Keller was founded on 12 May 1767 by colonists who had been recruited by LeRoi & Pictet. It was named after Johannes Keller, the first mayor (Vorsteher) of the colony.
It was raided by the nomadic Kirghiz in 1774 and most of the colony was destroyed. Those colonists who survived resettled to other colonies, and some became part of a newly founded colony in 1776 called Neu-Kolonie.
Today, nothing remains of the former Volga German colony of Keller.
The original colonists who settled in Keller were of the Roman Catholic faith. There were no known religious structures constructed in Keller before it was destroyed in 1774.
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
75
|
223
|
116
|
107
|
| 1769 |
71
|
238
|
119
|
119
|
| 1773 |
62
|
223
|
116
|
107
|
- Beratz, Gottieb. The German colonies on the Lower Volga, their origin and early development: a memorial for the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first German settlers on the Volga, 29 June 1764. Translated by Adam Giesinger (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1991): 350.
- Orlov, Gregorii. Report of Conditions of Settlements on the Volga to Catherine II, 14 February 1769.
- Pallas, P.S. Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs. Theil 3,2, Reise aus Sibirien zurueck an die Wolga im 1773sten Jahr (St. Petersburg: Kaiserl. Academie der Wissenschaften, 1776): 609.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 341-357.