A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FRICK FAMILY
OF HUCK, VOLGA REGION
by Adam Kindsvater
Schlehenweg 11
33609 Bielefeld
Germany
(Translated
from German by R.G. Reider, March 1992, with annotations added in brackets, [];
additional annotations in brackets made in July 1992, noted by a plus sign, +;
additional annotations in brackets made in January 1993, noted by a pound sign,
#; and in April 1997, indicated by a dollar sign, $).
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Before I
begin the history, I will relate some information about several persons of an
earlier time who contributed to the founding of Huck on the Volga in 1767.
There were
three Frick brothers who left Germany in 1766. Two of these Fricks were
married, while the third became engaged on the trip to a girl who was the only
child of rich parents. This third brother went with his in-laws-to-be to
Zaporozhye in the Ukraine. The other two brothers went to the Volga. Also here,
things did not go according to plans. So one went to Huck and the other to
Hussenbach.
I will begin
the history with the one who went to Huck. But I really cannot begin with the
first Frick settler because I do not know his first name [# this person is now
known to be a Conrad Frick who came from the area of Budingen, Germany, near
Frankfurt in Hesse]. But I will come back to him later.
Meanwhile, I
will begin with a nameless Frick who had three sons [# this person, now known
to be Lawrence Frick, may have had seven sons]. One of these sons was Oswald
Frick. Which one he was of these three is not known. Oswald Frick (1823-1909)
and his wife Elizabeth (Michel) Frick (1835-1921) are my mother's grandparents.
When one
considers the birth date of Oswald Frick, one can determine that his father,
the nameless Frick [# actually Lawrence Frick], was probably born between 1790
and 1800. When one considers the time of the founding of the settlements on the
Volga in 1767, and that 33 years passed between the date of the founding and
the year 1800, then it is that Oswald Frick's father was the son of the first
Frick who settled in Huck. Clearly, the chronology includes six generations up
to me [$ now known to be seven generations]. My children and grandchildren are
the seventh and eighth ($ actually eighth and ninth].
In the
following I will describe the family of Oswald and Elizabeth Frick: The couple
had five sons [and two daughters]. The oldest son was my mother's father, Jacob
Frick (1869-1932). His wife was Elizabeth (Weber) Frick (1871-1960).
Another of
Oswald's sons was in the Japanese War (1904-05],
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5
but he returned to Huck in 1905, sold his
inheritance, and went to America. [Adam now knows that this person was Conrad
Frick.]
Another son [Johannes Frick] also sold his
inheritance and went to Saratov where he became a businessman and founded a
large department store. For obvious reasons, he was nicknamed the bearded
Frick.
With his sons, Oswald Frick built a steam mill [for
grain milling] in 1897 which was remodeled in 1910, and the second floor was
enlarged. Later, a house was built for each of the three sons who remained in
Huck [Jacob, Johann-Georg, and Philipp]. These I can remember seeing as a
child. [The Frick brothers also had wind-mill-driven grain mills.]
In 1930, the three Frick families with house numbers
628, 629, and 630 were dispossessed by the Communists and driven out of Huck as
kulaks*, and even the steam mill was seized by the government. I also
know first-hand that in 1933 only two houses still stood in the town. The steam
mill and the three Frick houses had fallen into disrepair and were put to other
uses.
Now I will give the children of Jacob Frick:
1) Eva-Katarina (Evkat) Kindsvater, b. Frick,
18911973.
2) Anna-Margarethe (Amkried) Hempel, b. Frick,
1894-1985, death approximate.
3) Elizabeth (Lisbeth) Kreik, b. Frick, 1897-1982.
4) Katharina-Elizabeth (Katrilis) Magel, b. Frick,
1900-1984.
5) Johann-Georg
Frick (Hanjech), 1902-1990
6) Johannes Frick,
1904-1991
7) Jacob Frick, 1906-1980, death approximate.
8) Samuel Frick, 1908-1970, death approximate.
9) Katharina (Katje) Schleich, b. Frick, 1911-1933,
death approximate.
10) Maria Fritzler, b. Frick, 1913-(still living) [$
died in 1994]
11) Philipp Frick, 1915-1970.
