Harvest Time and Romance in the Prairies...

PEDEGOest I will go...but you may as well come with me. Let's get on our imaginary bikes. No, mine is blue, so you choose a different colour, and...I almost forgot, this time we need wings. I always dreamt of flying as a kid...I am sure you did too. And we are off to Wembley, Alberta. 

 (Yahoo.com) Wembley is located 20 km. west of Grande Prairie, and this is where I lived when I first came to Canada in the spring of 1961; I was eleven years old. Five years later, I moved to Chilliwack, BC.

We are in the autumn season of the year--and some of us, even of our lives--but our work isn't done yet...It's a lovely time, and especially in the prairies. Hang on, we are almost there...

Fall had come and the heads of grain had ripened to their fullest, almost to the point of bursting. It was going to be another bumper crop. Corney was so proud that he thought his chest too might burst at any time. Neighbours all around talked about his successful farming. He was brilliant. He was innovative, always wanting the latest equipment. After all, oh for shame, if he should have a poor crop. Perfection came with a price.

            (Yahoo.com)

What joy! What sense of accomplishment! What pride to see his golden fields of wheat and barley shimmering playfully as he stood to take in the full view. A gentle wind  blew warmly across as if sending its blessing on Corney Janzen and his fields.

   Barley (yahoo.com)

Wheat (yahoo.com)

Spring and summer work had come and gone. It was autumn now, and soon the 1958 green John Deere 95 round back combine would be going day and night. Work ethics were strong. He had learned those a long time ago from home, in Hierschau, his beloved village in the Molotschna, Southern Russia.

The Molotschna area is the biggest dark spot. (yahoo.com)

The Molotschna was comprised of these villages. I circled the village of Hierschau.

In 1904, Corney’s father, Jacob Janzen, had inherited Wirtschaft #11, from Johann Siemens, his father-in-law, who had bought the land in 1848 when Hierschau was first established. And in keeping with the Mennonite tradition, the land was passed on to the eldest in the family and that was Issac, not Corney. (Hierschau by Helmut T. Huebert)

“No room for me here,” he thought. He had heard that there were great opportunities in Canada. A new beginning, a place to call his own on a farm of his choosing. No corrupt government to tell him what to do anymore. No more starvation. It had been three years since the drought, and he still could taste the sawdust bread between his teeth. So why would he not give it a try? He was 22 years old and it was time he made up his own mind. Nothing in Hierschau was the same anymore anyway. It no longer was the “model” village everyone looked up to. Gone were the “good old days,” and gone was half the land they once had. 

In 1915, Hierschau had 30 Vollwirtschaften, full farms, of 64.4 dessiatines of land each, and 24 Kleinwirtschaften, small farms, with 14.8 dessiatines each. By 1926, each farm had been divided. Now there were 22 Wirtschaften with 32 dissiatines each, and 26 with 16 dessiatines. Each half had been given to others by the local authorities.       (1 Dessiatine = 2.7 Acres) 

Saying goodbye had been difficult, but made much easier because his sister Maria and her husband, Peter Spenst, had decided that they would leave as well; as did a number of other families who also were losing faith in the government. 

•Back row, l-r Peter Spenst, Jacob Janzen, Johann Janzen, Cornelius Janzen, Isaak Janzen, 

•Middle row, l-r Maria Janzen Spenst, Maria Siemens Janzen, Maria Rogalski Siemens, Johann Siemens, Elizabeth Siemens Janzen

•Front row, l-r (Children) Maria Spenst Heidebrecht, Jacob Spenst, Tina Janzen, Susanna Janzen, Elizabeth Janzen. I think this photo was taken in 1926 just before Corney and the others left for Canada. 1926 was another year of drought.

They crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1926, not realizing how fortunate they were to have left when they did. For a few years later, his family and many, many other families who stayed behind, went through torture and trials because they had not wanted to let go, had not wanted to give up their land; did not get their passports.

