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.