ERIC KRAUSE

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MATHIES GENEALOGY

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ABRAM J. MATHIES
(February 14, 1893, Schönbrunn [Schönfeld], South Russia - June 21, 1974, Leamington, Ontario, Canada)
and
MARGARETHA [MARGARET, MARGARETHE] DÜCK
(April 6, 1897, Schönbrunn [Schönfeld], South Russia - May 10, 1986, Leamington, Ontario, Canada)

MATHIES AT VINELAND

1924 to 1926

and

c. 1935 to 1938

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Vineland

1924 to 1926

Kitchener Area to Vineland Area

"We were taken in by a Mr. and Mrs. Leis [Soloman R. Leis - Kitchener, Ontario] who took us home in a car. They had a son and daughter at home, 25 acres of land and 18 cows. The children worked in the town in the winter. Leis' paid us together $25.00 for the month in the summer but only room and board in the winter. We couldn't afford this since we owed for our trip so in October of 1924 we moved to Bamberg [Kitchener/Waterloo Area]. Here is where our Willy was born. [1925]

Abram was offered $3.00 per day to work in the woods and paid another $1.00 per person for him and his workers to eat dinner at our house. They wanted only meat, potatoes and hot coffee. This lasted only for 4 months. We moved to Vineland to Mr. Bill Fretz. Abram needed the English language to get a job but the old father at Fretz' could understand German and we were hired. 

The men received .15 cents per hour and the women .10. We had free accommodation and all the fruit and vegetables to eat. This lasted only until October. 

Kornelius Tiessen [Cornelius Tiessen] & 2 children, Abram Bergs & 3 children, John Dicks  [John and Maria Dick [Johann Johann Dueck]] & 2 children and us all lived together in one house in 1926. Hans Dicks had written there was work in Tavistock, Kitchener area but only for four months. Then a letter from Abram's brother Hans and Margaret Mathies told us about a job in Essex County at a brickyard for $3.00 per day ... " 

Memoirs of Mrs A. J. Mathies (Margaret Dick)  [Note: Bamburg and Tavistock are near the Kitchener-Waterloo area. "Cornelius Tiessen: Leamington church pioneer, teacher and preacher; b. 30 March 1893 in Steinfeld, Zagradovka, Russia to Heinrich Tiessen and Helen Dick. He d. 20 March 1968 in Leamington, Ontario ... They arrived in Vineland with their two sons, Walter and Helmut. This was followed by a year in Tavistock and then in 1927 the Tiessen family moved to Leamington ..." http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/tiessen_cornelius_h._1893_1968 ]

1925

1924 to 1926; c. 1935 to 1938

Our Uncle David Mathies had bought a farm at Beamsville [c. 1935], and so it was arranged for us, to go and take care of their place, until such time as they could come, and we could also take along their daughter Erica [Erika] , who was to start her first year in High School. By now, Mother had become quite adept at packing, and there she is, taking down the curtains once more.

When Erica's [Erika's] family came, we just moved next door to live with Mr. Katinar, who, we remember, used to make a lot of wine, and there were many nights when our sleep was disturbed by some of his customers, knocking on the wrong door.

The year the grapes froze, we were all ready to leave, and then Dad and mother began to talk Russian again. Our sister Louise was born [March 20, 1936 in Vineland] at Rittenhouses, during one of the worst spring storms in our recollection. 

Here we see Mother now, late one evening, rocking Louise to sleep. And that's Dad with "Canûsh" (Neil Enns that is); they are going to have a nice quiet game of chess.

It was while we were here, living at Jordan Harbour, that we were told that our house would have to be moved over, to make way for the Queen Elizabeth Highway  [c. 1938]. Dad had been very hospitable to the movers, and given them some cider for their effort. Then, after he left work, they had helped themselves to more cider, and didn't quite get our house back where it belonged. We had more fun trying to keep rolling out of bed that night.

It was also about this time, that Dad found another real good bargain. It was a "Whippet", we were told, when Dad drove up in the latest car. "Yo, dot es obah ehne Gode Koh," he used to say, that is, until one night as we were coming home late, from a wedding in Dunnville, the "Whippet' stopped running. As luck would have it, we were on the way down, and so were able to coast back most of the way - and even saved on gas. 

One day a man with very bushy eyebrows came to our house. It was Mr. John Tiessen we heard, and he was asking Dad to come and work for him in the apple orchard at Point Pelee [1938] ...

1924 to 1926; c. 1935 to 1938

I [Annie Krause - b. 1923] must have been about 4 years old when we moved to Zacky Wigles near Ruthven ...

Our Uncle David Mathies who had purchased [c. 1935] a house in Beamsville but hadn't quite finished out the time he had to work in around our area asked if we would move and take his daughter Erica [Erika's] along, since she would be starting High School there before he was ready to go. So we did and worked the land. When he moved in, we went next door to share-crop with Mr. Katuner, who while growing grapes, also ran a cat house at night. We also shared the same house, with separate entrances, and one night a lady knocked at the wrong door, but Papa was ready for her. He quickly grabbed a pail of cold water, opened the door, and dumped it on her head. This was also the year the grapes froze, and my sister and i who grew up sleeping together, managed to keep warm without any heat, under a feather tick, and hot water bottles at our feet.

It was time to move on.

It was to Jordan Harbour beside Lake Ontario, we were accepted by the Rittenhouses, on condition that someone would be a maid in their household, so here my sister Margaret [b. 1921] got her first steady job. I'd already had one year of taking care of a household that included two children when the parents were away for the evening with the Sutherlands in Beamsville in exchange for room and board when I attended [1937] my only year at Vocational school, but now it was time to contribute whatever I earned and give it to Papa. Being only fourteen [1937], the factory nearby wouldn't hire me, so on the way back home, I stopped to knock on the doors of houses that looked well-to-do. At Upshalls, for two dollars a week, nearby and a lunch every day, we were proud to be helping our growing family, the next one being Louise. It was on March 20 [1936], one very snowy night, that we all shovelled like mad to let the Doctor through, and he made it just in time. 

Now since the lake was close-by, we learned how to swim by the instructions our cousin Johnny Mathies gave: "Just climb on a rock," he said, "junp off and paddle like a dog." 

The Queen-E. was just being built and didn't our house have to be moved over for that to pass through. Well, Papa gave the workers a bit too much of his home-made wine which left our house standing up higher on one side, and caused Margaret and myself to keep falling out of bed that night.

One day a Mr. Tiessen from Point Pelee came over with a truck ...

c. 1928

c 1928
Assumed A. J. Mathies Family Car.
Notice the initals on it. It looks like J. C. T., but then
it probably was a used car.
Margaret (Dück)  Mathies, is sitting in the car. The children are,
son William b. 1925, daughter Annie b. 1923 and daughter Margaret b. 1921.

1935

1937

August

   

Annie Mathies - Lower School Examination - June 1937 - Beamsville

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c. 1937

Photo Supplied by Louise Ross (Mathies)

Margaret Mathies (b. 1921) may have taken the photo. Louise Mathies is sitting on her dad's lap.

Rear (Left-Right)

Margarethe (Margaret, Margaretha) Mathies (April 6, 1897 - May 10, 1986), Annie Mathies (February 25, 1923 - June 2, 1998), Bill Mathies (b. 1925),

Front (Left to rear)

Harry Mathies (b. 1931), Abram J. Mathies (February 14, 1893 - June 21, 1974), Louise Mathies (b. 1936) on lap

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