A Late Frost

April 18, 1932  Cold with light frost.  Mother and girls and C. Dalkes were here for dinner.

To us a light frost might seem unimportant, but anyone who has ever had a garden or an orchard knows how bad a late frost can be.  The Siemens had already planted in the garden, and on the 11^th they had had enough of a frost to kill the lettuce, turnips, and radishes.  On the 15^th they had planted again in the garden.  And now on the 18^th there was another frost.  Some things can stand a little frost, but other plants are sensitive and will freeze with even a single degree of frost.  And if blossoms on the fruit trees had started to open, even a little frost would destroy the fruit.  Cornelius does not record whether there was any damage from this frost, but it was a constant concern in early spring because it would directly affect how much produce and fruit there was to eat later in the year. 

Easter Monday

April 17, 1933  Easter Monday.  We all went to church.  Home in the afternoon.  In the evening we went to J. J. Friesens.

Easter was a special celebration for the Siemens.  First, on Good Friday there was a solemn worship service, including communion and footwashing, to remember Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice for our sins on the cross.  Then Saturday would have been the usual day of preparation for Sunday, cleaning the house and baking tweeback and loaves of bread and cookies and getting food ready for the guests who would certainly come over every Sunday.  On Easter Sunday there was a worship service celebrating Christ’s resurrection.  And on Easter Monday there was yet another worship service.  No work was done on Friday, Sunday, or Monday.  No one complained about three worship services because they were a chance to worship God and to see friends and relatives.  Three days of no work were considered a blessing and not a hindrance because they were an opportunity to rest from the hard physical labor of keeping a house and farm operating.  

Aftermath of Black Sunday

April 16, 1935  First of all we hung out the wash from yesterday.  After we brought the wash in, we went to Dodge City.  Because of the dust, it was miserable driving.  But we made it safely.  We left the little children at C. Dalkes. 

This was two days after Black Sunday (see the post for April 14, 1935).  They had washed on Monday, the 15^th, but it still too windy from the storm to hang out the wash.  Finally on Tuesday, the 16^th, the storm had died down so that they could hang out the wash to dry.  Then they went to Dodge City, probably to do shopping or to go to the doctor.  But there was so much dirt drifted across the roads from Black Sunday that it was difficult to drive the forty miles to Dodge.

Moving to the Farm

April 15, 1930  We moved with everything to the farm. 

There is something of a mystery about where the Siemens lived in Manitoba.  Cornelius and his first wife Katie and their four children, Mary, Jake, Corney, and John, had returned from Satanta, Kans., to Manitoba in September 1918, because of the Spanish influenza pandemic and because of the risk of Cornelius being drafted into the US Army during World War I.  According to Delbert Plett’s family history, the Siemens rented a farm at Blumenhoff for the winter of 1918-1919 near where the Plett parents lived.  This was near Steinbach on the East Reserve.  Then in the spring of 1919, the Siemens rented a farm at Rosenhoff near Morris, which is where Cornelius had grown up with his parents.

Tragically Katie died of breast cancer in May 1920, and the widowed Cornelius and his four children continued to live at Rosenhoff (now renamed Riverside).  By the June 1921 census, they were living at a farm a mile northwest of Rosenhoff.  This is the farm on Section 31 on the Morris River that Aunt Betty showed us at the Siemens reunion in 2014.  Based on descriptions in his 1930 diary, they continued to live at this farm until 1930.

 

Census of June 1, 1921, showing Cornelius and children Mary, Jake, Cornelius, Johnny, and a maid Lizzie Kornelsen living on Section 31, the farm that Aunt Betty showed us.

Siemens farm on Section 31.

After three failed attempts to remarry as we recounted earlier in this blog, Cornelius finally remarried to Margaret Reimer of Meade, Kans., in March 1930.  He brought his new bride back to Manitoba to meet his family and relatives and to settle his affairs in preparation for moving to Kansas.  But according to his diary, they lived at one place and had a farm at another place.  This seemed a mystery to me until I found a land map from 1923 showing that they owned another quarter of land kitty-corner to the northeast on Section 20.

