Love - The Odessa Record "By Your Relative"

Odessa Record subscriber Larry Fisher of Spokane continues his series of articles on the history of the Batum/Lauer area where his wife, the former Joyce Kiesz, grew up.

Hi, here I am again.

This week, I’m going to tell you about a grandmother whose birth place was Eigenheim, Bessarabia, South Russia, whose birth date was 1861. Her name is Christina Yess/Jess who married Jacob Raugust, 11/26/1880 in Eigenheim, Bessarabia, South Russia. In Eigenheim they had ten children, 1881, 1883, 1885, 1888, 1889, 1892, 1894, 1896, 1898, 1901 and one child at Batum, 1904.

The Raugust family came to the L-B-D in 1903 and purchased land from Sam Reimann. The land had “livable” structures located on the N.E. Corner of Section 17, TS20N, R32E, even though sagebrush had not been cleared.

As a young person in Russia, Christina Yess was able to receive a good education which most German girls were not able to obtain. During her first 23 years of married life in Russia, she and her husband with children were able to live a good life while at the same time saving money. In 1902, a decision was made to leave Russia and go to America/Ritzville, WA./L-B-D where Jacob’s brother Christian (W.C. Raugust’s father) and some Yanke/Janke relatives lived.

Christina didn’t want to leave her parents, brothers, sisters or other relatives who were remaining in Russia, but because of her husband’s deteriorating health and because her oldest son John had just become military age for induction into the Russian army and her other four sons at the time would become military age in years to come, she agreed to leave. Years later, she said the decision in 1902 was the correct one.

(Note: Jacob’s health problem, Jacob had developed asthma and spent many nights sleeping outdoors in a chair. He knew he had to do something because of the asthma and going to America had occurred to him, but it was only after his brother Christian wrote good letters to him about America that he decided to go. He was carried onto the train on a stretcher, was really in a bad way. When he got out on the ocean, his asthma disappeared and never returned.) (“Women” to be continued next week.) Until next time.

Your Relative,

Spokane