History

A description of Galka, Russian name Ust-Kulalinka, was made by the Office of Immigrant Oversight by Fellow of the Chief Justice, Court Counselor Popov. The description was completed using information from the mayor of the colony, from other people, and according to personal observations on 9 September 1798.

Galka is located in the Saratov Province, near Kamyshin, near the Voloshka Brook, on the high river bank of the Volga River, 150 verst (99.4 miles) from the city of Saratov, 40 verst (26.5 miles) from Kamishin, from neighboring colonies: Dobrinka - 8 verst (5.3 miles), Dreispitz - 10 verst (6.6 miles), Schwab - 5 verst (3.3 miles), and from the dock on the Volga River - 8 verst (5.3 miles). There are 192 males and 193 females in the colony for a total of 385 people in 66 families. All colonists are Lutheran and there is a pastor and a church. The schoolteacher, under the supervision of the pastor, teaches children reading, writing, and religion in the school building.

The colony has 6626 desyatina (17890 acres) of farm land, 100 desyatina (270 acres) of hay-making land, and 120 desyatina (324 acres) of forest which were given to it during the Guardianship Land Survey. The colony was also given a waste plot on the other side of the Volga River near the same waste plots of Dreispitz and Holstein. Ther are 188 desyatina (507 acres) of hay-making land and 50 desyatina (135 acres) of forest there. The total amount of land in the colony is 7084 desyatina (19,127 acres). According to the colonists, 2000 desyatina (5400 acres) has been forcefully taken by the colonists of Dobrinka. From the remaining land, the colony has about 50 desyatina (135 acres) occupied by farmsteads, 30 desyatina (81 acres) by roads, and up to 1000 desyatina (2700 acres) remains as suitable for farming. The remaining part of their land is not suitable for farming because the land contains saline, is sandy and filled with stones. The colonists pasture their cattle on part of this land.

The colony has oak, aspen and birch forest suitable for firewood. Of this forest, 20 desyatina (54 acres) has been cut by the colonists of Dobrinka. All the remaining forest is protected. The colonists use only twigs and branches for their needs. There is enough land here which is suitable for growing trees. It has, therefore, been recommended that the colonists, especially their leaders, begin efforts to plant trees.

According to the colonists, the hay-making land is now less than what was originally surveyed to them. There are only 50 desyatina (135 acres) in the colony’s land and 100 desyatina (270 acres) in the waste plot. Although there has been more hay-making land in the waste plot, part of it was washed away by the Volga River. Most of the colony’s land shortages are in hay-making land and forest. The farm land will be sufficient if the land possessed by the colonists of Dobrinka is returned. Hay-making land and forest can be added from the from the waste plot land which adjoins the colony and which is now rented by Ukrainians of the Nikoleav quarter of Kamishin. The colonists do not have any other deficiencies, except for hemp and flax which do not grow in the local soil. The colonists practice only farming. For craftsmen, there are a blacksmith, a shoemaker, and a tailor in the colony.

The colonists live in satisfactory conditions. The buildings here are mostly ramshackle and repaired old ones. The houses are mostly enclosed with fences from the street side and with wattle fences from the inside. There is a place with suitable stone for construction, located 3 verst (2 miles) from the colony. However, there are only 4 stone houses and no wattle and daub houses in the colony. There are no orchards or apiaries. The colonists have melons, watermelon, and gourd plantations in the fields and kitchen gardens near their houses. A water mill is located on the Kulalinka Brook four verst (2.6 miles) from the colony.

The colony’s nearest field is two verst (1.3 miles) away and the farthest is six verst (4 miles). The land is divided into three fields, is cultivated using plows, and is not fertilized. The grain harvest is mediocre for all crops. These crops are harvested and then threshed on threshing floors which were built near the colonist’s yards. It is recommended that they establish threshing floors in remote and fire-secure places, as the Office of Immigrant Oversight has prescribed. The colonists cannot build barns like the Russian peasants because of the shortage of wood.

The colonists sell their gain and other products in Kamyshin and to people coming to the colony from various places. The price of grain varies all the time. Prices last winter and summer were: rye - 2 rubles, wheat - 3 rubles, oats - 1.3 rubles, and millet - 2.4 rubles per quarter. The public granary is ramshackle and built in an inconvenient place. It is therefore directed that the colonists build it in a convenient and secure place. To the present, 40 quarters each of rye, wheat and oats have been collected, but it is not all present. Some of it has been loaned to local people who did not have enough grain for seed and which will be repaid next fall.

This document is authentic and approved by Popov and signed by the Vorsteher (Mayor), Beisitzer (Deputy Mayor), and the best people of the colony.

