What a house!

Is there anyone among us who would not love to have the house in this photo from 1912 (estimated)? Not only is it huge and ornately decorated all around—from the peak of the roof to the side of the porch—but it also has a walk-out deck from the second-floor bedroom, gutters with downspouts, three lightning rods, two chimneys, and a cement sidewalk leading up to the front door. (Add high-speed Internet and a robust wifi router, and it would be perfect!)

As incredible as the house may be, that is not the best part of the picture, as the detail below makes clear.

Do any of the people look familiar, maybe the same people as shown here? It seems fairly certain that the older girl on the left is Grandma (Malinda Franz, born 1906), which would make the younger girl her sister Lydia (born 1910).

The older couple in the center are Margaretha Siebert Epp and Jacob Epp, which implies strongly that the man and woman standing behind Grandma and Lydia are their parents: Isaac G. and Sarah Epp Franz (Margaretha and Jacob are her parents).

The fellow on the far right wearing the boutonnière is completely unknown—but it may be some sort of special day for him (although it seems a bit awkward to have him standing apart from the others).

Another photographic treasure reclaimed from obscurity, thanks to Dad and Suely and their trusty scanner—even more waiting to be shared!

Thinking about Kleefeld 2

The first half of this discussion (see here) suggested that the evidence we have of Johann Siebert’s situation in Kleefeld argues against attributing his emigration to financial distress, political upheaval, or religious persecution (real or imagined). Something else must have motivated him to sell the title to Kleefeld’s Wirtschaft 34, pack up his family and belongings, and journey to central Nebraska. To gain greater insight into that “something else,” we will consider Mennonite inheritance practices and the makeup of Johann’s family itself.

According to Russian law, Mennonites who owned land in one of the colonies (e.g., Molotschna) were prohibited from subdividing a 65-dessiantine (ca. 175 acres) allotment in order to sell it or pass it on to their children. Russian law further specified that inherited land was to go to the youngest son in the family, although the Mennonite community was granted permission in 1800 to follow their own inheritance customs. Thus as a rule the oldest Mennonite son inherited the right to the allotment on the passing of the father, but he was expected to compensate his siblings for their “share” in that land holding. For example, if an allotment was worth 6,000 rubles and the oldest son had seven living siblings, he would pay each of them 750 rubles, so that, in effect, each child of the deceased received an equal inheritance (see further Urry 1989a).

This arrangement, although as equitable as possible under the circumstances, really did little to help the younger siblings over the long term. Granted, they possessed a sum of money equivalent to their share in the family, but they still did not own the land needed to support their own families. It is not difficult to see how in only a few generations the landlessness problem mentioned earlier developed across the Molotschna colony. All that is background to our consideration of Johann Siebert’s family situation and what light that might shed on his decision to leave Kleefeld behind.

Johann and Katharina Rempel Siebert were married in 1846 and immediately started their family. Sarah was born in 1847, and ten more children followed over the next nineteen years. Two of the children died before reaching adulthood (Cornelius in 1860 and Anna-1 in late 1858 or 1859), so that by 1879, when Johann and Katharina emigrated to the U.S., they had nine living children: five daughters, all older than their remaining four sons.

Sarah Siebert Buller

• Sarah, as we know well, was married to Peter D Buller, the second-born son in his family. Sarah and Peter emigrated at the same time as Johann and Katharina and likewise settled near Henderson.


• Katharina was married to Jacob Heinrich Friesen, the only child in a family with no record of land ownership in Molotschna. They emigrated at the same time as Johann and Katharina but apparently headed north and settled in Saskatchewan, Canada.


• Maria was married to Abraham A. Thieszen, the firstborn son of Aron Thiessen (GRANDMA spells their last names differently). Abraham’s family emigrated to the U.S. (Mountain Lake, Minnesota) in 1876, three years before Abraham and Maria traveled with her family to Nebraska. They also settled in Henderson.


• Maragretha was a single twenty-three-year-old in 1879.


• Anna-2 was a single nineteen-year old in 1879.


• Diedrich (eighteen), Johann J (seventeen), Peter (fifteen), and Kornelius (thirteen) were all unmarried and living at home in 1879.

