Along the Rails & Into the World
ISSUE NUMBER 40, 2020
3 The Casado 9 Hopes and 15 The Tokmak Railway Dreams on Railway Mennonites the Railway Mennonites in Russia in the Chaco Mennonites in Mexico Conrad Stoesz Burt Klassen Kehler Patricia Salinas & María Muñoz Contents
ISSUE NUMBER 40, 2020 Notes from the Editor A JOURNAL OF THE 1 D. F. PLETT HISTORICAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION, INC. Features
EDITOR Aileen Friesen The Casado COPY EDITORS 3 Andrea Dyck and Jeremy Wiebe Railway DESIGNER Anikó Szabó Burt Klassen Kehler
PUBLICATION ADDRESS Hopes and Dreams Plett Foundation 9 University of Winnipeg on the Railways 515 Portage Ave Patricia Islas Salinas & Winnipeg, Manitoba María Miriam Lozano Muñoz R3B 2E9 The Tokmak Railway ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS 15 3 Aileen Friesen Conrad Stoesz +1 (204) 786 9352 [email protected] Research Articles
SUBSCRIPTIONS To subscribe and pay online, 19 Mennonite Settlers visit plettfoundation.org/preservings in Prussian Lithuania Erwin Wittenberg & ADDRESS CHANGES Manuel Janz Jeremy Wiebe [email protected] 27 Martin B. Fast in Preservings is published semi-annually. Civil War Siberia The suggested contribution is $20.00 per year. 9 Cheques should be made out to the Katherine Peters Yamada D. F. Plett Historical Research Foundation. Histories & Reflections MISSION To inform our readers about the history of the Mennonites who came to Manitoba in the 37 Anna Thiessen 1870s and their descendants, and in particular Eleanor Chornoboy to promote a respectful understanding and appreciation of the contributions made by so-called Low German-speaking conservative 43 Neubergthal Mennonite groups of the Americas. Re-Examined Graham Schellenberg PLETT FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2020–2021 47 The Railway Arrives Royden Loewen, Chair, Winnipeg, MB on the East Reserve 27 Kerry Fast, Vice-Chair, Winnipeg, MB Ernest N. Braun Kennert Giesbrecht, Secretary-Treasurer, Steinbach, MB Leonard Doell, Aberdeen, SK 53 The History of Abe Rempel, Winkler, MB the Rempel Family Robyn Sneath, Brandon, MB Henry Unger & Abe Rempel Aileen Friesen, Executive Director Jeremy Wiebe, Communications and Finance Officer News
COVER IMAGE Book Reviews “Railroad Bridge in Einlage” by Henry Pauls, located at the Mennonite Heritage 53 Archives in Winnipeg. In the Next Issue notes From the Editor
Aileen Friesen MAID: MHA 649-10.0 elcome to the first summer issue of Preservings in over Wa decade. After our abnormal spring, perhaps engaging with our history is exactly what is needed, as we reflect on the values and principles that matter most to us as individuals and communities. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how much we take for granted the movement of people and goods. Experiencing limited travel options and shortages on grocery shelves serves as a reminder that abundance is not guaranteed and that trains, planes, and trucks move more than just goods and people. Movement often makes possible the lives we wish to live, and moments of immobility allow us to ponder those aspirations. The Tokmak Railroad crossed over the Molochna (Molotschna) River. Movement has been a defining theme in Mennonite hist- ory, and since the second half of the nineteenth century trains The railway also performed an important role during the have performed an essential role in this story. As the last issue migration of Mennonites to Paraguay’s Gran Chaco. The pic- of Preservings showed, the railway shaped Mennonite life on the ture that introduces this article, a desolate railway winding into prairies, changing the fortunes of individuals and towns and nowhere, in many ways represents the establishment of Menno altering the values of their communities. This current issue Colony in this region. As Burt Klassen Kehler demonstrates, from extends the conversation by tackling the global context. While the outset of their negotiations with the Paraguayan government, we see some of the same themes, particularly related to economic Mennonites viewed the construction of a railway as essential to development, the examples of Paraguay, Mexico, and Russia show their economic survival. Even though they had left Canada, their how railways can help us to understand themes of entrepreneur- goal was not to flee from the world, but to limit its interference ship, collective memory, and dependency in Mennonite history. in their lives. Yet, as Kehler shows, Mennonites were dependent Two of these encounters with the railway emerge out of the on others. Despite their strong desire for the railway, without exodus of Mennonites to Latin America in the 1920s. We are money and connections, the ability of Mennonites to influence approaching the centennial of this historic event, in which thou- its construction was limited. The issue of transportation routes sands of Mennonites responded to the nation-building policies plagued the community for decades, shaping how they interacted of the Canadian government by leaving for new places where with their new homeland. specific privileges related to their communities would be pro- In contrast, as Conrad Stoesz demonstrates, Mennonites tected. It is interesting to think about the role of the railway in brought an entrepreneurial spirit to the railway cause in Russia. facilitating the movement of Mennonites as they spread across the As the example of Johann Wall attests, prosperous Mennonites region, and in connecting these newly established communities took advantage of the construction boom of the early twenti- with agricultural markets. eth century, benefiting financially from the expansion of the Mexico served as the initial entry point of Mennonites into railway across the empire. The photographs for this article are Latin America. In this issue, Patricia Islas Salinas and María especially fascinating, as they depict the material and cultural Miriam Lozano Muñoz describe how Mennonites remembered fruits of railway construction as beautified train stations became the train ride that brought them to Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, community spaces beyond those of churches and schools, where Mexico, in the 1920s. This article focuses on how the emotion people could seek out entertainment, excitement, and adventure. of the journey solidified into collective memories for the com- These new secular social spaces created by the railway have often munity, which were passed down to subsequent generations. been overlooked in Mennonite history in favour of themes of The difficulties encountered both on the train ride and after town-planning and access to markets. But they are no less import- their arrival would be used to support a collective narrative of ant for understanding how the railway transformed Mennonite the community’s perseverance and commitment to their beliefs. community life.
MENNONITES ON THE RAILS 1 MAID: MHA BK1-002 feature The Casado Railway Mennonites in the Chaco
Burt Klassen Kehler
n 1921, the President of Paraguay the Chaco, telling him that he would the background of his company: The Iposed a question to the Mennonite not make it. But Engen was a stubborn S. A. Carlos Casado Ltd. After the War land investigators after they had returned man. He planned on exploring settlement of the Triple Alliance (fought between to Asunción from the Chaco: “…What do options for the Mennonites on that white Paraguay and the alliance of Argentina, you think, will your people come to the spot on the map of Paraguay: the Chaco. Brazil, and Uruguay from 1864 to 1870), Chaco to settle?” They responded: “… We As he deposited his money in the bank in the land and population of Paraguay was believe they will come provided the rail- Asunción before taking a ship to Puerto devastated. Rebuilding the country from way is built up to the settlement area…”1 Casado, the bankers in Asunción tried to the ground up was one of the first things convince him not to make that trip into that had to be done. The first obstacle fred engen the ill-reputed Chaco region, known as was finances. Estates, however, were one Tensions arising with the Canadian the “green hell.” They assured him that of the few ways that Paraguay could raise government during the First World he would never survive such an adventure. money. Since Paraguay had many estates, War encouraged some Mennonites But Engen entered the Chaco accom- the government created laws that opened from Manitoba and Saskatchewan to panied only by some Toba Indians on the the doors to investors who intended to explore the possibility of settlement in back of a few mules. It is said that Engen buy huge amounts of estates. Mexico and South America. Initially, went during the best time of the year for Carlos Casado del Alisal was one of within South America, they focused their seeing the natural beauty of the Chaco. those investors. Born in Villada, Palencia attention on the countries of Argentina They traveled until they found wonderful (Spain), Carlos Casado was different then and Brazil; however, these states would lands, which in Engen’s eyes, were ideal lots of Spaniards. He was one of the few not grant their requested privileges. In for Mennonite settlers to engage in wheat Spanish immigrants who knew how to contrast, the Paraguayan government production. A month after he started his make his ‘south American dream’ come offered to grant the Mennonites all their journey, Engen was back in Asunción. His true. Before he bought his estate in the requested privileges. In 1919 Fred Engen, first act was to send a telegram to Samuel Paraguayan Chaco, he founded a bank, an American with Norwegian roots who McRoberts, who had taken an interest in built up a railway, and contributed to the had tried his luck being a farmer and as Mennonite settlement in Paraguay. Its beginning of wheat production in the an agent but had not registered a lot of content was short but convincing, stating: Rosario area in Argentina (he is considered success in either of these endeavours, “I found the promised land.” one of the pioneers of wheat production came in contact with Mennonites in in the southern hemisphere). The estate North America and fell in love with their carlos casado del alisal he acquired in the Chaco was estimated principle of pacifism. In that same year, The land where the Mennonites to be 7,500,000 hectares (approximately Engen travelled to Paraguay on behalf of intended to settle was owned by Carlos 18,700,000 acres), which equals the the Mennonite migration project. During Casado del Alisal. To understand the surface of the Netherlands. It reached this trip a number of people tried to talk magnitude of properties or estates that from the Paraguay River through to the him out of his ambitious adventure into Casado owned, it is important to dig into Pilcomayo River. The main target was the exploitation of tannin, that was taken A railroad line extending from Puerto Casado toward the Mennonite settlement through the Chaco from the hard woods of the ‘quebracho bush. Despite the promises received by the Mennonites, the line would not reach their settlement. colorado’ – Schinopsis balansae. For that
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 3 MAID: MHA 516-001
In 1919, Fred Engen (second from the right), performed an important role in helping Mennonites to settle in Paraguay. reason, he founded the city of Puerto infrastructure appeared as a paradise for Canada. The significance of the railway Casado, built the tannin industry (an Mennonite settlers. He wrote that Casado can be summarized as follows: it was a export product), and developed a railway brought them to the port of Puerto Casado necessary condition to make Mennonite on his estate. In a productive year, the on his private ship, and even gave the dele- colonies feasible; it was the only means trains of Casado would transport up to gates private cabins. Töws described the by which the settlements were connected 70,000 quebracho logs from the interior schools of the city, and all the reasons why with the outside world; it was the only way of the Chaco to the tannin industry in Paraguay would be a good fit for Canadian of supplying the colonies; it was the means Puerto Casado. settlers. for the sale and transport of agricultural When the Mennonite delegation products to the markets; and it offered mennonites from canada started their adventurous journey into employment for the settlers. In 1921, the first delegation of the Chaco wilderness, they had the advan- Mennonites was designated to inspect tage, in comparison to Engen’s trip, that lapses in construction the land sought out by Engen and they could use Casado’s railway for the The contract for the Mennonite McRoberts. This land had to be acquired first 60 kilometres. Of course, this was Chaco land deal concluded between from the S. A. Carlos Casado company not a normal railway like those found the American settlement company, the which owned the territories. The delega- in Canada. The railways in Argentina Intercontinental Company (founded tion consisted of six men, including Jakob and Paraguay were normally built on by Samuel McRoberts and responsible Dörksen from the Chortitza Church, the estates of the tannin magnates in the for moving the Mennonite settlers from Bernhard Töws, and Isaak Funk from Chaco region. Typically, they started at a Manitoba and Saskatchewan to the the Sommerfeld Church (both churches port on the banks of a river and entered Paraguayan Chaco), and the Casado from Manitoba), the ministers Jakob into the almost unlimited surface of the Company included the construction of Neufeld and Johann Friesen from the owners’ land. These railways were so a railway up to the settlement area. It was Saskatchewan churches of Rosthern, and called ‘narrow gauge railways’ meaning clear and self-evident that if a settlement the so called “Mennonite lawyer,” Johann that they have a narrow width in com- in the distant interior of the wilderness Priesz, from Altona in Manitoba. parison to the ‘standard gauge railway.’ was to emerge, a railway had to be in place. Bernhard Töws wrote about this trip But this small train and the railway of However, this railway became a compli- in his diary, explaining in detail why the the Casado Company turned out to be cated affair in the prospective colonization Casado company, the land, and local a lifesaver for Mennonites arriving from of the Chaco. The American company was
4 PRESERVINGS 2020 responsible for the emergence and the it should be extended until the location of ment company in Asunción, wrote the initial development of the settlement; the their proposed settlement site. One can following report home: “The railway is Casado Company in return, was respon- imagine the disappointment when these part of the tannin factory operation. The sible for the extension of the railway to the families travelled into the wilderness and Casado Company builds the railway colony. Once the Chaco became the tar- could only go by train for 77 kilometres where most of the Quebracho trees are geted destination of the settlers, the only until the railway ended at a point called found. So, if this tendency persists, the option was to migrate into its interior, ‘Pirisal’. From that spot they had to travel result will be that the railway will not get approximately 170–180 kilometres from another 100 kilometres on wagons pulled to be near the settlement area. We want the Paraguay River, as this land was better by oxen. to negotiate about this with the Casado suited for agriculture. The most remarkable extension of the Company. Before we make the second During 1927 approximately 1743 railway was made between 1927 to 1928. payment for the land purchase and before Mennonites arrived in Puerto Casado A total of 58 kilometres of railway was the Mennonites select their land for settle- from Canada. By that time, they already built during this time. That was in large ment, it must be clear that the railway is wanted to settle on their farms but the part due to the work of the ‘Corporación [to be] built up to the settlement area… if surveying of the estates had not been com- Paraguaya’ (the name adopted by the the distance from the Paraguay River does pleted. Instead they had to live in camps Intercontinental company in Paraguay). not exceed 200 kilometres. The Casado in Puerto Casado for 16 months. Initially, The total length by that time was 135 Company will certainly be prepared to six families departed into the wilderness kilometres of railway. But negotiations cooperate provided it can be assumed on 12 February 1927. In 1921 when the with the Casado Company to extend with certainty that the settlement will Mennonite delegation came to visit the the railway faster did not succeed. On take place…”2 Chaco the railway went until the kilo- 18 December 1926, Mr. J. C. Marsh, an However, the Casado Company did not metres 60 mark and they requested that appointee of the North American settle- cooperate as the railway’s direction did not MAID: MHA 518-118
The railway of the Casado Company turned out to be a lifesaver for early Mennonite settlers.
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 5 MAID: MHA BKVI-201
PRESERVINGS 2020
Despite problems with transportation, Mennonites would establish farming communities in the Chaco. Mennonites would establish farming transportation, with Despite problems 6 MAID: MHA 518-120
Mennonite farmers that wanted to sell their products had to travel significant distances to get to the train station. point to the Chaco settlements anymore. one payment once a year. The new pay- the villages. Every month around 300 bags Instead it pointed to the richer quebra- ment will speed up construction…”3 In of flour have to be transported from the cho woods. In 1929 the railway concluded reality, nothing sped up the construction train station because the fields don’t pro- at Kilometre145 (later followed a short of the railway to the settlements, which duce enough food for the families. This extension to Kilometre 160 for the pur- made settling into the interior of the trip from the villages to the train station pose of the Chaco war that did not bring Chaco almost impossible. takes around a week of time with wagons the settlers any advantage). At kilometre of oxen if everything goes well; if it's rainy 145 a train station was built. This train transportation odyssey it can take up to two entire weeks. In some station was the only gate to the exterior. Farmers that wanted to sell their prod- cases, we’ve had villages where half of the Despite the fact that the ‘Corporación ucts had to transport them by ox-wagons oxen existing in them couldn’t work the Paraguaya’ had made contracts and paid (at a rate of 3–4 kilometres per hour) to land due to exhaustion…”4 The distance in advance so that the railway would the train station. A wagon could nor- from the villages to the train station was be built faster, nothing could make the mally carry 800–1200 kilograms and around 70 to 75 kilometres, depending on Casado Company finish the railway all every wagon that went to the station where the village was located. The other the way to the settlements. The following was obligated to bring flour back to the fact that made this task so difficult was report by Alfred A. Rogers, the director of villages. The difficulty of transporta- that the boys who actually should work ‘Corporación Paraguaya’, confirms these tion in the Chaco can be demonstrated the land, had to travel to get the vital intentions “…The railway extended into with the following examples. In October flour for the families. According to Peter the Chaco wilderness is built as quickly 1928, the co-director of the Corporación K. Kauenhowen, a village could send its as Paraguayan conditions allow. We have Paraguaya, Rodney N. Landreth, wrote boys on 36 occasions to the station. Based concluded a new contract with the Casado from Paraguay to his superiors in the on that, you can estimate how many weeks Company… Now, the Casado Company United States the following concern: “… they were not home. receives a payment whenever it has pushed We are having enormous problems with It was not only the time it took to get the track forward a distance of 15 kilo- transportation in the Chaco. This par- flour from the train station that contrib- metres. The earlier contract provided for ticular issue has slowed the progress of uted to the early hardships for Mennonites
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 7 MAID: MHA BKI-005
The conditions of transportation were so bad that even MCC offered to help extend the railway. in Paraguay. For Mennonites travelling to three bags of beans and had bought flour a session between the leaders of Menno Asunción, it took a significant amount and fabrics for the family on credit at Colony (called Sommerfeld by then) and of time to get to the capital of Paraguay Mr. Krahn’s store in Reinland. We trans- two men from MCC, Cornelius J. Dyck and back. To travel from the villages to ported them to the train station kilometres and Cornelius P. Lohrenz, MCC revealed the train station took approximately 1 to 145 where Mr. Troxler, the administra- that it was willing to provide $5000 4 days. From there Mennonites had to tor, bought some and rejected the rest, for the railway extension.7 The Casado travel a day to Puerto Casado and then telling us that they were full of bugs. We Company, once again, was willing to take another 1 to 2 days to arrive in Asunción. couldn’t leave before we received flour over construction. But the project never Abram W. Hiebert, a businessman who for the villages which had to arrive from progressed; nonetheless, a little light of traveled back and forth between the vil- Puerto Casado, so we had to wait for three hope started to shine with a proposal to lages and Asunción to negotiate business entire days. So, I hired some Indians to construct the Transchaco Highway. It contracts for the Menno Colony, shared help me sort out the good beans from the took, however, until 1961 for this high- that due to a number of setbacks (which bad ones. Suddenly Mr. Troxler passed by way, which connects Loma Plata, Neuland were also not out of the ordinary), one of seeing what we were doing. He said they and Fernheim (Mennonite colonies) with his trips took a little longer than normal. weren’t as bad as he had thought and took the rest of Paraguay, to be completed. The This time his trip to Asunción and back them all.”6 odyssey had finally ended! took three weeks and because communi- It would take at least three decades cations were so meager, when he arrived before this issue could be solved. The con- 1 Martin W. Friesen, New Homeland in the Chaco Wilderness back home he was told that his son had ditions of transportation were so bad that (Loma Plata: Historical Committee of the Menno become sick, died, and was buried while even the Mennonite Central Committee Colony, 2009), 211. he was travelling.5 (MCC) at one point offered to help in a 2 Ibid., 212. 3 Ibid., 215. Abram U. Kehler, who settled in the project to extend the railway. They helped 4 Ibid., 444. Translated by the author. region, described the difficulties faced by to improve the road from the train sta- 5 Gerhard Ratzlaff, Die Ruta Transchaco: wie sie entstand Mennonites without railway access. He tion to the settlements in the decades (Asunción: [s.n.], 1998), 39. Translated by the author. 6 Letter from Abram U. Kehler, translated by the author. gave his anecdote the title, ‘The prob- of 1940 and 1950 by sending machines 7 Protocol of a session of the Chortitzer Komitee dated 22 June lem with the beans’: “We had harvested and technical support. In 1950 during 1950. Translated by the author.
8 PRESERVINGS 2020 feature Hopes and Dreams on the Railways Mennonites in Mexico
Patricia Islas Salinas & María Miriam Lozano Muñoz Translated by Abigail Carl-Klassen
he story of Mennonites as an Tethno-religious minority group in Mexico began 8 March 1922 when they decided to migrate from Canada to Mexico. From the moment they arrived, children who were born in Mexico obtained birthright citizenship; how- ever, upon their arrival, the Mennonites decided not to allow their members to integrate into the dominant Mestizo com- munity, as they believed that their customs and beliefs would be affected. In order to protect their identity, they remained isolated from the dominant community, not just geographically, but also ideologically. In this way, their dress, language, customs, and beliefs were passed from generation to generation, creating a group with a deeply rooted cultural identity that can be observed to this day in Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, Mexico. In the nearly one hundred years since their arrival, many generations have been born and raised in this multi-cultural region that has experienced joy and great achieve- ments as well as suffering setbacks and hardships. Today their lifestyle is shaped by pre- cepts and convictions that have their MHSS 894-23-6. Mennonites wait at the station in Hague, Saskatchewan, to board the trains that would take them to Mexico.