Next I will give the fate of each of the 11 children
as I have learned it first-hand and through the help of others. Four of the 11
children were able to remain in Huck until they were forced out in 1941. All
others, even the elders, were deported [to other areas of the Soviet Union] or
they escaped.
First I will give the fate of the elder Fricks
[Jacob and Elizabeth], the wealthiest couple in Huck on the Volga.
--------------------
* (Webster's Third International Dictionary defines
a kulak as "a farmer characterized by Communists as having
excessive wealth, usually by possession of more than a minimal amount of
property and ability to hire laborers or sometimes by unwillingness to join a
collective farm and as a result denounced as an oppressor of less fortunate
farmers and subjected to severe penalties (as heavy fines and confiscation of
property) <a large proportion of the kulaks of the twenties were liquidated
-- L.K. Soth>"]
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Jacob Frick and his wife, who lived well, were
dispossessed and were forced to leave Huck in 1932. [+ A letter from Jacob
Frick to his brother Conrad Frick in the U.S., written in 1932, indicates that
Jacob was evicted from his house on October 1, 1929 and finally deported from
Huck in December 1930.] In the same year, as a result of the loss of his
property and all other adversities, he at last died at the Lukowoi Railway
Station in Kasachistan, where he had been forced to go. His wife, our
grandmother, then wished to return to Huck and was able, through her son-in-law
(who had a high position), to do so. However, she was forced to leave Huck in
1941 and went to the area of Tjumen [in Siberia], where her son-in-law
[Fritzler, the one mentioned above] was put into a labor camp, soon followed by
her daughter [Maria]. The seventy-year-old woman, alone with two grandchildren,
three and five, survived without a roof over her head and without any help from
the authorities. She lived by scavenging and begging. I will return later to
the grief of this old woman.
The children:
1) EVA-KATHARINA (EVKAT) KINDSVATER, born
Frick, married
Adam
Kindsvater (b. 1899) of house 1 in Huck. They moved to
house
99 following the partitioning of the Frick estate in 1921
[following
the death of Oswald Frick's wife in 1921]. The couple
had
eight children:
1)
Philipp Kindsvater, 1915-1984.
2)
Maria Weisenburg, born Kindsvater, 1918-1980.
3)
Georg Kindsvater, 1920-1920.
4)
Adam Kindsvater [the author], 1921
5)
Jacob Kindsvater, 1923
6)
Emilie Dechand, born Kindsvater, 1925
7)
Alexander Kindsvater, 1928
8)
Nameless child, 1930-1930.
I have written about the life of my mother and
father in my diary. It was a bitter life -- to pull six children through the
horrible years of 1928 to 1935. These years I knew well from experience and
have written about them in detail in my diary. I wish such a life on no human
being.
2) ANNA MARGARETHE (AMKRIT) HEMPEL, born Frick,
married Philipp Hempel (b. 1892) of house 140 in Huck. The couple remained
childless. The family was driven from Huck as kulaks. In 1937-38, Philipp
Hempel was arrested. To this day no one knows where his bones lie.
His wife then lost her mind and had to be taken to a
mental hospital where she died and where my father was also cared for until he
died. In 1946, the hospital also cared for brother Johannes.
3) ELIZABETH KREIK, born Frick, married Philipp
Kreik (b.1895) of house 156. The couple had three children, all of whom are
living:
1) Philipp Kreik, 1922
2) Emilie Kreik (her maiden name),
1924
3) Woldemar Kreik, 1926
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The couple had an unhappy marriage because the
husband was unfaithful to his wife. After the war broke out he was never seen
again. He married a Russian, but their marriage was also not a happy one. This
was the state of affairs until Elizabeth died in her eighties.
I must quote here something my Mama said: "If
my sister Lisbeth had forgiven her husband, then he would have come back to his
family."
4) KATHARINA-ELIZABETH (KATRILIS) MAGEL, born Frick,
married Heinrich Magel (b. 1902) of house 40. His real father was not from Huck
but from Balzer. His widowed mother married Jacob Sittner in Huck and they
lived with the Magels.
