Halbstadt 12

Our progression through the story of Halbstadt’s founding and early history continues. With the village name explained (see the previous post), we are ready to learn of the establishment of the village itself.

The houses were built for the most part already in the first summer of a framework filled out with prepared loam. In support, every settler received from the high crown the lumber needed for a dwelling and 125 bank rubles for the purchase of cattle and farm implements. This advance was to be repaid without interest, according to the immigration edict, after the graciously granted ten free years over the ten following years.

the first summer. As we discovered earlier, twenty of Halbstadt’s founding families arrived on the same day: 21 June 1804 (see Halbstadt 6). Here we learn that, during the first three months of their residency, they constructed their initial (and no doubt temporary) houses.

framework filled out with prepared loam. The community report’s description of these first houses is both clear and frustratingly vague. It is clear, for example, that the houses used lumber in the frame and sod in the walls. Less clear is the extent of the framing, whether it was limited to doors and windows or extended to the roof or beyond. Given the limited information found in the report, the best we can do is to suggest a reasonable and provisional reconstruction of these houses.

We have periodically noted that Mennonites were not the only ones settling in the area at this time. One such group of settlers, the Prischib enclave or colonies, was located to the west across the Molotschna River opposite the Molotschna Mennonites. These settlers were primarily German Lutherans who arrived in the region at roughly the same time as the Mennonites. They, too, were under Russian imperial authority and likewise were required to compose their own village Gemeindeberichte. The community report for the village Hochstädt, which was 8 miles west-northwest of Halbstadt, offers additional details:

The first dwellings were hastily constructed earth-covered cellars called Semljanken. Two to three years passed before some were able to leave their “hamster dwellings,” since they were in no hurry to build houses. (Woltner 1941, 65; German original below)

The dwellings that the Höchstadt setters constructed are referred to as cellars, which indicates that they were at least partially, if not entirely, below ground. The report further identifies the dwellings as Semljanken, which appears as a German word but is in fact a Russian term adopted by German speakers living in a Russian context. The Russian term землянки, or semeljanken (more precisely, zemljanka), refers broadly to any house constructed of earth or specifically to dugouts, which would include the earth-covered cellars mentioned here.

Although the Russian term semeljanken does not provide additional details about the type of house, it does point us in the right direction. When Russian Mennonites settled in Manitoba in the late nineteenth century, their first houses were constructed of sod, just like the first dwellings in Molotschna earlier in that century. These sod houses were known as semlins, a term that clearly stems from the Russian term semeljanken and its German derivation Semljanken (note the repetition of the letters s-m-l-n). Based on this correspondence, we can now construct a likely image of the sod houses that were hastily constructed in Halbstadt.

According to Allen Noble,

semi-subterranean structures were utilized because alternative building materials were not immediately available when a group migrated into an area, or because sufficient time was lacking to construct an above ground dwelling before the onset of the first winter. German-Russian Mennonite settlers entering the largely treeless prairie provinces of Canada in the mid-19th century resorted initially to the old dwelling forms called the semeljanken or semlin.… The semlin which the Mennonites created was a rectangular, excavated pit about three feet deep, with low, above-ground walls of large sods upon which rested a timber and sod roof of gentle pitch. Average dimensions were 24-30 feet long by 12 feet wide. Some reports suggest that farm animals as well as humans occupied the earliest such structures. (Noble 2007, 128).

If, as seems likely, the Halbstadt dwellings were roughly the same as the Manitoba semlins, then we can safely imagine that they resembled the semlins reconstructed on the grounds of the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada (see their website; all photographs courtesy of Shahnoor Habib Munmun).

Of course, we should not imagine that the original Halbstadt dwellings were exactly like the semlins in Manitoba more than half a century later; apart from the sod, the available building materials no doubt differed. Nevertheless, the general size and shape of the these semisubterranean sod houses probably was the same.

The interiors of the Halbstadt houses are an even greater mystery. As shown below, the reconstructed Manitoba semlin has wood walls and floors, and it is possible that the Halbstadt semeljanken shared this finishing touch.

