~ A Journal of the D. F. Plett Historical Research Foundation Inc. Preservings $20 Issue No. 35, 2015 “A people who have not the pride to record their own history will not long have the virtues to make their history worth recording; and no people who are indifferent to their past need hope to make their future great.” — Jan Gleysteen In this Issue .................................................... 2 Feature Articles .............................................. 4 Reflections .................................................... 81 Table of Contents ........................................... 2 Articles ......................................................... 64 News............................................................. 87 Editorial .......................................................... 3 Family History ............................................. 70 Book Reviews .............................................. 88 In this Issue PRESERVINGS 2015 An agonizing question across the centuries has been how to Table of Contents instill in the next generation those faith and cultural values that would sustain Mennonite identity into the future. In this issue In this Issue ............................................................................................ 2 the focus of our feature articles is the question of childhood and education. We begin with Ivan Caroll Janer, Colombian- Editorial .................................................................................................. 3 born graduate student who explores the nature of childhood in Salamanca, a conservative colony in the Yucatan followed by FEATURE ARTICLES: Kennert Giesbrecht's reflections on children based on his wide CHILDREN AND EDUCATION travels among all kinds of colonies in South America. Bruce Childhood in the Altkolonier Mennonite Colonies of Salamanca, Wiebe takes us into the past to shed light on a little written Quintana Roo, Mexico, by Ivan Carroll Janer ....................................... 4 about story of orphans and other children who were cared for Home can still be a Very Good School, by Kennert Giesbrecht .......... 14 in families other than those of their birth parents. We then have a number of articles that explore the continuity and changes in Agreements Concerning Mennonite Pflegekinder, by Bruce Wiebe .... 16 education in Mexico and Ontario. Out with the Old and in with the New?: School Reform on the An interesting conference celebrating the 225th anniversary Manitoba Colony, Mexico, by Robyn Sneath ...................................... 23 of the Mennonite migration to Russia featured two speakers Origin of the “Kommitee Schulen,” in the Manitoba Colony, whose presentations are reproduced in our general article sec- Cuauhtémoc, Mexico, by Abraham B. Peters ...................................... 29 tion. Mark Jantzen from Kansas and co-editor John J. Friesen Amish Teachers who helped start the Committee Schools in Manitoba offer new looks at the Prussian origins and early days of this Colony, Cuauhtémoc, Mexico .............................................................. 30 migration. Co-editor Hans Werner was on research leave for the first six months of the year and his article on Mennonites in The Historical Origins of the Conferencia Mennonita de México, Belize and Bolivia comes from his observations while traveling by Peter Rempel and David Friesen ..................................................... 35 to those countries in the spring of 2015. The School at Quellen Colony, Chihuahua, by Eddy K. Plett ............. 40 Our Family History section has an excerpt from a lengthy All in God’s Time: The Establishment of Old Colony family history study by Ron and Judy Plett. The excerpt tells Private Schools in Southern Ontario, by Rosabel Fast ....................... 44 the migration story of Abraham P. Reimer who was born in Kleefeld, Molotschna, lived in Blumenort and Steinbach, ARTICLES Manitoba, Lanigan, Saskatchewan, and Meade and Garden City, Kansas. David Toews tells the moving story of his memo- "225th Anniversary of the Migration to Russia" Conference ries of the accidental death of his brother while Ralph Friesen From Poland to Prussia to Russia: Mennonite Emigration translates and offers insightful commentary on the obituary of out of the Vistula Delta, by Mark Jantzen .................................... 52 Kleine Gemeinde Ältester, Peter P. Toews who made his own The 1789 Mennonite Migration that Should Not migration from the Kleine Gemeinde to the Holdeman church. have Happened, by John J. Friesen .............................................. 60 This issue again offers an article for readers’ reflection. This Mennonite Life under the Warm Sun of South America, time the subject is religion and faith and comes to us from the by Hans Werner .................................................................................... 64 past. Glen Klassen has carefully and thoughtfully translated, annotated and commented on the noted church leader Christian FAMILY HISTORY Neff’s 1901 reflections on the question of the theory of evolu- The Abraham P. Reimer Family: Blumenort, Lanigan, Kansas, tion—still an issue in many church education circles. by Ron and Judy Plett ......................................................................... 70 We are blessed with the continued writings on the Menno- nite story and have a number of contributors who have reviewed Death in the Family: An Eyewitness Account, by David Toews .......... 74 recent books. Some crumbs of interesting news items round “Plant an Evergreen”: Obituary of Peter P. Toews (1841-1922), out his year’s issue. translated with commentary by Ralph Friesen ..................................... 77 The editors REFLECTIONS Modern Science and Our Faith, by Christian Neff, translated and Our Cover annotated by Glen R. Klassen .............................................................. 81 One of Heinrich Redecop’s daughters, Helena (age 5), observes Ivan Carroll Janer, an anthropologist doing his fieldwork in the NEWS .......................................................................................87 Salamanca Colony, Mexico, plant a small vegetable garden. Ivan explains that Helena, curious about this non-Mennonite garden- BOOK REVIEWS ...................................................................88 ing at their home, initially just stared at him while he worked, but FOUNDATION NEWS ...........................................................95 in the end she and her sisters were a great help to him and they enjoyed planting the garden and tending the seedlings together. Preservings, a journal of the D.F. Plett Historical Research Foundation, Inc., is published annually. Co-editors are Hans Werner 1.204.786.9352 [email protected] and John J. Friesen, 1.204.488.8128, [email protected]. The annual subscription fee is $20.00, and cheques should be made out to the D. F. Plett Historical Research Foundation, and mailed to Hans Werner, D. F. Plett Historical Research Foundation, Inc., University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Ave., Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9. Reader responses are welcome. Please send manuscripts, articles, and/or photographs to the above address at the University of Winnipeg. Our mission is to inform our readers about Mennonite history, and in particular to promote a respectful understanding and appreciation of the contribution made by the so-called conservatives. 2 - Preservings No. 35, 2015 by Hans Werner Editorial co-editor In the last four or five years there has been much anxiety poisons of modernity to reinvent themselves as Anabaptists about what is happening to the Christian church. It seems that who can truly claim the legacy of their forefathers. mainline churches—even ‘mainline’ Mennonite churches are in decline. In fact some say they are in precipitous decline. The John J. Friesen Stepping Down as Co-editor Presbyterian Church in the United States, for example, began It is with some sadness that we have to announce that this to decline in 1966 and has declined in membership every year will be the last issue where John J. Friesen will fulfill the role since then. In 2014 alone the decline was an astounding 5.5%. of co-editor of Preservings. John stepped into the breach when (The Layman, PCUSA). Mennonite Conferences in Canada Delbert Plett died in 2004 and the Board of the Foundation seem to be in turmoil with declining resources, insoluble issues made it a priority to keep publishing Preservings. John has and a general malaise that won’t go away. been co-editor of Preservings for the last eleven issues, first As those with an interest in, or even a passion for history, together with Leonard Doell and then with Hans Werner. John’s one might be tempted to lay the blame firmly at the feet of the wealth of contacts have done much to cultivate writers who tendency to be modern—modern in the sense that the story of have enriched the pages of Preservings. He worked hard at the what was, how it came to be different, and what it means for details of production, editing many of the contributions to the today has not received a lot of attention in Mennonite churches. last eleven issues of the magazine. For me the most telling mo- Mennonites in North America have drunk deeply from other ment was a visit with a minister in Shipyard Colony in Belize. wells. Along the way much of what our forefathers thought, He brought out a Preservings magazine that showed evidence how they lived and what they believed, has been considered of being read