Preservings 11 (1997) - Plett Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Jakob K. Dueck (b. 1873) and family
and the mother to Mr Jakob K. Dueck, Mrs. Franz
Dueck, nee Justina Klassen (b. 1834). Photo courtesy
of Grunthal History, page 60.
Reinlander Gemeinde in Manitoba.
Marriage, 1846.
In 1846 Franz Dÿck married Margaretha
Buhr (1828-53), daughter of Kornelius Buhr
(1797-1868) and Maria Driedger. They had no
children. Among Margaretha’s relatives was
Anna Buhr, wife of businessman Erdman
Penner.
A year after Franz and Margaretha were
married, his father, Jacob Dyck, sold his
Feuerstelle (farmyard) in Schönthal to Wilhelm
Janzen and started construction of a Trittmuehle
(treadmill). However, before the mill was completed,
Jacob Dyck died. Probably the sale of
the property was rescinded when Jacob died
because Wilhelm Janzen does not appear in any
Bergthal Colony records. His widow contemplated
returning to the Chortitsa Colony but she
appears to have remained in Bergthal.
A year after the death of his first wife, Franz
married Justina Klassen (b.1834) daughter of
Martin Klassen (b. 1800) and Helena Martens
(1809-66). They had 12 children of whom eight
died in infancy or childhood. Franz Dÿck is listed
as the teacher in Schönthal in 1848.
Call to Ministry, 1854.
At the age of 32 years, Franz Dÿck was
called to the ministry in Bergthal on November
25, 1854. As has already been mentioned, his
family was well connected in ministerial circles.
Other ministers elected in the Bergthal
Colony in Russia after this time included the
following: Gerhard Wiebe elected deacon in the
same year, 1854, and possibly at the same meeting,
but he was only elected as a minister on
November 23, 1861; Cornelius Stoesz was
elected April 23, 1864; Heinrich Wiebe, February
28, 1865; David Stoesz November
3,1869; Abraham Bergen November 20, 1869;
and Cornelius Friesen November 26, 1871.
Gerhard Wiebe was elected Aeltester on
March 29, 1866, the most senior office in the
Mennonite Church. Nevertheless Dÿck was the
senior minister of the seven ministers serving
the church in Bergthal in 1874. In 1873 Franz
Dÿck drafted the controversial petition to the
Preservings
Imperial Czar “because he had God-given talents.”
-Gerhard Wiebe, page 30.
Immigration 1874.
On June 16, 1874 minister Franz Dÿck joined
other Bergthal residents at the Nikolaiowsky train
station where Bergthal emigrants were boarding
for the first lap of their journey to Canada. Minister
David Stoesz recorded that Franz found
goodbyes difficult and that he would much rather
have emigrated with the first contingent.
Among the emigrants that year were ministers
Heinrich Wiebe, Cornelius Stoesz, David
Stoesz and Cornelius Friesen, leaving only three
in Bergthal. The following year Aeltester
Gerhard Wiebe and minister Abraham Bergen
followed them. From spring of 1875 until summer
of 1876 Franz Dÿck was alone to serve the
church in the Bergthal Colony and to represent
her in discussions with leaders of various
church communities and many other matters, a
considerable responsibility.
Gerhard Wiebe emigrated to America in
1875 and it appears that he appointed Franz
Dÿck as Vice-Aeltester, leaving him in charge
of the group remaining in Bergthal (Note Two).
Franz Dÿck was the first person in the Bergthal
Colony to hold the office. In his capacity as
Vice-Aeltester, he attended to certain formal
functions on behalf of the Aeltester. On May
14, 1876, he signed an attest for Johann Stoesz,
a member of the church emigrating to Minnesota.
Later he signed another attest for Cornelius
Penner (Note Three).
Emigration, 1876.
Franz Dÿck left Russia with the last contingent
of Bergthaler emigrants in 1876 landing
in Quebec on the S.S. Sardinian on July 30.
With him were his wife Justina, four sons and
one daughter: Franz age 19, Johann 9, Helena
6, Jacob 2, Martin 1 and Helena 6.
