council.  The men of the town set up a corporation.   This corporation divided the land and settled any land disagreements amongst the settlers.  Here are the basics of how the land was divided, sorry if this gets into the weeds too much.  Catherine includes 640 acres of land which was purchased for $4,635.48.  50 acres was appropriated for the village and each family received 6-38 acres of land with 5 acres for pasture.  Furthermore, each family received 88 by 140 feet of land to build a house. 

The original name for the corporation was called the Catherine Land Company, although it was not officially charted by the state.  In April 12, 1893, the St. Catherine Town and Grazing Company became the official charted name of the company, since the state of Kansas forced them to charter.  The charter lasted for 50 years, even though the corporation did not last that long.  The corporation had a governing structure with a president, secretary, and a treasurer.  There were five directors of the board that elected these individuals.  Certain rules were set by the corporation on how to use the land, such as no chopping wood by the creek banks and renting or selling of the land had to be approved by a two-thirds majority of the corporation. 

What can we get out of this structure?  First, the system was semi-democratic, but was more representative than direct.  Second, setting up this corporation meant the settlers were most interested in farming regulations rather than setting up general town rules.  Finally, the town was very mathematically proportioned and divided pretty fairly amongst the different families.  They also thought ahead by setting enough spaces for pasture, a cemetary, and a church, despite those structures being built later.

More information on this subject (instead of notes) since this information is pretty scattered:

[1] Albert Jepmond, German-Russian Catholic Colonization in Western, Kansas: A Settlement Geography (n.p.: Louisana State University, 1970), pageNr.
[2] Francis Laing, German-Russian Settlers in Ellis County, Kansas (Topeka, Kansas: Kansas State Historical Society, 1910), 489-528.
[3] Mary Eloise Johannes, A Study of the Russian-German Settlemtns in Ellis County, Kansas (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America, 1946), pageNr.
[4] Ellis County Deeds Office

Voices from Early Catherine: Athanasius Karlin



If there was a person from Catherine that had the most information about him to write a history of Catherine, Athanasius Karlin would be it.  He is one of three settlers to publish some type of diary on his life.[1]  The other two men to do this are Jacob Schmidt and August Walter.  Karlin's diary is the most detailed of the three.  It was most likely written when he was older, since he talks about looking back on his life instead of in day-by-day accounts.  The part I plan to talk about here highlights the the immigration from Russia to the United States.  This the most detailed and revealing section of the diary. 

Athanasius Karlin was born on May 1, 1850 in Katherinstadt, Russia to Friedrich and Maria Karlin.  Athanasius came from a family of twelve siblings, seven brothers and five sisters.  The family tradition was farming.  According to Karlin's diary, his family had to relocate their farm house at one point because the river near their farm house flooded.  At one point, the Karlin family rented out a 203 acre space for families to live for extra cash.  The Karlin family was Catholic and the village had three major churches, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, and Russian Orthodox. 

The Karlin family was one of the first wave of immigrants to leave from Katherinstadt.  The family left Katherinstadt on October 7, 1875 getting on a boat to Saratov.  Before leaving, the family had to sell much of their livestock (15 horses and 5 cows) and much of their farm equipment in order to get enough money to make the trip.  As the family left, schoolmaster Jacob Schmidt led the departing group in this perfectly appropriate Psalm: "God is our refuge and strength, a helper in great needs which have befallen us."

On October 23, the Karlins took a train from Orsel to Berlin and then bought tickets from Berlin to Baltimore after arriving on October 27.  On November 2, 1875, the family left from Berlin to Baltimore.  A land agent by the name of C.B. Schmitt met the group in Baltimore to take them over to Topeka, where they arrived by November 28.  Athanasius described the train ride as a rather uncomfortable experience, 500 immigrants where crammed together in small cars and bread was rationed for food at short stops. 