In early April 1930, Cornelius and Margaret arrived in Manitoba and were living at the house on Section 31.  Then on this day, April 15, 1930, they moved to their farm, as Cornelius indicates in his diary.  I had wondered why they had a second farm and why they did not live there all the time.  But perhaps they rented the house on Section 31 and owned and farmed the land on Section 20.  Perhaps the house on Section 20 was not suitable for living in winter, or maybe they moved into a barn or some other outbuilding in April that was good enough for summer living.  I would like to examine the land records for these two sections to see when Cornelius bought and sold this land, but unfortunately it is very expensive to order land records in Manitoba.  So that will have to wait until I become wealthy.

1923 Cummins land map showing places where Siemens lived near Rosenhoff/Riverside.

Black Sunday

April 14, 1935  We all went to church.  For dinner to A. E. Reimers and in the afternoon to Mrs. G. J. Classen and Mrs. Harms.  Then a dark dust storm rolled in.  It got so dark in fifteen minutes that we could not see the windows, even though it was mid-afternoon.  It was very serious to all of us.  By 5:45 the storm had let up enough so that we could drive home.  But it was difficult and slow driving.

As terrible as the dust storms had been for four of the last five days, they paled in comparison to this day.  April 14, 1935 has gone down in history as Black Sunday, the worst dust storm of all.  It is estimated that this storm removed 300 million tons of topsoil from the Plains States.  It was especially notable for the high winds that drove it, which is why Cornelius records that it got pitch dark in fifteen minutes.

The Siemens had gone to worship services in the morning, and for dinner they went to Mrs. G. J. Classens.  The Reimer girls (Catharine, Helen, and Mary) had taken the little children, Henry, Elmer, and Anna, who were 4, 3, and 1 years old, outside to play after dinner.  The storm struck so suddenly that the Reimer girls had not been able to get the children back inside before it hit.  With the wind howling at gale force and it completely dark, it was truly dangerous for them to be outside.  Cornelius’ wife Margaret recalled years later how worried she had been about what had happened to the children who were swallowed up in the night.  With the adults inside unable even to see the windows and the house shaking from the wind, there was little they could do to find them.  But somehow the Reimer girls had found their way to house with the little children safely in tow.

Eventually the storm let up, but there was still so much static electricity in the air that the cars would not start.  Finally someone got the idea of grounding them by attaching a chain to the car and dragging it along the ground, and then they were able to start them.  But with all the dirt drifted across the road and the wind still blowing, it was very difficult for the Siemens to drive the sixteen miles home.

Black Sunday, April 14, 1935.

More Dust

April 13, 1935  Dust storm from the south.  John one-wayed some.  Jake __________ dust.  Mary planted cabbage and tomatoes in the garden.  They also did Saturday’s work.

After a one-day respite, the dust blew again, this time from the south.  John one-wayed, not realizing that the one-way was pulverizing the soil and contributing to the blowing dust.  Jake did something with the dust, probably shoveling it out of the fences and buildings.  Despite the dust, Mary bravely planted in the garden because a hungry family would need the fresh vegetables.  And dust or no dust, Saturday’s work had to be done to bake tweeback and to clean the house to make it presentable for Sunday, the day of rest.

Cleaning up after the Storm

April 12, 1935  A very nice day.  John and Henry Warkentin took cattle to F. M. Clay.  Jake and I worked on the yard.

Finally after three days of unending wind, dust, and days that were as dark as night, the storm did end, and it was a beautiful day.  Cornelius and Jake worked on the yard – very likely they were digging out from the dust storm.  They would have cleared out the fences and drifts of dust around the buildings and shoveled dirt out of the barn, the chicken houses, and the granary. 

John helped Henry Warkentin take cattle to F. M. Clay.  Probably they were taking Mr. Warkentin’s cattle to pasture at the Clays.  Perhaps the Clays had some grass or wheat that could be pastured.  The Siemens boys must have had a reputation as good workers because they were often doing work for neighbors.  There would have been a lot of competition for these jobs because lots of men, not just young, single men but family men also, were looking for odd jobs to supplement their income.  But Cornelius often records that his sons worked out for someone. 

Probably the boys gave part or all of their wages to Cornelius.  Today that seems unjust, but at the time the family was a single economic unit.  Everyone worked together to make the farm a success.  Either a son was working on the family farm or he was working somewhere else.  Everything that a family member earned went into the common pot.  And Cornelius was responsible to provide whatever his family members needed, so he bought their food, their clothes, and everything else and gave them spending money.  Only when a child married and left home would he set up his own economic unit.  And at that point Cornelius would start to pay his sons for the work that they did on his farm.  In fact, in his ledgers he meticulously recorded the hours that his married sons worked and the amounts that he owed them.

