THE MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD IN RUSSIA (1789 - 1910), P. M. Friesen, 1911

l (“Wardrobe”) reminded one of the historical portraits of the educated classes in 1812. These were all made out of the finest materials and lasted for decades, but eventually, after alteration upon alteration would have to be discarded. Gradually the trivial styles of the fifties took over. 6. It is not difficult to understand that the financial condition of most of these settlers in those first years was not an enviable one, for there was no ready market for their farm products. The concerned, fatherly government tried to remedy this situation. Privy Councillor Contenius, the well-known supervisor and benefactor of the colonies, raised the level of prosperity considerably in the colonies through the introduction of sheep-raising. The acquisition of breeding sheep of Spanish extraction Documentary Supplement 183 (Merino sheep) soon made it possible for every farmer to possess a small flock: many as large as 160 animals. 94 Since wool and mutton could be readily sold, better economic conditions gradually prevailed. The hides of the dead or slaughtered sheep, after they had been prepared by the tanner, were made into fur-coats, caps, and, in early days, even into jackets and pants for the male members of the family. With the constantly growing ability to sell grain as the result of the creation or flowering of such market cities as Ekaterinoslav and Alexandrovsk (on the Dnieper) and Mariupol and Berdiansk (on the Sea of Azov), grain-farming, especially wheat, gradually grew to the present dimen- sions, eventually displacing both the sheep industry and the silk industry which had grown up alongside of it. Then railroads were added. Through these and the massive sales of grain the farms, wealth, and way of life in our colonies have also gone through massive changes. (Cf. further "Agriculture and Industry.”) B. The Chortitza and Molotschna Mennonite Colonies of 1820 as Evaluated by Foreign Travelers (Taken from the Beitraege of Reiswitz and Wadzeck, pp. 350ff. Compare with #56) 1. The "Old Colony” [Chortitza District]. [Supplement to #31.] a) With the exception of three of its villages, the fifteen villages of the so-called “old colony”, which was founded in 1789, lie approximately sixty to eighty versts 95 south of Ekaterinoslav on the right bank of the Dnieper, next to or near its tributary, the Chortitza River. The three exceptions are: Kronsgarten, 96 which lies about one German mile [seven versts] above Ekaterinoslav on the left bank of the Dnieper; a second, called "Island Chortitza,” is situated on the large wooded island "Chortitza” [the center of the former “Ssietschi” or Saporog Cossacks: "Saporoskhzy”] which is separated from the next village by a small arm of the Dnieper. The third, Schoenwiese, lies on the left bank of the Dnieper near the town of Alexandrovsk. b) The buildings in these villages have been patterned largely after those here [Prussia]; but because of the scarcity o