VGI Updates

Many Volga German families settled in and around Great Bend, Kansas.

Volga German families settled in and around Grainfield.

German settlers from Philadelphia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, established a community on the Kansas Pacific Railway at the future site of Gorham in April 1872. Elijah Dodge Gorham, a settler from Illinois, gave the town its name when he platted it in 1879.

Goodland was founded in 1886 to settle a dispute about what town should be the county seat of Sherman County. It was built along the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad. The town was named after Goodland, Indiana.

Over the decades, Volga German families from other locations in Kansas and Colorado have settled in Goodland.

Many Volga German families settled in and around Galatia.

Emmeram is an unincorporated place in Ellis Co., Kansas. Originally it was called Norddorf, but was changed to Emmeram in honor of Father Emmeram Kausler, the first priest to serve the Catholic settlers living there. A town plot was filed in 1902, but a town never really developed.

There was a parish school in operation from 1912 to 1925. The building was then used as a parish hall. It was razed in 1946 when a new parish hall was constructed.

The city is named for Fort Ellsworth, which had been built in 1864. With the arrival of the railroad, the town earned a roudy reputation.

The community of Ellis was established in 1867 as a water station on the Kansas Pacific Railway. From 1876-1878, a large number of Volga Germans immigrated to Ellis County, and over the years moved from the farms into the town of Ellis.

Among the early Volga German families to settled in and near Ellis were:

John Pfeifer
George Wiesner
Michael Jacobs
John Dreher
Andreas Weigel
Michael Weigel
Peter Weigel
John Weigel

Volga German families settled in and around Durham, Kansas.

The unincorporated community of Dubuque is located on the border of Barton and Russell Counties. It was Polish immigrants who settled the area following the Civil War. Volga Germans settled in the area shortly thereafter, coming from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.

St. Catherine's Catholic Church was built there in the 1870s and served primarily the early Polish immigrants and their descendatns. The current structure was built in 1901, and remains a functioning parish. There is also a Catholic cemetery across the road from the church.