The Bergthalers of the West Reserve: Arrival and Early Development

by Lawrence Klippenstein

Emigrating families from the Bergthal Colony in south Russia (later Ukraine) began to arrive in southeastern Manitoba in late July of 1874. Abraham and Barbara Klaassen were on the passenger list for the S.S. Austrian No.40 which had docked in Québec City on 17 July 1874. The first two large contingents of families arrived only ten days later, when the S.S. Nova Scotian No.46 and the S.S. Peruvian No.47 docked at Québec City on 27 July.

All but six percent (34 according to one count) of the 527 households from the Bergthal settlement would be in North America by the end of 1876. Of these, 440 families, or about 3000 persons moved to Manitoba. Except for a small still undetermined number, these families began their sojourn of Canada life in one or the other of the villages of the first land reserve given to the Mennonites east of the Red River (hence the "East Reserve").

Others who travelled with the Bergthal settlement groups came from the Chortitza and Fürstenland settlements under the leadership of the Ältester Johann Wiebe of Fürstenland. They settled on the West Reserve beginning in 1875.

Those from the Bergthal settlement who settled on the East Reserve soon began moving to the West Reserve. By 1876 the Friedrich Wall family is listed as resident in Waldheim and the Esau family in Hoffnungsfeld (see p.6), both Bergthalers.

An East Reserve Bergthaler "emigration" began as early as 1875 when twenty-eight families moved to Mountain Lake, Minnesota, U.S.A. to look for better land. By 1877 other families were considering a move to the West Reserve. In the next four years as many as half, if not more of the Bergthaler families in the East Reserve moved to the West Reserve to establish new villages there.

More than twenty village sites were laid out in the eastern part of this reserve although only fifteen or so became functioning village communities. These included Halbstadt, Edenburg, Neuanlage, Sommerfeld, Neubergthal, Old Altona, Altbergthal, Schönthal, Gnadenfeld, and several others. Five of these are still in existence as easily-recognized villages today. They are Neubergthal, Sommerfeld, Old Altona, Altbergthal, and Schönthal. Remnants of several others can be found at their original locations.

The formation of the village of Altbergthal may be typical of several others in the way these communities arose. A group of sixteen farmers homesteaded for land in this district around 1879-1880. The great majority, if not all, came from the East Reserve at that time. A village was laid out along the east side of Buffalo Creek. All the homesteaders lived in the village at first, cultivating their land as allotted by homestead patents.

A school was opened around 1884. Enrollment soon rose to about 40 pupils. It operated as a private school at first, but under pressure from the government converted to a public school in 1904 when a new building was erected. The nearby rather smaller village of Lichtfeld, founded to the west about the same time, was incorporated into the Altbergthal school district early on. In 1897 the villagers signed a document of village dissolution and some of them began to move out to the acreage which they owned in the area. A core of families always remained on the original location, with five remaining there at present.

One of the homesteading villagers was Johann Funk who had moved in from Bergthal on the East Reserve around 1880. He had been ordained a minister a few years earlier and after several years, in 1882, was also ordained as Ältester of the whole Bergthaler community on the West Reserve. He retained this position till 1911 when he retired. Altbergthal never had a church building of its own. Nearby worship centres included those of Rudnerweide, Schönthal, and Hochstadt northeast of Altona.

One of his fellow-ministers was Heinrich Wiebe who had moved to Edenburg a few miles east of Gretna, also from the East Reserve and remained a loyal supporter of Funk till his (Wiebe's) death in 1897. The Edenburg church was the first one to be built on the West Reserve and remained one of the main worship centres for several decades.

The Bergthal ministers were early supporters of public education, including advanced training for teachers. That led them to promote establishing a "normal school" at Gretna which opened in 1889. West Reserve Bergthalers were divided on the issue of education, leading to a schism several years later. The 1892 division reduced the followers of Johann Funk to a small minority, with the rest regrouping in 1893 under a new Ältester, Abraham Doerksen. Their group would take the name Sommerfelder not much later.

The Bergthal group obtained considerable support from families who did not originate in the Bergthal Colony of south Russia. A number came from the Old Colony, Chortitza, and places like Puchtin and some Molotschna communities also. New ministers were elected after the division and additional places of worship were opened not long afterward. Hoffnungsfeld became a centre of vital church activity in the Winkler area which brought other important leaders like Jacob Hoeppner into leadership around 1900. Hoeppner took over the position of Ältester in 1911.

The Bergthaler congregations formed a significant element of the West Reserve population after 1880. They took a lead in education, and were soon involved in municipal and other civic aspects of life as well. Non-Mennonite movements like the Swedenborgians found quite a few members in Bergthaler circles also. It seemed that open-mindedness worked both ways. It brought a readiness to adapt to the culture of the land and progressive thinking, but offered acceptance of non-Mennonite ideas and ways as well.

Sources

H.J. Gerbrandt, Adventures in Faith (1970).

John Dyck, ed., Bergthal Gemeinde Buch, (1993).