Visitors from Manitoba

February 4, 1937  Henry Toews from Manitoba came over.  Also, John H. Friesens, K. H. Reimers, and Jacob D. Friesens.  Later the Toews and we went to Uncle Bartel and then to C. J. Friesens and Peter Kroekers. 

There were a surprising number of visitors from Manitoba, and that was because the Meade settlement was a sister congregation to the Kleine Gemeinde congregations in Manitoba.  Only sixty years before the two groups had been separate Kleine Gemeinde congregations, but mostly living a few miles apart in the same villages in Borosenko Colony in Russia.  Even though the two congregations had chosen to settle far apart in the New World, they were all related to each other and continued to marry back and forth and to move back and forth. 

Any Manitoba visitors were welcome at the Siemens.  Cornelius was eager to hear any news from his family and friends there.  In 1937, he had not been back to Canada or seen his siblings since he left in 1930 to get married. 

Then the Siemens took the Henry Toews visiting.  First, they went to “Uncle Bartel.”  Johann Bartel was elderly; so he was called Uncle, even by adults, out of respect.  Then they went to the C. J. Friesens and the Peter Kroekers.  One of the joys of winter was that a farmer had time to go visiting since there was no field work.  Manitobans would come south to visit relatives and friends in Meade.  And the Meade people would go from family to family visiting.