The History of the Krassin Family

of Arkansas and Wisconsin

By William Remus

28 April 2016

(with help from Dallas McColley)

Table of Contents

Introduction – Rattai, Kreis Kolmar

Schokken (Skoki), Kreis Wongrowitz

Schwersenz (Swarzedz), Posen

Radwonke (Radwonki), Kreis Kolmar

Alt Sapust, Alt Dubisch, and Tarnawola in Volhynia in the Ukraine from 1834 to 1855

Romansdorf from 1855 to 1875

Romansdorf post 1875

Krassins in America – Gilett, AR

Krassins in America – Tigerton, WI

Appendix

Other Families in the Village of Romansdorf

The History of the Krassin Family

of Arkansas and Wisconsin

Introduction– Rattai, Kreis Kolmar

Prior to 1772, Poland was an independent country that bordered Pomerania which was a part of the Kingdom of Prussia. The Germans in Pomerania lived on the great manorial estates of the nobility. They had little freedom and no economic opportunity.

Meanwhile, Poland had suffered greatly in the Great Northern War circa 1700 and other wars. It is estimated that a third of the population died from those wars and epidemics. Consequently the Polish nobility began to make use of German workers on their estates. And when the nobles had vacant land, they often leased it to German farmers. All this happened in border counties like Kreis Kolmar.

Kreis Kolmar was a sandy and rocky place carved out by the same glaciers that carved out Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota – and Pomerania. This meant that only a few crops like rye could be reliably grown. Consequently the nobles in this county had developed a linen industry. Linen is just processed flax and the sandy soil was ideal for flax. The workers became well trained in growing flax, processing it into linen yarn and cloth, and even producing quality needle work. The workers coming into Kreis Kolmar were very good at linen production.

Rattai in Kreis Kolmar is where the earliest records of Krassins are to be found. They are maybe related to all wings of the Krassin family now in Minnesota, Arkansas and Wisconsin.

Those Krassins are to be found in the 1772 land census in Rattai. This census was made after the first partition of Poland by the then super powers of Prussia, Russia, and Austria. Here is the census record:

Krassin Johann, Rattay, Czarnikow Census Subdistrict - 13 - 226 District Book for Crone Poland II 13 175

The details of the record are that Johan is living with wife (Anna Marianna) and one daughter under 12 (Anna Rosina born 9 Oct 1771). So Johan and wife are just starting their family. The record did not list any men or women living with the Johan Krassin family. This family is on LDS microfilm 2,120,942 for the Kolmar Catholic churches. I have not found any additional records of this family.

The Johan Krassins were the only Krassins listed in the very large area acquired by the Prussians in the first partitions. The census showed no older Krassins that might be his parents. There might well me more Krassins that moved out of Pomerania to Kreis Kolmar after 1772. Or there might be other Krassins around in 1772 who might work for other families and live with those families (only the head of households is listed by name).

Rattai is not a typical Polish village; it uses a common German village plan called strassendorf (street village). That is the village in the past and still consists of a line of houses to both sides of a road. The village is on a rise and there is a lake and muddy area that was used to process flax and make yarn just to one side of the village; good farmland was to other side of the village. It may well have been part of a noble’s estate but if so the big house and many barns are gone. In 1772 there were well over 50 families living in Rattai.

There appears to be no church in the village now or in the past perhaps as it was so close to town of Kolmar. Here are some pictures of Rattai.

The village now merges with adjacent Kolmar, a village famous for its flax clothing. Thus it is likely that Rattai too was a cloth maker’s village. This is where the Krassin family may have learned the trade.

Schokken (Skoki), Kreis Wongrowitz, Posen

Schokken (Skoki is its Polish name) is an ancestral home in Poland of the Krassin family of Volhynia and ultimately Arkansas and Wisconsin. It is about 30 kilometers north of Poznan, Poland.

This manorial village has a typical Polish village plan centering on two parallel streets with houses along the outer side of both streets. This allows a common area between. The common area here is now filled with buildings.

The village is on a rise and there is a stream and muddy area that was used to process flax just to the north of the village. Schokken was famous for its linen yarn.

