Tófü: The
First German Settlement
On the Eszterházy Domains
(From: Franken und Schwaben in Ungarn)
By Heinrich Kéri
Translated by:
Odis. A. Schlösser
The circumstances around
the settlement of the small village of Tófü in Baranya County by settlers from
Germany and the time when it took place will be examined here. We do not know
anything about a settlement contract but contracts from the years 1746 and 1764
are mentioned with the Urbarial Agreement of 1767. Both contracts, however, have
not come to light, but the latter is an extension of three additional years of the
contract for 1750, which is kept in the Hungarian State Archives and in the family
archives of the Eszterházys.
Tófü had earlier been established in the Middle Ages, but was depopulated during
the time of the Turks, or rather was only inhabited temporarily. It is mentioned
several times in the Turkish tax registries. During a restructuring of boundaries
old Serbian men claimed to remember that it was temporarily inhabited by Serbs
during the time of the Turkish occupation and the Hungarian Kurutzen Guerrilla War
against the Habsburgs. In 1692 it came into the possession of the Eszterházy
family as an uninhabited prairie, but still belonged to the Ozora Domain at that
time. At the beginning of the 18th century the property boundaries
were not always clarified too closely, and were often contested by all means
available up until the occupation by the Habsburgs. The prairies in particular
were often considered to be spoils of war. The neighbouring populated villages
around Tófü were the property of the Diocese of Pécs and partly the property of
the Rinczmaul family, (later the Petrovszkys), while Kozár was owned by the
Eszterházy family.
In the year, 1712 László Madárász, the Assistant Sheriff of the County who was
also the Chief Steward of the Eszterházy Domains in Dombovár, protested that the
Bishop of the Diocese, Franz Wilhelm Count von Nesselrod was attempting to
confiscate a major portion of the prairie of Tófü. These prairie lands were often
leased, even developed or used as pastureland without the permission of the
neighbouring municipality to such an extent that not even the one-ninth tithe was
paid to them.
Even though Nesselrod was the High Sheriff of the County, the County Assembly
supported their Vice Sheriff. In 1714 and 1715 the administrator of the Dombóvár
Domains, László Egry issued a warning to the surrounding municipalities because
they were misusing the prairies of Tofü, Kozár and Mekényes as pastureland, and
for fattening their swine on acorns and gathering wood from the attached
woodlands. He frequently issued written confirmations of these charges to
offenders at this time. We know that by 1717 Kozár was colonized by Serbs, while
Tófü to a large extent was simply at the mercy of incursions from the neighbouring
municipalities. In 1720 the Supreme Court Judge of Pavits acted on the charges of
Joseph Eszterházy against the subjects of the Rinczmaul family living in Maróc who
were Serbs and were making use of the pasturelands of Tófü without permission.
The complaint was acknowledged officially although one individual came out against
it: one Christopher Wagner, the Commissioner of the County Treasury.
Wagner was the cause of numerous worries for the administrators of the
Eszterházy’s Dombovár Domains. In 1718 one of the Eszterházy officials, Gergely
Berényi complained that Wagner disregarded the County’s decision and confiscated
grain from Domain without any authorization to do so. On January 23rd
there was a more serious incident that is treated in detail in a letter from Egry
including a receipt from the County.
A servant carried out the threshing of the tithe of the crop from the Domains’
prairie at Tófü, which was treaded out by horses according to local usage.
Christopher Wagner had the horses led away by his armed ruffians accompanied by a
further five men, in order to use them for threshing on his own estate and
property near Pécs. Egry sent armed men to Wagner, who, however, did not give the
horses back until after the conclusion of the threshing. The numerically superior
crew of Egry was able to foil a second attempt by Wagner at kidnapping the horses
a few days later.
