1. The Peter D. Friesen Family

This is the story of my grandparents, Peter and Anna Friesen, and their ancestors going back to our earliest records in about 1740.  I had the great privilege of knowing my grandparents and my aunts and uncles pictured below.  I am the baby in the picture taken in 1943.  I spent many happy times in my childhood in the company of these dear people. 

Back Row: Betty's husband Jake Enns, Anne, Peter, Katherine, and John (my dad)

Middle Row: Peter, Betty, Caroline Enns, John (my brother), Annie Enns, Mary, baby Eleanor, Anna

Seated: Agatha, Jack, and Helen.

I only wish I had taken the opportunity to ask my grandparents some specific questions about their childhoods, and especially about their harrowing escape from Communist Russia in 1929.  Below is the last picture taken at their home in Ebenthal, Memrik Colony, South Russia, September 1929.

Peter and Anna with Elizabeth, Mary, Anna, Katherine and Peter

This history is written for our children, grandchildren, and all future generations of our family.  I took on this project thinking I knew most of my history, but quickly discovered there was a lot more to our story than I previously thought.  I am privileged to have the collection of Mennonite history books that my father John V. Friesen had collected before he passed away in 2000.  I also attended a Mennonite high school and college where I studied our Mennonite history, and have text books from courses I took.  Much of my general research was done on the internet and I hope that posting my family history will help others in their research.

The personal history from about 1900 to 1940 is taken from the hand written notes of Betty, Mary and Anne pictured above and from Marie Friesen Isaak, sister of Peter.  I also regret that I didn't talk to Betty and Anne while they were living, because they would have been able to embellish the stories with more color than I could give them just from notes.   

