Daniel Unruh

Several recent posts have mentioned Daniel Unruh, first as Aganetha Dirks’s appointed guardian after the death of her father left her an orphan (her mother had died six years earlier), then as a caretaker who invited her into his own home when he relocated his family in Crimea, and, finally, as a trusted adviser to Aganetha and Heinrich when they expressed the wish to move to the United States. 

Unruh obviously played an important role in the life of this Buller family, but his influence extended much further in the Mennonite world of his day. In fact, Unruh was important enough that he was the subject of an article in the Mennonite Quarterly Review (Unruh and Unruh 1975). That article, which can be read online at the Plett Foundation website (here), is well worth reading in its entirety; this post will merely highlight a few interesting points.

The GRANDMA entry for Daniel Unruh notes, among other things, that “he was the first Mennonite settler of South Dakota.” The MQR article agrees but adds important details. You may recall that, when the Russian Mennonites first thought seriously about emigrating to North America, they sent a delegation of twelve men (including Jacob Buller of Alexanderwohl) to scout out the best places to settle. Although the delegation explored the territories of Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Dakota, they did not visit the area in South Dakota that saw the greatest influx of Russian Mennonites. How, then, did these people come to settle there? 

When Unruh and his initial party arrived in the U.S. in 1873, he and five others left the main body in Elkhart, Indiana, while they searched for a suitable place for the group to settle. Their stops included Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Dakota Territory. According to the article,

Unruh favored lands he had seen in Iowa and would have personally preferred to locate there had he not felt responsibility both for the group which had traveled with him and for friends still in Russia who were anxiously awaiting word from Unruh before commencing the journey to America.  Many of these possessed only meager financial resources and would be unable to purchase lands, as would be necessary in Iowa.  Besides, Iowa was already quite densely populated and there simply would not be sufficient quantities of land available for the many immigrants assumed to be coming. (Unruh and Unruh 1975, 208)

Consequently, after personally inspecting land in southeastern Dakota to the north of Yankton, Unruh decided that the group of eighty or so immigrants in his party would settle there. After spending the winter of 1873–1874 in Yankton, Unruh made “the first Mennonite settlement in Dakota Territory in Childstown Township of Turner County along the banks of Turkey Ridge Creek,” roughly 30 miles northeast of Yankton (Unruh and Unruh 1975, 209). As we will learn in subsequent posts, this initial traveling party was not the last to settle in Turner County and the surrounding area; others in the years to follow also followed Unruh’s lead, including Heinrich and Aganetha and their family.

Another curiosity in the MQR article is also worth noting: the source cited in note 8 in support of the statement that “by the early 1850s Unruh owned considerable land near the Molotschna village of Waldheim, where he was an influential member of the community” (Unruh and Unruh 1975, 209). Note 8 reads:

W. D. Buller, “Heinrich Buller” (Typewritten MS written March 19, 1915, now in possession of Eldon E. Smith, Marion, South Dakota), 7. 

Close comparison with the end of the preface in Life Story of Heinrich Buller and His Wife Agnetha Duerksen Buller leaves little doubt what is being cited.

Although the note refers to W. D. Buller and the preface is signed by W. B. Buller, both documents are dated 19 March 1915, which is convincing evidence that we are dealing with the same source. Interestingly, the note refers to page 7 of a manuscript (MS) titled “Heinrich Buller.” However, the comment about Daniel Unruh’s landholdings near Waldheim appears on page 16 of the Life Story of Heinrich Buller and His Wife Agnetha Duerksen Buller. In all likelihood, then, Unruh and Unruh, the authors of the MQR article, had access to a different form of the work than the printing that we have been consulting. I suspect that their document was an original manuscript, prior to the layout of the final book, which contains photos and is divided into chapters.

In any event, it is encouraging to know that the historians who wrote the article about Daniel Unruh found the reminiscences of Heinrich Buller to be trustworthy in this instance. It is also interesting to learn how influential Daniel Unruh was in the Mennonite settlement of southeastern South Dakota. His role will come back into view as we progress further in the story of Heinrich and Aganetha.

Works Cited 

Buller, William B. 1915. Life Story of Heinrich Buller and His Wife Agnetha Duerksen Buller. Parker, SD: privately printed.

Unruh, John D., and John D. Unruh Jr. 1975. Daniel Unruh and the Mennonite Settlement in Dakota Territory. Mennonite Quarterly Review 49:203–16. Available online here.