Not Done Yet - More Relatives

[June 2, 1930]  and then to John F. Reimers.  For dinner we went to D. K. Siemens.  We left Jacob at Jacob F. Loewens to care for his eyes.  At 2 p.m. we left D. K. Siemens.  Arrived at Morris at 4 o’clock.  At 7 p.m. we got home.  Mary and Corney had stayed home alone.

Monday was a slow day of visiting relatives.  They only went to Margaret’s uncle Johann F. Reimer and then had dinner at Cornelius’ brother David.  Poor Mary and Corney had had to stay home alone while Cornelius and Margaret were getting their fix of relatives.  I don't know how introverts would have survived in the Siemens household.

Relatives Overload???

June 1, 1930  We slept well at John F. Reimers.  Then we went to D. P. Reimers and then to church.  For dinner we went to the parents and also stayed there for faspa.  The visitors there were D. K. Siemens, J. Kornelsens, John Warkentins, Jacob Pletts, Klaas P. Reimers, Peter Klassens, Johan N. Koops, Aunt Klassen, and K. R. Friesens.  For the evening we went to John Warkentins and Jacob Pletts.  For night back to the parents ________

Most of us would have had relatives-overload by this point, but Cornelius and Margaret were just hitting their stride.  They had breakfast at the David P. Reimers – he was Margaret’s second cousin and his wife, Maria L. Plett, was an aunt to Cornelius’ first wife Katie.  Then they managed to squeeze a worship service at the Blumenort Kleine Gemeinde fellowship.  After that they went to Jacob L. Plett’s, Cornelius former parents-in-law, to whom he remained close all his life.  His brother David came over – his wife Sarah was Katie’s sister.  Johann U. Kornelsens were there, and their daughter Betty, who was not born yet, would marry Cornelius and Margaret’s son Elmer twenty-four years later.  I will not bore you with the details, but most of the rest were relatives to either Cornelius or Margaret or to both.

Visiting More Relatives

May 31, 1930  For dinner we went to Uncle and Aunt Peter Klassens, then to Johan Klassens, and for faspa to Johan Koopen.  David Siemens were along.  For night we went to Johan F. Reimers.  In the evening Peter Kroekers came to Reimers.

Another day of visiting.  Cornelius and Margaret went to his uncle and aunt Peter B. and Katharina (Koop) Klassen for dinner.  Cornelius’ cousin Johann K. Klassen came over.  Then for faspa they went to his sister Johann N. and Aganetha (Siemens) Koop.  They spent the night at Johann F. Reimers, who was Margaret’s uncle.  While some people might get tired of this, Cornelius and Margaret both loved to visit and to meet people.

Crossing the River by Ferry

May 30, 1930  Mama, Jacob, Corney, and I went to Steinbach; but first we butchered two turkeys.  We sold them in Morris for $5.25.  Then we crossed the river on the ferry at St. Pier and then going toward Gruenfeld.   We were at H. R. Duecks for dinner.  Then we went to Dr. Kroeker because of the boys’ eyes.   Then to Steinbach to Widow Johan Reimer.  Johan W. Reimers came over there.  Then we went to Klaas K. Friesens and for night to D. K. S.

Now that the wheat and barley were planted, the Siemens went on a round of visiting, shopping, and business.  Before going to town, they butchered and dressed a couple turkeys to pay for the things that they would buy in Morris.  In the days before commercial farming, farmers usually had produce, fruit, poultry, or dairy products that they could sell in town to the urbanites who did not have their own gardens or animals.  Then they drove east to do visiting and doctoring. 

In southeastern Manitoba at this time there were very few bridges and many more ferries.  Because the rivers flooded often, bridges were easily washed away.  Bridges were more expensive to build than a ferry.  Margaret did not enjoy boats and water (not surprising since there was little of either in southwestern Kansas), so the new experience of crossing rivers by ferry was probably not a pleasant one for her. 

Red River ferry in North Dakota in the pre-automotive days.  You can see why a wife from Kansas would probably not have enjoyed crossing on a ferry.

