Russian Quakers Coming
Here
By
Associated Press. Los
Angeles Herald,
January 12, 1905. Page 5 |
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| NEW
YORK,
Jan.
11.—
Two hundred thousand Russian Quakers are coming to this
country to establish a permanent colony near Los Angeles,
according to
P. A. Beamans [Demens],
who claims to have been at one time a captain in one of
the regiments composing the Russian Imperial guard. The label of Quakers and estimate for total numbers are wrong. The alarming estimate of 200,000, would be more than half the population of Los Angeles County. This was nearly 100 times higher than the actual number of Pryguny, Molokane, Subbotniki and other Russian sectarians who arrived. Journalists did not know what to call them, and still don't 100 years later. Actual counts show that by 1910 about 2,500 stayed in Los Angeles about 1000 each in Mexico and in and near San Francisco. Census data is in-progress. |
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| Los
Angeles Herald,
January 28, 1905. Page 6 |
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| The advance guard of the
so-called Russian "Quakers" recently arrived in Los
Angeles and it is reported that 15,000 of the sect are preparing to follow. If they come anywhere near deserving the name which is commonly given in America to the Society of Friends they will be welcome in Southern California. This item the same paper (above) 17 days later reported that 15, 000 were expected, which would have been 6% of the county population. The following year, 25,000 were said to be going to Hawaii. All reported estimates were way too high. This indicates that the enthusiasm of the leaders was way in excess of the reality of the followers. In 1980, 70 years after the immigration, a Los Angeles Big Church elder, Alex Shubin said: "I was always told that everyone [Pryguny] came to America. There was no one left in Russia." He had just learned that less than 1% of all Russian Sectarians ever immigrated to the U.S., which shocked him. |
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