Norka a German colony in Russia Emigration
"In the period from 1803-1820, Jesuit priests visiting the Volga Catholics issued prophetic advice by warning their flocks that Russia would not be their permanent home, and that "when the time of resettlement comes, they should migrate not toward the rising of the sun, but the setting thereof."
from George P. Aberle's book From the Steppes to the Prairies
According to Fred Koch in his book titled The Volga Germans, when Catherine the Great solicited and recruited German immigrants into her country, the new colonists were well received by the Russian people. Her government's policy of segregating the Germans within demographically closed villages inside the Volga enclave contributed a great deal to harmony between the two peoples for several generations. In later years it contributed to envy and resentment by many Russians.
The primary reasons for emigration from Russia included:
- Russification movements
- Land shortages
- Loss of privileges and compulsory military service
- Recruitment by New World countries
Emigration to North America began in 1875.
"Among the scouting party sent to the United States by the Colonies in 1874, to seek land, were two men from Norka: Johannes Krieger and Johannes Nolde. Their reports on return soon set in motion emigration which started as early as 1875, with seven Norka families who came to Ohio and two years later went to Sutton, Nebraska. In 1876, one the largest Protestant groups of colonists ever to emigrate, was a group of eighty-five families, most of them from Norka."
from The Czar's Germans, by Hattie Plum Williams
The immigration of Russia Germans to the United States resulted from several causes. The most significant was Czar Alexander II's revocation, in 1871, of one of the guarantees made to the first Volga colonists by Catherine the Great: freedom from military service. In 1892 Alexander III curtailed land acquisition by non-Orthodox citizens in the west. To land-starved colonists who had established many new colonies and who doubtless had plans to start more, such a policy seemed to aim at their freedom of religion, which Catherine had also guaranteed.
Many families did send sons off to the army and navy. Even today pictures of young Germans in Russian uniforms are found in the homes of their American offspring. An anti-German wind was blowing across the steppes, however, and the colonists felt it. They had lost faith in the manifesto that brought their ancestors to Russia. Consequently, many sought new homes, some going to the United States and Canada and others journeying to South America.
Beginning with a few scouts who located cheap land in the early 1870s, Russia German immigration eventually reached massive proportions. By 1920, 303,532 first- and second-generation Russia Germans resided in the United States. They constituted the third and final great wave of German immigration; the first arrived in colonial times and the second, in the mid-nineteenth century.
The Russia Germans were different from earlier German immigrants. Their speech was laced with "Russianisms", and German-Americans considered it archaic. Along with their English-speaking neighbors, German-Americans referred to them as "Russians" and to their settlements as "Russiatown." They were at the bottom of the social ladder and did jobs that others avoided. Women were domestics; men worked on railroad construction or farmed. All who encountered them, however, admired their ability to work.
S.S. Schiller
The S.S. Schiller arrived in New York on 15 July 1874 carrying 14 "scouts" from the Volga villages of Balzer, Dietel, Graf, Kolb, Luzern, Messer, Norka, Obermonjou, Pfeifer, Schoenchen, and Zug [AHSGR Journal 1(3)]. These immigrants came through Castle Garden, New York, not Ellis Island.
The S.S. Schiller was lost in a harrowing shipwreck in May 1875. Were any German Russians on board that voyage?
City of Brussels
The ship City of Brussels arrived in New York from Liverpool on 28 June 1875. This was the ship that carried a Schreiber family to which the first Volga German child was born in America. They went first to Bluffton, Ohio, for a short time before going to Nebraska, and then on to Oregon. They were from Norka. There were several other Norka families with them including the Muellers. Their story has been told in the Norka Newsletter.
This group from the City of Brussels must be the group that Hattie Plum
Williams writes about in her book The Czar's Germans, p. 199. It is a
very interesting story: Apparently after the Scouts had visited America in
1874, some came away bad impressions and had decided not to leave Russia.
However, Mrs. Williams wrote that there other forces at work inspiring faith
in the enterprise. In 1875, a small party of Germans from Norka, 7 families
and 2 single men had come to the United States and settled in Ohio. . . worked
for 2 years at ditch digging and other similar tasks among the farmers of the
community. Meanwhile . . . on lookout for land which 2 years later they
decided . . . Sutton, Nebraska.
This group that Mrs. Williams is telling about seems to fit the passengers on
City of Brussels. See the AHSGR JOURNAL, Vol. 2, #1 - Spring 1979. The S.S.
CITY of BRUSSELS arrived in New York, June 28, 1875. Route: Liverpool to N.Y.C.
