Alexanderwohl?

Some 7 miles north and slightly east of Kleefeld and Alexanderkrone, two villages known to have housed Bullers in Molotschna, lies the older village of Alexanderwohl, which turns out to be as good a candidate as any for the first Molotschna home of our forebears. All we have for the moment are hints and suggestions, but taken together they make a plausible case that, before Kleefeld and before Alexanderkrone, our family lived alongside other Bullers in Alexanderwohl.

1. According to Helmut Huebert, the village Alexanderwohl was founded in 1821 by twenty-two families who migrated to Russia under the leadership of Elder Peter Wedel; this first group was followed by seven additional families in 1823 and one more in 1824 (2003, 107). (For a full map of Molotschna colony, see here.)

2. Huebert adds that all thirty Alexanderwohl families “came from Przekhovka in the Swetz area of the Marienwerder area of West Prussia” (2003, 107–8).

3. We know a bit about the Przechovka group, because the church register started in the late 1700s was first taken to Russia in 1821 and then later to Kansas when the entire Alexanderwohl congregation emigrated there in 1874. It still exists today, and pages from it can be viewed freely online courtesy of the Mennonite Library and Archives of Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas (see here).

4. The church register bears the title Die Erste Stamm Nahmen Unserer Bisher so genante Oude Vlamingen oder Groningersche Mennonisten Societaet alhier in Preusen, which translates roughly: The First Branch of Our Names Thus Far of the So-Called Old Flemish or Groningen Mennonite Group/Society Locally in Prussia (see the photograph on the right).

5. What is most important for our purposes is that the church register then provides a list of surnames that are common throughout the history of this church: Becker, Buller, Cornels, Decker, Dirks, Funck, Jantz, Isaak, Koehn, Nachtigahl, Pankratz, Penner, Ratzlaff, Richert, Schellenberger, Wedel, Frey, Schmidt, Sperling, Unrau, and Voth (see further Krahn and Penner 2011). Thus, the full title page consists of the actual title and the first two family names to be discussed, as shown in the full-page photograph and the detail of the bottom of the title page below.

Title page of the Przekhorka church register, written sometime in the late 1700s.

The Buller summary paragraph in the Przekhorka church register.

The evidence thus far: the Molotschna village of Alexanderwohl was founded by immigrants from the Mennonite church at Przechovka, Prussia, a church in which Buller was a common last name. Two additional clues remain.

6. According to the Buller Family Record, David Buller was born in Prussia on 25 November 1817 and moved with the rest of his family to Russia sometime around the ages of three to five, that is, roughly 1820–1822, which is the same time frame as the founding of Alexanderwohl.

7. The GRANDMA database adds a final piece: “His [David Buller’s] parentage is still uncertain, but certainly stems back to the Przechowka Church region.” This assertion is unsourced but presumably reflects the close association of Bullers with the Przechovka church.

Although certainty still eludes us, the pieces do fit together nicely: David Buller’s family (his parents and any siblings) emigrated from the Przechovka church region to Molotschna sometime around 1821, the same time that families from the Przechovka congregation emigrated to Molotschna and founded Alexanderwohl. It seems reasonable to conclude, based on all this, that the David Buller family first settled in Alexanderwohl, Molotschcna. Perhaps evidence confirming or contradicting this hunch exists in a long-lost letter, a family Bible, or a still-unexamined church record. All we can do is to keep looking until we unearth it.

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An earlier post alluded to the prominence of a certain Buller in the Alexanderwohl church: Ältester (Elder) Jakob Buller. Mennonite elders were authorized “not only to preach and assume leadership in the congregation, but also to baptize, administer the Lord’s Supper, and ordain preachers and elders, and exercise discipline, which functions the common preacher could not fulfill” (Krahn and Friesen 1989). In addition to performing such duties, Jakob Buller participated in a delegation to scout out the U.S. in the early 1870s, then in 1874 led nearly five hundred members of his congregation to relocate in Newton, Kansas. There the group established a new Alexanderwohl Church, which Buller led as elder until failing health led him to give up his duties. For additional information, see the following links:

• Jakob Buller


• Alexanderwohl (Molotschna) church


• Alexanderwohl (Kansas) church

Sources

Huebert, Helmut T. 2003. Molotschna Historical Atlas. Winnepeg, MB: Springfield.

Krahn, Cornelius, and John J. Friesen. 1989. Elder (Ältester). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.

Krahn, Cornelius, and Glenn Penner. 2011. Alexanderwohl (Molotschna Mennonite Settlement, Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.