Excerpts from:
Irvine Alberta - A New Beginning
Published by the Odessa Digital Library - 6 Apr 2001
Copyright 20 Mile Post Historical Society

Our Bessarabian Ancestors
by Dwayne Janke

Glance at many of the family surnames in this community history book. Notice a
certain similarity to them? Many of the families are descendants of
German-Russian immigrants from the province of Bessarabia near the Black Sea.
They were a people with a unique and fascinating history.

In 1804, Alexander I, Tsar of Russia, invited foreigners, especially Germans,
to settle large areas his armies captured near the Black Sea, including
Bessarabia. Like Catherine II before him, Alexander was eager to colonize
undeveloped but fertile black-soiled areas of his huge country. Alexander aimed
his efforts in the early 1800s at attracting immigrants that could serve as
models for agricultural occupations and crafts.

Generous promises were made to the foreign settlers and their descendants. They
were given free land for farms, interest-free loans for ten years, freedom from
taxes for various time periods, local self-government in their villages,
freedom to practice their own religion and freedom from military service.

The situation was exactly opposite to what many Germans experienced in Germany:
frequent military service in foreign wars, suppression by their own governing
leaders, crop failures, famine, land shortages, high taxes, religious
persecution and many other personal problems. Some had already left Germany and
settled in Poland, but destructive Napoleonic wars there left them eager to
listen to promises of a more peaceful life in south Russia.

From 1814 to 1842, about 25, mostly-German, settlements were formed in
Bessarabia. Most of the settlers came from Wurttemberg in south Germany,
Prussia, Bavaria and Poland. Bessarabia was then an untilled country of rich
rolling plains, with natural boundaries - the Danube, the Dniester and the
Pruth Rivers as well as the Black Sea. It would become a rich farming and
grazing country, in large part through the efforts of the new German-speaking
colonists.

Although there were exceptions, the new settlers to Bessarabia tended to band
together to form villages that were solidly Swabian and Platt dialect
German-speaking. Virtually all were Lutheran Protestants, although some were
Separatists, at odds with the established church and looking to Russia as a
sort of "promised land."

A typical colony consisted of long streets with farm yards on either side that
included a house and barns, a threshing place, straw stacks and orchards.
Farmland (every family received land as personal and hereditary property when
they came to Bessarabia) was located near the colony.

Life in the beginning was difficult, as the first settlers had little to start
their new lives and needed to learn to farm in the different climate of this
treeless steppe. But soon the Prairie-like grass was replaced by fields of
wheat, barley, oats, rye and maize. The production of grapes for wine was also
an important part of agriculture in Bessarabia. Garden produce and fruit was
plentifully grown. Horse, cattle, sheep, and hog breeding was also an important
industry.

In the Black Sea area, usually the colonists were not permitted to divide the
homestead land given to each family. It had to be handed down to an heir,
usually the youngest son. Fathers often had to buy land for their other sons,
so a great deal of property gradually was bought by the colonists. Large-sized
families and a growing need for land led to the establishment of daughter
colonies and further settlement. The population among German Bessarabian
settlements climbed to more than 33,000 by 1861.

Home life, church and school were closely linked among the Germans of Russia.
The church supervised instruction in religion and the study of German. Because
of this influence, the church helped to preserve the original German language,
culture and religion, even though the colonists quickly lost all contact with
the German fatherland. The villages, like German islands in a Russian sea, took
on only minor characteristics and a bit of the cultural life of the larger
Russian population.

The Bessarabia colonists prospered and progressed considerably. By 1871, the
German minority was seen as a prospering threat by some in Russian political
circles. They succeeded in having many of the rights ended which had been
promised to the colonists and their descendants at the time of settlement. The
Russian government, under Tsar Alexander III largely ended independent
self-government in the colonies and freedom from military service. As well, the
government moved to make Russian the language of instruction in schools in the
German villages. The government was determined to make Russians out of all
"foreigners." Land shortages also became a problem.

