What Old Newspapers Tell Us About Mennonites
by Lawrence Klippenstein
Someone at the Home St. Mennonite Church recently handed me a very old issue of Free Press Evening Bulletin Winnipeg dated October 1920. Dorothy Peters told me a lady had given it her to see if she knew someone who might want it.
I was not familiar with this paper but thought I would check to see if it had any news about Mennonites in it. It actually did at least one item, if not two.
A short note was titled "Houston Mennonites to Face Prosecution." It mentioned an announcement by Robert Fletcher, then Deputy Minister of Education, on October 6 that Mennonites of that district had received summonses "according to the Manitoba School Act".
It stated further that five families were being tried on similar charges in the district of Schanzenfeld (that would be near Winkler where the trial would be held) on similar charges on Saturday, October 9. Representatives of the department would be arriving by train to participate in the trial.
The nature of the charges is not mentioned. In all likelihood it had to do with resisting new regulations related to setting up of public schools. Many Mennonites in southern Manitoba did not support the setting up of public schools in their areas.
Can anyone give us the names of the five families and more details about the event, and also of the families in Houston (i.e. Blumenthal S.D. - ed.) who were involved in these prosecutions?
There is one other possibly Mennonite-related item in the same issue. It mentions that nine persons (lawyers) were made King's's Counsel in Orders on Oct. 6. Among them was an H.A. Bergman, apparently from Winnipeg.
Can anyone provide more information about Bergman? Did he come from a Mennonite family? If so, who were his parents, and where were they from? (Note:For further reading: Aldof Ens, Subjexts or Citizens?)
Give information to Bert Friesen (ph 339-8677) or to myself (ph. 895 4421). Thank you very much.
Book Notes
Mennonites first settled in Manitoba in 1874 and 1875. They arrived as immigrants from South Russia, a country with a government they considered had broken its promises. They had been granted privileges upon settling in New Russia at the turn of the previous century. Included in those privileges was military service exemption which was replaced by the obligation of alternative service. So they decided to emigrate, some to Manitoba and some to the U.S.A.
Within twenty years of settling in Manitoba, they again felt that one of their privileges was being rescinded. This time it was the freedom to educate their own children in their own language in their own schools. After much debate and negotiation over many years nearly a quarter of all Mennonites in Manitoba emigrated to Mexico and Paraguay between 1922 and 1926.
However, even in these new homelands, these Mennonites did not achieve all their ideals. Within a generation, in the 1950s, they began returning to Canada, mostly to Ontario, but also to the western prairies. At first it was a trickle, but by the late 1970s it had become a steady stream. The story of the Ontario return is told in two recently published books: William Janzen, Build Up One Another; The Work of MCCO with the Mennonites from Mexico in Ontario 1977-1997 (Kitchener: MCCO, 1998), 70 pp and Victor Kliewer, ed., The Mennonites in Essex and Kent Counties, Ontario; An Introduction (Leamington: Essex-Kent Mennonite Historical Association, 1997), 109 pp. Janzen tells the informative story of the Mennonite community in Ontario assisting the returning Mennonites from Mexico. It is a detailed presentation of the facts with extensive documentation. Kliewer's account of the Mennonites in Essex and Kent Counties is more a catalogue of the life and institutions of these people.
Klippings is a periodical dedicated to telling the story of the Klippenstein family. The Vol.5, December, 1998 issue meets that objective very well. It tells the story of the Manitoba Klippenstein family history, the Klippenstein descendants in Germany, and is used as a forum to ask some questions about the Klippenstein family to which anyone can contribute answers. What is particularly interesting, because of the personal nature of the information, is the section: "Did you Know That . . ." It is a fine issue and should be of interest to all Klippensteins as well as those of us who have no direct connection to the family.
Bert Friesen has recently published The Kroeker Family Genealogy: The Ancestors and Descendants of Abram A. Kroeker and Elizabeth Nickel (Winnipeg, MB, 1998), 93 pp. A descendant chart on p.1 gives a convenient summary of the "tree" at a glance. A number of family stories are included. The "clan" outline is clear and easily understood. The closing index to all names mentioned forms a good conclusion to the book.
A new University of Toronto publication, Challenge to Mars: Essays on Pacifism from 1918 to 1945 (1999, hdc., 474 pp.) is edited by Dr Peter Brock, Professor Emeritus of History of the U. of T., and Dr. Thomas P. Sochnat, coordinator of Canadian Studies at Woodsworth College, U. of T. It includes essays by Lawrence Klippenstein (Winnipeg, MB), "Mennonites and Military Service in the Soviet Union till 1939"; Rachel Waltner Goossen (Goshen, IN)," Pacifist Professional Women on the Job in the United States"; and Donald Durnbaugh (Oak Brook, ILL), "The Fight Against War of the Historic Peace Churches, 1919-1941".
Dr. Johannes Reimer, director of Logos International, and now visiting lecturer at Concord College in Winnipeg, has given us two new Russian Mennonite missionary biographies. They are Seine Letzten Worte waren win Lied: Martin Thielmann. Leben und Wirken des Kirgisen Missionars (Logos Verlag, Lage, Germany, 1997, pb., 115 pp., C$16.00) and from the same publisher in 1998 Bis an den Enden Siberiens: Aus dem Leben und Wirken des Ostjaken Missionars. Johann Peters (pb., 156 pp., C$12.80). Thielmann (b.1871) passed away in 1923, and Peters (b.1885) was executed by the Soviets in 1938. These volumes clearly indicate that the story of Russian Mennonite missionary work is in part at least a story still waiting to be fully told. Both books are available from CMBS, 169 Riverton Ave., Winnipeg, MB R2L 2E5 (ph. 1-204-669-6575 or email adueck@cdnmbconf.ca