1938

FEBRUARY

• No Mathies (Note: No grades are noted beyond Grade 4) in the February Report of S S Point Pelee School

http://ink.ourontario.ca/browse/lp - The Leamington Post. March 10, 1938 - pg. 6

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ANCESTRAL GENEALOGICAL NOTES

ESSEX COUNTY

INTRODUCTION

From:	"Louise Ross" <lross@mnsi.net>
Date:	Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:33:15 -0400
To:	krausehouse@krausehouse.ca
Subject:	Re: Mathies Clarification

• ... When I lived in Olinda with Mom & Dad [Abram J. Mathies (February 14, 1893-June 21, 1974) and Margarethe (Margaret, Margaretha) Dück (April 6, 1897-May 10, 1986)] in the 50s the Jacob Mathies family [Jacob Abraham Mathies (d. September, 1954) and Elizabeth (Liese Warkentin) Mathies (d. December 14, 1989)] lived back a long lane between the 5th & 6th concession at Olinda.
  

  Mom and Dad moved all over Essex County .. (not sure of the order of moves or if I have them all)
  At Wigles (on #3 hwy or 3rd conc. ?)
  On the 5th conc. west of the Olinda school at Dukes;
  Shared a house with relatives at Broadwell's brick yard near Kingsville;
  In a house on a sideroad near the Inman Public school;
  At Pt. Pelee;
  On the 7th conc. near Wheatley where I started school on the 8th conc., (Margaret & Annie were married here.)
  On the 10th conc. where Harry and I went to a school at the corner of the 9th and Graham sideroad;
  On the 7th conc. again near Cottam where Harry & I went to the Inman School c 1945;
  Then moved 5 miles east on the 7th conc. I went to S. S. # 17 Elmwod school, corner of the 7th and Olinda sideroad;
  On the 6th Concession near Olinda where I started High School at the U.M.E.I.
  Sold the farm and moved to 44 Fox St., Leamington ...

1926

ESSEX COUNTY

• Lohrenz and his family, the first Mennonites to settle in Essex County, lived on the farm of Edmund Wigle on the third concession near Kingsville? N.N. Driedger, in his history of the Leamington United Mennonite Church, points out that Lohrenz, being "already a missionary candidate and [having] ... preached in Russia. . . . was in an excellent position to be the first minister to the Mennonite families coming to Essex County . Mr. Lohrenz, however, left after about one and one-half years to take a ministerial position in the U.S .A ."' Thus he did not become the pillar around whom the Mennonites might gather, as families followed him beginning in the spring of 1925 . They settled in scattered fashion in Kingsville, Leamington, Wheatley, Olinda, Coatsworth, Harrow, Windsor, and Pelee Island.

Employment was available on farms and in two brickyards : one at Kingsville and one at Coatsworth . Among the more than thirty families and individuals that arrived in 1925 and 1926 were: Jacob M. Barkowsky, Jacob D. Janzen, Nicolai Schmidt, Johann Martens, Heinrich P. Enns, Abram J. Mathies, Heinrich Schmidt, Isaac Tiessen, Daniel Boschman, and Heinrich Thielman.

Jacob D. Janzen, who was to become a prominent minister in the Leamington United Mennonite Church, had arrived with his family at Quebec City on August 8, 1924, having crossed on the liner "Empress of France." He went directly to Winkler, Manitoba, but came back east to Leamington on March 6, 1925 . To bring these people together into a community of worship was the next step . It should be noted that these Russian Mennonites were composed of two groups: the "Kirchliche," or those who became the United Mennonites, and the Mennonite Brethren . In areas where members of both groups lived, as in Leamington, worship services were generally held together in the early years. The split, when it finally came in October 1932, was an amicable separation ...

• http://www.mhso.org/publications/Mennogesprach5-2.pdf -"Mennonites in Essex County: The Early Years" by Henry D. Janzen, Mennogesprach, September, 1987, Volume 5, Number 2

1927 - c. 1935

ESSEX COUNTY

• Relatives urged them to come to the Leamington area, and here they worked for a while at Broadwell's and then at Wigles. But Dad was looking for a place where he could be his own boss, and we ventured forth to Inman [to a farm bought in 1927  between Kingsville and Cottam on the Inman Sideroad], where we lived together [1927-1929] with Uncle John Dicks [John and Maria Dick] for a while. The land here was very hard. At any rate it was not the place to put down roots, and so, with another child on the way ..."How did we know?" Well, now, that we too old, to be sent upstairs, Dad and mom began to talk in Russian, and then, when we moved to that large house at Foxes, "Fräulein Friesen" came, our brother Harry was born [1931] ...

