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MATHIES GENEALOGY

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REMEMBERANCES OUT OF RUSSIA

FROM JOHANN J MATHIES, VINELAND, ONTARIO, 1965

[Johann - brother of A. J. Mathies]

[Interviewed by Annie Krause]

Return

[1920]

In the spring of 1920, we returned to Molotschna in Tiege, where my parents-in-law the Koops were house-parents at the school for the deaf. I drove back again to get our two cows from Memrick, sold one cow and bought two horses and a wagon. I tied the other cow to the back of the wagon and left with all my worldly goods. There were two of us. One Marten Janzen from Ebental also wanted to go to Molotschna-Koll. We went through Tsdchanigowka, Klippenfeld, and Hamburg to Henry Schroeders [who later died in Topfield, Alberta.]

In Hamburg was the Red Front. In Waldein was the White Front. We wanted to go to Tiege, but couldn't get permission from the reds. We both thought we had to go, so left by the light of day as if we were heading for Wernersdorf. Coming to the left middle-road, we asked how the air looked. "Everything red!" We wanted to go to Landskrons, so drove as far as the train tracks which passed through Waldheim-Tockmar, and became aware that some soldiers were at the bridge. We drove on with the cow in tow coming nearer thinking we were safe. Suddenly,

"Halt! From where do you come?" 
"From Hamburg!" 
"How could you, when their are Reds everywhere?"
"We went this way and that and want to go to Tiege. My wife has relatives, the Newfelds in Landskrone where we want to spend the night" 

We were then taken by a White guard, to the head of the Air Force, a German. In the beginning he wanted to separate us, but everything we told him about the red Front coincided, and we were freed. So we got to Tiege, where it also was unsettled. The White Army had softened. The Mennonite villages had to give up their wagons to drive the military to the Korim. The school for the deaf-mutes had a wagon that I had to drive. At Melitopol, I already had the 3rd wagon. It had to be good wagons that carried all the machinery weapons. To a large Russian village, we were to drive our horses and then further still.  I thought to myself if we went further, I might never come back.; The wagon I had was not much good. The wheels were crooked. On the yard stood the guards. There were two of us. I looked over to the barn. There were a few cherry trees, a small [sahata?] And a small ditch. If I were to take my horses through there, we might get away. It was dark enough. I saddled my horses and tied the reigns over the backs and away we went. We heard shouts and shots but we looked ahead into the the distance and came over the fields to Tiege by the next morning. Uncle Jake Enns was astonished that we had managed to save our horses. 

They were used at the institution, and all over even for wheat. Now the money was not worth much so that even the teachers took payment in wheat rather than money.