Peter
& Georg
by John W. Wall
If
you don't see any buttons with family names on the left side of the screen
click here.
Several wars were waged from 1618 through 1763. Much of this was touched off when Martin Luther broke off from the Catholic Church, and lead to probably the most brutal and devastating conflicts in recorded history. More than 800,000 soldiers lost their lives in "the 7 years war" (1756 - 1763), which was the last of these religious wars. War savaged Europe suffered from disease, religious prosecution, and the lack of necessities such as food and shelter.
In 1763 my GGGG grandfathers, Peter Gieswein and Johann "Georg" Pinnecker, were smack dab in the middle of all of this. I don't know if they were neighbors or even knew each other while living in Germany but they both lived in the Germany state (province) of Hesse. The conditions in their homeland would soon cause both to leave and travel to a land far away chasing dreams of a new and better life.
Half a continent
away Catherine II of Russia had a dream of her own. Russia had plenty of unsettled
land and she believed that an influx of motivated and more sophisticated Europeans
might prove to be a good example for the current population of uncivilized
nomadic tribesmen. On July 22, 1763 Catherine II issued a manifesto to entice
the citizens of Europe to immigrate to Russia. This manifesto spelled out
the conditions, rights, and privileges under which settlers could enter Russia.
Basically it promised free land, religious freedom, exemption from taxes,
interest free loans, exemption from military and civil service, free commerce,
and freedom to travel wherever they choose. The economic, political, and religious
situations in Europe plus the lure of a new life of promise and freedom attracted
a few small groups from several European countries but the Germans responded
with a mass exodus.
 The Jerusalem Gate is the only survivor of the original 3 gates. The Tor and the Mausfall both date to 1503.  Marienkirche 1476 / 1491 is the church where the Pinnecker family’s records originated in Büdingen.  Schlaghaus built in 1353 |
Peter Gieswein, a 48-year-old farmer, and his family most likely left home, bound for Russia in late 1764 or early 1765. The family consisted of Peter, his wife Maria Elisabeth Hering (40), Catharina (6), Christina (4), and perhaps Johann Georg who was either an infant when they left Germany, or was born along the way, or was born shortly after they arrived to their new home. The family of Georg (Gay-org) Pinnecker might have gotten out of Germany just before it became more difficult. New German laws were passed in 1766 aimed at stopping the mass exodus. Georg was a 46-year-old master locksmith who lived in Büdingen a small town 30 miles northeast of Frankfurt. He was the son of a locksmith and the grandson of an Apothecary (druggist) to the court of Ysenburg and Büdingen. They probably left their home in the spring of 1766. I do not know when Georg's first wife, Appolonia, was born or died, nor when he married his second wife, Maria Elisabeth Bäcker, therefore it's impossible to determine exactly which children belonged to which wife. I don't know if either wife accompanied Georg on the migration. It's feasible that Appolonia could have died in the Moor colony, Russia but it seems more likely that she died in Germany prior to emigration or on route to Russia. Seven children also made the journey, Johann Conrad (16), Louise Kenriette (15), Anna Elisabeth (10), Johann Heinrich (7), Ernestine (6), and Georg (infant). |
Those who had been recruited to immigrate to Russia met in a centrally located town and were loosely organized into groups, each headed by an appointed leader and traveled to the northern seaports. The people from Hesse usually moved northward through Giessen, Kassel, and Hildesheim to the seaport town of Lübeck.
It took many emigrants six weeks to go from Isenburg, near Frankfurt, to Lübeck, a distance of 500 miles. Those that arrived in September or later had to winter over at Lübeck because the ice would already be beginning to form further up the Baltic Sea closer to St. Petersburg. The accommodations were thin shoddily constructed barracks that housed many families altogether in deplorable crowded conditions and poor sanitation. There, they were placed under guard, a close watch being maintained to prevent escape by those who had already developed homesickness and second thoughts about the venture.
The voyage from Lübeck, Germany to Kronstadt, Russia took 10 to 11 days under favorable conditions but in some cases it took 6 weeks. English captains captained most ships and the goods sold onboard ship were extremely over priced. Some passengers claimed that some captains intentionally diverted and delayed some voyages in order to make more onboard sales.
Georg Pinnecker arrived in Kronstadt, Russia onboard the ship "Love and Unity 2" on July 04, 1766. Upon landing the immigrant people were met at the docks by bearded Russian teamsters with wagons and horses, men who came to haul them and their baggage to Oranienbaum, which was the Russian version of Ellis Island and where the Imperial Summer Place was located. There the immigrants took their oath of allegiance to the Crown.
The immigrants soon learned that promises of the Crown were no more than empty words and that preference for employment and place of residence was a lie. Most were told they would become farmers, they would settle in the Lower Volga River, and they were given no choice of occupation or location.
The course they traveled was divided between two routes. The land route traveled through Novgorod, Twer, Moscow, Rjasan, Pensa and Petrovsk. The water route traveled through Lake Ladoga, and tributaries into the Volga River. The travel was slow going and hazardous. I don't know which route either of my families took.