Margaretha Siebert (later Epp)

The reality for fifty-seven-year-old Johann Siebert was that most, perhaps all, of his children would end up landless if they remained in Kleefeld.

That fate was already sealed for his oldest daughters Sarah, Katharina, and Maria. Even if Sarah’s in-laws did own a farm, Peter D was the second-born and had no prospect of inheriting it. Katharina’s in-laws did not own land, as far as we know. Finally, Maria’s in-laws had already emigrated to the U.S., so even if they had owned land previously it was long gone.

Similarly, of Johann’s four living sons, only one would be able to inherit Kleefeld Wirtschaft 34, and one wonders what eighteen-year-old Diedrich was supposed to do in the meantime. (Johann had no idea how long he would live, of course, but it turns out that he lived another twenty-nine years after emigrating and passed on when Diedrich was forty-seven [assuming Diedrich lived that long].)

The only other children with any hope of being a part of a land-owning family were Margaretha and Anna-2, but if the experiences of their three older sisters were any indication, that was a slim hope indeed.

In all likelihood, Johann knew that eight of his children would be landless the rest of their lives, and even Diedrich would have to wait many years before owning the family farm. With prospects such as this, it is easy to imagine that Johann decided to sell his land in Kleefeld in order to seek a better life for the entire family in the U.S.

This is all speculation, obviously, but it is speculation with some basis in evidence. Clearly, Johann was not moving to improve his own situation; he was already set for life. So if he was not moving to improve his financial situation or out of political or religious concerns, what else would there be but to take care of his children—all of his children—the best way he could?

The site of Kleefeld today. No trace of the village is visible from the air.

Since we are already knee deep in speculation, why not wade out a little farther? The timing of Johann’s decision is both interesting and suggestive. According to James Urry, the earliest groups of emigrants “were forced to sell their land and farms cheaply; a full farm valued at 6,000–7,000 rubles before emigration often sold for as little as 3,000 rubles during the period of intense migration. By the late 1870s, however, Molochnaia prices had regained their pre-emigration levels” (Urry 1989b, 221). As the last Kleefeld landowner to emigrate, at the end of the 1870s—in 1879, to be exact—Johann undoubtedly sold his allotment for top ruble, far more than he would have been able to negotiate five years earlier.

On the ground, only a windmill in the middle of a field remains to mark 
the location of Kleefeld. The village was apparently abandoned during 
World War II, when the German–Russian front stretched across 
Molotschna for a number of weeks. The site was completely razed 
in the 1990s; even the cemetery was plowed and turned into a field.

To wade a little deeper into speculation—although the names of several Kleefeld landowners appear in the Schnurbuch discussed here, meaning that they borrowed money from an aid society to finance their journey and the costs of setting up a household in the U.S., neither Johann’s name nor those of any of his sons-in-law are found in that record.

This does not prove that none of these four families who traveled together did not take out a loan, but it lends credence to the notion that the money Johann received from the sale of Wirtschaft 34 was used to pay the significant costs of transporting four families (twenty-five people in all) and their goods from New Russia to Nebraska, perhaps even to purchase farmland once they arrived. In fact, it is perfectly reasonable to think that Johann served as his own family aid society, that he loaned his married children the funds they needed to emigrate and then establish their own farms in their new homeland.

All speculation, obviously, but this scenario does answer several vexing questions:

• Why did Johann decide to emigrate? A: To provide the opportunity for all of his children to own and farm their own land.


• Why did Johann emigrate so much later than other Kleefeld residents? A: His emigration was not out of fear or necessity, so he waited until land prices rose in value.


• How were the landless Peter D and Sarah (and the other married children) able not only to pay for the trip to Nebraska but also purchase 80 acres of land within the first week after arriving? A: Johann used the money he received from selling his land allotment to fund the journey and the initial purchases of land, probably in the form of loans to the sons-in-law.

Even if some of the details turn out to be mistaken, the general explanation seems to be headed in the right direction—and until someone stumbles across a long-forgotten diary or a promissory note that sheds additional light on this phase of our family history, it is probably the best that we can do.

