Jake and Anna Moved to Their First Farm

March 27, 1936  A very nice day.  John helped Jake and Anna move to their home.  Mary helped at Mrs. K. B. Reimers to prepare for the wedding.  I pruned trees.

Apparently Jake and Anna had stayed at the Cornelius Dalkes after they were married on the 18^th because the Dalkes had a big house and only the two of them were living there.  The Siemens house was full with the parents, three other teenagers, and three small children, so there would not have been a place for Jake and Anna.  There was no thought that new couples should have privacy when they first got married, so this was not at all unusual.  Jake and Anna rented a farm a farm that was about two miles east of the Siemens and a mile south.  And on this day, John helped his brother and sister-in-law move into their new farmhouse. 

Mary helped cook and clean at the K. B. Reimers in preparation for Corney and Margaret’s wedding the next day.

Locations of farms.

Trying to Thresh Sudangrass

March 26, 1935  We went to Meade.  In the afternoon we threshed some sudan, but it did not work very well.

Sudangrass is a hybrid sorghum that was native to east Africa but is now grown throughout much of the world as a forage crop for animals.  In later years, the Siemens usually planted forty acres of it, and in fall they would chop off the heads by hand and grind them for silage to feed the cattle.  And the cattle could graze the stalks for feed also.  

In this case it appears that they had cut the heads in fall and stored them in the granary.  Now in spring they had time and were trying to thresh the grain, in other words to remove the valuable grain from the rest of the head.  They would hardly have had enough sudan to make it worthwhile to set up a threshing machine, so they may have been trying to thresh it by hand somehow, which would be a difficult task.  That may be why Cornelius recorded that it did not work very well.

Sudangrass

Pruning Fruit Trees

March 25, 1936  Mama and I pruned trees in the garden.  Mary ironed the wash.

 Cornelius and his wife Margaret pruned fruit trees in the orchard, which they called “the garden.”  They had peaches, cherries, mulberries, and a pear tree that always bloomed beautifully but never produced any fruit.  It was important to have fruit trees so that they would have fruit for eating fresh, for canning, and for jelly and jam.  If they did not grow their own fruit, then they would have to buy fruit from individuals who would bring a truckload of boxed fruit from out of state to sell in the community, which was expensive. 

Mulberries make a delicious pie, and there were many of them, so the children could eat all the mulberries fresh that they wanted

Auction

March 24, 1932  The boys and I went along to the auction sale beyond Meade.  Nice weather.

Cornelius took his three sons, Jake, Corney, and John, along to an auction.  Farmers had auctions when they passed the farm on to their children and got rid of their extra possessions.  But now that it was the Depression, farmers were selling out and moving to California and other places, and they would have an auction to get rid of the many things that they could not take along.  

It was a great opportunity for Cornelius to buy some cheap used things that they needed around the farm and the house.  And it was a good chance for him to spend time with his boys.  And it was a great chance to meet all the other farmers from the area and discuss what sold cheap and what sold high and to complain about the weather.

A Funeral

March 23, 1933  We all went to Jacob S. Friesen’s  funeral.   He died on the 20^th at 5:00 p.m.  There were many mourning people there.

A funeral was an important event for the congregation and the community.  Anyone who had a connected to the deceased or to his family would be sure to attend.  Funerals were usually held in the afternoon, and were an occasion for mourning and not considered a celebration of someone’s life as they are often now.  After the service relatives and friends would go to the bereaved family’s home for a simple faspa to show support and comfort.  Neighbor ladies would usually go to the bereaved family’s home the day before the funeral to make the dough and then take the dough home and bake the zwieback. 

Jacob S. Friesen was a second cousin to both Cornelius and Margaret, so they would have gone for that reason alone, regardless of any other connections that they had to him or his family.  He was only 50 years old.

Corney and Margaret's Engagement

March 22, 1936  In the forenoon we all went to church.  In the afternoon we celebrated the engagement party for our son Corney and Margaretha A. Reimer.  The guests were Mrs. K. B. Reimer and children, Jacob F. Isaacs, Jacob A. Reimers, David A. and Cornelius A. Reimers, Peter L. and John L. Classens, and Henry L. Friesens.  Had strong wind with dust.

The Siemens had had a break of four days between Jake’s wedding and Corney’s engagement.  In the brief break, they had cleaned the house after all the wedding guests and made a mountain of tweeback and sugar cookies and other food for the engagement celebration.  Now it was Sunday when the engagement would have been announced at the worship service.  The guests at the Siemens that day and their relationship to the bride Margaret (or “Corney’s Margaret,” as she was called to distinguish her from her mother-in-law) were

Mrs. K. B. Reimer (mother).  The children mentioned are probably the three unmarried siblings of Corney’s Margaret, Elisabeth, Peter, and Helena.

