Waldheim settlers 4

The 1839–1841 list that we introduced in the previous post (here) is important not just as evidence that our family—Grandpa Chris’s great-great-grandfather Benjamin and great-great-uncle Benjamin—were landowners in Waldheim, Molotschna colony, but also as an independent primary source that may confirm or clarify what the earlier sources revealed about the early Waldheim population.

We begin with an point made toward the end of the previous post, that the list of “Mennonites Assigned Wirtschaften in Waldheim in 1839–1841” (see original here) contains an error: Benjamin II and Benjmain III did not receive their land assignments in the same year, as the list states. We should keep this in mind as we compare the records discussed earlier (the 1839 and 1840 lists) with this one (the 1839–1841 list). The key information from the two sets is presented side by side below:

Surname	First Name	Settlement Year (1839 and 1840 Lists)	Settlement Year (1839–1841 List)
Schultz	Tobias		1841
Beier	Martin	1840	1840
Dirks	Heinrich	1839	1839
Wedel	Cornelius	1839	1839
Voth	Heinrich	1840	1840
Schmidt	Peter	1839	1839
Dirks	Tobias	1839	1839
Pankratz	Peter	1839	1839
Wedel	Cornelius	1839	1840
Wedel	Cornelius		1840
Schmidt	Peter	1840	1840
Pankratz	Jacob	1840	1840
Sperling	Heinrich	1840	1840
Nachtigal	David	1840	1840
Wedel	Johann	1840	1840
Nachtigal	Andreas	1840	1840
Richert	Jacob	1840	1840
Klassen	Jacob	1839	1840
Koehn	David	1839	1840
Buller	Benjamin	1839	1840
Dirks	David	1839	1840
Koehn	David	1839	1840
Ewert	Johann (Sr.)	1839	1840
Schmidt	Johann	1840	1840
Buller	Benjamin	1840	1840
Boese	Samuel	1840	1840
Unruh	Cornelius	1840	1840
Buller	Jacob	1840	1840
Wedel	Heinrich	1840	1840
Wedel	Benjamin	1839	1840
Unruh	Benjamin	1840
Schmidt	Andreas	1840

A few observations will highlight and explain the discrepancies.

1. The most significant difference (indicated by the use of bold red font) is the fact that the 1839–1841 list dates eight settlers who are on the 1839 list (translated by Steve Fast, “List of Mennonites Who Transferred from Volhynia to Waldheim and Were Assigned Land in the Year 1839”) to the year 1840. It is important to note in this context that the 1839 list translated by Steve Fast was actually written in 1839; the 1839–1841 list, however, was written in 1841 at the earliest (i.e., because it lists an event from 1841). Because the 1839 Fast list was written contemporaneously with the events that it records, we should trust its accuracy over the later (1839–1841) list.

2. Another interesting difference is the fact that two names on the 1839–1841 list do not appear at all on the 1839 and 1840 lists: Tobias Schultz and Cornelius Wedel (the third one listed). The reason for Schultz not appearing on the 1839 and 1840 lists is clear: he settled in Waldheim in 1841, according to the 1839–1841 list. It is reasonable to conclude that the same was true for Cornelius Wedel; once again the 1839–1841 list apparently has the wrong year of settlement listed.

3. Finally, two names that appear on the 1840 list (Benjamin Unruh and Andreas Schmidt) are not to be found on the 1839–1841 list. It is unclear why they are not listed, but the greater reliability of the 1840 list suggests that this is yet another error in the 1839–1841 list.

4. In spite of the discrepancies indicated above, we should not overlook the fact that twenty-eight of the thirty names listed on the 1839–1841 list also appear on the 1839 and 1840 lists. They two lists agree on the identities of nearly all the settlers from these years, although they disagree somewhat on the year of settlement. The point is: these independent sources largely confirm each other.

Beyond that, the evidence of the combined lists helps us to reconstruct the settlement of Waldheim over its first four years of existence.

1. We know that Waldheim had forty Wirtschaften when it was fully settled.

2. We also have evidence from multiple sources that state that eight settlers arrived the first year of Waldheim’s existence. (The Gemeindebericht dates this to 1836, but it seems better to date it to 1838, in keeping with the statement on the 1839 list of settlers.)

3. Subtracting eight 1838 settlers from the total forty settlers possible leaves thirty-two settler slots for the years following. Now it is time to count the number of 1839 settlers in column 3, followed by the number of 1840 settlers in column 3. The totals are thirteen for 1839 and seventeen for 1840. (We count the two final 1840 names even though they do not appear on the 1839–1841 list.)

4. Adding eight from 1838 and thirteen from 1839 and seventeen from 1840 gives us thirty-eight, two shy of our expected total. Those two were, it seems safe to conclude, the 1841 settlers Tobias Schultz and Cornelius Wedel discussed above.

It all adds up. Waldheim was settled in the following manner:

Year	Settlers
1838	8
1839	13
1840	17
1841	2

One last time (maybe) we must revisit the 1848 Gemeindebericht (community report), which states:

This village was founded in 1836. That year eight landowners settled in it, twelve in the year 1838, and twenty landowners in 1840.

The Gemeindebericht is mistaken. It should read:

This village was founded in 1838. That year eight landowners settled in it, thirteen in the year 1839, seventeen landowners in 1840, and two in 1841.

Because it is based on contemporaneous records (rather than fallible human memory a decade after the fact), the revised statement can be regarded as a documented, reliable statement of the first four years of Waldheim’s existence.

It is not, of course, the final word. There are more primary sources to explore, and the next one will reveal not only specific details about the Waldheim Bullers but also further history about Waldheim’s earliest years and first settlers.