A Trunk

Lest August pass by completely with nary a word written, permit me to share a brief post on a photo taken at Henderson’s Mennonite Heritage Park (on which see here). During a recent trip to Nebraska, I was able to spend time touring the Heritage Park in its entirety once again. (I highly recommend the Heritage Park to anyone with an interest in our family’s history.) While there, I saw once again a trunk that had earlier caught my eye and my imagination.

As the signage and our tour guide made clear, this very trunk had been used during the immigration of the 1870s from Russia to the United States; it had transported some Mennonite family’s worldly possessions as they made the long trek from Molotschna to Henderson.

What intrigued me about the trunk was that I knew from personal correspondence that it had been in the basement of Dale and Joann Buller. Dale is the son of Albert, the son of Abraham, the son of Peter D and Sarah Siebert Buller. In other words, our families are related by virtue of the fact that Abraham and Peter P were brothers.

You can probably imagine the question that came to my mind when I learned that this trunk, which is known to have been used in the immigration to the U.S., had been in the possession of Dale Buller, another descendant of our own forebears Peter D and Sarah: Could this be the actual trunk that they used when they, along with Johann Siebert and many of his family, journeyed to Henderson in 1879?

Sadly, this is not that trunk, as a sign on the trunk seems to make clear. It reads: 

Russian chest 

was brought to 

America from Russia 

by her grandparents 

and donated

Louise Epp Buller

Swan Estate

With the help of GRANDMA, we can sort out what this means. Louise Epp Buller was Dale Buller’s mother, which explains why Dale had the trunk before it was donated to the Heritage Park. Louise was the wife of Albert Buller, who passed away at the young age of forty-two in 1951. Many years later Louise married a man named Arthur Swan, which explains why the placard refers to the Swan estate.

All that is background to the most important statement of all: the trunk was brought to America from Russia by her, that is, Louise’s, grandparents. Recall that Louise Epp married into the Buller family; she was not a Buller by birth. Thus, the trunk cannot be the one that Peter D and Sarah used during their journey. If the trunk that they used still exists, it remains to be found or identified.

One final note as a reminder at how family memories may become muddled a little over the years and decades: both sets of Louise Epp’s grandparents married after arriving in Henderson; all four persons who eventually became Louise’s grandparents were single members of their biological families at the time of the immigration. So it is impossible that Louise’s grandparents used this trunk; it seems most likely that the trunk was used by Louise’s great-grandparents, not her grandparents per se.