Merck Family - Random Notes

Christian's Journey

2011-03-20T17:58:00.002-05:00

Christian S. Merk was about six years older than my Dad, his second cousin. They both came from the same village, Elsass. At age 18 he left with a couple of friends to come to America. He tells about his journey in a letter written shortly after he arrived in North Dakota:

"I started my trip with Dominik Job and Nikolai Rodinow from our home village. We drove for two days and two nights by train and then for two more days and nights of driving and walking, we finally were only ten verst (about 6.62 miles) from the Russian boarder. Why did we travel this way? Well, we did not have passports. As we approached the boarder, we were soon surrounded by Russian soldiers who looked at us as though we were murderers. With the help of copious amounts of schnapps, we were able to finally able to get away from the soldiers. At the boarder we had to cross a river which had a torrential current. I thought that would be the end for me but we did arrive at the opposite bank. Once there, we faced rocky hills with peaks so high we could barely see them. We also saw a forest which seemed to extend for miles. We did not know whether to go right or left. However, we had to push forward into the dark forest. It took until morning that we came to a field with nice grain growing on it. I really wanted to rest but my buddies were afraid of the Russian soldiers so we pushed on. We continued to march on at random, putting our trust into God’s hands. Finally we reached a road which we followed. After a long march, we bumped into the Austrian Military. We had reached the Austrian boarder! The soldiers examined us but we were not taken into custody and we were later allowed to continue on foot. We later hired a driver and after twelve hours, we finally reached a train station. Now the hardship was behind us. The train took us to the harbor where we boarded a ship bound for America. It was an arduous, perilous trip until we reached the harbor."

He also talks about his arrival in North Dakota: "I have been visiting many relatives but I was most overjoyed by visiting my Uncle Christian. When he heard that I was coming, he drove to Berwick to pick me up. However, by the time he got there, I was on my way to Blumenfeld with Johannes Volk. My uncle later found me there. It has been eleven long years since we last saw one another. The readers can imagine the joy of the reunion. From Blumenfeld he drove me to his home in Karlsruhe. It was already night when we arrived there. Throughout the night, we discussed and simply could not finish talking."

What makes his story more interesting is that fact that after his arrival in 1910 he again returned to South Russia. I don't know when he left on that trip, so I don't know just how long he was there. But he was married there in early 1913 and returned with his wife to Saskatchewan in October 1913. Their first daughter was born at sea on that voyage. Unless he went specifically to obtain a wife, I can't image what would motivate him to go back after having such difficulty leaving in the first place.

Cousins Meet at the Cracker Barrel

2010-08-21T11:59:00.003-05:00

The final day of the 2010 Germans From Russia Heritage Society convention in Bismarck ND, July 25th, was an ideal occasion for a brunch meeting of Merck cousins at the Cracker Barrel restaurant. Pictured above are Marilyn Bruya, Missoula MT, Bill Merck, Minot ND and Ed Merck, Jacksonville AR in the back row. Seated in the Cracker Barrel's famous rocking chairs are Alex Merck, Minot ND, Mary Jo Merck (wife of Bill), and Jo Merck (wife of Ed). This photo was taken by a friendly passerby with Marilyn's camera.

1909 Emigration to Brazil

2010-08-07T18:07:00.006-05:00

Much history is contained in letters written by the Germans from Russia to der Staats Anzeiger, a German language newspaper published in North Dakota in the early 1900s. This newspaper, distributed in South Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Canada and the United States, was useful for communicating between family and friends who had emigrated and those who remained behind. That has been mentioned in earlier items published here.

Several writers commented on the emigration from the Kutschurgan Valley to Brazil in 1909. Ludwig Stroh wrote from Russia on 2 Jan 1909 that many wanted to emigrate to Brazil because the fare was very much cheaper than to America. Editor Brandt added comments to caution readers about the unscrupulous land speculators in Brazil who offered travel assistance because they wanted the land settled and about the undesirable conditions there (1). In another letter he wrote that the Brazilian government announced they no longer had funds to provide assistance for those moving (2). Martin Stroh wrote a 27 Jan 1909 letter in which he stated it was deplorable that emigrants make the move without educating themselves about what they will find (3). On 24 Apr 1909 he wrote that he had heard from two who had emigrated and had been swindled, so they spent their last funds to move to Argentina hoping for something better. They urged that no one should be convinced to make that move (4).

It was apparently known in the Kutschurgan Valley that emigrating to Brazil was not a wise thing to do. So I wondered why my grandfather and others later left their homes in South Russia to make that move. The Merck family left Russia 13 December 1909 and arrived in Brazil 45 days later. Their trip was several months after those letters were written. They moved on to Argentina before April 1910 (9).

Reading other letters written to der Staats Anzeiger at that time revealed they had reasons to hope for something better. They had endured two floods, drought, and crop-destroying 'bugs' (5, 6). This all happened after two straight years of crop failures (7). They may have had other options, but their lack of wealth restricted their choices. I'm not happy they suffered these difficult circumstances, but I am thankful they had the strength and perseverance to survive them and eventually bring their families to this land of opportunity in 1912 (9).

(1) Ludwig Stroh ltr, 2 Jan 1909
(2) Ludwig Stroh ltr, 8 Mar 1909
(3) Martin Stroh ltr, 27 Jan 1909
(4) Martin Stroh ltr, 24 Apr 1909
(5) Martin Stroh ltr, 8 Mar 1909
(6) Ludwig Stroh ltr, 12 May 1909
(7) Georg Usselmann ltr, Jul 1909
(8) Joseph Merk ltr, 30 Mar 1911
(9) Joseph Merk ltr, 15 Jun 1912

Story of the Germans From Russia

2010-02-08T12:34:00.002-06:00

Dr. Eric Schmaltz wrote an excellent series of articles to tell the story of his family history. Reprinted by the North Dakota State University Library are the newspaper articles titled "The John Schmaltz family of Emmons County: from Ukrainian Steppes to Dakota Prairies." The story told would be very similar to one told about the Merck family which made much the same journey.

Connie Jo (Merck) Parker, 1949-2009

2009-01-14T06:23:00.004-06:00

Connie Jo (Merck) Parker passed away in her sleep Monday, 12 January 2009, at her home in Jacksonville AR. Her mother and I love her and miss her.

Obituary

Dan Whalen - Interim President of Saint John's University

2008-10-26T15:17:00.004-05:00

Dan Whalen (grandson of Anthony J. Merck), a 1970 graduate of Saint John's University ( www.csbsju.edu), has been named interim president of Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota. The announcement was made October 21st to the campus community by Jim Frey, chair of the Board of Regents. "I am certain that Dan's leadership will inspire the trust and confidence of everyone in the Saint John's community", said Frey.

