Category:Zur Heimath obituaries

Zur Heimath (1875-81), first published as an 8-page 8½ x 11½ monthly by David Goerz at Summerfield, Illinois, as the official organ of the Mennonite Board of Guardians of which he was the secretary, and distributed free to Mennonite immigrants from Russia by the Board, February to December 1875. When Goerz moved to Halstead, KS in late 1875, he organized there the Western Publishing Co., which thenceforth published the journal as an 8-page semi-monthly for a subscription price of $1.00, with slightly enlarged page size (1880-81 at 10½ x 15 in.). David Goerz was the editor throughout its history. Der Nebraska Ansiedler, a similar periodical published by the Mennonite Publishing Company beginning in June 1878, and transformed into Die Mennonitische Rundschau after two years (June 1880), was in a sense a competitor, and with John F. Harms, Mennonite Brethren minister, as editor, succeeded in separating a certain segment of the Russian Mennonite constituency in North America from Goerz's paper. The latter became increasingly the servant and organ of the Western District (General Conference Mennonite) Conference, and finally merged with the Mennonitischer Friedensbote to form the Christlicher Bundesbote (January 1882) as the official German organ of the General Conference Mennonite Church. Zur Heimath announced its function in 1876 as being the bearer of reports on immigration and settlement, news out of Russia, and general material from near and far. Later it carried much news of congregational and conference activities as well as doctrinal and historical material. It carried an advertising section, particularly for the steamship and railroad companies interested in immigration.