Alexanderwohl 31

As we have seen in the various settlement reports included in the Alexanderwohl series, the Russian government recorded the name of the settler, the number of persons in his family, the settlement year, the cash and goods that the settler brought into Molotschna, and the amount of loan, if any, that was given to the settler to establish a household. The previous post in the Alexanderwohl series examined which founding settlers received government loans to set up their households and how much each settler borrowed. This post investigates the other side of the equation: how much cash and goods each settler brought from Prussia to Molotschna.

Before we tabulate the amounts, we must determine how to read one recurring line in the settlement report. The statement in question is underlined in the extracts from settlement reports below (Rempel 2007, 175–76):

Heinrich Jakob Buller: They had no cash. They brought possessions valued at 330 rubles, 1 wagon, 1 horse and no cattle; wagon, horse or head of cattle cost 113 rubles. The local administration suggested providing financial aid for the purchase of 1 horse, 2 head of cattle, at a sum of 160 rubles.…

Jacob Peter Buller: They had with them 2520 rubles cash, possessions valued at 208 rubles, 2 wagon, 3 horses and 2 head of cattle; wagon, horse or head of cattle cost 350 rubles.

Martin Jacob Kornelsen: They had no cash. They brought possessions valued at 405 rubles, 50 kopeks, 1 wagon, no horses and no cattle; wagon, horse or head of cattle cost 110 rubles. The local administration suggested providing financial aid for the purchase of 2 horses, 2 head of cattle at a sum of 210 rubles.…

Andreas Jakob Nachtigal: They had no cash. They brought possessions valued at 250 rubles, 10 kopeks, 1 wagon, 1 horse, 1 head of cattle; wagon, horse or head of cattle cost 150 rubles. The local administration suggested providing financial aid for the purchase of 1 horse and one head of cattle at a sum of 105 rubles.…

The use of the word cost is confusing, since nothing in sentence implies a purchase being made, and, in fact, any anticipated purchase is dealt with later in the report. It seems that what is actually in view in these sentences is the valuation of the wagon and/or livestock in the immediately preceding clause. Thus, the value of Heinrich Buller’s wagon and horse was 113 rubles, and the value of Jacob Buller’s two wagons, three horses, and two cattle was 350 rubles. Martin Kornelsen’s wagon was valued at 110 rubles (apparently of greater value than Heinrich Buller’s wagon + horse); Andreas Nachtigal’s wagon, horse, and cow were valued at 150 rubles. Although we lack definitive proof that this is the meaning of the recurring statement, it is at present the only way to make sense of all the details of the settlement reports.

Building upon this interpretation, we can arrange the listed assets into three distinct categories: cash, household goods, and farm capital. Each category was valued separately, since the first and the last apparently had great significance for the amount of the loan that a settler would receive, if any. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we should list the assets for each Alexanderwohl settler. In the table below, only rubles are included; kopeks (a kopek is 1/100 of a ruble) are ignored. The following abbreviations are used to save space: W = wagon, H = horse, C = cow.

	Cash	Household Goods	Farm Capital
1820 Settlers
Heinrich Jakob Buller	0 rubles	330 rubles	1W + 1H = 113 rubles
Jacob Peter Buller	2,520 rubles	208 rubles	2W + 3H  + 2C = 350 rubles
Martin Jacob Kornelsen	0 rubles	405 rubles	1W = 110 rubles
Andreas Jakob Nachtigal	0 rubles	250 rubles	1W + 1H  + 1C = 150 rubles
Jacob Jacob Pankratz	2,300 rubles	610 rubles	2W + 4H  + 4C = 730 rubles
Jacob Heinrich Ratzlaff	0 rubles	408 rubles	1W + 2H  + 3C = 420 rubles
Johann Peter Ratzlaff	0 rubles	401 rubles	1W + 1H  + 2C = 264 rubles
Andreas David Schmidt	included —>	400 rubles	1H? = 15 rubles
Andreas Peter Schmidt	0 rubles	304 rubles	1W = 70 rubles
Heinrich David Schmidt	0 rubles	308 rubles	0̸ = 0 rubles
Jacob David Schmidt	0 rubles	500 rubles	3H? = 44 rubles
David Peter Schroeder	0 rubles	303 rubles	2W + 1H  + 2C = 505 rubles
Heinrich Isaak Schroeder	100 rubles	206 rubles	1W + 1H  = 260 rubles
Johann Peter Schroeder	0 rubles	308 rubles	1W + 2H  = 200 rubles
David David Unrau	0 rubles	250 rubles	1W = 50 rubles
David Johann Unrau	800 rubles	406 rubles	1W + 2H  + 2C = 316 rubles
Heinrich Peter Unrau	included —>	300 rubles	1H? = 12 rubles
Peter Johann Unrau	800 rubles	410 rubles	1W + 2H  + 3C = 433 rubles
David Bernhard Voth	685 rubles	503 rubles	1W + 2H  + 3C = 465 rubles
Jacob David Voth	0 rubles	200 rubles	0̸ = 0 rubles
Peter Heinrich Voth	2,150 rubles	335 rubles	2W + 2H  + 4C = 590 rubles
Peter Jacob Voth	75 rubles	302 rubles	1W + 1H  = 170 rubles
Peter Benjamin Wedel	1,200 rubles	500 rubles	1W + 3H  + 3C = 600 rubles
1821 Settlers
Peter Christian Dalke	0 rubles	400 rubles	1W  = 110 rubles
Peter Benjamin Frey	0 rubles	400 rubles	2C  = 110 rubles
1822 Settlers
Jacob Jacob Buller	no record
Peter Johann Reimer	no record
Heinrich Jacob Schmidt	70 rubles	500 rubles	1W  = 110 rubles
1823 Settler
Heinrich Peter Block	no record
1826 Settler
Peter Franz Goerz	no record

