(CisbAE An ies Mal 
THE POPULATION 
The history of Russian German immigration to the United 
States reveals the fact that it has been essentially a movement to 
the western part of this country and hence to the rural districts. 
In this respect it differs from much of the present-day immigra- 
tion which tends to congest in the east, particularly in the large 
cities. For a study of this nationality, no place in the country 
offers a better field than does Lincoln, Nebraska, a city of some 
48,000 inhabitants, of whom one seventh are Russian Germans. 
In addition to forming a large proportion of the population, they 
are a rapidly increasing element in it. In 1914 one third of all 
the births in the city were of Russian German parentage, while 
in the preceding year, the total of such foreigners entering Lincoln 
direct from Russia equalled one and one half per cent. of the 
entire population of the city. 
The location of Lincoln is an added factor which makes it a 
favorable place for a study of Russian German immigration, 
situated as it is in the heart of the territory where the greatest 
number of this group has settled. In the earliest days of the , 
city, it was a distributing point for all immigration to Nebraska, 
.both native and foreign, and small numbers of the first Russian 
German settlers in the state may still be found in the city. In 
later years it became the clearing house for a large percentage 
of the immigration of this nationality to the west; and many of 
these people have been ticketed direct from Saratow to Lincoln 
via New York, knowing nothing of any other places in America 
than these two. After a few years’ residence in Lincoln, during 
which they go to the beetfields each summer, some of them save 
enough money to start farming, either on rented land in the 
county or in the vicinity of the beetfields, chiefly in western Ne- 
braska, Colorado, and Montana. Others move to small towns 
near these regions where they may be close to their work, or out 
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