by Victor G. Wiebe

The background story of Mennonite emigration from south Russia to Manitoba is being recalled in this issue of HP, and has been dealt with in numerous other publications. Those who are familiar with it will recall the early stages of investigation in which Jacob Y. Shantz, a Swiss Mennonite bursinessman from Berlin Ontario (now Kitchener, Ontario), and Bernhard Warkentin, a Russian Mennonite from Berdiansk in south Russia, travelled to Manitoba in 1872 to see if it could be a suitable place for Russian Mennonites to settle if they moved to North America¹.

A report on this trip was published in 1873. It was titled Narrative of a Journey to Manitoba , was translated into several languages, and used as a promotion piece for recruiting settlers for Western Canada². Interestingly enough, no German translation appeared to have been made at the time. Recently, however, such a translation has turned up, and in the process a potential new source of information for the immigration itself may have been unearthed as well.

The material we have here is really a response to questions about the source of this German translation. We are very pleased to share the answer given to us by Victor Wiebe who works with government records in Saskatoon, SK, and who is also the archivist of the Mennonite Historical Society of Saskatchewan. The notes comment on the basic fact that the German translation of Narrative of a Journey to Manitoba was published by a relatively obscure (only to us perhaps) Ontario publication known as Der Deutsche in Canada.

Copies of the periodical, Der Deutsche in Canada, are reproduced in the CIHM (Canadian Institute of Historical Microreproduction, Periodical item number 04154, 10 microfiche, 26 X reduction). Unfortunately the set is far from complete. The CIHM collection consists of only ten issues: Vol.1 (1872), no. 37-40, 44-46; Vol.3 (1874, no.13-15. Fortunately the Shantz narrative is reprinted in these last three issues. Herbert Karl Kalbfleisch in his book The History of the Pioneer German Language Press of Ontario, 1835-1918, (Toronto, ON, 1968),76-77, asserted that Der Deutsche in Canada was published by Conrad Marxhausen, also known as Charles Mack, between April, 1871, and April, 1875. Volume 1 seems to end with December 1872. Kalbfleisch indicated that a newspaper directory cited a circulation of 1,200 copies in 1873, but then declared this to be exaggerated.

The periodical, Der Deutsche in Canada, is very rare with Kalbfleisch unable to list any known copies. Only as CIHM searched out all nineteenth century Canadian publications did some copies surface from the Hamilton City archives. Kalbfleisch indicated the page size to be 9 by 12 inches and this seems correct, but then added that it was a 24 page monthly. This is not correct. All microfilmed issues suggest that the periodical was an eight- page weekly. The issues were identified by month and year, i.e. "April 1874", and three sets of numbers: a volume number, i.e. "3.Band", a monthly number, i.e. "Drittes Heft", and an issue number, i.e. "No.15".

Presumably a volume consisted of 48 to 52 issues of eight pages each for a total of between 384 and 416 pages. The quality of the printing of the issues of the first volume was quite poor with poor inking. A lot of ink "bled" to other pages to such an extent that some pages are difficult to read. By the third volume the printing quality had improved. In the first volume each issue contained a couple of pages of advertisements but Volume Three had almost none. No.13 in that volume had an irregularity in the pagination which went from page 66 to page 68 with no page 67. This may have been intended to correct a past mistake but seems odd since the small tears on the outside edges of the pages do not match.

The German translation of Shantz's Narrative spells his name as "Schantz". His pamphlet is reproduced in the CIHM collection as items No. 30,484 for the English edition and No. 13,478 for the French edition. A careful examination of Shantz's printed pamphlet reveals many different printings. That is, the text of the work that has been reset many times and there are a number of small variations in the text.

It is interesting to speculate why Marxhausen would have a translation made and published. The Canadian government was advertising widely in a variety of newspapers and magazines, including Der Deutsche in Canada, for people to settle in Manitoba. Marxhausen may have received encouragement from the government or he may have thought that they would be more sympathetic to him if he did something useful for them.

Some time ago I came across a note that on 6 September, 1873, C. Mack had written a letter to the Canadian Department of Agriculture (Letter No. 9043) in which he stated that the next issue of his periodical Der Deutsche in Canada would contain a correct and full translation of Mr. Shantz's pamphlet on Manitoba.

The English translation of the Narrative can be located easily in the archives of Mennonite Heritage Centre and probably in other libraries³. The German translation is now also quite accessible on the Internet. We will nevertheless conclude with a short passage from the German text to provide the flavour of this version.

Beschreibung einer Reise nach Manitoba⁴

Berlin, Ont., 28 Feb.1873.

An den Achtb. J.H. Pope, Ackerbau-Minister in Ottawa.

Mein Herr,

..... Von einer Thatsache indessen bin ich vollständig überzeugt, daß Manitoba ein ausgezeichnetes Feld bietet für Einwanderung, ... und zwar für Alle welche wünschen, für sich selbst und Familien eine gute und billige Heimstäte zu erwerben. Sie alle können sicher sein, ihre Unabhängigkeit zu erringen, wenn sie nur arbeiten wollen,.... und mäßig zu leben verstehen.

Ich habe die Ehre zu sein, geehrter Herr, Ihr ergebenster

Jacob Y. Schantz.

Manitoba und der Nordwesten

Am 5. November 1872 verließen wir, Herr Bernard Warkentine, von Rußland, und ich selbst, Berlin mit der Grand Trunk Eisenbahn, um die Provinz Manitoba zu besuchen. Wir kamen zunächst nach Detroit, gingen dann per Southern Michigan Eisenbahn nach Chicago, von da nach St. Paul, Minnesota und weiter mit der Lake Superior und Mississippi Bahn nach Duluth; hier nahmen wir die Northern Pacific Eisenbahn und fuhren nach Moorhead, einem Platze am Red River, unmittelbar an der Grenzlinie welche Minnesota von Dacotah scheidet, und von diesem Platze begaben wir uns nach Pembina and der Grenze von Manitoba.

Nachdem wir in diese Provinz eingetreten waren, reisten wir 72 Meilen weit mit dem Omnibus nach Fort Garry und Winnipeg, welcher letztere Platz dicht bei dem Fort liegt und sehr im Aufblühen begriffen ist....

Endnotes

1. Cornelius Krahn, "Letters of Bernhard Warkentin Pertaining to the Migration of 1873-1875," Mennonite Quarterly Review, Vol. XXIV (July, 1950), 248-62, and David A. Haury, "Bernhard Warkentin: A Mennonite Benefactor," Mennonite Quarterly Review, Vol.XLIX (July, 1975), 179-202. Haury erroneously dates Warkentin's trip to Manitoba as taking place in January, 1873 (p.184), not November, 1872, as the primary sources have it.

2. J.Y. Shantz, Narrative of a Journey to Manitoba (Ottawa, ON: Robertson, Rogers, and Co., 1873).

3. The most recent reprints of the Narrative report are in Clarence Hiebert, ed. Brothers in Deed to Brothers in Need (Newton, KS: Faith and Life Press, 1974), 30-34, and in Samuel J. Steiner. Vicarious Pioneer: The Life of Jacob Y. Shantz (Winnipeg, MB: Hyperion Press, 1988), 163-81. Steiner was not able to locate a German edition at the time of that publication.

4. J.Y. Schantz, "Eine Reise nach der Provinz Manitoba," Der Deutsche in Canada Band III, Drittes Heft, No.13 (April, 1874), 68-69, was the first instalment of this German-language reprint.