Editor's note - No Colony given but these are presumably pietistic Volga
German Protestants. They are mentioned on p. 125 of C. Henry Smith's _The
Coming of Russian Mennonites_. These people were sent to Bluffton, Ohio but
two families, the Friedrich Joergs and Heinrich Truebers, later came to
Sutton, Nebr." Work Paper, No. 18, p. 17 (trans. by Arthur E. Flegel).
Families include Heinrich Tuch, Heinrich Schrieiber, Johann Mu(e)ller,
Heinrich Treiber/Trueber, G. C. Huertke, Johann Jorg/Joerg (Father Johann
living with his son Friedrich and family), Heinrich and Peter Hoffman, a 2nd
Johann Gorg/Joerg, and Georg Konzen.
Note - The above editor's note says that no colony was given; however Ruth
Schultz has been able to show that they were from Norka. Cf. with Mrs.
Williams' little nugget. Also I don't believe that they Mennonites according
C. Henry Smith. I was hoping to uncover which ship brought the little group
that 'dug ditches in Ohio before finding suitable land in Nebraska.'. Rather
than going without, the Volga Germans were determined to work. --- PBD
S.S. Oder
The S.S. Oder, arrived in New York, Jul 8, 1876. The route was Bremen to New York. On p. 202 of Hattie Plum Williams' The Czar's Germans, she wrote the following about this large group, "Eight-five families, mostly from the colony of Norka, but included some from Balzer, gathered at Saratov and journeyed to Bremen from which they sailed for the United States landing at New York, July 7, 1876 (notice the one day difference in date). Other quotations include "Some of them were persuaded to go to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on the ground that there were many Germans there, but they did not stay long, coming to Sutton the following spring." "Another group of thirty families was taken to Kansas free of charge by the Santa Fe Railroad, and while waiting at Atchison, one carload was stolen by the Burlington and Missouri immigration agent and sent to Sutton, Nebraska." "The remainder was taken to the immigration house at Pawnee Rock in Barton County, Kansas. They got in touch with the Burlington and Missouri land agent in Lincoln where they purchased land along the Turkey Creek not far away from Friend." "Another group was was brought to Red Oak, Iowa and many of these settled in Harvard, Nebraska."
This letter was written by Carl Krieger, in German, on January 29, 1936 in Hastings, Nebraska, to his son Conrad and his wife Marie Krieger, who lived in Washington, D.C. The letter describes the journey from Norka to New York in 1890. He arrived May 31st on the SS Normannia with several other families from Norka (listed as "Norga" on the ship records).
January 29, 1936
Hastings, Nebraska
God’s mercy and peace unto you. A cordial greeting and kiss of love from your beloved parents Carl and Christina, to you beloved children, Conrad and Marie.
We are so well, like the old people are. I have a cold and cough and mother also has a cold. We were delighted to receive the letter from you on January 20, also the birthday present with five dollars. Thanks very much for it.
We are having cold weather at present, 10 below zero.
Mother hears poorly and my eyes are weak, that I can hardly see the lines; however I am grateful to God that I can still see.
You would like to hear about the old times. One should have that written down.
Now, May 1, 1890 we are to leave Norka. There were wagons ready to depart. Mothers brother, Johannes and his mother, the wagons standing in the courtyard and the children on the wagons. There was Peter’s brother-in-law with one wagon and Peter’s son, Conrad, with 3 wagons, ready to depart. A brother from Huck was there. He had bought a black stallion and a small wagon and a watch dog. Everything was ready to go.
Many brethren were there. Outside in front of the door, we sang first. I lead the singing after the prayer by Brother George Krieck from Huck. Then the door was opened and the wagon train started off.
The whole courtyard was filled with people and the roofs were seated full. The brethren accompanied us out of the village.
Norka was large, 11 double rows and we lived in the 8th row above the church. The village was 3 miles long. Then, once more, I went to see my father’s brother, Conrad, who was blind, to say farewell.
Beyond the village I came again to the wagons, there again, they stopped once more to say goodbye forever and so far I had not shed a tear.
Then we went on to Saratov. There we had to wait one day. The next day we went to the railway station, there we waited for the train. When the train came, then we mounted up.
Over there (Russia) is not like here, that one can get near the train. There, they have a 6 foot high fence. Anyone not getting on the train must stay outside.
The friends outside the fence wept in their handkerchiefs and shed tears.
Drader had an officer’s overcoat. It was my fathers. He had given the overcoat to his son, Peter. Peter’s father-in-law had taken it and said that Peter had given it to him. Peter had to have a letter from his father in America first, and then Peter obtained his overcoat.
