Kronsfeld was located on the east side of the northwest
quarter of Section 7 Township 1 Range 4. The village street ran north to
south. It was south of Winkler Manitoba, near the present site of Haskett,
near the US border.by Alan Warkentin
This presentation is a brief description of the village of Kronsfeld, which was one of the Mennonite villages in the West Reserve that started with the first wave of Mennonite immigration to Manitoba.
Kronsfeld was located on the east side of the northwest
quarter of Section 7 Township 1 Range 4. The village street ran north to
south. It was south of Winkler Manitoba, near the present site of Haskett,
near the US border.
All of the villages in the West Reserve were located in the open prairie, and Kronsfeld was the same, so little or no tree clearing had to be done. The area is basically flat and well drained, but there also were marshes and wet meadows. Kronsfeld was one of the more westerly villages, and very near the Pembina Hills, and forests of large trees were about half a mile away. The soil at the Kronsfeld site is clay -- some parts called Dead Horse clay, but further east it is a heavy black loam to a sandy loam -- all within half a mile. A creek flowed just south of the village.
A 1951 aerial photo with a northwesterly view of the former Kronsfeld village site. The buildings in the foreground were part of the Jacob C. Wieler yard at the time of the photo. The main section of what used to be the village was laid out along the roadway that extends from the yard to the upper right of the photo. The cemetery location is outlined in red. |
Chortitza-Fürstenland Mennonites settled Kronsfeld. It was probably established in 1875 or 1876. The families of Jacob Wolfe and Peter Giesbrecht were probably among the first residents. They arrived in Canada in July of 1875 on the ship Canadian. Later, in July of 1879, the following families arrived on the ship Polynesian: Bernhard Krahn, Peter Krahn, and Jacob Warkentin with his grown sons Johann and Peter. On August 27, 1879, Johann Warkentin obtained a homestead entry for NW 7-1-4 -- the Kronsfeld village site. He was 20 years old at the time. His 43-year-old father Jacob (my great grandfather) homesteaded the quarter section just to the east.
So, from the Kronsfeld village, six families obtained entry for homesteads in the village land area in 1879. They were Jacob Warkentin and his sons Johann (20) and Peter (age 21), Helena Krahn, Jacob Wolfe, and David Schmidt. In 1880, four more were added: Jacob Peters, Bernhard Krahn, Wilhelm Siemens, and Peter Giesbrecht. In 1881, four more were added again: Johann Martens, Benjamin Peters, Heinrich Goertzen and Anna Neudorf. An 1879 village map shows 13 lots with residents, and the 1881 taxation records list 10 lots with residents. The 1880 village census lists 22 people in Kronsfeld.
The Mennonite immigrants probably spent their first winter in the sod house "semlin", and then upgraded to wooden buildings as time or money allowed. There was lots of timber wood for rough lumber in the 1-5 area, but sawn timber had to be hauled from Emerson -- a 20-35 mile trip.
Not too much is known of the personal lives of these first residents. It is quite likely that they were members of the Old Colony church. Farming would be their livelihood. As mentioned before, Jacob Warkentin was my great grandfather, and Johann (the Kronsfeld homesteader) and Peter were his sons. Apparently Johann was a jack-of-all-trades -- the village watch repairman, and good at building and blacksmithing. At first he farmed for a living, then in the early 1880's Johann left Kronsfeld to be a teacher at Hoffnungsfeld -- near Winkler. Later he became involved in the ministry of the Mennonite Brethren Church.
From the magazine, the "Mennonitische Rundschau", we can learn a little bit about Heinrich Goertzen and his life back then. He mentions that the weather was quite nice on February 22, 1885. Wheat is 60-70 cents per bushel, and the oats price is also improving. Cattle sales are good. He also mentions that he would eagerly like to hear from friends and family that he hasn't heard from in 9 years. Two later residents of Kronsfeld also write some news -- not very good news. In 1892 Jacob Dyck writes about the terrible burns his son Peter got. Cornelius Quiring writes that his daughter is still suffering from an accident with a hay grinding machine that happened back in 1889.
Kronsfeld had a village lot set aside for a school, but
it was never used as such. There was one private school nearby that taught
in the German language at Blumenfeld, about three miles away. The nearest
public school teaching English subjects was at Wakeham, which was about four
miles away. So the residents of Kronsfeld had these two nearby schools to
choose from. Eichenfeld, which was little over a mile away, got a German private
school later.
In the years 1904-1905, three residents of Kronsfeld started an application for a public school teaching English curriculum in their area. If this application to the Department of Education would be approved, the school would be available to the residents of Kronsfeld, Eichenfeld and Gruenfeld, and it would also affect their taxes. The general consensus around the villages concerned was that the majority was against the public school.
A public meeting was held, and the turnout for the meeting was practically 100% -- so high were the feelings on the issue. Mr. John Giesbrecht was elected chairman, and the meeting got under way. After much heated discussion a vote was called. According to constitutional law the opinion of a voter may be expressed either by a show of hands, or on the request of one voter, by ballot. Since no one asked for a ballot vote, a vote by a show of hands was taken. The minority voted in favour of the public school, but the majority against it did not vote by a show of hands -- they believed the practice to be highly irreligious.