Still Blowing

April 11, 1935  Still had very strong wind, but it had let up somewhat.  Be we still could not work outside. 

Even though Cornelius records that the storm had let up, it was still so windy and dusty that they could not work outside.  This was the third day in a row of terrible storm.

Darkness at Midday

April 10, 1935  We had a terrible dust storm.  It got so dark by noon that we lit the lamps and burned them the rest of the day.  We went to Meade.

Dust storms year after year wore a person down.  Many people left for California during the 1930s (the “Okies”) on rumors of good work to be found there.  But the Siemens were tougher and stayed put.  Cornelius was wise enough not to borrow money against their farm, so he did not have mortgage payments to make and there was no bank threatening to foreclose on them.

During the World War I, North American farmers had broken a lot of new ground to feed the world, and they continued to do so during the good years that followed in the 1920s.  But unbeknownst to them, they were using farming practices that turned the soil to powder.  When it was wet, as it was during the 1920s, this was not a problem.  But for eleven consecutive years, from 1930 to 1940, Kansas experienced below average rainfall.  When the vegetation and crops dried up, great clouds of dust blew away the precious topsoil, leaving a hardpan on which nothing would grow.

The dust storms would roll in as a huge black cloud.  Flocks of birds would fly ahead of the cloud, trying in vain to escape it.  Day would turn to night.  No one had seen anything like this, and people were terrified that the world was ending.  In hindsight that seems rather silly, but if we had experienced, I have no doubt that we would have felt the same.

In the house, they would stuff wet rags in the cracks and cover windows with wet sheets to try to stop the dust.  But the powdery soil still managed to penetrate, and after the storm they would sweep and even shovel the dust out of the house.  Everything – the kitchen, stove, pots and pans, the dining room table, the chairs, the beds, clothes – was covered with dust.  Dust would pile up along fences and drift around buildings like snow.  Animals could walk over the dirt and get out of pastures and corrals.  Roads would drift shut with dirt.  There was a lot of static electricity in the air due to all the fine particles, so cars would not start.  It must have seemed like the world truly was ending.

In 1932, the Siemens did not finish the harvest because it was not worth cutting the stunted wheat.  And 1933 was just as dry.  Many farmers did not even plant a crop because there was no moisture in the ground.  Babies’ weak lungs could not expel the dust, so they got something called dust pneumonia, and some even died from it.  The Siemens had three little children at this time, Henry age 4, Elmer 3, and Anna 1; so they must have worried what would happen to them. 

Imagine having to light kerosene lamps at noon because the dust completely blocked the sun.  Imagine having one crop failure after another.  Imagine feeding tumbleweeds to the cattle because there was no feed to buy for miles and miles around (and very little money to buy it with).  Imagine the discouragement of fighting the dust day after day to keep the house clean.  Yet the Siemens survived this dust storm and many others.

Making Cheese

April 9, 1935  Strong southeast wind.  There was little work we could do.  In the morning we made cheese. 

By this time in Kansas, most cheese was produced by creameries that bought milk from farmers and sold their cheese in the stores.  But the Siemens made cheese at least this once.  Making cheese at home is not a difficult process, but it requires quite a bit of time, heating the milk and curds, with many steps and waiting in between, and maintaining the exact temperature is important.  In addition to milk, the key ingredients are rennet to coagulate the milk and a bacterial culture to provide the texture and flavor.  Cornelius and daughter Mary liked strong cheddar cheese from Canada, so perhaps he was trying to make the same kind of cheese.  When visitors came, he would ask them to bring cheese along.  In later years, the Siemens either bought cheese locally or asked visitors to bring it from Canada.

Raising Chicks

April 8, 1937  Mama, John, Henry, and I went to Meade to get chicks.  Mary stayed home.  In the evening H. H. Reimers came over.  It was a cool day. 

The Siemens raised their own chicks.  They kept some roosters with the hens so that the eggs would be fertile.  In early spring once it was warm, they would gather about 45-50 eggs, put them in nesting boxes in a separate brooding house, and set three brooding hens on them.  The brooding house was separate from the chicken house so that the brooding hens would have a quiet, undisturbed place to brood on their eggs.  They would put gunny sacks over the windows to darken it.  The eggs hatch in 21 days, but on about day 18, Margaret would take a bucket of cold water to check if each egg had a live chick.  When she put an egg in the cold water, it would wiggle if it had a live chick in it.  The other eggs they would throw away so that they would not rot in the nest.  Out of 15-16 eggs under one hen, 12-13 would hatch. 

