Travel Journal 2

We pick up Baron von Haxthausen’s narrative where we left off, but first a word of explanation. In the following section von Haxthausen is imprecise, if not confused in places. All that to say that one should not regard the next extract as reliable history.

The first emigration took place in 1783: whither the Mennonites first directed their steps is uncertain; they probably settled in Russian Poland, where, in the vicinity of Ostroga, a Mennonite colony of two villages still exists. From thence the greater part, joined by many emigrants from West Prussia, repaired to the Dnieper, sixty versts distant from Ekaterinoslaf, where the Government [424] assigned to the party of emigrants, consisting of 330 families (about 1650 individuals), a tract of land of 32,648 dessetinas (137 square miles). Each family was to receive sixty-five dessetinas (175 acres); the rest of the land to be reserved for new families. The Mennonites were by no means poor; nevertheless the Government advanced the sum of 341,800 silver roubles (£54,830) for their establishment; this entire sum had been paid off in 1842, except 30,000 silver roubles. 

Contra von Haxthausen, the first emigration probably took place in 1788–1789, when Danzig-area Mennonites answered Catherine the Great’s invitation to settle in the Chortitza colony. The year 1783 was when Catherine annexed the Crimea and extended her rule over the entirety of New Russia (or modern-day Ukraine). In addition, the first settlers did not settle first in Volhynia, which is what von Haxthausen means by “Russian Poland,” then move on Chortitza. Rather, a small group of Mennonites emigrated to Volhynia to a village near Ostrog at roughly the same time as the larger group was emigrating to Chortitza. Finally, the 330 families referenced by von Haxthausen did not all come in a single party nor even in the same year. That total number of families did not emigrate until ten years had passed. To his credit, von Haxthausen has the area of the colony (ca. 89,000) reasonably close.

Von Haxthausen becomes somewhat more reliable once he picks up the story at the time of his visit: 1843. Note, however, that the increase from 2,446 to 6,376 is 260 percent, not “nearly” 160 percent. 

The number of colonists inhabiting these seventeen villages in 1813 was 2446; in 1843 they numbered 6376. This rapid increase of the population in thirty years—nearly 160 per cent.—is not attributable to the increase of births, but to the arrival of new colonists from West Prussia.

These seventeen villages form a joint Commune, under a common administration; the income from the communal sheep-farm, from the ferry on the Dnieper, and the rent of the brewery and distillery, constitute a revenue in common. They have a Communal store, a fire­-assurance company, two churches, and in every village a school. The Communal House is in the village of Khortitz, the seat of the Communal Council, with its President, assisted by a colonial clerk conversant with German and Russian.

Here ends von Haxthausen’s narrative of his Chortitza visit; he is anxious to move on to a place of greater interest to us: Molotschna.

After passing several hours here, we left this Colony, to visit the new Mennonite settlements on the Malotch­naya [River], which are situated about eighty or ninety versts further north [sic: south]; toward evening we reached one of their villages, named Halbstadt, and were hospitably received by a wealthy Mennonite.

The following morning (July 24th), being a Sunday, we drove early to Orlof, the seat of government, about four miles distant, and were [425] kindly received in a neat farmhouse. Divine service was about to commence, and we entered the church, or rather large hall of prayer: this was entirely destitute of ornament, and had no altar; there were only an elevated estrade for the preacher and the benches usual in churches. There was first some old Lutheran music, and then the sermon.

The Mennonites have no professed preachers, but the congregation chooses one for the office, which he is obliged to accept; he receives no salary unless very poor and is obliged to relinquish any other avocation. I was the more astonished at the sermon, which was evidently not learnt by heart, nor even prepared; the preacher, in a perfectly natural manner, spoke of our bringing them greetings from their home, of our kind wish to inquire into their mode of life and condition, and our readiness to convey intelligence of them to their native country: in conclusion, he invoked the Divine protection on our further travels, calling upon the congregation to join in the prayer. The sermon was sensible, logical, and simple, spoken in correct and good German. How had this plain countryman, without any school instruction, attained such pulpit eloquence, correct in language, and surpassing hundreds of educated preachers whom I have heard? It could only be the power of traditional Christianity, in which the last generation instructed the living one, even among people who otherwise reject the traditions of the Church. None of the Sects which have separated from the Church can free themselves from tradition, which is the very essence of Catholicism.

We can trace von Haxthausen’s route along the western edge of Molotschana from Halbstadt in the north (number 1 below) to Ohrloff (number 2) 12 miles (not 4 miles, as von Haxthausen states) to the south. For the sake of reference, the number 3 far to the east marks the location of Waldheim, where Benjamin Buller and family resided in 1843.

Von Haxthausen mentions the Ohrloff church, which was the most progressive church in the colony. The building pictured within the quotation above is the Ohrloff church, although presumably after the original building, constructed in 1809, had been “considerably enlarged.”

It is obvious that the service made a powerful impression on von Haxthausen, especially in terms of its Germanic elements: singing Lutheran hymns (doubtful), a sermon delivered in “correct and good German” (certain). One might also question his explanation of the quality of the sermon: it seems that von Haxthausen wishes to attribute it to a certain solidarity with the “mainline” church rather than a rejection of and break from that church. Be that as it may, von Haxthausen gets one more detail wrong: the Mennonite preacher did not need to give up all other work but in fact served the church in addition to maintaining his usual labors.

In spite of the occasional misstep, von Haxthausen is of significant interest because he in an on-the-ground witness to the larger community in which Benjamin and family lived. The church services that they attended were no doubt very much like the one that he describes. The people whom von Haxthausen identifies were very possibly known to our ancestors. Certainly the one von Haxthausen describes in the next post was well known to Benjamin and the rest of the Bullers, since he founded the village Waldheim in which they currently lived.

Works Cited

Goerz, Heinrich. 1959. Orloff Mennonite Church (Molotschna Mennonite Settlement, Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Available online here.

Haxthausen, August von. 1856. The Russian Empire: Its People, Institutions and Resources. Translated by Robert Farie. 2 vols. London: Chapman & Hall. Available online: vol. 1, vol. 2.