While in Topeka the family first lived ina vacant hotel for a few days and then moved to a house on the North side of Topeka.  Several members of the family took odd jobs to pay rent and afford food.  Athanasius husked corn for 3 cents per bushel and could only earn 25 cents as his maximum payment.  Later, Athanasius took a job feeding cattle for $10 per month.  Athanasius's father traveled with C.B. Schmitt, most likely in January 1876, to view various pieces of land for the group to settle.  Schmitt first showed them land in Barton County, but the price of $5 per acre was too expensive. [2]  Another land agent told the families to look at Ellis County where there was cheap land close to Hays ($2-3 per acre).  After viewing the land, the settlers made a deal to get land at $2 per acre for 11 years at a 7% interest rate. 

On March 1, 1875, the Karlin family departed for Hays on the railroad.[3]  They lived in a store in Hays for about a month until the settlers built their houses in Catherine, the new name of the village they planned to move too. The families began farming in October of that year planting potateos and planted wheat the next summer.  Athanasius would eventually continue the family business of farming.  He died in 1921. 

Most of the story told by Athanasius Karlin paints a good picture of the long immigration to the United States from Russia and the struggles the immigrants had to endure.

Notes:

[1] Athanasius Karlin, "Athanasius Karlin Diary, 1875-1921," Fort Hays State University.
[2] Isadore Appelhanz, The Volga-Germans in Topeka, Kansas, 1875-1885. (Topeka, Kansas: Privately Printed, 1992).
[3] Norbert Dreiling, Lawrence Weigel, and Blaine Burkey, Official Centennial History of Volga-German Settlements in Ellis and Rush Counties in Kansas, 1876-1976 (Hays, Kansas: Volga-German Centennial Association, n.d.), pageNr.

What Do the Diaries Include?

A few days ago, I wrote a post about "Schoolmaster" Jacob Schmidt, one of Catherine's early settlers.  Soon, I plan to write about Athanasius Karlin, another early settler of Catherine.  Both of these men keep what are often labeled as "diaries."  Besides oral history and some town records, these "diaries" are a window into the background behind these men.  I put the term "diary" in quotation marks because these sources are not day-by-day accounts of the men's lives.  Instead, these diaries include the following:

1) Family History:  When these men write these diaries, they are recording their family history, almost like an early geneology.  This does recreate familial relations very well and is very useful for someone wanting to complete their family tree.  It also proves useful for local histories.  For a historian or an outside observer, it offers very little general information about the person.  Why is a family history kept?  First, it prevents inbreeding by family members, since records are not readily available or centralized in these communities.  Seccond, the family history is about pride, talking about what the family did for generations as an occupation, where they lived, and claims to land.

2) Insights into Migration:  One reoccurring theme in these diaries is how these men write about every time they move from one place to another.  It could be a short or long migration.  This helps when looking at immigration to the United States because they detail how they moved and all the procedural hurdles they needed to go through.  That inside story can then be corroborated through other records to complete the story.

3) Harvest Records:  After telling the migration story, the writers often recorded how their harvest did year-by-year.  In addition, they kept tables of crop yields and the prices they sold at market.  While that seems insignificant, it helps put into perspective how large or small these farms were, what crops the men grew, and how often droughts occurred.  This section serves as a yearly logbook for the farmers to keep track of their crops.

It is difficult to tell when these "diaries" were written.  Either the authors put them together at sporadic periods or they sat down to write them in one sitting.  The harvest logs were probably kept year by year, but since these diaries are very short, the longest is 10-15 pages, and often the diaries are titled some variation of "Reminiscences from a Life" that tells me the author is reflecting on their experiences.  In the end, these diaries provide some background, but the narrative they tell is a very specific one.  

Germans Versus Volga Germans

It's not much of distinction, but it is important to note that when looking at Germans and Volga Germans, the population is different.  Volga-Germans often live in small farming communities, keep to themselves, and speak some Russian.  Not to mention they migrate between 1874-1878, whereas Germans start to arrive in the U.S. before the 1860s.  The Germans also have a tendency to live in large cities with other immigrant groups.  Some German immigrants are farmers too.