Typical brooding house.

But a hen could take care of about 20 chicks, even though she could only brood on 15-16 and only 12-13 would hatch.  So they would go to town and buy chicks to make up the difference so that each brooding hen would have about 20 chicks.  Or they might get extra chicks for another hen or two to take care of.

The chicks would stay in the brooding house for a couple weeks.  When it was warm, they would let them out on the yard to eat insects, and the hen would watch over them and then lead then back to the brooding house at night.  Then hens would watch over the chicks for about a month, and then they would leave the chicks on their own.  After this, they would be moved to the regular chicken house.

Sometimes the fryers were ready to butcher by Cornelius’ birthday on June 15, and they could have fried chicken.  But more often it was July before fryers were ready – because the feed was not as nutritious back then, it took three months for fryers to be ready.  They also gathered clover along the highway because it was one of their favorite feeds. 

In October and November, the chickens stop laying eggs because the days are getting shorter.  Then Margaret would sort out the hens that did not lay eggs and butcher them.  This chicken they would can and use for chicken noodle soup.

Nesting boxes for laying hens.  The Siemens set the brooding hens in old cardboard boxes.

Blessed with a Baby Boy!

April 7, 1932  Cold north wind.  We were blessed with a baby boy.  Dr. Botkin and Mrs. C. Dalke attended the birth.  The children went to Meade.

 Bonus post.  The Siemens rejoiced as their sixth child and fourth son was born.  At that time most children were born at home, including virtually all who lived in rural areas.  So the country doctor was on call day and night to respond when a woman went into labor (or any emergency).  A midwife always helped with the birth as well.  Often she had been trained by an older midwife, but she might also be just an experienced neighbor woman.  Mrs. Anna Dalke was Margaret’s sister and probably had some experience helping with births since she also delivered Anna in 1934.

Although Cornelius does not mention it, they named the baby Elmer Cornelius.  Elmer was the only Siemens child not to bear a traditional Mennonite name.  Since his older brother Henry had been named for Margaret’s father, this son should have been named Gerhard, for Cornelius’ father.  But Cornelius did not want any children named Gerhard because he had four brothers named Gerhard who had died in childhood.  So they picked Elmer for reasons unknown.  

Interestingly, Elmer had the childhood nickname of Peter, which was a traditional Mennonite name.  In school when the children put their initial on their pencil, Elmer wanted his marked with a “P” instead of an “E.”

Corney Ferries Across the Flooded River

April 7, 1930  The boys and I went to the farm to shovel snow and take care of ice.  In the evening we had guests, Peter Loewens, Heinrich Friesens, Johan Thiessens, and Martin Friesens.  Corney got them with the boat and also took them home with the boat.  We have a big flood.

 Since the Siemens lived next to the Morris River, when it flooded in spring it could be impossible to drive to their house from the other side of the community.  So Corney went to get the guests in a boat and ferried them across the flooded river, which was probably a tricky task.  Fortunately everyone got across safely.  Since most of the villages of Rosenort and Rosenhoff (now Riverside) were on the other side of the river, they were cut off from most neighbors during floods.  Even Cornelius’ close friend, Peter J. Loewen, who lived just across the river from the Siemens, had to be ferried across.

Floods and Visitors

April 6, 1930  We could not go to church because of high water.  In the afternoon Jacob Klassens and Mary and Margaretha were here, and also Heinrich and Peter Friesens, Tina Klassen, Peter T. Rempels, and Aunt Rempel.

 In Manitoba the Siemens lived next to the Morris River (formerly the Scratching River), which flooded almost every year.  The Morris River flows into the Red River at Morris, which was about 10 miles/16 km downstream from where the Siemens lived.  Because the Red River flows north, the snow along the southern part of the river would melt first in spring while the northern part was still iced over, which would result in floods almost every spring.  While these floods could cause a lot of destruction, they also have filled the Red River valley with some of the most fertile soil in Canada. 

 

Cornelius Siemens' farm near Rosenhoff (now Riverside), Man., as seen in 2014.  Note the Morris River in the background.

The Rosenort Kleine Gemeinde church building was located about a quarter of mile east of the Siemens farm, but the Morris River runs between them.  The water was so high that they could not go to the worship service.  Margaret did not like water at all, so she probably did not want to venture near the rushing river.