So the vote was passed in favour, but an attempt was made to have the results nullified when a delegation from Gruenfeld and Eichenfeld sought the advice of Judge Black of Morden. The judge upheld the result of the vote, and so the school district of Kronsfeld was formed. Isbrand Peters was elected the chairman, and John J. Giesbrecht and Jacob J. Warkentin were trustees. The first school lands totaled ten sections.
Land for the school was purchased from Jacob J. Warkentin on NE 12-1-5. It was about a quarter mile from Kronsfeld. A school building was built, and in the autumn of 1905 classes began. A well was also dug to serve the schools needs. Mr. Peter Buhr was hired as the first teacher -- there were twelve students enrolled.
Mr. Buhr only lasted till Christmas, and then another teacher had to be found to replace him. Sixteen-year-old John R. Walkof finished the year. After him, Susan Neufeld stayed for four years.
Changes were soon in store for the Kronsfeld School. One mile away, a new settlement was starting up, and growing faster than Kronsfeld. In 1907 a railway line was built that linked Morden Manitoba to Walhalla North Dakota, USA. It cut across the prairies at an angle to the surveyed land. At SW quarter of section 8, township 1 range 4 a company purchased a part of that land and cut it into lots, speculating that a settlement would develop, and it did. Mr. John Haskett was a major shareholder of that company, and so the settlement of Haskett was formed.
People started settling there, and in April 1909 the Kronsfeld school was moved to its Haskett site. That means the school was about five years old when it was moved. By 1923-1924 the school was too small to handle the 47 students attending, and a new school was built. The old school was sold and moved to Winkler, where for some years it served as a meeting place for the Church Of God congregation. After a while the building was sold to the school district of Thames South, about ten miles west of the village of Altona. There it was used as a teachers residence. On February 9th, 1952 it was destroyed by fire.
As mentioned earlier, Kronsfeld was situated at the northwest quarter of Section 7 Township 1 Range 4. That placed it right at the border of Range 5. Starting in 1877, some unrest occurred in Townships 1, 2,and 3 of Range 5. Some residents of Kronsfeld had homesteads in range 5, so they were probably affected by or involved in this unrest. This unrest was called the Menno-Canuck dispute, and it even got coverage in the Winnipeg newspapers. Apparently Ontario Canadian squatters occupied some of the homesteads in Range 5 that possessed trees. The Mennonites did not take kindly to that -- they also needed firewood and timbers for building; besides, it was the Mennonites' land. Confrontations between the squatters and Mennonites happened periodically, and one of them was recorded in the Manitoba Daily Free Press, June 14, 1881:
"A fracas occurred in Township 1 Range 5 between the settlers and the Mennonites. The Mennonites came to dispossess the settlers upon the Reserve, and the settlers turned out en masse and beat them with sticks, and took some guns from them, which they possessed, and the Mennonites were glad to return home."
From this we can see that the relations between the Mennonites and their English neighbours were strained and sometimes hostile. Both sides would have had their prejudices. The English settlers (Engellaenda) would have been prejudiced against the foreign language, the communal way of living, and the Mennonite desire to be separate from the mainstream society. The Mennonites would have been prejudiced against the Engellaenda, because they would belong to the society called the world, and that was something they were trying to distance themselves from.
There doesn't seem to be any one particular reason that caused the break-up of Kronsfeld. By the time the mass-migration to Mexico started in 1923, Kronsfeld was already shrinking. Being so near to the Engellaenda homesteaders and the Menno-Canuck dispute would have caused some people to decide to leave. The English public school issue would have caused some tension between the opposing parties. The one event that probably caused the biggest blow to the future of Kronsfeld was the railway coming past in 1907, and the settlement of Haskett starting about 1 mile away. Also, generally speaking, many Mennonite villagers decided that village life was not for them, and went to settle on their 160 acre homesteads.
From a few interviews I've had, no one remembers a thriving village of Kronsfeld. My Dad, Peter Warkentin, was born in 1911, and according to him, he can only remember one family living there. Mr. John Wieler who grew up on the one remaining yard in Kronsfeld can only remember a few broken down and abandoned buildings in the 1930's. On the east side of the driveway he would find broken dishes, and on the west side the plough would dig up large stones that would have been foundation stones. Wooden piers were found that showed that a bridge had crossed the creek that flowed south of the village. Graves were on the east side of the old village road at the south end.
One day a real surprise was found at the Kronsfeld site. John Wieler's son Douglas was sitting on the plough as John was ploughing. As Douglas watched the dirt rolling through the plough, he saw something shiny. He rushed to see what it was, and found it was an 1875 American 50 cent piece. His one disappointment in the excitement was that he forgot the exact location of the coin, because he hoped to find more!
Today, all that can be seen of the former village is an old wooden barn, which used to have a house attached to it in the old village style.
So, Kronsfeld is no more, and the original settlers and their children are also gone from this earth. It has been interesting studying up on its history, and just trying to imagine what life would have been like back then. This short presentation would just be the tip of the iceberg. If anyone has other anecdotes to add to the story of Kronsfeld, please connect with Alan Warkentin at 204-325-8453.
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Photos: 2006 photos of barn that remained of the Kronsfeld village site. At right, a closeup of the timbers utilized in construction. For safety reasons the barn has since been demolished. Click on images for a larger photo. |