52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 17 Prompt - Land

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 17

Prompt – Land

Mennonites always seem to be on the move.  Prussia to Southern Russia to United States and Canada (and in my family's case moved from Manitoba to Saskatchewan) to Mexico and Paraguay.

As I have discussed before the Mennonites left Prussia for Russia at the invitation of Catherine The Great.  The Mennonites wanted land for their colonies.  They were looking to leave the increasing pressure to military service of their young men.  Along with the need for more land for their grown children.  For more than a 100 years Southern Russia was the promised land for the Mennonites.  In the 1870's things changed.  It was called “Russification”.  Slowly their privileges were rescinded. Their young men were conscripted.  The autonomy of education in their own language was replaced with compulsory education in Russian language.

In the 1870's Canada was opening up the west and looking for settlers.  Mennonites were known as industrious and successful farmers.  Negotiations began and promises made to the Mennonite delegation.  Canada gave them military exemption, religious freedoms, self governance of schooling their children.  Most importantly Canada gave them the large tracks of land on which to settle.

In an article by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (GAMEO), it tries to explain this balance of governance, church and community in settling Manitoba in the 1870's.

“Because the government decided that a hamlet had to have a minimum of 20 householders, original villages normally contained 20 farmyards, 10 on each side of a central street, with 20 quarter-sections (160 acres [65 hectares] per quarter-section) of land surrounding the village. Each quarter-section was legally registered in the name of one of the householders, but the village and the land within the 20 quarter-sections was divided according to the traditional pattern of a street village (Straßendorf), a large common pasture, and long narrow strips of land (kögel) upon which crops were grown. This redistribution of land generally had no basis in law, but was undergirded by the authority of church. In those areas where church authority broke down or where churches split, the villages frequently disbanded. In Manitoba a tension was thus established between the wishes and the legal rights of the individual on one hand, and the good of the community on the other".

In 1874 the first of the Mennonites immigrated and settled in what was called “The East Reserve”. Quickly many Mennonites became aware that the land in this area was not as fertile as first thought. By 1875 "The West Reserve" was established.  Some of the East Reserve Mennonites moved to it, but mostly it was settled with the  new immigrants coming to Canada.

David Peters, my paternal great grandfather was a Mennonite immigrant that landed in Manitoba on July 1875.  His family settled in the colony of Ebenfeld in The West Reserve.  Between 1874 and 1880 nearly 7000 Mennonites settled in Manitoba.  In 1880 the first census was taken.

In the book 1880 Village Census Of The Mennonite West Reserve; edited by John Dyck and William Harms, I have found some very specific information about David Peters.

These are taken from the church books and consolidated and transcribed into the Reinlander Gemeinde Buch, (or Reinlander Church Book).  Note “Eb01” to the left of David Peters name.  This was taken from the first church book of the Ebenfeld Colony.  David and Katharina are listed with their date of births and their parents names to the right.   Also it lists their children, birth dates and in two cases their spouses.  It notes that this clan came over on the ship Canadian and arrived in July of 1875.  David Peters' homestead designation is listed. NE-31-1-3W.   Northeast quarter in the 31^st section of township 1 and range 3 West of prime meridian.

In another book called 1880 West Reserve Census I found the following information which was surprising in its detail. 

Note that David Peters is in Lot 1 of the village of Ebenfeld. 

In the same book is the taxation records of 1881 of the same colony.  This is not a great copy however it shows David Peters has 30 acres of cultivated soil and 130 acres of unbroken land. 160 acres is a quarter section of land.   David has no buildings on his land but has two oxen, two cows, two heifers, four hogs, one wagon and one plow.  David's total tax assessment on this was $340.00. So even though they lived communally they had taxes based on individual properties. 

Red Square is Homestead Location. South of Winkler and Plum Coulee.

David Peters' homestead certificate and location of same, based on the land information.  This now explains to me why a Mennonite would have a homestead certificate.  I just assumed that since the colonies were communal that no one individual would have land assigned to them.