 

Rosenort Kleine Gemeinde church building being moved in 1921.  This was the building where the Siemens attended in the 1920s.

In the afternoon their first guests since they had returned to Manitoba came to visit.  Jacob R. and Maria Klassen came with their three single daughters, Maria, Margaret, and Tina – Jacob was Cornelius’ cousin and only a couple years older and seems to have been a close friend because they spent quite a bit of time together over the next six months.  Peter and Justina (Siemens) Rempel came over with his mother, Maria W. Rempel.  Justina was Cornelius’ niece, even though she was only five years younger than he, and daughter of his oldest brother Peter H. Siemens. 

The guests no doubt wanted to meet the new bride from Kansas and to see what kind of wife Cornelius had found after ten years of searching.  And his wife Margaret loved to visit, so she surely enjoyed getting acquainted with all these people.  Probably some of the people at least knew of her father Heinrich F. Reimer since he had been one of the more successful farmers at Meade.  So Cornelius could proudly introduce his new wife, and Margaret could begin getting to know a bit of what life was like in Canada.

Tractor Show

April 5, 1933  Strong north storm.  Peter F. Rempels came for dinner.  Then I went with him to Meade to the tractor show. 

A couple days before, Pete Reimer had come over to work on the Siemens’ tractor.  But the repairs must not have gone well.  

Peter and Aganetha Rempel (Margaret's sister) came over for dinner, and then Cornelius went to the tractor show in Meade with his brother-in-law.  Spring was the season when farmers would buy new tractors as they got ready to go into the fields again, so one of the dealers in town must have had a show to attract interest in their new models.  Cornelius was probably not just window-shopping because a couple months later he bought a new John Deere.

Home to Manitoba

April 4, 1930  Arrived in Morris at 6:50 in the morning.  The children came to get us.  We stopped at Mrs. Peter Siemens for dinner.  Then we went home.

 Cornelius and Margaret had wrapped up their visiting in Jansen, Nebr., and left from Fairbury at 11:35 p.m. on April 2.  They had arrived at St. Paul, Minn., at 3:15 p.m. on April 3.  Cornelius had bought two tickets there for $29.46 for the overnight express train to Morris, Man., and at 5:50 p.m. they had departed.  Now at 6:50 a.m. they arrived in Morris; and their children, Mary, Jake, Corney, and John, were there to meet them.  Cornelius was surely thrilled to see his children again, but meeting their new mother was probably a little awkward.  They no doubt had only wonderful memories of their mother Katie Siemens, who had died ten years before, and perhaps were hoping for a new mother just like the one they had lost.  On the other hand, they had spent a decade taking care of themselves and were probably very independent and self-reliant; and for a decade they had had their father completely to themselves.  Now they had a strict new mother, and Margaret had never raised children before, let alone four teenagers, so she had no experience to draw on.  Cornelius, of course, never mentions anything in his diary, but we can imagine that there was a lot adjustment that had to take place. 

On the way home, they stopped at Mrs. Peter H. Siemens, Susanna (Warkentin) 1869-1943 for dinner.  Cornelius’ father Gerhard T. Siemens had had four wives, and Peter H. Siemens (1867-1914) was the oldest son from his first wife.  He had died quite some time before, but Cornelius continued to keep up with his sister-in-law, even though she was quite a bit older than he.  And so she welcomed them home with dinner.

Pregnant

April 3, 1932  Sunday.  The children went to the south church.  Mama and I stayed home all day.  John H. Reimers came over.

Wife Margaret was very pregnant by this point, so she would not have ventured out in public because that would have been considered immodest.  (However, she did Saturday’s baking and cleaning the day before.)  And Cornelius would never have mentioned in his diary something such as his wife being pregnant.  So Cornelius stayed home with his wife and with little Henry, who was less than a year old, while the older four children, Mary, Jake, Corney, and John, went to the church service at the south end of the settlement.  After dinner Margaret’s brother and family, John H. Reimers, came over to see how she was doing.  The Siemens household was waiting for the day when there would be a new baby.

Visiting in Jansen

April 2, 1930  We went to Nick Friesens.  For dinner we went to Peter E. Friesens, and then to Abraham Friesens for supper.  Then we went to Bernhard Kroekers for the evening.  Peter Friesens and Abraham Friesens also came over there.  Heinrich Kroekers took us to Fairbury.  There I bought tickets for us to go to St. Paul, Minn., for $33.70.  We left Fairbury at 11:35 p.m.

