Preservings 11 (1997) - Plett Foundation

John E. Doerksen and Helena Hiebert Doerksen at
their 50th wedding anniversary in 1956. They were
the parents of author Regina Neufeld.
was a big cedar chest that grandfather had built in
Russia to pack the family’s wardrobe, bedding,
some household items and tools for use in the primitive
wilderness.
Aeltester Gerhard Wiebe has written that
“...two men ...[were] elected at the outset to portion
out the flour, namely, Abraham Doerksen and
Johann Schwartz”—Gerhard Wiebe, Causes and
History, page 52. No doubt Abraham’s previous
business experience in Russia was one of the reasons
that he was chosen by the community to be
their purchasing agent. He had to travel to Winnipeg
by ox cart and purchase in large amounts
such products as flour, sugar, oatmeal, seed, tools
and household items. He often preferred to walk
the thirty miles rather than go by ox cart. After he
had finished the shopping the products were then
loaded on the steam boat and shipped to the landing
site at the Rat and Red Rivers. From here the
pioneers loaded the goods on ox carts to distribute
them to the different villages. Grandfather spent a
week away from his family to do this duty.
Hardships and tragedies were the norm to all
the pioneers. Clearing bush and breaking virgin
soil without proper equipment was back-breaking
to say the least. The land was flat with many
swamps, so drainage was badly needed. The pioneers
went to work with spades and dug a drainage
ditch from Tourond creek to the Rat River near
Otterborne.
Widowhood and Remarriage.
Abraham Doerksen had only been in this new
land for two years when his wife Katherina died in
1876. His youngest child was six-years old. Of
course he was heart-broken.... but life goes on.
Aganetha Wiebe, a young widowed bride, lived
in Chortitz, near Schönthal. She and her husband
had both had typhoid fever. Her husband, Isbrand
Wiebe, had died while she was still unconscious.
Heartbroken and very lonely she longed to go to
Preservings
live with her family on the West Reserve. But travelling
in winter was impossible and so she had
remained in Chortitz over winter. Abraham
Doerksen proposed to Aganetha and she accepted.
They were married in June 1877. Another nine
children were born to them. Altogether Abraham
Doerksen had a family of twenty-one children, but
only twelve lived to have descendants.
Tragedies and Disasters.
The Doerksens as did the other pioneers endured
the grasshopper invasion in 1875, when all
vegetation was destroyed. In l878 son Heinrich
Doerksen’s wife was killed by lightning. Their
house was not damaged except the window was
completely removed without breaking and was
leaning against the house. Grandfather Doerksen
was so awed by this act of God he could not replace
it for several days.
Another tragedy occurred when two of the sons
of Abraham’s cousin Jakob Doerksen, BGB B62,
drowned in the Red River on June 25, 1879. According
to the “Brot Schult Registers” it appears
that Abraham’s brother Jakob BGB B197 as well
as his cousin Jakob BGB B62 had settled in the
village of Schönenberg, northeast of Grunthal.
The Doerksen family had decided to move to
the West Reserve and had selected a new farmstead
in Blumenhof, near Gretna. Jakob and his
sons, Jakob and Peter, had been making preparation
as the new site when they returned home on
June 25. “When they reached the Rat River they
saw that recent rains had transformed the usually
placid river into a treacherous torrent. Jakob attempted
to drive his team of oxen and his wagon
through the swollen river. However, the current
swept parts of the make-shift wagon box off its
base. Peter, age seventeen, waded into the river in
an attempt to retrieve the boards, but the current
pulled him away too. When his older brother, Jakob,
age twenty-six, saw what was happening, he made
a desperate attempt to rescue Peter, but without
success. Both the Doerksen brothers drowned”—
74
Wm. Schroeder, Bergthal Colony, page 112; see
also Franz K. Goossen, Reflections on our Heritage,
page 25,.
On July 1, 1881 a tornado struck the village of
Schönthal wrecking nine homes and sweeping most
of the dwellings into the marsh half a mile east of
the village. My father, John E. Doerksen, son of
Abraham Doerksen, told of how they marvelled at
the act of God when the house was destroyed and
there stood the table unharmed with the lamp standing
under the table unbroken.
Bishop David Stoesz describes the situation as
follows: “July 1st. It was a bad storm with lightning
strikes in several places, though no damage
was done here ... Some very strong gusts of wind
hit Schönthal causing a lot of damage at the
Heinrich Klippenstein place shifting a new building,
which as yet did not have a finished roof on it,
shifted about 4 ft. off its foundation. Today the
whole village will be helping to repair the damage
and I intend to go to Schoenthal to see what damage
has been done. In Schönthal 2 utility buildings
and 3 houses with attached barns and the school
had their roofs badly damaged”—Historical
Sketches, page 423.
The villagers rebuilt their homes with lumber
cut from the dense pine forest of Tannenau (between
Chortitz and Kleefeld). At this time most of
the pioneers built right on their homesteads thus
causing the village to disintegrate. A school house
and store remained on the village spot. [Editor’s
comment: Randy Kehler has published a letter by
son Heinrich Doerksen who wrote that the village
broke up in 1896. Heinrich Doerksen evidently
built the first house on the land outside of the village
of Schönthal in 1896—Preservings, No. 7,
Dec. 1995, pages 38-39.]
In 1884 a diphtheria epidemic claimed the lives
of three of grandfather’s children and a number of
his grandchildren. Through all this tragedy the
Doerksens and the other pioneers endured with
patience and kept their faith. Bishop Stoesz
has written as follows: “Drove to Schönthal to a
Jakob F. Doerksen and his school class, circa 1900. Can you identify your grandparents? The school was in
Strassburg. The children were mostly Friesens and Loeppkys. The little girls at the far left are sisters, Anna and
Katharina Friesen....later married to Abraham and Jakob Hiebert. The boy sitting (on the left) was John L.
Friesen and front row, standing next to the teacher, was his brother Henry L. Friesen, next to him is Henry
Loeppky. A picture of Jakob F. Doerksen and his family circa 1903 was published in Preservings, No. 7, Dec.
1995, page 42.