The Krikental’s Start Over

John Clark

Christmas 1905, Barons, Alberta

Gustav Krikental had the holiday spirit and felt a little rich. He put a whole dollar into the Christmas treat fund at the Erdman's 1905 Christmas party.

Maybe Gustav or his wife, Julie, felt they should make a large party contribution since all their young children would be at the party. Pauline, 15, was the oldest of the three Krikental girls. Mihkel, who was three years old, was the younger of the two boys. Like most people at the party, all the Krikental children had been born in Crimea. In 1903 the whole family made the long journey from the Estonian settlement, Kontshi-Savva, in the Crimean steppes to the plains of Barons, Alberta.

Their last two years had been filled with hard work. With help from their neighbors they had built a sod house, planted the land, and prepared provisions for the harsh winter months. Now the Krikentals were firmly settled in the new Estonian farming community.

Many years later, Maria Kotkas (Sepp), a school friend of the Krikental girls, recalled events of the previous spring.

"It was the first time the preacher came from Medicine Hat and stayed a week. He baptized Hellene Lentman's baby, the first born to that bunch of Estonians. Krikenthal's family had the biggest sod house with a porch built on the front.

So the Palkman's (Mihkel Palkman and Lena Musten) wedding was at Krikenthal's house. They were the first ones to get married in the new place. Lena was dressed in white with a veil and artificial orange blossoms. At that time brides wore orange blossoms, artificial and other silk flowers. The young men would buy their best girls or just girls the artificial flowers. I remember there were more than five young men and all the young girls wore their hair up with flowers in it. At the wedding there was a big dinner and after dinner good things like apples and candy for everyone"

Gustav’s neighbors, and his father before him, had made a similar decision almost fifty years earlier to travel to a new land to start a new life. Before immigrating to Crimea, the Kotkas, Sepp, Erdman, Palkman and Krikental families had worked on the neighboring estates in Järvamaa County, Estonia. In Estonia, all the families belonged to the Järva-Madise parish so the Krikental’s had known their Crimean-Estonian neighbors for generations. A generation later, in Crimea, they also befriended Lena Musten and her parents, Julia and Karel. The Mustens had only recently come from Estonia to farm in Crimea

Now Gustav’s decision to start over in Alberta seemed to have been a good one. Months before the Christmas party, the Krikentals had harvested and sold their first full crop. Now that it was winter the pace was a bit slower. Everyone in the family was excited about the pending arrival of the first Krikental to be born in America―Julie Krikental was due to deliver right after the holidays.

So Gustav, Julie and their kids, joined with their neighbors at the Erdman house to celebrate the holiday season. The Musten, Kewe, Malberg, Kotkas, and Kulpas families were there. The Reinsons, who had immigrated with the Krikentals, were also present, as were the Minniks, Lentmans, Meers, and Watmans. The children were delighted with the decorations, the stories, games, and particularly the songs―the joy of singing seemed to be an inherited Estonian trait. Gustav and Julie looked forward to the new year which they hoped would bring continued good fortune for the growing Krikental family and the close-knit Estonian community. Both had learned to appreciate any good fortune that came their way.

The New Year brought the cold. Mid-January had blinding snow. With the worst weather each family was isolated and on their own. Venturing very far out-of-doors could be bone chilling and even life threatening. The Krikental homestead was far from their neighbors and even farther from town. It was not the best time to be in labor, but Julie's baby couldn't wait. The baby came into the world without any help from a doctor or midwife. Afterward, Julie’s family did what they could, but Julie grew weaker and died the same day.

Maria Kotkas (Sepp) recalled,

"the first week after the New Year, 1906, Mrs. Krikenthal had a baby. They had no help and she died leaving three girls, a boy and the new baby. At that time no one wanted someone else's baby. Everyone had their own. Grandma Erdman took the nameless baby and called her Margarete and took care of her. They already had five children of their own and four that had died.....When Mrs. Krickendal died Grandpa Erdman said that we needed a cemetery. So he gave maybe an acre of his land for the cemetery. When the preacher came again he blessed the ground. A lot of people are buried there even Grandpa and Grandma Erdman. At that time it did not cost money to be born or to die."

