C. B. Schmidt. a big bespectacled man with a Garfield beard and an eye for a thrifty farmer. was the immigration commissioner for the expanding A.T.&S.F. He set sail for Russia just as the Mennonites were aroused to the peril of their position. Many already were on the way to join their brothers in Pennsylvania. Maryland and Canada. But Schmidt. who had the backing of some Mennonites in Marion county plus the eyewitness account of Cornelius Jansen. Prussian consul who had toured the Santa Fes territory. easily persuaded the emigrants to try their luck in Kansas. Four months after Schmidts arrival in Russia. a Red Star steamer carried a full cargo of household goods. farm implements. wagons. and 400 Mennonite families from Berdiansk to Philadelphia. Traveling all the way at the expense of the railroad. they arrived at Newton simultaneously with the grasshoppers. and the two invasions were distinctive.
Keywords matched
immigration emigrants