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 9 origin in the beginning of their reli- the railways that caused the communities gious movement, which later became an to leave their isolation, facilitating com- ethno-cultural group. The community of mercial and economic relationships.1 Mennonites in Mexico has its own char- The train – its cars and rails – consti- acteristics that make it special and unique tuted an important part in the story of in the world. In the case of traditional (or the Mennonites. Not only did this mode conservative) communities, members of transportation allow Mennonites to conserve their customs (lifestyle and ori- make a new beginning and preserve them- ginal dress), language (the majority of selves as a group, but the rail cars were women, children, and the elderly only also transformed into a social space that speak Plautdietsch or Low German) and created layers of meaning between trav- their primary activity is subsistence agri- elers. Togetherness fostered unity and culture. In the case of liberal Mennonites, camaraderie between travelers. The train many of them can speak at least three lan- cars had become their homes; the moth- guages – Spanish, English, and German ers cooked and cared for the children, the – in addition to Plautdietsch, their dress is fathers made relationships and plans for modern, and their economic activities are their arrival, and the children laughed and related to commerce, agrobusiness, and played in the aisles. This was how a net- large-scale agriculture. work of social relationships was created This article discusses the journey of between families, touched by pain, fear, Mennonite migrants from Canada to laughter, and hope. Social theorists would Mexico through testimonies collected argue that the prominence of the journey through oral history. Additional testimon- in Mennonites’ collective memory indi- ies collected from two books published cates the significance of this experience by the State of Chihuahua and transla- to the group.2 tions (German to Spanish) of the personal The Ältester (bishop) Isaak M. Dyck diaries of the first Mennonite minister in described the journey from Canada to Cuauhtémoc, Isaak Dyck, were used in Mexico in a published memoir. His nar- this research. rative reveals the emotions experienced Through our analysis of these collected by the migrating group, including the materials, we argue that the train is a social collective pain of leaving home. Yet emi- space that allowed for the negotiation gration was also an expression of faith, of spaces by Mennonites who created and as Dyck relates, “One night before meaning and symbolic representations their departure, the community gathered of themselves through their migration. to have a service and put themselves in the In this way, they not only brought their hands of God.”3 building materials, their animals, and On the day of the departure, many their food on these train cars, but also their friends and acquaintances met at the train hopes and dreams and the possibility for a station to say goodbye to those who were promising future. leaving. Families were separated, friends the tracks and the speed that it reached were left behind, and the security of food made the women and children cry in the journey and shelter was abandoned in defense of anguish, as they were afraid for their lives. During their history, Mennonites their way of life. As Dyck remembered, As Dyck recounted: “When we went to developed a close relationship with rail- “We left quiet and calm without much talk to the conductor to tell him he should ways as trains became an important mode talking, saying a prayer for the journey, not go so fast because he could cause an of transportation to travel from one coun- looking back at how our dear Manitoba accident that would end throwing us and try to another. In this article, only the disappeared along with the property we the animals out on the tracks, he answered exodus from Canada to Mexico will be had left unsold.”4 that the train was not our responsibility discussed. Railways were the most import- When the train crossed the border with and that there was a bet between the rail- ant bridge of communication between the the United States, it gained speed. The way companies in the United States to see Mennonites’ isolated communities and first night very few people could sleep, which would have the honor and victory the cities which provided the necessary because of the goodbyes that still weighed of getting us to Mexico in the shortest tools and materials for their agricultural on their hearts. The hours passed and the time. The only thing left was to pray that work and daily life. Paradoxically, it was deafening sound of the train running on we arrived ok.”5
10 PRESERVINGS 2020 MAID: MHA 592-42.0
Before Mennonites migrated to Mexico, they sent a delegation to inspect the land. This photograph is from that trip. the arrival hiding their faces and crying, but they asked for an explanation, the railway men The migrants arrived at the border with were friendly and we got used to the new explained that from this point onward to Mexico four days after their departure. company and we understood that they San Antonio de los Arenales, there were They experienced fear and uncertainty would take care of us.”6 tall hills and deep valleys and very long as they observed Mexican people, “with Upon seeing the inhospitable landscape bridges and that it was impossible for a their dark faces,” surrounding the train. from the windows of the train, their hearts single locomotive to pull the entire train. Hundreds of curious people drew close raced as they felt disillusioned and started They assigned the first cars to people to observe the Mennonites who looked to believe that the decision to travel to and animals; household goods and cargo so different from themselves. “Before the Mexico was an error. After one day and went in the other cars. Mennonites were train departed, twenty soldiers got on, one night of travelling, they arrived in now uncertain if they were going to be armed to the teeth, and walked amongst the capital of Chihuahua, where they had reunited with their belongings. As Dyck us. It was customary in Mexico for them more encounters that increased their pain recalled, “We had been travelling for two to patrol the train to avoid attacks, but and worries. First, the railway men had hours when we found ourselves on enor- at first, we were very afraid. Women and divided the train into two parts, which mous bridges surrounded by giant rocks children looked at the soldiers terrorized, worried the Mennonites. When they that looked like they would fall on top
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 11 of us. It was almost dawn, around six in animals also started to suffer and die grate to Mexico, her parents decided to the morning, when we arrived in a valley, after the feed that they had brought from go with them. Now, here they were like our stop San Antonio de los Arenales, and Canada ran out, as there was no grazing family on the train that would take them though we were happy to have finished the land available because it had all been to Mexico. There was no turning back. difficult journey and we thanked God, for burned. Greta was very agitated and wondered, many of us, we could not recover the joy During their first six weeks, they wore “What will Mexico be like?”10 we had in Canada.”7 the same clothes they had arrived in, lived These testimonies also shed light on Mennonites were also disappointed in tents, and the children were sick with the feelings and emotions that marked with the landscape that they encoun- typhoid fever, in part because of the large the beginning of the journey. As one tered upon their arrival. Only a couple of dust storms that assaulted the countryside. testimony recalled: “The winter of 1922 earthen houses and a shack that appeared In the face of sadness and physical pain, passed quickly and the first train to leave to be a post office existed. They were prayer served as an emotional life-saver. Canada for Mexico left 1 March from uneasy as a Mexican woman collected Finally, they were able to obtain wood to Plum Coulee. The day of goodbyes was their letters to family members in Canada build their houses and shelter themselves suddenly upon us, the train was already and threw them together a wooden box. from the weather. “Under all the tents, loaded and the goodbyes caused many Despite their apprehension, they soon there were sick children that needed to tears, saying goodbye to all the family discovered that the letters arrived at their be attended to. Many times we could members and friends, it wasn’t easy to destination and that they could receive not distinguish between the moans and leave their beloved country and birth- mail in an orderly and timely fashion. cries of the children and the sound of the place, where one day they had their bed The train cars needed to be unloaded wind storms that battered our hearts. In and now they were going to an unknown within two days for their return trip to the our worry, we couldn’t control anything. land and an unknown people to start over. United States and the Mennonites started Only He who controls the winds and the On 1 March, when everything was ready their journey to the location they had been storms could, with a petition from his dis- for the departure, the signal was given and assigned (what is today Campo 7B), arriv- ciples, calm the children until everything the train started to move very slowly, with ing at eleven o’clock at night. They were quieted down.”9 much care, with its very heavy load.”11 very tired and suffering tremendously Other stories focused on people’s from the terrible cold. While the train preserving memories feelings regarding food scarcity. As one cars had heating, they had to sleep under The following testimonies describe the Mennonite man shared: “My great-grand- a practically open sky in a tent that had experiences of Mennonites during their parents came to Mexico in 1923. They very little protection against the icy night time on the train and how these experi- had fifteen children and one of them was and the suffocating heat of the day. ences influenced the travelers as a group. my great-grandmother. She was five years A fortunate few had brought small Their analysis reveals the importance old. A lot of other people came on the metal stoves where the families gath- of preserving stories across generations. train. When they were already far into ered and heated coffee for breakfast. Before passing away, grandparents gave their journey to Mexico, some people’s Although they had to eat on the ground, their descendants the gift of their lived food ran out. My great-grandmother, then they enjoyed their meal and were thank- experiences so that the memory of a five-year-old little girl, gave some food ful for the food. They felt close and an Mennonite identity could be preserved. In to the other people.”12 atmosphere of love and solidarity filled this way, some of the ancestors’ experien- Time and space are resources that the camp despite the bad conditions. As ces remain, particularly how they travelled groups need to build their cultural identity. Dyck remembered, “There were insects on the train in search of a new beginning. The collective practices that are remem- that caused many problems, like worms For instance, Greta’s story recalled the bered create bonds between people that under the skin, mosquitos so small they hardships that occurred during the jour- can be talked about as the years pass. This couldn’t be seen that wouldn’t let us sleep ney: “Greta Unrau, hurry up!” she heard is the case with the following testimony and devoured us. We scratched until we her mother calling over the noise of the about what occurred on one of the train hurt ourselves.”8 railway station. “I’m coming,” replied cars: “What happened was that they were Mennonites settled in a valley sur- Greta, a 10-year-old girl, as she quickly in the train in the back and were asleep rounded by hills. Unfortunately, their boarded the train. Her parents and four- and did not wake up until the train left. expectations with respect to the weather teen siblings were already inside, along A little later, the cars in the back, where were not met; they found that days were with many others who were going to the children were, became unhitched. The hot and nights were cold, in addition Mexico. Greta sat in the empty seat next children slept and slept. But suddenly, to the prevalence of large dust storms. to her older sister, Sara. The train whistle they woke up and saw where they were This deluge of dust affected the health blew and the journey began. Greta spent and asked why they weren’t moving for- of families and smallpox appeared soon her first ten years in Canada, but when a ward and why they were alone in the car thereafter. Several people died and their group of Mennonites decided to immi- and the train was not moving. Soon, they
12 PRESERVINGS 2020 MAID: MHA, 592-370
Mexicans waiting to sell their wares to passengers disembarking the train. realized that the train was no longer there. live in Canada, and then from Canada to on the first train to Mexico. They had five The children’s parents realized quickly that Mexico where they lived in Campo.”14 children then, and one of them was my they were not there. They had to make The following narrative expresses the great-grandfather. He was nine years old. a deal with the engineer. They asked the same sentiment: “The journey was not When they got off the train there were engineer if they could go back for their easy because it went through very steep some Mexicans selling candy, and it was children and the engineers said that they mountains. The locomotive could hardly very important for my grandfather because would only go back if they were paid more climb the mountains. After a ten-day that is where he learned his first word in money. The parents had to pay a lot of journey, on 10 January 1924, they saw Spanish. The Mexicans repeated, “dulces” money so that they could go back and get Mexico. In those times there were only (candy) and “chicle” (gum). At first, he their children.”13 two buildings in Cuauhtémoc. Franz, who didn’t know what they were saying, but Other stories focus on the work they was six years old only went to one day of little by little he understood them. Then, did on the train and the surprising land- school in Canada. So they had to leave.”15 they hired some horses and carts to con- scapes they passed through. As one person Mennonite testimonies also contextual- tinue the journey. They had put a lot of recounted: “They brought horses and ize the journey, their arrival in San Antonio effort into preparing for the big journey; cows, the train had to make stops so they de los Arenales, and their first interactions later they arrived at a large prairie where could milk the cows. The train passed with Mexicans. As they arrived in an there was a lot of grass. At the end of the through high mountains that it almost unfamiliar location, not only in terms day they had to pitch their tents so they couldn’t climb because of its heavy load. of geography but also language, they didn’t have to sleep outdoors.”16 The Mennonites had never been to the began the challenge of establishing their Reminiscence about those early years mountains and were afraid because they communities. One testimony recalled was even a topic of conversation between believed that the mountains could fall on a family story about these early impres- neighbours. As one Mennonite recalled: top of them. My great-grandparents were sions of Mexico: “It was in February 1922 “This was a story that a neighbor told us, originally from Russia, then they came to when my great-great grandparents came from his lived experiences, though he has
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 13 MAID: MHA, 592-23.0 Currently, the population of Menno- nites in Mexico is approximately one hundred thousand people, with tradition- alists comprising eighty per cent of the group. These Mennonites are closed off from globalization and try to avoid, when possible, their women and children having contact with the dominant population. In contrast, the liberal factions see economic and educative evolution as necessary for the preservation of their identity. They are interested in commercial relation- ships with the Mestizo community and even allow mixed marriages between the cultures. They only comprise twenty per cent of the Mennonite population of Cuauhtémoc. Collective memory plays an import- ant role in the Mennonite community in Mexico. The process of transmitting their history has generally been oral, which is to say, adults telling children what their parents and grandparents, in turn, told them. There are only a few people from A photo, taken from one of the last train cars, of a steam engine pulling a long train as it rounded a within the community who wrote about bend near Chihuahua, Mexico, ca. 1923. the Mennonite migrations. The retrieval and recording of information with regard since passed away. He said that when he us through signs they made with their to the journey from Canada to Mexico is was a child he got off the train after trav- hands and feet to show they wanted to an important part of the historical work elling for two weeks. They arrived in San help us, and they pointed toward the west that contributes to the preservation of cul- Antonio de los Arenales. Soon after, the to show the path of the sun from the east. tural identity. train stopped. This neighbor, his name Though we didn’t understand much, we Hermeneutical analysis shapes this was Abram Abrams and his parents left worked together.”17 ethnographic research because a people’s Canada to come to Mexico. When they feelings can be interpreted from the stories got off the train there was a great crowd of conclusion they tell or write. This article recognizes people that looked like an ant hill. They Communities draw life from their the values transmitted from generation ran from one side to another, because they shared lived experiences in the construc- to generation, including religion, family, didn’t know what to do first. Everything tion of their identity. This perspective is work, and unity, which served to form was so unfamiliar to them that they felt regenerative and life-giving for the oldest an identity that was then reinforced over unsure and started to feel nostalgic for members to pave the way for the youth the rails and the train cars that brought their country of origin. Abram’s father, to continue on in the same spirit. For Mennonites to a life in Mexico filled with like many of the others didn’t know the Mennonites, the primary means for the challenges, but also with satisfaction. language. But the Mexicans talked to preservation of their identity is religion.
1 Cornelius F. Klassen, “Canadian Pacific Railway Company,” 7 Ibid. 13 Bergen testimony, in Gobierno del Estado de Chihuahua, Soy Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online [hereafter 8 Ibid. Menonita, y esta es mi historia…, 135. GAMEO] (1953), http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Canadian_ 9 Ibid. 14 A. Thiessen testimony, in Gobierno del Estado de Chihuahua, Pacific_Railway_Company&oldid=141833, 10 Gobierno del Estado de Chihuahua, Soy Menonita, y esta es mi Crónicas y testimonios de la vida y migración Menonita accessed 10 Feb. 2019. historia… [I’m Mennonite and This is my Story] (Ed. ICHICULT a Chihuahua, 20. 2 J. C. A. Vázquez and M. A. P. Ariosa, “Tiempo, espacio e -Talleres gráficos del Estado de Chihuahua, México, 2012), 61. 15 A. Neufeld testimony, in Gobierno del Estado de Chihuahua, identidad social” [Time, Space and Social Identity], Alteridades 11 A. Peters testimony, in Gobierno del Estado de Chihuahua, Soy Menonita, y esta es mi historia…, 147. [Otherness], 2 (1991): 31–41. Crónicas y testimonios de la vida y migración Menonita 16 N. Klassen testimony, in Gobierno del Estado de Chihuahua, 3 Isaak M. Dyck, Anfangs Jahre der Mennoniten in Mexiko. a Chihuahua [Chronicles and testimonies of Mennonite Crónicas y testimonios de la vida y migración Menonita a (Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua: Imprenta Colonial, 1995). Migration and Life in Chihuahua] (Ed. ICHICULT- Talleres Chihuahua, 18. 4 Ibid. Gráficos del Estado de Chihuahua. México, 2011), 34. 17 E. Harder testimony, in Gobierno del Estado de Chihuahua, 5 Ibid. 12 Gobierno del Estado de Chihuahua, Soy Menonita, y esta Crónicas y testimonios de la vida y migración Menonita 6 Ibid. es mi historia. a Chihuahua, 16.
14 PRESERVINGS 2020 feature The Tokmak Railway Mennonites in Russia
Conrad Stoesz
ixteen well-dressed men pose for much larger story of industrialization in towards fuller industrialization.2 In the Sa photo in the park in Berdiansk at Russia and how the state supported the 1860s and 1870s over 50 railway com- the head office of the Tokmak railway expanding transportation industry across panies were started in Russia and by the in Russia. These are the principal actors the country. mid-1870s private companies owned in what became the Tokmak railway in Russia was crisscrossed with a series of approximately 18,000 kilometres of southern Russia (present-day Ukraine). national, private, and cooperative ventures track. This expansion was made possible The Tokmak railway was built because of between the state and private companies by the state’s financial support, guaranteed the expanding agricultural surplus cre- that date back to the Tsarskoye Selo line, income from stock and bond capital, cred- ated by the region and the need to bring completed in 1837.1 After the Crimean its, loans, and the great authority given to it to market. Its construction fits into a War ended in 1856, Russia moved ahead companies in building and operating the MAID: MENNONITE HERITAGE ARCHIVES (MHA), 649.1 MAID: MENNONITE HERITAGE The principal actors in the establishment of the Tokmak railway included leading local industrialists.
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 15 MAID: MHA 649-9.0 - - - - - 8
7 In November 1890, Jacob married married Jacob 1890, November In Maria and Jacob son of Wall, George “Memoirs of George Wall (son of Jacob (son of Jacob Wall of George “Memoirs recounted George 1906–1994.” Wall) P. involve his father’s deal regarding a great Tokmak ment in the establishment of the Jacob to George, According railway. his step- bought the flour mill from the around father in Bolshoi-Tokmak bought large amounts of 1900. Jacob year and low was price the when fall in wheat clock, the around mill his operated then prof mill’s the tripling week, a days six States where they spent a year visiting and visiting a year they spent where States homestead but establishing a considered that believing Russia, to returned instead not and freedom much “too had America law.” enough they had and together Albrecht Maria bought land out Jacob children. seven immediately colony, side the Molotschna by estate owned Wintergrün east of the land This Goossen. Jacob uncle, Jacob’s total estate became the Marianovka the bought Later Jacob ing 6,700 acres. his father-in-law estate from Sandhof Katerinovka the to name its changed and of 4000 acres estate, which totaled estates (Wintergrün, three These land. situ were Katerinovka) and Marianovka, north Pologi, and Orekhov between ated colony. Molotschna the of in memories his of some compiled Wall, - - 5 Agriculture and agricultural agricultural and Agriculture 6 Brothers Johann Wall (1867–1934) (1867–1934) Wall Johann Brothers As in many regions of Russia, the the of Russia, regions As in many a wealthy family. After their father Peter father Peter After their family. a wealthy died, their mother (1843–1882) Wall (1844–1917) married Goossen Maria men in 1889, As young Wall. Gerhard to the United traveled and Johann Jacob rubles. grew regions Mennonite exportsthe from land was put into produc More rapidly. tion to meet the export Between demand. half on grown was wheat 1889 and 1879 rye, and oats with barley, area the crop so much With taking up the other half. than other crops, grown wheat being more had a the millers in these agricultural areas work. to which with grain of lot (1870–1922) came from Wall and Jacob economy in Molotschna was booming. booming. was in Molotschna economy in the M. Friesen, to Peter According 191 were in 1908 there district Halbstadt establishments industrial and commercial 1.2 million rubles, including worth over mills, driven and 27 motor 37 windmills printeries, 2 brickworks, 18 factories, 7 a shop, music and book a works, soap a and cheese fac photo studio, locksmith, district Gnadenfeld tories. Neighbouring at 493,750 valued had 100 establishments becoming personally involved. It was was It involved. personally becoming to of a bank for a president common of a railway the president also become company.
- -
3
4 PRESERVINGS 2020 Foreign interests, the Russian state, and the Russian interests, Foreign In the 1880s, the Russian state began began state the Russian the 1880s, In
Train stations, like the one in Tokmak, became gathering places for people in the community. places for gathering became the one in Tokmak, like stations, Train 16 the railways; bank personnel were also also were personnel bank railways; the on which interest was charged, benefit interest on which not the banks were ing the banks. But with holding the funds for only involved funds as needed. However, because such funds as needed. However, to a large amount of capital was needed start, a large influx of funds the banks had factor in the development of Russia’s vast vast Russia’s of development the in factor The banks would hold natural resources. out and dole the large initial investment and Germany (39%). Germany and crucial a as railway the saw banks Russian eign debts. In 1917 over 1,550 million 1,550 million 1917 over eign debts. In and creditors foreign to owed rubles were (48%) France of this, 87% was held by were twenty-nine new rail companies. To To new companies. rail twenty-nine were supportthe government this expansion for its pay to helped which bonds, sold creditor, and shareholder. The railway railway The shareholder. and creditor, expand rapidly across system continued to there 1917 1907 and Between Russia. By the 1890s the state began to regulate to regulate the 1890s the state began By private of construction maintenance and major partner, private a as acted and lines to buy the rail lines to help strengthen to help strengthen to buy the rail lines of the empire. the economic prospects had doubled from 2.4 to 4.8 million million 2.4 to 4.8 from had doubled increasingly was agriculture and people commercialized. becoming lines. In the thirty-year span between 1851 the thirty-year span between In lines. Russia New the population of and 1881 MAID: MHA, 650-008
Eleven young men, constituting the Tokmak Railroad band, posing for a photo with their musical instruments. Jacob Wall, who led the band, is seated in the middle with a baton. its. Around 1900 the Molotschna colony main rail routes that ran north-south. The carts pulled by one horse because there farmers were working 300,000 acres of southern portion of the Tokmak railway were few large earth moving machines land. To get grain and other products to ran through the northern portion of the at that time.14 Work began in the eastern the nearest port of Berdiansk, loads of Molotschna colony and just to the south portion of the line and as the line was laid wagons would make the 100-kilometre of the city of Tokmak and the three family trains already began steaming along the journey. A bit of rain made the dirt roads estates. There were nine major share- line, bringing workers and supplies to into a muddy mess. holders supporting the project including where work was taking place.15 When sand A railway was proposed that would Gerhard Wall, Johann Wall, Jacob P. Wall, was discovered on a 27-acre parcel of land run through the Molotschna colony to brothers Peter and Abram Ediger, Johann near Landskrone, a spur line was built to the port, but Wall’s son George said the Peters (architect), Mr. Gleckler, Mr. Foch, supply construction across the line with idea was rejected by regulators. Jacob Wall and Mr. Kleinert.9 The Russian Ministry sand. A huge dredge was brought in from was then encouraged to submit another of Transportation approved the project by Germany to dig the sand and dump it into application. Jacob took up the challenge telegram on 8 June 1910 and there was an awaiting rail cars. The dredge became a and presumably worked with architect organizational meeting of the sharehold- local attraction with tourists visiting the Johann Peters to design the eight stations ers on 21 June 1911. Total investment site to see the machines in action.16 A tele- and bridges and where the tracks would be was 1.75 million rubles10 plus debenture phone line was added along the rail line laid. The bigger stations included a house stock valuing 633,000 rubles, guaranteed that was to be finished by 1 April 1912.17 for the station agent, his family, switch- by the Russian state.11 Work began in the According to the family the railway was men, and other staff. The line would run fall of 1911.12 finished on Wall’s birthday, 27 July 1912, in a sideways “V” shape, with the open- Land was purchased from individuals, and there was a celebration.18 As part of ing on the west and the point of the “V” most of whom were willing to sell, as they the celebration, Jacob Wall hosted govern- joining at the station Tsarekonstantinovka saw the economic advantages for the line.13 ment officials for several days. Jacob was in the east. It intersected with two other Most of the work was done with small rewarded with an invitation to visit Tsar
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 17 MAID: MHA, 649-7.0 Nicholas II. Presumably Johann Peters was also given an invitation because he was presented with a gold medal from the tsar celebrating the Tokmak railway’s completion. In addition to bringing goods to and from the area, the train stations became gathering places for people. Henry Tiessen recalled, “As teenagers we often would go to the station and have a good time. At the station we always could buy a few refresh- ments and quench our hunger.... Of special interest was the locomotive repair shop. We watched how the big machines were turned around on a big swivel.”19 Not everyone was supportive of the rail- way. Some were concerned how the trains The Tokmak railroad led to more opportunities and financial success for Jacob Wall. He bought a spooked the horses, while others had more glass factory in Pologi and built a paper mill. serious concerns.20 While the railway also had a pleasure boat on the Sea of ress on this front but the agreements made made it easier to export goods to market, Azov, which he used to entertain busi- were worthless when the government it was also easier for unwanted influences ness guests. Jacob and his family lived nationalized the rail system in 1917. to enter the community. Johann Willms in Berdiansk where the children went to The Tokmak railway benefitted many of Hierschau, Molotschna, expressed school and in the summer lived at their Mennonite families and businesses, not concerns that the railway would encour- estate. The family employed servants at only those who were the shareholders. A age “bandits and other undesirables” to both residences. railway serving the Molotschna colony come into the region. During the Civil George Wall recounted how his father was a natural development as the country War, both Red and White armies used was a generous and kind man who gave became more industrialized and agri- armoured trains that could launch shells loans, extended credit, and helped people cultural exports grew. With the new rail six kilometres from the tracks.21 in need. Wall also built a school and hired system, their goods could be brought to The Tokmak railroad led to more a teacher in Novo-Karlovka because Wall market with much less effort and new opportunities and financial success for wanted to improve the literacy of the materials could be imported from out- Jacob Wall. He bought a glass factory in children in that place. People saw Wall side the colony. The expansive rail system Pologi and built a paper mill. He bought as successful and sought his advice on was supported by the Russian govern- another 2,500 acres that produced good finances and labour problems,22 since he ment, Russian banks, foreign investors, quality wheat. He imported Simmentoller had experience in labour issues when the and wealthy individuals. However, every- cows from Germany and work horses and workers on the railroad went on strike.23 thing changed for the people once the riding horses from England. Jacob Wall Early in 1914, according to his son, Wall Bolsheviks took control of all the rail lines. owned four cars and so, out of necessity, wanted to sell his holdings and take their The communities along the rail line still he also had his own mechanic, chauffeur, boat and start sheep farming in South benefitted from its service, but profits now machine shop, and gas station. Jacob Africa. Wall had made significant prog- went to the state.
1 V. V. Zhuravlyov, “Private railway companies in Russia Jacob%20P.%20family%20fonds.htm. 12 Huebert, 410. in the early twentieth century,” in Journal of Transport 9 George Wall. See also “Excerpts of maps showing the 13 George Wall, 5. History (1983): 51–54. Tokmak railway, Wintergruen , Marianovka, and Katerinovka 14 Henry B. Tiessen, The Molotschna Colony (Kitchener: Henry 2 James Urry, None but Saints: The Transformation of estates,” Jacob P. Wall fonds, MHA, vol. 5346, file 2. There is B. Tiessen, 1979), 78–79. Mennonite Life in Russia, 1789–1889 (Winnipeg: Hyperion, disagreement regarding who the shareholders were. In the 15 Huebert, 410. Press, 1989), 229. Tokmak railway photo album the shareholders are identified 16 Huebert, 410. 3 Urry, 229. as Mr. Foch, Mr. Glechlor Sr., Mr. Kleinart Jr., Mr. Kleinart Sr., 17 Huebert, 410. 4 Zhuravlyov, 51–54. Abraham Ediger, Gerhard Wall, Jacob Wall, Peter Ediger, 18 According to Huebert (p.410) the first trains ran 20 December 5 Ibid., 57–61. Johann Wall, and Mr. Glecklor Jr. 1913. George Wall (p. 1, 6) says the railway was finished on 6 Peter M. Friesen, The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia 10 Helmut T. Huebert, Mennonites in the Cities of Imperial Russia, Jacob Wall’s birthday, which was 27 July 1912. (Fresno: Board of Christian Literature, General Conference volume 2, (Winnipeg: Springfield Publishers, 2008), 410. 19 Tiessen, 78. of Mennonite Brethren Churches, 1980), 866–869. 11 Email from James Urry to author, 13 November 2008, which 20 Tiessen, 78. 7 George Wall, “Memoirs of George Wall (son of Jacob P. Wall) included an excerpt from the ”Parliamentary Paper of the 21 Huebert, 411. 1906–1994,” Mennonite Heritage Archives (hereafter MHA), British House of Commons 1912–1913,“ annual series of trade 22 Wall, 11. vol. 5346, file 1, page 3. reports: serial nos. 4827 to 5041, for the session 1912–1913 23 Huebert, 410. 8 Conrad Stoesz, “Jacob P. Wall fonds,” accessed July 26, 2019, (trade, navigation, shipping: annual and miscellaneous series), https://www.mharchives.ca/holdings/papers/Wall,%20 23. MHA, vol. 5465, file 8.
18 PRESERVINGS 2020 research article families. In 1709–11, an unanticipated opportunity appeared because of the devastating plague in East Prussia.3 The Great Plague depopulated large stretches Mennonite Settlers of land in northern East Prussia. In the northern regions of Memel, Tilsit, Ragnit, in Prussian Lithuania Insterburg, and Labiau, more than 53 percent of the population (160,000 inhabitants) died. Almost 11,000 farm Erwin Wittenberg & Manuel Janz settlements were desolated.4 In 1710, with Preface by Glenn Penner the plague still raging, the Prussian govern- ment became concerned over these empty tracts of land. During this period, we can he story of the Mennonites of Pauls, Siemens or Vogt, may be descended already find mention of “Mennonites” in TPrussian Lithuania has rarely been from one of the Lithuanian Mennonite a document discussing how to find people told. Most descendants of the Old families who settled in the Old Colony.1 of means who are capable of farming such Colony (Chortitza colony) are not aware Fortunately, part of the Lithuanian large tracts of land.5 of our connection to this group. These Mennonite church records was micro- At the same time, Mennonites remain- Mennonites (and the region where they filmed before they were destroyed at the ing in Switzerland endured strong threats lived) have been referred to by many end of World War Two, and transcriptions of persecution. The Anabaptist com- names – Plauschwarren (the location of are available.2 munities of Holland and Hamburg the church and name of the congregation), begged the Prussian King Friedrich I to Tilsit (the name of the nearby city), Memel intervene on their behalf; in response he (the name of the nearby river whose low- the first settlements advocated for the free emigration of the land the Mennonites settled), East Prussia At the beginning of the first half of Anabaptists. However, there is no indica- (the Prussian province where these places the seventeenth century, nearly 15,000 tion that Swiss Mennonites settled in East were located for most of the time that Mennonites lived in western Prussia Prussia. Instead, they chose to settle in Mennonites lived there), Gumbinnen (Polish Prussia, later West Prussia). By the Netherlands and in the United States (the name of the East Prussian district), the end of the seventeenth century, the of America. and Lithuania (the present-day country narrow Vistula Valley at Graudenz was The Mennonites of West Prussia and, for many centuries, the commonly overpopulated and more land was desper- and the Palatinate were invited by mes- used term for that general area). ately needed for the settlement of large sengers of the king to settle in Prussian
Nearly all of the Prussian Mennonite HAROLD DYCK immigrants to the Chortitza colony were from Flemish congregations. The Plauschwarren congregation was Frisian. As a result of the immigration of nearly 50 families with connections to Lithuania between 1788 and 1795, the Frisian congregation of Kronsweide was estab- lished. In the 1795 census of Chortitza colony, there were 257 families counted. This means that nearly one-fifth of the Chortitza colony settler families had previously been part of the Lithuanian Mennonite congregation. People who have ancestry in the Chortitza colony with names such as Arend, Banmann, Eds/Eitzen, Ewert, Falk, Franz, Froese, Funk, Goertzen, Harms, Heinrichs, Hiebert, Janzen, Kettler, Krause, Martens, Neufeld, Nickel, A map of the Mennonite region of Lithuania.