In order to be on the safe side, Egry still had an investigation carried out, the
records of which can be found in the Ozora Archives, raising the issue of whether
the County Treasurer had any claim on the prairie of Tófü and since there was no
protest on his part, the legal position was clear! Tófü belonged to he
Eszterházys. Egry was also able to confirm this for the County through the
examination of witnesses that took place on April 8th and 9th
in 1723. The inhabitants of the surrounding villages who appeared as witnesses
all maintained that Tófü was governed by the stewards and administrators of the
Dombovár Domains since living memory. All in all, it was the constant worry about
the prairie of Tófü that became the impetus for Egry to proceed with its
settlement.
All of the Eszterházy villages were either populated by hereditary local subjects
or colonized by Hungarian peasants under the guidance of a representative of the
Domains. Kozár was an exception in this regard when it was granted to the Serbs
who established themselves there in 1717. The Eszterházy estates and properties
remained unaffected to a great extent with regard to the Great Swabian Migration
because it was looked upon as temporary and self-contained. Open prairies became
rare. Tófü was to be the first village in the Eszterházy Domains with purely
German settlers.
The village is situated on the border of Tolna and Baranya Counties, on the narrow
strip of land that was claimed by both Counties. Since the close of the 17th
century there had been ongoing unresolved quarrels over the matter. According to
J. Holub, this dispute was never formally concluded. The decision of Paul Anton
Eszterházy, can however, be considered as the official conclusion to the matter.
As a result the County of Baranya came into the possession of several villages and
open prairies, which it never possessed during its former history. The quarrels
always flared up when it came to the settlement of the prairies in 1717 over
Kozár, at the end of the 1720s with regard to Tófü, and after 1735 the matter of
Mekényes.
Since the first years of settlement were tax-free the two Counties did not enter
the names of the non-tax paying peasants in their tax conscriptions until 1728.
According to the transcripts of Tolna County, Tófü is assessed for 44 Gulden and
64 Denari during the tax year of 1728. There are only a few pages to the
transcript dealing with that, but Baranya declared that Tófü had to pay its taxes
to the County of Baranya. The County Assembly requested information from Gaspar
Nagy, the administrator of the Eszterházy Domains south of Lake Balaton,
specifically requesting documents with regard to the Urbarium Regulation in terms
of Tófü and the land grant documents the Eszterházys had to prove ownership in
order to be able to direct a reply to the County of Baranya. They must not have
complied with the request for there is no evidence of the existence of the
Urbarial Regulation and they must have rejected the need to provide the land grant
documents.
The response of the administrator of the Domains has been lost but the reply by
the authorities of the County of Baranya is well known. Tolna County was to
abstain from collecting taxes because the village was part of the territory of
Baranya County and incidentally was already incorporated into the land
conscription records of that County a matter to which Tolna County had to abide.
The Assistant Sheriff officially assured the village of six tax-free years at the
time of the beginning of the settlement and he also promised to provide aid and
assistance to avoid a possible tax collection by the County for which purpose a
commission was established with a number of jurors and judges.
The tax collection failed to materialize because of that threat. Nevertheless,
Tófü was taxed once again in the following year during the registration of taxes,
this time in the amount of 20 Gulden and 82 Denari. In response, Gaspar Nagy
reported that Tófü, Kozár, Mekényes and a few additional villages and open
prairies were affiliated with the Domains of Dombovár ever since April 2, 1729.
He provided records from the Domain’s conscription from the same year indicating
that Tófü (and also Kozár) were part of Tolna County according to the existing
statutes.
In order to put an end to the controversy, Nagy appealed to the representatives of
all of the Eszterházy estates and Count Erdödy with the proposal that Tófü be
conscripted annually by both Counties and even if Baranya County insisted that it
was one of their possessions it should abstain from collecting taxes for now in
order not to prolong the poverty of the villagers. Nagy’s opinion was that the
Royal Council ought to take the position to award Tófü to the County to which it
truly belonged according to the statutes, namely Tolna. But matters took another
course. Prince Paul Anton Eszterházy received notification from Tolna County that
Tófü and Kozár had been awarded to Baranya County. Tolna County agreed
reluctantly. An explanation and clarification was provided to avoid such
proceedings in the future as it affected Tófü.