I have tried to be as accurate as possible given the fact that several records I used had varying dates and some conflicting information. There are 'old calendar' dates and 'new calendar' dates based on the Julian or Gregorian calendars that were used in Russia. 

~~~~

Researched and edited by 

Eleanor Friesen Zweigle, Olympia WA

January 2014

(My mother, Mary Friesen, married John Friesen, so I am a 'double' Friesen, but my research shows that these two Friesen families come from completely different ancestors.)

2. The Friesen Name

Our ancestors were Mennonites, in particular, Mennonites who came from Holland, migrated to the Vistula Delta, then to southern Russia, and finally to Canada and the USA.  There are many other Mennonites who migrated at different times to different places, but our ancestors were all from this particular line of Mennonites.  Our surname 'Friesen' is one of the most common names among our line of Mennonites.  There are two primary root sources for this name, one being Mennonites who came from Friesland, Holland, and the other being 'from Rijssen' or 'von Riesen' in the province of Overijssel of East Netherlands.  The Peter D Friesen ancestors are from the 'von Riesen' branch of the Friesens.

Friesland and Overijssel are at the top right of the map.

More information about Rijssen in Overijssel can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijssen

http://www.map-of-netherlands.co.uk/map-of-overijssel.htm

Rijssen can be seen in the lower middle of this map.

3. The Mennonites

Mennonites were followers of the teachings of Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, a northern province of Holland on the North Sea.  Mennonites held to the teachings of the Bible with emphasis on adult baptism and non resistance.  The Mennonites experienced much religious persecution because of their practice of adult baptism.  Military conscription was prevalent throughout Europe so the Mennonites moved as a group in search of places to live where they could practice their beliefs.  A strong emphasis on community was developed under these circumstances.

In the early 1500s, Mennonites from Holland, seeking religious freedom and exemption from military service, began a migration to the Vistula Delta region of present day Poland.

Map Courtesy "Heritage Remembered" p. 5

They were welcomed to the free city of Danzig (Gdansk, Poland today) where they were helpful in reclaiming land using dikes and windmills as they had in Holland.  For a period of more than 200 years (1540-1788), the Mennonites enjoyed the fruits of hard labor and a frugal and simple life under the protection of benevolent kings in this territory.  A census taken in 1774 revealed that the Mennonites owned at least 80,000 acres of rich farm land that had been reclaimed.

Map of Poland shows the Vistula River.  Used by Permission

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/lgcolor/plcolor.htm

Vistula Delta on the Baltic Sea.

More information about this period of Mennonite history can be found at Vistula Mennonite Studies Project https://mla.bethelks.edu/information/mpsa.php
 

4. Mennonite Traditions

Many of what we call 'Mennonite traditions' and 'Mennonite foods' were developed during these years in the Vistula Delta.  The Plautdietsch (low German) dialect spoken in the area replaced their Dutch and Frisian languages and became the 'heart language' of our people.  Our ancestors were deeply committed to their Mennonite beliefs and traditions and kept them alive through hundreds of years.  Even though they were given religious freedom they were not permitted to win new converts, so family names remained the same through the years.  These names originated in Holland or Northern Germany and are easily identified by Mennonite people even today some 500 years after the original Mennonites came together.  (I assume they were not allowed to proselytize because people would join the Mennonites to avoid being conscripted into the armies.)

More information about Mennonite surnames can be found at http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Names_(Mennonite)

5. The von Riesen Family

There were many von Riesen families listed in the Vistula Delta Mennonite church records.  A list of records for marriages, births and deaths 1772-1773 show 82 people with the name von Riesen in various villages of the area.   Our earliest known relative is (A)Johann von Riesen who was born about 1740.  His wife's name was Anna and she was born about 1741.

6. Mennonites Loose Privileges

        In 1772 the Vistula delta was annexed by Prussia and the privileges the Mennonites had enjoyed for many years began to change.  King Fredrick ended the centuries-long beneficial arrangements between the Mennonites and the government and forced the Mennonites to either serve in the military, or pay exorbitant military taxes.  So when Catherine the Great of Russia invited farmers from West Prussia to settle in the Ukraine, the Mennonites responded favorably.  Fredrick's successor Fredrick William III did not want to lose these valuable Prussian farmers so he required those who emigrated to pay a 10% tax on their possessions.  Because of this tax the first Mennonites to migrate were the landless and poor with less to lose from the taxation. The first group left in 1789 and settled in the Chortitza settlement on the Dnieper River of South Russia.