Whalen replaces Br. Dietrich Reinhart, OSB, president emeritus of Saint John's University, who announced his resignation on Oct. 16. "Dan is a remarkably kind and generous man," said Reinhart. "His willingness to serve as interim president of Saint John's University reflects a deep love and gratitude for the educational community that has nurtured his heart and fired his desire to make a difference in the world. The leadership of Saint John's could not be in better hands!"

"I cannot fill Br. Dietrich's shoes. No one can," said Whalen. "But thanks to Br. Dietrich's remarkable leadership, Saint John's is a strong and resilient institution. I am excited about joining the first class leadership team that he put together. And I am pleased to join the partnership with Dr. MaryAnn Baenninger and the College of Saint Benedict."

"Dan Whalen is an excellent choice for interim president of Saint John's," said MaryAnn Baenninger, president of the College of Saint Benedict. "I've had the pleasure of working with Dan during his time as chair of the Board of Regents, and I look forward to working with him again as interim president. Dan is a man of character, creativity and compassion. He has a great wit, and a warm, welcoming sense of humor. He understands and supports Br. Dietrich's vision. I look forward to having Dan as a partner in the coordinate relationship between College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University."

Whalen grew up in Argyle, Minn. and East Grand Forks, Minn., where he, after attending Saint John's Preparatory School for one year, graduated from Sacred Heart High School. In the mid-1960s, Whalen, his mother and his siblings moved to St. Cloud, Minn. Whalen attended Saint John's University and majored in government.

Merck/Eberle Letters in der Staats-Anzeiger

2008-09-18T19:13:00.003-05:00

Additional letters that appeared in der Staats-Anzeiger German language newspaper have recently been translated. Joseph Merck, after having been in North Dakota for only five months (1912), expressed a desire to obtain land in Montana in 1913 and to move his family there. As we now know, he didn't do that, but eventually moved to Oregon after about ten years in North Dakota. His brother-in-law, Felix Eberle, also corresponded with the newspaper in 1912 to recommend the newspaper take a stand for legislation setting a minimum price for the crops of North Dakota farmers.

Merck, Arkansas

2008-07-17T23:16:00.004-05:00

Yes, there is a Merck, Arkansas.

I continue to be amazed at how good the Google Earth program is. An interesting discovery of little value was made when I recently entered Merck, Arkansas into the search function of Google Earth. Surprisingly it found a site named "Merck (historical)" not far from where I live. It is located at 35-19N 90-37W. There is little information to be found about that location, but it appears that it was the location of a church. Out in the country on a county road, it is close to the town of Parkin in Cross County.

One day when I am bored and have a couple of hours to spare I will drive to that site to see what I can find out about it. It is likely that I will need to use my GPS to find it -- it's not likely there will be any signs pointing to it or to announce when I have arrived.

Joseph Merk Family Trip From Argentina

2008-05-24T22:14:00.006-05:00

Joseph Merk did write a letter to der Staats Anzeiger newspaper within a few days of arrival in Balfour, North Dakota, after their journey from Argentina in 1912. That letter has recently been translated from its original German language and is now online with the other letters he wrote to that newspaper. The letter, dated 15 June 1912 is available at the GRHS website. In it, he tells of taking one ship from Buenos Aires to Las Palmas, Canary Islands, and then another ship from the port of Tenerife to Vera Cruz, Mexico. They then took a train overland. It was a lengthy trip because of the route they took, partially necessary because of alleged eye disease found in several of the children.

Kutschurgan Villages 200th Anniversary

2008-05-24T16:42:00.003-05:00

Michael Miller, Director and Bibliographer of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Library, is now leading the 14th annual journey to the homeland. While on the current tour, he today sent an email from Odessa. He said, in part: "Other tour members and myself visited Elsass, Kandel and Selz of the Kutschurgan District villages. We went to the Elsass school to see the room for their museum. Elsass will celebrate their 200th Anniversary as a community and former German colony on 20 September 2008. Selz will celebrate its 200th anniversary for all of the six Kutschurgan District mother colonies with programs on 21 September 2008. Both of these September days will be important to the community of Germans from Russia with Kutschurgan ancestry in Germany, Canada and USA."

He offered to carry to Elsass and Selz for us a copy of a Merck Family History book for their museums. I included in the book a section of pictures taken while our family group visited the Kutschurgan villages in 2007. Additionally, I included several enlarged color photos taken while we were in Elsass and a similar package for Selz. So, our family will be part of the 200th Anniversary, at least in book form.

Merks in Weidenberg Village, 1908-1944

2008-03-25T13:23:00.005-05:00

Weidenberg, also known as Nowo-Nikolajewka for a time, was a daughter colony of Elsass, founded in 1908. The limited amount of land each of the Kutschurgan villages owned could not support the population as it grew, so land was purchased elsewhere for daughter colonies. Weidenberg was located about seventy kilometers east of Elsass in Beresan and about sixty kilometers northeast of Odessa. In March of 1944 the colony had about sixty-seven inhabitant families (after starting with sixteen) when all those of German descent fled with the retreat of the German Wehrmacht to Poland. At that time, two Merk families were among the once proud German farmers of Weidenberg. Joh. Merk (probably Johann or John) and Ch. Merk (probably Christian Merk) were the heads of those two families.

There was a Christian Merk, born 1883 in Elsass, who married Katherine Rissling in 1907 in Elsass. In documents prepared by Katherine, among German records captured by the U. S. Army concerning those who made that trek to Poland, I learned that her husband Christian died in 1941 in Weidenberg. They had a son also named Christian, born 1913 in Weidenberg, who married Helene Fischer in 1936 in Weidenberg. I also found similar documents prepared by Helene in Poland, but have not yet found similar documents prepared by her husband. I also have not yet found records of Joh. Merk from Weidenberg. Nor have I learned the fate of those Merks who reached Poland in 1944. However, most of those of German descent in those camps in Poland were forced by Stalin into slave labor in Siberia.

It is a curious coincidence that Katherine Rissling Merk's maiden name Rissling is an alternate spelling for Luisa Riesling (Rissling) who manages the museum at Selz. That lady resides in a home that had belonged to an ancestor in Selz, a home she graciously showed to our group during our visit there in June 2007. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me that it is possible that there is a family connection.

der Staats-Anzeiger Letters

2008-03-16T20:57:00.006-05:00

In previous posts to this blog it was explained that many of the Germans from Russia wrote letters to the German language newspaper der Staats-Anzeiger as an easy way to communicate with their friends and former neighbors. This North Dakota newspaper was distributed widely in South Russia, Argentina and throughout areas of the United States where these immigrants settled. My grandfather, Joseph John Merck, was a frequent correspondent as were his Eberle brothers-in-law. As a volunteer working with the project of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society to translate letters from the newspaper archives, I attempt to locate those written by relatives. The latest letter I discovered was written July 15, 1912, shortly after the Merck family arrived in the United States from Argentina. I think it is unusual that this letter makes no mention of that journey, so I believe there may be other letters yet to be discovered that were written about the same time. These letters are available online at the GRHS website to members of that organization.