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 19 Lithuania. The king’s interest in the West strive to live a pious, quiet, and honorable brought from the Vistula and the Werder Prussian Mennonites probably arose from life wherever they are.”9 Astonishingly, in helped them to overcome their difficulties reports originating from the Polish area. 1721 sixty thousand Hufen10 of unset- and have “significant achievements” (as Mennonites had developed a reputation tled land in Prussian Lithuania was state documents confirm) in reclaiming for being competent and industrious still available.11 the former desert-like, uncultivated land, farmers who could transform uncultiv- prone to flooding without the security ated areas, often wetlands, into productive origin of the settlers of dams or ditches. At their own expense agricultural land. In overpopulated West The state archives of Berlin have they drained the low-lying land by digging Prussia Mennonites showed great interest detailed information about new settlers ditches. In 1718 they dammed the Alte in the king’s invitation. They were to settle to the region, such as names, spouses, ages Gilge in Sköpen.15 in enclosed areas: “These Mennonites are of the children, places of origin, as well as The quality of the land, which was not to be scattered over the land ... but conditions of ownership. However, this especially suited for pasturing and graz- live as closely as possible to one another was not the case for Mennonite settlers. ing cattle, as well as their own ingenuity in adjacent districts.”6 Nonetheless, from legal files of the 1720s helped Mennonites to become extremely In 1713, the first Mennonite settlers it can be concluded that Mennonites from successful farmers. They were trailblazers from Polish West Prussia arrived in the the Vistula Valley arrived from Graudenz particularly in the area of cheesemaking. Tilsit Valley. The Prussian government and Kulm (congregations of Schönsee, Within a five-year period, by 1723, informed the king that these were not Montau and Przechowka), but also from they had increased the production of Swiss Mennonites,7 but rather they ori- the Vistula Delta (around Elbing and “Mennonite Cheese” by 245 percent (or ginated from the neighboring diocese Danzig).12 370,000 kg).16 Within a short period of of Kulm. Among the settlers one could Families settled under difficult condi- time Mennonites were so well respected find not only Frisian Mennonites, but tions in the Memel Valley. Although they by the officials in the area that in 1723 the also some Flemish. They were allowed found suitable pastureland, they had to president of the war and dominion office to settle in one of three outlying villages: build their houses and barns at their own told the general director, “the Lowlands Alt and Neu Sköpen as well as Neusorge. expense. This was evident from a report would be considerably improved if more In their contract, these Mennonites were by a delegation of Mennonites from the Mennonites would move there.” They given far-reaching rights: freedom to Danzig congregation which travelled were viewed as being not only capable practise their religion, as well as freedom to East Prussia in June 1714 to visit the farmers, but also as leading a “humble and from all military service, billeting, and “new congregation in Samland.” Although sober lifestyle.”17 military obligations for themselves, their they founded “a beautiful congregation, descendants and their servants. They consisting of over three hundred fifty church revival were allowed to buy and operate a mill, to brothers and sisters” – approximately one Some people who belonged to other fish in their waters, to brew brown beer, hundred families – their living conditions faith-based groups were attracted to the and to have up to three beehives without were “wretched.” The report described the Mennonite faith. This was especially true paying taxes, as well as operate a ferry. situation as follows: “They have beautiful of the domestic help that had come to This contract was drawn up for thirty estates; however, they are without build- Lithuania with Mennonite farmers. The years with forty-two tenants. In 1714 ings and most of them have to build their congregation in the Memel Lowland is Mennonite families from Polish Prussia own homes; on the whole they are poor, the only one of the Mennonite congrega- took over the outpost Calwen.8 owning nothing. We found many fam- tions in East and West Prussia in which a It appears that the first Mennonites ilies living in old barns, many on fields in significant number of conversions to the farmed successfully, as in subsequent years small huts.” It also anticipated that more Mennonite faith took place.18 The rest of more families moved to the region. In 1718 Mennonite families from West Prussia the Mennonite congregations were not the “Preussische Teutsche Amtskammer” would arrive in the region because of the particularly keen on these conversions announced that Mennonites from Poland situation in Poland.13 Finally the report because they were not accustomed to wanted to settle in Königsberg or in the communicated that the settlement could recruiting members of other confessions. country. However, this particular petition only develop by “receiving much encour- This trait was obvious in a letter to the was denied by the government, although agement and financial aid from the Dutch Lithuanians sent on 21 April 1724 by the Mennonites received a positive evalu- Mennonite Church.”14 congregation in Amsterdam. It stated that ation as having “people of good means Under these conditions, some the baptism of those belonging to other among them.” On the whole, however, Mennonites gave up and left. Already in confessions was very seldom performed the Prussian government continued to the first year of settlement they suffered a and should only be done with the utmost press forward with repopulation. On 4 flood in the region of Kuckerneese and as a caution. December 1721, Mennonites were again result had to plead for a suspension of their The Lutheran congregations of the invited to settle in Prussia “since they tax payments. However, the skills they had Memel Lowland protested strongly
20 PRESERVINGS 2020 against these apostates and demanded an such a “rogue nation” that did not want we want to be obedient to the holy will of investigation by the state. Also, Berend to become soldiers and Mennonites were God and ask to which place we are called. Janson from Brattwin near Graudenz asked to leave the country.22 Although We do not yet know where we are going, denounced the Mennonite congregation they had cancelled their rental contracts, but we want to leave that up to our God. for attempting to convert people to the they did not expect to be expelled from He will take pity on us and give us the faith. He had been excommunicated from the country. ways and means to do this according to that congregation but his son, Berend, had A report from the War and Dominion his will. We want to immerse ourselves moved to the Memel Lowland and had Chamber in December 1723 provides evi- completely into his holy will and leave re-joined the religious community. An dence that Mennonites had paid 3,604 everything behind, begging and pleading investigation was conducted over several Taler in rent as required.23 Furthermore, that, through the strength we receive from weeks in June 1772 by a representative of the chamber explained that a substitute Christ, he will make us worthy and skillful the state from Königsberg. Another case for this amount could hardly be obtained to bear all our trials in the faith patiently under investigation was that of adultery elsewhere. In February of 1724 the cham- in order to honor him.”29 against the Mennonite Hans Quapp. He ber pointed out that Mennonites should Despite these words, there was great had impregnated his maid and then fled be compensated for their investments confusion among Mennonites. A number to Poland. A report about the case is still because they had built their houses with of the settlers left several weeks before available in the state archives of Berlin. It their own means.24 the deadline. As Penner wrote, “Already not only includes sixty names and accur- Mennonites were unsure of their next twenty families have left, but only the ate information about possessions and destination. They wished to remain young, who do not yet possess any of the origins, but also paints a lively picture of together, but they were aware that this king’s property.”30 It was assumed that events during that time.19 might not be possible.25 During the first more would follow in order to be “divided months of 1724, the congregation in up between the congregations in the Klein expulsion of 1724 Danzig, the congregations in Holland, and and the Gross Werder, in Schönsee and For Mennonites, this investigation the congregation that was to be expelled in Danzig.”31 “In addition some [of the of conversions had a tolerable outcome: desperately tried to find a permanent place expelled] escaped to the Netherlands.”32 under pressure from the Lutheran consis- for the exiled. Those exiled favored emi- Several people of the congregation who tory and with dire threats of punishment grating to Holland because they feared were not yet baptized (converts), secretly they were warned not to tolerate or accept reprisals if they settled in Polish Prussia fled – probably sometime during 1724 – any members of another confession in (especially because they had converts and asked for baptism in Amsterdam.33 their congregations. However, dark clouds from the Catholic and Lutheran churches Finally, several members of the congrega- were beginning to form. In February among them).26 The congregations in tion remained in the country incognito, and September 1723, the Prussian mil- Holland, however, refused this solution. which is evident through entries in itary tried to forcibly recruit young They advised them to delay the emigration Evangelical Church records of that time. Mennonites. They attempted to incor- to Poland as long as possible because of the No reasons were given as to why this porate sixteen young Mennonites into the threat of persecution, and then to move to happened.34 elite unit of large soldiers called the “Tall “the Gross and Klein Werder, to Schönsee A number of the wealthy families Fellows” (langen Kerls). Two Mennonites and other places.” Financial support from could rent or buy land, at least in their were especially mistreated, probably congregations in Hamburg and Danzig congregations of origin in West Prussia. because they were former Lutherans.20 was guaranteed.27 The king’s deadline for But to house practically destitute refugee The incarcerated Mennonites remained the expulsion was extended from 1 May to families (two compilations of the Dutch true to their faith principles. George 10 June 1724 (Trinity Day). On this date support funds of 1724 and 1726 list 115 Grubert describes the pain and torture to one hundred sixty Mennonite families – families)35 proved to be a challenge for which they were exposed as their beards approximately three hundred fifty to four the Dutch and West Prussian congrega- were forcefully cut off and for many days hundred people28 – were supposed to leave tions. Nevertheless, the West Prussian they received no food or water. This report the Tilsit Valley. congregations showed willingness to shows the strength of the faith of these David Penner, an elder of the help. In the congregation of Thiensdorf young men (“they can do no more to us Mennonite Church in Prussian Lithuania, each landowner agreed to provide hous- than what God allows”).21 Although they wrote the following letter in March 1724 ing for one family as well as grazing land were set free, Mennonites were no longer shortly before the expulsion from East for two cows. In Elbing’s Klein Werder, sure of their rights. In response, they can- Prussia: “Now, worthy and beloved friends forty-five destitute families could hardly celled their rental contracts with the king in the Lord Jesus, according to the holy be accommodated and another eighteen in case their rights would not be respected. will of our God, it is no longer possible settled there temporarily. Eleven families Friedrich Wilhelm I did not hesitate in to do anything else except to leave this found temporary accommodation in his response. He had no patience with country. With all our heart, like Abraham, the Gross Werder, another twenty-three
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 21 families in “Culmschen,”36 thirteen fam- Nooden (Committee for Foreign Needs) desert-like land where only straw and mud ilies in “Montauschen,” and two families is found in the Mennonite archives in had existed.43 in the District of Danzig. The makeshift Amsterdam. It describes the situation of The hope of some Mennonites that accommodation must have lasted longer Mennonites in Schönsee around the year the count would successfully intervene than a year and the situation was described 1730.40 The other half of the refugee fam- soon proved to be misguided. All one as “extremely difficult.” It was especially ilies who found shelter in the Culm region hundred fifty persons had to leave the difficult for approximately forty com- (at least ten of the twenty-three families country by Friday before Trinity day. They pletely destitute families. listed)41 accepted the offer – together with moved along the Memel toward Poland those expelled from other congregations – and camped in the fields. Finally, they marienburger werder to resettle in the area of Prussian Lithuania were allowed to stay in Prussia for three On 10 November 1724, two immi- and Dannenberg. months in order to sell their possessions. grants from Prussian Lithuania purchased Some Mennonites, however, had already two thirds of Tragheimerweide from rep- dannenberg left on their own. At the end of 1732 sev- resentatives of Große Werder for 2,200 Likely in the fall and winter of 1726– eral Mennonites had left the Dannenberg Prussian guilders and became the founders 27 forty impoverished families had the region (Rautenburgische Güter) including of the last large Mennonite settlement in opportunity to settle as renters on the those who did not immigrate to Holland. West Prussia. estate Rautenburg belonging to Count In the dukedom of Rautenburg no In the same year, fourteen Hufen Truchsess in Waldburg, East Prussia. The Mennonite family names appear on a list from Rudnerweide were allocated to exact time period is not given anywhere, of farmers from the year 1752.44 Mennonites from the Tilsit Valley. but most sources assume it was “shortly Interestingly, Königsberg developed Further pastureland in Schweingrube, after they were expelled.” The later differently: here the magistrate intervened Zwanzigerweide, Montauerweide, Dannenberg settlers are still reported to to stop the expulsion of Mennonites. Zieglershuben, and Klein and Gross be in their original regions in a list from 10 The city leaders had emphasized that Schardau was entrusted to Mennonites. October 1726. However, in a letter of 19 Mennonites distilled the best liquor, A closed settlement, therefore, began March 1727, Dirk Wiechert, the teacher paid a lot of taxes and were important for in the second quarter of the eighteenth of the Frisian congregation of Schönsee, the economy. They were wool-combers, century. A congregation with a Frisian reported that several families had moved silk-dyers, had several weaving looms, outlook was formed. It became known to Lithuania and settled on thirty Hufen.42 and gave nourishment and bread to as “the Lithuanian congregation in Therefore, a significant number of the fifty-two evangelical journeymen. Even Schweingrube.”37 At first the new congre- Dannenberg settlers must have arrived those Mennonite Königsbergers who had gation was situated in Schweingrube, later from Schönsee and the surrounding area. already sold their possessions and left the it moved to Tragheimerweide. Already Obviously not all the families belonged to country were allowed to return.45 in 1728 it received permission from the the Frisian group. Based on the similar- Bishop of Kulm to construct a church ity of their names, however, it is probable immigration to holland building. Originally most of these settlers that members of the Old-Flemish con- Due to the expulsion of these families, came from the congregations of Montau gregation of Przechowka were among the the Dannenberg settlers were split up once and Schönsee.38 settlers. Furthermore, the congregation at again. The earlier plan to go together to Dannenberg later called itself the “Frisian, Polish Lithuania, about ten to fifteen jeziorken Flemish and High German congregation miles away from Tilsit, was discarded In 1726, twenty-three families from of Dannenberg.” after a short time.46 About half of the Prussian Lithuania settled in the region of Dannenbergers, 24 families altogether, Culm (congregation Schönsee). Some of renewed expulsion (another source speaks of 29 families or them bought or rented land in the vicinity. In 1732, these Mennonites also received 180 souls)47 decided to settle in Holland In 1727, twelve families from the Old- the expulsion order of the Prussian king. while the rest moved to the Werder or Flemish congregation of Schönsee took At this point immigrants from Salzburger turned north toward Polish Lithuania. over a deserted strip of land (possibly near had arrived, and the king probably Those who went to Holland had the area of Jeziorken). They had origin- thought he did not need this difficult planned to return to their area of origin ally planned to move to Lithuania, but group of Mennonites. Count Truchseß permanently. However, their trip to then changed their plan. Financially over- of Waldburg, who had put Mennonites in Holland turned out to be extraordinar- extended, they had to plead for help from charge of his estates, advocated for them. ily difficult. In November 1732 several Holland several times.39 Pastors Heinrich Several times he spoke favorably about people had been asked to check out the Nickel and Gabriel Frantz were among Mennonites to the king. He also men- land in Wageningen. In December 1732, these settlers. Their correspondence with tioned the damage this renewed expulsion the deal was closed. In the meantime, the Dutch Commissie voor Buitenlandsche would cause as they had made fertile the those who had been expelled were on
22 PRESERVINGS 2020 This is one of the oldest documents related to the Mennonite Settlement in Prussian Lithuania. the ship going to Holland. Just before Prussia again. Only a few members of the tions and persecutions. Collections were Christmas, their situation took a dramatic Block, Grunau, Lucht and Pauls families taken up for the congregations in Danzig turn. On 20 December 1732, their ship stayed in Walcheren. In later years some of (1660), Poland (1662), Moravia (1665), was stranded due to ice floes and the set- the family members who had left returned Switzerland (1672), and the Palatinate tlers had to be rescued. They found shelter to Walcheren. This is evident from (1674 and 1678). At the beginning of the in just a few rooms. Following this event, the entries in the church records of the eighteenth century collections were taken they settled in Wageningen and on the Mennonite congregation of Middelburg up for the congregations in Polish Prussia. Island of Walcheren. from 1742 to 1759. The reason for setting up a permanent From the beginning, however, their stay fund was the oppression experienced in in Holland was destined to fail. Already dutch aid Polish Prussia that caused Mennonites to by 1736, the settlers in Wageningen had The Dutch Relief Fund for Foreign immigrate to Prussian Lithuania. moved away, some back to Prussia, others Needs played an important role in sup- Those controlling the fund blamed the to Walcheren. In 1738–39 almost all the porting the expelled Mennonites of 1724 failure of the settlers in Wageningen and Walcheren settlers turned their backs on and 1732. The Mennonites in Poland, Walcheren on the stubbornness of the East the land of their dreams. By 1739, most Switzerland, the Palatinate, and Prussia Prussian Mennonites. For this reason, of the families could be found in West were subjected to countless recrimina- in 1744, it was decided not to support
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 23 HAROLD DYCK
Many members of the Mennonite congregation in the Memel Valley participated in the immigration to South Russia. anyone who resettled out of their own free enlightened monarch advocated for the included: the freedom to practise their will. Only those who were expelled and return of Mennonites to his domain. religion and permission for a building for thus impoverished due to their faith or Already on 14 August 1740 an invitation this purpose; the right to choose the lead- to circumstances beyond their control was issued.48 It was to be printed in the ers and teachers of their confession; the (such as war, flooding, and fire) would weekly announcement notices or distrib- right to perform their own church disci- receive support. uted in the so-called Intelligenzzetteln. The pline; and freedom from military service. The Amsterdam Commission also Prussian representatives were to announce According to an inspection of the land, received word that some of the settlers who this invitation in Danzig and the Hague.49 it was in terrible shape. A report from had fled Lithuania had secretly returned On 3 March 1741, the Chamber of Labiau dated May 18, 1740 shows the to Prussian Lithuania before 1740. The War and Domains suggested the land conditions of that time. It stated that the commission sharply condemned this belonging to the farms of Seckenburg, livestock and the horses could not be put independent action and decided that these Ginkelsmittel, and Polenzhof as well as out to pasture but had to be fed in their settlers could not count on support from those in Friedrichsgraben be made avail- stalls.51 There was also a lack of feed, and the Dutch Relief Fund for Foreign Needs. able to the newly arrived Mennonites flooding in the region. Because of these from Prussian Poland. The contract adversities, and because they had brought friedrichsgraben of 21 November 1741,50 was signed by their own building material for houses and The situation of Mennonites in Abraham Görtzen and Michael Schütt barns, Mennonite settlers were granted a Prussia changed radically when Frederick and named 32 tenants for the farms. The tax-free year. the Great came to power in 1740. The most important promises of the contract The difficulties in this region con-
24 PRESERVINGS 2020 tinued. Crop failures contributed to of cattle, no land of their own, and high 1758, 1759, and 1763 there are names many renters not being able to pay payments to make. which are designated “aus Littauen”. It their taxes. In June 1744, Jan Pauls, Unfortunately, the documents yield is obvious that the ties of the congrega- Jan Görtzen, Salomon Kohnert and no information as to which families had tion Thiensdorf to the Plauschwarren Cornelius Gronau from the Marienburg already left the land and which ones were congregation were especially strong due area reported that they and their fellow cit- still waiting for a favorable decision from to the fact that so many brothers of the izens could now also settle in Seckenburg the Prussian ruler. It can be verified that faith had settled there in 1724. Eventually because the Mennonite settlers could not nine families that settled in the region the West Prussian congregations arrived pay their taxes and were in danger of losing of Friedrichsgraben were tenants in at the conclusion that it was a significant their land.52 various places in the Memel Valley. It is burden for them to lead the congregation In December 1746 Mennonite set- known that one family went to Holland from such a distance. In 1769, a meet- tlers were exempted from outstanding (Walcheren). ing in the Stuhmsche (Schweingrube/ payments, but the conditions for how In spite of these difficult circumstances Tragheimerweide) congregation was this should happen were not accepted. the congregation seems to have survived. arranged and it was determined that On 8 May 1747, the head landholder In the first Mennonite list of names of con- the trips for the elder were difficult and Posser demanded that Mennonites leave gregational leaders (Naamlijst) of 1743 the costly. The Plauschwarren congregation their farms within eight days and pay congregation Litauen was already men- was given permission to elect its own elder. their debts, otherwise their possessions tioned. It belonged to the “Waterländern” In 1767 the congregation in (buildings and livestock) would be auc- (Frisians). The church elders were Adrian Plauschwarren was able to build its own tioned off and their land given to others. Sievert (Siebert) and Hans Vooth (Voth), church. The document of permission Consequently, Mennonites tried to pay pastors Hendrik Dirksz (Dirks), and from the Prussian king stated: “According their debts with the help of money lend- Hendrik Casper.55 There was also evidence to our all gracious lord, the kingly majesty ers (probably the businessman Brunwish of pastors during the years after they left of Prussia, Mennonites and inherent rent- from Königsberg), but they were not the region of Friedrichsgraben. ers of the outlying estate Plauschwarren successful. The sale went on, “over their in the region of Belgrade in Prussia, have heads, and everything was sold dirt cheap.” the church with all due respect, petitioned that in On 15 December 1747, the contract It is interesting to compare family names order to practise their free religious exer- was dissolved and in May 1748 other in the church records of Plauschwarren cises as per rental agreement and with the settlers took their place. The documents after 1769 with those of the expelled set- gracious agreement of permitting them do not indicate where these Mennonites tlers of 1724. It is evident that about half to have their own schoolmaster, would went. At the beginning of 1748 they sent the expelled families never returned to request that on the aforementioned estate, a petition to the Prussian king. According East Prussia. Also, some of the settlers of at their own expense, they would build a to this petition, 50 families originally from 1741 left the country because of difficult house of prayer and a school class room. Polish Prussia had settled on this land. circumstances. The number of Mennonite Considering the given circumstances, his Due to incidents, it was reported, 50 souls families in Prussian Lithuania after 1769 kingly majesty, seeing that neither the had already moved away. The rest were and especially after the exodus to Russia Prussian government nor the Gumbian left completely impoverished and would in 1789 diminished greatly, even though military domain office has objected, gra- have to leave their land. An offer to settle some new family names were added. ciously concedes this request. Not alone in other places (Prussian Lithuania) was Close ties between the congregation the request of constructing a house of not possible because those concerned in Plauschwarren and congregations in prayer and a classroom, but we also grant were impoverished. They pleaded that West Prussia were maintained. At special them all the rights and freedom of other they should receive the same conditions occasions such as a baptism or voting for a similar houses of prayer here in Prussia. as the “new” landowners, paying 13 church elder in Plauschwarren, at least one However, it must be understood that, Taler per Hufe instead of the required elder from West Prussia was in attendance. like other houses of prayer, they must 30 Taler per Hufe. Furthermore, other In the beginning, the Plauschwarren con- keep their rental agreement and give Mennonites “from their West Prussian gregation was not allowed to vote for their their dues to the Tilsit church as well as to colony” were interested in settling in own church elder. The West Prussian con- other churches and those serving in the Prussian Lithuania.53 In a petition of 23 gregations were too concerned that (as in schools, as per the rental agreement. If January 175054 they informed the Prussian 1724) they would be forced to support this this agreement is kept, then the Prussian king in great detail about the wrong that congregation due to some rash or thought- government and its offices must pledge had been done to them and noted that less action. In earlier entries for baptism in to obediently and respectfully protect, as twenty families had already left their land. the congregation Thiensdorf (transferred needed, the aforementioned Mennonites They were now only 34 families and were to the church records of the congrega- and renters of the estate Plauschwarren. suffering because they only had 320 head tion Orlofferfelde) during the years of May it be witnessed that this present
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 25 concession is signed by us and imprinted then purchased the estate for 25,000 Taler. outside the Mennonite faith (especially to with our royal seal. Thus, taking place The congregation bought the residence a Lutheran partner) had increased among and determined in Berlin, July 31, 1767. for 1,000 Taler. Mennonites of the Memel Valley. In 1765 Friedrich (L.S.).”56 A number of factors affected the growth two out of three marriages occurred out- Soon after this decree (around 1776) a of the congregation. Like everywhere at side the fold. A mutual prohibition in the pastor’s office (Predigtstube) was prepared this time, the death rate of children in the West and East Prussian congregations was in Grigolienen. This property was bought Mennonite community was extremely not, however, obtainable. and shared by seven Mennonite families. high. In the first ten years during which The stately residence with nearby fields church record dates are available (1769– immigration to south was purchased by the Elder Heinrich 78) there were no fewer than 70 children russia Janz. On 1 May 1776,57 the congregation (ages not noted) listed among the 105 Many members of the Mennonite bought a room from him which was to deceased. In 1782, a year in which there congregation in the Memel Valley partici- serve as a pastor’s office. were especially many deaths, 35 children pated in the immigration to South Russia The room in Grigolienen proved to out of 40 died, and at least 16 were below beginning in 1789. At least 40 families be too small and the congregation soon the age of seven. Jacob Ewert (born ca. from the congregation Plauschwarren searched for a larger space. The owner of 1755), for example, experienced the searched for a new home in the Chortitza the estate known as Adlig Pokraken had deaths of seven of his fourteen children. region. This resulted in the loss of one to sell it due to difficult economic circum- Another factor which slowed church third of its adult members. Mostly young stances and it was purchased by Dietrich growth was the so called “Außentrau” families emigrated. Out of forty-three new Janz, an elder of the congregation. He soon (outside marriage). In a report in 1789, young couples, twenty remained in East encountered financial difficulties and lost the Elder Heinrich Jantzen complained Prussia, and twenty-three immigrated to everything he owned. Four Mennonites that since 1775 the tendency to marry South Russia.