Jacob F. & Katharina Isaac (elder who conducted the engagement)

Jacob A. & Katharina Reimer (brother)

David A. & Elisabeth Reimer (brother)

Cornelius A. & Katharina Reimer (brother)

Peter L. Classen (brother-in-law, his late wife Sara was Margaret’s sister)

John L. & Marie Classen (sister)

Heinrich L. & Aganetha Friesen (sister)

Notice that all the guests were Corney’s Margaret’s relatives, except for the elder who performed the engagement.

And of course, it being the Dirty Thirties, the dust blew that day.

No Honeymoon!

March 21, 1930  Martin Barkman stayed here for night.  In the afternoon we went along with John H. Reimers to Fowler.  C. Dalkes and John F. Reimers came over.  For faspa we went to Peter Bartels.  Back home again for the evening.

Cornelius and Margaret did not take a honeymoon.  In fact, it did not become common for Mennonites from Meade to take honeymoons until the 1950s.  And then it was only a brief, one- or two-day trip to a nearby city or some other attraction.  They stayed at her mother’s house with the rest of the wedding company.  And then they resumed their routine of visiting relatives because Margaret would want to take advantage of every opportunity to see her relatives before she and Cornelius departed for Manitoba.

Cornelius Finally Finds a Wife!

March 20, 1930  Our wedding day.  For the noon meal the preachers, uncles and aunts, and siblings were here.  In the afternoon we went to church where many guests were present.  The wedding was at 2 o’clock.  Many people came to Mother’s house for faspa.  Guests from a distance were Martin Barkmans, Peter Loepps, Uncle C. L. Plett, and Bernhard Doerksens.

March was the month of engagements and weddings for the Siemens family.  In case you are not keeping score at home here is the list.  In March 1930, father Cornelius and mother Margaret were engaged and married.  In March 1936, first son Jake and Anna Friesen were engaged and married.  And in March 1936, one more engagement and wedding were yet to come.

Finally Cornelius had completed his decade-long quest to find a wife, after many misadventures (see the diary entry for March 7, 1930 for the details).  And Margaret had finally found a husband after many years of being single and living at home.  On this day the Siemens family history took a decisive turn that would move its focus from Canada to Meade.

The notable guests were Martin Barkmans (Margaret’s uncle), Cornelius L. Plett (widowed uncle of Cornelius Siemens’ first wife Katie), and Bernhard D. and Helena (Plett) Doerksens.  Helena was a daughter of Cornelius L. Plett and cousin to Cornelius’ first wife.

Wedding license of Cornelius and Margaret with the bottom portion filled out by Elder Jacob F. Isaac, showing that he had performed the ceremony.  The license was then returned to the county probate judge who filled out this copy and sent it to the Kansas State Division of Vital Statistics.

Marriage record in the Meade KG church book for Cornelius Siemens and Margaret Reimer from the KG archive in Steinbach, Manitoba.

More Wedding Preparation

March 19, 1930  We went to Jacob F. Isaacs and also Gerhard Classens.  Mrs. C. Dalke helped to prepare for the wedding.  Mr. Dalke was also here.  In the evening K. H. Reimers came over.  They brought Uncle Cornelius Plett along.  Mr. Plett stayed for night.

Cornelius and Margaret went to Elder Jacob F. Isaacs the day before to prepare for the wedding since he was the one who would perform it.  Anna Dalke, Margaret’s sister, came over to the Reimers to help prepare food and clean the house.  Then in the evening Margaret’s brother Klaas Reimer came over, and he brought Cornelius Plett, the uncle of Cornelius Siemens’ first wife over.  Klaas Reimer owned land in Satanta where Cornelius Plett lived, so it was natural for him to bring Cornelius Plett along.  At least Cornelius Siemens would have one relative at his wedding, even though he was far from home.  (Cornelius Siemens stayed in close touch with his Plett in-laws all his life.)

Jake and Anna's Wedding

March 18, 1936  Jake and Anna R. Friesen got married today in the north church by Rev. Peter L. Classen.  The reception was held at C. Dalkes.

Bonus post.  The big day had finally arrived for Jake and Anna.  And it was a big day as well for Cornelius and Margaret as their first child got married.  The ceremony would have been simple.  The church building had no piano or organ, so the singing would have all been a capella, although very beautiful since in the absence of instruments people trained their voices.  There would have been no decorations – in fact, the church building was unpainted as that was not necessary.  But the minister no doubt gave a lengthy sermon before he pronounced them man and wife. 