I came back again to Krowna, there our passes were approved. Uncle John did not have a pass, so he was smuggled over the border. The Jews did not work at nights, as father stayed behind until John arrived, then he went on.
We continued to Berlin. There is a very large depot in Berlin. It had a glass roof and the entire train went under the roof but we were not allowed to get off.
Thos who were going to America went west from the depot to a depot underground. There we descended and went down in the depot. Many people were there.
We had to wait until our trains arrived. Father and I went downtown in Berlin and down the stairs to the lower section. There at the end was a small cabin. We went in and father had a conversation with a man. He gave us a glass of beer or brandy, and then we went back to the railway station. Then we went on to Hamburg where we stayed overnight until the next day when our father arrived, then we continued on our way - Uncle Peter, with a family of 7, our family of 7, Uncle Scheideman and family and Uncle Henry Krieger and family.
Then we got on the train at 9 and traveled about 50 miles until 10:30, and then we boarded a small ship.
The large ship waited far out in the sea at anchor. Then the ladders were put up and we entered the large ship. We four families in one room, on one side. Two beds clear through the room with boards on each side and between two people, one board. The name of the ship was “Augusta Victoria.”
Now we are on the ship at noon. On the south side we saw France and on the other side, England.
Near England the ship anchored. On the water more people came from England to board the ship, and then the ship began to move upon the great sea.
The first day went fine. Also the second day. On the third day, one could only see water. Then we saw a great iceberg, as large as the Dutton building (in Hastings, Nebraska) and felt cold air. The ship began to shake to and fro, then there were many sick people. They were always throwing up. They all lay upon the deck, except I and Uncle Henry. We were preparing food.
Uncle Henry’s grandmother also lay on her bed. I have her food. She had eaten very little, then it came up again, right in front of me where I was standing.
The ship gave a jerk, the floor was smooth and I fell on the floor. Then I was angry and said, “When you cannot keep it down, stop eating.” I was punished at once. Then the ship gave another jerk and I flew away out about 15 feet. I had had nearly fallen myself dead. I crawled on the bed and wept. My head was broken.
The next morning, at 6, it was foggy. We were all below the ships deck and it was cold. The ship had slowed down; all at once the ship gave a crash. It was a collision with a big iceberg and had broken the railing on the south side.
Behind the kitchen and toilet there was about 10 tons of ice on the ship. A 10 year old boy had been hit on the head by the ice.
The ice had done no other damage. Then we went on toward the harbor at New York. Then the doctors from New York came on the ship.
Today, there are descendants from Norka in many parts of the world including Canada, the United States, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, as well as those who remain in European Russia, Kazakhstan, and Siberia.
By 1920, there were over 118,000 Volga Germans living in the United States.
Settlement by Norka immigrants in Portland, Oregon
The oldest and most important settlement of Evangelical Volga Germans in Oregon is the one in Portland. It goes back to the year 1882 when colonists from Norka, who had at first settled in Iowa and Nebraska, came by train to San Francisco. These immigrants worked for the Union Pacific Railroad and were either brought to or terminated their employment in San Francisco. From there they sailed by ship to Portland where they were employed as day laborers in factories. In 1888-1890 after some years in which there were no new arrivals, Portland received an influx of Volga German colonists from Balzer and Frank. However, the great majority of Russian-Germans came to Portland between 1890-1905. Colonists from Alt-Norka comprise the bulk of around 500 families in the existing settlement. They populated an entire ward in northeast Portland and were organized in a number or religious congregations.
from George Rath's, Emigration from Germany through Poland and Russia to the U.S.A., 1969
Émigrés from a number of Volga towns settled in Portland's east side "Little Russia." The villages of Balzer and Frank were well represented. With Norka, however, some say it was almost as if the place had picked itself up and moved halfway around the world. Dozens of former neighbors once again lived and worked side by side. This Old World microcosm stretched along Northeast Union and Seventh avenues from Fremont to Shaver. Here one could see women clad in brown woolen shawls and head scarfs, talking in their Hessian accent while their children played games from the Old Country.
from an undated “Round the Roses” column by Karl Klooster in This Week Magazine a supplement to The Oregonian newspaper.
When Mr. Miller arrived in Portland on October 27, 1890 he found about twenty Volga German families living east of the Willamette River between Tillamook and Knott Streets. Technically this area was not part of Portland, because until 1891 Albina and East Portland were incorporated as independent communities with their own mayor, town hall, banks, jail, etc. The first Volga Germans had left Iowa for Walla Walla, Washington, but after spending three months in that city, they had moved on to Portland as early as 1882. Other old timers came by boat from San Francisco or by way of Nebraska. Most of them were from the colony of Norka, and it is probably due to their influence that so many other people from that village eventually settled here. The names of the earliest pioneers include the following individuals: John Schnell, Conrad Schnell, George Betz, Ludwig Spady, Peter George, Constantine Brill, Henry Meier, Conrad Schwartz, Peter Gerloch, Adam Schwartz, Peter Wolf, Adam and David Schwindt, and a Frühauf family, all of whom had come before 1889.
from My Mother's People by Emma Schwabenland Haynes, (unpublished, 1959). Used with permission of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia.
