Thirteen Hutterite families under the leadership of Jacob Wipf (1835–1896) emigrated from Johannesruh, Ukraine, to South Dakota in 1877.
After their arrival, they formed the Lehrerleut by establishing a community of goods at Elmspring Colony near Parkston, South Dakota, thus following the example of the Schmiedeleut and the Dariusleut.
[2] Shortly after World War I, two Hutterite conscientious objectors from the Lehrerleut branch, Joseph and Michael Hofer, died in an American prison.
This and growing anti-German sentiment caused the emigration of all four Lehrerleut colonies to Alberta, Canada, in the following years.
[5] Rod Janzen and Max Stanton report in their book of 2010 that there were 139 Lehrerleut colonies, 72 in Alberta, 32 Saskatchewan and 35 in Montana.