A look into the 'Russian Swamp Family' that once lived in NCMC's natural area

PETOSKEY — Along one of the winding paths in the North Central Michigan College natural area is a plot of land that was once home to the pioneering Siebert family.

On April 26, two North Central students gave a presentation about the family and their history.

Phoenix Backus and Anna Ruhling worked with NCMC professor Kerri Finlayson to research the Siebert family.

While fallen tree branches, uneven terrain and a few visible pits are all that remains from the family’s homestead, signage providing information about the Siebert family is at the site. However, Backus said some information is inaccurate and needs to be updated.

The research project first kicked off after NCMC President David Roland Finley approached Finlayson to see if she had any students who would be interested in working to update signage in the area.

After their time at NCMC, both Backus and Ruhling are planning to head to Grand Valley State University to study anthropology, so Finlayson tapped both students to work on the project.

The Siebert family fled the Prussian military

A Mennonite family, the Sieberts had a strict belief in pacifism. They fled Prussia in the 1870s to escape conscription in the military. They first traveled to Kansas, where family patriarch Abraham Siebert was sworn in as a citizen in Barton County, Kansas in February of 1875, according to documents compiled by the research team.

By 1878, the family moved north and east, landing in Petoskey to work in lumber.

About two years after their move, Petoskey had a diphtheria outbreak that lasted from 1880-1882, Backus said. Abraham and Eva Siebert’s son, Tobias, became infected with diphtheria when he was 12 and never made a full recovery. He was left mentally handicapped for the rest of his life and was never able to leave the home, but was still able to contribute to physical labor.

The Sieberts were outcasts in Petoskey

Known as the “Russian Swamp Family” in Petoskey, the Sieberts were outcasts in the area. Though they were actually German, the family spoke Russian and German, but were not expected to have spoken English very well, Backus said during the presentation.

This contributed to their isolation. In 1884 an officer showed up to the family's home and said any children under the age of 17 were required to start attending school, so three Siebert children — John, Helena and Mary — were expected to enroll.

Helena, 10, and Mary, 8, started first grade together in 1884.

Jacob, aged 19, did not have to attend, and neither did Tobias, 16, due to his mental disability. Martha, 2 at the time, did not start school until a few years later, and Harold, who died at 6 months old, and Nicodemus, who was born the year the law passed, also did not attend school.

Backus said Mennonite families in this era sent their daughters to school for an education, while the sons stayed home to help with physical labor, making it difficult to find records of any of the boys attending school. Martha ended up being the only child in the family to continue her education, and eventually earned a bachelor's degree.

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What happened to Jacob and Nicodemus Siebert?

Jacob Siebert, the eldest child, was sent to the Traverse City State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital, by his father in 1889. He was released between then and 1900.

Abraham sent him to the hospital because he was “indignant and insane,” though it's unknown what actually happened to lead to the institutionalization.

However, in 1908, reports said Nicodemus and Jacob both died after drowning in the Great Lakes while helping with shipping lumber on open water. Backus said this can’t be true, because Jacob was put back into the state psychiatric hospital in 1900 before his death in 1908.

His body was never claimed, which led Backus and Ruhling to believe Jacob may have been disowned or shunned from the family. Due to HIPAA, though it was not a law at the time, access to Jacob’s medical records were denied.

The researchers also spoke to Abraham and Eva's great-granddaughter, Gloria, and she was denied access to the medical information as well despite being a relative.

Jacob was not the only Siebert who was placed in a mental hospital. Helena was also sent to one in Kansas. However, she was sent there at age 66, so theories of why she may have been sent include the possibility that she developed Alzheimer's. Backus and Ruhling also theorized that because she was an unmarried spinster, Helena may have been a lesbian, which was considered a mental illness at the time, though they think an Alzheimer's diagnosis is more likely.

Knowing Jacob did not die by drowning calls into question the claim that Nicodemus did. His disappearance is the greatest mystery for the family, with descendants to this day saying they wish they knew what happened.

Two other family members disappeared, too. John and his wife, Lena, vanished in 1906 after going to South Dakota for a late honeymoon. Two years prior, the couple had a stillborn child.

Leaving their mark on NCMC

The two students are now working to update and correct signs. Much of their information came from a book called “Memories of the Sieberts,” which was written by Bertha Vogt Ratzlaff, Abraham and Eva's granddaughter. They said the book does include some inaccuracies.

Finlayson said getting the chance to work with students outside of the classroom has given them a rare opportunity to gain some access to a more in-depth, nuanced level of research.

“It's rare at a community college level to actually have opportunities to get students involved in research,” she said. "It's not that it's unheard of, but it's a fairly rare thing.”

For Backus, it was an important chance to get some validation, allowing them to know this is something they’d like to study in the future.

“It really solidified that this is what I want to do,” Backus said.

Ruhling added that the project confirmed the same thing for her, and let her know she likes the idea of working with artifacts and digging on historical sites.

“I had a blast doing this. I mean, we haven't even gotten our associate's yet — and we're working on an archeological-related project,” Ruhling said.

— Contact reporter Karly Graham at kgraham@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KarlyGrahamJRN.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: A look into the Siebert family's history at NCMC