Alexanderwohl 47

While researching the identities of the authors of the 1848 Alexanderwohl Gemeindebericht (here), I was reminded that the 1847 Molotschna is available online (here). As we have noted periodically, the only persons eligible to vote in Molotschna were the owners of Wirtschaften, or farmsteads. So, although the voters list does not provide a full census of the Alexanderwohl’s residents (a number of landless families and individuals also lived within the village), it does provide a substantial body of information about the core, so to speak, of the village.

This information, in turn, enables us to perform an interesting comparison across time. We know, of course, the names of Alexanderwohl’s original settlers, as well as the Wirtschaften in which twenty-seven of them resided. We also have the names of the farmstead owners as recorded in the 1835 census. When we place these two lists alongside the 1847 voters list, we gain a new window on the villages’s early history.

The following table lists the Alexanderwohl Wirstschaft number on the left, then the names for that Wirtschaft for each of the three periods: the time of the original settlement (1821–1826), the 1835 census, and the 1847 voters list. Following the table we will provide details about each Wirtschaft, so that the history of each one becomes clear.

	1821–1826	1835 census	1847 voters list
1	Martin Jacob Kornelsen	Martin Jacob Kornelsen	Martin Kornelius
2	Heinrich Peter Block	Heinrich Peter Block	Heinrich Block
3	??	Heinrich Franz Goerz	Heinrich Görtz
4	Peter Jacob Voth	Peter Jacob Voth	Peter Hiebert
5	Heinrich David Schmidt	Heinrich David Schmidt	Heinrich Schmidt
6	Peter Johann Unrau	Peter Johann Unrau	Peter Unruh
7	David Bernhard Voth	David Bernhard Voth	David Voth
8	Peter Franz Goerz	Peter Franz Goerz	Widow Görtz
9	Jacob Peter Buller	Jacob Peter Buller	Jakob Gäddert
10	David Johann Unrau	David Johann Unrau	Heinrich Unruh
11	Heinrich Isaak Schroeder	Heinrich Isaak Schroeder	Heinrich Balzer
12	Jacob Jacob Pankratz	Jacob Jacob Pankratz	Jakob Pankratz
13	??	Heinrich Heinrich Franz	Heinrich Franz
14	Heinrich Peter Unrau	Heinrich Peter Unrau	Heinrich Unruh
15	Jacob Jacob Buller	Jacob Jacob Buller	Jakob Buller
16	Johann Peter Ratzlaff	Johann Peter Ratzlaff	Gerhard Giesbrecht
17	Heinrich Jacob Schmidt	Heinrich Jacob Schmidt	Heinrich Schmidt
18	Jacob David Schmidt	Jacob David Schmidt	Jakob Schmidt
19	Peter Johann Reimer	Peter Johann Reimer	Heinrich Voth
20	Andreas David Schmidt	Andreas David Schmidt	Andreas Schmidt
21	Peter Christian Dalke	Peter Christian Dalke	Franz Banman
22	Peter Benjamin Frey	Peter Benjamin Frey	Peter Freÿ
23	Johann Peter Schroeder	Johann Peter Schroeder	Johann Schröder
24	Andreas Jacob Nachtigal	Andreas Jacob Nachtigal	Jakob Schmidt
25	??	David Andreas Richert	David Richert
26	Heinrich Jacob Buller	Heinrich Jacob Buller	Heinrich Buller
27	Peter Benjamin Wedel	Peter Benjamin Wedel	Peter Wedel
28	Peter Heinrich Voth	Peter Heinrich Voth	Heinrich Schmidt
29	Andreas Peter Schmidt	Andreas Peter Schmidt	Andreas Schmidt
30	David David Unrau	David David Unrau	Heinrich Buller

1. Martin Jacob Kornelsen (GM 33801) settled Wirtschaft 1 in 1821 and still lived there in 1847.

2. Heinrich Peter Block (GM 29475) settled Wirtschaft 2 in 1823 (he moved there from Franztal) and still lived there in 1847.

3. We do not know who first settled Wirtschaft 3. Heinrich Franz Goerz (GM 285981) moved from Grossweide to Alexanderwohl in 1833 and still lived there in 1847.

4. Peter Jacob Voth (GM 268847) settled Wirtschaft 4 in 1821 and still lived there in 1835. Voth died in 1839, after which Peter Hiebert (GM 36879) married his widow, Katharina Nachtigahl, assumed ownership of the farmstead, and cast the 1847 vote.

5. Heinrich David Schmidt (GM 32966) settled Wirtschaft 5 in 1821 and still lived there in 1847.

6. Peter Johann Unrau (GM 60318) settled Wirtschaft 6 in 1821 and still lived there in 1847. He died the following year.

7. David Bernhard Voth (GM 60325) settled Wirtschaft 7 in 1821 and presumably still lived there in 1847 (unless his son David had assumed ownership of the farmstead by then, if ever). 

8. Peter Franz Goerz (GM 819683), the brother of Heinrich Franz Goerz (see Wirtschaft 3 above), settled Wirtschaft 8 in 1826 (he moved there from Grossweide) and still lived there in 1835. He died sometime between 1835 and 1847, since the voter register lists the widow Goerz, otherwise known as Elisabeth Sommerfeld (GM 60334).

