Reflecting on our past: Historic Post Road topic at history workshop

by Elmer Heinrichs

Over 50 persons participated in a Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society local histories committee workshop in the Gretna Prairie Senior Centre Sat., April 24 and a tour of points of interest including Fort Dufferin, West Lynne and Klaas Heide homestead.

It was an opportunity to get a head start on 125th anniversary celebrations marking the arrival of Mennonites from Russia in Southern Manitoba.

The first families came to the East Reserve area (east of the Red River) in late July, 1874, and after receiving shelter in the Schantz immigration sheds initially settled in three or four dozen villages in the Niverville-Steinbach area in the next few years.

Celebrations west of the Red River will really take off in the year 2000 marking the 125th anniversary of the arrival of the first Mennonite families which landed at old Fort Dufferin on the Red River, just north of then West Lynne (now Emerson).

They established many villages in the Reinland-Winkler-Morden area in the years that followed. Hundreds of families moved to the area from the East Reserve after 1876 to set up villages in the Rosenfeld-Altona-Gretna area, the eastern part of the West Reserve.

At the April 24 workshop, researcher Conrad Stoesz reported on one of the important features of the new settlement region - a road, known as the Post Road, which was set up early in the settlement period connecting Emerson/West Lynne on the Red River with Mountain City/Nelsonville/Morden in the Pembina Hills. It ran through a score of the new Mennonite villages which were set up in the West Reserve.

Recognizing the harshness of the winter and the hazards to safe travel, the Oberschultz (reeve) of the Reinlaender church community, Isaak Mueller, gave orders to villages that residents set up posts along the road, called the Post Road, so it would be easier to stay on track during the winter months.

The directive to the villagers said that posts were to be 10 feet in height, driven into the ground, and spaced about 250 feet apart. Villagers were asked to provide the posts and put them in place, beginning on May 20, 1878.

The Post Road began in straight westerly line from Emerson and continued just south of present day Halbstadt and ran past Edenburg to the village of Neuanlage (east of the present PTH 30). Here at the 12-mile stop, the well-known David Schellenberg family frequently provided lodging to travellers.

The family didn't lock their doors for night so weary travellers could enter the house, find a spot on the floor and get some rest. In the morning the Schellenberg family never knew how many guests they would have on their floor. Further west, just outside the village of Neuhorst, Mr. William Brown established a hotel and livery stable. At Reinland, the Jacob Giesbrecht family frequently opened up their home to Post Road travellers.

The road served people from the Mennonite villages as well as non-Mennonite businessmen, farmers and stage coaches, and it became a preferred route for mail carriers.

Other topics: West Lynne, Fort Dufferin, and Klaas Heide, a 1921 delegate to Mexico, along with brief updates on new initiatives at Winkler, Altona and Neubergthal.

Lawrence Klippenstein reported on 1872 construction of winter housing at Dufferin for the Boundary Trails Commission. In 1874, a year after the commission began its survey work, the North West Mounted Police used Dufferin to stage its ride west.

Russian Mennonite Genealogy Series

by Richard Thiessen

The Genealogy Committee of the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society has agreed to move ahead with plans to commence publication of a series of documents pertaining to Russian Mennonite genealogical research. The series, tentatively entitled Russian Mennonite Genealogy Series, is to be comprised of at least seven publications.

No. 1. Mennonite emigration from Prussia and settlement in Russia: 1789-1835, part 1, by Peter Rempel. This collection includes lists of settlers in Chortitza Colony from 1789-1796, census lists from 1797 and 1806, and immigration lists and lists of established households from 1803 to 1828. Much of this information is not in B.H. Unruh's publication.

No. 2. Mennonite emigration from Prussia and settlement in Russia: 1789-1835, part 2. This collection includes additional immigration data for 1803 to 1835. Many of these documents are from the St. Petersburg microfilm collection. They include lists of Mennonites who immigrated to Molotschna in the first half of the 19^th century and Mennonites who immigrated to other areas of Russia from 1811 to 1819, such as Ostrog. The collection may also include some documents transcribed by Adalbert Goertz that are Prussian in origin, listing Mennonites immigrating to Russia.

No. 3. Molotschna Colony 1835 Census, 2^nd edition, by Richard Thiessen. This will be a correction of the 1^st edition of the census, and will also include annotations with additional information on the individuals located in the census. Annotations will be taken from previously published sources like B. H. Unruh, items previously published in this series, the GRANDMA database, and both published and unpublished genealogies.

No. 4. B.H. Unruh: Genealogical Documents. This would be basically a translation of significant parts of B.H. Unruh's Die niederländisch-niederdeutschen Hintergründe der mennonitischen Ostwanderungen.

No. 5. The First Mennonite Settlers in Chortitza by Henry Schapansky. This would be a reworking of the individual articles written by Schapansky and published in Mennonite Family History.

No. 6. Mennonites in Russia, 1835-1900. This would be a collection of a variety of documents taken from the Braun and St. Petersburg collections, and perhaps even the Odessa archives, if these documents are available. These documents include items from forestry records such as census lists and lists of workers and school registers for Molotschna, many which are currently available on the MMHS webpage.

No. 7. Mennonite Church Documents of the 19^th century. This publication would include at least two documents: the Schoenhorst Register for the village of Schoenhorst, Chortitza, and the baptism register for Fuerstenland.

Over the next several years, numerous other documents may very well be discovered and incorporated into this proposed series. Anyone interested in donating to this project may designate funds to the "Genealogy Project."