Because the Alexanderwohl series has covered a wide range of topics over a considerable length of time (we began this series Christmas Day 2017), we should briefly review the high points before we proceed further.
We began the series by exploring the modern name (Svitle), location, and layout of the village (here), then narrowed our focus to several specific buildings and sites within the village: the school (here), the church (here), and two cemeteries (here).
With our geographical bearings set, we moved on to matters of history. We initiated this phase of our survey by reading the 1848 Gemeindebericht, or community report, in its entirety (here). There we encountered the community’s own record that “in 1821 twenty-two families from District Schwetz in the Prussian administrative district of Marienwerder settled here [in Alexanderwohl]; followed in 1823 by seven families and in 1824 by yet another family.”
These specific historical claims are important for our exploration, since they are subject to testing, to verification or contradiction. Thus, with the village’s historical account in the background, we began systematically to work our way through the entire village Wirtschaft by Wirtschaft, that is, lot by lot, to identify to the extent that we were able the original settlers of Alexanderwohl. Our goal was not merely to list the names of Alexanderwohl’s original settlers but also to evaluate the accuracy of the Gemeindebericht’s claims. Did twenty-two families settle the village in 1821? Did another seven join them in 1823? Did yet one more family settle in 1824?
Our investigation drew first upon the 1835 Molotschna census, which listed both the current residents of each village Wirtschaft plus many past residents as well as village residents who did not own their own land, who lived on the outskirts of the village and often on the margins of society. In addition, we also consulted the visa, passport, and settlement lists recorded in Peter Rempel’s Mennonite Migration to Russia, 1788–1828 (2007).
Starting with Martin and Anna Unrau Kornelsen (or Cornelsen) in Wirtschaft 1 (here and here), we proceeded steadily through all thirty Wirtschaften until we had identified the likely original settlers for nearly all the plots in Alexanderwohl.
1. Martin Jacob Kornelsen
2. Heinrich Peter Block (here)
2. Heinrich Peter Block (here)
3. ???? (here)
4. Peter Jacob Voth (here)
5. Heinrich David Schmidt (here)
6. Peter Johann Unrau (here)
7. David Bernhard Voth (here)
8. ?? Peter Franz Goerz (here)
9. Jacob Peter Buller (here)
10. David Johann Unrau (here)
11. Heinrich Isaak Schroeder (here)
12. Jacob Jacob Pankratz (here)
13. ???? (here)
14. Heinrich Peter Unrau (here)
15. Jacob Jacob Buller (here)
17. Heinrich Jacob Schmidt (here)
18. Jacob David Schmidt (here)
20. Andreas David Schmidt (here)
21. Peter Christian Dalke (here)
22. Peter Benjamin Frey (here)
23. Johann Peter Schroeder (here)
24. Andreas Jakob Nachtigal (here)
25. ???? (here)
26. Heinrich Jakob Buller (here)
27. Peter Benjamin Wedel (here)
28. Peter Heinrich Voth (here)
29. Andreas Peter Schmidt (here)
30. David David Unrau (here)
With twenty-seven of thirty original settlers identified, we tied up several loose ends. We first learned what we could about the households listed in the 1835 census who were not assigned to a particular Wirtschaft (here), compared our list with a similar list constructed independently by John Richert (here), and corrected a minor error that had crept in along the way (here).
Significant attention was paid to the fact that several Alexanderwohl families came to Molotschna a full year before the main party referenced in the community report. We concluded, in light of that discovery, as well as several other discoveries slightly at odds with the village’s “official” history, that the community report is best regarded as generally reliable but sometimes inaccurate in its details (here; see further below).
Taking a second look at the settlement reports on which the earlier examination relied, we discovered the names of three individuals who settled in Molotschna but whose names do not appear on the 1835 colony census (here). Could these three be Alexanderwohl’s unknown settlers? Further examination led us to conclude that Jacob Heinrich Ratzlaff (here), David Peter Schroeder, and Jacob David Voth (here) were, in all likelihood, the three previously unidentified original settlers.