Merck Saint Lievin

2008-02-26T21:48:00.004-06:00

I have no idea why this village has the name of Merck Saint Lievin, but so it does. The village is in the North of France, not far from the coastal city of Calais. Pictured here is an historic 16th century church located in the village of about 511 people.

A Bit of Merck History

2008-01-26T10:22:00.000-06:00

My Uncle Matt (Mathias J. Merck) wrote about his memories of his family in an item distributed at the 1989 Merck Family Reunion. Matt was born in South Russia in 1901 and was nearly nine years old when his father brought the family to South America on their quest for a better life. It is now known, after reading some of the translated letters of Joseph Merck and relatives in der Staats-Anzeiger newspaper archives that Joseph considered returning to South Russia when he found life difficult in Argentina. However, brothers-in-law in the United States encouraged him to give North America a try first. Following about three years there, the journey eventually brought them to the United States. Rather than repeat Uncle Matt's report here, his written memories can be found at the Merck Family website which is linked here.

100% Pure Vermont Maple Syrup

2007-12-26T16:15:00.000-06:00

In searching for something different to present to family and friends this Christmas, we settled on obtaining jugs of 100% pure Vermont maple syrup from Merck Forest and Farmland Center. Not only would it be useful and enjoyable, but we thought we would be providing a small bit of support for a good cause.

George W. Merck (1894-1957), former president of Merck & Co., provided about 3,000 acres of forest and farmland in Vermont to a foundation he founded. It was renamed in his honor upon his death 50 years ago. The foundation is not connected to Merck & Co.

Merck Forest & Farmland Center is Vermont's oldest nonprofit, conservation organization. It is open year-round to the public, and cares for and manages over 3,100 acres of fields, farm and forest in the heart of the Taconic Range. The center provides four seasons of educational programs and outdoor opportunities for children, young adults and all ages. Its many trails vary from wilderness, to historic sites, to discovery walks.

While the farm demonstrates sustainable agricultural practices, the purpose of the forest program is to demonstrate sustainable management of forests for timber products and non-timber products. And the Field Stewardship Programs teach students to care for the land through sustainable farm and forestry work projects.

Merck Forest is a special place. Its windy, mountaintop farm, and quiet forest trails provide a beautiful and peaceful respite to the visitors who come to relax and learn. Its mission is to teach about the benefits of innovative, sustainable management of forest and farmland. The farm demonstrates modern approaches to agriculture. They produce organic maple syrup, vegetables, flowers and herbs. They also raise livestock for meat, eggs, wool and dairy products.

Merk Immigrants, 6/3/1912

2007-09-02T12:07:00.000-05:00

The Immigration Service at Laredo, Texas, completed file cards on each immigrant who crossed the border from Mexico. On 3 June 1912, cards were filed for the family of Josef Merk who arrived from their last residence at Darragueiera, Argentina, enroute to Balfour, North Dakota. They were expected to arrive much earlier. In a recently translated letter to the German language newspaper der Staats Anzeiger dated 29 March 1912, brother-in-law Felix Eberle wrote: "I intend to move into my new residence in Karlsruhe by the 10th of April. My brother-in-law J. Merk, whom I am awaiting any day from Argentina, will move into my old farm." In announcing his plans to move, Joseph Merck wrote on 30 January 1912: "I ask the editor to cease sending Der Staats Anzeiger here, for I will be moving out on March 1." While my research has not located the documentation of the travels of the family, family legend has it that their first attempt to enter the United States was rebuffed because a family member had an eye disease. So, they made additional voyages aboard ship to a different entry point. The story goes that they were at sea at the time the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sunk on 15 April 1912. After landing at the port of Vera Cruz, Mexico, the Mercks successfully entered the country by the foot bridge at Laredo, Texas. They then boarded the train for the journey to North Dakota.

More Mercks

2007-07-28T18:37:00.000-05:00

Back in December 2006 I wrote about a possible connection between our family and the Mercks who settled in Freeport, Illinois, about 1870. Francois Joseph Merck and his sons emigrated from Alsace, France, to Illinois. My grandfather, Joseph John Merck, was raised in South Russia and brought his family to North Dakota in 1912 after a three year stopover in Brazil and Argentina. His ancestors also had lived in Alsace. Through research of civic and church records, we have now linked the two families to common ancestors who had lived in the village of Schoenenbourg. Our group visited that village in June and learned that Mercks still live in that attractive community. JoAnn Merck Meyers, one member of the Illinois Merck family group, and I have been sharing information about our respective families and their history.

I have recently been communicating with a member of another Merck family, this one descended from Michael Merck who settled in Newark, New Jersey. He was born in 1823. Although we have identified a Michel Merck born that same year in Schoenenbourg, we have yet to confirm that it is the same person. Should Michael and Michel actually be the same person, we will have established a definite link to another branch of our family now residing in the United States. We are proceeding with some confidence to confirm this link.

Kutschurgan Churches

2007-07-23T15:28:00.000-05:00

These notes are about the churches in the Kurschurgan villages we visited. The source of this data is Paradise on the Steppe, by Joseph S. Height, published by the Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Bismarck ND, 1973.

Mannheim: First church built in 1819 - field stone. Used until 1847. Bishop Lipsky consecrated a new church in 1861. That church was enlarged, completed in 1895 and consecrated by Bishop Zerr on October 27, 1896. Dedicated to Nativity of Mary. That was the church we saw. It had contained a main altar of white marble, with four side altars. Stations of the cross were nearly six feet in height. But perhaps the most exciting acquisition was the pipe organ from Bavaria, the "largest and finest organ to be found in South Russia". But in less than three decades, the organ was ripped apart and the Soviet plumbers used the pipes for gutters and rain spouts.

Elsass: Church built in 1827 - was small, but used for 70 years because they were affiliated with Mannheim until 1895. Their new church was consecrated in Fall 1892 by Bishop Zerr. Dedicated to St. Gabriel the Archangel, who was depicted in a large oil painting above the main altar that was imported from Tyrol.

Strassburg: To replace the original, a new, larger church was built in 1863. It was dedicated to St. Joseph. Built by Father Weber.

Baden: St. Michael's, the new church, was built in 1898/1899 and consecrated in 1901 by Bishop Zerr. In the early 1930s the communists demolished the tower. The good people of Baden secretly removed the church garments and vessels and only returned them to the church when the German-Wehrmacht marched into Baden in 1941 when religious services were again held.

Selz: The first church built in 1811, and rebuilt in 1830, became too small by 1859. Construction did not begin until 1897 and the basilica was consecrated November 25, 1901 by Bishop Zerr. Dedicated to the Assumption of Mary.

Kandel: Their church was built in 1892 - stone. It was consecrated by Bishop Zerr and dedicated to St. Michael.

