VGI Updates

Dusty is a small unincorporated agricultural community in Whitman County.

It is located at the confluence of the north and south forks of the Palouse River. At once time, Colfax also lay at the junction of three railway lines. It was named after Schuyler Colfax, the 17th Vice President of the United States (1869-1873).

Following the arrival of the group that came to Walla Walla by wagon train in 1882, John C. Oestreich led a small group to Bickleton in the Horse Heaven Hills in Klickitat County. This group included Bastrom, Dewald, Kembel, Michel, and Schäfer families. Most filed homestead claims and raised livestock. They were joined later by the Schössler, Heimbigner, and Eckhardt families. Some relocated to Ritzville about 1890, and following the epidemics between 1898 and 1901, most of the remaining families also moved to Adams County.

In 1885, Georg Schmidt from Frank was the first Volga German to settle in Bellingham. He later relocated to Walla Walla, but by the turn of the century a considerable Volga German settlement had formed in Bellingham.

Follett was founded in 1917 on the North Texas and Santa Fe Railway. It was named for Horace Follett, a railroad engineer.

Volga German families settled in and around Follett, Texas.

Volga German families settled in and around Darrouzett, Texas.

Yankton was settled by Volga German immigrants from Bangert.

Nisland was settled by Volga German beet farmers responding to a opportunities brought about by a new irrigation project in 1905.

In 1905, Newell was settled by Volga German beet farmers responding to a opportunities brought about by a new irrigation project.

Volga Germans arrived in Marion, South Dakota, in 1900-1903.