1 Henry Schapansky’s book Mennonite Migrations and the 19 GStAPK, XX. HA, EM 38d, Nr.29 (Investigation report of 1722). Kirchheimbolanden 1978, 407f. Old Colony (2006) provides some details on which of the 20 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam C706 and C713. 36 Ibid. Penner lists these families as “in Stuhmschen” which is Chortitza colony settlers had Lithuanian connections. 21 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam C713, 3. probably a misspelling. Culmschen refers to the Schoensee 2 http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia 22 GStAPK, II.HA, Abt.7, XCI Nr.6101. congregation and Montauschen to the Montau congregation. PlauschwarrenBirths1769-1855.pdf, http://www.mennonite 23 Ibid. Both were Frisian Mennonite congregations. genealogy.com/prussia PlauschwarrenBaptisms1771-1862. 24 Ibid. 37 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam 1632. Letter of Jan van Hoek pdf,http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/ 25 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam C724 from 1.4.1724. (Danzig) from October 1736. PlauschwarrenMarriages1778-1862.pdf,http://www. 26 Ibid. 38 Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, Horst mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/Plauschwarren 27 Antje Brons, Ursprung, Entwicklung und Schicksale Quiring and Nanne van der Zijpp, accessed on the 14.4.2017. Deaths1769-1869.pdf der Taufgesinnten oder Mennoniten in kurzen Zügen 39 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam A 1581. Letter from Peter Bekker 3 This article has been translated and adapted from übersichtlich dargestellt von Frauenhand, Norden 1884, 27. from Schönsee 9.3.1727. Erwin Wittenberg and Manuel Janz, “Geschichte der 28 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam C733. 40 Herbert Wiebe, Daß Siedlungswerk niederländischer mennonitischen Siedler in Preussisch Litauen,” Mennonitische 29 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam C720; the Elder of the Mennoniten im Weichseltal, dissertation, Marburg/ Geschichtsblaetter 74 (2017): 73–97. congregation David Penner in a letter in March 1724 shortly Lahn 1952, 11. 4 Andreas Kossert, Ostpreußen. Geschichte und Mythos, before the expulsion from East Prussia. 41 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam C844. (Munich 2008), 108. 30 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam C734, Letter of David 42 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam A 1581. 5 GStAPK, II.HA, Abt.7 II, Nr.7971. Penner, May 18, 1724. 43 GStAPK II.HA, Abt.7, Ostpreußen II. Nr.6102 Acta wegen 6 Erich Randt, Die Mennoniten in Ostpreussen und Litauen bis 31 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam C737. Wegschaffung der Mennonisten aus Preußen, 1732. zum Jahre 1722, Königsberg 1912 (contains the rescript of 32 Johan Sjouke Postma, Das niederländische Erbe der 44 Horst Kenkel, Bauern der Rautenburgischen Güter 1752, 1.7. 1711 on p.8). preußisch-russländischen Mennoniten in Europa, Asien und Verein für Familienforschung in Ost-und Westpreußen, 7 GStAPK, II. HA, Hofkammer, Tit.45, Nr.6. Amerika. Dissertation, Marburg/Lahn 1958. Altpreußischer Geschlechterkunde 1959,143-148. 8 Wilhelm Mannhardt, Die Wehrfreiheit der altpreussischen 33 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam C735, Letter of 9.3.1725. 45 GStAPK. Also see Gemeentearchief Amsterdam A 1581. Mennoniten. Denkschrift, Marienburg 1863,118. 34 Furthermore, it seems that some East Prussian settlers 46 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam C752f. 9 GStAPK I. HA, Rep.7, Nr.68. of 1724 did not leave, but rather stayed in the country. 47 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam C758. 10 1 Hufe (pl. Hufen) = 30 Morgen = 41 acres. In the Evangelical Church records, one finds occasional 48 GStAPK, II. HA,Rep.5. Title 151, No.17. Also see 11 GStAPK, II. HA, Hofkammer, Tit.45, Nr.7. mention of “ex-Mennonite” or “part Mennonite.” In 1729 the Gemeentearchief Amsterdam A 1581. 12 Art. Lithuania, in Mennonite Encyclopedia Glenn H. Penner, Mennonite, Peter Jahnke, (who later settled in the district 49 Randt, Die Mennoniten, 77. Also see GStAPK, II.HA, Mennonites Expelled from Lithuania in 1724 (Internet, called of Friedrichsgraben and in Plauschwarren) had settled in Abt.7 II, Nr.7971. up on the 15.2.2012): Mennonites from various Frisian Hohenwiese. In 1731 an infant of the “part” Mennonite Greger 50 GStAPK, II. HA, Gen. Dir., OPR and Litauen III. AEmter Nr.391. congregations in West Prussia began settling in what is Fryer and his Mennonite wife Anna is baptized in Neukirch. In 51 Randt, Die Mennoniten,88. now Lithuania in 1713. Even Randt stated that the settlers Killucken (church records of Kaukehmen) the birth of Helena 52 GStAPK,92. Also see Randt, Die Mennoniten,77. in Sköpen, Neu-Sorge and Calwen originated “from the Rosenfeld, daughter of Dietrich and Anna Rosenfeld is noted. 53 Ibid. Weichsel Valley (Weichseltal)". Randt, Die Mennoniten, 11. Relating to Jedwilleiten, a report of 1892 declares that “the 54 Ibid. 13 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam AA C701, letter of the Elder of forebears of Peter Goetzke did not emigrate and they have 55 Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, the Danzig congregation, July 13,1714. had a canton’s position since 1740.” Other names found in 1957 Article, Horst Quiring and Nanne van der Ziipp, 14 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam C 720, letter of 5.3.1724. the list of the exiled of 1726, are Peter Goetzke, at that time accessed 16.4.2017. 15 Randt, Die Mennoniten, 24. settling in the Gross Werder and Jakob Goetzke, settling in 56 Wilhelm Crichton, Zur Geschichte der Mennoniten, 16 Ibid, 28. the Klein Werder. Königsberg 1786, insertion B. 17 Ibid, 29. 35 Horst Penner, Die ost-und westpreußischen Mennoniten 57 Church Records B 787,165. 18 Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, Horst in ihrem religiösen und sozialen Leben, in ihren kulturellen Quiring and Nanne van der Zijpp, accessed 14.4.2016. und wirtschaftlichen Leistungen, Teil:1526 bis 1722,
26 PRESERVINGS 2020 research article Board in Washington, D. C., Fast and other volunteers began collecting boxes of clothing and bedding. During his many trips to Seattle, Fast found support and Martin B. Fast hospitality from J. F. Harms and his wife. The two men had much in common as in Civil War Siberia Harms had also served as editor of the Mennonitische Rundschau (1880–1886) and, like Fast, had previously toured his Katherine Peters Yamada Russian homeland, visiting many congre- gations. After the First World War, Harms This is the second part of a two-part series on the life of also took on a prominent role in the pro- Martin B. Fast. For Part I, see Preservings issue 39. motion of relief work to alleviate the suffering among Russian Mennonites.3
MLA P-0162 Fast wanted to follow the crates to their The letters came back to Reedley after Siberian destination, but he did not have wandering around the globe for a year and travel money or a passport. On his return a half. To his surprise, the rubles were still to Reedley, he found a letter from Harms, in the envelopes and he deposited them in urging him to follow the shipment. Reedley’s First National Bank vault. Fast shared this proposal with his wife He, along with many other Mennonite and together they prayed for guidance. families in the Reedley area, began Then, a letter from Kansas arrived with receiving even more urgent appeals from an anonymous offer to pay his expenses. Siberian Mennonites. Due to the ongoing At the county courthouse in Fresno he Civil War in this territory vital supplies, learned that very few passports were being including warm clothing necessary to issued. Putting his faith in God’s guidance, survive the coming winter, were scarce. he sent in the application and despite the Although he had long before given up his clerk’s warning his new passport arrived desire to be a foreign missionary, Fast felt some three weeks later. Many came to bid that he could address this tangible mis- him farewell and old friends from his days sion need by providing warm clothing. in the Midwest and new friends he made He wrote to the American Red Cross, the in California sent “fitting wishes for a safe Quakers, and the Old Mennonites and trip and blessings on his work.”4 learned that clothing could indeed be sent to Siberia.1 on the pacific The logistical challenges were discussed Fast had planned to travel with Martin B. Fast, who immigrated to the United in Mennonite publications. Some recom- Wilhelm Neufeld of the First Mennonite States with his family in the 1870s, was a key figure mended that the clothing be shipped via Church in Reedley. However, two days in Mennonite aid to Russia during the Civil War. the Atlantic Ocean. Fast, however, argued before Fast was to leave, his intended travel that items sent that way would not reach partner told him, “Brother Fast, the wind fter the First World War ended in their intended Siberian destination. After has shifted at our place.” Instead, Neufeld A1918, a Civil War continued to rage making inquiries in San Francisco, he was making plans to visit his daughter, a in Russia. Although he was no longer learned that the items could be sent to missionary in China.5 Despite this set- affiliated with any publications, Martin Seattle, Washington, and then be shipped back, Fast was determined to proceed on Fast continued corresponding with – and directly to Vladivostok on a Russian his perilous journey. On the last day of sending contributions to – Mennonites freighter by the Pacific Ocean. Fast pro- June 1919, Fast left San Francisco on the in Russia, including those in the Siberian posed such a route within Mennonite Shinyo Maru. The next morning Fast saw colonies. From Reedley, he watched as the newspapers and many approved of this some familiar faces onboard, including financial conditions in Russia worsened. approach and soon boxes of clothing and Dr. R. A. Torrey, an evangelist, pastor, and Advised to send Russian rubles, Fast pur- bedding began arriving in Seattle.2 writer, who had recently been appointed chased several, sending them in registered After obtaining official permission dean of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. letters. He waited for answers to no avail. (Number 44451) from the War Trade During the one-week sail to Honolulu,
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 27 Fast, Torrey and others conversed about- his belongings inspected, he stepped out Work, Gratis,” to his Russian visa, assur- the teachings and basic beliefs of the onto dry land. “For good or evil, I was now ing him that the crates could enter the Mennonites, including non-resistance in the land of banishment (exile), a place country duty free.11 The second was from and foot washing.6 which nearly every Russian thinks of with P. A. Wiebe, a church official in Lehigh, After a few hours onshore in Honolulu, horror and fear.’’9 He was back in Russia, Kansas,12 who had been “moved by the the passengers re-boarded the Shinyo ready to help his fellow Mennonites in the spirit’’ to send Fast a recommendation Maru. During the eleven-day crossing to settlements near Omsk. signed and stamped with a church seal.13 Fast was grateful for both documents and found them helpful when he was making arrangements to ship the crates to Omsk. But he quickly discovered that the documents were of no value at the customs house. There he discovered that the crates had arrived much earlier and were buried deep in the building. After a lengthy search, he was happy to see the big ‘W’ that he and Harms had drawn on each one. He walked along the rows of crates, touching each one. “So many people in America had prayed for these crates. And now I could welcome them in Russia.’’14 Informed by customs officials that he would have to pay full duties on From Vladivostok, Fast took the Tran-Siberian railway to deliver necessary material aid to Mennonites their contents, Fast appealed to the U.S. in the Omsk region. consulate in Vladivostok, but was told that only the Red Cross had an exemption and Japan, Fast abstained from games, picture allies and customs even the YMCA paid full customs. Fast shows, and other forms of entertainment, officials persisted, but eventually, he was forced to especially dancing. Some of them seemed Fast discovered that Vladivostok was a accept the conditions in order to get on to be totally innocent, he noted; but he staging area for Allied troops sent to assist with his task. harkened back to his youth in Rückenau, in the Civil War. The American Red Cross, Feeling isolated and having no one where, as a young boy, he had seen the also headquartered in the city, was charged to consult, Fast sought out a church. trouble caused by people dancing in the with treating Russian military personnel He found a Russian Baptist church that local tavern. He recalled his mother’s and civilians suffering from disease and held prayer meetings four times a week, admonition that “a person who dances malnourishment along the 4,100-mile- and there he found fellowship with like- will never go to heaven!”7 long Trans-Siberian Railway. Their main minded believers. He also learned of two Fast and others were honored with an task was dealing with typhus, which was families, Enns and Thiessen, who had ear- invitation to tea at the home of the presi- spreading quickly across the region. The lier endured a forty-two-day trip from the dent of the shipping line. After docking Red Cross’s Inter-Allied Typhus Train, Siberian interior to Vladivostok hoping at the port near Tokyo, the guests boarded which became known as the ‘Great White to find a way to immigrate to the United a streetcar to travel to his house, situated Train,’ was a rolling clinic with facilities States. He visited the two families and well out of town within a stone grotto and for bathing and delousing typhus victims gave them some financial assistance with 10 near a waterfall. Fast noted that the lux- along the railroad line. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (LC)-DIG-ANRC-14221 urious dwelling and the extravagant fare Fast did not let the turmoil in was “worth the trip.”8 Vladivostok distract him. He found a The next leg of the trip was a twelve- hotel and headed for the customs house hour train ride to the port city of Tsuruga on the other side of the city’s huge bay. on the Sea of Japan. The weather was He had two goals: first to find the crates very unsettled during the crossing to of supplies that had been shipped from Vladivostok and Fast was relieved to arrive the U.S., and second, to get them on a at his destination. He had been in transit Red Cross train to Omsk. He had brought for nearly a month. Eager to leave the ship, two important documents to Russia. The Vladivostok was a staging area for Allied troops sent to assist in the Civil War. Mennonites sent he mentally prepared to deal with Russian first was from the Russian Consul George boxes of clothing and bedding to help their bureaucracy. Finally, with his passport and F. Romanosky who had added “Relief co-religionists in the region.
28 PRESERVINGS 2020 LC-A6195- 6354 29 THE WORLD THE RAILS & INTO ALONG Refugee women receiving aid from a Red Cross railway car. Women struggled to provide for their families in the midst of war. their families in the midst of for struggled to provide Women railway car. a Red Cross aid from Refugee women receiving monies provided by Br. J. J. Flaming of the sorting while Fast watched over the U.S. consul had estimated the fee at Dinuba.15 In turn, the two men assisted re-packing and Enns repaired the broken about 5,000 rubles. But Fast was stunned Fast at the custom house. They were “very crates and nailed all of them shut. Despite to receive a bill for 23,200 rubles (some helpful in dealing with the complications.” their precautions, items began disap- $380.00 U.S. dollars in 1919).19 The bill The three men would often cross the bay, pearing and Fast realized that he would did not include other expenses – such as “only to be greeted with the sign zavtra have to act quickly. He invited the offi- crossing the bay more than thirty times (tomorrow).’’ On August 12, the doors cials to select what they needed: trousers, – or any personal expenditures. With were finally open. shirts, overcoats, and other items. Fast no options but to pay the horrendous The men began opening the crates so also gave several small children, very sum, Fast immediately contacted the the officials could calculate the duty. To shabbily dressed, clothing. Then one of U.S. consul in Omsk. He advised Fast Fast’s dismay, the stacks of clothing, so the guards, armed with a rifle and bay- to write a short letter explaining who the carefully ironed and packed by the women onet, approached. He had no shirt and Mennonites were, where they had origin- in Seattle, were thrown about by the cus- was wearing little else. Fast dressed him ated and where they now lived, and to
LC-DIG-ANRC-03771 explain why he was attempting to bring clothing and other items to Siberia. Fast did this and also included in the report how much he had paid in customs dut- ies.20 In addition, he submitted an official request for reimbursement of the duty fees and arranged that as soon as the U.S. consul received the money, it was to be deposited in an account for the support of poor Mennonites and the poor wives of Russian soldiers. While fighting for a reduced customs bill, Fast was also negotiating a way to get the crates to Omsk – free of charge. Once again, he visited the U.S. consulate to ask for free transport, submitting his testi- monials, words, and recommendations. Soon after, he received a letter from the director of the American Red Cross, a Mr. Strong, which “everywhere opened hearts and doors.” In another letter, a Mr. Cook, also of the Red Cross, promised to store the fifty-two crates in their warehouse and load them on the next westbound train. Across Siberia, typhus caused countless deaths during the Civil War. The American Red Cross per- However, Cook added, this was very formed an important role in saving Siberian children from its effects. indefinite due to the “present military situation.”21 toms men. Fast summoned his courage up “American style.” Due to Fast’s quick With his work nearly complete, Fast and, brandishing his passport and the thinking, the thefts stopped almost com- boarded a streetcar, headed for the Red two official documents, grabbed one of pletely, and he thanked the “good Lord Cross office and then to the customs the men. In Russian, German, and English for the opportunity” to do some good.17 house, which would soon be closing. The he said, “You see, don’t you, that these are During this time, Fast received a letter streetcar was, as always, very crowded. shirts? Why are you tearing everything from his wife, Elisabeth, informing him “You hang on if you can; others are simply apart?”16 After that, the Russians showed that Neufeld was on his way after all. left standing [on the curb].”22 As they more respect for him and for the contents Much relieved at the news, he often ran approached the first stop, he reached for of the crates. down to the harbor to meet the twice- his pocketbook. It was gone. Everything The U.S. consul in Vladivostok had weekly passenger ships, hoping that was gone, his passport, his important warned him to stay with the items and Neufeld would arrive and help him “with documents and his rubles (approximately that, as soon as they were weighed, to word and deed in the difficult work.”18 thirty-five U.S. dollars). He was not the quickly re-pack them and close the crates After nearly five weeks, the customs only victim; several others were robbed to avoid theft. Thiessen stayed with agent presented him with the bill. The that day. One lost 65,000 rubles. Fast
30 PRESERVINGS 2020 LC-DIG-ANRC-04951
Many people suffering because of the Civil War asked for relief at the American Red Cross office in Omsk. placed a notice in the local newspaper at no cost, thanks to the above-mentioned ters of Aleksandr Kolchak’s provisional requesting that the finder bring the wallet testimonials and to the direct intervention government during the Civil War. The to the American Red Cross, but there was of the U.S. consul. Bolsheviks’ Red Army had entered the no response. The fifty-two crates were city in late 1919, forcing Kolchak and scheduled to be unloaded at the Red departure for omsk the White Army to retreat eastward along Cross headquarters the next day. He had Neufeld arrived the day after the crates the Trans-Siberian towards Irkutsk.26 no choice but to return to the U.S. consul- had been loaded and sent on their way. Because of the destruction wreaked by ate and apply for an emergency passport. The two men shared their accounts of the Red Army, trains had not traveled The next day, at the customs house, Fast what had transpired since they had last between Vladivostok and Omsk for some rented several barges to carry the crates met in Reedley and then prepared them- LC-A6195- 8335B across the bay. He and his helpers had just selves to follow the crates as soon as begun loading them when a Russian man possible. Fast reported, “That was no easy appeared, then several more and “soon the thing because travel in Russia has always whole so called ‘Union.’”23 They told Fast been accompanied by difficulties. And that he would have to hire them at a cost now it was at least ten times worse.”24 A of 1,200 rubles. He took the group leader week later, they boarded a train bound for aside and negotiated a 350-ruble fee. The Omsk, in the heart of Siberia. Situated on men carried the crates down to the water the Irtysh River, near its confluence with and helped load. The trip was long and the Om River, the city of Omsk was close difficult, as the barges were small and the to Siberia’s first Mennonite villages that weather was bad. Despite the wind and had developed close to the Trans-Siberian the rain, they eventually deposited the Railroad. The city was also the junction crates at the Red Cross headquarters. On point for several other railroad lines, September 1, the fifty-two crates were including one leading to the Mennonite 25 loaded onto a train that left for Omsk settlement near Slavgorod. American Red Cross workers used trains to offer under military guard. The crates traveled Omsk had served as the headquar- aid to suffering Russian citizens in Siberia.
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 31 During the Civil War, a city of refugees arose on the outskirts of Omsk. time. Fast recorded his impressions as he the dreaded typhus was spreading in about the people he encountered and the and Neufeld traveled westward, stopping nearby villages. hardships they were enduring; he only briefly in Irkutsk. “Bridges were partially Would Fast have set off for Siberia if he commented on the Civil War if the story destroyed, railroad cars were lying on top had known he would be entering a danger involved suffering Mennonites. of each other along the railroad tracks, and zone? He documented his trip in a book He also did not give any ink to the shattered glass covered railroad buildings published soon after his return and often importance of Omsk itself. Although he and cars.’’27 After a journey of several days, referred to his 1919 trip in later writings, apparently sought out the U.S. consul the two men arrived in Omsk, still in the but he rarely indicated concern for his when he first arrived, he didn’t inform final throes of the Civil War. Additionally, own personal safety. He wrote extensively his readers of that. Instead, he immedi-
32 PRESERVINGS 2020 LC-A6195- 8051 crossed the Red River near Winnipeg, had all been bound and thrown into the Manitoba, under similar weather condi- cellar. They were robbed of their valuables tions. Barkman’s boat had overturned and and 22,000 rubles, which at that time he had drowned. “We folded our hands in were worth considerably more than now. prayer and finally, after a zig-zag course, It is certainly something different to hear we landed on the opposite shore.”28 They about such experiences than it is to read were in the Siberian Mennonite settle- about them.”32 ments at last and were greeted with coffee He visited several poor families. At the and freshly baked bread, complete with first dwelling, the children were “half- butter, at the home of the Thessman naked’’ despite the cold, wet weather. family. When Fast shared his concern at their Fast and Neufeld soon separated in welfare, he was told they were all wear- order to visit more people. As he traveled, ing everything they owned. “Even today Fast was greeted with open arms in village I can still see that mother and her little after village. Despite their impoverished ones standing in front of me! I wish from conditions, his hosts fed him and housed my heart that I could have taken a picture him and transported him to the next of them – but I will never forget what I village. It was early September, the time saw.”33 Conditions in the next home were
for threshing. In one field, he watched as LC-DIG-ANRC-05007 workers attempted to harvest the grain. “Most of the grain lay loose in the fields. They had not been able to buy any bind- ing twine.’’29 In his report, Fast referred briefly to the ongoing conflict, explaining that refugees, along with soldiers and officers with their families, were often quartered with the same families that took him in. “There always seemed to be room for an American and everywhere we enjoyed a most wonderful hospitality.”30 On one of Refugees in the region built temporary shelters his first Sundays in the Omsk region, he to shield their families from the weather. attended a church service in Chunaevka, listening as the Sunday school teacher led even worse. The last of the flour had been his pupils in song. He took every oppor- used and there was nothing to eat. He tunity to talk with the people he met. An visited more homes and found the same elderly woman who had operated a flour- story. The husbands were gone and the ishing orphanage about sixty-five miles families had no food and very little in away told him that the “Reds stole all the the way of clothing. He instructed each provisions, destroyed what they could not of the women to go the miller and get use, and scattered the children.’’31 all the flour they needed and that “the As he traveled on to Smolianovka, he Americans” would pay for it.34 found the ride through the grain fields Fast attended church services and During the Civil War, a city of refugees arose on the outskirts of Omsk. and the neatly divided fields and forests impromptu gatherings at schools or in belonging to the Mennonites to be very someone’s home. There, he heard more ately launched into a description of the pleasant. “Earlier and particularly in the stories and listened to the weeping of Irtysh, “a very large river,” which he had last few years these owners had made large women whose husbands were to leave to cross to get to the Mennonite settle- contributions to help the poor. Now they for the front early the next morning. He ments located west of the city. No ferries were faced with quartering people. And listed the names of Mennonite men who were in sight, but he and Neufeld were so the many refugees, who filled the streets had been shot by the Reds. At a church eager to reach their destination that they and roads, had to be fed.” That night he in Margenau, he spoke to Sunday School rented a small boat, loaded their luggage stayed with the Konrads. “This family had students who listened attentively as he and started off in the rain. Fast thought suffered a great deal at the hands of the talked about the fifty-two crates then on of his uncle, Jakob Barkman, who had Reds, when they were active there. They their way. Later, one little girl suggested to
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 33 MAID: CMBS NP012-01-25
Even during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution, Mennonites in Slavgorod continued to hold celebrations within the community. This photograph was taken during a children’s festival in 1917. her mother that they go to America with at his sister’s home. Together they entered with hot water and put on clean clothes Fast. She was sure that he could just pack Omsk, planning to travel to the Slavgorod after their strenuous trip. her and her mother inside one of the crates area. After some protracted negotiations, The next day was Sunday and Fast went and get them out of Siberia. they received permission to leave Omsk. to church, despite the snow, which was He visited farmers who were well to do, They boarded a steamer along with a falling in large flakes. At the afternoon but they also had stories to tell. One family “thousand or more persons, most of whom service, Fast described his relief work and was caught in the middle of a fierce battle were poor Russians or refugees.” Then a then later attended a funeral for a very in which brother fought against brother. military officer confiscated the vessel, poor woman who had died of typhoid “Scarcely one man out of a hundred knew ordering everyone to disembark. The fever. Her daughter had died several days for what he was fighting.”35 The broth- ship was reversing directions. “There was before and her husband and another child ers finally reached home again, relatively nothing we could do, we had to get off.”37 were also ill. They were among many unscathed. Along the road and in the The two men tried to get on a train; others who had died of typhoid fever in forest, they saw many who had been cap- however, in order to buy a ticket they had that area in recent years.39 He wrote of yet tured in the battle. They had been stripped to show their certificate of permission to another woman who had used up the last to the waist and shot in the back. an official who had closed his office at two of her flour and as she put the dough in During the course of his visit, Fast o’clock. “Again we found ourselves in a the oven, prayed, “Lord, help us and give crossed the Irtysh many times. The ferry, bad situation.” Fast hired a carriage to take us our daily bread.” He also wrote of her a small steamboat, carried both people him to the American consul: “He gave joy after he purchased some flour and had and cargo and the loading and unloading me a signed note and with that, we had it delivered to her.40 process was very tedious. Travelers often no difficulty in buying a ticket.”38 In the Fast was stunned by what he saw and waited thirty-six hours to board. Plus, meantime, the train to Slavgorod had left the stories that he heard, particularly in there was a toll. But with assistance from and they were forced to spend the night in Slavgorod, where the accounts of atroci- a local Mennonite man, Gerhard Wiens, the waiting room. Finally, morning came ties committed by the Reds filled him and the U.S. consul in Omsk, along with and a train arrived. Once in Slavgorod, with horror and revulsion. He related the letter from the American Red Cross, they hired a carriage. Neufeld got off at an account of a man named Unruh who Fast was able to board the ferry immedi- a friend’s house, while Fast and another owned delivery wagons. One day, Unruh ately and cross toll-free. “We are very traveler, Cornelius Klaassen, continued was accosted by men on horseback who grateful to the Lord who guided the hearts on, with the young coachman driving in demanded to know if he was the owner. of the authorities.”36 deep mud, to their host, Peter Klaassen. When he replied, “yes,” they commanded He met up with Neufeld, who had been There, they were able to wash themselves him and a neighbor standing nearby to
