History:

Always closely tied to the Rhine River which forms its eastern boundary, Alsace has found itself a border region for most of its history. It was first conquered by Julius Caesar in the 1st century BC and remained a part of the Roman province of Prima Germania for the next six centuries.

The region was conquered by the Alemanni, a Germanic tribe, in the 5th century AD and then by Clovis and the Franks in 496. Under his Merovingian successors the inhabitants were Christianized.

In the ninth century, this region became part of the heartland of the re-constituted Roman (more accurately "Carolingian") Empire of Charlemagne (Karl der Grosse). When Charlemagne's grandsons divided his Empire at the Treaty of Verdun of 843, the region was in the middle of Lorraine (Lotharingia), part of a narrow middle strip granted to Lothar with German- and French-speaking kingdoms to either side. Buffeted on both sides, the new kingdom did not last long and the region that was to become Alsace eventually was absorbed into the Holy Roman Empire as part of the duchy of Swabia in the Treaty of Meersen in 870. At about this time the entire region began to fragment into a number of secular and ecclesiastical lordships, a situation which prevailed until the 17th century.

One of the most powerful secular families of Swabia was that of the Staufen or Hohenstaufen. In 1152, this family placed its leading member on the German throne as Friedrich I Barbarossa. Frederick was instrumental in recovery of the monarchy from its dissipation following the Investiture Contest. Part of the reason was his policy of building up imperial lands in support of the monarchy and in 1212, Alsace was organized for the first time as we know it today to be one of them. Frederick set up Alsace as a province (procuratio to use the term which had been adapted from the Romans) to be ruled by ministeriales, a non-noble class of civil servants. The idea was that such men would be more tractable and less likely to alienate the fief from the crown out of their own greed. The province had a single provincial court (Landgericht) and a central administration with its seat at Hagenau.

During his reign, Emperor Friedrich II designated the bishop of Strassburg to administrate the Alsace, but the authority of the bishop was challenged by Count Rudolf of Habsburg, who received his rights from Friedrich's son Konrad IV. Strassburg (Strass=street and burg=fortification), which had been an episcopal see since the 4th century, began to grow to become the most populous and commercially-important town in the region. In 1262, after a long struggle with the ruling bishops, its citizens gained the status of free imperial city. A stop on the Paris-Vienna-Orient trade route, as well as a port on the Rhine route linking southern Germany and Switzerland to the Netherlands, England and Scandinavia, it became the political and economic center of the region. Cities such as Colmar and Hagenau also began to grow in economic importance and gained a kind of autonomy within the "Decapole" or "Dekapolis", a federation of 10 free towns.

Around this time, German central power declined following years of imperial adventures in Italian lands, which ceded hegemony in Europe to France, which had long since centralized power. Now France began an aggressive policy of expanding westward, first to the Rhône and Meuse Rivers, and when those borders were reached, aiming for the Rhine. In 1299, they even proposed a marriage alliance between Philip of France's sister and Albrecht of Austria's son, with Alsace to be the dowry; however, the deal never came off. In 1307, the town of Belfort was first chartered by the counts of Montbéliard.

During the next century, France was to be militarily shattered by the Hundred Years War with England which prevented for a time any further tendencies in this direction. After the conclusion of the war, France was again free to pursue its desire to reach the Rhine and in 1444 an French army appeared in Lorraine and Alsace. There it took up winter quarters, demanded the submission of Metz and Strassburg and launched an attack on Basel.

In 1469, following the Treaty of St. Omer, Upper Alsace was sold for money by Duke Sigismund of Habsburg to Charles of Burgundy who also ruled over of Netherlands and Burgundy. Although Charles was the nominal landlord, taxes were paid to the German Emperor. The Emperor was able to wreak this tax and a dynastic marriage to his advantage to gain back full control of Upper Alsace (apart from the free towns, but including Belfort) in 1477 when it became part of the particular demesne of the Habsburg family, who were also hereditary rulers of the Empire. A little later, 1515, the town of Mulhouse joined the Swiss confederation in 1515 where it was to remain until 1798.

By the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, Strasbourg was a prosperous community, and its inhabitants accepted Protestantism at an early date (1523). The reformer Martin Bucer was a prominent Protestant reformer in the region. His efforts were countered by the Roman Catholic Habsburgs who tried to eradicate heresy in Upper Alsace. As a result, Alsace was transformed into a mosaic of Catholic and Protestant territories.

