JOHANN ADAM BROSS, 1759 & AGATHA KALMBACH, 1760

JOHANN ADAM BROSS, 1759 & AGATHA KALMBACH, 1760

Johann Adam Bross, our ancestral great grandfather, was born 2 December 1759 in Spielberg, Altensteig, Wuerttemberg and died in Bessarabia, Russia. Johann Adam was a peasant farmer. Johann Adam married 1^st Christina Brenner on 31 January 1786 in Egenhausen. Christina was born 13 May 1764 in Egenhausen and died 16 October 1787 in Egenhausen. Johann Adam and Christina had one son:

Johann Adam Bross was born 17 June 1787 in Egenhausen and died 28 March 1788.

Johann Adam married 2^nd, our ancestral great grandmother Agatha Kalmbach, daughter of Johann Georg Kalmbach and Christina Schuhmacher of Groembach on 8 April 1788 in Egenhausen, Schwarzenberg, Wuerttemberg. Agatha was born 6 February 1760 in Groembach, Wuerttemberg. Johann Adam and Agatha had the following seven children:

Michael Bross, our ancestral great grandfather, was born 6 October 1789 in Egenhausen.

Johann Adam Bross was born 4 April 1792 in Egenhausen and died 8 January 1795 in Groembach, Wuerttemberg.

Johann Georg Bross was born 2 April 1795 in Groembach, Wuerttemberg and died 2 August 1862 in Alt Posttal, Bessarabia, Russia. Johann Georg married about 1814, Maria Luise Guse. Maria Luise was born 1793 in Schoenfeld, Prussia and died 11 February 1852 in Alt Posttal, Bessarabia. Johann and Maria had seven children: Caroline Bross, born 1816 in Wittenberg, Bessarabia, Johannes Bross, born 27 July 1817 in Wittenberg, Bessarabia, Friedrich Bross, born 29 May 1819 in Wittenberg, Bessarabia, Dorothea Bross, born 26 June 1822 in Wittenberg, Bessarabia, Jakob Bross, born 11 January 1829 in Alt Posttal, Bessarabia, Martin Bross, born 8 December 1832 in Alt Posttal, Bessarabia, and Paul Bross, born 5 October 1835 in Alt Posttal, Besssarabia.

Gottfried Bross was born 16 December 1797 in Groembach, Wuerttemberg.

Michael Bross was born 16 August 1807 in Pattikau, Poland.

Friedrich Bross was born 1808 in Pattikau, Poland and died 12 July 1886 in Alt Posttal, Bessarabia.

Christina Bross was born 25 March 1811 in Groembach, (Laznowska-Wola) Poland.

 

About 1799 Johann Adam and Agatha were living in Groembach, Germany and in 1800 emigrated to Preussisch (Prussian), Poland, where they are mentioned in the parish history of the Swabian village of Groembach, Laznowska Wola, Poland as an original settler. Groembach was a few miles southeast of Lodz, Poland, in the Prussian zone. They were farmers in Wuerttemberg, and were granted land to farm in Poland by the Prussians. They were a family of four members which included our ancestral great grandfather Michael who would have been about ten years old. His brother must have been Johann Georg at the age of five. They were members of the colony of Groembach of 361 souls who established 82 settlements in the domain post of Laznow. The Polish name of their village was called Laznowska Wola.

Johann Adam Bross was our first Bross ancestor who left Germany looking for land. In 1795 the Prussians had gained about 1/3 of Poland as a result of a treaty with Russia and Austria, known as the Partition of Poland. Because the Prussians were at war with France the landowners of Poland decided to flee. Many Poles sided with France and moved to Paris. The remaining Polish armies fought with France as Napoleon waged wars with Austria, Prussia, Holland, Italy, Spain, parts of Africa and even settlements in India.

