Migration from the German states slowed down for a spell because of the
Napoleonic Wars and King Fredrick of Württemberg prohibited migration from 1807
until 1815. He drafted men for Napoleon's army. The colonies of
Stuttgart, Waterloo and Freidorichstal in the Bereson district were established
in 1818. Discovering the lack of water in these colonies, they petitioned
the government and were given new land. Almost all the settlers from these
colonies established Guldendorf in 1829. They tore down their old homes
and used the materials to build their homes in Guldendorf.
Guldendorf was an Evangelical Lutheran colony in the Chersson province of South
Russia, Odessa Region. It's 14,404 acres of fertile land was given to them
by the Russian government and was ten miles north of Odessa. There were
small hills and valley. The valley ran through the middle of the colony
from north to south. Houses were built on either side of the valley.
The soil and growing conditions depended on the weather. They harvested
rich crops each year when there was rain. Locust, hail and drought
sometimes did considerable damage to crops. There was no forest or trees
on these vast plains, they all had to be hand planted and didn't always do that
well. There were lots of snakes and wolves were always dangerous.
The German Russian settlers received public praise from the Russian Czars for
many orderly and beautiful colonies built in Russia, for diligence in making the
land into the bread basket of the empire. The German settlements remained
closed German communities without being part of the Russian way of life.
They became Russian citizens and acquired Russian political affiliation but
continued to live as Germans in their language and heritage. By 1861,
discord started an era of change for the colonists. This was the year that
twenty million Russian serfs were set free. These free men wanted the land
belonging to the German colonists. The German settlements prospered so
greatly that they aroused the envy of the Russians., The Russian
government felt the earlier Czars had been over-generous in their offers to the
Germans. In 1871, their special privileges were cancelled.
In 1874, the colonist's sons were drafted into the Russian army. In 1876,
judicial reforms deprived the colonists of all justice. Crimes against the
colonists were overlooked. To the Germans, this was the handwriting on the
wall of things yet to come. In 1881, Czar Alexander III decided to
eliminate all non Russian influences. Schools couldn't teach German, but
had to teach Russian,. The villages would be ruled by Russia and in 1893
German colonies were given Russian names.
by now, news of the American Homestead Act and advertising of railroad land was
reaching the German Black Sea settlements. Anyone wishing to leave Russia
could obtain passports and leave if they were not of military age. It was
not easy to dispose of land and belongings. Often parents took over for
younger sons and daughters to allow them to leave. Soon, many Black Sea
Germans began arriving in South Palate from 1880. As the railroad came
further north, so did the immigrants. People started arriving in Eureka,
South Dakota, then migrated into the south central North Dakota, arriving in the
Linton area about 1896.
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