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

se neither the surgeon nor other officials took time to explain their plight. After they expressed dismay, an official came late Sunday afternoon and explained that the doctors felt the tents would be better living quarters for them rather than having wet walls and damp conditions to contend with.'' Living in tents seemed to im- 108 The Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites prove the condition of the ill, and recovery was satisfactory in this first typhoid epidemic. The following summer, however, almost every family in Kaplan Bek was stricken. Wagon master Heinrich Jantzen was grief-stricken at the loss of his oldest sons.'? A daughter of Martin Klaassen was among twelve additional Mennonites to die.* Typhoid also raged among the members of the third wagon train in Tashkent, striking the young adults the hardest. As the winter of 1881 turned into a warm spring, even more people became ill. In fact, the natives had to warn the Mennonites about working in the heat of the day at the stone quarries. Instead of following the custom of the other workers and halting work between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., they would work until lunchtime and resume labor at 2:00 p.m. The result of this mistake was that many strong young men contracted what the Russians called ‘“‘climate typhus,” and their conditions worsened as the spring and summer grew hotter. It is estimated that the number of deaths in the Tashkent contingency ranged between fifty and eighty people, even though they made full use of the best-known prescription for the disease — fresh fruit — which was plentiful in the region." In February 1882, Die Rundschau, an American Mennonite news- paper, published a very revealing list of those persons who were known to have died in this epidemic: Since January 1, 1881, three husbands died: Cornelius Wedel, his wife and eldest son, from Waldheim, Dietrich Wiens, on a trip to see brethren in Bukhara from Blumstein. Peter Wiens, newly arrived from Weinersdorf. Six wives died: Agnetha Pauls (nee Wiebe) from Weinersdorf. Wife of Johann Baergen (nee Wiebe) from Fischau, Wife of Cornelius Wedel (nee Pankrass). Anna Peters (nee Pauls), Maria Wiebe (daughter of Leonard Duecken from Blumenstein, her husband is a son of Peter Wiebe) from Weinersdorf. Wife of Isaac Koops (nee Kroeker) from Neu- kirch. Four young men died: John K. Wedel from Waldheim. Heinrich H. Graewe from Kleefeld. Abraham Kroeker, stepson of Cornelius Esau from Neukirch and our son Jacob (Jantzen). Also Wallentin (Vallentine) Braunen, 12 vears old, from Alexander- kron, then several children under 2 vears of age." This report gives a total of 27 deaths from all age-groups since the beginning of 1881. But not all the deaths are here recorded. In fact, by the most conservative estimates, between 15 and 20 per- cent of all the Mennonites died in the epidemic of 1881. No matter Trouble and Dispersion of the Brethren 109 how one views the figures,