The Cotopaxi Colony, by Flora Jane Satt

Part II, The People

The people (see accompanying list page 31) who comprised the Cotopaxi Colony in the spring of 1882 were Russian Jews from the provinces of Volhynia, Kiev and Ekaterinoslav. Sixty-three persons in all, there were twenty-two "heads of family", each of whom were eligible to file on 160 acres of government land.1 Actually, most of the sixty-three were members of only three main family clans, consisting of several generations and relatives by marriage. Among these three families, too, there was much intermarriage and nearly every colonist at Cotopaxi was related to the others by ties of blood or marriage, the only exception being close friends who had attached themselves to one "patriarch" and were considered as "adopted". This aggregation had been well solidified in Europe, and the experiences of the pogroms, the emigration and the events at Cotopaxi served to weld it even more firmly together.

The traceable nucleus of the group begins in the early 19th century with a movement among the inhabitants of the Pale 2 known as "Haskalah" 3 or "Enlightenment", which sought a middle road between the "fathers and sons",4 between the extremes of fanaticism espoused on the one hand by the "Hasidim",5 and on the other hand by those who denied Judaism or cultural assimilation. The disciples of modernation were known as the "Maskilim",6 and were despised by both extremes among their own people and certainly not given much encouragement by the Czarist government. This, in spite of its program for gradual "Russification", for establishment of Crown Schools,7 and for urging cooperation with the government. By mid-century the Maskilim concentrated their energy on combating the "Tzaddicks",8 the superstition-ridden, mystical obscurantists, chiefly by means of satire. Even so, the Maskilim themselves were dismissed by the more violent, modern young "assimilationists" as too slow and conserveative to be considered progressive!

One of the important leaders of this Haskalah movement within the Pale was an idealistic Volhynian, Isaac Baer Levinsohn, known as the "Moses Mendelsohn"9 of Russia. Alexander II's program of social amalgamation. Clearly, the children of Jacob and Malka Milstein inherited a view of the Jewish problem quite different from their neighbors in Brest, and it was these same children who, by the 1860's and 1870's led the Maskilim of the province who favored secular education, a moderate religious position and the "back-to-the-land" dream.11

By 1874, with the failure of the Czar's agricultural colonies and the 'drift toward oppression' of the Jews, it became apparent that the Maskilim program would achieve very little. The sudden change of Czar Alexander II's policies and open anti-Semitism began with the Law of 1874 which restored the unfair methods of juvenile conscription for the Jewish population.12 The attempts at cultural fusion through secular education were recognized as utter failures and by 1873 a ukase closed the two rabbinical schools at Vilna and Zhitomir. 13 Also the "melammeds"14 renewed their attacks on the "assimilationists".

Jacob and Malka Milstein's youngest son, Isaac Leib, was forced to become an "only son" to a childless couple named Shames in order to escape the dreaded quarter-century of military service, a threat that had not menaced the Milstein family for many generations since they were of the exempt estate.15 Their eldest son, Saul Baer, had experienced during his lifetime the pendulum swing of government attitude toward Jews; first, liberalism, then, persecution intensified after the Polish Insurrection of 1863. As a child Saul imbibed the ideas of Haskalah enthusiastically, and as a young man he prepared to become a "Crown Riabbi" himself by attending the seminary at Zhitomir. He had encouraged his younger brother Benjamin to apply for the agricultural colony in Ekaterinoslav and had watched him, several cousins and friends go off in high spirits to farm--only to see most of them return discouraged and beaten in 1866 when the "last straw" had broken the backs of the 'camels'.16 By 1870 even those Jews who had farmed their lands since Czar Nicholas's reign were evicted and their lands distributed among the newly-emancipated serfs.17

With the death of his father in 1861 Saul Baer Milstein became the spiritual leader and business advisor to many people in Brest Litovsk and in the small rural villages in the Pripet River Valley, the vicinity wherein various Jewish families lived and produced the supplies for his warehouses and commission business. The Milstein family had been in this business for several generations since coming to Russia from Germany. As the eldest son, Saul Baer inherited the management of the entire concern, as well as his father's role in the community of leader and teacher. His was the controlling voice in matters not only relating to business but in family and social affairs as well. Nearly all employed by the firm were relatives. In addition to Saul Baer's duties as head of a large business with branches in Grodno, Kiev, and Brody, he also taught classes in those secular subjects which were not offered in the "yeshivahs"18 of Brest Litovsk.