This situation prevailed until 1639 when most of Alsace was conquered by France to prevent it falling into the hands of the Spanish Habsburgs who wanted a clear road to their valuable and rebellious possessions in the Netherlands. This occurred in the greater context of the Thirty Years War. So, in 1646, beset by enemies and to gain a free hand in Hungary, the Habsburgs sold their Sundgau territory (mostly in Upper Alsace) to France, which had occupied it, for the sum of 1.2 million thalers. Thus, when the hostilities finally ceased in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia, most of Alsace went to France with some towns remaining independent. The treaty stipulations regarding Alsace were extremely byzantine and confusing; it is thought that this was purposely so that neither the French king or the German Emperor could gain tight control, but that one would play off the other, thereby assuring Alsace some measure of autonomy. Supporters of this theory point out that the treaty stipulations were authored by Imperial plenipotentiary Isaac Volmar, the former chancellor of Alsace.

The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) had been one of the worst periods in the history of Alsace. It caused large numbers of the population (mainly in the countryside) to die or to flee away, because the land was successively invaded and devastated by many armies (Imperials, Swedes, French, etc.). After 1648 and until the mid-18th century, numerous immigrants arrived from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Lorraine, Savoy and other areas. Between 1671-1711 Anabaptist refugees came from Switzerland, notably from Bern. Strassburg became a main center of the early Anabaptist movement.

France consolidated her hold with the 1679 Treaty of Nimwegen which brought the towns under her control. In 1681, she occupied Strassburg in an unprovoked action. These territorial changes were reinforced at the 1691 Peace of Rijkswik (Ryswick) which ended the War of the Palatinate (also known as the War of the Grand Alliance or War of the League of Augsburg), although the Holy Roman Empire did not accept and sign the document until 1697. Thus was Alsace drawn into the orbit of France.

The year 1789 brought the French revolution and with it the first division of Alsace into the départements of Haut- and Bas-Rhin. Many of the residents of the Sundgau made "pilgrimages" to places like Mariastein, near Basel, in Switzerland, for baptisms and weddings.

During the last decade of the 18th century, many Alsatians were in opposition to the Jacobins and sympathetic to the invading forces of Austria and Prussia who sought to crush the nascent revolutionary republic. When the French Revolutionary Army of the Rhine was victorious, tens of thousands fled east before it. When they were later permitted to return (in some cases not until 1799), it was often to find that their lands and homes had been confiscated. These straitened conditions led to emigration by hundreds of families to newly-vacant lands in the Russian Empire in 1803/4 and again in 1808. A poignant retelling of this tale based on what he had himself witnessed can be found in Goethe's Hermann und Dorothea.

In response to the restoration of Napoleon, in 1814 and 1815, Alsace was occupied by foreign forces, including over 280,000 soldiers and 90,000 horses in Bas-Rhin alone. This had grave effects on trade and the economy of the region since former overland trade routes were switched to newly-opened Mediterranean and Atlantic seaports.

At the same time, the population was growing rapidly, from 800,000 in 1814 to 914,000 in 1830 and 1,067,000 in 1846. The combination of factors meant hunger, housing shortages and a lack of work for young people. Thus, it is not surprising that people fled, not only to Russia, but also to take advantage of a new opportunity offered by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Empire had recently conquered lands in the East from the Turkish Empire and offered generous terms for colonists in order to consolidate their hold on the lands. Many Alsatians also began to sail for America, where after 1807 slave importation had been banned and new workers were needed for the cotton fields.

Many American and Russian recruiters worked for shipowners and made grandiose, fictitious promises to the restless Alsatians. Once they agreed and surreptitiously left Alsace, they often found themselves forced into indentured servitude. This was so abused in fact that in 1818 the Louisiana general assembly enacted legislation protecting the rights of such immigrants, which sometimes led to new tactics such as shipowners demanding exorbitant passage fees. Even so, tens of thousands of settlers emigrated to Russia and the United States between 1817 and 1839. The Panic of 1825 can be cited as another spur to emigration.

In the 1840's, enterprising Alsatian Henri Castro contracted with the Republic of Texas, to bring in Alsatian settlers in exchange for large land grants. Thus, starting in 1842, many left for Castroville and other Texan communities, Castro proving to be only second to Stephen Austin in numbers of settlers attracted.

