Volga German Heritage of
Ellis and Rush Counties in Kansas

The Scouts

In 1874, Russia passed the military law, which required participation from all the colonists to the military service. This went against Catherine the Great's manifest that exempted the German colonists from military service if they went to live in the Volga region.

The colonists met in Herzog in the spring of 1874 for the purpose of electing 5 delegates to visit America. The delegates, representing the different communities, were to look for places that they felt was best to create new settlements. One of the delegates chosen was Balthasar Brungardt from Herzog, but he declined and was replaced by Nicholas Schamne from Graf. Peter Leiker from Obermonjour, Jacob Ritter from Luzern, Peter Stoecklein from Zug, and Anton Wasinger from Schoenchen were the other four delegates.

After arriving in New York, they journeyed to Clay County, Nebraska where they looked over the land for one day. Upon returning to Russia after being in America for ten days, they reported that the land was very good and brought with them samples of soil and prairie grass to show the others. Two more scouts, Joseph Exner of Obermunjour and Jakob Bissing of Katharinestadt, came to Larned, Kansas and spent a week looking over the land in December 1874. Their report was less favorable.

However, after four men from Herzog and twenty-one men from Katharinestadt were drafted in late November and early December 1874, the emigration to the United States began. Eventually, four of these scouts emigrated to the United States to settle in their new homes. Peter Leiker, Peter Stoecklein, and Anton Wasinger settled in Munjor. Nicholas Schamne escorted two groups of emigrants to America, but he died before he could be an emigrant himself.

NOTE: Picture came from the Center for Ethnic Studies

Catherine | Herzog | Liebenthal | Munjor | Pfeifer | Schoenchen

E-mail me with questions or comments. Most of the photographs on this Web site were taken by Patty Nicholas, and acknowledgement is given for any other photographs.