The community report states that the houses were constructed of “prepared loam” (zubereitetem Lehm), which one might take (as in the translation) as a reference to the cutting of sod into building blocks; however, the German can also be translated “finished loam.” In this sense one might envision not the preparation of the loam but the finishing of the loam walls inside the structure. Does that mean, then, that the interior was finished with lumber, as shown here? Although this is possible, if the term means finished rather than prepared, it seems more likely that the loam itself was finished.

This understanding finds support from other Russian Germans who settled in North America, specifically Germans who in 1876 resettled from the steppes of Russia’s Volga region to Kansas. Albert J. Petersen Jr. writes:

At first they constructed temporary shelters on the chosen village sites. The first dwellings were semi-dugout sod houses. Although often attributed to the American experience, the German-Russian sod dwelling, or semljanken, actually had its origins on the Russjan Volga. Unlike American sod houses, the semljanken was set three feet in the ground. The walls were built of sod, projecting several feet above ground level. The interior walls were plastered with a combination of mud mixed with dried prairie grass. (Petersen 1976, 19)

Note first that the adoption of the semljanken (or semlin) form was not exclusive to Mennonites; other residents of Russia shared that architectural feature. More significant for the specific question at hand is the final sentence: the interior walls of this sod house were plastered, or finished, with mud mixed with dried grass. If the phrase zubereitetem Lehm refers to the finished state of the sod walls, rather than the preparation of the sod blocks themselves (I do not know which is in view), then it likely refers to a type of plastering similar to that described by Petersen.

The next post will finish the rest of the current paragraph by commenting on the lumber used in house construction and the other forms of government support of the new settlers.

*****

Höchstadt community report:

Die ersten Wohnungen waren eilig angefertigte, mit Erde bedeckte Keller, welche Semljanken genannt wurden. Bei einigen vergingen 2 bis 3 Jahre, bevor sie ihre Hamsterwohnungen zu verlassen im Stande waren, weil sie sich mit dem Häuserbau nicht gerade beeilten.

Works Cited

Noble, Allen. 2007. Traditional Buildings: A Global Survey of Structural Forms and Cultural Functions. International Library of Human Geography Book 11. London: Tauris.

Petersen, Albert J., Jr. 1976. “The German-Russian House in Kansas: A Study in Persistence of Form.” Pioneer America 8:19–27.

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

On the general topic of this post, see also the following resources:

Butcher, S. D. 1904. Sod Houses, or The Development of the great American Plains. Kearney, NE: Western Plains. Primarily photographs available online here.

Dick, Everett. 1954. The Sod-House Frontier, 1854–1890: A Social History of the Northern Plains from the Creation of Kansas and Nebraska to the Admission of the Dakotas. Lincoln: Johnson.

Francis, E. K. 1954. “The Mennonite Farmhouse in Manitoba.” Mennonite Quarterly Review 28:56–59. (unavailable to me)

Germans from Russia Settlement Locations blog. Includes map and information about the Prischib colonies.

Noble, Allen G. 1981. “Sod Houses and Similar Structures: A Brief Evaluation of the Literature.” Pioneer America 13:61–66.

Vashakmadze, Shota. 2017. “Solomon Butcher’s Architectural Image.” Avery Review 25. Available online here.

For German Semljanken = Russian землянки, see https://amtrakt.de/tagebuch/.

Halbstadt 11

The previous post dealt with a long section of the community report and thus turned out quite long itself. The subject of this post is a single sentence.

The Oberschulze at the time, Klaas Wiens, gave this village the name Halbstadt without special reason, at the request of the settlers for the name of a village in Prussia in which some of them had lived.

Oberschulze. There is no consensus about how best to translate this German term, and there is good reason to think that one common translation, district mayor, is as misleading as it is enlightening. For these reasons I decided (for now) not to translate the term at all, so that readers are not misled by an imperfect translation choice.