Sources Cited

Urry, James. 1989a. Land Distribution (Russia). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Available here.

———. 1989b. None But Saints: The Transformation of Mennonite Life in Russia 1789–1889. Winnipeg: Hyperion Press.

Ruth’s Story 6 (and last)

For the first five installments, see here, here, here, here, and here.

*****

A NEW HOME AFTER TWENTY-FIVE YEARS

Our home on 1503 F Street had served our purposes very well. I enjoyed the large rooms, the large yard and the many, many storage closets. After the leukemia treatment, this wonderful home became more and more unmanageable. Soon, this home which had served so well for 25 years but needed so much up-keep became a great big chore. With our income cut when I quit working at Richland Sales, it was not feasible to think of getting someone to help me with the house and yard work.

We found a mobile home that we both really liked. It has large rooms, less of them and storage is adequate even if much more limited. It was time to go through those closets and to begin to share family treasures with our children and anyone else interested. The year of 1996 became a very intense year with the goal of becoming oriented to a smaller home. Again, we found ourselves indebted to friends and family. My sister Darlene helped to clean the large house to make it ready for resale—and it did sell as soon as it hit the market! Thank you, Lord. We shall remember close friends and family members who made themselves available for moving, preparing our new home for us, etc. Our friends Mike and Florence LaRue took on themselves so much of the painting and wallpapering and inspired us to continue with the redecorating when our resources had run out. Earl and Esther Enns gave us advice and encouragement on how to fix up our yard for a spectacular display. Tim and Cindy were there to help as they could, although it came just at a time when Cindy was discovering her latest pregnancy. Our Bible Study gang, Sam Bergens and Bill Martins, helped to move the many boxes, etc. Even Carolyn on one of her trips to visit us managed to help me to find just the right place to hang my wall decorations. How can we ever repay such acts of kindness?

I know that the Lord shows us the way. We are all so different and the Lord has taught me to become more comfortable first with myself and then with others. We have so many different ways of showing our kindness to one another. God has also taught me to appreciate Don’s gentle but resistant, quiet spirit which often conflicts with my more up-front, take-action personality. Don has learnt from Esther Enns who worked together with him at the Enns Pontiac office to become thoughtful and surprising!

My health and the difficulty Don and I had in communicating effectively over the years has affected me emotionally—perhaps the most devastating was the rejection I so keenly felt from family who did not like my temperament. It caused me to search more deeply in God’s Word and to find the disciplines necessary to change what was not pleasing to God, but also to be relaxed with that which God wanted to use in the ministry He wanted to accomplish in my life! I also discovered that depression can be physically caused and needs to be addressed as such—but that which is caused by circumstances or by personality needs to be put under the scrutiny of God’s Word, and “the peace that passes all understanding” will then become a reality despite the surroundings. Thank you, God, for a rich, full life, and I praise You that You use even the most disconcerting affairs to bring about Your purposes, according to Romans 8:28.

I am so grateful that I have learnt how to personally look to the Lord to guide my life and teach me. I operated many years thinking it was up to me to make happen whatever changes needed to happen—perhaps because my childhood did not have the gentle teaching to learn to trust in Jesus in everyday situations. I found myself longing for an older woman to disciple and teach me how to make decisions that would help me to feel good about myself—but even though I sought for someone, I could not find one. Hannah Regier was perhaps my closest mentor in my children’s younger years, and I profited so much from her example, but we never lived close enough for me to benefit from her teaching day by day. Her example in some ways made me determine to do it on my own because I could see what a wonderful Christian she was—but I did not see how she was allowing Christ to do it in her.

Because I met up with mostly criticism on how I did things and because I was a first-class people pleaser, I attempted to change myself but not ever quite sure how to do it. I went to God’s Word and read how I must put my old self to death and so I attempted to do just that, managing to squelch my feelings thinking that, if my feelings were kept in line, I would be pleasing to God. It was in a Bible Study with Jean Hammer that I really caught that my life in Christ is an ongoing relationship. I can and will fail all the time, but God always has His arms wide open to forgive me as soon as I come to Him to allow Him to teach me. It is never dependent upon pleasing others, but He does use others to affirm and refine me. The more I come to sit at His feet for Him to teach me, the more I will feel His pleasure upon my life.