This manorial village gained many of its German residents after noble Calvinist Nicholas Rej invited German cloth makers following the Swedish war circa 1650. Here is a picture of the Rej family's manor house (gut):

The land here has been farmed since 1632 when new town of Schokken was formed. In 1772 this area including Schokken was incorporated into Prussia so cloth makers needed to compete in Prussian market rather than the less competitive Polish market.

The head of the village contains a Catholic Church where some of the Johan Krassin family were baptized (from 1720 to 1772 the Lutheran Church was banned in Poland). Here are 2004 pictures of the exterior and interior of the church.

This church is now being renovated as seen in this 2006 picture:

Here is Martin Krassin's 1782 birth record from this village.

Martin was born in the village of Stare (Starin is shown above) which is just north of Schokken. His brother Andreas was born in 1776 in Gryzbowo near Stare, both north of Schokken. Martin’s sister Anna Catherina was born in Gonborner Hauland in Schokken parish in 1784 (I cannot find this location on maps of the area but it could be Gorker Hauland). Somewhere between 1784 and 1812 Martin moved on to Schwersenz. Between 1802 and 1812 he married Anna Marianna Benkendorf who was born in Michanow (Michalowo?) near Schokken.

Here are some pictures of the village. The old Evangelical Church is still there but now being used as the main Schokken Catholic

Church while the older one is under repair. The damage to bell tower is from WW II:

Interestingly, the church books for Schokken include many family names like those of other families that moved to the cloth maker villages in Russia like the Krassins. The family names include Spitzer, Rosentreter, Hahn, Neumann, Wegner, Makkus, Kinst, Degner, Henkel, Will, and Klukas.

Schwersenz (Swarzedz), Posen-Ost, Posen

Schwersenz is a town set up by the Gruzinski family around 1600. It was a refuge for Lutherans during the counter-reformation. At the time of the First Partition of Poland, it was a village of German cloth makers.

As noted earlier, Johan Krassin's children were born near Schokken between 1776 and 1784. His son Martin’s children were

born in Schwersenz between 1813 and 1824. Other family names in Schwersenz later found in Romansdorf include Martin Will, Andreas Spitzer as well as Henschell, Henkel, Hahn, Jesswin, and Lehmann. Later many of these people moved onward to Volhynia and Kiev in the Ukraine.

Schwersenz was known for its carpenters around 1900. The village has become a big town but it still has a nice town hall and Catholic Church.

The Lutheran destroyed in the war; it was located on this town square:

The only picture I could find of the Lutheran church was in a damaged book. This is an 1890’s Lutheran church probably build on the site of an older Lutheran church. So courtesy of that noted artist Buddy Hathaway, we have this restored picture:

Radwonke (Radwonki), Kreis Kolmar, Posen

Radwonki (happy village in Polish) is earliest known location of the Gottlieb Krassin family of Wisconsin and later Minnesota. We have only a little evidence to suggest that Gottlieb was also a child of Johan Krassin of Rattai (discussed earlier) which would also

have made Gottlieb a brother of Martin Krassin who was born in Schokken to Johan Krassin.

Johan Krassin was in Rattai in 1772. As noted in the last section, Johan’s child Martin was born in 1782. Martin’s children were born in Schwerenz between 1813 and 1824. Gottlieb was born in 1791 (according to the passenger records from Liverpool, England to New York arriving 28 Aug 1854). His children were born in Radwonke (which you will soon learn about) which is an estate just a few kilometers from Rattai. Gottlieb’s children were born in that village between 1816 and 1824. Martin’s father Johan and Gottlieb both lived near to or in Rattai. Gottlieb was the right age to be Martin’s younger brother.

This manorial village has a typical Polish village plan. The village style was termed Angerdorf - where the road forks within the village and encloses a central plaza, in which a village fishpond, trees or a church with cemetery frequently is found. Here the farms lie on both sides of the two branches of the road. The manor house stood along with the barns at the top of the village. The common area here was still maintained (in many villages in Poland the common area is filled with schools or churches). The common area also contains a stream that might have been used to process flax and make linen yarn or cloth (this area of Poland was famous for its cloth makers). The X’s represent small houses for the workers. In 1772 there were only 4 households in this village and no were occupied by Krassins. Most of the houses in this village looked relatively modern and might have been built long after 1772.

