A former stubble for cow grazing, once wider and now uncultivated, occupied the landmark summit of the Saulniers path.
Herds of goats appreciated the tough pasture of the slopes, partially exposed and covered with small young oaks, deciduous trees for the most part eclipsing the little surviving softwood, pines on the soil of gullies and firs in the shady basins. At the edges of the mound, particularly under the Easter basin near the houses of the Climont hamlet, meadows, pasture and fields show the agricultural vitality of the mountain communities during cold periods. The hamlet is a separate area to the east of the limits of Urbeis, parish and commune centre. It is traversed by the road linking the Urbeis col with the La Salcée col.
Hamlet, farms, and Anabaptist censes of Climont
The hamlet of Climont, at an altitude of 670 metres around a small temple, is part of the Urbeis commune. Its Alsacian name of "Winberg" has been altered to "Weinberg". The use of German by a sizable Mennonite community from 1690 onwards, then a simultaneous mix of Anabaptists and Reformed after intermarriages during the 19th century, has progressively Germanized the old placenames, for instance:
- Schottsitt ("L'ombre" or "l'envers" in French)
- Schregsmatt
- Bientzigberg
- in den Mühren
- Sebastiansmatten ("Les prés de Sébastien")
- beim schürrel
- Obermittel
- Unterweid
| - im Brechloch ("Rainrupt")
- im Schlag ("La Schlague")
- Hansmatten ("les prés du Jean")
- Langematten ("les grands prés")
- Kreutzweg ("La croix du chemin")
- Maettel ("le petit pré" or "la prêle")
- Sonnesitt ("Le soleil")
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The altitude may seem modest but the permanent cultivation of the fields at the start of the 20th century after the coldest observed temperature in 1850 rarely extends past 600 metres within the Vosges massif. Some gardens and farmed fields in Climont are even higher than the 650 metres in altitude achieved by the Bellefosse cultivations. Other cultivated areas extend from 470 m (on the plain), 500 m (at Bourg-Bruche), 550 m (Natzviller and the clearing at Le Hand on the sun-facing slope belonging to Saales.
In 1760, a manorial map probably raised by the Christiani shows five buildings which are taken to be large farms. Although it has not been possible to count these "censes", they are described a century later, perhaps by the Rebers, as a house built of stone, covered with shingles, containing a kitchen, two bedrooms, a storeroom, shed and barn. Upstairs are two bedrooms, and two rooms characterized by an attic with several compartments, some full of grain and some stuffed with fodder. Three neighbouring buildings contain
- the barn, the stable, the pigpen mounted on the haylofts near the fountain.
- the oven and the forge.
- workers' quarters.
A large farm in Climont might contain six family dwellings. The men were both farmers of oats and grain, and breeders, tending their cattle and managing their hayfields to provide fodder. The workable land represented 105 acres, meadows 96 poles and gardens and orchards 316 feet.
In 1780, an inventory of the bailiwick of the county of Villé mentioned 90 Mennonites, composed of 1 widow, 17 couples, 29 boys and 26 girls. This may have represented the Anabaptists of the ban of Urbeis, of whom the majority lived on the lands of Climont.
En 1796, six farms were sold as national property. This included the white house which belonged to François Joseph Choiseul.
In 1850, 12 dwellings were recorded as well as a house in the forest. The inhabitants had a modest way of life, as suggested by the timid Climont Mennonites who in no way imposed themselves in meetings of the Le Hang council. Jean Dellenbach, a Climont labourer belonging to one of the leading Anabaptist families, left the inventory of his goods with the Boersch notary on 16 February 1848. The total amounted to 223 Francs, of which the following is a part:
- two fir bedsteads (6F)
- a bed, mattress, pillow and dessous-de-plume (18F)
- two sheets and two hemp pillowcases (10F)
- a cherrywood table (8F)
- a lockable fir trunk
- kitchen utensils (a firepot and pan)
| - 30 double-decaliters of potatoes (45F)
- a cow, estimated value (70F)
- 750 kg of hay (about 52.5F)
- 20 bales of straw
- common tools: a hoe, a pickaxe, a shovel, a hatchet, an ax, a knife
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A sometimes distant rural exodus had begun on Climont, but those who lived there were persevering and developing non-farming-related pursuits: stonecutting, distilling, and weaving after the arrival of weavers who had relocated their small clothesmaking businesses for economic reasons from the textile towns. During the Second Empire, Joseph Elias, a Jewish trader from Scherviller, sold 11 ares of Climont land to Adam Brua, a weaver. He noted that the land parcel sold was beside Jacques Schlabach, who had left for America, disembarking at New York City or New Orleans.
The number of Mennonites and Reformed on Climont in 1889 was 53. After over a century, three large, prominent and related families controlled the Climont community, Dellenbach (Dellembach), Bacher (Boecher, Becher, Pacher, Pêcheur) and Beller. Without attaching religious claims, they quickly tolerated mixed marriages between Anabaptists and Protestants at the level of elite farmers and proprietors. In 1790, Elisabeth, a 25-year-old Dellenbach girl, married a Protestant from Plaine, provoking the first break in the Anabaptist community's management of the former manorial lands of Villé.
By 1970 there were no Mennonites in the hamlet. A private cemetery with three tombstones hosts the remains of, among others, the last member of the Bacher family who died forty years prior.
