Wilhelm Hiebert family fonds. – [ca. 1988-ca. 1991]. – 2 cm of textual records
Administrative/Biographical History
Wilhelm Hiebert (1847-1908) and his wife, born Katerina Esau (1849-1940) were Mennonites who migrated from Russia to Chortitz, Manitoba (now called Randolph, Manitoba) in July 1875. Wilhelm’s ancestry has been traced back to Peter Hiebert (b. 1818). Katerina’s ancestry has been traced back to Benjamin Defehr or Fehr (b. 1818). A committee consisting of their grandchildren produced a 125-page compilation of the family genealogy ca. 1988, and a family reunion was held in 1988.
Custodial History
The fonds was given to Judith Rempel by Vern Hiebert.
Scope & Content
The fonds consists of the family genealogy, song sheet used at the 1988 family reunion, additional genealogical notes and hymns, one item of correspondence, and a poem by Wilhelm Hiebert.
Source of Acquisition
Gift by Judith Rempel, 2008.
Notes
Accession 2008.016
Last updated by Jim Bowman, 23 November 2017
Comments Off on Argentina. Director General de Inmigracion
Accession no. 2005.037 (oversize, CDs)
Title and Physical Description
Argentina Director General de Inmigracion fonds. – 1930. – 29 cm of textual records (12 sheets). – 5 compact disks (93 digital images).
Administrative/Biographical History
The Director General de Inmigration of Argentina (D. Jorge Tomkinson in 1930) administered government policy with regard to immigrants.
Custodial History
The original documents were purchased via eBay from an anonymous manuscript dealer and then donated to Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta by an anonymous donor in 2005.
Scope & Content
The fonds consists of passenger lists of passenger lists of Mennonite immigrants from Russia to Argentina, who arrived aboard the steamships General Belgrano and Apipé in 1930, with a covering letter from the Compañia Argentina de Navigacion. The original passenger list of the Apipé is missing, but the digital images of the entire fonds are available.
Peter Rempel fonds.– 1961-2004. – 0.5 cm of textual records
Biographical History
Peter Rempel, 1925- , was born in Moscow, USSR, and emigrated with his family to Manitoba, Canada in 1926. In 1936 they settled at Vauxhall, Alberta. He studied at Mennonite Brethren Bible Schools in Vauxhall and Coaldale. In 1948 he married Mary Baerg, and worked as a farmer, a city bus driver, and a carpenter. In 1961 he was ordained, and in in 1963 he was the founding pastor of Lendrum Mennonite Brethren Church. In 1969 he resigned from the pastorate in order to establish Youth Orientation Units (Y.O.U.), a rehabilitation program for delinquent youth located on a farm near Warburg, Alberta. In 1990 the Y.O.U. program was closed. For further biographical information, see: Peter Rempel, youth worker, pastor, counselor : the road less travelled / Anne Harder. – [Calgary] : Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta, 2003; and: Stumbling heavenward : the extraordinary life of an ordinary man, Peter Rempel. – Winnipeg : Hyperion Press, 1984.
Custodial History
The register of marriages was in the possession of H.E. Dyck.
Scope & Content
The fonds consists of a register of marriages performed by Peter Rempel, 1961-2004, including the dates, names of the couples, and locations.
Tofield Gospel Church fonds. — 1927-1995. — 8 cm of textual records
Administrative History
In 1928 a group of 8 Mennonite Brethren families from Russia settled on a tract of land northeast of Tofield, Alberta known as the Trent Ranch. They established a Mennonite Brethren church which met in members’ homes. In 1936 the Trent Ranch colony dissolved, but a number of Mennonite Brethren families migrating from Crowfoot and other communities in Alberta contributed to the growth of the congregation. In 1940 it constructed a church building in the Lindbrook locality, 5 miles west of the town of Tofield, named Lindbrook Mennonite Brethren Church. In the 1940s a congregation of Evangelical Mennonite Brethren from nearby Ryley joined the church. In 1963 the congregation built a new church at Tofield and was renamed Tofield Mennonite Brethren Church. In 1977 the church was renamed Tofield Gospel Church, and in 1983 it moved again to a larger meeting house. By the mid-2000s the church was struggling and in 2006 it was released from membership in the Alberta Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches.
