The first group of Volga Germans to immigrate to Fresno left the colonies of Straub and Stahl am Tarlyk on 8 May 1887. They arrived at the old Southern Pacific Depot in Fresno on 19 June 1887. This first group was comprised of 31 men, women, and children. It consisted of the following families: Andreas, Berg, Kerner, Karle, Metzler, Mehling, Nillmaier, and Steitz. The second and third waves of Volga German arrivals in Fresno brought the following families: Bopp, Bitter, Diel, Gleim, Hartwig, Heinze, Hubert, Lieder, Roth, Scheerer, and Schwabenland.
Over the years, immigrants also arrived from Anton, Bangert, Gnadendorf, Jost, Kautz, Kukkus, Laub, Lauwe, Neu-Schilling, Shcherbakovka, Stahl am Karaman, and Warenburg. By 1891, the number of Volga Germans living in Fresno reached 167; by 1899 it was 734; and by 1908, it had reached 3,000. By 1920, the Volga German population in and around Fresno had grown to 8,000. The Volga German population by 1970 reached over 100,000, and it is estimated today that there are at least 250,000 Volga German descendants in the Fresno metropolitan area.
The first Volga German settlers to arrive in Sanger, southwest of Fresno, came from the colonies of Dreispitz and Shcherbakovka.
The original Volga German neighborhood in Fresno was bounded by Church, Mono, G, and Fruit Streets.
Cross Church
St. Paul's Lutheran
Third Congregational
Wartburg Lutheran Church
Zion Congregational Church
- Challenger, Tom. Hunting for forgotten history; Old US 99 in Fresno (8 September 2017). [Online]
- Germantown, Fresno (Fresno, CA: City of Fresno, Planning and Development Department, 2006). (online link)
- Koch, Fred C. The Volga Germans: In Russia and the Americas, from 1763 to the Present (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977): 215.
- "The Religious History of the Germans-Russians in the USA." California District Council Report (Fall 2003): 6-7. (online link)
- Biola, California (Wikipedia)
- Fresno, California (Wikipedia)
- Parlier, California (Wikipedia)
Colonies
Area of Fresno where "Germantown" used to be.
Source: Architectural Resources Group.
Area of Fresno where "Germantown" used to be.
Source: Architectural Resources Group.
St. Joseph Catholic Church in Fresno (1882).
Corner of L Street & Old Mill Ditch in Fresno (1884).
Source: San Juaquin Valley Library System.
Fresno in 1888 (looking northwest on J Street (now Fulton Street).
Southern Pacific Railway Depot in Fresno.
Source: E.P. Charlton & Co.