Dakota Willows: A Story of Volga Deutsch Immigration

Through a series of fortuitous acquisitions, John Schmidt, a Volga Deutsch immigrant, finds himself master of an 11,000-acre bonanza farm. His pathway to becoming one of Cass County’s largest wheat producers has taken him through the rigors of farming the northern prairie, the edge of financial ruin and, ultimately, to the doorstep of untold riches brought by the Second Dakota Boom and the Agricultural Revolution.
The Schmidt family’s journey begins in 1763 when their forebears escape war-ravaged, feudal Germania answering Catherine the Great’s appeal for colonists to settle the Russian Steppe. The Czarista promises each “land most advantageous to himself", raw materials to build homes, tools essential to his trade and, “unhindered freedom of religious worship.” Catherine’s intentions are good, but her Manifesto is thwarted by duplicitous bureaucrats who divert funds for local government or personal gain. For more than a decade, the Deutsch settlements are beset by privation and disease and the Czarista's experiment hangs in the balance. She discovers the treachery and intervenes to ensure the colonists are provided the trappings necessary to tame the wild grasslands.
Catherine’s diligence is rewarded many times over. By mid-century, the Russian Steppe becomes a cornucopia, but Alexander II, Catherine’s grandson, is suspicious of colonies that speak Deutsch, practice the religion of their homeland and show only token allegiance to the Crown. He imposes constraints intended to make the colonies more Russische, among them conscription with its attendant six years of military service.
Faced with the loss of their most treasured resource, the Schmidt family again turns to immigration—this time drawn to America by the Homestead Act and western railroads eager to establish settlements along newly laid tracks. Their path takes them across Eastern Europe and a foreboding ocean bound for Hays City, Kansas. The party’s leader is John’s father-in-law, Peter Schafer, whose desire is to create a colony in the image of Pfeifer, the village left behind in Russia.
John sees the proposed quasi-communal structure as the antitheses of America—confinement rather than freedom and independence. He and his new bride take advantage of a serendipitous opportunity to buy a small farm in Dakota Territory. There John Schmidt takes a few hundred acres to an 11,000 acre collosus navigating countless perils, both man-made and natural..
Before the farm reaches its full potential, he loses a decade long battle with Parkinson’s disease. The Schmidt farm falls to John's first-born daughter and heir apparent, Morgan. Her siblings, Clara, Calvin, and Tavendar, have left—or plan to leave—unhappy with the dawn-to-dusk drudgery of farm life.
The twentieth century opens on the crest of innovation coupled with an exponential growth in demand for agricultural products. As John's executor and master of the farm, Morgan sees a marked increase in profits and purchasing power—. well beyond that experienced in the non-farm sector. Her siblings watch as Morgan’s personal wealth parallels the farm’s growth. Excluded from management, the siblings’ can only access the farm’s new-found prosperity through a vague reference in John's will suggesting that all children share in the farm’s abundance. Morgan sees this participation as a yearly dividend, not a windfall. Her sister and brothers, and their spouses, want more. The disparity leads to conflict with Morgan and her siblings facing one another in the District Court of Cass County. The outcome changes their lives forever, and a once trusted friend turns on Morgan and the desires of her late father.