Ted Wenzlaff Connected Sutton with Distant Places and Events

A military career offers a wide variety of opportunities beyond that of most civilian jobs. The career of Sutton’s Col. Theodore C. Wenzlaff is one illustration. How else could Sutton be linked to a post-WWII dispute between Britain and Russia over coal deliveries, to a girls’ high school in Seoul, Korea and to John F. Kennedy’s funeral procession? 

Captain Theodore C. Wenzlaff on Milly Russell

The historical society acquired a copy of Wenzlaff’s 1967, 24-page Autobiographical Highlights from his son Bill of Wichita. The document concentrates on the colonel’s nearly 33 year military career describing those distant events and many others.

Ted Wenzlaff graduated from Sutton High in 1921 and attended one semester at the University of Nebraska before his father pulled the purse strings shut. He applied for and received an appointment from 5^th District Congressman Andrews to West Point where he was commissioned as a cavalry officer in 1926.

His early army career was a parade of cavalry assignments in Wyoming, Kansas, South Dakota, Fort Robinson, Nebraska, Vermont and Texas until he was assigned to Fort Reno, Oklahoma in the quartermaster corps reporting on November 22, 1941. Military opportunities broadened a few weeks later but he was able to spend several months at Fort Reno.

In June, 1942 Wenzlaff as assigned to a unit near Seattle and moved there with his family. Only when he arrived did he learn that his unit would be going to Europe out of New York City in just a few days. He had to locate and turn around his household goods shipment and get his family back to Sutton.

He worked in logistics and transportation in offices England earning his promotion to “temporary” colonel and “permanent” major. (Don’t ask. It makes sense, but takes a long time to explain. It’s why General Custer was really a Lieutenant Colonel. Again, don’t ask.) In early March, 1944 he became part of the Control Office that planned the Normandy invasion. After the invasion he served as a transportation officer in France working in a wing of the palace of Versailles for a time – that had to be cool.

Col. Wenzlaff was in Berlin after the war and became involved in negotiations between the Russians, British and American occupation forces. He described in detail an episode involving the trading of “brown” coal and anthracite coal between the Russians and British. He was not impressed with Russian negotiating techniques or their trustworthiness.

Col. Wenzlaff found himself in a state of army limbo after the war as he was still technically a cavalry officer though there was no cavalry. He found a home in the quartermaster corps eventually returning to Fort Reno, Oklahoma in 1952 taking command of the Remount Station where he found himself again in the horse business and in charge of finding some 10,500 cavalry riding and artillery draft horses plus 6,000 pack mules for a foreign military aid program to the Turkish Army.

While scrounging around the Southwest finding horses for Turkey, he received a more modest request from Fort Myer, Virginia for a small number of grey artillery draft horses and one grey cavalry riding horse. He went to some length to locate seven grey draft horses and the riding horse shipping them east in 1952 where they were to support funeral details at Arlington Cemetery.

The Kennedy funeral caisson, November 25, 1963. Three of the six horses were acquired by Col. Wenzlaff for this duty
as was the riding horse, tail just barely visible on the left.

During the televised funeral of President John F. Kennedy in November, 1963, Col. Wenzlaff noticed that the caisson bearing the casket was drawn by six grey draft horses and the section chief rode a grey horse. He inquired and learned that three of the draft horses and the riding horse were ones he’d sent several years earlier. He had ridden the cavalry horse several times but found it to be too lazy for his own taste, but as it turned out, that was a perfect trait for funeral duty.

Horse duty completed, Col. Wenzlaff assumed command of the 23^rd Quartermaster Group of 100 officers and 2,000 enlisted men in Seoul, Korea for sixteen months beginning in July, 1953 – as that war was ending.

His group was quartered in a girls’ high school building which had been abandoned by the school early in the war as people fled to the south end of the Korean peninsula to evade North Korean troops. When the faculty and students returned they found their school occupied by Col. Wenzlaff and his command. Our hero shuffled his troops around, took over nearby buildings and built temporary structures providing space for the school. School enrollment grew from 750 to 1,250 as the military unit and the school worked closely together.  The school principal became a good friend entertaining Col. Wenzlaff and his officers in her home introducing them to Korean cuisine and customs. The Mayor of Seoul thanked the colonel for his unit’s help for the school in a scroll of appreciation.

Col. Wenzlaff retired from the army on June 30, 1955 returning to Sutton where he taught freshman and junior English at Sutton High for one year (he didn’t care too much for that.) He served on the city council and took up golf.

He began to research the story of the Germans from Russia traveling to Russia and Germany eventually writing “Pioneers on Two Continents: The Ochsner-Griess History and Genealogy” in 1974.

Col. Wenzlaff’s Autobiography was written in 1967 before he was elected to the Nebraska Senate. He died in 1988 at the age of 85 and is buried in the Sutton Cemetery.

