Mennonite Historian -- Volume XXIII, No. 1 (March 1997)

Table of Contents

1. Historical Notes -- Herbert Bible School by Abe Dueck
2. Recent Acquistions at CMBS
3. Mennonites and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk by Henry Schellenberg
4. Genealogy and Family History by Alf Redekopp
5. Book Reviews
6. Book Notes

Historical Notes--Herbert Bible School

The Herbert Bible School in Herbert, Saskatchewan, is usually regarded as the first Mennonite Brethren Bible institute in Canada. This claim is probably appropriate, although the identity of the school in the first decade was not unambiguous.

The school first opened under the auspices of the Northern District Conference of the Mennonite Brethren Church (Canadian) in 1913 under the leadership of J. F. Harms, who had come to the area from Kansas in 1908. Records indicate that it experienced considerable difficulty because of a shortage of fin-ances and teachers and by 1916 the very existence of the school was in jeopardy.

As a result, early in 1916 steps were taken to transform the school into a society school with participation by various Mennonite groups. The Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies has a pamphlet entitled, "Statuten der Mennonitischen Bibelschule zu Herbert, Saskatchewan." The statutes were accepted at a general meeting at Herbert on July 22, 1916. This meeting had been preceded by four previous meetings from March 18 to July 6, 1916.

The contents of these statutes provide interesting information about the nature of the proposed school. Membership in the supporting society was open to people of various confessions, although the Direc-tors had to belong to a Mennonite church. The members of the initial Board of Directors included only two individuals who are identified as Mennonite Brethren (H.A. Neufeld and J.P. Wiebe). Two are identified as members of the Sommerfelder Church (Peter Schulz and H. M. Klassen) and two as members of the General Conference of Mennonites (J.M. Wiens and Gerh. Buhler). Buhler and Schulz were soon replaced by Thomas Sawatzky and Wilhelm Janzen.

At a June 2, 1916 meeting of the Herbert Kreis (South Saskatchewan District), the delegation debated the question about the desirability of transforming the school into a society school from a Mennonite Brethren school. The Minutes state as follows: "Nach dem nun hierueber beraten worden und manches belaeuchtet, laest die Gemeinde die Schule als Schule der Mennoniten Brueder Gemeinde los und wuenscht ihr Gottes Segen als Vereinschule."

The school did not prosper as a society school either. In 1918 Harms moved to Seattle. The CMBS has copies of minutes of the society and the Board of Directors from 1916 to Decem-ber 1920. There were frequent calls for financial support and enrolment must have remained low during all these years. Mennonite Brethren support seems to have been minimal. The school could not survive as a non-denominational society school.

In 1921, however, a new inititive under the leadership of William J. Bestvater brought the school back to life. According to the records, Bestvater himself became the owner of the school. Essentially, however, the new Herbert Bible School became a Mennonite Brethren school. The dedication service took place on November 6, 1921 in the Mennonite Brethren Church in Herbert. There are no minutes for the period from December, 1920 to April, 1926. The next minutes are dated May 13, 1926. The meeting on this date was referred to as the "Organizational meeting of the Herbert Bible School Society." Bestvater was elected the chair of this organizational meeting which evidently brought the school more formally under the jurisdiction of the Mennonite Brethren constituency, although technically it was still a society school with specified membership dues. It is not clear to what extent non-Mennonite Brethren participated.

The Herbert Bible School operated as a Mennonite Brethren school until it closed in 1957 and the program was amalgamated with Bethany Bible Institute at Bethany.

Recent Aquisitions at CMBS

2. North Kildonan Funeral Aid Society records. - 1935-1996, predominantly 1970-1996. - 12 cm of textual records. This collection includes the 1937 constitution and some minutes from 1935-1937. The minutes of annual meetings from 1973 to 1996 are also complete. There are also membership lists and statements of payments made for 1986 to 1993. (Acc. No. 1997-008)

3. Abram A. Kroeker collection. - 1934-1948. - 30 cm of textual records, 26 photographs, songbooks and other published material. This collection includes files of correspondence relating to Winkler Bible School, Sunday School conventions, special music courses, Beth-el Hospital, city missions and the MB Bible College in Winnipeg. The publish-ed items include several annual yearbooks for the Winkler MB Church, as well as one item entitled, "Konstitution des Jugendvereins der M.B. Gemeinde, Winkler, Man. 1921". (Acc. No. 1997-009)

Mennonites and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

The story actually began long before Brest-Litovsk. The father, Isaac Frank Schellenberg, grew up in the Mennonite village of Grigorievka in Ukraine. His father was wealthy and had employed many of the Ukrainian village boys to tend his stable of 80 horses and work his land. His father treated the boys well and when one of these Ukrainian lads became a Bolshevik general under Lenin it was only natural that communications continued between the General and the Schellenberg family.

