WISHEK N.D.
ExceWishek N.D., Diamond Jubilee, 1898-
Published by therpts from:
Odessa Digital Library -
We who live or have lived in North Dakota owe much to our good Dakota earth,
and many of our tomorrows will have sprung from this wonderful land. We, in
Dakota, were a stopping-
spaces in the West at the close of the Civil War. "Stories of blizzards, Indian
massacres and grasshopper damage discouraged homesteading in Dakota. Land in
the north-
1870's, settlers were there and willing to take it; however, a big obstacle in
the way was the fact that they had to go 400 miles to the south to Vermillion in
Dakota Territory, to file papers. In spite of this difficulty, however,
homesteading gradually increased from year to year until the 1880's when the
trend began in earnest."
The first influx of settlers into McIntosh County began in the early 1880's,
but just who were the first; how did they find their way around; and what did
they see when they got here? McIntosh County came into existence by an act of
the Legislature of Dakota Territory held at Yankton, South Dakota, in January,
1883, when Logan County was divided and the southern portion named McIntosh
after one of the members of the Legislature. McIntosh County legally became a
county when the act was approved March 9, 1883. Except for a few hunters and
trappers and some travel, mostly military, over the Fort Yates trail which
traversed the County east to west, there had been no settlement of any kind.
In the early months of 1885, with a great influx of German-
the population became predominately German and has remained so ever since. The
propaganda of which we have spoken whereby the railroads plastered the country
with pictures of a bonanza land did not stop at the Atlantic. The great
steamship lines took it up and showered Europe with lithographs of the
extraordinary fertile lands, free for the asking, and induced about three
quarters of a million Europeans to buy transportation to the land of promise.
This little sketch is not concerned with the origins of any but those who
settled in the second bench of the rise in Drift Prairie Region of North
Dakota. These were predominately Germans from South Russia. They came in solid
trainloads in 1885 and the succeeding years to settle the higher lands of the
coteau which runs from the north in a gentle south-
state. McIntosh was one of the first sections of the state to receive and settle
these people.
At the first mention of "German Russian," the newcomer is likely to raise his
eyebrows and ask "How come?" Well, they are not ordinary Germans and anything
but ordinary Russians. They were the descendants of what had originally been a
rigidly selected group. At the time that Jefferson was writing our Declaration
of Independence and Washington was winning the war of the Revolution which
followed, Catherine the Great, Czarina of all the Russians was prosecuting and
winning a war with the Turks who had overrun and permanently occupied the
district north and west of the Black Sea. Her armies drove them out. This great
district stood empty. It is now called the Ukraine, sometimes White Russia. It
was, from what we hear, a beautiful land, where almost anything could be grown.
Catherine was born a German princess and was married to a moron Czar. After a
series of intrigues and a few convenient murders she was proclaimed Empress.
Now, confronted with this smiling but vacant land, she thought of her native
Germany and the good people there. She conceived a gigantic colonization
scheme, or rather Potemgin her shrewd advisor thought it up for her and assumed
the task of carrying it out. It was a plan so immense, this first Rural
Resettlement, that, like its successor, it had to be abandoned when only a
quarter through. Even Catherine who could squander $60,000,000.00 couldn't find
the money for it all. They were to rigidly select German farmers and bring them
into Russia. They had to be not only good farmers but superb physical
specimens. They had to be married and the wives also had to have perfect
health. Each farmer was given about 100 acres of this fine black soil, mills
were built, "dorfs" were arranged and each given his own vine and fig tree.
All were promised civil and religious liberty, with perpetual freedom from
military service. The scheme looked good to a lot of Germans, and it was good,
while it lasted. As the years rolled along the bureaucrats forgot the bargain
and began to press. The young men were dragooned into the army and other
privileges were constrained. So thousands approaching military age took ship on
a journey to the land which had been described to them as a land flowing with
milk and honey. It wasn't but they were free and willing to adapt to a new land
which they could love, honour, and cherish.