Here are some pictures of the village. Note particularly the first picture with one cottage made in the Old Prussian wall style and the second picture showing a clay barn. (Sorry, it was a rainy day and my pictures weren't that great).

This picture shows the buildings at the head of the village (formerly manor house and barns) - now replaced with the structures of the state run farm that Radwonke became following World War II.

The Martin Krassin family left for Russian Poland in the late 1820’s. The Gottlieb Krassin family left for America in several family groups between 1852 and 1854. Now I will continue onward with the Martin Krassin story.

Alt Sapust, Alt Dubisch, and Tarnawola in Volhynia in the Ukraine from 1834 to 1855

The Martin Krassin family moved from Schwerenz in Prussian Poland to the Lodz area in Russian Poland around 1823. Their move probably reflected the work opportunities near Lodz in the newly developing cloth making industry in that area. Cloth making was a cottage industry when they arrived but quickly was moving to a factory based industry.

In 1833 there was a major uprising of the Poles against the Russian occupiers. This was accompanied by bloodshed and cruelty on both sides. The Russians mercilessly repressed the revolt. Two years later the Martin Krassin family was in the Ukraine, a Russian occupied area where there was no revolt. Also in the Ukraine the local nobility wanted to build a cloth making industry so made it easy for the cloth makers to lease land.

The Martin Krassin family and related cloth maker families settled in the Alt Sapust area. These villages were on sandy alkaline soil suitable for growing flax. They were also on the Styr River so the mud flats were suitable for processing the flax straw to extract the linen fiber. These cloth making villages are along the eastern shore of the Styr River as shown in the following map.

Below is the bridge on the River Styr in Rozyszcze looking toward the villages. The villages are on the right side of the River.

The Village Square in Rozyszcze where the church was located.

Above is a cloth maker style house in Alt Sapust. Behind the house is a stream suitable for the processing of flax. Across the street is the necessary sandy alkaline soil for growing flax.

The housing in this and other German villages is pretty much still as described by Eric Hoffman in his family history:

Each family had a small plot of ground around their home for a garden and a yard or pen for their stock. A herder was employed by the whole village. Each evening he rounded up the cattle and took them out to pasture in the country and brought them back in the evening. The house and barn was a one-unit affair. The family or owner lived in one end of the building and the livestock was housed in the other. There of course was a wall to seal off the stable part from the family living quarters. In the part of Russia where our folks lived the farmers were plagued by horse thieves. So when they built their barns, no doors were made to lead directly into the part where the livestock were housed. The animals were driven or led through a door and across the corner of one of the rooms of the house. Even then the people had to be on the alert lest the thieves might cut a hole through the other end of the building and steal their horses. The household furnishings were very plain - mostly hand made. A fireplace was used to heat the house and clay

ovens for baking bread. Cook stoves as a rule had sides made of brick or clay with cast iron tops.

Romansdorf from 1855 to 1875

Romansdorf (Slavic name Doliwa) was founded in 1855. It is a street village (strassendorf) that once housed about 80 families, most German. A strassendorf is built along a road with houses on small plots of land neatly placed alongside both sides of the road. The fields surround the village.

Romansdorf was a rich village; the land is flat and has good black soil. The initial occupants were given 20 year contracts on the land; this meant there was a large in migration in 1855 and out migration when the 20-year contract expired in 1875.

The village is nearer to Kiev, Ukraine than to Zhitomir in Volhynia, Ukraine. So the church book (Kirchenbuch) records are in Kiev Parish and not in Zhitomir Parish. These records are for the most part available through the microfilms kept by the Mormons. The few missing years are available in the Kiev Archives.

The initial settlers were tuchmacher (cloth makers) such as my great-great-great-grandfather Christian Hoffmann and the Andreas

Spitzer family that arrived in Volhynia in the 1830's and lived largely from the Faustendorf area and Krassins and Radkes that lived in Alt Sapust area. The reasons for their move in 1855 can only be conjectured but here are two reasonable possibilities: Faustindorf and Alt Sapust 20-year land contracts had run out around 1855 so the contracts needed to be renewed or the Germans had to find new places. Another reason for the move was that the land in Romansdorf was much better than that in either Faustindorf or Alt Sapust.

