Chapter 6 Father Heinrich's Death 1864

Abraham's Father Dies, 1864

Abraham was just 13 years old when his father died in Schardau, Molotschna Colony, south Russia. His father Heinrich was 70 years old when he died. This was a remarkably long life for this era and for this part of the world. Since they didn't have immunization yet, people died of common childhood diseases as well as epidemics. During the Crimean War of 1853-1856 (between England and Russia), the Mennonites nursed and cared for five thousand wounded soldiers. The soldiers left behind typhoid, typhus and dysentery.

Florence Nightingale made nursing a legitimate profession for women through her example in the Crimean

Malaria was another killer, but it was slow and hidden. The swampy riverbanks were fertile land for growing watermelon, which was a Mennonite favorite. But the rivers were also home for the mosquitoes that spread malaria. Many people blamed watermelon for the "sweating sickness" - malaria.

Also many women died from "blutvergiftung" or puerpural fever also known as "childbed fever", and up to 30% of infants died at birth or in their infancy. In 1880 the sixty villages of the Molotschna Colony only had one doctor. Midwives delivered the babies. These midwives didn't receive any particular pay but were exempt from paying taxes. (Mennonite Encyclopedia, www.gameo.org)


When do they move? Isn't Abraham going to come to America?


A Religious Move - but not to America
After his father died Abraham along with his mother Katharina Funk Schmidt, his older sister Katharina, and his brother Heinrich, all moved to the Kuban area of Russia, which was 200 miles east of their village of Schardau.

They didn't move alone. Almost 100 families were granted land by the government, although only 67 families actually moved. (Mennonite Encyclopedia, www.gameo.org) They went there  for two reasons. First of all, the Molotschna and Chortitza Colonies had run out of land. And second, there was a religious revival.

Land Opportunities

Mennonites were invited to Russia as master farmers. A model farm supposedly needed to contain approximately 175 acres. The Russian government forbade the division of the farm upon the death of the owner. It had to be kept intact. One son inherited the land and the other children found other jobs where they could. They were landless and were spoken of as "Anwohner". (Smith's Story of the Mennonites, by C.H. Smith, 1957, p. 410.) The landless had no vote in the local village assembly. By 1870 it is estimated that at least two-thirds of all heads of families in both colonies were without land. Many were granted a small patch of land to build a hourse and to make a living as best they could on their "kleinewirtschaft".

The original lots of 175 acres were sufficient for sheep raising. Remember, that's how the colony started - growing wool? But as they turned to growing wheat, the farmers needed more acreage to be profitable. Finally, the pressure of the population encourged the colonial government to ask the Russian officials for permission to set up "daughter" colonies. The Mennonites were granted land in the Kuban in 1862.

A Religious Revival and the first Mennonite Brethren

As I read about the Kuban, I was surprised to read that the founders of the new colony were also among the first to call themselves Mennonite Brethren. That's when I learned about the many branches to this tree of faith.

If a congregation differed enough in their beliefs that they could not reconcile, then their only choice was to start a new church. Sometimes the difference might seem trivial, such as whether ribbons could be worn on underwear. (Henderson Mennonite: From Holland to Henderson, Stanley E. Voth, 1982.) But actually these seemingly trivial differences were symbols of larger issues. (Conversation with Kevin Enns-Rempel, Pacific University, Fresno)

The early Mennonites had their differences of opinion too. The people from Holland were Frisian and the people from Flanders were Flemish. Each accused the other of worldliness in dress or furnishings.

Die mit Haken und Oesen,
Wird Gott erlosen;
Die mit Knopfen und Taschen
Wird der Teufel erhascen

Those with hooks and eyes (on clothes)
Will be saved by God;
Those with pockets and buttons
Will be seized by the devil. (Henderson)

Sometimes the differences occurred over large issue, like discipline. If someone broke a law in an early Mennonite colony the only punishment available was to "ban" the wrongdoer. They didn't have jails and weren't part of the Russian judicial system. Although not used very often, this system of discipline conformed to the pacifist ideal. When a Mennonite was "censured" no one in the church could speak to him or do business with him. (Smith's Story of the Mennonites, by C.H. Smith, 1957.)
Since they were in a community set apart from the rest of the world this could be devastating. Imagine taking your wheat to market and having no one willing to buy it. Or going to the only store in town and finding no one to sell you any food.

One division in the church came about over whether this "no speaking" rule applied to family members. Could a wife talk to a banned husband?


And this is where the Mennonite Brethren started.
More tomorrow....with my thanks to cousin Myron T. for his help in editing this blog.

Chapter 4 More about Abraham Schmidt in Russia

Isolation from Russia

Catherine the Great invited the hard-working Mennonite to live in Russia

While the Mennonites from northern Europe (Switz., Poland, Germany, Alsace-Lorraine, Holland) lived in Russia, they had their own self-governing colonies. They might employ Russian servants or workers but they did not intermarry or adopt the language. If anyone did inter-marry, they lost the privileges granted to the colonists under the special charter from Catherine the Great. All of their systems -  education, government, commerce, transportation, etc. - were among their own community. In other words, they were isolated from the Russian culture.

Why do we care that Abraham wrote his diary in German?
If Abraham was able to write German he must have gone to the village "schule". This was taught by either a parent or a graduate of the new teachers' school in nearby Ohrloff. In these church-governed villages everyone went to church and all the children went to school. One must be able to read the Bible in order to find salvation.

Everyday life for a boy
I'm sure that Abraham would much rather have been fishing or catching frogs along the creek. Many of the boys his age liked to trap rabbits, mice or ground squirrels. The trapper received praise and maybe even a coin for getting rid of these pests.

 Sometimes the boys went nest-egg hunting. There were cuckoos, nightingales, turtledoves, blackbirds and owls in abundance. However, the boys were cautioned to leave the storks alone, because a stork nest on their roof meant good luck.

Since firearms were against their beliefs, only one man in the village had a rifle, to protect their flocks from the wolves.

Abraham could have explored the woods along the creek by his home village of Schardau. Literally millions of trees were planted by the settlers under the urgings of Johann Cornies, an agricultural specialist. The settlers planted nearly a quarter of a million trees a year to stop the wind from blowing the soil away and to help hold the rain.

Sundays
Abraham looked forward to Sundays when work was kept to a minimum and everyone had time to visit with friends and relatives. His mother woke him early to do his chores before he put on his "other" pair of pants and shirt which were kept for Sunday. Mama always looked nice in her special church apron. It was made of fine, white linen with a three-inch crocheted border around the edge. She would never leave the house without also wearing her "doke". Her "doke" was a dark maroon kerchief made of fine wool, embroidered with bright red flowers and green leaves. (Letter from Mary Martens, Vancouver, Canada, April 5, 1989)

Imagine little Abraham skipping along the street on his way home from church. He passes the fine picket fences and brick gateposts of the farmers with a full 175 acres, called the "wirtschaft", and then he passes the small plots just big enough for a house and a garden, which were called the "kleinewirtschaft". These were assigned to the craftsmen and widows. (Trailblazer For the Brethren, by Betty S. Klassen, 1941, p. 15)

At the end of Sunday, everyone sat down to "faspa", a simple meal that didn't require cooking. These meals included such items as cold cuts, zweiback and fruit "moos" (like stewed prunes). In most homes it was thought that Sunday couldn't come without zwieback (pronounced "twayback" in Low German). Baked on Saturday with enough for Sunday's three meals and some to begin the new week, it continues to be a favorite kind of bread. "Zwie" means two. The rolls were made by pinching off a bit of dough and placing it like a head on a larger ball of dough and then pressing it down before baking.