VGI Updates

The small settlement of Antlers, Colorado, was established in 1887 by a corporation composed of the Grass Valley Land and Water Co. and a group of English investors. The corporation's plan for Antlers included five cottages for their employees, a livery stable, town park, general store and a blacksmith shop. The new town was located in what today is the I-70 corridor between Rifle and Silt, on the fringe of Silt Mesa. The corporation and the investors owned most of the land in the Antlers district.

Volga German families settled in and around Visalia, California.

The first Volga Germans to settle in Lodi were from Rosenberg. Many other families have moved there through the years.

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.

Volga German families settled in and around Dinuba.

The first Volga Germans to settle in Bakersfield came from Dreispitz and Shcherbakovka.

Many German families from the Odessa Region of Russia also settled in Bakersfield.

The parish of Taquari was founded in 1764 in the vertile valley of the Rio Tibiquary (Tibiquary River). The name means "river of bamboo" in the language of the native people of the area.

Today Silveira Martins is one of the municipalities included in what is called "Quarta Colônia" (Fourth Colony). This area is called the Fourth Colony because it was the fourth center of Italian settlement in southern Brazil. A number of Volga German families also settled there.       

São Borja is the oldest municipality in the Brazilian state of Río Grande do Sul. It was founded in 1682 by the Jesuits as the first of Seven Missions, and named São Francisco de Borja, in honor of Saint Francis Borgia. It is located on the banks of the Uruguai River which separates Brazil from Argentina.

Some of the earliest Volga German immigrants to Brazil settled originally in Santa Manoela. German settlers from Germany also settled in this area.

In the colony, there was a Roman Catholic church called the Chapel of São Jose do Morrotral (Saint Joseph of Morrotral). Priests from the São João (St. John's) parish in Montenagro served the group in Santa Manoela and later priests from the parish of Santo Antônio (St. Anthony) in Estrella.

Not much remains of Santa Manoela, although there is a large cemetery and the chapel is still there.