Pastors of the Lutheran Church at Galka

17??-1778 Johann Kaspar Brauns
1782-1788 Jakob Alexander Topelius
1792-1794 Mag. Johann Dorn
1796-1804 Philipp Jakob Heimer
1807-1825 Friedrich Wilhelm Schmieder
1826-1847 Johann Hasthoffer
1849-1856 Eugen Friedrich Georg Hinsch
1858-1874 Samuel Theophil Bonwetsch
1874-1881 Moses Asnaworjanz
1884-1888 Leonhard Karl Wilhelm Hesse
1889-1901 Liborius Behning
1901-1911 Eduard Lehmkul
1912-1918 Alfred Schneider
1918-1931 Alfred Rudolf Kleindienst

On 23 January 1858, 75 families from Galka, Shcherbakovka, Stephan, Mueller, Schwab and Holstein moved to the village of Wiesenmuller, which had been founded in November 1857. The total population of Wiesenmuller at then was 770.

Families from Galka also helped found the following daughter colonies:

Blumenfeld (1860), Frankreich (1861), Friedenberg (1860), Gnadentau (1860), Morgentau (1860), Neu-Galka (1860), Stassburg (1860), Weimar(1861).

History of Galka from Die Geschichte der Wolgadeutschen

Jackdaw (Galka), also Mayerhefer (Meierhöfer), Ust-Kulalinka, Lower Kulalinka, until 1917 - German colony, first Ust-Kulalinskaya colonist district, and after 1871 Ust-Kulalinskaya parish County, Saratov province. In the Soviet period - the German village of Lower Ilovlinskogo first district, Golo Karamyshskogo County, Labor communes (districts) of the Volga Germans, and then from 1922 - Kamensky, and from 1935 - Dobrinsky canton of Volga Germans, the administrative center of the village council Galkskogo (in 1926 in the village council is
composed of one with. Galka). Lutheran Village, one of the top five at the base of German colonies, was founded August 19, 1764.  Located at 50 ° 22 'North latitude and 45 ° 48 ' East longitude, on the right bank of the Volga River, near the mouth of river. Kulalinka, 45 km north-east of Kamyshin. Maternal crown colony. Founders - 54 families who came from Sweden, Saxony, Durlaha, Württemberg and Darmstadt. Title Jackdaw colony received from the district. Galka, a tributary of the Volga River north of the mouth. Kulalinka. By decree of 26 February 1768 on the names of German colonies was called the Ust-Kulalinka, on pp. Kulalinka.

 In statements on the number of colonists who settled in Astrakhan province (in 1780 the German colonies were a part of the Saratov governorship, and from 1797 - Saratov region), followed in 1769 in the colony of Lower Kulalinka lived 54 families, of which 51 family is capable of work, and 3 incompetent, they considered 219 persons of both sexes, including 122 souls of men, 97 - female. In colonists had livestock: horses - 127 of oxen - 2, cows and calves - 178 sheep - 24 pigs - 39. Vymolocheno [wheat] in the summer of 1768 - 649 quarters and 7 Chetverikov (130 cu m).; sown rye autumn 1768 the harvest of 1769 - 111 quarters and 6 Chetverikov (22.4 cu m). In the colonies there were buildings: residential buildings - 36 Granary - 3, stables - 3.

The village belonged to the Ust-Kulalinskaya evangelical parish, formed in 1768 among the first 11 Protestant congregations. Wooden church of St. Peter and Paul Church was built in 1880, in 1892 rebuilt. Some residents were Baptists.

 There were: water mills, the production of the sled, Zemstvo Yamskaya station, church school (from 1770), Zemstvo School (1884), a private school, cooperative store, agricultural credit association, primary school, the reading-room (1926).

Number of residents in different years: 195 (1767), 240 (1773), 285 (1788), 380 (1798), 669 (1816), 1298 (1834), 1845 (1850), 1987 (1859), 1818 (1886), 1915 (1897), 3157 (1904), 3472 (1911), 2139 (1920), 1810 (1922), 2037 (1926), 2333/ (1931).

In Ust-Kulalink, Lutheran pastor E. F. Bonvech (1861- after 1928) after 1928, prof. A. L. Bening (1890-1943).

In "A. N. Mink, Historical and Geographical Dictionary of the Saratov Province (Saratov, Russia, 1898)": pages 1072-1075.