I also have learnt that, although I should spend much of my time building up those around me, it isn’t based on people pleasing but rather based on helping those people to become more aware of God’s love and the relationship He desires to build with them also.

Photo of the day

Following up on the earlier family photo here is another from several years later and a much more formal setting.

As before, the exact date of the photograph is not known, but a reasonable guess would be 1946, when Alma was approximately eight and Matilda eighteen. If anyone knows or thinks otherwise, please leave a comment.

Photo of the day revisited

Last Tuesday’s photographic post (see here) wondered where on the Lushton farm the photograph was taken, since the corn crib seemed to be in the wrong spot. That is, the corn crib appeared to be east of the chicken coops on the left of the picture, but in the aerial photo of the farm posted back in July it is clearly on the west (number 7 in the second photo below).

Thanks to Dad for providing an answer to this mystery. When the 1942 family photo was taken, the corn crib was located to the east of the chicken coops, in front of the windmill visible just to the left of the number 4 in the aerial photo. Sometime after 1942 Grandpa moved that corn crib to the west, to the other end of the chicken coops and the white granary.

So, the picture is correct and does not need to be reversed. Funny how the littlest details can bring back a memory of what was no doubt a big deal at the time: lifting and moving the entire corn crib from one side of the farmyard to the other.

Ruth’s Story 5

For the first four installments, see here, here, here, and here.

AND THEN LEUKEMIA

I had enjoyed the health God had promised to me back when my work escalated at Richland Sales—going through some deep trials would have been very difficult without the energy that I had experienced by God’s intervention. The victories God had given me as a result of His involvement in my life became a fundamental in giving me a ministry to several people at Richland Sales in leading them into a walk with the Lord and in discipling them over the next three to four years, especially with Tena and Virginia. Our relationship often went into the social realm; baking was something we often did at my house in evenings or weekends. When Theresa took over the Payroll, she was open to my testimony about the Lord, but because of God’s conviction in her life concerning some areas, she began to verbally oppose me and little by little her hostility began to filter to others and the door which God had opened to me was being closed to talking about the Lord at work. Because of my good performance at work, my overall acceptance was good, but with so many new ones coming on board, the whole social structure was changing and I was losing the joy in my job that I had enjoyed over the years.

Richland Sales sold to Cargill and at this point my special status of three and one-half days a week with benefits was coming to an end. I chose not to go full-time—and interestingly enough my energy level was particularly slow this last summer. I decided to have a blood test taken in November 1992 just before leaving for Los Angeles for four to five days in which Don would be attending computer school. The test wasn’t back—and while staying in the motel I decided to have a special prayer seminar of my own to get God’s input for what God had in store for my future. It was a very special time in which God became very precious to me. I was just going to start a Prayer Bulletin at church and God gave me many good thoughts in how to generate this report.

We made a short jaunt up over a bridge for our breakfast one morning, and it made me very much aware that my energy level was dangerously low. We stopped several times for me to catch my breath and to be able to move on. It was Thanksgiving weekend when we got back. I became surprisingly tired and frustrated when I served a dinner to my family. When I went into the doctor’s office, a lot of this puzzle fell into place as the doctor read a report that clearly showed leukemia had totally brought my blood count out of line. Driving home that afternoon, I realized that I didn’t know any people who outlived leukemia, yet I felt the peace of God as a promise which was to take me throughout the coming weeks. Romans 8:38–39: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The leukemia that affected my body was called Hairy Cell Leukemia. They had just finished testing a new treatment with a high curing percentage of 95%. I had to wait almost a week while we waited for the government to send the treatment—and in that week my body succumbed to a viral pneumonia that totally sapped my energy. Two days before Christmas I went into the hospital—but still the peace of God just seemed to be beside me in a way that totally overshadowed any fear I might have had, a very new, great feeling. The treatment was successful, but it so depleted my body of everything that it was three and one-half weeks before I was permitted to go home. And then it was another month before I was allowed to join the public in a social setting, because of the fear of infection with my low red blood count.