By 1871 his younger brother Benjamin had returned to Brest Litovsk from the colony in Ekaterinoslav with his wife Hannah and their son Jacob. He was angry at the Russian Government's treatment of the Jewish colonists, but was still determined to prove that the Jews of the Pale could become successful farmers if afforded any sort of equality of opportunity.19 But Russia seemingly did not want Jews on the land, and it became increasingly difficult to produce the grain and other supplies needed in the commission house, since Christians were forbidden to sell their produce to Jewish wholesalers. Saul Baer was much impressed with reports from America concerning the liberal Homestead Act, whose benefits could apply even to immigrants who had filed declaration of intention to become citizens. Disappointed with the progress made by conciliation, cooperation and meekness advocated by Maskilism, he began to consider leaving Russia to begin a new life in America. The sale of the commission business should provide enough to finance such a move for the entire family group. Therefore, strengthened in his determination by the Repressive Acts of 1874, 1875, and 1876,20 Saul Baer encouraged his nephew Jacob, who had grown up on a farm, to leave Russia, where he was in danger of being drafted for twenty-five years' service in the Czar's Army, and travel to America to investigate the provisions of this Homestead Act and look over the possibilities for establishing the 'clan' in the United States.

Thus it was that in 1878 Jacob Milstein left Brest Litovsk to seek out land for members of his family and those others who wished to emigrate with them. He was to act as "advance scout" and to send back all the information on homesteading to his uncle, the leader of the proposed 'colony'. Was the American government really as tolerant of Jews as they had been led to believe? No special taxes? Freedom of worship? While he was learning these things, as well as the English language, his uncle Saul Baer would send him a monthly allowance to cover his living and travelling expenses.

But within a year of his departure from Russia Jacob had incurred the wrath of his uncle. He received no more money and for a time the gravity of his offense threatened the plans for the entire group's migration. Jacob's "sin" had been to persuade Nettie Milstein, Saul Baer's eldest child, with whom he had been in love for some time, to run away and join him in America where they could be married. Nettie was her father's favorite child, and he had lavished on her all his affection and material wealth. He had educated her as thoroughly as any of his sons and had taken her with him on business trips throughout Europe. By the time she was twenty years old, in 1878, a confirmed spinster by Jewish standards, she was able to relieve her father of many of his duties at the commission house, in order that he might devote more time to his studies and pupils, as she preferred a business career to marriage, having refused to accept any of the suitors offered her by the "shadchens".21 She was in love with Jacob, her first cousin, and since her father naturally opposed such a union, Nettie simply rejected marriage with anyone else, but when Jacob left Russia and the all-pervasive influence of his patriarchal uncle, Saul Baer, Nettie was impelled to flee and disregard convention, religion and social ostracism by going to Jacob in America. Leaving Brest Litovsk in November of 1879, Nettie journeyed to the home of relatives in Hamburg, Germany, where she awaited passage money from her fiance.

Cut off from his uncle's support, Jacob Milstein took a job in a tin factory in New York City. He learned English rapidly and also earned enough to put some aside as 'capital' with which to prospect for a colony site as well as passage money for his bride-to-be from Germany. But he had worked little more than a year when an industrial accident deprived him of the sight of one eye. It is noteworthy for those days that the owner of the factory recognized his responsibility in the matter of the accident and made arrangements for a pension to be paid his young employee-victim.22 Jacob was thus able to afford proper medical care and rest without resorting to charity. While recuperating, he became acquainted with the work being done by the well-know American Jew, Michael Heilprin.23

The latter, in 1880, was already busy organizing the Jews of the United States into a relief society to aid in the temporary support of the rapidly increasing number of immigrants pouring into the country from Russia, caused by the increasing rigor of Czar Alexander II's policies against the Jewish population.24 Western Jews were beginning to realize the hopeless plight of their Russian correligionists, due particularly to their peculiar economic and political status in the Czar's Empire. Historically sympathetic throughout the Diaspora, the more fortunate Western Jews had earlier formed aid societies, such as the "Alliance Israelite Universelle", 25 guided by Adolphe Cremieux and Moses Montefiore. Michael Heilprin had kept in close touch with representatives of this organization, which had announced a plan at a meeting in Paris in the spring of 1880 to settle refugees in the new and undeveloped countries in South America, South Africa, Australia and especially in North America, where the United States offered even aliens the benefits of their liberal Homestead Act. This plan appealed greatly to Michael Heilprin, who for years had been urging young immigrant Jews to leave the East and try farming, taking advantage of the Government's "free land".

