(Here is the third and last installment of Uncle Don’s contribution to our knowledge and understanding of our forbears.)
Errata: Here are two corrections for the piece published on June 27: (1) Helena Lohrenz Toews was born on June 19, 1868 rather than 1968; and, (2) Jacob F. Toews was the fourth child of Franz Tows/Toews II rather than the first. Mea culpa!
Two hundred twenty-eight German Mennonite families from the Vistula Delta region in West Prussia migrated to the steppes of south Russia at the invitation of Empress Catherine the Great in 1788 A.D. They established the Chortitza colony at the confluence of the Dneiper and Khortytsia Rivers in 1789. Differences in views of church life and the arrival of additional families from the Vistula region led to the establishment of a second Mennonite colony in 1804 near the Molotchna River south of the Chortitza colony. A total of 362 families came to the Molotchna Colony between 1804-06. Some historians indicate that immigration to the Molotchna Colony ended by 1835. Sixty villages comprised the colony by 1860. The colony was largely self-governing. The Mennonites established churches and schools. The church was the center of village life. School enrollment records of that era are available on the internet and include the names of family members of our Toews-Franz ancestors.
Gloria, Michelle, and I visited the former Molotchna Colony area in 2003. Our guide, Andrey, is a graduate of a Baptist Bible College in Zaporozhye. Our driver was the pastor of a Ukrainian Baptist church. They took us to the part of the colony where our ancestors lived and helped us explore those villages. I am incorporating photos and video taken on that occasion. You may access them via Dropbox via this link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zeyjshlof7fpg4c/AAB-X6QX38XSviXmFC6SMljJa?dl=0. The video may be found at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7qtg0h7kfr5rrmg/VTS_01_1.VOB?dl=0. I apologize for the amateur quality of the photography, but you may find the subject matter to be of interest. You can find a list identifying each photo with the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/u70353zrk0t5qf6/Photos%20in%20Molotschna%20Colony%20Folder.docx?dl=0.
The main (governing) village of the Molotchna Colony was originally named Halbstadt (half-town) but was known later as Molochansk. It was the largest village. Today, there are approximately 8,000 residents. A number of German structures remain, including the former Maedchenscshule (girls’ school) which is now a kind of museum known as the Mennonite Center. In addition, a Mennonite church building, a factory, and several houses constructed by Germans remain in Molochansk. Among them are a mill constructed by Heinrich H. Willms, the WIllms’ home, and a church building. Buildings constructed by the Germans are notable for their superior design and quality in comparison with the Russian buildings constructed later.
Luella Toevs Wiese described the common village layout:
Homesites varied in size from 120 to 150 feet in width and 185 to 250 feet in depth. They faced and were set back from a wide thoroughfare that extended the length of the village usually about 1 verst (6 tenths of a mile). Most commonly, masonry walls or hedges served as separation between the yards and the street. . . .
In size and appearance most homesites were rather uniform with the house and barn adjacent to one another on one side faced by the summer kitchen and granaries on the opposite side. In the center towards the back of the yard was a large open area maintained as the threshing place that was flanked on either side by straw and hay stacks. Farther in the rear were the orchards and vegetable gardens. In certain communities, the gardens and orchards were located in the front yards with the main houses in the center and the barnyards in the rear of the enclosures.
Immediately beyond and often surrounding the village were the pasture lands which provided fodder from March until October. . . . Beyond the pastures were the cultivated areas laid out in orderly 3 to 5 acre plots.
This description represents generally what we noted in the villages we visited in 2003. Each village had a gravel road running through the center with home sites on either side. Current residents cultivate gardens and orchards, much as our ancestors did in Molotchna many decades ago and in the Mountain Lake area later. The haystacks, granaries, outbuildings and animal pens are present at each place.
We engaged one housewife in conversation, explaining why we were visiting her village. She shared what she knew of the history of the Mennonites in that area and led us on a search for a German cemetery in the wooded area beyond the gardens and fields on her property. We found a cemetery, but it turned out to be a more recent Russian or Ukrainian burial site. She led us to an area in the woods where it was rumored that a German cemetery existed. However, the area had become marshy and any graves which had existed were no longer visible or accessible.
At least three of our ancestors were born and lived in three villages in the southeast quadrant of the colony (see map in “Mennonites on the Move” post) before emigrating to the United States about 1878. The following table identifies each village with the date it was founded, which of our ancestors was born there, land area, and number of families. Records indicate there were additional residents who did not own property.
| Village | Date | Ancestor | Land Area | Full Farms | Half Farms |
| Alexandertal | 1820 | Helena (nee Lohrenz) Toews [b. 1868] | 4808 acres | 15 | 12 |
| Pordenau | 1820 | Jacob F. Toews [b. 1861] | 4676 acres | 19 | 2 |
| Elisabethal | 1823 | Peter Franz [b. 1859] | 4460 acres | 22 | 6 |
Jacob F. Toews married Helena Lohrenz on October 30, 1888, in Mountain Lake, MN. They are the parents of Oma’s father, Jacob J. Toews. We do not have a printed record of how Jacob F. Toews met and courted Helena Lohrenz. They lived two villages apart. It seems likely that they met in connection with church events. I can imagine that Jacob F. borrowed the family horse to court the very handsome Helena Lohrenz. Peter Franz married Susanna Teichrow. They are the parents of Agatha Franz who married Jacob J. Toews on October 16, 1917, in Mountain Lake, MN. Jacob J. and Agatha (Franz) Toews are Oma’s parents.
Mennonites who lived in the Molotchna Colony were fairly isolated from the Russian population. They administered their own schools and churches and elected a mayor for each village. Many became prosperous, exporting grain, other agricultural products, and manufactured goods to other countries via ports on the Black Sea. Church life was central to families living in the colony. Most churches in the Molotchna Colony were connected with the Flemish Mennonites with only one village affiliated with Frisian Mennonites. As a result, there was general agreement in spiritual matters. Mennonites in general were pietistic. The school was considered essential as well in village life. Many school enrollment records are available today on the internet with occasional identification of the name of the teacher in a given year. It is a bit eerie to find one’s ancestors listed in school records from that part of the world in that time frame.
In spite of their relative isolation from the Russian culture, they borrowed some customs of the residents of south Russia, notably their foods. We can credit the German Mennonite taste for the dumplings we know as vareniki to their sojourn in Ukraine. We purchased vareniki from a local housewife who was selling them on the platform of a train station where we stopped in the middle of the night. We also found them in restaurants in Kiev. The traditional German version that Oma and her mother made is definitely better than the modern Ukrainian versions! Numerous other foods and customs became part of daily life as chronicled in Mennonite Foods and Folkways from South Russia (2 vols.) by Norma Jean Voth. Many of us still enjoy crullers with watermelon, pluma moass, pepper nuts, tweback, et al.
Visiting the Molotchna Colony helped me grasp why many families from the colony settled in the area around Mountain Lake, Minnesota. Molotchna is located on the steppes of south Russia, an area similar to the plains of southwestern Minnesota. Wooded areas, rivers, and streams are found there and the soil is similar. The move to Minnesota must have left our ancestors feeling that they were not all that far from home.