Preservings Chortitzer Diaries -- Dr

-being the Newsletter/Magazine of the Hanover Steinbach Historical Society Inc. Price $10.00 No. 12, June, 1998 “A people who have not the pride to record their 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 Chortitzer Diaries of the East Reserve 1874-1930 By Dr. Royden K. Loewen, Chair of Mennonites Studies, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, presented to the Annual General Meeting of the Hanover Steinbach Historical Society Inc, Vollwerk (Mitchell), Manitoba, January 17,1998. Introduction: by Old Mennonites in Ontario, written in English, The study of Mennonite diaries is a new way and kept by teenagers and the elderly, by men and Inside This Issue of looking at history. The fact is that many readers by women, by preachers, merchants and farmers. of Mennonite history have until recently been It is a similar case in Manitoba: there are diaries by Feature story, unaware of their existence. I am reminded of one the Kleine Gemeinde at Morris, by the Old Colo- Chortitzer Diaries .......... 1-5 local Mennonite history book that was essentially nists of the West Reserve, by the Bergthalers, later a compendium of pictures since World War II; a known as the Chortitzers, of the East Reserve. President’s Report ................ 6 brief introduction noted that the pioneers had been Fortunately the children and grandchildren of the Editorial ...........................7-15 too busy building farms on the frontier to do any pioneers here have treasured and preserved these Letters ...........................16-22 writing and therefore virtually nothing was known writings. And the translations of Irene Kroeker, about the early years. John Dyck, Jake Doerksen, Henry Stoesz, Ben News ............................ 23-49 We now know that diary keeping was in fact a Hoeppner and others and the remarkable publica- Articles ......................... 50-86 common practice amongst Mennonites, without tion efforts of Delbert Plett have also made the Material Culture .......... 87-104 regard to church denomination, place of residence, diaries well known. age, gender, wealth or education. There are diaries (continued on page one) Book Reviews ........... 105-116 Mennonite housebarn, Gdansk, Poland. Ancient Mennonite housebarn in Neunhuben, Prussia, today Gdansk, Poland, adjacent to the cemetery, view towards east. The house part is built of logs and is still in use. The standard form of construction in the Werders near Danzig was the “Vorlaubhaus” or arcaded house, making this structure which emulates the Lower Saxony/Friesland housebarn unique. The quaint structure dates back to the 18th century when Klaas Reimer (1770-1837), founder of the Kleine Gemeinde lived in this village. In 1798 he married Maria Epp, daughter of Peter Epp (1725-89), Aeltester of the prestigious Danzig Gemeinde. Reimer and his wife acquired a half Wirtschaft from her uncle in Neunhuben. In 1801 he was elected minister and started his controversial career advocating the restitution of the New Testament church. Photo by D. Plett May 17, 1998. Preservings Chortitzer Diaries -- Dr. Royden Loewen (continued) Section One: worked with is that of Abraham F. Reimer Judit’s tone does not change, even at times We now have access to diaries by older (1808-92) from the Kleine Gemeinde village of shock, of joy and of impatience. A tragedy women like Maria Stoesz Klassen (Mrs of Blumenort on the East Reserve. He kept in October 1922 is recorded as matter-of-fact: Johann Klassen) of Ebenfeld near Mitchell what is probably the most detailed diary of “Peter K Friesen got killed in Steinbach while who kept a diary for years, although only a any Kleine Gemeinder. Reimer was one of the cutting down a tree. A piece of iron struck his section of 1887 when Maria was 64 has been least prominent of the villagers, someone who head. He lived until the next day. He died at 7 preserved; there is also the diary of Judit was called “Foula Reimer,” a designation that a.m.” A moment of obvious joy at the end of Klassen Neufeld (Mrs. Peter B. Neufeld) of becomes obvious from reading the diary; January of that year receives the same short Ebenfeld, 1869-1952, whose first known di- clearly he gets little work done because he shrift: after the opening note that on this day ary begins in 1911 when she is 42 and contin- spends so much time observing others at work “Papa and Johan went to the river to get ues through to 1948 when she is 79. Then, (Note Two). wood” follows the simple phrase: “in the p.m. too, we have access to diaries by leading men: We can assume that there are many other the children were blessed with a infant son.” Bishop David Stoesz from Bergthal whose Chortitzer diaries around; those