The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1891-08-05

the old Russian village pam Il not eD'
tirely lost There were several sugges
tions of Russia in Catherinestadt Thu
town was made up principally Of zone
long, narrow street, the houses stand
ing sheer with the street, as in the
pictures of Russian villages In George
Kennan's sketches, only in those the
houses are built of timber while the
houses in the Kansas Catherinestadt
are built of yellow limestone from the
prairie bluff near at hand. Each house
had square or nip roof, and all the
windows we're supplied with solid
wooden shutters, usually painted green.
Front yards were not in favor In Gather
inestadt, but their numerous Enclosures
fenced with stone walls behind the
houses. and behind everything, another
old country feature, piles of stable ma
nure chopped up with straw and cut in
blocks like peat and piled in heaps to
dry for winter fuel In the Ellis coun-
try the curious Russian ovens, where
with the house may be kept warm all
day with a few armsful of straw, are
still in use, though they are going out
of style with the Mennonites.
''Mr. Karlin came out from his Amer
lean built cottage at the back of large
garden, all in the suburbs of the viii
lage, and talked. A stout young man
with broad shoulders was Mr.. Karlin,
with red beard, which he explained
came with the Karlins from Sweden to
Russia a hundred years ago. Mr.. Kar-
lin was 2! years old when he came to
Kansas with his father and brothers
from Russia He has served as one Of
the county commissioners of Ellis
county. He spoke of the old life in
Russia among German colonists on the
east bank of the Volga, q plains coun-
try something like Kansas The Ger
mans were fairly prosperous in that
country, living under certain privileges
granted their fathers, until the begin
ming of the enforcement of the policy
announced originally by Gear Mich
olas. One car. one religion, ono
language With the revocation of
the old privileges, and the at
tempt to force the Russian language
upon them, they abandoned their
native land and made the long journey
to Kansas In Russia they rented the
land; in Kansas they owned it. and
they had been prospered. They owned
the land about the villages, which
were named after the old places in
Russia. Catherine was named for
town of Is, 900 inhab-
itants, which was named in honor OF
the Empress Catherine H., and where
her statue stands until this day. The
people in the old country had a fashion
of going out on their farms to live in
the crop season and coming back to the
villages to live in the winter and this
plan is followed here, hence SO many of
the houses were closed in the Kansas
Catherinestadt. There was school
kept up in the village eight months in
the year and German school for two
four times as much English as
German. The great stone Catholic
church, which seemed as big as all the
rest of the village, would be finished in
'Thus live the people called RUS
sians,' really Germans become Ameri-
cans; in fact, the villages and the farms
are full of young Americans They are
an industrious people. working their
farms in drought or rainy weather.
They had transformed the valley of the
North Fork and a portion of the valley
Of the Smoky into fertile fields and
form an important part of the body
polite in Ellis county,"