Franztal 9

We interrupt our examination of the Franztal Gemeindebericht to offer a clarification and a correction of an earlier section. A prior post (here) stated that we cannot identify the village Chernigov, whose border was 7 versts (4.6 miles) from Franztal. Thanks to several nineteenth-century maps hosted on the Chortitza: Mennonitische Geschichte und Ahnenforschung website, we can now locate Chernigov and confirm an earlier suspicion about the farmland associated with Franztal.

The first map bears the date 1829, less than a decade after the founding of Franztal. The entire map (below) shows the area of the various German groups of settlers and the Nogai in relation to the Sea of Azov (south) and the surrounding regions to the west, north, and east (see here for the map on the Chortitza site).

The Molotschna colony is outlined in blue and marked by a letter B; the red arrow pointing to the left in the upper center is directed toward Franztal. An enlarged extract reveals why this map is of interest to us.

The same red arrow points to the left at Franztal; a second arrow points to a nearby village outside of Molotschna that bears the name Tscherniowka. Of course, this is the same as the Chernigov referred to in the Gemeindebericht.

Unfortunately, this alone does not solve our problem, since according to the scale given on the map, Tscherniowka was roughly 15 miles from Franztal, not the 4.6 miles that the community report specifies. One might suspect that the report includes some sort of error or mistake, but another map points to a different, better answer.

This map lists the year 1836 on it, but that is not the date of the map, merely the date of the statistics that the map summarizes for the colonies shown. In fact, the map must be much later, since it shows villages that were not founded until well after that time. Hierschau, for example, was established in 1848, but it is shown on the map. Likewise, even Alexanderkrone (birthplace of Peter P) appears on the map even though it did not exist until 1857. In the end, we cannot say when the map was created, although it was presumably sometime in the nineteenth century, so not too far distant from the 1848 community report (see here for the map on the Chortitza site).

Molotschna is the area outlined in the lower center of the map; Franztal, of course, is located in the southeast part of the colony. The next map shows the Franztal area in greater detail.

Several things on this map are worth noting. First, although the village Tscherniowka/Chernigov is not marked on the map (none of the villages or towns outside the focal regions are shown), we can locate it reasonably well based on comparison with the previous map.

Second, this map offers yet another spelling of the name: Tschernigowki. As we have often observed, spelling of names, both personal and geographical, was not standardized at this time.

Third, the label Tschernigowki is applied to the entire area to the north of Franztal and its neighbors, not just a village. This implies rather strongly that this is the area in which Russian peasants from the Chernigov guberniia had been settled (see Staples 2003, 18, 58 and the earlier post).

Fourth and most important, this map shows the exact outline of the area associated with Franztal and thus confirms our earlier hunch about where the village land was located and how far it extended. In the process, it provides the key to understanding what the community report meant when it wrote that “the distance to the opposite border of the village Chernigov is 7 versts.”

To recap, the village Chernigov was located roughly 15 miles north-northwest of Franztal. Further, the land around the village Chernigov was associated with it and bore the same name: Chernigov (aka Tschernigowki).  That land abutted the north end of the Franztal land, thus forming a border, as it were, between the two small areas. When one considers that the distance from the northeast corner of Franztal to the border with the Chernigov land was around 5 miles, the Gemeindebericht statement makes good sense: it was specifying the distance from Franztal the village to the north edge of the land associated with the village, a distance of approximately 4.6 miles; it located the northern border of the Franztal land both by distance and by boundary, all the way up to the border with the land of the village Chernigov.

We are not yet finished with this last map, but we will leave our last look at it for a separate post.

Work Cited

Staples, John R. 2003. Cross-Cultural Encounters on the Ukrainian Steppe: Settling the Molochna Basin, 1783–1861. Tsarist and Soviet Mennonite Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Molotschna from the Air 1

Quite by accident I recently stumbled upon three videos of former Mennonite villages in Molotschna taken by Jacob Barch and edited by Rita Dick. What sets these three apart are that Jacob Barch used a drone to provide an aerial view of the villages. The result for me was an increased understanding of the layout of the typical village and a greater appreciation for the terrain that the Mennonite settlers turned into highly productive land.

Credit is due to the Chortitza: Mennonitische Geschichte und Ahnenforschung website (home page) for linking to the videos plus over a hundred photographs that were also taken during the drone flights (see here). According to the description on the page just linked, Barch visited Elisabethal (also spelled Elisabeththal) and other Molotschna villages, including Alexandertal, Pordenau, Mariental, Gnadenfeld, Grossweide, Sparrau, Mariawohl, Orloff, Blumenort, Rosenort, Juschnanlee, Alexanderkrone, Schönsee, Fischau, and Muntau. It is not clear to me whether he took drone videos from each site, since not all the villages mentioned appear in the videos. My hope is that Barch has other videos to share, especially one showing Alexanderkrone.

The captions and narration within the videos are in German, but understanding of that language is not required to follow along. For example, “Blick auf [village name] aus östlicher Richtung” simply means “view of [village name] from the east.” The phrase “westlicher Richtung,” of course, means “from the west.” Other words encountered include the following:

• ehemalig(e): former
• Friedhof: cemetery
• Fundament: foundation
• Haus: house
• heute: today
• Hof: farmyard
• Kindern: children
• Kirche: church
• Krankenhaus: hospital
• Mitte: middle, center
• Schule: school
• Strasse or Straße: street, road
• Weg: way

This post will introduce and comment on two of the videos, with a later post dedicated to the third. 

1. Molotschna Kolonie 2017, Überflüge mit der Drohne. To view this video, click here (8:30 in length).

The video begins with a brief description, which can be translated as follows:

Jacob Barch visited the former Molotschna colony in September 2017 and used a drone to fly over Elisabeththal, Pordenau, Marienthal, Alexanderkrone, Fischau, and Muntau. In 2016 he had already taken some photos of Elisabeththal and the surrounding area. His ancestors come from Elisabeththal, Molochna, and Wohldemfürst, Kuban [colony].

After this introduction, Barch locates the villages visited on a map, a portion of which is reproduced below. The first half of the video focuses on Elisabethal (number 1 on the map), where Barch’s family lived. At the 3:58 mark the video shifts to Mariental (number 2), several villages east of Elisabethal. My reason for including this map is to highlight how close Elisabethal and Mariental were to several villages of interest to us. 

Alexanderkrone, located west of Elisabethal, was home to Peter D and Sarah Siebert Buller and the birthplace of Peter P. One village further west was Kleefeld, where Peter D and Sarah lived before journeying to the United States. The two arrows on the left point to these two villages. The subject of our recent interest, Franztal, was northeast of Mariental (right arrow). Seeing with our own eyes the layout of and land surrounding these two villages helps us to imagine more clearly and accurately the setting that our ancestors left to settle in Nebraska.

If you look closely and quickly at the Mariental village map at the 4:13 mark, you will see the name Buller on one of the plots. The name Quiring is written alongside Buller, which presumably signals that the two families each possessed a half-Wirtschaft. 

