Preservings $20 Issue No. 26, 2006 - Home at Plett Foundation

etter return until the parents again owned a
full farm. Other things change as well. Instead
of cutting grain with a scythe they bought a
reaper pulled by horses which cut the grain
and dropped individual sheaves unbound, they
still had to be bound by hand.
Then threshing changed and several neighbours
joined together to purchase a threshing
machine, not the kind we have now since
they did not yet have steam engines, rather,
horses or oxen would be harnessed to go in
rotation around a cylinder from which another
cylinder was extended to operate the threshing
machine. Instead of a self feeder three men
fed the sheaves into the threshing machine.
One on each side cut the string which bound
the sheaves and a third man in the middle fed
the sheaves into the cylinder.
Neu-Bergthal, W. Reserve.
And so everything has continued to improve
until the present time. The parents continued
to farm there until 1888 when they sold
their land and moved here [to Neubergthal on
the West Reserve] with all their possessions.
On March 19, 1888 they left there [Bergthal
on the East Reserve] and on March 21 they
arrived here in Neubergthal. They lived in
their first location, at the Chortitz Post Office
address for 13 years, eight months and four
days. Here they built another house on the
farmstead where my brother Peter P. Hamm
lives at the present time.
While the house was under construction
they lived with father’s brother, Johann
Hamm. They lived together there until December
1, 1900, when my father died. He
had been sickly for a long time and sought
help from different doctors and sometimes it
would provide temporary relief but he became
gradually weaker until December 1 at 5:30 in
the evening when he died.
That was a difficult time for all of us, but
especially for our dear mother. It was hard for
her to bury her husband and the father of her
children, which I can now clearly empathize.
At times our dear God cuts such deep wounds
but he heals them again. Yes, he also healed
the wounds for our dear mother that she did
not have to feel the pain quite as much. He
blessed us all so that we had our daily bread
and nourishment. Since my brother, Peter,
had already married and was living with our
parents, he took over the farmstead and mother
continued to live with him.
She still lived a long time and what a difficult
time it must have been, when she recalled
the former times when she could share her joys
and sorrows with her dear husband. But our
ways are not God’s ways and he knows what
is best for us. Although sometimes it is hard
to understand how these circumstances could
be for our good.
Mother lived another 27 years, 2 months
and 15 days with her children until February
16, 1928 at 5:00 in the morning, when she
died. Now they are together again under the
protection of the Holy One where death will
never separate them again and there is no sorrow,
no worry and no affliction.
What is the life of man here on earth? If
life has been precious, it has been filled with
toil and labour. In the same way our parents,
what toil and labour they have experienced
on this earth all their lives. When I consider
their experiences, the grief and worry that
has been their lot, I cannot wish for them
anything better then that God has taken them
out of this troublesome and worrisome world
and unto Himself.
(Research notes added by Delbert Plett,
died 2004)
The first documented evidence of the
founding of the village of Neubergthal was recorded
in August, 1879, when Bernhard Funk,
Gerhard Hamm, Johann Hamm and Gerhard
Wall Sr. made homestead entries. In addition
Johann Klippenstein, Peter Klippenstein,
Martin Klassen, Bernhard Klippenstein, Johann
Klippenstein Jr., and Peter Klippenstein
each made a land purchase (see Frieda Esau
Klippenstein, Neubergthal National Historic
Site, page 310).
The following summer Cornelius Dyck,
Martin Friesen, Jakob Hamm, Heinrich Klassen,
Martin Klassen, Bernhard Klippenstein,
Johann Klippenstein Jr., and Peter Klippenstein
made homestead entries.
The oral tradition that Neubergthal was
founded in 1876 is questionable. Firstly, the
naming of the village as Neubergthal as opposed
to Altbergthal located two miles west
of Altona already indicates that the former
was founded after the latter. The secondary
migration of Bergthalers from the East to
West Reserve only started in 1878 which
would imply that Neubergthal was founded
at the earliest in 1879 and Altbergthal possibly
in 1878.
An examination of the Brotschuld registers
of the Bergthal Gemeinde in the East
Reserve (1874-78) shows the following East
Reserve origins for the Neubergthal settlers:
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readers of Preservings
Peter and Bernhard Klippenstein and Gerhard
Wall from Bergthal, Martin Klassen from
Schönsee, Jakob Hamm from Grossweide,
and Martin Friesen and Heinrich Klassen from
Ebenfeld. Comparison of the known places of
residence of the Neubergthal and Altbergthal
settlers with the Homestead Cancellations
will provide more detailed information about
their origins and perhaps disclose the settlers’
intentions respecting the common name.
The story of teacher and Fraktur artist,
Peter Klippenstein, speaks for the experiences
of most of the Neubergthal pioneers.
As a young man he taught in the village of
Bergthal in the Bergthal Colony, Imperial
Russia. Together with his family, parents and
siblings, he came to Canada in July 1875.
Peter and brother Bernhard settled in Bergthal,
three miles north of modern-day Mitchell west
of Steinbach.
The brothers’ insurance in the East Reserve
Brandordnung was cancelled in 1881.
The fact that they had already acquired land in
Neubergthal in 1879 indicates that the move
to the West Reserve was a deliberate and carefully
planned strategy of secondary migration.
According to oral tradition the beams of the
modern housebarn which Peter had erected
in Bergthal, East Reserve, were carefully
notched, taken apart and reassembled in the
new location in the West Reserve.
The presence of 4,000 Old Colony pioneers
already well established in the higher
better drained lands to the west of Altona,
must have been a great help to the 1500 or so
Bergthaler who moved across the river. By
reconstructing their home and stable in Neubergthal
in 1881, and by carrying forward the
name Bergthal from one continent to another
and from the east side of the Red River to
the west, the Peter Klippensteins as well as
other Bergthal pioneers reflected nostalgia
and respect for a past which directed them
confidently into the future (see Preservings,
No. 13, pages 114-116).
Preservings is looking for Biographies and Family Histories
to include in future issues.
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Preservings No. 26, 2006 - 57