  • Golden Anniversary (1969) of  Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Mathies by Annie Krause ; Ernest J. Dick, Courage, Courage, The Lord Will Help, The Family History of Johann P. Dück and Descendants from Schönfeld, Southern Russia (Leamington, John H. Dick, 1990), pp. 57-60
      

• THE DEPRESSION BEGINS Prices plummeted overnight, and , in short order, the stock and implements Dad had signed for at premium price dropped to about 1\4 of their value. So the new venture began with a sizeable debt. The one teacher, Inman Country school was just about 200 yds. down the road and so Agnes, Helen, and I came home for lunch. Miss Blair was the teacher’s name and she drove in from the Essex area every morning in a Model A Ford to teach all the grades to 40 odd students. She was capable and a hard worker, but then for the princely sum of $500 annually, why shouldn’t she work hard! And so we settled in on the White farm located on #3 Highway about 2 miles east of the village of Cottam.

  • J.G. Dyck, 1951, 95 Erie Str., North Leamington, Ont. Canada - http://www.familienforschung.online-dick.de/index.php?id=65 - RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS FROM THE DIRTY THIRTIES AND BEYOND OR A STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE, A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY VICTOR J. DYCK WHAT FOLLOWS IS FOR MY KIDS, WITH LOVE. VICTOR DYCK, LEAMINGTON, 1996
     

• I must have been about 4 years old when we moved to Zacky Wigles near Ruthven. There was a little white frame house on the yard, where many of our people (the Mennonites) had been taking turns living as they also strove to get ahead in this free land of opportunity. My older sister Margaret started school here, as did our cousin Helen Janzen who stayed with us since her mother, a widow had to find work elsewhere.

  There is one day that stands out because it could have been the last one for our younger brother Bill. We were running over some old boards that covered a sewer. Mrs. Wigle, the bosses wife was hanging up clothes outside and had just finished warning us about the danger of what we were doing, when one of the middle boards cracked, giving way and Bill fell in. He came up twice and was about to go down for the third time when Mrs. Arnold Wigle with her huge goitre & finding it very difficult to bend over, managed to grab him by the hair on his head, and drag him over the edge. Now Mother who was inside had heard all of the screaming but thought nothing of it, since we were always doing that because of the cats. She was sitting by her sewing machine when we came in with our foul-smelling brother who brought up that sewer water for days to come.

  From Wigles, we moved to Broadwells. One day as my father was spraying the apples, I was watching & warned not to eat them as they were also green. Of course I just had to taste one. Was I sick! and up untill this day, a green apple can cause me problems. 

  Not far away we moved again; this time to Inman where I started school and walked barefoot along with most of the rest of the kids as long as the weather co-operated. One-half of our home was shared with uncle John Dick & his family as they tried to farm the hard clay land that even my tough bare feet could hardly walk on.

  In this one-room school house was a teacher Miss Blair! who didn't seem to like immigrants. Not understanding too much English since German was our first language, I whispered to my sister Margaret who was sitting in the desk across from me to explain what the teacher had said. That did it! She pointed her pointer to the corner I was to go & stand, but when I did, there I was facing her. This brought out her anger even more & directed me with that long stick to turn around where I remained untill [sic] recess ...

  • http://www.krausehouse.ca/krause/KrauseAnnie_1996-2.htm

• But Dad was looking for a place where he could be his own boss, and we ventured forth to Inman, where we lived together with Uncle John Dicks for a while. The land here was very hard. At any rate it was not the place to put down roots, and so, with another child on the way ..."How did we know?" Well, now, that we too old, to be sent upstairs, Dad and mom began to talk in Russian, and then, when we moved to that large house at Foxes, "Fräulein Friesen" came, our brother Harry was born [November 21, 1931 in Leamington] ...

  Dukes had a small house at the corner of Olinda where we could live and grow tobacco, but we didn't know about the "Vonstche" - bed bugs that is! And even the sulphur treatment didn't clear them up entirely ...

  • http://www.krausehouse.ca/krause/KrauseAnnie_1969.htm
     

• They attempted farming in Essex County together with John and Maria Dick on a farm between Kingsville and Cottam on the Inman Sideroad. They bought this 50 acre farm with a house that was large enough for both families in 1927. Their intentions were that one of them would work at the brickyard while the other would do the farming. Their unfamiliarity with clay farming, and bad luck with their crops, did not bring them sufficient income to make their payments and after two years they lost this farm and their investment ...

  • http://www.krausehouse.ca/krause/MathiesAbram-MargaretFamily.htm
     

• Thank goodness we moved again, this time to Grant Foxes at Olinda who had Cora & Nora living there also. Our father used to tell us about driving the huge truck over the hills on the way to Delhi for Mr. Fox. The school here had the most wonderful teacher I've ever known. At only 18, Miss Balkwill took  a great interest in both Margaret & myself, taking us to various functions to sing duets, after which we were rewarded with the first banana split we'd ever eaten.