The second half of the video surveys the villages of Neu-Halbstadt and Muntau in the northwest corner of the colony. We have no known connection with those villages

2. Fischau, Molotschna Kolonie, Überflüge mit der Drohne 2017. To view this video, click here (2:52 in length).

The village Fischau was one of the original Mennonite villages in Molotschna, being founded in 1804. As seen on the map, Fischau was on the far west side of Molotschna along the Molochnaia River. 

The significance of the brick pile at the 1:39 mark is that apparently most yards contain bricks from the school, which was disassembled sometime after 1996, when the photograph of the standing school was taken. At 2:16 the caption informs us that only two gravestones in the cemetery remain: one for Katarina Enns and one for an unknown Wiebe. The message is clear, I think: the remains of the Mennonite habitation of Molotschna are steadily eroding away.

Several things stand out for me in these videos. First, the aerial shots looking down Elisabethal’s center street show clearly how spread out or, perhaps better, stretched out the typical village was. It is one thing to read about the layout of the villages, quite another to see it firsthand. Second, it is not hard to imagine how barren the original landscape was before the Mennonites arrived, since much of the farmland is devoid of trees even now. However, one also sees clearly the remnants of the tree-planting efforts of Molotschna’s first settlers, not only in the numerous trees in the village proper but also in the many hedge rows that separate fields. Third and last, I thought Nebraska was flat, but the southern part of Molotschna seems even flatter, if that is possible, with an unobstructed view of the horizon miles upon miles in the distance.

The third video (11:32 in length) returns to Elisabethal and the area surrounding the village. We will explore that video together in a subsequent post. 

Franztal 8

The last post sketched the layout of Franztal; this post will begin to fill in some of the details. We begin again with the entire paragraph at the center of our examination.

The village is laid out in the direction from northeast to southwest. The Iushanle forms the border between the village and the land of the Tatars; the distance to the opposite border of the village Chernigov is 7 versts. On the northwestern side of the village along the lane are the orchards, each of which is a dessiatine in area and is already planted with a considerable number of fine fruit trees. At the end of the orchards rises the tree grove, which offers a lovely sight from the village with its green-leafed trees. On the west the village borders on Großweide, on the east Pastwa, and it is 60 Werst from the county seat Berdyansk. The numerous ancient burial mounds (Mohilen) give the land, one might say, a warty shape. The surface is almost everywhere black soil, in places containing saltpeter, with a layer of gravel and quarry stone, which lies over a thread/strand deep and in places comes to light. Although the productivity of the land does not equal that of the Molochna, trees, grains, and food crops thrive here as well. Violent storms often destroy the corn/grain fields in rows.

orchards. The mention of plural orchards is significant, since it signals that the village did not have a common large orchard but that each landholder had his or her own smaller orchard. This is generally consistent with a directive issued by Andrei M. Fadeev, chairman of the Ekaterinoslav office of the Guardianship Committee for Foreign Settlers in South Russia (see further here), when he established the Molotschna Society for the Dissemination and Cultivation of Forest and Fruit Trees, of Sericulture and of Viticulture (more commonly known as the Forestry Society):

To advance orchard cultivation as a flourishing branch of the economy in Mennonite villages generally, and to distinguish them from other settlements of this region without the advantages and privileges granted to Mennonites, every householder is obligated to lay out an orchard behind his house of a size permitted by the local situation and his means. (Cornies 2015, 231)

It seems that the Franztal orchards adhered to the spirit of Fadeev’s order, if not its letter. According to the quote above, the orchards were supposed to be located behind their respective houses. In the Franztal community report we read, however, that the orchards were grouped together along the land (street) on the northwest side of the village. I suspect that Franztal’s location on the bank of the river necessitated this different arrangement. 

each … a dessiatine in area. A dessiatine (or dessiatina) is equal to 2.7 acres, or a square with sides of roughly 343 feet each. Twenty-four of these orchards would have spread across nearly 65 acres.

fine fruit trees. The Gemeindebericht does not specify the kind of fruit trees, but a 1836 letter from Johann Cornies, chairman of the Molotschna Forestry Society, provides a helpful list of five different classes of trees that were to be counted (Cornies 2015, 438; see a comparable list in Huebert 1986, 138).

1. Kernel fruit (apple and pear trees)
2. Stone fruit (plum, cherry, and apricot trees)
3. Mulberry trees, including those planted in orchards and hedges
4. Willows, in plantations and elsewhere
5. All varieties of other trees such as elms, alders, acacias, wild olives, maples, lindens, chestnuts, oaks, poplars, etc.

The first two categories were considered fruit trees. Although mulberry trees do bear fruit in the form of a berry, they were counted separately because they were grown for a different purpose: the leaves of the mulberry tree were fed to silkworms in an attempt to develop a silk industry in Molotschna. Note also that the mulberry trees were planted in orchards and in hedges. Thus we should probably imagine the Franztal fruit orchards as containing six types of trees: apple, pear, plum, cherry, apricot, and mulberry.

At the end of the orchards. The report began at the northwest corner of the village and thus presumably proceeds to the northeast. Thus it seems most likely that the next feature (below) begins at the end of the row of orchards.

tree grove. The Forestry Society was interested in more than fruit trees; other types of trees were also to be planted. Willows are included as a separate class in the list above, with another nine grouped in a second class. It is not clear why willows are separated out into their own category; perhaps it was because willows were planted in groves and elsewhere.

In contrast to the plural orchards, the report refers to a single grove. We should probably not make too much of this, since other sources mention that each landowner was responsible for his or her own forest plot. We also learn in these sources that the standard forest plot was a half-dessiatine in size, that is, half of the size of the standard orchard (see Cornies 2015, 228, 235, 270–71, 301, 306–8).

Before we move on to the rest of this paragraph, this is a good place to stop and learn more about the planting of trees in Molotschna colony. There are many sources we could consult, but we will focus on only one at this time: a report of the numbers of trees in Molotschna colony.

The report was published in the January 1852 issue of the Unterhaltungsblatt für deutsche Ansiedler im südlichen Rußland, which one might translate Bulletin for the German Settlers in South Russia  (the issue can be found here). The table of interest here appears in reduced form below but can also be viewed at a larger size here.

The top of the table was, unfortunately, cut off during scanning, so we cannot translate all the column headings with certainty. However, it is possible to make reasonable sense of most of them and to gain an idea of the number of trees in Molotschna colony as well as each of the forty-six villages existing in 1852.

