Mosolf Family

What follows was written by William Joseph Mosolf in 1979. I have ancestors of the Mulsoff family from the same region as he did so we shared research findings. As the following attests, Mosolf is more closely associated with German roots than Polish roots.
The Family Name of Mosolf Since the 14th Century
by William Joseph Mosolf - 1979

The first documented evidence of the name Mosolf was at Spandau in Brandenburg on 13 August 1320, the Duke Rudolf of Sachsen, authorized the town of Spandau the right to set their borders and to make their own laws and regulations. Two of the witnesses to this document were the brothers Henike ad Conradus Mosolff. It is now known where they originated from. The next documented evidence was 10 May 1323, then Duke Rudolf of Sachsen gave the towns of Berlin and Kolln all rights over the Jews, this was done so that either town could make their own regulations for governing the Jews. Witness to this document was Hinricus Mosolf (noster famulus). Hinricus Mosolf was in the service of the Duke as a Page. Next, on 29 September 1338, Prior Gerwin of Bernau made a give of Real Estate to the Church in the Town of Arneburg and the witness to the document of this transaction was Hinrico de Mosolf (famulus), perhaps he was the Knight Hinze Mozolf who was mentioned late in a document of 6 June 1354. Markischen-Zeitung (a Berlin newspaper) printed an article on 6 September 1938 that was titled "Where the Knight Mosolf resided at", this article was written by Arno Hoch and it was taken from The History of Alt-Glienicke, in his article, Arno Hoch stated that the Knight Hinze Mosolf's name is signed and attested to in the Land Book of Alt-Glienicke, then a suburb or Berlin and which is now part of that great city. Other documents attest to the fact that the name Mosolf, Musolf or Musslow was a prominent one in this area of Brandenburg until about the year of 1500.

For over thirty years, from 1436 to 1471, the Hussites had laid siege to a large area in Tuchler Prefect south of Konitz, West Prussia [Chojnice, Poland] and the whole area was completely destroyed also it was depopulated. This area was opened for colonization and one of the residents of Konitz at that time was Jacob of Osnabrook, who was a very wealthy merchant and councilman and he became sponsor of new settlers for this area from Brandenburg. These settlers were allowed to set up eight or nine German villages and they were also given the right to govern them and make their own laws. The colony was named the "Koschneiderei" and it was located near and included Slawencin, Poland. It was one of many German colonies transplanted into Poland to rebuild and revitalize the country. It is an old family tradition that 3 Musolf brothers were settlers in the Koschneiderei. Poland flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries.

In 1554, Paul Musolff was Mayor of Konitz (Chojnice, Poland) and by 1650 there were over 30 Musolfs in the Konitz Church Book. Most of the Musolfs were Catholic and most of them married Polish citizens and adopted Poland as their homeland. However, the Musolfs who were among the original colonizers or settlers and who were Free Farmers and Village Officials that held Coloni Liberi rights, privileges which previously were enjoyed only by members of the aristocracy and noblemen, used several ploys to preserve their privileges. The Coloni Liberi assured them that the titles to the positions of office held by them and the property rights that went with those positions were inheritable. Therefore when the first son was baptized, his father named him as successor to his Office and the Estate. Also there were intermarriages among family members and arranged marriages of convenience between the Village Officials of other Koschneiderei villages. Large families were the rule in those days, hence there were many offspring whose chances of inheriting position were slim so they married outside the German communities. For over a hundred years Musolff families lived on the tax free Village Mayors Farms.

[skipped a summary of Polish history]

My first research began by contacting as many of our namesakes as could be located in the U. S. and after a few years and hundreds of letters, it became apparent that very few know anything about their ancestors also many were not interested in finding out who they were or where they came from. Fortunately, I located one of the descendants of an original settler in the Koschneiderei and one of his ancestors had compiled a family history and an Ahnentafael of his line of Musolffs. Mr. Musolff gave me a copy of this in German. This gave me much informaton, mainly it pinpointed the area where most of the Musolfs in the U. S. originated from. An ad placed in a West German periodical "Der Westpreusse" and a letter to Pommersche Landsmannschaft requestig help in locating refugees, produced over 50 addresses of Musolfs and Mausolfs now living in West Germany and who had been relocated during World War II. I next obtained maps of the areas where all the refugees came from and it developed that all of the Musolfs and Mausolfs came from the same area of about 10 square miles. I wrote to all of the Musolf refugees and approximately one third of them responded with some information, but they could all be summed up in one letter I received from Helene Dettbarn. In it she stated: Through the wars and the flights of the Musolf families from their homelands in West Prussia, Posen and Grenzmark, many documents got lost and they have to be first replaced again. [not sure who's speaking now, Helene or Bill although I suspect it's Bill] I can tell you today that my ancestors also came from Posen and West Prussia (these two states are similar to the states in the U. S.), these two states were surrendered to Poland after the War of 1914-1918. The part that remained with Germany was later named Grenzmark. To this part after 1918 the families of Musolf, Mausolf and Musolff fled. A great many of them settled in Deutsch Krone [Wałcz, Poland] and Schneidemuhl [Piła, Poland]. After the last war in 1945, many of these families were forced to flee again to the West Zone. So one can say that the Mosolf Family line belongs to those German people who had to leave their homeland too often. I have knowledge from my father that around 1850, several of our relatives emigrated to America. The parents of my father were farmers. After their flight from Posen and West Prussia, this work was impossible for them and they had to start a new vocation and to find a new livelihood. The relatives in my line are Catholic and my father's name was Joseph Musolf. Nearly all of the other letters spoke of the hardships endured and quite a few of the older persons died in their flight. It was just too much for them. But in all cases they were just able to escape with their lives and lest all of their possessions behind. In 1975 I visited the L. D. S. Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. They have 2 booklets containing information about Musolf families who settled in the Koschneiderei about 1500 and the family informations goes up to about 1780. These books are "History of the Koschneiderei by J. Rink and "Families of the Koschneiderei" by Dr. Paul Panske. These books are also on microfilm at the same library. In 1945 some Catholic Church records were brought out of Poland and they are in an archive in West Berlin also the Mormon Church has microfilmed those records for their library which is available to everyone. I observed that the name Georg only appeared in a few of the families and they appeared in Granau (between Lichnowy and Powlowo Poland) and another family near Grudziadz, Poland This causes me to speculate that perhaps my grandfather Georg Mosolf belonged to one of those families. I have written letters to the archives in Poland at Bydgoszcz, Poznan, Chojnice and Torun without success, an answer was received but only for more money to make a search. It has to be assumed that many records were destroyed during the wars, but what records that survived and where they are located is hard to determine. My belief is that the vital records were kept by the Church and that nearly all have been preserved somewhere and whenever the political regime allows it, they will become available.