Cherry Juice

2007-07-09T16:20:00.000-05:00

Perhaps the most enjoyable refreshment we enjoyed during our visit to the Ukraine was the cherry juice served us by Luisa Riesling of Selz (Limans'ke). After visiting the immense Catholic Cathedral which the German pioneers had built there, we stopped to see the one room museum which tells the story of the German people who built the village of Selz. This museum is the result of work done by Luisa and Margarita Budayera, the former mayor of Selz.

Luisa was born in Selz in 1936 to Fritz Karl Mautner and Lydia Riesling. Her father worked for the Red Cross and Defense Society, training young recruits for the military. He was arrested in 1937, imprisoned and subsequently shot. As happened often at that time, the family didn't know what happened to him until he was 'rehabilitated' in 1985. Lydia was later arrested and imprisoned for six months. Luisa and her brother, Walter, lived in the Selz orphanage during that time. Lydia had to renounce her husband and change all of their names back to Riesling in order to reclaim her children.

When the Soviet Army was advancing from the east in 1944, the German residents fled for the West. Many were captured and wound up as slaves in the Soviet 'labor camps'. Luisa worked in the forest and in an iron mine in the Ural Mountains until she was liberated in 1956. She was then allowed to move to Kazakhstan. Luisa married Chokan Anton Josephovich, who had also been 'repressed' and had worked in coal mines in the Urals, and in 1974 the family moved to Latvia. They were allowed to return to the former home of Pius Riesling at Selz in 1992. Luisa's husband died in 2002, and Luisa continues to live in the Riesling house. Her daughter and family live nearby. Even though Luisa may move to Germany and join her brother, Walter, she prefers to operate the Selz museum she established to tell the story of the German people who lived there.

We were pleased when Luisa offered to show us her home. When we visited the cellar, she removed a large container of cherry juice. It was especially enjoyable to join Luisa in her vine covered terrace, to visit with her and to taste that delicious cool drink. It was an honor to be the recipients of her gracious hospitality.

Elsass

2007-07-07T09:33:00.000-05:00

The village of Elsass (now Scherbanka) was a primary goal of our trip to the Ukraine. That village was the home of the Merck family prior to their emigration to the Americas in the early 1900s. With the aid of a 1944 map of the village, we walked on the ground of several homesites of Merck families who had remained in Elsass. We found the villagers to be very friendly. The director of the school gave our group a tour of the school building which soon will house a small museum devoted to the early days of the village. In greeting the family, the village administrator presented an invitation to us to return in 2008 to celebrate the founding of the village 200 years ago. A small group of photos of our visit to Elsass is now online.

Mercks Visit Ancestral Homelands

2007-06-12T14:19:00.000-05:00

A group of 10 American Merck descendants visited the homelands of their ancestors in Alsace and the Ukraine in late May and early June 2007. Among the group were Lawrence, Edward and Sr. Catherine Merck, whose father Anthony and grandfather Joseph were born in Elsass, South Russia (now Ukraine) and grandmother Katherine Eberle was born in Mannheim. Marilyn Bruya, daughter of Anthony's younger sister Magdalena, was also in the group. Pictured here is the former church in Mannheim (now Kamienka) where Joseph Merck married Katherine Eberle in 1887. Elsass is now named Scherbanka. Others in the group were Anthony's grandchildren Dan, Anita and Loretta Whalen (Danzl); great granddaughter Anna Whalen; and Jan Merck, wife of Lawrence.

After visiting the Kutschurgan villages and the city of Odessa in the Ukraine, the group travelled by air to Strasbourg, Alsace, France. They explored the villages of Schoenenbourg and Beinheim where previous generations of Mercks had resided. They also visited Neiderlauterbach, a nearby village where ancestors of Sr. Lorraine Kraft, another member of the group, had lived before emigrating to the Ukraine. Recent graves near the churches, as well as remarks in the Sunday church bulletin in Schoenenbourg, proved that Merck families continue to reside in the area.

Village Maps

2007-05-04T17:36:00.000-05:00

In preparation for our trip later this month to the villages where our Dad and Grandfather were born in South Russia (now Ukraine), I have obtained maps of the villages we will visit. These maps were prepared long after they left there (about 1940), but they are the best I could find. The lots have labels indicating who lived there. I like to assume that one of the homes where a Merk/Merck lived in the 1940s is where my Grandfather lived before they left, about 30 years before that. There were several Merk homes on the map.

I used the Google Earth program to plot the travel routes from Strasbourg in Alsace to the villages of Beinheim and Schoenenbourg where the Mercks lived before going to South Russia. Beinheim is less than 50 km (about 32 minutes) northeast of Strasbourg. Schoenenbourg is about 20 km northwest of there (about 25 minutes).

Ukraine's Crisis of Democracy

2007-04-02T23:32:00.000-05:00

This article from Time magazine discusses the changing political climate in the Ukraine. The pro-Western democracy may be in trouble.

Merck Family Reunion

2007-03-17T15:21:00.000-05:00

Descendants of the Felix and Mary Merck family are planning for a family reunion in Minot, North Dakota, the weekend of June 8 - 10, 2007. Events planned for the casual get-together include a Friday Night Social, Merck Family Golf Scramble and a Progressive Whist Tournament on Saturday, rounded out by a Merck Family Dinner and Dance that evening. The reunion will end with a family picnic on Sunday. Costs to attend will be minimal. Registrations should be made by March 23, 2007. For questions, contact: doreen.wald@minotstateu.edu, vickie.brabandt@minotstateu.edu, lenora_kraft@hotmail.com, lespammerck@srt.com, or rey.schaan@hotmail.com.

Some Ukraine Photos

2007-03-12T23:42:00.000-05:00

Merv Weiss is a Canadian whose ancestors emigrated from Alsace to South Russia (now Ukraine) much like the Mercks did. He has documented his family research in an interesting website which you can view at the link. He has made several trips to the Ukraine to visit the area where his ancestors lived. Some of the photos he took are displayed on his website. Look at the left column and click on the Ukraine 2004, Ukraine 2005, Ukraine 2006, etc. links. You will see some pictures taken at Elsass and Mannheim, two of the villages our group will visit, and some pictures taken at Odessa.

Movie Set in the Ukraine

2007-03-12T11:41:00.001-05:00

A 2005 movie called "Everything is Illuminated" is set in the area of the Ukraine near where our group will soon be visiting. It is about a young Jewish man who goes to Odessa and out into the countryside to find information about his grandfather. The views of the city and countryside are what we will see and perhaps some of the people he encountered will be as well. One of the group members who has seen it recommends it to everyone going on the trip. She cautions that parts of it might offend, but the humor and resolution of the story are worth it. The movie is only available on DVD.

