The Germans from Russia, generally called “Rooshans” by the scornful native whites of the Plains, spoke no Russian, considered themselves German, and from a long tradition of nonassimilation in a strange country, kept to themselves after they arrived in Nebraska. …
Many of them, particularly the Mennonites who came with Peter Jansen into Jefferson County, bought farmland and farmed in the American style—that is, living on the farms they tilled, rather than going out from the village each day. In their luggage and pockets they brought surreptitiously from Russia the Turkey-red wheat seed, a winter-growing grain, which was to revolutionize wheat farming in the whole Great Plains area. They established Mennonite villages to provide services: implement shops, blacksmithies, general stores, but no lawyers—for Mennonites settle their own differences and to have lawyers implies lack of trust—and churches. For many years some Mennonites in Nebraska wore drab clothing, the women wearing black bonnets, plain, long black dresses. The Jansen community, established in 1874, is dissipated now, as are many other Mennonite villages which thrived for perhaps a half century; the town of Henderson in York County is the single sparkling purely Mennonite community left, and when the fertile fields surrounding it change hands, they are sold only to other Mennonites. With a population of less than a thousand, Henderson has four churches, all of them Mennonite, the largest one, Bethesda, having the largest sanctuary of any church structure in the state. (155–56)
Many of them, particularly the Mennonites who came with Peter Jansen into Jefferson County, bought farmland and farmed in the American style—that is, living on the farms they tilled, rather than going out from the village each day. In their luggage and pockets they brought surreptitiously from Russia the Turkey-red wheat seed, a winter-growing grain, which was to revolutionize wheat farming in the whole Great Plains area. They established Mennonite villages to provide services: implement shops, blacksmithies, general stores, but no lawyers—for Mennonites settle their own differences and to have lawyers implies lack of trust—and churches. For many years some Mennonites in Nebraska wore drab clothing, the women wearing black bonnets, plain, long black dresses. The Jansen community, established in 1874, is dissipated now, as are many other Mennonite villages which thrived for perhaps a half century; the town of Henderson in York County is the single sparkling purely Mennonite community left, and when the fertile fields surrounding it change hands, they are sold only to other Mennonites. With a population of less than a thousand, Henderson has four churches, all of them Mennonite, the largest one, Bethesda, having the largest sanctuary of any church structure in the state. (155–56)
I was unaware that Bethesda’s sanctuary was the largest in the state, at least in 1977; I doubt that that is the case any longer.
We will return to Creigh’s book shortly, when we explore further the topic of 1920s farm economics (that was the whole purpose for buying the book in the first place). Information for that series is still being gathered, but it will soon be ready to appear in post form.
Source Cited
Creigh, Dorothy Weyer. 1977. Nebraska: A Bicentennial History. The States and the Nation Series. New York: Norton; Nashville: American Association for State and Local History.
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