Arrival and Life in Portland
Painting by Portland artist J O Foster of a house near the Albina Ferry landing in 1896. According to the Portland Art Museum, Foster was an early Oregon artist who specialized in cityscapes. He exhibited in the Oregon Industrial Fairs of 1893 and 1895 and with the Portland Sketch Club.
Arrival in Portland
"There was a large group in the early days. Some people lived down on the Willamette River in houseboats. Flooding wiped them out and they moved to the Albina area along Union Avenue. Mr. Geist said he would live anywhere but San Francisco."
Story told to Wanda June Schwabauer by Ed and Bob Geist on April 11, 1974. (Used with permission of the Richard Schwabauer family.)
It was characteristic of the Volga Germans to settle into communities. They settled in concentrated areas of Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas where they comprised a high percentage of the foreign born population. Portland is the only large Volga German settlement in Oregon.
The first Volga Germans in the American West, about seventeen families, arrived in Portland in 1881 after spending several years on the dry, grasshopper-infested Kansas plains. Members of this vanguard included Conrad Appel, Phillip Fuchs, George Green, Henry Repp, and several Klewenos, Ochses, and Schiermans. They had first immigrated to Rush and Barton Counties in Kansas between 1875 and 1878. Most were natives of the villages of New Yagodnaya, Schoental, and Schoenfeld, which were daughter colonies of Yagodnaya Polyana and neighboring Pobotschnoye. The group obtained special emigrant fares through the Union Pacific Railroad and Oregon Steam Navigation Company to travel to Portland where they had heard good farmland was available.
Many Germans from Russia originally settled in Canada near Calgary and later transitioned to Portland and rural areas in Eastern Washington.
According to Richard Scheuerman in his book Pallouse Country: A Land and its People, after their arrival in Oregon, however, the Volga Germans were disappointed to find that the best lands had already been taken and what ground was available was unfit for cultivation. The frustrated immigrants turned to work at a local lumber mill and for the railroad, which was then grading the huge Albina fill in present Portland. In the spring of 1881, the Volga German “Kansas Colony” families learned that the railroad officials were offering to sell 150,000 acres of “the finest agricultural lands in the northwest,” east of the Cascades, which would be accessible by rail in 1882. When approached by the Volga Germans, the railroad officials saw their opportunity to implement their new plans for colonization of the Palouse country in Washington. Several representatives traveled to eastern Washington to inspect the available lands. The vanguard returned favorable impressed with the land’s fertility and the hilly topography reminded them of Volga Bergseite. Railroad magnate, Henry Villard chose a retired brigadier general Thomas R. Tannatt, who had commanded Union forces, to be the general agent of his new company the Oregon Improvement Company which was headquartered in Portland. Tannatt later arranged for colonization of the Palouse by the Volga Germans and other immigrants. The German Russian families that briefly settled in Portland were later instrumental in the colonization and development of the Palouse country near the towns of Endicott, St. John, Dusty, and Colfax.
George Rath, in his book, Emigration from Germany through Poland and Russia to the U.S.A., states that 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. According to Richard Sallet, in 1891, a group of Volga Germans settled on former forestland near Canby. Rath states that in 1891 a group of Black Sea Germans settled in Eugene, and in 1906 and 1909 in Mulino and Newberg. In 1892, some Black Sea Germans settled in Portland together with some Catholic Volga Germans.
Lena Schleicher Bernhardt and her children on Failing St. in Portland, Oregon, circa 1904. Photo contributed by Virginia McKay.
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.
When families arrived in Portland from Russia the people all brought things they would need, helped them fix up places (some were shacks) for them to live in. All found work right away. The going wage was $1.25 for ten hours work and they walked to and from work, as there was no money for the 5-cent fare on the streetcars - after the car was close enough for them to ride. They saved their money and helped other to come to America and to buy homes. They peak immigration years were around 1914 to 1915.
An excerpt from Emma Schwabenland Haynes unpublished thesis, My Mother's People describes the early settlers:
"When Grandfather 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.
Upon the arrival of grandfather's party, the Volga Germans who were already living in Albina opened their homes in the hospitable fashion for which they were famous. Because of their isolated existence in Russia they had become a very clannish closely-knit people, and the arrival of a Nachbar from their native village was always the occasion for a hearty celebration. No matter how poor the families might be, they would set their tables with the best possible food, and regardless of how crowded they already were, they gladly surrendered their beds to the newcomers, and placed their own children on the floor upon hastily constructed piles of quilts.
In the 1890's there was a tremendous difference in the appearance of the residential district around present-day Union Avenue. When grandfather bought his lot, all of the land east of 7th Avenue was still covered with forests; and although the trees had been cut down at the corner of Morris Street, he had to pull out the remaining stumps before he could begin to build his home. For the next ten years it was unnecessary for him to spend a single cent on fuel, because he and his boys could cut down all the trees that they needed in the lots across the street. The logs would then be piled up until they were dry enough to be used."
Life in the Albina Neighborhood
The oldest Volga German settlement in Oregon is in the Northeastern part of Portland in what is known as the Albina neighborhood. The settlement dates to 1882 when Volga Germans, after having worked for the Union Pacific Railroad, were either brought to or terminated their employment in San Francisco. From San Francisco they were brought to Portland by ship. In the 1930's this settlement numbered about 500 families.
