Visitors to Kaufman Museum at Bethel College in North Newton, KS, will find a Ratzlaff barn, restored and painted bright red, to the north of the main museum building. This barn was moved onto the museum grounds in the 1980s from its original location 6 miles east of Buhler on Dutch Avenue. The barn was built by Abraham Peter Ratzlaff, long-time elder at the Hoffnungsau Mennonite Church near Inman.
Abraham Ratzlaff (gma 81741) was born 1850 in the village of Franztal, in the Molotschna Mennonite Colony. His parents were Peter and Maria Richert, who were born in Beckersitz and Przechowko, respectively, in West Prussia. This Peter Ratzlaff had moved to Molotschna Colony with his family when he was 7; Maria with her family in 1819 when she was 4. Both families likely made their homes in the village of Franztal.
Peter and Maria were married in 1832 in Franztal and had 12 children. In 1874, they joined the large group that migrated to USA and this large family traveled aboard the SS Teutonia. After the immigration, they settled in McPherson County, Kansas, and were congregants at the Hoffnungsau Church.
Abraham was the 9th child. He was baptized by Elder Benjamin Ratzlaff at Rudnerweide Church near Franztal Village, in 1869. After the migration to Kansas, Abraham became a congregant at Hoffnungsau and then, in 1880, was ordained as a minister. In 1902 he became the elder of the congregation, succeeding Dietrich Gaeddert, who had led the Teutonia group to McPherson County. Abraham was then a solid leader for the Hoffnungsau community until his death in 1939.
The barn at Kaufman Museum, built by Abraham Ratzlaff, is a fantastic example of early Kansas Mennonite architecture.
Abraham's brother John (Johann; gma 111722) was 9 years older than Abraham. He too was baptized at the Rudnerweide Church near Franztal and migrated with his family in 1874. In 1875, John was elected as a minister at Hoffnunsau and this is where the rest of the story begins.
By 1880, John was elected elder of the Canton Gemeinde, several miles southeast of Hoffnungsau. This Canton Gemeinde had its roots in Antonowka, Volhynia. When the Antonowka group migrated to USA in 1874, they basically formed the Emmanuel Mennonite Church near Canton. After many in this group were converted by John Holdeman to establish the Lone Tree Church, those remaining formed the Canton Gemeinde. John Ratzlaff and these Canton congregants, both originating at daughter churches of the Przechowko community, were a good fit together.
In 1895, John Ratzlaff led a great many of the Canton Gemeinde to northern Oklahoma, to Major County, to establish there the New Hopedale Church. It was there, near Meno, Oklahoma, where John died in 1914.
The mystery involves church records allegedly taken to Oklahoma with this Canton group. A Mennonitesche Rundschau article, published in 1914, asserts that John Ratzlaff took the Antonowka Church Records with him to Oklahoma in 1895.
Wait... Antonowka Church Records? This would mean that the Antonowka group, originating near Ostrog in Volyn Governorate, Imperial Russia, which traveled aboard the SS Vaderland in 1874 carried church records with them?
Today, we do have church records from the Emmanuel Congregation near Canton. These records contain much information from the years in Volhynia (1804-1874), so were they basically a copy of the Antonowka records? If not, where did all the information from the Volhynian years come from?
The Meno churchbooks themselves have disappeared over the years and I have not been able to find anyone yet who knows anything about these Antonowka records. But again, were the Antonowka records copied into the Emmanuel records prior to moving into Oklahoma?
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