Gustav, at age 37 was now a widower in a new land with a farm to work and five young children to provide for. Once again he needed to find the strength to start over.

Starting over in a new land seems to have been, from the very beginning, a part of the Krikental family's genetic makeup.

According to an analysis of Krikental DNA by the National Geographic- IBM Genographic Project, the first known common Krikental ancestor was a male descendent of “Eurasian Adam”, who lived some 31,000 to 79,000 years ago in Africa. All male Krikental ancestors can be genetically identified by their haplogroup N, a lineage defined by a genetic marker called LLY22GV and an ancient chromosome marker called M168.

This DNA marker showed that Gustav Krikental's forefathers were part of the second great human migration out of Africa―a migration of hunters who, as the ice age receded, followed the expanding grasslands and abundant game to the Middle East. Descendants of this group hunted herds of buffalo, antelope, and woolly mammoths through Iran to the steppes of Central Asia.

One group of hunters pursued the herds eastward, along the Eurasian steppe, until blocked by the mountains of south central Asia. It was probably in Siberia that a new genetic marker ( LLY22G) arose in part of this population. This is the haplogroup N marker which is found in Russia, Siberia, northern Finland, Scandinavia, and Northeastern Europe. Members of haplogroup N include the reindeer-herding Saami people of northern Scandinavia and Russia. Today it can be used to trace the last several thousand year’s migrations of Uralic-speaking peoples including the Finns and Estonians.

Skipping forward a couple hundred generations, we find the modern Krikental ancestors were still Uralic-speaking but worked at farming rather than herding reindeer. The first mention of the Krikental ancestors is found in the Järva-Madise parish records. Births, deaths, and marriages for the serfs who were owned by the Järvamaa county estates were recorded in detail. The parish, located south of Albu Manor, served eight districts: Albu, Ageri, Ahula, Kaalepi, Kurisoo, Orgmetsa, Seidla and pastorage. Parish records show the birth of the first known Krikental ancestor, Kulli Hinrik in 1784. Since serfs were not allowed to have surnames Hinrik was known also by the assumed name Kulli which maybe was the name of a farm.

Kulli Hinrik was born into a family of serfs. Throughout his life the German estate landlords, who were his owners and masters, interpreted and enforced the law. They could treat serfs like slaves and floggings were common. Children of serfs could be taken from their parents and sold. Landholders who got into financial trouble were even known to sell wives and husbands separately to neighbor estates.

When Hinrik was 16, the Czar ruled that although serfs were the property of the estate, families must be sold as a unit.

When Hinrik was 28 he married Kai, who was born in 1790 in the Albu estate district. Kai and Hinrik stayed in Ageri just south east of Albu and raised two daughters, Mai and Kai, and a son Mihkel. In 1835 their daughter, Mai, married a soldier named Jaan, the son of blacksmith Seppa Hallika Jagob. Kulli Mihkel, Gustav Krikental’s father, was born in 1819.

Between 1816 and 1819 the serfs were formally emancipated, so Kulli Mihkel was technically born a freeman. Freedom brought few changes to daily life since the Czars continued to pass laws that, alternatively expanded, then restricted individual rights. Also each estate owner still interpreted the law―usually for the benefit of the estate. Former serfs could not own land and often remained bound to an estate by obligations owed to the land owners. Gradually peasants got the rights to change their rural dwelling place, sell their labor to any estate, and take a surname.

As freemen, Mihkel and his father Hinrik may have left the Kulli farm for other work―parish records list Henrik's occupation as watchman, which at that time was a prestigious occupation. Maybe because of unpleasant memories of the Kulli farm or maybe just because they could, the name Kulli was dropped in favor of a new surname recorded with the Ageri estate as Grekenthal, Grekental, and Krekental. If the name Grekenthal originated from German it can be translated as “the people from the green valley”. If the name Krekental originated from Estonian it might have been “Germanized” to Grekenthal. Many Estonians wanted to take uncommon, even unique names. The name Krekental is unique and may have been created from whole cloth since all Krekentals are Mihkel’s descendants. For the next 50 years the form Grekenthal was used for legal and civil records. The family probably used the Estonian form, Krekental, in everyday life.