34 PRESERVINGS 2020 come with them. They were taken out of was there. The town was full of visitors – his money and his clothing, and cruelly town, stood up on the edge of a pit and and of soldiers who confiscated the local beaten. He did not know where his shot. They were found dead the next mor- school for themselves. Later that night family was or whether they were still alive. ning, with their ears cut off. “They had a battle was fought in the nearby forest, Listening as Braun prayed, many were done no harm to anyone and were con- which left “everyone feeling uneasy.”44 deeply moved and “prayers for him and sidered among the most active and best his family rose to the Throne of Grace.’’45 men in the city. No one dared to say a the crates arrive Later Fast spoke, thanking the Lord for the word about it or ask about it.”41 Fast was informed that the crates had many blessings he had experienced on his Fast and Neufeld then went their finally arrived in Omsk, but that some- mission of mercy and thanking everyone separate ways. Neufeld went with Isaak where along the way, thieves had forced in the church for the love they had shown Friesen while Fast and J. G. Wiens left their way through the roof of the baggage him. Many shook his hand as he left. for the Pavlodar settlement. In Pavlodar, car, opened two crates and stolen several It was getting dark as his host, H. H. Fast was again greatly affected by the items. Fortunately, the other fifty crates Warkentin, took the men to the train dire straits of mothers and their children MAID: MHA 044-716.0 trying to survive without a father. In the village of Nadarovka, he visited a woman who, despite the cold day, was barefoot and inadequately dressed, as were her two children. As he sat in their mud hut and looked around, he realized there were no beds. He emptied his satchel, giving her nearly everything he had with him. He saw the same conditions at nearby homes. “Just rags on their bodies that did not cover their nakedness.” When Fast asked where the children slept, the mother told him that at night they brought straw into the house and used that for bedding. Fast felt like admonishing her, but the words died on his tongue. “The misery was too great.”42 There were happier moments. In mid-October in Sofievka, Mennonites On one of his first Sundays in the Omsk region, Fast attended a church service in Chunaevka. The came early from far and wide for Harvest Chunaevka Mennonite Brethren congregation would survive the Civil War, continuing to meet into the 1920s. Sunday. By the time Fast arrived, every seat in the main building and in a tem- were still securely closed and a local man, station. The area had become quite unset- porary addition was filled. After two men Isaak Braun, was accompanying the crates tled and mounted soldiers with rifles and had preached and the choirs had sung, to Slavgorod to prevent this from happen- bayonets were stationed on every street they were treated to “delicious borscht” ing again. corner. In the darkness their carriage and other dishes. During the meal so A committee was formed to distribute slid, and they nearly collided with one many asked questions that the program the goods. Recalling all he had seen and of these soldiers, who cursed and lashed was extended, giving Fast the opportun- heard, Fast realized that distributing the at them with a whip before they could ity to tell them about his experiences items to those who needed them most move on. The men boarded an express while in Siberia.43 would not be easy. He told the men not train, courtesy of the American consul. He was amazed at the close connec- to treat all the supplicants alike; the most They were carrying letters and sealed tions between the Mennonites in Russia deserving families should be at the top of packets from various consuls and officials and those in America. They inquired after the list. and these items could not be entrusted relatives and friends and, in most cases, he With his mission accomplished, it to the Russian postal service. They were could provide the information. In turn, was time to return to Vladivostok. Fast charged with handing the items to officials they handed him letters and requests for attended one last event, a harvest festival at various stations en route to Vladivostok. help, which he promised to deliver. After in Chunaevka. A large crowd had gath- The train traveled slowly and during one a fitting closing, the whole gathering was ered and the hour of prayer was led by night near Nikolsk, did not move for sev- treated to coffee and zwieback. Slavgorod Isaak Braun, who, not long before, had eral hours. Toward morning, they heard a celebrated an annual festival while he been driven from his home, robbed of strange noise and, looking up, saw planes
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 35 buzzing above them. They were dismayed raised donations totaling $43,963.10. He their eventful mission, they told in graphic to learn that the Bolsheviks were making distributed $10,480.00 of this as food words of the famine conditions as they their way east. Finally, the train moved on. drafts, and the rest as general relief.48 He found them. People streamed together in They arrived in Vladivostok after nine also wrote a book detailing his relief trip large numbers to get all the information days of travel and discovered that eighty- to Siberia, Historical Report How the North possible, and also to find an opportunity seven more crates, sent from Seattle by American Mennonites Helped their Poor to share in the mission of benevolence in Harms, had arrived. They worked for Brethren in the Faith in Russia, Now and a truly Christian spirit.”50 more than a week authorizing a firm Earlier. This book was distributed by the During his speaking tour, Fast met with recommended by the Red Cross to trans- popular and widely read in the German- representatives of Midwest Mennonite fer the crates from the customs office to language newspaper, Vorwärts, edited by congregations in Hillsboro, Kansas. At the Red Cross warehouse. The costs of J. G. Fast.49 the January 4, 1920, meeting, after hear- transporting the crates to Omsk were to Only a few days after his return, Fast ing Fast’s stories for themselves, the men be borne by members of the church in and his wife, Elisabeth, embarked on organized a committee with three repre- Chunaevka.46 a speaking tour, visiting nearly all the sentatives from each denomination. Fast After some final business, including Mennonite churches in Kansas. Fast drew (the only non-Kansas resident selected) retrieving his stolen passport, Fast bid fare- large audiences eager to hear news of their represented the Krimmer Mennonite well to Neufeld, who was staying on, and relatives and friends. As he described the Brethren, along with Rev. D. E. Harder retraced his journey back to San Francisco. perils, the hunger facing so many and and Rev. J. J. Friesen, both of Hillsboro, He arrived in good health in Reedley on the stark poverty of the women whose Kansas. Later this committee was formal- November 25, although he weighed nearly husbands had been conscripted into the ized as the Emergency Relief Committee twenty pounds less than when he had left military, he exhorted his audience to work of the Mennonites of North America. P. C. for Siberia nearly five months earlier. together to provide continuing relief to Hiebert (who would later head the newly Fast recorded the miles he had traveled those in need. formed MCC) was elected Chairman; since his June departure until his return: Fast and Neufeld’s relief efforts – and D. E. Harder as Recording Secretary; D. 22,624 miles by automobile, ship, train, their trip reports – were closely observed J. Regier as Treasurer; and M. B. Fast as and carriage and approximately 65 miles by fellow Mennonites. As Hiebert wrote, General Secretary.51 on foot in Vladivostok.47 His appeals had “When these brethren had returned from
1 In 1915, a year after World War I had begun and two years 9 Ibid., 17. 28 Ibid. before the United States entered the conflict, Fast was called 10 Irwin, Julia F. “The Great White Train: Typhus, Sanitation, and 29 Ibid., 35. to Chicago to create a German-language publication, Der U.S. International Development during the Russian Civil War,” 30 Ibid., 34. Wahrheitsfreund, published by the KMB conference. Endeavour, vol. 36,3 (Sept. 2012): 89–96, http://sites.bu.edu/ 31 Ibid., 62. 2 A. L. Schellenberg, editor of the Zionsbote, a Mennonite revolutionaryrussia/files/2013/09/The-Great-White.pdf. 32 Ibid., 43. Brethren publication, and Vorwärts, a newspaper, 11 Fast, 19. 33 Ibid., 44. was one of those who supported Fast’s plan. Through 12 Pete V. Wiebe, „Springfield Krimmer Mennonite 34 Ibid. Schellenberg’s intervention, the financial portion of the Brethren Church (Marion County, Kansas, USA).“ 35 Ibid., 54. trip was underwritten. See Orlando Harms, “Mennonite Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online 36 Ibid., 36. Brethren Publishing House,” Global Anabaptist Mennonite [hereafter GAMEO], 1959, http://gameo.org/index. 37 Ibid., 54. Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 10 Feb 2019. http://gameo. php?title=Springfield_Krimmer_Mennonite_Brethren_ 38 Ibid., 55. org/index.php?title=Mennonite_Brethren_Publishing_ Church_(Marion_County,_Kansas,_USA)&oldid=117610, 39 “Typhoid fever,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 4 House&oldid=133236. accessed 10 Feb 2019. Feb. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_fever, 3 John H. Lohrenz, “Harms, John F. (1855–1945).” 13 Fast, 19. accessed 10 Feb. 2019. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 14 Ibid. 40 Fast, 56. 1956. Web. 10 Feb 2019. http://gameo.org/index. 15 Ibid., 33. 41 Ibid. php?title=Harms,_John_F._(1855–1945)&oldid=144157 16 Ibid., 20. 42 Ibid., 65. 4 M. B. Fast, Geschichtlicher Bericht Wie Die Mennoniten 17 Ibid., 21. 43 Ibid., 66. Nordamerikas Ihren Armen Glaubensgenossen in Russland 18 Ibid., 20. 44 Ibid., 73. Jetzt Und Früher Geholfen Haben: Meine Reise Nach 19 Ibid., 22. 45 Ibid., 75. Sibirien Und Zurück, Nebst Anhang Wann Und Warum Die 20 Ibid., 26. 46 Ibid., 43. Mennoniten Nach Amerika Kamen Und Die Gliederzahl der 21 Ibid., 25. 47 Ibid., 84. Verschiedenen Gemeinden, trans. George Reimer (Reedly, 22 Ibid., 23. 48 P. C. Hiebert, Feeding the Hungry, American Mennonite Relief CA: M. B. Fast, 1919), 10. 23 Ibid., 25. Operations under Mennonite Central Commitee. (Scottdale, 5 M. B. Fast, “Mitteilungen von etlichen der Grossen unter den 24 Ibid., 30. PA: Mennonite Central Committee, 1929), 33. Mennoniten in Russland und in Amerika. Beobachtungen 25 Cornelius Krahn, “Omsk Mennonite Settlement (Siberia, 49 Christian Neff and J. W. Nickel, “Ewert, Jacob G. und Erinnerungen von Jefferson Co. Dann noch von Russia),” GAMEO, 1959, http://gameo.org/index. (1874–1923),” GAMEO, 1956, http://gameo.org/index. meinen vielseitigen Erfahrungen aus der frühen Jugend bis php?title=Omsk_Mennonite_Settlement_(Siberia,_ php?title=Ewert,_Jacob_G._(1874–1923)&oldid=145037, jetzt,’’ [hereafter “Mitteilungen”] trans. George Reimer, in Russia)&oldid=135021.https://www.greatrussiangifts.com/ accessed 10 Feb. 2019. Wahrheitsfreund (Inman, KS: Krimmer Mennonite Publishing omsk/, accessed 10 Feb. 2019. 50 Hiebert, 35. Committee, 1935), 80–83.Fast, 11. 26 “Omsk,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 18 Dec. 2018, 51 Guy F. Hershberger and Atlee Beechy, “Relief Work,” 7 Ibid., 13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omsk, accessed 10 Feb. 2019. GAMEO, 1989, http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Relief_ 8 Ibid., 15. 27 Fast, 30. Work&oldid=143711, accessed 9 Feb. 2019.
36 PRESERVINGS 2020 histories & reflections Steinbach and at the Mennonite Heritage Archives in Winnipeg. What follows is based on the stories I learned about Anna. “Ever since my youth I had a desire to Anna Thiessen be a nurse,” wrote Anna Heinrichs Friesen Thiessen in her 1997 booklet entitled 1 Nurse and Midwife Pioneer Nursing in Paraguay. Born to Johan and Aganetha (nee Hildebrand) Heinrichs on September 8, 1923, Anna Eleanor Chornoboy grew up in Straszburg, Manitoba, where her parents farmed.2 Her parents objected to her becoming a nurse; as the eldest of s long as I can remember, stories syndrome. When I was invited back to fourteen children, they expected her to Aof Mennonites who migrated to Paraguay almost twenty years later to stay home on the farm to help with domes- Paraguay in 1948 captured my imagina- promote inclusion in the school system, tic chores, care for her younger siblings, tion. I did not know any of the migrants I asked for an interview on her work as a and work on their mixed farm, including until 1992 when I was invited to Colonia midwife. Soon after her death in 2018, helping to build the family’s house.3 Sommerfeld to help expand the existing I interviewed Anna’s daughter Christina In the 1940s, Mennonites who had preschool program to include children Klassen (Altona), and Anna’s sister, settled in Canada in the 1870s developed with intellectual disabilities. At that Barbara Penner (Winkler), who shared some of the same concerns as the group time, I had the opportunity to meet Anna their memories of Anna. Letters that who had left Manitoba for Mexico and Heinrichs Friesen Thiessen. She had a par- Anna wrote to Manitoban editors about Paraguay in the 1920s. The 1920s group ticular interest in this issue because her the conditions in Paraguay are available in was prompted to leave Manitoba because son David was a young man with Down the archives of the Mennonitische Post in of their opposition to the municipal MAID: MENNONITE HERITAGE ARCHIVES (MHA) 416-1.0 ARCHIVES HERITAGE MENNONITE MAID: Anna Thiessen learned bedside nursing at Concordia hospital in Winnipeg before leaving for Paraguay.
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 37 form of government, compulsory school not have a doctor, they should at the very the Canadian National Railway train to attendance, and mandatory registration least have a trained nurse. To achieve this leave Letellier, Manitoba, for Quebec. The for military service. In addition to the goal, Neufeld persuaded Anna’s father to Altona Echo reported that the “scene at concerns of the 1920s group, some of allow his daughter to be trained as a nurse. Letellier on Tuesday was full of pathos… the 1940s group felt that hydroelectricity Both men understood that a young girl About 1,000 persons gathered in the early was too modern; others were concerned moving to the city alone was worrying, but morning hours to bid farewell to their about the threat to the Low German lan- Anna could train to be a nurse, just as she departing relatives and friends. Many guage and that it might be lost. There was had wished. According to some, Neufeld were leaving brothers and sisters, fathers also a growing concern among Manitoba funded Anna’s medical education. and mothers, children and grandchildren Mennonites that there could be increased Twenty-two-year-old Anna began her behind.”5 In Quebec they would board the intermarriage between the Mennonite nurse’s training in St. Joseph’s Catholic Dutch ship S. S. Volendam and head for youth and those from the neighbouring hospital in Winnipeg. After three South America. While the adults under- French Catholic communities.4 Some months of theory, she was assigned to stood the loss of lifelong relationships,
PRIVATE COLLECTION Anna’s younger sister, fifteen-year-old Barbara Heinrichs and her best friend Susie Neufeld, experienced the move as an adventure. It was their first train ride, their first time on an ocean liner, and they were moving to a new land without snow. Everything was new and exciting.6 Anna reported that they arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after spending twenty days on the ship. From there, they travelled north by train for three days and arrived in Villarrica, Paraguay, where they stayed in unused buildings and granaries. Anna’s sister, Barbara, recalls how their family lived on a cement granary floor where families demarcated their space by making a border with suitcases. The toilet was a box, set over a hole in the ground, surrounded by four poles with burlap draped over the poles for a modicum of Anna Thiessen retired to the senior facility in Colonia Sommerfeld, Paraguay, where she received solitude. Only night could afford them many visitors. privacy as they took soap and a towel to immigrated for the adventure or sought the Concordia hospital where she was the nearby stream to bathe.7 They may the economic benefit they were told taught bedside nursing, how to administer have been friends, neighbours, and rela- existed in the Paraguayan jungle. These medications, and how to give injections. tives, but in the absence of privacy and were not Anna’s immediate concerns; Anna also suggested that “[she] had some necessities, such as access to water, ten- however, she understood that if her training in delivering babies and adminis- sions mounted in the small transitional family moved to Paraguay, she, as a single tering anesthesia. At that time only ether space.8 Before long, a large number of woman, would join them. was used.” She continued to work at the the migrants moved to Independencia, a In 1944, a delegation from southern Concordia hospital for a few more months German colony. Manitoba flew to Paraguay to survey after her graduation in January 1948. By Anna’s medical career started early on land where the Mennonites could settle June the young nurse was ready to move the trip when measles broke out on the S. and be free of the concerns they were to Paraguay. Without knowledge of what S. Volendam. Anna went into full gear, experiencing in Canada. Once an agree- she would need and what supplies she nursing patients on the ship. In Paraguay, ment was made with the Paraguayan could buy in Paraguay, she packed a few Anna’s nursing talents would be stretched government about access to land, some hemostats, small clamps, and Wonder Oil, far beyond anything she had been taught Manitoba Mennonites began to plan yet an alcohol-based medication that could in her licensed practical nursing courses. another epic move. Minister Bernhard be purchased over the counter for both Shortly after their arrival, Anna wrote in Neufeld recognized the need for medical internal and external use. her travel journal that “Dysentery and professionals to accompany the migrat- On the morning of June 22, 1948, possible Cholera broke out in critical ing Mennonite population. If they could Anna, along with 415 people, boarded proportions. Small children dehydrated
38 PRESERVINGS 2020 MAID: MHA 500-373.0
In Quebec, Anna Thiessen, along with 415 people, would board the Dutch ship S. S. Volendam and head for South America. quickly… Many children died since med- the colony, flaunting his baggy pants, followed the legal ceremony. Later, the ical intervention was of little use. Some gripping the ever-present cigar between minister (Ältesta) Isbrand Friesen con- died within five to six hours of being his teeth, and admonishing Anna that ducted a “proper” wedding followed by a stricken. One day three died, two from “babies should be born under a blanket. meal of smoked ham, which Anna’s family dysentery and one from measles com- What goes on under that blanket should had brought from Manitoba, Moos (a plications…. I don’t know how many not be seen.” She took his advice with a sweet soup made with local berries), and died in all.”9 Within a short while, thirty grain of salt, knowing he would not be cabbage Borscht. Mennonite children were buried in the around again for a while; Anna worried Only a few months after their wedding, cemetery in Independencia.10 more about the mothers and children than Anna and John left Independencia on a Anna realized that the supplies she had about this official. three-day trek with all their possessions. packed were not enough; she needed for- On August 29, 1948, one month after They arrived at what would become ceps, medications, and more. Her father she arrived in Paraguay, Anna married Campo Tres, Colonia Sommerfeld, where gave her one hundred guaraníes, worth John Friesen, a teacher whom she had met no public health officer interfered with about twenty-five dollars at the time, to when he was a patient in the Concordia Anna and she had free reign to care for buy fever and pain pills, a few antiseptics, hospital. They were the first couple from her patients as she saw fit. As Anna wrote: and sulfa drugs. Anna performed all the the migration to be married in Paraguay. “In the first six years we were without a nursing functions required in the new Anna’s sister Barbara recalled that the doctor and I was alone as the only trained colony, and in the absence of a qualified couple, their chosen minister, their par- nurse. I learned a lot during this time with doctor, she often performed the role of ents, and a few other people had to walk many experiences and doing treatments a physician in the tradition of midwives. three kilometres to their civil wedding even when I felt incapable. I sent patients Until she had access to a generator, Anna necessary for their marriage to be legal. out for medical help when possible and performed surgeries by flashlight or a Anna remembered being “elbow deep in went along if necessary.”12 Whenever she kerosene lamp. bread dough when I received word to go could, Anna’s mother helped her. According to Anna, the Colonia for our civil wedding. I was so nervous I In 1949 Anna and John built their first Independencia public health officer don’t remember if I removed my apron house and soon started their own family. “wasn’t that much help.” She made this or not!”11 The service, interspersed with Patients approached Anna and John’s yard discovery when she “asked him to help applause, ended with the Justice of the clapping their hands, as was the custom, with the delivery of a first-time mother.” Peace telling the couple that they could to get Anna’s attention. They sought From time to time, he would arrive in now sleep together. Celebratory wine treatment for tropical diseases previously
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 39 In later years, Mennonite women were required to have their first babies in hospitals. unknown to Anna, intestinal parasites, slippery ruts of red mud. first, and babies who would be faced with malaria, tapeworms, hookworms, snake “Caesarean sections are very common challenges all their lives. “Over the years bites, polio, and more. People also needed now,” shared Anna from her room in the of nursing and midwifery, I never lost a help with cuts, fevers, farm accidents, and Colonia Sommerfeld senior facility in a mother,” Anna proclaimed, “but sadly toothaches. 2010 interview, “but for the most part there were a few still births. Fortunately, Mothers came to the house to have they are performed for the benefit of only a few.” In the interview, Anna their babies, or Anna went to their homes the medical staff. It is much faster than explained that “after attending over 600 to help with deliveries. Any time during a natural birth.” Anna never performed a births, I stopped counting, but I prob- the day or night, expectant fathers came Caesarean section – she did not have the ably helped women give birth over 1,000 to their yard on horse and buggy, tractor proper tools. Instead she patiently waited times.”13 or oxcart, clapped their hands, and Anna for the arrival of each new baby while Women commonly gave birth to ten or vanished into the night to help their wives attending to the expectant mother. more children. Some families had a new give birth. She did not have to battle with Births came with complications. Anna baby annually. After delivering a ninth snow and sleet as she would have in her was confronted by babies who presented baby for one such family, Anna caught native Manitoba, but muddy roads chal- face first, babies with umbilical cords a ride home on a truck with an Amish lenged the most expert drivers as they wrapped around their thin necks, babies gentleman. “What were you doing?” he carved their way through the deep and who tried to enter the world shoulders asked Anna to strike up a conversation. “I
40 PRESERVINGS 2020 MAID: CENTRE FOR MENNONITE BRETHREN STUDIES, NP019-01-59 had no place in their hearts to welcome yet birthing area is very good for giving birth,” another baby. Sometimes that was due to one misinformed woman exclaimed. postpartum depression, a condition not Some women complied with Anna’s understood by parents or professionals. directions. Others chose to take the advice In those cases, Anna could only prescribe of their own mothers who counseled, “you happiness and gratitude for their babies. don’t need to see that Nurse Anna before Initially, Anna was only notified of a the baby. That is just a waste of time.” One pending birth when the father came clap- woman who took her mother’s advice real- ping his hands at their yard hours before ized that she had made a poor decision. the expected delivery. After two or three Her first baby, a healthy infant, had been years in Paraguay, Anna insisted that all born without incident and without the expectant mothers who wanted her assist- benefit of a pre-visit, so why should the ance should visit her prior to the due date. second baby be any different? “Everything She needed to assess the condition of the will be just fine,” she must have thought. mother and the unborn child and she When the second baby was ready to be directed them “to have old sheets, old born, it presented with his shoulder and linens, or cotton rags washed, boiled and got stuck in the birth canal. By the time ironed to use at the delivery if no rubber Anna was summoned and arrived at the sheet was available. If possible, I wanted couple’s home, she could tell the baby was them to make large pads from several already “in the loving arms of God.” In this thicknesses of newspapers with old sheets case, Anna had only a little ether on hand basted together.”14 While many families which she administered to the mother were fastidious in keeping their homes as writhing on the kitchen table. Lovingly antiseptic as the red, dusty earth allowed, and with great care, Anna amputated the there were exceptions. Sometimes Anna still shoulder. She gently pushed the baby had to wash the family’s sheets or use back into the birth canal and pulled the sheets she had brought from home. In one infant from the ether-induced woman. case, she made the bed with clean linen, She cut the umbilical cord but could not tidied the “birthing room,” helped with place a wriggling little one at its mother’s the delivery and because she was so tired breast. and pregnant herself, laid down next to After Anna had helped deliver the vil- the new mother. The father had arranged lage children, John educated them. Things to have Anna collected, but he had not were good for the Friesen family. But then made plans to return her home. in 1958 John succumbed to a “heart prob- The pregnant women were usually also lem.” No medical knowledge could save In later years, Mennonite women were required to have their first babies in hospitals. attended to by their own mothers and him. He passed away, leaving Anna with grandmothers. The older women tried to six young children and baby Christina on was helping to deliver a baby,” she replied. be helpful, offering advice, telling their the way. She had no choice but to carry on. “It was their ninth baby and their eldest own birthing stories, and innocently inter- A “trustworthy girl” who had been their child is eight years old,” Anna offered. fering with Anna’s work. “Heat a sack of domestic help before John died stayed “Impossible!” he exclaimed. oatmeal and place it on your stomach to with Anna, making it possible for her to Most anticipated the arrival of another strengthen your contractions,” a mother continue her work. In addition, her sister baby with joy, especially after the first advised her daughter, forgetting that Barbara helped care for the children. Anna trimester of pregnancy when morning oatmeal was not available in Paraguay. balanced her life of raising her family, sickness had passed. Some, however, were “Straddle a dish of warmed up alcohol caring for the sick and injured, delivering weary from their endless back-breaking and let the vapours travel up your legs to babies, and being an active community gardening, laundering, cooking, and your birthing area. That will strengthen and church member. farm work without the benefit of electri- contractions,” another woman advised In later years, women were required city or running water. Their bodies were a young mother-to-be. “Perhaps you to have their first babies in hospital. The exhausted from the demands of pregnancy should apply ‘Pushex’ salve to strengthen first hospital in Colonia Sommerfeld was and the varicose veins in their legs ached. your contractions,” suggested yet another built in 1959. There was no electricity, When women miscarried or their chil- woman, even though no such ointment except on Mondays, which was laundry dren died at a young age, they viewed it as existed in Paraguay. “I’ve heard that drink- day, when the hospital used power from God’s will and carried on. A few women ing chamomile tea and applying it to the Diedrich Hildebrand’s generator. When
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 41 the laundry was done, hospital staff alerted were washed and sterilized after each use. would have learned to read and write.19 Mr. Hildebrand to turn off the power by Until 1978, when supplies became more Anna also let the readers know of her turning on a hospital yard light. In 1981, readily available, she washed and boiled daughter Christina who was studying to when there was hydroelectricity in the vil- glass syringes and needles to sterilize them. be a nurse in the Chaco, about six hundred lage, a new hospital was built. When menopausal women came to her kilometres from her village. Some resisted this change. In other for vitamin B12 shots, Anna visited with In addition to writing in the cases, when the women were required them while she took the time to boil each Mennonitische Post, Anna wrote to to stay in hospital, their husbands often syringe and needle before administering acquaintances in Germany and the Chaco wanted to stay with them. Anna persuaded the shot. region, as well as to friends and family in the expectant fathers that they could Christina Klassen, Anna’s daugh- Altona, Halbstadt, and Sommerfeld. Her manage at home and their wives would ter, recalled that her mother had always letters were filled with news and infor- be well taken care of. Furthermore, if they stressed the importance of taking the time mation.20 She wrote on both sides of the had children at home, she reminded the to visit.17 When company came or when paper, filling every possible space, includ- man he had the responsibility to care for couples or individuals came to Anna for ing notations in the corners of the pages. his family in his wife’s absence – even if advice, she dropped whatever work she was Christina Klassen remembers how Anna arrangements had been made for someone doing and invited her “guests” to sit with would prepare supper for her family and else to look after the children. Women rev- her as she listened. While Anna adhered to then tell them since she cooked, the chil- eled in an eleven-day rest in hospital. For a strict code of professional confidence, it dren could eat and clean up. Anna skipped just a little while, they could leave their is not clear if she ever noticed her curious supper to lose weight and retired to the responsibilities with someone else. young daughter eavesdropping on private living room to write, read, or crochet, Anna administered preventative and conversations opposite the closed door or often late into the night. responsive health care to the entire com- knew that the girl snooped in her cabinet Klassen said their family was not munity. Even though equipment and of supplies that held a primitive stetho- rich, but they always had enough to eat. medications were often in short supply, scope, clamps, scissors, and disinfectants. Between 1956 and 1990, Anna’s cash Anna administered smallpox vaccina- Her mother’s nursing had always intrigued earnings were primarily made by pulling tions to children. In order to ensure that Christina. It was no surprise that she chose teeth. Payment for helping deliver babies a maximum number of children were to be a nurse like her mother. came in several forms. One poor couple vaccinated, she transferred a scab of a For years Anna wrote letters to the had little, but the diligent mother raised smallpox vaccination from one child Mennonitische Post about the progress animals and paid Anna with a piglet. onto the scratched skin on the left arm of made on the farms, the livestock, her age Some couples paid in cash while others another.15 For her family, twice a year she (“on my next birthday I will be ninety,”) could only say “Danke Schön” [thank you gave her children a square of chocolate the crops, her own health, and her many very much]. Ex-Lax (a laxative) before bedtime, and opportunities to give thanks.18 She pro- Anna retired to the senior facility in the following morning, she gave them vided news of Colonia Sommerfeld but Colonia Sommerfeld where she received a de-wormer. The children felt sick but little about her nursing career, except on visits from friends and family in large were rewarded with not having to do October 24, 2012, when she wrote: “… numbers. She kept busy writing letters, any work that day. By the afternoon they after nursing for 30–35 years. Only the making dolls and teddy bears for her could eat oranges and by supper, they had memories now remain.” Several times grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and chicken broth.16 she mentioned how her son David, who other important people in her life. She Sanitation was a critical concern to had Down syndrome, attended a day passed away at the age of ninety-four Anna. Before she had rubber gloves when program and spent weekends with his years in Colonia Sommerfeld, Paraguay, working with her patients, she washed siblings. Anna’s biggest disappointment on Wednesday, August 22, 2018. Anna her hands with soap and hot water, and was that David could not have access to left a legacy with deep footprints in the then applied alcohol. When she finally a formal education. She was confident Mennonite communities and beyond got rubber gloves, she made sure they that, with appropriate education, David during her life of service in Paraguay.
