By Glenn Mueller, who wrote The Trek of 1921-1922 whichappeared in the Summer 1990 AHSGR Journal. Glenn supplied an audio tape of Dave Miller ofWheatridge, CO, speaking at a meeting held in a building on Euclid Ave. in Ft. Morgan,Colorado. The tape was made by Harry Schultz, a lawyer of Dalhart, Texas, Harry was born on15 Aug 1902, in Tampa, Marion Co. KS, and was the son of Andreas Schulz (22Jun 1864 - 28Apr 1933) and Marie Katharina Mueller (28 May 1866 - 25 Jan 1954), who immigrated in Jan.1893. Dave is a first cousin one generation removed of Harry. Their common ancestor isFredrick P. Mueller b. 3 Jan 1825 in Dresipitz. Harry's mother was a sister of Dave Miller'sgrandfather, Johann D. Mueller b. 1 Oct 1848. The editor's comments in [brackets]
David Miller 13 Jun 1899 - 19 May 1973 & Marie Catharine Meier 14 Mar 1899 - 2 Apr 1966 I had a carefree childhood. I lived the good life until World War I. I attended a school whichwas operated by the colony, and where all grades were taught by one school master. There were50 to 60 pupils in the one room school house which included all grades. I also had two years witha house teacher employed by four neighboring families. We were taught by Russians, so Ilearned to speak this language. As a German, I was not allowed to go on to High School eventhough I could speak Russian well. The Germans had prospered in our area, whereas, theRussians had not; and the Russians resented us, because of this.
My family had a flour mill and we traded in some stock. When Dreispitz needed room forexpansion because of the increasing population, my grandfather resettled to the east side of theVolga to Dreispitz Khutor [also called Baranoff], a small colony just east of Kamyshin. Thefamilies who started this settlement were Heinze, Schultz, Mueller, Socolofsky, and Switzler[?]. There were several Schultz families, and they may not all have been related. My greatgrandmother was [Anna Elisabeth Klein 15 Nov 1829 - 4 Oct 1915]. My immediate familyincluded my father [David Mueller b. 12 Mar 1871], mother [Catharine Elisabeth Schulz b. 9 Jan1869], and two sisters, [Anna Elisabeth b. 10 Jul 1895 and died in Siberia and who mariedAlexander Guenther, and Marie b. 25 Aug 1902 and died in Dreispitz and married FredrickBaj/Bay]. In 1919, our family moved back to Dresipitz for a year to live with Aunt Anna after herhusband died. They were in business buying and selling cattle, and they had flour mills. I helpedwith this. My mother's mother had the right to the fruit orchard for her support. Gottfried livedwith her.
In March 1917, the Russian Revolution started. There was about a three month waiting periodwhen we were under a lot of tension, and then things got worse for all of us Germans. TheBolsheviks took over, and people had to move out of their homes. The Bolsheviks took theGermans who were wealthiest first. These were those with the most property . They killed themor deported them to Siberia, and took what they wanted. They would find any reason to put youaway. They would just as soon shoot you as look at you. It happened in many cases.
Finally they got down to my family. It was October 1917. In a Revolution, in the day time, youwere afraid, and wished it was night. And in the night time, you wished it was day, so you couldsee what was going on around you. One day six Bolsheviks came through town in an automobileand drove up Main Street. They called out names. My name was called out, as was that of mybrother-in-law, George Meier. So we decided to get away. Material things mean so little whenyour life is at stake. We left everything behind except what we could carry. We crossed the stageline, and went west back to Dreispitz. Some people got caught. It was h-e-l-l if you got caught,Nine times out of ten, you were shot. But we weren't followed back to Dreispitz, and there wecould come out of hiding occasionally.
In 1919, I was drafted into the Red Army. Luckily, I knew the right people, who pulled somestrings for me. I spent about 1/2 of my time at home, and 1/2 at my job at the office. It tooksome bribery, but that was common in Russia. I had a friend, Otto, who was a die-hardCommunist. His father had been a school master. He had a brother Victor. They tried to getme to join the Communist party, but I didn't. I said some things against the Party to one of them.He told me not to repeat that to his brother. I knew from then on that I would be transferred.Fortunately I got sick, and got six months sick leave. After that, I could get only three moremonths leave, and I still had more time to serve in the military. A doctor told me that I could getout of the service if I was born between 1896-1897, so he altered my papers to show this, and Igot out of the Red Army by paying for these papers. It was the fall of 1920.
After this, I thought only of getting out of Russia. 1920 was a poor crop year, and theCommunists took all of our crop away. They said we were required to give a certain amount ofgrain depending on our acerage, whether we had a crop or not. When you go without bread, youmiss it terribly. We might go two to three weeks without bread. I thought about bread day andnight. We always had something to eat--meat, potatoes, or other vegetables--but no bread.