Group Will Visit Ancestral Homelands

2007-03-08T12:18:00.000-06:00

In late May and early June 2007, a small group who are descendants of Joseph John Merck and Katherine Cecilia Eberle will visit the birthplaces of those ancestors. After a few days in London, the group will travel to the Odessa area of the Ukraine where they will visit the Kutschurgan villages of Elsass and Mannheim. Their itinerary will also include a stopover in the Alsace region of France where the Mercks lived before they went to South Russia (now Ukraine). More details later.

Return to South Russia Considered

2007-02-28T17:33:00.000-06:00

Joseph Merck brought his family from South Russia to Brazil in December 1910. Finding the living conditions completely unsatisfactory, the family moved on to Argentina after only two months in Brazil. They did not find what they wanted in Argentina either, and in 1911 Joseph wrote that he would be leaving South America. His army buddy, Johannes Bullach, wrote in a der Staats Anzeiger letter of May 26, 1911 that he advised Joseph that living conditions in Saskatchewan were much improved over South Russia. "I advise you not to return to Russia until you have seen North America and Canada. It cannot hurt for you to do so.", he wrote. He likely received similar advice from Eberle brothers-in-law in North Dakota, because that is where he headed when he was able to do so in 1912.

Some Other Mercks

2007-02-15T10:46:00.000-06:00

There are several prominent persons who share the surname Merck for whom I have not found a link to our family line.

Several Merck families reside in Southeastern United States, descendants of Andrew, Balthasar and Conrad Merck who arrived in this country in 1764 among the Palatines from the Rhine Valley who settled in South Carolina. A descendant, Baulser Merck, born in Alabama, was among those who participated in the famous Oklahoma land rush. His descendants now reside mostly in Texas. Others include George W. Merck, scientist and president of the American giant Merck & Co., who was an adviser to President Roosevelt during World War II and an early backer of the political ambitions of Eisenhower. He established the Merck Family Foundation which supports conservation efforts, and founded an area in Vermont now called the Merck Forest and Farm. Earlier, Friedrich Jacob Merck purchased a small pharmacy in Darmstadt, Germany, which was the beginning of the oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company in the world, Merck KGaA. His son, Johann Heinrich Merck was an author and critic and good friend of the young genius Goethe. John Merck is a lecturer and Assistant Director of the Earth, Life and Time Program at the University of Maryland.

Read more about some other Mercks at the link.

Am I German?

2007-02-05T15:05:00.000-06:00

When I was young we always referred to ourselves as being German because my Dad's family spoke the German language in their home. It never did enter my mind that we should refer to ourselves as Russian or French. Yet my Dad, his father and grandfather were all born in South Russia (now Ukraine). Their ancestors came from Alsace (now France). Alsace was part of the Holy Roman Empire until 1648, was added to France in 1697, and became part of Germany in 1871 when several German-speaking states joined to form the German Empire. This was long after Engelhard Merck had left to help settle the village of Elsass in South Russia. Engelhard was born in Alsace as had his father and grandfather in German-speaking communities.

Alsace Map - Merck Home Villages

2007-02-04T14:39:00.000-06:00

Mercks in my direct line of ancestors, from Johann to Engelhardt, Joseph, Engelhardus, and Engelhard, lived in the villages of Schoenenbourg and Beinheim in Alsace during the 1700s. It was Engelhard who emigrated in about 1809 with many others of the area to settle in the Kutschurgan villages of South Russia (now Ukraine). Others in the Merck family remained in France at that time. This map shows the Rhine River separating Alsace (France) from Germany with Beinheim near the center of the map close to the river and just West of the German city of Rastatt. Schoenenbourg is approximately 15 km Northwest in the upper left corner of the map. The German resort city of Baden Baden is in the lower right corner.

29th Bundestreffen of the Germans from Russia, May 26, Wiesbaden

2007-02-01T16:42:00.000-06:00

The Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, Stuttgart, Germany, will sponsor the Russlandeutschen Bundestreffen at Main Rhein Halle, Wiesbaden, Germany beginning May 26, 2007. The NDSU Homeland Tour group will be attending this historic event and others from the USA who will join the tour group in Wiesbaden to attend the Bundestreffen and assist at the Amerika Haus information tables.

Many attending this national event have immigrated to Germany from the former Soviet States since the late 1980s. Families are searching for their long lost relatives in North America and South America. About 20,000 persons are expected to attend this event.

More information about this event is at the NDSU website available at the link.

More Letters to der Staats-Anzeiger

2007-01-18T18:06:00.001-06:00

More translated letters to the newspaper der Staats-Anzeiger from my grandfather, Joseph John Merk, and his brothers-in-law (Eberles) were posted this week. These letters were written in the fall of 1911. This was about six months before Joseph Merk brought his family from Argentina to North Dakota. The Merk/Merck and Eberle letters can be viewed at the GRHS website by members of that group.

In The Valley of the Kutchergan

2007-01-10T18:07:00.000-06:00

In the Valley of the Kutchergan, a book By Ida Katherina Bohn Senger, is the history of families who lived through difficult times in Alsace, France, then emigrated to South Russia just as did our Merck ancestors. Some folks who have read this book describe it as an easy to read description of their lives and the history of those times. The book is available from the North Dakota State University Library. More information is available at the link below as well as a review of the book. I intend to order a copy.

Research on the Internet

2007-01-03T12:39:00.000-06:00

The internet is a fantastic tool for genealogy research. Folks readily share data which sometimes greatly expedites the process. For that reason, I have posted much of my database on genealogy websites, excluding information about living relatives. Here is a good example of feedback I received from someone who made a connection:

"Hello. What a surprise to see a name and a place both of which I have an interest. My family was from BEINHEIM and I very seldom find anyone with any connection to there. My ggggrandfather married a Catherine (name deleted) in Beinheim. My grandfather and his mother and siblings all came to Buffalo, NY by 1892. I have many records on the (name deleted) Family from Beinheim but have not been able to connect all of them yet. As of now I do not connect your (name deleted) to my family. But on the other hand I found information on your site to fill in some blanks and at least connect 2 of them. Magdalena (name deleted) is Madeleine in my records. I did not know her parents although I do have records on them. Francisci Ludovid (name deleted) is Louis in my records. It looks like your information comes from Latin church records where mine comes from civil records."

Beinheim is a village in Alsace where some of the Mercks lived in years before (and after) some emigrated to South Russia. It is an attractive small village very close to the Rhine River, much of which was destroyed during World War II. My research has found that a number of Mercks lived there after the family branched out to South Russia. We may have relatives still living there. This email correspondent has made five visits to Beinheim from his home in New York. He has remarked about how easy it is to get there from cities in Germany.

This email was not from a relative, but perhaps one day I may hear from a French Merck. I did receive an email from Andre Merck from near Strasbourg a couple of years ago, but have not been able to establish contact with him again.

My brother Leo

2006-12-22T15:15:00.000-06:00

My brother Leo passed away this morning in Wilmington NC. His close family was with him. Leo's funeral will be at 11:00 AM Dec 26 at St. Mark's Catholic Church in Wilmington. It was on this date in 1964 that our Dad passed away during a visit to Leo and his family in Wilmington. They are together again today.