Cornelius and Margaret made the rounds in Jansen, visiting her cousins.  Nick, Peter, and Abraham Friesen were her cousins, as were Katharina (Friesen) and Helena (Friesen), the wives of Bernhard and Heinrich Kroeker.  All five of them were siblings.

Surely on that day Margaret would have shown Cornelius the farm where she was born and lived until she was thirteen.  Her parents, Heinrich and Katharina (Barkman) Reimer, had had 160 acres of land there and had lived ¾ mile south of the town of Jansen.  Margaret’s grandmother, Katharina (Bergman) Barkman had lived ¼ mile west of Jansen.

Heinrich F. Reimer farm south of Jansen, Nebr., in 2013

 Then Margaret’s cousins took them to the train station in Fairbury, the county seat, and they bought tickets for St. Paul, Minn.  

Farm Work

April 1, 1935  I took Mary to Meade to work.  John worked on the fence.  The rest of us worked on the tank.  Mama and I prepared to wash. 

It was a day of work on the farm.  Cornelius took Mary to town to work, probably housekeeping or similar work for an “English” family, where she could earn some cash.  John worked on the fence, something that always needed to be fixed on the farm.  Wires came loose or broke, posts pulled over or broke off, braces need to be put in at the corners and gates, tumbleweeds needed to be cleaned out of the fence rows and burned, and dirt that had been piled up by the wind needed to be pushed away from the fence so that animals could not get out. 

The rest of the family worked on the water storage tank.  Because the Siemens depended on water pumped from the well by a windmill, the water supply was variable.  Since March 19, they had been working off and on laying a concrete foundation, building a stand about three feet high to raise it off the ground to increase the water pressure, and then erecting the metal tank on the stand.  The tank itself was about 12-15 feet tall.  After this, the Siemens never ran out of water due to calm days, but sometimes they had to ration it carefully at the end. 

Cornelius and Margaret also prepared to wash.  Wash day for nine people was a busy day, so they tried to do as much as possible the day before.  Probably they collected the wash and shredded the blocks of homemade lye soap, and maybe even filled the miagrope kettle with water. 

Sad Farewell and Setting off for Manitoba

March 31, 1930  Mother, Helena, and Susie took us to Meade.  At 5:50 we left by train.  The tickets cost $13.42 each.  The farewell was hard.  At 2:10 we arrived in McFarland and stepped right onto the next train.  We arrived in Bellville at 5:40, where the Bernhard Kroekers picked us up.  We arrived at the Kroekers at 8:10 and had a good supper.  We visited a little and went to bed.

Cornelius and Margaret had spent their first eleven days of married life in a round of visiting relatives and friends in Meade.  Now the day had come for them to begin their trip back to Manitoba because they had agreed that Margaret would return with Cornelius in order to meet his family and for him to wrap up his affairs.  It might be years before they would be able to go to Canada again, and Cornelius wanted her to meet his relatives and to see the places where he had lived.  Even though they would only be gone for six months, Margaret must have shed a lot of tears. 

Cornelius had much more experience in the broader world.  He had settled two homesteads, lived in two countries and three provinces/states, had buried his father and been the administrator of his estate, married and then ten years later buried his wife, raised four children, and endured poverty and hardship.  Margaret, on the other hand, had lived with her parents all her life and probably had made only one trip away from home, when she had traveled back to Jansen with her uncle and aunt, the K. B. Reimers.  True, her father had died when she was 28, and she had experienced her own personal difficulties, but she was the youngest child and had had so much less experience of the world outside the Mennonite community at Meade.  Now she was leaving on the longest trip of her life, with her new husband whom she had met less than four weeks before.  It must have hit home that she was leaving the nest where she had grown up and starting an independent family.

The first stage of their journey was to Jansen, Nebr., where Margaret had been born and lived until September, 1908, when she moved to Meade with her parents at the age of thirteen.  Early in the morning, they boarded the Rock Island train at the station in Meade after the tearful good-byes and rode to McFarland, Kans., which was a tiny town about 280 miles northeast of Meade and just west of Topeka.  They arrived at 2:10 p.m. and immediately stepped onto another Rock Island train to Bellville, Kans., which was another small town about 125 miles northwest.  They arrived here at 5:40 p.m., where the Bernhard Kroekers picked them up and drove them the fifty miles to Jansen. 

