Chesley Lake accordion
An accordionist serenades a literary society meeting at Chesley Lake Camp in Ontario, in 1949. Chesley Lake was the first Mennonite church camp in Ontario and one of the first in Canada. Literary societies were common in Ontario Mennonite churches at the time, as social outlets and avenues for artistic expression. In today’s fast-paced world,…
Bergey
Why do you travel? For fun, to learn, to connect? All three combined for Dorothy, Lorna and Gertrude Bergey as they joined a Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario bus tour to Pennsylvania in May 1983. Here, they stand in front of the Pennsylvania home of European emigrant Hans Ulrich Bergey in Salford. In 1897, Pennsylvanian…
‘A picture of his grandmother’
Gerald Neufeld and his father Henry share a passion for linking families from First Nation communities within the Berens River watershed in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario with archival photographs of their ancestors. Their collection of about a thousand digitized pictures includes photographs from the University of Philadelphia archives that were taken in the summer of…
Women in church vocations
To encourage women to enter church-related work, the General Conference Mennonite Church began the “Women in Church Vocations” program in 1957. Pictured, Elmer Ediger discusses the new program with interested young women at Canadian Mennonite Bible College in Winnipeg. Women recruited to the program would pursue a college education and be mentored into such positions…
Identity, boundaries and new ways of thinking
Mennonites in Canada today are a diverse group, and the old stereotype of Mennonites as German-speaking agrarian people fits only a small part of the picture. The history conference, “A people of diversity: Mennonites in Canada since 1970,” held at the University of Winnipeg from Nov. 15 to 17, 2018, provided an opportunity to…
Biography turns into Old Colony history
Although Bruce Guenther set out to write a biography of his grandfather, Herman D.W. Friesen, it turned out to be more of a history of the Old Colony Mennonites in the Hague-Osler area of Saskatchewan. Guenther had no diaries or personal letters to work with, and some of the relatives were reticent to talk about…
Bicycle trip
Did your summer include a bicycle trip? In 1891, 19-year-old Fred Coffman, far left, his brother William, and their friends Abram and Aaron Kolb biked more than 700 kilometres from Elkhart, Ind., to Niagara Falls, Ont. Fred would become Bishop S.F. Coffman, an influential Ontario Mennonite leader. Abram would become a publisher of Mennonite periodicals,…
Johnny Kehler
Johnny Kehler, left, with his plane and George Groening, at Matheson Island, Man. Groening grew up near Lowe Farm, Man., and served the Mennonite church community for decades. As a long-serving leader, he not only witnessed change but instituted changes as well. He started his preaching at Lowe Farm Bergthaler Mennonite Church, was the pastor…
From grief to gratitude
Moments in time can change the course of history. Decisions made in Russia in the years following the Russian Revolution in 1917 changed life for thousands of Mennonite families. On Oct. 13, 2018, an evening of remembering and thanksgiving took place at St. Catharines United Mennonite Church. Those who took part and those who attended…
Patricia Beach baptism
Malcolm and Esther Wenger moved to the town of Selkirk, Man., in 1979. Malcolm worked for the Conference of Mennonites in Canada’s Native Ministries program and pastored the small Selkirk Christian Fellowship. Pictured, Malcolm baptizes Gillian Thororanson at Patricia Beach, Man., on July 22, 1979. There have been fierce debates in Mennonite circles about the…
