Traveling by train and ship and train

Bernhard Warkentin was a Molotschna Mennonite of some means who toured the U.S. in 1872. Once here, he never returned. Eventually Warkentin became known for playing a key role in promoting the Mennonites’ Turkey Red hard winter wheat in North America and developing the milling industry in Kansas.

Before then, however, he served as a midwife of sorts, helping other Molotschna Mennonites make the trek from Russia to the U.S. One of Warkentin’s letters to a friend (we read elsewhere that it took forty days for a letter to be delivered) includes details that help fill in some gaps in our understanding of our ancestors’ journey from Kleefeld to Henderson. Warkentin writes:

As I have answered your questions to the best of my knowledge in my previous letter, I shall now just repeat; do not bring any unnecessary articles along, see to it that you will not have over four hundred pounds of baggage with your family, for each immigrant has two hundred pounds baggage free, children twelve years old, only one hundred pounds; they pay only half fare. —In Russia and Germany you may have to pay something for the baggage; if I am not mistaken the passenger on the ship is allowed two hundred pounds, in addition to what he has with him as hand baggage, and this should never be more than one absolutely needs and can carry comfortably. —What you ought to bring along you will know best; I would advise you at this time to bring the good featherbeds, the sheepskins, and the clothes which you already have will do no harm, but it would not be advisable to buy many new things. —Bring as much linen as you have, for that is very expensive here,—besides, hardly anyone wears linen, only cotton is used. —Do not bring kitchen utensils or implements of any kind ; what you have, sell there, for it is easiest and most convenient to carry the money for those articles in one’s pocket, for which everything can be bought here. How you are going to travel from Hamburg or Bremen, either in a cabin $100 per passenger, or in steerage $55 per passenger, is still a question. If you travel in a cabin you need not be concerned about anything after you have booked your baggage, since everything is taken care of, but if you travel in steerage you should provide yourself with bedding and kitchen utensils, for the steerage passenger also receives food, and I think enough, although it is quite plain. I would advise, however, that all who possibly can should spend the extra $45 and travel in a cabin; at any rate, older people and families with little children should do so. And so I would advise you too, as friend, not to travel in steerage, but in a cabin. Those who want to save and leave Hamburg in steerage, despite the fact that they have the means, would often regret on the voyage not to have taken a cabin. Young people could travel in steerage out of consideration for their purse, for in the end it takes only ten to twelve days till they again have firm ground under foot.  … The fare on an immigrant train from New York to St. Louis is from $15–$20 (I am not certain yet, but it is not more). (Krahn 1950, 255, 256)

Using the information shared in Warkentin’s letter, we might deduce the following for our family.

• As indicated by the ship manifest discussed here (see also here), our ancestors did not spend the extra $45 for cabin accommodations and traveled instead in steerage class. Thus, the cost for the ocean portion of the journey would have been roughly $275 (two adults at $55 + six children at $27.50).
• Assuming that travel by train from Philadelphia to Lincoln cost slightly more than the New York–St. Louis trip, and assuming that children received a reduced fare (as seems common), one could suggest that the last leg of the journey cost $125 (two adults at $25 and six children at $12.50).
• We have no evidence about how much the train ride from Hochstadt, Germany, to Antwerp, Belgium cost, but if it was roughly the same as the last leg of the journey, then Peter D and Sarah needed an additional $125 for their family.
• All told, then, the travel charges for this one family’s move to Henderson were likely in the vicinity of $525. As further noted in Warkentin’s letter, there were additional expenses along the way, such as baggage fees and possibly food during the train portions of the trek.
• In theory, the Buller family of eight could have taken a thousand pounds of baggage (200 lbs. for each of two adults + 100 lbs. each for the six children) without paying extra, although it seems hard to imagine moving with that many goods.

The more we learn about our ancestors’ journey, the more awe-inspiring it becomes. Not only was their trek both long and arduous (steerage class was a miserable way to travel), but it also involved significant cost ($525 is equivalent to $12,500 today) and effort (keeping track of six children and who knows how many pounds of baggage). Finally, if, as was suggested before, Johann Siebert financed the journey for all of his children who moved at that time (fourteen full fares and eleven half-fares), his contribution to his family’s future prospects (nearly $50,000 in today’s dollars) is seen to be truly remarkable.

Source

Krahn, Cornelius, ed. 1950. Some Letters of Bernhard Warkentin Pertaining to the Migration of 1873–1875. MQR 24:248–63.