It took about a year to travel across the vast Russian landscape was not unusual for the immigrants on their way to the Lower Volga River. Fragmented stories tell of people who traveled the water route having to live on cramped boats for weeks on end. When boats stopped for provisions or even lengthy repairs the passengers were compelled to stay onboard.
Those that traveled the land route either walked or were crowded into hauling wagons among boxes and crates. They were accompanied by soldiers who prevented them from having any open conversation about the poor conditions and the manner of travel. Depending on the time of year that travel began the colonists would most likely have had to winter over at some point on the trip. The Russian citizens were forced to share their homes with immigrants during the winter stopovers. The Germans were appalled at the living conditions. The Russians of that time lived in homes shared with farm animals, kind of like a house/barn. The smells of ammonia and urine trapped in stagnate air accompanied with a steady diet of cabbage soup and millet porridge created deplorable living conditions.
They had endured more than a year of travel and hardship only to be struck with stark horror and disappointment when they finally arrived at their new home. The land was nothing like their homeland, as they had been promised, there was only tall grass and no trees. There were no existing homes, farm tools, and livestock as promised. In some cases simple lean-tos had been constructed and the land had been surveyed, but in other areas there was nothing. One colonist remarked, "We looked at each other with frightened expressions. We were in a wilderness without even a tree. Nothing was to be seen but the endless dry grass of the steppes."
The area west of the Volga River became known as the Bergeite, or mountain side (governmental district of Saratov), and the area on the east side became known as the Wiesenseite, or meadow side (governmental district of Samara). Because of the manner in which the traveling groups were formed it is most likely that emigrants from the same village or area in Germany would ultimately settled in the same colonies in Russia.
The new colonists would have to start from scratch to put together shelter and provide food with very little in the way of tools or other means and almost no support from outside of their own group.
Peter Gieswein and family arrived at the location that would become Moor on July 01, 1766. Located in the Bergeite, or the west of the Volga River, Moor lay about 70 kilometers south of Saratov, the largest Russia city in the region. Since he arrived the year prior to the "First Settlers List," dated 1767, this leads me to believe that Peter was one of the earliest to arrive at this location. Georg Pinnecker and family arrived about a year later on June 18, 1767 and were also included on the "First Settlers List" of Moor.
After three years in the Lower Volga region the first of many babies were born to the two families.
| The
GIESWEINS Susanna was born to Peter and Maria Gieswein in1770 and my GGG grandfather, Johann Peter, followed in 1773 giving them a total of 5 children with the oldest being 14. |
The
PINNECKERS Georg and Maria Pinnecker's first child born in Moor was Sibilla in 1772, she was followed by Georg Friedrich in 1774, Magdalena in 1775, Johann Christoph in 1776, and my GGG grandfather, Georg Carl, in 1778. This gave them a total of 11 children with the oldest being 28. |
During the first ten years the pioneers harvested only subsistence crops as they tried to eek out an existence. These same years were made even more tumultuous as the colonies and surrounding villages were under periodic attacks by Cossack soldiers and tribesmen. Many villages were damaged and some destroyed completely. In 1774 Balzar, Anton, and Moor colonies banded together and captured a gang of robbers and killed 9 of them. In January of 1775 Pugachev, the leader of the Cossacks was captured by the Russian army and publicly executed; this greatly reduced the turbulence in this harsh land.
The first 50 years in Russia had been difficult and progress came with self-sacrifice and hard work but by the early 1800s the colonies began to prosper. Every community evolved into haves and have-nots, the Oberhof and the Unterholf, or the upper and lower class section. There was a general friction between the two sections and courting and marriages often lead to conflict. None the less, the colonies grew and by the third generation in Russia it became necessary to establish daughter colonies. Often a village would pool its resources to buy more land on which a new colony could be built. These were known as daughter colonies and was often named after the parent colony using the prefix of "Neu" or new.
The colonies adapted to this new land and prospered by practicing "internal economics." That is to make do with what they have, grow or make their own, and not buy expensive imported goods. The colonist enjoyed their social life and had practically no cultural exchange with their Russia neighbors. The two founding fathers of the Gieswein and Pinnecker clan in the new colony passed away in the early 1800s. Georg Pinnecker died before 1804 (<84) and Peter Gieswein on March 11, 1805 (88). Peter's second wife of just a couple of years, Magdalena Elisabeth Gieswein, died 7 months later on October 25, 1805 (66), Georg's wife, Maria Elisabeth (Bäcker) Pinnecker (68), followed in January 06, 1809. They all died in Moor.
