The
American Agriculturist offers several other references to Mennonites. Two of them are made in the context of the earliest wave of immigration from Russia to the central United States. The first appears in the October 1873 issue (32:367):
The Mennonites.—A large body of Russians belonging to a peculiar sect of Christianity known as Mennonites have arrived in Harvey Co., Kansas, having purchased lands of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. These people will be an acquisition to the state of their adoption, being of a remarkably moral, industrious, and thrifty character. The present arrival is the advance guard of the whole community it is said, who leave their homes on account of their objection to conscription into the Russian army.
The second is from July of the following year (33:273):
The Mennonites.—These people are now arriving at their new Western homes. A few weeks ago, a body of three hundred and fifty arrived in New York, bringing a common fund of $60,000, and immediately started for their destination, in Nebraska. The industrious, frugal habits of these people, with their strong religious character, will make them as sturdy, persevering, and finally as successful a body of citizens as could be wished for.
There is nothing new in these descriptions; they are repeated here simply for archival purposes, as contemporary accounts of interest for Mennonite history.
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