The Alt Sapust, Alt Dubisch and Tarnawola group did not move en masse to Romansdorf around 1855. In fact, the majority of these families stayed put including parts of the Krassin and Spitzer families. The move by those from Alt Sapust, Alt Dubish, and Tarnawola seemed to be more by virtue of marriage or occurred as their numbers exceeded the available farmland in that area.

In any case, the new village was quickly populated and the residents enjoyed a high standard of village life. In the Mennonite Encyclopedia, Busch lists Romansdorf as having 143 adherents (Lutherans) with 26 school children in 1859.

As 1865 approached Romansdorf was at its maximum capacity and people began to settle in nearby villages such as Ludwigsdorf and Malin. Later in 1875 the 20-year land contracts in Romansdorf had run their course. For that reason there was a major movement out of Romansdorf in 1875 to other villages in the area like Ludwigsdorf. Good farming land could be purchased rather than leased in these villages.

Romansdorf post 1875

The 1880's brought repressive policies by the Russians throughout the Ukraine. All people were required to learn Russian, join the Orthodox Church, and all young men serve in the Russian Army. This set off massive migrations to the Americas including not only Germans but also Ukrainians, Poles and Jews. Having proper identification in order to migrate was a problem for Germans in Russia. To aid them the Lutheran pastors made up birth certificates (there never were any official certificates). Here is a copy of a "birth certificate" that helped Julius Krassin to make his way to America.

The family of Wilhelm Otto and Caroline Spitzer was the first of the families from Romansdorf to leave for North America. They arrived in New York City in 1884 and purchased land in

Ottenheim Kentucky from Lincoln Land Company in New York (owned by Jacob Ottenheim). They settled in Ottenheim soon thereafter. They assisted the departure of the much larger family groups in 1892; these groups landed at Baltimore and went immediately to visit their cousins in Ottenheim. Several of the families settled in Ottenheim but others like the Krassins went to Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arkansas.

It is a good thing that most people got out then. Germans living in Russia were sent to Siberia when World War I pitted the Germany against Russia. Many died; those that survived left for America although some resettled in Russia. In 1929 Stalin tried to collectivize all Russia including Romansdorf. Those resisting, including Germans, were killed. Collectivization still didn't work so in 1933 Stalin set off a great starvation in the Ukraine killing many; Julius Krassin and wife Anna Elisabeth Quast were starved to death in Romansdorf in 1933. In 1937 killings related to the Stalin purges occurred; 46 people were killed in Romansdorf including Julius and Anna Elisabeth Krassin's son Adoph Krassin. In 1939 many Germans were again sent to Siberia; only three families returned. My great-great-grandfather Samuel Hoffman's son Heinrich Reinhold Hoffman also died in the foregoing holocaust although it is not clear when this happened.

The village of Romansdorf was totally destroyed in the Second World War. First the Russians built trenches using material from the village and a battle was fought there. Then the Nazi's did the same when retreating from their defeat in Stalingrad. All buildings in the village now are post-war. There are no remnants of the German villages and only a few remaining graves. As of 2000, the young people have all gone to the big Ukrainian cities like Kiev leaving Romansdorf to the old timers.

The Romansdorf cemetery contains only one German grave monument; it is on the grave of Julius Krassin and wife Anna Elisabeth Quast who were starved to death in 1933. The monument has a bullet mark on the back. Here are the pictures:

Martin Krassin Descendents in America

Gillett, Arkansas

Gillett, Arkansas is a town on the "Grand Prairie" in Arkansas County, Arkansas. This area is an area of prairie grass and bordered by the Mississippi and White Rivers. This area was populated prior to the American Civil War and a major battle for the control of the Mississippi was fought at Arkansas Post in this county. This area has a rich history and if you have history questions, just email John W. Cover, jwcover@futura.net, the Gillett historian.

Here is a 1895 map of the county.

