52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 30 Prompt - Ships

2024

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 30

Prompt – Boats

Mennonite immigration to Manitoba between 1870 and 1880 totalled approximately 7,000 men, women and children. They immigrated from their colonies in Southern Russia. My paternal great-grandparents and their children were among those that came to Canada at this time. 

In 1875, 8 ships crossed the Atlantic (between May and October) carrying a total of 3,341 Mennonite immigrants. David and Katharina Peters and their 7 children were on the S.S. Canadian leaving July 2, 1875. The Peters Family were among the 561 passengers on this ship.

S.S. Canadian

They left from Hamburg, Germany. Their departure port was considered Liverpool, England and they travelled 17 days across the ocean landing at the port of Hull, Quebec on July 19, 1875. I believe they then travelled by train to Kitchener, Ontario. The immigrants then boarded a boat to make their way to Duluth, Mn. The distance was over 800 miles and took several days.

In Duluth they boarded a train to travel 250 miles to Moorhead, Mn. Once in Moorhead they boarded a steamer ship to travel the last 150 miles up the Red River to the “immigration sheds” in Dufferin, Manitoba.

There is a story written in the Mennonite Historian magazine that sheds more light on what happened once they arrived at Fort Dufferin. Jacob Fehr was 15 years old when he and his family immigrated to Manitoba. They left Chortitza Colony in Russia which was the same colony that David and Katharina Peters left. Jacob Fehr's family and fellow immigrants arrived at Fort Dufferin on July 14, 1875 just days before The Peters Family arrived. Apparently the Mennonites had to wait at Fort Dufferin until the land could be surveyed. The surveyor was going about the task of surveying the land at the time of their arrival. Fort Dufferin was established in 1872 and used by the Canadian Government as a boundary commission which housed those hired to establish the border between the U.S. And Canada. In 1874 North West Mounties made it their headquarters until they moved to Winnipeg in 1875. From 1875 to 1879 they used it to hold the immigrants. Fort Dufferin was made to hold 300 people but at the height of immigration it held 1,000 Mennonites in this very cramped building. Jacob Fehr noted that there was illness and death especially among the children. Almost daily they buried their children around Fort Dufferin. The Mennonites called Fort Dufferin “a place of mourning”.

They stayed in Fort Dufferin for 6 weeks waiting for the surveyors to finish their jobs. In the meantime the Mennonites were assigned villages. When the time had come that surveying was done and they were given approval to leave Fort Dufferin, they did so with ox and cart to their villages in open grassland.

According to the Mennonite Historian, Jacob Fehr and thus most Mennonites following the same trail to their new land travelled 13,000 miles by rail and by boat.

Wendy