Illinois Mercks

2006-12-17T11:54:00.000-06:00

JoAnn Merck Meyers initially contacted me about one year ago to find out if our families were connected. JoAnn was originally from Illinois. Her greatgrandfather and his brother emigrated from Schoenenbourg, Alsace, to Freeport, Illinois in the early 1870s. They left Alsace just after the Franco-German War which ended in 1871 causing Alsace to be ceded to the newly formed German Empire. Edmond had been a soldier in the French army during that conflict, and it is likely that his brother Edward was also involved.

It was this war, provoked by Otto von Bismarck (the Prussian chancellor), which led to the creation of a unified German Empire. The French desire for revenge after this defeat guided their policy for the next half-century. Other aftereffects were among the links that led to World War I.

In Freeport, Illinois, one of the new Merck immigrants operated a butcher shop and the other operated a saloon. After becoming a widower in Alsace, their father Francola Joseph Merck also became a resident of Freeport where he died and was buried in 1886.

No common ancestor has yet been found to link our families. However, it is highly likely that we are related because the village of Schoenenbourg, Alsace, is a small community. Ancestors of both Merck families resided there. JoAnn is recording the family history of her family, and I have been working on ours. It is only a matter of time until we find records that document our common ancestors. Both of us would welcome any input that would help us reach that goal.

From Karlsruhe...

2006-12-05T15:01:00.000-06:00

Although somewhat dated, you may find this translated German article about Karlsruhe ND interesting and colorful. It was Karlsruhe ND that welcomed the Joseph John Merck family when they arrived in the USA from Argentina in 1912. This small town is now a little bit smaller than when the article was written. The school is closed, there are fewer businesses alive, the average age of the residents is a bit older. But it is still there and it's still worth a small detour off the main highway to visit Karlsruhe when you're in the area. If you do, be sure to take a look at the handmade wooden altar and backaltar in the St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church.

Counter

2006-11-25T17:06:00.000-06:00

A counter was added to this website so that I will now be able to find out how many people view these pages. The settings were made so that it is now invisible. If you think it should be displayed, let me know and I will consider changing those settings.

Village of Schoenenbourg, Bas-Rhin, Alsace

2006-11-20T14:43:00.000-06:00

Schoenenbourg is a farming village in Alsace, eastern France. First mentioned in 1277, it was part of the Abbey of Wissembourg. A centuries old linden tree which stands before the church is said to have been planted by a young woman for her knight leaving for the Crusades and was watered by her tears. It has inspired a number of painters.

Fort Schoenenbourg, just outside the village, was the easternmost post of the famous Maginot Line built by the French as a defense against the Germans after World War I. It withstood months of heavy artillery fire in 1940 and heavy bombardment by Stukas of the German Luftwaffe. It had to withstand more than 3000 missiles in World War II, but the heavy bombardment did not produce the results the Germans hoped for. The Forts crew only surrendered after the French-German armistice was signed by the French government. The village's 18th century church was destroyed by bombardment in 1945.

It was from this village of Schoenenbourg that some of our ancestor Mercks had emigrated to settle in South Russia in the early 1800s. Other Mercks remained in this part of France and it is likely that some of their descendants still reside in the area. However, Edmund M. Merck served as a French soldier in the Franco-Prussian War and then emigrated to Freeport, Illinois, USA in 1871. His great-great-granddaughter, JoAnn Merck Meyers, has been in communication with me since June of this year and has furnished family information and photos which have helped me link the Illinois group of Mercks with our branch of the family.

Letters to der Staats-Anzeiger

2006-10-21T16:57:00.002-05:00

Der Staats-Anzeiger was a German language newspaper published in Rugby and later Bismarck, North Dakota, in the early 1900s. Germans from Russia wrote letters to the newspaper as a method of communicating to friends and relatives in South Russia, South America, Canada and the United States. I have been participating in a project by the GRHS to translate and publish those letters on the GRHS website. Joseph Merck wrote a number of letters to the newspaper during the period the family was in Argentina and in the early days after moving to North Dakota. His brothers-in-law (Eberles) were also frequent correspondents from North Dakota and Oregon during that period. Two letters translated this week have been added to the group that are now available at the GRHS website to members of that group.

Next NDSU Tour Set

2006-10-10T11:22:00.000-05:00

The North Dakota State University Libraries announced sponsorship of their 13th Journey to the Homeland: Germany & Ukraine Tour for May 17-28, 2007. The tour includes May 18-22, Odessa, Ukraine and the former Bessarabian, Black Sea and Crimean German villages; and May 22-28, Stuttgart and Wiesbaden, Germany and Alsace, France. Leading the tour will be Michael M. Miller, Germans from Russia Bibliographer.

Tour members will attend the large Germans from Russia gathering called the "Russlanddeutschen Bundestreffen" on May 26-27, 2007, at Wiesbaden, Germany. The NDSU Libraries will sponsor the Amerika Haus information tables at this event. More than 20,000 persons are expected to attend. Many of these have immigrated to Germany from the former Soviet Union since the late 1980s and are seeking their long lost relatives in Canada and the USA.

2007 GRHS Convention

2006-09-22T17:27:00.000-05:00

The next Germans from Russia Heritage Society Convention will be July 19-22, 2007, at the Ramkota Hotel, Bismarck, ND.

Plans are being formulated for a joint convention in 2008 with the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Ukraine Travel Tips

2006-09-08T23:09:00.000-05:00

This photo shows Marilyn Bruya signing up to obtain travel information from Robert Schneider during the recent convention of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society at Portland, Oregon. There are at least two groups that make trips to the area where the German colonies in the Ukraine were located. Robert R. Schneider of Spearfish, SD, leads a group each Spring and another in the Fall of the year. His website lists travel tips and other information that might be useful to anyone planning to make such a trip. His website is at http://members.rushmore.com/~ukrainetours/travel_tips.htm. Michael Miller, Bibliographer of the North Dakota State University Library's German from Russia Heritage Collection, organizes and leads a group to the Ukraine each year during May/June. Letters written by some of those who made trips with him may be of interest. They can be found at the NDSU website at http://www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/grhc/outreach/journey/general_info/.

Kutschurgan Map

2006-09-07T15:07:00.000-05:00

This map shows the relative locations of the Catholic villages in the Kutschurgan area in which the Mercks and Eberles lived. The city of Odessa is spelled Odesa on this map. Kamjanka, marked by the red star, is the name for the Mannheim village. Scerbanka is the name for Elsass. Kucurhan is the name for Strassburg.

The link will take you to a map showing the villages in the Kutschurgan district in the early 1800s.