kept by its Judit even lets us into a bit of youthful indis- 15-page diary spans 1872-1896, or from the youth and elderly, members on the centre and cretion with her record that on October 30, time he was 30 to age 54; Rev. Heinrich on the periphery. However, having estab- 1922, unmarried son Jacob “sleeps until noon, Friesen whose diary spans 1893-1919, be- lished the common existence of the daily jour- as he attended the wedding last evening [and] gun when he was 51, it continues till age 77; nal, we as historians face another problem. came home at 6 a.m.” But she does not let on finally, there is the journal of Waisenman That problem is the idea that diaries are not how she felt about it. Cornelius T. Friesen of Osterwick, and his worth a great deal, only elaborate notes on Only two occasions bring expressions of diary covers much of the 1920s when he was weather patterns as one prominent Menno- emotion in these diaries, times of division and in his 70s (Note One). nite historian recently offered. Mennonite his- the passage of time. It is with some bitterness We know from other Mennonite commu- torians seem to have followed the path of one that the young minister, David Stoesz, writes nities that diaries were also kept by younger of the world’s most renowned historians of in 1872 that the Chortitza Colony bishop has members and by members who were not at the diary, Robert Fothergill (Note Three). His given up in his struggle to “work for the con- the centre of power. For example, Marie blunt view is that the “the great mass of diary tinuance of our religious freedoms” and has Schroeder, who was born on the East Re- writing is poor stuff” and hence he chooses turned down an opportunity to travel to St. serve and raised in Alt-Bergthal and within only the”marvellous[ly] rich...and vital....” Petersburg, the capital. The result is that “God the Sommerfelder Church community around diaries, those kept by “remarkable human be- may be trying to purify us further” and that Lowe Farm, kept a diary when she was 19; it ings [who] communicat[ed] their natures abun- “there is not much confidence in the first is a diary obviously by a teenaged Mennonite dantly.” named person.” for in it she offers her resistance to joining the The few Mennonite diaries that have in- Twenty years later and now a bishop, church just yet, her fascination with a young deed been published by the major presses in David Stoesz travels to the West Reserve to man browned by the Mexican sun, her joy at Canada follow Fothergill’s agenda: James try to stop what is quickly becoming the capitalizing on the one cent sale in Morden, Nyce’s 1982 edition, The Gordon C. Eby Dia- Sommerfelder/Bergthaler schism; his note is and her “secret hope” for “the future when...I ries: Chronicle of a Mennonite Farmer, 1911- short, but poignant: “it was truly a sad story hope that I may write things that have a real 1913, and Harvey Dyck’s 1991 translation we heard about the divisions among the worth...; things that are worth printing, and and edition, A Mennonite in Russia: The Dia- people.” Then, too, there is pain of division things that other folks would love to read and ries of Jacob D. Epp, 1851-1880, both con- apparent in Cornelius T. Friesen’s descrip- pay for.” tain the accounts of extraordinary Mennonites: tion of events surrounding the 1924 decision And there are diaries by the disenfran- Eby, a young, unmarried Ontario farmer, fre- of many East Reserve Chortitzers to relocate chised: one of the most detailed diaries I have quently analyses personal relationships and to South America. Among many complicating is enthraled with his camera, organ and car; factors is an emotional pitch through a series Epp, lives in a Jewish settlement and has a of “serious sermons” by Saskatchewan string of “intensely personal” faith experi- Bergthal bishop, Aron Zacharias. Zacharias ences” (Note Four). Clearly, neither Eby or apparently pleads for “a united decision to Epp are typical Mennonite farmers. draw all into a brotherhood” that will unit- The diaries before us are not “intensely edly relocate to Paraguay. Unfortunately for personal” and the writers do not divulge their Zacharias, Friesen’s diary notes that “the “natures abundantly.” They are in fact often brethren were disinclined.” Finally, at least what Fothergill calls the “poor stuff” of diary one of the diarists, Rev. Heinrich Friesen, ends keeping. Emotion is in fact rarely described. his entries for specific years and sometimes Bishop David Stoesz records the death of no even of specific months with a poem of thanks- fewer than seven children, four within a single giving and a prayer for God’s continued grace.

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