Village plot sizes 3

Not to beat a dead horse, but additional research first clarifies, then muddies, then clarifies once again the claim made by Heinrich Goerz in an earlier post that village plots were roughly 280 feet wide.

On the one hand, Helmut T. Huebert offers the same picture as Goerz when he describes the earliest Molotschna settlements as follows:

The villages were laid out accordingly to the principles of German order and regularity. … Each of the first villages consisted of 20 establishments, with a plot of 1½ dessiatines, 40 fathoms wide (l fathom is roughly 2.13 meters or 7 feet) along the village street, as well as additional land for home use immediately behind this area. Houses were placed 14 fathoms from the street, leaving room for a small front garden. … Later villages had somewhat larger farm sites, and also 25–30 households. (1986, 25–26)

However, comparison of Huebert’s description with Goerz’s earlier account (see here) reveals that Huebert is merely repeating Goerz, not independently confirming him. The following parallels make the dependence fairly clear (Huebert’s wording given first, then Goerz’s):

• German order and regularity ≈ orderly, systematic manner according to German practice; 
• leaving room for a small front garden ≈ room for a small garden in front; 
• Later villages … larger farm sites ≈ Farmsteads in the later villages … considerably wider

The real complication arises later in Huebert’s book when he writes that the village of Hierschau was laid out as follows:

A Vollwirtschaft [full farmstead] consisted of a yard with buildings in the village, the area being one dessiatine and, according to regulation, 30 fathoms wide by 120 fathoms long. This included the house, barn, cattle sheds, threshing area, garden and general yard area. (Huebert 1986, 129)

Layout of Hierschau (from Huebert 1986, 49).  Note the pasture land across the river to the north.
This would have been community land open for any villager’s use.

One wonders how to explain all this. If the earlier village plots were 40 fathoms/280 feet wide, and if Goerz is correct that later village plots were wider than the earlier ones (1993, 10), then why are the village plots in Hiershau, which was established in 1848 (forty-four years after the first settlements in Molotschna), 10 fathoms/70 feet narrower than the earlier village plots are claimed to be both by Goerz and earlier in Huebert’s own book?

Fortunately, William Schroeder’s map of Alexanderkrone (where Peter D, Sarah, and family lived for two years) helps us resolve the question.

Map © William Schroeder, used by permission. For the original, see http://www.mennonitechurch.ca/programs/archives/holdings/Schroeder_maps/059.pdf

Unnoticed until today is that Schroeder includes a scale, so we can calculate the approximate length of the village and from that the average width and length of the village plots within. The main part of the villages (that is, from farmstead 21 to 40) was roughly 4,400 feet. If we subtract 30 feet for the street separating farmsteads 30 and 31, then divide by 20, we discover that the average village plot was 220 feet wide, which is 31.4 Fäden/fathoms (assuming Huebert and Goerz’s 1 Faden = 7 feet). This is not an exact match with Huebert’s claim that village plots were, “according to regulation, 30 fathoms wide,” but as a certain uncle used to say, it is close enough for government work.

Using Schroeder’s scale, we can measure the length of the plots to roughly 975 feet, which would be 139 Fäden/fathoms. This is not as close as the width measurement, but it still seems to support the notion that village plots were, as Huebert described in the second passage, roughly 30 fathoms by 120 fathoms. Based on Huebert’s testimony and Schroeder’s map, it is safe to conclude that village plots measured, on average 210 feet by 840 feet.

Finally, these measurements also correspond to Huebert’s original claim that a village plot was 1.5 dessiatines in size. A plot of land 210' x 840' equals 176,400 square feet, that is, 4.05 acres. Since 1 dessiatine = 2.7 acres, 1.5 dessiatines would equal that same 4.05 acres. However, it does not match his later claim that village plots were 1 dessiatine in size. In the end, it seems best to overlook the confusion and conclude, even if tentatively, that Huebert’s earlier estimate of size (1.5 dessiatines) is correct, as is his later estimate of dimensions (30 x 120 Fäden).

The former village of Alexanderkrone today (Ukranian Hrushivka). Note the windmill to the extreme right of
the photo (see also here). The area highlighted in green is equivalent to 1.5 dessiatines/4.05 acres. 

One final note: at 4,400 feet in length, the main part of the village of Alexanderkrone was over three quarters of a mile long (the red line in the photograph above), which is a considerable distance for an area that contained only forty households.

Apologies if this has been overly boring. It was one of those questions that I needed to work out in order to let it go!

Sources

Goerz, Heinrich. 1993. The Molotschna Settlement. Translated by Al Reimer and John B. Toews. Echo Historical Series. Winnipeg, MB: CMBC Publications and Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society.

Huebert, Helmut T. 1986. Hierschau: An Example of Russian Mennonite Life. Winnipeg, MB: Springfield Publishers with Kindred Press.