Chronology of Teplitz, Bessarabia[1]
Prepared by Elaine Morrison, Elli Wise and Dale Wahl
1817/18 The village of Teplitz was founded in the valley of the Kogelnik, southwest of Odessa
Herbert Weiss in his 1931 book reflects: according to church records, Colony Number 12 was first settled in July of 1817 by immigrants from Württemberg. 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
98 families (487 individuals) from Württemberg, specifically from the following: Schorndorf 20, Reutlingen 25, Tübingen 19, Nagold 22 and Kirchen (Wohl Kirchheim) 12
Teplitz was 83 miles from the capital city Kishinev, 54 miles from the county seat Ackermann, 56 miles from Bendery and 60 miles from the border town Ismail, between the German colonies Fere Champenoise I (3 miles) and Brienne (4 1/2 miles)
Almost all of the villagers fell ill with fever and dysentery because they were not yet adapted to the local water and climate. Some days they buried 6-7 bodies. The fatalities increased so rapidly that within four months 110 souls of both genders had died
1822 Total crop failure
1823 Plague of field mice
Bad crops
1824 Bad crops
1826 Swarms of locusts [negligible losses]
1828/29/30 Village was exempted from paying the crown tax
1829 Abundant harvest
1830 Bad crops
1831 The cholera epidemic took 7 lives [elsewhere reported as 9 lives]
The first prayer house was built
1832 The Welfare Committee allotted a substantial piece of land on the north side of the river Kugelnik after the colony's urgent request. [This protected the colony from lack of water for the animals.]
Bad crops
1833 Total crop failure
1834 Total crop failure
1836 Abundant harvest
Swarms of locusts [negligible losses]
1837 Cattle “pest” inflicted loss of about half of the livestock
1838 Cattle “pest” inflicted loss of about half of the livestock
The Welfare Committee told each community that they needed to provide a granary for storage of their grain; the design was 60’ x 20’
1839 Total crop failure
1841 Plague of field mice
Bad crops
1843 Plague of field mice
1844 Abundant harvest
Cattle “pest” inflicted loss of about half of the livestock
Built a school house. Until then classes were held in homes
1845 Bad crops
1846 Built a stone warehouse [for grain storage]
1847 Swarms of locusts [negligible losses]
Jan 1848 733 bushels of winter and summer wheat stored in the warehouse
1849 Bad crops
1852 Village land possessed: (one dessiatine equals 2.6997 acres)
arable land 1,975 dessiatines
pasture land 1,796 dessiatines
hay land 1,695 dessiatines
wood land 300 dessiatines
1853 Bad crops
1855 The cholera epidemic took 8 lives [4 adults and 4 children] between
14 May and 20 June]
Bad crops
1856 Bad crops
6,107.6 total dessiatines of landed properties for Teplitz
1862 Bad crops
1863 Church finished, seating for more than 850 persons
1865 Bad crops
1866 The cholera epidemic took 34 lives [20 adults and 14 children of the 82 who had been stricken by the sickness]
1867 Bad crops
1869 Bad crops
1870 Storage space in granary was inadequate
Bad crops
1871 Good crops
School instruction must be in Russian
10th census referenced – with 572 males
6,194 total dessiatines of landed properties for Teplitz
1873 Bad crops
1875 Bad crops
1879 Bad crops
1880 Bad crops
1882 Bad crops
1884 Bad crops
1885 Good crops
1892 Bad crops
1893 Good crops
1896 Bad crops
1897 “New” cemetery dedicated (actually an addition to the original that had no room for more than about 3309 burials)
1898 Women’s Guild started
1899 Bad crops
1902 A food tax was imposed
1903 Good crops
1904 Bad crops
1905 Good crops
1906 Good crops
1908 Bad crops
1910 Good crops
1913 Good crops
1917 Teachers were state employees and classes were taught in Rumanian
1918 Bad crops
1926 Good crops
1928 Bad crops
1931 Rumanian officials changed the name to Teplitza, and the spelling remains the same today
1940 Population reaches 2,700
Resettlement to Germany via ship on Danube River
German tombstones taken from the cemetery, left as debris for 50 + years
1994 Former German residents arrange for tombstones to be reinstalled at the churchyard with help from local residents; current residents care for the cemetery
Also See
Village Data Sheet, 1848 History and Elaine Morrison’s Teplitz Handout
° Allmersbach, Erich Bauer. Das Graeberfeld auf dem Gelaende des alten Teplitzer Friedhofs.
Publisher unknown, 1998.
° Giesinger, Adam. from Catherine to Khrushchev – The Story of Russia’s Germans. American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1981.
° Kern, Albert. Homeland Book of the Bessarabian Germans. English translation published by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries, 1998.
° Weiss, Herbert. Colony Teplitz, July 1931. Germans from Russia Heritage Society, Bismarck, ND,
1981