To South Africa

On 23 November 1877, a group of families left Nieder-Monjou intending to immigrate to North America or perhaps Brazil. They packed their belongings and loaded them into horse-drawn carts for the journey to Kosackenstadt (now the city of Engels). The following were included in this group:

Maria Elisabeth Binedel, widow (67)
(son 1) Kaspar Binedel (45)
his wife: Katharina Maria (44)
their children:
(a)Johann Heinrich (23)
his wife: Anna Marie (23)

their children:
Engelbrecht (3)
Johann Christ. (1)

(b) Catherina Sophie(age 21)
her husband Georg Konrad Rueb (age 24)

their children:
Kaspar (1-died and buried at sea)
Johann Heinrich (born 13 January 1878 at sea in route to South Africa)

(c) Catherina Elisa. (16)
(d) Johann Friedrich (13)
(e) Anna Elisa. (10)
(f) Johann Peter (8)
(g) Johann Christofer (under 1)
(son 2) Johann Peter Bindel (34)
his wife: Catherina Sophie (36)

their children:
(a) Marie Sophie (10)
(b) Marie Elisabeth (8)
(c) Johannes (3)
(d) Johann Peter (under 1)

(son 3) Johann Jacob (32)
his wife: Marie Elisabeth (32)

their children:
(a) Gottfried (10)
(b) Johann Conrad (9)
(c) Johann Christian (5)
(d) Anna (4)
(e) Catherine (2)
(f) Johann Carl (under 1)

The following traveled as single people:

Johann Christian Binedel (21)
Johannes Binedel (18)
Marie Binedel (15)

Carl Anschütz (29)
his wife Marie Catherina [née Herber] (26)

their children:
Johann Heinrich (8)
Dorothea (5)
Johann David (3)
Anna Elisabeth (under 1)

The intended destination of this group was North America or perhaps the state of Paraná in southern Brazil. After taking a ferry from Kosakenstadt across the Volga River to Saratov, they traveled by train from there for 8 days and nights to the port of Hamburg in present-day Germany. The member of the group who was responsible for the fiscal resources of the group claimed to have been robbed in Hamburg, and the group therefore had no money to continue the trip. Whether this robbery was truthful was cast into doubt when the self-same family member came under suspicion of dishonesty later, when after only a few years in Cape Town, he had sufficient funds to return to Russia.

In Hamburg, they connected with a immigration organization (Meyer & Comp.) that was offering free passage to South Africa for those interested in engaging in farming there. Having few options, the group took advantage of this offer, and after a delay of several weeks, sailed on 3 January 1878 aboard the SS Saturnus. The group disembarked in Cape Town on 7 March 1878.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another family that immigrated originally to Cape Town in 1877 or 1878 was that of Johann Christian Friebus and his wife Agnes née Lichtner from Fischer. They immigrated on to Wilson, Kansas, in 1892. The Johann Carl Friebus family, also immigrated to Cape Town and in 1885 moved on to Lincoln, Nebraska, and then on to Wilson, Kansas. The Johann Jakob (Dominic) Hertling (Hertlein) family also immigrated to South Africa and then on to Hays, Kansas.