Village News

Steinbach’s First Families – Klaas B. and Maria (De Fehr) Friesen

  • Nathan Dyck, Blog Coordinator
  • Development Coordinator, MHV
A. D. Penner
A. D. Penner gets spanked by his mother for demolishing the last remaining housebarn in Steinbach in this staged photo from 1960. This housebarn was built by the Friesens but later owned by the Kornelsen family. The house was cleared for a car storage lot at the corner of Highways 12 and 52, what is now the site of Victoria Plaza. Credit: George Wright,Steinbach: Is There Any Place Like It?, 192.

This week we are winding up the exploration of the first families of Steinbach. This series has looked at the 18 families that settled on the 20 Wirtschaft that comprised the original town of Steinbach along what is today Elmdale Street. There are many other individuals who contributed to the growth and development of the Steinbach and surrounding communities, and hopefully we will have an opportunity to share some of their stories in the future. Thankfully, many of these important stories have been recorded by family or local historians and we encourage you to come by the Village Books and Gifts to peruse our wealth of books covering stories of Mennonites both local and worldwide.

Klaas B. Friesen moved around the villages of the Molotschna colony as a child due to his father’s work as a school teacher. He married Maria de Fehr in 1861, and they moved to Annafeld, Borosenko to live near his father and step-mother. Together with his parents they travelled to Canada on the Austrian, arriving in Quebec on August 31st, 1874. Klaas’ parents settled in Blumenort, while he, Maria and their children settled on homestead SE25-6-6E on a gravel ridge east of Steinbach. Arriving late in the year, they had just enough time to construct a semlin (sod house) before winter and shared their home with a cow and some chickens.

In the spring of 1875 the Friesens moved to Wirtschaft 20 in Steinbach, the most north-west property in the town (where Victoria Plaza stands today). According to KJB Reimer’s history in Die Mennonitische Post, the bush was so thick in summer they could not see the lanterns of their neighbours, a testament to the difficulty of preparing the land around Steinbach for farming. In the late 1880s, Klaas and Maria built a housebarn which stood on the site until 1960, the last remaining example of its kind in Steinbach. It was torn down, to great protest, by A. D. Penner who owned a Dodge dealership and roadworks company. They farmed in the Steinbach area until 1909, when they retired and lived on their property until Maria’s death in 1916, after which their property was auctioned.

Klaas and Maria had five children, eldest Cornelius left the Kleine Gemeinde on marrying Maria Klassen and joined the Chortitzer Gemeinde, moving to Osterwick west of New Bothwell. Son Klaas married Anna Wiebe and moved to Greenland, north of Blumenort before leaving for the Mennonite community in Needles, BC. They lived there less than a year before returning to farm near Friedensfeld. Son Jacob was a cheesemaker in the factory in Steinbach before moving to Kansas. Daughter Katharina married a Dutchman, Herman Krebs, and youngest Johann worked the farm and spoke English by the time he was school-age.

This post was published on 09/12/2024