Review

2-28-2005 Dear Elli

Words cannot express my gratefulness!! So Samuel Mayer was the key. I reviewed the attachments, told my wife and then called Chet. It was a historic event! It had been long considered impossible to trace. We will cherish these files. I will long remember your persistent research and encouragement.

It always appears to me that someone appears on the scene to give help so unselfishly. This is just a short note for now.

A Close Look at Some Early Correspondence from Bessarabia to Poland

By Divayne Janke Letter Translation by Allen Konrad

Copy of German Mail from the East Number 12, December 1939

LETTER FROM [BESSARABIA] - 1818

A R Z I S

In God, beloved Friends!

Our greetings first and foremost!

Dearest Friends, it is our wish that these lines may meet all of you in good health. It would please us very much. As for us, God be praised, we are all healthy. As the precious opportunity came to us to write to you, so we availed ourselves. Several men from our area are traveling to Poland and offered us the kindness of giving our letters to you friends.

A Navy Built in Four Years

As they neared Sebastopol, a unit of Tatar soldiers on horseback joined the tour. This had to be scary because Catherine could not know for sure if they were friends after being conquered or foes who would wreak their well-known style of havoc on the travelers. Even after the annexation of the Crimea in 1783 or 1784, she had had reports of skirmishes involving them, some of which included fatalities.

Background to the Correspondence Text

This text was translated by GRHS member Allen Konrad from German text on a microfilm of documents originally gathered by the Deutsches Auslands-Institut (DAI). 3 In translating the text, Allen says it appears that the Institute received the original 1818 document in 1939 and an official made a typed-written transcript of it (with carbon copies) in German.

There is some uncertainty about whether this text represents one or two documents, and whether both are complete. What I am calling the first section of text (before "Arzis Colony 29 August 1818)" seems to finish with a definite closing paragraph (i.e. "In closing. . . .").

Breaking the Land

We now get to the core contents of this section of text. We have already addressed the first sentence about plowing and harvesting. By the time this text is written, the colonists had broken the land to some extent and also harvested several times. But the use of "However," in the next sentence gives us some indication that it was difficult. Eight to a dozen oxen had to be harnessed to a wooden plow (the iron plow came later) 7 to overturn the virgin steppe land!

Catherine II of Russia and Joseph II of Austria Connive

Finally they got to Ekaterinoslav, which Potemkin had named for Catherine and designated as the capitol of New Russia. It was a newly-founded city later named by Paul I as Novorossiisk, and still later by the communists, Dnepropetrovsk. Here Catherine was joined by Joseph II, Emperor of Austria, Catherine's power equivalent in Europe. They laid the cornerstone of a cathedral Potemkin envisioned as greater than Rome's St. Peter's.

Catherine Visits A Palace in the Crimea

Then Catherine and Joseph, plus the whole entourage, went to the old khan's palace at Bakhchisarai in the Crimea. It was a fabulous place and they lingered there for 3 or 5 days, enjoying the art work and fountains, sleeping in bedroomsthat had housed the khans' harems.. Catherine had sent an architect a year ahead to be sure it was ready for her, and he had had the good sense just to clean it up not redesign it. In what today's observer might see as a bit of play-acting, she sat on the throne from which the khan had ruled the area.

Fruit and Veggies

Again, Grieb doesn't say that the colonists are tending gardens or orchards that yield the vegetables and fruits he mentions in the next few sentences, though the Alt Posttal 1848 chronicle indicates that each colonist family initially received potatoes for sowing. In any event there was so much fruit in Bessarabia that one could buy an oka's worth for "7 Polish Groschen." Again, the implication is that this is cheap. It is noteworthy that Grieb is using an equivalent in Polish currency to describe the cost of fruit. Of course, this would only be logical so his readers in Poland could understand and presumably be impressed.