In the scholarly literature, the distinction is often noted in the text of a book, but sometimes these groups get lumped together.  This is unfair to do because while some experiences are the same, much of the interaction with other Americans is very different and the general stories for migration are also not the same.  Although, I will say that comparisions between the two groups are certainly necessary to establish these separate identities.  When studying this topic, make sure you note this carefully. 

Conclusion of the Day



I'm currently looking at secondary sources comparing various Catholic immigrant groups with the Volga-Germans.  I came across this description of the Volga-German Catholics by one historian:

The Germans counted more rural Catholics than did any other national group. The German Catholics of the Great Plains displayed a greater stolidity, stability, and conservatism than did other Catholics there. They were generally more prosperous. Their churches were usually larger. They enjoyed a richer devotional and liturgical life. Even outside the church they sought occasions to pray and to sing the traditional German hymns. They had not the same intimate association with their priests as had the Irish, and their pastors generally had shorter stays among them. Although as determined as their eastern counterparts to have their own schools, they had not the same need for their variety of parish associations.

In general, I think this statement is pretty accurate.  I'm not sure how one measures "a richer devotional and liturgical life."  I've been to St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City and St. Andrews Catholic Church in Roanoke, both founded by Irish immigrant communities, and both seem to have parishioners that are just as spiritual as any Volga-German Catholic Church I've attended.  It is true that the encounters with priests were less frequent than the Irish in the early stages.  This happened because there were a limited number of priests in most Volga-German settlement areas and the priest might only visit the Church to preside over Mass every three months and give sacraments.  The priests also stayed for only about 1-2 year periods in the colonies. 

One thing to consider when looking at religious life for the Volga-German settlements is to note that when priests or sisters traveled to those areas, they saw themselves as missionaries to that particular group of immigrants.  This meant they thought of themselves as "civilizing" forces (nineteenth century language and not mine).  Whereas, in the Irish urban communities and German urban communities, the priests were usually diocesean ones, meaning they stayed longer and wanted to cultivate a strong diocese for the future to make their mark in Catholic cities.   Urban areas also meant more political activities and having strong Catholic institutions reinforced the Catholic voice in local, state, and national politics.

Photo: This picture of of St. Catherine Catholic Church in Catherine, Kansas.

Voices from Early Catherine: "Schoolmaster" Jacob Schmidt

When I started this project, I planned to do a microhistory by focusing on specific stories from people within the town of Catherine.  As I dug deeper, it turned out there were very few primary sources to work with to really understand the town.  Despite abandoning that part of the project, there are a few people who deem some focus.  I decided to dedicate a few blog posts to these "voices from early Catherine." 

The first person I want to write about is my great-great-great grandfather, Jacob Schmidt.  Schmidt left a diary of sorts.  It is not a day-by-day diary, but rather a "Familie Stammbuch," or family history integrated with farming records.  This is the most common type of source I found and these family histories are notoriously short, usually no longer than 10-15 pages.  Father Blaine Burkey, a Capuchin Priest published a short history of Schmidt's family, along with an English translation of the diary, in 1986. 

Jacob was born in January 16, 1824 in Rohleder Russia, along the Volga River to Andreas and Maria Eva Schmidt.[1]  By training, Jacob was schoolteacher for much of his life, while farming for supplemental income.  The school master (schulmeister) was a very respectable position.  In addition to teaching, they could lead Catholic religious services, if a priest was not available, and baptize newborns, if necessary.  Despite being an educator, how much education he received is very murky.  He taught in Otrogokwa starting on October 18, 1843 and married his wife, Anna Marie on February 4, 1845.  Anna Marie was from Katharinenstadt.  On January 28, 1853, Jacob took a job as teacher in Katharinenstadt and also farmed a small plot of land.  Jacob had 11 children and five of those children died before he and his wife immigranted to the United States.  One of his daughters was tragically shot by another relative.[2]

Like most of the other Volga-Germans, Schmidt decided to come to the United States.  I've mentioned in another post why they made this treacherous journey.  Jacob and his family did not travel with the first wave of immigrants in October 1875.  Although, Jacob, being the schoolmaster, did send off the first group by singing Psalm 45 ("God is a refuge and strength") with them.  In April 1876, Jacob left with this family and arived in Catherine on June 26, 1876.

