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A Family's Mennonite History

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A Family's Mennonite History A Family’s Mennonite History The Story of Our Claassen, Epp, Harms, Koop, Neufeld, Plenert, Ratzlaff, Unruh, and Warkentin Ancestry Kenneth L. Ratzlaff Volume I Second Edition A Family’s Mennonite History 2 Copyright ©, 1997, 1998 Kenneth L. Ratzlaff 2601 Belle Crest Dr. Lawrence, Kansas 66046 913/843-1991 [email protected] Please do not reproduce without permission from the author. Cover page Top Row: Jacob P. Ratzlaff, Helena Dirks Unruh, Maria Unruh Ratzlaff, Kornelius Plenert, Anna Bartel Plenert Second Row: Two posthumous portraits of Menno Simons Third Row: Cornelius J. Plenert, Heinrich W. Ratzlaff, Anna Wilms Ratzlaff, Bena Ratzlaff Plenert, Peter P. Warkentin Fourth Row: Justina Wiens Warkentin, Peter J. Warkentin, Anna Koop Warkentin, Cornelius S. Harms, Peter T. Harms Fifth Row: Katharine Epp Harms, Katharina Fröse Harms, David Harms, David M. Unruh, Eva Schröder Unruh Sixth Row: Eva Unruh Harms, Isaac U. Neufeld, Johann Claassen, 1874 sketches of two Mennonite immigrants Printed December 29, 1998 (4:28PM). A Family’s Mennonite History, ©1998, Kenneth L. Ratzlaff, December 29, 1998. For Our Children, Michael Mpho Ratzlaff, Jonathan James Ratzlaff, Rebekah Margaret Harms Ratzlaff, and Our Grand-daughters, Kathryn Abigail Gypsy Marie In Honor of Our Parents, Kermit O. Ratzlaff and Ruth Warkentin Ratzlaff, Isaac N. Harms and Annie Louise Weaver Harms A Family’s Mennonite History, ©1998, Kenneth L. Ratzlaff, December 29, 1998. A Family’s Mennonite History 4 A Family’s Mennonite History, ©1998, Kenneth L. Ratzlaff, December 29, 1998. Table of Contents 1 Preface ......................................................................................................... 7 The Stage on Which We Find Our Story ............................................................................... 11 2 The Emergence of Mennonites and a Free Church ........................................................................ 13 3 Setting Our Prussian and Russian Mennonite Stage ....................................................................... 27 4 Setting Our North American Stage ................................................................................... 37 Immigrants from the Russian Empire ................................................................................. 45 5 Ratzlaffs from Przechowka to Hoffnungsau ............................................................................. 47 6 The Volhynia/Great Bend Unruh Connection ............................................................................ 63 7 The First of Two Harms Cousins ..................................................................................... 77 8 Leadership in a Reform Movement: a Harms Family Endeavor ............................................................... 87 9 Warkentins, from Crimea to the Valley of Hope ......................................................................... 105 10 From the Vistula valley in Russian Poland: The Kornelius and Anna Plenert Family .............................................. 131 11 Our First American Mennonites: The Heinrich and Anna Ratzlaff Family ..................................................... 139 12 From near Warsaw: The David M. and Eva Unruh Family ................................................................ 145 13 Mennonite Brethren Leadership: Johann Claassen ...................................................................... 151 14 Mennonite Brethren Gadfly: Heinrich Neufeld ......................................................................... 165 15 Other South Russian Immigrants: Heinrich and Anna Koop ............................................................... 177 16 Narrow Escapes Amidst Tragedy: The Epp Family ...................................................................... 181 17 Epilogue: Personal Notes and Comments ............................................................................. 189 Appendices ..................................................................................................... 195 Appendix XVIII Five-Generation Ancestor Charts ........................................................................ 197 Appendix XIX Ancestor Charts and Group Sheets ........................................................................ 201 Appendix XX Descendancy of our 2G-Grandparents ...................................................................... 259 Appendix XXI Glossary ............................................................................................ 269 References ...................................................................................................... 271 Index .......................................................................................................... 277 A Family’s Mennonite History, ©1998, Kenneth L. Ratzlaff, December 29, 1998. A Family’s Mennonite History 6 A Family’s Mennonite History, ©1998, Kenneth L. Ratzlaff, December 29, 1998. 1 Preface Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you. Deuteronomy 32:7 Family History: The Story of Ourselves Each of us are made unique, both a child of God and the offspring of our parents. This book is an exploration, a search for both our uniqueness and our commonality. We are who we are because of a combination of important contributions--the grace of God, a special family environment, a unique larger environment and a singular set of genes. To learn who we are and why we are, we must learn about a God of grace and about our ancestors: how we were shaped by a God who has been constant, and by parents who were shaped in part by their parents who in turn were shaped by their's for generations. But this is not a separated story of the ephemeral and the eternal. It is both a story of families and a story of faith. Among our kin in history, we do not find one without the other, and our family story has real meaning only as we find these themes together. That understanding defines the beginning of our story: an exceptional time when our family before us learned the meaning of a unique identification with the story of God. For this family, that bond was created in the conflict and upheaval of the Reformation in Europe. From there we travel, not only over 400 years, but over much of both well-known and exotic Europe: N beginning in Switzerland (with roots in Germany), N west into Holland and Strassbourg, N east to Prussia (now Poland), N south into central and southeastern Poland (the latter now western Ukraine), N southeast into South Russia (now Ukraine) and the Caucasus, N and finally to North America. These were not rootless wanderers simply looking for better grazing or finer cropland. They were communities seeking to follow God's leading as they understood it, every move considered in the light of being true disciples. It is also a story of many names. Although we carry but one or two family names, we are the descendants of many. The names in our family story are not common where most of us live, and that can help tie us even closer to the story of God working in a community. In the community of our ancestry the names include Ratzlaff, Warkentin, Harms, Unruh, Plenert, Neufeld and Koop. For each of those names, there was a time at which someone made a spiritual commitment to be part of a new community. Later, someone with that name made the decision to leave the old world and come to America. That commitment and that decision, and therefore that name, are a part of us as well. Family History and Mennonite History One more name belongs to this family, and that name is Mennonite. The community of our ancestry which sprang from the Reformation called first for a church made of only believers. A Family’s Mennonite History, ©1998, Kenneth L. Ratzlaff, December 29, 1998. A Family’s Mennonite History 8 From that commitment came the need for baptism of adults, which was for many a re-baptism, and they were called Anabaptists. Some call this part of the Reformation the Radical Reformation. Many detractors attached the name Mennists, named for their longest surviving leader, Menno Simons. Today we use the name Mennonites. Saying that this community always sought be a community of faith does not automatically make it so. There were periods when they were seduced into confusing the community for God or into confusing the community for the people in the community. These difficulties also form part of who we are, and we need to remember to include them. In fact, more than one story has developed that our forebears did not want us to know. Unsolved mystery remains a component our story. It can be difficult to determine how choices were made 50 and 100 years ago that have remained influences on us today. However, even with all the difficulties, the story can still be worth telling and, even more, worth knowing. The Objectives of This Story I also want to make a note about the objectives in writing this history. This is for my family. It is not meant to give the big picture of Mennonite history but only the picture of our forebears within Mennonite History. Even so, I realize that it contains all the Mennonite history that some might ever read. I hope it provides a fair picture. While I have tried to credit all sources in a moderately rigorous way, I have not obtained permission for use of figures. For family distribution, this use should be covered under Fair Use copyright rules. I also debated whether to use footnotes. They are included, mostly to answer the
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