In December 1921, my wife and our two small children and I left by wagon for the railroad atKamyshin. We figured we had enough silver and gold to get out of the country. We rode in aboxcar with 50 other people; men, women, and children, all together. We could buy some breadalong the way. Sometimes the boxcar would be left on a side rail, and we stayed in the boxcarfor two or more days. We got to Minsk where we stayed in someone's house for several days.Our baby boy, Alexander, died there. He had measles and caught cold. We buried him there inthe cemetery in a little basket. Most of the people who were left were young, but one older mansaid a prayer at the graveside. That was the best we could do. Many people fell ill and died. Fifty turned back to Dreispitz, but never arrived there, as far as I could find out.
Since I spoke Russian, the Russians didn't know I was German, and this was to my advantage. I heard there were two people from Dreispitz who had been caught by the Russians. I foundthem, and got them some food. We managed to get them away. They always remembered this,and said I saved their lives. In Minsk, we hired sleds to take us to the Polish border. We wantedto get to Poland, because the Poles accepted the Germans better than some of the other bordercountries. We left in the evening, and between 2 and 3 a.m. were dumped in the snow threemiles short of the border. We walked across the border in knee deep snow. We got a few cartsfor some of the less able, and the rest of us walked the 63 miles to the nearest rail depot. Therewe got the train to Warsaw
We appealed to the Polish Red Cross for aid, and they shipped us by boxcar to an old armycamp. It was a six hour train ride with no heat in bitter cold. One child and one grown up in ourcar froze to death before we got there. It was a mile walk to the old prisoner of war camp. It wasbuilt half below ground and half above ground. Six hundred people were put in that barracks. The frost on the ceiling started to thaw and drip off on the people below. Everything got wet. The beds were wooden planks with straw on them. My eyes froze shut, but I survived. I had afever for a time, and when the fever broke, my legs were numb. I was wearing long socks, andwhen I turned them down, I saw that my legs were eaten raw by lice.
On 18 March 1922, the first permission came for transport to Germany. We arrived inFrankfurt on Oder at sunset. It was warm. A minister was in charge of the transport, and heencouraged us to sing gospel songs in German. And we did, even though we were half starved.And the German people there on the station platform sat down and cried. Germany was poor atthat time, but they nourished us back to life with small amounts of food at first, so we wouldn'tget sick from eating too much. The next morning, I woke up and saw sunshine, and heardpeople outside speaking in German. It was wonderful to hear our own language again. Once wewere in Germany, we knew we were safe from Communism.
Our clothes were sterilized, and we bathed once a week for three weeks before we weredeloused and permitted to go into the general population. A son was born to us in Germany. We were in Germany until Aug 12, 1922. I worked in a food warehouse and could get a littlebetter food. Some people in Germany looked down on us, but most were friendly. Some didn'tknow that there were German people who lived in Russia. On the whole they treated uswonderful. They furnished us clothes when we left the "homecoming camp."
In Germany, each refugee got a bread card. When my wife and boy were in the hospital, I kepttheir cards for three days and got three rations of bread. I was "living high" until one of theofficials asked me if my wife and boy weren't in the hospital. I said "yes", and had to give up thetwo extra cards. I had one address of a relative in the United States, and I sent a letter askingfor help with our passage to America. They answered and sent $10.00 in U. S. money and$721.00 for our passage. I was happy to have the $10 to buy a few things that we needed, and Ifelt blessed to be able to go to America. I had a lovely wife, two lovely children, a healthy body,and an iron will to work.
When we passed the Statue of Liberty in New York, there was a lump in my throat. I wasgrateful for a land that would accept us. [He quotes the poem by Emma Lazarus] It was ninemonths since we left Dreispitz. We always had what we needed in the U. S., though it took hardwork. It took me three years to pay back the $721 which was loaned to me for our passage to theU. S. I started working for 37 1/2 cents an hour, and worked up to 40 cents for a seven dayweek. Then I worked in a packing house. We killed hogs one day, and packed them the next. Iworked up to 57 1/2 cents an hour within six months. Since I was a "green horn", some otherworkers resented the fact that I made more than they did. The foreman put a stop to the tauntsfrom other workers. I took some pay cuts during the depression, but I always worked, except fortwo weeks when the plant was down. In 1933, I worked 10 to 12 hour shifts, six days a week. Then in the evening I made deliveries for a drug store.
Your [Harry's] mother always accepted me as a nephew, and I'll never forget it. She was like amother to me. When our oldest daughter was born, she and Sophie came out for about threeweeks.
I sent some letters and money back to Russia to my parents, but it was censored and themoney was gone. I sent some packages back to my sister, and it cost more to mail it, than it wasworth. Since the relationship between the U. S. and Russia was not too friendly, I didn't think weshould send any more. It might cause inconvenience for my sister if she got money from the U.S. Her daughter is married to a Russian. When I was in Dreispitz, if a German girl married aRussian boy, they would be considered outcasts. Now it is different.
When we came to the U. S. we had two children. We had eight more in this country-- 6 boysand 4 girls all together. By God's grace, my children took their place in society, and I'm proud ofthem.Two served in World War II, and three in the Korean War. All together they served 39years in the U. S. Military. This country did so much for me. May God bless this country.