The source of this information (a family Bible? a government record? a personal letter?) is not given; all that we know is that the compilers of the BFR—Aunts Maria and Sara Buller and Gordon Buller—recorded it for their generation and those to come in the future.
But why should we think that they got it right? If nothing else, we should keep all these questions open in our minds until we have documentary evidence confirming or correcting what has been written in the Buller Family Record. We have seen this already, with the discovery that Peter D and family came to the U.S. on the S.S. Switzerland, not the S.S. Vaderland, as the BFR claims (see here). A contemporary record, the ship manifest, left no doubt about this fact.
Thanks to Glenn Penner (once again!), we have several contemporary records associated with David Buller’s death that are well worth examining carefully. But first a little background.
Mennonite communities around the world were served by various periodical publications: monthly magazines, weekly or semimonthly newsletters, and the like. One in particular stands out among all the rest: Die Mennonitische Rundschau (aka Die Mennonitische Rundschau und Herold der Wahrheit between 1901 and 1908). According to Harold S. Bender and Richard D. Thiessen, this newsletter “was the oldest Mennonite periodical published continuously under one name, with its first issue on 5 June 1880 and its last issue in January 2007. … The Rundschau was the paper of the Russian Mennonites for decades, and continued to carry something of this general character.”
Although written in German, the Rundschau was published in the U.S., generally as a weekly with as few as four but often as many as sixteen pages. The purpose of newsletter was to enable Mennonites in the U.S. to keep up to date with their Old World families and communities. One of the interesting features of the Rundschau was its inclusion of letters from individuals in Russia informing relatives and friends of important events that had taken place, in many cases the death of someone known to the readership of the Rundschau. These death announcements are so frequent that Mennonite researchers have compiled an index of all those whose deaths were announced in the Rundschau (available online here).
Fast forward to 2015. Glenn Penner not only mentioned the fact that David Buller (yes, that David Buller) is listed in the Rundschau index four times for the years 1905 and 1906; he also forwarded scans of the pages where David Buller’s death is reported or commented upon. We shall look at each of these pages in turn. We begin with page 9 of the 18 January 1905 issue of the Rundschau.
The section of greatest interest begins halfway down the second column, under the heading Rußland (Russia). Below the heading we discover important information about the letter: it was written from Waldheim on 24 November 1904.
If Waldheim sounds familiar, that is because we noted earlier (see here and here) that David Buller lived in this Molotschna village for at least the last four decades of his life, possibly more. The date is also important, since it is around the time of David’s reported death.
The letter continues with opening pleasantries: “A warm greeting to the respected editor and all beloved Rundschau readers! Long, yes long I have wanted to write for the beloved Rundschau. Since my friend David Hübert of Henderson, Nebraska, asked me to give news of his friend, Cornelius Richert, I will thus with this report briefly on his friends, provided the dear editor accepts my little writing into the Rundschau.”
Eleven lines down in column 4 we learn who is writing this letter: Peter and Anna Warkentin. In between the opening pleasantries and ending ascription, in the second full paragraph of column 3, we find the part of interest to us.
Nun möchte ich noch einige Todesfälle berichten. Den 16. November wurde der alte Großvater David Buller im Alter von 86 Jahren und 10 Monaten hier in Waldheim begraben.
Now I would like to report some deaths. On November 16 the old grandfather David Buller was buried at the age of 86 years and 10 months here in Waldheim.
Here we have a contemporary report of key information related to the death of David Buller. How contemporary? Although this issue of the Rundschau was published 18 January 1905, the letter itself was written 24 November 1904, a mere eight days after the date of David’s burial in the same village in which the letter writers lived. Historical evidence is rarely more contemporary than that.Now I would like to report some deaths. On November 16 the old grandfather David Buller was buried at the age of 86 years and 10 months here in Waldheim.
Why is the contemporaneity—and presumably reliability—of this evidence so important? Because it forces us to reconsider the information found in the Buller Family Record. According to the BRF (see above), David passed away on 25 September 1904, exactly 86 years and 10 months after he was born. The Warkentins agree that he lived for 86 years and 10 months, but they say that he died sometime before 16 November (the date of his burial).
Unless we are to believe that the Warkentins were confused about when the funeral took place (they thought that it was eight days before writing the letter but it had actually been a month and a half), we must take their testimony at face value and accept the fact that the BFR date of death is incorrect. David died in November 1904, not September of that year.
Interestingly, both the BFR and the Warkentins report that David lived to an age of 86 years and 10 months. Since it was common for Mennonite death reports to specify length of life down to the day (e.g., elsewhere in the Rundschau and in the Przechovka church book), the 86 + 10 length may be a precise length of life; however, apart from knowing with certainty David’s date of birth, we will not be able to say one way or the other.
What we can also conclude from this single sentence is that the BFR apparently has David’s date of birth wrong as well. If he lived to an age of approximately 86 years and 10 months, then he certainly was not born in November 1817 but in January 1818. That is the only way one can have his death in November 1904 and a length of life of 86 years and 10 months.
Before we leave this first Rundschau announcement, two additional matters merit attention. First, we still do not know exactly when David passed away. All we know is that he was buried 16 November. Immediately after the sentence about David we read of Tobias Sperling of Hierschau (the next village over from Waldheim): he died on 17 November and was buried on the 21st. If the timing for David was roughly the same, then he probably died around the 12th.
The second issue relates to the calendar being used in the report of these dates. We covered this issue a while back (see the asterisked paragraph at the bottom of the post here), so a brief summary should suffice. Since 1752 the U.S. has followed the Gregorian calendar, but until 1914 Russia still used the Julian one. Presumably the Warkentins were following the Julian calendar when they dated David’s burial to 16 November. It is possible, of course, that they or the Rundschau editor converted the date to Gregorian before publication, but for the moment we must hold open the possibility that David was buried on 16 November Julian, which was 29 November Gregorian.
It is remarkable that one sentence of twenty-one words could raise so many questions. In the end, all that we can say with any certainty is that the Buller Family Record has David’s dates of birth and of death incorrect. Perhaps the next mention of David in the Rundschau will bring some clarity to the scene.
Source
Bender, Harold S., and Richard D. Thiessen. 2007. Mennonitische Rundschau, Die (Periodical). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Available online here.
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