Note: Dessyantine = 2.3 acres, sazhen = 2.13 meters

 Ust-Kulalinka, Jackdaw, too, the German Colony Kamyshinsky County, 3rd mill, Ust-Kulalinskaya parish, in the district. Volga, 150 kilometers from the city of Saratov, 40 - from the city of Kamyshino and 7 kilometers from the township government in with. Upper Kulalinke. Owners of the villagers, the former colonists, the Germans were Lutherans and Baptists part, here the church, school and in the winter - bazaars. The colony is located at 50 ° 22 'north latitude 15 ° 29' eastern longitude from Pulkovo, on the right bank. Volga River and Kulalinke had fallen there in the Volga, and the reason the village was called Ust-Kulalinki; to the river, there are 3 user-friendly Congress and on the shore it up to 35 wells. Another name Jackdaw colony has fallen from immediately to the north, at the mouth of Kulalinki, River Crows, against which the above Ust-Kulalinki, on a bend of the Volga River is the island Galkin, below which, on military topographic map of the General Staff, Vol. 1892, shows a colony of a small island - "Osleny. Milestones in 3 southwest of Ust- Kulalinki, fell into a ravine, the Volga River "Dry Poyka, but against the colony, on the left side of meadow, fell into her Eruslan River, the border between Samara and Astrakhan provinces [*]. The colony was formed simultaneously with the Lower Dobrinka, according to Klaus - in 1764-66, respectively, as indicated by the same township board - around 1768, the Germans, came from Germany. As statements of foreign settlers in 1859 (see Klaus - "Our colony"), Ust-Ust-owned Kulalinka Kulalinskaya constituency Kamyshinsky county, and it was considered:

     1788 - 49 families, 146 male, 139 female
     1798 - 65 families, 191 male, 189 female
     1816 - 94 families, 332 male, 337 female
     1834 - 178 families, 640 male, 658 female
     1850 - 218 families, 970 male, 875 female
     1857 - 176 families, 1037 male, 967 female

In the list of localities of the Central Stat. Committee, ed. 1862, is shown at p. Volga German colony of Ust-Kulalinka, Jackdaw, too, 37 miles from the county mountains. Kamyshin, and in 1860 it was considered 165 yards, 1036 souls husband. floor, 951 women, only 1,987 persons of both sexes, the Lutheran Church - 1; factories - 3, mills - 4.

By Zemstvo census in 1886 in a colony of Ust-Kulalinke, Galka, too, is cash: 209 domohoz., 915 souls husband. floor, 903 women, only 1,818 persons of both sexes, except that families are constantly absent - 148, and 8 families of foreign population of 52 souls of both sexes; educated in the colony was considered 510 men and 507 women. All residential buildings was 199, among them: the stone - 96, Wooden - 99, raw - 4; covered with iron - 1, planks - 177, straw - 20 and clay - 1, two storey houses - 2; industrial establishments - 29, drinking - 3, stores - 4. - Do the villagers believed the Census 1886: plows -255, winnowing - 43; horses working and non-working - 826, oxen - 643, cows and calves - 1260, sheep - 1683, pigs - 790, goats - 128. All fees and annual dues to the Society had in 1885 - 7022 rubles; income and obrok articles - 427 rubles. The entire allotment of land are: 5924 dessyantine. convenient (including arable land - 3677 1/2 of dessyantine) and uncomfortable - 5173 dessyantine, only 11,097 acres, of which 115.3 dessyantine convenient and 91.2 dessyantine is inconvenient for the Volga in Novouzensk county. - The ownership records of all land is 5923.8 ten. comfortable and 5173 ten. unsuitable; on Zemstvo census in 1886 consider: a) a custodial problem (Land survey guardianship of foreign settlers, called the trustee. - Minh.) - under buildings and houses - 18.8 dessyantine under the Threshing-Floors - 29.3 dessyantine under orchards - 6 dessyantine, a kitchen garden - 34.4 dessyantine and a melon - 116.3 dessyantine; arable in 3 fields - 3127.7 dessyantine, hayfields - 198.3 dessyantine, pasture - 1737.7 dessyantine, moreover forestland - 555.1 dessyantine and uncomfortable - 498.6 dessyantine) in ten wasteland: hayfields - 96.2 dessyantine and unsuitable - 76.2 dessyantine, in addition to Novouzensk county, in the same area, was listed on ownership records 65.3 dessyantine convenient and 91.2 dessyantine unsuitable, but now they say it is left up to 10 dessyantine of official measures mowing and up to 15 dessyantine bush, the rest under the Volga. There is an island on the Volga, in any way to 59 dessyantine mowing, brush and sand, but it is unknown whether this land included in the total number or not. Allotment is located in the same area around the village with 3-side, the far end of arable land in the 9 km from the village, pasture stretches in front of arable land and forests mainly in ravines, and only 7 tenths. in plowing. Gullies in the allotment, 8 of which 4 fairly deep. Soils are mainly sandy - up to 1/2 wore, the black earth - up to 1/4 allotment, and 1/4 loamy soil, saline and rocky, red clay subsoil. Depth of soil layer from 1 1/2 quarters to 1 yard. Until 1872 the land used by census souls, from this year to divide the land for cash souls of men and the division of every 3 years to 4 th. - Allotment of the soul consist of tens to 10 souls. - Mowing share allotment each year for the souls in ravines, on the island and the Volga. Forest wood-count up to 200 dessyantine and 330 dessyantine of brush before; drown dung. Kartofelniki in the field is always in one place; gardens also are divided on the souls, the barn is not redistributed, but the collection is surrounded by 1/2 penny per square yards. In 1881 the company tried to sow 40 acres of official measures of wheat to replenish the store, but then stopped and began plowing poured shoplifter bread with shower, spare the public grain stores 2, both wooden and covered with planks. - Most of sowing wheat crop of rye is 1/5 of wheat, oats - 1/3 of rye, millet sown even less; wheat has always prevailed: "born better than other cereals, and more profitable to deal with its crops." The system of field farming chetyrehpolnaya; plow plow is up to 50 pieces of 2-D and 3-power units, systems Eckert, bought in Kamyshin. Threshing produce exclusively threshing stones. Bread carry sell Kamyshin and mills. - Cattle grazing on pasture, stubble and deposits; pasture believe up to 1700 dessyamtine; winter fodder chaff and straw, hay is fed horses and oxen to plowing. - Private landlords renting land beyond the Volga, in the county have Novouzensk Khokhlov, how to plant rye and spring grains by 3-5 rubles per 1 dessyantine fortieth measures (40x80 sazhen), some householders removed in Astrakhan Province. so-called officer (Cossack) plots for several years and pay for 1 p. - 1 p. 50 kopecks. for 1 dessyantine of official action. We rented the souls of their fellow villagers for the taxes and levies, with a surcharge of 2 to 4 rubles. - According to the census in 1886 in the village are: carpenters - 4 mill masters - 4, weavers cloth - 4, a locksmith - 1, tailors - 3, masons - 3, Pechnikov - 4, wheelwrights - 2, blacksmiths - 4, shoemakers -- 8, carpenters -5 and tanners - 2. Society hires: a field watchman, watchmen plantations, forest guards and the carrier over the river Volga. Worldly proceeds as follows: for the surrender of the lease maintenance at 12 years, 5 water flour mills - from 55 rubles a year, for fishing on the Volga, in 1888 - 316 rubles 55 kopecks.; For a place in the inn - 55 rubles per year . - Here are 2 schools: parochial German and comradeship. (Collection of provincial zemstvo 1891, Vol XI). 

