Jakob’s Giant Steppes Toward Freedom It is always good to start where you are when choosing to write an essay about one’s maternal great, great, great grandfather. I asked my grandmother because she keeps track of a lot of family history. This is the story she told me… His name was Jakob. He was born at Neudorf in Odessa, South Russia in 1840. Jakob’s father was Michael who originally migrated to South Russia from a village northeast of Stuttgart, Germany.
The migration of thousands of Germans to South Russia began after Catherine II, Empress of Russia, recruited Germans because she knew of their accomplishments, hard work, endurance and reliability. She wanted to make South Russia productive by developing agriculture. Most who came were farmers, however, some were craftsmen. Previously to opening the area, only nomad sheepherders or invaders had been in and out of the area with no care taken of the land. Jakob received his schooling at the village’s Reformed Church of which his father was the founder. When he became twenty-one he married a girl named Barbara from nearby Bessarabia and they farmed outside of Neudorf. They had seven children and the Russian government let Jakob’s family and other German colonists live a free enterprise system with their farms, churches and schools. They spoke their own language, paid no taxes and men were not forced into military duty like they were in Germany. This life lasted for them less than 100 years. When Czar Alexander III began to rule Russia, things changed. He Russianized the colonists’ schools and began to go back on some of the promises Empress Catherine had made. The government began to interfere in church life and practiced other injustices. Taxes were levied and the colonists began to experience tyrannical behavior. News spread that soon the young men would have to serve in the Russian army for a certain number of years. Another difficulty for Jakob was also taking place. His land was meant to be inherited by his youngest son, Frederick. However, he had two other sons still at home and, if they were soon to farm their own land, he would have to buy it for them. The population had increased greatly and land was becoming scarce. Jakob knew about America. Letters had been read in church from his oldest son, Jakob (Jr.) and his wife who left Neudorf for the New World as soon as government changes began. The letters were like gifts. They spoke of a new life – land and freedom for all. Jakob told his family they were all going to go to America. Another of his sons, Karl, had also married and they had a baby. Jakob took from his savings and sent Karl and his family ahead of the others to America. Karl arrived in Freeman, South Dakota where friends were and he worked to earn a wagon and a team of oxen. It was summer when they traveled to the small farming community of Artas, South Dakota. They lived under the wagon box until Karl built a two-room sod house on the 160 acres he homesteaded. He worked for two more years and saved enough money to help the rest of the family in Neudorf. He also wrote to them about how to travel to Bremen, Germany, New York and, finally, South Dakota. Jakob sold his Neudorf farm and he, Barbara, and their three boys and two girls left for America. Jakob’s family traveled across the Atlantic Ocean in 1890. They had bought the cheapest fare which meant they traveled in steerage, the lower quarters of the ship. It was crowded and they often came on deck for fresh air. There was a lot of sea sickness. They heard new babies being born and witnessed the burial of a child at sea. Others came to Artas from South Russia, also. Jakob and five other men founded the Reformed Church in Herreid, South Dakota which was only a few miles from Artas. Services were in German. The men sat on one side of the church and the women sat on the other side with the children. The family prospered through their farming industry and they built a farm home that went from sod to wood that was hauled by wagon from Ipswich, South Dakota. Jakob’s pride and joy was his big barn. The men hauled rocks from the fields for the foundation and built the wooden barn on top. The barn’s foundation is the only thing remaining on the old farmstead today. Two sons, John and Frederick, married and lived nearby. They farmed and helped their father. Another son, Adam, married and settled in Medina, North Dakota where he became a merchant and, later, a North Dakota legislator. Jakob (Jr.) farmed in rural Harvey, North Dakota and Karl operated a business in Herreid. The oldest daughter, Elizabeth, married a prominent businessman in Eureka, South Dakota and they moved to Medina where they went into business with Adam. When the youngest daughter, Rosina, grew up, she married a farmer and they lived in rural Herreid. The family learned to speak English, but Jakob and Barbara spoke German in the house. They were a close-knit family. They did not work on Sunday. It was a day for Church and for visiting with one another. Jakob was on the handsome side, a strong, weathered-looking man about five feet eleven inches tall with kindly blue eyes and brown hair. He enjoyed reading his Bible, liked horses and enjoyed music. Jakob never smoked. He also liked to talk more about his life in America than he did about ‘the old country.’ A lot of things were different for him when he came to America, but there were special rights guaranteed to every citizen. He endured prairie fires, blizzards, drought and financial upsets but he never lost his trust in God. Even with some sacrifices in his life, he could still claim his heritage, customs, and traditions and realize a better life for his children and grandchildren. We remember that Jakob, as well as many others, played a role in civilizing a part of the Russian Steppe above the Black Sea. Today there is no memorial or tombstone standing in tribute to any of the former colonists who settled in the steppe land. This holds true for the many that left for America. It was later after Jakob’s family had left South Russia that the government made every effort to erase as much as they could of any sign that German colonists had once existed there. Any records that were kept were moved to Moscow and it has only been in recent years that, I believe, the archives have been opened to some extent for certain individuals. However, Jakob lives on in family memories and on paper for his descendants. Jakob died in 1923 and each spring we visit the rural cemetery near Artas and, there, under the fragrant blooming lilacs, is a tall memorial stone dedicated to Jakob. This story grandmother told me has opened a door to a part of my German-Russian heritage that I did not know about before. I understand better the link I have with the rich culture and history of this ethnic group. Learning about my great, great, great grandfather encourages me to look further into the history of the Germans from Russia and the many deliberate steps they took only because they wanted the right to raise their families and live in freedom. Bibliography Monthye, Macel. Personal interview. 20 Feb. 2009. Monthye, Macel. Bollinger Family History. Mandan Printing Company, Mandan, ND, 1991. Cronin, Vincent. Empress of All the Russians. William Morrow and Company, New York, 1978. Height, Joseph S. Homesteaders on the Steppe. Lithocrafters, Inc., Chelsea, MI, 1977. Keller, P. Conrad. The German Colonists in South Russia 1804-1904. American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Lincoln, NE, 1968. Stumpp, Karl. The German-Russians, Addition Atlantic-Forum, Bonn-Brussels, NY. 1967. |
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