Don was sick with a viral pneumonia which he must have gotten from me, and our family was just totally dependent upon others. What a helpless feeling—but with the kids and Don spending Christmas lunch with me in the hospital (bringing the food I had already ordered from Manuella Islas for our meal) and the many friends who surrounded us at this time, we felt totally overwhelmed again with the love that God pours out through His children!

God so freely gives His love through His Body, the Church, so that any trial can become a stepping stone of praise when we allow Him to work His praise in us!
I attempted to go back to work part-time, but the stress of work was more than I felt willing to handle at this time. I quit after helping for several months in the accounting department to get their new method of bookkeeping into place. I knew God had something else in store for me—and He did!

I volunteered in July 1993 to help in the Love, INC office, and as I worked in the telephone volunteering position, it became evident that someone was needed in the office to coordinate the work. During the next three years, we would go through four different directors, and our work load was increasing all the time. It occurred to me that the organization skills developed at Richland Sales were what the Lord was using to prepare me for the Love, INC office. In the years that ensued, between Beverly Regensberg and myself we had the office operating pretty efficiently so that even when the Board of Directors was almost defunct we still kept the office running smoothly.

Tim Doyle joined our staff as Program Director in 1996. He added a dimension to Love, INC that completely refreshed the way we operated in the community. He took a tough love stance but with an eye to helping them to see that it was for their benefit. He taught each of us to look at it as a ministry in which God used our unique personalities to accomplish His work in the hurting community. He also took this message to the churches and supplied us with many volunteers so that we could offer many different services through the churches to those in crisis. It became a real challenge and accomplishment, as we talked about how we could best bring the client into touch with God’s saving grace whether by services or by a verbal testimony. We began to have a viable way to handle those we did not feel good about helping, but even more importantly, we began to have many stories which had wonderful endings to them.

AND THEN THERE WERE GRANDCHILDREN

Tim and Cindy decided to wait several years for children. Cindy finished school, worked at Gottschalks in the clothing and the Lancome make-up departments, plus a year or so at KRDU as the Office Manager, before they had their first baby. Ashley was born on July 8, 1986. This was such an exciting event—both sets of grandparents were so proud and happy to share this event with our children! How could we ever have imagined the joy and pride that relating to a small baby that was the offspring of our very own children could effect us! Ashley was a quiet and happy baby. Yoshie was visiting us when this event took place, and it was so special to do everything we planned together with her and a new baby!

Two years later, on September 13, 1988, Garrett Samuel joined his big sister as our miracle baby. Cindy had had some false labor early, and when I took Cindy to the doctor, we discovered he had turned himself around and was now in breech position. The doctor decided that cesarean birth was necessary, and how happy we were that that was the case, for the cord had wrapped around his neck as well as his little foot in the birthing canal was what had brought on the false labor while his other foot stuck straight up! His middle name, Samuel signifies a gift from God, and we will always be grateful for how the Lord directed in this life!

The other miracle of God which was more difficult to handle happened when Cindy discovered a problem with a mole on her leg shortly after becoming pregnant. It turned out to be melanoma cancer which had to be cut out without the help of anesthesia, only local freezing as the skin specialist cut it away. What a trooper Cindy was; this frightening experience will always remind us that God is there even though we do not always understand why He allows some circumstances in our life. This experience also made me keenly aware of my inability to know how to relate emotionally to my family’s feeling needs because of the way I had whipped myself into shape over the years.

Ashley became a visitor in our home many times during this time while Cindy was recuperating first from her leg surgery and then from her cesarean surgery. She was always such a joy to have that Grandpa and I considered it a privilege to care for her.

Two years and five days later, Courtney Alyss came on the scene. Even though Garrett came cesarean, it was decided to allow Courtney to come the conventional way. Everything went well, and so this family increased to a family of five on September 18, 1990. Courtney had problems with colic more than any of the others; whether this made her so unhappy we do not know, but we know that she knew her own mind more than either of the other two. This determination was a blessing less than a year later when she fell on top of a glass coke bottle which splintered and cut her wrist and the tendons by her hands very badly. We’ll never forget this traumatic time while the family stood by helplessly as she went through this surgery. They were in the process of building a new house, so they needed to cope with all of this in a small two-bedroom apartment where none of them had much space to call their own.