The complete story of the Chortitza settlement can be seen at:
http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Chortitza_Mennonite_Settlement_(Zaporizhia_Oblast,_Ukraine)

7. Migration

To encourage the land owning Mennonites to continue with their decision to emigrate, the Tsar Paul I of Russia offered more privileges to counteract the taxes.  Interest-free loans and 120,000 more dessiatines (about 300,000 acres) of land east of the Molotschna River near the Sea of Azov were given to Mennonite farmers. In 1803 records have 1,020 Mennonites leaving Prussia in horse-drawn covered wagons heading for their new home and religious freedom.  Their farms were sold at reasonable prices and they started their over 1000 mile journey with their livestock and farm equipment.  Records have 15 von Riesen families in this long trek from West Prussia to Russia.

The Trek Routes of 1789 and 1803

http://www.mennonitechurch.ca/programs/archives/holdings/Schroeder_maps/037.pdf

The Chortiza and Molostschna Colonies

8. Our Ancestors Migrate to South Russia

Our ancestor (A)Johann von Riesen and his wife Maria had a son (B2)Julius Johann von Riesen born in Prussia.  Records have Julius, at age 23, migrating from Krebsfeld in the Elbing area of Prussia to South Russia in 1803 .  His wife to be, Anna Kröcker, also migrated to South Russia and they were married about 1805.  When (A)Johann died in 1822, Maria remarried to Dietrich Thiessen and they migrated to Russia in the mid 1820s.  (Taken from family records of (D)Maria Friesen Ediger, twin of (D)Dietrich Friesen)

Family Tree:

(A)Johann von Riesen  b abt 1740, d 1822 

    m. Maria b. abt. 1841

            Maria 2nd m Dietrich Thiessen, came to Russia

    (B1)Bernhard Johann Friesen b abt 1774 d 1830

        m Anna b abt 1793

    (B2)Julius Johann von Riesen, b abt 1780 d. after 1850

        m Anna Kroecker b 1781, 2nd m Enns

9. Settling in Molotschna

As the story goes, this group of Mennonites spent the winter of 1803 at the Chortitza Colony on the Dnieper River and then set out for their new home on the east bank of the Molotschna River in spring of 1804.  Nine villages were established in 1804. These were Halbstädt, Muntau, Schönau, Fischau, Lindenau, Lichtenau, Blumstein, Münsterberg, and Altonau.  Once the locations had been chosen the various groups of villagers selected their plot in the village by lot.  In the agreement with the Russian authorities each family plot was 175 acres of land that was to be farmed and could not be divided.

(http://www.mennonitechurch.ca/programs/archives/holdings/Schroeder_maps/058.pdf)

The (B)Julius von Riesen family migrated with this group and settled in Münsterberg on the bottom left side of the map.  All the first villages were along the Molotschna river.  Molotschna means 'milky' river.  Before long many more settlers arrived and new villages were added every year.  Between 1803 and 1806 a total of 365 Mennonite families had arrived in Molotschna.

10. From von Riesen to Friesen

(B)Julius Johann von Riesen is listed with the Mennonites in their 1803 trek from Prussia to Russia, but in the 1808 Molotschna Colony census he is listed as Julius Johann Friesen.  Why did the family name change?  It is believed that the name was changed because the contract between the Russian government and the Mennonites was specifically for German Mennonites.  The name von Riesen is Dutch so the name was changed to the German spelling.  The two distinct names in Prussia, the Friesens and the von Riesens, all became Friesens in Russia.
     Julius Johann Friesen is listed at Münsterberg the 1808, 1835 and 1850 censuses.  Julius' first wife was Anna Kröcker, born abt 1781 in Prussia.  Because he is in the 1850 census we know he lived to at least the age of 70, perhaps longer.

11. Early Settlers

Julius was 24 years old and Anna was 23 when they arrived in Molotschna in 1804.  What they found was endless grasslands with no trees.  The first houses the settlers built were crude but practical.  They were made of sod and partially built into the ground .  Winters in the area were cold and the rivers froze over, summers were hot and dry.  But within a few years the settlers had built better homes.

Picture courtesy of "In The Fullness of Time" p. 75 

      The picture above is of a house built in Münsterberg in 1827.  The house and barn are connected, which would have been typical of the type of house built by the Friesen family.  

Picture courtesy of "Heritage Remembered" p. 245    

      This is one of the early windmills built in the village of Blumstein just north of Münsterberg.  The Mennonites brought their windmill building skills from Holland to the Vistula Delta and then to South Russia.  Every village had a windmill and the wind in Molotschna reportedly blew a lot.

12. Children of (B)Julius and Anna Friesen

We have record of 7 boys born to (B)Julius and Anna Friesen in Münsterberg.  There may have been girls as well, but they are not listed.

            (C1)Julius
            (C2)Dietrich (Duerk) Julius
