37. Back in Siberia 1918-1922

Dietrich and His Second Wife Maria (Löwen) in Omsk 1920

The following is taken from handwritten notes by Marie Friesen Isaak who escaped through China to California in 1930.  These writings were kept by her daughter Olga and given to me in February 2014.    

            In August of 1918 Dietrich moved the family from the isolated farm in Laguraka to the city of Slavgorod where a large Mennonite settlement, (also called the Barnaul Mennonite Settlement) with many Mennonite owned businesses had been established. This settlement had been connected with the Trans-Siberian railroad by a branch line in 1916 and was quickly becoming a growing and thriving community of Mennonites.

            At this time the family consisted of Dietrich(58) and Elizabeth(56), 3 sisters, Marie (24), Katharina (20), and Helena(16), and 2 brothers, Jakob(20) and Heinrich(17). The move was made because Dietrich was needed to assist as preacher in the growing number of Mennonite Brethren churches in the Barnaul area.  Shortly after the move Elizabeth became very ill with cancer and after suffering greatly she died June 21, 1919 at age 57.        

            The family were all very lonely, especially Dietrich.  Dietrich met and married Maria Lowen in 1920.  The three sisters left home for some kind of work.  Jakob and Heinrich were both conscripted into government service, probably the Red Cross medical service, in the civil war between the Red and White armies, and both died.  Jakob died August 1919 and Heinrich died in October 1919.

            In 1922 all three sisters got married.  In January the youngest, Helena, married Johann Braun and Katharina married Rudolf Eichhorst.  Marie married Johann Isaak on May 28, 1922. 

            In July father Dietrich at age 62 and his wife Maria both died within a day of each other of cholera.  Marie nursed them to the end and carefully burned all their belongings because the plague was very infectious. Then all three sisters and their spouses moved into the parent's house.  Each couple had a room and shared the kitchen.  They lived this way for 15 months until the house got too small because Brauns had baby Lischen in February and Isaaks had baby Olga in March.  The Isaaks rented their own home and later moved east to a settlement near the Amur River.  From there John and Marie Isaak and their children Olga and John escaped Russia by crossing over into China.  They lived in Harbin, China for about a year and then received permission to emigrate to Dinuba, CA in 1930.