This trauma was further complicated by the adventurousness of this brave girl who decided to remove the bandages and small cast attached to her hand shortly thereafter—it was too soon for the harder cast that was to follow. What a concern as we wondered if any of the tendons and mending bones had been damaged. Later as she was healing, we saw her persistence in using that hand even when we could see it was hurting her and we knew that God had given her what it takes to beat the odds!

On February 25, 1992, little Cassandre Jennae came into this world. At her mother’s bedside was her father, her grandmother and doctors and nurses. This was my first time to be in the room while a birth was taking place and I shall never forget the fear, the awe, the marvel of how God sends these little ones into the world. It was a precious moment between mother and daughter!

And then when the babies were grown to young children, approximately five years later, little Mitchell Wayne made his presence known. This birth had its own challenges as Cindy found herself pregnant at Christmas time—and as the season neared, labor pains began to announce themselves. The doctor ordered her off her feet, and family and friends took over the chores as much as they could. The fact that Tim and Ashley had the flu complicated things—especially when Tim began to get very ill the second time around. His temperature shot up on Christmas day and before the day was over, the doctor had placed him in the hospital with pneumonia. Little Mitchell waited another 14 days before making his presence on January 8, 1997. What a day of rejoicing it was for all of us—especially the three children who could hardly wait to go to the hospital to celebrate his coming! Lord, you are so good.

All five children are special treasures from God, and we enjoy each of them in their own unique way. Some of the greatest pleasures that Don and I have experienced in our lives has come through our precious grandchildren and the joy of relating to our children as responsible adults. We had both come to the time in our lives when we realized that the greatest joys usually have a history of some of life’s greatest struggles! What a privilege to see these families grow in the Lord and in the precepts that God teaches through His Word!

Ruth’s Story 4

For the first three installments, see here, here, and here.

TEEN YEARS AND ROMANCES

The girls were almost four years apart in ages, so they only had one year in which they overlapped in Immanuel High School. Cindy was involved in track meets, cross country running, etc. She again brought home many medals for her efforts. She enjoyed Home-Ec and fashions. Although school was difficult for her, she managed to earn the gold tassels on her graduation attire!

Carolyn would like to have been involved in basketball, volleyball, etc. At church camp in her eighth year she broke her hand. It had started healing by the time she came back from camp, and her doctor gave her a sling so that before her surgery we could go to Disneyland with her cousin Corinne and Aunt Esther who were visiting from Nebraska. It was a fun trip, but it became very painful for Carolyn because of all the jostling of her arm. She had the surgery when we got back and they put a pin to mend the break and with the time that it took to heal, that eliminated her from trying out for a team in volleyball. The following year she was unable to try out again as she had tests which involved a spinal tap right in the beginning of the school year. By the 11th grade, she had lost too much valuable practice time to qualify for the teams. She went along to the games and kept scores for them instead; she always took disappointments so calmly.

At her graduation party, Cindy hosted many friends and family in our back yard while Carolyn and Elaine helped to serve the guests. After the party, Cindy joined some friends in going to other graduation parties. At one of these she met a tall, dark handsome guy named Tim Harms. This meeting was to affect the rest of her life, as they soon became best friends and planned their wedding together. What a wonderful mate she was choosing!

First Cindy attended college at Kings River Community College. Fashion designing both in clothes and in home decorating had been Cindy’s love for many years, and she found many courses which helped her work towards this goal.

Cindy’s wedding was the biggest event any of us had ever been involved with planning. Cindy had great ideas! Because of the cost, many of those ideas had to be fleshed out by making them ourselves. My organization skills and Cindy’s creativity worked together for hosting a wedding of 500+ guests that was talked about for months to follow. But even more than the grandness of the occasion, I remember the awe I felt as I realized that a new home was being established and I recall how my heart filled with unspeakable love and pride as my beautiful daughter stood with her lover at the altar. Tim and Cindy settled in a farm home in Dinuba.

