Primary sources

One of the commitments of Buller Time blog is to rely on primary sources whenever it is possible to do so. Ideally, we prefer to see with our own eyes the records of church books, government censuses, ship manifests, passports, antique photographs, and the like. When these are unavailable, we content ourselves with transcriptions or translations of those records, trusting the scholars and researchers of Mennonite history and genealogy for access to this important information.

Occasionally we have access to a primary source in a modern form, as in A Mennonite in Russia: The Diaries of Jacob D. Epp, 1851–1880 (Dyck 1991). The University of Toronto Press published Harvey L. Dyck’s introduction to and translation of Jacob Epp’s diary in hardcover in 1991, but recently they have reissued it in paperback and even e-book form (see further below).

Why should we be interested in Jacob Epp’s diary? Not because he mentions any Bullers—I checked, and he does not. Not even because it discusses in any depth areas where our family lived. Jacob Epp lived in and around the Chortitza (or Khortitsa or Chortiza) colony, also known as the Old Colony, which was roughly 60 miles north–northwest of the Molotschna colony.

The Chortitza colony was located in the area of the upper star, the Molotschna colony around the area of the lower star. 

Jacob Epp’s diary is of interest to us primarily because it reflects in sometimes-beautiful and often-brutish detail what life was like in a Mennonite settlement very much like that in which our ancestors lived during the last three decades of their life before emigrating to the U.S. Couple that with Harvey L. Dyck’s informed, insightful, introduction to the diary, as well as his helpful notes to the translation, and one is given a fascinating and informative window into the world of nineteenth-century Russian Mennonite life.

That is not to say that Epp’s diaries have nothing to do with our family. In fact, Grandma Malinda’s own great-grandfather Isaac Peters (see here) appears in Epp’s entry for 24 January 1873. During a visit by Jacob Epp to the Molotschna colony, he attended a meeting concerning possible emigration to the U.S. Epp writes:

This morning, Jacob Hiebert harnessed his horses and took me through Gnadenfeld to Pordenau, where the conference and Brotherhood Meeting took place in the church. It was conducted by Elder Isaac Peters. The subject was the prospective emigration and the question of sending a deputation to America. About 2000 R. had been allocated for this purpose and a further 1000 was collected. (Dyck 1991, Kindle 6493–96)

A little more than a year and a half later, Elder Peters is mentioned once again, in the entry for 18 October 1874:

Emigration fever among our Mennonites both in the Khortitsa District and on the Molochna continues to be very strong, and only God knows what the end result of this will be. Elder Isaac Peters, whose preaching is said to have included abuse of the government, has received formal notice from the imperial authorities that he must leave Russia within a short period of time. Farms are selling for next to nothing. Those earlier priced from 5000 to 6000 R. are now selling for 2000 R. or, at most, 3000 R. Other possessions are similarly cheap.

Even apart from the family connection, this sort of immediate, primary contact with the people and events of that time and place far surpasses both in value and enjoyment even the best of secondary, or second-hand, historical accounts.

I highly recommend this work for all Buller Time blog readers. It is available in paperback or EPUB (suitable for a variety of e-readers, including i-Books) format at the University of Toronto Press site here (lowest e-book price). An e-version is also available from Google Play here, from Amazon for Kindle here. Tolle lege!


Source Cited

Dyck, Harvey L., ed. and trans. 1991. A Mennonite in Russia: The Diaries of Jacob D. Epp, 1851–1880. Tsarist and Soviet Mennonite Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.