Elisenhain-Josefsdorf-North Dakota Family Register 1872-1990
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1 Elisenhain-Josefsdorf-North Dakota Family Register 1872-1990 David Dreyer 808 N Claremont San Mateo, Calif 94401 [email protected] Jul 2013 Draft 2 ELISENHAIN-JOSEFSDORF-NORTH DAKOTA FAMILY REGISTER, 1872-1990 CONTENTS I HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION II JOSEFSDORF FAMILIES III See; http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~banatdata/DDB/ByVillage/Josefsdorf.htm IIII See; http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~banatdata/ND/NDakotaIntro.htm V MAPS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.--The author is indebted to the late Anton Kraemer, Ingelheim, Germany, for his advice, guidance and encouragement, to Mathias Egler, Muenchen, Germany and Werner Weissmueller, Bad Saulgau, Germany for aid in acquiring data and to Susan Clarkson, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan for helpful suggestions. Much important Setschan KB data was exchanged with Karl Benz, Bakowa data with Reinholdt Lovasz and Tschestereg data with Roswitha Egert. The author is indebted to Kimberley Dunkle for much data on Banaters in Castor, Canada. Further thanks go to Walter Friesenhahn, Josef Frank and Herbert Mayer, among others, for data exchange. Thanks go to the many Banat list subscribers who unknowing supplied family data over the years which was stored away until this work. Special thanks are due to Josef Michels for providing post 1900 Josefsdorf records. 3 I. ELISENHAIN-JOSEFSDORF-NORTH DAKOTA FAMILY REGISTER, 1872-1990, WITH FILIAL, KISZETO, BELINT AND GR TOPLOWETZ HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION, DIE ALTE HEIMAT; ULMBACH-SETSCHAN-ELISENHAIN- JOSEFSDORF Among the various turn-of-the-century immigrant homesteaders to Southwestern North Dakota were a group of Germans from Hungary who came from the pre World War I Hungarian province of the Banat. These German-Hungarians or more conveniently, Banaters, homesteaded largely in Stark and Hettinger counties with a lesser number located in Western Morton Co. About 20 % of these North Dakota homesteaders came from a single Banat village, Josefsdorf. The chain of events leading to the foundation of Josefsdorf is closely connected with events in the Southern Banat---in the marchs of the Banat Military Frontier. The Banat Military Frontier was populated by militia farmers, or Grenzers, who manned the outposts along the Danube from which they could observe the OttomanTurks across the river as well as to enforce quarantine restrictions designed to prevent the introduction of plague from Turkish controlled areas. These outposts and observation points also formed a protective screen against possible Turkish raids from across the river. These Germans from Hungary were originally one of several ethnic groups recruited by the Austrian government to colonize the Banat in the middle decades of the 18th century after it had been conquered from the Turks. At that time, the Banat was largely a depopulated swampy wasteland. In the ensuing century this population of Donau Schwabs, as they were eventually labeled, began to outgrow the readily available cultivable land. In the century from 1788-1888, the Donauschwaben population of the Banat grew from 75,000 to 510,000. Until 1867 estates among Banaters were passed down by the system of primogeniture, intact to the oldest son. Younger sons were paid a settlement from the estate. This expanding agrarian population created pressure to found new townsites through internal migration and bring further farmland into production in order to provide a livelihood for the younger sons. Since the best lands had been taken up in the earlier settlement period this led to the founding of further farming settlements on less desirable sites. The Reidland was the low lying flood plain in the SW corner of the Banat at the mouths of the Bega and Theiss. The swampy condition of the Reidland region largely resulted from silting at the mouth of the Bega where it emptied into the Theiss and, in turn, where the Theiss emptied into the Donau. The Reidland fell under the authority of the Banat Military Frontier and was under Austrian military administration. The remainder of the Banat, the Civil Banat or “the Provential”, at this time was administrated by Hungary. Further settlements in the Military Frontier were authorized by the Reichskriegsministerum in Vienna and the "Temeswarer Militaerkommando" in 1868. This action resulted in the founding of the "Marsh Settlements" of Giselahain, a daughter settlement of Mollydorf, Elisenhain, a daughter settlement of Setschan, Rudolfsgnad a daughter settlement of Etschka, Albrechtdorf, Koenigsdorf, Ivanovo and Gyorgyevo. The latter two were non Schwab villages. According to an account left by Adelbert Trendler, the justice of Elisenhain and leader in the founding of Josefsdorf, Elisenhain was settled in 1869 by 200 German families mainly coming from Setschan. In turn, Setschan was a daughter settlement comprising mainly families coming from Ulmbach. Administratively these Elisenhain Grenzers came under the