In the quest of research... a friendship evolved

E-mails between Elli Wise and Lester Seibold

May 13, 2004 Dear Elli,

I am positively amazed at all the data that has been compiled. I don't know how to thank you enough for your work in preparing these files. I know it must have been tedious and have required much time to accuracy and detail.

Now we have more records that will be referred to many times. This is a historic block of people from Germany originally, thence to Russia and then for a hundred years residents of the Dobrudscha. The story does not end there but continues on to America and of special interest to me, North Dakota. It all added to the America as we know it. May God Bless your work. It will take me much time to go over it all. Thank you again.

Very Sincerely Yours, Lester G. Seibold

May 22, 2004 Dear Elli

I received the CD of Pics yesterday. I took a quick look and found them to be just perfect on my computer. I realize the value of this gift more than ever. The pictures of Alexanderhilf reminded me immediately of the sale of my great great grandfathers farm September 25, 1842 to Jacob Frey. (Teplitz Book) Very Sincerely, Les

September 13, 2004 Hi Elli,

I received your letter and Koblenz Attachment. I printed the Attachment for future reference. What a remarkable job of research. There are quite a few family and familiar names listed at the 1941 date. My grandparents rarely spoke of them. If they did, it was in German and I understood none of it. My parents always spoke in English and avoided any reference to Germany.

Old Lovers. Catherine of Russia and Poniatowski of Poland, Meet Again

At Kaniev, Catherine made contact with Stanislaus Poniatowski, King of Poland, whom she had not seen for 23 years. This was an emotionally loaded encounter because he had been one of Catherine's lovers, the father of her daughter Anna who had died at age 3, and he owed his throne to her. Now he was her inferior and his country was subject to her army's attacks. It is interesting to read the various biographers' accounts of their meeting.

On Down the Dnieper

Come the first of May, when the ice broke on the Dnieper, the group pulled out on the next portion of its trip. It was only 250 miles but required them to maneuver falls. For this portion, Potemkin had built a flotilla of seven galleys (or maybe 11, depending on the book); accompanying boats totaled 80. Meals were served on one of the galleys to all but Catherine and her little in-group, who ate in their own quarters. Each galley was well furnished and even had a library and its own musicians. As had been the case with the coaches, Catherine's galley had a cabin for six persons. She, Mamanov, and her maid took up three spots and the other three were occupied by a rotating shift of others from the group. They were entertained by an entire orchestra directed by Sarti, the premier maestro of the time. Who rowed the galleys? One biographer noticed that not one person who wrote about the trip showed any curiosity about the hands at the oars.

Potemkin Villages

This Dnieper River part of the journey has so burned itself into the world consciousness that it gave rise to the term "Potemkin villages," a synonym for convincing fakery used today by people who know little or nothing of the trip. Potemkin had enlisted the work of the populations of 20 villages to create an impression of happiness and prosperity that grew up ahead of the flotilla then faded behind it. The impoverished wretches that Catherine may have pitied on her girlhood trip were nowhere to be seen. There appeared English gardens containing plants superficially stuck into the ground and well-dressed dancing groups hurriedly (and harshly) trained for the occasion. Catherine loved English gardens and had an English gardener named Bush, but that's a detail from her other life.

September 25, 2004 Hi Elli

Your response to my request is just tops. Thank you so much. Your comments tell so much. You are a very talented person, willing to share.

First of all, I was not sure what EWZ meant. Your attachment explained it all right from the top. There is nothing that I can suggest to change or add. "These EWZ files can bring families together, especially for those who did not come to America when their relatives did."

These records are just as important as the records when our forefathers left Germany after 1763. I feel so privileged to have met and visited with Karl Stumpp and a host of other outstanding individuals. I noted the passing of my good friend Adam Giesinger. You have these same fine qualities. Maybe just maybe I can trace the Blumhagen name back to Germany.

