Life along the Vistula River
The Geographic Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland (vol. 14, 1895) includes the following information about Wymyśle Nowe:
"The village has a masonry school and a house of prayer. Soils are sandy. The village has a considerable acreage of meadows with a 4 ell layer of peat. There are orchards and osier plantations. Residents produce Dutch cheese"[36] .
This brief characteristic requires some comments. Dutch villages had strong traditions of growing osiers, whose twigs (i.e. wicker) were used for various purposes, for example, it used for fences, which surrounded fields and meadows, and baskets of different shapes and sizes. This latter occupation was an important source of income for farmers who were cultivating poor quality soils. Exploitation of deposits of peat, which was used as fuel, and production of Dutch cheeses were also important occupations of the settlers.
According to the data collected by Wojciech Marchlewski, the Mennonites, the same as the majority of the Dutch settlers, primarily planted vegetables whose vegetation period was between spring and autumn or plants that could survive floods. They planted fruit trees and used remaining land as pastures and meadows. Initially, the area of cultivated fields was relatively small. Based on the data from the first half of the 19th century, we can conclude that raising cattle (from 5 to 14 per household) was the primary source of income. In contrast, pigs and poultry (geese and hens) played less important role. Dairy products (primarily cheeses and butter) and dried fruits (primarily prunes) were the most important products for sale. Many farmers also grew barley, oat, wheat, and potatoes[37] .
At the time, a Dutch family had on average 6-8 members. Also, the majority of farms (7-15 ha) hired between 2 and 5 farmhands and wenches. Some Dutch settlers had also a secondary occupation in crafts (e.g. cloth and canvas production). The villages also had millers, inn-keepers, and other craftsmen, primarily: wheelwrights, woodworkers, coopers, black smiths, potters, and cobblers.
The construction of the flood bank along the middle Vistula that began ca 1850 was responsible for radical changes in the settlers' system of land cultivation. The spring and autumn floods that were a source of fertile silt came to an end and the fields had to be fertilized with manure. From then on, the residents of the riverbank villages were required to maintain the flood banks and perform various works, which were based on the principles of corvée labor. Individual farmers were responsible for the maintenance of draining canals that ran through their fields[38] .
Distinct religion and culture isolated the Mennonites from the Polish Catholic rural population, but bound them with the Evangelical, German-speaking settlers, who also inhabited the Vistula valley. As a result of the close coexistence of the Mennonites and Lutherans within the Dutch rural communities, the Mazowsze Mennonites underwent a nearly complete lingual assimilation by their more numerous German neighbors. In Pomerania and Kujawy, this process was well under way and by the second half of the 18th century, the Dutch language was completely eradicated from the religious life. Also, Low German gradually lost its liturgical function. In the 19th century, the Dutch settlers living in Mazowsze spoke Low German at home, while High German was usually used in religious life[39] .
Although at the close of the Republic of Poland period, some Dutch settlers residing on the middle reaches of the Vistula river underwent Polonization, this process was almost completely halted in the 19th century. One of its few manifestations was a participation of Franz Wedl from Wymyśl in the January Uprising[40] . Repressive measured imposed by the tsar afterwards, in the majority of cases resulted in the return to German roots. (Paweł Fijałkowski)
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