The Magels had three children. I cannot remember
their birthdates exactly. All children are still living:
1) Frieda Schleich, born Magel, 1929
2) Alexander Magel, 1931
3) Alwiene Tschekuschkin, born Magel, 1933
The Magels were forced to leave Huck as kulaks in
1930 and went to Kirghisia, Dshangi-Pachta, where they are all living, except
Katharina-Elizabeth who died a few years ago. I know a little of what happened
to them. During the war, they were moved for some time to Frunze, but they
later returned to Dshangi-Pachta [# information from Heinrich Magel indicates
that they always lived in Frunze; $ but they immigrated to Germany in 1995].
They have lived there since 1930.
5) JOHANN-GEORG FRICK. I am able to relate more
about him. He is my favorite uncle. I learned the most from him regarding the
Frick history. During the last year that he lived, I questioned him without end
about the past and the evil that befell the Fricks so that I would know
everything. He was able to answer nearly all questions. For this I am thankful
to him even after his death.
The two of us were very close. When I was a young
boy, I would often go with my parents to the grandparent's home by the steam
mill. There I was able to see everything, the mill, the house, and their farm.
Best of all was when I would go into the engine room of the steam mill and
Uncle Hanjech (Johann-Georg] would start the motor. To me, he had a very high
position - that he, with his machine, could set the whole mill in motion.
Georg Frick married Anna-Margarethe Hempel. I cannot
remember what house she lived in. My mother said that they were childless for
10 years. Then a little girl was born who was their only child.
When the kulaks were driven from Huck in 1930, Uncle
Hanjech fled to Saratov where he remained for some time and found work in a
stone quarry. Afraid that he would soon be arrested, he fled again. How long he
was on the move is not known. In hiding, he made his way to Moscow where he
found work as a foreman in the contruction of three large railway stations.
Luckily, his father had taught him some Russian that enabled him to blend in
with the general populace.
I do not know in which year work permits were
required,
Page 8
which he did not have. Without one, he had to return
to Huck, but he was very fearful of being identified as a kulak. He would come into town during the night. He would hide out near us each
day. I remember this very clearly.
Then Uncle Fritzler, a militiaman [policeman?],
obtained a work permit for him which enabled Uncle Hanjech to return to Moscow
without fear of being arrested. They lived in Ramenskoje until 1941, at which time all Germans were moved out of Moscow [in response to Hitler's
invasion of Russia]. He was offered work as a construction foreman on the
Akmolinsk-Kartali railroad, but when he declined, he and his family, along with
other Germans, were sent to Kisil-Orda in Siberia. He, as with others, was then
sent to a labor camp at Gorkino, Chelyabinsk. There he and his family remained
after the war. Later he found his mother in Chelyabinsk, whose miserable
condition I have described elsewhere in this history.
I will end the story of Georg Frick at this point,
noting that there is truly much more that could be said. But much will never be
known if he did not tell it to his family. After a difficult life, Uncle
Hanjech died in 1989 [earlier Adam says 1990] in Gorkino and is buried next to
his daughter and her husband and three grandchildren.
6) JOHANNES FRICK. I know little about the life of
Johannes Frick. He was forced to leave Huck as a kulak in 1930 and was sent to
Mai-Kuduk near Karaganda [Kasachistan]. There he, his wife, and children
settled on the open steppe where they should have encountered little grief. I
do not know whether he or his wife were sent to a labor camp during the war.
They lived near an exile [deportation] center where others were sent. Indeed,
all of Karaganda was one of these.
Johannes lived in Karaganda until 1990. His son
moved to Germany in 1977. In 1990, the son brought both of his sisters, and at
last, his father to Germany. Johannes died at his son's place in Germany in
1991.
7) JACOB FRICK. I have more to say about Jacob Frick
but there is still much that I do not know. He was forced to leave Huck and was
sent, along with his wife and son, to Lukowoi, Kasachistan. Because he could
read and write Russian, he was made to work in a warehouse. One day, he could
not account for the disappearance of 10 sacks of corn. So he was sent to prison
for six years. In prison, he also was a warehouse worker. After serving his six years, he was released and he joined his family
which had moved to Georgijewck in the Caucasus. There, he again worked in a
warehouse. Soon, he was arrested again, the reason for which I do not know. He
was then sent to an exile [deportation] center in Karaganda. There he married
for the second time and fathered a second son, called Adam. Where this Adam is
today is not known. The son from the first wife is with his family and mother
in the Ukraine today. I have written this son letters, but I have never
received any replies.
