Events

Coming Soon - the 37th Annual GRHS Convention!

Reminder: Make your plans early to attend the37th Annual Convention of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society which will be held July 18-22, 2007 at the Ramkota Hotel in Bismarck. This year's convention will be hosted by the GRHS Board of Directors with the help of volunteers from throughout the Society.

Registration, the convention bookstore, and research library will open at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, July 18. Workshops will begin on Thursday morning, July 19, while the opening ceremony is set for 10 a.m. on Thursday. The convention will be filled with workshops on interesting topics, business meetings, good food, kuchen tasting, entertainment, sing-a-longs, and much good fellowship.

I visited him at his home near Cathay

We lost touch for a while after high school. I forged my dad's signature on enlistment papers because I was underage and joined the Navy to try to get some advanced education. Lester ran his dad's farm. He married Violet Meier in 1950 and they had three children.

Lester didn't just sit on his tractor, however. He was active in community affairs; obtained a commercial pilot's license, nearly won a statewide political office, and was president of a 14-county organization promoting weather modification for improved rain distribution in the farming areas. He made a trip to Los Angeles to a national convention of the group.

Lester\'s dad had a nice farm

Lester and I, and one other boy, were in the seventh grade. We provided one another stiff competition which resulted in good grades. We didn't have enough students to play any team games, so jye^ just batted a ball around when it was nice; and played our own brand of basketball, sometimes in the snow. Our basketball equipment consisted of a small barrel hoop nailed to the side of the barn. We had a blue, inflated rubber ball about the size of a soccer ball. The rough ground by the barn didn't lend itself to actually dribbling the ball, but we made a game out of it anyway. Lester and I would, in later years, clash on the real basketball floor.

THE FIRST SECTION

Confirming Dates

Though we have said that the date of the letter is a bit uncertain, there are several clues that can help us confirm when it was written. The writer says, ". . . there are already 13 established colonies" in Bessarabia. Since Paris was Colony #13, established in 1816, one can assume this letter was written sometime after that year—probably a few years later, since the writer uses the phrase "during those first years, it was difficult for us." Arzis, from where this letter was apparently written, was established in 1816. It seems reasonable that this letter was written in 1818.

THE SECOND SECTION

Who Penned This?

It seems reasonable to assume that Christoff Griep (sic) was the author of this second section of text because his address is given at the bottom of the document. At the very least, he was among several people who wrote the letter, and was therefore the sender. It appears that the DAI typist who prepared this transcription made a mistake in spelling his name, however. Bessarabian census documents, extracted church records, and immigration lists include a "Christoph Grieb" as a colonist in Arzis. There is no "Griep" surname found in these sources.

It is noteworthy that Grieb doesn't refer to himself by name only. He is a colonist (i.e. "Col."), with special rights and privileges worthy of that title—and it appears he wants his readers to know it!

The fall season had started

My family ran into some rough times in the late thirties. In 1940 we sold out from our ranch in Montana and headed east searching for opportunities. We traveled through many central states without much luck. We also checked out Oregon and Washington. This part of the story is notable because our wanderings took us back through North Dakota. After a short visit with Anne and her family, the adults decided to leave me and my sister with the Seibolds at their farm near Cathay. This situation put Lester and me back in contact.

When school was out

Cold winter nights and weekends brought about the need for some sort of entertainment to make the hours pass. Lester was a good table-tennis player, so we played some of that on the dining room table. He and I also enjoyed building balsa wood and glue model airplanes. Other times we played board games, such as Monopoly.

In the spring when the snow had melted there would be "sloughs" of melt water in many small depressions in the landscape. An exciting activity was to put together a few 2" x 12" boards as a raft and pole it around in the water. We were real Tom Sawyer types.