I first saw it on a map.
But not an old map. It was a Google Map, satellite view.
I had decided I wanted to spend a day with my friend Elexis again. But we live an hour and a half drive apart. Not too big of a deal, but it’s fun to cut the drive in half and meet in the middle. So what’s in the middle?
Zooming in on Google Maps, I scoured the landscape on my screen. And then I saw it – the Wiebe-Janzen Cemetery.
Located on the banks of the Roseau River, on the edge of a field, and not really near anything else. I couldn’t even really figure out how to even get to the cemetery in the first place. You can’t, like, walk across a field, can you?
After all, it’s April. Spring. Things are muddy. Muddy fields are not great to walk through, especially if you haven’t brought your rubber boots.
But… we chose adventure.
We chose to try to find, and then explore, the Wiebe-Janzen cemetery.
Thanks to the pin on Google Maps, we rolled to a stop at an access point to a field. In the distance was the wooded banks of the Roseau River. Scanning the trees which were about a quarter mile away, we felt we could see the cemetery plainly in the distance – it was the only place with tall pine trees to mark the spot. There were no other pines anywhere near.
Next, we tested the soil before stepping onto it. Would we sink into the mud? No! It’s a dry spring, I guess. We walked across the dirt just fine, with no worries of disturbing the field, since it looked like no one had been on it since last fall.
And then suddenly we were standing there, in the meadow before the cemetery!
It had a sign. What did it say? Was it a village name?
No. It said Auf Wiedersehen. Which I think is so lovely, I become a little ferklempt.
And it was more than one Wiebe burial and one Janzen burial. It was a whole cemetery!
According to the information learned from its stones, this cemetery has been here for 99 years. No wonder those pines, which are only within the fenced cemetery, are so much taller than the deciduous trees surrounding them.
All it says on findagrave.com is that they wanted to be buried here because it is beautiful. But what else can I learn about these Wiebes and Janzens? I took a picture of all the stones (I think) and went to find them on grandmaonline.com to see if I can learn more about these people.
The first burial in this cemetery, as far as I could tell, was Jakob Janzen, who was born in 1870 and died in 1926 — making this cemetery 99 years old. But what else can we know about Jakob? I asked grandmaonline.org. His number is 215478. He was born in Wiesenfeld, Alexandrovsk, South Russia and it looks like seven out of his eight children were also born there. The eighth was born in Crimea in 1909, so he and Katharina must have moved there between 1906 and 1909. He immigrated to Canada on the S.S. Empress of Scotland, arriving in Quebec City on November 15th, 1924. He would have been 54. On findagrave.com it says he settled near Arnaud in 1926 and “was scouting the area with his friend David Enns when they came upon this site. They both felt that it was so beautiful and peaceful they would like to be buried there.” In the notes on grandmaonline.com it says he was “weakened by illness brought on by his harsh experiences during the revolution.” After just two years in Canada, he passed away at age 56.
Katharina Dueck’s number is 225398. She was born in Kleefeld, Molotchna in 1868. I guess when she married Jakob Janzen in 1893, she moved to his village and that is where they had most of their children before moving to Crimea and having their last child in 1909. In the notes on grandmaonline.org it says she and Jakob immigrated with three daughters but upon closer examination I see that their son Jakob, while being buried in the same cemetery as his parents, immigrated to Canada a year later, landing in Saint John New Brunswick. But they had six children live to adulthood. So now I’m looking to see what happened to the others. Turns out their eldest two children Maria and Jakob are also buried in this same cemetery. Their daughter Katharina is buried in Steinbach. Their youngest, Susanna, also immigrated to Canada with her parents but swiftly became American, marrying in Michigan and being buried in Florida. The notes simply say, “Susan lives in Florida.” Her findagrave.com entry features a picture of her stone which reads, “1LT US ARMY.” But what about the two children who passed away? The first Susanna died at age two of scarlet fever. Peter drowned in a well at age four. But that’s not the end of the tragedy. Abram, third eldest of Jakob and Katharina, married Maria Neufeld in 1924 in Crimea, and they had three children there before he was exiled in 1938 at age 41, never to be heard from again. The notes say, “presumed dead in exile.” What of his widow, Maria Neufeld 363727? Tragically, she was exiled in 1941 and never heard from again. A note says she died February 28, 1941. She was 42. What of their children? All we know of their eldest, Maria, who was 13 when her father disappeared and 16 when her mother disappeared, is that she had a spouse whose name is unknown and they had a child in the early 1950s, in Kazakhstan. Their middle child, Katharina, was 11 and 14 when her parents disappeared, respectively. She too, went on to have a spouse and children in Kazakhstan. Abram and Katharina’s youngest daughter, Susanna, also had a spouse and children in Kazakhstan.
Side note, now I’m wondering about Maria Lotsmonova, who presented a film at one of the CTMS conferences that captured my attention. She is from Russia, and worked in a museum. Being curious about history, she dug into her own and came across the name Janzen. She reached out to the Mennonite Heritage Archives to learn more, and Conrad Stoesz was immensely helpful. You can click here to watch her short film. I find it incredibly moving. Her ancestor Jakob Janzen 421304 seems to not be related to these Janzens here, even though their stories and names seem very similar, they are different families. (But they do seem related, don’t they?)
Tangents over, I’m not sure I have capacity for more.
And that is just the first stone.
Next we have Katharina Schroder Enns 207748. She was born in 1852, married David Enns in 1876, and they had five children between 1877 and 1889. All this happened in Taurida, which I have never heard of. (This was in South Russia.) She immigrated on the S.S. Minnedosa, arriving in Quebec City on July 17, 1924. All five of their children also immigrated to Canada. After living in Canada for three years, Katharina died of pneumonia at age 74.
Her husband David Enns 447259 was born in 1847, and passed away in 1926. In the notes on grandmaonline.com it says that “he had a 500 dessiatines Taschenak estate in Melitopol.”
Here we have the Wiebes.
Maria Janzen Wiebe 215482 is Jakob and Katharina’s daughter. She and her husband Peter 218330 had 15 children, with 13 surviving to adulthood. It seems the family moved around Manitoba a lot, never settling in near her parents until the end.
Here’s an interesting one. I looked up Friedrich Kathler 151635 and Suze Wiebe 227901 and grandmaonline.org says their memorial is in Abbotsford. “Memorial” being the key word. So, not burial. Grandmaonline.org does not say where their burial is. But I know where it is. It’s here along the picturesque banks of the Roseau River.
Here is Helena Nickel 216874. She was born in 1894 and died young, in 1951. She immigrated on the S.S. Empress of Scotland, arriving August 1st, 1925. A note says that she immigrated without her family. In November of that same year, she married into the Janzen family.
Apologies for that abrupt end. That is where I left off, in a tizzy of confusion about who is all here and whether they are related to me. But here is what I learned, in a nutshell: Those who rest in this cemetery are not related to me; their story is one of Russlaenders. It is also a story of friendship, of appreciation of the wonder of the natural world, and of family ties. I’m so glad this place exists. And that I could visit it with a friend who feels the way I do, about visiting places like this.
Okay okay I’ll do one more. The Braun stone, which I only checked now (two weeks after writing all the rest of this post).
Turns out Jacob Braun (363763) is my seventh cousin once removed. Because of course. What of his wife, Susie Janzen (363762)? Well, she is my fifty cousin once removed. Isn’t that just like life. I was going to totally ignore this one because I’m not sure I have capacity to so thoroughly look up everything about every person buried here. And that’s when I find the people whose stories intersect with mine… dating back to Poland. Which I also still need to finish blogging about.
