Alexanderwohl 30

Having arranged the settlement list by year and comparing it to the Gemeindebericht’s account in the previous post, we now look at the settlement list from a different angle, again with the dual purpose of both learning more about Alexanderwohl’s origins and assessing how accurately the community report recounts the early history of the village. 

For this exercise we retain the arrangement by year but add information in two columns: the page number in Rempel on which the settlement is recorded and the amount of the government loan, if any, that was extended to the settler. The results are shown in the table below.

	Rempel Page	Loan Amount
1820 Settlers
Heinrich Jakob Buller	175	160 + 589 rubles
Jacob Peter Buller	175	0 + 339 rubles
Martin Jacob Kornelsen	175	210 + 589 rubles
Andreas Jakob Nachtigal	175	105 + 589 rubles
Jacob Jacob Pankratz	176	settled at own expense
Jacob Heinrich Ratzlaff	176	0 + 589 rubles
Johann Peter Ratzlaff	176	50 + 589 rubles
Andreas David Schmidt	178	???
Andreas Peter Schmidt	176	210 + 589 rubles
Heinrich David Schmidt	176	270 + 589 rubles
Jacob David Schmidt	178	???
David Peter Schroeder	176	50 + 589 rubles
Heinrich Isaak Schroeder	176	160 + 489 rubles
Johann Peter Schroeder	176	110 + 589 rubles
David David Unrau	177	210 + 589 rubles
David Johann Unrau	177	settled at own expense
Heinrich Peter Unrau	178	???
Peter Johann Unrau	177	settled at own expense
David Bernhard Voth	177	settled at own expense
Jacob David Voth	177	0 + 586 rubles
Peter Heinrich Voth	177	settled at own expense
Peter Jacob Voth	177	160 + 514 rubles
Peter Benjamin Wedel	177	settled at own expense
1821 Settlers
Peter Christian Dalke	181	210 + 589 rubles
Peter Benjamin Frey	145	160 + 589 rubles
1822 Settlers
Jacob Jacob Buller	not listed	———
Peter Johann Reimer	not listed	———
Heinrich Jacob Schmidt	186?	210 + 589 rubles?
1823 Settler
Heinrich Peter Block	not listed	———
1826 Settler
Peter Franz Goerz	not listed	———

The table contains a good deal of information that requires explanation or merits consideration.

1. The two numbers listed in the right-hand column for most settlers is the amount of financial aid that the settler received for purchasing necessary livestock + the financial aid given for establishing a household. For example, in the first row, Heinrich Buller, the 160 represents the cost of purchasing one horse and two head of cattle, to add to the one horse that he brought with him from Prussia. The 589 is what was granted for “building a house and establishing a household.” Both amounts are given in rubles, presumably silver rubles, not the paper currency.

2. Three settlers have ??? in the Loan Amount column. In each case the settlement report states, “Began receiving financial aid in the year 1820.” There is no indication of the amount or purpose of the financial aid, although one might guess that it was to purchase livestock, if needed, and to build a house. That is only a guess, however. Because these three settlement reports differ in form from all the other 1820 settlement reports, we should probably avoid drawing too many conclusions from the  lack of detail in these three reports.

3. Some settlers were wealthy enough that they did not need financial aid. These individuals are said to have settled at their own expense. Roughly a quarter of the 1820 settlers (six out of twenty-three) self-funded the establishment of their households.

4. Most striking of all is the lack of any records in Rempel for four of the last five Alexanderwohl settlers, those who built houses between 1822 and 1826. We know that each of these four established a household, so why is there neither a record of a loan or to do so nor a statement that the individual settled at his own cost? The circumstances of these settlers give us a clue.

Jacob Jacob Buller, for example, emigrated to Molotschna in 1819, lived with Peter Andreas Richert in Franztal until the latter died in 1821, then settled Alexanderwohl 15 in 1822. Peter Johann Reimer emigrated in 1804, lived in but did not own land in Lichtenau for the first eighteen years, and gained possession of Alexanderwohl 19 in 1822. The third person of this group, Heinrich Peter Block came to Molotschna with his birth family in 1819, lived with them in Franztal, then in 1823, at age thirty, acquired his own Wirtschaft: Alexanderwohl 2. Similarly, Peter Franz Goerz emigrated with his family in 1819, lived with them in Grossweide, then became owner of Alexanderwohl 8 in 1826, also at age thirty.

What do these four individuals have in common? They all moved to Alexanderwohl from some other village within Molotschna colony. They did not emigrate to Molotschna and settle immediately in Alexanderwohl. This makes all the difference in the world. According to Helmut T. Huebert, “Settlers of new villages who came from within Russia received no government subsidy” (Huebert 1986, 42). This must be the explanation that applies to these four: each moved to Alexanderwohl from within Molotschna (Russia); consequently, each one was disqualified from receiving a government loan to buy livestock or build a house. In this respect, these four were more like the six who settled at their own expense than the majority who relied on a government loan to set up their households.

5. One final matter deserves attention: how the information found in our list compares to that given in the community report. The latter states simply: “Of the immigrant families 20 received a government loan of 4104 R. (Rubel), 284/7 K (Kopack) Silver.” As before, it becomes evident that the community report is generally accurate but mistaken with some details. That is, our list agrees that twenty settlers received some sort of financial aid; ten did not. The Russian records confirm the Gemeindebericht.

However, the statement that these twenty loans totaled 4,104 rubles seems seriously mistaken. The total of just the household loans for the seventeen settlers who have loan amounts listed is 9,585 rubles; adding in the three additional unknown amounts, not to mention the loans for the purchase of livestock, would push the total even higher. Perhaps we are misunderstanding the claim of a total loan amount of 4,104 rubles; however, it seems more likely that, nearly three decades after the fact, the total was misremembered and/or miscalculated.

The next post will present another side of the financial equation: how much in cash and goods the Alexanderwohl settlers brought with them to Molotschna.

Works Cited

Huebert, Helmut T. 1986. Hierschau: An Example of Russian Mennonite Life. Winnipeg: Springfield.

Rempel. Peter. 2007. Mennonite Migration to Russia, 1788–1828. Edited by Alfred H. Redekopp and Richard D. Thiessen. Winnepeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society.