This article first appeared in the August, 2011 issue of Sutton Life Magazine. 

Col. Wenzlaff was appointed to the Nebraska legislature in December 1968. The story appeared in The Clay County News on Dec. 5th.

Sutton's 1922 Aid Reaches Russia

Germans from Russia in Sutton organized relief efforts for people in Russia who were facing starvation conditions after World War I. Many residents of Northeast Clay County were immigrants from, or one generation removed from the villages of Rohrbach, Worms, and Johannesthal in South Russia.

This area of 1920's South Russia is now in the nation of Ukraine and in the area near Odessa that has been in contention this year from the Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory.

This article appeared on Page 1 of The Sutton News on November 17, 1922.

Sutton Relief to South Russia - 1922

The Sutton News carried several stories about the work of Rev. R. Birk as he organized relief for people living in South Russia in 1922. Rev. Birk concentrated on the villages of Worms and Rohrbach, the former home of numerous Sutton area families.

 

1922 Volga Russian Relief

In the early 1920's Sutton individuals and much of the community contributed to relief programs to aid starving people in areas of Russia, especially in the Volga River area around the city of Saratov. Numerous Germans from Russia living in and around Sutton had come from the villages of Norka and Balzar near Saratov a few decades earlier.

This letter from Mr. George Repp describes his experiences in supporting those relief areas during his trip to Saratov, Russia. The letter was published in The Sutton News newspaper on February 10, 1922

Griess Name & Sutton was Featured in 1922 Lincoln Paper

This article in a 1995 issue of The Clay County News told the story of a 1922 article in The Lincoln Sunday Star about the Griess family of Sutton. 

The original 1922 article follows.

-------------------------

The headline banner of the Lincoln paper on July 30, 1922 surely caught the eye of Sutton locals.

This collage of photos was the centerpiece of the 1922 Lincoln Sunday Star article.

KULAK - Cleon Ochsner's Book

This Sutton-related historical novel traces the story of a specific group of Germans from Russia. This story is based on the family history of the author, Cleon Ochsner, a name that gives away the Sutton connection.

Where Did Our Early Settlers Come From?

Where did the early settlers of the Sutton area come from?

We’ve had this conversation a number of times. We’ve talked about the Germans from Russia. I’ve made sure the Swedes are recognized. And we’ve mentioned the Iowans, the Pennsylvanians, the Ohioans and others from Back East. Let’s dive into the topic a little deeper this month.

The first settlers in our area were Luther French and Peter O. Norman who lived in dugouts along School Creek. French was the first settler in Sutton Township, Norman was a short distance down the creek, the first settler in School Creek Township.

The main wave of settlers from the east began arriving in the Spring of 1871 establishing a community named School Creek, soon renamed Sutton. The Swedish wave came a year later in 1872 with the establishment of a Lutheran Church in the short-lived village of Huxley in the middle of Section 6 in Sutton Township. That upstart moved a half mile west along the Burlington tracks to become Saronville.

Our main source will be the 1880 census for School Creek and Sutton Precincts. Census day for the tenth census was June 1, 1880. Jacob Steinmetz was the enumerator for School Creek Precinct; James E. Marsh covered Sutton Precinct. Steinmetz found 772 people in 141 households in School Creek Precinct. Marsh had 1627 individuals in 307 households.

Census data contains a treasure trove of information and the raw material for stories about people of the past. We used the 1880 census for School Creek and Sutton Townships.

The household count is squishy. There was a count of dwellings and families those were handled ambiguously. A household included borders, servants, brothers and sisters, widowed mothers and in-laws. (Sutton households displayed a particular fondness for a teenage svenska flicka as a servant in large families – Swedish girls.)

John C. Merrill was an early Sutton grocer. He was born

in Ohio, wife Hattie in Pennsylvania. Three kids were

born in Ohio, two in Nebraska. Their servant was a

Swedish girl and a 16-year old border was a clerk from

New York. All living in one household in Sutton in 1880.

Some “households” were unusual and can skew our analysis. P. T. Walton’s household included his wife, 2 sons, 2 daughters, 4 servants, a clerk and 46 borders – he ran a hotel. Some of the borders were likely “transients” caught in Sutton on census day, but many were certainly residents of the hotel with local jobs (painter, blacksmith, shop keeper, etc.).

A disclaimer is needed. The arbitrary nature of defining house households and the likelihood that my counting was not flawless preclude any guarantee that these figures are perfect. Anyone is welcome to check my work and get back to me.

Each decennial census collected a unique set of information about the population. Our objective here is to identify the birthplace of the residents. We’ll count the number of people born in each state or foreign country and also track the heads of households as an approximate family count.

