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

2) Wiesenfeld was established by Br. Jakob Reimer of Gnadenfeld, after he left Blumenau 280 when the village was dissolved (actually after residing in the District of Alexandrovsk for 15 years: in Friedrichsfeld, near Andreasfeld, as a renter, and in Blumenau, also near Andreasfeld, as a landowner). Wiesenfeld was founded around 1880 by Reimer, in association with his sons, a son-in-law and the brethren Peter Friesen from Chortitza, Sawatsky, and others, in the Pavlograd District of the Province of Ekaterinoslav, 15 versts from the Sevastopol railway station of Saizevo. Here he continued his efforts, as he had earlier, but in a more quiet, withdrawn manner, to establish a milder, more sincere brother- hood alliance in the sense of a true alliance “where everything would revolve around the center: Christ.” Here a brother would not be pushed and compelled on doctrinal questions until the Lord would reveal it to him also, much as in the best years of the Wuestian movement, there were more orderly and evangelical convictions in relationship to baptism, etc. This old Gnadenfeld and Wuestian brother, who did not find his ideals realized in the "secession” of 1860, did not find them entirely satisfied by the Christian norms of Liebig and Unger (because of their sharp corners, boundaries and certain narrowness), although he sincerely loved and esteemed these organizers of the M.B. Church. He softened the hardnesses and rounded the corners of strict Anabaptism as much as he could, largely through “being silent,” which, according to Br. B. Becker’s statement (Dec., 1864) “also preaches.” (Cf. ##182 and 189, e). Here they also had or have their own school, with good leadership, whose classroom also served as the place of worship. 3) Jasykovo-Nikolaipol, Province and District of Ekaterinoslav (since the end of the 70s). Here the Einlage M.B. Church has its second meeting house. Active here as well as in the area of the entire Einlage Church and to a lesser degree in the entire church conference as ministers and itinerant preachers during this period (until 1885) were, first of all, The M.B. Church 1873-1885 485 the brethren Dietrich Klassen (died in Friedensfeld) and Peter Peters, then Cornelius Fehr (now elder of the Kamenka Church in the Orenburg District) and Martin Koslow9ky. 4) “Grossfuerstenland” or Sergeievka-Alexandertal, in the Melitopol District of the Province of Taurida, in the Mennonite leasehold villages on the property of Grand-Duke Michael Nikolaievitsch on the Dnieper, since 1875. This unit of the church consists primarily of brethren from the Chortitza, though partly also from the Molotschna District. During the period under discussion (until 1885) for longer or shorter periods, the ministering brethren Peter Fast, brother of Daniel Fast (cf. #51) who died at an advanced age in Petrovka-Naumenko, Province of Kharkov, around 1900, Jakob Wiens, Peter Wiens, 281 now in America, and (to th