Preservings 11 (1997) - Plett Foundation

No. 11, December, 1997
Abraham Doerksen (1827-1916): Schönthal
Abraham Doerksen (1827-1916): from Schönthal, Russia to Schönthal, Manitoba: By granddaughter, Regina Doerksen Neufeld,
Box 1034, Niverville, MB R0A 1E0.
Family Background.
Abraham Doerksen was born in 1827, near
Nikiloyofsky, S.Russia. He was the only son of
Abraham Doerksen (1805-71) and Regina
Hoeppner (1806-1831).
When Abraham was only three-years old his
mother, Regina, died. Regina had been kidnapped
as a baby by gypsies. She grew up with them, travelling
from village to village, bartering and entertaining.
When she was a youth she was rescued
Abraham Doerksen (1827-1916). “The man who
never posed.” Bernhard Doerksen, family historian
and genealogist, has written that “We are extremely
fortunate in having a picture of grandfather, and that,
not because he was so willing, for he steadfastly refused
to pose for a camera. We think it is the only picture
of him in existence, and he never discovered it
had been taken. The writer was instrumental in obtaining
it, secretly of course, in June of 1915—
Bernhard Doerksen, Family Tree of Abraham
Doerksen, page 14.
from the gypsies by a young man, Peter Hoeppner.
He took her on his horse to his parents’ home. They
graciously took her in as their own. Her race, parents’
background, etc. have always remained a
mystery.
Abraham Doerksen Sr. married for the second
time to Helena Schmidt. They moved to the
Bergthal Colony where young Abraham grew up.
His father passed away in 1871.
Life in Russia.
Abraham Doerksen (1827-1916) married
Katharina Friesen in l851, BGB B80. According
to Henry Schapansky, she was distantly related to
veteran Molotschna school teacher, Cornelius F.
Friesen (1810-92) later of Blumenort, Manitoba.
Abraham and Katharina had a family of twelve
children but four died in early childhood.
Abraham Doerksen “had a machine shop in
Schönthal where he manufactured farm machinery,
such as plows, harrows, cultivators and wagons.
He employed four carpenters and one blacksmith—Wm.
Schroeder, The Bergthal Colony, page
35.
A record of 1871 elections held in Bergthal
states that Abraham Doerksen was elected as
“Beisitzer” in Schönthal, meaning that he was the
deputy mayor or assistant mayor (Schulz) of the
village—John Dyck, Oberschulz, page 121.
In 1873 Abraham Doerksen and Johann
Hoeppner were the two representatives of the
Bergthal Colony responsible for working out the
emigration passes. J. H. Doerksen has written that
Grandmother Aganetha Elias Wiebe Doerksen, on her
85th birthday. All photographs in this article are courtesy
of Regina Doerksen Neufeld, Box 1034,
Niverville, MB R0A 1E0.
“the great care was necessary in this regard to insure
that no excitable Russian bureaucrat be offended
in the process.....The two men were given
the run around, they had to go from Pontias to Pilate,
in order to achieve their objective, and when they
had finally overcome all the obstacles thrown in
their way, the emigration began.”
In 1874 A. Doerksen and the Oberschulz J.
Peters again had to travel to Ekatherinoslav with
the much delayed ordinance of the Gemeinde, regarding
those families who lived in Bergthal but
who were registered in the Chortitzer Vollost in
the Revision (census)—J. H. Doerksen, Wichtige
Documente..., page 41; see also Gerhard Wiebe,
73
Causes and History, page 40.
By this time Abraham Doerksen’s oldest two
sons were married: Abraham married to Maria
Dueck and Heinrich married to Sara Neufeld.
The whole Bergthal Colony immigrated to
Canada in 1874-1876. The Doerksens also left their
beloved home in Russia and moved to Manitoba,
Canada. On July 16, 1874 they boarded the steamship
“Nova Scotian” in Liverpool, England and
sailed for America.
The Doerksens, with many other families,
landed in Quebec and travelled via Duluth to
Moorhead. From here they sailed with a smaller
steamboat to the landing site at the confluence of
the Rat and Red Rivers. They were met by friends,
their baggage was loaded on ox carts and taken to
the Schantz immigration sheds on Section 17-7-
4E. Many immigrants walked the seven miles to
the sheds.
Schönthal, Manitoba.
Abraham Doerksen and his two married sons,
Abraham and Heinrich, selected their homesteads
on Section 21-7-5E. According to the Homestead
applications, Abraham Doerksen applied for a
Homestead on SW21-7-5E on August 5, 1874, and
acquired the adjoining SE 1/4 from Jakob Friesen
in 1885. Son Heinrich applied for a Homestead on
the NE 21-7-5E and preemption purchase of
NW21-7-5E on February 18, 1875. Son Abraham
Doerksen applied for his Homestead SE20-7-5E
on August 5, 1874, which he sold to Isaac Ginter
in 1885, probably shortly after he had moved to
the village of Sommerfeld, West Reserve (Note
One).
Although these land holdings gave the Doerksen
family a contiguous block of 800 acres of land,
they built their homes close together in village style
on NE 20-7-5E, approximately one mile east and
southeast of the present-day New Bothwell, close
to the easterly boundary of the section. The village
was named Schönthal, meaning “beautiful valley”,
in honour of their village of origin in Russia. The
“Brot Schult Registers” do not list the families of
Schönfeld, which is unfortunate as they provide
the earliest known record of place of residence for
many Bergthaler settlers on the E. Reserve.
Abraham Doerksen is referred to in a separate list
of 4 villagers in Schönthal which may mean that
he had not found it necessary to borrow money
from the “Brot Schult” fund.
Other residents in the village included
Abraham’s daughter and son-in-law Johann
Neufeld, sister Helena and brother-in-law Isaak
Guenther, and Kornelius Epp, who served as the
second Secretary-Treasurer of the R. M. of Hanover
from 1884-95. The 1881 assessment records list
18 families living in Schönthal—published in
Bergthaler Mennoniten, page 45..
The Settler.
Grandfather’s first house was small, built of
logs with a dirt floor. The finest piece of furniture