The Siemens crossed the Rat River at St. Pierre-Jolys on a ferry and then when to Gruenfeld, the original name for Kleefeld.  (Kleefeld had originally been named Gruenfeld for a village near Borosenko Colony in Russia where a lot of the Kleine Gemeinde had lived.  But its mail often got sent to another village named Grenfell, so the postmaster renamed it for his home village of Kleefeld in Russia.)  They ate dinner at the Heinrich R. Duecks.  His wife, Elisabeth (Brandt) was Cornelius’ second cousin.  Then they went to Dr. Kroeker to get the boys’ eyes treated for trachoma – something that they could afford now that Cornelius had married a wife with money.

Then they went visiting in Steinbach.  I am not sure who the Widow Johann Reimer and Johann W. Reimers were.  Klaas K. Friesen’s first wife had been Maria J. K. Plett, who was the older sister of Cornelius’ first wife Katie.  And then they went to David K. Siemens, Cornelius’ older brother, for night.  One of the reasons that Cornelius and Margaret had returned to Manitoba after they got married was for Margaret to meet Cornelius’ relatives, and now she was on a whirlwind tour of visiting them.

Borrowing Money

May 29, 1933  We hoed in the garden.  Then Mama and I went to Meade to see about the crop loan.  We bought a John Deere tractor for $400.00.  Gave the old tractor in trade and paid $50.00.  I borrowed $150 to be paid July 15, 1934, and $150 to be paid in July 1935.

The harvest of 1932 had been nearly a complete failure – the wheat crop was so poor that they did not even finish harvesting it because the gasoline for the tractor was costing more than the wheat was worth.  As a result, they did not have much cash from the harvest, so now a month or so before harvest they must have been running short.  So Cornelius and Margaret went to the bank to try to borrow money against the 1933 harvest that would come in a month or two.  Cornelius does not record that they got the loan, and there do not appear to be any more trips to the bank.  No mortgages were recorded in the courthouse on their land.  It was probably fortunate that they did not get the loan because Cornelius did not record any effort to harvest wheat in 1933, so they might have lost the land if they could not have repaid the loan.  Very likely the crop was so poor that it would have been a waste of money.

But the John Deere dealer was willing to sell Cornelius a tractor on credit.  It appears that he was able to make the installment payments for the tractor in the following years, although nothing is mentioned about them in the diary.

Cornelius bought a John Deere Model D tractor similar to this one with steel wheels with lugs.

Mary Cut Quilt Pieces

May 28, 1934  Mary washed.  Mary cut fabric for quilt pieces.  I hoed some.  The boys worked on the combine.

Mary was cutting fabric for a quilt for herself.  All teenage girls would make things for their hope chest for when they got married and set up their own household.  In addition to a quilt, they would sew and embroider tea towels, pillowcases, aprons, potholders, and other things.  Then when they got married and were soon busy with babies, they would have a supply of these ready to use.  Mary had a cedar chest that she stored these things in. 

Mary used this quilt on her bed at home before she got married.  Anna (my mom) remembers that Mary liked the color red and had a beautiful quilt with red and white triangles while she was still at home, which very likely was the one she was working on on this day. 

Girls also were given one or two dishes for birthdays or Christmas by various relatives, even when they were very young.  They would display these dishes on a shelf until they got married, and then they would have a supply of dishes ready to use.

Tornado in Liberal

May 27, 1933  Worked in the garden until 9:30.  Corney and John finished digging post holes.  Then we went to Liberal to see the destruction caused last week by the tornado.  It was very sad.  In the evening we worked in the garden.

On May 22 a tornado had struck Liberal, Kans., in the midst of the total darkness of a dust storm.  It killed 4 people and destroyed or badly damaged 165 homes and 48 businesses, including city hall, the armory, and two of the five schools in the town.  Much of the damage was uninsured.  It was a devastating blow for a community already suffering from the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, but it was also remarkable for the extent of assistance offered by similarly poverty-stricken neighboring towns.  So the Siemens went to see the destruction. 

Here is an account of the tornado with many good pictures.

Planting Barley

May 26, 1930  Corney, Johan, and I went to Reids to buy barley.  We bought 60 bushels for 45 cents per bushel.  Jacob sowed barley.  In the afternoon Johan harrowed.  Mama sewed herself a black dress.  There was a storm from the southeast, and it was cloudy.