Then the immediate family members and Rev. Peter L. Classens would have gone to the Dalkes for dinner.  The wedding reception was traditionally held at the bride’s parents’ home, but Anna had been living with the Dalkes, so the reception was held there.  In the afternoon, more relatives and friends came over to the Dalkes for visiting and faspa, to eat all those fresh tweeback that had been baked the day before.

Marriage record of Jacob C. Siemens and Anna R. Friesen from the Meade KG church record book.
Source:  Marriage record of Jacob C. Siemens and Anna R. Friesen, 18 March 1936, Gemeinde Buch by Elder Jacob F. Isaac for Meade, Kansas, Kleine Gemeinde congregation, page 193 at Evangelical Mennonite Conference Archive, Steinbach, Manitoba, Box 217, File 5.

Arrna R. Friesen and Jacob C. Siemens.  Wedding picture.

Marriage License

March 18, 1930  We went to Meade where I bought our marriage license.  After that we made some short visits.  For supper we were at C. J. Classens, and then we went to John J. Reimers for a bit.  Also went to Peter Rempels.

The State of Kansas required prospective couples to appear before the county probate judge to get a license that would entitle them to get married.  And so Cornelius and Margaret went to Meade to Judge Florilla DeCow to state their intention to get married and to get the license to take with them to the wedding ceremony.  And of course, they visited more people.

By the way, Judge DeCow pronounced her last name "de-koo," probably to avoid the unpleasant association of being called a cow.  But it did no good, at least to young Mennonite boys, because kuh (pronounced "koo") meant cow in German.  Uncle Henry, if he will admit it, may remember being one of those boys making fun of Florilla DeCow when he was in school and she was county school superintendent.

The top half of Cornelius and Margaret's marriage license, the part that the judge filled out on the 18th when they appeared before her.  When I was in junior high, I wrote a letter to the Kansas Department of Vital Statistics and got this copy.  Notice that he gave his address as Morris, Canada, and that both were old enough not to require a parent's approval.

Preparing for Jake and Anna's Wedding

March 17, 1936  The children helped at C. Dalkes to prepare for the wedding.  We had a big south storm.

Son Jake and Anna R. Friesen were getting married the next day at the Dalkes, so there was a lot of cooking and cleaning to do.  The children, meaning the four older children, Mary, Jake, Corney, and John, walked about a mile to the Dalkes to help with the work.

How Many People Can You Visit in One Day?

March 16, 1930  Mother, Helena, and Susie went along with us to Satanta.  We went to Johan Barkmans, then to the church, and then to Cornelius E. Reimers for dinner.  For faspa to Bernhard Doerksens, then to Peter Pletts and to Jacob N. Koops for supper.  For night we went to Gerhard Doerskens.  The Doerksens’ children George and Cornelius Doerksens came to Gerhard Doerksens for the evening and also Abraham B. Reimers and Jacob Koopen.

In the two weeks or so between the engagement and the wedding, it was customary to visit as many relatives as possible.  Since Cornelius and his family had lived at Satanta, Kans., from 1916-1918, he had many friends and relatives there.  His fiancée Margaret also had friends and relatives there.  Peter Plett was an uncle to his first wife Katharina, and Jacob N. Koop was the grandfather of Norman Koop who would marry Cornelius’ granddaughter Karen years later.

Visiting in Hillsboro and Inman

March 15, 1935  For breakfast we went to Jacob Barkmans at Hillsboro.  Then we went to the hospital to visit the dear Uncle Heinrich Loewen.  He is very sick.  For dinner we went to Inman.  I went to H. E. Toews.  For night I went to Heinrich Friesens, my cousin.

The day before Cornelius and Jacob D. Friesen (1878-1962) had driven 175 miles to Clearwater, Kans., to go to the dentist.  It seems strange that they would have driven so far to go to the dentist since Meade and Fowler surely each had a dentist.  But sometimes Mennonites found a certain businessman or professional whom they trusted, and many of them would car-pool to see him.

In any case, such trips were a marvelous social opportunity, both to visit as they puttered along the highways at 30 miles per hour and then to visit friends and.  They had breakfast at Jacob G. and Anna Barkman, who were the grandparents of his future daughter-in-law Joan Barkman (future wife of his son Henry who was only three years old at the time). 

Then they visited an elderly Heinrich F. Loewen (1862-1935) in the hospital and who died a couple months later.  He was a first cousin to Cornelius’ former father-in-law, Jacob L. Plett.  Then they drove 50 miles east to Inman for dinner – I doubt they ate in a restaurant but surely at some relative’s house.  They would not have called ahead but just driven on the yard and gone to the door.  The wife would have set a couple extra plates at the table, and the family would have been glad for company. 

