My wife and I visited my step-mother (nee Toews, now age 96 yrs.) last week in northern Alberta and we received several books from her which she had set aside for me. One pamphlet is a translation of the travel diary of Tobias A. Unruh (1819-1875) translated by Abe J. Unruh, and printed/published February 15, 1970. I have not read all of it, but some interesting facts and connections have emerged. It also appears to me that this g-grandfather may be of VirSis, Brent, PTL, Scott, or others' family since the booklet names Beckers, Dirks, Jantz, Nikkle, Buller, Boese, Unruhs... Perhaps this diary is already printed elsewhere, but I will make photo copies available to any who have interest.

Some interesting tidbits:

*The dates and travel points line up exactly with the delegation of my people, the Kleine Gemeinde, who visited America April to August 1873, prior to immigration in 1874-75. I need to do more cross checking, however it looks like they were all in one delegation (although heading different directions in America); Tobias Unruh from Poland and my ancestors and others from the Ukraine.

* April 26; "Went through Krakaw, Breslau, and arrived at William Evert's, elder of the Thornor church in Germany". May 4. "Communion was observed and we partook of it." (with elder Evert's church.)

* August 8; "We left New York 8;00 AM to see the president. At 8:00 PM we were introduced to the president in his residence. He is the president of all the states on the union..."

* July 26; "We went to the Holdemans."

*July 30. "We arrived at Philadelphia at 12 AM. I had hardly believed, had I not seen it with my own eyes, that America had such beautiful cities..."

* This pamphlet also contains Part II "The Immigration" (dated diary); and III, "In Conclusion". Penciled in the last part is notation "this ship and trip brought my g ---- pa, Corn. P. Unruh" (partly illegible)... embarked SS Vaterland on Dec. 4 in Antwerp... arriving Philadelphia Dec. 25. This group was shipped directly to Kansas and unloaded at Hutchinson..."

Some of you may be more closely related to me then realized ???

Hank, you poor thing, LOL, you have a double whammy of being related to Mrs CalledoutPTL as well Mr. calledoutPTL. We would love to have some copies/photos.Do you still have our e-mail address?

Have you ever heard about the vision, I think it was Tobias Unruh, had about a black cloud onver the h Mennonites? He didn't know what it meant though. My dad knew him as well as Mr. calledoutPTL's dad. calledoutPTL

Hank,

My dad's brother Milton had 500 of these diaries printed a few years before he died. I have one of them and have read it several times.

Tobias A. Unruh is the father of Benjamin Unruh, the father of John B. Unruh., the father of J J C Unruh, my grandfather on my dad's side.

He was an interesting man. In the steppes of Russia he was a local leader and elder who organized and overseen the immigration of some 2500 people. He dealt personally with the St. Petersburg government, making 2 trips to the capital to talk face to face with the government, in the city of Dostoevsky, the writer of great classics like "The Brothers Karamazov" and "Crime and Punishment" which Dostoevsky had written shortly before that time.

When he come to America, Tobias and 9 other deputies arrived in New York city August 1 1873, On August 8 they were in Washington and had a private meeting with Ulysses S. Grant at his residence. After the meeting, Tobias wrote in his diary about the president, "He was a plain man and very friendly. He informed us that the constitution has a concession that it will not override a man's conscience and religious freedom is guaranteed. We appreciated this information, expressed our gratitude and bid him adieu."

Here are some more excerpts. He was a great lover of nature.

August 23. "A great storm arose in the early morning hours. The waves swayed the ship back and forth. I sat on the upper deck and tried to write, but the ship rocked to and fro and I had to hold myself that I was not thrown overboard. The waves often splashed above the ship. The storm continued all night."

May 21. "Windy, Stormy, Many thought the sea would be our grave"

May 29. Niagara Falls. It is a wonderful handiwork of God."

June 23 in North Dakota with a guide. "He said we could view the country 30 miles around about from the top of the hill. We claimed to the top of it; it was 400 feet high. And behold, as I turned around there before me were the many different wild flowers, how they greeted me with their smiling faces and sweet fragrance."

June 29. "The whole country is adorned with beautiful flowers."

July 30. "We arrived at Philadelphia at 12 A.M. I had hardly believed, had I not seen with my own eyes, that America had such beautiful cities."

August 16. "Sunshine and nice all day. It was very warm way into the night and people could not sleep. I went to the upper deck to sleep. When I got to the upper deck I took notice of the constellation of the stars."

Brent

Family ties wonderful

I would be very interested in getting a copy. I have copies of much of Peter K Toew`s writings However this diary I have not seen and would be interested in.
Healthie

Hank and Brent,

Thanks for including those excerpts and history. My Grandfather Ike was a brother to Brents Grandfather, J.J.C. Unruh, so Tobias is also a great-great-great Grandfather of mine. I have seem his picture in some old journals, and knew a little of his sojourn into America, but have never read anything from his Diaries. Very interesting! Im a little surprised Tobias and his group had the clout for a meeting with the president. The president must have had much easier access back then, or the Mennonite group had more notoriety than I suspected.