On Thursday the 22^nd, the Siemens had finished sowing wheat.  On Friday they planted barley, and on Saturday they planted oats.  Sunday they rested.  Then on Monday the 26^th, Cornelius, Corney, and John went to buy more barley seed while Jake planted barley.  After they ate dinner, John harrowed and Jake probably continued sowing barley.  A harrow was an implement with tines or teeth that was pulled over plowed ground to break it up and smooth it so that it would be ready for planting.  And then a storm came through.

 

Barley

Horse-drawn harrow.

Margaret made herself a black dress because at various times it was style to wear a black dress to worship services on Sunday.

Mary Was Baptized

May 25, 1931  It is Pentecost.  Had baptism.  Our Maria was also baptized by Jacob F. Isaac.  We were at Jacob F. Isaacs for dinner and faspa.

Mennonite baptism was usually done at Pentecost because that celebrated when the first followers of Jesus had received the Holy Spirit.  In this case they were baptized on Pentecost Monday because it was a two-day holiday for the KG.  You can sense Cornelius’ joy as he reports that “our Maria” was baptized.  It was the first time for the Siemens that one of their children was baptized.  The young people were baptized in a pond, so the water was not exactly clean – it was only in 1948, the year that Anna was baptized, that they switched to baptizing in a stock tank that had been filled with clean water.  Elder Jacob F. Isaac invited the Siemens over for dinner in honor of the event.

CORRECTION:  Mary would have been baptized by sprinkling or pouring, not by immersion in a pond.  The Kleine Gemeinde baptized by sprinkling or pouring, as virtually all Mennonites had done historically.  It was only after 1943, when most of the KG members left the congregation and formed the independent Emmanuel Mennonite Church that they started to baptize by immersion in a pond and then later in a tank under the influence of their first pastor,  Henry R. Harms, the retired Evangelical Mennonite Brethren pastor in Meade.

Record of Mary's baptism in the Meade KG church book kept by Elder Jacob F. Isaac.

A Lot of Rain - But Never Too Much

May 24, 1936  We all stayed home from church because it rained all day. 

In the middle of the Dirty Thirties, there was a day like this one, a day where it rained so much that they could not go to church on Sunday.  What a welcome day that must have been.

Another Day on the Farm

May 23, 1933  I am still sick, spending most of my time in bed, and have severe pain.  John H. Reimers came over.  Mama and Mary baked and cleaned up dust.  The boys began digging post holes.  They cultivated the potato patch.  In the evening Mrs. K. B. Reimer and children came over.

Many days on the farm in the 1930s were like this one.  Cornelius was sick in bed with severe pain from kidney stones.  Margaret and Mary baked, so the house was filled with the smell of fresh bread.  They also cleaned up dust from a big storm the day before.  Jake, Corney, and John dug post holes for a fence and worked the potato patch.  And there were guests who came to visit – his brother-in-law and family John H. Reimer and his wife’ aunt Mrs. K. B. Reimer.  Her children included Margaret, whom son Corney would marry three years later.

Farm Work

May 22, 1930  Jacob sowed the last wheat.  Corney harrowed.  Mary cleaned another room.  Mama made food.  Jacob sowed barley.  Corney, Johan, and I got barley from Reids.

Finally, they planted the last wheat in Manitoba.  They had started on April 25, but there had been so much rain that it was only on May 22 when they got the last of it sowed. 

Cornelius was hard-working, and it was very important to him that his children learn to work.  You can see the value he placed on work because most of his diary entries record that work that was done that day.  This day is a classic example of that because he tells the work that each person did, what each person did to contribute to the development of the farm.

Rain and Drought

May 21, 1931  It began to rain during the night after a long drought.  It rained until noon.  Then it cooled off.

While the problem in Manitoba was getting the fields dry enough to work in, in Kansas the problem was getting enough rain to keep the crops alive.

  

Finally Able to Plant Wheat Again

May 20, 1930  Again somewhat cloudy.  Otherwise a nice day.  Jacob and Corney worked in the field the whole day.  Johan and I planted in the garden.  Mary did spring cleaning in her room.  Mama made food and mended clothes.

On the 9^th, the Siemens had dug channels to try to drain water from their fields because it was too muddy to plant wheat.  But it had not dried enough for them to get back into the fields until the 19^th, but as soon as they started planting, the rain started falling again, so they quit.  But today, the 20^th, Jake and Corney were able to plant the whole day.  They were getting closer to getting the wheat in the ground. 

