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Galician "New World" Echoes
From the USA
by Glen Linscheid

© copyright 1997 Mennonite Family History and Glen Linscheid, all rights reserved
First published by the " Mennonite Family History" Volume 3 No. 4, pp 146-149, October 1984. Republished with permission by FEEFHS 1 April 1997.

First posted: 1 April 1997

What is it that has brought us to this point in time? Indeed, it is the legacy accorded us through a common historic faith and a common heritage. We, of the North American "New World" generations of Galician progeny claim common geographical and genealogical roots with those in scattered locations around the world.

The countrysides of Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, and many other states are dotted with a variety of historic momentoes of our pioneer Galician stock numbered from the migrations of the 1880's.

One vivid reminder which continually jars our consciousness comes with a stroll through familiar cemeteries, only to note the inscriptions bearing reference to a Galician birthplace. Another reminder stems from the visual images remaining on the landscape -- the homes, barns, places of business, communion cup, shawl -- which link us directly into this on-going chain forged from our Galician past.

These experiences may also be vicariously relived through perusal of photos, letters, documents, and assorted memorabilia preserved in treasured family albums and archives. Perhaps the question is often posed, either consciously or subliminally, "just where on this earth would we be, and what would be our lot if those migrations had not occurred?"

And so from Einsiedel, from Neuhof, from Falkenstein, and from many other Galician locales of which we in the states know only the names of their relative positions on a historic map, they came to Westbrook (Rose Hill and Des Moines Twps.), to Butterfield, St. James, and Mountain Lake in Minnesota; to Hanston and Arlington in Kansas; to Perry in Oklahoma; to Shell Lake and Sarona in Wisconsin (where the lure of an invitation to communal living failed to achieve heralded social and religious objectives). From these scatterings the process continued unabated to countless "New World" addresses to perpetuate in unceasing numbers the arduous pattern of confirming life anew in the face of often hostile, or at best, unfriendly elements.

It was only natural that vocation interests followed "Old World" patterns, and that sustenance held a direct association with the soil and farming as the dominant occupational pursuit of the Galician immigrants. Excerpts from an early letter written by Daniel Kintzi to relatives who chooses to remain in Galicia express the gist of sentiments largely experienced in numerous situations.

"...I now come back to the matter of our farm, which is three English miles from the city of St. James (Minn.), and consists of 240 acres of land on which we have a good house, a stall (barn), and a good well; the house is placed in a thicket and cost 2500 Dollars...We also have several Galician neighbors in our co-operative of the six surrounding English miles, namely: John Ewy from Wiszenka, D. Hubin, Jak. Klein, the two brothers Jak. and Joh. Linscheid, Jak. Hubin, Joh. Hubin, Joh. Muller, and Jak. Ewy, and it goes well with them..."

Albert F. Rupp of Los Angeles, California, who wrote an English summary translation of Peter Bachmann's definitive volume Mennoniten in Kleinpolen, states:

"When I read Daniel Kintzi's letter in the book, I wondered at the statement 'cost of $2500.' I still don't know whether that was for the house in itself or the whole farm. If for the house only, that would be quite high for those days because at that time materials were cheap. As for the land, my grandfather, Philip Rupp, bought 160 acres in Rose Hill before the town of Westbrook was started for $6 an acre from the Railroad Co. which owned it. Butterfield and St. James had a mainline railroad so I would think the price was higher there. It would figure out to a little over $9 an acre, so I suppose the $2250 was for the whole farm, not just the house."

And so began the familiar process repeated in most modern societies and in most geographic locations. Children were born, and families generally grew to sizable numbers because many hands were required to keep households and farms in smooth-running operation.

Neighborliness continued to be a strong bonding factor among these early settlers. Knowing that friendly neighbors just down the road a short distance would gladly respond to a request for assistance at a moment's notice was a comforting concept in theory and practice. Often Galician immigrant neighbors teamed together on the more demanding farm tasks such as threshing, filling silo, butchering, haying, and the like. Work seemed to go much smoother when everyone spoke and thought in German. Like wise, help was readily forthcoming when illness or death struck a family.