            (C3)Bernhard Julius
            (C4)Johann
            (C5)Jakob
            (C6)Peter Julius 1820-1916 (our ancestor)
            (C7)Kornelius


Family Tree Continued:

(A)Johann von Riesen  b abt 1740, d 1822 

    m. Maria b. abt. 1841

            Maria 2nd m Dietrich Thiessen, came to Russia

    (B1)Bernhard Johann Friesen b abt 1774 d 1830

        m Anna b abt 1793

    (B2)Julius Johann von Riesen, b abt 1780 d. after 1850

        m Anna Kroecker b 1781, 2nd m Enns

        (C1)Julius Julius b 5 Apr 1806

            m Susanna b abt 1808, m Katharina b abt 1813

        (C2) Dietrich (Duerk) Julius b 9 Jul 1808

            m Apr 1832 Katharina Warkentin b 30 Oct 1811    

        (C3)Bernhard Julius b 24 Dec 1810, d 18 May 1866 

            m Helena Dueck b 7 Apr 1816 d 25 Dec 1852

            m Justina Rempel

        (C4)Johann b 10 Aug 1813

        (C5)Jakob b 7 Mar 1816

        (C6)Peter Julius b 31 Dec 1820, d 1916

            m Anna J E Dyck b 13 May 1821

        (C7) Kornelius b 5 Mar 1825 d 29 Oct 1832 

13. Life in the Mennonite Villages

Although the first years were difficult it wasn't long before the Friesen family had growing boys to help them in their farming endeavors.  They had been accustomed to the fertile delta in Prussia and had to learn to farm by trial and error in the dry climate of their new land.  The lower lands with their fields and orchards suffered from floods at the beginning.  Some of the land was salty but the land on the elevations was fertile.
The colonists formed villages of fifteen to thirty families, each with 175 acres of free land.  Initially the settlers raised cattle, sheep and general crops to provide for their household.  They grew mulberry bushes for the silk industry, produced honey, flax, tobacco, fruits and vegetables for nearby city markets. The climate was continental, with very warm summers so that watermelons thrived, and cold and snowy in winters.

14. (C6)Peter Julius Friesen

(C6)Peter Julius Friesen - Sixth Son of (B)Julius and Anna Friesen          

Our family line continues with (C6)Peter Julius Friesen, born 31 Dec 1820 in Münsterberg .  By the time he was a young man his family had been in Molotschna 30+ years.  He married Anna J E Dyck who was born 13 May 1821 in Prussia and whose family had come to Molotschna in 1828.  We don't know anything about this ancestor or his wife except that Peter lived to the ripe old age of 96.  Records show he died 1916 in Altonau, Molotschna, the village just south of Münsterberg.  

15. (C6)Peter Julius and Anna Friesen's Family

Peter and Anna had at least 5 children, all born in Altonau.

(D1)Peter
(D2)Anna
(D3)Johann
(D4)Dietrich Peter (our ancestor) (1860-1922)
(D5)Maria

Family Tree Continued:

        (C6)Peter Julius b 31 Dec 1820, d 1916

            m Anna J E Dyck b 13 May 1821

            (D1)Peter (lived in Altonau)

            (D2)Anna (m. Mr. Wall, lived in Alexanderkrone)

            (D3)Johann (lived in Alexanderthal)

            (D4)Dietrich P b 17 Sept 1860, d July 1922 (twin of Maria)

                m 25 Nov 1885 Elizabeth Born b 9 Jan 1862, d 21 Jul 1919

                        (Gerhard and Helena (Goosen) Born, Herzenberg)

                m 1920 Maria Löwen (widow with older children) d July 1922

           (D5) Maria b 17 Sept 1860 - 29 Apr 1954 (twin of Dietrich)

                        m Isaak Ediger 4 Apr 1860 - 20 Dec 1936

16. The Mennonite Settlements Flourish

Many things changed in the Mennonite settlement of Molotschna during the lifetime of Peter Julius Friesen.  By the 1830s wheat became the dominant crop and as wheat farming expanded, the demand for mills and farm equipment grew.  The first large foundry was established in 1860 and farm equipment manufacturing grew with the demand.  Milling and its supporting industries grew to dominate the industrial economy of the colonies.  Every settlement had several flour mills and flour was exported to Europe and America.  Many entrepeneurs built large businesses and employed many workers.  By the end of the century many wealthy Mennonites were living on luxurious estates.
The biggest problem facing the people of Molotschna was the need for land for their growing families.  Since the land could not be divided, only the oldest son received the family farm.  By 1860 the great majority of the population was landless.  The landless obtained some land to build little cottages at the end of the village and worked as laborers or artisans. This is probably what happened to our ancestor Peter, since he was son number six in the family.  
Finally in 1866 the Russian government was persuaded  to distribute the community surplus and reserve land, which had been rented out mostly to the well-to-do farmers.  Each landless family received about 40 acres of land and by 1869 all this land had been distributed among 1,563 families.  Daughter colonies were the next solution and soon there were a dozen new settlements all over southern Russia.

The Mennonites developed many ways to improve their farming practices.

Wheat Fanning Mill invented in 1840 in Molotschna for separating wheat from chaff.

Photo courtesy of Heritage Remembered p. 90

A Flour Mill

