Franztal 21

After spending several weeks learning more about Konstantinovka and the Mennonite experience in Siberia/Kazakhstan, we are ready to return to Molotschna colony, specifically to Franztal. When we last looked at this small village, we had just completed the translation of the 1848 Gemeindebericht (here). 

If you recall, Franztal was founded in 1820 by several groups, the largest of which had emigrated from West Prussia (Poland) the previous year. We identified as many of of the group as we were able in an earlier series titled Przechovka Emigration (see the first post here). The goal of this post is to begin to weave together several lines of evidence to form a more complete picture of Franztal’s early days and beyond.

The 1848 community report provides several important clues. 

In April 1820, fifteen families from the district of Schwetz near Kulm in West Prussia arrived to establish a village among the others. It was considered appropriate by the authorities and a commission chosen for settlement to set up each village for twenty fireplaces [residences] but to cultivate only fifteen of them and to leave the others empty for their descendants. However, in a subsequent review of the plans, it was found that the villages would not get their proper land, so all fireplaces had to be occupied immediately, and one village had to be distributed among the others. So it happened that on 18 May of the same year, eight more families of immigrants from the same district were added to the village. …
The first fifteen families of this village formed a single party in their immigration but did not have a leader. Of the others involved, some traveled with the large party whose leader was the now long-deceased elder Ohm Franz Goerz, and some also came to the country in small parties without a leader.

The key facts are as follows: (1) although Franztal had twenty-four Wirtschaften (plots) when it was fully occupied, it was established with only twenty-three (15 + 8); (2) fifteen of the plots were settled by members of the party we traced in the series Przechovka Emigration. With that background, we are ready to consult several different lines of evidence to see how many of Franztal’s original settlers we can identify. Those lines of evidence include the 1835 census as our foundation, plus our earlier work on the Przechovka Emigration party and the list of 1819 settlers in Franztal recorded in Peter Rempel’s Mennonite Migration to Russia, 1788–1828 (2007, 157–59).

The table below presents the names retrieved from the three lines of evidence. It first lists the twenty-four landowners in Franztal, followed by the other heads of household who lived in Franztal but did not own a Wirtschaft there (25–29).

Wirtschaft	1835 census	Przechovka list	Rempel list
1	Gerhard Heinrich Dirks
2	Jacob Johann Neufeld
3	Georg Jacob Nachtigal	Georg Nachtigal	Georg Nachtigal
4	Peter Jacob Pankratz
5	Peter Andreas Richert		Peter Richert
6	Peter Heinrich Ratzlaff	Peter Ratzlaff
7	Jacob Jacob Goerz
8	Tobias Peter Schmidt	Tobias Schmidt	Tobias Schmidt
9	Dietrich David Block
10	Peter Kornelius Abrahams	Peter Abrahams	Peter Abrahams
11	Kornelius Johann Richert	Kornelius Richert	Kornelius Richert
12	Peter Peter Ratzlaff
13	Andreas Jacob Pankratz
14	Peter Peter Block	Peter Block	Peter Block
15	Heinrich Christopher Hooge		Heinrich Hooge
16	Kornelius Kornelius Siemens
17	Peter Peter Becker	Peter Becker	Peter Becker
18	Peter Peter Janzen		Peter Janzen
19	Adam Adam Ratzlaff	Adam Ratzlaff	Adam Ratzlaff
20	Heinrich Peter Janzen
21	Peter Peter Janzen
22	Peter Peter Unrau	Peter Unrau	Peter Unrau
23	Peter Jacob Schmidt
24	Peter Jacob Becker		Peter Berg [Becker]
25–29	Heinrich Jacob Ratzlaff Benjamin Peter Ratzlaff Adam Peter Ratzlaff Peter Peter Becker Peter Benjamin Frey Johan Johann Stephen Julius Gerhard Durksen David Heinrich Goerz Peter Daniel Daniels Jacob Franz Duerksen Kornelius Kornelius Quiring Peter Wilhelm Janzen Peter Peter Unger Berhard Jacob Matthies Jacob Peter Schoenke Abraham Abraham Weyer Abraham Peter Unger Franz Franz Peters	Heinrich Ratzlaff Benjamin Ratzlaff Adam Ratzlaff Peter Becker Peter Frey	Heinrich Ratzlaff Benjamin Ratzlaff Adam Ratzlaff Peter Frey Johann Steffen Julius Doerksen David Goertz Peter Daniels Kornelius Quiring Berend Mathies Abraham Weier Peter Unger

Based on this presentation of information, we can draw several important conclusions.

1. Appearance of a name across all three lists indicates that the person settled in Franztal in 1820 and, unless indicated otherwise, still lived there at the time of the 1835 census. For Wirtschaften 1–24, this also points to eight of Franztal’s original landowners: Georg Nachtigal (3); Tobias Schmidt (8); Peter Abrahams (10); Kornelius Richert (11); Peter Block (14); Peter Becker (17); Adam Ratzlaff (19); and Peter Unrau (22).

2. Appearance of a name in the census list and the Rempel list also indicates that the person settled in Franztal in 1820 and probably remained there in 1835. The only difference between this group and those in number 1 above is that these settlers were not part of the Przechovka group; they emigrated from some other part of West Prussia (i.e., the “eight more families of immigrants”). The group includes four heads of household: Peter Richert (5); Heinrich Hooge (15); Peter Janzen (18); and Peter Becker (24).

3. Only two names appear on the census and our Przechovka list but not on the Rempel list, and only one of them is identified as a landowner: Peter Ratzlaff (6). An earlier post (here) identified this individual as an original settler in Franztal, so we can add him to the group of known settlers.

By correlating the information available to us, we are able to identify with reasonable certainty over half of Franztal’s original settlers: thirteen of the twenty-three who settled that first year. If we accept the Gemeindebericht report that fifteen of the original landowners were from the Przechovka group, we can further deduce that we have identified nine of them; six remain. Having identified four of the non-Przechovka group (as reported by the Gemeindebericht), we have four more to identify, if that is possible.

We will seek to identify the other ten founding landowners by working plot by plot in a subsequent post, but we should not neglect one final observation from the comparison of lists.

4. The Przechovka and Rempel lists for Wirtschaften 25–29 identify thirteen heads of household who came to Franztal at the same time as all the others but apparently, at least as far as we know at this point, never owned their own plot. A few of the landless thirteen may have intended to earn their livelihoods through other means (e.g., blacksmith, weavers), but most probably hoped to farm their own plots. It would (will?) be interesting to see how many of these thirteen stayed in Franztal over the long term.

For now, however, we will keep our focus on Franztal’s original landowners—in the following post.

Work Cited

Rempel. Peter. 2007. Mennonite Migration to Russia, 1788–1828. Edited by Alfred H. Redekopp and Richard D. Thiessen. Winnepeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society.