1 Anna Heinrichs Friesen Thiessen, Pioneer Nursing in Paraguay Echo, June 23, 1948. 15 Interview with Christina Klassen and Barbara Heinrichs (Winkler, MB: Pembina Printing,1997), 2. 6 Interview with Barbara Heinrichs Penner, January 30, 2019. Penner, January 30, 2019. 2 For more genealogical information, see Karl and Anna 7 Ibid. 16 Ibid. Hildebrand 1859-1997. Available at the Mennonite 8 Ibid. 17 Interview with Christina Klassen, 2018. Heritage Archives. 9 Heinrichs Friesen Thiessen, Pioneer Nursing in Paraguay, 4. 18 Letter from “Witwe Anna Thiessen, Kol. Sommerfeld#4, Box 3 Interview with Barbara Heinrichs Penner, January 30, 2019. 10 Harms, “Gott es hiea uck,” 44. 69, Asunción, PY to Die Mennonitische Post (Steinbach, MB), 4 Patricia Harms, “Gott es hiea uck: Gender and Identity in an 11 Heinrichs Friesen Thiessen, Pioneer Nursing in Paraguay, 5 24. Oktober, 2012 Immigrant Family from Paraguay,” Journal of Mennonite 12 Heinrichs Friesen Thiessen, Pioneer Nursing in Paraguay, 13. 19 Interview with Barbara Heinrichs Penner, January 30, 2019. Studies 22 (2004): 39-57. 13 Interview with Anna Heinrichs Friesen Thiessen, 2010. 20 Interview with Christina Klassen, January 30, 2019. 5 “1700 Mennonites Leave for Paraguay,” The Altona 14 Harms, “Gott es hiea uck”, 44.
42 PRESERVINGS 2020 histories & reflections Bernhard Funk, Cornelius Dyck, Martin Kehler, and Gerhard Wall.2 Examining the familial connections of these settlers, Frieda Esau Klippenstein writes: “Clearly Neubergthal [Neubergthal] was largely, if not entirely, constituted along kin lines… Peter and Bernhard Klippenstein were brothers; Re-Examined the wives of Heinrich Klassen and Martin Friesen, Katherina and Margaretha, were 3 Graham Schellenberg their sisters.” The family connections continued with the children of these set- tlers, many of whom filed the first land entries in Neubergthal.4 n this article, I will re-examine the oral secondary migration of Mennonites from All these men were born in South Russia Itradition of Neubergthal’s origin, which the East to the West Reserve in Manitoba. (present-day Ukraine) and immigrated to suggests the village was founded in 1876.1 Canada and settled in the East Reserve This founding date has been challenged founding fathers between 1874 and 1876. Cornelius Dyck yet remains an active part of village history In this re-examination, it is import- and Gerhard Wall were the first to arrive despite it predating the secondary migra- ant to highlight its first residents. As in Canada. On July 27, 1874, the S. S. tion of Mennonites from the East to the recalled by early Neubergthal resident Nova Scotian docked in Quebec, where West Reserve by approximately two years. Peter G. Hamm, the founding fath- Cornelius and Gerhard are listed with Through my research of new material, I ers of Neubergthal consisted of nine their families. Martin Kehler arrived with propose that the oral tradition is incorrect, men: brothers Bernhard and Peter his family the same month, sailing on the and advance an alternative founding Klippenstein, Martin Friesen, Martin S. S. Peruvian. timeline which closely aligns with the Klaassen, Heinrich (Henry) Klassen, The families of Bernhard Klippenstein, MHA, 050-12.0 The S. S. Peruvian.
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 43 Peter Klippenstein, Martin Friesen, sidering that “the secondary migration of devastating failures of 1875 and 1876, Heinrich Klassen, and Bernhard Funk Bergthalers from the East to West Reserve “we were determined to stay and culti- arrived July 6, 1875, aboard the S. S. only started in 1878.”11 To establish a vate this land. Not until the question Sarmatian. Martin Klaassen arrived with firm founding date for Neubergthal it is whether we could endure it here in the his family in July 1876. necessary to examine each founding father long run became urgent, did some begin individually to determine their presence in to look around for better land.”17 While the east reserve the East Reserve after 1876. Neubergthal’s oral tradition suggests that As E. K. Francis notes, “the East Reserve Regarding the 1876 Chortitzer Margaretha Klippenstein, Peter’s daugh- had never been meant to accommodate Brotschuld and the 1878 Chortitzer ter, travelled by covered wagon to the West all Mennonite immigrants from Russia.”5 Gemeinde Buch, Ernest N. Braun writes Reserve with two of her brothers and set- Mennonite delegates were initially skep- that the former “constitutes the earliest tled in the village, where they lived out of tical regarding the East Reserve land, and ‘census’ of the Bergthal East Reserve vil- a wagon and “began to break the virgin “had requested the privilege of selecting, lages,”12 and the latter can be considered soil,” to have done so before 1878 would at a later date, some other portion of the a “quasi ‘census’ of the Chortitzer element PRIVATE COLLECTION country” resembling their previous agree- of the E. R. [East Reserve],”13 Seven of ment under terms with the Dominion the nine founding fathers are listed in Government.6 The land later known as the Brotschuld as residing in the East the West Reserve was long understood to Reserve villages of Bergthal, Ebenfeld, and be desirable, and an Order-in-Council Schoenwiese,14 while the Gemeinde Buch dated April 25, 1876, designated this area lists all nine founding fathers. “for the exclusive use of Mennonites from Of the nine men, Martin Friesen Russia.”7 This accommodated Chortitza and Heinrich Klassen both applied for The inscription “Peter Klippenstein Neu Bergthal and Fürstenland Mennonites who in homesteads in the East Reserve in 1877, 1878” near the end of a nineteenth-century sermon book is the first known documented 1875 settled directly in the West Reserve’s while Gerhard Wall, Peter Klippenstein, reference to Neuberghtal. western half, thereby leaving the eastern and Bernhard Klippenstein applied for portion open for potential settlement. homesteads in 1878. Wall, Friesen, and have been a significant signal to some in One month before this Order-in- Klassen all later cancelled their East the East Reserve, or simply the Bergthal Council, Bergthal minister David Stoesz Reserve homestead entries.15 In addition village, that their prospects of success were indicates in his diary that on March to this evidence of their remaining in the best pursued elsewhere.18 9, 1876, “several men went to [Fort] East Reserve, the 1878–1879 Manitoba Lawrence Klippenstein outlines the Dufferin, on the American border, to get Directory lists seven of the nine found- impetus for moving, writing that “rainfall flour.”8 It is possible that on this trip, men ing fathers of Neubergthal as residing in 1878 was even worse and several settlers from Bergthal, East Reserve – including in the East Reserve. The traces of each decided to move to higher ground in the the Klippenstein brothers, Peter and founding father in the East Reserve after West Reserve while others strongly urged Bernhard, both of whom lived in the 1876, whether through land entries or people to stay.”19 Further wet years in 1879 village – surveyed land near latter-day church records, confirms they remained and 1880 meant “there was no stemming Neubergthal, located some twenty-five there after 1876 and likely participated in the determination to move,” Klippenstein kilometers west of Fort Dufferin in the the secondary migration to the posits.20 The move itself was difficult, eastern portion of the West Reserve. The West Reserve with other Bergthaler according to Peters, as “the 65 to 70-mile oral tradition of Neubergthal suggests a Mennonites after 1878. trip had to be made with ox carts – some similar story involving the Klippenstein had little travel money and some none family, as Peter and Bernhard Klippenstein the west reserve at all.”21 Peters writes that many did visit are said to have visited the West Reserve in A local hypothesis suggests that work the West Reserve to preselect their land, 1876 in search of better land.9 To conflate in Neubergthal, inferred as a sign of before settling permanently, although the this unverifiable scouting trip with the permanent settlement, began as early as limited resources and his observations of founding of Neubergthal is premature, 1876,16 with families travelling back and these Mennonites suggests it is unlikely and official records contrast the local forth between the East and West Reserve preparations in Neubergthal occurred oral tradition which suggests perma- as they prepared to settle the village. This before 1878.22 nent settlement occurred when “the first is unlikely considering Klaas Peters’ writ- The earliest documented refer- families settling at ‘Neubergthal’ arrived ings about these years. Peters’ book, The ence of Neubergthal in diary entries in 1876.”10 Bergthaler Mennonites, is a first-hand and miscellaneous documents is in a Delbert Plett noted that “the oral account of the Mennonite immigration nineteenth-century sermon book. An tradition that Neubergthal was founded to and life in Canada. Discussing the East inscription on the second last page reads in 1876 is questionable,” especially con- Reserve, Peters writes that even after the “Peter Klippenstein Neu Bergthal 1878”
44 PRESERVINGS 2020 NEUBERGTHAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION
Six individuals, presumably a family, pose for a photo in front of the Peter Klippenstein housebarn, pre-1950. The Klippenstein barn is now the event venue known as the ‘Commons Barn’ in Neubergthal. in consecutive lines.23 to the West Reserve in 1878–1879, the Hamm, and Bernhard Funk.27 Homestead This minimally suggests that Peter Braun family registry states Helena mar- patent applications filed by Johann and Klippenstein seriously considered, made ried Heinrich Klassen in Neubergthal on Gerhard Hamm state that they began preparations for, or even visited the West February 4, 1879,25 suggesting Heinrich residing and cultivating land around Reserve in 1878, going as far as to name settled or visited Neubergthal during Neubergthal in August and September, his future home community before it the winter of 1878–1879. His first wife, respectively, of 1879, signaling the second had actually been formed. It also con- Katharina Klippenstein, sister of Peter wave of Neubergthal’s settlement. While firms former Neubergthal resident Jake and Bernhard Klippenstein, died on they may have begun to break the land, Krueger’s claim that “the Neubergthal November 6, 1878, though it is not clear it cannot be inferred to suggest that all of people had already chosen the name of the where this occurred.26 these families settled in Neubergthal in village they were going to establish” before After an initial land purchase by Peter 1879. Of the men listed above, only five settling the village.24 Nevertheless, evi- Klippenstein from the Canadian Pacific filed homestead entries that year: Johann dence of Peter’s connection to Neubergthal Railway on July 26, 1879, the first land Hamm, Gerhard Hamm, Bernhard Funk, in 1878 is apparent, and aligns with the purchases and homestead entries were Gerhard Wall Sr. and Gerhard Wall Jr. The death of his sister and re-marriage of his filed for land in and around Neubergthal remainder, having purchased land near brother-in-law, Heinrich (Henry Klassen) in September by the following men: Henry Neubergthal in 1879, returned in 1880 to Helena Kauenhofen. Helena had been (Heinrich) Klassen, Gerhard Wall Sr., when they filed their own homestead widowed twice, first by Jacob Braun and Gerhard Wall Jr., Bernhard Klippenstein, entries. Cornelius Dyck, Bernhard Funk, then by Johann Sawatzky. After trav- Peter Klippenstein, John Klippenstein, Jacob Hamm, Bernhard Klippenstein, elling from Mapleton, North Dakota, Jacob Hamm, Johann Hamm, Gerhard Peter Klippenstein, Martin Klaassen, and
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 45 MHA 526-4405.0 suggesting both families maintained con- nections to their prior home for some time after moving to the West Reserve. No further documentation discusses the secondary migration to Neubergthal. Furthermore, entries in Die Mennonitische Rundschau regarding Neubergthal or its founding families do not mention when the village was founded. Therefore, we can conclude that the first members of Neubergthal likely arrived during the winter of 1878–1879, with others fol- lowing between 1879 and 1882. conclusion It would be unfair to completely dis- regard the oral tradition of Neubergthal, Neubergthal is a National Historic Site of Canada because it represents early pioneer and Mennonite as it is partially correct. Community life in Western Canada. members from Bergthal, East Reserve, did travel to Fort Dufferin in 1876, Martin Friesen all state in their appli- own correspondence, it may indeed have although we cannot infer that this relates cations initial residencies beginning in taken some time for the first villagers to to the founding of Neubergthal. Too 1880.28 Neubergthal resident Johann establish themselves in the West Reserve. much evidence contrary to the oral trad- Funk, Bernhard Funk’s father, wrote in an The ‘Commons Barn’ – a heritage build- ition suggests that the settlement and 1893 letter to the Minister of the Interior ing now used by the Neubergthal Heritage founding of Neubergthal was closely that he first homesteaded the land in the Foundation as an event venue and tourism aligned with the secondary migration fall of 1880.29 destination – is said to have been built by of Bergthaler Mennonites from the East In an 1897 letter to the Minister of Peter Klippenstein in 1877 in Bergthal, to West Reserve after 1878. What is of the Interior regarding a land arrange- East Reserve, disassembled, and brought the utmost importance is to remember ment between himself, Bernhard Funk, to the West Reserve sometime around that regardless of when Neubergthal was and Johann Hamm, Martin Kehler 1880–1881, where it was reassembled in founded, it remains a National Historic states the three settled in Neubergthal Neubergthal. 31 The Klippenstein broth- Site of Canada because it represents between 1881 and 1882.30 While these ers, Peter and Bernhard, only cancelled early pioneer and Mennonite life in dates conflict with Hamm and Funk’s their East Reserve fire insurance in 1881, Western Canada.
1 Frieda Esau Klippenstein, Neubergthal National Historic Site: out – Staying, ed. Adolf Ens, Ernest N. Braun, and Henry N. Fast to the West Reserve, 1878 to 1882,” in Settlers of the A Cultural Landscape History (Winnipeg: Western Canada (Winnipeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 2009), 71. East Reserve, 306. Service Centre, Parks Canada, 1997), 27. 13 Regarding the Gemeinde Buch, Braun notes that when the 20 Lawrence Klippenstein, 306-307. 2 Joyce Friesen and Rose Hildebrand, Neubergthal: A move to the West Reserve occurred, “for the first number of 21 Peters, 37. Mennonite Street Village, A Sense of Place with Deep Roots years the Bishop served both sides of the river and so there 22 Ibid. (Neubergthal: Neubergthal History Book Committee, 2013), ix. would not have been any change in the church register…even 23 The book was uncovered in Neubergthal while researching. 3 Frieda Esau Klippenstein, 30. if the family had moved to the W. R. [West Reserve] by that 24 Jake Krueger, Memorabilia (Altona, MB: Friesen Fast 4 Ibid. time.” Ernest N. Braun, e-mail to author, November 21, 2018. Print, 1998), 154. 5 E. K. Francis, In Search of Utopia: The Mennonites in Manitoba, 14 Considering Bernhard Funk was twenty-one upon the move 25 Mapleton is located a few miles west of Fargo, North Dakota. 2nd ed. (Steinbach, MB: Crossway Publications, 2001), 61. to Canada, his presence is inferred through his father Johann, Wm R. Braun, De Schwoate Bruhne, Johann and Sara 6 Francis, 61. who is listed in the Brotschuld and made a homestead entry Schwartz Braun (Winnipeg: by the author, n.d.), 5. 7 Francis, 61-62. in the East Reserve in 1876. A Martin Klassen is listed in the 26 No burial site for Katharina Klippenstein is known to exist 8 Jacob Doerksen, “Bergthal,” in Working Papers of the Brotschuld under Schoensee, though the author is unable in Neubergthal. East Reserve Village Histories, 1874-1910, ed. John to confirm whether this is the same person who later moved 27 John Klippenstein is likely the son of Peter Klippenstein. Frieda Dyck (Steinbach, MB: The Hanover Steinbach Historical to Neubergthal. Esau Klippenstein, 78–80. Society, 1990), 17. 15 The Klippenstein brothers received the title for their 1878 28 The author is unable to locate the homestead patent 9 J. C. Fehr, “Neubergthal a pretty village,” The Red River Valley homestead entries in 1884 and cancelled their fire insurance application indicating initial residency for Gerhard Wall Sr. Echo, August 22, 1984, https://www.mharchives.ca/holdings/ in the East Reserve in 1881. 29 Johann Funk, letter to the Minister of the Interior, May 31, JCFehr/No%2029%20Neubergthal.pdf 16 Ray Hamm, private conversations with the author, 2018. 1893, microfilm, MHA, reel 638. Digitized by Bruce Wiebe. 10 Frieda Esau Klippenstein, 31. 17 Klaas Peters, The Bergthaler Mennonites (Winnipeg: CMBC 30 Martin Kehler, letter to the Minister of the Interior, July 14, 11 John Dyck, “Hamm Family Journals,” Preservings 26 Publications, 1988), 37. 1897, microfilm, MHA, reel 638. (December 2006): 57. 18 Friesen and Hildebrand, Neubergthal: A Mennonite Street 31 Shaun Friesen, Ray Hamm, and Joe Braun, private 12 Ernest N. Braun, “Index to the 1876 Chortitzer Brotschuld Village, 10. conversations with author, 2018. Register,” in Settlers of the East Reserve: Moving in – Moving 19 Lawrence Klippenstein, “Bergthaler Mennonite Resettlement
46 PRESERVINGS 2020 histories & reflections was challenged by a Liberal Member of Parliament who charged the Conservatives with accepting American money for their election campaign, effecting widespread The Railway Arrives bribery, and making a secret deal with Allan for his support.2 The affair later on the East Reserve known as the Pacific Scandal, a reference to the grandiose idea of rail line to the Pacific, ultimately caused the fall of the Ernest N. Braun Conservative government in November 1873. Immediately after Macdonald’s resignation on November 5, Liberal lthough the name William Hespeler Moreover, in 1871 a condition of British Alexander Mackenzie, as leader of the Ais most often associated with the Columbia’s entry into Confederation opposition, was appointed prime minis- founding of the town of Niverville, was the promise of a rail link to Central ter, and was elected to that office in the Manitoba, historically it is Joseph Canada. January 1874 federal election. Whitehead who by virtue of his contract In 1872, however, Macdonald’s plan The new Liberal government had a for the Pembina Branch Railway was the for a transcontinental railway ran into radically different view of the railway, prime mover. He was the first European serious complications when competing ARCHIVES OF MANITOBA, MAP COLLECTION. MD171/1 MAP 5. to make improvements on this part of syndicates vied for the contract, one that Treaty One land. was potentially extremely lucrative not only for the construction itself, but also political background for the power that control of the railway The construction of the railway would bestow. One syndicate, headed by between the Manitoba communities of Sir Hugh Allan (of the Allan Shipping Emerson and St. Boniface occurred during Line), involved American investors a prolonged period of complicated and and a route to BC running west in part tumultuous political changes at the fed- along existing railways in the US, and eral level. In 1870, Louis Riel’s stand then back up to Manitoba, instead of had forced the Government of Canada going straight west over the Canadian to create a new province, Manitoba, but Shield. The other one was headed by Ottawa retained control over Crown Land David L. Macpherson, and included in anticipation of realizing Conservative investors from England who demanded Prime Minister John A. Macdonald’s an all-Canadian route. No amount of dream of a transcontinental railway. That negotiation succeeded in amalgamating railway would link the new postage-stamp the two rival syndicates. Finally, in late province and the great Northwest to July 1872, with a national election cam- Central Canada. Failing that, there was paign already underway, Prime Minister little chance of any large-scale settler Macdonald proposed an “agreement” movement from either English-speaking that would give Allan the presidency of Ontario or French-speaking Quebec, the new Canadian Pacific Railway on the although great efforts were made to that condition that Macpherson would play end. The railway was also justified as a way along as joint contractor. This agreement to link Manitoba to Central Canada and was kept secret until after the election, and make it less vulnerable to annexation by perhaps as a result Macdonald managed the United States. The threat of Fenian his very slim majority in October 1872. raids in 1871 lent credence to that possi- Then, as the new session of Parliament bility, and occasioned the Second Red opened in March 1873, the Throne River Expedition and the establishment Speech declared that the “charter” for con- This town plan is part of a two-part map com- of a militia garrison in Manitoba to “pre- struction of the Pacific Railway had been missioned by William Hespeler and drawn up by surveyor William Pearce in 1878. William Pearce, empt foreign aggression, stabilize the granted to a “body of Canadian capital- Map of the Grain Producing Red River Valley, frontier, and provide law and order.”1 ists.” Later in the session, the government Manitoba, Shewing the Position of Niverville.
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 47 preferring to go a small step at a time, had already been gathered from this area Whitehead returned to Ontario. even if it meant the route would not be and shipped south by river steamers, and Realizing that his prediction for the an all-Canadian one. One such step was Hespeler anticipated a steep increase in completion of the grading in six weeks the contract to build a line from Emerson, this, witness his prompt contract with had been unrealistic, and that the project on the US border, to St. Boniface, a line Surveyor William Pearce for a town plan, would probably extend into the whole known as the Pembina Branch of the and the commissioning of a grain elevator of the next year, Whitehead wrote the Canadian Pacific Railway.3 At Emerson even before the rail line was completed. Department of Interior on December 15, the line would link up with the St. Paul What Whitehead did not know before 1874, from his home in Clinton, Ontario, and Pacific Railroad segment to be built his choice of the location or before his requesting permission to purchase the from Moorhead to the border. This investment there was that the station west half of Section 30-7-4E. He had route south through the US around Lake would lie at the edge of the Mennonite built “shanties, storehouses and stables” Superior is eerily similar to the ill-fated Rat River or East Reserve, an area whose and dug a 65-foot well. He planned to Allan plan that caused such opposition settlers dreamed of becoming a grain-pro- break some land there and seed it to oats just a year before. ducing breadbasket as they had in Ukraine. in the spring of 1875 to feed the hundreds Apparently unaware of difficulties devel- of horses needed for the grading of the joseph whitehead oping about the new line at the political rail line. The well likewise would serve Enter Joseph Whitehead. In August and financial level, Whitehead had a the men and the horses. He already had 1874 the Liberal government contracted sod-turning ceremony in late September a hired man living there ready to cut rails with Joseph Whitehead, former Liberal of 1874, and began grading the railbed. needed to fence in the land.6 MP for Huron North, Ontario, to build He invested heavily in the Niverville site. John S. Dennis, Sr., as Surveyor the new line on the Canadian side.4 In the October 10 edition of the Manitoba General, responded immediately on Whitehead had been a railway man in Free Press, he issued an advertisement for behalf of the Department of the Interior England, and also a railway contractor in 150 teams of horses and 500 labourers, to Whitehead’s request. He advised Ontario before entering politics. As the who should report to the site “about 20 Whitehead that the land in question “is lowest bid contractor for the Pembina miles south” of Winnipeg immediately, contained within the limits of the block Branch, it was now his responsibility to do each preferably with his own blanket. This set apart for Mennonite immigrants,” the grading for the entire section between is without doubt the Niverville site. and that he would have to contact Jacob St. Boniface and Emerson. Right from the beginning, the grading Y. Shantz about whether this purchase Although no record exists of the reason was not to be without its own problems. was possible.7 In late December 1874, a the Whitehead chose the northwest There was dissatisfaction on a number of letter from the Dominion Lands Office quarter of Section 30-7-4E for a railway fronts: the quality of the food on the part to Shantz explained the request and asked station, or the date, the choice of the site of the workers, the importing of labour Shantz to reply about the possible “dis- that would become Niverville was stra- from the US, the lack of preference for satisfaction” that the Mennonites might tegic. The entire route of the railbed ran local settlers wiped out by the grasshop- express in this regard.8 Perhaps surpris- east of the Red River, where he could avoid pers, and of course the slow pace of the ingly, Shantz evinced no reluctance the expense of building a bridge over it, project, as well as a lingering resentment about the request, and in fact welcomed and still end in St. Boniface. This specific about the location of the railway route it, saying in part that “it would be well location also provided Whitehead with east of the Red River instead of west. One to have a Town started there to get a Post a second staging area just 22 miles from newspaper commentator also noted that Office too there.”9 With this positive the first one in St. Boniface and exactly really those immigrant settlers who had response it is curious to see that although one-third of the way to the US border. brought enough supplies to get estab- the Dominion Lands Office immediately Secondly, at Niverville the rail line would lished should not be given these jobs (an opened a file for Whitehead’s homestead intersect with the Crow Wing Trail, the oblique reference to an earlier comment application, nothing came of it, and it lies traditional land route for freight by Red saying that Mennonites were standing incomplete to this day. River cart. Placing a rail station at that ready to take the jobs), and reported In late May 1875, Whitehead returned point would capture any remaining freight with some satisfaction that none of to Manitoba, and work on the grading from the outback, should there be any, but them took advantage of the opportunity recommenced, continuing until early more importantly served to make a state- anyway. When winter closed in, only a November when Whitehead paid off most ment; namely, that the Trail now served small part of the grading had been done, of his workforce. It was clear by then that no purpose. Thirdly, positioning the sta- even though Whitehead had publicly there would be delays in construction of tion at the edge of the best prairie land speculated he could have it done in six the railway itself, for although the grading along that route made sense, as William weeks.5 Reports vary that between six was complete, the contract for laying the Hespeler immediately understood when miles and “a considerable portion” steel had not even been tendered by the he was apprised of it. Grain for export had been graded by freeze-up, when end of 1875, and indeed the project stalled
48 PRESERVINGS 2020 Advertisement promoting Niverville as the service centre for southeastern Manitoba as early as 1880.
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 49 JOHN E. FUNK COLLECTION HELD BY THE PLETT FOUNDATION.
