1. Russia
2. Kansas

Alexanderwohl was the name of a Mennonite village and congregation in the Molotschna settlement, Russia, and is also the name of a Mennonite congregation in Kansas.

1. Russia. The Alexanderwohl Mennonite village and congregation originated in 1821 when twenty-one Mennonite families left their home community near Schwetz and Kulm on the Vistula River to settle In Ukraine. The settlement near Schwetz was known as Pshechovka or Kleinsee. Exactly when this settlement and the congregation here originated is unknown. There is, however, a very old church record in existence which records 1640 as the date of birth of a member. This church record was likely started after the middle of the seventeenth century and is in the possession of the Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church in Kansas. The title page reads: Die Erste Stamm Nahmen Unserer Bisher so genante Oude Vlamingen oder Groningersche Mennonisten Societaet alhier in Preusen. The record begins with a list of names common in the congregation at that time and occasionally states from where the bearer of the name came. Some of the more common names in the church record during the seventeenth and eighteenth century are Becker, Buller, Cornels, Decker, Dirks, Funck, Jantz, Isaak, Koehn, Nachtigahl, Pankratz, Penner, Ratzlaff, Richert, Schellenberger, Wedel, Frey, Schmidt, Sperling, Unrau and Voth. Most of these names are still common in the Alexanderwohl community in Kansas.

Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church, Molotschna Source: Mennonite Church USA Archives - North Newton: 2004-0093.

From the reference to "Old Flemish" or "Groninger Mennonites" one is not to understand that the congregation came in a body from the Netherlands, but this indicates that it was affiliated with the Flemish rather than the Frisian conference. The "Old" indicates that the congregation originally had very conservative leanings. According to the names, some of the original members must have come from the Netherlands, some from the neighboring Lutherans, and one, Schellenberger, from the Hutterian Brethren.

The first known elder of the congregation was Berend Ratzlaff. Others who served in Prussia were Benjamin Wedel I, 1742-1785; Jakob Wedel, 1754-1791; Peter Jantz, 1774-1810; Benjamin Wedel II, 1766-1813; Peter Wedel I, 1769-1814?; and Peter Wedel II, 1792-1821. Under the leadership of Peter Wedel the group moved from Prussia to Russia in 1821. Wedel was succeeded by Jakob Buller (1827-1901) who led the congregation from Russia to America in 1874. Here he was followed by Peter Balzer (1874-1907), Heinrich Banman (1843-1933), P. H. Unruh (1881-1943), and Philipp A. Wedel (1897-   ).

From time to time Mennonites left the Schwetz settlement, organizing new congregations at different places. In 1765 some families founded the Brenkenhoffswalde-Franztal settlement in Mark Brandenburg. Most of these later went to Russia, establishing such villages as Gnadenfeldand Waldheim on the Molotschna in the neighborhood of Alexanderwohl, with whom they kept in contact.

When Elder Peter Wedel led a group of twenty one families of the Schwetz congregation to the Molotschna settlement in 1821, they are said to have been met by Czar Alexander I, who wished them well in their undertaking. Hence the name "Alexanderwohl" for the village and congregation established in the heart of the Molotschna settlement. In 1823 a few more families joined them. In 1903 the village had a population of 630 and owned a complex of 6,210 acres of land. In addition to cattle and sheep, wheat was raised in great quantities. Johann Cornies was the benefactor of this community also, aiding it in many cultural and economic gains. The Alexanderwohl Mennonite congregation erected a church building in 1865 after having conducted services in the school building for some time.

After Elder Jakob Buller migrated to America with the Alexanderwohl congregation, the new occupants of the village organized a new Alexanderwohl congregation. However, this congregation was served by the elders of the Margenau Mennonite Church. Before World War II about one-third of the village belonged to the Mennonite Brethren Church. During the Revolution Alexanderwohl suffered like the rest of the Molotschna settlement and World War II brought exile and evacuation which spelled the end of Alexanderwohl in Russia.

2. America. When in the 1870s a new conscription law was in preparation in Russia, the Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church became the center of conferences and migration activities. Its elder Jakob Buller served as delegate to both St. Petersburg and America. Upon his return from his inspection trip to America in 1873, almost the entire village and congregation emigrated with him. This is the only case in the Old Colony and Molotschna settlements where an entire village left as a unit. The Alexanderwohl congregation had some members outside its own village. These and some others that joined them left Alexanderwohl 20 July 1874, crossing the ocean on the S.S. Cimbria and S.S. Teutonia. The Cimbria left Hamburg on 31 July 1874 with 303 adults and 172 children, and with Jakob Buller as their leader. After arriving in New York on 15 August, the group proceeded to Lincoln, Nebraska, arriving 22 August. From Lincoln they went to Topeka, Kansas. In that state their leaders purchased thirty-four sections of land north of Newton in Marion and McPherson counties at an average of $2.50 per acre in cash. 

Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church, Kansas Source: Wikipedia Commons

Until homes were built the group lived in an immigration house located on section 33 in Menno Township. Following the pattern to which they had been accustomed in Russia, they established the villages of Grünfeld, Emmethal, Gnadenthal, Gnadenfeld, Blumenfeld, Blumenort, Springfield, Schoenthal, and Steinbach. Gradually the village pattern was abandoned and each family moved onto its own land. Remnants of some villages can still be recognized.

Dietrich Gaeddert, leader of a group of 203 adults and 104 children, arrived in New York on the Teutonia, 15 August 1874. This group, composed of the remainder of the Alexanderwohl congregation and a few others, settled twenty miles west of Alexanderwohl north of present-day Buhler, Kansas, and organized the Hoffnungsau Mennonite Church. The present Buhler and Inman Mennonite churches are daughter congregations of Hoffnungsau.

Jakob Buller's group organized the Neu-Alexanderwohl Church in 1874 with 265 members. (The "Neu" was soon dropped.) By 1880 the membership had increased to 467 partly through the reception of young members but also through the addition of new immigrants. During the first years the congregation worshiped in the immigration house and in some of the schools in the various villages. In 1878 the congregation joined the General Conference Mennonite Church and in 1886, it erected a large meetinghouse one-and-a-half miles northeast of present-day Goessel, which has been enlarged and remodeled several times. In 1908, when the congregation had grown to a membership of 884, the Tabor Mennonite Church, located five miles southeast of the mother church, was organized with some 150 members. P. H. Richert was its first elder. Again in 1920 when the Alexanderwohl membership had reached 958, the Goessel Mennonite Church, located in Goessel, was organized with about 180 members, Pastor P. Buller serving as the first elder. The spread of the community to the north caused the organization of the Lehigh Mennonite Church; the spread to the east, the Walton and Burns Mennonite congregations. Families from the Alexanderwohl community moving to western Kansas organized the Meadow Mennonite Church. The present Alexanderwohl community extends from Newton thirty miles north to Hillsboro and Lehigh and more than fifteen miles from east to west, making it the largest compact Mennonite settlement in Kansas. In 2006 the membership of the Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church was 600 and the combined membership of the daughter congregations was about 1,400, making a total of about 2,000.

The following ministers in addition to the elders have served the Alexanderwohl congregation: Peter Voth, Peter Unrau, Heinrich Richert, Heinrich Goertz, Jakob Richert, Heinrich Banman, Peter Pankratz, C. P. Wedel, C. C. Wedel, T. R. Voth, and A. J. Banman. Cornelius H. Wedel, the first president of Bethel College, came from the Alexanderwohl church.

In addition to public schools, the Alexanderwohl community had a number of parochial schools, outstanding among which were the Emmethal School and the school of Peter Balzer. Gradually the parochial schools disappeared. In 1906 the Goessel Preparatory School was started with Peter P. Buller, who taught the school for eighteen years, as its first principal. Later the present Goessel High School, a state school, replaced this school. Before the end of the nineteenth century the Bethesda Hospital and the Bethesda Home for the Aged were organized at Goessel.

As late as the mid-twentieth century, most of the Alexanderwohl members were farmers raising wheat and other small grain. A few businesses, shops, stores and a cooperative are located in Goessel. Although High German is seldom heard and English has become predominant, Low German was still common in the homes and in social intercourse well into the twentieth century. Some of the Mennonite qualities of the old country have been better preserved in the Alexanderwohl community than elsewhere.

Until after World War I all services of the congregation were conducted in the German language. By the end of World War II only an occasional German service was held. Feet washing in connection with the observance of the Lord's Supper was practiced until 1950. The silent kneeling prayer of the congregation at the close of the worship service, traditional in Alexanderwohl, was discontinued early in the twentieth century. It was at this time that the organ was introduced into the worship service, causing the gradual discontinuation of the Vorsänger system. The congregation maintains a church library and has the usual organizations, such as young people's, women's mission societies, Sunday school, etc.

Bibliography

Additional Information

Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church web site .

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, pp. 48-50. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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