Prior to 1900, the Grand Prairie area was not considered to be very good for farming and subject to destructive prairie fires. Thus, the southern part of the Grand Prairie was marketed to immigrants and other people outside Arkansas. This led to the Poll, Leverenz, Natho, Rook, and Richter families to travel from Danville IL to the lands southwest of Gillett to farm in the 1880’s; locals referred to this area as "Germany". And led the Lehmanns, Hoffmanns, Krassins, and Jessweins who were Germans from Volhynia in Russia to locate northeast of Gillett in the mid 1890’s; locals termed this area "Russia." On the above map you can see Greenwald on the rail line to Gillett which was used mainly to move rice and other crops. The "Russians" were living near Greenwald; they had lived in Gruenwald (Green Forrest) in Russia prior to 1892. People easily moved between Gilett, Wisconsin, and Michigan. So families like Julius Lehmann (who married Caroline Krassin), Johan Natho (who married Mathilda Krassin), and

William Krassin (who married Anna Seefeldt) were not only in Gillett but in other places in America.

The Ludwig Hoffmann Family lived in Gillett (1893 to 1898) prior to the introduction of rice and life was not so good. Here are details from the Hoffmann Family History Story:

Our dad (Ludwig Hoffmann) had some experience making wagons while in Russia, so the first job he got when he arrived at St. Joseph, MI was in a wagon factory. At heart, however, he was a farmer. So when the other relatives at Gillett, Arkansas wrote to him telling how wonderful the climate was down there, he became very interested. He was told that two crops could be raised from the same plot of ground in one year. So he thought how wonderful it must be to be able to always have new potatoes.

It was in the late winter or early spring of 1893 when father quit his job at the wagon factory and moved his family down to Gillett, Arkansas. Dad bought forty acres of land from one of the relatives. They lived in with Fred Lehman and Julia Lehman nee Hoffmann (dad's sister) until a house could be built on the land just purchased. Before one year had passed father and mother found out what Arkansas of that period was like. The summers were too dry for corn to grow. At best the corn only developed into small nubbins. All other crops were in like proportion. Potatoes had to be planted extra early to have anything at all. Mother said there was one year when they thought they were going to have a bumper crop. The weather had been ideal and the potatoes had grown to enormous size. Then a heavy downpour of rain came and right after that real hot weather. In a few days all the potatoes were rotted to nothing. On top of all this mother and father were sick an awful lot - with malaria for one thing. At one period mother was so ill she was not expected to live. She finally did get well, but her memory of a lot of things she used to know about cooking and medical plants left her and she never fully recovered from it.

Besides all these hardships a full-scale depression was on during these years. If the farmers had anything to sell, it was worth little or nothing. If jobs of any kind were found - wages were fifty cents per day. What helped out dad was that he was handy with woodwork and black smithing. He made hooks to handle baled hay out of broken hay rake teeth, and sold them. He repaired broken cultivator teeth or blades - and occasionally fixed guns. He made wooden wagons, which he sold for ten dollars each. So in this way he managed to provide for his family. The Ludwig Hoffmann family returned to St. Joseph MI in the spring of 1898 and then moved on to Tigerton, Wisconsin.

The "Russian" and "German" families often intermarried. Both groups attended the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Gillett. Here are pictures of the old church and its altar:

The local economy of Gillett really took off with the introduction of rice farming to the area around 1905. Below is a picture of rice harvesting in those early days.

Following is a picture of the first rice mill in the area and a picture of the current elevators; both are in Stuttgart just north of Gillett.

Tigerton, Wisconsin

When the residents of Romansdorf immigrated to America, they settled initially in Gillett, Arkansas and Tigerton, Wisconsin. Tigerton was home to the Lehmann, Krassin, and Hoffmann families. All three of those families had intermarried so I am a descendent of all three. Here is a picture of the Lutheran church these families attended.

In the 1900 US and 1905 WI census provides these details: My maternal grandfather Ludwig Hoffmann and family settled here on a farm across the road from the Lehmann farm; Ludwig was a descendent of a Hoffmann-Lehmann marriage). Up the road was the Julius Krassin and Juliana Spitzer farm. Samuel Spitzer and his wife Caroline Krassin and family also lived here. Jacob Lehmann and his wife Ernestine Kurtz and family were also here. Then by 1910 Gustav Lehmann, the son Julius Lehmann and Caroline Krassin then living in Gillett also lived here.

The building of the Hoffmann home is shown in the following picture.

It is gone but the base of the barn and some of the outbuildings remain:

This is a difficult farming area since the land has lots of stones and is hilly. The removal of stones has continued over the last 100 years as the stones work though the soil to the top level. So the land is good for farm animals but a problem for crops that require modern equipment to grow.