IMMIGRANT THEODOR KINTZI

For some immigrants the pull of the "Old Country" was nearly overwhelming. Theodor Kintzi (1868-1944) came to the U.S. with his parents, Johann and Katherina (Bergthold) Kintzi, as a young man of nineteen years. This family settled in the Butterfield, Minnesota area, but soon became dissatisfied with living conditions and returned to Galicia, leaving Theodor to pursue life on his own. This was a very difficult and painful decision for both parents and siblings, and the scene of ultimate departure at the railroad station could be likened to severance by death.

In 1896, Theodor returned to Galicia to visit his parents and other relatives. Upon his return to the U.S., he found employment and married Wilhelmina "Minnie" Linscheid in 1898. He then ventured into the retail mercantile business in Darfur and Westbrook, Minn., amidst raising a family of seven daughters and one son. In 1927, death removed Wilhelmina. The following year, Theodor married her sister, Elizabeth (Linscheid) Hubin.

It was following World War I, that Theodor's native-land longings again became very acute. In fact, so much so that he sold his business and purchased steamer trunks in anticipation of returning to Galicia with his family. The passport photographs were taken, but it was at this point that his family responded negatively and emphatically to such plans. By this time the older siblings had lined up prospective spouses which definitely pointed toward marriage.

Albert F. Rupp, cited earlier, spins the following recollection of this episode:

"We heard about Theodor Kintzi wanting to go back to his native land. My cousin, Elsie Rupp (at Westbrook) at that time), who was also a cousin to the Kintzi children, told us he was going to go next day to buy the tickets. Overnight, Emilia, the oldest one, made up her mind that SHE would not go, then Louise and Leontine said if Emilia does not go, then we don't go either! and so the plan was given up."

In an autobiographical statement written by their late son and brother, Ewald, a sense of finally placing these fatherly yearning at rest had a decidedly pacifying effect on familial relations: "...Father must have been convinced that his family was not with him to share this proposed exodus he had thought about for a long time. It was about the middle of August, 1920, when he announced that he had given up the growing urge to return to his homeland. We would, he said, remain in America to continue our residence in Mountain Lake. Needless to say, a great load was lifted from our minds, and our family life continued to a vein to which we had become accustomed."

IMMIGRANT PHILIP NERSTHEIMER

Theodor's sister, Jeanette, and her husband, Philip Nerstheimer, and Mathilda Kintzi, were 1914 immigrants also from Galicia. However, they decided to return to their homeland after living in Mountain Lake, Minn., for ten years. Theresa, their adopted daughter, remained in the U.S. and at the time of this writing resides with her husband, Alfred Huhnke, and daughter Geraldine in Bethany, Oklahoma.

"My father told about this Johann Kintzi being dissatisfied and going back to Galicia. Those in the Rose Hill area, including Des Moines Twp. in Murray Co., my mother said they were so happy to be in the new country even though some of them lived in poverty conditions for about two or three years. So when they organized the church congregation, they called it the "Neu Heimat Gemeinde" or "New Home Church." They were in a more primitive country there so they set their own lifestyle without much outside influence."

ACCULTURATION

These examples are cited to portray a bit of the tension and frustration individuals and families experienced as varied "push-pull" factors squeezed in upon the very fabric of life for a very small minority of Galician immigrants. By far, the major portion of our pioneer Galician stock made rapid portion of our pioneer Galician stock made rapid adjustments to life in their new land with little, if any, thought of return to European roots.

The combination of ceaseless historic flow and acculturation tended to come down quite strongly in favor of this new environment in which these Galician immigrants found themselves. America's struggle for independence from English rule culminated successfully in 1775, thus affording a head-start of over a century before the Galician migrations on placing the language, the law, the economics, the societal institutions and influence.

Thus with the passing of years also came a variety of issues with which to address. Should church services by conducted in German or in English? Children would be attending public schools during the winter months at which English was the accepted language, so how will they every learn English when all they hear at home is German? Or, although the neighbors are of familiar Galician stock, an Irish family lives in the next section, and we would like to be neighborly, but language presents a barrier, so what do we do?

