Møllekrog

It is no secret that Jernved parish is home to many beautiful places. One of the rather more unnoticed places is to be scrutinised further here, partly because it deserves greater attention from many people, and partly because in addition to Møllekrog’s idyllic nature, it also offers some fascinating stories.

Møllekrog’s name

People have lived by the river Kongeå since ancient times, and although archaeologists have not studied the area around Møllekrog, the locals have found many traces of the past. Jernved’s local carpenter, Helge Bruun says that he still sometimes makes discoveries during field work. Urns and fireplaces have both been found, which show that ancient people also settled here, just as is the case

in many other places in the Kongeå area. But there are residues in the soil from more recent times.

Maybe people have wondered why this local area is called Møllekrog. All indications suggest that sometime in the past there were plans to build a mill here, probably as a competitor to Jedsted Mølle farther in the west. Although it never actually came to anything, the name stuck. Later investigations have shown that the place was actually quite suitable for the location of a water mill.

Møllekrog and Three Year War

During the Three Year War 1848-185, there were scattered skirmishes all over South Jutland. The fighting was really a civil war, for at the time Schleswig-Holstein belonged to Denmark, but also belonged to the German duchies, and some citizens felt more German than Danish.

As The German Federation sent auxiliary troops to the Schleswig-Holstein army, it developed into a regular war between Denmark and Prussia. Denmark won the decisive battle at Isted Hede on 25 July, 1850, and there were additional local fights too- including the nationally conscious peasants and pro-German citizens in Brøns in 1849

Møllekrog also ensured there was a line of defence at the ready. A bunch of Jernved peasants stood prepared with pitchforks and flails, ready to give the Prussians a warm reception if they should come.

An awful farm fire

Quite close by the river, so that the garden went right down, there was a farm called Søndermark until 1914. The farm's last owner was Hans Jensen Hansen, called Thoning and his wife Andrea Pauline Jacobine Sørensen. Johan Schwartz has narrated at length about this uniquely situated farm. The events took place on 2 April 1914.

”I was in the field. The time was between eight and nine in the morning. I could not see the courtyard for dense fog. Suddenly I heard a huge splash. It was a herd of colts running through the river, obviously frightened by something. So I was aware that something was wrong. When I got home, the three-winged thatched farm had burned to the ground. The fire was caused by a chimney fire, which had happened when the big oven had been fired up ready to bake bread for the next month. Thoning had got almost all the animals out, but 14 burned to death. Also, all the people had been taken to safety. Suddenly, the little two-year-old boy, Vilfred, disappeared into the house again. But now it was too late to run after him. The day after we found his remains in the large living room. He was found crouching under the chaise longue.”

The miserly priest and the Kongeå’s powers

Møllekrog offers yet another piece of history. Over the river is a wooden bridge, which today is a pitiful condition, but has an impressive width. Both horses and wagons could pass over here, and this was the very intention. A nice bit of meadow south of the river Kongeå, about 15 acres of land, belonged to Jernved parish, and a large number of people had fens over there. When the bridge underwent its annual repair, people drove over to fetch hay. Later the land was redistributed, and the fens south of the river were sold to Hjortlund parish.

But what was the reason that the Jernved peasants had land on the south of the river? About150 years ago, Jernved had a priest who was far from ordinary. Among other things he was as stingy as Scrooge. Peter Raae, as he was called, was the parish priest of Jernved 1863-1871, and he pushed the river for whatever it could provide him in natural resources.

In his meadow, the priest had set up a large eel trap, and numerous posts were banged into the river bottom.  In September, when the river came to swell up, the priest’s eel traps had a damming effect and the river’s course shifted quite a bit to the north. The lands, which the Jernved peasants before had owned north of the river, now lay to the south.

You can really get a sense of major forces at work in the Kongeå when you study the high sand banks. Carpenter Helge Bruun had to move the road three times because the river undermined the banks.

Author: Knud Sørensen, Jernved Parish archives

Sources and literature:

Jernved Parish archives, see http://gredstedbroegnen.dk/foreninger/sognarkivet/