Alsace-Lorraine

In 1871, as a concession after the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1), France gave up Alsace, except for the Belfort territory, along with the Moselle portion of Lorraine, to the new unified Germany and the history of Alsace becomes that of the Reichsland Elsass-Lothringen or Alsace-Lorraine. The Vallee de la Bruche which had been part of the Department of the Vosges was annexed to Alsace-Lorraine in 1872. Its population in 1890 was 77% Catholic, 21% Protestant, 2% Jewish with 678 Mennonites in Lower Alsace and 1,012 in Upper Alsace. In 1898 Mennonite congregations were in Birkenhof bei Altkirch (130 souls), Colmar-Wolfganzen (151), Markirch-Weilertal (32), Pfastatt (250), Pulversheim (35), Hang (139), An dem Salm (60). This period of Germanization continued until World War I (1914-1918), at the conclusion of which, Alsace returned to French control.

A similar transfer occurred during the World War II conflict (1939-45) at the end of which the region was again ceded to France. Still today, however, two German language newspapers are published here. There is even still spoken here and there a German dialect Alsacien (Elsässisch), but it is vanishing.

The Great Flight

During the reign of terror, the people of Alsace saw their churches and monasteries suppressed, their priests exiled or imprisoned, their property requisitiooned or nationallized, their yooouth drafted in to the revolutionary armies. They endured the criminal terror organized by the infamous monk, Eulogius Schneider, former professor in Bonn and episcopal vicar of Strassburg, who turned Jacobin and became the Public Accuser of the Revolutionary Tribunal in Strassburg. Under his ruthless regime the terror-stricken Alsatians saw the gruesome guillotine hauled from village to village, and witnessed the death of some of their sons upon it. But the greatest tragedy that befell the inhabitants of Lower Alsace was "la Grande Fuite" of 1793, the mass flight which compelled tens of thousands of Alsatians to forsake their fatherland and find refuge on German soil.

In mid-October 1783, the Austrian and Prussian forces invaded the Lower Alsace in order to defeat the Revolutionary Rhine Army and thereby hasten the restoration of the French monarchy. In a few weeks, the Austrian general Wurmser had driven the French troops back to the ramparts of Strassburg and restored peace and order. The general's plan was to remain in winter quarters in the occupied territory and to continue the attack in the spring. But a counter-offensive by the reinforced Rhine Army compelled him to beat a hasty retreat, and before the end of the year the whole of Lower Alsace was cleared of foreign troops. The French now invaded German soil and in a few weeks succeeded in occupying the entire Palatinate.

In Lower Alsace, the revolutionists threatened to kill all "the cowards and traitors" who had collaborated with the invaders and then fled with them into German territory. On November 22, while the flight of the inhabitants was rampant everywhere, the rabid representative Lacoste wrote to the Comité, "The only measure to be taken is to guillotine one-fourth of the inhabitants of this area, drive out the rest, and confiscate their property". Another Jacobin fanatic, Baudot, threatened to "make a fricassee of the damned Alsatians who had polluted the fair soil of Alsace".

A panic terror gripped the poor people as they fled from their homes and villages in utter confusion and frenzied haste. The Prefect of the Bas-Rhin reported that "everybody feld, forsaking father, wife, children, and all their belongings. People fled without their clothes, the rich without their money, the mother without the baby to whom she had recently given birth. Entire villages became empty and deserted; the shops had no workers; the plows had no farm hands". All the roads leading to the Rhine were crowded with swarms of wretched, confused and terror-stricken humanity. The Rhine crossing at Lauterburg was jammed with a mounting flood of refugees.

It is estimated that some 40,000 people fled from their Alsatian homeland, most of them from the departments of Weissenburg and Hagenau. When the victorious French armies advanced into the Palatinate districts of Bergzabern and Germersheim, another 30,000 fled in terror from their villages to find safety on the right bank of the Rhine. These masses of refugees were scattered far and wide all the way from Heidelberg to Freiburg in the heart of the Black Forest. Here they eked out their wretched existence in direst poverty, exposed to the rigors of winter and the constant threat of starvation.

