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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 March 2019
The principal immigrant group in Ellis County, Kansas, is the so-called German-Russians. In 1763 Catherine the Great of Russia issued a manifesto designed to stimulate German colonization in the Volga region. By 1768 these people had founded 104 colonies along the banks of the Volga and Karaman rivers. Those who later emigrated to Ellis County came from nineteen of these villages. The first group of emigrants came to Topeka in 1875, and immigration to the United States ended in 1878.
As they had done in Russia, the German-Russian people retained their customs and traditions in their new environment. They continued speaking German, and by no means all learned English; even today among the third generation there are a few who speak German more fluently than English. A recent collection has brought together more than a hundred of their folk songs.
1. Material on the history of the German-Russians is derived from Darrell F. Brungardt, German-Russian Immigration to Ellis County,” Unpub. Term Paper, Fort Hays Kansas State College, 1961; [B. M. Dreiling], Golden Jubilee of the German-Russian Settlements of Ellis and Rush Counties, Kansas (Hays, Kan.: Ellis County News, 1926); Sister M. Eloise Johannes, A Study of the Russian-German Settlements in Ellis County, Kansas, The Catholic University of America Studies in Sociology, Vol. 14 (Washington: Catholic University of America, 1946); Father Laing, Francis S., “German-Russian Settlements in Ellis County, Kansas,” Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society, XI (1909-10), pp. 489–528 Google Scholar; [Joseph M. Linenberger], Grandfather's Story, ed. Helen L. Hall (Carthagena, O.: Editor, 1955); Marjorie G. Raish, Victoria: The Story of a Western Kansas Town, Fort Hays Kansas State College Studies, Language and Literature Series, No. 3 (Hays, Kan.: Fort Hays Kansas State College, 1947), pp. 63-72; and Father Alex G. Stremel, “Religious and Educational Contributions of German-Russians to the Development of Rush and Ellis Counties, Kansas,” Unpub. Master's Thesis, Fort Hays Kansas State College, 1948.
2. Weigel, Lawrence A. and Pfannenstiel, Nick J., German Folk Songs (Hays, Kan.: Authors, 1956).Google Scholar
3. Herman J. Tholen, Interview, Hays, Kan., October 30th, 1958. The pertinent sections of Mr. Tholen's interview will be published by Sackett and Koch. Mr. Tholen's comments have been augmented by my own observation of a wedding dance in Victoria, Kan., in November, 1955. According to Mrs. John Herl (Interview, Hays, August 15th, 1961), it was Prohibition that caused the curtailment of the hochzeit by making it difficult to obtain the beer and other alcoholic beverages that fueled the festivities. Raish, p. 70, attributes this, however, to the influence of the priests.
4. John Herl, Interview, Hays, Kan., August 15th, 1961.
5. For the statements in this paragraph I am indebted to Leland Bartholomew of the Music Faculty of Fort Hays Kansas State College.