Young Isaac refused, as did most Mennonite boys, to enter the army and carry a/ gun. Hence he was sent to the forestry service in 1914 to cut trees for the tsar. Few in the camp of two hundred boys, volunteered to do the dishes or work in the kitchen. Young Isaac volunteered. Many stories have been told of the mischievous adventures in these camps: how smart-alek types were given haircuts by using a hand axe and chopping block. It became established that one could easily recognize Molotschna lads - they grew hair on the undersoles of their feet.

Young Isaac was adventurous in other ways too. When the opportunity came to be a cook for the Russian army at the battlefront, he went. But there was little cooking donen - soup and bread is all they had. The soup was made in a gigantic cauldron on wheels. You threw in the bag of dead fish (many of them rotten) brought this to boil and observed the bush-place bathroom procedure later.

The bread was so old, dry and hard, that care was taken not to drop it on a dog's head - he would surely be a goner. There was only one way out. By late 1916 Isaac had transferred to the Red Cross unit - to remove the dead and wounded from the battlefield. The wagons were much like long old-fashioned hay racks with no end or wall at the back. This allowed you to roll those who died onto the roadside and faster movement was achieved for those yet living. Also, it allowed the blood to drain off the back of the wagon. Young Isaac, now twenty years old, took up smoking here "to chase away the smell of death", he said. He kept running out of Russian Bibles; strange to say, there are few atheists when the Grim Reaper is staring you in the face. But this is not the kind of occupation that steadies one's nerves.

In late 1917 came yet another change of job. The Russian general was now with the Bolshevik movement. Lenin's propaganda had been spread throughout the army. "Vote for peace, bread, and land" was the Communist slogan. When Lenin had overthrown Kerensky's provisional government in November of 1917, he immediately agreed to a truce with Germany and Austria-Hungary. It fell to this Communist general to put together a secretarial group to write the treaty. He selected a young Mennonite to be the official interpreter who could translate Russian documents into German, and German documents into Russian. How fitting that he remembered that young lad from the village of Grigoriewka, to whom he had told brave stories while working on the boy's father's farm. He knew that young Isaac had a high school education (Zentralschule) and had exceptional h

andwriting ability. His neatness and curvature style was impressive and admired by the group working in a railway car halfway between the Polish town of Brest and the Ukrainian town of Litovsk.

The terms of the treaty had come out of a year of wrangling and were finally signed in March of 1918. It was very one-sided with Germany dividing much territory among its friends. Russia would get Bessarabia, Turkey would get much of Armenia, and Austria and Germany would divide between them Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Finland, Estonia and the Ukraine would be independent but under German protection. This would allow Germany to protect their Lutheran villages in Ukraine and allow access to mineral resources for fifteen years. It also allowed Germany to move all its troops to the western front. What did Russia get? It got breathing time for Lenin to gain control of Russia; to the allies it was "the peace that passeth all understanding". As Isaac later stated, the Communists had no intention at all of abiding by the terms of this treaty.

The interpreter group was not allowed out of the railway box cars although Isaac was sure he saw both Molotov and Trotsky. He never saw Lenin or Stalin. He developed a great respect for German soldiers, but despised their officers. The German officers could only use terms like "Das russische Schwein" (the Russian pigs) when talking of Russians in general. Their contempt for anything that was not German must have been exploited by Hitler and the Nazis in later years. So often one can see the future in attitudes and events of the past. As the song says in "Four Strong Winds", "Will they ever learn; Will they ever learn?"

There had been much controversy about this treaty in Russian ranks and apparently a dispute over it existed between Lenin and his secretary, Stalin. Rumours abounded about Lenin bouncing an ink-well off Stalin's head and that Stalin was not seen for months. Some like to link this event to Lenin's mysterious death of food poisoning in 1924. Who knows the real facts?

Young Isaac arrived at his village of Grigoriewka in 1919 with sealed lips and full of fears about godless Communism only to find that they would soon be confirmed. He became secretary of the local Soviet and married a pretty young girl who lived just down the street, Katherina Froese. Alas, that same year his father passed away and the village ceased to exist as a Mennonite village due to land division by Lenin.