This land of South Prussia where these German families began to settle were covered in virgin forest. When they arrived, the farmers lived first in provisional lodgings, places such as inns, stables, and barns, until they could take possession of their assigned parcels of land. Upon receiving their farmstead, they moved themselves and their possessions into the woods on their assigned land and built brushwood-covered huts and shelters dug into the earth. These provided them with housing through summer and winter for about four years. The first four years were tax-free for the farmers. They also received clearing money and tools to help on their work of clearing their forests. In 1805, the houses, stables, and barns, built at state-expense by the office for settlement, were finally ready for use. The clearing of the woods was mostly carried out by Pomeranian lumberjacks paid by the settlers. The farmers, themselves overloaded with work and without experience in felling trees, had to employ the lumberjacks to help them. Shrubbery and tree stumps were cleared away. The newly reclaimed, sandy and damp land had to be dug up; tree roots had to be removed. Drainage channels were planned and bridges were needed. Six years after the settlers had arrived they were able to cultivate their lands for the first time. The uncut lumber, owned by the Prussian state, had not yet been taken away and proved to be a hindrance to work in the fields. From 1806-1807 on, the farmers were supposed to begin paying the so-called inheritance interest. Normally, this should not have caused a problem. But because of low demand for lumber, the Prussian government had not yet removed the waiting wood from the property of the farmers. Because the drainage channels had not yet been built, almost the whole crop was lost and the winter seed grain was completely lost to water damage. So, here too, as in their homeland, the farmers fell into difficulties. (info from Friedhold Brost)

The greater part of Poland falls within the province of the Great Plain of Europe. The terrain consists predominantly of undulating plains, alluvial lowlands, and marshes. Close to the Carpathian Mountains there is an abundance of trees and forests. The temperature varies from -37 Fahrenheit in the winter, to +95 in the summer.

For a few years there were no serious conflicts in Poland. In an attempt to break Napoleon’s power, the nations of Europe formed the Fourth Coalition, consisting of Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Sweden. Napoleon defeated the Prussians and took Berlin, then defeated the Russians taking Friedland. The result was French control of Poland and the formation of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. However, Napoleon was not about to allow the Polish armies and Noblemen to abandon Napoleonic wars going on elsewhere in Europe. As a result the Poles gradually returned to their homeland to reclaim their estates. Beginning in about 1808 Poles began returning and evicting the German intruders. It is known that the Germans became impoverished in Poland when their livelihood was taken from them. The Germans could not go back to Wuerttemberg as they would be persecuted. They became closer together and waited until 1814 when the Germans were invited to settle in Bessarabia.

After the victory of Napoleon over Prussia in 1807, the area in southern Prussia which the Swabian settlers had made their home, became part of the newly-founded Polish Duchy of Warsaw. The settlers again had disturbing questions about their future. The year 1807 was a year of excessive drought and because of these conditions the Germans presented a petition to their new Polish masters. They pleaded for the postponement of their hereditary interest payments. They had supplied horses to the Polish army without remuneration, as well as textiles. Despite their pleas, that they would have to sell off the last of their livestock which would cause them a severe emergency, the Poles insisted that all payments must be met no later than after the harvest. In addition the Polish nobility and the estate owners treated them with oppressive despotism,. Vassals of the nobles drove German farm owners from their fields and made ownership claims on their harvests. The German settlers found themselves wholly abandoned to Polish whims. All these circumstances led to the complete impoverishment of the farmers. They were now poorer than upon their arrival from Germany. The Germans were now planning to emigrate. The Poles tried to hinder the departure of the settlers but their efforts met with little success. (info from Friedhold Brost)

Russia had received the province of Bessarabia from the Ottoman Turks on May 28, 1812, in the Peace of Bucharest which ended another series of wars with Turkey for control of territory on the Black Sea. In 1813, to promote an orderly settlement, Tsar Alexander I issued a proclamation to survey the southern portion of Bessarabia, locally known as the Bujak, a Tatar word meaning “angle,” because of its triangular shape.

