Hidden Worlds: Revisiting the Mennonite Migrants of the 1870s

158 Pages·2001·4.475 MB·English

by  Royden Loewen

Hidden Worlds
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
Hidden
Worlds
Revisiting the Mennonite Migrants of the 1870s
Royden Loewen
THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA PRESS
© Royden Loewen 2001
The University of Manitoba Press
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2
www.umanitoba.ca/uofnipress
Printed in Canada.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, or stored in a database and retrieval system, without the prior
written permission of the University of Manitoba Press, or, in the case of photocopying or
other reprographic copying, a licence from CANCOPY (Canadian Copyright Licensing
Agency), 6 Adelaide Street East, Suite 900,Toronto, Ontario M5C 1H6.
Cover Design: Karen Armstrong
Text Design: Karen Armstrong and Sharon Caseburg
Maps:Weldon Hiebert
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data
Loewen, Royden, 1954-
Hidden worlds
Includes index.
ISBN 0-88755-655-8
1. Mennonites—North America—Social life and customs. 2.
Mennonites—North America—History—19th century. I.Title.
BX8115.L67 2001 305.68707 C2001-911495-8
The University of Manitoba Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support for its
publication program provided by the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing
Industry Development Program (BPIDP); the Canada Council for the Arts; the Manitoba
Arts Council; and the Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism.
for:
Becky and her remarkable 'wondering'
Meg and her enchanting 'neighbourliness'
Sasha and his sensible 'temporality'
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 3
1. Wonders and Drudgery: The Diaries of Mennonite 9
Migrants, 1857-1879
2.'If Joint Heirs of Grace, How Much More of Temporal Goods?': 33
Inheritance and Community Formation
3. Potato Patch in a Cornfield: The Worlds of Mennonite 51
Immigrant Women, 1881-1906
4. Mr. Plett and Mr. Bergey: Land and Social Practice in Two 69
Canadian Mennonite Communities, 1890s
5. Neighbors: Mennonites and Other Rural Folks in the 89
American Midwest
6. Conclusion 103
Endnotes 107
Selected Bibliography 127
Index 135
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
Acknowledgements
THIS BOOK BEGAN AS THE "MENNO SIMONS" LECTURES AT BETHEL
College, Kansas, on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the migration
of Mennonites from Imperial Russia to the North American interior. As
the Chair in Mennonite Studies at the University of Winnipeg, I had in-
vited the historians at Bethel College to co-host a conference that would
revisit the migration of the 1870s with themes of social and cultural his-
tory. My friends at Bethel, however, turned the invitation around and asked
me to visit them with a lecture series instead. Those lectures, given in
November 1999, were eclectic in nature. Their purpose was to seek new
ways of understanding the nature of the Mennonite society that was trans-
planted across the ocean, and which took root in Manitoba, Kansas, Ne-
braska, Minnesota, and Dakota.They were shaped by my love of the ordinary
person's reflections, imaginations, work, play, and relationships in the eve-
ryday context and the idea that these are the sites in which culture is born
and expressed. I am mindful of the skillful scholars—church historians,
local historians, sociologists, geographers—who have laid the groundwork
for the study of this migration. I make unabashed use of their work. The
approach of this work is based on social and cultural history.