Svjetlana Mlinarevic, The Carillon, October 7, 2024
The year was 1929 and the stock markets in North America just took a hit that brought the economies of the United States and Canada to its knees. What became known as the Great Depression saw unemployment hit 30 percent with people standing in lines for food and work. Farmers were some of the hardest hit because not only did they face financial hardships but they faced a drought that decimated their fields. Yet, while all around people were finding it hard to make ends meet Steinbach was an exception.
“Steinbach was different partly because of where it was,” said Steinbacher Ralph Friesen, who has written a book about the Mennonites during the depression titled, Prosperity Ever, Depression Never: Steinbach in the 1930s.
“It was a combination of many different factors that allowed Steinbach (to survive). I would say the first half of the 1930s they were just holding the line, and then they actually started to build quite extensively and grow quite quickly from 1935 onward.”
Friesen said the communities surrounding Steinbach were situated on land that made grain farming more difficult compared to communities around Altona and Winkler, which relied heavily on grain. Because of this, farmers had to diversify by raising livestock. What allowed the City of Steinbach to also survive the Depression was that the people in the city also kept livestock.
Another factor that made Steinbach survive was the risk taking by Mennonite businesses. There were three car dealerships at the time and one of them opened in the 1930s.
Finally, the willingness of people to take low paying jobs was another factor in the success of Steinbach. “The wages were very poor but they accepted it. ‘I’d rather work for a poor wage than not work.’ These factors came together to keep the economy going,” said Friesen.
Friesen, whose great-grandparents came over in the first migration of 1874, said part of the reason he took on the writing project was because he had research left over from his previous book, 2009’s Between Earth and Sky: Steinbach the first 50 years, and this current book was in a way a sequel to Between Earth and Sky.
Another reason the book was written was that it’s now the 150th anniversary of the Mennonite landing in Manitoba and the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, who is publishing Prosperity Ever-Depression Never, wanted something to commemorate this historic milestone.
“What I would like people to know about the book is that it contains a lot of stories that are just human interest about human beings. I tried to bring various memoires that I’ve collected from all over the place published in different places and just have the story of those people tell the story…to reveal the humanity of the people who lived in that era,” said Friesen.
“I think what the reader can expect is not just a survey or abstract about the town and what was going on, but also insight into the lives of the people who lived there.”
Friesen will have a book launch on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. at the Mennonite Heritage Village where he will give a presentation. His book can be purchased at McNally Robinson for $28.