Niverville looking south from Kaiser Street (Main) in about 1900. The flat Ogilvie warehouse (extreme right) was moved to Main Street in 1928 to become a community centre, and the original station just left of it burned down in 1922. shortly thereafter as it became clear that tion where the Dawson Road crosses the rest of the Canadian Pacific Railway the American side was still 90 miles from the CPR line, a carefully selected sym- across Canada to British Columbia. The the border. bolic place.10 Track-laying began the celebration was justified, for indeed the Work on Whitehead’s project came same day under the supervision of G.C. arrival of the railway was a game-changer up against the realities of the worldwide Swinbank, a long-time subcontractor for the Mennonite Rat River Reserve, economic recession that had begun with for Whitehead and great-grandson of for Winnipeg, for Manitoba, and for a financial crisis in the US in October George Stephenson, the inventor of the Confederation. 1873, and that soon affected the Canadian first locomotive in Britain. On their The task of laying the track was broken economy. By early 1875 the entire Pacific return journey to the US, the vice-regal into several sectors, the first from St. Railway project had ground to a stand- couple encountered the locomotive at Boniface south, the second from Niverville still, including the tiny 63-mile Pembina Fisher’s Landing, Minnesota, on October (one third of the way) south, and the third Branch. All of Whitehead’s plans and 2, 1877. Whitehead promptly named it from Pembina north, designed to meet at investment (totaling $1700–1800 for the Countess of Dufferin, and changed its Dominion City. The contract (Contract Niverville alone) were now in abeyance. number from CPR No. 2 to CPR No. 1. No. 5, one of several railway contracts held South of the border the newly formed St. The locomotive and several railway cars by Whitehead) stipulated that the work Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway arrived in St. Boniface on Tuesday mor- needed to be done by a deadline usually stalled completely in the aftermath of the ning, October 9, 1877, to great fanfare, given as December 1, 1878. Perhaps crash, and there was no point to building Whitehead himself pulling the steam in view of the urgency of the deadline, the Canadian part to the border without whistle as the riverboat S.S. Selkirk pushed the crew worked on Sunday, November having the American rail line there. the barge on which it sat to No. 6 ware- 24, a transgression duly reported by an The hiatus lasted more than two years. house where the public could examine the Emerson clergyman, and netting each Then in spring of 1877 the project was “iron horse.” Then the Selkirk steamed of the workmen a fine. In St. Boniface reactivated with Whitehead again in to below the Point Douglas ferry where Whitehead erected a sawmill near the charge, this time with a contract to lay the the track had been laid to the river’s edge station to cut his own sleepers, but there steel and run the line. He had purchased on the east side of the Red. Church bells is no evidence that Whitehead invested a slightly used locomotive and shipped pealed across the city. Ironically, the S. S. anything beyond the minimum at most it to Fisher’s Landing in Minnesota. In Selkirk had just brought the instrument of of the other nodes along the line, like the meantime, the Governor General its own demise, for the train would soon Otterburne, or Dufrost. The other sites and Lady Dufferin had nailed down the make the riverboat obsolete. Moreover, the where significant capital and effort were first spike of the track in St. Boniface on arrival of a locomotive west of the Great expended were Dominion City, where a September 29, 1877, at the precise loca- Lakes would now facilitate the building of trestle bridge needed to be built to cross
50 PRESERVINGS 2020 the Roseau River, and Arnaud, where the Reserve, whereas genealogical information Shantz storehouse five miles away. track crossed Mosquito Creek. Niverville clearly shows that in fact very few came Because of its location on the line, was unique in that there was no river to from there. This likely reflects the fact that Niverville was also a good place for a water cross. The intersection with the Crow Niverville was the post office for much of tank, which was constructed in November Wing Trail appears to be the main advan- the Reserve until 1884. 1880. To service this tank, the CPR com- tage of the site, in addition to its placement Then, as early as November 1879 missioned a new well in 1881, nine feet one-third of the way to the border. a new station was built in Niverville, in diameter and lined with bricks. This On December 3, 1878, the last spike with telegraph service. This meant that tank at the Niverville station made it an was driven in at Dominion City by the MENNONITE ARCHIVES OF ONTARIO: XV-19.3-1994-14-687. important stop since that water source was 18-year-old daughter of the section fore- critical for the steam locomotives, and few man, to the chagrin of the men who had of the other stations boasted that amenity. with varying success taken a crack at it. The tank was used until the 1950s, when The Countess brought Canadian officials steam locomotives were retired in favour to the site, and an American train carry- of diesel. When the station was closed due ing American dignitaries met them there. to the decline of passenger traffic in the In that moment Manitoba entered the mid-1960s, the well was covered with rail- industrial age, connected at last by rail to road ties and dirt. The station itself, built Central Canada, even if not by an all-Can- after fire destroyed the first one in 1922, adian route. Isolation, the main factor that was dismantled by the Wittick brothers of made Manitoba unattractive to settlers, Niverville, and residences were built with was now moot. Goods could be shipped the lumber. The well site was lost until both ways at competitive rates, immigra- 2012 when a tractor driven by a town tion would become attractive, the cost of employee broke through the rotted sleep- living in Manitoba would normalize, and ers and fell into the well. Only the large the rail connection to the US would make three-point hitch mower saved the driver completing the transnational railway pos- from serious injury. The town decided sible in western Canada. to fill in the well with rubble, despite the fine brickwork revealed by the accident, the railway changes the brickwork that confirmed the opinion of east reserve the Manitoba Free Press of it as “one of The implications for the province The first elevator west of the Lakehead com- the best on the line.”11 Local historians of Manitoba were significant, and for missioned by William Hespeler at Niverville in hope to have the well restored to create a 1878 to service the thousands of acres of grain Mennonites no less so. Perhaps the most that he anticipated would be grown each year pocket park celebrating the role the rail- immediate advantage, as Shantz had pre- and exported. It ceased operation in 1904. This way played in the founding of Niverville. dicted in 1874, was the establishment of photograph appears to have been taken well Although it was Whitehead who after the elevator was no longer in use. a new post office in Niverville in May of selected the site, its potential value was 1879. Prior to this point all mail addressed passengers and freight could now be apparently better understood by William to the Mennonite East Reserve accumu- conveyed directly between St. Boniface Hespeler, who as immigration agent for lated in Fort Garry until somebody and the Reserve. This also meant that the Manitoba and the North-West Territories brought it back to the Reserve with them depot at the Shantz sheds just south of was likely apprised of the site choice by and distributed it to friends and relatives. Niverville was no longer needed to store Shantz. Hespeler wasted no time in pur- The first postmaster on the East Reserve freight carted from the Rat River and chasing the land around the station from was Otto Schultz. He and his business Red River junction, as had been done its owners, Abraham Friesen and Peter partner Erdman Penner had moved here since 1874. The storehouse built there by Bernhard Dyck, converting eighty acres seeking to capitalize on the promise the Shantz in 1875 had served in the interim. into a town plan by 1878. He commis- railway offered. Other significant village Purchasing agent Abraham Doerksen sioned William Pearce to survey the site centres on the Reserve, like Chortitz, (1827–1916) would trudge almost thirty and draw up a detailed town plan. Dated Hochstadt, and Steinbach, only received miles to Fort Garry on foot from his November 1, 1878, it included a market a post office in 1884, five years later. This homestead in Schönthal, make purchases square and back lanes. The street names early postal address explains the otherwise on behalf of the Mennonite settlers, and were those of the Hespeler and Pearce puzzling references in many “Pioneer arrange for a river steamer to deposit them families. Clearly Hespeler anticipated a Portraits of the Past” articles to families at the confluence of the Rat and the Red demand for town lots in the new railway having “first settled near Niverville” on the rivers. Here they could be picked up dir- town, which would have all the amenities East Reserve before migrating to the West ectly by the Mennonites or carted to the needed for a large population.
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 51 Then, not content to have others build the 1970s, and more particularly at the from an isolated Red River Colony to those amenities, Hespeler commissioned turn of the twenty-first century, when the Keystone Province which would the construction of a grain elevator in Niverville continued to be the fastest soon boast a city known as the Chicago 1879, with a capacity of 25,000 bushels growing community in Manitoba, but of the North. Whitehead later laid more (later upgraded to 30,000), expecting that not because of the railway. track both north to Selkirk, and east to the grain-producing potential of the area While wheat was not a major factor in Kenora, a contract that involved some would merit the investment. He also built the development of the southern town- bidding shenanigans. He continued to a hotel and a livery barn. Erdman Penner, ships or villages like Grunthal, Gruenfeld, operate the Pembina Branch until the new noted Mennonite entrepreneur, relocated Bergfeld, or even Steinbach, the railway Canadian Pacific Railway incorporated his store from Tannenau (an abandoned did nonetheless promote growth and in 1881 and subsequently took over the village nine miles due east of Niverville, productivity in the East Reserve. The operations from him. Moreover, it was his where he had expected the railway to run) markets that were needed were for farm locomotives that were used to construct and set up shop just east of the tracks. products ranging from potatoes to eggs the track westward to British Columbia Within a year of the completion of the and poultry which could now be sold to where the Countess eventually was retired. rail line, Niverville was set to be a major agents in Carey, Otterburne, or Niverville, However, he has never received his service centre for the entire Mennonite and thereby save the farmer a trip to due as the ultimate founder of Niverville. East Reserve. Winnipeg. What had taken several days Hespeler got the credit for founding An even more significant implica- of travel, bribes at the bridge or market the community, and even had the town tion of the railway for the East Reserve square, and long hours of stand-up sales named after him for a short while, but was its potential for the grain and flour could now be done in half a day. “Niverville,” the name given by the rail- industries. Up to 1876 Manitoba was a The completion of the Pembina Branch way, soon eclipsed his name. Although net importer of flour, but with the har- of the railway had two further ramifica- the promotional flyer for the town, pro- vest of 1876 wheat was in fact exported, tions that went well beyond Niverville or duced and circulated in 1880, touted it local demand having been met for the even Winnipeg. First, trade with the US as “one of the most important stations of first time since the coming of the Selkirk increased significantly, with a daily trans- the Canada Pacific Railway” and as “an settlers. The elevator was the signal that portation mechanism much cheaper than unrivalled opportunity to business men grain could now be brought to the larger the steamboat monopoly, which had been and capitalists,” in fact neither of these market in an economically feasible way, strangling the province. Secondly, this reli- assertions materialized, in part at least due as opposed to the previous situation in able and affordable access to the rest of to poor access through the swamps east of which the river steamer held a monopoly the industrialized world made work on Niverville, and likely in part because of the on the shipping, at rates that rendered the rest of the track to British Columbia high tariffs set by the government to pro- Manitoba wheat less than competitive. possible. Without it the track west from tect Central Canada’s interests. Niverville Wheat became the single greatest prod- Georgian Bay would have been delayed did become a service centre within two uct of the prairies within five years of the significantly to the point that BC legis- or three years, and a very important one arrival of the railway, and rural flour mills lature might have issued a secession bill for East Reserve Mennonites. However, quickly grew to service local demand, again, this time successfully. it remained a relatively small village for while gigantic mills that used new roller almost a century. When the boom came, technology to produce flour for export conclusion it did so not because of the railway, but were constructed in Winnipeg. What nei- Joseph Whitehead entered the history because of the automobile, which enabled ther Hespeler nor Whitehead anticipated books of the CPR through his role in con- commuter traffic and spawned the con- was the delay in Niverville’s becoming structing the railway, and he will be forever cept of a bedroom community. a depot for bulk wheat delivery. The associated with the Countess of Dufferin, reason was the impenetrable swamp to the iconic symbol of the rise of Manitoba the east of Niverville, which made haul- ing wheat to the station difficult until the 1 Peter Burroughs’ three objectives of the Expeditionary Force 6 Library and Archives Canada (LAC), RG 15, D-II-1, letter to land was drained by the Manning Canal as cited by David Grebstad in “Outpost: The Dominion of Minister of the Interior dated December 15, 1874, Clinton, Canada’s Colonial Garrison in Manitoba, 1870 to 1877,” Ontario. Later referenced as vol. 2367. in 1908, almost twenty years later. By Canadian Military History 28, no. 1 (2019): 15. 7 LAC, RG 15, D-II-1, vol. 2077, letter to Whitehead, that time some advantage had been lost, 2 Pierre Berton, The National Dream: The Last Spike (Toronto: December 15, 1874. since a railway now ran through Giroux McClelland and Stewart, 1974), 74. 8 LAC, RG 15, D-II-1, vol. 2185, letter to Shantz, 3 Technically, the Canadian Pacific Railway did not exist as a December 29, 1874. just northeast of Steinbach, and roads to legal entity until the company was finally incorporated in 1881. 9 LAC, RG 15, D-II-1, vol. 2480, letter to J.S. Dennis, the Surveyor Winnipeg had improved. As a result, the However, the name was used widely. (Also “Canada Pacific General, December 31, 1874, Berlin, Ontario. town that Hespeler envisioned did not Railway,” used by Whitehead in correspondence in 1874.) 10 See address of James Rowan to Governor General and the 4 Harold A. Innis, A History of the Canada Pacific Railway Countess of Dufferin on September 29, 1877. materialize until the population boom of (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1923), 89. 11 Manitoba Free Press, August 31, 1881. the bedroom commuter demographic in 5 Manitoba Free Press, September 19, 1874, 5.
52 PRESERVINGS 2020 histories & reflections railway station where they began the next leg of their travels by train. Peter’s family began a six-day train voyage which would take them to Berlin, Germany. Their The History of the passports were checked in Woloschenks during an hour stop, and with no appar- ent problems they continued on their way. Rempel Family The family arrived in Berlin on May 19, where they had a short four hour wait Henry Unger & Abe Rempel until the next boarding, which would take them to Hamburg. The family arrived in Hamburg in the evening of May 19. From Hamburg the family took a ship he Rempel family story begins with America, writing: “On May 12, 1876 at that brought them to Hull, England. They TPeter and Margaretha (Thiessen) 4:00 a.m., Peter and Margaretha began had a day wait before boarding the ship on Rempel who lived in the village of their journey across Europe. The family May 21 for a two-day voyage. Peter and Rosengart in the Chortitza colony in began their travels by boat, beginning in his family arrived in Hull and there they Russia. They would move to the village Chortitza, passing Nikopol, and Beryslav, continued with a seven day train ride to of Neuenburg in Canada during the and arriving at Kherson on the mouth Liverpool. At Liverpool there was another 1870s.1 Peter P., the only son of Peter and of the Dnieper River. Seven hours after rest of two days. On May 27, Peter’s family Margaretha was thirteen years old when arrival they left for Odessa, arriving at boarded the SS Sardinian at 7:30 p.m. to the family moved. He kept an informa- 7:00 p.m. on March 13. Upon arrival in embark on an eleven-day voyage to North tive diary of the trip from Russia to North Odessa, they immediately drove to the America. They arrived in Ireland the next PRIVATE COLLECTION PRIVATE Peter P. Rempel married Anna Dyck. They had one son, Peter C., born in Neuenburg on 10 January 1887.
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 53 PRIVATE COLLECTION June 15. Peter and Margaretha’s family spent the night in Duluth and continued on their way the next day at noon. At 8:00 p.m. they arrived at Brennt where they spent the night. They arrived in Glyndon at 3:00 p.m. to complete their travels to Fargo. On June 18, Peter Rempel’s family arrived in Fargo and went to stay with their friends, the Jacob Siemens. […] From Fargo there was one more stop for the family in Maple River. Peter and Margaretha finally ended their thirty-eight-day pilgrimage to North America.” Peter and Margaretha settled in the Maple River area with a large group of Mennonite families. The family likely remained in this area for at least four years before making the decision to move to Manitoba. Peter Rempel vis- ited the West Reserve numerous times. Why they decided to move is not clear, but Peter had a brother-in-law, Peter Elias, living in Blumenfeld. They pur- chased the David Friesen property (Lot 20) in Neuenburg. They joined the Sommerfelder Gemeinde. peter p. rempel As the only son, Peter P. Rempel inher- ited the farm from his parents. Little is known about him. Johan Friesen, whose family was a neighbor to the Peter C. Rempels, before the exodus to Mexico, described him “as a wealthy man with a lot of land and machinery. His farm was well organized with a white house which Peter C. Rempel and Susanna (Friesen) were married on July 21, 1907. paralleled the street and a red barn. He was often seen traveling in an expensive day where they were delayed six hours on June 7 at 3:00 p.m. The total miles the buggy and fine horses." because of high winds. On average the ship sailed on the trip was 2,800. ship would sail 250 miles in one day, vary- The family left Quebec six and a half peter c. rempel ing with the weather conditions. When hours after they arrived. They travelled As the only son of Peter P. Rempel, the winds lifted, there was tremendous by train to Montreal where they arrived Peter C. Rempel took over the farm fog, so much that on one occasion the ship on June 8. From Montreal they trav- when his father’s health began to fail. The hit an iceberg. One June 4 around noon, elled to Toronto and from Toronto to Rempel family owned most of the lots on the sky was so foggy the ship hit an iceberg Collingwood. On June 10, they boarded the south side of the village street. These with such force that some ice landed on a ship which was leaving port at 10:00 lots were purchased during the 1920s after the deck of the ship. This ice was from p.m. to cross Lake Huron. The family was the exodus of some Mennonite families to 4.5 to 5 yards thick. […] Peter records in on this ship until the 15 of June, for a total Mexico. Peter C. Rempel was a success- his journal the excitement of seeing land of five days. They passed through two ful farmer but the difficult ‘dirty thirties’ again before their arrival in Quebec. The locks on June 12, stopped in at Storei and encouraged him to diversify and he began land was hidden and then visible again Thunder Bay on June 14. They landed a blacksmith shop. the next day. The ship ported in Quebec at Duluth, Minnesota at 12:30 p.m. on Family lore has it that Peter was
54 PRESERVINGS 2020 much more interested in constructing have eight to ten helpers, hired among and November. Due to a wet fall in 1945 gadgets than in farming. This divers- neighbours and with our own family we had our sunflowers combined on ification would allow him to explore helping and supervising the work, we December 6. After combing, the seed is his imagination to the fullest. With the have always been able to accomplish a usually cleaned and graded before market- encouragement and assistance of A. A. very satisfactory job. ing in the fall or sometimes in the spring. Kroeker he set up his first blacksmith shop According to the Canadian Seed Since we have our own threshing on the west yard (west end of the Rempel Growers Association (1943–1944) report, machine we are unable to secure a permit property) during the 1930s. After Peter we were the only growers in the whole for the purchase of a combine. We cut moved to the yard east of the first shop, he PRIVATE COLLECTION built a new shop in 1943–44. There was an increase in demand for his products. By this time his children began to look after the farming for him and he spent more time at his shop. He constructed potato boxes for Kroeker farms. He also built barrels and stoves and equipment as needed. He ren- dered a valuable service to the community by meeting the needs of the many farm- ers in the area, including repairs required for his own farm. Jake Rempel described the shop in this way: “He had order in his shop and nobody messed with it.” In 1945, the National Selective Service [Conscientious Objectors or COs] requested an outline of the Peter Peter C. Rempel’s blacksmith and repair shop, built in the 1940s, with gas handpumps in front. C. Rempel farming operation in connec- tion with his appeal for the services of his Dominion of Canada successfully grow- our grain with a power binder and stook son, John. He outlined his operation as ing a crop of about two hundred bushels it, later threshing it which requires six follows: “Our total farm acreage is 459 of registered Rainbow Flint seed corn in men, besides myself, to run the thresh- acres, of which 259 acres will be in grain, 1943. In 1944 we grew about 625 bushels ing machine. 130 acres in corn and sunflowers and 25 of the same variety of corn for seed pur- This is a brief outline of the many acres in Argentina rape [seed] and 54 acres poses and about 1,500 bushels of another phases of work connected with farm- in pasture and farm site…Owing to the variety. In 1945 we planted about the ing, especially the growing of corn and unusually wet fall, no fall plowing could same acreage as in 1944. sunflowers for seed, not to mention the be done and we will have to spring plow The picking of corn usually begins other hundred and one other jobs which 213 acres and double disk 112 acres before about October 1 and takes about fifteen include building wells, fence repairing, seeding and planting. We also have to haul to thirty days. Picking, which is done by painting, tree planting and pruning, tend- about 200 loads of manure before corn mechanical corn pickers, involves the ing a vegetable garden of about one acres, planting and sunflower seeding starts. labour of four men and two teams for the etc. We have four work horses, thirteen We are members of the Canadian Seed whole time. After the picking is done the head of cattle, thirty hogs, three brood Growers Association and are specializing selecting of seed cobs starts. This is very sows and about one hundred twenty- in the growing of registered and common tedious work as every cob has to be hand five chickens. In April two hundred fifty seed corn and sunflower seeds. This neces- selected and closely inspected by expert chicks will arrive. sitates a great deal of hand labour during graders and it takes from 195 to 225 cobs Machinery: two tractors, one drill, the growing season. As well, this crop to make a bushel of seed. The quantity of one double-disk, one tractor plow, one must be gone through, at least once, with the cobs to be selected can be easily fig- horse plow, two cultivators, one set of hoes in order to kill any weeds that grow ured out. After drying during the winter harrows, one power binder, one corn too close to the plants to be destroyed by months, the selected seed cobs are shelled, picker, one rake. One mower, one manure the cultivator. One man on the tractor, cleaned, sacked, government tested and spreader, one thresher, one corn planter, cultivating between the rows five to six sealed during the months of February and four wagons, etcetera. We have our own times during the growing season, has to March. It is then ready for market. workshop with a complete line of tools work nearly all day for several months to The sunflowers are usually harvested by and machinery for our own repairing and prevent any weed growth. Sometimes, we a combine during the months of October overhauling.”
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 55 PRIVATE COLLECTION
Peter C. Rempel, on a tractor he built, planting his crop with a seed drill. the new school ing ten rods wide by forty-eight rods in 1959, after Bishop Nickel left for Bolivia, According to Abe Rempel, Peter C. was length. Greenway accepted the plan. Peter was elected bishop. also involved in education in the village Bishop Peter A. Rempel’s service was and favoured establishing the English church life after 1920 not confined to his church in Manitoba. school system even though many of the The Mexico migration left those that In 1979, when the Old Colony Church in Old Colony were very much opposed to remained without a church and as a result the Swift Current Colony, Mexico, experi- this system under provincial jurisdiction. a number of the families of Neuenburg enced grave conditions, he was summoned The organization and formation of the opted to join the Sommerfeld Church. by them for assistance. His daughter, public school in Neuenburg appears to The Peter C. Rempel family was one Anne, describes her parents’ experience have had problems from the very begin- of those families. Peter A. Rempel, in Mexico as follows: “Rev. George Krahn, ning. The construction of the buildings oldest son of Peter C. Rempel, served a Minister of Reinländer Church from and the acquisition of equipment delayed the Sommerfeld Church as a Vorsänger Rainy River, Ontario, had many brothers the opening of classes. Attendance was at Reinland, Manitoba, before he was and sisters who still lived in Mexico. He also an issue. Finally, communication ordained to the ministry in 1948. was therefore aware of the desperate situ- between the newly hired teacher and the According to his granddaughter, Tara ation in which the Old Colony people in Department of Education was tainted Penner, Peter “felt he was inadequate to Mexico found themselves. The churches with misunderstanding. meet the needs of the church. His know- had been closed because there were no The Birkenhead School was adminis- ledge was small, he had received no special ministers who were willing to serve in tered by J. F. Greenway until 1929 when training and was skeptical of his ability them. The buildings themselves were a local board was established. During the to be a leader in the church. He knew he in a state of disrepair. There were many interim between 1921 and 1929, Mr. must trust God to guide him as he entered young couples who desired to be married Peter C. Rempel from the village repre- this new turn in the road. Peter realized he but were not able to do so because the sented the district in all communications could not accomplish this new feat on his rule was that they need to become church with Mr. Greenway. The site on which own strength, but with God’s.” members before a minister would marry the school was constructed was purchased In 1957 the Sommerfeld Church them. A plea had come from Mexico for from Peter P. Rempel for $300. In most split, creating the Reinland Mennonite assistance so Rev. Krahn then approached districts the site was a three-acre square Church. The Peter A. Rempel family Bishop Peter A. Rempel asking that he go piece of land. Peter P. Rempel, however, joined the new fledgling church where to Mexico to give some assistance. Bishop favoured a rectangular shape measur- he continued to serve as a minister. In Rempel’s initial response was: No! He
56 PRESERVINGS 2020 could not go because he was not in the best the Word of God and were excited about attorney for her estate, they had to return of health, he had never been to Mexico, that. Their singing was from the Old to Canada. That was their last visit to his big family needed him here, and there Hymnal but the style of singing was the Mexico. The church grew and many lives was farm work to be done. drawn out chanting (Lange Wies) which were changed during and following the [Then] the people from Mexico they were used to but which was unfamil- visits of the Rempels.” phoned Rev. Krahn asking whether Rev. iar to the Rempels. As Anne also recalled, “…My parents Rempel was arriving and explaining that The Rempels remained in Mexico for lived in Neuenburg for fifty-two years there were men who would be ready to three weeks, during which time there and moved to Winkler in 1986. My meet Rev. and Mrs. Rempel at the airport were many meetings. Two ministers, Rev. father had promised grandfather that the when they arrived and stating that Rev. George Neufeld and Rev. Peter Bueckert, farm would stay in the family. My broth- Rempel was to come as soon as possible. were elected and ordained. These men ers bought the land and after a long and Rev. Rempel finally consented with the found it very difficult to lead the congre- difficult decision, he let my sister move comment that if there was so great a need gation after Rev. Rempel left since they onto the farmyard. He wanted so badly he would not leave those people without PRIVATE COLLECTION that one of the boys would move onto assistance. the yard to carry on the Rempel name. Rev. and Mrs. Rempel consented to My parents moved to Winkler on 3rd go on Friday. On Monday Jake, their Street South and bought a house without son, took them to the airport in Grand consulting any of the children. We were Forks, North Dakota and they left for very sorry they had bought such an old Mexico. Also travelling with them were house as my mother had always lived in Rev. George Krahn from Rainy River, an old house. Father bought an extra lot Ontario, and Rev. George Klassen from behind the house so the children would Saskatchewan. They did not know who be able to park their cars when they came was to meet them in Mexico, but God to visit. The family gatherings became directed them to the right person. That less frequent as the family was getting so night they stayed in a hotel and in the Helena (Braun) and Bishop Peter A. Rempel. big that there was not enough room for morning they had to wait for their bus to everyone in their house. be repaired before they could leave on it. had no experience in doing this. Later, My father’s health started to deterior- The bus was overcrowded but they arrived in spring of that year, Rev. Rempel went ate. He had small strokes and Alzheimer’s at their destination, the Swift area, that back to Mexico to conduct baptism and started to set in… He was in Salem evening. They stayed with a poor family serve communion. In November, the [Home] for four years. He slowly deteri- that night. Since they had not eaten all Rempels went back once more to oversee orated to the point where he lost all his except for a loaf of bread which they had the election of more ministers, a deacon, speech but when he heard the familiar purchased at a bus-stop during their trip, and a bishop. George Krahn was chosen songs and the sermons on his speaker he supper had to be prepared for them after as deacon, George Neufeld as bishop, would cry. In his last days the family was they arrived. and Peter Bueckert and Heinrich Wall as sitting with him day and night. I sat with During the next few days meetings were ministers. The name of the congregation him some of the last nights and read the held with some of the men in the area. was not Old Colony as before but rather Gospel of John to him. We felt the pres- The church building was repaired and Reinländer, just as Rev. Rempel’s church ence of the Lord with us. We, his children, prepared for services. Early on Sunday in Manitoba was called. In 1982, Rev. and sang one of his favourite songs, “Es geht morning people heading for the church Mrs. Rempel returned to Mexico to check nach Haus zum Vater’s Hause, wer Weiss walked past the place where the Peter on the growth of the congregation. The vielleicht schon Morgen,” while he was Rempels were staying. There were no congregation had grown and worshipped dying. He had served in the church as min- pews in the church; the seating consisted in several different church buildings in dif- ister for twenty-two years and as bishop of planks. Many had come early so that ferent villages when the Rempels returned for twenty years. He had been in the min- they would have a place to sit. Before the to Mexico in February of 1985. While istry for forty-two years. He reached the service began the Choristers (“Vorsänger”) they were there this time, Rev. Rempel age of eighty-five years and three days. He as well as some of the congregation felt the officiated at a funeral and conducted com- died on March 28, 1996 and was buried need to take a break from sitting so they munion in churches on Sunday mornings in the Schanzenfeld cemetery.” walked out of the church to have a smoke. and afternoons. Rev. Rempel preached in Low German While they were there in 1985, the and for many this was the first time they Rempels received the news that Anna 1 This text was compiled by Abe Rempel from Henry Unger, The Survival of a Community: A History of Neuenburg and had heard a sermon preached in Low Neufeld, Mrs. Rempel’s sister, had passed Birkenhead School District (Morden, MB: self-published, German. They were able to understand away, and since Rev. Rempel had power of 2012). Used with permission.
