From: Balmas, Bessarabia
12 August 1920
Dear Godfather Peter Volk!
We would like to let you know, and also your wife and children, that all of us are still alive and healthy, but for me it is hard, since I have to work in the field.
On 20 January, God took my son Alexander from me, and therefore I was without help. Later my daughter Rosa was married to Michael Bulach, son of Jakob. I was thinking that I would get some help on the farm, but two weeks after the wedding he was drafted into the military and I was alone again up until now. He received one month of furlough for the harvest, but it was already over and also the threshing except for some trifles. That is how it often happens. When one thinks that one is doing well, something always comes between.
Greetings,
Konrad, Teresia Kunz & Children
From: Balmas, Bessarabia
12 August 1920
Dear friend Mathias Hoepfner!
This is to inform you, your wife and children that all of us are still healthy. Dear friend, you wanted to know something about your parents in Stebanofka, but I can only report very little, since the last time I was over there was in 1918. At that time your parents were still alive but I don’t know anything else.
Everyone knows though that it is very bad over there, especially in the colonies of Strassburg, Baden, Selz and Kandel. There the people have suffered a lot and are still suffering. In those colonies a lot of people were shot to death. And besides being robbed of their lives, they were also robbed of their property. The houses were torched and burned down.
I will only mention a few people, since I can’t list them all. The house of “Schreiberhans” in Strassburg, you probably know him, was burned down and he was shot. His body burned in front of his house and one couldn’t even take him away. That certainly is cruel. Now you can get an idea how terrible the misery was there. It was not as bad in Stebanofka. They only took everything away from Stefan Mueller. That’s all that happened there.
This is what a Jew told me about Strassburg. He is here in Bender. Here in Bessarabia it is still all right. We can thank the Rumanians for that; otherwise we would not have fared better than the people in the Cherson region.
You also asked about Margaretha Wiest. She lives here in Balmas and is married to Lorenz Bulach, son of Ludwig. Both of them are healthy. Further, you asked about Sebastian Schaell, son of Johannes. He has not returned from the front and he will probably not return. One hasn’t heard from him in 4 years. His wife Helena had written to the commander and he answered that he is still missing in action. Sebastian has a wife and 4 children and the family is quite wealthy, but what good does that do when you no longer enjoy life. We all have to die, but getting lost without a trace is quite sad.
Dear friend Mathias, I also have a brother in the New World, namely Dionisius Mattern. I have written several letters to him but have not received an answer. His address is Glentworth, Saskatchewan, Canada. If it were possible, would you please ask him to write to me.
The result of the harvest was not really great. Winter wheat yielded 40 to 90, barley 50 – 100 and oats 100 pud per dessjatin (2.5 acres). Rye was weak, potatoes very weak. The Welsh corn is good. The prices for wheat are 20 to 25, rye 10 to 15 and barley 8 to 9 rubles per pud. The same goes for oats. But things you have to buy are very expensive. One pound of granulated sugar costs 18 rubles. One pound of cubed sugar costs 24 rubles. Clothing is terribly expensive. A wool dress costs more than 1,000 rubles. One pair of high boots costs 500 rubles and one pair of low boots costs 350 to 400 rubles. With a greeting we remain your friends,
Martin & Teresia Mattern
and Children.
Mr. Mathias Hoepfner sent us both letters for publication in the Staats-Anzeiger. He lives in Great Falls, Montana.
From: Emmental, Bessarabia
29 August 1920
Worthy Staats-Anzeiger!
Quite a long time has gone by since my last report to the paper on 20 June, but I have not yet read the report in the newspaper. The last issues were from #100 until the last issue. Then I received #4, #1 and then finally #97. The issues arrive here very irregularly. (*Editor: The paper leaves here with mathematical regularity.)
I can’t really report much news since during the summer there is a lot of work to be done, and you forget about everything else. Now it will soon get better. We are done with the threshing and in the meantime, we have plowed almost all of our land so that we will soon be done with our autumn seeding. We will not have a lot of work with the Welsh corn since it’s growing weakly.
Recently a bad sickness has gone through our village, which caused all the limbs to go stiff in young and old people. Thank God that up until now no one has died from this illness. It is said that the illness is due to the enormous heat. This summer we had a terrible lingering heat like never before. The temperatures went up to 40 degrees Reaumur. That had never happened in Bessarabia. The smoldering heat lasted from May until the end of August. Finally, last week we had slightly cooler days. Even though we did have rain on and off lately, the earth is dried out badly. You can only plow for 3 days after a rain. Then you have to let the plow rest again.
