The Reporter from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin • 50

Page 10 September 4, 1997 The Reporter Noti all eraiasiis came hem America represented safety from the czar Husband's death didn't keep widow from bringing her family to America I 111 FT 9 father was one ancestors came to Russia from Germany at the invitation of Catherine the of the German Russians who came to America IP ft i Leona Weber's widowed grandmother, Emelie Kebling Wurch, was married to Gottlieb Seehaver of Princeton. It was the second wedding for both. They are seated in this wedding photo, surrounded by Seehaver's children from his first marriage. Weber recalled that her grandmother always dressed in black. This is the only photo she has of her grandmother.

Great. She was a German princess who married Peter the Great, the heir to the Russian throne. She invited her German relatives and friends to settle in the rich Volhynia valley of Russia and become prosperous farmers. The Wurch (Werch, Wuerch, Verch) clan had their start here. They came to Wisconsin in the late 1800s, settling near Berlin, Princeton and Manchester.

They were hard working, deeply religious people who taught their children how to work and get ahead. My grandfather, Franz Wurch, died before the family about to leave for America. My grandmother packed up ha- few belongings and six young children and came anyway. They settled in Berlin and she went to work to earn money to repay her stepsons the money she borrowed to get her family over here. The children were placed in homes where they worked for their room and board.

My dad was given to the Lutheran minister. He took care of his horses and the lawn and did odd jobs for the family. When he was 12 years old, he went to the Princeton Cattle fair and found a job working for a Mr. Grahn. He was big for his age and very strong.

At 23, he met my mother and in the late 1900s. I recall an incident my aunt Hannah (W urch) Jones told me about. When she was about 4 or 5 years old, and the family was living near Lutzke, she wandered onto land that was owned by the czar. An armed guard approached her and explained that it was his duty to shoot and kill anyone found on the czar's property. He couldn't kill an innocent little girl, so he told her to run home as fast as she could.

He shot up in the air to pretend that he was following orders. My uncle Adolph Werch was trying to cross the railroad tracks when he was stopped by the czar's soldiers who were guarding the railroad crossing. The czar's train would soon be coming. Adolph explained to them that he had to cross the tracks to get to a neighboring farm to do their chores. They refused to allow him to cross.

He ran as fast as he could and crawled under the hay upstairs in the neighbor's barn. He said he would always remember the sound of the soldiers' bayonets piercing through the hay. Suddenly the train whistle blew and the soldiers had to rush to the crossing or they would have been severely punished or killed. (Submitted by Arden Wurch, WestAIIis) officers saw the spots on baby. Grandma was clever.

When the time came to look each child over, she had the baby wrapped up so it would have been difficult for the man to quickly see him. She couldn't speak English, so when he made an attempt to look at the baby, she said in Russian or German, "No, no, the baby is sound asleep." She held him tight and refused to let the immigration officer look at the baby. In disgust, he waved her on! (Submitted by Leona Weber, Markesan) they were married in Germania. The government was offering land to homesteaders in North Dakota. If you farmed it for two years, it was yours.

My father sent $5 to Sears and Roebuck and ordered two books on how to build homes and barns, etc. He only went to third grade in Russia, but he was determined to learn a trade and get ahead, which he did. He and my mother followed the homesteaders to Casselton, N.D. He built the barns and houses and other buildings and my mother cooked three meals a day for his workers. "America is such a wonderful place when you get to New York you will find bananas laying in the streets." That is what someone told my dad before he and his mother and sisters and brothers left Russia for the United States.

When he finally had a chance to eat one, he ate the peelings and all. One of my dad's favorite stories was about the boat trip to America. His baby brother got chicken pox on the way over. They were careful so no one saw him. Their greatest fear was that they would be sent back to the old country if the immigration nit ri 1 14-1 irn Ct )Wi sin Qermans are proud 1 sleeves and a bright apron.

Another form lix Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert and many had become Protestants. Germans living in the west, south and southwest re LANGUAGE In the past, there were two main forms of German. High German was spoken in the southern and central uplands of Germany and Low German was spoken in the northern plains. Today, the standard written and spoken form of German is based largely on High German. Low German is still spoken in farm areas, along with High German.

RELIGION The Reformation began in Germany during the early 1 500s. This religious movement brought about the establishment of Protestantism. By 1600, most people in northern and central Ger- has a run skirt gathered in at the top, and a wide waistband laced together in front. MUSIC The great tradition of German music was established during the early 1700s by the composers Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart carried on the tradition later in Austria, which was historically one of the German states.

During the early 1800s, Ludwig Van Beethoven developed new, powerful forms of symphonic expression. Important later composers included Johannes Brahms, Fe Robert achumann. ARCHITECTURE During the Middle Ages, magnificent cathedrals in the Romanesque and Gothic styles were built in Bamberg, Cologne, Regensburg, Ulm and Worms. Fine examples of churches and palaces in the baroque and rococo styles, built during the 1700s, are in southern Germany. During the early 1900s, Walter Gropius and his famous Bauhaus group developed a basic style of modern architecture.

(From the World Book Encyclopedia) mained Roman Catholics. DRESS Most people are familiar with the clothing native to the state of Bavaria. Bavarian men and boys often wear lederho-sen, short leather pants held up by broad leather suspenders with a decorated band across the chest. Completing the costume are knee socks, heavy walking shoes and a hat with a feather or some animal hair! Many women and girls wear a dirndl, a gaily-printed cotton dress with puffed.