This black and white photograph shows an unidentified Volga German man from Ellis, Kansas. Like many Volga Germans, he was lured to Kansas by railroad advertising campaigns that promoted productive farmland and exemption from military service on religious grounds. With these incentives for settlement and religious freedom, Volga Germans immigrated toward the Ellis, Rush, and Russell counties to buy the lands owned by the railroad companies. In those close knit and sometimes isolated communities, German customs and strong religious beliefs were maintained for several decades.