VIII The Partition and Foreign Occupation
1. DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE
Throughout the nineteenth century, despite unfavorable political and economic circumstances, Kleczew gradually developed economically and demographically. Details about its population growth are shown in Table 8.
The town had a population of 1,348 (of whom 616 were Jews) in 1793, 1,140 (496 Jews) in 1808, and 1,570 (802 Jews) in 1827. From then on, there was a steady increase—to 2,480 (1,239 Jews) in 1886 and 3,347 (1,719 Jews) in 1909. The share of Jews in the population was steady at approximately half for most of this time.
Such demographic retreats as occurred were temporary outcomes of catastrophes. Those in 1808 and 1828 resulted from fires that destroyed the town. Although the number of Jewish residents decreased dramati-cally from 616 in 1793 to 496 after the 1808 blaze, it increased again in the later years considered (Table 8). For instance, we know that there were 628–651 Jews living in the town proper in 1822,17 769 (381 men and 388
women) in 1826,18 and 802 in 1827. The fire of 1828 depressed the popu-lation temporarily; growth resumed afterward.
The records from 1807–1809 shed more light on the destructive effects of the fires. A census in 1807–1808 found approximately 500 Jewish individuals and 139 householders in Kleczew. The first year after the fire (1808–1809), the number of householders plunged to only seventeen.
The number of households also decreased, from 248 before the fire to 145 after. The decline was true not only of the Jewish community but also of the population at large. Since the rate of decrease was higher among adults than among children, the impact appears to have been greater among the elderly (Tables 9 and 10).
Intensive construction efforts began after the fire. Many houses were reconstructed by the end of 1810. According to a town register, twenty of seventy-seven houses in town were newly built and nine were temporary;
Table 8 Population of Kleczew, 1793–1909
Year Total population Jewish population Jews as percent of total population
1793 1,348 616 45.7
Source: State Archive in Łódź (hereinafter: APŁ), Łódź Kehilla (hereinafter: ŁGWŻ), classification no . 210, card 81; APK, AmK, classification no. 148, cards 12-23; B. Wasiutyński, Ludność żydowska
w Polsce w wiekach XIX i XX. Studium statystyczne, Warsaw 1930, p. 26; Kołodziejczyk R., Miasta i mieszczaństwo w Królestwie Polskim w 1965 r. w świetle statystyki, [source:] Dzieje burżuazji w Polsce.
Studia i materiały, vol. 2, ed. R. Kołodziejczyk, Wrocław-Warsaw-Kraków-Gdańsk 1980, Table 2, pp. 19-28; Dzieje Kleczewa, passim; E. Bergman, J. Jagielski, Zachowane synagogi i domy modlitw w
Polsce. Katalog, Warsaw 1996, p. 57; J. Wąsicki, Opis, p. 137.
Table 9 Demographic structure of the population of Kleczew, 1807/1808 and 1808/1809 (before and after fire)
1808/1809 1807/1808
Female Male Total Female Male Total
145
Source: APK, AmK, classification no. 148, cards 12-23.
Table 10 Demographic structure of Kleczew Jewish population, 1807/1808 and 1808/1809
* The age limit for “children” is not defined.
thirty-nine had brick chimneys and the others did not. Several brickyards were established in Kleczew to expedite the work.19 Fifteen homeowners (20.3%) were Jewish. (For details, see Table A in Annex 3).
The number of Jewish households in Kleczew grew from 164 (with a total of 628 people) in 182820 to 215 (810 people) in 1836. Unmarried people, even if living alone (44 people), and childless widows/widowers (12) were counted among them.21 Simple arithmetic informs us that the average household size in 1836 was 3.77. Subtracting the unmarried (56), we arrive at 159 households (754 individuals)—4.74 persons per household. During the Russian occupation, the growth rate of the Jewish
population in Kleczew accelerated. Births outnumbered deaths, and the number of marriages increased as well (Table 11).22
World War I halted the demographic momentum in Kleczew, reducing the Jewish population from 1,719 in 1909 to approximately 1,500 in 191523 and around 1,000 in 1917–1918.24
2. ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
The residents of Kleczew specialized in trade and several crafts. According to the 1808–1809 census, 18.91% of occupationally active people there were tailors; 16.21% were cobblers; 14.86% were merchants; and 6.3%
were bakers (Table 7). The others dealt in farming. Official records list only twenty-two farmers (9.9% of the population); most probably, they were people who owned large tracts of land. The proximity to the Prussian (German) frontier fostered the development of business despite formal obstacles. Some merchants engaged in legal trade; others smuggled various wares across the border. Smugglers’ routes passed through Kleczew to Strzałków on to Września, and finally to Powidz and Gniezno.25
Table 11 Natural movement of Kleczew Jewish population, 1809–1864
Year Births Deaths Marriages
Male Female Total Male Female Total
1809 5 5 10 - 3 3
-1810 9 12 21 3 5 8
-1811 7 5 12 6 11 17 4
1812 10 5 15 4 3 7 5
1820 5 15 20 6 6 12 1
1834 17 22 39 7 6 13 6
1835 13 6 19 7 9 16 2
1837 15 16 31 15 11 26 6
1839 23 13 36 3 12 15 10
1846 15 19 34 9 11 20 12
1864 17 22 39 17 16 33 4
Source: APK, AmK, classification no. 28; APK, Acts of the Registry Office, Kleczew kehilla, call nos. 1, 2, 3, 5.