Census data gives a rough history of a family. We know the birthplaces of the father and mother of a typical family, the birthplaces of each of their parents and the birthplaces of each child. So we can see where the earlier generation was born and learn where the family lived over time as we see where the kids were born.

For instance, my great grandparents were both born in Indiana. The 1880 census found them in Sherman Township just south of Edgar in Nuckolls County. Beginning in 1880, people were asked for the birthplace of their parents. James Rowlison’s parents were both born in Virginia; Rhoda’s father was born in Maine, her mother in Indiana. For those following the string of these articles, Rhoda’s father Isaiah Walton was the subject of a recent article; he is buried in Marshall Union Cemetery here in Clay County completing the Maine-Indiana-Nebraska path his eventful life took.

James and Rhoda Rowlison’s 1880 census entry shows their first son born in Indiana, four kids born in Missouri, a daughter in Iowa, and another daughter in Nebraska. It’s not apparent in the census but the Nebraska daughter was born near Peru in Nemaha County.

Later census data show that the Rowlison family added a son while in Nuckolls County, another son and a daughter while on farms near Edgar in Clay County and the eleventh child born in on a wheat farm near Hoxie, Kansas. Some may remember the baby of that family as Ethel Oakley, wife of long-time (1922-1955) Clay County Clerk Roy Oakley.

Just by reading census date it is possible to reconstruct a rough history of the traveling of that family.

But back to northeast Clay County and School Creek Township.

Foreign-born residents outnumbered U.S. born folks 462-310, and 106-35 in heads of households. The influence of foreign households was even greater as 150 of those 310 U.S. born were Nebraska-born children, most in those immigrant households, but we’re counting them as domestic residents. Not at all surprising, Russian born immigrants were the most populous with 283 people in 49 households plus kids born since immigration.

Peter and Sophia (Ochsner) Griess were among the first of the German

immigrants from Russia in 1873. The first son was born in Russia then four

in Nebraska. Two Russian-born teen girls were servants in the household.

People identified their place of birth and that of their parents for the census taker. The Sutton area Germans from Russia are listed as Russian born. Without any additional information, anyone examining the School Creek census of 1880 concludes that there were lots of Russians around here. Newspaper items of that time and well into the 19^th century also referred to these people as Russians. They self-identified as Germans from Russia, but that took a while to catch on.

Swedes were the second most populous group with 33 households with 122 people born in the old country. Again, there were Nebraska born youngsters in those families as well as kids born in other states, i.e., Illinois.

The center of this Swedish settlement was around Saronville and Verona and north to Eldorado. School Creek Township catches the northeast quadrant of that area; we’ll find more Swedes in Sutton Township but likely a near equal number settled in Eldorado and Lewis.

Similarly, while the early Germans from Russia settlement centered in School Creek, their settlement area included the town of Sutton, Sutton Township and into Fillmore, Hamilton and York Counties. Several families including Yost and Pauley families landed around Harvard.

The north end of Sutton, that part north of Ash Street is in School Creek. There were native born residents in town and on farms. Twenty-one residents came from New York, 29 from Ohio, 31 from Iowa, 17 from Pennsylvania, 20 from Wisconsin, 17 from Illinois and 13 from Indiana. The rest were scattered.

A common Swedish immigration route was through Illinois. City dwellers congregated in North Chicago and Swedish farmers initially came to Henry, Knox and Mercer counties in western Illinois, just southeast of Davenport, Iowa. Typically, they stayed for a short time before heading further west for open country and cheaper land. Though a few stayed longer. Andrew and Charlotte Israelson immigrated from Sweden to Illinois in 1852, had 12 kids and then moved on to Saronville in 1878.

Andrew and Charlotte Israelson immigrated from Asby, Östergötland, Sweden to Illinois in 1852. Twelve children were

born in Illinois where three died young before the family moved to Sutton Township near Saronville in 1878. 

Other foreign born settlers in School Creek came from Germany (21), Ireland (14), Switzerland (9), England (6) plus a few from Canada, France, Scotland and Denmark.

Sutton Township had a little more than twice the population of School Creek with 596 foreign born and 1031 born in the U.S. including many in households of the foreign born.

Again, the Russian born dominated the foreign born with 222 followed by 126 Swedes. Six heads of households and a total of 21 listed Germany as their birthplace. At least I counted them as from Germany. Birthplaces of Prussia, Baden, Bavaria, Hessen, Wittenberg and other city-states appear on the census forms. The unification of Germany did not occur until 1871 so immigrants on the 1880 census often identified with their original homeland rather than a thing called Germany.

There were 48 English born in Sutton Township in 1880, 46 from Ireland, Canada was listed by 41, Scotland (19), Holland (15) and others from Norway, Denmark, Austria, Turkey, France and one Hungarian.