Horse-drawn seed drill

Oiling the Floors

May 19, 1936  Mary oiled the floors.  John and I hoed some in the garden.

Like many farmer families, the Siemens had not finished their house in 1930 when they built it.  Except in the living room which had hardwood flooring, the house just had softwood, plank subfloors.  The softwood had to be oiled to protect the wood and to keep down the dust.  Only about 1940 did the Siemens put hardwood flooring in the rest of the house.

Making Butter

May 18, 1937  John and I hoed in the garden.  Mary baked and churned butter.  Mama is still sick.

The Siemens and all farmers churned their own butter.  They had a gallon jar with a lid that had a crank and paddles on it.  They filled the churn with cream that was a just a little sour, because Margaret said that made the best butter, and then put the churn in a pan of cold water to keep it cool.  In fact, the best butter is made from unpasteurized cream that has set for several days in a cool place so that it can culture, using the natural bacteria in the milk and the room.  This produces cultured butter, which is more flavorful and with higher butterfat than the sweet cream butter that is available in the stores. 

Then someone would crank the paddles until the cream would start to turn to butter, which would take at least half an hour and sometimes more.  The buttermilk would be poured off and was used for baking cakes and pancakes, cooking noodles and pearl barley, and even was drunk straight from the churn.  Then the butter had to be rinsed to remove any remaining lactose and proteins and was pressed in a butter mold.

The diet of the cows affected the flavor and color of the butter.  In fact, in the days before butter was made on an industrial scale, each creamery or farm was known for having a particular flavor to its butter.  Wheat pasture made the butter taste bad, so when the cattle were on wheat, the Siemens would only make butter from morning milk when the cows had eaten grain during the night.  During winter when the cows could not eat green plants, the butter was white, so Margaret would shred carrots and press the juice out of them to color the butter yellow.

Dazey butter churn like the Siemens had.

Mary Prepares for Baptism

May 17, 1931  Sunday.  Very warm.  We were in the south church.  The baptismal candidates were asked their questions.  For dinner and faspa we were at P. F. Rempels.

When a Mennonite boy or girl was in his latter teens or early twenties, it was customary to be baptized.  Adult baptism was the mark of becoming a Mennonite, and Mennonites stressed that it a voluntary act that could only happen after a person consciously made a decision to follow Jesus.  Rebaptism had been a capital offense in early modern Europe, and many Mennonites had paid for this with torture and with their lives.  When a Mennonite was baptized, he was consciously joining a lineage of physical and spiritual ancestors going back for centuries.  A person could not marry in the church unless he had been baptized in it, so it was important to do this before marrying.  For all these reasons, baptism was the way a person joined the spiritual community and became an adult.

Usually baptismal candidates wrestled with their faith and consulted one or more older, respected persons to discuss what it meant to follow Jesus.  Of course, some young people just went through the motions without ever experiencing regeneration, but for many this was a very serious time.  Some wildness was allowed for young people (less in Kansas, more in Manitoba), but once a person was baptized, he was expected to leave that behind and behave as a serious adult and church member.  Mary was nineteen years old, so it was a natural time for her to be baptized, and she was in this group of candidates, as we can tell from Cornelius’ diary entry one week later when she was baptized.

Those who requested to be baptized went through a catechism to teach them the fundamentals of the faith.  The KIeine Gemeinde and nearly all other Mennonites from Russia used the Elbing catechism that had first been published in West Prussia in 1778 to instruct the candidates.  You can see an English translation of this catechism here.  

After the candidates had learned the material in the catechism, they were presented to the congregation for questioning, which was what occurred this Sunday morning.  Mary was probably very nervous – although it happened rarely, once in a while a candidate would be rejected if the congregation felt that he had not actually experienced a spiritual rebirth.  The elder and ministers would have asked Mary and the other candidates questions about their testimonies, their willingness to renounce the ways of the world and sin, and their willingness to pledge obedience to Christ and the church body.  Mary apparently was accepted by the congregation to be baptized.  It would have been a much relieved young lady who ate Sunday dinner at her uncle and aunt, the P. F. Rempels, that day.

An 1824 edition of the Elbing catechism that Mary would have studied in preparation for baptism.