We have a lot of wolves around here this year and because the farmers don’t have guns anymore, they are getting very bold and have no fear anymore. They come into the village almost every night and take calves, sheep, pigs and everything else they can get. They already took 2 sheep and one young pig from me. The wolf even comes during the day near the village and catches geese. Yesterday, he killed 11 geese approximately ¼ werst away from the widow Elisabetha Hittel’s house. He probably would have killed them all if people from the village had not chased him away.
I also want to report that today we rehired our sexton Michael Paul. He will earn 3,000 rubles annually. That is a lot of money and again not very much. That is only around $80.
In April, I received a letter from Canada from a certain Peter Thauberger. He asked me to find out for him where his brother Johannes lives. I found out that he is still alive and healthy and that he is serving as pastor in Selz in the Cherson government. I had already reported that in my former letter, but I want to repeat it just in case the letter didn’t arrive there. I forwarded Peter’s letter to his brother. I already had an answer and also a letter for Peter in Canada, which I forwarded immediately. If he has received the letter he should write to me and I will then send it to his brother in Selz. I will not charge him $10 for this like Mr.Strohmaier did, but I will do it for free. (*Editor: The honored Mr. Correspondent is wrong. Mr. Strohmaier doesn’t charge anything for small favors. He only asked for travel expenses since he will personally travel to South Russia to explore everything and then report about it. You certainly can’t expect him to pay for travel expenses only to give information to hundreds and thousands of people about relatives and friends in South Russia. And still Mr. Strohmaier stressed recently that he would not have asked for travel money and would have paid for it if he weren’t destitute.)
In Issue #101 of the paper, I read a correspondence signed by Rafael Loeb. All I can answer to that is that “A Farmer” has been writing for a long time but never anything intelligent. He only knows how to make fun of other people and to uncover the mistakes of other people. He is a vicious human being himself. I believe I know “A Farmer” very well. I have seen through him already. Whoever is a real man will sign his correct name. Whoever doesn’t do this is a hypocrite. (*Editor: That is not true. “A Farmer” has been writing for the Staats-Anzeiger for many, many years and we found out that certainly sometimes his reports bring astonishing revelations, but we have been told repeatedly from various sources, that “A Farmer” has been telling the truth. Whether the honored Mr. Correspondent knows “A Farmer” like he writes, we do not know. Personal attacks on correspondents of the paper we cannot accept. Especially when the writer of the attacks admits that he only has conjecture.)
In the winter time, “A Farmer” wrote that Rafael Loeb and Stanislaus Wagner always visit with me and drink. That is a lie! If they do get drunk in Kainari then at least they come home to sleep until they get over their drunkenness and don’t behave like “A Farmer” and sleep on the bench of the pastor until getting sober. All people from Emmental and Krasna who live here and in America know who “A Farmer” is. The first correspondence from him that I read in the paper I will glue to his forehead. (*Editor: We don’t have anything against that, but we believe you are mistaken.) I have also said something about this and that person, but I have always signed my name.
Zachaeus Kopp
From: Prelate, Saskatchewan, Canada
23 September 1920
Worthy Staats-Anzeiger!
Since it is raining today, I have a little time for a short report to the paper. Since there are such few reports from Prelate, where the paper is read a lot, it has to be the duty of the agent to report something.
There isn’t any important news to report. The threshing is in full swing. Wheat yields 5 to 35 bushels per acre. The price for wheat right now is $2.25 per bushel. About 2 ½ weeks ago the price was still $2.42 and now it is going down the hill.
The worker earns $10 per day working with a machine. Isn’t that a nice income?
I still want to report that some of our people in Prelate have travel fever. Anton Bachmeier (formerly living in Zeeland, North Dakota), Georg Sept, Adam Ziebart, Franz Ziebart and still others are going to sell everything and will resettle in Portland, Oregon where the cold isn’t as severe. I wish them lots of luck!
Since one doesn’t hear anything at all from there, it seems like the people in Hague have become extinct. (*Editor: The paper is still read there now as before.)
I am greeting all my friends there if some should still be alive.
Franz Zieger