Arrival from Russia

For the last century and a half, Mennonites have been well-served by a variety of periodicals offering both spiritual guidance and news of interest to the broader church community. One such serial publication was the Herald of Truth, which was launched in Chicago by John F. Funk in 1864—that is, while the Civil War raged and our ancestors still lived in imperial Russia. 

Today I discovered that the entire run of this periodical (1864–1908, after which it became part of the Gospel Herald) has been digitized by the Anabaptist Mennonite Digital Collaborative and is freely available for anyone to access. I chose an early year at random (1875) and began thumbing (scrolling) through. I noticed that the news section of one of the monthly issues that year mentioned the arrival of a number of immigrants from Russia who had traveled on to Kansas. Intrigued, I wondered if there might be any mention of our ancestors, or at least the boat on which they traversed the Atlantic. Happily, there was.

The July 1879 issue of the Herald of Truth includes an article titled “Arrival from Russia,” the first part of which is pictured below (for the article and the full issue, see here).

The article reports the arrival of the SS Switzerland on 24 June 1879, which was the very ship and the exact day on which Peter D and Sarah Siebert Buller and family arrived in Philadelphia (for more on our family’s journey on the SS Switzerland, see here). Hard as it is to believe, this article is describing their arrival in the U.S. Given the article’s importance to our family history, it is worth quoting in full.

The Red Star Line Steamer “Switzerland” from Antwerp, arrived at Philadelphia, June 24th, with 726 Mennonites from South Russia, under the leaders, Franz Toews, Cornelius Regier, Julius Friesen, Jacob Neufeld and David Hiebert.

They were landed on the afternoon of the 24th, and on the afternoon of the 25th they were forwarded over the Pennsylvania Railroad by special train, to their respective destinations.

     64 families, numbering 354 souls, Nebraska.

     42      “                   “          260     “      Kansas.

     14      “                   “             77     “      Minnesota.

       7      “                   “             35     “      Dakota.

During their stay at Philadelphia, they had the advice and adtendence [sic] of the Mennonite Executive Aid Committee of Pennsylvania, of whom were present Brother Amos Herr, Gabriel Baer, H. K. Godshall, and Albert E. Funk, who had also as the representatives of the American Mennonites paid the fare of twenty of the new arrivals from Antwerp to their destination in the West.

Bro. D. Gaeddert from Kansas, also met the new arrivals on their landing, and in a very effective way assisted the committee, helping and advising the newly arrived brethren cheerfully and untiringly.

The Red Star Line and its General Agents, Messrs Peter Wright & Sons, and the Pennsylvania Railroad and its Agent, Mr. Francis Funk, again earned the acknowledgement of the committee and the newly arrived brethren, thus recommending themselves to the continuing favors of the Mennonites in America and in Russia.

The Herald of Truth is not the only Mennonite-focused serial to have been digitized and posted on the web, nor is this issue the only one of interest to this blog and its readers. Henry and Beatrice Buller also make an appearance in an issue of the Mennonite Historical Bulletin, but that will have to await another post.