The Hutterites in North America

CHAPTER 3. Immigration and Settlement in North America

g฀฀chapter 3฀฀G Immigration and Settlement in North America As guided by the Lord’s hand I must travel from this land Into a strange place To search for a homeland —Paul Tschetter, “The Diary of Paul Tschetter,” 1873 The Tschetters Visit North America I ntheearly1870s,whentheHutteriteswerelookingforanewplaceof refugeandexploringsettlementoptions,twoHutteriteswerecommissioned to accompany a Mennonite delegation of ten people on a study tour of the United States and Canada. The delegation is often compared to the group of twelve that Moses sent to “spy out” the “promised land” of Palestine in the Numbers account. The only two Hutterites willing to join the time-consuming exploratory expedition were thirty-one-year-old Paul Tschetter, a minister at the noncommunal Neu Hutterthal village, and his fifty-four-year-old uncle Lohrentz. From April to August 1873, the Tschetters were away from their families, traveling from Ukraine to the North American midsection and back. Paul and Lohrentz Tschetter did not officially represent the communal Hutterite groups. While they were in North America, the communalists 34฀ g฀the hutterites in north america G฀ sent their own three-man delegation to St. Petersburg to try, again unsuccessfully , to persuade the Czar to change course. But Hutterite communitarians held Paul Tschetter in high regard, and they anxiously awaited his report. During the visit to the United States and Canada, Paul Tschetter kept a diary that includes a detailed analysis of the unsettled lands and peoples of midwestern North America, as well as critical deliberations on late-nineteenth-century Western society.1 The diary gives a clear view of a minimally educated church leader’s perspective on the non-Hutterite world. Tschetter does not mince words or hide his negative opinions; he expresses great dismay with aspects of secular culture such as smoking, dancing, hunting, and musical instruments. After seeing men and women dancing at a Hamburg, Germany, eating establishment en route, Tschetter admonishes that they should “rather be praying than dancing.”2 Tschetter also composed fourteen hymns that he interposed within the diary text.3 One of these, written in a small Chicago hotel after Tschetter had strolled through the crowded streets of the city, is a theological analysis of the causes of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Tschetter did not like what he saw and heard, and he developed a migraine headache, which sent him back to his room. This is a translated stanza of the hymn: In October of 1871 The Lord punished this city Destroying her with fire, Judging her for her sins.4 There was no doubt in Tschetter’s mind that the Chicago fire was the result of urban sin and debauchery. Widespread immorality had caused God to impose a fiery and destructive judgment: Chicago’s collective sinfulness led to physical catastrophe.5 While in the North American heartland, the Tschetters traveled from Nebraska to what is now the province of Manitoba. Along the way Paul conducted informal analyses of the soil, the climate, and the material resources and was especially pleased with the conditions he found in the Red River valley of the northeastern Dakota Territory. But Tschetter also sought guarantees from the federal government. Thus, before returning to Russia, the Tschetters and Mennonite delegate Tobias Unruh requested a Paul Tschetter, a Hutterite delegate sent to explore settlement options in the United States and Canada in 1873. Courtesy of the Hutterite Mennonite Historical Committee. 36฀ g฀the hutterites in north america G฀ personalhearingwithPresidentUlyssesS.Grant,andameetingatGrant’s Long Island summer home was successfully arranged by Jay Cooke, a major Republican Party contributor and a Northern Pacific Railroad trustee. The Northern Pacific had laid track between Minneapolis and the northern Dakota Territory and hoped to benefit financially from immigrant settlement in the Red River valley. At their meeting, Paul Tschetter gave Grant a handwritten statement outlining the privileges he was requesting: a federal guarantee of military exemption and other special allowances, including permission to settle in separated, self-governing communities. He asked that Hutterites would be allowed to use German, operate their own schools, and be exempt from jury duty and swearing oaths in legal proceedings. He also wanted assurance that they would be allowed to leave the United States at any time. An artistic depiction of this meeting includes clear symbolism: the cannons surrounding the larger-than-life Civil War general, the dove positioned above the Tschetters, and the Bible in minister Paul Tschetter’s hand.6 A couple...