This is a continuation of this post, really. In which I set out to explore what I think I already know everything about. (Spoiler, I don’t.)
Because I grew up as a “Kleefelder” but at the same time NOT a Kleefelder (a lot to unpack here, I think. It also exposes just how very small-town I am, as to draw these distinctions… but I think other smalltown folk from my era may understand, or have noticed… perhaps I should ask.) I kinda assumed I knew everything about the place. But something I never realized until today, was that my great-great-grandfather is buried in the cemetery at the Holdeman church in Kleefeld.
I think there will be even more to unpack here.
First, the reason it never occurred to me that any of my ancestors would be buried here, is because no one that I’m descended from has ever been a Holdeman. (As far as I know!) Really what I should say is, none of them has been a member of the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite. That is the proper name. It’s just a little long, is all.
Andrew and I had visited the Kleefeld EMC (Kleine Gemeinde/KG) cemetery where we found my great-grandparents’ burial plots. I had paid attention (finally) and could confirm their identities, based on the information on the headstones. But there’s another church close by, the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite. Very very near. And that church has its own cemetery. And that is where we found the grave of my great-great-grandfather, whose daughter I had just visited.
His name was Jacob T. Barkman, and he passed away in 1935. And he was buried next to his second wife, Maria Fast. I am not descended from her. They were in their 70s when they married. There is a large peony planted on her grave, making this an easy site to find.
This man was my Grandpa Koop’s grandfather. I once saw a picture in Preservings that depicts Peter T. Barkman surrounded by his children and grandchildren. My grandpa is in that picture; he was a child when that photo was taken. It’s fascinating!
Reflections on our Heritage says he arrived with the first group of Mennonites, the Gruenfeld group, and settled with them, building a semlin. But when the Steinbach group arrived six weeks later, he followed his father to start again in Steinbach, on lot number 14. (I need to go check this out. I think the street I live on… may be named for him?) After a few years of Steinbach life, he sold his shares in his father’s windmill, and moved to Heuboden, just northwest of Kleefeld. It was here where his wife Aganetha Giesbrecht passed away during the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918.
I had been expecting to find him buried next to my great-great-grandmother Aganetha, but I suppose that wouldn’t make sense when considering the above story.
I don’t have answers, but what I’m now assuming, is that Aganetha was buried somewhere in Heuboden, probably on their yardsite. I wonder where that was. I know I have begun trying to find out, but I have forgotten whatever I may have learned, and also lost my notes. (This frustrates me to the point that I just… fall asleep. A foible for sure.) And I’m wondering if his second wife Maria Fast was perhaps a member of the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite? So perhaps he changed churches late in life? But, also, another possibility is that the KG/Holdeman churches shared a building and cemetery at the time. I think I have read that somewhere. Maybe in Henry Fast’s book entitled Gruenfeld (one of my favourite books). I feel like there is a lot of intense history and relating to this, and I shouldn’t be cavalier about it. I have thought about the story of this split a lot — it fascinates me. That will be another post.
For now, I’ve learned where one of my great-great-grandparents is laid to rest, and visited his grave. And I was left with more questions than answers.