Sipiory

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Bromberg, Posen, Prussia--now Sipiory, Bygdoszcz, Poznan, Poland

This was the village in which Anna Eva Ziebell and her brother Ernst were born.

The photos on this page are from Sipiory and were taken by krzysztofk. These and several more from Sipiory can be found at http://www.panoramio.com/user/5111818/tags/Sipiory%20k.%20Nak%C5%82a%20n.N?photo_page=1

James Birkholz posted the material below on ancestry.com at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/POSEN/2003-01/1043644083

Subject: Re: [POSEN] Sipiory, Bromberg, Prussia or Sipiory, Bygdoszcz, Poznan

Here is the complete text from the book about Kreis Schubin that is on the pages about Neukirchen. There are still some rough spots in the translation below, but it will have to do for now.

(Google Books lists a book called Der Kreis Schubin, published by Heimatkreis Altburgund/Schubin in 1975, but Google has apparently not copied it. \tedb 8/19/201 )

Neukirchen/Sipiory

With area of 1173,6 hectars and nearly 1300 inhabitants Neukirchen was the largest village in Kreis Schubin / Altburgund. When this area became Prussian in 1773, Sipiory belonged to the Grocholin territory under the manorial lord v. Baranowski, who had a Vorwerk here named Sipiory. The vast, swampy valley basin, traversed by several sandy ridges, was overgrown with thickets and produced very little for the lord. A number of German farmers had probably already been settled here for some time by 1800 as hereditary tenants with Dutch rights ("Holländerrecht "). This is indicated by the old plank houses from that time. The land survey of 1796-1802 shows Sipiory=Hollaendri already in existence near the Vorwerk Sipiory. In 1818 it had 14 residences ("fire places") and 92 inhabitants. The settlement known as a colony began about 1828 under count Arnold von Skorzewski, whose father Friedrich v. Skorzewski had acquired Grocholin and the Vorwerk Sipiory at auction. At that time 143 German and 38 Polish settlers had been recruited. The remainder of the Vorwerk still consisted of 200 hectars forest, 164 hectars field, 17.28 hectars of meadow, 14.37 hectars wasteland and 2 hectars water. A later land survey of 1858 indicates the following local parts: Sipiory Adlig (probably the Vorwerk) with 12 persons, Alt=Sipiory (Holländery) and Neu=Sipiory (colony). Also a tar furnace is to have stood, probably at Brandwerder, where one still often found coals when plowing. The colonists settled along the base of the hills (here also Werder, "Wadel" in plattdeutsch), in order to have both fields and meadow. The often sparsely-settled roads therefore followed the curvatures of the ridges in different directions. Those original 10 - 30 morgen naturally did not cover the living costs of the extended families at that time. Through great diligence and utilization of all earning opportunities, as forest or seasonal workers or as peat cutters (the heaviest and most profitable work) they had come so far in 2 or 3 that they could increase the land being worked. The middle class cash often helped thereby. Since 1836 Carl von Treskow owned Grocholin and the Vorwerk Sipiory and made plots available on the hereditary contract basis and also through cash sales. Also the solvent Vorwerk, owned by Schepitz, offered land for sale. Meadows could be bought or leased on the Netze river. Some owners of small enterprises sold to their neighbors, in order to settle in other places. The remaining property of 420 morgen was sold to the local village administration. Statistics: 1773 16 inhabitants. with a mixed composition of faiths. 1818 14 fire places, 92 inhabitants, all Protestant 1833 43 fire places, 588 Germans, 165 Poles = 753. 1873 196 houses, 1109 Germans, 208 Poles, 11 other = 1328. 1905 188 houses, 988 Germans, 285 Poland = 1273. 1921 176 houses, 758 Germans, 284 Poland = 1042.

In the year 1893 Sipiory was renamed after its newly built church and was called from now on Neukirchen. The church, positioned on the highest place (72 N/N 7), formed the center of the far-flung village, along with the Altlutheran church, built 100 meters away in 1882; the large school; the registration office, the post office and the fire station. The two nearby and the hotel completed the village center. The small practiced their handicrafts, including tailors, shoemakers, masons, wheelwrights and smiths, of which there were three. From the church tower one could look out over the whole village with its seven roads: 1. The Vierziger row with 60 houses 2. Langort 3. Brandwerder 4. Fuchswinkel 5. Langwerder 6. Hasselort, off to the side of the previous Vorwerk 7. Zaborowsken row at the northern edge.

Schools: There were three schools in this place. Neukirchen I In 1902 the old buildings with the prayer house burned down, and a new three class Protestant school, with large classrooms and three teacher dwellings, opened its doors for 1904. At this time it had over 200 children. This school served all Protestant children from Neukirchen up to Hasselort and the old Vorwer. Teachers that have been identified are: : Wiese, Donner, Mehlhose, Steuck, Neitzke, Schewe und Dräger, until 1919, when the school was displaced for a year, while the Polish military occupied the building for its headquarters. Classes resumed in 1920 as a single class with 100 children attending, and the following teachers: Anna Koebernick (substitue), Carpenter, Kotolinski, Dorothea Werner, Alma Scholz and from 1927 to 1945 Elizabeth Wiese. The long time, in which the latter here its sphere of activity had, created a close relationship between school and house, which made it possible to consider by overtime the German interests. In the association with the church youth federations could be organized to the Aufmunterung of the population in this heavy time by 1919-1939 Christmas holiday, parents evenings, harvest celebrations and annual parties. The increase of the German population 1943 from the east area required still another instructor, Mrs. Klassen. School II. The two class nondenominational school in Hasselort, close to the border with Grünthal, served all school children from Hasselort and Grünthal, the remainding Sipiory estate and the Catholic children up to the church. Until 1919 all children had common instruction, afterwards the separation of the children took place according to their faith. A German and a Polish class developed. The German class was taught by Miss Harlos up to the dissolution 1928. A transfer of the children to School I was not permitted. After 1939 the children found the journey to this distant school easier after pavement was constructed. Schule III. This one class Catholic school, which lay at the end of the Vierziger Ro, was a common school for all Catholic children from nearby Neukirchen, Dembogora Mühle, Michalinka, Bergheim, Paulina, Rosworke and Viktoriathal. On narrow, sandigen landwege one reaches the lonely lying village.