Any questions? Or didn’t you notice the Turkey thing? John Grosshans, a Sutton grain dealer and his wife Christina were born in Russia. Three of their children, Christiana, age 30; William, age 28 and John age 27 listed Turkey as their place of birth. Five younger children were born in Russia.

John Sheridan was born in County Westmeath, Ireland immigrating to Illinois

in 1871 after attracting the attention of English authorities investigating

Irish independence activities. He met his wife Ellen in Illinois and they

began their family near Sutton by 1880.

About a dozen families made a different stop between Russia and Sutton much like the Swedes in Illinois. Jim Griess told this story in his book, “The German Russians: Those Who Came to Sutton.” Mr. Johann Bette had immigrated to the United States in 1849, twenty-four years earlier than the migration we’re more familiar with. He was from the village of Johannestal near Worms and Rohrbach where Sutton’s Black Sea immigrants came from. Bette settled on an island in Lake Erie near Sandusky, Ohio becoming wealthy with his vineyard.

Johann Bette returned to Russia on a visit in 1872 and told of the wonders of the United States. His visit was noticed by the Russia authorities who did not want the German population riled up about leaving. His hosts learned that the authorities wanted to question Bette. They thought it better if he could avoid that. His spiffy American suit made him much too conspicuous so they gave him some more appropriate attire and helped him across the Austrian border.

The privileges granted by the Czarina Catherine and Czar Alexander to the German colonists were abrogated about this time and Bette’s story was fresh in the minds of those seeking to leave. About a dozen families in the Sutton area in 1880 had parents and perhaps a kid or two born in Russia then one kid born in Ohio and younger kids born in Nebraska. That’s just families who had a child born in Ohio. We should suspect that many more made that temporary stop. Surnames associated this story include Urbach, Popp, Schnell, Deines, Brehm, Geilman, Seeter, Orie and Schaffer.

As for the U.S. born in Sutton Township, 216 were Nebraska born. These are all the younger children of families. There was no Nebraska born head of household in the area in 1880. Why? A bit early for that. Nebraska had been a state for only 13 years though a territory since 1854 and no Nebraska born had started a family here.

There were 165 Illinois natives in the township and 123 from Ohio. Other common birthplaces were Wisconsin (117), Pennsylvania (109), New York (91), and Iowa (76). There were fewer from each of 23 additional states, even California, District of Columbia and almost all states in the northeast.

What’s missing can be almost as interesting as what is found. There were two people from Mississippi and two from Louisiana plus some Texas-born in a few farm families. But that’s about it from the states of the Confederacy. There were no Sutton residents in 1880 from the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama or Florida.

Nathan Tyler and Leonard Jarrett (Sybil’s father) were Confederate soldiers who arrived later but all in all, rural Nebraska was Union country.

Sutton merchant Marcus Wittenberg appears to be the sole Hungarian immigrant

in the Sutton area. Like many, he immigrated alone. His wife Rachel was born in

France. Their daughter Belle's 1895 wedding dress was a recent donation to the
Sutton Museum.

Before the Civil War, Nebraska and Kansas marked a kind of dividing line – remember the Kansas-Nebraska Act? A quick check of a couple of townships in Jewell County across the Kansas line, in Sedgwick (Wichita) and in Neosho County near the southeast corner of Kansas also did not turn up southerners in 1880. Was a little surprising.

For this article we’ve relied almost exclusively on the 1880 census which is readily available. I access it via my ancestry.com account but there are other means. With a bit of research time collecting and sorting data and then with a minimum of inferences, we can learn quite a lot about the make-up of the population of the Sutton area 136 years ago. And while plowing through that information it is amazing how many additional tidbits appear that entertain and distract.

I may have mentioned this before, but we are always looking for more people to join us at the Sutton Museum and help us collect and preserve Sutton’s story. If the prospect of digging into stories like those in this article, or other aspects of Sutton’s past interests you, please let us know. There is much more to learn than we have the time or the skills to uncover. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

This article first appeared in Sutton Life Magazine in October, 2016. For further information about the publication contact mustangmediasales@gmail.com or call 402-984-4203.

2015 Sutton Kuchen Baking Contest

Dugout Days is Sutton's two-day festival held the last Friday and Saturday in June (a couple events occur on Thursday night and on Sunday). The Sutton Historical Society holds its Kuchen Baking Contest on Friday evening at 6 pm each year.

Dugout Days has nothing to do with baseball. Dugout Days recognizes the founder of our community, Luther French who, in 1870 dug into the banks of School Creek to construct his home where his children later joined him. Dugouts were common for new arrivals on the unsettled plains. We have an idea of where eleven of them were in the Sutton area.

The Kuchen Contest happens in the Sutton Park Pavilion as the Sutton Firemen's Chicken Barbecue is underway nearby.