According to the provincial statistics Committee for 1891 in the colony of Ust-Kulalinka (7 miles from the township board) was considered 202 households, 1296 souls husband. sex, 1305 female, total 2601 persons of both sexes of all residents. - According to the township board in 1894 in a colony of Ust-Kulalinka, Jackdaw, too, were: Lutheran Church of the wooden, covered with iron, consecrated in 1892, with its parsonage and the pastor of Ust-Kulalinskaya parish; parochial school in 1770; Zemstvo school in 1884 and land Yamskaya station, where in winter time 4 horses. In 1894 there were 204 yard, including: 1 Church sluzhitelsky, 1 - pastoratsky and 1 - instituted house. Peasant mostly wooden buildings, among them - 2/3 covered with trees, 2 houses - iron, and the rest - straw pastorate - a wooden, covered with iron. The village is built on the plan, here is on the Volga River and the ferry pier. Residents of 1,411 souls husband. 1483 women, total 2894 persons of both sexes, villagers owners Germans colonists Lutheran and 31 Baptists, the soul of both sexes that make up one society, the clergy - 1 family. Allotment of land 5924 ten. convenient, 5173 ten. uncomfortable, just 11,097 acres, including the left bank of the Volga - 156 acres in the tract "Ten wasteland.

Up the river Kulalinka on public land there are 6 water flour mills:
Brunner(skaya), Berngard(skaya), Shik(skaya), Shmidt(skaya) 1-I Shmidt(skaya) 2 nd and Vallert(skaya), with each mill is one court to the tenant, built of wood, covered with planks, these mills from each other from 1 to 2 miles. - Down to the township village of Upper Kulalinki think 8 miles to the colony of Ust-Gryaznuhi, the mailbox tract - 26 miles to count. Lower Dobrinka - 8, col. Buydakova gully - 6 and Saratov - 160 miles.

Olearius (trip in 1636) calls this the river - "Ruslana", Bogolyubov (Volga 1862) says that 2,265 miles from Tver, joins (from left) in the Volga River. Eruslan large: it is not navigable and, beginning in steppes of Samara Province., flows through Novouzensk county 120 miles away. - Kuchin (Guide to the Volga in 1865) defines the mouth of the Big Eruslan at 72 with less than a mile from.