Grateful Homage

October 22, 2009

125 years ago today my ancestors (Just - Thurn - Meidinger -Grussie - Wanner) left Kassel, in South Russia for the Port of New York. The journey took about 2 weeks. In the party of five traveling together, Adam Meidinger, the oldest, was just 30 - yrs -old.

They traveled by wagon to Odessa where they took a train to Bremen, Germany. Living in barracks, separated by sexes, they waited until they could board the SS Werra to the Port of New York (pre-Ellis Island). From there they went by train to Yankton, Dakota Territory. They spent the winter of 1884 -85 with relatives in a settlement called Tripp (not far from Yankton) until they filed a Declaration of Intent to become citizens and filed for homestead claims in the Beaver Creek area in McIntosh County - in what is now North Dakota - in May of 1885..

North Dakota and South Dakota became individual states in 1889.

Christof (age 24) and Elizabeth (Wanner )Just (age 22) lost their first child, Karl, on the journey. He was buried at sea. Elizabeth gave birth to another child, whom they also named Karl, on January 1, 1885, while staying with friends who emigrated earlier from Kassel, So Russia to Tripp, Dakota Territory.

Friederich (age 25) and Katharina (Thurn) Meidinger (age 22) had a young son, Andreas with them on the journey. They stayed with her sister (Mrs. Melhaff) who emigrated from Kassel to Tripp in 1873.

Adam (age 30) and Magdalina (Grussie) Meidinger (age 27) came with their small children, Y Adam (Young Adam) and Magdalina. They, too, stayed with Kasselers who emigrated to the area earlier.

Brothers Freiderich and Johann Thurn were also in the party of emigrants. They soon married upon settling in McIntosh County.

It is very sobering when I look at their photographs and realize that I am now older than most of them lived to be.

I was at St. Andrews Lutheran Church and cemetery(formerly Andreas Gemneinde)along Beaver Creek in rural McIntosh County recently. They were charter members and are all buried there. Humbled and grateful am I that they had the courage to move halfway around the world so I would have a better life.

We descendants are scattered to all parts of the country/world, but we are only a few generations removed from the raw and painful emigrant process. We know what our fate would have been had they not had the courage to leave for new opportunity in America.