Preservings 11 (1997) - Plett Foundation

No. 11, December, 1997
News News and and Announcements
Announcements
President’s resident’s Repor Report Repor
by Orlando Hiebert, Box 8, Tourond,
Manitoba, R0A 2G0
The HSHS is again involved in a number of
projects in this second half of 1997. I feel that
both the annual meeting which we sponsored
jointly with the MMHS and the family histories
symposium also jointly sponsored were
well received and attended. We are again planning
what we hope will be an interesting annual
meeting and a March family histories symposium.
Some changes have taken place on our
board. I would like to welcome Paul Loewen
to the board of HSHS. I speak for the board in
saying that we are gratified by his interest in
Errata.
Unfortunately, I, the editor have to confess
to a number of errors which occurred in Issue
No. 10, June 1997, of Preservings. Please note
the following corrections:
1) In the caption to the photograph on page
1, Part One, it was stated that Anna Wiebe was
the daughter of Johann P. Wiebe, Alt-Bergfeld.
This is incorrect, as Anna Wiebe’s father was
Jakob H. Wiebe (1835-1914).
2) The list of descendants in Martin
Friesen’s article about Marigan Weiland
Friesen Wiebe includes Albert Friesen, Auto-
City Insurance. This was my error and not the
authors. Albert is related through the Friesens
but is not a descendant of Marigan. Albert is a
great-grandson of “Waisenman” Cornelius T.
Friesen.
3) In the photo caption on page 39, part two,
of the article on Aganetha “Agnes” Fast, Agnes
Fast is incorrectly referred to as Maria Fast.
4) In the photo caption, page 17, part two,
for the article on “Anna Klassen Goossen
(1839-1927), the Peter Goossen in the photo is
now believed to be Peter B. Goossen (1895-
1978) and not Peter D. Goossen (1890-1972)
as stated. John R. Goossen of Ste. Anne
(Greenland), son of Peter D., was not aware
that any photo of his father was extant. He also
pointed out that his father was married and a
member of the church by 1913. Therefore it
would be highly unlikely that the picture would
be of him. Peter B. Goossen was the son of
Cornelius P. Goossen (1839-1916), one of the
original 18 Steinbach pioneers. In 1920 Peter
B. Goossen wrote and published a booklet of
poetry dealing with his experiences, entitled
Erfahrungen in Reime gebracht (Steinbach,
1920: Steinbach Post Druckerei), 41 pages.
5) In Harvey Bartel’s article, “Blumenhof
Cemetery SW25-7-6E,” in Part Two, page 75,
in the first paragraph, Heinrich Bartel married
Anna T. Dueck and not Anna T. Reimer as
stated.
our attempts to chronical and preserve the history
of our area and it’s families. I would also
like to thank Mrs. Irene Kroeker for the years
of time spent on the board as board member
and secretary and for her research and articles
to the news letter. We will miss you and we
wish you well in your new endeavour as editor
of the Hanover Teachers Society newsletter.
In this newsletter we have placed emphasis
on the story of the Chortitzer. Many of us have
thought that the history of this group has not
been recorded as well as it should have been
and that this and future efforts will help right
this situation.
With the 125th anniversary of the coming
of the Mennonites to south eastern Manitoba
approaching I hope that there will be a ground
swell of activity and enthusiasm to celebrate
and record the distinctives of our heritage.
Ethnic Cleansing 1916.
In working with the journals of pioneers
such as Jakob B. Koop (1858-1937), see article
following, one is continually impressed
with the wide intellectual horizons of the 1874
Mennonite settlers in Manitoba. This journal
and numerous others like it provide unequivocal
evidence that these pioneers were literate
and articulate in German to a degree not to be
equalled among their descendants in the English
language until the current generation of
university-educated young people.
It is evident that the conduct of the Provincial
Government in 1916-19 of outlawing the
Christian private schools of its Mennonite citizens
was a major tragedy for literacy and education
from which the citizens of the Hanover
Steinbach area did not even begin to recover
6) In my article on Maria Brandt Plett (1843-
1927) (Part One, pages 78-80) I indicated that
there was no definite information as to where
Maria lived between 1874-5, when son Isaac
was listed as attending school in Blumenort,
and 1877 when Kleine Gemeinde insurance
records indicate that she had acquired a property
in Steinbach. However, this situation can
now be clarified courtesy of David K.
Schellenberg who had in his possession a list
of students of the first formal school classes in
Steinbach in 1875-76. According to this record
Isaac D. Plett, Maria’s son, was attending
school in Steinbach in that year which almost
certainly indicates that she had moved to the
village by the fall of 1875, 2 years sooner than
earlier thought. I am indebted to Rev. D. K.
Schellenberg for sharing this information with
me.
I always appreciate being informed of errors.
I mark them on a master copy so hopefully
they will not be repeated in the future.
11
Editorial
Orlando Hiebert, President of the Hanover Steinbach
Historical Society Inc.
until the 1950s: see “Education in the East
Reserve,” in Preservings, No. 8, June 1996, Part
One, pages 1-29.
The results of the ethnic cleansing measures
implemented by the Provincial Government of
T. C. Norris in 1916 are still reverberating in
the Mennonite community to this day. Of the
estimated 45,000 Russian Mennonites in Western
Canada in 1921, some 9000 escaped Norris’
Fascist oppression by emigration: 7000 in 1922
to Mexico and almost 2000 in 1926-7 to Paraguay.
In Paraguay, for example, hundreds died
from diseases while they prepared to settle and
tame “the Green Hell of the Chaco.” These victims
of the Provincial Government’s ethnic
cleansing measures were every bit as dead as
the victims of the rapes and murders of
Machnov and Stalin in Russia, and one day their
blood will be upon the account of T. C. Norris
and his fellow Orangemen.
The 35,000 “Kanadier” who remained in
Manitoba and Saskatchewan had no choice but
to accommodate themselves to the cultural rape,
which they did: after all, this was the Mennonite
way—accept oppression, do not complain.
Two generations of Canadian citizens were illegally
robbed of their birthright, language and
culture, a fact which has not yet been dealt with
by Canadian historians and others who like to
trumpet the assertion that Canada is a country
of justice and equity for all.
One of the results of being denied their language,
schools and culture as they had been
guaranteed by the Canadian Government in
1873 and forced assimilation, was that many
Mennonites came to see themselves as secondclass
citizens to the Anglo-Saxons and their
culture as inferior. The old ways came to be
disparaged and ancient writings and artifacts
were destroyed.
Being thrown into hastily established public