Karl Stumpp’s book The Emigration From Germany to Russia in the Years 1763 – 1862 states that; “The massive emigration from Russia in 1814 was preceded by the scarcely noticed emigration of 1804 from Neu-Sulzfeld and the area around Pabianitz. However, this soon came to a standstill, especially when Russia discontinued its policy of immigration and recruitment. Political events now occurred which caused discontent and unrest among the new settlers who had largely come from Wuerttemberg. After the collapse of Prussia the Polish Insurrection broke out in 1806/07. In that critical situation the Swabians who were living in isolated settlements suffered much tribulation and hardship. The passage of the French troops on their way to Russia, the battle of Eylau, the Austrian campaign, the retreat of the French from Russia (1813), the coming of the Russian forces of occupation, especially the Cossacks, the new government in the Grand Duchy of Warsaw where the Russians drew the long bow, the plundering and looting – all this brought about tax burdens, poverty, fear and insecurity. Most seriously affected were the recent Swabian settlers, who had not yet found roots and had hardly built stable dwellings or established themselves. In this situation the manifesto of Alexander I (Nov. 28, 1813), calling for “voluntary emigration to Russia” came at the right time. In the proclamation the Czar re-iterated with suitable adaptations, the promises and privileges which Empress Catherine II had made to the Volga German settlers, and which Alexander I extended to the settlers of the Black Sea region and the South Caucasus. Bessarabia, which Russia had acquired in 1812 from Turkey, was now to be settled and cultivated. Alexander issued an edict in which the settlers in Poland were offered these privileges:

The Russian Government takes the colonists from the Duchy of Warsaw under its protection and grants them all the right and conveniences enjoyed by the natives.

It is requested that the colonists occupy themselves primarily with the improvement of agriculture, horticulture, wine-growing and silk production.

They are exempt for ten years from all taxes and tribute, excepting a small payment to Bessarabian leaseholders.

The Crown advances a ten-year loan of 270 rubles banco to each poor family, and to the others as much as is needed to get established.

Every family receives an allotment of 60 dessiatine of land as personal and hereditary property.

In addition, all who have no food will receive a food allowance of 5 kopecks a day per person from the day of arrival in Russia until the first grain harvest.

The immigrants, as well as their descendants, are once and for all exempt from military conscription and from military billeting, except when troops are marching through.

The colonists are free to build churches according to their faith, to have their clergy, and to practise their religion in their own fashion.

At the end of ten years, another ten years are fixed during which the colonists are to repay the loans advanced by the crown.

 

Recruiters – among them a certain Krueger – were soon found who saw the chance of earning some money. The district of Laznow and the community of Groembach experienced the largest emigration. From here in the beginning of 1814, a sizable group of emigrants, under the leadership of Bernhard Bohnet and Martin Vossler (both settled in Alt-Postal, Bessarabia) came to Bessarabia and into the already existing German villages near Odessa. “Three men are engaged in the enterprise: the chief magistrate, who effectively aided the recruitment and did good business; a local landowner, who sought to obtain an estate at a cheap price; and the recruiting commissioner, who filled his quota in a simple way and perhaps was also able to pocket a suitable ‘douceur’”. In some reports there is mention of the abduction of peasants into Russia, where Cossacks also played a vital part.”

The long journeys of our German families to migrate to these new lands were extremely hard. Many people could not survive the rigors demanded of them. Many people died along the way.

In a travel account, published by Dr. Stumpp, is a description of what the travellers had to cope with

….”Travel overland to Russia was horrendous and took two summers and one winter….On dusty roads, we see people dragging themselves forward with carriages pulled by two horses or by one horse, or handcarts; also people on foot with their walking-stick in hand. It’s uphill, it’s downhill, through fields and woods. Uphill requires pushing since the little horses are exhausted. Downhill, however, it’s too easy – serving as a brake, bundles of shrubwood often are trailed behind and weighed down with a couple of people.”