Submitted to "Die Huckere" by Melva Jean (Frick) Shults of Thornton, Colorado

THE MISSING PIECE TO OUR PUZZLE

In my grandfathers family there was suppose to be a pair of twins, a boy and a girl, but nobody knew who they were. Through diligent work of compiling birth dates of the known family here in the United States, no birth dates matched, so we all assumed they had to be the ones left behind in Russia. There were 2 brothers, who we were told were half brothers, whom did not want to come to the America, so stayed behind.

My grandfather's one sister, Catherine Schaff, who lived in Wyoming, would tell her children, that the man in a family picture hanging on their wall was her twin brother, Michael Frick, (This information I got from her daughter Molly, who lives in San Diego, California), but then we thought who was the twin to him? Was she saying she was the other twin?

When my Grandfather's family decided to come over here, his family consisted of his mother, Christine Frick (nee Barth), her daughter from a first marriage, Anna Marie Cook, (nee Kock), 3 other daughters, Catherine Elizabeth (Frick) Schaff, Christine (Frick) Huck, (spelling later changed to Hook), Catherina (Frick) Huck and my grandfather, Peter Frick and their spouses and families. They came to join Christine's mother and brother, Catherine Barth, (nee Frank) and Jacob Barth, who were already here, (they were among the first to come to the United States, settling in Campbell, Nebr., later going on to Culbertson, Nebr.). The Frick family left behind the two brothers who did not wish to come with them, Michael and Frederick Frick.

In talking with other members of the extended family, it seemed they all thought their families were the owners of the flour mill in Huck, which was suppose to be the biggest one and most modern one in Russia. It had imported steam machines and was 3 stories high, it later grew to more buildings. How many big flour mills could the little village of Huck have?

We were always told that my Grandfather's mother had talked the family into selling their flour mill and use the money to go to America. This is what we believed all these years.

Then last March, I received my first letter from Elvira! Who sent me a lot of information and also told me a lot of information through interpreters, during her visit with me in January of 1996.

Yes the man in that picture, (Michael Frick's family picture, taken about 1903), was the twin brother to the sister in Wyoming, Catherine Elizabeth Schaff, and the other young man in the picture was Grandfather's other brother, Frederick Frick, that stayed behind. So these two were not half brothers after all, now we have found out who the twins were, and it also seems that my grandfather's family evidently sold their share of the

Page 4

mill for their passage. It seems that a large extended Frick family was involved with that mill, as my Grandfather's family was, there was a cousin to Grandfather in Denver, his family talked of it, a couple of years ago I corresponded with a man, Adam Kindsvater, who is in Germany also, his mother was a cousin to Grandfather, he told of his family having the flour mill also. And so it seems the grandfather to all these cousins is probably the one who started the flour mill.

All, who did not migrate to America, were later deported to Siberia, their crime was that they were too wealthy. Their trip to Kasachtstan was very horrendous, they were allowed to take only enough food for 3 days and 1 extra set of clothes. The trip lasted 1 month, and the atrocities they endured there were unbelievable.

But let me get back to Elvira. The first letter she sent me, she told me to be sitting down, because she had great news for me!

She is now living in Geroldstien, Germany, arriving there in 1990. She had promised her mother and grandmother both before they died, that some day she would look up the Frick family in the United States and Canada and thank them for the "Care Packages", they had sent to the family while they were still in Huck, Russia.

This is what led her into a newspaper shop in Geroldstien. It was called, "Volk auf dem Wege", (Volga People on the way).

She put an ad in this paper, asking for information on the Frick family that went to America in 1905, (actually they came over in 1902). Adam Kindsvater, who I had been corresponding with saw the ad and sent her my address. This began a year of corresponding, and exchanging information, culminating in a visit of Elvira and her son, Paul coming to Denver, Colo. on January 12, 1996. What a reunion of the families we had.

Therein begins the story of Elvira Wentnagel. This wonderful woman and her family endured such hardships, as a child, and in having her own family. In 1990, one year after they had finally managed to buy a farm in Kasackstan, they had a chance to leave Siberia and go to Germany. They grabbed the chance in a heart beat, even if it meant that they could not even sell the farm and things they could not take with them, they had to walk away from everything they had finally managed to acquire. They could only take their personal things.

Elvira has since helped many other people to get to Germany, who, when they heard she wanted to come to the United States so badly to see us, came with donations of money and gifts for her to bring to us. The only thing they wanted in return, was a souvenir from the United States.

what a humbling experience for us!

READ MORE ABOUT ELVIRA, THIS WONDERFUL LADY, IN THE NEXT "DIE HUCKERE".

Page 5