Jacob quickly built a small house for his family and purchased cattle to farm.  Between July 20, 1881 and October 17, 1881, Jacob renounced his citizenship to tsar in Russia and became a U.S. citizen.  Jacob served a variety of roles while living in Catherine.  Since there were very few well-educated men in the area, he served as the school master, teaching out of his own home.  He taught the children math, reading, and Catechesis.  He also led the prayer services on Sundays.  This involved reading a Biblical passage, singing a few hyms, singing a Litany of Saints, and praying the Rosary.  When the Capuchin's became available for regular services in the late 1880s, Schmidt became choir director for the newly built Catholic Church in Catherine and led the confirmation courses.  In 1882, he served as the first postmaster for Catherine as well, and the post office was kept in the Schmidt family up until present day.  Jacob died on January 3, 1906 and is buried next to his wife, Anna Marie who died on March 3, 1885, in Catherine Cemetary. 

Notes:

[1] I'm using his first name on purpose to humanize him.  Also, his name can be spelled "Jakob."
[2] Much of the information about Jacob Schmidt comes from: Blaine Burkey, Schoolmaster Schmidt and his “Family Album,” (Hays, Kansas: Thomas More Prep/Marion, 1986), pageNr.
[3] That picture is part of Jacob Schmidt's dairy in the original German.

The Timeline: Not as Fancy as Facebook

Above is the timeline I drew on my sketchpad this afternoon.  I know you can't see it very well.  I might make a digital one at some point.  This just looks more historical and cool.  I'm doing this as a way to collect relevant information and put all of my sources together.  As I mentioned before, much of my information either comes from local history books or family "diaries" that were written many years after the events took place.  Surprisingly, much of the information from my primary sources (like the diaries) line up with the secondary sources, which is a good thing.

There are two main points to gather from this timeline.  First, these communities built themselves up very quickly.  The first wave of Catherine settlers travel from Topeka on February 25, 1876, rent spaces in Hays to live in March 1876, and then build their home in Catherine and move into them by April 1876.  After that, a corporation for land was started in 1878 and the Catholic Church was built by 1892.  A school was also built in 1893.  While it looks like it took a long time to build these structures, with the resources and time available, this was a very quick pace.  The second point to notice was how accurate the memories of some of settlers were.  Athanasius Karlin, Jacob Schmidt, and August Walter (all are original settlers) kept very detailed dates of when they left and arrived.  If these diaries were written later or added to, the detail is amazing.

The Volga-Germans in Topeka

At the Kansas State Historical Society Archives in Topeka, Kansas, I found a self-published book written in 1992 that was just a big collection of newspaper clippings mentioning Volga-Germans arriving in Topeka during the winter-spring of 1875-1876.  I was able to make copies of the book and posted an example picture I took on my iPhone of the piece.

What you have in this collection are several clipped newspaper articles that mention Volga-Germans, cutting out some irrelevant parts of the story, from various Topeka newspapers during this time.  This is a very unique way of gathering newspapers and it saves time for other historians who might be looking at the same topic.  Of course, this method does have drawbacks, namely that the context of the entire paper is taken away.  The quality of this book is also lacking.  I can see this becoming a method for evidence collection, if it were refined a bit.

