Abstract:
To keep their faith, Lusanna Becker, her family, and entire congregation leave Polish-Russia in 1874. When they arrive in Hutchinson, Kansas, they are met with rejection and must travel by boxcar to Florence, Kansas, in fourteen below zero temperature. Over 600 are shoved into a warehouse where smallpox breaks out. Facing the deaths of hundreds, Lusanna remembers that a Christian is like a tree planted by the rivers of water. She sacrifices herself by nursing the sick. When spring arrives, she marries Carl Jantz and settles on land near Canton, Kansas. Here she discovers a gigantic cottonwood tree, which reminds her of her homeland and her Christian faith. Today, The Lone Tree Church, stands nearby.