The wide column is, of course, where the village name is recorded. Working horizontally across for the first village listed, Halbstadt, we see the following columns:

Heading	Translation	Number
1. Maulsbeerbäume	mulberry trees	7,734
2. Gehölzbaume	wood trees	15,202
3. Obstbäume	fruit trees	6,563
4. Maulsbeerbäume	mulberry trees	152
5. Gehölzbaume	wood trees	1,014
6. Obstbäume: Veredelte	fruit trees: cultivated	—
7. Obstbäume: Unveredelte	fruit trees: wild	120
8. Maulsbeerbäume	mulberry trees	4,220
9. Gehölzbaume	wood trees	961
10. Maulsbeerbäume in Hekken	mulberry trees in hedges	36,093
11. ??? Birnbäume überhaupt	??? pear trees overall	113
12. ??? den in allen Anlagen	??? in all gardens (?)	3,846
Summa	total	76,018

Leaving the first two columns aside for the moment, columns 3–5 are treated as a single group, and the bottom half of the word Dorf- appears above them. This implies that these columns list the counts for trees within the village, including the orchards. By process of elimination we can thus surmise that columns 1–2 recorded trees outside the village, presumably in the tree groves. 

Columns 6–9 are likewise grouped together, but we cannot read the heading so do not know where this group is located. Columns 6 and 7 list two types of fruit trees: literally refined and unrefined. Presumably the latter term refers to wild fruit trees (see Cornies 2015, 197), which tells us that the former are fruit trees that have been cultivated and probably crossbred to increase productivity. 

Column 10 records the number of mulberry trees planted in hedges. All we can say about column 11 is that it relates somehow to pear trees. Why they were singled out is unknown. Column 12 is even more obscure, but it seems to refer to trees in gardens, although Anlagen can also mean enclosure, installation, or promenade (lane?). 

The final column is self-evident, but it also confirms for us that columns 1–12 lists trees in different parts of the village and its land, since the numbers for 1–12 added together equal the number in the final column.

Thus we know that in 1852 the village Halbstadt had 76,018 different trees in and around it. Mulberry trees in hedges accounted for 47.5 percent of all the trees, with mulberry trees in other spots adding up to another 15.9 percent. Wood trees in all locations accounted for another 22.6 percent. Only 8.9 percent of the trees were fruit-bearing. (The final 5.1 percent are the unknown trees from column 12.)

Of course, our real interest here is with Franztal, which appears in line 29 (it was the twenty-ninth Mennonite village established in Molotschna). Halbstadt was established in 1804, Franztal in 1820. Thus it is not surprising that Franztal had over fifteen thousand fewer trees than the older village.  The numbers for Franztal are as follows:

Heading	Translation	Number
1. Maulsbeerbäume	mulberry trees	10,090
2. Gehölzbaume	wood trees	18,115
3. Obstbäume	fruit trees	8,413
4. Maulsbeerbäume	mulberry trees	5
5. Gehölzbaume	wood trees	—
6. Obstbäume: Veredelte	fruit trees: cultivated	18
7. Obstbäume: Unveredelte	fruit trees: wild	1,211
8. Maulsbeerbäume	mulberry trees	640
9. Gehölzbaume	wood trees	—
10. Maulsbeerbäume in Hekken	mulberry trees in hedges	21,416
11. ??? Birnbäume überhaupt	??? pear trees overall	416
12. ??? den in allen Anlagen	??? in all gardens (?)	76
Summa	total	60,400

In Franztal as in Halbstadt, mulberry trees in hedges were most common (35.5 percent); all other mulberry trees accounted for another 17.8 percent. Franztal had a higher percentage of wood trees (30.0 percent) than Halbstadt and nearly double the percentage of fruit trees (16.7 percent).

More can be learned from this particular report, as well as from other articles and reports contained in the issues of the Unterhaltungsblatt für deutsche Ansiedler im südlichen Rußland. This post barely scratches the surface, but even so this brief look enriches our understanding of the orchards and wood groves that the Gemeindebericht references: they were home to roughly sixty thousand individual trees. Beyond that, this also helps us to appreciate how radically the Mennonite settlers transformed the treeless landscape of the Russian (Ukrainian) steppes.

Work Cited

Cornies, Johann. 2015. Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe: Letters and Papers of Johann Cornies. Volume 1: 1812–1835. Translated by Ingrid I. Epp. Edited by Harvey L. Dyck, Ingrid I. Epp, and John R. Staples. Tsarist and Soviet Mennonite Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

German Original

Die Kolonie ist in der Richtung von Nordost nach Südwest angelegt. Der Juschanlee bildet die Grenze zwischen ihrem und dem Lande der Tataren; bis zur entgegengesetzten Grenze am Lande des Dorfes Tschernigow beträgt die Entfernung 7 Werst. An der nordwestlichen Seite der Kolonie der Gasse entlang befinden sich die Obstgärten, welche je eine Dessjatine Flächeninhalt haben und bereits mit einer beträchtlichen Anzahl von edlen Obstbäumen bepflanzt sind. Am Ende der Obstgärten erhebt sich die Gehölzplantage, welche von der Kolonie aus mit ihren grünbelaubten Bäumen einen reizenden Anblick gewährt. Gegen Abend grenzt die Kolonie an Großweide, gegen Morgen an Pastwa und ist von der Kreisstadt Berdjansk 60 Werst entlegen. Die vielen alten Grabhügel (Mohilen) verleihen dem Lande sozusagen eine warzige Gestalt. Die Oberfläche ist fast überall schwarze Erde, stellenweise etwas salpeterhaltig, mit einer Unterlage von Kies und Bruchstein, welche über einen Faden tief liegt und stellenweise zum Vorschein kommt. Obwohl die Erträglichkeit des Landes derjenigen an der Molotschna nicht gleichkommt, so gedeihen doch auch hier Bäume, Getreide und Futterkräuter. Heftige Stürme zerstören oft strichweise die Kornfelder.

Franztal 7

As we approach the halfway point in the Franztal Gemeindebericht, or community report, we do well to remind ourselves why we should care about this relatively insignificant Molotschna village. On the one hand, Franztal was the first Molotschna village in which a member of our extended Buller family lived: Jacob Jacob Buller moved there in 1819. On the other hand, as we learned in the Przechovka Emigration series, Franztal was also the primary destination of the first group of immigrants from the Przechovka church to Molotschna. Our interest in both Bullers and the Przechovka church thus leads us to want to know more about this village.

Having read about the building of the house-barns in the village in the previous post, we pick up the account with the following paragraph: a description of the physical layout and features of the village.

The village is laid out in the direction from northeast to southwest. The Iushanle forms the border between the village and the land of the Tatars; the distance to the opposite border of the village Chernigov is 7 versts. On the northwestern side of the village along the lane are the orchards, each of which is a dessiatine in area and is already planted with a considerable number of fine fruit trees. At the end of the orchards rises the tree grove, which offers a lovely sight from the village with its green-leafed trees. On the west the village borders on Großweide, on the east Pastwa, and it is 60 Werst from the county seat Berdyansk. The numerous ancient burial mounds (Mohilen) give the land, one might say, a warty shape. The surface is almost everywhere black soil, in places containing saltpeter, with a layer of gravel and quarry stone, which lies over a thread/strand deep and in places comes to light. Although the productivity of the land does not equal that of the Molochna, trees, grains, and food crops thrive here as well. Violent storms often destroy the corn/grain fields in rows.