Jake Goes to Manitoba

May 16, 1933  Early this morning we went to Peter Kroeker with Jacob.  They left at 7:15 a.m. to go to Manitoba.  Mama and I went to Meade to take care of miscellaneous things.  Mama sewed.

Apparently Jake rode along to Manitoba with the Peter A. L. Kroekers because he is not mentioned again in the diary until he returned from Manitoba on October 26, so he was gone for over five months.  Each of the four older siblings took an extended trip to Canada during the mid-1930s.  Jake had lived in Manitoba from ages 5 to 17, so he must have had lots of cousins and friends whom he enjoyed there.  He had not been back since they had moved to Kansas two and a half years earlier.

The trip would have taken three days, and they probably stayed in private homes or auto camps along the way.  The Kroekers already had four children with a fifth one well on the way, so there would have been three adults and four little children in the car.  Either Cornelius would have paid the Kroekers for taking Jake along, or he would have worked some for them before they left. 

What is surprising is that Jake did not find a girlfriend there but came back to Kansas instead.  Maybe he already had his eye on Anna R. Friesen, even though they did not marry for three years; or maybe he had decided that he liked Kansas better.  

Planting Flowers

May 15, 1936  John one-wayed and sowed cane.  Mary and I hoed.  Mama planted flowers outside.

Mennonite women traditionally planted many flowers around their houses, and Margaret was no exception.  She planted many geraniums, and in fall she would cut slips from them and take them inside to start new plants.  Then in spring she would plant them outside.  She also planted many flower from seed on the yard.  In later years, she planted beautiful dahlias on the east side of the house.

When women went visiting and saw a plant that they did not have, they would cut a slip from it and grow it for themselves.

Flower garden in front of a traditional Mennonite house-barn at the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach, Man.

What Was Faspa?

May 14, 1932  Ascension Day.  The children went to church.  For faspa we went to Grandmother.  After faspa we went to the congregational meeting [Gemeinde Stund].  Anna R. Friesen is here.

The Siemens lived a mile and a half west of Margaret’s mother, Katharina (Barkman) Reimer.  Margaret would frequently walk there, and the families would visit back and forth.  On this Sunday the Siemens went to her mother for faspa.  Faspa is the Low German word for a light evening meal, and it comes from the Latin word vesper, which means evening.  The Mennonites ate faspa on Sunday evenings after visiting all afternoon.  They always served tweeback, cheese, canned fruit, cookies or cake, and coffee.  In Manitoba, pickles were usually served for faspa but not at Meade.  Since it was a cold meal, it required very little preparation, which was convenient for Sunday, and it could be expanded to serve a lot of people when there were more unexpected guests than usual.  Since it was not a large meal, they would have an evening snack later on at home with bread, cold meat, sliced onions, and cake or cookies. 

Jake was surely glad to see Anna R. Friesen there (or soon would be if he was not already).

Taking Care of the Poor

May 13, 1932  Jacob went to help cultivate at John T. Classens.   Mama and Mary did a variety of things.  I am sick.

John and Elizabeth Classen were an older couple who were very poor, had no children, and were probably mentally handicapped.  They never bought a car but continued to drive a wagon.  They were no longer able to manage their own farm, so the church organized men to do their farm work for them.  After his wife died in 1944, John Classen was no longer able to live on his own, so the church organized a rotation of people where he could live with them for a few weeks and then move on to the next place, and he stayed at the Siemens on occasion.  The Kleine Gemeinde church believed strongly that they should take care of their own poor, widows, and orphans. 

Everyone Is Related

May 12, 1932  I was quite sick again.  Went to Meade to the doctor.  In the afternoon Aunt K. B. Reimer and Uncle C. L. Plett were here.  I took them to visit Jacob D. Friesens.  In the evening Bernhard Doerksens from Satanta came over, and also Peter Bartels and C. H. Doerksens.  Jacob finished planting maize.

Cornelius suffered from kidney stones for several years in the early 1930s.  Kidney stones are caused by certain diets and by not drinking enough fluids over a period of years, as well as by genetic factors.  They are supposed to be one of the most painful conditions and are often accompanied by nausea and vomiting.  The main treatment is pain control with medication, although now the stones can be broken up if they are severe.  So presumably Cornelius was going to the doctor for pain medicine.