Then they spent the night at the Heinrich J. Friesens.  His wife Sara (Friesen) (1877-1959) was a cousin to Cornelius.  Cornelius’ father Gerhard T. Siemens had two sisters who survived to adulthood, and they had both moved to Nebraska.  Sara Friesen was the daughter of Cornelius’ aunt Helena (Siemens).  So everywhere that Cornelius went, he found relatives to visit.

Jake and Anna R. Friesen Get Engaged

March 14, 1936  We had the engagement party for our son Jake and Anna R. Friesen.  The guests were John J. Reimers, H. H. Reimers, John H. Reimers, K. H. Reimers, Peter F. Rempels, H. H. Friesen, Mother and girls, Abram E. Friesens, Mrs. K. B. Reimer, and C. Dalkes.

Jake and Anna R. Friesen became formally engaged on this day.  They had no doubt been courting for some time, but their relationship would have been kept fairly discrete (although everyone in the tight-knit Meade KG community would have known), and they would not have spent much time completely alone.  But once the engagement (Verlobung) was announced, it was officially public.  This time the engagement ceremony was done on a Saturday and the formal announcement was probably made at the worship service the next day (because Cornelius noted that next day that they went to church with Jake and Anna).

The engagement party was hosted by the groom’s parents, so the Siemens had done a lot of work to get ready.  Most of the work fell on the women to prepare food and to clean the house.  But the men needed to clean up the farmyard and fix things around the house so that everything looked nice.  The preacher who performed the ceremony was John J. Reimer, whom the Siemens really liked as a preacher. 

The guests were very similar to those who had witnessed the engagement of Cornelius and Margaret six years before (but of course the in-laws were different):

John J. and Maria Reimer (a preacher of Meade Kleine Gemeinde and wife Margaret’s cousin and a favorite preacher of the Siemens in later years)

Heinrich H. and Margaretha Reimer (Margaret’s brother)

Johann H. and Katharina Reimer (Margaret’s brother)

Klaas H. and Helena Reimer (Margaret’s brother)

Peter F. and Aganetha Rempel (Margaret’s sister)

Heinrich H. and Katharina Friesen (Anna R. Friesen’s uncle)

Katharina Reimer (Margaret’s mother)

Girls – Helena H. Reimer (Margaret’s sister) and Susanna Reimer

Abram E. and Helena Friesen (Anna’s father and step-mother)

Aganetha (Mrs. K. B.) Reimer (Margaret’s aunt and future mother-in-law to their son Corney)

Cornelius and Anna Dalke (Margaret’s sister)

Since Anna R. Friesen was Margaret’s niece, Margaret’s relatives were also her relatives.

Jake was 22 years old, and Anna was 24.  Anna had moved to Mexico with her parents several years before, but she had returned to Meade after her mother had died in 1925 and her father had re-married.  She sometimes lived with the Cornelius Dalkes (her uncle and aunt) and sometimes lived at Montezuma, Kans., while working there.  The Dalkes lived about a mile away, and Anna also worked at the Siemens sometimes, so there had been plenty of opportunities to get acquainted. 

And now it was official that they would be getting married!

According to family tradition, these are the "dating cars" that Jake and Corney bought, proudly displayed on the Siemens yard.  Obviously, both cars served their purpose!

Getting Ready for an Engagement

March 13, 1936  The womenfolk baked and prepared for Jake’s engagement party.

Since the engagement party was hosted by the groom’s parents, the womenfolk had to prepare.  This would have included wife Margaret, daughter Mary, bride Anna R. Friesen, and probably other Reimer relatives.  They would have baked dozens and dozens of tweeback, loaves of bread, and cookies and probably prepared giant kettles of soup and moos.  They would have kneaded many bowls of dough, let them rise and punched them down, then squeezed off one ball of dough after another and double-stacked a big one and a little on top to make the tweeback, and finally let them rise again before baking them.  The cookies were the unfrosted sugar cookies that we loved in later years.  Margaret insisted for many years that baking had to done over wood heat because everything turned out better, so they would have had to keep the cast-iron range supplied with wood to maintain just the right temperature.  The oven had a thermometer, but there was no mechanism to maintain a certain temperature – just the attentiveness of the cooks as they fed the fire.  The smell of the warm bread and cookies would have mingled with the excitement as the Siemens prepared for the first wedding in their family.

Fencing and Gardening

March 12, 1937  Jake, John, and I fenced.  Jake and Anna were here for dinner.  Mama and Mary sowed some in the garden – lettuce and onions.  Was cool and cloudy and damp all day.