Prior to 1880, there had been few Jews in America who were able or eager to follow such advice. Lack of money for land and equipment had not been the main deterent but rather the lack of any agricultural experience, coupled with the age-old fear of investing in land, a commodity not movable nor easily convertible in case of sudden persecution or expulsion. Therefore, when twenty-year-old Jacob Milstein, his sightless eye covered by a black patch, came to Heilprin's office on State Street in New York City, it seemed an amazing coincidence. Here was a representative of a Russian Jewish group, whose background seemed promising for the venture, who were determined to leave Europe permanently, who were most anxious to "return to the soil" and who best of all, included members who had been farmers in the short-lived agricultural colonies for Jews in Southern Russia and also, had adequate financial resources for the trip, land investment and living expenses. Coupled with these qualifications and Heilprin's interest in establishing experimental Jewish colonies in the United States, was the receipt, in September of 1880, of a most unusual offer from a wealthy Jewish philanthropist, Emanuel H. Saltiel, who professed a desire to help in the work outlined by Heilprin in the latter's widely-read articles and settle a colony of Jewish farmers on his lands in Wet Mountain Valley near Cotopaxi, Fremont County, Colorado.

Emanual H. Saltiel had gone to Colorado after the Civil War and had prospered in mining and milling enterpreises, as well as property investments.26 Although he maintained a home and an office in New York as well as in Colorado, he was not affiliated with any religious organization. Nevertheless, he wrote several eloquent letters to Michael Heilprin, expressing his admiration for the latter's policy advocating agricultural colonies for Jewish immigrants.

When Heilprin first spoke with Jacob Milstein it was with the idea of sending this particular group of which he was a representative to homestead on the 'donated' lands in Oregon, where soil, water and market facilities were known to be excellent. However, Saltiel's letters were very persuasive and promised that he would undertake to constuct houses for each family, several large communal barns and sheds, provide necessary furniture and household equipment, farm implements, seed, cattle, horses and wagons and a year's supply of feed for the animals. The offer was quite magnanimous, for Saltiel was to provide all this for a mere $8,750, the remaining $1,250 to be raised by the colonists to cover costs of rail transportation and living expenses en route to Colorado. The entire cost was to be kept under $10,000 which meant an indebtedness for each family of less than $435. 27

Within a few months after hearing these proposals, Jacob's father, mother, brother and bride-to-be arrived in New York and letters were dispatched immediately to the others still in Russia describing in great detail the generosity of this American Jew, Saltiel, and his plan to aid them in realizing their dreams of tilling the soil in a free country, to build their homes and equip their farms and help them adjust to life in America. The group in Russia was enthusiastic and began to make preparations for leaving, but before they could complete their arrangements, an event occurred which changed their situation. On March 1, 1881, Czar Alexander II was assassinated and his son and successor, Alexander III, immediately appointed Nicolas Pavlovich Ignatieff, a militant anti-Semite, as Minister of the Interior. At once a series of pograms began which caused thousands of Jews to leave Russia forever in a mass exodus unparalleled in modern history.28 The promulgation of the May Laws of 1881 29 was the capstone in the long history of repressive acts directed against the Jews of the Czar's Empire.

Consequently the tempo of Jewish immigration to the United States was tremendously changed that spring of 1881. By June the waves of destitute refugees swamped the inadequate facilities of the Port of New York Receiving Station at Castle Garden.30 Up to that time, assistance to those Jews who needed it had been rendered by private charitable organizations such as B'nai B'rith or the various religious congregations in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore.

But the scope of the 1881 migration was entirely too much for these private groups and the sudden realization of their inadequacy caused them to band together to try to provide emergency relief. The protest meetings that were held all over Europe because of the pogroms raised considerable funds, most of which were sent to the United States, which country received the bulk of the refugees. The Alliance Israelite Universelle mushroomed into a vast relief agency and was responsible for the establishment of depots, "escape hatches" and embarkation stations31 throughout Europe.