The "Kuchen" is a dessert brought to the plains by German immigrants from Russia in the 1870's and later. Though "kuchen" is a German word generally translated as "cake" our Kuchen is not a cake but custard dessert with any of a wide variety of fillings generally presented in the shape of a pie but with a specific kind of crust.

Liz Hoffman displays one of the Kuchens as Auctioneer Dean Dirks begins to work his magic. 

Our contest format calls for our contestant bakers to bake two kuchens. One is used for judging, the second is auctioned off at the conclusion of the competition generating revenue for the Sutton Historical Society. And, since we carefully ration the judges' portions, we have about 1/2 of each Kuchen to keep the auction going a bit longer.

No Contest works without judges.

And no contest works without contestants. Pictured here are Linda Lautenschlager, Melissa Reichert, Nancy Domeier and William Boehler. Our First Place Winner Pam Woodard was not available for the photo ... shucks. 

The Kuchen receives substantial mention across the internet. Germans from Russia wound up in Canada, Argentina, Chile and elsewhere and mention of this tasty dessert can found on many websites from those areas. Settlements in the United States are found in the Dakotas, Colorado and Kansas as well as Nebraska and other sites. The State of South Dakota honors the Kuchen as the "State Dessert."

The Sutton Historical Society thanks the bakers, judges, auctioneer and all those who engaged in spirited bidding for the honor of taking a Kuchen home and experiencing the thrill of tasting a "Premium" desert. The Society realized more than $2000 this year ensuring that some critical repair projects can happen. Thanks again to all.

- the Management.

Linda Lautenschlager won the 2014 Kuchen Baking Contest - congratulations

The Sutton Historical Society enjoys celebrating the Kuchen as one of the fine German contributions to civilization. The ninth annual contest had six contestants tempting the judges with their latest masterpieces.

The Kuchen Baking Contest winners were Sheila Ochsner, third place, Melissa Reichert, second place and first place winner, Linda Lautenschlager.

THE CONTESTANTS:

Our contestants at the ninth annual Kuchen Baking contest: William Boehler, Nancy Domeier, Sheila Ochsner, Melissa Reichert and Linda Lautenschlager. Pam Woodward was also a contestant but we missed her for the photo. Thanks to all for participating and joining us for the fun.

This page produced while enjoying the "ATOMIC KUCHEN" decorated in the design of the international symbol for radioactivity and a very tasty piece of work...

So, where did all those Griesses come from, anyhow?

James R. (Jim) Griess died on Friday, March 21, 2014 in Lincoln. Jim was the source of much of our information and understanding about the story of the Germans from Russia who came to Sutton. He is missed. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You may be new to Sutton or perhaps you've not been told the story, but still you've noticed. There sure are a lot of Griesses in this town.

As someone I used to know might have said, “You can’t swing a long-tailed cat in Sutton without hitting a Griess.” And you can’t even swing a short-tailed cat without hitting someone related to a Griess.

The definitive authority of the Germans from Russia in Sutton,
a thorough study of the migration to Russia and to Sutton with
family history and Sutton history by James R. Griess, Sutton
High Class of '59.

So, where’d they come from? It’s kind of a long story and an important story, for on some level the Griesses and cohorts have long defined Sutton for our neighboring towns.

The earliest settlers to the Sutton area generally came from Back East. There were a handful of Swedish homesteaders to the west as early as 1870 the same time that Luther French homesteaded the north 80 acres of downtown. French was more typical of settlers in those first years, grew up in Ohio, moved to Indiana, then to Wisconsin, and Iowa and finally here, movin’ west.

Young farmers were being crowded out in the east. Older fellows from Iowa to Pennsylvania were looking for better prospects and cheaper land in the West.

The first settlers came as individuals, a family or sometimes an extended family. The Grays were typical. Hosea Gray and his wife came to Sutton with son John and his wife Emma, daughter Ada and her husband George Bemis and the Cunnings. The four Brown brothers homesteaded in the northeast part of School Creek Township before two of them came to town to practice law and publish the Sutton Register. The Clark brothers became developers as well as the first physician and an early merchant.

Settlers from abroad soon came enticed by railroad advertisements and other publicity, Germans and Swedes mostly but Irish, Danes, Czechs, Bohemians and others were represented. Still, the individual or small family group was the norms.

The huge exception to these situations was the Germans from Russia. They came in bunches.

The first Griess invasion came in 1873 when 55 families of about 400 people left their villages of Worms and Rohrbach in the Black Sea region near Odessa, today in Ukraine. They arrived in Lincoln expecting to find farm land but felt the price was too high so they sat for a time. Some of their acquaintances had made this trip a year earlier settling in the Dakotas. Thirty-three of those 55 families drifted off before news of land in Clay County caught the attention of their leaders.