Some of My Memories of Cousin Lester Seibold

My dad must have been expecting a good crop in the middle of the Great Depression in 1936 because he bought a brand-new Ford pickup. It must have cost nearly $500. This event relates to the story because it was the catalyst for our taking a trip from our ranch in Montana to Grandpa's farm in North Dakota. I suppose part of the motivation for the trip was to show off the truck.

I was about seven years old at the time, and hadn't had occasion to learn of any relatives except my maternal grandmother. It was exciting to learn that there were many others in far-off lands.

The Building of the Lehr Tabernacle

The idea of holding camp meetings in the area started sometime after 1915, with a meeting being tried in Jamestown about 1920. The first camp meeting in Lehr occurred in 1921 and was held next to the old Evangelical church in town.

"The speaker's platform was built out of packs of shingles. There were three services a day. The morning and evening preaching services were done by the Evangelist and the afternoon service was conducted by local pastors." (John Erbele, as written by Robert Erbele)

The Camp Meeting in youth camp

The camp meeting were huge events - both spiritually and socially - that were anticipated and prepared for with great excitement throughout the area. In youth camp.

"We looked forward to Lehr Tabernacle camp meeting as much as we looked forward to Christmas in our youth camp! Camp meeting in youth camp was a major highlight of our entire year. For two weeks in June, work on the farm centered around the meetings... the cows were milked early, meals had to be planned so that supper was not late and we had plenty of time to clean up and drive the 13 miles to Lehr." Youth camp Jaboolga. (daughter of Hulda & Albert Kosanke)

The Farmer Who Commuted 3,000 Miles

When I heard the sad news that our friend Lester G. Seibold passed away, I immediately thought back to the very first "Germans from Russia" class that Professor Bill Sherman and I taught at North Dakota State University. It was the winter of 1976-1977. And it was a really cold, "old-time" Dakota winter with lots of snow and below-zero temperatures.

But such adverse winter conditions did not deter a certain North Dakota farmer who wanted very much to enroll in NDSU's first "Germans from Russia" class. This student was none other than Lester G. Seibold, a soft-spoken farmer from the little prairie town of Cathay, North Dakota.

The History of the Denomination

The Tabernacle was built by members of the German Evangelical Church. This denomination was founded by Jacob Albright, a Pennsylvania farmer of German heritage. Wanting to minister to his German-speaking neighbors and friends, Albright left his own Methodist church (which opposed teaching in any language other than English) in 1796, gave up his farm, and started his own ministry.

Initially Albright tried to have his ministry recognized by the Methodist church. But with the expectation that the need for German-speaking churches would be short-lived as these immigrants assimilated into American life and learned English, Methodist Bishop Asbury refused this request.

The Lehr Tabernacle

The Lehr Tabernacle claims a special place in the hearts of those who participated in the annual summer camp meetings held there. The services in German were a reminder of the faith that had carried them from the Black Sea to the Dakota prairies. The time of fellowship and community was important for those often isolated by hard work or long winters on farms far distant from each other. My mother is one of those with special memories of "the Tabernacle" which inspired me to write this article.

The Mysterious List of Names

As we have already said, this section of text (seemingly because of a missing middle portion) starts abruptly with a list of names. Without any preceding text providing some context, it is almost impossible to be certain what the list was supposed to represent. However, because several of these names (e.g. Christoff Griep (sic), Jacob Griep (sic), Jacob Drews and Johann Lenz) can be found in the Neu Arzis 1835 census, I have my own theory—at least some of them are Arzis colonists. (There could be more if the DAI typist made any mistakes in spelling.)

Tribute to Lester G. Seibold

"Someone has said, you can look ahead as far as you can look back....as we continue living, the past continues to disappear. With this purpose in mind, before it is too late, the connection with the past should be made.

What is the use of the past? It has made us what we are today. Just as what we do in our age will make what will be tomorrow.

How valuable are the records that have been kept and the men and women who have compiled them...What a dramatic story is being told. It could have been you at any given time, only it was not yet time for your span of years." (Lester G. Seibold, Heritage Review Issue #21, 1978)