The case of Szuml Boas illustrates the handling of a debt in a legal business transaction. Boas had not been able to repay his debt to the merchant Julian Sokołowski of Września. In July 1871, the debt was taken over by another merchant from Września, Hersz Jarecki. The contract between the parties is revealing in several ways:
[...] Szmul Boas testifies that he owed 100 rubles in silver to the merchant Julian Sokołowski from Września; due to inability to pay the debt, he asked Hersz Jarecki to assume responsibility for the outstanding debt and to pay Sokołowski in his name.
Hersz Jarecki stated that he had assumed the debt from Boas and would pay the 100 rubles in silver to Sokołowski. He [Jarecki]
had already issued a receipt to Sokołowski that also stated that he [Sokołowski] bore no grudge against Boas. Szmul Boas is obliged to repay the 100 rubles to Hersz Jarecki according to the following schedule: 30 rubles in silver by August 2, 187126 and the remaining 70 rubles in installments—10 rubles on the 9th of every month for seven months. In case of failure to make timely payments, Szmul Boas will be brought before the municipal court under the debt enforcement procedure.27
After 1815, the authorities of the Kingdom of Poland—autonomous though still part of the Russian Empire—made it their goal to develop trade and crafts. Regulations in 1821 promoted industry by allowing craftsmen to settle freely in towns irrespective of their nationality or reli-gion. Reduced taxes and guarantees of government support also encour-aged urbanization. Jews benefited from these regulations, settling en masse in the towns of Eastern Greater Poland. In many locations, they were fore-runners of industrialization. Elsewhere, they quickly became competitive and began to crowd out local and newly arrived businesspeople alike.
Such was the case in Kleczew. The number of textile manufacturers there surged in 1818, evidenced by the list of people dealing in the field:
Michał Woian, Samuel Bartel, Karol Konrad, Fryderyk Szkolny, Michał Gleiman, Samuel Wojner, and Karol Hartung. By 1824, many craftsmen had workshops in town—there were two locksmiths, two blacksmiths,
three carpenters, two coopers, two wheelwrights, thirty-seven cobblers, and forty-eight tailors. Most of the shops, especially those that did needle-work, belonged to Jews. More important, the largest crafts workshops (if they had automated equipment, one could call them factories) were run by members of the local kehilla. Wolf Szlama Szkolnik and Szmul Krotoszyński owned the town’s two main chicory processing mills and employed four and three workers, respectively; Szkolnik owned smaller facilities as well. Tanneries were run by Abram Kalina, Szmul Garbarz, Abram Kluczkowski, Mosiek Ryczywolski, and Lewek Kluczkowski; they employed two to four workers each. There were two factories for woolen and cotton products as well as a tablecloth factory. In 1829, Szmul Garbarz, Abram Salmanowicz, and Abram Kluczewski were listed as tanners.
The textile industry developed apace. In 1834, Lipman Jelonkiewicz produced 1,000 bolts of linen and 600 bolts of hemp cloth. His compet-itors, Gotfryd Braun and Jakub Bile, produced 960 and 530 bolts and 40 and 650 bolts of material, respectively. Another workshop belonged to Maciej Jelenkowicz, August Berger, and Bogumił Kempel. No records about its doings at the time have survived, but in subsequent years its staff increased steadily. On average, Berger and Kempel employed three workers and Lipman Jelonkiewicz employed six.
Additional textile factories came on the scene swiftly. The one owned by Lewin Krotoszyński was active until 1845. A plant belonging to Pejsach Kryger began to operate in January 1845, and from May 1845 one belonging to Efraim Salomonowicz was active, the owner often working there along with one journeyman (skilled worker) and one to three apprentices. These enterprises were not big on output, producing only 15–270 bolts of plain or striped batiste per year.28 In 1846, Lewek Jelenkiewicz, Lewek Chaim Krotoszyński, and Peisach Krygier ran cotton workshops that used no automation. In 1851, Szlama Greinfeld, Lewek Jozef Krotoszyński, Abram Jakub Jelonkowicz, Efraim Szlama Jelonkowicz, and Hanno Fogiel all owned textile businesses, together turning out 200–300 pounds of various fabrics.29
All told, industrial development in Kleczew was of limited signifi-cance. In the second half of the nineteenth century, most of the weavers’
workshops went bankrupt due to inability to compete with nearby Kalisz,
Łódź, and Zduńska Wola. Consequently, increasingly specialized services, important crafts, and stratified industry began to grow. Some people combined two professions. Employment increased. The importance of Kleczew Jews in the three aforementioned sectors of the economy was considerable and continued to grow until the outbreak of World War I.