As early as January of 1794, the notorious Jacobins, St. Juste and Lebas (representatives from Paris) lost no time in confiscating the property of those who fled. Agents pillaged and looted everything from cellar to attic, including the hinges on the doors. The horses and wagons, the hay and the grain were sent to the army depots. The furniture and clothing, the money, the jewelry, and the metal were shipped to Strassburg. The land and the buildings were auctioned off or simply given away.

The former district officials of Weissenburg and Hagenau were sent in chains to Paris, where they were guillotined. The churches in the two districts were looted, despoiled and closed. The relatives of those who had fled were hunted out and hauled into the dungeons at Strassburg. Among the 2,000 incarcerated people were many old men and women and some 600 children. Another 2,000 prisoners were comprised mostly of priests, teachers, lawyers and refugees who had secretly made their way back to Alsace.

On January 11, 1795, a dcree was issued permitting all refugee "artisans and peasants" to return to Alsace. However, they were required to have 8 testimonials of citizenship attested by 8 witnesses and certified by the village council and the revolutionary committee. They could then reclaim any unsold property upon paying the costs of the confiscation. The authorities made no attempt to make the decree known to the refugees. Those refugees who found out about the decree and tried to return were stopped by border guards posted along the Rhine by the new owners of the ill-gotten property. As well, the greed of the boatmen proved to be an obstacle and only the rich with a handful of coin were able to obtain passage. On March 21st, the "open door" to the fatherland was again slammed shut condemning thousands of poor, innocent people to further years of misery and deprivation on foreign soil. The number of returnees would indeed have been pitifully small, if many of the exiles had not ventured to force their way back under the cover of darkness with the collusion of friends and sympathetic border officials.

In September of 1795, the Convention granted the emegrés an additional 20 days for their return, but, the obstructions were even greater than before. Nevertheless, despite dangers and difficulties, numerous refugees kept coming back, determined to "suffer all horrors, even death itself, rather than return to exile in Germany". Religious animosities flared because the vast majority of refugees were Catholics who now discovered that foreign intruders of another denomination had enriched themselves from other people's misfortune and were determined to retain their acquisitions. The refugees were labeled as "spies, vagabonds, insurgents and riff-raff" and it became more and more difficult for them to receive clearance.

After the Fructidorean coup d'etat of September 4, all refugees who had returned illegally were ordered to leave the country within a fortnight. Houses were searched for hiddenpriests and imigrés. Village mayors and municipal officials were forced to resign from office. All churches were closed and all public services, pilgrimages and even the use of the traditiona; Church calendars was prohibited.

With the inauguration of the Triumvirate in 1799, the refugees were permitted to return unhindered to their fatherland. The peasants and artisans who had been languishiing with their families in the fetid dungeons of Strassburg for five years were now set free and sent back to their villages. The government did not deam it necessary to make amends nor did it undertake to rehabilitate these pverty stricken people. Not all of the refugees regained their former homes and land but were fated to eke out a bare living as farm hands, day labourers or share-croppers.

The aftermath of revolution and war left Alsace in a critical economic condition; the common people had become impoverished and agriculture suffered from chronic neglect. A new wave of inflation depreciated the value of money and raised the cost of living as never before. The people were forced to pay arrears in taxes, subjected to increasing taxes, new taxes on wine and salt and illegal seizure. Forestry agents imposed excessive fines on the poor who collected wood and dead foliage from the communal forests. Thus the mayor of Seltz was forced to protest in 1808: "My people absolutely need the dead foliage to fertilize the potatoe fields. We are living here on potatoes and cottage cheese." The price of lumber had risen three times its normal cost and there was a shortage of communal plowland because much of it had been appropriated by those who had chosen to remain behind during the Great Flight. The poor refugees faced a disheartening future.

The Language and Customs of Alsace

Mother Tongue
The dialect native to the ancestral villages of north Alsace belong essentially to the linguistic group known as South Franconian. Franconian-Alsatian is a High German dialect. Yet, the Franconian-Alsatian idiom has a large number of words and expressions that are not used in High German.