It is important to keep in mind that the description of this paragraph reflects the reality of 1848, not the initial founding of the village. The previous paragraph ended with the early houses just built; this paragraph speaks of fruit-bearing orchards. Much progress has been made in the nearly three decades since Franztal’s founding.

from northeast to southwest. The satellite photograph below shows the probable area of Franztal’s allotted farmland, and the site of the village itself is visible in the lower left of the red outline. The two rectangles at the bottom left (shown close up in the second photo) are oriented differently than the other fields. Those two rectangles were the original site of Franztal (which apparently was turned to farmland in the mid-1940s). The “northeast to southwest” description of the village’s layout makes sense when one sees it on a map.

Iushanle. The Iushanle River (also spelled Yushanlee and Jushanlee) formed the southern border of Molotschna colony on its southwest and southeast corners. Thus Franztal, which was founded on the bank of the Iushanle (seen clearly in the photograph above), was right on the border of the colony.

the land of the Tatars. Although Tatar in its strict sense refers only to people groups who speak one of the Turkic languages (e.g., Turkish), the term was used in a looser sense in imperial Russia to refer to both Mongols and Turkic peoples who had formerly been part of the Mongol Empire. The referent here is no doubt to the Nogai Tatars who lived to the south of Molotschna colony. We saw earlier that August von Haxthausen referred to the Nogai Tatars (here), and it is safe to assume that the authors of the Franztal Gemeindebericht had the same group in mind with their reference to Tatars.

the village Chernigov. This village cannot presently be identified, in spite of it being located with respect to Franztal (see next). What complicates the issue is that (1) Chernigov was also the name of a guberniia (or governate) far to the north–northwest of Molotschna and (2) Russian peasants from the Chernigov guberniia were settled in the Molotschna area (Staples 2003, 18, 58). Did the village referenced have some connection with the settlers from Chernigov guberniia? One might suspect this, but the village Chernigov seems clearly located in “the land of the Tatars,” which would generally imply that this was a Nogai village. The mystery will have to remain unsolved for now. We know that there was a village named Chernigov near Franztal, but beyond that we cannot say.

the distance … is 7 versts. The village Chernigov was relatively close, since 7 versts is equal to 4.6 miles. Thus, Chernigov was located approximately 4.6 miles to the southeast, south, or southwest of Franztal. Whether a village still exists on that site we do not know.

northwestern side of the village along the lane. Abruptly the community report shifts locations, and we are back in Franztal now. The village map below (modified from the one that appears here) shows what is being described. The original row of twenty-four houses extended along the river (highlighted in pink). The main street (lane) of the village (purple) ran along the stretch of houses. Although the second row of houses that was added later has been hidden below, the villagers may have left the area vacant for future expansion and planted their orchards and groves on the other side of the vacant land. If not, then the orchards and groves were presumably set right next to the village lane and cut down when the village doubled the number of its homesteads. Those details aside, if one mentally rotates this map so that north is at the top, the phrase “northwestern side of the village along the lane” makes perfect sense.

Now that we have described the location and layout of the village, we are ready to describe in greater detail some of its characteristics—which we will do in the next post in this series.

Work Cited

Staples, John R. 2003. Cross-Cultural Encounters on the Ukrainian Steppe: Settling the Molochna Basin, 1783–1861. Tsarist and Soviet Mennonite Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

German Original

Die Kolonie ist in der Richtung von Nordost nach Südwest angelegt. Der Juschanlee bildet die Grenze zwischen ihrem und dem Lande der Tataren; bis zur entgegengesetzten Grenze am Lande des Dorfes Tschernigow beträgt die Entfernung 7 Werst. An der nordwestlichen Seite der Kolonie der Gasse entlang befinden sich die Obstgärten, welche je eine Dessjatine Flächeninhalt haben und bereits mit einer beträchtlichen Anzahl von edlen Obstbäumen bepflanzt sind. Am Ende der Obstgärten erhebt sich die Gehölzplantage, welche von der Kolonie aus mit ihren grünbelaubten Bäumen einen reizenden Anblick gewährt. Gegen Abend grenzt die Kolonie an Großweide, gegen Morgen an Pastwa und ist von der Kreisstadt Berdjansk 60 Werst entlegen. Die vielen alten Grabhügel (Mohilen) verleihen dem Lande sozusagen eine warzige Gestalt. Die Oberfläche ist fast überall schwarze Erde, stellenweise etwas salpeterhaltig, mit einer Unterlage von Kies und Bruchstein, welche über einen Faden tief liegt und stellenweise zum Vorschein kommt. Obwohl die Erträglichkeit des Landes derjenigen an der Molotschna nicht gleichkommt, so gedeihen doch auch hier Bäume, Getreide und Futterkräuter. Heftige Stürme zerstören oft strichweise die Kornfelder.

Franztal 6

The last post ended with the new village laid out in a single row of twenty-four plots along the Iushanle River. The process of establishing Franztal began in April–May 1820, and at least six weeks passed before the site of the village was settled. Thus the building of structures probably did not begin until the end of June at the earliest, more likely sometime in July. We pick up the narrative at that point.

In the first year only one dwelling house was finished; the other [settlers] spent the first winter in habitable, furnished sections within stables or in earthen huts, until with the involvement of village head Peter Ratzlaff the full construction of the houses was completed as time and circumstances permitted.

This paragraph refers to three different types of structures, each of which was used as a dwelling. We will cover them in the order in which they are mentioned. 

dwelling house. This literal translation of the German Wohnhaus is offered to highlight the difference between this and the following structure. We cannot say how large or complex Franztal’s earliest structures were; we probably should not think in terms of the large, well-constructed house-barn complexes of later years (for further discussion and illustrations, see here). However, the difference may have been one of degree, not fundamental design. That possibility will become clearer in the following comment.

habitable, furnished sections within stables. The German Ställen translated “stables” might also be rendered “stalls” or “sheds.” The community report notes that some families lived within sections or compartments within these stables, the sections having been made habitable through the furnishings appropriate to a residence.

Pairing this structure with the previous one, the dwelling house, one might reasonably suggest that the usual construction plan proceeded as follows: a settler first built the stables half of a house-barn complex, then moved on to the domestic dwelling when the stables were completed. In Franztal in 1820, only one house-barn was completely finished before winter; others were partially finished, and those settlers spent the winter in the barn portion, probably sharing the larger structure with livestock but in their own furnished section.

earthen huts. The German word Erdbuden is rare, but its basic meaning is clear enough: Erd = earth, and Bude = booth, stall, or hut. We might envision by way of analogy the sod houses that settlers of the U.S. prairies constructed. The significant point to note is that these huts were distinguished from the first two structures by the construction material used. The permanent stables and house sections used wood for their frames, siding, and interior; the temporary huts had earthen walls. 

the first winter. Due to the delay in deciding where to locate the village and how to arrange it, the settlers had only a few months before winter in which to construct shelters for their livestock and themselves. We should recall here that the land into which they had moved was devoid of trees, so they had to haul in any lumber needed for construction. No doubt that reality also contributed to the delayed construction of their buildings.

village head. The title used (Dorfsvorstehers) is not the same as mayor (Schulze). I suspect that the title reflects the early stage of the village organization, before the mayor was appointed.

