The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-12-02
To MAKE CHANGES ON WAY z YEARS
Russian Family at Last
Reaches Home in Kansas.
Three Times Mother and Chill
dren Crossed Ocean.

Hutchinson, Kan, Dec. 2.-After four
years of Misunderstanding anxiety and
effort, and a two years journey from
! Russia to Kansas, the family of Jacob
Waechter a young Mennonite farmer
of Ness county, is once more happily
| reunited
Four years ago Waechter came to
I Kansas from his home in southern Rus
STA, to seek a new home for his wife
! and children in this land of freedom
/ and prosperity.
| He first came to Hutchinson, and
after a short stay in the German Men
monte community near here, the young
farmer located in Ness county. where
! he bought some cheap land and began
growing wheat
BY hard work and close economy,
! Waechter was able to save enough to
send back to. Russia for his wife and
| children, two years ago. Anxiously
! and eagerly he looked forward to their
arrival, for it had been two long years
since he had seen them.
Started Two Years Ago.
They started all right, the wife and
her little brood of six children, the
youngest barely able to toddle about.
They left Odessa, southern Russia, two
years ago this spring. During these
more than two years, long, weary
months of anxiety, the mother and her
six little ones have been the victims
of official red tape, fully as cruel in
effect as that of the fatherland they
were leaving.
Buffeted back md forth, sent three
times across the Atlantic in the course
of the two years, the family, helpless in
their ignorance of language and GUS
TOMS and wellnigh destitute, suffered
great hardships.
When the husband first sent money
to the family to bring them to Amer
lea, he did not have means enough to
enable himself to go to New York to
meet them. He wrote them to come on
through to Hutchinson and he would
meet them here.
Then Were DepOrted.
They arrived in due time at New
York, but at the Ellis Island immigra-
ton station, they were detained. The
mother was unable to explain to them
where she was going, and didn't under
stand what they wanted, and when the
authorities found there was nobody to
meet them, the family was deported as
'paupers."
They We're sent back to Russia, and
not until their return there did the hus-
band learn of their plight. More toll;
more sacrifice, and a second time the
husband sent money to Russia to bring
his family on.
This time although the husband him
self could not go to port to meet them, |
some of his friends met the incoming
family and saw that they were not
second time deported
But en- route from New York to Phila- |
delphia the unfortunate mother was rob
bed of her tickets and money. They
were, were stranded IN Philadelphia and the
assist them on their way
Then Sent Third Time.
The husband was notified and again,
for third time, he began saving and !
sacrificing to bring lbs family on to
Kansas. But crops were not good in Ness
county last spring. His wheat was poor,
and the severe winter had caused him a
heavy loss. Then came the horse plague
this summer and he lost his team. But .
he finally saved up enough to send the
mother and children to bring them on
They reached Hutchinson last Thursday
and spent the day here awaiting the
husband who missed connections with
them. After spending day in the Santa
Fe waiting room here they were sent
on to Great Bend. arriving there Satur-
day night.
There is no Sunday service on the
Great Bend branch, and the next train /
for Ness City did not leave until Monday
noon. All Saturday night and most of
Sunday the family remained in the Great
Bend depot, penniless and strangers in
a strange land.
Stranded at EIIinWOod.
Then someone, thinking to help them,
bought them tickets to Ellinwood SuppoS
ing the German people there would know
them. The result was that all day Mon
day they stayed in the depot at Film
wood
Fortunately for the lost and stranded
family, David Miller young Mennonite
farmer of Barton county happened to step
into the Ellinwood depot and found them.
He was able to converse with them in
the mother tongue, and soon found out
where they wanted to CO.
He got them food and fixed them up
comfortably and took them on to Great
Bend from where they were placed
aboard the Ness City passenger train,
arriving at last at their new home.