Citizen Buller

With another U.S. election day upon us, it seems an appropriate time to explore the broader issues of citizenship and voting rights that lie in our family background, especially since so much of what we take as commonplace was an entirely new experience for our forebears.

The political structure and situation in nineteenth-century Nebraska differed from that in Molotschna colony in various ways, but two deserve special attention. First, as mentioned in passing earlier, only landowners had the right to vote in Molotschna colony. Of the entire Siebert-Buller group of twenty-five people who emigrated to the U.S. in 1879, then, only Johann Siebert ever had—or probably ever would—cast a vote within the Russian political system.

Second, by definition one does not vote on who will rule as tsar or tsarina; Russia was no democracy! The only votes cast were local in nature. Thus, a landowner such as Johann would have voted for the village Schulze (mayor) and two Besitzer (assistants); each village also had a clerk, but that individual was hired, not elected. On a broader scale, Johann could also vote for the Halbstadt Oberschulze (district mayor; Molotschna was divided into two volosts, or districts, by the 1870s, and Kleefeld was in the Halbstadt volost). Such was the political reality in New Russia.

In contrast, by the latter part of the nineteenth century every male citizen in Nebraska eighteen or older had the right to vote for all government offices. (Women did not receive the right to vote in Nebraska until 1917, and then only in municipal elections.) So, what do we know about when our ancestors became U.S. citizens, and how did this determine their ability to vote?

The first member of the Peter D Buller family to become a citizen was, of course, Peter P’s younger brother Jacob P, who was born in the U.S. on 2 August 1879. (Remember that Sarah Siebert Buller was six months pregnant when the family emigrated.) But who was likely next?

The U.S. National Archives offers a helpful explanation of the process by which immigrants such as Peter D or Sarah might become citizens:

As a general rule, naturalization was a two-step process that took a minimum of 5 years. After residing in the United States for 2 years, an alien could file a “declaration of intent” … to become a citizen. After 3 additional years, the alien could “petition for naturalization.” After the petition was granted, a certificate of citizenship was issued to the alien. (see further here)

The National Archives explains further that citizenship was also granted to a man’s wife and minor children (under the age of twenty-one) when it was granted to him. One declaration of intent and one petition for naturalization sufficed for the entire nuclear family.

Remarkably, a foreign-born resident could file the declaration of intent in any court of law (not just those within the federal system), and most immigrants filed their papers in their county courts. So, one might imagine Peter D filing a declaration of intent in the Hamilton County court sometime after June 1881 (two years after setting up residence in the U.S.) and becoming a citizen via petition three years after that, sometime in 1884 or later.

One might imagine that, but we really do not know when, or even if, Peter D became a U.S. citizen before he passed away in 1897. Perhaps the answer lies buried somewhere in the boxes or shelves of the Hamilton County archives. (Peter D was a resident of Hamilton County, just far west enough of Henderson to be out of York County.) For now, all we can do is speculate.

Courtesy of the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management.
See the original scan here.

If Peter D was the person who filed for and received the grant of land via the Homestead Act on 21 January 1893 (see right), then he had at least filed a declaration of intent before then, since land grants were available only to citizens or those who intended to become citizens.

If, however, the grant was made to Peter P, then we cannot know with certainty whether or not, let alone when, Peter D might have become a U.S. citizen. Several scenarios are thus possible.

(1) Peter D became a citizen within a reasonable amount of time after he was eligible to do so, so that by 1885–1888 both he, Sarah, and all their children (who were all under the age of twenty-one until late 1888) were naturalized citizens. In this case the land grant could have been made to Peter D or Peter P, both of whom would have been eligible.

(2) Peter D did not become a citizen at all and died a foreign-born resident in 1897. This would not be at all unusual, since the National Archives reports that 25 percent of the foreign-born residents in the 1890–1930 U.S. censuses had not taken even the first step toward citizenship. If Peter D was among that group, then Peter P must have filed for citizenship himself sometime after turning twenty-one (April 1890) and before applying for the land grant under the Homestead Act (presumably sometime in 1892).

Of the two scenarios, the first seems more likely, even though it leaves unresolved the question of which Peter received the land grant. Further, neither scenario tells us a thing about whether or when our earliest U.S. ancestors exercised their right to vote. The important thing is that within a decade or thereabouts at least some of our forebears did hold that right, something that they would not have enjoyed in nineteenth-century Russia.

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As a related postscript, I note that York County posts online all declarations of intent to naturalize between the years 1870 and 1929 (sadly, Hamilton County does not). Searching for the last names Buller, Franz, Epp, and Siebert at the website here returns twenty-one individuals.

Name	Application Date	Age at Time of  Application
Buller, David	29 September 1882	27
Buller, David P.	20 January 1893	32
Buller, Henry J.	31 January 1893	24
Buller, Jacob	12 October 1886	47
Buller, Peter	6 October 1900	46
Franz, David	17 May 1889	50
Franz, Gerhart	26 September 1906	53
Epp, Cornelius	23 February 1891	27
Epp, Cornelius	17 October 1885	26
Epp, Cornelius	25 January 1886	60
Epp, Heinrich	28 April 1881	60
Epp, Heinrich	30 April 1881	24
Epp, Heinrich C.	10 May 1882	31
Epp, Heinrich G.	23 October 1901	38
Epp, Heinrich P.	23 February 1891	33
Epp, Jacob	23 May 1890	32
Epp, Johann	28 April 1881	50
Epp, Johann P.	26 September 1906	52
Epp, Klaus	24 December 1890	25
Epp, Peter	5 February 1887	24
Siebert, Cornelius	5 July 1887	21

1. Using the ages and application dates to calculate dates of birth rules out some of the Bullers listed from being members of our family. The Peter listed, for example, was born in 1854, which matches neither Peter D nor Peter P. He is apparently GRANDMA 28873 (no relation).

2. The first David Buller may well be Peter D’s younger brother who came over at the same time. He was born 14 February 1855, which would match the age given and application date.

3. Henry (Heinrich) J. and Jacob Buller are son and father (GRANDMA 236934 and 29059) but no relation to us.

4. Gerhart Franz might well be the same as Gerhard Franz, father of Isaac, father of Malinda. Gerhard was born 7 July 1853, so he would have been fifty-three on the application date—just as it says. (As someone born in the U.S. in 1882, Isaac was a natural-born citizen even though his father and mother were not citizens at the time.)

5. Jacob Epp, father of Sarah, mother of Malinda, was born 31 October 1856, so he would have been thirty-four in 1890; thus, the Jacob Epp listed is probably someone else with the same name.

5. None of the other Epp names and dates seem to match the Epps in our family line.

6. Cornelius Siebert is probably Kornelius Siebert, the youngest child in the Johann Siebert family. He was born 23 June 1866, so the ages match perfectly. He would have been thirteen when Johann and extended family arrived in the U.S. Since Kornelius was not a citizen in 1887, eight years later, we know that Johann Siebert had not become a U.S. citizen by that time (Johann’s status would have transferred automatically to Kornelius). Whether of not he ever did so will have to remain a mystery for the time being.

7. Assuming that most of these individuals emigrated during the 1870s, it is interesting to note that over half (eleven) had already initiated the citizenship process by the end of the 1880s. Others were in no hurry. Johann P. Epp, for example, arrived in the U.S. in 1875 but did not petition to become a citizen until 1906, thirty-one years later. He died just eleven years after that.

8. The majority were in their twenties (eight) or thirties (five). The rest of the applicants are spread out across their forties (two), fifties (four), and sixties (two). It would be interesting to explore if the youngish slant corresponds to a desire to secure land via the Homestead Act (which required one to be a citizen or intending to become one).