The bunch which first settled here was led by Heinrich Griess, Johannes Grosshans and Heinrich Hoffmann. These were not your poor, struggling immigrants. Griess was a young man who had sold off about nine square miles of Russian farmland for 100,000 rubles. The exchange rate was 52 cents per ruble – the man had $52,000 in 1873 dollars when he arrived. What does that mean? The “Measuring Worth” web site gives a wide range of answers depending…, but the low end comparison is almost $1 million in today’s U.S. currency. The others were similarly equipped.

Heinrich Griess, leader of the first group of
Germans from Russia who migrated from the
villages of Worms and Rorhbach arriving in
Sutton in

The Germans from Russia bypassed the homestead option for land acquisition for the most part purchasing railroad land – 16,200 acres at a cost of $112,480 – from 4 to 7 dollars an acre, much of that purchased by Grosshans, Griess and Company on September 4, 1873 and receiving special mention on page 202 of http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2374&context=greatplainsquarterly

We have good analysis of railroad land purchases for only two counties: Lancaster and Clay in Nebraska – Yippee! Check out http://railroads.unl.edu/views/item/landsales_ne for the cutest interactive map you’ll see this week. Click on the “Years” at the top of the map, 1870 thru 1880 and watch sections after sections being gobbled up. Those were folks from around Cleveland who settled in Lynn Township and into Harvard but purchases in the northeast part of Clay County were led by Grosshans, Griess & Co.

More bunches and not just a few individuals and families followed those first settlers from Russia between 1874 and 1914, the start of World War I.

A second category of immigrants from Russia were Germans from along the Volga River beginning in late 1874 with eight families from the village of Balzar led by Jacob Bender. The nearby village of Norka contributed many more.

So, how did Germans come to be living in Russia, of all places?

I can’t tell the whole story here. Jim Griess (Sutton High Class of ’59) took 335 large-format pages to tell his version of the story. Anyone connected to the Germans from Russia, with an interest in the topic or just looking for a fascinating book must have Jim’s “The Germans from Russia – Those Who Came to Sutton.” See http://www.jimgriess.net/page1 or see us at the Sutton Museum for a copy (as soon as we restock.)

But briefly, in 1762 Catherine the Great was a German princess who found herself czarina of the Russian Empire – another great story – especially the part where she might have murdered her husband to get the role and the Russian people were O.K. with that. Catherine noticed that a huge portion of southern Russia was unoccupied, unproductive and paying absolutely no taxes. She understood that it was good farmland and she knew where good, honest, hard-working farmers could be found. Actually, it wasn’t in Germany.

There was no Germany. Did you know that? No nation called Germany existed until January 18,

This immigrant trunk belonged Heinrich Griess (or Gries as
spelled on the trunk.) The trunk is marked "No. 1" implying
multiple trunks - he had a large family and was "a man of
substantial resources." The trunk is on display at the Sutton
Museum.

1871 after Otto von Bismarck had put all the pieces together. There were people who spoke the German language and were consider Germanic but they came from places like Hesse, Baveria, Prussia, Swabia, etc. etc. Germans who came directly to Sutton from Germany often identified their place of birth in the census as one of these city-states. My favorite census enumerator’s “best guess” is that several people in Sutton are listed as being from Dam State. That should be Darnstadt, a city and region in today’s western Germany. There was no Germany until 1871. The nation of Germany has been around as long as the town of Sutton. But I digress.

Catherine invited Germans to come to Russia to live. She established a set of generous conditions allowing the settlers to their own villages, language, churches, etc. living in little pieces of home pretty much to themselves.

Conditions in Central Europe were horrendous. These ancestors of Suttonites were in the midst of on-going wars between the French and the various Germanic states, then Napoleon stirred things up – ugly. Accepting Catherine’s invitation made sense. Many packed up and moved.

The first migrants settled in the Volga River Valley – hundreds of villages. Later another wave settled near Odessa in hundreds more villages.

Advance the clock about one hundred years and a couple of Czars to Alexander II who began to back off of those generous conditions (long story, see Jim’s book.) In 1871 the Germans learned they were to become Russianized – no more German language, churches, villages – now Russian. But, they had ten years to adapt or leave.

Meanwhile, back in American, railroads were laying track across empty plains where a population would certainly be useful. Railroad agents swarmed to Europe with aggressive Madison Avenue-like ad campaigns. Germans, Swedes, Irish, Bohemians and others began a new migration. For the Germans in Russia this was timely, fortuitous and, if they were religious, and they were, it was an answer to prayers.

So to Sutton they came, and to Lincoln, Scottsbluff, Kansas, the Dakotas, Colorado, really all over. Sutton is unusual in that immigrants from both major regions, the Black Sea and Volga area came here. The Sutton arrivals also all came from villages of the Reformed Church. There were also villages of Lutherans, Catholics and Mennonites, some of the latter settled around Henderson, assisted by earlier arrivals in Sutton.