Bernhard O. Kroeker was from the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren church in Jansen, and he had married Margaret’s cousin, Katharina B. Friesen, in 1903.  Since Katharina would have left the Kleine Gemeinde when they got married, the Kroekers did not move to Meade with the KG.  And Margaret still had quite a few relatives at Jansen.  

Good Friday

March 30, 1934  Good Friday.  We had a good rain during the night.  We all went to church.  B. Duecks went with us.  For dinner we went to Peter Isaacs. 

Good Friday was an important holiday for the Mennonites.  There was a worship service in the morning, and the focus of the songs and the sermon would have been on Christ’s suffering.  Usually in the afternoon, they had communion and foot washing in order to commemorate Christ’s institution of the Last Supper.  And since Good Friday was equivalent to a Sunday, they would have done no work but visited and relaxed instead.  Because everyone worked hard six days a week, they were grateful for the extra day of rest.

Communion was also an important and somber event.  Most of the women wore black dresses in accordance with its solemnity.  Communion demonstrated the unity of the brotherhood, but it was also a time for confession of sin.  The minister would preach a sermon on Christ’s crucifixion, read Paul’s instructions from I Corinthians chapter 15 about communion, and then give a time for private reflection and confession.  After they had taken the bread and grape juice, then they had footwashing.

When Jesus had had the Last Supper with his disciples, he had washed their feet to demonstrate his servanthood, so foot-washing was a strong Mennonite tradition until recently.  Since the men and women sat on separate sides of the sanctuary, a curtain was drawn between them for footwashing.  The women had to undo their nylon hose, which would have been immodest to do in the presence of men.  There was a basin of water for every two pews, and the people paired off to wash and dry each other’s feet and (the women at least) hugged each other.  Then it was passed on to the next pair.  Thus the congregation carried out Christ’s command to celebrate communion and footwashing.

Corney and Margaret Get Married

March 29, 1936  We stayed home from church.  In the afternoon we attended the wedding of our son Cornelius to Margaret A. Reimer, which took place at Mrs. K. B. Reimer, the bride’s mother.  It was a very nice day. 

Another big day for the Siemens as their son Corney was marrying Margaret A. Reimer.  She was the daughter of their neighbors, the K. B. Reimers, as well as the cousin of father Cornelius’ wife Margaret. Over a period of sixteen days, the Siemens had had two engagements and two weddings. 

They stayed home from the worship service that day, likely because there was so much to do to get ready.  The wedding was held at the bride’s home, so they would have gone to the K. B. Reimers for dinner.  Then more people would have come over in the afternoon for the wedding ceremony, which was conducted by the elder Jacob F. Isaac.  And then there was faspa for all the guests.

Marriage record of Cornelius C. Siemens and Margaret A. Reimer from the Meade Gemeinde Buch kept by Elder Jacob F. Isaac.  It shows their ages as 20 and 18, respectively.

Corney and Margaret's wedding picture.  She has a large bouquet of flowers, something that none of the other Siemens' brides had in their weddings.

No Feed for the Cattle

March 28, 1933  Corney and Jacob drove seven miles to look for feed and found none.  I did miscellaneous things.  Mama and John sowed some in the garden.  Mama and Mary also sewed some.

Normally, the Siemens would pasture their cattle on wheat pasture in spring.  They probably had a couple dozen head of cattle.  (Cattle can be pastured on winter wheat from late fall to early spring.  It is one of the most nutritious sources of forage, and it helps the wheat to grow better by preventing it from growing too fast.)   However, a terrible drought had hit in the summer of 1932, and it had stayed dry, so the wheat that was planted in the fall of 1932 probably had come up very poorly or not all.  So the Siemens’ first choice of forage for their cattle was not available. 

Their second choice would have been bundles of feed that they had bound into shocks and brought in from the field.  But due to the drought they would have had very little of this, if any.  Apparently whatever they had was gone.  Usually, with winter wheat and their own feed, they could get their cattle through winter until grass pasture was ready.  Now they had nothing to feed their cattle and drove round the neighboring farms, asking for feed to sell.  (Feed here means kafir corn, sudangrass, baled hay, baled wheat, etc.)  And no one had any.  Until their own grass pasture would green out, they would need to buy feed, and this was clearly not going to be be easy or cheap.  And with the drought, who knew when the grass would be ready.  It was already starting out as a hard year.