Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church

From 1600 to 1650, these families, now called Mennonites, migrated to West Prussia, settling in the Danzig area between the Vistula and Nogat Rivers.

During this journey they met Czar Alexander I of Russia, who wished them well (German: "wohl"), prompting the naming of the new village, Alexanderwohl.

[1] In 1870, the Russian government issued a proclamation stating the intention to end all special privileges granted to German colonists by 1880.

In May 1874, Eduard Totleben, representing the czar, visited the Molotschna Mennonite making verbal promises in an attempt to persuade them not to emigrate.

Through the leadership and organization skills of Jacob Buller and Dietrich Gaeddert, financial arrangements were made so that even families with the least resources were able make the journey.

Arriving in Topeka on 10 September 1874, the Gaeddert group and the Buller group which arrived soon afterward, were housed by the Santa Fe Railroad for a month while they purchased horses, cattle, farm implements, building materials, food staples and other necessities for starting a new life on the prairie.

[7] Its name was derived from a comment of J. C. Dick who, upon seeing the wide-open prairie that was to be his new home, exclaimed "Dies is ja hier eine wahrhaftige Hoffnungsau" (This is here indeed a true meadow of hope).

[9] Church leaders promoted cooperation with other Mennonites in Kansas for the purpose of creating a teacher training school and doing mission work.