  While papa was busy spraying in the peach orchard, mama was busy trying to keep us dressed in the latest styles by getting second-hand used coats & re-designing them to fit, as well as the empty spray bags, that were first bleached, & then dyed the desired colour before they were sewn with added hand-made lace around the collars. Both the coats and dresses were  very itchy, but we did look fashionable except for the high buttoned shoes that were for sale, at a second-hand store in Ruthven. 

  When we walked to German school on Saturdays, we usually returned to the smell of bean soup, a tradition it seemed to me. 

  Both Uncle Herman & Uncle George Dick stayed with us for a while at Foxes, and I loved to hear Uncle George play the Ukeleyle. He also had a radio with earphones from which we heard what was going on in the world. It was the time of the Great Depression and Uncle George decided to become a bum, and took to riding on top of the trains wherever he went. Maybe that's where someone got the song from, and wrote "Hallaluehia I'm a bum!" I can still remember that one. Uncle Herman on the other hand was determined to find a white-collar job, and it wasn't too long till he got one. It was at Fox'es that a Fraûlin Friessen arrived in the middle of the night and our brother Harry was born. All of the Mennonites in our area had her for a mid-wife & she was well liked.

  Then it was time to move again.

  Just down the road were Dukes, with a house for us to live in, and tobacco kilns on the yard. The first night after helping papa put up the stove-pipe (my job, since I was the tallest with the longest reach), we didn't get much sleep. There was something crawling around under our bed covers & biting us. All of the cracks around the windows & doors were plugged inside plus the chimney & something called "schwevel" was burned to get rid of the bed bugs. But the old couch with a head-rest that was there when we moved in had to be burned. It was probably where the trouble was. We all left for the day and the Olinda school just across the road where Miss Balkwill first read us "Little Women" followed my interest in books and still does to this day ... 

  • http://www.krausehouse.ca/krause/KrauseAnnie_1996-2.htm
     

• Our Uncle David Mathies had bought a farm at Beamsville [c. 1935], and so it was arranged for us, to go ...

  • Golden Anniversary (1969) of  Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Mathies by Annie Krause ; Ernest J. Dick, Courage, Courage, The Lord Will Help, The Family History of Johann P. Dück and Descendants from Schönfeld, Southern Russia (Leamington, John H. Dick, 1990), pp. 57-60

1938 - c. 1940

ESSEX COUNTY

• One day a Mr. Tiessen from Point Pelee came over with a truck, & everything was loaded except the second-hand piano, & we followed in our good, second-hand car. It was like a garden of Eden. A huge apple orchard, and the whole family had things to do. Margaret & I were given our first job; picking up brush after the pruning. Then the trees could be climbed where the apple thinning began. This put us in the mood for singing & yodeling, for it sure was a lot of fun working outside in the sunshine along with the rest of the young people like ourselves.

  Soon it was time to cut asparagus & with that came daylight saving time which made it 5 A.M. & you had to keep a sharp eye on job. It grew so fast in the spring that it had to be cut again in the late afternoon. now some of the early apples were ripening, so up went the ladders. Hoeing between the asparagus rows also kept us quite busy, but that was easy in the soft sand. 

  Our evenings were spent around the fires built on the beach to keep the mosquitoes away. We did as lot of singing here, mostly cowboy songs, & some went for a swim. This is where my husband-to-be came to join us, & we began to go out together. I was 15 & he 17. My curfew was 10 P.M., after that the door was locked. I was late only once when Bill got the car stuck on a stump in the bush where he drove. 

  When tomato season came along, Heinz's needed people to work nights in busy season, so Margaret & I went. They paid good wages, and at last papa could look for a farm to buy. He would be his own boss ...

  • http://www.krausehouse.ca/krause/KrauseAnnie_1996-2.htm

1950s

ESSEX COUNTY

• We thought that perhaps they'd found their Ideal Home when they bought the apple orchard at Olinda, but here Dad's ulcers finally broke, followed by an operation, that has left him with such a good appetite that if you were to be passing 44 Fox Street, and see a light on in the kitchen, that's dad frying some "Varenicki" because he just can't wait for breakfast ...

  • http://www.krausehouse.ca/krause/KrauseAnnie_1969.htm
     

• In the 1950's they developed an apple orchard near Olinda in the Leamington area ...
   
  • http://www.krausehouse.ca/krause/MathiesAbram-MargaretFamily.htm

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1960s

ESSEX COUNTY

• They retired from their farm in the 1960's to a home in Leamington ...
  • http://www.krausehouse.ca/krause/MathiesAbram-MargaretFamily.htm

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