David and Katharina only stayed on the Manitoba West Reserve for a short while.  They move on to the new reserve for Mennonites in Hague-Osler region of Saskatchewan; although at the time of settling it was still considered North West Territories.  I have not looked up a Saskatchewan homestead certificate for David Peters. I am sure the story will continue.

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 16 Prompt - Air

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 16

Prompt – Air

Airing one's dirty laundry is an idiom.  To me it means that there is someone that has a secret that very few people know about and those surrounding that person don't want it to become common knowledge.   In my opinion often good stories are made up to cover the truth and become what I call  "the family story".

Discovering or knowing about these secrets or indiscretions as a genealogist poses a problem.  Should I or shouldn't I report the real story?   I was told that when writing family history one should take the high ground and give respect.  However I have also discovered that moral compasses change with time.   So does information that is available online to anyone with a computer.

Last week I blogged about Bill's two times great grandfather – Johann Jahnke.   Johann has a brother – Leonhard Heinrich Jahnke.  If you recall these two brothers married twin sisters in Bromberg, Germany and immigrated to America on the same ship.  Johann married Ernestine “Emilie” Hein. Leonhard married Henriette “Amalie” Hein.

Leonhard and Amalie had two sons,Theodore and Julius Jahnke. These two are cousins of Bill's grandfather – Arthur Jahnke. (Stay with me).  Julius and Arthur married sisters.   Arthur married Ida Anna Bachmann and Julius married Ida's sister – Dorothea Bachmann.  Not too complicated, right?

Dorthea and Julius Jahnke had 5 children.

They all go by their second name as is a German tradition.  Harvey is still alive and living on Vancouver Island.   Harvey is 92 and one of my contacts that I have spoke to a few times.  Bill's mother is Clara who just turned 93 a month ago and living in Saskatoon.  Harvey and Clara are first and second cousins (which I explained in another blog last year) and are very close.

As an aside I spoke of Robert and his unfortunate death in a plane crash over England during the WWII.

Today I want to talk about Ida Jahnke.

Ida & Anthony Okapiec Wedding Photograph

In 2009 Clara and I were going through her boxes of photos.  We came upon this one.  She tried to explain who she was.  She said they had a child as well.  So I began to dig into clues to try and fill out their story.  I found a Province of Ontario – Certificate of Registration of Death for Ida.   I could not believe what I was reading. I had not heard about this.

Coroner's Report of Death For Ida Okapiec.

It indicates that her death was a coroner's case and that she died of suicide by cutting her throat. Oh how tragic.

Years go by and in March of 2017, I have the pleasure of chatting with Harvey about his family. Somewhere along we were discussing his siblings.  When he mentioned Ida, I said oh I know she committed suicide.  He was quite taken aback and said quite tersely “no she died in childbirth”.  I was going to go into finding her death registration online but had a 6^th sense that his story was the family story and I let it go.

In the past couple of months I have subscribed to Newspaper.com.  It is crazy the things I have found on this site. I was hoping to find the obituary for my records of Ida Okapiec.  What I found was even more astounding than the Coroner's report.  I found the story Ida's demise. It was chilling.  

On page 3 of The Windsor Star dated July 11, 1944 is the following headline. “Mother Who Killed Her Baby Fights For Life in Hospital”.

Mrs. E. Jahnke is Ernest Jahnke's wife and they were living in Windsor at the same time as Ida and Anthony Okapiec. 

The first attempted suicide of the previous week must have been the reason that Mrs. E. Jahnke was with Ida Okapiec.

 

Today we would call this "poor health"  postpartum depression. 

The next day in The Windsor Star is another article.

So very tragic and sad.  I might be "airing dirty laundry" but I feel Ida and Marlene Jean deserve to be remembered despite the circumstances.  Postpartum depression is as serious as this story would indicate.  In a sense Ida's brother, Harvey was not far from truth when he said Ida had died in childbirth. 