Why was Brest-Litovsk so significant for Mennonites? In actual fact this was the beginning of the end for them in Russia. The jails were emptied by Lenin and robber bands killed many. Many had felt safe when the Germans occupied Ukraine but Communist vengeance sent many to Siberia and later to Karaganda. Soon their lovely farms were divided among Russian peasants, five acres each. The Mennonite exodus had started in 1874 but in the 1920s many more tried to leave for Canada and USA. Isaac and Katherine arrived in Boissevain, Manitoba in the spring of 1930.

Much can be said about the hard times of the 1920s in Ukraine, but the dirty '30s in Canada made many of these Russländer Mennonites wonder if Siberia was really so terrible. What would history have been like if there had never been a treaty of Brest-Litovsk?

In conclusion it must be stated that the events I have described happened long ago and far away. My information comes from stories father told many years ago and much may have been forgotten. I have tried to tell the story as I heard it, often in bits and pieces. Yes, the Russian general existed but I have forgotten his name. Yes, he advised Frank Schellen-berg to buy all the gold possible with tsar money because it would soon be obsolete, but that is a story in itself. How fortunate for those able to leave after Brest-Litovsk helped Communism get the driver's seat. God moves in mysterious ways his miracles to perform. Have Canadian Mennonites a reason to rejoice or are they still thinking of what might have been?

Henry Schellenberg was formerly the principal of W.C. Miller Collegiate in Altona, and still resides in that community.

GENEALOGY AND FAMILY HISTORY

Queries

Dirks - I am researching the Dirks family history and have accumulated a vast amount of information on the Dirks heritage from Holland to Prussia, to Russia, to the United States and to Canada. Contact: Robert G. Dirks, 1948 Sheffield Way, Kamloops, BC V2E 2M2.

Wiens - Looking for information about the parents, siblings and descendants of Peter Peter Wiens born June 24, 1867 died April 28, 1909 who was married to Maria Eck (adopted by Wede Wls) born Sept. 14, 1879 died Sept.27, 1950. Maria married a Pauls after Peter P. Wiens her first husband died. A son Peter P. Wiens (1908-1961) came to Canada from the Ufa region in Russia in 1925. Contact: Anna Wiens Kroeker, Waldheim, SK (e-mail: ken.kroeker@sk.sympatico.ca)

Recent Books

This book traces the ancestry of the Russian Mennonite Niebuhr family back to Jacob Niebuhr (1766-1835?) believed to common ancestor. Specifically the book focuses on the history of the descendants of one of Jacob's grandsons, Peter Niebuhr (1828-1894) who was born in the village of Kronstal, Russia. A concenstration of the descendants can be found in Winnipeg. Others live in Alberta, BC and Kansas. Biographies and photographs are inserted throughout the book. Contact: Bill Klassen, 120 Roselawn Bay, Winnipeg, MB R2G 1W6.

Frank Sawatzky. The Kornelius D. & Helena Loewen Family Tree 1832-1995 (Winnipeg, MB: Private publication, 1995) 68 pp.

This book traces the family history of the descendants of Kornelius D. Loewen (1832-1868) and Helena Koop (1835-1921) who lived in Chortitza, Russia. Many of the descendants experienced numerous hardships. Descriptions such as "arrested in 1937 and not heard from since" are not uncommon. Some descendants left the Soviet Union with the retreating German army in 1941, eventually settling in Canada. Others resettled in Germany more recently. Biographies and photographs are inserted throughout. Contact: Frank Sawatzky, 122 Reiny Drive, Winnipeg, MB R2G 2M4.

Arthur Toews. Family Registry: Isaak Isaak Toews 1841-1906 and Katharina Johann Funk 1843-1917 of Kronsweide, Russia (Winnipeg, MB: Private publication, 1997) 158 pp.

This book traces the Toews family back to Isaac Toews (1739) and Kristina Bourmeister (1740) who originate from Heiligbrun near Langefuhr, Prussia. Specifically the book traces the descendants of a great grand son, Isaak Isaak Toews (1841-1906) who was born in Kronsweide, Russia and lived most of his married life in the village of Osterwick, Russia. Biographies, photographs and genealogical charts are inserted throughout. Contact: Art Toews, 935 Windermere Avenue E., Winnipeg, MB R3T 1A2.

John Dyck, ed. Three Hundred Years: Peter Penner (1850-1924) and Margaretha Wiebe (1854-1945) (Winnipeg, MB: The Penner Family History Committee, 1996) hdc., 284 pp.

This book traces the ancestry of Peter Penner (1850-1924) back five generation to Hans Penner and Maria Loewen who were born in the late 1600s and lived near Danzig, Prussia. The specific content of the book deals with the history of the descendants of Peter Penner (1850-1924) who was born in the Bergthal Colony and came to Canada with his wife Margaretha Wiebe in 1874, where they established themselves in the village of Hochfeld, Manitoba. The book is well researched with numerous genealogical charts, photographs and biographical sketches inserted throughout. Contact: John Dyck, 48 Coral Cresc., Winnipeg, MB R2J 1V7.