Peter Ratzlaff. The head of the village is already known to us: he was a member of the Przechovka group who emigrated from Prussia to Frantal in late 1819 (see here and Rempel 2007, 137). What is intriguing is that he is not listed among the twenty-seven families who originally settled in Franztal (Rempel 2007, 157–59), even though the 1835 census confirms that Ratzlaff was owner of Wirtschaft 6. We cannot say at this time what qualified Ratzlaff to be village head or how we was named to that position. All we know is that, according to the Gemeindebericht, Ratzlaff was instrumental in the building of the remaining houses in Franztal.

Most of Franztal’s settlers spent the winter of 1820–1821 in a furnished stable that they shared with their livestock or a simple hut with earth walls and, I imagine, a dirt floor. We do know how long it took for the village to take shape, but eventually it did, becoming home to over four hundred people in the early twentieth century. As we will read in the posts to come, however, the struggle to survive and thrive was not won overnight; other obstacles and challenges lay in Franztal’s future.

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.

German Original

Im ersten Jahr wurde nur ein Wohnhaus fertig, die anderen nahmen den ersten Winter in wohnbar eingerichteten Abteilungen in Ställen oder auch in Erdbuden vorlieb, bis unter tätiger Mitwirkung des damaligen Dorfsvorstehers Peter Ratzlaff der völlige Ausbau der Häuser nach Zeit und Umständen vollendet wurde.

Franztal 5

We ended the previous post with the report that the Franztal settlers’ first attempt to dig a well came up empty. This post repeats the relevant paragraph of the Gemeindebericht for context, then turns to commentary on the last half of the paragraph.

The steppe, which was given to the immigrants by the high crown and allocated by the then head of the district and tenant of the same Johann Cornies and measured in their presence, was completely empty. Only a few nomads grazed their herds here in the summertime. In order to have the colony established in the middle of the plot, the settlers chose a place located in the same depression where the colony Grossweide is located. This depression, however, was quite small and barely noticeable. Finding themselves in a Prussian lowland, the settlers immediately dug a hole in the ground to find water. But, in fact, they were quite wrong. The deeper they dug, the harder and drier the soil became, until at a depth of 52 feet they stopped the laborious digging and, after six weeks, moved their colony to the River Iushanle. But even here it seemed impossible to reach the water through the hard rock, and it had to be brought from the river. As the village was arranged in two rows, this discomfort was felt especially in the upper row, and there was a great deal of indignation, until at last Chief Justice Fadeev appeared to inspect the newly established colony and had it arranged in a row along the river.

dug a hole in the ground to find water. We discussed the digging of wells in Molotschna here and here. To summarize, in 1825 Johann Cornies wrote about his use of a wooden augur to dig wells ranging from 20 to 94 feet in depth. His rate of drilling was quite a bit higher than that reported here, so we should not assume that the Franztal settlers had access to Cornies’s wooden augur—especially since Cornies first wrote about it five years after the founding of the village. The Russian government had an iron augur that was used to dig wells; that implement required twenty-five men to operate, compared to the eight to ten needed for Cornies’s augur. Perhaps the slower rate of drilling may be attributed to the use of the heavier, more labor-intensive iron augur.

52 feet. The German original specifies the depth of the well as 8½ Faden. According to Robert C. Carrington (1864, 77), the Prussian Faden was equivalent to 6 Fuss (comparable to the English foot), or 74.142 English inches. Thus, 8½ Faden would be roughly 630 inches, or 52.5 feet. 

they stopped the laborious digging and, after six weeks, moved. The digging did not necessarily go on six full weeks; rather, the move took place after six weeks. Still, it seems reasonable to think that the greater part of the six-week period was spent digging the well.

moved their colony to the River Iushanle. As before, the word colony refers to the village proper, to Franztal. The move does not tell us where the first choice for the village site had been, but it does confirm that it was not along the river. My hunch (nothing more) is that the Franztal farmland was north of the eventual location of the village (area outlined in red on the satellite photo below) and that the original Franztal location was perhaps in the center of the allotted land, roughly .75 miles east of Grossweide (thus maybe in the same depression as that village?). Without corroborating evidence, this should be considered no more than a plausible suggestion.

it [water] had to be brought from the river. When the riverside site turned out to present its own set of problems for digging a well (impenetrably hard rock), the settlers resigned themselves to carrying water from the river. Still, this was not the end of the matter.

the village was arranged in two rows. The village was originally laid out in the usual fashion (see here for an example), with a main street down the middle and a row of houses on each side. Franztal originally had twenty-four Wirtschaften, so twelve plots would have appeared on each side of the road.

discomfort was felt … in the upper row. Those assigned to live in the row farthest from the river, the upper row, would have farther to carry water than those in the lower row.  

Chief Justice Fadeev appeared to inspect the newly established colony. We have encountered this individual previously (see here). Andrei M. Fadeev (spelled Fadeyev in this community report and Fadejew in the Alexanderwohl one) was chairman of the Ekaterinoslav office of the Guardianship Committee for Foreign Settlers in South Russia, which had oversight over Molotschna and other non-Russian colonies and settlements. We do not know whether Fadeev made it a practice to inspect new villages, only that in this case he did.

had it arranged in a row along the river. Fadeev’s solution to the “indignation” that the inhabitants of the upper row felt at having to carry their water so far was simple: the village would be laid out in a single row rather than two rows. The remnants of this arrangement can be seen in the layout of the village as late as the early 1940s, as shown in the map below by William Schroeder (see here).

A century after its founding, Franztal contained more than double the number of houses than it did in 1820. However, note the number in the row closest to the river: twenty-four. This confirms that at the beginning Franztal broke with the usual pattern and had all its houses laid out in a single row. Only in time was a second row of houses added, possibly when the two ditches carrying water from the river met some of the village’s water needs.  

Needless to say, the founding of Franztal was not a smooth process. The location first chosen did not produce a working well, so after six weeks of digging and waiting the settlers decided to plat the village next to the River Iushanle, from which water could be carried. Then, when the village was laid out in two parallel rows, those assigned plots in the row farthest from the river complained about having to carry water for daily needs so far. Finally, on their third attempt the settlers succeeded, and the village was laid out in a single row of twenty-four houses along the river. Unfortunately, as we will learn in the next post, the village was not yet in the clear, as new difficulties lay on Franztal’s horizon.

Work Cited

Carrington, Robert C. 1864. Foreign Measures and Their English Values. London: Potter. Available online here.

