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Rosenberg (Umet)

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Excellent write-up about Rosenberg: http://cvgs.cu-portland.edu/literature/major_works/Minkh/minkh_rosenberg.cfm

Rosenberg was named after the many wild roses growing everywhere.

http://rosenbergvillage.org/history.htm "Rosenberg was built after 1850 around a small farming community of about 17 families called Umet (a sort of farm estate) on the old post road to Saratov. It was a postal center, with 9 horses delivering mail.

Most of the new settlers began to arrive in 1852, mainly from Grimm, Balzer, Dreispitz, Stephan, Holstein, and Galka. My Weitzel family went there from Kutter. As with many villages of similar size, it had one main street running parallel to the river, and the village filled in the meadowland formed by the loop in the Ilovlya River. Behind the village on the east side, the ground rises up to a plateau about a hundred feet which lies between the River Ilovlya and River Volga.

On the main street was a small square, where the church and its small bell tower stood (the church was knocked down during the Communist period). In 1886 half of the houses were constructed of stone, and the other half of wood. The 1886 population was 1173, but within four years this had increased by another six hundred residents. About half the houses had boarded roofs, and the remainder were thatched. The floors of the houses were covered with sand, and the inner walls and stove were coated in clay and whitewashed. The villagers washed the walls, windows, vestibule, and roof every Saturday to keep them clean.

In the immediate neighborhood there were two windmills and an oil press. The tradesmen in the village in 1886 included 18 shoemakers, 8 bricklayers, 1 tailor, 5 carpenters, 3 joiners (cabinetmakers), 3 carters, 2 smiths, 4 sieve makers, 4 grain traders, and 3 weavers. The German people slept on beds and never on the floor.

They changed their clothes every Saturday, and most would attend church on Sunday together, since most were of the Lutheran faith.

Most of the children (117 boys and 108 girls) in 1890 attended the German Community School, but 31 boys attended the Russian-German school, which was founded in 1877. The school year ran from October 01 to April 01.

Many of the villagers had livestock in their yards. In 1886 there were 519 horses, 180 oxen, 229 cows, 519 sheep, 267 swine, and 152 goats. The villagers grew vegetables, potatoes, barley, flax, oats, rye, spring wheat, and sunflowers. There were fruit trees in the village that included apple, pear, plum, cherry, and berry. Some vegetable gardens were planted near the lakes which formed during the Spring on the right bank of the river. The first settlers called these "lake gardens". Various paths ran down to the river, and the villagers went to the river to obtain water for drinking, livestock, and laundry."

http://rosenbergvillage.org/photo_album.htm Interesting photos and documents here, including passport, declaration of intent, and a pardon (after being shot by Stalin!)





Memories: 1
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My Weitzel family came from the Hesse, to Kutter, and then to Rosenberg. They emigrated to the US in 1912.

Grandpa was a draft dodger, unwilling to serve the rest of his life in the czars army (in those days, young conscripts were often never heard from again), so he and his friends hid under a bridge whenever army recruiters came to town.

posted 12 Apr 2014 by Lana (X) H   [thank Lana]
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