52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 10
Prompt – Strong Woman
My fourth great-grandmother is
Elisabeth M. Innerwinkler.
So it goes something like this.
Elisabeth Innerwinkler was born in
Austria in 1738 to Michael and Maria (nee Egger) Innerwinkler. The
Lutheran Reformation and Anabaptist movements was just taking hold.
The Empress of Austria did not tolerate those dissenting from
Catholicism. In 1755 the Empress exiled just under 700 people to
Transylvania, Romania. Among the families who were sent away were
the Innerwinklers and Mueller's (Millers) – my 4 times
great-grandparents.
 |
| Empress Maria Theresa |
Petrus Mueller was born on November 20,
1721 in Unteramlach, Austria. Both Petrus and Elisabeth were likely
raised as Catholics in their young lives. Likely being baptized as
an infant and attending weekly mass with their parents. As Petrus
grew up he was less satisfied with the Catholic teachings.
In the 1755 when Elisabeth was 16 and
Petrus was 44, they were among the dissidents sent to Transylvania to
live with the Lutherans.
Peter and some of the other men worked
as a day labourers around Alwintz, Transylvania, Romania. It was at
this time that Peter made contact with a very small religious group
known as Hutterites. This small group of Hutterites told them of
their beliefs and the small group of dissidents felt they found a
religion that they could believe in. They stopped going to the
Lutheran church and started reading the Hutterite literature. They
were forbidden to return to the Hutterites under threat of prison and
removing their children to a orphan's home.
However Petrus Mueller did lead about
58 Catholics and or Lutherans to join him as Hutterites in Alwintz.
In 1762 Petrus was re-baptized as a Hutterite. The next year he
married fellow dissident Elisabeth Innerwinkler.
In the following article from
"Delphini, Johannes Theophilus (18th century)." from Global
Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online it explains what happened next.
“Johannes Theophilus Delphini
(Delpini) was a Jesuit priest who was commissioned in September 1764
by Maria Theresa, Queen of Austria-Hungary, to convert the
Anabaptists (Hutterites) living at Alwinz in the Hungarian province
of Transylvania . With the help of the government and severe
measures, such as confiscation of books, compulsory attendance at his
sermons, threats and imprisonment, he tried to make them forsake
their faith. In the beginning he was not very successful,
but after their preacher Joseph Kuhr
(or Kohr, Gor) had been arrested and another preacher, Martin Roth
(Ruth), had been forcibly "converted," others followed,
threatened by imprisonment or tempted by the attractive promises of
the government. A large number of them, however, fled to Russia or
Turkey in order to keep the faith. In 1768 Delphini returned; his
mission was finished; all but a few who suffered in prison had turned
Catholic."
The Hutterites who would not be
“converted” had been forced by Delphini to flee under cover of darkness
on October 3, 1767. A total of 78 Hutterites escaped to Prisiceni,
Wallachia, near Bucharest. It was a hard journey because they had to cross
the Carpathian Mountains in winter. Peter and Elisabeth Mueller had
two babies and a third on the way. They joined a Hutterite community
firstly in Choregirle, south of Bucharest. Typhoid sickness caused
them to move to Prisiceni, Romania in July of 1769. They were hoping
the Turkish people would be more tolerant than the Empress.
Alas war broke out. Between 1768 and
1774 the Turkish and Russians fought. The Hutterites suffered
greatly at the hands of marauding Turks and Romanians. They were
plundered and pillaged and lost a great deal of their possessions.
However the worst was yet to come. It is explained this way in an
article from a October 2010 article in The Saskatchewan Mennonite
Historian. The article is called “Eight Generations of Millers /
Muellers. 1665 – 1916. “ written by Jake Buhler.
“But on November 27, 1769,
mercenaries destroyed the colony and tortured five Hutterites,
including Peter Miller, using hot irons. Peter died a painful death.
Five months later his wife Elizabeth
Innerwinkler and their three children
joined 66 other Hutterites in their escape to Wischenka, Russia”
I believe that at this time Elisabeth
had only two children because...
Peter and Elisabeth had 3 children.
Their first was born September 10, 1763 – Michael Mueller. He died
two years later on February 10, 1766 in Transylvania.. Their second
child, Katharina was born December 13, 1765 also in Transylvania.
Katharina died at the age of 5 years on April 5, 1771 in Wischenka,
Russia. Their third child, Peter Mueller was born January 18, 1768 in
Romania.
Elisabeth Mueller died young in Wischenka Russia on
December 19, 1773 at the age of 35 leaving behind her 5 year old son,
Peter Mueller. We do not know who raised young Peter. We do know that
he was baptized in the Hutterite faith on March 20, 1782 in Wischenka
Russia. Peter married Susanna Stahl on January 8, 1791. They had
seven children. Two of these children stayed in The Hutterite
Colony, In 1819 the others moved away and joined the Chortitza
Mennonite Colony when the Hutterite colony was in disarray due to
communal living issues. However one year later all but two brothers
returned to the Hutterite colony. The two that stayed behind had
married Mennonite women. Thus my family line became Mennonites.
Elisabeth Innerwinkler died too young.
She lived a life full of turmoil starting with religious discontent
in her family and then in her married life. She and her husband were
on a continual trek to find a home that would not persecute her
family just because they were Hutterites. She witnessed her
husband's death due to torture. Two of her three children died at
young ages. It is my belief that there is no other way to
characterize my 4th Great-Grandmother, Elisabeth Innerwinkler, than a strong woman.
Wendy
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