German Original

Die Steppe, welche den Einwanderern von der hohen Krone geschenkt und dem damaligen Gebietsvorsteher und Pächter derselben Johann Kornies angewiesen und in ihrem Beisein abgemessen wurde, war ganz leer. Nur einige Nomaden weideten hier zur Sommerzeit ihre Herden. Um die zu gründende Kolonie in der Mitte des Planes zu haben, wählten die Ansiedler einen Platz, welcher in der gleichen Vertiefung liegt, wo die Kolonie Großweide sich befindet. Diese Vertiefung war aber hier nur sehr gering und kaum bemerkbar. Sich in einer preußischen Niederung wähnend, gruben die Ansiedler sofort ein Loch in die Erde, um Wasser zu finden. Doch da hatten sie sich sehr getäuscht. Je tiefer sie gruben, desto härter und trockener wurde die Erde, bis sie in einer Tiefe von 8½ Faden das mühsame Graben einstellten und nach sechswöchentlichem Aufenthalt ihre Kolonie an den Fluß Juschanlee verlegten. Aber auch hier schien es unmöglich, durch den harten Fels bis auf’s Wasser zu gelangen, und dasselbe mußte aus dem Flusse herbeigeschafft werden. Da das Dorf zweireihig angelegt war, so empfand diese Unbequemlichkeit namentlich die obere Reihe und es entstand lauter Unwille, bis endlich der Oberrichter Fadejew zur Besichtigung der neu angelegten Kolonie erschien und sie dem Fluß entlang einreihig anlegen ließ.

Franztal 4

Thus far we have examined the first paragraph of the 1848 Franztal community report, which offered the basic facts about the 1820 founding of the village. We pick up with the second paragraph, which provides more details about that process. As before, we begin with a translation (the German original appears at the end of the post), then follow with commentary.

The steppe, which was given to the immigrants by the high crown and allocated by the then head of the district and tenant of the same Johann Cornies and measured in their presence, was completely empty. Only a few nomads grazed their herds here in the summertime. In order to have the colony established in the middle of the plot, the settlers chose a place located in the same depression where the colony Grossweide is located. This depression, however, was quite small and barely noticeable. Finding themselves in a Prussian lowland, the settlers immediately dug a hole in the ground to find water. But, in fact, they were quite wrong. The deeper they dug, the harder and drier the soil became, until at a depth of 52 feet they stopped the laborious digging and, after six weeks, moved their colony to the River Iushanle. But even here it seemed impossible to reach the water through the hard rock, and it had to be brought from the river. As the village was arranged in two rows, this discomfort was felt especially in the upper row, and there was a great deal of indignation, until at last Chief Justice Fadeyev appeared to inspect the newly established colony and had it arranged in a row along the river.

steppe. The English word steppe is cognate to German Steppe, and both convey the sense of treeless prairie or grassland. As we learned in The Russian Steppe series (begin here), the term describes well the land of the Molotschna colony before the Mennonites settled it. Crucial to the term’s meaning in this context is the fact that Franztal was founded on unplowed, uncultivated prairie.

allocated. The German is difficult here, and the word translated “allocated” would more normally be rendered “instructed.” In this context, however, the meaning seems to be that the Russian government—a monarchy, so “the high crown—granted a certain amount of land to the immigrants and then commissioned Johann Cornies to allocate the actual plot.

head of the district … Johann Cornies. The community report apparently misidentifies Cornies as head of the district (Gebietsvorsteher); Cornies was certainly Molotschna’s leading citizen and the leaseholder of vast stretches of Molotschna, but he did not hold an official position that could be labeled district head. Rather, the term Gebietsvorsteher presumably refers to the district mayor (Oberschulz; so Woltner 1941, 132 n. 4). Peter Toews served in that position at the time of Franztal’s founding (see here).

tenant of the same. The Gemeindebericht is on firmer ground in identifying Cornies as the primary tenant of Molotschna colony. As we noted earlier (here), Cornies leased 9,500 acres in Molotschna in 1812 and renewed the lease annually at least into the 1830s. There is no evidence that Cornies leased the land on which Franztal was founded; not only was his rented land farther west in the colony, but the community report makes no mention of him grazing his sheep or horse herds in this area.

measured in their presence. The measuring ensured that the village received its rightful allotment of land for the number of Wirtschaften in the village. Here the agent is clear: Cornies measured the land. The note at the end of the the previous post cites Woltner’s report that Franztal had been allotted 1,560 dessiatines, which is equivalent to 4,211 acres, or roughly 6.5 square miles (Woltner (1941, 132 n. 3). The 1,560-figure is consistent with a village of twenty-four Wirtschaften of 65 dessiatines each.

completely empty. Only a few nomads grazed their herds here in the summertime. The area in which Franztal was established had not previously been settled, either by earlier Mennonite settlers or anyone else. However, the land was used as summertime pasture by “a few” nomads. These nomads were, of course, the Nogai. The Alexanderwohl Gemeindebericht also mentioned the Nogai (here), which gives some indication of the significant role that the Nogai played in the Mennonite historical memory. Their primary occupation involved livestock: sheep, cattle, and horses. According to John R. Staples, “In 1824 the average Nogai household had nine horses, twenty-six head of cattle, and twenty-two sheep” (2003, 54).

In order to have the colony established in the middle of the plot. The word colony, as explained before, refers to the village proper. Thus, the meaning of this introductory clause is that the residents wished to locate their village in the middle of the plot of land, the 1,560 dessiatines that Cornies had measured out. Presumably this reflected a desire to keep the distance between home and field as short as possible.

the settlers chose a place. Given the preceding clause, it seems that this “place” was for the location of the village, not the associated farmland.

located in the same depression where … Grossweide is located. The meaning of the words is clear, but our knowledge of the topography of the area is deficient. The map below shows the location of Franztal and Grossweide to the northwest. The location of Franztal’s allotted land is not known, but it was presumably to the north or the west of Franztal’s final location. The reference to the depression in which Grossweide was located ensures that Franztal’s land was north of the River Iushanle (also known as Jushanlee or Yushanlee).

Prussian lowland. The meaning of this reference is not immediately clear, but the following context may provide a hint. It seems that the depression reminded the settlers of their previous home along the Vistula in Prussia (formerly Poland). Based on their experience of similar terrain in Prussia, they expected to dig a well in the depression that would provide the village’s water needs. According to the report, “they were quite wrong. The deeper they dug, the harder and drier the soil became, until at a depth of 52 feet they stopped the laborious digging.”

Like the Franztal settlers, we will stop at this point. Of course, you know the rest of the story from the translation above. However, the final sentences of the paragraph deserve careful attention, which will be provided in the following post. 