Tim worked at Agribusiness and Cindy went back to college! She also worked at Gottschalks part-time as she had done before marriage. This schedule became pretty demanding! Cindy’s talents and creativity became very obvious, but even more apparent was the disciplines to hang in there during tough assignments.

Carolyn continued at Immanuel High School. Because of Carolyn’s musical talents, she zeroed in on choral music. She became a member of the school choir as well as the Sunshine Group for several years. They ended up taking some great honors at the District Music Festival. Carolyn was very good at accounting, and Uncle John in the lunch room really enjoyed and used her a lot in collecting money for the lunches.

Throughout all of Carolyn’s teen years, a strength that always jumped out even in the most difficult times was her compassion and supporting role in the lives of her friends. This was especially shown in her role with her friend Sandy, who was struggling with her parents and her self-esteem. We were no match to the challenges that were to confront us with this event and others in the coming years!

Jean Hammer came to Reedley with a Bible Study—or as she preferred to call it, ‘‘Women in the Word”—which would give some life-changing direction to me personally. Through this new approach to expecting God to show us how to make choices by looking for His direction through His Word, I gained some valuable insight into how to respond to situations in a way that would glorify God. It was during this time I asked God to give me a verse specifically in regard to my children. God seemed to impress Exodus 17:12 and 13 into my heart. Moses was holding his arms up and as long as he did, Joshua discomfited Amalek by the edge of the sword. When his arms became too heavy, Aaron and Hur helped him to hold up his arms. So it seemed that God was reminding me that I alone would not be able to hold up my arms in faith, but I must open myself to others so they could join me in my battle to release my children. A valuable lesson I needed to learn.

An incident I will never forget happened when Don and I left to attend a Bill Gothard seminar in Los Angeles. I had the best curling iron which Carolyn wanted to use and she insisted I leave it with her. Not feeling good about the manner in which she approached me, I asked God to show me how I could best respond to Carolyn. As the time approached, Carolyn was asking me what I would do. I responded that I had asked God and I would let her know. Her response was, “But what if He doesn’t tell you anything?” Before I knew what I was saying, I had responded, “If you asked me something, I care enough to give you an answer. I know God will give me an answer!” Whew—what if I didn’t get a clear answer? The night before I reminded God that I still did not have a direction in how I was going to answer her. The next morning I was reading in Hebrews 10:24, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” I jumped up and ran into Carolyn’s room to share that God wanted me to let her use my curling iron so that it would help her to remember to do good deeds also.

Carolyn also hosted her friends at a graduation party. This time there was her mother and Cindy to help serve the guests. She had various boyfriends but none that really took her eyes as the very special one! She had many girlfriends. She had the honor of singing with a trio at the graduation ceremony.

Carolyn soon moved to Fresno. This was a painful time between Don, Carolyn, and myself, and we had to struggle through many of our relationships. I began to confide my feelings to friends who were interested in me and my maturity, and God began to show me how I could better handle some of the ways that I responded to situations. Dean and Kathy Gray, John and Florene Mendel, Sam and Marvis Bergen, and Florence LaRue had much influence in helping me to find God’s way for my life. Over the years, God has shown me that in order to help people, suffering has to be worked through in real life, and that gives insight to counsel and compassion.

Because of my feeling of being such a failure in my parental role, I also became involved in counseling. Don became involved with me reluctantly, and we were able to resolve some of our differences in a much better way than we had practiced before. In looking back at these very painful years, I realize that God had not forgotten me, and I was not the failure I accepted in myself, but rather that God wanted to break some of the molds that had been wrongly entrenched in my mind. I will share some of these concepts in the chapter of my life at Richland Sales as the Payroll Supervisor.

TEN YEARS AT RICHLAND SALES

My health was improving and I felt that it would be good to go back to work—summertime bookkeeping for a fruit-packing shed seemed to be the most promising as far as pay was concerned in Reedley. My experience at Immanuel was a great help in helping me to know how to pick up the skills required for the books at Richland Sales—a payroll position that started with approximately 200 summertime employees and grew to 450 during the time I worked in that department. The discipline required to get those paychecks out each week on a timely basis was just one of the strengths that I was able to give to that position.

