Many Volga German families settled in Portland during the early years of the city's existence, and additional families have continued to move into the area. From the original Volga German neighborhood (Albina) northeast of the downtown core, the descendants of these families are located throughout the metropolitan area which includes Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington Counties.
The first Volga Germans, about seventeen families, arrived in Portland in 1881 after spending several years on the Kansas plains. Members of this vanguard included Conrad Appel, Phillip Fuchs, George Green, Henry Repp, and several Kleweno, Ochs, and Scheuermann families. They had first immigrated to Rush and Barton Counties in Kansas between 1875 and 1878. Most were from the colonies of Neu-Yagodnaya-Polyana, Schöntal, and Schönfeld, which were daughter colonies of Yagodnaya-Polyana and neighboring Pobochnaya. The group obtained special emigrant fares through the Union Pacific Railroad and Oregon Steam Navigation Company to travel to Portland where they had heard good farmland was available.
According to Richard Scheuerman in his book Palouse Country: A Land and Its People, the Volga Germans were disappointed to discover in Oregon that the best lands had already been taken and that the ground was available was unfit for cultivation. The frustrated immigrants turned to work at a local lumber mill and for the railroad, which was then grading the huge Albina fill in present Portland. In the spring of 1881, these Volga Germans learned that the railroad officials were offering to sell 150,000 acres of “the finest agricultural lands in the northwest,” east of the Cascades, which would be accessible by rail in 1882. When approached by the Volga Germans, the railroad officials saw their opportunity to implement their new plans for colonization of the Palouse country in Washington. Several representatives traveled to eastern Washington to inspect the available lands. They returned favorably impressed with the land’s fertility. The hilly topography reminded them of the Bergseite along the Volga.
Railroad magnate Henry Villard chose a retired brigadier general, Thomas R. Tannatt, who had commanded Union forces, to be the general agent of his new company, the Oregon Improvement Company, which was headquartered in Portland. Tannatt was the one who later arranged for colonization of the Palouse by the Volga Germans and other immigrants. These Volga German families that briefly settled in Portland were instrumental in the colonization and development of the Palouse country near the towns of Endicott, St. John, Dusty, and Colfax.
George Rath, in his book Emigration from Germany through Poland and Russia to the U.S.A., states that the oldest settlement of Evangelical Volga Germans in Oregon was in Portland. In 1882, colonists from Norka, who had at first settled in Iowa and Nebraska, came by train to San Francisco. These immigrants worked for the Union Pacific Railroad and were either brought to or terminated their employment in San Francisco. From there they sailed by ship to Portland where they were employed as day laborers in factories. In 1888-1890, after some years in which there were no new arrivals, Portland received another influx of Volga German colonists originally from Balzer and Frank. However, the majority of Portland's Volga German immigrants arrived between 1890-1905. Colonists Norka comprise the bulk of around 500 families in the existing settlement. They populated an entire ward in northeast Portland and were organized in a number or religious congregations. In 1892, a group of colonists from Catholic colonies along the Volga arrived in Portland from Topeka, Kansas.
Ebenezer German Congregational Church
First German Baptist Church
Free Evangelical Brethren Church
German Evangelical Brethren Congregational Church
Mennonite Brethren Church
St. Agatha Catholic Church
St. Mary's / Immaculate Heart Catholic Church
St. Paul's Evangelical and Reformed Church
Second German Congregational Church
Trinity Lutheran Church
Zion Congregational Church
- The Volga Germans in Portland (Steve Schreiber)
- Scheuerman, Richard D. & Clifford E. Trafzer. The Volga Germans: Pioneers of the Northwest. Moscow, ID: University of Idaho Press, 1985.
- Lincoln Park Cemetery (findagrave.com)
- Mount Calvary Cemetery (findagrave.com)
- Multnomah Park Cemetery (findagrave.com)
- Rose City Cemetery (findagrave.com)
- Willamette National Cemetery (findagrave.com)
- Gresham, Oregon (Wikipedia).
- Portland, Oregon (Wikipedia).
- Troutdale, Oregon (Wikipedia).
- "Volga Germans in Oregon" - The Oregon Encyclopedia.
Colonies
Albina neighborhood of Portland showing the intersection at N. Vancouver Ave. & N. Russell St. in 1909.
Photo courtesy of Steve Schreiber.