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 14 Prompt - Water

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 14

Prompt – Water

Fishing!

The first and only time that I went fishing was with Bill and his father on their boat at Blackstrap Lake (near Saskatoon) on a lovely summer evening.  We were just going out for a ride in the boat.  Of course they decided to try their hand at fishing.  They caught one.  I was squeamish just to see it wriggling on the line.  However I was not prepared for what happened next.  The fish was flopping around in the boat freaking me out so Bill's father took some heavy object and hit it to kill it.  Well that finished the lovely evening on the boat for me.

Once again I look back at the scans of Bill's family slides and photos. Fishing pictures, beach side family fish fry picnics and trophy fish photos are predominant. 

I had no idea that I married into a family of recreational fishers.

Leonard, Arthur and Henry Fesser

The earliest photo of fishing is one taken somewhere between 1933 and 1936.  The 3 men are Bill's Grandfather Arthur and Art's brother, Leonard and Art's brother-in-law, Henry. It was in those years that Arthur, Ida and their family moved to Yakima to try fruit farming on Leonard's orchard. Henry Fesser was Ida's youngest brother who also joined the business of the fruit farm.

Henry Fesser was a bachelor who lived in California.   I love that Art and Len are in overalls and Henry is dressed up.  This seems to confirm a statement from another family member that Henry was a “very fussy” dresser.

In previous blogs I had mentioned that Arthur did not like the hemmed in feelings in the mountains of their orchard farm.  In 1936 they moved back to Killaly, Saskatchewan to resume farming on their  mixed farm.

Crooked Lake was often their choice of a fishing hole closest to home.

Clara Jahnke (Before Married)

Clara, Her Mother and Father Ida & Art & her Aunt Freda & Uncle Len

Grandpa Jahnke's Boat: Lt to Rt. Herb (Clara's brother), Len, Freda & Clara.

These photos are taken in the 1940's while fishing at Crooked Lake.   It was a family affair followed by a "fish fry picnic."  Bill recalls that the “fish-fry picnics” were always a Crooked Lake thing.  I had once asked Bill's mother if they ever had picnics.  She told me about going to Crooked Lake. Someone would bring a potato salad and someone brought dessert.   It was with varying family and friends.  Bill remember his Grandmother Ida brought a bag of butter and a bag of flour, salt and pepper.  After filleted the caught fish it was immediately fried in a cast iron pan. Bill said it was always good.

Bill's mother, Clara was no slouch in fishing either.

The above photo was dated 1952.  However it did not say where Tony caught this big one.

Bill was 4 years of age when this was taken. From other photos from this same trip I guess that it was a family outing or vacation.  Bill says he did not catch this fish, but one is never to young to pose with a caught fish.

In 1959, Bill's father and some of his friends actually flew in to Lac La Ronge, Saskatchewan.

Bill's First Fish

 This is Bill's first fish caught casting off the shore of Crooked Lake.  It was taken circa 1960.

The boat Elaine was Tony and Clara's first boat. Bill thinks that his father had bought this one. Bill has very little recollection of riding in this boat. Bill is about 6 and his sister Elaine is about 1 year old.  Bill remembers the "orange crush" cooler made of steel. On any family trips they packed their lunches and rarely ate at restaurants on the road.

 

Tony's Boat Called Norma

I knew that this boat was built by Bill's father.   I asked Bill if he remembered when this was.  He remembers it was built after they moved into their home on Park Avenue in Saskatoon.  They moved there in September of 1963.  The house had no garage when they bought it.   Since Tony built the boat in their garage we figured it had to be after that.  Bill thinks the garage was built the next summer.  The garage was built of “reclaimed wood”.   Bill said grudgingly that his summer job was pulling the nails from the boards.  He remembers painting the inside of the garage and the paint would not stick to the boards which made him think it was reclaimed wood from some fire.  But I digress.  So if the garage is built the following year of 1964 then perhaps it was 1965 ish when the boat was built.   I asked Bill if he remembered anything about the boat being built.  He said his father had ordered a kit.  Bill, his mother and siblings had been out for a Wednesday evening church probably Lenten service.  When they got home his father had put together the skeleton of the boat in their basement.