The problem stems from the inexact relation between the archaic German word Schulze and the English term most often used to translate it: mayor. The German Schulze was, to be sure, the chief executive of a village, but his role was not so much holding a political office as it was exercising practical authority. Thus the Schulze was usually responsible to collect taxes, to enforce governmental decisions, and, in general, to maintain the peace. Each village in Molotschna had its own Schulze, and the Oberschulz was “over” all of them, serving as the chief executive of the district. No English term conveys this role in a clear and succinct manner, so for the time being I will simply use the German term itself.

Klaas Wiens. We have already encountered Klaas Wiens twice in our journey through the Halbstadt community report. Wiens was first mentioned as one of the de facto leaders of the group(s) who traveled to establish the Molotschna colony (see Halbstadt 3). More recently we read that Wiens was the first to plant a forest plantation in Molotschna, an act for which Alexander I rewarded him by granting him his own estate (see Halbstadt 10). To read more about Wiens, see the entry on him here.

According to Cornelius Krahn (1959), Wiens was Molotschna’s first Oberschulze, serving from 1804 to 1806. Unlike the village of Alexanderwohl, which was named by Andrei M. Fadeev, of the Ekaterinoslav Bureau of the Guardianship Committee, or Waldheim, which was named by Johann Cornies, Halbstadt was named by Oberschulze Klaas Wiens. This in itself is an indication of the type and extent of authority that an Oberschulze exercised.

without special reason. A more paraphrastic rendering of the German might be: The Oberschulze at the time, Klaas Wiens, gave this village the name Halbstadt for no other reason than that the settlers asked that it be named after a village in Prussia in which some of them had lived. The point is that the name Halbstadt had no particular significance as it related to the founding of the village. The name, which literally means “Half City,” was no commentary on the new village. By way of comparison, recall that the founders of Alexanderwohl invested great significance in the naming of their village (see here).

name of a village in Prussia. In fact, the new Molotschna village was named Halbstadt because some of its founders had lived in a village by that name in Prussia/Poland, or so we are led to think. Richard D. Thiessen reports that “the 1776 Prussian census lists 13 Mennonite families in Halbstadt with the following surnames: Claasen, Conrad, Dick, Isaac, Kroecker, Loewen, Mertins, Reimer, Toews, Wall, Warkentin, Wiens, and Willer” (Thiessen 2012). Oddly, not one of these names appears among the list of original Halbstadt settlers (see Halbstadt 5): Berg/Barg, Boldt, Braun, Epp, Esau, Fast, Friesen, Giesbrecht, Groening, Heide/Heude, Hiebert, Janzen, Plett, and Wiebe. It is always possible, of course, that several of the founders of Molotschna Halbstadt moved to Prussian Halbstadt between 1776 and 1803. However, it seems curious, perhaps even suspicious, that one of the thirteen families identified with Prussian Halbstadt was Wiens, the surname of the Oberschulze who gave Halbstadt in Molotschna its name.

Works Cited

Krahn, Cornelius. 1959. “Oberschulze.” Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Available online here.

Thiessen, Richard D. 2012. “Halbstadt (Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland).” Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Available online here.

Halbstadt 10

In the previous section of commentary on the Halbstadt community report (Gemeindebericht) we learned about the soil where the Mennonite farmers settled and its agricultural potential. In this post we turn to another aspect of the territory: its utter lack of trees when the settlers arrived.

To beautify the treeless steppe, a wooded area of 10.5 dessiatines was planted at the north end of the village close to the Molotschna; this was at the request of His Majesty Alexander I during his highly esteemed visit to the local villages in 1825. Seeds from abroad were obtained for this purpose by His Excellency State Councillor Mr. Contenius and the local Agricultural Society. In addition, under the management of the Society, every farmer [i.e., landowner] has planted 1 dessiatine of various fruit trees on his hearth as a garden.

treeless steppe. As noted often, the steppeland of the Molotschna colony was devoid of trees when the Mennonites first settled there. This was one of the features that caught the attention of outsiders as early as the Greek historian Herodotus, more than four centuries before Jesus. Much later, during Catherine the Great’s tour of the territory, she “noted with dismay the lack of trees” across the region (Moon 2013, 39; see further 36–39). According to David Moon, the absence of trees was not a natural phenomenon. He explains:

The environment of the steppes encountered by the first waves of migrants was not a “pristine” world that had evolved independently of human action. Later research confirmed the suspicions of some earlier specialists … that the treeless grassland was to some extent created by human activity. For many centuries, the indigenous, nomadic population burned the steppe to encourage the growth of fresh grasses for their herds of livestock to graze on. The combined effects of fire and grazing contributed to the evolution of the grassland, restricting the spread of trees and shrubs from those parts of the landscape where they grew naturally. (2013, 7)

Human activity had created a treeless landscape, and now human activity would reverse course and populate the steppes with beautiful trees.

wooded area of 10.5 dessiatines. The community report begins with a communal area and activity: the planting of a wooded area at the north end of the village, near the Molotschna River. A dessiatine is equivalent to 2.7 acres, so the size of the wooded area was a little more than 28 acres. The community report does not specify what type of trees were planted here, but these were almost certainly forest trees (see below). An aerial examination of the village site today does not reveal any traces of this wooded area; presumably the trees died or were cut for firewood at some point during Halbstadt’s history.

request of … Alexander I. The commitment to planting trees is attributed to Tsar Alexander I, but it was not due entirely to him. Alexander I visited Molotschna twice, in 1818 and 1825, and several roughly contemporary sources record that during his second visit he encouraged the Mennonite residents to plant trees. An 1831 letter from Andrei M. Fadeev, chairman of the Ekaterinoslav Bureau of the Guardianship Committee, to Johann Cornies explains:

Mennonite communities in general, and every individual in particular, must henceforth give preferential and continuous attention to the development of orchard- and forest-tree culture. Both of these economic branches can help lay the foundation of prosperity for Mennonites and their descendants, and visibly distinguish their villages from others.

     The obligation of the Molochnaia Mennonites must rest on sacred feelings of gratitude and on their promise to establish and spread the cultivation of forest trees. In 1825, during His Majesty’s last visit to the Molochnaia villages, Mennonites solemnly promised the late Tsar Alexander, of ever-glorious memory, to lay out small village woodlots in which each household would be assigned a half-desiatina plot. This vow must not be broken. Actions in this regard will assist Mennonites in maintaining their privileges on a firm, enduring foundation, and will establish their own prosperity and that of their descendants. (Cornies 2015, 227–28)

A brochure written by Fadeev four years earlier, in 1827, recounts Alexander’s visit in even greater detail. Fadeev had accompanied Alexander on the journey, so he was well equipped to offer a reliable report. His account of one conversation is especially relevant here:

After dinner His Majesty entered the other room. After several minutes the Mennonite elders were called. The Monarch asked them whether they were satisfied in everything and whether they might not have some complaints. After they answered that in every respect they were happy and satisfied, and that nothing remained for them than to thank the Monarch for his charity and grace, he said, “I am likewise satisfied with you for your quiet life and diligence. However, I wish that on each farm you would plant trees—particularly the American acacia that grows quickly in this area—in groves up to half a desiatin in size.” (Good and Good 1989, 127)

Note the slight difference between the two reports: the first refers to “small village woodlots in which each household would be assigned a half-desiatina plot,” whereas in the second Alexander expresses the wish that “on each farm you would plant trees … in groves up to half a desiatin in size.” The single wooded area described in the Halbstadt community report corresponds more closely to the 1831 account; the size of the wooded area (10.5 dessiatines) likewise matches a half-dessiatine allotment for each of Halbstadt’s original twenty-one farmsteads.

In Fadeev’s 1827 account, Alexander commends fast-growing acacia trees as an especially promising option. According to Peter Köppen, a Russian official who visited Molotschna in 1837, “The trees they [the Mennonites] planted most frequently were elm, ash, and maple, and also poplar and black locust. In addition, they had managed to grow some coniferous trees” (Moon 2013, 181). All these varieties would have been appropriate for Halbstadt’s communal wooded area, although, of course, we do not know what type(s) of trees were actually planted there.

