Alexanderwohl 17b

Several posts ago we examined the census records for Alexanderwohl Wirtschaft 19 (here), which was settled in 1822 by Peter Reimer. We also noted that Reimer emigrated to Molotschna much earlier, in 1804, and was identified as having lived at Lichtenau 28 before moving to Alexanderwohl. The post commented as follows:

What led him to move to a new village is unknown, although it is possible that he resided, but did not own, Lichtenau 28, which would provide a clear rationale for his move: to secure his own Wirtschaft.

Glenn Penner wrote today to offer additional clarity. Glenn notes that there was no Wirtschaft 28 in Lichtenau (the village contained only twenty-one Wirtschaften); therefore, Reimer was without doubt a landless cottager in Lichtenau, counted as “family 28” (not owner of plot 28, which did not exist) in the census. As Glenn further observes, it would have been a significant advance for Reimer to secure his own plot in Alexanderwohl, and that is certainly the explanation for his move to Alexanderwohl shortly after its founding.

This does not alter our developing perspective of the nature of Alexanderwohl’s founding, although it highlights one aspect of it: from the outset Alexanderwohl was home both to members of the Przechovka church and to other Mennonite families with no prior connection to it. As we have noted periodically in this series, the Gemeindebericht portrays the village’s founding in simple and uniform terms, but the reality was not quite as neat as the community report leads one to think.