Henry Fesser and The One That Did Not Get Away.

His father built the boat almost entirely by himself in the garage. He did have a buddy who did the fiberglass coating for him. So the boat Norma was born.

1968 Birch Creek Fishing Trip.

Birch Creek is east of Saskatoon.  Henry lived in California but would come up to stay with Tony & Clara for several weeks during the summer.  I guess it was cooler in Saskatoon than in California.   However Uncle Henry also liked fishing in Saskatchewan.   There are quite a few photos from the Birch Creek fishing trip.   It seemed like it was Tony (Bill's father), Art (Bill's grandfather) and Henry (Bill's Great Uncle) on this trip. One photo shows what has to be one of the family's biggest fish caught.

The strangest fish photo is a fish wrapped in fur.   I asked Bill what the story behind “fur fish” was.  It was apparently Uncle Henry's story.  I guess that Uncle Henry thought that it was so cold up north that the fish grew fur. He took a photo to prove it for his friends back home.  Something reminiscent of the fierce mythical critter of a Jackalope.  Well that is one heck of a fish story!

1983 and Bill's Sask Tel office phone is what else, but a fish.

Don't ask! Or maybe ask him.

 On a 1993 family camping trip with our neighbors, Bill caught a whopper.  This was caught at Pyramid Lake in National Jasper Park. 

Wendy, Christina, Alanna, Daniel & Bill. His Fishing Audience.

Grandpa and Alanna

Summer of 2000.  Mount Lorette Ponds in Alberta Kananaskis  Country.  We were spending a Sunday afternoon in Kananaskis with some family having a barbecue picnic with hot dogs and not fish. Sounds like a familiar family thing from Bill's previous generation or two!

... and maybe onto the next generation!

Alanna Fishing at Shannon Lake

Shannon Lake

2019 Summer at Shannon Lake, Okanogan, British Columbia
Alanna's fish by fishing off the dock. 

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 15 Prompt - Fire

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 15

Prompt – Fire

 

Hatton, Saskatchewan is a non existent town.  It doesn't even rate as a ghost town because there are no buildings left.  The last building was a school and it was torn down in 2011.  All that remains are a  few unkempt cemeteries.  It was nothing more than a whistle stop on the new westward bound CPR line and originally it was called "Forres", Saskatchewan.  The area was being settled by European immigrants who were lured by the free quarter section with no more requirements than they live on the land for a minimum of 6 months and clear at least 10 acres of land per year.  In 1913 the town decided to rename it "Hatton" because there were too many towns and cities called Forres.

Bill's great grandparents were immigrants from Bromberg, Prussia who arrived in America in 1891 through the port of Philadelphia.

1890 April 20 - Johann & Emilie Jahnke Wedding Photo

Johann Friedrich Jahnke and Ernestine Emilie (nee:Hein) first settled in Winthrop, Minnesota.  This is where Arthur, their second son was born. Arthur's older brother was born in Prussia.  Arthur is Bill's maternal grandfather.  When Arthur was 2 and Leonhard was 5 their parents moved 350 miles west to Ulen, Minnesota in a covered wagon and moved onto a farm.  However Johann was a man of wanderlust.  Or put more plainly by Arthur in an oral history in his later life, “his father had itchy feet.”  In the spring of 1903 they were lured by free land to Canada. They bought land and built a two story home in Killaly, Saskatchewan.

In 1911, Johann sold the Killaly farm to move to Entwistle, Alberta ( 60 miles west of Edmonton) to help his older son, Leonhard start a homestead.  The following spring (1912), Johann, Emilie and Arthur moved on to Hatton.  He built a home and a general store.

