Seventy-three families, the Mennonite Congregation of Kotosufka, left Russia on Aug. 6, 1874, under the leadership of Elder Jacob Stucky and Rev. Jacob D. Goering, at Liverpool, England. They embarked on the "City of Richmond," arriving in New York on August 31, 1874. Fourteen families went to South Dakota. Others stayed briefly with eastern Mennonites to repay travel loans. Fifty three families were brought by the AT&SF to Peabody, Kansas (a journey of 12 days). After a three-week search for land they came to this place in October, many via Halstead.
Their ancestors, originating as Anabaptists in the 16th century in Switzerland, moved repeatedly because of persecution. In 1671, during peak persecution in Canton Bern (including galley slavery), Anabaptists fled in large numbers to neighboring French and German areas. In 1784-1791 Swiss-German ancestors moved from these areas to Polish Austria and later to Polish Russia. Coming to America in 1874 from the Province of Volhynia, hence the name Swiss (Volhynian). During these migrations many identified with the Amish and some also with the Hutterites. The simple life style has abiding values because human brotherhood and economic justic are basic to world peace.
The Swiss family names of Flickner, Goering, Graber, Kaufman, Krehbiel, Miller, Schrag, Stucky, and Zerger were most common among them. Other family names, acquired in Austria and Russia, included Albrecht, Dirks, Kopper, Lorenz, Mauer, Muendelheim, Nachtigal, Ortman, Penner, Preheim, Ratzlaff, Ries, Schroeder, Schwartz, Senner, Strausz, Sutter, Unrau, Voran, Waltner, and Wedel.
"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive an hundredfold, and inherit eternal life."
Matthew 19:29
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