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

118 families came in 1797, followed by others until a total of some 400 families from Prussia had migrated to the Chortitza Colony. Unspeakable difficulties, prompted in part by ignorance of the new conditions, the incompetence of the settlers, the disloyalty of many colony officials, and successors unworthy of von Trappe seemed at first to doom the community to failure. (Understandably, the first families seem to have come pre- dominantly from the most impoverished and decayed segments of the Mennonite society; compare #s 56 & 66). 2. Confused church issues compounded the problems. The first §32 church ministers had been chosen while the group was en route, encamped in winter quarters at Dubrovna, in the Province of Mohilev, during 1788/89. Strangely enough, not a single minister had come in the first contingent of 228 families, an indication that those better economically situated, from whom the spiritual leaders were usually chosen, viewed the emigration with suspicion. The governing bodies of the churches in Prussia confirmed the newly elected ministers by letter. Some time later, the Chortitza Colony elected an elder, Behrent Penner, whose appointment was confirmed by letter. It was not until later though that a better ordering of affairs was instituted by the above-mentioned Cornelius Warkentin. He, together with Elder Cornelius Regier, had been sent by the congregations in Prussia in 1794. Elder Regier died in Chortitza, but on his deathbed he had ordained Cornelius Warkentin, who had been recognized only as a minister, charging him with the responsibility of setting all things in order. The wish that the Flemish and Frisians, who comprised a good third of the settlers, would unite in one church was never realized. The Frisian (Kronsweide) congregation was organized alongside that of the much larger Flemish (Chortitza) congregation. The extreme poverty was alleviated only through the coming of the Molotschna settlers. (The Chortitza settlement is dealt with in greater detail in section X, “Documentary Supplements,” #53ff.) 3. The first group of settlers in the Molotschna, 5 coming in 1803/04, §33 consisted of 342 families. In 1808/09 ninety-nine more famili es came; in 1819/20 another 215 families comprising the Rudnerweide and Alexander- wohl congregations arrived; in 1835-40 some eighty famili es of the Gnadenfeld and Waldheim villages came so that by 1840 the Molotschna 91 92 IN RUSSIA 1789-1860 immigration had been completed. A total of approximately 750 families had come to Molotschna from Prussia and from Waldheim, Poland. Together with the Chortitza settlers, some 1150 families, or 6,000 persons arrived in Southern Russia. 4. The first step to regulate the affairs of the church in the Flemish settlement of Molotschna was taken in 1805 6 when Elder Jakob Enns of Tiegenhagen was elected and installed by the Flemish Elder Johann Wiebe of Chortitza. This basically completed