Hildmann Village Website 

Hildmann [Panovka] - founded May 15, 1767 

Description made for the Office [Kontora] of Immigrant Oversight by Deputy of the Chief Justice, Court Councillor Popov, of the colony of Panovka [Hildmann], inhabited by foreigners, according to information from the Vorsteher [Head], Bei Sitzer [Witness/Assessor], and best people of the colony, and by personal observation.  October 8, 1798.

This colony is located in the Saratov gubernia [province], in the okrug [district] of the city of Kamyshin, on the hilly side [Bergseite] of the Volga river.  It is 120 versts [1 verst is about 3,500 feet] from Saratov, 60 versts from Kamyshin, ten from Kamenka, five from Ilavlya [Leichting], two from Karaulny Buyerak [Köhler], 20 from the Volga and 27 from the boat landing.  There are 143 male inhabitants and 135 females, totaling 278 souls comprising 41 families, all of the Roman Catholic faith.  They belong to the parish of the colony of Kamenka, where they have a parish church and priest.  There is a prayer house in this colony.  A schoolmaster, under the supervision of the priest, teaches small children reading, writing, and religion in a special building.

The properties of this colony are bordered with plots belonging to Kamenka, Ilavlya [Leichtling], and Karaulny Buyerak [Köhler], by state-owned steppe land formerly on quit-rent, now held by the adjacent colonies, and that land allocated in 1798 by the highest rescript to Lord Privy Councillor Sushkov and Major-General Rezanov.  At the previous Kontora land survey, the colony was allocated arable farm land of 2,856 desyatinas [1 desyatina is about 2.7 acres], hay lands of 39 desyatinas, and forests of 35 desyatinas.  Beyond the Ilavlya River, they are given 95 desyatinas of arable farm land and forests. This totals 3,025 desyatinas.  The colonists state that they have 25 desyatinas taken by farmsteads, 20 by roads, and 600 desyatinas under cultivation.  Much of the land under cultivation is poor, but they till it because of need, and because they have no better land.  The remainder of their land is clay, sand, and saline, on which they pasture their livestock.  It does not produce crops.  Of their allocation of hay lands, only about 30 desyatinas exist, because grass does not grow on the other places allocated.  They have no more than 3 desyatinas of oak and birch forests. They must purchase feed for their livestock, and instead of firewood, they use dung fuel.  The colony has shortages of all items mentioned above.  There are no means of alleviating these shortages, even though state-owned land is nearby.  The inhabitants state that is unsuitable, and there are neither forests nor hay lands there.  They also have shortages of hemp and flax, which do not grow here.

All are engaged in farming. They have a blacksmith and a shoemaker.  All are favorably disposed toward work.  They all live in the most mediocre conditions. All the buildings in the colony are old and dilapidated.  There are no stone or adobe houses, because there is no source of suitable stone.  Yards are fenced with boards and wattle.  Gardens are not far away, along the Ilavlya River.  There are no apiaries [bee colonies] or orchards.  There is one flour mill.  The closest field is behind the farmsteads and the farthest is four versts from the colony.  The farmland has been divided into three fields [they practice crop rotation – ed].  They till with iron plows and mostly horses.  The fertilize only a little of the land.  Crops are mediocre, and every year a significant quantity is devoured by gophers.  In the course of the summer of 1798, they consumed more than 64 desyatinas of rye, wheat, oats, and millet.  They know of no means of destroying the gophers, save flooding their burrows, but no significant number of the gophers can be destroyed by these means.

The grain is harvested and threshed on threshing floors immediate to the yards.  The inhabitants have been advised of the danger of fire, and have been instructed to move the threshing floors to a safe distance.  They sell their grain in the city of Kamyshin.  Sale prices vary according to the times.  The past summer of 1797 and the winter of 1798 they sold grain for the same prices as previously mentioned in descriptions of the area and the colonies.  The community grain storage facility is old, but constructed in a suitable place.  Currently collected in it are rye, wheat, and oats, by 6 chetvert [1 chetvert is about 210 litres] per family of each.  A small part of it has been allocated to the local inhabitants, but most of it is present.

Authenticated by Court Councillor Popov.  Completed with the signatures of the Vorsteher, Beisitzer, and best people.

For further information: consult No. 1843 The 1798 Description of the Saratov Colony of Panovka also known as Hildmann No. 124 American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR) 1996.

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Regina Remisch
VC for Hildmann Village
reginaremisch@sympatico.ca