 Photo courtesy of Heritage Remembered p. 54

Plow and Seeder

Photo courtesy of Heritage Remembered p. 90  

A plow and seeder all in one vehicle invented in Altonau in the 1850's when our ancestor Peter Friesen lived in that village.  These inventions and many more were manufactured in a number of factories belonging to Mennonite entrepreneurs. 

Farm Equipment Manufacturing Company

                                     Photo courtesy of Heritage Remembered p. 54                          

17. Health and Education

      Each village had a school where students were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, religion and music. The earliest teacher was typically a craftsperson or herder, untrained in teaching, who fit class time around his occupation.  In 1820 the Molotschna colony started a secondary school at Ohrloff and brought in a trained teacher from Prussia. A school of commerce was started in Halbstadt and offered a full graduate education with trained teachers. Those who wanted to pursue post-secondary education attended universities in Switzerland, Germany as well as Russia.     

      Mennonite colonies were self-governing with little intervention from the Russian authorities. Each village was headed by an elected magistrate who oversaw village affairs.  Villages controlled their own school, roads and cared for the poor. Male landowners decided local matters at village assemblies

A Mennonite Hospital

Photo courtesy of Heritage Remembered p. 119

            The Molotschna colony established its own hospitals, mental hospital, school for the deaf, orphanage and elder care homes.  The colony provided insurance and fire protection programs. 

The story of the Molotschna Colony can be seen at:
http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Molotschna_Mennonite_Settlement_(Zaporizhia_Oblast,_Ukraine)

18. (D4)Dietrich Peter and Elizabeth (Born) Friesen

               Our ancestor (D4)Dietrich Peter and his twin sister (D5)Maria were born 17 Sept 1860 in Altonau.  Dietrich married Elizabeth Born, who was born 29 Jan 1862 in Waldheim, Molotschna. They probably married around 1885 and moved to Herzenberg, also called Alexanderthal, which was about 30 miles east of Altonau.  Because Dietrich was not the oldest son and came of age well after the remaining land in the Molotschna settlement had been distributed, he would not have had the much desired land ownership opportunities.
               According to Betty's notes Dietrich was a teacher in Alexanderthal.  I found a description of the school in the autobiography of J.B. Toews, whose father was the teacher in Alexanderthal after Dietrich and family left in the early 1900's.  Mr. Toews writes that the school was a large red brick building with a large classroom on one side and living quarters for the teacher and his family on the other.  There was a barn for farm livestock, an orchard with 2 very large walnut trees, and a large garden plot for vegetables.

               Elizabeth Born was the daughter of Gerhard (1862-1911) and Helena (Goosen) Born.  Gerhard's father was Wilhelm Peter Born (1783-1856).

The school build in Alexanderthal is still being used today. 

This picture was taken in 2018 by Rudy P. Friesen, author of 2 books on Mennonite buildings in the Ukraine.

(used by permission)

19. Children of (D4)Dietrich and Elizabeth

The children of (D4)Dietrich and Elizabeth were all born in Alexanderthal.

               (E1)Dietrich: 6 Sept 1886

               (E2)Peter Dietrich: b 1 Oct 1887

               (E3)Gerhard (George) Dietrich: b 19 Mar 1889

               (E4)Elizabeth: 1890 died as infant

               (E5)Elizabeth: b 1891 d June 1902         

               (E6)Johann: died as infant (E5/ E6 twins?)

               (E7)Marie b 19 Feb 1894, d 25 Jan 1980

               (E8)Johann Dietrich b 19 May 1895, d 30 Oct 1973

               (E9)Anna: died as infant

               (E10)Katharina (Katja): b 6 Aug 1898

               (E11)Jacob: b 6 Aug 1898

               (E12)Henry: b 17 Mar. 1901

               (E13)Helena (Lena): b 5 May 1902

20. Alexanderthal

The village of Alexanderthal was on the Tschokrak River.  Our ancestor Peter Dietrich lived in this village for the first 17 years of his life.  I can imagine that he went swimming in the pond and perhaps fishing in the river.  This is where he went to school and where he played with his friends.  This village had a tree plantation that can be seen at the top of the map.  Maybe that is where Peter and his friends created adventures among the trees.   

http://www.mennonitechurch.ca/programs/archives/holdings/Schroeder_maps/060.pdf

The village layout above was typical for all the villages in the Mennonite settlements.  The farming land was outside of the village.  There was a school, a store, a church, a windmill, and a herdsman's hut.  The herdsman was usually a Russian peasant who took all the village cows to a community pasture every day.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Mennonitenansiedlung_Molotschna1912.jpg

This map shows the settlement of Molotschna with the villages and each bit of available land in use. Alexanderthal is in the very bottom right corner of the map.