In the afternoon, there was a gathering of relatives at the Siemens, even though based on their names most of the guests appear unrelated. 

Aunt K. B. Reimer, Katharina J. (Friesen), was a widow whose husband, Klaas B. Reimer, was Cornelius Siemens’ wife Margaret’s uncle. 

Cornelius L. Plett was the elder of the Satanta KG congregation.  He was an uncle to Cornelius’ first wife Katharina.  Cornelius Plett’s third wife, Katharina (Reimer), who had died in 1929, was a sister to Klaas B. Reimer and also an aunt to Margaret.

Jacob D. Friesen’s wife, Katharina J. (Reimer), was a cousin to Margaret.

Bernhard Doerksen’s wife, Helena R. Plett, was a daughter of Cornelius L. Plett and a cousin to Cornelius’ Siemens first wife Katharina.

Peter Bartel’s wife, Sarah H. Doerksen, was a daughter to Bernhard Doerksens.

Cornelius H. Doerksen was a son to Bernhard Doerksens. 

If you thought that all the Kleine Gemeinde people at Meade, Satanta, and Rosenort were related to one another, you would be right.

Cleaning the Church Building

May 11, 1932  The children cleaned the church.  In the afternoon Jake planted maize, and Corney sowed feed.

The Kleine Gemeinde had no paid staff, so each family was responsible for cleaning the church building for one week.  There was a list of families posted on the wall; so when one family cleaned, they would move the marker to the next family.  On Saturday, the building needed to be swept and everything dusted, which was very important during the Dust Bowl when so much dust blew into the building.  Weeds around the building needed to be chopped down or hoed up and the water bucket filled from the hand-pump well for drinking water.  In winter, the family had to come early on Sunday morning to start the fire to warm the building.  There were no restrooms – only outhouses – so these did not require much cleaning.  There was no kitchen and no fellowship hall, so the cleaning was much easier.

In spring in accordance with Mennonite tradition, the entire congregation gathered to do spring cleaning of the church building.  Every surface of the building from floor to windows to ceiling was thoroughly cleaned.  Mennonites believed in having a simple, unadorned church building, but it was spotlessly clean. 

Cornelius and Margaret were fortunate to have four teenage children whom they could send to do the church cleaning.  It was important to a good job because everyone could look at the list on the wall and see who had cleaned that week.

Planting Maize

May 10, 1932  Today we planted maize.  We went to Meade.  Also planted some peanuts.

As a good farmer, Cornelius recorded when every crop was planted because each one was his investment in the future and each one, directly or indirectly, was a source of food or cash for the family for the coming year.  Maize, also called milo or grain sorghum, was good feed for cattle, hogs, and chickens, so the end result of planting maize was beef, pork, chicken, milk, cream, and eggs for the coming year.  In addition to feeding the family, chickens, cream, and eggs could be sold for cash to buy necessary things in town.

Draining the Wet Fields

May 9, 1930  A nice day.  We tried to drain away some water.

 

The Siemens had starting planting spring wheat on April 25 in Manitoba.  It had rained hard the previous two days, and it had rained a lot in the previous month, so the ground was soaked, and water was standing in the fields.  As a result, they had not been able to finish planting wheat.  Apparently, they dug some channels in the fields to try to drain water away so that the fields would dry out enough to get back in them.

Back to Church

May 8, 1932  Sunday.  We all were in church.  The first time for Mama to attend after being sick.  For dinner we were at P. F. Rempels.

This was the first time that Margaret attended church after Elmer was born on April 7.  In fact, she had not attended since Easter Sunday, March 27.  After childbirth a woman was supposed to rest in bed and eat chicken noodle soup to recover for two weeks.  (Chicken noodle soup was a lot of work to prepare since the chicken had to be butchered and dressed and noodles made and the soup cooked, so it was a real treat.)  Neighbors and relatives would come over and help with the work while she recuperated.  Often a teenage girl was hired to help for some time.

By this time death in childbirth was already rare, but only a generation before 6% of births had resulted in the death of the mother.  When women usually had 6-10 children, the cumulative risk of dying was quite high.  In fact, Cornelius’ mother Aganetha (Klassen) Siemens had died in childbirth when he was five years old.  The widespread use of sterile techniques during delivery was the cause of the improvement. 