8) SAMUEL FRICK. Samuel Frick went to a Russian
language school in Saratov. His teacher was a person named Tschastnikob.
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Samuel opened, and taught in, a German high school
in Engels on the Volga. How long he studied I do not know.
There came a time when all German students were sent
back to their parents as kulaks. So Samuel returned to Huck, but his parents
were already deported. He then went to the Caucasus where he became a teacher.
For some time he taught in a German institute in Saotschno, and also, I know,
in the Odessa Institute, where he had been sent before the war. At this time he
married a Russian girl who was also a teacher.
Samuel once came back to Huck with his wife with a
whole chest of books. These seemed to reach as high as the roof. I read all of
them. The books were left behind in Huck when we were deported in 1941.
By the time Samuel and his wife were moved out of
the Caucasus, he was a sick man. Where he got this sickness I do not know. It
could have been on the trip from Engels to the Caucasus.
The deportation of Samuel from the Caucasus to Siberia
was a difficult trip. They were taken to the Caspian Sea and were made to load
perch for a month at different places. Where they went from there is not
definitely known. I guess that they might have been taken to Krasnowodsk, and
possibly Tashkent, Alma-Ata, Balkash, and to Zelinograd. His final destination
is not known, but I do know that he finally ended up in a labor camp in
Chelyabinsk, followed later by his family. He worked there for many years until
his sickness took his life.
In closing, I must add a note about what Samuel's
Russian wife thought of her husband. Her sister and her parents told me this.
She said, "I have loved only my husband and have lost the father of my
children. My children had a good father and he will always be so."
9) KATHARINA SCHLEICH, born Frick. This aunt had
only a short life. She was married in Huck and, with her husband, was deported
as a kulak to Dshangi-Pachta, Kirghisia. Both she and her child died during
childbirth. Her husband then married Frieda Magel, the daughter of his
sister-in-law [Katharina-Elizabeth Magel]. This second wife then gave birth to
a daughter, but it was
not a good marriage. He was found dead one day. He was a drinker and must have
died from it. Frieda and her daughter still live in Dshangi-Pachta.
10) MARIA
FRITZLER, born Frick. I can tell you much about her life. When her parents were
dispossessed and driven from Huck, she remained behind and worked as a shepherd
at the steam mill which the government had turned into a sheep farm. At this
time, there was a militiaman (policeman?] by the name of Friederich Fritzler
who had business in Huck. He came from the town of Krim [$ Grimm] on the Volga.
Johann-Georg Frick [Uncle Hanjech] had known him in his younger years in Krim
and lived for some time with Fritzler. So, Maria and Friederich became
acquainted and soon they were married. They lived with us for some time in our
house, but later moved to the town of Kolb where he worked as a bookseller.
Then in 1941, all Germans in Kolb
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were shipped to Tjumen in Siberia. He was put into a
labor camp (Trudarmee) [Turkey Army] in two different places, in Ivdel and
later at Kemerovo where he worked in the slaughterhouse.
I return now to the seventy-year-old mother, my
grandmother. She survived with two grandchildren, six and four years old, among
foreign-speaking people, not knowing a word of Russian, without any money, and
without any support from the government or any other source. To her, it seemed
that this would be the end. All she had was the clothes she brought with her.
She had to beg and scavenge to survive.
In 1945, her daughter [Maria] was released from the
Trutarmee [Turkey Army or labor camp]. The old mother would have died from
starvation if her son Georg [Uncle Hanjech] had not found her. When he did, he
put her immediately to bed. She could no longer hold herself up. She said to
him, "Ach mein lieber Junge, I no longer have anything to put on my
head."
So this was the fate of the richest woman in Huck,
the very one whose 11 children were committed at the same time to forced labor
for the state, a most vile act perpetrated on the German people.
11) PHILIPP FRICK, the eleventh child of our
grandmother, was a year younger than my oldest brother and six years older than
me. When he was 14 years old [in 1929], he went to the town of Sprudel. When
the elders in Huck were dispossessed and sent to Siberia, he was found guilty
of some unknown thing and was sent to prison where he spent his early years. In
prison, he heard about another Frick who was there. He sought him out and
discovered that it was his brother Jacob. With them was another German by the
name of Schutz, who was about 10 years older, and who had been a. person of
high distinction when he was put into prison.
