The first time my name appeared in an obituary was when my grandfather died.
Erdman J. Harder was my mother’s father. He passed away three days after my second birthday, so I never really knew him. Harder was born in the frozen tundra of farm country in south-central Minnesota, near Mountain Lake. His parents were John D. and Anna Harder. They were Mennonites.
Anna, my great-grandmother, was born in 1877, the daughter of Diedrick and Anna Seamons Heppner. I’m not sure how to spell their names. I’m using the spelling from old funeral notices that my mother kept in the back of her Bible. It wasn’t until after she died that I looked at them and started to learn about that part of my family’s heritage.
Various that track the Mennonites who immigrated to Minnesota spell Diedrick’s name with an H. There were lots of Diedrichs and Annas in the greater Mennonite clan from those branches of my family tree. The Heppners — I’ve also seen it as Hoeppner — came to the United States on a ship, perhaps the S.S. Vaderland, in about 1873.
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They came from that war-torn region known today as Ukraine.
A century and a half later, history repeats itself. The peace-loving people of Ukraine are being driven out of their country by a Russian warmonger.
The parallels are tragic but hold some lessons as the world deals with its latest refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of displaced Ukrainians fleeing their homeland and wondering where they’ll end up next.
The Mennonites , then southern Russia, in the 18th century. They were Dutch but left first for Germany or Poland, and later for Russia, seeking religious freedom. Catherine the Great had invited the immigrants to Russia and promised them land to farm and exemption from military service. The Mennonites were, and are, pacifists.
They established various colonies in Ukraine, communes where they worked the land and worshipped together. Most of the Mennonites who ended up in Minnesota came from the Bergthal or Choritza colonies, the second of which was near the city of Zaporizhzhia. They left because of war.
Last week, amid a new war, Russian troops seized the nuclear plant in that city, spurring , who are leaving by train or however they can, heading to Hungary and Poland, and then where?
When the Mennonites left Ukraine in the 19th century, there was competition to lure them to Canada, the United States and other countries. That’s the story of immigration. Countries seek immigrants to grow their economies, and in so many cases — think Bosnians in ºüÀêÊÓƵ — they thrive for generations.
Again, history repeats itself.
For more than a decade, ºüÀêÊÓƵ civic leaders have been pounding the immigration drum, citing the need to attract more people to the region, particularly the urban core, that is not keeping up with other cities. Part of the failure comes from the Missouri Legislature’s tradition of being unfriendly to immigrant populations, particularly people of color; another failure is in the region’s long-discussed inability to speak with one voice.
There is progress in that regard. Jason Hall, the CEO of civic group Greater ºüÀêÊÓƵ Inc., calls the region’s lack of growth, particularly among immigrant populations, an “existential threat.†Civic leaders led by lawyer Jerry Schlichter have donated time and money to help the International Institute settle Afghan refugees who fled their own war-torn country, not just helping with housing but in building a culture that will help refugees feel comfortable in their new home.
Cities soon will be making similar decisions to welcome Ukrainians, many of whom will never have a home to go back to because of the vicious Russian bombing of their homeland.
This is the story of immigration. There is opportunity in tragedy, hope in the humanity of neighbors offering a fresh start.
In the last century, a Harder from a Ukrainian line of Mennonites married an Irish Catholic named McChesney. They had a daughter who would marry a Messenger, whose ancestors helped build the railroad through Colorado. Their story is told in folded up funeral notices in the back of a Bible passed down from one generation to the next.
It’s the story of Ukraine; the story of America; the yearning of a free people seeking land, and love and God.