The last thing I wrote about our trip to Poland was regarding the Nickelstein. We left Szynych by 11:15am and by 1:33pm I was compelled to start taking pictures of our drive again. It was just so lovely. I really want to return and drive to more cemeteries and villages.
We were looking for Stogi, which is where the Heubuden cemetery is said to be.
Shortly after passing the sign that said “Stogi”, Google Maps did us wrong. Combined with the power of my imagination, and the fact that many cemeteries we visit in Southern Manitoba are in fact in the middle of fields… we obeyed Google and followed this sketchy route:
The idea that this would lead to a fantastical cemetery, just like sometimes in Manitoba, kept us keeping on. Also, turning around was not an option.
But moving forward was becoming difficult and maybe dangerous. I got out of the vehicle and walked in front, to show Andrew where the wheel tracks were. And this was how I walked to the end of the path, which did not lead to a cemetery. Rather, just another field. And no place to turn around. Hmmm. Andrew was going to have to reverse all the way back to the actual road. After taking the above picture to document our hilarious circumstances, I trotted to the back of the vehicle and walked resolutely in the middle of the wheel tracks, and Andrew used me as a guide with the backup camera, and thus he successfully reversed all the out. But first I took this picture of all the beautiful wildflowers (and poppies!) we were trampling:
After that awkward setback, we find the very obvious and well-marked Heubuden cemetery at 1:52pm:
The sign pointed to this path, which I was eager to explore:
There was a curve at the end of the path, leading to the cemetery gate in this fence:
And there before me was the cemetery of Heubuden!
See that big stone (above) with a little sign on it? It says: “Cemetery of the Mennonite congregation of Heubuden. These Mennonites from The Netherlands lived in the Vistula Delta from ca. 1540 until 1945.”
The paper we were following told us that Mennonites arrived in Stogi Malborskie specifically, in the 1560s. So, this village already existed when Mennonites arrived. But by an 1820 census, out of 301 residents, 202 were Mennonites. By the 1750s, they had their own church here, and it was expanded in 1874. “It was one of the first Mennonite places of worship to be furnished with an organ,” says our paper. I’m not sure when the church was removed/destroyed, but the cemetery still stands. There are 260 tombstone “borders” here, and 78 tombstones.
This is a very beautiful cemetery to explore.
We found many familiar last names here: Reimer, Penner, Dyck, Neufeld, Wieler… and these are just the pictures that turned out! There were many more.
There were also some interesting details on some of the grave markers.
A note on Neufeld: my mother’s maiden name was Neufeld. There is no concrete trail that I could follow to determine where in Poland/Prussia my Neufeld ancestors had lived. The records are sketchy this far back for this line, in Grandma Online. However, my great-great-great-grandfather Paul Neufeld (whose son’s grave I visited in Lost River) does have a note on his GMOL profile that mentions someone somewhere suggested he was born in the city of Marienburg… aka: Malbork, which is near Stogi/Heubuden. Apparently Marienburg and Heubuden Mennonite congregations shared a church. So, someone somewhere had an impression that his family had something to do with this region. This is about the best I can do, when it comes to tracing my Neufeld side in Poland — just find Neufeld headstones in Mennonite cemeteries and think “possibly frindschoft?”
(On this trip I saw a lot of Neufeld headstones.)
I saw a lot of these stones that look like oak stumps with the branches cut off:
I wandered to the very back of the cemetery, where I encountered this row of stones facing a field of wheat:
See that little white sign in front of the row of headstones? It says: “These nine headstones are from the former Mennonite cemetery of Great and Small Lesewitz, situated 8 km north-east from Heubuden.”
This is a beautifully maintained cemetery, and it is so well-treed that it is lovely to visit. I think all Mennonite tours to Poland must stop here, as it is very easy to access and well worth it. (Even if my imagination told me Google was correct to guide our vehicle through a wheat field to get here!)
Other posts about Poland:
I Visited My 6x Great Grandmother’s Grave in Schoensee, Poland