Read interviews of Norka immigrants to the United States from Norka at the Library of Congress American Life Histories website. Search for "German Russians" and you will find interviews with Henry Hahn, Elizabeth Kildow, Catherine Bauer, Henry Schwindt, and Margaret Sauer. There place of birth is shown as "Norgia, Russia".
The Germans who migrated from Reich states to Russia at the invitation of Catherine the Great and her successors to farm lands along the Black Sea and the Volga River always treasured their identity as ethnic Germans; their religion as Catholic, Protestant, or Mennonite; and their language, schools, and culture as German. In fact, they were so conscious of their singularity as Germans in Russia that they refused to assimilate with the surrounding Russian plurality. When these ethnic Germans emigrated from Russia to the United States, largely between the years 1872 and 1914, they continued to a remarkable degree their life-patterns of separation from their neighbors and cohesion among themselves.
What began as a trickle of German emigration to America - a few settlers in Virginia in 1608, a handful of Mennonite families in Pennsylvania in 1683 - gradually swelled into a tide over the next three centuries as more than seven million individuals from Germany and the German speaking regions of Europe ventured across the ocean to the New World. Today, German-Americans can be found in every nook and cranny of the United States, and, according to the 1990 census, more than 50 million Americans - almost one-fourth of the population - claim to be part German.
There were a number of reason how the GR's ended up in South America even though they may have intended to go to North America.
The first if money. At times it was considerably cheaper to go to South America even though it is a longer voyage. The second a probably most significant reason was that they couldn't get into North America. During the time when Ellis Island was operating those that couldn't get in because of physical problems often went to South America. The ships made a number of ports of call first in New York and then they may have gone to South America. The people simply got on the ship again and proceeded onwards with hopes of eventually coming back to North America. The final but probably significant reason is dishonest ticket agents or brokers who told the people that they were going to North America when all along they were heading to South America. Ticket brokers and agents were not noted for there honesty and the poorer you were the more likely you were to be taken advantage by these dishonest agents.
As to your question about sailing ships versus steamships during the same time period. Steamships were crossing the Atlantic since the late 1850's but they were not the steamships as we think of them. Most were a combination of steam and sail. So it was not uncommon to see sailing ships carrying passenger right up until the early 1900's. Although it became increasingly rarer and rarer to see them after about the mid 1800's. The same was true for wood versus steel ships. The coastal shipping companies would more likely be the ones that would have both types of ships in their companies holdings.
Gene Jenkins
Selah, WA.
From what I have read and heard our GR folk wanted to go to North America primarily. However, if there were health problems of some family member, the whole family usually stayed together and went to South America. The real expert on this is Erica Neumann in Porto Allegro, Brazil. Curitibo in the state of Parana, Brazil seemed to attract a lot of Germans and GRs. As you know, the southern states in Brazil are not as hot as most of the country. Our people did not like hot places. You might contact Richard Wilhellm in Curitibo for more information. He is ioriginally from Lincoln, Nebraska; but he has lived in Curitibo for many years. Greetings from south Texas.
Laurin Wilhelm
According to Ruth Nielsen, her contact in Entre Rios, Argentina said that the "mother village" in Russia of Aldea San Juan is both Norka and Dönhof. Aldea San Antonio is the mother village for Huck and Aldea Santa Celia is Balzer. He explained that every weekend there is some type of Volga German activity in the Buenos Aires area.
Los Alemanes del Volga en
Argentina
Learn more....
Read The Volga Germans: Pioneers of the Northwest by Richard D. Scheuerman and Clifford E. Trafzer, 1980, The University Press of Idaho
Read Second Hoeing by Hope Williams Sykes, 1935 and 1962, University of Nebraska Press, available for purchase from AHSGR.
Read Migrations and Cultures: A World View by Thomas Sowell, 1996, Basic Books.
Search the Ellis Island passenger records for your ancestors.
Read "we are Russian Germans" at the North Dakota State University Libraries website.
Read The Migration of the Russian-Germans to Kansas by Norman E. Saul.
Read about Volga German emigration to Argentina in Los Abuelos Alemanes del Volga by Alberto Sarramone