In years past the steward of the Dombovár Domain, László Egry, requested certain
privileges for the newly populated emerging villages. He was not satisfied with
the three tax-free years that Tolna allowed the colonists when he discovered that
in nearby Baranya County, nobles granted the foreign new arrivals six tax-free
years. As a result he had the two villages (Tófü and Kozár) annexed and placed
under the jurisdiction of that County. In the following year, the Royal Hungarian
State Chancellery demanded further information on the matter of Tófü. The prince
is also said to have communicated the kinds of privileges that the village
possessed but there were no responses to these overtures made by the Eszterházys.
The County tax authorities still did not give up. In 1736 when the judge and his
acting representative along with another individual came to the village, they
found no one at home. The officials later remarked: “They were not at home and
the judge did not intend to find out their names on the grounds he did not have
that authority from the County.” With that reference Tófü vanishes from the
records and tax conscriptions of Tolna County.
It can therefore be assumed that the settlement took place under the guidance of
László Egry and he also made the agreements with the settlers in place of a
settlement contract. This must have been in the year 1723 since Egry died
sometime in the early summer of that year. The names of the settlers are first
listed in the land conscription of 1728, which was done simultaneously by both
Counties.
The Tolna register lists ten names and of these six are said to have already been
in Tófü in 1723, a further four would have come in the following years. The
Baranya register indicates a different year of arrival for the same six settlers
and puts it at 1725, and the further four are reported to have settled in the
conscription year of 1728. These inconsistencies cannot be explained but have
something to do with the interests of both the settlers and the Domain in terms of
stretching out the tax free years by giving a later arrival date.
We will deal with the early conscriptions recorded for the year 1729. According
to that conscription Johann Adam Pickelhaupt, Georg Bartel Rorbek, Adam Märcz,
Petrus Theobald, Johann Heinrich Krill, Laurenz Reichert, Martin Karl, Johann Adam
Kerber, Johann Leonhard Leen and Johann Leen arrived in the year 1724, Martin
Jung, Johann Georg Perner and Elias Wick in 1725 from Germany.
Conscription list were also drawn up by the administrators of the Domains,
frequently in the well-governed Eszterházy estates in dealing with the
establishment of new villages the settler’s place of origin was also often cited.
In this way they probably wanted to avoid taking on any subjects with a bad record
and it was also intended to prevent quarrels with other Domains who might have a
claim on them, especially when it dealt with Hungarian peasants who were not free
to migrate.
As a result, in the case of Tófü we have the names of the first fifteen settlers,
their place of origin and the name of their former noble master’s estate in the
records kept by Gaspar Nagy. In this way the basic development of the small
village can be determined precisely from its origin. Some of the unconventional
transcriptions and the orthography cause some difficulties in attempts at
identifying the settlers precisely. Some of the dates and data are not great
importance to us but we will follow the information to the letter realizing there
are other possible versions and possibilities.
Possessio Tofeö ex qua
Possessione ex quo Dominio
(Residing in
Tófü) (Former place of residence) (Former
Domain)
Petrus
Schmitt Penthaim
Hortenburg
Petrus Tewalt Nidrakren
Ezenburg
Hendricus Rauss Pinstott
Ezenburg
Georgius Portl* Penthaim
Hortenburg
Johannes Georgius Perner Pholtz
Hadlpergh
Johannes Mertz Pinstott
Ezenburg
Nicolaus Hartmann Hempoch
Ezenburg
Johannes Adamus Pikelambt Prompoch
Lebestain
Martinus Jungh Mathiass
Heszn
Johannes Henricus Krill Einstain
Hanat
Johannes Georgius Tilk Ramholtz
Teigefeld
Johannes Adamus Kerber Volttpulau
Ezenburg
Hartmann Mertz Pinstott
Ezenburg
Martinus Karll Naistott
Caesareus
Adamus Mertz Pinstott
Ezenburg
Johannes Leonhard Leen who was a miller and for whom there is no additional
information.
