IMMIGRANTS’ JOURNEY LACED WITH CHALLENGE, RISK, REWARD

The story of the Swiss-Volhynian Mennonites and their journey from Russia to the community that would become Freeman cannot and should not be told in simple terms.

Rather, it’s a complicated history with roots going all the way back to an Anabaptist religious movement that began in 16th-century Switzerland.

That said, the origin story as it relates to the 150th anniversary of the mass migration from Eastern Europe to Dakota Territory that is being celebrated this weekend (see the accompanying story) can be simplified and traced back to one date in particular:

June 4, 1871.

Up until that point, Anabaptists had been living comfortably in villages in Russia thanks to an order issued by Sophia Augusta — known as Catherine the Great — the German-born Czarina of Russia. Catherine had wanted to entice outsiders to settle in south Russia and Ukraine to help turn the region into a thriving economic base and found appeal in the hard-working farmers, much like the German peasants she remembered growing up as a child.

As enticement, Catherine offered economic incentives like free land, tax exemptions and — best of all to the Anabaptists looking for religious freedom — military exemptions and total autonomy in local government, churches and schools.

It was the perfect fit for a German people whose Radical Reformation had set them apart from Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed faith communities and led to the establishment of Anabaptist groups like Hutterites and Mennonites whose core faith tenants included believer’s baptism, non-violent resolution and a strong division between church and state.

And so it was that the Anabaptists lived and thrived in Russia for 100 years.

But on June 4, 1871, Alexander II issued a decree that repealed the exceptions put in place by Catherine the Great and turned the German-speaking community living in Russia on its head. While many accepted the Czar’s edict and chose to remain in Russia, a sizable minority did not and sought refuge elsewhere; that includes both Anabaptist groups and other religious communities who all played a part in establishing what would, in the next 30 years, become the Greater Freeman Area.

To start with, churches sent delegations to explore options abroad.

Among them was a group of 12 scouts — which, not by coincidence, mirrored the Biblical account of the 12 Jewish spies sent to Canaan — who traveled to the Americas and Australia in search of a new home.

They found it in North America and its vast expansion to the west facilitated by the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

Reuben Goertz, a Freeman historian who lived from 1918 to 1993, writes about this in the book, “Princes, Potentates, and Plain People” published by The Estate of Reuben Goertz in 1994 by The Center for Western Studies at Augustana College.

“It was a historical coincidence of considerable consequences to the German colonists that just as Russia was abridging their privileges, several nations in the Americas were attempting to attract settlers by offering inducements reminiscent of those of Catherine,” Goertz writes. “Earliest in the race was the United States.”

That effort featured the Homestead Act of 1862 that offered 160 acres of free land to any immigrant who would agree to become a United States citizen. Given that, and with a strong background and knowledge in agriculture coupled with the wide open and unbroken prairie of an expanding country, America was among the best and most logical choices for the wandering Anabaptist settlers.

While some Germans immigrating from Russia, like Black Sea colonists, arrived in Dakota Territory in 1873 — the year the railroad expanded from Sioux City, Iowa to Yankton — most started their migration in 1874 and chose to travel further north of Dakota Territory’s capital city for areas more suitable for both establishment and expansion.

And to think that all of this followed what was an arduous journey from Russia and Ukraine through Europe, across the Atlantic, to New York City and then by train from there to Yankton, with the travelers unsure of what they would find upon arrival and no doubt sad from having to leave their homes, most of their possessions and land they had grown to love.

Dakota Territory was no doubt daunting to discover.

Writes Goertz:

“Since some of the land around Yankton was already taken, and the Germans wanted to settle in closed communities as they had in Russia, they pushed beyond the perimeter of the first settlements. Hutchinson County was still wide open, and they settled there and overflowed into adjacent parts of Turner, McCook, Douglas, Bon Homme, and Yankton counties. By 1880 all available land in this area was filled with Germans from Russia. The neighboring land had been infiltrated by refugees and immigrants from other counties. Only the northern tier of countries in South Dakota continued to offer those vast regions so desirable for transplanting entire communities from Russia. By now the railroad network had extended to Aberdeen, and new immigrants ignored Yankton. Eureka replaced Freeman as the Mecca for the new arrivals. Alpena was established in 1883, Hosmer in 1884, and the list goes on.”

Those arriving in the area lived a tough first five years before the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company began expanding its line from Hull, Iowa to Marion Junction through Freeman, Menno, Scotland and onto Running Water, all in 1879. Building supplies and other goods weren’t readily available until access to transportation improved, and if something needed to be acquired, it had to come from Yankton — a two- to three-day trip at the time.

Meanwhile, the settlers were figuring out a new way of life far different from the close proximity in which they had lived back in the villages of Russia. The 160 acres of land they homesteaded provided plenty of space for farming and the establishment of sod homes — and eventually churches and schools — but also stark isolation.

There was also no doubt trepidation about contact with American Indians previously living on the land, the uncertainty of crop production despite their agricultural prowess — crop failure and a hard winter were both realities early on — and other paralyzing elements beyond their control. The prospects of prairie fires were terrifying, disease and poor access to medical treatment took lives and that infamous blizzard of 1888 that killed livestock and five young boys — among others — trying to make it home from school had to have been almost too much to take.

But they persevered, be it the Swiss Mennonites establishing their new homes east of what would become the town of Freeman or Hutterites settling west of the forthcoming city, either on 160 acres of homesteaded land or in colonies as they had for some time back in Russia.

The railroad’s expansion in 1879 was a game-changer because it led to the establishment of towns like Marion, Freeman, Menno and Scotland, giving the settlers connecting points they hadn’t previously enjoyed — not to mention easy access to Yankton.

A public school system was established in 1880, businesses began forming a “downtown” within easy walking distance from the Freeman Depot not long after, and soon large swatches of land were divided into individual lots for homes to be built.

And in 1893, when the citizens of Freeman decided to incorporate and form a municipality, the division between town and country was set, with various rural communities identified by their unique direction from Freeman.

Additional growth became the norm thereafter, with a key development unfolding in 1900 when Mennonite church leadership decided to establish a school to help train teachers and bridge the gap between the German and English language. Three years later, South Dakota Mennonite College opened — a direct link between progress and the settlers who had immigrated to the Freeman area more than 25 years earlier.

Meanwhile, the city of Freeman’s population increased steadily, from 525 in 1900 to 987 in 1930 to 1,140 in 1960, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and the city became a hub for outlying groups to use as their “hometown.”

Freeman and other nearby communities celebrated their centennial in 1989, marking 100 years since the railroad came through town, and then observed their 125th anniversary in 2004.

But the larger settlement is older, thanks to the German immigrants of Mennonite, Hutterite, Lutheran and Reformed traditions and their decision to take a chance on the unbroken prairie of Dakota almost eight generations ago.

One of those groups — the Swiss-Volhynian Mennonites — is taking a lead in observing the 150th anniversary of that game-changing decision this weekend.

“We are looking forward to honoring those who sacrificed so much to help establish what we know today as the Freeman community,” said Marnette (Ortman) Hofer, archivist and executive director at Heritage Hall Museum & Archives who will help share the history during the Saturday night service at her family church, Salem-Zion Mennonite. “We hope these stories can challenge and inspire our present and our future. It is up to us to continue the story.”