Spring work on the farm was moving into high gear.  Fences needed to be fixed after the damage done by a winter of tumbleweeds, wind, snow, and dust.  Jake and Anna came over – Jake helped fix fence and Anna no doubt helped get dinner ready to feed the hungry workers.  In the afternoon wife Margaret and daughter Mary worked in the garden planting rows and rows of onions and lettuce.  Margaret bought lots of onion sets because they sold very well to restaurants and townspeople in Meade and Dodge City.

Planting Potatoes

March 11, 1937  Mama and I went to Meade to get seed oats.  In the afternoon Mary and I planted potatoes.  John sowed oats.  In the evening John F. Reimers were here.

Cornelius tried to plant potatoes close to March 17 because that was St. Patrick’s Day and the Irish were associated with potatoes.  It did not have to be exactly on the 17^th because it depended on the weather and their schedule.  They would buy one hundred pounds of seed potatoes at the grocery store and cut them into pieces with an eye that would sprout.  This would provide enough potatoes for the family for the whole year, although if they did run short of potatoes in spring, they would eat more noodles instead because that was the most expensive time of year to buy potatoes. 

The general rule of thumb is that you should get ten pounds of potatoes for every pound that you plant.  But Jake Siemens always said that in Kansas you need to plant a pound of seed potatoes to get a pound of potatoes.

Gardening and Visiting

March 10, 1937  John and I plowed the garden.  Mary took the Brandt girls visiting.  In the afternoon we took Mother and Helena along to visit Peter Rempels and Jake and Anna.

It was getting warm enough to start working the garden, so Cornelius and son John plowed the garden.  The tractor was too big to use in the garden, so they would have plowed it with horses.  Farmers always felt good when they started to get anything ready to plant.

And of course, there was visiting to do.  Daughter Mary took the Brandt girls around the Mennonite community.  We do not know who they were, but the day before Peter J. Loewens had been visiting the Siemens and had brought the Brandt girls along.  Peter J. Loewen was Cornelius’ good friend and neighbor from Manitoba, so they had probably brought the Brandt girls along with them to Meade to visit.  They were probably friends of Mary from her teenage years in Manitoba and no doubt did a lot of laughing and story-telling as they remembered good times in Canada. 

Cornelius and Margaret took her mother Katharina Reimer and sister Helena along visiting.  First, they went to visit Margaret’s sister, Peter and Aganetha Rempel.  And then they went to visit their children Jake and Anna.  Either they went to visit Jake and Anna, or Jake and Anna would come over frequently, so they must have been quite close.

A Litter of Piglets

March 9, 1932  10° cold [10° F.].  Strong north wind.  C. Dalkes came over.  During the night the sow had nine piglets.  All were dead.  Cloudy and cold.  I went to Meade to get coal.

Losing all nine piglets would have been a big disappointment for Cornelius.  They had fed the sow for several months, hoping to get a good crop of hogs to butcher and sell.  The sow had eaten for months and now would produce nothing for that year.  Farming could be very tough.  But Mennonites believed that farming was an especially spiritual occupation for reasons such as these – you simply had to trust God to provide, whether it was this year or next.

Two More Weddings in Progress

March 8, 1936  We went to church.  In the afternoon there was a church service.  Anna R. Friesen was accepted into church membership.   In the evening we went to Mrs. K. B. Reimer.  Abram E. Friesens from Mexico were there.

Anna R. Friesen was accepted as a member of the Meade Kleine Gemeinde congregation.  Very likely her membership was transferred from the sister KG congregation in Mexico, although we do not know for sure.  If that is true, her transfer letter would have been presented to the congregation, and she would have been accepted into membership.  This was the last hurdle that needed to be cleared for her to marry their son Jake. 

In the evening, the Siemens went to Mrs. K. B. Reimer’s for more important discussions because their son Corney was planning to marry Mrs. K. B. Reimer’s daughter Margaret.  They would have planned the engagement party and the wedding.  They would have discussed which guests to invite and planned how they would make all the food.  They probably picked the songs and the sermon text and discussed which preachers they would like to ask to perform the ceremonies.  Their schedule for March 1936 was packed indeed.

Engagement to Margaret Reimer

March 8, 1930  Margaret Reimer and I celebrated our engagement.  The guests who were present were John J. Reimers, K. H. Reimers, P. F. Rempels, H. H. Reimers, John H. Reimers, C. Dalkes, Johan Bartels and daughters Katie, Mary, and Anna; K. B. Reimers, Elisabeth and Katharine, Uncle Barkman, Helena Reimer, and Susie.