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 57 JEREMY WIEBE
PRESERVINGS 2020
58 AILEEN FRIESEN news the United States, and have made this strip the primary farm machinery marketplace for all of Mexico. Every workday about seven Winds of Change thousand Mexicans from the nearby cities of Cuauhtemoc and Rubio drive into the colony to The Plett Foundation work in businesses and factories. in Cuauhtemoc, Mexico During the apple picking season, this number expands greatly. And yet this economic dynamism John J. Friesen does not create enough jobs for Mennonite young people. To alleviate the land and job short- Roy Loewen, the president of the The eight members of the of dairy, corn, pinto beans, and age, the colony has bought land Plett Foundation, with Old Colony Delbert F. Plett Historical apples, largely supported by in Argentina, and will assist young leaders in a library build by Delbert Research Foundation board, plus irrigation systems. Many busi- families to establish a new colony Plett in Manitoba Colony. three staff and one spouse, spent nesses have sprung up along the consisting of numerous villages. three packed days of meetings 40 km four-lane, and in parts Education is also changing. from the eastern United States. and visits in the Cuauhtemoc six-lane, paved highway con- A number of decades ago the With their help, and advice from area of Mexico in early December necting Cuauhtemoc to Rubio. traditional one-room village Kleine Gemeinde in the nearby 2019. The board meets twice Hardly an acre along this stretch school with one teacher provided Quellen Colony, the Manitoba each year, in spring and fall. Every is undeveloped. The price of land most of the formal education in Old Colony Church has sanc- second year its fall meeting is along this commercial corridor Manitoba Colony. More advanced tioned the establishment of an away from Winnipeg, in a larger is about $100,000 to $150,000 education was provided by a education committee that over- conservative Mennonite com- US per acre. Numerous small, small school supported by the sees a new, and parallel, school munity. This fall meeting was the and some not-so-small, fac- Mexico General Conference system. These schools are called board’s first outside of Canada or tories have sprung up, creating Mennonite Church. “Committee Schools.” The teach- the United States, providing an products for markets near and During the past decades col- ers are young, usually unmarried opportunity to visit Old Colony far. Service establishments, like onists realized that the village women who are trained by the and Kleine Gemeinde commun- restaurants and motels, advertise schools were inadequate, and Amish. They use a German lan- ities and meet church and civic their presence. Farm implement started a new school system with guage curriculum produced by leaders. dealers import machinery from the assistance of Amish educators the Kleine Gemeinde. Tuition is
The largest of the original AILEEN FRIESEN settlements in the area is Manitoba Colony, founded in 1922 by Old Colony Mennonites from Manitoba, hence the settle- ment’s name. Because of its large original size, 3,200 immigrants, the majority of the more than 200,000 Old Colony Mennonites in the Americas have roots in this colony. The Manitoba Old Colony Church community today con- sists of about 15,000 people, including members and children. The overall impression gained from visiting this area is change. Compared to half a dozen visits in previous decades, the changes in community life are impres- sive. Economically, the area has evolved from a poor, largely sub- sistence agricultural community to an agricultural, manufactur- ing, and business powerhouse. Agriculture consists primarily
Left, above, a traditional Old Colony school in Manitoba Colony. Left, below, Museo Menonita (Mennonite Museum), in Manitoba Colony. Above, children engaged in their daily lesson in a traditional Old Colony school
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 59 AILEEN FRIESEN
Some members of the Plett Foundation group standing in a field in Manitoba Colony (L-R Andrea Dyck, Kennert Giesbrecht, Conrad Stoesz, Jeremy Wiebe, Robyn Sneath, Leonard Doell, Kerry Fast). about the same as the cost per munity. Students in the Obregon accommodate multiple sports started with eight children, three student for the village schools. and Kleine Gemeinde schools events, including volleyball. The boys and five girls, about 10 to Children are bussed to the receive Spanish and English lan- Lowefarm Abendschule consists 12 years of age, singing in unison schools. guage instruction, in addition to of young people 15 to 25 years of “Alle Jahre wieder kommt das Of the more than two thou- German. Numerous high school age. It has met for two years, so Christuskind” (Every year again sand Old Colony elementary graduates continue their educa- this was their second Christmas comes the Christ child). As they school children, more than half tion at Mexican universities. program. The crowd in attend- sang, the choir members filed in, attend one of these church-sanc- Change is also happening in ance was estimated by locals at softly joining the singing of the tioned Committee Schools, and Old Colony church life. About about 1,500 people. This shows eight young people. The choir the number is growing. A new a decade ago groups of people that the program had strong of about 170 youth filled the riser Committee School is being built started meeting for Bible study, church and community support. benches in front of us, men on to be ready in 2020. Feeling the singing, and fellowship. To some The Plett Foundation group our left and women on the right. competition, the village schools these meetings looked suspi- was invited to sit in the second One row of women took up the are upgrading and reforming. cious. But when the bishop, after row, right behind the Aeltester, men’s back row. The small General Conference attending one or more of the minsters and Vorsteher (civic The program included about school (called the Alvaro Obregon sessions, indicated that he did colony leader). The program eleven songs, all sung in unison,
School) has expanded to more not see anything wrong with the AILEEN FRIESEN than nine hundred students. It meetings, they began to flourish. has an impressive program from After some time, these meet- kindergarten to grade 12, includ- ings were organized into what is ing a government-recognized known as Abendschulen (even- university preparation program. ing schools), which meet every In addition, many Old Colonists Thursday throughout the year. have joined Kleine Gemeinde Today there are seven or eight churches established in Manitoba such groups meeting regularly Colony, and send their chil- at various places in Manitoba dren to the Kleine Gemeinde Colony. The Plett Foundation schools, which in terms of qual- group was invited to attend ity are a further upgrade from the the Lowefarm Abendschule Committee Schools. Christmas program at the Today the majority of children Lowefarm Old Colony Church in Manitoba Colony are getting Gymnasium on Saturday, a good education that prepares December 8. The Gymnasium The Plett Foundation group was invited to attend the Lowefarm Abendschule them well for life in the com- is a large sports hall built to Christmas program at the Lowefarm Old Colony Church Gymnasium.
60 PRESERVINGS 2020 unaccompanied, and without a izers were concerned to have the Old Colony minister from Winkler, Old Colony Mennonites near conductor. Three of the hymns church and community leaders Manitoba, and a Plett Foundation Cuauhtemoc are often seen were from the Old Colony publicly pronounce their blessing board member, was invited by as victims: as poor, struggling Gesangbuch and sung in Lange upon this event. The Abendschule the local minsters to speak. immigrants, unjustly pushed out Wies — that is, the traditional leaders, all men, thanked the This invitation seemed to be an of Canada, trying to eke out a Old Colony singing style which young people for their partici- affirmation of Abe, and of our living in the harsh, dry, and windy adds musical ornamentation to pation, and in good Old Colony Foundation group. The program conditions of the valley near the the melody line. The rest of the style, apologized for any mis- concluded with a gift exchange Sierra Madre Mountains. Or they songs were Advent and Christmas takes they might have made, or among the choir young people. may be seen primarily as immi- songs, sung in non-Lange Wies offenses they might have caused A buffet-style Faspa was prepared grants to Canada from Mexico style. There were three “Readers’ someone, and asked for forgive- for all present. who often lack some of the Theatre” presentations, called ness. Minister Isaak Dyck, after In a meeting with the Aeltester necessary life skills needed to “Geschichten” in the printed some hesitation in which all the and a number of ministers we transition into Canadian society. program, read by male and ministers looked at each other asked about the influence of the What we saw on this visit was female choir members. Opening to see who should speak, spoke Abendschulen. With about two that neither of these views is a and closing comments were on behalf of the ministers and hundred young people meeting complete, or accurate, picture of made by the two leaders, Jacob the Aeltester. Some of the lan- at seven or eight locations, the Mennonites in Manitoba Colony. Banman and Cornelius Janzen. guage used by the local speakers schools touch a lot of people in What we saw was Mennonites for In addition to the usual welcome was quite evangelical in tone, the colony. The responses by the whom, within the past one hun- and concluding remarks, they including expressions of personal leaders were uniformly positive. dred years, Manitoba Colony has included some practical advice, salvation and commitment that They said the schools provide become home. Here they have for example, drawing attention to seemed new in an Old Colony young people with wholesome rooted their families, businesses, a booklet explaining the dangers context. This language may indi- evening activities and oppor- farms and churches. The people of alcohol and drug addiction. cate the influence of evangelical tunities for socializing. One of and communities are creative, The program ended with a mission churches in the area. the ministers said the police dynamic, changing, optimistic, long line of speeches, more Kennert Giesbrecht, Die have even noticed the positive confident, and proud (humbly so) than half an hour in total, some Mennonitische Post editor and a influence, and have said that in of what they have accomplished short, others longer. Since the Plett Foundation board member, villages that encourage attend- against considerable odds. The Abendschule as well as the spoke on behalf of the Plett board ance at the Abendschulen there visit, short as it was, was inspiring Christmas program are relatively and staff, introducing the board are significantly fewer incidents and enlightening. new, it appeared that the organ- and its mission. Abe Rempel, an police have to attend. JEREMY WIEBE
A view across Manitoba Colony from a lookout point near the town of Rubio.
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 61 news all thought that, without talking and Dad gone, Vern gone, and about it. Cornie Loewen gone too for that And we were wrong. Why was I matter, and the Corner House crying at the Corner House? In my Café transformed into a different adolescence, after Dad’s stroke, restaurant, I wish for us to gather Dad, God, and Me I was embarrassed by him. He again and reconsider that time tried to be of good cheer, despite in our lives, more than 50 years Ralph Friesen the horrendous blow that had ago. Perhaps this book is a kind slammed his body and brain with of gathering, and reconsidering. such terrible force. I had always I have collected everything thought of this effort at cheerful- I could find of my father — his How many of us have told a story stories of their parents and sib- ness as artificial — absurd, even. diaries, a few letters, postcards, and had someone say, “You should lings, and their experiences with But now I was struck by his lonely sermon notes, pictures. I have write a book”? And we think, faith and doubt. I invite whoever courage. He carried on, as best he also drawn upon my mother’s “Maybe I should,” but for various reads these words into the dia- could. He must have known that diaries and letters. I have inter- reasons we never do it, and the logue, too. we, his children, viewed him from viewed my siblings and a number story goes unpublished, and when This is a book I’ve had in me a cool distance after his stroke, of people who knew my father as we die, it dies with us. The world almost all my life. It was a labour that we didn’t try to understand a businessman and as a church loses that story. of love, and my hope is that you, his situation or connect with pastor. In this process, I have Which also would have hap- the reader, will finish the circle by pened with this story, of my engaging with it. The following is father, and of my spiritual journey an excerpt from the introduction. as it was shaped by him. Except “My father was Reverend that I was determined that this Peter D. Friesen, pastor of the story should not be lost. Actually, Kleine Gemeinde / Evangelical no one suggested that I write it Mennonite Church in Steinbach – this was my idea. Other biog- during the 1940s and 1950s. raphies of church leaders of his Twelve years ago, talking about time have been published, and I him with my wife Hannah over thought: “If them, why not him?” breakfast at the Corner House He was not as strong a personality Café in Nelson, BC, I was sur- as some others, and his influence prised by a sudden upwelling on church affairs was not as great of sadness. I began to weep. as that of some others, but even Those tears were the seeds that so, he had his moment in history, developed into this book. and it mattered, and I wanted to We were six children in my give him his due. family — Alvin, Donald, Mary Ann, I also wanted to give the story Vernon, Norman, and me, Peter him. But he did not complain, made discoveries, and have come of my own rebellion, apostasy, Ralph, the youngest. When my or ask for sympathy. He was a to know Dad more completely lack of faith – whatever you want father had his paralyzing stroke brave man, far braver than I ever than when he was alive. to call it; I wanted to put this “for- on August 11, 1958, we made our realized, and I had failed him. I have also told my own story bidden” stuff out into the world. individual visits to the hospital to Understanding this for the first insofar as it intersects with his. We have many biographies that see him. We didn’t go together. time, I wept that August morning. So this is both a biography of a are essentially hagiographies and To whom would it have When Mom died in 1983, man, written by his son, and a we have many spiritual mem- occurred to bring all of us Steinbach businessman and memoir of parts of that son’s oirs in which the writer endures together and ask: “What does family friend Cornie Loewen boyhood. The task I set myself trials and emerges victorious and each of you need? What can you met with us siblings regarding was not only to get to know my blessed, and that’s all good. My contribute? What shall be done the settlement of the estate. He father better, but also to get to purpose was different. now, now that you have lost your congratulated us on our spirit of know myself better. Even if you A grant from the Plett father?” (Or for my mother: “your cooperation. He saw that we had know nothing about him, or me, Foundation enabled me to have husband.”) To no one, apparently something, as a family. Whatever you do know something about the book edited, designed, and — it didn’t happen. And this is one our differences, we were kindly your own search for what has laid out by professionals, and of the things that struck me at disposed to each other. been lost, your own attempts at also to make it available to a breakfast that day — that we each There is for me in the memory self-understanding. Our mutual broad audience online. Dad, dealt with the situation alone. of that estate meeting a hint of searching, our need to know and God, and Me was published “Loss,” I say of Dad, although the guidance that we needed (and understand — these things can in late December of 2019, so he didn’t die. But we treated him could not find among ourselves) connect us.” there’s been time for some read- like an imposter. This paralyzed after Dad’s stroke; I’m still grateful For more information on this ers to respond, and share their imitation of a man, whose brain to Cornie Loewen for bringing us book, please visit www.ralph thoughts with me. Many have didn’t function properly anymore, together and giving us encour- friesen.com been moved to share their own was not our father. I believe we agement. Even today, with Mom
62 PRESERVINGS 2020 book review Thiessen himself does not evince much interest in the past, or in looking to the past for guidance: “the high priest of this mythical religion of the past is the historian,” Welcome to Hope! he says. He doesn’t like historians? In his view we should be looking By Arden Thiessen instead to the future to give us Self-published, 2019, pp. 223. Softcover. direction. “Our God is the God of forward progress.” I must apolo- Reviewed by Ralph Friesen gize, ahead of time, if my method of comparison to texts from the past is unfair to Thiessen’s prem- On the back cover of Arden engage with the problem of evil in ise. Or could Abraham Dueck’s Thiessen’s new book, Welcome the world, especially human evil, thinking provide some instructive to Hope!, stands a tongue-in- and again his answer is not what context for Thiessen’s approach? cheek warning: “This book may I would have expected from an I have translated four of Dueck’s offer more hope than some read- EMC pastor: God is not in con- sermons, written from 1895 to ers may appreciate.” What does trol. Apparently, Thiessen has 1896, and will quote from these, he mean? Likely he’s talking about been reading Harold Kushner's apologizing once more (this is our his views on eternal punishment. When Bad Things Happen to tradition!) for any inaccuracies or to at least the possibility of divine Essentially, he does not believe Good People. Basically, God gives misrepresentations resulting from forgiveness even for those of us in such a thing. Thiessen has dis- freedom to humans, and regret- my sometimes impatient grappling who stubbornly hang on to our pensed with the need for a hell of tably, we take advantage of this with my dear ancestor’s opaque, hurts and grievances. Even so, he eternal, literal fire. Biblical refer- gift to do bad things. Further, God almost stream-of-consciousness says that “accepting forgiveness ences to an eternal hell, he says, gives freedom to nature, putting in German, rendered originally in the involves admitting to the shame should be understood figuratively. place nature’s laws, but not decid- old Schrift (or script). and embarrassment of our sins.” Further, he believes that God’s ing how they will come into play Dueck often speaks of the Dueck favours “repentance,” grace is so great that it extends at any given time or place (much hope he and his congregants Thiessen “confession.” Maybe beyond death – so the billions less influencing the outcome of had, as traditional Mennonites. For there’s not much to choose once assumed “lost” by literalists football games). example: “We as believers, firm in between them here. may be “found” after all, in God’s In the context of literalist our hope, understand that it has Both authors concern them- greater scheme of things. evangelicalism all this must feel been freely promised to us that we selves with righteousness, or That is indeed more hope like radical “stuff,” to use one of can be in right relationship to God, right action. Thiessen seems to than some readers may appre- Thiessen’s favourite words. He and place all our cares upon him” believe that righteousness is only ciate. Thiessen does affirm his self-publishes, so he can say what (April 1896). This is perhaps not made possible through Christ: “He literal belief in a triune God and he wants. And, although well into so very different from Thiessen’s came to create a new community the physical resurrection of his eighties, he is a going con- hope (and belief) that God is of purified and holy people who Jesus Christ. But many of his cern, having produced a book lovingly present with us in even would move out into the world readers, including those in his in each of the last four years. No the darkest times. Dueck, how- and build the kingdom of God, own Evangelical Mennonite wonder that, for him, Heaven is ever, places more emphasis on the both by their exemplary living Conference (EMC), may fear not a static place of rest, but a importance of right relationship and by their verbal witness.” Dueck that a figurative understanding dynamic environment of growth – so his hope is somewhat more does not speak of moving out into of any part of Scripture opens a and learning. conditional. For Dueck, right rela- the world – the kingdom of God is Pandora’s box of doctrinal ambi- It happens that I am working on tionship requires both repentance to be built in his own community. guity and confusion. translations and interpretations of one’s wrongdoing and offering Not that this will be easy: “Before Nevertheless, Thiessen forges of a Kleine Gemeinde minister forgiveness when wronged by all else practice righteousness, cheerily and hopefully ahead with who wrote and preached his ser- others. and see to it that wickedness, envy an optimistic narrative that some- mons about 130 years ago – my Thiessen devotes several pages and vindictiveness are silenced times is not easy to distinguish great-grandfather Abraham L. to “forgiveness,” which Dueck also through true repentance and from the declamations of pros- Dueck of Kleefeld. It occurred to addresses in his sermon in prepar- renewal” (April 1896). He adds perity gospel types such as Joel me that I might look at Thiessen’s ation for communion (April 1896). that, in ourselves, we are power- Osteen. (Not that Osteen doesn’t book in the context of my ances- Both quote Matthew 6:14: “If you less to do good, so we should have some valid things to say tor’s beliefs, which in turn are forgive others their trespasses, “always seek out God’s grace and about the inherent worth of the probably a fairly accurate reflec- your heavenly Father will also for- mercy, so that we never put our individual in God’s eyes). Thiessen tion of the beliefs of the Kleine give you.” Dueck, however, makes trust in any matter, or in any of our admits to having pessimistic ten- Gemeinde in his time. The Kleine sure to include the next verse: deeds, allowing ourselves to think dencies, but these are hardly to be Gemeinde, of course, being the “But if you do not forgive others of them as great.” This last is a bit found in Welcome to Hope! (with church from which the EMC their trespasses, neither will your more pessimistic or cautious than an exclamation mark). sprung, and the church also of Father forgive your trespasses.” Thiessen’s emphasis, though not Thiessen does allow himself to Thiessen’s ancestors. Thiessen, less stringent, is open in contradiction to it.
ALONG THE RAILS & INTO THE WORLD 63 Both writers are concerned tentative than Thiessen’s bold Kroeger Clocks Heritage Foundation about the end times. Thiessen statements of what happens to disagrees with Hal Lindsey-style us after death. apocalyptic scenarios of death Essentially, Dueck says: “We and destruction, saying that don’t know.” For his part, Thiessen Christ’s return will instead bring does not tolerate not-knowing Generations about a renewal of heaven and very well; it seems to undermine earth. Dueck frequently warns his his idea of hope, which is wrapped listeners not to be complacent: up in certainty. Eventually Christ “We all concede, do we not, that will be victorious and end all evil. of history we now live in the end times?” he “Without the hope of this final asks rhetorically (November 1896). victory over evil, the huge ques- His concern with this situation is tion of why the Creator allowed at your invariably ethical – if we are living his beautiful world to be invaded in the end times, in a period of by sin would remain an eternal grace, then it is of the utmost mystery.” importance to behave like a true Dueck does not seem to seek fingertips. follower of Jesus. Dueck and an answer to this question, per- Thiessen both quote 2 Peter 13: haps because he sees God as “We are looking forward to a new unknowable, and does not wish heaven and a new earth, where to presume. He certainly wrote righteousness dwells,” and both many more sermons than the take this more as a hopeful prom- ones I have had access to, so ise than a vengeful threat. maybe he says something about In his chapter “Hope in the this elsewhere. But in the record Presence of Death,” Thiessen that I have, he is not much con- helpfully outlines three answers cerned with a triumphantly that Christian scholars have given victorious Christ. He gives many to the question of what happens warnings against evil and wrong- when a person dies. In one, the doing; perhaps he just got into person is “totally dead,” but held the habit of battling endlessly and by God until the end-time resur- was afraid to relax his guard. The rection. In another, the body dies closest he comes to imagining a but the soul continues, to be held future without evil is this: “Then in some intermediate state, wait- all true believers will find them- ing for the resurrection. In the selves together with each other third, people are “transformed at again, no longer saddened by the point of death into their eter- death. There we will be found in nal form” and enter into heaven the steady hand of the Creator, — resurrection is immediate. and there unhindered springs of Thiessen cautiously favours this peace will flow, in that home- last idea but acknowledges that, land with no tears, where the whatever the case, “resurrection conqueror has prepared a city of is an inexplicable mystery.” noble peace, a hope for all who Dueck employs a metaphor that have fought for so long and all his peasant farmer congregation life-weary wanderers, where no would readily have understood, one will get tired of life any more saying that after death we are (February 1896.)” “gathered together either to be Given an expanded definition stored as wheat in God’s gran- of “true believers,” Thiessen could ary or as chaff to be burned with probably agree with such a vision. eternal fire” (February 1896). He The Kleine Gemeinde passed expresses the traditional Kleine from an inward-focused ethical Gemeinde position that the dead Christianity to an EMC born- kroegerclocks.com rest in some sort of suspended again missionary theology – with state until the resurrection day and (mostly unacknowledged) notions the Last Judgement. Only then of superiority and exclusion the virtual museum will each person be sure of his or common to both. Now Thiessen her eternal destiny: “You cannot seems to want to take it to a new of mennonite clocks have confidence in eternal sal- manifestation, allowing for a more vation, though I dearly hope that egalitarian and accepting faith. Will Featuring over 70 new clocks all of us may attain it” (April 1896). that happen? We can hope, but we and their stories Dueck’s “dear hope” is much more can’t know.
64 PRESERVINGS 2020
In the Next Issue
We are soliciting articles for our fall 2020 issue on the theme of “Mennonites and their Neighbours” Submissions are due June 30, 2020
Over the course of several centuries, Mennonites have lived next to and interacted with a variety of peoples. In this issue, we will explore the relationships – positive, neutral, and negative – between Mennonites and the many different groups that Mennonites have called “neighbours” in North and South America, as well as western and eastern Europe. If you have an interest in contributing an article on this theme, please email the Plett Foundation. Mennonite Village We also invite the submission of articles, biographies, Photography local histories, reflections, as well as translated diaries, letters and other archival materials for publication on Views from Manitoba topics related to Mennonite history, especially pertaining 1890–1940 to Low German-speaking communities in the Americas. A beautiful collection of never-before-seen Submissions of manuscripts may be sent to the editor, Aileen Friesen, by email to [email protected], or via mail to the Plett Foundation, photographs left behind by University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3B four Manitoba Mennonite 2E9. Feel free to contact the editor by email or by phone (204-786- photographers. 9352). If sending material electronically, please be sure to submit high resolution photographs. They should be at least 2MB in size.
ORDER TODAY mennonitehistoricarts.ca Share your History WITH YOUR CHILD OR GRANDCHILD MENNONITE HISTORY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE MAKES A PERFECT EDUCATIONAL GIFT! Buy just one or get all four books. Read engaging stories that show the historical life of Mennonites in Russia, Mexico, and Canada.
Written in an accessible language to engage children and adults in Mennonite history, these fully coloured books depict Mennonite life through stories, historical photographs, and maps.
PreservingsMagazine-FNL-NOV26.indd 98 2018-12-17 10:04 AM