The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-12-05
THE DISCIPLES OF MEMO SIMON.

THE DISCIPLES OF MEMO SIMON.
MOST IMPORTANT ACCESSION TO TIKI
/ WEALTH AND INDUSTRY OF Kansas
FULL AND TRUSTWORTHY ACCOUNT OF
! THE CoLoNIsTs-TEE NENNoNITEs IN
KANSAS.
/ One of the largest bona fide land sale.
ever made in Kansas, perhaps in America
has just been concluded by the Atchson
| Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company
| with a community of Russian Mennonites
| who landed in New York during the month
of September with the steamers Cimbra
Teutonia and City of Richmond, aud most
of whom have spent the last thirty days
and good many Of their rubles in our city
/ Their land purchase amounts in round
numbers to about one hundred Thousand
acres of railroad land, aside from number
of improved farms, all lying north of the
stations of Florence, Peabody, Walton
/ Newton, Halstead, Burton and Hutchinson
Thanks to the untiring energy and the
extraordinary liberality of the A, T. & s
! F. Railroad Company, this means to Kan.
sas, and particularly to Marion, Harvey
Mcpherson and Reno counties, an acquisi
ton of about one million and ahalf Of
capital and wholesale addition to hel
| producing population Of some two thous
and souls From the Cottonwood river to
the Little Arkansas, scope of magnificent
prairie country fifty miles in length, is now
one colony, composed of the thriftiest and
most intelligent class of foreigners that
ever landed upon our shores; and sir
three years Ito use the language Of one
of their elders-"that ocean of grass will
/ ha f,.s,v, CfN-vv r,,to ~f
| fields of grain, just as we left our Molot-
schnoi colony" Kansas will be to America
what the country of the Black Sea and Sea
| of Azov is now to Europe-her wheat field
The Mennonite immigration into Kansas
! began shortly after the return to Russia OF
| the first delegations that had been sent to
the United States and Canada on an explor-
ing tour, about year ago. few single
| families of considerable wealth followed
! the advice of their delegates, who had
| examined the entire West, and selected
| several sections of land in the vicinity OF
Marion Centre, where they made substan.
tial Improvements at once. This initial
step was followed about the close of last
year by the purchase from the A, T. & S.
F. Railroad Company of $4,000 acres OF
land in Harvey and Mcpherson counties
on the part of members of the Memo
| mite community at Summertield, St. Clair
county, Ill.,, who also took a controlling
interest in the town of Halstead, which
will no doubt become the trade centre of
the Mennonite colonies in Kansas. Parties
of from five to forty families have since
arrived from Russia, mostly from the Cri-
mean peninsula some coming first to Kan
sas but most of them not until they had
examined other States. All the Mennonite
interested in the settlement of this people
in Kansas, and the movement is rapidly
gaining in magnitude. Missouri, Iowa,
Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Canada
have already furnished large numbers of
land purchasers and settlers. The party
which has arrived in Topeka i'll the last
thirty days, and who have now left for
their future homes, numbers about two
hundred and fifty families, the ma jority of
whom have belonged to the celebrated
Molotschnol milk river colony, in the
governmental district of Taurida, of which
the Crimea is part. That colony COM
prises sixty five villages, and is considered
the wealthiest of the German settlements
of South Russia. Emigration from that
place has but just set in, and as fast AS the
people can obtain their passports from the
government so fast will they leave that
country Tor America.
The writer has, during his intercourse
with these people, learned much of their
peculiar traits, their political and religious
position in Russia, and the causes that
brought about the present exodus, which
threatens to carry with it the German colo
nists in Russia of all other denominations
as well as the Mennonites in Prussia and
Poland.
Memo Simonis, from whom the sect
takes its name, was contemporary Of
Luther. One year after that great reformer
had openly proclaimed his fundamental
articles of Professionalism in Germany, Men
no gathered about him in Holland, and dis
ciplined into distinct confessional society,
all the elements created by the great reform
movement of that age whose peculiar feat
ures were non -combativenesS and baptism
after spiritual maturity. The Mennontes
had to suffer great persecution in those
war-like times, at the hands of the govern
ments and the established churches; they
were compelled to wander from one country
into another, until the great Frederick of
Prussia, in whose dominions every one was
permitted to go to heaven after his own
fashion, extended his Inequalities to them.
Their first settlement in Russia dates back
to 1890, during the eign of Emperor Paul,
and it continued during the reign of kath-
arna II. Very liberal concessions were
made to them here. Each family of the
"Choridtz colony, which was formed in
1890 was granted lease for themselves
and their heirs forever on sixty-five dessia
tines (about one hundred and seventy acres)
of land, together with diverse privileges,
as for instance, the establishment of their
own breweries and distilleries. During the
year 1904 special reservation was granted
to the Mennonites, of one hundred and
twenty thousand dessjatines of land, upon
which their second colony, that of the
Molotschnoi was founded. From here their
followers spread over the entire country
adjacent to the Black Sea, comprising the
provinces of Taurida, Kherson and Eka-
terinosav.
The nomadic tribes Of Tartary, who had
hitherto pastured their herds OF horses and
sheep in those regions soon disappeared
beyond the Volga. Compact settlement
and villages sprang up, surrounded by
grain fields, orchards and groves. Just as
/ it is in our great Arkansas Valley, there
were no forests to clear; the ground was
ready for the pillow and yielded abundant
harvest at once. The old seaports Of
Odessa, Taganrog and Kertsch took a new
start; new ports to accommodate the colo
MES were necessary, and so the cities OF
Feodesia, Berdansk, Mariapol and others
sprang up, and are now important through
their grain export. The wheat of Southern
Russia, commonly quoted as Odessa, y
governs the market of the Old w orld, and
its fluctuations are felt on change in Chi
cage. While grain has always been the
staple production of the colonies, other
commodities are not neglected. The null
berry tree was found to do we'll, and silk
culture soon became an important branch
of industry, some farmers producing from
one hundred to five hundred pounds OF
raw silk annually.
Under such favorable circumstances,
many of the Mennorites acquired consider
able wealth; some enterprising men pur-
chased largo tracts of land from the crown
or from noblemen, and went into the WOOL
growing business, which developed into q