Our Hieb Family Story: A Journey for Peace and Autonomy
Our family’s story is one of resilience, faith, and an unwavering commitment to core values that have echoed through generations. It begins not just with names and dates, but with the powerful forces that shaped the lives of our ancestors, like Johann Adam Hieb, and led them across continents in search of peace, autonomy, and a safe future for their children.
From Germany’s Turmoil (c. 1812)
Around the turn of the 19th century, our Hieb ancestors lived in the region of Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. Specific records point strongly to Ilbesheim bei Kirchheimbolanden, a village in the Donnersbergkreis district (though other family references mention the nearby name Heuchelheim). This period was marked by tremendous upheaval.
The Napoleonic Wars raged across Europe, and their homeland was under direct French control as part of the Department of Mont-Tonnerre. Life was defined by political instability, heavy taxes, economic hardship, and, perhaps most importantly for our family, forced military conscription into Napoleon’s demanding armies.
Faced with the prospect of their sons (specifically, Johann Adam Hieb’s youngest 2 sons) being swept into relentless wars, families like the Hiebs looked for alternatives. News arrived of promises from Tsar Alexander I of Russia: vast tracts of fertile land available for settlement in the newly acquired territories north of the Black Sea.
Crucially, these promises included free land, significant financial aid to get started, religious freedom, local self-governance, and exemption from military service. For families desperate to escape conscription and seeking a chance to build an independent life, the pull was strong.
Around 1812, at age 70, Johann Adam Hieb made the momentous decision to take his family and leave their German homeland. The journey itself was an epic undertaking, likely lasting many months. It involved an arduous overland trek along the Danube River.
While earlier and later settlers endured a long and often perilous boat trip downriver on simple barges crowded with other emigrants, during the Napoleonic wars from 1803 to 1815, Germans weren’t allowed to use the Danube River, making the trek even greater and longer. Finally, a difficult mandatory quarantine period at the Russian border, and another overland journey across the open steppe to their assigned destination.
They carried with them their hopes, their faith, and the determination to build a better future.
A New Home on the Steppe: Neudorf (c. 1812 – 1873)
Their destination was the newly established village of Neudorf, one of the German settlements in the Glückstal Colonies region of the Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire (today known as Carmanova, in Moldova/Transnistria). Arriving on the raw steppe presented immense challenges. The landscape was vast and treeless, the climate marked by extremes.
Their first homes were likely basic sod houses (Semljanken) earth dwellings dug partially into the ground with thatched or sod roofs due to the lack of timber on the steppe. Building more permanent stone houses (using limestone quarried nearby) came later as resources allowed. This was a skill the family would use once again when arriving in America.
The Russian government provided initial support, recorded as 91,424 rubles per family, designated for subsistence, settlement costs (tools, materials), and seed for the first planting. While this sum, likely paid in depreciated Assignat paper currency, represented crucial start-up capital (with a theoretical value perhaps comparable to over $400,000 today based on its silver equivalent, though its actual purchasing power then was focused on immediate needs), it was not instant wealth. It was the seed money for survival and establishment, and needed to be used with careful planning.
For approximately sixty years, our Hieb ancestors labored to transform the steppe – called the Bessarabia Germans.
They learned to farm the rich black earth, built more permanent stone houses, established their church and school, which became the heart of the community, and governed their own local affairs. Under the oversight of the Russian Welfare Committee (Fürsorgekomitee) based in Odessa, they preserved their German language, culture, and protestant faith, creating a distinct German enclave within the Russian Empire, living the autonomy they had sought.
History Repeats: Leaving Russia (c. 1873/1874)
The peace and autonomy they had worked so hard to build began to erode in the 1870s. Tsar Alexander II introduced reforms aimed at modernizing and unifying the Russian Empire.
For the German colonists, this meant the gradual revocation of their special promised privileges. The most devastating blow came with the Universal Military Service Act of 1874, which officially ended their cherished exemption from the draft.
Once again, the Hieb family faced the prospect of their sons being forced into the military of an empire. The promise that had drawn their ancestors to Russia was broken. Coupled with growing pressure to adopt the Russian language in schools (Russification) and increasing difficulty in acquiring new farmland for growing families, the decision was made: they would move again.
In 1874, at the very beginning of this new wave of migration, our Hieb ancestors left Neudorf. They turned their eyes westward, towards America, another land promising freedom and opportunity. Their final destination was South Dakota, joining thousands of other Black Sea Germans seeking refuge on the Great Plains.
The Enduring Legacy
The journey of the Hieb family is a profound testament to the enduring human spirit. Twice, they crossed continents, leaving established lives behind. As one family member recalled, both moves were driven by the desire that their sons “wouldn’t have to fight in war.”
This narrative isn’t just about migration; it’s about the persistent pursuit of seeking peace and autonomy across continents, driven by the desire to protect their children from the demands of empires at war. These powerful values – peace, self-determination, the paramount importance of family and faith – were forged in the challenges faced in Germany, tested on the Russian steppe, and carried across the Atlantic to take root in America.
As we, their descendants, live our lives today, we can see the echo of their journey in our own deeply held values. The commitment to family, the desire for peace, and the value placed on autonomy.
These are not new; they are a precious inheritance, passed down through generations who faced immense challenges but never lost sight of what mattered most. May we always remember their story and honor the legacy they entrusted to us.
Written by Lisa (5th great-granddaughter of Johann Adam Hieb, Sr.)
