Andreas and Susanna (Wedel) Ratzlaff family

Andreas and Susanna (Wedel) Ratzlaff were married on February 17, 1895, probably in Leeleva.  Both Andreas and Susanna had been baptized by Johann Schartner in 1889.  Schartner, who had been born in Karolswalde, moved to the Molotschna Colony sometime before 1860 (http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/S33381.html).  After Tobias Unruh left with the bulk of the Karolswalde congregation in 1874, Schartner made frequent visits to Karolswalde to serve the congregation there. 

Andreas’ Forestry Service discharge papers indicate that he was discharged in December of 1894 to his hometown of Antonovka.  Abe J. Unruh indicates that the villages of Antonovka and Karolswalde were the 2 parish centers for the Mennonite villages.  Fuersenthal, Karolsberge and Jadwenin were associated with Karolswalde while Fuerstendorf (Leeleva) and Menziliski were associated with Antonovka.  When the Forestry Service discharged Andreas to Antonovka, it may have meant to the Parish of Antonovka because, as far as we know, neither the Jacob nor Andreas Ratzlaff families ever lived in the village of Antonovka.

Andreas and Susanna had the following eight children in Leeleva, six of whom survived:

            1)  Jacob (12/31/1895 – 01/18/1895)

            2)  Marie born 05/26/1897

            3)  Karoline born 01/30/1899

            4)  Adam (10/08/1900 – 08/28/1901)

            5)  Katherine born 01/27/1902

            6)  John born 02/14/1903

            7)  Florentine born 10/17/1904

            8)  Susanna born 02/26/1906

Four more boys would be born in America:

9)      Albert born 08/02/1908

10)  Abraham born 12/23/1909

11)  Jacob born 01/16/1912

12)  Isaac born 10/23/1914

The family lived in Leeleva, just down from the house of Susanna’s parents, Peter Jacob and Katarina Wedel.  The eldest daughter, Marie, has left us with recollections of her young years growing up in Leeleva and they were written down by her daughter Velma (Penner) Unruh.  Marie was 10 years old when the family left Leeleva for America, but she remembered a lot of details about Volhynia.

The villagers grew many fruits and vegetables including pumpkins, peas, parsnips, potatoes, corn and beans.  Wild strawberries and blueberries grew in the area, and there were also cherry and apple trees.  Storks flew in and built nests on the chimneys of the villages in the spring and wolves and wild hogs could be found in the forests.  The villagers kept chickens, geese and pigs; some had a cow but very few had a work horse.  The herd boy would come by in the morning to take the livestock to the pasture.  The land was hilly and many trees grew.  The Kuniv forest and the Ostrog forest were near the village on the north and west sides.

The houses in the village faced southwest and were arranged in an offset pattern.  If they were built in straight rows, if one caught fire, the fire could more easily spread to the next house.  The houses had thatched roofs and dirt floors, sprinkled with clean sand from the river.  The barns were attached to the houses and in the cold winter the livestock stayed in the barn area for longer periods of time.  The houses had “russian ovens”.  Villagers milked their cows and prepared cheese.  Many also wove flax into linen at night, using oil lanterns for light.

Winters were long and snow would pile deep.  The rivers would be solid with ice.  Most villagers wore wooden shoes but some had long Russian style boots.  At night the ice could be heard cracking on the rivers.  When all was quiet, the villagers could hear horse hoofbeats from the highway too.

In the area were many German Mennonites and Lutherans, but also Russians and Polish Eastern Orthodox.  The area also had a high Jewish population and once in a while Gypsy caravans could be seen.  In addition to German, some of the villagers spoke Russian or Ukrainian.  Andreas Ratzlaff could speak high German, low German, Russian and Yiddish. 

Weddings were held in the home of the bride who would wear a black dress.  The dress would be her good Sunday dress for years.  Homemade bread, borscht and noodle soup would be served. 

On Sundays, the service would be held in the minister’s home.  On weekdays, the village children would come to the home of the school teacher for classes.  Andreas served as a school teacher and the family would move their furniture out of the way every morning before the children arrived.  The Bible was the main textbook.  Abe J Unruh tells us that the school teacher was often times the herdsman too.  Andreas knew how to play the fiddle and the accordion and villagers would dance while Andreas played.  Andreas was also known as the village peacemaker and folks would come to him for mediation if there was a quarrel.

Everyone in the village had a special occupation.  There was a blacksmith, a shoemaker, a harness-maker, a carpenter, the minister, the schoolteacher, etc.  The land upon which the village was situated was much hillier than Kansas and the village lay at a more northerly latitude so the sun didn’t shine from so high in the sky.  The weather was much less windy and thunder and lightening storms were very rare. 

Unruh indicates in his book, The Helpless Poles, that after the bulk of the Mennonites left in 1874 the remaining colonists consolidated into a lesser number of villages.  Leeleva was the last remaining village.  By 1910 only a handful of families remained and they all lived in Leeleva (perhaps that is why Susanna Wedel’s family moved from Karolswalde to Leeleva probably sometime in the 1880s).  Early in the 1900s, along with Susanna’s parents the Wedels, and Susanna’s uncle’s family, the Benjamin Unruhs, Andreas and Susanna began making plans to leave Volhynia.