When I was in Tigerton I focused on my immediate ancestors so the above pictures are about them and the area. However, just down the road is the Julius Krassin and Caroline Spitzer farm. It was locked inside a fence so we could not get in:

Appendix

Other Families in the Village of Romansdorf

Following is information on many of the families found in Romansdorf between 1855 and 1875. In many cases the family information includes family members before and after residency in Romansdorf, for example, births in Faustindorf, Alt Sapust, and in the Americas.

Hoffmann

The Hoffmann family came from Krolikow, Gruziec, Poland and then from Stanislowow Studinski near Rawa, Poland ending up in 1835 in Volhynia; they were tuchmachers (cloth makers). The Hoffmans settled in Faustindorf in 1836. The land was sandy and alkaline allowing the growing of flax. Faustindorf was also near a swampy area useful in extracting the linen fibers from the flax stem. The patriarch was great-great-great-grandfather Andreas Hoffmann who was likely recruited by the Prussians about 1794 to settle in Poland following the third partition of Poland; the family was originally from Saxony. His children were born in Stanislowow and Faustindorf and grandchildren in Romansdorf.

Spitzer

The Spitzer family was recruited by the Prussians to settle Poland following the third partition of Poland in 1794. The first records show them just south of Thorn in Poland in Radziejow. They moved around villages near Sampolno in Russian Poland prior to moving to Volhynia in 1835 with the Hoffmanns. They too were tuchmachers (cloth makers) in Faustindorf (and nearby Stanislowa). The patriarch was Andreas Spitzer. His children were born in Faustindorf and grandchildren largely in Romansdorf.

Reiser

The Reiser family can be tracked back to villages near Stuttgart in Wurtemburg; this family can be traced back to before 1700. They moved in Russian Poland around 1800 and then moved to Volhynia with the Hoffmanns in 1835. They too were tuchmachers (cloth makers) in Faustindorf (and nearby Stanislowa). The patriarch was Jacob Reiser. His children were born in Faustindorf and grandchildren largely in Romansdorf. Jacob of the village stand-in for the Lutheran Pastor; in particular he baptized many of the newborn children in Faustindorf and later Romansdorf. His sister Juliana lived in the Alt Sapust area and was a midwife. (The families of the daughters of Jacob Reiser settled in Ottenheim, Kentucky).

Lehmann

The Lehmann family first appears in Volhynian records with the 1835 birth of Johan Gottlieb Lehmann in Olganowka near Alt Sapust/Alt Dubisch/Tarnawola. It is not proven yet where they came from but the Saxony area is likely. Carl Lehmann is described in the 1836 Kirchenbuch as a master weaver so the family was also in the cloth trade. The family patriarch is Johan Lehmann. Johan's son Johan Gottlieb was born in Olganowka, Volhynia; Johan's daughter Louise was married to the aforementioned Christian Hoffman's son Samuel. Thus Louise Hoffmann nee Lehman is my great-great-grandmother.

Kurtz

The Kurtz family first appeared in the 1850's in the Alt Sapust/Alt Dubisch/Tarnawola area of Volhynia; these villages are suitable for flax so it is likely they were tuchmachers (cloth makers). There seem to be two family patriarchs. Gottfried Kurtz was born in the Lincowitz area of Poland. Daniel Kurtz was in another family patriarch; he was also born in Poland. Some of the members of

both families later moved to Romansdorf and nearby villages like Ludwigsdorf.

Minges

The Minge family first appears in Sobieski, Iwanonwiez, Kalisch about 1809. It is likely that this family was recruited by the Prussians for Sobieski around 1794 after the third partition of Poland. The family appears in the Alt Sapust/Alt Dubisch/Tarnawola area of Volhynia about 1840. Christina Minge who married Johan Krassin in Romansdorf is noted above.

Radkes

The Radke family first appeared in the 1850's in the Alt Sapust/Alt Dubisch/Tarnawola area of Volhynia. The family patriarch is Gottlieb Radke; his kids were born in the Shieradz area of Poland, his grand children in Alt Sapust/Alt Dubisch/Tarnawola, and some of his great grand children in Romansdorf. This family also was originally cloth makers. Auguste Radke is my great grandmother.