Checking out some of Janice's ancestral territory in SE France

Dear Mother,

Going to seven places created a busy but interesting day.  This report will cover some of the first visits.  We began by driving to the Anabaptist cemetery in Mont Chevis, which is now a suburb of Montbéliard.  Janice was particularly interested in seeing tombstones for Grabers and Lugbills.  As with most French cemeteries, this one was enclosed by a modest stone wall which keeps cattle out and sets the space apart from the surrounding area and activities.  The informative plaque clearly identified the cemetery as being for Anabaptists, noting their Swiss origins, history and contributions.  Most of the Anabaptists in the area were refugees from Switzerland.  However, some Anabaptists from Holland also located in Montbéliard, so the two groups intermingled in this area.  Over time, 1,000 Anabaptists migrated from Montbéliard to five different continents, which must have changed the makeup of their small communities considerably.

The Swiss Anabaptist refugees which settled here were primarily farmers and breeders.  They are now credited with created an important new breed of cow known as "Montbéliardes" by cross-breeding their mountain cows from Switzerland with some of the local cattle.  These white and light brown cows can be seen on hillsides everywhere.  Other Anabaptists were millers and weavers.  Toward the end of the plaque we are told where the nearest Mennonite church is located and when it meets.  Montbéliard has one of the largest Mennonite churches in France.

I liked the rural setting for the cemetery, right in the midst of a pasture.  I was soon visited by a curious cow, unfortunately not a Montebéliarde.  The graves tend to be in the French style, outlining the casket as it lies in the ground, with a heavy stone slab on the top, recalling graves from antiquity and the middle ages in which the wealthy were laid in a solid stone hewn into a trough, over which a large heavy stone slab would be laid and sealed.

All of the graves postdated the migration of Janice's ancestors.  We don't know whether earlier Mennonites used wooden markers for their graves or possibly soft sandstone which then eroded until the texts could no longer be deciphered.  Local historians (like Aunt Rachel W. Kreider) frequently study remote cemeteries in order to record information before it disappears completely.

Janice did find one marker "To the memory of the spouses Veronique STOKI [sometimes now spelled Stuckey"] deceased the 24th of September 1888 at the age of 65 years" [and] "Pierre SCHINDLER deceased the 26th of December 1888 at the age of 74 years".  We had to wonder whether there was possibly a disease which swept through and took both spouses within months of each other.  The husband was his wife's senior by 9 years. 

There were lots of Sommers, which is still a prominent Mennonite name in the area.  Some of the Sommers have been greatly influential in reviving the spiritual thinking and life of the French Mennonites, and in providing crucial leadership today.  After walking around the general area and wishing we could buy some fresh milk, we drove to our next destination.  The sign reads "Fresh milk for sale Monday and Thursday from 5:30 to 6:30", which might be when the cows have just been milked.

We then drove (with the trusty GPS) to Bethoncourt.  All of the farmland near this village has obviously been developed in the past century, and building is continuing apace, slowly covering former fileds and pastures.  We did appreciate the village taking pains to preserve and restore the old spring in the village square.  The spring flowed into the first of a series of troughs and then poured into a drain.  My guess is that both people and animals could get water here appropriately.  We ate lunch at a new restaurant just beside the old spring.  It was run by a women who moved there from Paris.  I initially wondered by anyone would mover here, but after another day, I came to realize that the bustle, noise, pressure and pollution of the nation's largest city is something some people prefer to avoid.  In many ways, we prefer these villages.

First a shot of the local Lutheran church, the main denomination of the area.  The church was closed Sunday afternoon so we could just walk around outside.That's our brown Renault "Twingle" parked near the door.

There are cars parked in front of the old (renovated) village building where we had lunch.  You can see the dark low roof on the building to the right, where the old spring still bubbles forth.

By now, the spring area is lower than the street level, likely because the street has been built up over the centuries.  The stone walkway is damp from the spring.

By now, we are safely 'back home' at the Centre.  We had a pizza supper with Neal this evening, which was a great opportunity to get caught up on things.  All for now, with love from us both,
Evan