How were the new immigrants accepted? About as you might expect. As a species we do poorly in accepting the New, the Different or the Other.

The railroads launched an aggressive advertising campaign with posters like this one
to attract settlers who would ride the trains and ship goods on those new railroads
being constructed across the open prairie.

The first groups from Russia were frankly wealthy. That helped. The later arrivals were not rich, many were poor and had been sponsored by friends already here. One story involves two brothers who came sponsored by a relative who would not buy them new clothes until they had earned them. These young men were on the streets of Sutton for several weeks wearing distinctive Russian peasant garb, embarrassing and not cool. However, several individuals quickly moved into the mainstream of Sutton life – office holders, professionals, merchants, etc.

We can find newspaper references pointing out the industriousness of the “Russians” as they were often called. But there are contrary references.

On one occasion a local paper noted that a group of Russians had arrived by train and spent the night on the depot platform before catching an early morning train west, likely to western Nebraska or Colorado. The comment concluded something to the affect that Sutton already had its share and he was glad to see their backsides heading west in the morning sun.”

Did all the Germans in Russia immigrate to America? They did not. Many stayed and were caught up in world history often with tragic consequences especially during World War II when they were alternatively courted and vilified by the Germans for being Russians and by the Russians for being German. Again, see Jim’s book; it’s complicated but worth sorting out.

The descendants from those Germans from Russia are a significant percentage of Sutton’s population. Add people who are closely related to that group and there aren’t many of us left out. Theirs may be a unique story in the strict sense of the word – one of a kind. Many of the surnames of the Germans from Russia have disappeared, either the folks left or the names “daughtered out” as the genealogists say. Regarding the leaders of that first group in 1873, Grosshans does not appear in the Sutton phone book. There is a representation for Hofmann. But as for Griess, yes there are some in the phone book.

Sutton's mid-20th Century Health Care System

Three Memorable Gentlemen

I’m addressing a certain group of Sutton folks here who grew up over a specific period of time. You’ll know soon enough who you are.

Now, by show of hands, who had Dr. Pope for a dentist? Who was a dental patient of Dr. Ochsner? Who was ever treated by Dr. Nuss? Better yet, did Doc Nuss deliver you? Or your parents? Your kids?

Beulah and Doc Ochsner

Personally, Dr. Ochsner was the only dentist to auger in my mouth before my first permanent assignment in the Air Force. Dr. Nuss was my only doctor not counting Dr. Foote in Hastings yanking my tonsils when I was five. And yes, Doc Nuss delivered me early one morning after a night he still recalled many years later.

These three gentlemen constituted Sutton’s health care system for quite some time. And to a great extent, they were three of a kind.

All six of their parents, William and Katherina Popp, John and Margareta Ochsner and Christian Jr. and Hannah Nuss were born in Russia. All three fathers were farmers near Sutton. All three were younger children in the family, two extremely so. Herman Victor Nuss was the fourth of six children; David J. Pope was fourteenth of fourteen; and Herbert Ochsner was ninth of nine. Mrs. Popp and Mrs. Ochsner had both lost a child by 1900.

Heck, darn, even their last name initials are sequential letters.

The three were born locally in a ten year span, left for medical or dental school, returned to practice nearly all their professional lives here and all are buried in the Sutton Cemetery. How common was that?

We’ll start with the oldest; David J. Popp was born April 14, 1895 to Katherina and William (Wilhelm) Popp the youngest of 14 children, of which 13 lived. Wilhelm and Katherina immigrated from Russia taking the German ship Suevia from Hamburg to New York via La Havre, France. Only their oldest son Georg were with them when they arrived in New York on July 18, 1877, fourteen days out from Hamburg.

With them on the Suevia were several of their extended family: Heinrich and Catherina Giebelhaus, Wilhelm and Catherina Brehm, Conrad and Catherina Brehm and Conrad and Catherina Pop, all headed to Sutton. Dr. Pope’s parents were listed as Wilhelm and Catherina Pop on the passenger list for the Suevia.

O.K., two things. First, note the spellings: Pop, Popp and Pope. Pop appears only on the ship’s manifest; don’t worry about it. Popp was the proper German spelling of the name. According to family legend, an early teacher told the Popp kids that if they pronounced their name that way, the proper English spelling would be Pope (the long vowel preceding a silent “e” thing). The kids adopted that spelling and in his will Pop (as in Dad) indicated he was all right with that spelling.

Secondly, did you notice any pattern in the wives’ names in that group? Catherina’s all. Why would that be? If you have any Germans from Russia heritage in your background and can’t come up with a good explanation, we need to talk. The answer is part of who you are.

The Popp family farm was the extreme southeast quarter in Sutton Township appearing in the 1886 plat maps in the same section as farms belonging to Conrad Popp, Conrad Brehm and L. Brehm. Nine children were still at home in 1900 ranging from age 19 to 5 year old David.

