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Divorced from their fatherland, the Germans turned inward to form an isolationist attitude that would characterize their behavior for years to come. The church was the center of community life. The village's immense beautiful church was built in 1858. In spite of difficulties, German farmers began a general trend of continued progress. Since Yagodnaya soon became the largest town in the area, the county seat was established there. By 1912, the population had shot up to 8,845 with nearly 100% church membership. A family with eight or more children was not uncommon. Since parents restricted children's names to traditional Christian ones, all males were usually christened Adam, Konrad, Peter, Henry, George or John and females were generally named Katherine, Anna, Elisabeth or Marie. Since relatively few new people came to the town, surnames also became widespread. It was not uncommon to have many Marie Repps or Adam Moraschs. To solve this problem Germans resorted to an elaborate system of nicknames. Yagodnaya's namesake was the little wild strawberries that grew everywhere in the fertile area. The farmers soon found the land was well adapted to the production of wheat, as well as rye, barley, oat and maize, which were harvested with a sickle and flailed. In the summer entire families would often move out to the countryside until harvesting was complete. Large garden plots in town were tended by families, which included watermelons, cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, cherries and apples. Sunflowers were raised, and the seeds were separated and pressed to yield a high-quality oil used for cooking. Flour mills around the town ran from water power provided by the little stream, which ran from a large spring in the center of town. Additional crop land was needed as the population grew, so in
1857 an additional 700,000 acres of land was granted to the Germans
by Tsar Alexander II. This land was located on the Wiesenseite or plains
side (eastern) side of the Volga River. In response to this action,
many families took advantage of the opportunity to gain more land and
soon villages such as New Yagodnaya, Schonfeld, Rosenfeld and Schonthal
were springing up along the Jeruslan River. By 1867, a total of sixty-six
daughter colonies had been established. One Weitz family, Heinrich Peter
Weitz and his children moved to a daughter colony.
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