Michelsdorf and Urszulin (Lublin Voivodeship, Poland)
Michelsdorf and Urszulin, two villages, a mile apart, located approximately thirty miles (50 km) northeast of the Polish town of Lublin, were the center of a Swiss-Volhynian Amish Mennonite congregation ca, 1795-1837. The Mennonites who settled in Urszulin and Michelsdorf came from Montbéliard, France, leaving there in 1791 and proceeding eastward upon the invitation of the Polish Prince Adam Czartoryski. Known members of the party were Moses Gering, Johann Graber, Johann Lichti, Peter Kaufman (wife Elisabeth Graber), Anna Roth, Christ Graber (wife Marie), and Christen Stucky (wife Marie). There may have been others in the party, possibly including someone with the name of Flückinger.
Although the group may have proceeded direcdy to Urszulin, there is some evidence that they spent a few years in the Russian province of Podolia, possibly near Adampol. Sometime before 1800 and maybe as early as 1795, they located in Urszulin, and soon also in Michelsdorf. Joseph Mündlein, of the Galician Mennonite settlements, joined the group soon after their arrival and is known to have been its elder in 1802. The group was reinforced in 1797 by a few Swiss Amish Mennonite families who had unsuccessfully attempted to join the Hutterite colony at Vyshenka on the Desna River in the northern Ukraine. Never fully satisfied with the productivity of the land, the larger part of the Urszulin-Michelsdorf settlement moved to the village of Poutschy (Eduardsdorf) in Volhynia about 1815. The remaining members left in 1837 for Horodyszcze, Volhynia.
The Urszulin - Michelsdorf congregation was Amish, and adhered to the Amish Discipline of 1779. In addition to Mündlein (died 1810) church officials were Christian Graber, Christian Stucky, Johannes Flickinger, and Johan Graber. Names introduced into the Swiss-Volhynian churchbooks for the first time included Voran, Wolbert, Senner, Schwartz, Sutter, and Mauer.
Bibliography
Schrag, Martin H. "European History of the Swiss-Volhynian Mennonite Ancestors of Mennonites now Living in Communities in Kansas and South Dakota." Unpublished Master's dissertation, 1956.
| Author(s) | Martin H Schrag |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1957 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Schrag, Martin H. "Michelsdorf and Urszulin (Lublin Voivodeship, Poland)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 21 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Michelsdorf_and_Urszulin_(Lublin_Voivodeship,_Poland)&oldid=58821.
APA style
Schrag, Martin H. (1957). Michelsdorf and Urszulin (Lublin Voivodeship, Poland). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 21 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Michelsdorf_and_Urszulin_(Lublin_Voivodeship,_Poland)&oldid=58821.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 670. All rights reserved.
©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.