Kleczew records dated December 2, 1815, show twenty people registered as dealing in trade and commerce, seventeen of them Jewish (Abram Masiek, Jozef Boile, Jelenkiewicz, the widow Rogozińska, Majer Szlama, Jakub Gembicki, Salomon Mansard, Mosiek Jelenkiewicz, Szlama Wolf, Jozef Lisner, Hersz Lachman, Icyk Jakub Jelonkiewicz, Salomon Boile, Layzer Bauman, Szmul Garbarz, Szymon Szafarz, and Mosiek Izrael).30
The distribution of occupations among the occupationally active Jewish population changed over the years. In 1836, 35.7% dealt in trade and services and another 35.7% in crafts; 20.2% were blue-collar workers and 8.4% were active in other ways. In 1851, trade and services were prac-ticed by 27.6% of occupationally active Jews, crafts by 35%, blue-collar occupations by 22.2%, and other activities by 15.2%. In 1867, the propor-tions among Jews were 55.2% in all kinds of trade and services, 41.6% in crafts only, and 3.2% in all other fields (Table 12).
Table 12 Social and occupational structure of occupationally active Jews in Kleczew, 1836–1867
Sector 1836 1851 1867
Number % Number % Number %
Trade and services 76 35.7 67 27.6 69 55.2
Crafts 76 35.7 85 35.0 52 41.6
Laborers 43 20.2 54 22.2 -
-Industrialists 2 0.9 5 2.0 1 0.8
Transportation - - - - 1 0.8
Community clerks 3 1.4 3 1.2 1 0.8
Real-estate owners 2 0.9 21 8.6 -
-Others 11 5.2 7 2.9 1 0.8
No data - - 1 0.5 -
-Total 213 100.0 243 100.0 125 100.0
Source: APK, AmK, classification no. 22, 220, comparison by authors.
Among the subgroup of craftsmen, the largest occupational groups were tailors, tanners, bakers, butchers, and glaziers. The remaining occu-pations (saddlers, hatters, cap-makers, goldsmiths, soap-makers, etc.) were represented by individual people. Many crafts that existed in 1836 disappeared by 1867 (Table 13).
A census of the Kleczew Jewish population in 1836 yields very detailed and valuable information, including each individual’s name, age, status in his or her family, and occupation, and notes the people who earned their living as “servants” or “domestic servants.” (Table B, Annex 3.) It mentions thirty servants (14.6% of all occupationally active people: twenty females
Table 13 Structure of Jewish crafts in Kleczew, 1836 and 1867
Sort of craft 1836 1867
Number of craftsmen % Number of craftsmen %
Tailors 40 52.65 28 53.85
Tanners 8 10.54 8 15.38
Bakers 6 7.9 3 5.77
Butchers 4 5.27 3 5.77
Glaziers 3 3.95 4 7.7
Fishermen 2 2.64 1 1.92
Haberdashers 2 2.64 -
-Cap-maker 1 1.31 3 5.77
Hat-maker 1 1.31 -
-Linen-draper 1 1.31 -
-Saddler 1 1.31 -
-Gingerbread maker 1 1.31 -
-Shoemaker 1 1.31 -
-Goldsmith 1 1.31 -
-Leather-dresser 1 1.31 -
-Soap-maker 1 1.31 -
-Publican 1 1.31 -
-Optician 1 1.31 1 1.92
Tinsmith - - 1 1.92
Total 76 100.0 52 100.0
Source: APK, AmK, classification no. 220.
aged 11–31 and four men aged 20 to 24, all unmarried. The census also gives information on other occupations. Entrepreneurs were a specific occupa-tional group, depending on the margin of trade. The census reports the following people as traders: Anszel Hersz Eliasz, Boruch Czernicki, Layzer Iwańczyk, Szmul Jelenkiewicz, Lewin Krotoszyński, Michał Krotowski, Hersz Kalmanowicz, and Joel Nayfeld. Jews were homeowners as well: at the end of 1885, eight merchants, one factory owner, sixty craftsmen, and twenty-two small businessmen held titles to homes.31
Social and political changes in the nineteenth century slowly influ-enced the evolution of the town’s social occupational structures (Table 14). In 1895, 6,801 people lived within Kleczew’s municipal limits.
Farmers constituted the highest percentage (68.3%), followed by town dwellers (22.6%).
Kleczew remained a production center for local needs. In 1895, it had 129 craft workshops that employed 157 people. Fifty cobblers (shoe-makers) provided work for fifty-seven people, making this the largest crafts workshop category, followed by tailors with forty-seven employees (Table 15).
On the social scale, the Jewish population was positioned between farmers and nobles. It was dominant in local trade and, to a certain extent, crafts. These factors led to the emergence of a rather affluent group. Even so, the majority of Jews remained poor.
Table 14 Social and occupational structure of inhabitants of Kleczew Municipality, 1895
Town dwellers 754 783 1,537 22.6
Farmers 2,294 2,348 4,642 68.3
Others 224 323 547 8.0
Total 3,310 3,491 6,801 100.0
Source: calculations based on J. Stępień, Kleczew w okresie 1870–1918, Table 3, p. 131.
* Clergy = leaders of religious services.