Alexanderwohl 46

Although we have thoroughly explored the body of the 1848 Alexanderwohl Gemeindebericht, we must not neglect the final part of the report: the names of the Alexanderwohl officials responsible for writing and submitting it. 

Like other Molotschna community reports, Alexanderwohl’s was signed by three officials, each of whom was named:

Schulz Heinrich Voth
Beisitzer Heinrich Görz, Jakob Schmidt
Schullehrer Heinrich Buller

The term Schulz (or Schulze) designates the mayor of the village. Molotschna mayors typically had at least one Beisitzer, or assistant, serving alongside; the Alexanderwohl mayor had two. The final party involved with the writing of the report was the Schullehrer, or school teacher. 

Identifying the four individuals named requires some investigation.

1. Heinrich Voth: The 1835 census lists two males named Heinrich Voth in Alexanderwohl. Since only one Heinrich Voth owned a Wirtschaft, and thus had the right to vote, in 1847, presumably the mayor was the Heinrich Voth who lived at Wirtschaft 19 in 1847 (see the voting list here). However, that does not help us clearly identify which Heinrich that was.

The first candidate, the firstborn son of Peter Jacob Voth of Wirtschaft 4, would have been twenty-eight in 1848. Of course, a young man such as this could have been mayor, but it seems doubtful. GRANDMA offers almost no information about this person (GM 60304), which presumably implies that he is not listed in the Alexanderwohl church book.

The second candidate was born in 1812 and was thus eight years older (GM 13298). He was the firstborn son of Eva Buller, who died just after her son’s first birthday, and Peter Heinrich Voth, who died in 1835. The family was living in Wirtschaft 28 in 1835; Heinrich Schmidt owned it in 1847. All that to say: although this second Heinrich Voth seems a more likely candidate for Alexanderwohl Schulz, we have insufficient information to form any sort of firm opinion.

2. Heinrich Görz: According to the 1847 voter list, this assistant no doubt lived at Wirtschaft 3 (i.e., this was the only male Görz landowner in Alexanderwohl at that time). This information helps us to identify the person with relative certainty: the son of Franz Görz, Heinrich had been born in 1809 and was thus thirty-nine when the community report was written. He had moved to Alexanderwohl from Grossweide in Molotschna in 1833. There being no other known candidates, we can conclude that this individual (GM ) was the first assistant listed.

3. Jakob Schmidt. According to the 1847 voter list, this assistant lived at Wirtschaft 18 or Wirtschaft 24. We cannot say which of the two was the assistant.

Jacob David Schmidt (GM 32895) was born in 1790 and thus was fifty-eight when the community report was written. This is the Jacob who lived at Wirtschaft 18, which is where he was listed in the 1835 census.

The second Jacob Schmidt (GM 58544) was the son of son of Andreas David Schmidt, who lived at Wirtschaft 20 in 1835, still resided there in 1847, and likely remained there until he passed away in 1869. Jacob was born in 1816, so he would have been thirty-two in 1848. He married in 1838, which would have been a likely time for him to purchase Wirtschaft 24, which is where we find him in 1847.

Although it is impossible to decide which of the two Jacob Schmidts was assistant in 1848, the second option seems the more likely, given the more advanced age of the first candidate.

4. Heinrich Buller: My impression is that, whereas the first two offices were by definition held by men who owned Wirtschaften, that was not always the case with the village school teacher. Nevertheless, the 1847 voting record lists two land-owning Heinrich Bullers, at Wirtschaften 26 and 30: Heinrich Jacob Buller and Heinrich Peter Buller.

We begin with the latter of the two. Heinrich Peter (GM 30740) apparently assumed ownership of Wirtschaft 30 upon his stepfather David Unrau’s death in 1844. Heinrich Peter was born sometime around 1812 to 1814 (sources give conflicting evidence), so he would have been in his mid-thirties in 1848. We know little else about Heinrich Peter, except that he passed away in 1857.

Heinrich Jacob (GM 32901) was one of Alexanderwohl’s original settlers (see here). More important, he was identified as a teacher on his travel visa:

Heinrich Buller, Teacher from Przechowko, his wife Anna 30 (b. ca. 1790), daughters Anna 4 (b. ca. 1816), Maria 3 (b. ca. 1817), Eva 1 (b. ca. 1819). Passport from Marienwerder issued on July 11, 1820. (Rempel 2007, 172)

Was this Heinrich Buller still the teacher twenty-eight years later?  Heinrich was born in 1788, so he was thirty-two at the time of emigration and sixty in 1848. He lived another seventeen years beyond that, dying at the age of seventy-seven. There is no reason to think that he was incapable of teaching in 1848, so the most probable explanation is that Heinrich Jacob Buller was the teacher who helped write and signed the 1848 Alexanderwohl Gemeindebericht.

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A final observation: of the four men named as responsible for the report, only the last one, Heinrich Buller, is known to have emigrated with the 1820 party as an adult. This may be significant for one detail in the report that we noted earlier: the first-person references in a key part of the report.

When this local community, which had existed as a church community in Prussia for over two hundred years, emigrated to Russia under the leadership of its church elder, Peter Wedel, and had pitched camp to rest for two days on the south side of the city of Warsaw, Emperor Alexander I, may he rest in peace, drove out of the city to maneuver a military unit in the field. But we, having been made aware by some passing generals, stood in eager anticipation when the emperor passed by, halted his coach, and waved us over with his right hand. Three of our church leaders went there, who were asked from where we came and where we wanted to go. To the answer that we wanted to go to the Molotschna in southern Russia, the emperor said, “I wish you luck on your journey; greet your brothers. I have been there.” This happened on 14 September 1820.

One wonders if this section was authored primarily by Heinrich Buller, who was not putting himself on the scene as a literary device but rather recounting an event that he had experienced firsthand. We cannot say that for certain, but knowing that one of the authors of the report was part of that travel party does explain, perhaps, the level of detail provided in this account.

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.