"We experienced no problem concerning English in school and speaking German at home...in our country school we had German ready because nearly all the children in school were German, about half of them Mennonite and the other half Lutheran. I am so grateful to this day that we had that German reading, and one teacher (for two years) also made us write some German. For some of the children it was hard to read German, but it was easy for me after the first year."

In time, all of these problems which had once seemed so traumatic, such as the German/English church service usage, were resolved. The transition began with the first generation "New World" off-spring acquiring and perfecting bi-lingual capabilities, thus maintaining "Old Country" tradition with their elders, while making in-roads into the new spoken and written English among their peers.

To illustrate how this phenomenon has come full-circle, the author cites the example of his mother, Bertha Pauline Linscheid, age 89, and first-generation born "New World" of Galician parentage. If she were to attempt to converse in German at her elderly stage of life, she would in all probability, switch to English early in her first spoken sentence. Still others in her general age grouping are able to speak and write a highly technical and grammatically sounding German.

At this stage of the generational dispersion there was till considerable intermarriage between the Rupps, the Ewys, the Hubins, the Linscheids, and on down the Galician surname lines. The second generation "New World" off-spring, however, was to evidence considerable pulling away from this pattern in the matter of choosing life-mates. This development led to an increased breaking away from Mennonite ties. Subsequent generations have manifested a compounding of this factor into incalculable proportions.

It would be a fairly safe statement to make that of the total number of Galician descendants dispersed in the U.S. to date, only a relatively small minority would still be directly associated with the Mennonite faith of their Galician forefathers. This is not written to bring even a small measure of indictment, but rather to acknowledge, matter-of-factly, that elements of high mobility combined with a rather affluent society tend to generate this manner of cause-and-effect relationships.

Likewise, in matters of vocational choices, educational objectives, and places of residence, this second generation set such causal elements in motion as to foster Galician surnames to appear among the learned professions, in the business world, in the clergy, and much more, while a significant number still keep their hands in the soil, albeit with the most modern of mechanized agricultural equipment.

The First World War placed opposing idealogies into direct confrontation through youthful armed might of each nation, and brought two special concerns to the Galician descendants. One was the conflict within those who still held fast to the long-standing peace tradition of the Mennonite teaching. The other struggle for those who chose to join the military was the fact that the U.S. was in a war against German people, from which Galicians stemmed.

In World War I, some Galician Mennonites chose to enter the medical corps of the military, the only legal option accorded them for non-combatant service. J.E. Linscheid and his brother, Alfred, joined other Kansas Mennonites in service at Camp Funston and Fort Riley, Kansas. Jacob and Robert Miller, Peter and Herbert Linscheid, Erwin Ewy, Edwin Hubin, and Gustav Rupp were among numerous first generation Galician descendants who answered this call to military duty under the U.S. flag.

The listing of Galician descendant surnames in the Second World War records is long and inclusive. Representative among these surnames are: Lemont and Lowell Ewy, Bud and Harvey Linscheid, Mayo/Alton/Paul/Reuben Kramer, Ernest and WIlliam Miller (brothers of Robert and Arthur), Marvin Rupp, Harold Kintzi, Raymond Bergthal, and Milton Hubin.

In this conflict, the struggles of conscience and country again arose. This time, the federal government afforded "conscientious objectors" more alternatives. Galician descendants were among those involved in Civilian Public Service (CPS), 1-W service in public/private health institutions, or non-combatant service within the military.

Meanwhile, Gustav Kintzi, currently of Kipfenberg, West Germany, was in the German army, and perhaps situations and circumstances brought Galician descendants of opposing sides into close proximity, although unbeknown to each other.

A number of second and third generation Galician descendants were also in the U.S. military during the 5th, 6th, 7th decades of the Korean and Viet Nam conflicts, and more recent actions in rather isolated geographic trouble spots. For some this meant assuming assignments in life-preserving, rather than in life-destroying thrusts of emphases. For those who entered the military, this involved a claim of "non-combatant" status, and usually entailed duty in a military medical unit. For others, electing to by-pass any military affliction, this duty often took the form of service in hospitals and mental institutions, and helped make great strides toward the humane and proper care of the mentally ill.

