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The situation in Russia shifted dramatically when Alexander the II issued a decree in 1871 dissolving all the privileges granted originally by Catherine the Great over a century earlier. Additional anti-German strategy was employed throughout the reign of Alexander III (1881-1894) and soon the prosperous and isolated German-Russian found out that new taxes were being required. Eligible men began receiving draft notices. This started a trickle of immigrants to the United States around 1875, promoted by the US railroads. In 1890 the great Russian famine and the rise of the beet field in the Western USA caused a great rise in the immigration of Volga Germans. Another blow came when the Germans were required to close their German schools and attend inferior Russian schools and learn the Russian language. The people of Yagodnaya Polyana settled in only a few specific areas of the USA and Canada. This was partially due to the fact that the first immigrants sponsored other immigrants to their area and helped them to get settled. The first immigrants came to Kansas (Great Bend and Wichita County) and then onto to Washington in the Endicott and Colfax area. Some settled in Walla Walla, WA or Portland, Oregon. These immigrants were primarily grain farmers. Others settled in Loveland or Fort Collins, Colorado where many became sugar beet farmers. Grain farmers also settled in the area of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Pine Island, New York was a small and isolated enclave of people from Yagodnaya, where they raised onions or became dairy farmers. Other areas where they settled were Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Argentina, Gibbs and St. Maries, Idaho, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Maryland. Oshkosh, Wisconsin offered a unique opportunity unlike that of
any other area. Paine's lumber offered employment to new immigrants
and inexpensive company apartments. The first few families came to Oshkosh
from Yagodnaya in 1899. These names appearing in the Register of Christ
Lutheran church; Conrad Luft, John Weigandt, Heinrich C. Pfaffenroth
and John Goerlitz. In 1901, a flood of immigrants followed with the
West Side quickly becoming a new Yagoda neighborhood allowing the tight
knit community to stay together. With the establishment of the Zion
Lutheran Church in 1909, and Immanuel Lutheran shortly thereafter, Oshkosh
became one of the largest establishments of people from Yagodnaya. Some
men became dissatisfied with factory work and left Paine's lumber to
try their hand at farming in other areas but sometimes returned again.
There was much traveling between Oshkosh, Calgary, Kansas and Washington.
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