 And thirty-four years later the seed of thought grew bigger and bigger. He would make a trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to visit Katja.            

Oh, there had been others, but that was a long time ago in a far away land. The Gerhard Pletts, who were their neighbours in Russia, had a large family. It was one of the older girls that had caught his eye. He was sweet on her. Had she thought that she would follow him to Canada? After all, Gertrude had given him a photo before he left. 

 Two of the Gerhard Plett girls: Aganetha and Gertrude in the back.  

And then there was Herta Lippelt living with her two single brothers, Arthur and Hans, in Clairmont. Perhaps he could ask her? But that did not feel right either. Better keep all three of them as friends. Much easier to just go for visits on a Sunday afternoon and eat Herta’s wonderful cooking in her dining room. Not just that, going back for visits also brought back memories of having rented this one quarter (160 A.) land from Mrs. Spencer when he first arrived in the Peace River in 1927.

"All beginnings are hard." Here is Corney Janzen plowing the fields with oxen in Clairmont, Alberta, in 1927. His first home, constructed with straw bales in the background.

Perhaps at 56 he still had a chance at love and marriage. The winter before, he had bought himself a whole set of LP records, "listen and repeat after me," and two blue hard covered books, a dictionary and a work book, on how to learn Spanish. He had worked at it, but for some reason the foreign words and phrases did not stick. Now and then he had even listened to music from Spain, LPs he had bought along with the Readers Digest subscription.

“But why am I afraid?” “What is holding me back?” “After all, they had been communicating by letters over the last few years. It wasn’t as if he had no idea of who she was.” And to his surprise he came to realize that he had already fallen in love with Katja through her letters. Perhaps it was the fear of traveling by plane; that would be a new experience for him. He would have to get a passport, his last one having long expired.

As he turned the red cloth covered passport in his hand and  looked at the hammer and sickle on the cover, a flood of memories came to the surface. The year was 1926. It had been another year of crop failure due to drought, and the memory of starvation still so fresh on his mind since the last crop failure in 1919. And then there had also been the heavy taxation by the government; that had been reason enough to leave. 

Realizing that the future might well be in Canada, he and a group from his village had bought passports for 200 rubles each, and left the Molotschna for good. First by rail to Moscow, and then onto the port of Riga. Here they stopped for a few days, and then traveled by ship across the Baltic Sea, through the Kiel Canal, to England. After eight days of crossing the Atlantic Ocean with the S. S. Empress of Scotland they had finally arrived safely in Quebec City, Quebec, on Oct. 2, 1926 (Hierschau, by Helmut T Huebert) 

Slowly over the years he had bought more and more land. One quarter here, another two there, until he had what he thought he needed; seven quarters in total, the best land in the area. He knew he would have made his parents proud. If only his family would have left when he did. His mother had been willing to come, but father, and brother Isaak, couldn’t let go of the land. If they had, they would all have been together and have avoided banishment to Siberia. 

He had hoped that his house would be adequate enough for Katja.  He had built it in the early 1950s. A green roof and a mixture of green, white and clear glass chips covered the outside walls. But he still hadn’t drilled a well. Somehow it wasn’t on his priority list. Pumping for water in the summer wasn’t too bad, but in the winter, that was another story.  No, he wasn’t too sure if she would mind going to the outhouse when the temperatures dropped to -45º. Oh well...you just had to dress warmly. Water had to be heated on the stove to do the dishes and taking baths. And then there was always the laundry that needed doing. Too late now, he should have thought of all this in the summer. 

   My sister Erica

Yes,he looked good in his grey suit and freshly pressed white shirt, not a wrinkle to be found. His matching tie straight and every white wavy hair in place. He had checked a few times in the mirror before the camera went “click.” His  eyes twinkled--eyes as blue as the prairie sky.  

Cornelius Jacob Janzen

Have a wonderful day reminiscing about your past. Make it positive...we have much to be thankful for.

Hilda