~ A Journal of the D. F. Plett Historical Research Foundation Inc. Preservings $20 Issue No. 34, 2014 “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 .................................................... 73 Table of Contents ........................................... 2 Articles ......................................................... 42 Book Reviews .............................................. 77 Editorial .......................................................... 3 Biographies .................................................. 67 News............................................................. 84 In this Issue PRESERVINGS 2014 Table of Contents One hundred forty years ago Mennonites from Impe- rial Russia migrated to the Great Plains and Prairies of North America. The feature articles in this year’s issue In this Issue ............................................................................................ 2 tell that story. Ernie Braun begins by revisiting the ques- Editorial .................................................................................................. 3 tion of why Mennonites chose to emigrate and why some chose Canada, while others the United States. The diaries FEATURE ARTICLES of the 1873 delegation that toured North America are THE 1870S MIGRATION used in Hans Werner’s article to explore their personal Why Emigrate?, by Ernie Braun ............................................................ 4 wonderment at travel and the new sights and people they ‘Something…we had not seen nor heard of’: The 1873 Mennonite met. James Urry revisits the question of how instrumental Delegation to Find Land in ‘America’, by Hans Werner ..................... 11 William Hespeler actually was in making the immigration to Manitoba happen, while Adolf Ens explores the diver- Myth and History: The Story of William Hespeler’s Independent Role in the Immigration of Mennonites to Manitoba in the 1870s, sity of faith expression that emerged in Canada soon after by James Urry ...................................................................................... 21 Mennonites arrived. These fresh looks are accompanied by reprints of previous story tellers. An excerpt from Stuck in the Ice on Lake Superior ........................................................ 24 Ferdinand Schultz’s 1938 history of Mountain Lake, Min- The Religious Context of the First Decade of Mennonites nesota and a 1975 Mennonite Quarterly Review article by in Manitoba, by Adolf Ens ................................................................... 26 John D. Unruh and his son on settlement in South Dakota, offer windows into settlement in the United States. Other The Mennonites of Mountain Lake, by Ferdinand P. Schultz .............. 28 writings of the day tell us about being stuck in the ice on Daniel Unruh and the Mennonite Settlement in Dakota Territory, Lake Superior and British impressions of Mennonites by John D. Unruh and John D. Unruh, Jr. ........................................... 32 stopping over in Liverpool. British Newspaper Impressions of Mennonites In Transit ................... 40 Other articles offer new insights into diverse subjects. Kerry Fast uses interviews conducted in the 1970s to ARTICLES reconstruct the story of the early settlement of Low Ger- A Brief History of the Migration of Mennonites to Ontario and the man Mennonites in Ontario; Orlando Hiebert examines Formation of the Old Colony Church, by Kerry Fast .......................... 42 drainage, bush and rocks on the East Reserve, while Glenn Mennonites and the East Reserve: Reclaiming the Land, Klassen tells an engaging story of finding cemeteries by Orlando Hiebert .............................................................................. 48 there. Conrad Stoesz’s article about a new collection of photographs from Paraguay conveys both a sense of the Cemeteries and Country Cafés: Where Old Friends Meet, complications of early settlement and the prospect of re- by Glen Klassen ................................................................................... 52 storing some rare and unique images. Dora Maendal and General Samuel McRoberts’ Photos of Mennonites in Paraguay Jesse Hofer’s account of how Hutterite suffering during 1926-1929, by Conrad Stoesz .............................................................. 57 World War I is being retold in new ways reminds us of Retelling a Peace Story: The Alcatraz Brothers the value of not forgetting our past. Part I: Walking with “Die Alkatraz Brüder”, by Dora Maendel ...... 62 Our issue ends with some interesting biographies, engaging reflections and book reviews. It is our hope you Part II: Remembering Muted Voices, by Jesse Hofer ...................... 64 will find the issue interesting and inspiring—inspiring in that it may even stimulate you to write something for BIOGRAPHY AND FAMILY HISTORY next year’s issue. We are always interested and available The Seven Isaacs, by Royden Loewen ................................................. 67 to help make it happen. Cornelius J. (CJ.) Dyck: Teacher, Scholar and Churchman, by John J. Friesen ................................................................................. 71 REFLECTIONS Salvation, the Self, and the Mennonites, by Ralph Friesen ................. 73 BOOK REVIEWS ...................................................................77 NEWS .......................................................................................84 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. 34, 2014 by John J. Friesen Editorial co-editor Mennonites’ ability to survive for almost five hundred years to Manitoba in the 1870s was one of those opportunities for in the face of many challenges is a remarkable story. During the renewal. In the case of the Bergthaler Church, migration to past half millennium, Mennonites were physically threatened Manitoba was made possible because the more wealthy as- with imprisonment and death, given financial and cultural sisted those unable to pay their way to Manitoba so that all incentives to join mainstream denominations, challenged by could move. This created strong bonds. Migration to Manitoba the Enlightenment and modernity to give up their religious allowed the landless, who were almost two thirds of the church beliefs and lifestyles as outdated, condemned by Pietism and community, to acquire land and provide a better financial evangelicalism as not emphasizing inner, subjective faith base for their families. Migration and the availability of large sufficiently, and threatened by affluence to exchange convic- tracts of land allowed the Reinländer Church (later called the tion for comfort. Despite these challenges, Mennonites have Old Colony) to create strong village communities, in which continued, becoming more numerous, more international and the schools, municipal organizations, the Waisenamt (which multi-ethnic, and stronger as the years go by. provided social and financial services for church members), and Mennonites have been able to survive because they had a the fire insurance system could be placed under the direction vision. This faith vision was based on the Bible and included of the church. Migration allowed the Kleine Gemeinde leaders seeing the church as free from state control. This vision in- to envision a new start in which they could achieve the unity cluded the view that faith was formed by, and should be lived and spiritual renewal that had eluded them in Russia. in church community. It emphasized that people’s lives could Successful settlement on the open prairie in Manitoba be changed through the power of God’s spirit and the support required that people cooperated in starting homes and farms, of the church. This vision affirmed that with God’s help, faith establishing schools, and building the many organizations could be lived in daily life – in discipleship, and that peace required to form a successful community. Through it all, they was something to strive for personally, communally and in- established patterns of extending warm hospitality to family ternationally. This vision emphasized service as a way of life. and friends, and went visiting often throughout the Mennonite Some Mennonites have witnessed to the Anabaptist Men- settlements. Strong bonds were created that transcended church nonite vision by engaging with society, both locally and divisions, and sustained the communities for decades. internationally,