Circa 1913 - Hatton General Store of Johann Jahnke

Hatton House of Johann & Emilie Jahnke

In 1913, Arthur went off to Regina to take a 3 month business course and when he was done he returned to Hatton to help his father run the store.  It must have been a prosperous business as Johann bought his first car in 1913 which was a 1909 Model T.  In 1915 Arthur bought a brand new 1915 Model T. which apparently cost him $600.00.

In 1916, Johann decided to sell the store and home to move back to Winthrop, Minnesota however they ended up taking a train to Seattle for reasons more curious than known.   Johann bought a new 1916 Maxwell car there and they started a road trip which took them through northern California and then on to Gibbon, Minnesota where once again Johann bought another store.

On June 24, 1917 Arthur married Ida Bachmann in Killaly Saskatchewan.  The following spring they moved back to Hatton Saskatchewan and Arthur bought the general store that his father had once owned.   I believe that Johann's cousin Julius Jahnke had bought it off of Johann in 1916 and then sold it to Arthur.  There may have been a time when both Julius and Arthur Jahnke co-owned the store.  There is a photo of the store called A & J Jahnke.  Things seemed to be good.  Ida and Arthur had their first child, a daughter, on April 5, 1918.

Between Jahnke's store and an hardware store was an empty lot.  Both owners decided to make it a warehouse by enclosing it in with a roof and a front and back wall attached to their stores.

In January of 1920 a fire started in the hardware store spreading quickly to their warehouse and eventually into Arthur's General Store.   It took everything they owned.

Arthur decided not to start up again.   He returned to Killaly to buy farmland and become a farmer. He bought two half sections of land two miles apart.  Ida's father helped build their farm home while Ida and the baby lived with her parents in Killaly.   Arthur bought a tractor, broke soil and planted it by the end of spring.  The home was finished by October of that same year. Arthur, Ida and baby Elsie moved in to it and begin a new life as farmers.

14 X 24 Killaly Farm House For Art & Ida

As it turns out, it may have been a very good decision to leave Hatton.  Farmland in the area turned out to be less than ideal mainly because the south western part of Saskatchewan was more desert like than advertised to the new comers.  It had very little water and trees.  Drought was common. The 1914 drought was the first of many more droughts leading up to the “Dirty Thirties”.  The drought of 1914 brought crop failure which lead to starvation followed by destitution despite government assistance.  And finally they abandoned their homesteads to find a more agreeable place.  It is thought that ten thousand left this area in that time period.   I recall discussing the general store fire with Clara, Bill's mother and Arthur and Ida's youngest daughter.  She said the loss was compounded by the fact that many of the farmers bought goods on credit.  So besides the physical losses there was loss of moneys not paid for on goods bought before the fire.

Leaving when Arthur did may have saved him from the single most devastating event that the community of Hatton endured.  Some will tell you that it was the beginning of the end for Hatton, Saskatchewan.

Curtis R. McManus explains it quite eloquently in his book called Happyland: A History of the “Dirty Thirties” in Saskatchewan, 1914 – 1937.

It was so catastrophic that about a dozen other papers in Canada and America carried the story.

Such as the article written in The Calgary Herald on September 26, 1921 on page 1.

A few things come to me from this article.  It is believed that the fire started in the pool hall which is listed as one of the burned businesses; "J. Jahnke Pool Hall".  This was probably Julius Jahnke, a cousin of Arthur Jahnke who had at one point owned or co-owned the general store.  I am still working on connecting him as the owner of the pool hall.  

Another thing mentioned in this article is the fact that this is the third big fire in Hatton in the last eighteen months.  Likely Arthur Jahnke's general store was the first of three fires mentioned.

In the final estimate the loss amounted to $250,000.  Devastating considering this was in 1921.   

Arthur and Ida Jahnke were not lucky that they had a fire razing their general store which changed the direction in their life.  But maybe luck came in a different form sparing them from rebuilding just to have it taken out in the September 25, 1921 devastating Hatton Fire.  

Wendy