|
The GIESWEINS Carl Heinrich Gieswein and Anna Catharina Seltenreich were married in Moor on February 07, 1835. They had 10 children all born in Moor over the next 23 years, half of them died as infants or young children. My great grandfather, Johann Friedrich, Gieswein (a.k.a. John Fredrick Gieswein) was the 5th born on August 17, 1845 in Moor. His first wife, Maria "Elisabeth" (Michel) Gieswein, born on March 20, 1842, and his second wife, Anna Maria Pinnecker, were also born in Moor. |
The PINNECKERS
February 07, 1835 - Johannes Pinnecker and Margaretha Barbara (Moor) were married in Moor. I suspect that her surname of Moor might be connected to the namesake of the Moor colony. If so, this might explain why it is believed that the Pinnecker family grew in status within the colony and was considered quite wealthy (Between 1819 and 1859 four other women named Moor also married Pinnecker men). They had 8 children born over the next 17 years. My GG grandfather, Heinrich Jacob Pinnecker, was the 2nd child and born on October 04, 1837. His wife to be, Catharina Elisabeth Ernst, was also born in Moor on September 10, 1836. Heinrich Jacob Pinnecker and Catharina Elisabeth Ernst were married in Moor on February 19, 1857. They had 8 children all born in Moor over the next 22 years. My great grandmother, Anna Maria Pinnecker, (a.k.a. Anna Mary Pinnecker) was the eldest and born on November 04, 1857. Gnadenfeld, the daughter colony of Moor, was formed in the early 1850s. |
|
 |
Gnadenfeld (Field of Mercy) was located on the opposite side of the Volga River about 70 kilometers east and slightly south of Moor and about 85 kilometers southeast of Saratov. Some Gieswein and Pinnecker families moved from Moor to Gnadenfeld between 1850 and the early 1860s. The family of Johann Fredrick Gieswein was among them. |
Johann Fredrick
Gieswein and Maria "Elisabeth" Michel were married in Gnadenfeld in 1864.
They had 5 children all born in Gnadenfeld:
· Catharina "Elisabeth" born March 11, 1864
· Heinrich "Henry" born September 08, 1867
· Mary Elizabeth Gieswein born October 10, 1870
· Anna Katherine Gieswein born February 02, 1873
· August born June 15, 1876, and died as an infant.
Maria "Elisabeth" (Michel) Gieswein died on January 06, 1882 in Gnadenfeld. Hand-me-down stories tell that she died during childbirth and on her deathbed asked her husband not to marry the Pinnecker woman.
Johann married
Anna Maria Pinnecker that same year and they had 10 children over the next
16 years, the first being born only 11 months after Elisabeth's death.
· Heinrich Jacob Gieswein born December 10, 1882 (died as an infant)
· Baby Girl Gieswein born about 1883 (died as an infant)
· August Gieswein born October 12, 1884
· Mary Annie Gieswein who was the last of the children born in Russia on June
25, 1886.
· The other children were all born in America.
There was definitely some discord between the children of Johann's first marriage and their new stepmother. It is not clear if the situation was one of, Oberhof and Unterholf (upper and lower class) or the deathbed request of their mother or multiple and other reasons. There was, without a doubt, significant friction between the two sides of the family.
The German colonies were enjoying the best of times in Russia when a harsh blow was struck by Alexander II's new manifesto. On June 4, 1871 all of their significant rights and privileges of Catherine II's manifesto was taken from them. They were no longer considered German colonists but were now Russian settlers and only given a status slightly above Russian peasants. This was a blow to their social standing but more importantly they would be forced to give up their communal way of life. They were now Russians; they must learn the Russia language and consider German a foreign language. Then on January 13, 1874 all German colonist between the ages of 16 and 40 were declared eligible for the military lottery (the draft). Due to the rising unrest among the settlers the Russian government softened and declared a 10-year time period during which the colonists were free of the military draft and could emigrate. The government and local authorities didn't make it easy though. Each settler had to pay a tax of ten percent of all profits ever made in the Russian Empire. Additionally, they had to prove that they were totally free and clear of all debt before a passport would be issued.
Several American states and the railroads began a campaign in the Volga region to attract the colonists to the American heartland. Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas were among the states that were all trying to woo the colonists. The railroads probably had the biggest impact and staged large exhibitions. They knew that if these good, experienced farmers settled near their railroads that the wheat they grew would be carried on their trains and handsome profits were to be made. The colonists didn't want to make the same mistake as their forefathers and so a small group of colonists came to America to see for themselves what they were getting into and report back to the others. Once they returned to Russia the rush was on.
Johann Fredrick
and family immigrated to the USA in 1886 and moved straight away to Marion,
Kansas. Those that made the move were:
Johann Fredrick (45)
Anna Mary (Pinnecker) Gieswein (29)
Heinrich "Henry" Gieswein (22)
Mary Elizabeth Gieswein (16)
Anna Katherine Gieswein (13)
August Gieswein (2)
Mary Annie Gieswein (infant)
The eldest child of Johann's first marriage, Catharina "Elisabeth" Gieswein, married Peter Schwarzkopf in 1882. When the rest of the family immigrated to America she, her husband, and grandmother (Johann's mother) were left behind in Russia.
It's unknown exactly what became of our closest relatives in Russia. Elisabeth (Gieswein) Schwarzkopf and John's mother, Anna Catharina, wrote to the children in Kansas up until WWI when the letters ceased. There has been no contact since. Records show that Gieswein and Pinnecker relatives were still living in the Lower Volga as of the 1920s giving reason to believe that I still have distantly related family members living in the steppes of the Volga.
Some of the world historical information was taken from the book, "Wir Wollen Deutsche Bleiben, The Story of the Volga Germans," by George Walters.