Alsatians had a truly generous heritage of adages and proverbs which gave expression to their simple, common-sense philosophy of life. Most of these proverbial sayings contain gems of practical, home-spun wisdom that reflected their feelings about the great concerns of everyday existence: about work, industry and thrift; about marriage and motherhood; about children, youth and old age:

Many hands soon finish the job.
Early to bed and early out brings health, money and happiness.
One may be as old as a cow, one always learns something new.
A mother can provide better for seven children than seven children for one mother.
A little woman is also tall when she's standing on a money bag.
The apple doesn't fall far from the trunk.
God created little people; big fools grow by themselves.
Little children step on the mother's lap; big children kick her heart.
An old tree cannot be bent.
Save in time and you'll have in need.
Better late than never.
Who chatters much also lies a lot.
As much fog as there's in March, that much rain after a hundred days.
If it rains on the parson's book, it will rain all week.

Virtually every village had a nickname which was generally inspired by a peculiarity of local topography, economic status, occupation, manner of dress or some unusual incident. As an example, a story goes that, during the Thirty Years' War, when a trrop of Swedish horsemen approached a village, a little boy who was tending some sheep stood in the middle of the road, and took down his trousers and greeted the invaders with his bare backside. The soldiers were so amused at the urchin's bravado that they spared the town. The little hero became know as the "Arschblecker". The term was later applied to all the townsmen.

In the Franconian-Alsatian vernacular, social greetings did not have the stiff formality of polite society. Acquaintances were ordinarily greeted by a casual remark or question:

Nice weather today!
Are we going to get rain?
Did you sleep well?
Going to church?
Well, how goes it?
Don't work too hard!
Get home safely!

The Tradition of Folksong
Alsatians enjoyed singing on every suitable occaision. They sang of God and Mary, of earthly vanity and heavenly bliss, of the joys ans sorrows of love, of marriage and motherhood, of friendship and fidelity, of the nature and ugliness of war, of separation and death. These songs sustained their spirits and uplifted their hearts in good times and in bad, in serene moments of happiness and in dark hours of sorrow. Simplicity of theme, exuberance of sentiment and emotion, a slow and drawn out tempo and a high pitched key were typical of German folksongs.

I really have to think of making up my mind,
A young, comely wife for myself to find.
Still, many a young bachelor, sad it is to tell,
Found instead of wedded bliss, heaven or hell.
Some of them are tame like the lamb and turtle dove.
Happy in the household as wives of love.
But soon they commence to rule and to reign,
Wielding the slipper with all their might and main.
Some love to primp and find it lots of fun,
Leave all the housework utterly undone,
Stand before the mirror the whole day through,
And soon many a man becomes a beggar, too.
But, praise the Lord, there's still another faction,
Which both in word as well as in action,
Are busy in the household, faithful and true,
And they possess a bit of beauty, too.

Folk Festivals
'Fasching' was celebrated on the Monday and Tuesday before the beginning of Lent. It was the last big fling before the long somber season of Lenten fasting and abstinence. For the occaision, the housemaster slaughtered a pig and made delicious pork sausage and cured ham. The good housewife turned out huge batches of large yeast-dough fritters fried in deep fat, along with a variety of other fancy pastries. On both days, family and friends gathered in sociable company entertaining themselves with village gossip, humourous stories and hearty songs while the spirits flowed freely. In the evening, the school children, dressed in home-made masks and raggedy costumes, went "trick or treating" through the village. In the evening of Shrovetide Tuesday, the young folks gathered in the dance hall for their final frolic before the grim season of Lent. The following morning all Shrovetide celebrants, young and old, would assemble in the church to receive the sign of the ashen cross, eith the sobering reminder that every man "is dust and to dust will return".

On the first of May, it was customary for eligible young men to place a bouquet of flowers before the sweetheart's window--the equivalent of a proposal of marriage. In the afternoon, the young men and women gathered in the house before which a May-pole had been erected. There was lots of good food and spirits flowed freely. At the sound of the evening Angelus, the music stopped and the mothers left with their daughters to do the household chores. The men stayed and celebrated until late at night. On this occaision, the unmarried fellows auctioned off the marriageble girls "in absentia". After the auction, the boys held a stag party at the tavern where the net proceeds were converted into drinks.

Other festivals included the Pentecost Ride where young men between the ages of 18 and 21 organized a cavalcade and paraded to the centre of town where they feasted while the gypsies tried to steal their wine or horses. There was also the three day Harvest Festival beginning on the third Sunday of October. The clergy disapproved of this celebration and damned its worldly pleasures and excesses. Intruth, the village folk, young and old, needed to escape from the humdrum treadmill of daily work and drudgery. To be sure, some celebrants ate too much, imbibed too freely and were sometimes involved in pranks, fights and brawls. Teenagers sometimes tended to become wild and unrestrained. On the other hand, many a young girl found a sweetheart.