The German-Russian neighborhood was concentrated in an area generally bounded by NE Alberta on the North, NE 15th on the East, NE Russell on the South, and NE Mississippi and NE Albina on the West. This area was known as "Rooshian Town" or "Little Russia" by the locals and appears to have been the general area of residence for most families until well into the 1930's. Many of the families, churches, and businesses in this neighborhood were German-Russian.
Williams Avenue was once the fashionable street of Albina and the equivalent of today's "shopping mall" for the Germans from Russia. At that time it was planked from Russell to Alberta. Later a sandstone brick was put down when the ferry landing was put in at Alberta. They used to zigzag the horses back and forth across the steep hills near the Willamette River.
NE Union and Russell
Union Avenue (now Martin Luther King Avenue) later became the heart of the Albina business district and was home to many German-Russian businesses and was a primary commercial center for the community. Before the large chain stores like Safeway and Fred Meyer moved into the neighborhood, families patronized local businesses such as Repp Brothers, Hildermann's, Krumbein's, Bihn's, Hergert's, Grenfell's grocery and meat markets, Geist Shoe and Department Store, Trupp Shoe Repair, and Weimer's Hardware and Furniture Store. Other stores were sprinkled throughout the neighborhood such as Danewolf's on NE 13th and Failing and Lehl and Popp on NE 10th and Failing who supplied groceries to the local residents. Representatives contacted housewives at their homes or orders were phoned for delivery. Pad and pencil recorded each item and clerks retrieved the articles for the customer. After cows and chickens were no longer allowed within the city limits, milk trucks delivered milk to doorsteps. In the early days, children delivered milk in gallon buckets and quart jars to relatives and neighbors.
Lower Albina, along Russell Street, was a rough area. Some thirty saloons spread out from the top of the ferry slip to the corner of Russell and Union Avenue. (As late as 1929, Albina was connected to Portland via ferry service.)
Many remember riding the street cars down Union Avenue to Jantzen Beach where you could take swimming lessons, visit the haunted house and ride the roller coaster and bumper cars.
A German group meets at the Log Front Tavern on NE Union and Prescott circa 1939 (Photo courtesy of Nancy Cooper)
George Schreiber family (and friends) at their farm in the Albina district - circa 1910-20
Albina was laid out in 1872 with a plat for the new town filed in April 1873 by Edwin Russell, William Page, and George Williams. Albina was named after Mrs. Albina Page, the wife of William Page. Settlement began in 1874 and the "City of Albina" was formally incorporated in 1887. The original dimensions of Albina were modest: from Halsey Street north to Morris Street, and from the Willamette River to Union (then Margareta) Avenue. In 1889, Albina annexed the land north to Killingsworth Street and east to 24th. In 1891, Albina annexed everything north to Columbia Boulevard and west to the Portsmouth area. Most of the "City of Albina" was unplatted farmland. The "City of Albina" was an independent until 1891, with the "Portland" being entirely confined to the west bank of the Willamette River. In July 1891, Portland, East Portland, and Albina were consolidated into one city, "Portland," with an area of about 25 square miles and a population of at least 63,000. The vote in the three cities for consolidation was 10,126 and 1,714 against.
The home of George Schreiber in the Albina district - circa 1910-20
The streets in Albina were laid out in the "Philadelphia pattern" with numbered street paralleling the Willamette River and named streets running east-to-west. Many street names were changed in 1891 because of duplication in the three consolidated cities. Another major street plan change was made in 1931 which created the system now used in Portland. This system established 100 numbers to the block and five geographic regions (N, NE, SE, NW, and SW). Portland's address style that places the geographic designation between the house number and street name (rather than following the street name as in Seattle) was also established at this time.
Volga German homes in Albina
After 1883, when it became possible to reach Portland by rail from the East, immigration increased dramatically and doubled the population of Portland by 1891. This rail connection to the East provided the direct transportation route that many Germans from Russia followed to Portland.
In Albina's early decades most of the residents were first and second generation Germans from Russia, Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes. Churches in Albina often advertised "Services in German" in the local newspapers and City Directories.
According to the February 15, 1890 Albina Weekly Courier, the city grew rapidly and haphazardly:
"One of the great blemishes of our great city is her short, jagged streets, many of which begin nowhere and end nowhere. The owners of the various additions [to Albina] have laid out their streets regardless of neighboring additions. There are now 25 additions to the original Albina townsite."
Volga German house on N.E. 10th and Beech (on the S.E. corner) between 1910-20. This home was owned by a Glanz family who converted it into a care home for the elderly with a capacity of five residents. Mr. Glanz was formerly in the garbage hauling business and his second wife was the operator of the care home. The home was later purchased by Emil and Lena Tober. - contributed by Eleanor (Tober) Lake
A Growing Community
According to Richard Sallet, there were 3,281 Russian-Germans of the first generation and 7,031 of the first and second generations living in Oregon based on the United States Census of 1920. The Census of the United States in the year 1920 indicated that there were 116,535 persons who were born in Russia but spoke German as their mother tongue, and 186,997 persons born in America whose parents were born in Russia, and who spoke German as their mother tongue. In total, then, there were 305,532 Russian-Germans, a number that is worthy of some attention. According to Rath, in the 1930's the Portland settlement numbered about 500 families. Sallet states that in 1940, there were about 630,000 Russian-Germans living in the whole of North America.