It is such a short time period, but a very critical one for the Volga-Germans coming to Kansas.  The immigrants stayed in Topeka working odd jobs for very little pay (if any at all) and traveled to Ellis County Kansas, by wagon and train, to search for land to be cultivated for housing.  Many of the Volga Germans stayed in run down, abandoned apartment buildings.  The citizens of Topeka were unsure how to react to these new immigrants.  The Volga-Germans, in the newspapers are described as "Russians" and viewed like aliens from another planet.  In one story from the Topeka Commonwealth on December 3, 1975 it says:

"these Russians go heavy on sheep skin as a wearing material.  The aristocracy wear long sheepskin coats with skirts lie a woman's dress, which reach nearly to the upper edge of their ears.  A round cloth cap, shaped like a sausage in the form known as the "dabs" cover the heads of the Russian gentlemen.  All of the person not covered with sheepskin and cloth cap is covered with high-legged boots of the most substantial character.  Arrayed in this costume our Russian friends might move unharmed through the midst of an Irish row, the flying brickbats rebounding without effect from their sheepskin armor." [1]

This is pretty mild, the description really gets detailed and racy when one analyzes the Ellis County newspapers.  In order to really understand this phenomenon, just imagine living in Topeka at this time.  Suddenly a very large group of immigrants moves into the town by train and are living in the city, seeking employment, and keeping their families together.  Not to mention that this group of immigrants often come with large families and gather together to sing, attend church services, and have large parties.  While this only occurs for about a year, it really changes the socio-economic life of Topeka in a dramatic way.

[1] Isadore Appelhanz, The Volga-Germans in Topeka, Kansas, 1875-1885. (Topeka, Kansas: Privately Printed, 1992), 6.

Blogging Does Change History Writing

Andrew Sullivan has become one of my favorite bloggers.  He revolutionized the way it was done and how people interact with politics.  I agree with what he says here.  Seeing the evolution of thoughts on a topic in real time certainly makes the writing process better.  When a paper or a book is published, it goes through a long process of revision.  Many edits are made along the way.  Even ideas change during the editing process.  However, while the research process is happening, lots of evidence is collected, some of it really cool, and then discarded in the final product.  This happens for various reasons, but having that extra link with the audience where those "left out" pieces can be shared is great part of the writing process.  I hope to accomplish that in this space. 

The Great Migration and Modern Memory

When I was a freshman in college, I had to read Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory in 1975 (the title of this post plays on this book).  This book explores how World War I was remembered in through novels, poems, and other types of literature.  Since there had not been a large scale war in Europe for about century, most the old ways of talking about war, such as  romanticizing ancient Roman and Greek style bravery, did not work to describe trench warfare and mustard gas.  While I found the book relatively boring to read then, I realize how important Fussell's argument about how war is remembered through collective conscience is shaped by post-war literature.

In Volga-German history it is no different.  There are two major narratives that are used to describe why the Volga-Germans immigrated to the United States.  The first is economic.  The tsar was taxing the land they were farming and revoking special privileges they had before, so it made sense to move somewhere else.  The second is searching for religious freedom.  With this narrative, this group, especially Catholics, were persecuted against and forced to leave the country.  Now, both these narratives are compelling and, from the evidence presented, both played a role in the migration.

However, the latter reason for immigration gets emphasized more.  There are two reasons for this.  First, much of the recorded history is written by Capuchin Priests, especially Matthew Peraki.  The second reason is that it sounds better to tell children and grandchildren.  Saying you left your home country for cheap land is not as compelling as saying you left to flee religious persecution.  Just looking at anniversary Masses emphasizes this point with readings from Exodus and talking about coming to the promise land.  This is not to say there is anything wrong with this narrative, but sometimes it can cloud other reasons for migration and limit historical perspective.

Quick History and Big Dilemmas



I thought it would be appropriate to start off this blog with a quick history of the Volga-German group I'm examining.  On July 22, 1763, Tsar Katharine the Great issued a Manifesto to called for foreigners to travel to settle along the Volga River in Russia.  The area had a rich farm land was populated by serfs, which the Russian monarchy saw as backward and uneducated.  A common Russian tradition, since the time of Tsar Peter II wanted to make Russia more like Europe, going as far as to have the Russian leaders intermarrry with German ones (Katharine herself was of German dissent).  The settlers were promised tax-free land for a specific period of time, freedom to establish whatever churches they desired, autonomous rule (within the confines of Russian civil law), and waivering the requirement for men to enlist in the Russian miliary (only for infrastructure projects).

