Smith recounts how Mennonites already living in the U.S. assisted their coreligionists in making the trek from Russia to the New World as follows:
These various committees [Mennonite Board of Guardians, Mennonite Executive Aid Committe, and a comparable Canadian committee], with special representatives at the ports of Hamburg and New York, and manifesting a fine spirit of co-operation, perfected an organization whose influence was felt from the plains of Manitoba and Kansas to the steppes of South Russia. Every detail of the long journey from the beginning to the end was carefully prescribed, and the safety and comfort of the immigrants provided for at every step of the way. At Hamburg, the Board of Guardians had stationed a certain Heinrich Schuett, a reliable Mennonite whose duty it was to meet the prospective immigrants as they arrived overland at that port of embarkation, and provide for all their necessary needs, such as changing Russian rubles to the coin of western Europe, or America if necessary; directing them to their proper ships; buying their tickets to New York, or perhaps in certain cases clear to their western destination; and protecting them against rival shipping companies, and unscrupulous rascals of all sorts. At New Yor, the new comers were again met by members of the committees, representatives of railroad companies with whom contracts for passage had been made, and later by friends and relatives who had preceded them. Contracts with both ship and railroad companies were made on much more favorable terms than could have been secured by the immigrants themselves.
The western Board of Guardians contracted with the Inman line which ran its ships from Hamburg to New York, and the Hamburg-American line operating between the same ports; the Pennylvania [Mennonite Executive] Aid Committee had made an agreement with the Red Star Company, a line of Dutch steamers plying between Antwerp and Philadelphia; while the Canadians made use of the Allan line, operating from Hamburg, by way of Liverpool to Quebec. Practically the entire Mennonite immigration came over on the steamers of these three companies. … In order that those not entitled to these special rates might not impose upon the ship companies, as well as to expedite the passage of bona fide Mennonites, the Mennonite Board of Guardians in the late fall of 1873 distributed a number of circulars throughout the Mennonite communities of South Russia with minute directions as to the method of procedure if they wished to take advantage of the special provisions made for them by the American committees. (Smith 1927, 108–10)
The western Board of Guardians contracted with the Inman line which ran its ships from Hamburg to New York, and the Hamburg-American line operating between the same ports; the Pennylvania [Mennonite Executive] Aid Committee had made an agreement with the Red Star Company, a line of Dutch steamers plying between Antwerp and Philadelphia; while the Canadians made use of the Allan line, operating from Hamburg, by way of Liverpool to Quebec. Practically the entire Mennonite immigration came over on the steamers of these three companies. … In order that those not entitled to these special rates might not impose upon the ship companies, as well as to expedite the passage of bona fide Mennonites, the Mennonite Board of Guardians in the late fall of 1873 distributed a number of circulars throughout the Mennonite communities of South Russia with minute directions as to the method of procedure if they wished to take advantage of the special provisions made for them by the American committees. (Smith 1927, 108–10)
Peter D and Sarah, along with the rest of the Johann and Katharina Siebert family, left from the port of Antwerp and traveled on a steamer of the Red Star line: the S.S. Switzerland (see here). I have often wondered how they were able to navigate their way through several different countries, find their way to the right shipping line, buy tickets that would take them where they needed to be in the U.S., then purchase additional tickets to finish the journey by rail. Smith’s narrative answers those questions: the broader Mennonite community was there to assist all along the way, helping brothers and sisters in need safely reach their intended destinations.
Work Cited
Smith, C. Henry. 1927. The Coming of the Russian Mennonites: An Episode in the Settling of the Last Frontier, 1874–1884 Berne, IN.: Mennonite Book Concern.
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