HISTORICAL RESCUE OF ROMANIAN FAMILIES: MÜLLER

By JOHANES MÜLLER and KLARA WINTER MÜLLER

FROM BESSARABIA - ROMANIA TO BRAZIL

A STORY FULL OF EMOTIONS, JOYS AND DIFFICULTIES

This is the story of my paternal grandparents.
Johanes Muller was born in the community (Dorf) Krasna, Bessarabia, Romania, on August 31, 1895. His parents were Josef J. Muller and Amalia Hein.
Klara Winter Muller was likewise born in Krasna Bessarabia, Romania, on November 20, 1898. Her parents were Philipp Winter and Emilia Volk. Both families were of the Catholic faith.
Johanes and Klara were married on February 10, 1919, in the St. Josif Catholic Church in Krasna, where they were also baptized.

LIFE IN KRASNA

Both families, Muller and Winter, were active in agriculture in Krasna. Cultivating the fertile soil, planting and harvesting the products for their own survival. Among the crops, from the larger ones, such as wheat and corn, to fruit and vegetable farming, as well as the care of the animals necessary for the work, such as horses and dairy cows. The difficulties they faced were mainly based on the bad weather typical of the region: harsh winters, very hot and dry summers, many storms with hail, insect invasion in the fields...in short, a life with many sacrifices.
The children, from a very early age, followed the house and farm chores, always participating in everything that happened. For this reason, they acquired the basic knowledge involving agriculture and thus brought them in their intellectual baggage and, consequently, settled and adjusted them in the new homeland, whose legacies in large proportions, currently still followed by their descendants.
Social and community life had also been an ethical, moral and religious commitment of each family to follow and participate assiduously.

THE LIFE OF JOHANES AND KLARA

Johanes and Klara spent their childhood, adolescence and youth in Krasna. From an early age, they assisted their parents in household activities by learning how to farm the land, do household chores, and play in the street in front of the house.
In the case of grandmother Klara, at a very young age, she already learned the arts of cooking, preparing food to preserve for months of snow, which there was no possibility of growing. In addition, she practiced handicrafts with sheep's wool, initially preparing the wool and then knitting garments to face the intense cold. Here it is worth mentioning that Grandma Klara, for many years knitted with 5 needles the socks and gloves for her children and first grandchildren. At school age, Klara also went to the girls' school in Krasna, at least for a certain period, at the same school, where later her daughters Ida and Adelina also studied.
Grandfather Johanes, together with his parents and siblings, worked the land. He also studied, but at the school attended by boys, which his sons Josif (Joseph) and Gheorg (George) later attended.
As soon as he entered adolescence, at the age of 13, he participated in a commemoration, a ritual, which was to plant a Pentecost tree (Pfinstenbaum). In this digging and planting activity he was seriously injured, severely damaging his lung, the consequences of which accompanied him all his life, and because there were no improved resources for his recovery, probably took his life, prematurely, here in Brazil.
After this accident, he could no longer help with the heavy labor of farming, which is why his uncle Father Josef Hein, who worked in a Catholic community in the Ukraine, took Johanes and enrolled him in a school considered, at the time, a college of higher learning, where he learned the accounting trade (BUCHHALTER). While still in the Ukraine, while studying, he helped his uncle, the priest, with his religious and community activities, and in his spare time, he learned to be a cabinetmaker.
Johanes returned to his native Krasna only after his military service. In Krasna he was admired by all for his education and dedication to his studies. He immediately began work as an accountant in a cooperative, which had its commercial operations throughout the agricultural region of Bessarabia. In Krasna he met the young Klara, and after a year of courtship, they got married and settled down on his mother Emilia Volk's property.

THE IMMIGRATION: BESSARABIA/ROMENIA TO BRAZIL

Facing several difficulties in Bessarabia, mainly financial, and without perspectives of a better future, Johanes and Klara joined the great waves of families from Bessarabia and immigrated to South America, Brazil. At the time, the couple already had 6 children, one of whom died in Bessarabia. According to information passed on to the descendants, that this decision had been extremely hard and sad, especially for grandfather Johanes, who was already in poor health.
However, the long trip did happen. The embarkation on the ship Madrid at the Port of Bremen in Germany, according to the records of passport number 54.556, took place on July 13, 1929, and its disembarkation signed by the Maritime and Air Police of Santos in São Paulo on August 5, 1929. The family registered in the passport and in the Disembarkation Certificate is as follows: Johanes (husband) aged 35, Klara (wife) aged 31, children: Joseph aged 10, Jorge aged 08, Ida aged 06, Adelina aged 02 and Nicodemus aged 06 months.
Arriving in São Paulo the family's money was finished. Homeless, without a roof, without anything, with 5 children in the Port of Santos. This was the reality of all the families.
They immediately managed to travel with a farmer, who was already waiting for them to work in the coffee fields of the Monte Bela plantation in São Paulo. There the family worked for a period of approximately 2 years. During this period the couple's seventh daughter, Catarina, was born, and unfortunately she died.

THE MIGRATION TO SOUTHERN BRAZIL

In search of new life perspectives, religiosity, and education, the family once again faced a difficult journey. They boarded the train to Santa Maria in Rio Grande do Sul, and then with a small truck to Porto Feliz (Mondaí), where a cousin of the grandmother's, Korbinian Winter, had already settled from Bessarabia. In Porto Feliz they went to live in the interior in the community of Linha Mondaizinho, as tenants on the property of the Weiss family. Grandmother Klara and the younger children worked in agriculture and around the house, and the grandfather, with the help of his oldest son José, worked opening roads between Porto Feliz and Porto Novo.
As soon as the family was able to raise a certain amount of money, they bought a plot of land in Linha Ipê Popi, where they settled permanently. The same property is still in the possession of the Muller family to this day. Initially it belonged to grandfather Johanes, followed by his son Nicodemus, my father, and currently my brother Valmei Muller. I was born and raised on this property, along with my 12 siblings. This was our home.

THE FAMILY OF JOHANES AND KLARA MULLER

The family, having settled permanently in Ipê Popi, has integrated intensely into the community in all sectors. The children were finally able to go to school again, the family attended Catholic Church, and they collaborated in all social, cultural, and educational activities of the community. Special note: Grandma Klara was an accomplished singer, with a formidable voice. So the singing in the family had been the basis of joy and sorrow in facing difficulties, whose culture she transcended.
With his health badly shaken, grandfather Johanes died very early, leaving the grandmother with the children in full development on the property. Johanes died on May 12, 1940, at his home, at the age of 45. Grandmother Klara lived with her children until the age of 82. She died on April 24, 1980 at the Holy Family Hospital in Itapiranga. Both are buried in the cemetery of Linha Popi.

THE CHILDREN

Johanes and Klara had the following family:

• Joseph married Romanian immigrant Ottilia Becker (both in memoriam);
• Jorge married Romanian immigrant Clementina Kunz (both in memoriam);
• Ida married Adolfo Welter (both in memoriam);
• Adelina married Romanian immigrant Melchior Wagner (both in memoriam);
• Nicodemus married Romanian immigrant Rufina Kunz;
• Peter married Germana Pauli (both in memoriam);
• Izidoro married Odete Kist;
• Elma married to Aloisio Wagner (both in memoriam).

GRATITUDE

Gratitude to God for the life of our grandparents and for all the teachings they left us. Gratitude to my parents and uncles for preserving and sharing the family history. Gratitude to all the descendants first, second, third...generations cousins who are involved in this story. Thanks to cousin Marino Muller for sharing photos and information so that this story could be registered.

Anyway... the story goes on!
Florentina Muller Gruhlke
13.11.2022