Dyck, George G. and Ian G. Dyck. Genealogy of the Peter and Helena Hamm Family 1876-1931 and their Descendants (Orleans, ON: Private publication, 1996) 230 pp.

This books focuses on the family history of the the descendants of Peter Hamm (1854-1901) and his wife Helena Hamm (1855-1931) who were married in 1876 in Manitoba. Both had come to Canada with their in 1875 and 1874 respectively. The book traces the ancestry of both Hamm families to a possible com-mon ancestor in Prussia, namely a Peter Hamm (1765-) who was married to a Barbara ? (17--?). The books includes biographical sketches, photos and genea-logical data. Contact: Ian Dyck, 6467 Viseneau Drive, Orleans, ON K1C 5H1

Schmidt, Hilda Neufeld. Family Tree of Peter Neufeld and Aganetha Wiens Neufeld presented by Heinrich T. Neufeld Enid, Oklahoma 1957-1958 / retyped and partially updated (Beatrice, NE: Private publication, 1992, 1996) 304 pp.

This book which is book in "duo-tang type" format traces a Neufeld family back to a Peter Neufeld (1697-1769) and his wife Katharina Rogalsky (1729-1806). Specifically the story focuses on the descendants of a grandson, Peter Neufeld (1825-1885) who married Aganetha Wiens (1829-1899) who left Russia in 1875 and settled in Inman, Kansas. In Russia the family lived initially in Rosenort, Molotschna, then Margenau, and eventually on the leased estate of Andre Markus. This current volume is based on a 1957 compilation and contains inserted updated pages. Contact: Hilda Schmidt, 1212 N 14, Beatrice, NE 68310.

Send inquiries to Alf Redekopp, 600 Shaftesbury Blvd. Winnipeg, MB R3P 0M4 or E-mail: aredek@mbnet.mb.ca

Book Reviews

Dyck, Johannes. J. and W.E. Surukin, Am Trakt: A Mennonite Settlement in the Central Volga Region. Translated by Hermina Joldersma and Peter J. Dyck (Winnipeg: CMBC Publications and Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 1995), pb., pp. xvii + 95; $10.00.

 Reviewed by Adolf Ens

 These monographs about two Mennonite settlements in Russia/USSR are similar in a number of respects. Both deal with relatively small communities, four and ten villages respectively. They cover roughly the same time period: Am Trakt was begun in 1854 as a new settlement by immigrants from Prussia, but was still adding villages when Baratov-Shlakhtin was founded as a daughter colony of Chortitza in the early 1870s. Both studies give much more attention to agriculture and economics than most other similar monographs have done. This makes them valuable beyond the circle of former residents of these colonies and their descendants.

A major difference between the two is that Friesen wrote a new history, incorporating much of the material of Jacob Redekopp's earlier volume published in German in Brazil in 1966, but adding a great amount of information that has become available since then. This includes aerial photographs and data gathered by the German military in the 1940s and now available in the Captured German War Documents through the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Am Traktis a translation of volume 6 of the Echo Historical Series, first published by the Echo Verlag in 1948.

Friesen is careful to give the larger context for his story of this small settlement, using newer secondary sources well. Readers familiar with that period of Russian and Soviet Mennonite history may find that unnecessary. Most will appreciate it. By contrast, the study by Dyck and Surukin gives so little attention to developments in other Mennonite settlements and even to events in the USSR directly affecting the Trakt settlement, that the translator(s) felt it necessary to make numerous explanatory and supplementary additions in footnotes.

Friesen's training in geography and experience as a Rural Land Use Planner shows in his detailed attention to soil, climate, water supply, topographical features and location of settlements. The book is rich in maps, tables and lists of names, giving valuable detail without cluttering the text of his narrative. A good index is included. The photographs, attached to the end of the text in one block almost as an appendix, could have been more effectively used. Some pictures are much too small; the pages are crowded; source acknowledgements are at the front of the book by number, but the photos are themselves not numbered. The mixture of endnotes and source identification in parentheses within the text is awkward. Orthography of Russian place names is inconsistent.

The translation of Am Trakt reads well. As in previous volumes of this series, the publishers have supplemented the illustrations of the original with some additional photographs. They have also added a fourth section to the book, consisting of excerpts from the diary of author Johannes D. Dyck as compiled by his grandson, Peter J. Dyck.

