Journey from Teplitz, Bessarabia to America

Journey from Teplitz, Bessarabia to America, the Story of the Bensinger, Kurtz and Weber Families tells of the author's maternal family history. It begins with his ancestors in southern Germany and their struggles during the early 1800s and how various family lines attempted to better themselves by moving first to Poland and then to the province of Bessarabia, Russia. He describes the harrowing journey of the Kurtz and Weber families as they depart from Germany on their way to the promise of free land in Russia. A promise that originated with Catherine the Great and was re-instituted by her Grandson Alexander I in 1801. The author reviews the experiences and conditions that the German settlers encountered in their new home in Bessarabia when they arrived in 1817. The story continues with the taming of the Russian steppe and ends in 1900. The book also describes conditions between 1900 and 1940 faced by those who stayed in Russia and how they fared under the increasingly hostile attitude of the Tsarist Government. It also includes some of the atrocities they suffered under both Tsarist and Bolshevik/Communist Governments.
The book focuses on the conditions and challenges the author's great grandmother faced when she was widowed at age 31 with five sons under age eight. Her decision to leave for the United States and the obstacles she encountered in making a new life in America. The book discusses the military service of two of his ancestors in World War I. It also includes conditions the Kurtz and Weber families encountered during the catastrophic failure of agricultural life during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The author's version of these two families' story ends in South Dakota in 1940. The family history continues to the present day with with biographies of the author's great grandparents, their children, and grandchildren.