To American Jews the situation that spring was particularly worrisome as their heretofore pleasant and undisturbed insulation had not prepared them for such shock--or problem. Because the Jews came in such large numbers, so rapidly, to America, the government's immigration authorities were totally unprepared and available facilities completely inadequate. Promp action was imperative lest this problem become large enough to trouble the tranquil Christian-Jewish atmosphere in the United States. Therefore a relief committee composed of prominent American Jews was hastily organized under the chairmanship of a New York judge, Meyer Isaacs, in September of 1881. Within a month this was replaced by a union of all Jewish charitable groups along the Eastern seaboard, religious and secular alike, into what was called the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society (HEAS).32 By the end of that year, $300,000 in temporary relief funds had been raised and headquarters of the society set up in Michael Heilprin's offices in New York city. Heilprin was unanimously elected president and directed the affairs of the society until its dissolution in the fall of 1883. He had to discard for a while his theories of careful relocation of Jews on farms, as clearly these could not be applied quickly enough to solve the pressing and immediate problems of emergency relief. Whenever possible he urged the young men to leave the crowded urban centers and take up land in the West under the Homestead Act.

Despite Heilprin's preoccupation with Receiving Station duties and housing, he found time to help establish and finance two "colonies" with HEAS funds earmarked for this type of "experiment". The first of these was the Cotopaxi Colony in Colorado, the settlers, location and investment having been decided upon in 1881 as a result of the coincidence of Saltiel's offer and Jacob Milstein's application. The second one was at Vineland, New Jersey.33

Before the pogroms of 1881 had caused such precipitous migrations and had so drastically altered the situation of the Milstein group still in Brest Litovsk, Michael Heilprin had already decided to go ahead with this plans for an experimental colony located near Cotopaxi. His first act, once he had accepted the offer of Saltiel, was to assign a young lawyer connected with the society, Julius Schwartz, to go to Colorado, make a thorough investigation of the locality, markets, soil, climate, etc., and return a report to the New York office. Schwartz left New York in January of 1881, but HEAS never received any report from him or word concerning him.

Within a few months of Schwartz's departure, however Heilprin was submerged in the more pressing problems of the Russian pogram victims, and could not spend any more money investigating this far-off colony site. The $10,000 required for its establishment had already been approved and set aside by the society, the rest of the 'colony group' had arrived from Europe that winter and began to constitute a 'dependent immigrant classification', having been forced to flee Russia without waiting to sell property, etc. The expenses of tenement living during the winter of 1881-82 had used up what little they had been able to bring with them and the conditions in New York, plus the disappointment of delay had eaten up much of their enthusiasm. Heilprin had little choice but to permit the "colony" to go ahead without having received any report of Schwartz's investigation.34

Thus it was that in April of 1882 the twenty "family groups"35 began their long train journey via Kansas City, Pueblo and the Royal Gorge, to Cotopaxi, without many of the things they shoud have had. First, they were without any first-hand knowledge of just what kind of country they were headed for--save for the descriptions of the eloquent Mr. Saltiel. Secondly, they were without their beloved leader, Saul Baer Milstein.36 His younger brother, Benjamin, had taken over as Saul Baer was still angry over the matter of his daughter Nettie's unfortunate marriage with his first cousin.37 That couple was also missing from the group which left New York for Colorado, having preceded it by several months. They were awaiting the arrival of the colony which they would join, in the meantime living in Blackhawk. Thirdly, the group was no longer well-off financially; the fee of $50.00 per head-of-family,38 the high cost of living in New York the preceding winter, the cost of the journey, the loss of expected profit from the sale of their property and businesses in Russia, had greatly depleted its resources. Despite these handicaps, the group was confident and optimistic as they set out for the "promised lands" in the rich and fertile Wet Mountain Valley, described so eloquently in the letter from their benefactor, Emanuel H. Saltiel.

36. Infra, p. 52, part III.
37. In Novembver, 1881, Jacob Milstein left New York to survey the prospects in Colorado, and to look up Julius Schwartz. He never found Schwartz. From Blackhawk, Jacob sent for Nettie, his fiancee. They were married at the Gilpin County Courthouse in January, 1882. Jacob was then engaged in the mule trade. Perhaps to conceal the fact that he and his bride were first cousins, Jacob changed the spelling of his name to Millstein on the marriage certificate. Their children later changed the spelling still further. (Muhlstein)
38. This fee was collected in New York by HEAS and sent to Saltiel at his request. It was supposedly the initial payment on each family's indebtedness.