Mennonites followed an old European tradition of having a formal engagement ceremony two weeks before the wedding, which was called a Felafniss in Low German or Verlobung in High German.  In Europe this had been a legal requirement, but in North America getting a marriage license from the state was the legal requirement.  Traditionally, the engagement was announced at the Sunday worship service and then after dinner the relatives and friends would gather at the home of the groom’s parents for a ceremony conducted by the elder or a preacher.  After the ceremony, the family would serve faspa to all the guests. 

However, Cornelius and Margaret were engaged on a Saturday and married twelve days later, on a Thursday.  Based on other engagements and weddings at Meade that Cornelius noted in his diary, it seems that a fair number of the couples were not engaged or married on Sunday, so there is probably nothing significant about them choosing to do it on a day other than Sunday.  Cornelius’ travel schedule in coming from Manitoba to collect his bride may have had something to do with it.

The guests at the engagement were

John J. and Maria Reimer (a preacher of Meade Kleine Gemeinde and Margaret’s cousin and a favorite preacher of the Siemens in later years)

Klaas H. and Helena Reimer (Margaret’s brother)

Peter F. and Aganetha Rempel (Margaret’s sister)

Heinrich H. and Margaretha Reimer (Margaret’s brother)

Johann H. and Katharina Reimer (Margaret’s brother)

Cornelius and Anna Dalke (Margaret’s sister)

Johann F. and Maria Bartel (Margaret’s maternal aunt)

Their three single daughters Katharina, Maria, and Anna

Klaas B. and Aganetha Reimer (Margaret’s paternal uncle and future parents-in-law to their son Corney)

Their single daughters Elisabeth and Katharina

Martin B. Barkman (Margaret’s maternal uncle)

Helena H. Reimer (Margaret’s sister)

Susana Reimer

Of course, his future mother-in-law, Katharina Reimer, was there too as the hostess.  Notice that Cornelius did not have a single relative there, but the Reimers seem to have accepted him well based on the guests at the engagement and the number of relatives that Cornelius visited during his few weeks in Meade.  Rev. John J. Reimer doubtless conducted the engagement ceremony. 

After the ceremony, they would have eaten faspa.  To serve a large crowd, the meal would have been simple.  We can only guess at the menu, but it would have been something like soup, tweebacks with cheese, moos, and cookies.  Not every family would have had cheese, but the Reimers could afford that.

Visiting His Bride

March 7, 1930  I was at Widow Heinrich Reimer.  For night I went to John H. Reimer.

On this day Cornelius went to the home of his future mother-in-law, Katharina (Barkman) Reimer.  Her husband, Heinrich F. Reimer, had died in 1923, so she was now known as the Widow Heinrich Reimer.  We assume that he spent the day with his bride, the daughter of the Widow Heinrich Reimer, Margaret, although again he mentions nothing.  This was probably not a marriage of love but of necessity.  He had been a widower for ten years since his first wife Katharina (Plett), or Katie as she was known, had died, and Mennonites customarily re-married very soon after losing a spouse. 

Cornelius had wanted to marry Katie’s younger sister Margaret, and they had courted for a long time.  But she would not agree to marry.  Finally, he started courting a lady from Herbert, Sask., where he had lived before.  On the day that their engagement was to be announced in church, Margaret Plett had come to him and said that she would still like to marry him.  Cornelius had told her that she had to be serious about it this time, and she had agreed.  So he had canceled the engagement, which would have caused a major scandal in the community, and started courting Margaret again.  But again she would not commit to marry, so Cornelius had finally ended the relationship.  (Eventually Margaret Plett married Cornelius’ nephew Peter W. Siemens.)  The scandal of his canceled engagement likely made it impossible for him to find a wife in Canada.  By the now the years were passing, his children were growing up without a mother, and he had no wife.  

Somehow, he heard of a single lady in Meade, Margaret H. Reimer.  Perhaps he remembered her from when he had lived nearby at Satanta, or maybe a common friend or relative suggested that he consider her.  In any case, they began to correspond, and they agreed to get married.  He had not seen Margaret for at least twelve years, from the time when he and his family had moved from Satanta back to Manitoba in 1918.  He had still been married then, so he probably had paid little attention to her.  By now he was 45, and she was 34, so neither was a spring chicken.  But she had two quarters of land (one quarter was considered a good family farm at the time), and each one needed a spouse.  And that is how Cornelius found himself in Meade, Kans., preparing to marry Margaret Reimer.

Wall Papering

March 6, 1936  We pasted paper on the dining room walls.

