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.