TEPLITZ BESSARABIA
Material for this writing was taken from Colony Teplitz by Herbert Weiss, July 1931
According to church records, Colony Number 12 was first settled in July of 1817 by immigrants from Wuerttemberg. Reasons for leaving Wuerttemberg were political, religious and economic. At the end of 1818 the Russian government changed the name to Teplitz, apparently causing the church office in Arzis to designate 1818 as the founding year. The village of Teplitz was named for Teplitz, Bohemia (now Czechoslovakia), headquarters for the commander-in-chief of the forces against Napoleon during the Battle of Kulm. In 1931, Rumanian officials changed the name to Teplitza, and the spelling remains the same today.
The first settlers of Teplitz, 30 or 40 in number, left the village of Schwaikheim, Wuerttemberg in September, 1816, intending to go to Georgia in the Caucasus where they would be closer to the Holy Land to await the Thousand Year Kingdom. Because of the great number of people who also wanted to emigrate, they were assigned a place in one of fourteen groups that left at approximately one-week intervals. Illness broke out among the travelers, resulting in a 24-day quarantine in Ismail. Barely half of the emigrants survived the trip and/or the quarantine. A number of families gave up on the plan to go to Georgia; instead they settled on land provided by the Russian government in the valley of the Kogelnik, southwest of Odessa. Weiss believes that the total number of Teplitz immigrants was about 100 families of 487 individuals. Between 1817 and March of 1818, 117 persons died, completely wiping out 17 families. Their homesteads were taken over by later immigrants from Poland, Wuerttemberg, Cherson and other Bessarabian sites. Teplitz became well known for the manufacture of farm wagons.
Blum Buchfink Christner Dammel
Decker Deg Dobler Doster
Dreher Eckstein Eisele Eppler
Erfle Faehrle Faelchle Fauser
Fein Fritz Gaiser Gieck
Gruess Handel Harter Haeusler
Hauk Herrmann Kaemmerle Kehrer
Kimmerle Klein Knoell Kolb
Kraemer Kurtz Kussmaul Lieb
Lutz Meisenhoelder Mueller Nickelworth
Niefer Reinhardt Reiser Schaal
Schauble Schaeufele Schmauder Schmiedt
Schweizer Seybold Stahl Stiefel
Steiger Spring Treffinger Wagner
Walter Weber Weingaertner Weiss
VC Elaine Morrison 28 Dec 2000