Jamerau (Jamrau), a village situated near the Vis­tula River in West Prussia, belonging to the terri­tory of Culm (Kulmerland, now Ziemia Chełmińska). Jamerau was settled by Dutch Mennonite farmers as early as 1597. The  oldest lease was not preserved; in the lease of 1626 the following names are found (some of them may have been garbled): Joachim Rothe, Joachim Leskau, Hans Fott, Steffen Baltzer, Michel Decker, Hans Zimmermann, Ertman Stubbe. The Mennonites of Jamerau belonged to the Schönsee  congregation. In 1752 the burgomaster and city council of Culm renewed a lease with the tenants Cornelis Frans, Johan Voet, Johan Nagtigal, Jakob Wedel, Peter Sievert, and Andreas Kurk, which obligated these tenants to keep the dikes along the Vistula in good condition. These tenants were all Mennonites, who (or whose parents) had fled from Lithuania about 1732. Abraham Nickel of Jamerau, a deacon of the Schönsee congregation, in 1806 presented a gift of 30,000 Talers to King Fred­erick William III and Queen Louise of Prussia, then fleeing before Napoleon, as a proof of the loy­alty of the Mennonites in this district.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, pp. 69-70. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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