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Wagner Immigration Information — 1876
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Catherine the Great
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In 1763 Catherine II, after Russia had
wrested vast eastern territories from Turkic tribes — as well
as large chunks of southern land from the Ottoman Empire — invited
western Europeans, primarily Germans, to come and settle these fertile
plains along the Volga.
As inducements, her proclamation made it clear that immigrants would
have the right to:
- retain their prior (generally German)
language and culture;
- remain Catholic or Protestant
without interference from the highly xenophobic Russian
Orthodox Church; and
- be exempt from conscription into the Russian army.
These assurances were crucial in persuading large numbers of Germans to
move into Russia during the later 1700s and early 1800s — and for
more than a century, successive rulers continued Catherine's wise policies.
Unhappily, in 1871 Czar Alexander II proclaimed that these
concessions would end in ten years; however, as early as 1874 he had
already begun conscripting German colonists into the Russian
army. The not-surprising result: an exodux of thousands fleeing
to America and Canada, or returning to Germany.
Johann Wagner left
Samara
with his wife Anna Mary and two young sons,
Phillip and
Johann (George).
Click here to see maps of the area.
Place your cursor here for a note on father Johann's origin,
A number of German enclaves were established around Samara on the
Volga between 1859 and
1863 — meaning that
this area was among the last of the 100-odd colonies set up under the czars.
Johann was born in 1846, before the Samara enclaves were settled.
Although several U.S. Censuses report that Johann was born "in Russia," the
1900 Census lists "Germany." IF born in one of the German states
(pre-Empire) and brought into Russia by his parents as a youth,
he could have been between 13 (if the family came as early as 1859) and 17
(if as late as 1863).
BUT it is also possible that he came alone in his teens. Remember that
many young farm laborers in those generations were able to strike out
on their own at what seems, to us today, a very tender age indeed.
In either case, by 1866 he was 20, and married. Oral family tradition
holds that Johann and Anna Mary were cousins, and her maiden name was also
Wagner.
Recall that the name also has variant spellings: Wagener,
Wagoner, and even Waghner.
. . . and here for remarks on son Johann George.
Is the child
Johann really George?
"Johann" is very likely George's baptismal / christening name.
Among Germans, it was common o give the same first name to all children
of a gender, such as Johann Josef, Johann Wilhelm, Johann Franz for boys
— or for girls, Anna Maria, Anna Fredericka, Anna Gretchen. The
children would normally use their MIDDLE names, and add their "formal first
names" mainly on official documents.
What about the age discrepancy — ("1 month" old
on the passenger list, versus a June 1875 birth date in other records,
which would make him 14 months old when they sailed)?
• This may be simply an error on the part of a harried crewman
trying to count / list a mass of steerage passengers. If the crewman
did not speak German or Russian, "1 year" could have been confused with
"1 month." The list, however, is meticulous, uniformly written, and
neat — hardly what one would expect if a steward was jotting down information en route, or even as people
boarded ship. Surely they had a record of paying passengers before
sailing!
• Thus, it is FAR
MORE LIKELY that the list was prepared in advance from
actual ticket purchase records — and, clearly, they
must have booked passage well before sailing, when "Johann George" was still
a babe in arms.
Johann was 30 and Anna was 27 when they crossed European Russia into
Kaiser Wilhelm I's newly proclaimed [1871] German Empire, and then
made their way to the North Sea port of Bremen to sail on the combination
sail / steamship MOSEL. The passenger
list below shows that a large contingent of fellow German-Russians were on
board with them.
. . . and here for information on Russian railroads.
Although Russia's rail system lagged far behind Western Europe's, a direct
rail link between Samara and Moscow
—(and from Moscow, on to the West)— had been in place
since the 1850s.
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WAGNERs — sailing from Germany to New York, October 1876
For a PDF transcription of this document's header material, together with
information on the MOSEL itself and
photographs of the New York port of entry,
click here.
SS MOSEL
The ship's captain was H.A.F. Nynaber (Nyenaber).
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The small red box
on the above list shows the Wagners as steerage passengers
325 through 328 on the MOSEL.
For an enlargement of this passenger page 7,
click here.
At that time, an average sailing from Southampton, England, to New York
took roughly 11 or 12 days. However, the MOSEL sailed from
Bremen [Bremenhaven], Germany, crossing the North Sea before tackling the
Atlantic. Thus, the Wagners' departure from the Continent likely
occurred about 10 or 11 Oct 1876
— allowing perhaps a day or two for boarding British passengers.
They had left Samara, Russia, probably by train,
and most likely during the late summer or early fall of 1876.
Johannes (Johann, John) and Anna Wagener [sic] arrived
in New York on the Norddeutscher Lloyd ship MOSEL on
24 Oct 1876, with sons Philipp [sic] and
Johann (likely the baptismal name for George).
NOTE: Adam Ruhl, his wife Catharine, and infant daughter
Catharina also appear on this page of the passenger list (at numbers 299 - 301).
This is significant because a year and a half later the Wagners and Ruhls
were together in Lawrence, Kansas, when on the
same day, 2 Apr 1878, both men filed
declarations
of intent to become citizens (see below).
It was common for people to immigrate with close friends or family,
and then stay near them for at least a period of time in this unfamiliar
new country.
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1878: the Wagner / Ruhl Declarations of Intention
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Johann [John] Wagner and Adam Ruhl
each filed a Declaration of Intention to become a citizen in
Lawrence [Douglas County], Kansas on
2 Apr 1878. Johann believed that this
filing was all that was required, so took no further action to perfect
it. Thus, twenty-five years later when he and Anna applied for final
title to the Homestead Act property they had obtained in Pawnee County,
Oklahoma Territory, it was discovered that he was not yet a citizen.
At that time, on 21 Oct 1903, the formal papers were
completed and he at last became a naturalized citizen.
This poses a problem for George Wagner, born in Samara,
Russia, who would have obtained automatic citizenship if his
father had become naturalized before George's twenty-first birthday.
As this did not occur, it is possible that George never was a
de jure legal citizen, but merely lived his life as a de facto
citizen — although further research is needed to determine whether
after 1903, when his father's lapse was first discovered and remedied,
George himself went through his own formal naturalization process.
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Naturalization Certificate of Johann Wagner, 21 Oct 1903, Oklahoma Territory:
(Note that on the fifth line he renounces and abjures allegiance to
"The Czar
of all the Russias, of whom he was heretofore a subject.
As this naturalization occurred just two years after the McKinley
assassination, note also the extensive remarks requiring him to swear that
he entertains no anarchistic beliefs and does not intend to
assault or kill government officials!)
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Wagner Immigration Records