Preservings $20 Issue No. 26, 2006 - Home at Plett Foundation

Four Letters to Susanna from Johann Bartsch
as a Mennonite Land Scout in New Russia 1786-87
Lawrence Klippenstein, Winnipeg and Edwin D. Hoeppner, Winnipeg
No one to date has written much about the
personal collection of correspondence and other
materials gathered and held by Johann Bartsch
of Danzig. He is believed to have been the
secretary of the two-man Danzig Mennonite
delegation (the other person being Jakob Hoeppner)
which investigated New Russia settlement
possibilities in 1786-87.
As it happens, some of Bartsch’s writings
have survived. The first of these writings to be
published may have been the excerpts from,
and references to, four letters which he wrote to
his first wife, Susanna, while on the journey to
New Russia and back. These letters are quoted
in the 1889 centennial publication by David
Catherine the Great (1729-1796). British Museum,
London.
H. Epp, Die Chortitzer Mennoniten Versuch
einer Darstellung des Entwickelungsganges
derselben. A Mennonite Encyclopedia entry
on Johann Bartsch, provided by Dr. Cornelius
Krahn, makes reference in its brief bibliography
to “Johann Bartsch letters” of which copies may
be found at the Mennonite Library and Archives
(MLA) in North Newton, Kansas, USA. This
collection includes the four letters to Susanna
under discussion here. They are among the
Bartsch letters microfilmed at the MLA, and sold
in a duplicate copy to the Mennonite Heritage
Centre in Winnipeg.
The same letters are also included in a larger
collection of letters and other documents once
in the possession of Aeltester David H. Epp
(1861 -1934) of Ekaterinoslav, south Russia,
and brought to Canada after World War II. It is
said that they were deposited with his younger
brother, and founder of Der Bote, Diedrich H.
Epp (1875-1955), of Rosthern, Saskatchewan.
That collection remains with the extended family,
with some photocopies also extant in the
authors’ files.
All the letters are written in German longhand
Gothic script and available in quite legible
handwritten copies of the original. It is not
known where the originals, if they still exist,
are located.
Who were the Johann Bartsches of Danzig?
Johann Bartsch was born 6 September
1757, the second son of Jakob and Christina
Philipsen Bartsch, possibly from Danzig. He
married Susanna Lammert, also born in 1757,
the daughter of Jakob and Susanna (von Niessen)
Lammert of Tiegenhagen. She was baptized
in 1773 in the Orlofferfelde Frisian Mennonite
Church by Aeltester Heinrich Donner. Johann
and Susanna married on 15 August 1779. They
had three children, Susanna, b. 10 February
1782, Maria, b. 21 July 1783, and Sara, b. 10
January 1785. Mother Susanna passed away
on 15 November 1790 in Rosenthal, Chortitza
settlement, shortly after they had emigrated to
New Russia in 1788-89.
In 1788 Johann and Susanna and their family
emigrated from the village of Nobel located
about seven kilometres south of the city centre
of Danzig. His place of birth is not known with
certainty at this point. For its living the family
ran a small dairy, and Johann may have acquired
some proficiency as a shoemaker sometime in
his life. The family worshipped with his parents
in the Neugarten Frisian congregation led at the
time by Aeltester Isaac Stobbe. This congregation
occupied the first building constructed by
the Frisian congregation in the Neugarten suburb
of Danzig just outside the city wall in 1638.
The Land Scout Challenge
In 1786 the routine family and farm life of
Johann Bartsch was radically altered by the arrival
in the area, of Georg (von) Trappe. As an
agent of Tsarina Catharine II and her Viceroy
in New (south) Russia, Grigorii Alexandrovich
Potemkin. Trappe had come as a “caller of colonists”
to promote emigration among Mennonites
and others, inviting them to occupy unsettled
lands of the recently-acquired New Russian territories
. On 27 July/7 August 1786 he presented
specific proposals to both Mennonite congregations
in Danzig. There was almost immediate
interest in Trappe’s offer so that within a week or
more an emigration movement began to emerge.
Danzig city officials opposed this development,
hence the church leaders were forbidden to have
further contacts with Trappe.
Trappe was not deterred by his opponents,
however, and continued his promotion of Russian
colonization opportunities among various
German communities in Danzig. He believed
that with the tacit support of the Flemish Mennonite
Aeltester Peter Epp and possibly other
church leaders, that almost immediate interest
in such possibilities would quickly expand if
the path could be cleared to leave. It was then
suggested by several Mennonites to Aeltester
Epp that it would be very helpful if the Mennonites
could send reliable representatives to see
for themselves the land being made available,
and to be involved in tailoring the settlement
offer to suit their specific wishes and needs.
This idea was conveyed to the Russian Consul
General Sokolovski who agreed with this idea.
The name Jakob Hoeppner was brought forward
as someone suited for becoming part of a New
Russian land scouting delegation.
A group of sixty Mennonite family heads
signed a power-of-attorney document (Vollmacht)
authorizing several selected persons to
make the settlement investigation in New Russia.
The three men chosen were Jakob Hoeppner,
a member of the Flemish church, and living In
Bohnsack somewhat to the east of Danzig near
the Baltic Sea, Jakob van Kampen, and Johann
Bartsch, a young farmer from the village of Nobel.
Van Kampen withdrew before the delegation
got underway. That left Hoeppner and Bartsch
to undertake the trip, with Trappe as guide and
interpreter for the expedition. The delegates
Vice-Regent of New Russia, Grigorii A. Potemkin
(1739-1791).
claimed to be representing 270 to 300 families
who were interested in moving to New Russia.
By an agreement Trappe made with the delegates,
a document signed on 22 September/3 October
1786, all the expenses of the land scouting
trip would be paid by the Russian government,
and funds and other support would be provided
regularly as needed. This document also stated
that the day of departure for the delegates was
scheduled for 19/30 October that year.
A number of German Lutheran families
78 - Preservings No. 26, 2006