San José was founded in the Quemú Quemú Departamento (District) in La Pampa Province on 19 July 1910 by the family of Joseph Schwab.
Joseph Schwab, his wife Katharina Elisabeth née Herlein, and their 2-year-old daughter Anna Maria arrived in Argentina in 1886 from Semenovka. They settled near Coronel Suárez. In 1907, Joseph Schwab and his extended family (daughter Anna Maria and husband Johannes Gette, son Joseph and wife Eva Née Ullman, daughter Margaretha and husband Juan Beratz, and brother-in-law Stephen Herlein) responded to an advertisement to attract settlers to La Pampa. They acquired land from Wilfred Barón who had also founded the nearby colony of Barón which now serves as the civil administrative center for San José. After a few years, they divided part of their land into 124 plots, and the colony of San José, named after Saint Joseph the Worker, was officially established on 19 July 1910.
The extended Schwab family was joined by those of Jacobo Kistner, Cristybal Dietrich, José Minig, Jorge Naab, and others.
A school was established in the colony, and the building was dedicated on 19 July 1914.
The height of the colony's population was in the 1940s. The drought of 1950 forced many families to the cities in search of employment. Many moved to the suburbs of Buenos Aires.
The following Volga German families settled in and around San José (La Pampa):
Beratz
Berger
Böhm
Breit from Streckerau
Dietrich from Volmer
Dittler
Gette / Götte from Semenovka
Gartner from Kamenka
Heberlein
Herlein from Semenovka
Hollmann
Kloster
Meier from Kamenka
Naab from Kamenka
Rausch from Marienberg
Schank from Köhler
Schiebelbein from Husaren
Schroh from Volmer
Schwab from Semenovka
Schwerdt
Simon
Steinbach
Stroh
Thome
Ullmann from Streckerau
Urban
Weigand
- Las Aldeas en la Gran Aldea (Ricardo José Minig Schwab)
- Obituaries published in Argentinisches Volksfreund
- Colonia Barón and The Temple of Colonia San José
- Colonia San José (Wikipedia) - in Spanish
The dedication of the first school in San José (19 July 1914).
Source: Luis E. Roldán