David registered for the World War I draft on June 17^th 1917. He was a student in the Lincoln Dental College but listed himself as a private with three years in the Nebraska “malitia” then preparing for the Dental Reserve Corps. The 1920 census found Dr. D. J. Pope back in Sutton with wife Lydia and four-month old Maxine. Suzanne and Olive would follow, the three being ’37, ’41 and ’42 Sutton High grads.

Dr. Pope appeared in the list of 1921 Sutton businesses in the History of Hamilton and Clay Counties book by Burr & Buck. He bridges a time when the first of Sutton’s medical men were still around and the later time we are heading toward. Joining Dr. Pope were such fellows as Dr. D. W. Dulaigh, a dentist; Griess & Griess, dentists; Dr. Jesse L. Hull, an older physician; H. W. Kellogg, early chiropractor; Dr. J. W. Thompson, physician and Dr. M. P. Yokum, dentist. Those numbers were not sustainable.

One-year old Herbert Ochsner appearing in the 1900 census as the youngest son of John P. and Margareta Ochsner, both 1874 immigrants as young teenagers. Mrs. Ochsner would have one more son in 1902.

John Ochsner’s farm was in east part of Lincoln Township, later renamed Eldorado.

I did not find Herbert Ochsner in the ’20 census. He was 21 at the time, likely in college or dental school in a boarding house or apartment – a challenge to locate but in 1930 Doc and Beulah were residing on Cedar Street, he proclaiming his parents birthplace as Odessa, Russia, she listed as a school teacher.

By 1940 they’d been joined by Shirley and Janet, ’51 and ’56 local grads. Doc was 40, Beulah was 35 with many, many more years to come.

Doc Nuss was the youngest of these fellows born on August 22, 1905 one of six of Christian Nuss Jr. and Hannah; she also indicated a child lost before the 1900 census.

Dr. H. V. Nuss, long time Sutton physician, sole doctor for much of the time.

Christian Nuss Sr. and his wife “Margr” (as indicated on the passenger list) arrived in New York on June 17, 1875 with two kids, Christian Jr., Doc’s dad and a daughter also listed as “Margr.” They came on the Suevia, the same ship the Popp family would take two years later. Listed with them were an “Adam Trautman” age 16 and another Nuss family, Ana and Magdal with seven more including another Margr, probably a sister and kids down to 11 months of age. A New York Times article noted that the Suevia carried 79 cabin and 491 steerage passengers on that voyage.

The Nuss farm was in western School Creek Township not far from the Ochsners. Herman was a doctor in an Omaha hospital in the 1930 census (listed as Herman Nus) living in an apartment on Howard Street with wife Mildred and one-month old son Richard.      

Janet, Sutton class of ’50 and Victoria, ’54 would arrive by 1940 when the good doctor had returned to Sutton.

Everyone I spoke with about this article had great things to say about Dr. Nuss, his skills and his importance to our town. He probably delivered about 2 ½ generations of us. I mentioned earlier that he remembered the night I was born. Three of us Sutton babies were born that night, Bob Mohnike, Wanda Hornbacher and me. Mrs. Hornbacher was at home here in Sutton. Mrs. Mohnike and my mother were in the hospital in Hastings. All three were dragging out the process that night. Doc Nuss would lean back, squint a bit and tell of driving back and forth checking progress from evening until well after midnight. Finally in Hastings, Bob was born. I wasn’t ready so drove back to Sutton, again. Doc drove. Doc drove like a bat out… you get the idea. Wanda arrived. Then back to Hastings where I checked in at 5:15 AM.

Doc had lots of stories like that but he delighted in telling me that story in a manner that to this day kind of makes me feel responsible for his lost night.

Dr. H.V. Nuss nursed the image of an old-school country doctor. But I can picture him in a spare moment deep into the latest journals and technical publications staying at the top of the field for us.

So what have we done here? A few things. We’ve pointed out the similarities between the three fellows who constituted the health care system for Sutton for several years: second generation Germans from Russia, local farm kids, went off to study and came back to their home town to work their chosen profession.

These are not definitive biographies but I’d like to see them start a conversation. We invite you to add your memories and stories of these three gentlemen and to comment on any material on the blog. That’s how these systems work best.

We did not find a good picture of Dr. Pope but did find a photo of the freshman class in the 1912 annual. Let's have some fun...

Sutton High School Freshman Class in 1912, the class of '15. Dr. David Pope is in this picture - anyone see him?

There were 28 in the 1912 Freshman Class and the school annual kindly printed their names, even if the order does not appear to have anything to do with  the accompanying photo.

So, there you have it. Your quiz for the day. Good Luck and fill in your guesses in the comment section.