Works Cited

Staples, John R. 2003. Cross-Cultural Encounters on the Ukrainian Steppe: Settling the Molochna Basin, 1783–1861. Tsarist and Soviet Mennonite Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 

German Original

Die Steppe, welche den Einwanderern von der hohen Krone geschenkt und dem damaligen Gebietsvorsteher und Pächter derselben Johann Kornies angewiesen und in ihrem Beisein abgemessen wurde, war ganz leer. Nur einige Nomaden weideten hier zur Sommerzeit ihre Herden. Um die zu gründende Kolonie in der Mitte des Planes zu haben, wählten die Ansiedler einen Platz, welcher in der gleichen Vertiefung liegt, wo die Kolonie Großweide sich befindet. Diese Vertiefung war aber hier nur sehr gering und kaum bemerkbar. Sich in einer preußischen Niederung wähnend, gruben die Ansiedler sofort ein Loch in die Erde, um Wasser zu finden. Doch da hatten sie sich sehr getäuscht. Je tiefer sie gruben, desto härter und trockener wurde die Erde, bis sie in einer Tiefe von 8½ Faden das mühsame Graben einstellten und nach sechswöchentlichem Aufenthalt ihre Kolonie an den Fluß Juschanlee verlegten. Aber auch hier schien es unmöglich, durch den harten Fels bis auf's Wasser zu gelangen, und dasselbe mußte aus dem Flusse herbeigeschafft werden. Da das Dorf zweireihig angelegt war, so empfand diese Unbequemlichkeit namentlich die obere Reihe und es entstand lauter Unwille, bis endlich der Oberrichter Fadejew zur Besichtigung der neu angelegten Kolonie erschien und sie dem Fluß entlang einreihig anlegen ließ.

Franztal 3

With this post we begin to explore the history of Franztal by working through the earliest historical record about the village: the 1848 community report (Gemeindebericht). The original German text of the report is available online here but will be repeated in this series as well. 

The Franztal report was first published in the Odessaer Zeitung, a German-language newspaper based in the Russian (Ukrainian) Black Sea coastal city of Odessa. However, this first publication did not take place until 1904, over half a century after the report was first written. Other community reports never did see the light of day until Margarete Woltner finally retrieved them obscurity and published them all together in 1941.

As with Alexanderwohl, the posts will first provide a translation of a portion of the Gemeindebericht, then offer commentary as needed on any significant or unclear details. The Woltner collection also includes various notes to the text, which will be added to the commentary when appropriate. With that background, we are ready to begin with the first paragraph (the German original appears at the end of this post).

In April 1820, fifteen families from the district of Schwetz near Kulm in West Prussia arrived to establish a colony among the others. It was considered appropriate by the authorities and a commission chosen for settlement to set up each colony for twenty fireplaces but to cultivate only fifteen of them and to leave the others empty for their descendants. However, in a subsequent review of the plans, it was found that the colonies would not get their proper land, so all fireplaces had to be occupied immediately and one colony had to be distributed among the others. So it happened that on 18 May of the same year, eight more families of immigrants from the same district were added to the colony.

In April 1820, fifteen families … arrived. The founding of Alexanderwohl was dated to 1821 even though most of its original residents had arrived in Molotschna in late 1820. Thus, when we read that the first families of Franztal arrived in April 1820, we should allow for the possibility (which we will explore later) that some, if not all, of the earliest settlers had arrived in late 1819. It seems that the report is concerned most with dating the establishment of the village, not with the arrival date of its original residents.

district of Schwetz near Kulm in West Prussia. The map below shows the Schwetz district in 1879; the boundaries were basically the same half a century earlier, when the Franztal residents left the area for Molotschna. The red dot is the location of Kulm (modern Chełmno). Approximately 3 miles to the northwest, the red X marks the location of the Przechovka church. Thus the community report is consistent with what we concluded at the end of the Przechovka Emigration series: Franztal’s earliest settlers came from the Przechovka church.

colony. As we have noted before, the word colony, as used by government officials and residents of that time, is what we refer to as a village. Thus the report is noting that the fifteen families arrived in order to establish a new village among the other villages.

fireplaces. The German word Feuerstellen does signify a fireplace, but in this context the term is no doubt to be taken more figuratively for the home. An idiomatic English equivalent might be hearth. As we will soon learn, however, the term encompassed more than a physical house; it also included the associated land allotment. What is really in view here is a Wirtschaft, an economic unit consisting of a lot for one’s home in the village and ownership rights over 65 dessiatines (ca. 175 acres) of farm land.

the authorities and a commission chosen for settlement. This is an intriguing reference that raises all sorts of questions: Who were these authorities? Who served on the commission? Were these all Russian officials, or were Mennonites from Molotschna also included? Did this commission leave any records of their deliberations and decisions?

twenty fireplaces … fifteen. The meaning of what follows is not entirely clear, but this part of the report probably means that each of the villages established alongside Franztal (hence the reference to “among the others”?) was planned for twenty Wirtchaften, five of which would be left vacant for the descendants of the original settlers to inhabit. Recall that seven other villages were established in the same area in 1820 (see the map here).

the colonies would not get their proper land, so all fireplaces had to be occupied immediately. It seems clear enough that leaving Wirtschaften unoccupied for a long period of time was not permitted; all the village plots were to be assigned relatively soon after the founding of the village. That is, the residents could not hold Wirtschaften back for their children to settle; if they did not settle them now, others would be assigned the plots instead.

on 18 May…, eight more families … from the same district were added to the colony. It appears that fifteen families had been assigned Wirtschaften in April of 1820. In early May, however, another eight families were also allocated plots. Several things are worth noting. First, the latter eight families were from the same district (Kreise) as the others, namely, Schwetz district. One has the impression, then, that the eight families were part of the same group who had journeyed to Molotschna. Second, the addition of eight more Wirtschaften brings the total for Franztal to twenty-three, not the twenty mentioned earlier. This gives us another datum to check against the immigration and census records, which we will do after working our way through the community report.

***

The picture as we have it after the first paragraph of the report is relatively simple: in early 1820 twenty-three families formerly from the Przechovka area founded the village of Franztal. The reality, however, was anything but simple and smooth, as we will discover in the following paragraph of the report. 

Note: Woltner (1941, 132 n. 3) reports that in 1855 there were twenty-four Wirtschaften and thirty-five landless (Anwohner) families; Franztal had a total population of 184 males and 160 females). In 1857 the twenty-four Franztal Wirtschaften (accounting for 129 males) farmed 1,560 dessiatines (ca. 4,211 acres); the nine landless families in the village accounted for forty-five males. The sharp reduction in homeless families from 1855 to 1857 is worthy of further exploration.

German Original

Im April 1820 kamen 15 Familien aus dem Kreise Schwez bei Kulm in Westpreußen hier an, um unter anderen auch diese Kolonie zu gründen. Es wurde von der Obrigkeit und einer zur Ansiedlung gewählten Kommission für zweckmäßig erachtet, jede Kolonie für 20 Feuerstellen einzurichten, aber nur 15 davon zu bebauen und die übrigen für die Nachkommen leer zu lassen. Bei einer kurz darauf erfolgten Revision der Pläne find es sich jedoch, daß die Kolonien nicht ihr gehöriges Land bekommen würden, weshalb alle Feuerstellen sogleich besetzt und eine Kolonie auf die anderen verteilt werden mußten. So kam es, daß am 18. Mai desselben Jahres dieser Kolonie noch 8 aus dem selbigen Kreise eingewanderte Familien beigefügt wurden.

Work Cited

Woltner, Margarete. 1941. Die Gemeindeberichte von 1848 der deutschen Siedlungen am Schwarzen Meer. Sammlung Georg Leibbrandt 4. Leipzig: Hirzel.