Schönsee, Manitoba.
The Franz Dÿck family settled in the village
of Schoensee, somewhat north of present
day Grunthal, where he filed for a Homestead
on SW35-5-5E on February 7, 1878. According
to the “Brot Schult Registers” 19 families
settled in Schönsee. By the time the
Brandordnung was officially organized the
number had dropped to fourteen and by 1882
only nine families remained.
Four Schönsee families had come to Manitoba
in 1875 on board the S.S. Manitoban and
one on the Peruvian. Franz and Justina Dÿck
and Peter and Susanna Buhr arrived in 1876
on the Sardinian. Several of the families were
related to Justina Klassen, daughter of Martin
Klassen BGB A178, including Mrs. Kornelius
Wiebe Sr., Mrs. Kornelius Wiebe Jr., and Mrs.
Peter Wiens. In addition, Mrs. David Friesen,
the mother of D.W. Friesen of Altona, was a
niece through marriage to Justina Klassen Dyck.
Minister Franz Dyck, Recorder.
Presumably Franz Dÿck served as Vice-
Aeltester until 1879 when David Stoesz of
Bergthal was appointed. Perhaps he felt that it
82
was a task requiring the energy of a younger man.
This still left Franz Dÿck with the busy schedule
of pastoral work, preaching, councilling young
people as they made their commitment to join
the Gemeinde, serving at weddings, funerals, etc.
But the church also called upon him to exercise
other gifts. It was probably Franz Dÿck’s
penchant for neatness and accuracy and a genius
for organization, that got him involved in
establishing the second set of Chortitzer Church
family registers. A first set had been started
immediately on arrival of the first settlers in
1874. However, since some fifty families had
gone to Minnesota and some others to Dakota,
there was a need to start a fresh list of all the
families who settled on the East Reserve.
His registers read on the title page: Litter A
- Kirchenbuch der Gemeine zu Chortitz
Angefangen im Jahr 1878 Im Monat Januar Vom
Kirchenlehrer Franz Dyck [y with Umlaut].
Minister David Stoesz wrote in his journal,
“In January [1881] Ehrs. Frank Dueck travelled
through the congregation, with the church
books to survey how many families on this Reserve
plan to stay here, and how many families
moved to Pembina, and how many still intend
to go. It has been established, that 268 families
think of staying here, and 315 families have
gone or are contemplating the move, so 47 more
plan to move than stay.”
Later in 1881 Franz Dÿck went to the West
Reserve to start a church family record there.
He titled it Kirchenbuch A fuer der Gemeine bei
West Linne, naming the church after the town
of West Lynn, near present-day Emerson. This
register in time became the property of the
Sommerfeld Mennonite Church who still have
possession of it.
Aeltester David Stoesz recorded that the Minister
Franz Dÿck accompanied him when he went
to the West Reserve on Good Friday, April 7, 1882
to ordain Johann Funk as Aeltester: “On Good
Friday April 7th I and Ehrs: Franz Dueck drove
to the West Reserve to confirm Johann Funk as
Elder (Note Eleven) there, which we did, with
Gods help and in the midst of a great gathering,
on the last day of Easter.”
During the early years church services were
held occassionally in private homes in East
Reserve villages, including Schönsee. On June
17, 1883, a communion service for 21 people
in the home of Franz Dÿck was the last such
event there (Note Four).
After a large number of families had relocated
to the West Reserve it became evident
that it would be easier to start a new register
than to cull the old one of the names of all those
who had left. As a result in 1887 Franz Dÿck
started a new set of registers, which read on
the title pages:
Litter A - Kirchenbuch der Gemeine zu
Chortitz Im Jahr 1887.... Ist umgeschrieben
worden Vom Kirchenlehrer Frans Dÿck in
Schoensee
Litter B Kirchenbuch der Gemeine zu
Chortitz Im Jahr 1887... Ist aufs neue
umgeschrieben von den Kirchenlehrer Frans
Dÿck in Schoensee. The indexes to these registers
were published in the Bergthal Gemeinde