Memories of Antonovka

We Bullers are not the only Mennonite family to maintain a blog or website; many families have their own online sites where their own histories and stories are recorded not only for themselves but for the entire world to see. The last post, on the possible pre-Volhynia location of Andreas, drew information from a blog and website maintained by Rod Ratzlaff (see here and here). This post relies heavily on a family memory recorded on the Smith-Kohen family website (here), which first came to my attention thanks to the Rod Ratzlaff site.

The memory was passed on by one Nelson Wedel, who was born in 1900 and died in 1972. In 1856 Nelson’s father Tobias was born in the village that has interested us most recently: Antonovka, in the Ostrog district of Volhynia. Tobias’s father Peter was likewise born in Antonovka (1830), and Peter’s father Benjamin is reported to have emigrated to the Ostrog area in 1804. Needless to say, this Wedel family had a long history in the area and the village in which Andreas Buller settled sometime in the early 1800s.

Several years before his death, Nelson Wedel wrote down what he had heard about life in Antonovka from his father, who spent the first eighteen years of his life in that village (i.e., 1856–1874, when the family emigrated to the United States). Given the later time frame, life in Antonovka was not exactly the same as when Andreas lived there, but it likely did not differ all that much in its broad contours. Life in Molotschna for David Buller and family (including Peter D) was probably similar as well, so Nelson Wedel’s reminiscences can transport us back to that time and that place so we understand our ancestors’ lives a little more concretely, a little more clearly. Without further adieu, then, we present memories of Antonovka.

They lived in villages on parcels of ground that were about 15 acres. However, some parcels were as small as 3 acres. Each parcel was subdivided for various purposes. There was a pasture, hay meadow, patches of rye and barley and a garden. Potatoes that they raised were usually stored under their beds to prevent their freezing.

Main street entering the village of Antonovka (Antonivka) today.

 I better tell how they constructed their buildings. The house and barn was entirely under one roof. The living quarters were four square. Father never said how many rooms there were. They had a big stove built of brick or rock in the center for heating. There was an opening in the outside wall of the house into which they could throw logs. These green logs were up to six feet in length and would burn
for days at a time. In the kitchen they had a place where there was a steel plate with smaller plates on which they did their cooking. Around this stove there was a bench where people could sit and warm their backs or even lie down. Beds were made of boards and were formed something like our wooden beds are today. Instead of soft mattresses and springs, they drilled holes in the sides and ends and strung ropes lengthwise and crosswise. On this they laid a bag made of heavy ticking filled with straw or hay. (This is where we get the low German word - straw sack.) Built into this house and still under one roof, was the entrance room. This was not just a hallway, but was large enough to provide living quarters for a small family, or sometimes it was a bedroom for the girls and maids.

Aerial view of Antonovka. The photograph above
was taken from the location of the red X.

The barn was next and also under the same roof. My grandfather, Peter Wedel, had as many as 16 cows. The milking was a ladies job. The cows were tied in the barn in fall and stayed until the green grass was ready for them in the spring. All the cows had horns. There was no such thing as dehorning a cow. When they started to jump and run and started butting each other, when turned out in the spring, the shout would go forth, “Children run, the cows will hurt themselves.”

Milking was not the only job for the ladies. They had to do the housework, cook the meals, and bake the bread. They did not have ovens like we have today. They had pans that were about 24 inches square and they baked four loaves in them. The oven was laid up with mud. It was heated to a certain degree of heat, then the live coals were raked out and the pans with the loaves were set on the hot ashes. The door was closed until the bread was done. The aroma of the baking bread penetrated the whole village.

Milk, potatoes and rye bread were their main foods. For Christmas, if they could afford it, they got a slice of white bread. Adults would eat at the table, but the children would sit around a bowl of soup or dumplings. All ate out of the same bowl and each had a wooden spoon. If anyone got a bigger dumpling, the same received a thump on the head with the wooden spoon from one of the other kids.

The farming was done in a cooperative way. They had one plow, with which they plowed all the ground in the village. This plow was a heavy beamed affair with two wheels under the front end of the beam and handles in the back. When plowing, they hitched four horses tandem. Therefore, it took two men to drive the horses and one to hold the plow so it would run straight and not fall over. I don't remember father telling how they worked the ground after it was plowed, but I think they had a harrow.

Seed were broadcast by hand. Potatoes and other garden plants and seeds were planted by hand. When the potatoes were about ready to be dug, guards would watch all night or the Musicks, a lower class of people, would steal them.

On the top of the barn was the hay loft. There was a room where the rye and barley, which was cut with hand sickles and hand tied into bundles, was stacked. These bundles were thrashed in the winter. They had a threshing machine which threshed out the grain but did not separate it from the straw, so they had to winnow it. Built into this storeroom was the wagon shed. All this was under one roof.

Wagons were mostly flatbed, four wheel wagons. When loose rye was to be hauled, they had ladders which were fastened to the wagons. This made them somewhat like our hay racks. These wagons were the only convenience they needed. They did not ride to church as we do here. The church was located in the middle of the village, so everyone walked. Not everyone had a wagon and horses or even one horse. When they had to go to town for supplies, they went with these neighbors who had horses and wagon.

Hay was cut with the scythe. This was also done cooperatively. Father said as many as ten to fifteen men would come together, each with a scythe on his shoulder. When they started to cut the hay, the head man would give a monotone sound and each man would swing his scythe at the same time. The hay was raked by hand with a wooden rake and hauled into the hay loft.

In the worship service they had only preaching. The sermons were mostly read from books. Their song books had no notes and so the melodies had to be memorized.

Their main occupation and income was weaving linen, which was sold and also used to make clothing. Since they did not own the land they lived on, the owner of the land came once a year to collect so much linen for the rent.

Thanks again to the Smith-Kohen family website for preserving this memory and to Rod Ratzlaff for pointing his readers to it.