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!