On October 5, 1809, after an arduous six-month
journey from the Rheinpfalz in Germany, Franz Wiest with his
wife Eva Margaretha and their six children arrived in the new
village of Rohrbach, South Russia. On their journey Franz and
his family were accompanied by two of Franz’s nephews, Daniel
and Peter, who were the sons of Peter Wiest.
The trip was not easy. The Wiests had joined others
who were fleeing the forced conscription of their sons into
Napolean’s army. Along the way, many had died due to the
hardships of the trip. Various diseases such as cholera and
typhoid also took their toll. In fact, it appears that Franz’s
son Michael, born early in 1809, died while in route to their
new home.
The Wiests were one of 26 families who settled the
village of Rohrbach in 1809. To call it a village at this point
would have been a misnomer, for there was nothing built nor
established at that time. The first settlers were conducted to
the Zerigul valley in the fall of 1809 by the mayor of
Grossliebental. The following spring, another 69 families who
had wintered in the colonies in the environs of Odessa, Russia,
came to this place of settlement. Of these 95 families, 56 had
emigrated from Alsace and the Palatinate. Since a large number
of the earliest settlers were from the Palatinate, the
settlement was named after the town of Rohrbach, in the district
of Bergzabern.
The story of the earliest known ancestors of the
Rohrbach Wiests begins not in Germany as one might suppose, but
in the little village of Kuettigen in the Canton of Aargau in
Switzerland. Today this village is a suburb of Aarau, which is
the capital of the Canton of Aargau. The document which includes
our earliest known ancestor is found in the register of weddings
in the Kirchberg Church. On September 27, 1620, Jacob Wuest and
Barbara Frey were united in marriage. During the next 15 years,
8 children were born to this couple. How many of them lived to
adulthood we do not know. We have information on two of the
children: Samuel Wiest born 10 April 1631 (the ancestor of the
Rohrbach Wiests) and Katherina Wiest born 12 May 1622 who
married a Hans Bircher.
At the time of this writing, we do not yet know who
Jacob Wuest’s parents are. A professional genealogist is
researching the Wuests from Kuettigen, and has found two
possibilities so far [Note: The baptismal records between 1570
and 1601 are missing for Kuettigen]. A Verena Wuest was baptized
in 1602. Her parents were Heinrich Wuest and Anna Dietiker.
Further research has also found an Adelheit Wuest born about 1600
whose father was Heinrich, and a Anna Wuest born abt 1594 whose
father was Heinrich. The other possibility of a father for Jacob
Wuest is found in the baptismal records from 1603 for a Hans
Wiest, whose father was Samuel Wuest and whose mother was
Dorothea Mueller.
And to make things more interesting, we have also
found an Elisbeth Wuest born abt 1563 in Kuettigen who married a
Hans Bircher born 1563 in Kuettigen. There is a good possibility
that this Elisbeth Wuest is an aunt of Jacob Wuest. It also
appears that it was their grandson Hans Bircher Jr. born 3
September 1620 in Kuettigen who married Katharina Wuest,
daughter of Jacob Wuest and Barbara Frey.
According the extensive work done by Brian Barr
Wiest, he states that the earliest record anywhere that includes
the name Wiest appears in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, a
mere 20 miles from Kuettigen. In an entry dated 30 April 1330, a
Heinrich Wuest is mentioned as having become - by popular
election - one of the 12 overseers of the forests of the town of
Zollikon. References to the Wuests of Zollikon indicate that
they were a renowned family of that time. From Zollikon, the
Wuests spread to neighboring towns, including Zurich. Records
from 1370 speak of a Claus Wuest and his brother who became
burghers in Zurich. Other Wuests appear in the early records of
the Cantons of Luzern, Freiburg, Thurgau, and Aargau, as well as
in the city of Basel.