Cornelius says that Margaret had been “sick” because he would have considered it indecorous to write about pregnancy.

Farmers Were Carpenters Too

May 7, 1931  We worked on the granary again.

The Siemens men continued building their new granary.  When they had moved here from Manitoba in October 1930, only seven months before, this was only bare farmland.  They had already built a barn, chicken house, and house.  In a couple months, they would be harvesting their first wheat crop, so they needed to have a granary ready to store the harvest. 

A farmer had to be a carpenter as well.  With the help of his sons (Cornelius was fortunate to have three teenage sons) and neighbors, a farmer had to be able to build a barn, a house, and many outbuildings, as well as do constant projects and repairs on the yard.  There were no power tools, so all the boards and beams had to be cut by hand.  They could not buy ready-made trusses at the lumber yard, so they had to be able to measure angles accurately.  Drilling and planing were also done by hand.  There were no air guns to drive nails.  Carpentry was hard work, but it must have been satisfying to see the buildings that they had built with their own hands rise up.

Planting Peanuts

May 6, 1932  We planted peanuts again.  1½ pounds of shelled peanuts were planted.  John and I hoed.  Mama and I went to Meade.

The Siemens saved peanuts from the previous year’s crop to plant every year.  The seed peanuts should not be roasted, and they should be good quality peanuts.  They dug holes in the garden and planted two raw peanuts in each hole.  In fall the peanuts would be harvested and roasted.  Then when company came over or on Sunday afternoons, everyone would eat peanuts and drop the shells on the floor while visiting.  When the company left, there was a mess of peanut shells to sweep up.  Eating peanuts was a good pastime to do while visiting.

Ascension Day

May 5, 1932  Ascension Day.  The children went to Satanta.  I went along with C. Dalkes to church.  In the afternoon P. F. Rempels were here.

The more conservative a Mennonite group has been, the more it has tended to follow the liturgical calendar.  So the Kleine Gemeinde followed it closely and observed Ascension Day, which falls on a Thursday forty days after Easter.  No work was done on that day, and there was a worship service.  Cornelius went to the worship service with his in-laws, the Cornelius Dalkes, while his wife Margaret stayed home with the two little children, Henry and Elmer, who were only a year old and a month old, respectively.  She had not yet been to church after Elmer had been born on April 7 because mothers who had just given birth stayed home to rest for several weeks. 

The older four children, Mary, Jake, Corney, and John, went to Satanta since they did not have to work at home.  They would have gone to the worship service at the KG fellowship there and then would have gone visiting.  They probably had friends and cousins there.  They may have remembered some of them from when they lived at Satanta and surely had kept up with them by writing letters back and forth after they had moved back to Canada.

Granary

May 4, 1931  I got lumber to build a granary.  Also paid for the tractor, altogether $198.00 for the tractor.  Abe Friesen was here for night.

Cornelius used the granary to store wheat that was harvested in summer for later sale when the price would be higher.  After some of the wheat was sold, he would store milo in it for cattle and hog feed.  It had three bins where grain was stored.  There was a window in each bin through which the grain was shoveled to or from the pickup.  The Siemens only bought a gasoline-power augur in the 1940s.

Apparently, he also paid for a tractor that he had bought earlier. 

Abe Friesen was Anna R. Friesen’s (Jake’s Anna) older brother.  He had left his home in Mexico because he did not get along with his step-mother and come back to Meade.  He was wife Margaret’s nephew and a good friend of the four older siblings, so he would come sometimes to spend the night.

Visiting the EMB Worship Service

May 3, 1935  Corney and I went to H. L. Friesen.  He fixed the car.  The others did a variety of things.  In the evening we went to the EMB church.  A Mr. John Barkman from Steinbach preached.

There were two Mennonite churches near Meade, the Kleine Gemeinde to which the Siemens belonged and the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren (EMB).  Both were country churches consisting of farmers, but there were a few important differences.  The KG had moved to Meade from Jansen, Nebr., to Meade in 1906-1907 in search of more farm land, while the EMB had moved to Meade shortly after in 1910.  The KG was a conservative congregation that focused on restoring the original Mennonite traditions from the earliest times of the movement and on salvation as a community.  The EMB was a newer, more progressive movement that had started in the 1870s and focused on revival and individual salvation.