Thankfully, wars come to an end, but the suffering and disruption often linger upon innocent populace for a lifetime. From out of their home in Falkenstein, Galacia (then part of Poland), the Peter Bachmann family, along with many other neighboring Galacian families, was forced to flee for their lives. Eventually, this family, typical of those who endured unspeakable hardships, found their way to the U.S. and Canada with the invaluable assistance of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).

The Rudolph Schreyer family, and the Gustav Butz family also made their way to the U.S., and for the first months lived in the Butterfield and Mountain Lake, Minn., areas. The Heinrich Rupps, who, after lengthy and difficult negotiations, were able to see their son, Wiktor, and his family, emigrate to the U.S. from post World War II Poland. Heinrich and Eugenia made their home in Butterfield for a number of years. Later they moved to Lowell, Mass., where Heinrich/Henry died and is buried. Eugenia now resides in Hollywood, Florida, near her son and family.

Just as those who came before them in the 1880s, these families resolved to begin anew in a foreign setting. The differing factor and perhaps small advantage in their situation was that Galician descendants from earlier migrations were on hand upon arrival to aid these families as best they could. These families are among the very few which remain for us on the "New World" side of the Atlantic, our last and only living link within our midst to Galician moorings. They experienced similar aspects of culture shock, language barriers, and a host of associated frustrations. But gradually life began to brighten as customary social patterns of marriage and family carried into succeeding generations.

The preservation in written form of the "New World" Galician descendants story-line has evolved by bits and pieces. Mrs. Pat Ross (Hubin) Myren of Purcellville, Va., has published an interesting and thorough account of the late 19th century post-migration documentation. Her volume, Radicals to Realists, describes in detail the Shell Lake and Sarona, Wisc., developments to which earlier reference was cited.

In June 1981, a Galician Centennial Reunion hosted in the Butterfield/Mountain Lake, Minnesota area, attracted some 500-plus descendants to a commemorative week-end especially designed to renew the many facets of our Galician heritage. From this event a volume, We Did Take Root (1st and 2nd editions), was editorially directed and published by the author of this article.

The Westbrook (Rose Hill), Minnesota story written by Preacher Henry H. Ruff, and up-dated by Mrs. Kenneth "Donna" Rupp of Darfur, Minn., has been widely circulated, as has the account of the Galician descendants who settled and reside in Kansas, compiled by Harold W. Linscheid.

Additional family accounts and genealogies have been developed and shared produces a periodic newsletter, Galician Grapevine, which is circulated through an extensive mailing. Much of these materials are then photocopies and relayed to the West German Galician research specialists (A. Bachmann, R. Ewy, E. Stauffer, and others) in preparation and anticipation of their extensive and ambitious publication objectives.

CONCLUSION

In the concluding paragraph of his timely essay, "Wegan Seines Glaubens" (Because of Their Faith/Belief, Royce Hubin of San Jose, California poses a searching question for each of us to ponder as inheritors of this treasured Galician legacy:

"Now to get back to the basic question: Is there anything we do believe in strongly enough to do something about? I guess each of us will have to answer for himself. In my case, however, the intervening centuries seem to have diluted whatever the quality wasÐcourage or determination or commitment, or whatever-that makes it possible for a person to lay down his life for a principle. I can't take much pride in my own actions- not because I haven't spoken out as I should have for or against conditions which I knew to be good or evil. So while I can't boast of my actions, nor the results of the few actions I have taken, I am glad that at one time-way back when-one of my ancestors was willing to make the supreme sacrifice "wegen seines glaubens."

Thus, then, remains for us as recipients of such legacy a very real "bench mark" on which to gauge our span of alotted years on planet Earth. How we respond to current issues, challenges confronting us, and our very life-style in light of our historic perspectives, whether "New World" or "Ole Country", suggests the measure to which we regard those who have gone before us to show the way.

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