Once we had a full roster of thirty original settlers, we were ready to compare it with the account given in the 1848 Gemeindebericht (here). We observed again that the community report is largely reliable but slightly inaccurate as regards some details: the village was not settled by twenty-two families in 1821, seven more in 1823, and one more in 1824; rather, at least twenty-three families, and probably twenty-five, settled in 1821 (most arrived in Molotschna in 1820), with three more in 1822, and one each in 1823 and 1826.
A comparison of contemporary settlement records with the community report offers the same picture (here). Both sources agree that twenty settlers received government loans to establish households and that ten did not; however, the community report seriously underreports the amount loaned by more than half. As before, the Gemeindebericht sketches a generally reliable portrait but errs at the level of detail.
The following post continued in a similar vein, with an examination of the cash and personal goods that Alexanderwohl’s settlers brought with them from Prussia (here). Over half of the settlers arrived with no cash at all and thus clearly needed a loan to establish a household; those with the most cash generally did not receive a loan at all. We learned in the next post (here) that the government loans seem to have had a simple purpose: to ensure that each settler, regardless of what he brought to Russia, ended up with one wagon, two horses, and two head of cattle.
Finally, the last five posts prior to this one evaluated the community report’s etiological tale of how Alexanderwohl received its name. We began with a more recent example of a village etiology, for Lushton (here), then applied the same critical methodology to Alexanderwohl (here, here, here). On the basis of a careful and objective as possible weighing of the evidence, we concluded that the report was almost certainly correct that Tsar Alexander I had encountered the Przechovka traveling party in 1820 and had wished them good luck, or safe travels; however, that historically plausible story likely did not, as the Gemeindebericht claimed, explain the village name. Rather, like the village name Mariawohl (“May it be well with Maria”), the name Alexanderwohl wished well (German wohl) on the person honored by the village name: Tsar Alexander I (here). As before, the community report paints a broadly reliable portrait, even if some of the details are wrong.
This extended recap of the Alexanderwohl series has been useful for remembering all the topics we have covered to date and for reminding us of questions that remain unanswered. The next post will return our attention to the Alexanderwohl Gemeindebericht, as we look at it with fresh eyes in order to learn more about the early history of this important Molotschna village.
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.
A comparison of contemporary settlement records with the community report offers the same picture (here). Both sources agree that twenty settlers received government loans to establish households and that ten did not; however, the community report seriously underreports the amount loaned by more than half. As before, the Gemeindebericht sketches a generally reliable portrait but errs at the level of detail.
The following post continued in a similar vein, with an examination of the cash and personal goods that Alexanderwohl’s settlers brought with them from Prussia (here). Over half of the settlers arrived with no cash at all and thus clearly needed a loan to establish a household; those with the most cash generally did not receive a loan at all. We learned in the next post (here) that the government loans seem to have had a simple purpose: to ensure that each settler, regardless of what he brought to Russia, ended up with one wagon, two horses, and two head of cattle.
Finally, the last five posts prior to this one evaluated the community report’s etiological tale of how Alexanderwohl received its name. We began with a more recent example of a village etiology, for Lushton (here), then applied the same critical methodology to Alexanderwohl (here, here, here). On the basis of a careful and objective as possible weighing of the evidence, we concluded that the report was almost certainly correct that Tsar Alexander I had encountered the Przechovka traveling party in 1820 and had wished them good luck, or safe travels; however, that historically plausible story likely did not, as the Gemeindebericht claimed, explain the village name. Rather, like the village name Mariawohl (“May it be well with Maria”), the name Alexanderwohl wished well (German wohl) on the person honored by the village name: Tsar Alexander I (here). As before, the community report paints a broadly reliable portrait, even if some of the details are wrong.
This extended recap of the Alexanderwohl series has been useful for remembering all the topics we have covered to date and for reminding us of questions that remain unanswered. The next post will return our attention to the Alexanderwohl Gemeindebericht, as we look at it with fresh eyes in order to learn more about the early history of this important Molotschna village.
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.
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