Chris Gareau, The Carillon, October 17, 2024
Farmland surrounds the Choritz Heritage Church and the Mennonite Cemetery across Randolph Road. It is the kind of site the original group of Mennonites were hoping to see when they came to settle the area, but it was not what they found.
Swarms of grasshoppers greeted the east reserve settlers in 1875, as described by guide Ernie Braun during the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society’s (MMHS) East Reserve tour Oct. 10.
“They talked about there being an eclipse of the sun. There were so many locusts that the sun was blocked out. The area these locusts affected was 500 square miles of land,” Braun told the 40 who road the bus to hear the history of the people who first set foot on Manitoba soil 150 years ago.
“And they ate everything: your crops, your gardens, even the clothes drying on the line.
Braun read a letter that showed the settlers’ desperation, with not enough food to last the winter. Money was borrowed from Swiss Mennonite friends in Ontario. The Swiss asked the federal government for help, and despite some resistance the government agreed to lend $100,000 if the Swiss cosign.
The Manitoba Mennonites used that money to buy food, machinery and seed, split on the west and east sides of the Red River. Canals were built starting in the 1880s to drain marshland and make the land more arable, with the Manning Canal making the biggest difference after its construction from 1906-08.
“By 1892, the bread debt is paid off,” said Braun.
That was the beginning of an earned reputation that had a cascading effect and would result in a future wave of Russian Mennonites arriving in Canada thanks to a belief that a loan would surely be paid back in full, according to the guide.
This was just one of a series of historical anecdotes and lessons learned during the day-long tour led by Braun and MMHS president Conrad Stoesz.
The tour bus took off from Canadian Mennonite University, picking up the rest of the passengers at the Mennonite Memorial Landing Site where the Red and Rat Rivers meet and about 3,500 Mennonites arrived between 1874-76.
From there it visited the Shantz immigration sheds cairn, the Red River Cart in Niverville, the Choritz Church and cemetery, the Schoensee Cemetery, and former village of Bergfeld near Grunthal.
The idea of learning who walked the same ground before him drew Andrew Klassen Brown to the tour. Originally from Piney, the archivist for Mennonite Central Committee could not help but return to the Southeast for the tour.
“My ancestors are from the 1870s Mennonites, but they settled along the West Reserve. So I signed up for both of these tours,” said Klassen Brown.
The West Reserve tour on the other side of the Red River is happening Oct. 22 and will stop at Fort Dufferin, Edenburg Cemetery, the former village of Neuanlage, Neubergthal Commons, Altbergthal School, and Friesen Housebarn.
Klassen Brown appreciated learning family and faith history close to home.
“It’s good to experience stuff in your backyard,” said Klassen Brown.
“These are good things to know. The history of the land that we’re on; the history of the people that came before us. It stretches back of course millennia, but how our story connects to this, why we are here kind of informs our lives today.
“I also think there’s an element of fun.”