Custodial History
The fonds was in the possession of Corney Warkentin of Tofield, Alberta. He transferred it to H.E. Dueck.
Scope & Content
The fonds includes a history of the M.B. Church of Tofield (ca. 1984), congregational and Council minutes (1950-1991), and family registers (membership accreditation, 1927-1959).
Source of Acquisition
Gift of H.E. Dueck, Edmonton, 2015.
Notes
Accession 2015.011
Language: German, English
Last updated 2 February 2017 Jim Bowman
Files Inventory
1-1 History of the M.B. Church of Tofield. — [ca. 1984]
1-2 Minutes, correspondence. — 1950-1959
1-3 Congregational minutes : Book No. 2. — 1951-1956
MHSA Data Projects – important data projects, including Canadian, American & Russian Census listings, Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization records, etc.
Comments Off on Baergen, Marvin fonds. – 1983-2003 (predominant 2000-2003) – 5 cm of textual records.
Accession 2004.054 and 2012.009 (all filed with 2012.009)
Title and Physical Description
Marvin Baergen fonds. – 1983-2003 (predominant 2000-2003). – 5 cm of textual records
Administrative/Biographical History
Marvin Baergen, 1946- , was born in Tofield, Alberta. He married Suzanne Peters, and they had three children, Trevor, Cynthia, and Steven. Marvin worked for Corrections Canada most of his working life and lived in the Calgary area. In 2001-2002 he was chair of the Missions and Service Committee of the Conference of Mennonites in Alberta (renamed Mennonite Church Alberta in 2003)
Scope & Content
The fonds consists of minutes and correspondence related to Mennonite Church Alberta committees in which Marvin Baergen was involved: Missions and Service Committee, Executive Committee, General Counsel. A detailed listof the files is included in the finding aid of Mennonite Church Alberta.
Source of Supplied Title
Title based on contents of the fonds
Source of Acquisition
Gift by Marvin Baergen, 2004
Access Restrictions
No restrictions on access
Finding aids
A detailed list of files is provided in the finding aid of Mennonite Church Alberta fonds.
Notes
Accession 2004.054 and 2012.009 (all filedd with 2012.009).
Linford Hackman, northern missions worker, itinerant pastor and evangelist of the Alberta-Saskatchewan Mennonite Conference, was born into an Anabaptist family on 2 December 1906 in Souderton, Pennsylvania, and died at Edmonton, Alberta, on 11 April 1983. As a youth, following a serious illness, Linford began to teach Sunday School classes, distribute tracts, and erect road-side gospel signs in his home community. He read numerous magazines and books on the North and came to regard it as a great mission field. He married Ada Clemens (6 January 1908- ) on 15 June 1925. They were the parents of four sons and two daughters. In 1929 he and Ada decided on a trip to the Peace River country of northern Alberta, contacting Mennonite congregations along the way. That trip marked the beginning of a life-long enthusiasm for northern missions. In the next fifteen years they did mission work in northern Ontario and northern Minnesota where Linford learned to fly and eventually acquired a small aircraft. Hackman was ordained to the ministry in 1944 while working in northern Minnesota, but returned to Alberta in 1945 to look for prospective localities for mission work. The following year he and three members of the Mission Board of Alberta-Saskatchewan Mennonite Conference traveled more extensively in the north and subsequently established a number of northern mission stations. Hackman made the West Zion Mennonite Church near Carstairs his home base, but retained great enthusiasm for northern mission work. He made numerous trips north, serving as pastor of the small Edson congregation in the late 1950s and as itinerant pastor charged with responsibility to visit as many of the scattered northern congregations, mission stations and voluntary service projects as possible each year. The Hackmans retired to live in Edmonton where they became members of the Holyrood Mennonite Church. On his many travels to the isolated communities where voluntary service personnel were located, he would fly his plane. Some of the communities had airstrips but many were accessible only by float plane. He loved flying. During his travels and visits he would take many pictures (slides). The pictures help to understand the conditions under which the voluntary service personnel were working, often indicating how resourceful they were in the absence of commercial centres nearby. Most of the slides have captions but some were without captions or the caption could not be read. Some of the photos are simply pictures of scenic parts of the beautiful north country.