In North America, however, things looked much better. Just as the Russian
government had attracted Germans with free land and special rights in the early
1800s, the governments of the New World made similar offers. According to the

Dominion Lands Act of 1872, every immigrant to Canada could obtain for $10 a
160-acre homestead in the West, which became his property after three years.
Tens of thousands of German-Russians, including Bessarabians, were attracted by
Canada's land agents and recruitment advertising. They took up the offer to
come to Canada, especially between 1900-1913 when expanding railway branch
lines made the Prairies readily accessible to new settlers. (Those
German-Russians that stayed behind suffered many difficulties as time went by:
a campaign of hate in the first World War, the Russian Revolution, and
increased Russification.)

The emigrating German-Russians traveled by train across Europe to northern
shipping ports. There they boarded huge ships as third-class passengers for up
to two-week trips across the Atlantic, fighting sea sickness and occasionally
death. Many landed at Canadian points of entry at Halifax or Quebec before
another long train ride to the Canadian Prairies, including many to the
Medicine Hat area. They found conditions much like the steppes of the Black Sea
and adapted rather quickly. Today we enjoy many of the fruits of their hard
work and determination.
....
Geography has likely influenced the immigrants to settle in this area. Strangers
approaching the extreme southeast corner of the Province, from any direction,
will be impressed by three dominating features - its bareness, rolling contour
and its vastness. Approximately 25 miles south of the Town of Irvine, the
beautiful Cypress Hills rise to an altitude of 4,534 feet. The gigantic sheets
of moving, grinding ice gouged out many depressions, some of which eventually
became deep, cold lakes.

The emergence of the Russian-German settlers, about one century ago, and the
semi-arid nature of many areas, influenced the growth and development of
ranching and grain farming, with several large ranches found around the Irvine
area. Long hours of sunshine and many frost free days help the crops to mature
rapidly. Moisture conditions - over a 60 year period - average an annual
approximate 12 inches in the area and encourage the farmers. On the other hand,
the often hot dry month of July often causes the grain to wither and fade away.
The drought conditions that existed during the early thirties would lead one to
understand the perplexing problems the early settlers had to contend with and
very hard times that befell the people.  Some farms were abandoned and residents
relocated. Prices for agricultural products fell to a very low level and
unemployment figures rose, however by 1939 conditions improved slowly and
steadily and those that had stayed on realized the wheels of prosperity again
and consequently the Town of Irvine also began to prosper and expand once more.

Points of Interest
by William Glock

One is about a quarter mile southeast of town and is called THE POINTY HILL,
also known as KAISER HILL. It got its name "Pointy Hill" because it looks like
an ice cream cone turned upside down, very large at the bottom and tapered to
the top. The hill is about 200 feet high, and anyone going to the top will find
it is about 20 feet in diameter, with a 2-3 foot depression that makes it look
as though it may have been a small volcano at some time. The entire hill is
covered with rocks (mostly small ones) and plenty of cactuses.

It was given the name "Kaiser Hill" during the First World War (1914-1918) when
Kaiser Wilhelm, the king of Germany, was burned in effigy on the top of this
hill.

The other hill is about 400 yards south of the town. This hill is about 250 feet
high, with the top about 100 feet wide and 400-500 feet long and very flat on
top.

The following story about this hill was told to me in 1938 by a gentleman who
was then 83 years old. This tale was passed on to him by his grandparents and
his mother, who were full-blood Cree Indians.

The area where the Town of Irvine now is was in the territory of the Cree. At
that time there were no white men here, and there was very good hunting in the
area, as this was Buffalo country (plus plenty of deer, elk, and antelope). The
buffalo migrated up here from the south, as this was their summer grazing range,
and therefore other Indian bands would also come here to hunt. Many of them were
enemies of the Cree. In order to protect themselves from attacks by these bands,
and also to locate the buffalo, deer, elk, and antelope, the Cree used this hill
as a lookout point, as you can see for miles around. The Cree name for the hill
I cannot remember as I did not write it down when I was told, but the gentleman
told me translated it meant "SEE FAR". The name was later changed when the white
man came. They called it "SPY HILL". by which name it is known today.