In the spring of 1936, the Siemens had a couple important events approaching, and they wanted the house to look as nice as possible.  When they had built their house in 1930, they had nailed it out with lathes in preparation for plastering, but they had covered the walls with cardboard instead of actually plastering it.  Even now, they apparently did not have the money to finish all of the house, but they wanted the dining room to look nice because that was where they would host the guests, so the whole family spent the day putting up wallpaper in that one room.

Discussing Wedding Plans

March 5, 1936  We took A. E. Friesens visiting.  Went to Jacob F. Isaacs for dinner.  For faspa to P. F. Rempels, then for a little bit to Mrs. M. Doersken and to Mrs. C. J. Claasen.  Then we took A. E. Friesens to John J. Reimers. 

Bonus post for March 5.

The Siemens took the Abram E. Friesens visiting.  They went first to the Jacob F. Isaacs for dinner, the noon meal.  Here they no doubt had an important discussion.  Their son Jake was planning to marry the Abram Friesen’s daughter Anna, but Anna was not a member of the Kleine Gemeinde fellowship at Meade.  Instead, when she had moved back to Meade on her own a few years before, she had joined the Holdeman (officially Church of God in Christ, Mennonite) church at Montezuma, Kans., because they had treated her nicely when she worked for families there.  

But when they learned that she was planning to marry someone from outside the Holdemans, they excommunicated her.  Generally, all Mennonites recognized each other's baptisms and church memberships, but there was bad blood between the KG and the Holdemans going back to the 1880s in Manitoba when the Holdemans had poached a third of the members and most of the leadership of the KG church there.  So now she was not a member of any church.  

First she would need to be accepted as a member of the Meade KG, and then she and Jake could marry.  Since she could not transfer her membership from the Holdeman church, it is likely that the Abram E. Friesens brought a letter from their KG church in Mexico attesting to her good standing so that she could join the Meade KG.  Since this was something of an unusual situation, they likely needed to discuss it first with Jacob F. Isaac, the elder of the Meade KG.  It seems that the discussion went well.

Arriving at the Reimers!

March 5, 1930  At 7:15 p.m. I arrived in Fowler, Kans., where someone picked me up immediately; and for night I went to K. H. Reimers.

After waiting all day on the 4^th and probably much of that night as well, Cornelius boarded a local train to Fowler, Kans., which was another 360 miles/570 km farther on his journey.  In those days, there were express trains that traveled rapidly with few stops between large cities.  Thus far, Cornelius had traveled on expresses, but now he would have switched to a local that stopped at every little town and hamlet along the way, which took much longer.  By now, he was probably experiencing the nerves that any prospective groom would feel.  Someone picked him up at the Fowler train station, and he spent the night at Klaas H. Reimers.  Surely he went to see his bride, Margaretha H. Reimer; but he does not mention that, only that he stayed at her brother’s house for night.

Meeting with Abram E. Friesens

March 4, 1936  The boys dug on the cesspool.  Mama and Mary sewed.  For evening and night Abram E. Friesens were here.  Also Gerhard Doerksens from Satanta were here.   We had lots of company.

Bonus post for March 4 (March was a busy month in Siemens family history.) 

Abram E. Friesens from Mexico were visiting in Meade.  Although Abram E.’s first wife Katharina H. (Reimer) had been Margaret’s eldest sister, that was not why they were visiting.  There were important plans to discuss. 

Waiting in St. Paul

March 4, 1930  At 8:05 we arrived in St. Paul.  There I met Mr. Nachtigal.  That made my layover in St. Paul seem shorter.  Left St. Paul at 5:15 in the evening and arrived at 7:30 a.m. in Kansas City.

 Cornelius slept on the train throughout the night and at 8:05 a.m. rolled into St. Paul, Minn.  Overnight he had traveled about 440 miles/710 km.  As he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and strolled into the concourse, he would have found a bench to wait on.  His layover lasted until 5:15 p.m., so he had over seven hours.  But then he and another Mennonite man, a Mr. Nachtigal, spotted each other in the train station – Mennonites would have easily spotted each other by their appearance.  Cornelius never met a stranger, so this was a great opportunity for him.  He could talk Low German and pass some hours in pleasant company.  Probably they figured out how they were related.  He may even have told Mr. Nachtigal about the purpose of his trip.

At 5:15 p.m. he boarded a train to Kansas City and would have settled into his seat for another overnight trip.  At 7:30 a.m. he arrived in Kansas City, having traveled another 440 miles/710 km.  He must have had a long layover, probably all day, although he does not say what time he boarded his next train.

A Great Northern steam locomotive pulling into the St. Paul Union Depot in 1931.  Cornelius arrived at this depot on a Great Northern train in 1930.