*Also identified as George Bartl Rohrbeck
Despite the orthographic inaccuracies the places of origin of the colonists can
be determined from the above details. The family researcher in Pécs, Georg
Mueller has identified Pinstott as Bönstadt in the nearby vicinity of
Frankfurt-an-Main and has been able to clarify the family connections of the
emigrants there. If we still include the details from the Hungarian tax
conscriptions, the development of the settlement of Tófü can be reconstructed to
some extent.
In 1724 Johann Adam Pickelhaupt and Johann Adam Kerber settled in Belac and were
still registered there in 1728 and as of 1729 we find them in Tófü. Adam März,
Laurenz Raighert (Reichert) and probably also Johann Heinrich Krill arrived in the
country in 1722 at the latest. Reichert was first in Cikó; the three are then
located in Nagymányok in 1722. In 1724 (perhaps even in 1723) they moved into the
desolate village of Tófü. Johann Heinrich Krill was still living in the village
in 1731 but turns up again in Gyönk in 1733. The two brothers of Adam März,
Johann and Hartmann, as well as Heinrich Rausch arrive from Bönstadt in 1728. In
1731 two further settlers from Bönstadt settled in the village, Johann Georg Falk
and Johann Georg Meisinger who are related to one another by marriage; the latter
of them moves into the house of Krill who had moved to Gyönk. In the 1730s Johann
März left the village for a few years, and is once again present in the 1740s and
then dies in his 63rd year of his life in 1749 but his wife survives
him. After 1732 even Adam März vanishes from the conscriptions, people later
mentioned his wife who was left behind but according to an entry in the Church
Records in Bikal he is then buried in his 64th year of his life in 1755
but in Tófü.
The four settlers from Bönstadt, Hartmann März, Falk, Meisinger and Rausch form
part of the reliable work force in the village and are cited in all of the
conscriptions until 1748. One ongoing member of the community was Johann Georg
Tilk from Ramholz, an honest and just man, who served as the emergency Lutheran
teacher in the village whose homestead the family researcher George Mueller
visited and also clarified his family relations. About the local miller, named
Leen and his son we know that they, like Adam Pickelhaupt came from Brombach as
early as 1724 but like most of the millers, they did not have a permanent address
and leased various mills after 1731. There were other families that came and then
moved on until 1748 when the source of settlers dried up temporarily. So during
the first twenty-five years there were constant changes in the number and mix of
families living in the village. Twenty years later during the Urbarial Regulation
we have a stable community with few new arrivals or departures except due to
marriage up until the violent expulsion of 1948 that decimated the entire local
population.
Supplemental
A letter from the General Assembly of the County of Baranya dated April 6th
1729 is filed in the County Archives in Szekszárd in which the County protests
against the fact that Tolna County included the village of Tófü in their tax
conscription. As an outcome we find a second letter written in Hungarian that the
acting High Sheriff and the most senior tax collector of the County of Baranya,
Daniel Horváth wrote on the same day to the honourable judge and jurors in Tófü
with the salutation, “God bless you, judge and jurors of Tófü.” In what follows
the villagers are strictly ordered not to pay taxes to Tolna County whatsoever, to
give no allegiance nor recognize the jurisdiction of Tolna, to resist the tax
collectors, to afford them no accommodations. Only when their free years would
run out would begin paying taxes to the County of Baranya.
How did this letter get to Szekszárd? Since the colonists did not understand
Hungarian one will have to assume they needed someone to explain its contents to
them. During a later tax conscription and collection that was undertaken by Tolna
County, the tax collectors were avoided by the local population who upon their
arrival in the village ran off and hid in the neighbouring forests with their
families, cattle, oxen and horses. In the end this and other failed attempts at
collecting taxes led to an abandonment of further tax conscriptions from Tolna
County in 1736.