As before, several patterns related to the twenty-six settlers for whom there is data merit mention.

1. Fewer than half (twelve of twenty-six) entered Molotschna with cash in hand; fourteen had no cash at all. The amounts of cash varied widely, with amounts ranging from 70 to 2,520 rubles. Only four had more than 1,000 rubles, which was roughly double the amount the Russian government loaned (589 rubles) for building a household and establishing a house.

2. Not surprisingly, three of the four settlers with more than 1,000 rubles in cash settled at their own expense; only Jacob Buller, who had the most cash of all, accepted a government loan, although it was for less than the usual household amount of 589 rubles. The other three people who settled at their own expense were David Johann Unrau (800 rubles), Peter Johann Unrau (800 rubles), and David Bernhard Voth (685 rubles). Clearly, those who had the cash to establish a household typically did so at their own expense.

3. As we would expect, every one of the settlers arrived with household goods, with values ranging from 206 rubles to 610 rubles. This seems a rather narrow range that may reflect that, inequities in cash notwithstanding, these Mennonite families had households roughly equivalent to each other. Of course, a more mundane but equally reasonable explanation is that there were limits to the amount of goods the families could transport 900 miles by wagon, which meant that both rich and poor probably packed and hauled similar amounts.

4. Most of the settlers had one wagon, but six reportedly had none at all, and four had two wagons. One of the settlers with two wagons (Jacob Pankratz) had the highest value of household goods, but another with two wagons (Jacob Buller) had almost the least amount of household goods. The other two owners of two wagons had modest amounts of household goods. Thus there does not seem to be any clear correlation between the hauling capacity of the wagons owned and the value of the household goods transported.

This may actually help to explain how six families made the 900-mile trek with household goods to haul but no wagons to haul them. Since at least three of the two-wagon families seemingly did not need all the space available to them, they may have hauled—for free or at a cost—the possessions of families without a wagon. We should recall that the 1820 group, where five of the no-wagon families appear, did not emigrate as individual families but in a group. Thus it would not be surprising if a fair amount of mutual aid and neighborly assistance took place.

5. Three settlers in the 1820 group (two others in later groups) had a wagon but no animal to pull it. Conveniently, perhaps, three of the families with no wagon owned at least one horse. One wonders if these families, or even those with more horses than they needed (e.g., Peter Wedel’s three horses for one wagon), joined forces to ensure that everyone had horsepower to pull the wagons the 900 miles from Przechovka to Alexanderwohl. If not, then it is likely that a few families had to rely on their own sweat and determination to power the wagons on this long journey.

6. Although some families had more horses than wagons, it appears that one horse pulling a wagon was perfectly acceptable. The cattle were presumably mostly dairy cows, so although they could have been used to pull wagons, it seems doubtful that they were commonly used for draft.

7. Only eleven out of the twenty-six settlers entered Molotschna with cattle in tow. Of these, one had a single cow, while four settlers had two, four other settlers had three, and two settlers had four. This gives the impression (it is no more than that) that cattle were a significant source and sign of wealth: most of the settlers had no cows at all, while six settlers, who were among the richest, accounted for 69 percent (twenty out of twenty-nine) of the village’s initial cumulative herd. Fortunately for the rest, the government loans went a long way to addressing this imbalance, which is where we will pick up the story in the following post. 

Work Cited

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