The Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites to Central Asia, 1880-1884, Fred Richard Belk, 1976

ne wagon at a time. Sorrow confronted them once again when one of two pregnant mothers in the party gave birth to an infant already dead. Out of respect for her loss, and because Mrs. Cornelius Unruh was approaching the time of childbirth herself, the wagon train halted again for a few days. A baby boy was born to the Unruhs, and the whole group was lifted from its sorrow because a new life had joined their journey. ? Peters Leaves for the Trakt They reached the Volga River, but the unending downpour of rain made it so difficult to travel that they made camp. Peters and a companion decided to take a boat across the swollen river to the Trakt, where he hoped to meet brethren who were to accompany his wagon train and his son Dietrich, who, after an appeal of his The Trek Continues 99 draft status in St. Petersburg, was to wait at the Trakt for his father’s arrival. Peters was disappointed in both hopes. The Trakt party had left without them days earlier, on August 13, because they did not know when Peters would come and they feared the ap- proaching winter. His son, he was told, had not yet arrived at the Trakt. Later, happily, Peters learned that his son, as well as young Peter Quiring, had gone directly from St. Petersburg to join the second wagon train at the Ural River on September 5. Young Peters had been informed that his father’s group would soon join the second contingent along the way. The Molotschna party began to worry about Peters when he did not return to their camp on the Volga within the week. Fearing he had been lost in rising floodwaters, they prayed that God would return their beloved leader. Late one evening, at the beginning of the second week, the entire camp was suddenly awakened when they heard German hymns being sung. Approaching the circle of wagons was Peters with several Trakt people, including a minister, Jacob Janzen. They had brought their Molotschna brothers gifts of lard and large amounts of smoked meat, hoping to make up for their disappointment at not meeting the second wagon train. The Auction The next day, after the departure of the Trakt colonists, a mem- ber of the Molotschna party suggested that the smoked meat be sold at auction to the highest bidders to avoid squabbling over how the meat was to be distributed. Most of the group agreed, but while they were in the middle of their impromptu auction, one of the men who had brought the meat unexpectedly appeared and asked what they were doing. When advised of their proposal, he became very angry and said, “If I had known I would never have brought you any meat.” He did not feel it a Christian act to auction gifts from sympathetic brethren. In fact, this incident so shamed the Molotschna people that the money was returned and the meat divided among the poorer members of the group. Some of the wealthy members, it was later reported, no longer thought of themselves as a little above the rest.'! Epp Be