Despite these differences, the KG and EMB socialized together and sometimes attended each other’s services.  Later they would cooperate in organizing the Meade Bible Academy.  In fact, with a few notable exceptions, all Mennonite churches recognized the actions of others, such as baptism, ordination, marriage, communion, and excommunication.

Each congregation had about 200-300 members.  But the KG had two church buildings, the north one a few miles southeast of Meade and the south one a few miles north of the Oklahoma line.  The EMB church building was located in the middle, and its members’ farms clustered around it.  The KG were clustered in two groups around their church buildings.

On this occasion the EMB preacher was from Steinbach, Man., so that is why Cornelius would have wanted to go to the EMB worship service.  He was always eager to see people from Canada to exchange news with them.

Buying Their First Car

May 2, 1930  Jacob sowed wheat in the afternoon, and John harrowed.  We bought a car from Peter U. Brandt for $567.00.  The license plate cost $13.00.

After Cornelius and Margaret got married in March, they returned to Canada for Cornelius to wrap up his affairs and for Margaret to meet his relatives.  Before this, Cornelius apparently had not owned a car because they were very poor.  But Margaret had been a single lady who owned two quarters of farm land and was a good manager of money, so she had enough money to buy a car. 

Peter Brandt was Cornelius’ second cousin and had a dealership that sold Ford cars and Fordson tractors in the area.  If this is the same car that Cornelius sold in 1936 (he does not mention buying a car between 1930 and 1936 – see this entry), the car that he bought from Peter Brandt was a Model T Touring.  

This would have been a major change for Cornelius and his family.  First, Cornelius and the boys had to learn to drive, maintain, and repair a car, which was entirely different than working with horses.  The system of controls on the Model T was a lot more complicated than even the modern manual transmission, so this would have been a real challenge.  But the Siemens would have been one of the last to buy a car since most families had one by this time.  He had surely noticed as his neighbors bought cars during the 1920s, but he and his children had struggled to survive in poverty.  Now he finally had a car.

Doing the Neighbors' Chores

May 1, 1931  H. H. Reimers were here.  C. Dalkes came over.  They are going to Nebraska so he gave instructions for doing chores.  Our children did their chores.

A farm family could not travel overnight because chores had to be done twice daily.  Cows, pigs, and chickens had to be fed and watered twice daily.  Cows had to be milked twice daily; and for much of the year, eggs had to be gathered daily.  The farmer’s wife or older children could do the chores on their own if the farmer left, but the whole family could not leave for even one day.   If a couple had no children at home anymore, such as the Cornelius Dalkes, they could never travel.  But the Dalkes’ children lived in Nebraska, where the Dalkes had lived before the Kleine Gemeinde moved to Meade, so they wanted to go visit them.  And many other people had similar situations.

The solution was for neighbors to do the chores.  The Siemens lived less than a mile from the Dalkes, so the Dalkes came over to the Siemens to explain how the chores needed to be done.  The normal arrangement was that the neighbors could keep the cream and eggs for doing the chores.  The cream would be sold for a little extra cash and the eggs eaten.  The four older children (Mary, Jake, Corney, and John) did the chores, and some of them probably stayed at the Dalkes’ house so that they would not have to walk over in the early morning before breakfast to do their chores.  

Normally, the next time the Siemens wanted to travel, they could ask the Dalkes to help with their chores.  But in this case, they probably would not do that because the Dalkes were an older couple with no children at home, so it would have been a burden for them to do the Siemens’ chores.  In this case, the Siemens were just doing a favor for some older relatives.

Cleaning Seed Grain

April 30, 1934  John and I cleaned maize and kafir corn.  Mama and Mary sewed. 

Instead of buying seed for maize and kafir corn, Cornelius and son John cleaned their own from the previous year’s crop.  They were not planting hybrids, so the seed would be true to its strain.  And the seed companies had not yet dreamed up legal restrictions that prevented farmers from doing this.  They wanted the best grain for seed so that it would sprout well, so they would pick out the small and shriveled kernels, stones, and other trash.  They also separated out the chaff by throwing the seed in the air with a scoop shovel to let the wind blow the chaff away.  This would ensure that they would spread only seed and not “plant” chaff or trash.