Vine said: "Family ties are wonderful." Actually, step mother is distantly related to me to me another way, however I know of no connections through the "Unruh clan".

A point of interest to me was that the delegation apparently included believers from a number of different Mennonite identities. But they understood that the bread and cup of communion was not exclusively controlled by any specific group. They respected the Lord's table as belonging to the "church outside of which there is no salvation".

We also note that T.A. Unruh died before becoming "Holdeman", as did my G-grandfather who froze to death 2 years after arrival in Canada. Reading what T.A. Unruh and my my own G-grandfather wrote about their trust in God, I challenge any one to question their firm faith and understanding of what God means to a believer.

Fred; I had a ping of guilt when I sent the original post. You have become entangled with an interesting ethnic group of people. But please be assured, that trust in Jesus Christ brings a bond that surpasses blood connections.

Healthie, you would do best if someone had an extra copy of the original booklet, but I would be happy to photo copy mine for you. Email me. Tell us more of the writings of Peter K. Toews. It was a Bishop Peter Toews (1841-1922) who lead my KGs to America; is this the same fellow ?

by Hank,
>We also note that T.A. Unruh died before becoming "Holdeman", as did my G-grandfather who froze to death 2 years after arrival in Canada. Reading what T.A. Unruh and my my own G-grandfather wrote about their trust in God..< <br>

Hank, I disagree that Tobias A Unruh never became a Holdeman. When I was growing up, many times I heard my parents talking about Tobias Unruh as a leader in the holdeman church.

Here is some quotes from two websites verifying that he was H :


Lone Tree Church of God in Christ Mennonite Church, located 5.5 miles (8.85 kilometers) north and one mile (1.6 kilometers) east of Moundridge, Kansas, was organized in 1878, when 70 persons were baptized by John Holdeman, one of the first congregations of the denomination in Kansas. As the congregation increased the original sod meetinghouse was replaced by a larger building in 1880, which was in turn replaced in 1890 and 1906, and enlarged in 1925, with a seating capacity of 900. Benjamin Schmidt and Henry Koehn were the first residing ministers. Other ministers who have served the church prior to the 1955 ministers are Tobias A. Unruh, John Holdeman, and Jesse Johnson. In 1955, the church had a membership of 540. Most of the members were of Dutch descent and many still spoke Low German at home, but the services were conducted in English. Since this was the largest congregation of the denomination, it had been host to nine conferences by 1955. About 1,200 persons were baptized here from the beginning of the congregation to 1955.



Church of God in Christ, Mennonite congregations, 1950s
Church of God in Christ, Mennonite
Congregations, 1953 (with key).
Mennonite Encyclopedia, v. 1, p. 599.

When the immigration of Mennonites from Russia took place in 1874 and later, quite a few of their number joined the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite, both in Kansas and in Canada. Many of the Mennonites of the Kleine Gemeinde, under the leadership of Elder Peter Toews and Wilhelm Giesbrecht, were united to the faith. And in Kansas, Tobias A. Unruh (a former minister from the General Conference Church) and Benjamin Schmidt were active in bringing many into the church; also David Holdeman of Hesston, KS, formerly of Indiana, did much in promoting the new congregations. The church began to increase and to spread to different states in the United States and to different provinces in Canada, until in 1949 there were 41 congregations in the United States and Canada, with a baptized membership of about 4,500, including 88 ministers and 62 deacons.

If I'm not mistaken, there were two oldtimers named Tobias Unruh. The one they called Bishop Tobias A Unruh was a member of another Mennonite group and he was evangelized by John Holdeman. I don't know if he is the one who wrote Great Grandfather's Diary. I think I read about this in The Helpless Poles. I could go back and check. If he was part of another group who lived nearby then he would not have been the one who came and scouted out the new country. I have owned a copy of this little book for years and find it absolutely fascinating. I'm so glad this Helpless Pole had the presence of mind to carefully record his journey. It is an extremely valuable piece of historical information, as well as being interesting.

Here is a copy of Part I and Part II of the Tobias A. Unruh Diary :


http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:9UZH7zINsroJ:www.brotherfield.com/individuals/unruh_tobias_a_DELEGATE_70741/Diary.pdf+was+tobias+a+unruh+a+holdeman&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Well, I can't say for sure if this is the Tobias A. Unruh, the holdeman, from Lonetree or not, the diary doen't make that clear.

Hello Unruh clan;

Before I first posted, I checked the info with the "Mennonite Encylopedia" and it says there are two Tobias A. Unruh. One, 1819-1875 who wrote the diary and the other, 1851-1947. The later was baptized in 1881 by H minister Benjamin Schmidt and he became an H minister in 1882.

The encyclopedia verifies the dates of the diary identifying TAU (1819-75) as the one who made the exploratory trip to America. It does not tell us of any relationship between the two. So, which one is your G-G-grandfather ? How do you connect the diary to your family ?

A fellow traveller,

Hank W.