authority of the XII Deutsch-Banater Grenz Regiment based in Pantschowa. In 1872 the Banat Military Frontier was disbanded and the area transferred from Austrian to Hungarian civil control. The repeated flooding and subsequent abandonment of Elisenhain and Giselahain leading to the establishment of Josefsdorf and Giseladorf respectively are well documented cases of Banat internal migration. The conditions leading to the settlement of Josefsdorf and Giseladorf illustrate the difficult times many families in these villages went through. A number of the Josefsdorf families resettled a number of times following a route from Ulmbach to Setschan, to Elisenhain, to finally Josefsdorf and on to a new home on the American prairies of North Dakota. These families came from low lying districts along the Theiss, 4 Bega and Temesch rivers where they lost all their possessions repeatedly through flooding. Elisenhain was located in a vast marshland subject to flooding near the confluence of the Bega and Theiss rivers. This site was adjacent to where the Theiss emptied into the Donau. Moreover, flooding on the Donau could back water up the Theiss and thus create flooding conditions along it's lower reaches even though there were no unusual weather conditions in the watersheds on the upper Theiss or Bega. In order to protect the newly founded Elisenhain from flooding a 2.5 Km long dike, 5 M high was constructed before any houses were built. In addition, to protect fields and crops from flooding, a second 12.5 Km long dike over 5 M in height was also constructed. Of course, this was all done without the aid of machinery. Scarcely had the town been established when floods breached the newly constructed dike and the inhabitants suffered extensive losses. As a result, the dike was widened and extended to a height of 6.5 M. In those years of no flooding(1873-1875) the Elisenheimers achieved record crops on the rich alluvial soils. Further catastrophic flooding occurred in the Spring of 1876, when the Elisenhainers lost everything, their possessions were swept away and the inhabitants were impoverished. The Elisenhainers were forced to find refuge in the neighboring village of Etschka. The repeated flooding of Elisenhain and other poorly sited Reidland villages at the mouths of the Theiss and Bega caused the inhabitants, under the leadership of Adelbert Trendler, to petition the authorities in Gr Betschkerek and Temeswar for relocation to a more secure site less subject to flooding hazards. The Elisenhainers particularly wanted a new location which would not be subjected to flooding. Eventually a new site to the East of Temeswar was laid out with 315 homesites and was given the name Josefsdorf. The Elisenhainers drew lots for their new homesites and the first settlers departed Elisenhain 6 Mar 1882. The first group arrived at the new site of Josefsdorf on 12 March but the process of moving extended into late fall. Some families moved by loading their possessions onto barges and went up the Bega canal as far as Temeswar and from there to Josefsdorf by wagon. Others made the entire move by wagon. The new houses were constructed, as were those of most Banat settler houses, of tamped earth. Loads of reeds were brought from the swamps of their old home to thatch the roofs of their newly built houses. Tamped earth construction was a long standing technique among Banaters and it was not a new task for the Josefsdorfers since they had employed exactly the same process in the settlement of Elisenhain some 12 years previously as well as in the frequent rebuilding of Elisenhain after each flooding episode. A new village of Elisenhain, later reconstructed(1883-1889) on the old site, was more secure because the channels of the Bega and Theiss had been dredged allowing for better drainage during flooding conditions. It was resettled by ca 175 Slovak families and 46 German families which had returned after the flooding. The founding of Giseladorf in 1882 by the relocation of Giselahain, another town frequently flooded out, has many parallels with the establishment of Josefsdorf. Mollydorf was founded in 1832 by inhabitants from Charleville, Seultour, St Hubert, Masstort, Heufeld, Hatzfeld and Tschestereg. In turn, 200 Mollydorf families in 1868 settled Giselahain. Giselahain was sited on low lying, swampy ground between the Donau and Temesch rivers. As in the case of Elisenhain it was necessary to construct dikes for protection against flooding from the Donau. In the year 1869, when no flooding occurred, crop yields were 4-5 times greater than in Mollydorf due to the rich alluvial soils of the area. Dike construction was slow and inadequate so that in March of 1870 Giselahain, as well as other nearby villages, Koenigsdorf and Marienfeld were completely flooded. The inhabitants took refuge in neighboring villages. The reconstructed Giselahain was relocated on slightly higher ground. Since a number of families did not return, the reconstruction Giselahain contained only 190 families. In spite of the higher location, and rebuilt dikes, in March of 1880 flooding again destroyed Giselahain. Only four houses and the school remained standing.