Between 1764-1767, nearly 20,000 settlers arrived.  The settlers found grueling hardships when they arrived.  The Russian government did not keep its promise of autonomous rule and enforced strict regulations on the settlers.  In addition, timber for houses was difficult to aquire and raids by raiders and Mongol forces were a problem.  Eventually, the German settlers adapted to the conditions.  By 1767, there were 104 various religious colonies.  The colonists mostly kept to themselves and continued to speak German, acquiring some Russian words to interact with the authorities.  The religious groups that came were Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Mennonite, Russian Orthodox, and Seven-Day Adventists.  After about a century of living in the Volga Region, the Russian monarchy started to change teh governing structure of the region, adding the Zemstvos (a district governing body that the settlers felt did not represent minorities well), started to tax the land, and, in January 1874, Tsar Alexander II forced the German settlers to enlist in the army. 

To escape these problems, the German settlers searched for land that looked promising.  This included the Midwestern United States, Argentina, and Brazil.  I'm looking at the Volga-Germans in Kansas.  This group left in summer of 1875 traveling to Saratov to Berlin to Baltimore to Topeka, Kansas.  They stayed in Topeka for the winter of 1875-1876 and traveled to Ellis County, Kansas in June 1876. Ellis County had very cheap land, only $3 an acre, and wide spaces to build various communities.  The group in Ellis County were predominantly Catholic and kept in very tight knit groups, speaking German as the main language in these communities. 

The critical problem with starting any project is how to begin the narrative?  How far back should one trace the roots of these settlers?  The landscape is quite complicated and not easy to decipher.  Much of the secondary source literature, like books and essays, are poorly written with very little citations to verify the facts they cite.  Many of the other sources are either geneologies focusing on one one specific family or a local history book that is reprinted several times with stories passed down from generation-to-generation.  For this narrative, the story can be told by religious group, where the people came from in German states, or can even be broken down by individual families.  Just the short narrative I've provided cannot tell the whole story and all the reasons for traveling from German territory to Russia to the United States.

Guten Tag

As a undergraduate student and a blogger, I'm always searching for another big project, particularly if that project poses a challenge.  For about 3 years, I've been writing a blog about politics, called Politics Not as Usual.  My major in college is history and, for a while, I have wanted to find a way to combine my academic interests with my blogging endeavors.

For the summer of 2012, I will be working on a project about late 19th and early 20th Century Volga-German immigration to the Midwest as part of Roanoke College's Summer Scholars Program.  The culmination of this process will be a substantial research paper, which I'll post here.  As of now, the project is focusing on the building of a small community in Kansas called Catherine.  Originally, the project was meant to be a microhistory (like a case study for history), but the resources to pursue that track quickly faded as a option.  Instead, the project is focusing on two areas.  First, a critique of the sources, which are large amounts of local histories with little primary source documents for historians to check the claims made.  The second part uses interviews to find out when these small communities started to break apart and lose relevance as ethnic communities and just become small farming communities.

So, what is the purpose of this blog?  My main purpose is to talk about my research process and discuss some insights about the academic research.  Let me be clear, this is not a day-by-day research journal blog.  There are hundreds of those out there and many, sorry for the insult here, are pointless.  Instead, my mission is to present a research finding and provide an insight about that finding.

This blog is, above all, an experiment to connect my very short experiences and lessons learned in academic history using this project as a vehicle.  I am not an expert in this area, my normal area is U.S. political and diplomatic history.  This project has connections with my family and is important to me.  I plan to post daily, since this experience is only two months long.  In the end, I hope my insights are helpful and that either something is learned by the audience about Volga-Germans or historical methodology.