[paragraph on the DDR (East Germany)

Research in the U. S. has been quite successful in a few cases. We now know that there were two Mosolfs who were pioneer immigrants to this country, George Mosolf arrive about 1858 and a close relative William Mosolf came over and settled in Ny. Y. State in the 1870's.

My grandfather George Mosolf was also known as Georg Musolf, Georg Muosolf, Georg Mosoph and Georg Mossoff, this was not unusual in his generation for various reasons which generally were a lack of education and euphony, very little is known about his early years except that he came from Posen (a very large area in those days) and that he was born in 1837. Family tradition is that his parents raised horses for the Prussian Armies in Posen, his father died when grandfather was young and his mother remarried, then when he approached the age of the compulsory military service in his homeland, he decided to leave home and emigrate to America. When he was about twenty years old he sailed from Stettin to London and from there to the U. S., I believe that he probably landed at Montreal and perhaps entered New York at Niagara Falls or he may have entered the Great Lakes and came in at another port on one of the lakes. One of his obituaries stated that he came from Posen, learned the trade of a Brewer there, then came to the U. S. in the 60's and lived for several years in Wisconsin and Nebraska before going west in the early 1870's. Another obituary says that he was born in Prussia and left his homeland when he was twenty years old, then came to the U. S. where he spent the first 17 years in western New York State and in Wisconsin before going to California where he remained for two years before going to the State of Washington. We have no documented or reliable evidence about him in his early years here until on 17 April 1872. It is very likely that George Mosolf purposely kept a low profile during his first 17 years in this country because when he arrived here in 1858, the Civil War was brewing and it was only a few years before he found himself facing the same problem that he had left his homeland to escape, that was serving in the military forces. In 1872 George Musolf appeared as a coal miner at Somersville near Antioch, California and he paid his $2.00 poll tax there on 17 April 1872. In 1875 he met and married Theresa Brich in San Francisco, Theresa was a Bohemian from Weseritz, Upper Austria near Pilsen and not far from Prague, where it is said she came from. In 1875 they paid $50.00 tax on a cabin at Somersville, In 1876 his first son John was baptized at the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Antioch. In 1877 he paid taxed on his cabin again and his second son George Musolf was baptized at the same church, then in 1878 he paid his taxes again at Somersville and in 1879 the Mosolf Family moved to Washington State and obtained a 160 acre Homestead that was located about 8 miles south of Puyallup. The homestead had no access to it by road, only a trail and the whole area was heavily wooded including the homestead and there was some swamp land on it that made it a desirable place to raise hops. Their first job was to build a small cabin for shelter and then a stockade for protection against animals and to keep the children from wandering into the woods while they were either busy clearing land or back packing in the necessary supplies from Puyallup. There were only two other white men in their area when they first settled there, but there were many friendly Indians who kept the from going hungry many times during their first few winters there. The Indians hunted animals for their furs and food and when there was more meat than they needed for their own use they would leave it and show their white neighbors where it was at. George and Theresa had eight children before too long and also a very successful Hop Ranch before grandfather died in 1906, they had moved into Puyallup just a few years before he died and grandmother Mosolf remained in their home there until she died in 1937.

[skipped paragraph on discrimination of immigrants in the 1800's]

Several Musolfs came to the U. S. in the early 1870's. William Mosolf probably was the first of them to come, probably coming here by way of Montreal because he first settled in the Canadian Province of Ontario at Port Colborne near Sugar Loaf Hill. This is a very fertile area and it is presumed he farmed there. William Mosolf was born about 1845 and was married to Elizabeth Klingbile. Seven children survived this marriage. Two of them remained in Canada and the five sones settled in the U. S. in New York, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Idaho. Between 1880 and 1883, William Mosolf moved from Ontario, Canada and homesteaded a farm in North Dakota. There he raised his family and when the children were grown and married, he sold the farm and went to Northern Idaho with his son Otto and bought a farm there. When he died in Idaho in 1911, he was brought back to the site of the old homestead in North Dakota for burial. His wife moved to North Dakota to be with her children and she died there in 1917.

[Bill had given me a photocopy of a document without citing a source that pertained to the William Mosolf family. I ultimately concluded that it was a page from a church membership book which listed family members, their birthplaces, and birthdates. The church was probably St. Paul Lutheran Church in St. Thomas, Pembina County, ND. While I can't rule out that William was a close relative to Bill's George as Bill implies, it seems unlikely because William was born further east in Inowroclaw, closer to Russian Poland. William was also Lutheran while George was Catholic. On 24 August 1882, William settled in North St. Thomas Township (Township 160, Range 53), and had 160 acres in the southeast quarter of section 7 (page 28 of this source). For some history and biography, see the St. Thomas centennial album. By 1893, his wife is listed as having an additional 160 acres in the northeast quarter of the same section. ]