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

fe on April 19, 1866. “Often I wonder why this lot has fallen to me. Why does the Lord not distribute the load? Why must I be the one who is always far away from his family? I also tell my Lord about this situation, and ask Him to remember that I am dust and ashes. I tell my Lord that I am human, that I have a heart filled with longing! You have given me a wife, and I may not embrace her. You have given me children, and I may not instruct them. My infant child I do not even know. My wife has a husband, but she must bear the burdens alone; the children have a father, but the little ones do not know him . . . 8. Short Report of a Part of the Molotschna and Einlage Mennonite § 180 Brethren Church now Settled on the Kuban. This is given by the aged, venerable brother, Elder Daniel Fast, who retired about 1902, under the date of April 29, 1902. a) “After Br. Johann Claassen had received permission from the St. Petersburg government to acquire land for settlement on the Kuban River, he and Br. Heinrich Nickel went there in the fall of 1863 as the first pioneers. In October they were followed by the brethren Abraham Peters [Ladekopp, senior deacon], Simon Harms, Peter Martens and Schoenkovsky [Claassen writes ‘Schinkovsky’], that is, four brethren without families and with 36 cows. In November of that year Br. Claassen returned to the Molotschna, but the four brethren stayed for the winter, prepared their lands in 1864, and then returned to their families in the Molotschna. Here they disposed of their farms, and took their families to their new home on the Kuban. Br. Claassen and son [Jakob] also joined the group. In the fall Cornelius Reimer and others also went. In 1865 the brethren [Cornelius] Reimer and [Johann] Claassen each received another ten dessiatines land for a garden along the stream Kusma, also called 416 THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH Ovetschka. Here both of them, after they had gone back for their families, settled temporarily, b) In 1866 Br. Claassen went to Tiflis and received from the government [written] assurance that the Mennonite rights of the Molotschna Mennonites also extended to the Kuban settlers. In this year the other brethren from the administrative areas Taurida and Ekaterinoslav also came here, 67 of 100 families, since the difficulties of moving here frightened off 33 families. Thus there remained land for only 67 families (at 65 dessiatines), settled on the left bank of the Kuban River in the two colonies called Wohldemfuerst and Alexanderfeld. They are close to each other and are today called Velikokniashesk and Alexandrodar. . . (Cf. also #185ff.) C. Documents Primarily Concerning the Spiritual "Despotism” and the Excesses of the "Exuberant Ones ” (Supplement to Chapter XVIII) §181 1. a) After the victory over Antinomianism in 1862 the excessive exuberance had also receded (cf. above ‘‘Minutes of the Meeting of the Ohrloff Ministers”). However, when a nu