Franztal 2

Before we examine the Franztal Gemeindebericht in detail, one more geography-focused post is well worth our time. This one concerns not only Franztal but also a number of Molotschna villages.

The previous post mentioned that most of the earliest Molotschna villages were clustered along the Molochna River. In the map below, the names of all nineteen villages established in 1804–1806 are displayed in red, which makes it easy to see how closely they were located. No village was more than 2 miles from its closest neighbor, and in many instances only a mile separated two villages.

The settlement year of most immediate interest to us is 1820, the year that Franztal was established; these villages, displayed in green, are all located in the southeast corner of the colony. 

Finally, note the three village names displayed in orange in the center left of the map: Fürstenwerder, Alexanderwohl, and Gnadenheim. These villages were all founded in 1821; like the others of the first decades, they were located in close proximity to each other. 

After the mid-1820s, the pace of new village foundings slowed considerably; moreover, the general trend was to extend the settlement pattern to the east, which is where what little available land that remained was located.

Considering where the earliest settlements were located, the 1820 founding of eight villages in the extreme southeast of the colony is noteworthy. One wonders what led the government authorities or the settlers to choose that area for this early group of villages. Perhaps the Franztal community report will give us further insight into this matter.

Note: See here for a Google Map of Molotschna colony with the Mennonite village names associated with the modern Ukrainian names. The map, developed by Andreas Tissen and titled Mennoniten in Russland, actually shows the location of all known Mennonite villages in Russia through 1943. 

Franztal 1

From 1804 through 1863, the Mennonite settlers of Molotschna founded sixty new villages. Nearly a third of these villages—nineteen, to be exact—were established in the first two years of the colony’s existence. Due largely to the Napoleonic Wars, the pace slowed down considerably after that, with six founded between 1811 and 1819, but it picked up again in the 1820s, with another nineteen villages. The 1830s saw four new villages founded, with one in the 1840s, seven in the 1850s, and four in the 1860s.

Some of these villages were, and still are, quite well known, even some with which members of our family were associated. Waldheim, for example, where David Buller spent a considerable portion of his life and where he presumably was laid to rest, was founded halfway through this sixty-year period, in 1838 (see here for the dating), but it eventually became the largest village in the colony and was even home to several agricultural equipment manufacturers. Alexanderwohl, where our ancestor Benjamin Heinrich spent his final years, was founded a number of years earlier, in 1821. Early on it was known for being founded primarily by a sizable portion of the Przechovka church, who moved to Molotschna en masse; five decades later history repeated itself as nearly the entire Alexanderwohl congregation emigrated to the United States.

Franztal is a different story. Founded in 1820, this village is relatively unknown and little considered. Neither the four-volume Mennonitisches Lexikon, the five volumes of the Mennonite Encyclopedia, nor the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (GAMEO) devotes even a brief article to this village. On the other hand, Frantzal in Neumark (along with Brenkenhoffswalde) is the subject of two entries (here and here), even though that Prussian/Polish village was a Mennonite village for a much shorter time than Franztal in Molotschna. 

It is not as though nothing is known of Franztal in Molotschna. The Mennonitische Geschichte und Ahnenforschung website, for example, provides information about and links to additional resources on Franztal from the time of its founding until well into the twentieth century (see here). Given the fact that Franztal was the first Molotschna village in which a member of our broader family lived, not to mention that it it is worth our time and effort, then, to assemble a coherent and complete narrative of the early years of this village.

The first part of the series will work carefully through the Franztal Gemeindebericht, or community report, just as we did with Alexanderwohl (see here). However, before we explore the history of the village, we need to locate it geographically, that is, place it on a map. The map below, which comes from the GAMEO website (here), will get us started.

The earliest settlements in Molotschna were made along the Molochna River that forms the western boundary of the colony. As new villages were established, they were often located along rivers that flow east–west and join the Molochna. Located in the middle of the map are two villages well known to us: Alexanderwohl (left line) and Waldheim (right line). Franztal can be seen on the far lower right of the map, on the very edge of the border of the colony.

A satellite photograph of the area today reveals an important truth: Franztal is no more.

The original villages Rudnerweide (modern Rozivka) and Grossweide (Prostore) are still identifiable. However, all the area where Franztal once stood is now merely field and farmland. This is not at all unusual; a number of other Mennonite villages in Molotschna suffered the same fate. 

The Mennonitische Geschichte und Ahnenforschung website confirms that by 2010 Franztal existed no more. In fact, the latest records provided for Franztal date to 1943–1945, that is, the last years of World War II. During this time the Soviet government relocated some Molotschna Mennonites east before the German army advanced through the region (this was not to protect the Mennonites but because the Soviets feared the German-speaking Mennonites would collaborate with their enemies); later, when the German army retreated west, many Mennonites went along in an attempt to escape the Soviet oppression. We do not know that Franztal ceased to exist at this time, but it is a reasonable hypothesis until more definitive information becomes available.

A Look Back

With a new year comes new opportunities to explore our shared history within the Mennonite world. As hinted last week, we will soon turn our attention to Franztal, the first Molotschna village called home by a member of our broader Buller family. Before doing so, however, we should take a moment to look back on the year just ended to reflect on what we covered and discovered during 2018.

1. According to the Blog Archive to the right of the main page, last year saw the publication of 128 posts, an average of 10.7 per month, or one post every 2.85 days. This annual output was the second highest of the five calendar years of Buller Time’s existence, following only 2016’s even 200 posts.

2. Those 128 posts consisted of just under 144,000 words, which means that the average length of the posts was 1,125 words. To put this into perspective, the text alone of 2018’s blog posts, not counting any figures or photos, is roughly equivalent to a 360-page academic book.

3. The topics covered were fewer in number this year than in years past, as we focused our attention on specific questions. More historically oriented series on the Przechovka church and Molotschna colony included the following:

• Alexanderwohl
• Moving to Molotschna 
• Molotschna Livestock
• Przechovka Emigration

More family-focused series and posts also received attention

• Other Bullers (the HP Buller family)
• Peter P and Margaretha’s House
• Peter Buller’s Baptism (Peter D)
• David and Helena’s Children (Elisabeth, Benjamin, Helena)
• South Dakota Bullers (distant relatives)

4. During 2018, Buller Time posts were viewed 7,694 times, an average of 21 times a day. This is, to be sure, a paltry number when compared to most other websites and blogs. However, it is an increase of nearly 6 percent over 2017, which is an encouraging trend in and of itself. Beyond that, I find it a little remarkable that a blog devoted to the family of Chris Buller and Malinda Franz received over 7,500 page views in a single year—not bad for a bunch of landless hicks from Molotschna!

No one can say where 2019 will lead us. All we know for certain is that we are unlikely to run out of questions to pose or evidence to ponder in the near future. Thank you to all those who have provided resources to plumb and encouragement to write—and especially to Buller Time’s faithful readers (thinking especially of you, Dad) who make the time and effort all worthwhile.