9. Jacob Peter Buller (GM 318737) settled Wirtschaft 9 in 1821 and was entered there in the 1835 census. However, he passed away in 1836, after which Jakob Gäddert (GM 35799) married his widow, Elisabeth Ratzlaff, assumed ownership of the farmstead, and cast the 1847 vote.

10. David Johann Unrau (GM 87011) settled Wirtschaft 10 in 1821 and still lived there in 1835. He died sometime between then and the 1847 voters list, since the latter lists his oldest son Heinrich Unruh (GM 32269) as owner of the farmstead.

11. Heinrich Isaak Schroeder (GM 14829) settled Wirtschaft 11 in 1821 and still lived there in 1835. He died sometime before 1847, since the voters list identifies Heinrich Balzer (GM 14828) as owner. Balzer was actually a member of the immediate family, since he married Helena Schroeder, daughter of original settler Heinrich Schroeder, in 1837. 

12. Jacob Jacob Pankratz (GM 43123) settled Wirtschaft 12 in 1821 and is listed on the 1835 census. However, the census notes that he passed away in 1830, so presumably the family was led by his widow Trincke Unrau (GM 32920) or his oldest son Jacob (GM 32880), who is most likely the Jacob listed on the 1847 voters list.

13. We do not know who settled this Wirtschaft, but Heinrich Heinrich Franz (GM 60378) assumed ownership, it seems, in 1832. He also died that year, according to the 1835 census. The Heinrich Franz listed in the 1847 voters list is presumably his son (GM 273755).

14. Heinrich Peter Unrau (GM 86839) settled Wirtschaft 14 in 1821 and still lived there in 1847.

15. Jacob Jacob Buller (GM 5587) settled Wirtschaft 15 in 1822 (he moved there from Franztal) and still lived there in 1847.

16. Johann Peter Ratzlaff (GM 60394), the son-in-law of our own ancestor Benjamin Heinrich Buller, settled Wirtschaft 16 in 1821 and still lived there in 1835. We do not know what happened to Ratzlaff, but in 1846 the farmstead was acquired by Gerhard Giesbrecht (GM 103150), who previously lived in Tiegenhagen.

17. Heinrich Jacob Schmidt (GM 50991) settled Wirtschaft 17 in 1822 and still lived there in 1847.

18. Jacob David Schmidt (GM 32895) settled Wirtschaft 18 in 1821 and still lived there in 1847.

19. Peter Johann Reimer (GM 46418) settled Wirtschaft 19 in 1822 (he moved there from Lichtenau) and still lived there in 1835. Apparently Reimer moved to Gnadenheim in 1843, at which time the farmstead was acquired by Heinrich Peter Voth (GM 13298), who was probably already a resident of the village, but not a landowner.

20. Andreas David Schmidt (GM 43155) settled Wirtschaft 20 in 1821 and still lived there in 1847.

21. Peter Christian Dalke (GM 3506) settled Wirtschaft 21 in 1821 and was still living there in 1835. We do not know what happened to Dalke after that, but Franz Banman (GM 30845) is listed as voter in 1847. As we saw with Wirtschaft 11, this was an inner-family transfer, since Banman was married to Dalke’s daughter Elisabeth (GM 30846).

22. Peter Benjamin Frey (GM 35807) settled Wirtschaft 22 in 1821 and still lived there in 1847.

23. Johann Peter Schroeder (GM 60432) settled Wirtschaft 23 in 1821 and still lived there in 1847.

24. Andreas Jacob Nachtigal (GM 42259) settled Wirtschaft 24 in 1821 and still lived there in 1835. Sometime later he presumably passed away (he was sixty in 1835), after which his farmstead was acquired by Jakob Schmidt (GM 58544). Once again this was an inner-family transfer, since Schmidt had married Nachtigal’s daughter Maria (GM 42266).

25. We do not know who settled this Wirtschaft, but David Andreas Richert (GM 48282) acquired it by 1835, and he still lived there in 1847.

26. Heinrich Jacob Buller (GM 32901), the Alexanderwohl teacher, settled Wirtschaft 26 in 1821 and still lived there in 1847.

27. Elder Peter Benjamin Wedel (GM 32275) settled Wirtschaft 27 in 1821 and still lived there in 1847.

28. Peter Heinrich Voth (GM 13295) settled Wirtschaft 28 in 1821 and lived there at the time of the 1835 census. He passed away later that year, after which the farmstead was acquired by Heinrich Schmidt, who has not yet been identified.
CORRECTION: In fact, we can identify this person, since Heinrich Schmidt (GM 13313) married Eva Ratzlaff (GM 30372), the widow of Peter Heinrich Voth. Heinrich Schmidt was the son of Andreas Peter Schmidt (see next Wirtschaft) and thus had been a resident of Alexanderwohl from the beginning.

29. Andreas Peter Schmidt (GM 13309) settled Wirtschaft 29 in 1821 and still lived there in 1847.

30. David David Unrau (GM 106787) settled Wirtschaft 30 in 1821 and still lived there in 1835. He passed away in 1844, after which the farmstead was taken over by his stepson Heinrich Peter Buller (GM 30740). 

Now that we have spelled out all the particulars as fully as possible, we are ready to draw conclusions about some trends of Wirtschaft ownership and transfer in Alexanderwohl’s first twenty-five years. That will be the task of the following post.