Custodial History
The slides were given to Theodore D. Regehr at the time when he was writing the history of the Northwest Conference. He donated them to the Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta where they were sorted and scanned.
Scope & Content
The collection contains photos of the early travels to Peace River Country in 1929 and later visits to various churches, voluntary service locations and activities into the 1960’s. They include some pictures of retreats in Ontario, Oregon, and a good number of airplanes and some churches where he served
Notes
Accession 2003.033
Restrictions
No restrictions on access.
Finding Aid
The photos may be found on the MHSA website under Resources in the Photo Gallery.
Related Materials
T.D. Regehr, Faith, Life and Witness in the Northwest, 1903- 2003: Centennial History of the Northwest Mennonite Conference. Kitchener, Ont. : Pandora Press, 2003.
Paul H. Martin, As the North Called to Linford Hackman. Des Moines, Iowa : Paul H. Martin, 1995.
Peter Toews fonds. – 1923. – 1 cm of textual records
Administrative/Biographical History
Peter John Toews (Peter Johann Töws), 1902-1992, was born in Osterwick, Zaporizhia district, Chortitza Colony, Russia.He was a student and worked on the family farm. He emigrated to Canada in 1926 and farmed at Mayfair, Saskatchewan. He married Helena A. Kroeger and they had four children: Anna Marie (Boyes), David, Ernest, and Rudolph.
Scope & Content
The fonds consists of the gesangbuch (hymn book), consisting of the lyrics of the hymns sung in the Osterwick Mennonite congregation, hand-copied by Peter Toews in 1923.
Marie Rempfer fonds. – 2001. – 0.5 cm of textual records
Administrative/Biographical History
Marie Martens , 1925- , was born in Armavir, Kuban, Russia, and was brought to Canada as an infant by her parents, Franz Johann Martens and the former Cornelia Koop. The family lived at Hussar, Millerfield, and East Coulee in Alberta before moving on to Three Hills in 1933. Marie was the eldest of eleven children. In 1944 or 1945 she married Richard Henry “Dick” Rempfer, and they raised a family of four girls – Sherrell, Sandy, Ellen, and Marilee. Dick died in 1977, and Marie eventually moved to a retirement home in Three Hills. She was a member of the Bethel Evangelical Missionary Church there.
Scope & Content
The fonds consists of Marie Rempfer’s autobiographical essay.
Erwin and Magdalena Strempler fonds. – 2005. – 3 cm of textual records. – 19 photographs
Administrative/Biographical History
Erwin Strempler was born in Tilsit, Germany in 1934. Magdalena Enss was born in Tiege, Germany in 1934. Both were from Mennonite families. Erwin’s family was displaced to Bavaria in 1944 due to the advance of the Soviet army, and emigrated to Canada in 1952. Magdalena’s family fled to Denmark in 1945 and emigrated to Canada in 1949. They married in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1957. They had three children, Harold, Monica, and Leona. In 2003 they toured Germany to visit the places they had known in their youth.
Scope & Content
The fonds consists of “Looking to the Rock”, Erwin’s illustrated account of their tour of Germany. Includes Magdalena’s translation of the writings of her father Aeltester Bruno Enss and her mother Helene (Hintz) Enss, describing their experiences as refugees. Includes an informal portrait of Bruno and Helene Enss.