Finally, as mentioned above, these tree-planting initiatives were not solely attributable to Alexander. In fact, Fadeev’s 1827 brochure records him clarifying for Alexander that a particular stop on their route was not a village but rather “the estate [Vorwerk] established on the land granted by Your Majesty to the late Mennonite elder, Wiens, for his zealous service and establishment of the first forest plantation in this district” (Good and Good 1989, 125, emphasis added). Likewise, Fadeev’s 1831 letter to Cornies notes that “orchards and forest trees are already well established in several Molochnaia Mennonite villages” (Cornies 2015, 228). In light of this evidence, we should conclude that Alexander’s 1825 comments did not initiate the Molotschna tree-planting efforts but rather gave them a much-needed boost and focus.

State Councillor Mr. Contenius and the local Agricultural Society. We met Samuel Contenius earlier (see here) due to his involvement in assigning lands to the settlers. Here he is credited with securing and providing tree seeds to the Mennonite villages. As noted earlier, Contenius retired from his chairmanship of the Yekaterinoslav Guardianship Office in 1818, so his procurement of seeds from foreign sources either took place before that time or was part of his unofficial work on behalf of the Guardianship Office before his death in 1830.

References to the Agricultural Society can be confusing, since there was not one but three such bodies over the first half of the nineteenth century. As John R. Staples summarizes, 

The most visible elements of Nicholas’ reforms in the Molochnaia were economic “societies.” Contenius had created a first, the Sheep Society, in 1824, before Nicholas’ ascension to the throne. It provided a model for the much more powerful Forestry Society, created at the state’s behest in 1831, and, most importantly, the Agricultural Society, created in 1836. (Staples 2015, xliii)

Staples further explains 

Contenius personally created the Sheep Society and provided detailed instructions on its structure and activities. He hand-picked Cornies as its chair-for-life and insisted that Cornies report extensively on his activities and successes. The Forestry Society was also Contenius’ idea, although by the time it was created he had died, and Fadeev played the central role in formulating its charter. (2015, xliii)

In seems most probable that the reference to the Agricultural Society in the Halbstadt community report is to the Forestry Society. For what appears to be the Forestry Society’s charter, see Cornies 2015, 227–35. 

every farmer has planted 1 dessiatine of various fruit trees on his hearth. In addition to requiring the creation of village forest areas, the Forestry Society mandated the planting of fruit trees. Each landowner (i.e., owner of a Wirschaft) was required to plant various fruit trees on his village lot. Fadeev writes in his 1831 charter letter to Cornies:

In Mennonite villages, a number of good, well-disposed householders have laid out large orchards with good fruit trees. 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. The soil must be adequately prepared and the site protected from livestock damage. … The dimensions of areas selected by each householder for his fruit orchard must be measured and calculations must be made to determine how many rows of trees can be planted without crowding. Every tree must be given sufficient space to grow naturally, so that roots and crowns do not eventually grow together. Experience shows orchards with trees planted too close together result in inferior trees and less fruit than orchards where sun and air can have a beneficial influence on the crown of every individual tree. … Very dry or hot locations are exceptions, where trees must be planted closer together. Spaces between apple and pear trees should be filled with cherry, peach, apricot, and plum trees … as the most useful fruits for every husbandman on the land. (Cornies 2015, 231–32)

According to the Halbstadt community report, the residents of that village had each planted 1 dessiatine (= 2.7 acres) of fruit trees on their lots. Of course, we should not understand this statement literally but as a general description of the villagers’ compliance with the Forestry Service requirement.

In the following (much briefer) post, we will return to Elder Wiens, who not only planted the first forest plantation but also played a key role in the history of Halbstadt.

Works 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.

Good, E. Reginald, and Kathryn Shantz Good, trans. and eds. 1989. “The Last Visit of Emperor Alexander I to the Mennonite Colonies.” Journal of Mennonite Studies 7:123–30. Available online here.

Moon, David. 2013. The Plough That Broke the Steppes: Agriculture and Environment on Russia’s Grasslands, 1700–1914. Oxford Studies in Modern European History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Staples, John R. 2015. “Introduction.” Pages xxi–lvi in Cornies 2015.