The Alsatians believed in the practical philosophy that "Good food and drink hold body and soul together".

Other Holidays and Celebrations
The first ornamented Christmas tree of which there is any historical record was set up in the Alsatian town of Türkheim in 1597, and a few years later the custom spread to Strassburg, Schlettstadt and other localities in Alsace and in the Black Forest region of Germany. The first Christmas tree with lighted candles appeared in Heidelberg as early as 1659. The Twelve Days of Christmas were regarded as the period between the old year and the new. Each of the twelve days, known as the days of omen, was associated with one of the twelve months of the year. On each day a spoonful of salt was placed on a layer of onion, and from its state of humidity or dryness, one was supposed to be able to predict the weather for each month of the new year.

It was commonly believed that on Candlemas Day (February 2) the sly badger would come out of his burrow to see if spring had already arrived. If he saw his shadow, he returned for another four weeks of hibernation.

Fourty days of rigorous Lenten fasting and abstinence were followed by Easter. The oldest historical evidence for the Easter rabbit in Alsace goes back to the sixteenth century. The tradition of the Easter egg dates back to the middle ages.

April Fool's Day always afforded a hilarious opportunity for making a fool of someone by sending him on some fool errand.

Games
From generation to generation, the children enjoyed the age-old jumping games such as hop-scotch, skipping rope accompanied with "count-out" rhymes or silly jingles and leap-frog. There were catching games such as hide-and-seek, robbers and blindman's bluff. Children amused themselves on a swing and indulged in rolling the hoop, playing with a ball and sledding. Both boys and girls played marbles or the button game.

The Origin of the Name "Schirrhein"

There have been a number of questions regarding the origin of the name Schirrhein. It has actually had 19 names from the earliest records, but the specific name, Schirrhein, was examined in the history of Schirrhein, A La Lisiere De La Foret. One authority, Paul Piemont claimed that it went back to Roman times when it referred to a guard post on a Roman postal road. That has been rejected by most authorities. The following translation of an entry on page 24 of the book explains what many French authorities believe is the most plausible origin of the name.

"But this assumption [that it was named for the Roman's term for postal route guardpost] seems not very probable as more than ten centuries separate the period from the presence of the Romans until the naming of the village with this name. It is incredible that the first colonists who populated Ried [or Rieth, it's first known name] remembered the existence from a Roman garrison in this place. The explanation that is much simpler and, undoubtedly also more plausible, is that of Edouard Halter. According to him, the etymology of the name would go back to the Celts. It would have a double root. First is Sceir, which means a place or hangar to dry the hay. To pronounce Scii- or Chlr, it is translated into modern German by Scheune, i.e. barn. The second root is Rein, in German Raim, which means covered slope of meadows. The ecclesiastical lords of Haguenau, former owners of Ried (or Rieth), had established their hay hangars on the site of this village. Schirrhein would thus mean " pouring barns ". This name illustrates at the same time the origin of the village and its situation along the slope that finishes the alluvial cone of Moder, connected with the low Rhenish terrace. However no official document confirms this assumption and the linguists advance other assumptions, as well. Thus, Heinrich Menges and Bruno Stehle, in 'Deutsches Worterbuch für Elsasser,' derive the name " Schirrhein " from Scheer which means, according to the old Alsatian-French dictionary by Himly, " prior to mowing ". But Scheer can also be spelled Schar or Schare. According to Friedrich Kluge, in Etymologisches Worterbuch Der deutschen Sprache of 1934, these words indicate the abrupt coast, the headland, the cliff. Thus Schierried signifies the site where 'the coast joined Ried' or 'the cliff at the edge of Ried.' Schirrhein would qualify as "a stiff inclined slope "

The variant name, Schirrheim is a simple German adaptation of the French Schirrhein, and was used during the period of German rule over Alsace. Most of our immigrant American ancestors from this village knew it as Schirrheim.

Sources:
Paradise on the Steppe: The Odyssey of a Pioneering People. Joseph S. Height. Bismark: North Dakota Historical Society of Germans from Russia (2/e, 1973).
http://www.dlcwest.com/~speters/flight.html,