The first post in this series (here) took us briefly to the first Russian Mennonite colony: Chortitza; the second followed von Haxthausen’s journey to Molotschna and his attendance at a church service in Ohrloff (here). As promised, this post turns to someone who captured von Haxthausen’s attention and earned his respect, someone who was no doubt known to Benjamin Buller and family, the man who founded the village of Waldheim, where Benjamin lived in 1843 and where his son David (Grandpa Chris’s great-grandfather) died many years later: Johann Cornies.
We have encountered Cornies from time to time and even read excerpts from his collected papers and letters (type his last name in the search bar to the upper right to retrieve all the posts). As stated often, Cornies was the most influential person in Molotschna and a person of some renown even among Russia’s governing officials. Although Cornies was disliked by many Molotschna residents,* he clearly caught von Haxthausen’s eye and made a significant impression.
On our return home, I made the acquaintance of a man who is unquestionably one of the most interesting persons among the Germans in Russia. John Kornies, [426] a native of West Prussia, when quite young, went with his parents, in the beginning of the present century, to settle on the Malotchnaya; he had received no school instruction, but possessed a clear and ingenious mind, an earnest character, an acute and practical understanding and loving heart; by his self-education he has unquestionably attained the highest degree of spiritual culture. Yet whilst by his mental superiority, his upright and tried character, he has become one of the most influential men in Southern Russia, he has remained in his family and domestic life, and his whole manner, the simple, plain, and unpretending peasant. The Emperor of Russia might at any time appoint him governor of the country, and he would be in his right place; but he will consent to be nothing but a Mennonite peasant, having promised at his baptism, “according to the duty of a Christian, not to rule, and not to wield the sword.” He has no rank or order, being obliged by a religious feeling to refuse both, although better entitled to them than many who are covered with decorations in Russia. In no other country could the influence of his personal character be more manifest than in Russia, where such power is seldom found without the accompaniment of rank and orders. The noble Prince Woronzof would hardly take any step in the internal government of this district without asking the advice of John Kornies.
We spent this day in inspecting all the details of the Colony, examining almost every house and farmyard, the agricultural implements, cattle, garden plants, crops, etc. (425–26)
We spent this day in inspecting all the details of the Colony, examining almost every house and farmyard, the agricultural implements, cattle, garden plants, crops, etc. (425–26)
This is not to say that Cornies was a bad person. He was rather a visionary who was committed to leading his community to a better life—whether they liked it or not. Love him or hate him, Cornies did produce results, which is why men such as Prince Woronzof, Governor General of Caucasia and reputedly the second most powerful man in the empire, solicited his help and advice on more than a few occasions. Cornies’s ability to produce results was also on display in the Nogai villages that were founded under his direction.
The following day I drove with Herr Kornies to Akcima, a neighbouring Nogai Tatar village, and was not a little astonished to see apparently a perfectly German one on the Mennonite model. Herr Kornies had induced the [427] Tatars to construct their villages in this manner, assisting them in every way; a great many were already built according to his instructions, and I was informed that he had already settled thus seventeen thousand Tatars. In this village we met a deputation from a large body of Tatars, who had not yet acquired a settlement, and who came to him and said, “Thou art the father of our people; be our father also, and assist us as thou hast assisted the rest!”
The houses in this village were all built with regularity and solid structure; they had chimneys and enclosed courtyards. In front of the house-doors generally stand two poplars, with small flower-beds on each side; in the gardens I noticed a great many fruit-trees, and in the courtyard ploughs, harrows, and carts of Mennonite construction; in one corner was a large quantity of squared pieces of dung, for fuel, carefully piled up.
The master of the farmhouse, a handsome and powerful Tatar, who was the chief man in the village, received Herr Kornies with kindness and respectfully, and conducted us into the house. The arrangement was the same as in the Mennonite dwellings; although the furniture of the kitchen and dwelling-room was not so plentiful and old-fashioned as in the latter, it was not too scanty; there were tables and chairs, kettles and pails, and even a pan for making omelets. (426–27)
The houses in this village were all built with regularity and solid structure; they had chimneys and enclosed courtyards. In front of the house-doors generally stand two poplars, with small flower-beds on each side; in the gardens I noticed a great many fruit-trees, and in the courtyard ploughs, harrows, and carts of Mennonite construction; in one corner was a large quantity of squared pieces of dung, for fuel, carefully piled up.
The master of the farmhouse, a handsome and powerful Tatar, who was the chief man in the village, received Herr Kornies with kindness and respectfully, and conducted us into the house. The arrangement was the same as in the Mennonite dwellings; although the furniture of the kitchen and dwelling-room was not so plentiful and old-fashioned as in the latter, it was not too scanty; there were tables and chairs, kettles and pails, and even a pan for making omelets. (426–27)
Von Haxthausen correctly notes the similarity of the Nogai villages to Mennonite ones, but he slightly muddles the relation between the two. It was not exactly the case that Nogai villages were patterned after Mennonite ones. Rather, starting with several basic organizational principles of the Molotschna Mennonite villages, Cornies developed them into a highly and rigidly structured village plan that he used to plan and construct the Nogai villages. These villages were his testing ground, so to speak, for the sort of carefully organized, highly efficient, and exceedingly productive Mennonite villages that he hoped to establish. Waldheim, where Benjamin Buller and family lived, was just such a village.
Cornies applied the same care to developing his own holdings:
From hence we drove to a large farm belonging to Herr Kornies, which he had established, several thousand dessetinas in extent. The buildings were all new, and of brick; the cattle were very fine, and of the West Prussian stock, with sheep of an improved breed. This farm was superintended by the brother of Herr Kornies. (428)
We cannot say which farm von Haxthausen visited, for Cornies had three large plots: a 10,000-acre sheep farm that he mostly leased from the government; another estate of nearly 9,500 acres; and a third farm of over 5,000 acres—giving Cornies roughly 25,000 acres of pasture and farmland. With regard to the brick-made buildings, Walter Quiring writes that Cornies’s “own brickyard produced the bricks necessary for his many buildings.” Finally, although von Haxthausen mentions cattle and sheep, Quiring offers additional information: “500 horses, 8,000 sheep, and 200 head of cattle of Dutch stock” (1847 numbers).
It is no surprise that von Haxthausen was favorably impressed by Cornies’s industry and wealth; they clearly set Cornies apart from the typical person, Mennonite or not. However, that is not what is most striking about this part of the account. What catches the eye and the imagination is a simple sentence early on: “We spent this day in inspecting all the details of the Colony, examining almost every house and farmyard, the agricultural implements, cattle, garden plants, crops, etc.” One wonders, did Cornies and his guest visit Waldheim that day? If so, did Benjamin and family see Cornies and von Haxthausen on their tour, perhaps even extend a greeting as they passed by?
Note
* One wonders how Benjamin Buller viewed Cornies. Did he approve of Cornies’s progressive ways and high expectations of all Molotschna residents, or did he find find Cornies’s demanding approach and authoritarian attitude distasteful, even at odds with key tenets of the Mennonite faith. To ask the question more pointedly, did dislike of Cornies play any role in the 1845 decision of thirty-five Waldheim families (Benjamin Buller among them) to leave their Molotschna village and establish a new village in Volhynia, namely, Heinrichsdorf (see here, here, and here)? We will take up this question at some point in the future.
Works Cited
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.
Quiring, Walter. 1955. Cornies, Johann (1789–1848). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Available here.
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