Baratov-Shlakhtin and Am Trakt are no more. We are grateful to the authors and translators for recalling and preserving the stories of these two communities for us.

 Adolf Ens is Professor of History and Theology at the Canadian Mennonite Bible College, Winnipeg, MB.

 Reviewed by Lawrence Klippenstein

 It is not at all adequate that one brings these three works together into one review because each one makes such a major contribution in its field. For the purposes of MH readers it may be useful nevertheless to become aware of these publications, and to see how they can be helpful research tools for us all.

At the very least they will provide a very significant body of excellent contextual material for Mennonite studies dealing with the former Soviet Union, especially Ukraine. In the case of the Bibliography this will be particularly relevant for the study of Mennonite and related religious developments in these areas.

So - called evangelical sectarianism has come to form an important segment of the Christian community of the former USSR. A listing of more than 7500 major entries and several thousand pertinent periodical references concern themselves in this work with the beginning of the Russian evangelical movement, the emergence of "Stundism", as well as separate evangelical communities (e.g. Baptists, Pentecostals, and Evangelical Christians) in the nineteenth century, and the story of their experiences under Communist rule.

Wardin has covered an enormous range of literature, with titles in seventeen languages. The majority of these come from Russian, German, English and foreign titles translated into English. A number of Mennonite titles are found in the listings, especially materials related to the beginning and development of the Mennonite Brethren Church in Russia and Ukraine.

The Atlas deals only marginally with Russia and Ukraine. It is nevertheless most helpful, for example, in sorting out the very frequent border changes of coun-tries in East Central Europe. To the extent that it deals with northern Poland (once Prussia) and areas like Galicia it touches on the Mennonite story as well.

A chapter titled "World War II, 1943-1945" (pp. 152-155) with a very precisely drawn map of German control at the time is particularly relevant to this story, as is the chapter on "Population Movement, 1944-1948" a little further on.

Volume III (covering entries from L to Pf) of the five-volume Encyclopedia has a brief entry on Mennonites (roughly the length of the entry for Ukraine in the Mennonite Encyclopedia!) Of course, the value of the volume is in what one can learn there about the political, economic and cultural history of the Ukrainian people (with much less about non-Ukrainian ethnic groups in the country). This sort of data is usually by-passed in Mennonite studies. That has created gaps in Mennonite historiography which need to be filled soon.

Mennonite historical libraries, and also individual scholars, will do well to build up a basic section of materials like those noted here. They are well published hence somewhat costly items, it is true, but some investment here would be worth considering at least. These specific volumes would make a good beginning.

Book Notes

Living in the Way. The Pilgrimage of Jake and Trudie Unrau (1996, pb., pp. x + 149, $13.00) is the most recent book done by CMBC Publications. It describes the work the Unraus first did with Mennonite Pioneer Mission and then with the Native Ministries Commission of the Conference of Mennonites in Canada. Ministries in Mexico and Oklahoma come into the picture also. It may be ordered from local bookstores or the Mennonite Heritage Centre.

Gerhard Ens, formerly editor of Der Bote, recently edited and published a series of talks under the title Menno Simons spricht: Auszuege aus sechs Schriften von Menno Simons (NB Communications and Publications, 1996, pb., 51 pp., $3.00) "to make the writings of Menno digestible for ordinary people", as he puts it. The booklet may be ordered from the editor at 67 Reay St., Winnipeg, MB R2K 4G6.

For its 50th anniversary in 1994 the Crosstown Credit Union in Winnipeg, MB published History of Crosstown Credit Union Limited. Serving the Mennonite Community. The First Fifty Years 1944-1994 (1993, hdc., pp. viii + 174, $15.00). The author was John Dyck, a Winnipeg researcher and writer who has published half a dozen other Mennonite books in the past ten years. Order from CCU Ltd., 171 Donald St., Winnipeg, MB, R3C 1M4.

After publishing several earlier books such as Prost Mahlzeit and Gott gruesse dich, Dr. Abram Friesen of Fredericton, New Brunswick, has now authored Aus Gottes linker Hand: Stimme eines Irrenden. Gedichte. (1995, pb., pp. xix + 117). It is published by the German Canadian Historical Association (Toronto) as Vol. 14 in its series Deutschkanadische Schriften. Bellatristik. The editors were Dr. Hartmut Froeschle and Dr. Gerhard Friesen, with Dr. George K. Epp of Winnipeg, MB adding a very helpful Foreword. The book may be ordered from GCHA, c/o Dr. Lothar Zimmermann, Dept. of Modern Languages, University of PEI, Charlottetown, PEI, C1A 4P3.