In 1842 Mihkel married Mina Kirspu in Ageri―the same year Mihkel's mother, Kai, died at age 52. Judge Herr Gustav Ferdinand Hermann von Baggehuffwundt, the owner of the Ageri estate, witnessed Mihkel and Mina's November wedding. This was the only peasant wedding where his attendance was recorded. His one-time-only presence let’s us speculate that Mihkel’s father may have been a watchman assigned to the Manor house campus where he was personally known.

Mina's family surname was registered with the Ageri estate as both Kirschbaum and Kirsbaum. Only Mina’s brother, Jacob used the German version, Kirschbaum. Mina and the rest of the family used the Estonian version, Kirsipuu. The Kirschbaum and Palkmann families were registered with both the Albu and Ageri estates. Included among the hundreds of peasants registered with the Albu Estate were the Erdmann, Kotkas, Kleesmann, Otraw, Salman, Palkmann, Pedow, Reinson, Salman, Sepp, and Valkman families.

Six years after his own wedding, Mihkel Grekenthal witnessed Mina’s sister Anno’s marriage to Jaan Pilwe. In the years following both weddings, the Järvamaa county peasants grew bolder, wiser, and more rebellious. When the peasants exercised their rights as freemen, landowners would sometimes call in the soldiers to keep the peasants "in their place."

The Grekenthals and their neighbors resented their treatment by the estate owners and yearned for a better life for their families. In the years between 1856 and 1863 Czar Alexander II granted Estonian serfs more rights to education, ownership of land, and the freedom to move within and outside the country. In 1861 he freed all Russian serfs.

These rights helped embolden to action the Järvamaa county peasants. They learned that the Czar would give them their own farms in Crimea. The Tartars were exiled to Turkey following the recently concluded Crimean War. Now Tartar farms were vacant and the Russian government needed settlers to come to Crimea and work the land. The Czar promised free land, free seed, and freedom from the military draft. This was welcome news for Mihkel and Mina since the family now had just one daughter, Mai, and five sons: Jakob, Gottlieb, Mihkel, Jaan, and Jurri.

Many of the Järvamaa county peasant families were related through blood and marriage so plans for immigration to Crimea spread easily through the community. When the estate owners learned of the plans they grew fearful of losing their low cost work force and tried to block immigration efforts. Albu Manor overseers called in the soldiers to battle with the peasants in what is still remembered as a blood bath.

Mihkel Grekenthal was among a bold group of Järvamaa county peasants who signed and sent a letter to the Czar to complain that their landlords would not provide the release papers that would allow them to immigrate to Crimea.

A dream of starting life over in a new land, completely free from the whims of estate owners grew among those who had endured oppression and whippings at the Albu and Ageri estates. Long delays in obtaining passports were the rule. Eventually, three Kotkas families, the Palkmans, the Grekenthal family, and Mina Grekenthal’s sister Anno and her husband Jaan Pilwe (all registered with the Ageri Estate), were among those obtaining passports.

Gradually most families who applied were granted passports and the freedom to attempt the back-breaking 1,600 mile journey south to the “warm” new land of Crimea.

Notes regarding names

Spelling of family names has generally been taken from source materials. Many surnames went through many changes between their original selection in Estonia and their use in Crimea, Canada, and the USA.

The Krikental family name was recorded as “Grekenthal” on Crimean immigration, birth and death records. The name had changed to “Krikenthal” on papers supporting immigration to Canada and later the USA.

In American homestead, legal, and death records the name was recorded as Kirkendahl, Krikendahl, Krikendal, Krickendahl, and, Krickentol.

Interestingly, about 1905 both Gustav and his cousins that remained in Crimea all seemed to favor the spelling “Krikental”.

For this article, the family name is spelled as it was historically: Grekenthal for Estonian and Crimean family history and Krikental for American family history.

Also from the Kulli farm (or place), Kulli Jagob's children took the surname Orraw (Orav). Kulli Jürri, vabadik got the surname Waht (Vaht). And Kulli Otto registered the surname Kesker.

Thanks to Helgi Leesment, and Dave Kiil for research, fact checking, and editing