Heinrichsdorf history 1

Heinrichsdorf did not have a long history, roughly a quarter century all told, so not only do we not know with certainty where this Volhynian village was located, but we cannot say a great deal about its history either. Our primary source of knowledge about the village is a brief narrative of the village’s founding and early years found in the Heinrichsdorf church book, which survived and was carried to North America when the entire congregation emigrated in 1874.

Thanks to the Mennonite Library and Archives at Bethel College in Kansas, we have access to the pages of that church book here. On two introductory pages is the brief narrative mentioned above. It is written in German, but the MLA has also provided a translation, which is reproduced below:

Birth Registration

or

Book of Revisions for the Mennonite Church in Heinrichsdorf. Permission was granted to them by the board of the Molotchna Mennonite District in 1845 to look for a place or residence. In 1846 under the Proprietor Arilnitzky they were granted a plan for leasing land for the purpose of founding the above mentioned colony. In 1848 they received permission from the welfare committee of the state council. Boron and Rohen received the preferred plan from Arilnitzky and drew up the final plans for resettling in 1848. In the following year, 1849, their colony was founded and formed. Two teachers and one deacon were appointed for the founding of the colony and the community. The teachers were Benjamin Schmidt and Johann Ratzlaff, and the deacon was Benjamin Unrau. On the following March 23, 1849, Benjamin Dirks was endorsed as the minister by the reverend church elder. It was recommended to the congregation they follow the teachings of the Apostle Paul and be as one in the herd following Christ. However, since the above mentioned teacher Johann Ratzlaff and Deacon Benjamin Unrau left their assigned church and returned to the Molotchna Colony Waldheim, the church was weak on teachers. In 1859 they were advised to elect two teachers. On October 23, 1860, Tobias Ratzlaff and David Unruh were called and on the following September 5 the reverend church elder Tobias Unruh confirmed their place in Karolswalde. The congregation was commissioned to care for them and to look after them. They were to lead the congregation in the path of Jesus Christ and teach them according to the teachings of the holy apostles and then the Lord would add his help by adding his blessing to the work for which they are called, in love and respect, Amen.

The first page of the historical account.

Several points are worth noting.

1. The permission granted in 1845 to look for a new home is no doubt associated with the list of Mennonites who decided to leave Waldheim and return to Volhynia (here and here). Presumably the list was needed for the planners to know how much area was needed.

2. The church book provides helpful background on what was involved in the process of moving. Although many of the details are lost to us (e.g., a Google search for the name Arilnitzky returns no results), we can form an idea of the process: the group first had to request and receive permission to look for a new residence; once that place was located, they had to present for approval a plan to secure the land for the village; that approval would come from both a local or semilocal official and regional officials. Only after all these bureaucratic hurdles had been cleared could the group actually found its new community.

3. The founding of Heinrichsdorf is typically dated to 1848, but a straightforward reading of the the church book indicates that Heinrichsdorf was founded in early 1849. It is possible that the church book has the year incorrect (we saw that with a number of details in the Waldheim Gemeindeberichte). On the other hand, one might read statements such as Martin Schrag’s—“The dissatisfied members secured permission from the Russian gov­ernment to return to Volhynia, and … in 1848 they trekked back to Volhynia and founded the village of Heinrichsdorf”—to mean that the trip back was in 1848, even though the village founding did not take place until the following year.

4. Two teachers and one deacon were appointed for the group, but when? Given the fact that the minister’s appointment is dated precisely (23 March 1849) and after the founding of the community, one might guess that the other three were appointed earlier, perhaps much earlier, maybe even when they were still in Waldheim.

5. What is more interesting is the report that the teacher Johann Ratzlaff and the deacon Benjamin Unrau returned to Waldheim in Molotschna colony at some point before 1859, when the congregation was advised to select two new teachers. Elder Tobias Unruh confirmed Tobias Ratzlaff and David Unruh in this role on 5 September 1861. The service was conducted in the village of Karolswalde, a Mennonite village some 70 miles to the northwest (near Ostrog; see the map here). Tobias Unruh was recognized as elder by a number of Mennonite churches in this area (see Unruh and Thiessen 2007).

This short account contains a good portion of what we know for certain about Heinrichsdorf through at least 1861 (the date of the confirmation service). This is not, however, all that can be said. The following post will examine another narrative about Heinrichsdorf, one that seeks to explain why some residents of Waldheim left for Heinrichsdorf in the first place. After that we will return to the church book once again to learn what we can about Johann Ratzlaff and Benjamin Unrau (and others) leaving Heinrichsdorf and returning to Waldheim yet again. Rest assured, we will talk about Bullers at the end of this little detour—and what we learn should prove to be quite interesting.


Work Cited

Unruh, Abe J, and Richard D. Thiessen. Unruh, Tobias A. (1819–1875). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Available online here.