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

a proper document in this regard, and to send the same to us. Therefore we concede you the right, instead of submitting our petition, to listen to the decisions reached as a consequence of the above and to express your own pleasure or displeasure with regard to them. We will trust you in this, and what you will do in this matter will remain uncontested by us. Mennonites of the colony of the Chortitza District, Province and District of Ekaterinoslav, colony of Rosental: Heinrich Epp, son of Cornelius, colony of Lower Chortitza; Benjamin Nickel, son of Benjamin, colony of Kronsweide; Johann Froes, son of Cornelius; Peter Unrau, son of Wilhelm; Jacob 190 Neufeld, son of Johann; Heindrich 191 Krause, son of Peter, colony of Neuendorf; Peter Berg, son of Jakob, colony of Schoenhorst; Peter Neufeld, son of Peter, colony of Einlage; Abraham Unger, son of Heinrich; Jakob Koslowsky, son of David, colony of Chortitza; 192 Johann Isaak, son of Jakob; Peter Friesen, son of Isaak; Franz Wieler, son of Johann; 193 Komelius Hiebert, son of Johann; Jakob Wieler, son of Johann,' 93 colony of Schoewiese; Diedrich Goerzen, son of Diedrich. . . [There follow the formalities of confirmation by the district court in Alexandrovsk with signature and seal of May 4, 1864, and the explanation that this authority belonged "to the Mennonites of the Liebenau Colony, district of Molotschna, Province of Taurida, Johann Claassen.”] 5. Actual Settlement on the Kuban. a) Johann Claassen, letter of April 19, 1866: . . on May 27, 1864, Wednesday afternoon, I left for Stavropol with Br. Wieler [Gerhard] and Bernhard Janzen and my son Jakob. My wife and children accompanied me to Pastva [last Mennonite colony in the Molotschna, in the eastern section]. Brother and Sister Harms and the Schinkovskys . . . had left five days earlier .... On the afternoon of June 10 we arrived at the Kuban, at the place where the new settlement was to be established. We met Brother and Sister H. Nickel and their children, Abram Dyck, Peter and Gerhard Buller, at the potato field. Here we greeted each other, and were very happy to see one another again. For supper we were the guests of the Nickels . . . .” b) Jakob Reimer, diary: “. . . on June 3, 1864, we Documentary Supplements 413 left for the Kuban with three wagons .... We arrived on the 20th .... It was quite an adventure .... Most of our possessions were now carried into the semlianka [called ‘simlin’ in Mennonite usage— an earth hut]. On Sunday we rested and studied God’s Word .... On the 23rd we worked in the hay .... On Sunday, June 28, according to what I was told, the first regular church service was held. In the afternoon the brethren met for consultation . . . .” Reimer, in a letter of July 5, 1864, to Cornelius Reimer, expresses him self ill-humoredly about conditions in the settlement. As a consequence, he was unable to endure conditions there much longer. On September 16, 1864, he wro