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 "Russian Quakers" meant "pacifists from Russia". In the 1880s "Russian Quakers were Mennonites in America. In 1899 they were Doukhobortsy arriving in Canada. Here the Russian Quakers refers to all the other kinds of Spiritual Christians from Russia coming to Los Angeles. The 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 about 100 times higher than the actual number of Spiritual Christians from Russia who arrived. Actual counts show that by 1910 about 2,500 stayed in Los Angeles with more in Mexico and 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 17 days later in the same paper (above) 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 greatly exaggerated the reality of the followers. In 1980, 70 years after the immigration, a Los Angeles "Big Church" elder, Alex Shubin said to me: "I was always told that everyone came to America. There was no one left in Russia." He had just learned that less than 1% of all Spiritual Christians in Russia ever immigrated to the U.S. |
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