Passengers walking on the platform in the St. Paul Union Depot in 1936.  Notice their small suitcases and relatively formal attire (at least for our times).  Cornelius would also have worn a jacket and tie and hat so that he would be properly dressed in public.

St. Paul Union Depot has recently been restored to its 1920s glory, including authentic colors.

Leaving for Kansas

March 3, 1930  I took some guests to Jacob K. Loewen in the wagon.  George Siemens and Johan Siemens and my four children went with me to Morris.  At 7:00 p.m. I left by train to go to Kansas.  Had no trouble crossing the border.  Arrived at 10:30 p.m. at Crookston.

The night before a number of guests had come to the Siemens house to say good-bye to Cornelius as he prepared to depart on his trip.  It was customary among Mennonites for friends and relatives to gather at someone’s house before they left on a trip.  Even though Cornelius would be returning soon, a trip to the Kansas was a big undertaking, so they gathered to visit with him, to wish him well, and to remind him of their prayers for him.

Some of those guests had apparently spent the night, probably because they were from the East Reserve, from the area around Steinbach, so it would have been too far for them to go home that night.   So today Cornelius took them in his wagon to the Jacob and Helena Loewens.  Helena W. (Siemens) was Cornelius’ niece.

And then in the afternoon he himself set out on his momentous trip.   His four children, Mary, Jake, Corney, and John, took him the 10 miles/16 km to Morris to the train station.  Two of his nephews, George W. Siemens and John W. Siemens went along.  Surely the children were concerned that their father was setting off on this long journey.  But they were probably also hopeful (and maybe a little worried too) about the changes that this trip would bring to their family.

At 7:00 p.m., Cornelius boarded the Winnipeg Limited, a Great Northern Railway express train that ran nightly from Winnipeg to St. Paul, Minn.  He probably had only a small case with a few changes of clothes, including his best suit, and a basket with food for the trip that Mary would have packed.  He would have traveled in coach.

The train stopped at Emerson, Man., just on the US border, and then stopped at Noyes, Minn., just across the Canadian border.  Cornelius was obviously concerned about crossing the border, but he had no problem.  And at 10:30 p.m., the train arrived in Crookston, Minn., about 130 miles/200 km south of Morris.  It was a small town but a large railway junction for the Great Northern lines.  Cornelius was probably thinking about what this trip would bring and unable to sleep until after they passed through Crookston.

Great Northern Railway Mallet steam locomotive that was built in the 1920s and probably similar to the one that pulled Cornelius' train.  Source:  http://www.gngoat.org/gn_steam_locomotives.htm

Here is a link to a discussion of the Winnipeg Limited, including a timetable from 1969.

Searching for Animal Feed

March 2, 1933  Strong wind.  Mama, Jacob, and I went 55 miles southwest to buy kafir corn.  Paid 29 cents per 100 lbs.  Mary sewed.  In the evening we went to Mother.

A severe drought had hit the entire Great Plains in the summer of 1932, so the 1932 harvest had been very poor for virtually all farmers.  Now as the Siemens were nearing the end of winter 1932-1933, they were running out of feed for the animals.  Normally, they could buy all they needed in the Meade area, but this day they had driven 55 miles to the southwest, that is to the area of Tyrone, Okla., where they found kafir corn.  No doubt they had stopped at many farms along the way, asking if anyone had feed for sale.  Imagine them returning to Meade in their dusty Model A car, Jake driving, Cornelius in the passenger seat in his worn suit coat that he wore for work, and Margaret in the back seat in her somber dress with a tiny flower print, pulling a trailer piled high with kafir-corn grain.  The year 1933 was already shaping up to be a difficult one.

Kafir corn is not corn at all but is a grain sorghum that is cheaper but less nutritious than regular corn.  It was brought to the US from southern Africa and was popular until the 1950s, when it was replaced by milo, to which it is similar.  Kafir has to be harvested and processed by hand, but milo can be combined.

Kafir corn.  Notice the milo-like grain heads on a corn-like plant.

Guests from Mexico

March 1, 1936 The children and I went to church.  Mama and the little three stayed at Mother’s.  For faspa we went to Peter Bartels.  In the evening we went to H. H. Friesen.  Abe E. Friesens from Mexico were there.

Great things are afoot in the Siemens household.  Abram E. Friesens had come from Mexico.  Abram Friesen had married Margaret’s oldest sister Katharina H. Reimer (1880-1925), and they had moved to Mexico to a Mennonite colony there.  Katharina had died there in 1925, and Abram E. Friesen had remarried.  But Abram’s daughter Anna R. Friesen was living in Meade now.  Abram and his second wife came to Meade.  And they very likely brought an important document with them.