Transnistria - Moldova and Ukraine Border

2006-09-06T23:43:00.000-05:00

I don't know anything about Transnistia except from this story. The Kutschurgan villages of Ukraine are on the East side of the river depicted in this news story; the river is the border between Ukraine and Moldova (at least before Transnistia became independent). Strassburg, one of the Catholic villages of the Kutschurgan area, is right on the river (East side). The Mercks lived in the village of Elsass, Eberles in Mannheim, both a few miles SE of Strassburg.

The story is on Euronews at http://www.euronews.net/create_html.php?page=europeans&lng=1:

"Beefing up border controls around troubled Transnistria
Tiny Transnistria is one of Europe's hot spots, even if, according to international law, it does not exist. This self-proclaimed republic broke away from Moldova in 1991. On the EU's doorstep, it is alleged to be a crossroads for all sorts of traffickers. Now a European border assistance mission is working to try to improve the situation."

It can be viewed in Windows Media Player or Real Player.

Searching on Google reveals numerous articles written about the atrocities related to the elimination of Jewish persons in Transnistria by Rumanian and Nazi occupying forces during World War II. It is likely that the borders of the territory of Transnistria were different at that time.

Deportation of the German-Russians

2006-09-06T23:34:00.000-05:00

GWA commemorates the 65th Anniversary of the genocidal deportations of the Russian-Germans

By Dr. J. Otto Pohl

German World Alliance/Deutsche Weltallianz, News/Nachrichten, August 28, 2006

The 28th August of this year marks the official day of commemoration for the 65th anniversary of the deportation of the Russian-Germans. On 28 August 1941, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issued Ukaz no. 21-160, On Resettling the Germans, Living in the Region of the Volga. This resolution ordered the resettlement of all the German population, living in the region of the Volga, to other regions. It specified these regions as Kazakhstan and Novosibirsk Oblast, Omsk Oblast and Altai Krai in Siberia. Ukaz no. 21-160 came in the wake of earlier decisions by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Council of Peoples Commissariats to deport the Volga German.

It is due to the fact that the decree by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was widely publicized soon after passing that gives it such symbolic weight. Due to this public symbolism, the 28th of August has become a day of remembering for the repression of all Russian-Germans in the USSR during World War II and after.

The forced removal of Russian-Germans from their traditional homes by the NKVD had already begun on 15 August 1941 with the evacuation of the Crimean Germans to the Kuban and North Caucasus. In less than two weeks these communities, some of which dated back to 1804, permanently ceased to exist. Over 50,000 people had been uprooted with a complete disregard for their human rights. Later in October, the Soviet government again displaced the Crimean Germans. This time it sent them to Kazakhstan and Siberia.

The Stalin regime then ordered and carried out the deportation of the Volga Germans. The Russian-German communities in the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Saratov Oblast and Stalingrad Oblast had a total population of nearly 450,000 prior to their annihilation in 1941. Some of the original German settlements on the Volga had existed without interruption since 1764.

During the first three weeks of September 1941, the NKVD assisted by the Red Army and regular police forcibly herded these men, women and children into train wagons meant for the transport of freight or livestock. Each rail car averaged more than forty deportees. Many wagons had only a pail to serve as a latrine. The deportees did not receive sufficient food or water during transit. They thus had to rely upon the food they had hurriedly packed while being rounded up for deportation. Much of the food they brought with them from the Volga, however, spoiled in the stifling heat of the enclosed boxcars. These overcrowded and unhygienic conditions led to numerous outbreaks of contagious diseases. This horrifying journey into exile averaged around two weeks. Some trains, however, took much longer. Echelon 816 took an agonizing 25 days to reach its final destination in Krasnoiarsk Krai. The deportation resembled a modern Middle Passage.

After the deportation of the Volga Germans, the Soviet government rapidly proceeded to ethnically cleanse all of the USSR west of the Urals remaining under its control of ethnic Germans. The NKVD forcibly rounded up and loaded onto trains bound for Kazakhstan and Siberia another 400,000 plus Russian-Germans from Ukraine, the Caucasus, and European Russia. In total over 850,000 Russian-Germans started this journey into punitive internal exile before the end of 1941. Less than 800,000 of them arrived in captivity alive. Over 200,000 more perished from malnutrition, disease, exposure, over work and abuse in Kazakhstan, the Urals and Siberia during the next several years.

The German World Alliance calls upon members worldwide to commemorate, on August 28th, the deportation of the Russian-Germans and to educate their friends and neighbors regarding the fate of this large, peaceful and loyal ethnic group at the hands of the Soviets.

Who Are the Germans From Russia?

2006-09-06T22:23:00.000-05:00

The Germans from Russia are an identifiable ethnic group of people whose movements as a group are traceable within historical context. These movements began in the Rhineland territories of present day Germany and France--the provinces referred to as Alsace, Rhineland-Pfalz, Baden and Wuerttemberg. The political and religious turmoil surrounding the Seven Years' War in Europe, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era resulted also in severely depressed economic conditions for the German villages along the Rhine River during the last half of the 1700's and the early 1800's. This coincided with an era of an expansionist Russia acquiring territories from the Mongols along the Volga River, and from the Turks in the Black Sea region. Beginning with Catherine the Great in 1763, and continuing with her grandson, Alexander I in 1804, Russia instituted a colonization program to develop and populate these new territories by attracting German farmers to these areas with a program of economic, religious and political incentives. More than a hundred thousand Germans made the 1700 mile trip to various districts in South Russia, founding more than 300 villages along the Volga River, along the Black Sea Coast, and in Crimea. My direct ancestors were among those referred to as "Black Sea Germans". The Mercks lived in Elsass, the Eberles lived in Mannheim, along the Kutschurgan Liman.

My ancestral families lived in South Russia for just over a hundred years, before emigrating. My grandfather, Joseph John Merck, had been required to serve in the czar’s army for four years. After marrying Katherine Eberle and establishing a family, he did not want his sons to have to serve in the military. He emigrated first to Brazil but left there for Argentina after only a few months when they determined the homesteading region undesirable. In 1912 Grandfather brought his family to Karlsruhe, North Dakota, where his brother-in-law Felix Eberle had previously settled.

But their friends and relatives who stayed behind in Russia were destined to endure even greater turmoil and even more re-locations. Those who survived the strife of the Russian Revolution, and the resulting Civil War, the famine of the 1930's, and the purges of 1937 and 1938 were forcibly up-rooted en masse from their villages during World War II. The Volga and Crimean Germans were exiled to Siberia by Stalin at the beginning of the war. The Black Sea Germans were ordered by Hitler in 1944 to abandon their homes and make the three and one-half month trek north and west to holding camps in Poland. As the Wehrmacht collapsed in 1945, millions of displaced Europeans fled before the advancing Red Army, trying to make their way into Western Germany. At the war's end, Stalin reclaimed all former Russian citizens according to the terms of the Yalta Agreement. Russia repatriated 350,000 ethnic Germans who had been living between the Dnieper and Dniester Rivers in present day Ukraine, and exiled them to prison labor camps in Siberia. They were shipped like cattle in rail cars out of Germany beginning in May 1945.

