Honoring our Immigrant Herritage Survey

Full Name

Scherr, Bernard Joel

What are your ties to Collyer?

My Grandparents, Peter & Magdelin Scherr, and my Parents, Bernard Scherr & Edilth Kelley Scherr of Collyer, KS.

Where did you live?

I grew up on my parent's farm, one and one-half mile East of Collyer, just North of Highway 40.

Which School did you attend?

Peter and Magdeline raised five sons and one daughter. All of the children attended elementary school at St Michael's Parocial School in Collyer and attended High School at various Catholic schools around the country. The oldest son, Peter, was a M.D. in Hays, KS and a Surgeon in Los Angeles, California. Frank was a government Meat Inspecter in St Louis. Joe was a Farmer Rancher in Eastern Colorado. Art was a Physics Teacher at Boys Town, Nebraska. My dad, Bernard, inherited the farm in Trego County, and Catherine was a Notre Dame Nun.

I attended St. Michael's Catholic School ..first through eighth grades.

Collyer High School to Graduation

Fort Hays State University, BA degree in education.

What was your religious affiliation?

Catholic

Do you have any stories to tell about family hardships resulting from building and oranizing a Collyer Church or Church Structure?

Were your friends and neighbors all of the same religious affiliation?

Your ethnic background/which country did your ancesters call home?

My father's parents imigrated from Russia..my mother's ancestor's immigrated from Ireland.

What language was spoken in the home?

English

Did you experience any problems or barriers caused by speaking a different language?

What ethnic and/or religiuos traditions do you specifically remember growing up with? Does your family still practice the same traditions?

When did you and/or your family move to Collyer?

My Grandfather, Peter Scherr and his bride, Magdelin and infant son, Peter, departed Saratow, Russia in 1901, sailed on the German Ship, "Patricia" and landed at Ellis Island on January 19th, 1901. Peter and a cousin had made an earlier scouting trip into the Dakotas in 1896. Because of this earlier scouting trip into the Dakotas in 1896. Because of this earlier experience, Peter decided to take his family into Kansas, "becaused the Dakota winters were too long and too cold." ( A second son, Frank, was born shortly after arriving in New York.)

Do you know how "Collyer" was chosen as a home designation? (Why did your family move here?) Did they operate a farm on homesteaded property?

I remember hearing my grandfather saying that as they traveled West on the Central Union Pacific into Kansas, they began to see wheat stacks along side the tracks and Catholic church steeples in the little towns in Russell and Ellis Counties. In Trego County he noticed the little towns were further apart... and fearing that they were leaving fertile wheat country, he noted a particular level piece of land along the tracks looking south in Trego County. He decided that the next stop, "Collyer" was his stop. (They) disembarked the train with several steamer trunks holding their belongings. My Grandfather bought that quarter and built a sod house about one half mile south of the railroad and the family of four lived there the first year. Peter and Magdeline were experienced wheat farmers in Russia on the Steppes which is very similar in altitude and climate as the High Plains of Western Kansas. They were successful and eventually owned and farmed four quarters of farm land mostly adjoining each other.

Did you/and or your family operate a business in Collyer?

No (but there was an airport on my father's farm for several years.)

Did you or your parents serve in the military?

Were there problems caused by your ethnic background?

Was your family name changed after you arrived in the United States?

What year were you born?

1934

Where was you place of birth?

Ottawa, Kansas

Why did your family leave their homeland?

My grandfather, Peter Scherr, was soon to be drafted into the Bolshevik Russian army which, as history tells us, was the force that murdered the Romanov Catholic Dynasty in Russia and ushered in Godless Communism.

What form of travel did your ancestors use to get to their destination?

I don't know how they traveled to the coast...however, they boarded the German steamer, the, "Patricia" bound for Ellis Island, New York, USA.

What hardships did they encounter on their journey?

I remember hearing about sea sickness, the experience of Ellis Island, New York. I remember Grandpa Pete saying he had decided on boarding the "Central Union Pacific" into Kansas.

What Ports of Call did they travel through to get to America?

Ellis Island

Which Port of Entry did they come through when they arrived in America?

Ellis Island, NY.

What possessions did they bring along with them on their journey? Did they have to sell most of their possessions to be able to obtain money for the journey?

Grandpa told me he had exchanged German Marks for US Dollars at Warburg Bank in Amsterdam and had the paper currency sewn into his clothing during the transit to Ellis Island, NY.

How long did their journey take them from their homeland?

About 28 days.

What was the occupation of your ancestors?

On my father's side... Peter was a wheat farmer on the steppes (high plains) of Russia. My father... Barney, continued to wheat farm and raise cattle.

On my mother's side: Edith Kelley's ancestors..County Cork, Ira

Did they change occupations once they settled?

No, Peter Scherr continued to farm as he did in Russia...a wheat farmer. My father farmed wheat and raised cattle...my mother taught at Collyer High School until 1934.

Did they face discrimination once they settled in Collyer?

How did they acquire their homestead land or business?

When Peter Scherr bought the fairly level quarter of land on the south side of the tracks one and one half miles (east) of Collyer, there was already an abstract of deed on that quarter section. Someone had already bought it from the Union Pacific Railroad.

Did there seem to be different social classes among the settlers?

N/A

How did the war affect you or your family?

The 2nd World War didn't affect my family much. Dad was a farmer and was thus immune to the draft. I do remember that near the end of the war...German and Nazi captives held in the US prison camps were available for daily labor to farmers. At this time, I remember seeing German soldiers in blue uniforms helping dad haul bales to our corral feeders on ther farm east of Collyer. Dad could speak enough German to easily converse with them...and they were so happy to be free from their obligation to Hitler...looking forward to their repatriation to their native Germany, completely destroyed by that time. These prisoners came out of a camp in Saline County.

Do you have ties or are you in communication with anyone in your ancestor's country?

Have you ever been back to your ancestor's country?

Ruth (my wife) and I traveled to London to a daughter's wedding in 1980 and to Rome in 1993, but we have never (been) tempted to see Germany.

How did your ancestors integrate into a community? In other words, what was the common thread that brought them together?

Very simple...they arrived in Trego County among relatives and neighbors they had known in their neighborhood in Selz and Seratow, Russia.

Additional Notes:

B.J.'s daugher, Connie Kassman sent us a copy of the manifest of the German flag ship, "Patricia" Docking at Ellis Island Pier on January 19, 1901. Traveling with Peter Scherr and his wife Magdelina (whose maiden name was Mueller...the name was changed to Miller upon arrival in America. (The clerks at Ellis Island, were ladies and gentleman armed with pencil and paper)...THAT WAS THE STATE OF THE ART IN 1901...When you approached the clerk and said, "My name is Mueller...she heard you say "My name is Miller...and so it is recorded. Also listed on the Ship manifest were several "Lipps" including Eva Lipp who later became her Great Grandmother Eva Connelly, and several Mullers (who all had their names changed to Miller). They all were listed as originating from Saratow, Russia and they all moved to the Collyer area.

Additional Notes:

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