The village Frank (7)

The Village Frank Newsletter
Volume 22, Number 3
Summer 1993
Sherrie Stahl, editor

FRANK--- A Village Community In Russia
By M. Magdalene Lebsack

(MY NOTES: As with previous entries, I wish to give special thanks to Sherrie Stahl for all her work in making this possible. She recognized the need to preserve our history early enough to capture valuable information while many of our ancestors from Brunnental were still living—that otherwise might have been lost forever.

This is an excellent description of Frank, continued from the previous post. Frank is the village from which most Brunnentalers originated. According to David Ehlenberger’s family bible, both his father, Jacob Oehlenberger, and his wife Katherine’s father, Johannes Wagner, were born in “Chrisdowou Buerack, Frank” also known as Medweditskij Krestowoj Bujerak.)

(Excerpts)
(Page 10)
The orphan children in the village were also well cared for… Some men took the children and taught them a trade an din this way made money for himself. For example, if the man taught a boy carpentry, this boy learned by doing, and any furniture he produced was the property of the teacher who in turn sold the wares. (MY NOTES: David Ehlenberger was a very skilled carpenter and woodworker, as is my father, George Brooks.)

…Not only was there mutual aid within the village but there was also cooperation between the villages of the county. Three men in each village were appointed to calculate the worth of each homestead in the village. These figures were then reported to the county officials who in turn assessed each village according to the worth of their homesteads. This money was kept as an insurance for the county (mutual insurance). Then in case of a fire, storm, or any other sort destructing element, the county relied upon this money to pay for the losses. This was the only means of this sort for protecting the property of the village people.

When we consider the instinct of self-preservation which is a part of every person’s make-up, it is not at all difficult to understand why the people took the precautions they seem to have taken.

(CHAPTER IV, THE HOME)
The average homestead in Frank covered an area of a quarter of a block, the homes being built on the corners facing the wide street. Most of the houses were built of wood but there were also others made of stone or brick. Some of the stone houses have stood for over a hundred years without crumbling. Of course, the wood used for frame work, not strong enough to stand up under the war and tear, had to be replaced from time to time. This framework probably had to be changed every twenty or twenty-vie years.

The average house included a porch, a Krielitz (inside porch), the Kuche (kitchen), and two large living rooms, the attic and the cellar. When the occupants living in the house multiplied to such a degree that it was impossible for them all to live in two rooms, a third room was usually built on the house which was occupied by the head of the family and what unmarried children he happened to have. When the family grew too large to live in three rooms, the father had to find a home for his oldest son and his family, unless the son was able to look out for himself. Sometimes the father built his son’s house in the garden instead of buying a new lot. In this way the family was kept together and the father was still head of the family, the son taking orders from him. If the son moved outside his father’s homestead, he became head of his family.

…The outdoor porch was used to gather for gossiping during the summer evenings. The Krielitz was an inner porch in which was kept a barrel of fresh water which was used for cooking and drinking purposes. Sometimes the stairs leading up the attic were found in this little hallway, though they may have been on the outside as were the stairs leading to the cellar. During the winter, the Krielitz grew so cold that the family was forced to move the barrel of water into the living room in order to keep it from freezing. In the Kuche the cooking was done during the winter time. Here was a stove, an oven, a fireplace, the doors for the stoves of the living room and also the drafts of smoke holes. The ceiling slanted upward, and directly in the center was an opening out of which escaped the smoke and steam escaping from the fire and food being cooked. This hole was never closed unless someone climbed on the roof and stuffed it with straw. Sometimes this cruel method of revenge was used by some spiteful persons, or maybe some young boys in trying to be ornery closed the outlet. If this was done, and the fire was built in any of the stoves, the house immediately filled with smoke and everyone was forced out of the rooms until the hole in the roof was again opened.

(To be continued…)