The Germans spent ten years (1946-1956), along with hundreds of thousands of other Russian citizens, in forced labor camps, in isolation from the rest of the world. Krushchev's Amnesty finally allowed for limited mobility within Russia, but prevented them from returning to their original pre-war villages. After enduring the winters of Siberia, many of these Russian-Germans chose the warmer climate of Kazahkstan, encouraged also by the USSR's efforts to establish agriculture on the semi-arid Asian plains.

The years since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 have seen a flood of applications as German people from the former USSR applied to immigrate into the Democratic Republic of Germany. A few have even returned to their original pre-war villages in Ukraine.

Some Family History

2006-09-06T22:03:00.000-05:00

Joseph John Merck, my grandfather, wrote in a letter to der Staats Anzeiger (a German language newspaper published in Bismarck, North Dakota) in 1913:

My parents died in South Russia when I was six years old, and so I had to hire myself out to strangers and work hard. When I was 21, the lot fell on me and I served the Russian czar for five years. Then I came back home and got married in 1887, and now I have reared six sons and two daughters. Four years ago I emigrated from Russia to Brazil in South America, and settled in the Province of Santa Catharina. There I saw dense virgin forests and mountains such as I had never seen in my life. The soil is red clay and the climate is unhealthy. In addition to that, there are all sorts of wild animals, snakes etc. in the forest. I stayed there only two months and then went on to Argentina. Here there are plains that have been settled by Germans and Spaniards, who raise grain, like they do in North Dakota. I stayed here for three years, and then immigrated to North Dakota, where I have now lived for one year. But I'm not sorry to have traveled so far and wide, for one learns a lot about the world and about people while traveling.

As one of those we now refer to as Germans from Russia, he demonstrates the migratory tendency of many of the ethnic German people. For after spending about ten years in McHenry County, North Dakota, he and his family (except for two sons, Felix and ‘Tony’) moved again to Portland, Oregon. Past generations of Mercks had moved from the Black Forest area of Austria and Germany to Alsace (France) and then to South Russia. These very hard working people experienced difficult times and, fortunately for us, they were not afraid to pull up stakes and move on in hopes of finding better conditions elsewhere.

Joe Merck (1858-1939) and his wife, Katherine Cecilia Eberle (1866-1938), raised nine children in South Russia, South America and later in the United States. Among them were sons Felix (1889-1968), Joseph (1890-1944), John (1896-1979), Anthony (1898-1964), Mathias (1901-1987), Jacob (1903-1975), and daughters Lucy (1892-1957) and Magdalena (1905-2002). They all were born in South Russia in the area now known as Ukraine. Mercks had been among the ethnic German people who emigrated to settle that area in the early 1800s at the invitation of Russian leaders who wanted to develop agriculture and improve economic conditions in the region. (1) The Mercks were Roman Catholic who helped establish the village of Elsass in the Catholic Kutschurgan colonies of the Odessa Province, near the Black Sea. The Eberle family were settlers in Mannheim, a nearby village.

Joe Merck's father Joseph (1819-1964) and mother Lucy Hagele (ca 1819-ca 1864) lived their entire lives in South Russia. His grandparents Engelhard (1783-?) and Margaritha Elchinger (1783-?) were born in Alsace, Bas-Rhin, France, and moved to South Russia in the early 1800s. With hundreds of others, they escaped trying conditions which followed the French Revolution and Napoleon capturing the territory where they lived. (2) (3)

It should be noted that the Mercks who moved to Russia were not Germans, but citizens of France, although they did not speak the French language. One such condition which motivated their departure from Alsace was the conscription of local young men into Napoleon's army. Later, the conscription of local men into the Russian army was one of the reasons these ethnic Germans escaped South Russia to North and South America in the early 1900s. Of course there were other conditions influencing their decisions to make the moves. But it is significant to note that in later generations of the Merck and Eberle families many served proudly in the armed forces of the United States; some died performing that service to their country.
- - - - -

(1) Following Austro-Hungary’s lead, Russia under the Czars tried to attract settlers to clear the vast territories of the Steppes- land formerly under Turkish control. Once again, Alsatians responded to the lure of a foreign land. But as in the past, they were part of a grander migration scheme which would once more affect all the Rhine provinces.

Using the same tactics as the Vienna Court several decades earlier, the Czarist government-now at the dawn of the Napoleonic era- delegated agents to the Rhine to recruit colonists for the Ukraine area. Highly praising the new country in a bid to recruit new settlers, the immigrant agents sold more lots than were available. As a result, success was a long time coming. Thus at the dawn of the 19th Century, nearly every village in the North of Alsace lost dozens of families- in search of a better life whether in Podole, Tauride or the Crimea. But rarely were they aware of their final destination.
Emigration to Russia at the Beginning of the 19th Century. Article by Professor Jean Schweitzer, Strasbourg, France

(2) The trouble began when the Prussians and Austrians who, to support the Royalists, had occupied Lower Alsace from the Lauter to Moder before the year's end were driven back over the border by the Revolutionary army. With the retreat of the troops, the terrorized inhabitants hurriedly fled from house and yard in panic and fright to cross the Rhine. That was the “great flight” of 1793 during which at least 40,000 people became homeless.

It was not until years later (1795-1798) that these so called “Emigrierten” [emigrated persons] set foot on home soil again. But they never found their own homes. The government had sold their goods to those who remained and to new arrivals. Since the new regime was “enemy-minded,” it was hard for them to reconcile with the changed conditions. Dispossessed, uprooted and discouraged, the farmers, once owners of goods and property, now had to serve as hired men and field workers to earn their miserable bread.

Employment opportunities were rare and unsure. Money was scarce and wages were highly taxed. For those who returned there was no possibility of owning property since all community property had been divided among those who remained. In addition there were the abuses. The poor people complained about the unjust demands for outstanding taxes, the increased demands for contributions, and especially the severe strictness in supervising the community forest lands. . . . . . . . . . .
The real and deepest reason that convinced the Lower Alsatian to move was his unshakeable desire to own ground.
The Alsace Emigration to Russia. By Dr. Joseph S. Height, Franklin, Indiana

(3) The Revolution years were followed by the conquests of Napoleon who ruled over a great part of Europe from 1805-1814. His campaigns and conquests added much to the turmoil in this region. And it is easy to imagine why many young men avoided enlisting.

These few main reasons added to many others were combined with overpopulation, which periodically causes an important emigration. It must be pointed out that these reasons -political and economical -were closely interrelated. And in many cases we may add secondary reasons, such as domestic, family or law troubles etc.

The Migration from Alsace to the Black Sea Region and the Location of the Genealogical Materials in the Homeland Area. Professor Jean Schweitzer, Strasbourg, France

Katherine and Joseph Merck

2006-09-06T21:55:00.000-05:00