After Philipp was released from prison [before
1941], he returned to Huck and was taken in by our family. He found work in
Tischlerei. Then in 1941, he and the rest of us were sent to Kasachistan. A
little later, he, my brother, and I were put into the Trutarmee [Turkey Army].
We were together for a year and then I was sent to Tula [south of Moscow].
Later he was sent back to prison, the reason for which I do not know. Here he
must have been forced to work very hard. He became sick and was released to
die, just like Uncle Samuel. After he was released, he sought out my mother,
who then nursed him back to health. Then he met his first love and they had a
child. They lived together and produced four more children who are all living
today in Dshangi-Pachta in Kirghisia.
Here I will end the history of the Frick family of
Huck on the Volga River. It contains a history of Grandfather Jacob Frick, his
children, and those who followed him. But it also contains some information
about other Fricks as well as the earliest settlers who went not only to Huck
but also to Hussenbach.
Page 11
This short history has been assembled from many
letters sent out of Russia.
Adam Kindsvater, February
12, 1991
-------------
Additional notes made by Richard G. Reider, April 1,
1997:
(1) Adam Kindsvater is my second cousin. His
maternal grandfather (Jacob Frick) was a brother of my maternal grandfather
(Conrad Frick).
(2) From more recent information acquired by Adam
and from information in the 1775/1798 censuses of Huck, the history written by
Adam in 1991 about the earliest Fricks in Huck has changed somewhat. Current
information is:
(a) The original Frick in Huck was Johann-Konrad
Frick (b. 1739), a miller by trade, who came from Wolferborn/Gelnhausen in
Hesse. He was the son of Konrad and Dorothy (Mueller) Frick. Johann-Konrad
Frick married Elizabeth-Katharina Loos (of Leisenwald) on March 5, 1766 in
Budingen, although the 1775 census of Huck gives his wife as Anna-Katarina.
Only one brother of Johann-Konrad (a Johannes, b. 1738) is listed in records
obtained by Adam in Germany, along with four sisters born between 1736 and
1746. Therefore, it does not seem true that there were three Frick brothers who
went to Russia.
(b) The probable lineage from Johann-Konrad Frick to
me and Adam is: (i) Johann-Konrad Frick; (ii) son Johannes Frick, b. ca. 1767;
(iii) grandson Lorenz (Lawrence) Frick, b. ca. 1797; (iv) g-grandson Oswald
Frick, b. 1823; (v) g-g-grandsons Jacob Frick, b. 1869 (Adam's grandfather),
and Conrad Frick, b. 1871 (my grandfather); (vi) Adam's mother (Eva-Katarina
Frick Kindsvater, b. 1891) and my mother (Natalie Frick Reider, b. 1913); and
(vii) Adam (b. 1921) and me (b. 1941) -- a sum of seven generations.
(c) The 1798 census of Hussenbach does not indicate
any Fricks in residence, shedding doubt that any Fricks settled there. However,
Fricks are known to have settled in the village of Frank, but I have not
researched this aspect.
(d) The assertion I made in an annotation in 1993
that Lorenz Frick had seven sons came from inferences I made from information
compiled by Melva Jean Shults of Thornton, Colorado. This information stated
that many Fricks (in Kansas, for example) claimed to be descended from a Lorenz
Frick of Huck. I now believe, as mentioned by Adam in his brief history, that Lorenz
Page 12
had
only three sons: Oswald, Conrad, and Phillip. I believe that they were the sons
of Lorenz, grandson of Johann-Konrad. Other Fricks tracing their lineage to a
Lorenz Frick (but not through Oswald, Conrad, or Phillip) probably stem from Lorenz
Frick, son of Johann-Konrad. Melva Jean Shults can trace her Frick heritage to
g-grandson Conrad, and Adam and I to g-grandson Oswald.
(3) I have a
contract with the Russian-American Genealogical Archival Service to verify (or
change) the lineage that I have outlined in (b) above.
MR. AND MRS. ADAM KINDSVATER
OF BIELEFELD, GERMANY
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