What caused the Wiests to move from Switzerland? As
Arthur E. Flegel has stated so well in his article entitled "A
summary of German Migrations Eastwood into Poland, Austria,
Hungary, Romania, and Russia" for the Germans from
Russian Symposium in 1990:
Since the beginning of time, man has moved from
place to place under two primary compulsions: duress or the
opportunity of self-improvement. Therefore, within that context
the three major reasons for migration may be more narrowly
defined as: (1) economic (2) political and (3) religious.
In 1525, the Protestant Reformation in Zurich was
completed under the leadership of Ulrich Zwingli, pastor of the
Great Cathedral in Zurich. Within a few short years, the
Canton of Bern had also sided with the reformers, as well as
most of northern Switzerland. During the next 130 years (before
Samuel Wuest left Switzerland with his family), Switzerland was
plagued by wars and religious quarrels.
Meanwhile, in the Palatinate, Elector Fredrick V
enjoyed a prominent place among the German princes. His
territory along both sides of the Rhine, with Heidelburg as the
capitol, was the garden spot of the country. In 1613 Fredrick
had married Elizabeth, daughter of James I of England. At the
urging of his ambitious wife, Fredrick accepted the crown of
Bohemia, which was then in religious and civil revolt. This move
precipitated the Thirty Years' War in which the Palatinate was
overrun in succession by the Catholic Army under Tilly and by
the Spanish, Swedish, and French armies, all of whom stripped
the land so completely that famine and disease decimated the
population. By one estimate, only two percent of the people
remained. When the war ended in 1648 with the Treaty of
Westfalia, new settlers were welcomed to augment the few
remaining survivors of the war and famine. The Protestant
Elector of the Palatinate of the Rhine offered lands at
reasonable rents in order to entice settlers to repopulate his
devastated territories.
Why did our Wiests wait until 1657 to leave
Switzerland for the Palatinate? In January 1656, the Protestant
forces from the Canton of Bern were defeated by the Catholics.
The Wiests, who had joined the reformers, undoubtedly were
troubled by this event. As well, land would have been at a
premium in Switzerland. The decision to leave was made a lot
easier with all of the rich farmland available in the
Palatinate.
But did our ancestors jump from the proverbial
frying pan into the fire? A weakened Palatinate was no match for
the growing French interest in the region. In fact, there was so
much international concern that Britain led a coalition of
forces to oppose France. These struggles that occurred between
1688 and 1697 are known by a number of names: The War of the
Palatinate, the War of the Grand Alliance, the War of the League
of Augsburg. One major effect of the war was the large scale
emigration that took place then, and was the precursor to the
major emigration to the U.S. that took place in the early to mid
1700’s. (Note: Brian Barr Wiest’s book chronicles the history of
the Wiests that went to the U.S. during that time.)
Not only did war take its toll. A major freeze
during the winter of 1708/1709 happened in the Palatinate. On 10
January 1709 the Rhine River froze, and was closed to river
traffic for five weeks. Wine froze and vineyards died. Cattle
also died in their sheds. Living in the comforts of the 21st
century, we have no idea what our ancestors had to face from day
to day just to survive.
The everyday lives of our ancestors are hidden in
the pages of time. But only one century later (1809), with
Napoleon Bonaparte on the move in Europe, our ancestors moved
their families once more, this time to South Russia, where there
was a promise of a new and better life for them.
It didn’t take long for members of the family to
move again. In 1843, Franz Wiest’s son Johann Jacob Wiest and
his family moved to Bessarabia from Rohrbach, South Russia. In
subsequent years, with the change in the political climate in
Russia, many Wiests began leaving Russia. Major destinations
were the U.S. and Canada. A few of them also went to South
America.
For those who stayed, very difficult times were
soon to arrive in Russia. WWI brought extreme hardship to the
Germans who had moved to Russia. And with Stalin coming to
power, many of our ancestors either died of starvation, died in
labor camps, or died before a firing squad because they were a
threat to Stalin’s tyranny.
The "Rohrbach Wiest Family Tree" lists the names of many
individuals. With each one there is a story, but the pages of
this book are not able to tell them. Hopefully other books will
be written which tell the stories of those who moved from
country to country, and sometimes from continent to continent,
seeking a better life for themselves and their children.