I went ahead and posted about the very last cemetery Elexis and I visited on my birthday last month, but we actually saw a lot more. Now I figure it’s time I go back to the start: Arnaud.
Just now I googled “Arnaud” and discovered it’s French for “Arnold”. Hmm! I guess this really was not a Mennonite community. Except, like… it was. (Is?)
First, I figured the parking lot of the Arnaud Mennonite Church would be a good place to meet. I believe this congregation was established in 1945 and they are part of Mennonite Church Manitoba. Apparently there was a Mennonite Brethren church in Arnaud as well, and it could be that the Mennonites and the Mennonite Brethren both met in this church? And, they were all Russlaender, pretty sure. I also learned that the Lichtenau Mennonite Church was affiliated with the Arnaud one. Much more about Lichtenau in future posts (because we went there, too).
The website for this church says about forty people worship there and they care for the cemetery that is on the same property. That’s another reason I thought it’d be good to meet here — it was our first cemetery of the day.
But unlike my post about the Wiebe-Janzen cemetery, I didn’t follow any of the rabbit trails that these stones offer. Side note, I once held a history of Arnaud Mennonite Church in my hands at the MCC. I very nearly purchased it. But by then I was approaching my “I may have collected too many books” era and put it back. I think I regret this decision now.
I felt the above picture nicely summed up the Arnaud Mennonite Church cemetery. Grain bin, headstones, prairie sky.
Then we walked to another cemetery in Arnaud, which has this church and a cairn marking the names of those buried in the cemetery behind it.
This is the Arnaud United Church.
The cairn says, “This cairn was erected in memory of the pioneers of the Arnaud district. The first church was built here on this site in 1904. Arnaud Presbyterian United Church. It served as a place of worship for 67 years. 1904-1971. This memorial shall also be in remembrance of, and dedicated to, the loved ones who were laid to rest in this cemetery. May they rest in peace. 1981.”
On the cairn you’ll find last names such as Goertzen, Pauls, Sawatzky, Funk, Enns, Toews, Kathler, Regehr, Klassen, Bergen, Boese, Penner, Wiebe, Neufeld, Fast, Unrau, Janzen, Voth, Rempel, Dyck, and Friesen. Alongside Stieben, Andrews, Erb, Maximchuk, Brauel, Treleaven, Sumner, Solnes, Becker, Haddow, Herie, Stevenson, O’Connor, Weldon, Tucker, Kerr, Lindholm, Davis, Jensen, Greenway, Sviensson.
If you think the church looks a little wavy or buckling… you’d be right. This structure may collapse at any moment. Built in 1904, I guess it’s not looking too bad for its age.
The only place I think you can learn about this structure and its history is on the Manitoba Historical Society website. Last updated in 2012, the church looks a lot better on that website, than it does in this post with recent pictures. I wish these photos could convey to you just the troubling nature of this structure. I have never seen one that is so very much on the brink of collapse. I felt like if I breathed wrong, the entire thing would fall in on itself… and possibly take me with it.
Looking cautiously in the windows (lest we accidentally push the building over) it felt like looking at ghosts. Seeing buildings and what they contain, so very abandoned, makes me feel things. Like I’ve stepped back in time, the years go so fast, what was once thriving is at last walked away from and disintegrates.
Here in this next picture you can see both the collapsing United church in the foreground, and the functioning Mennonite church in the background (it is very small).
There is a big cemetery but very few stones.
I stood at the very back of the cemetery and took a picture of the whole thing, with the church at the other end. There are many people buried here. According to the cairn, the firs burial here was an infant, Arthur Sumner, in 1893. The next was 19-year-old Marian Dorothy Erb, in 1897. The first person of Russian Mennonite descent to be buried here was 47-year-old Isbrandt D. Penner in 1925.
There are very few stones here. It looks like a lawn. But it holds a greater story.
And would you believe, after this we were still not done with Arnaud. There was a third cemetery to visit!