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In spite of the enthusiasm of Tobias Unruh and others, opinions about emigration remained mixed. Although many would emigrate immediately, still more stayed in Russia, deciding much later to leave, or having no intention to leave under any circumstances. By 1874 the population of Molotschna was 30,000, and the total Russian Mennonite population was 55,000. Of these, 18,000, including our Dirksen ancestors, would immigrate to America during the 1874 - 1876 period. For those who remained, the "Golden Age" of the Mennonite Colonies was reached in 1910, but it was not to last. Enormous loss of life and property came eventually to those who did not emigrate. The Revolution, the civil war and the subsequent Communist takeover brought a permanent end to Russian Mennonite life as it had been. All remaining Mennonites were deported to the Russian North and Siberia before the German armies arrived in 1941. All that had been was lost. Our ancestors avoided that fate by leaving long before.
 
They emigrated in much the same way their parents had left Prussia half a century earlier. They were part of a large group (over five hundred) of family members, church elders, and neighbors from Alexanderthal and other Molotschna villages. Jacob, Abraham, Cornelius, and Eva (Guenther) left Russia behind forever in 1876. The oldest siblings, Johann, and Elizabeth Heinrich stayed longer, but by 1885 they would all be in America.
 
With passports in hand and free of all debt (a Russian requirement for emigration) they left Molotschna for Amsterdam. They had disposed of everything that could not be taken with them and paid the required ten percent of their property value plus eighteen rubles (about $220.00 in 2003) to the Russian Government. Their carefully prepared food (Pumpernickel bread, cheese, cold cured salted meat and onions etc.) and belongings were packed into large trunks built specially for the long trip. The trip was made more comfortable by the help of emigrant aid groups.
 
The journey by train took six or seven days and nights, with many stops and changes along the way. When they arrived at Amsterdam the Dürksen families (and many others) had returned to the land from which their ancestors had fled to the east over three hundred years before. Now they would leave it again. But this time by ship, bound for the west.
 
Their ship was the SS Vaderland built by Palmer's Shipbuilding & Iron Co in 1872 for Amsterdam's Red Star Line. She was a 2,748 gross ton vessel, length 320.5ft x beam 38.5ft, straight stem, one funnel, three masts (barque rigged for sails), iron construction, single screw and a speed of 13 knots. She was unusual in that her engines and funnel were aft, designed to carry passengers and petroleum, but never carried the latter. There was accommodation for 70 first class and 800 third class passengers. Launched on August 21, 1872 She sailed until October 1, 1889 when she was sunk in a collision. Although there are many pictures of subsequently built two and three funneled Vaderlands, there is reported to be only a line drawing left (North Atlantic Seaway, vol. 2) of the ship that brought our immigrant ancestors across the sea.
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