Several years after starting at Richland Sales for the summertime, it was decided to go to a computerized timecard system. Just the previous summer I had let Frank, my boss, know that I was being stretched to my limit in the hours per week that was required of me to finish the payroll on time.
That February I had a nightmare. I called out for help and in terror. Just like that a verse that I still do not recall having read before came to my mind. “This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting,” Mark 9:29, and then I woke up. After researching it and finding those words and seeing both the Mark and the Matthew 17:14–23 version, I determined that I must spend a day in fasting before the Lord.

When I made preparations for the day, I hardly even knew what to do. I decided to read God’s Word concerning fasting and let Him direct me to what He wanted me to learn. I was reading in Isaiah and God began to help me to see that because I found it difficult to please my parents, I expected more from myself than I could possibly give. God showed me that I was born with a sinful nature and that if I needed God’s forgiveness to start my Christian life, then I also needed God’s involvement in helping me to become what He had created me to be. I had forced myself to love others, to show kindness for evil even when I didn’t have it to give and by not coming directly to God for help, therefore God wasn’t able to help me in those areas. He loved me not for how perfect I was, but because I was and He had created me for fellowship with Him which could blossom when I personally asked Him to help me.

Isaiah 58:8–12 became God’s personal words to me, especially verse 8, “Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.” As a result of that day spent with the Lord, there was such a joy that welled up in my heart that I found myself literally wanting to shout the good news from the housetops—but rather I shared it with some close friends. It opened my senses to look to answers from the Lord rather than to trust in my own good judgment.

That summer as we tried to incorporate the new computerized time clock into our payroll, everything went wrong. Instead of cutting back on my time, for the next eight weeks I put in no less than 65 hours up to 85 hours a week. Again the Lord spoke to me at night reminding me of the part of verse 8 that said “and your healing will quickly appear.” It was as if He was assuring me that I would experience His healing physically in my body. When Frank questioned me how I was handling all those hours, I assured him that the Lord had told me He was healing me and it would be O.K—and so it was, except of course, for the weary body that comes with that many hours. The bonus came in the confidence I could feel in how well I was managing the supervision of a challenging expansion of the payroll procedure.

But even more reassuring was the way in which God was able to direct my responses to the difficult home situations that would arise as Carolyn moved home and we tried to combine two differently functioning homes into one house. During this time Carolyn started to study the Bible together with us; she recommitted her life to the Lord but Satan did not want to let her go! Dean Gray, my boss, became a friend that God used to encourage me to stay on target and trusting in God to bring all of us through this period. I also met with Marvis Bergen often to get Godly advice and help in changing areas of my life that needed to be wised up by God.

Don and I took a vacation into the mountains for study and reflection for about a week. There God led me to read a biography of J. O. Fraser, who was one of the first missionaries to China, and what God taught him about the prayer of faith—and how he found that the work accomplished by labor in prayer depends on faith, “According to your faith” (not your labor) “be it unto you,” Matt. 9:29. God helped me realize my faith would be dependent on how much I believed God and that my prayers must be grounded more on the strength of the blood of Christ and less on pleading. This was a mountaintop experience that God would use while walking through dark valley experiences in the future.

Carolyn moved out of our house. There were difficult times to work through, but God gave me the assurance of support and love like I had never felt before, and this helped me to respond genuinely out of love, rather than by the grit of my teeth.

One of Carolyn’s good friends was Tim Luzania. He struggled with his spiritual life, and then through caring Christians he accepted the Lord and attended the Kingsburg MB Church and Bible Study. We felt it a privilege to have a part in his spiritual development.

Carolyn moved to Visalia and became involved with helping mentally disabled people, a job she enjoyed very much. She still enjoyed making people feel good and to show them support and love. She had done banking while in Fresno and also in Reedley, and soon she began to work in banking in Visalia. Counting out change and dealing with finances was to be something she would always be good at even if not her favorite thing to do.

While in Visalia, Carolyn met Aron Fisher, a bodybuilder. They loved each other. Carolyn brought Aron to meet us and then later came again to tell us they wanted to get married. We enjoyed our times together with them, and we were thrilled to see their openness to growth and maturity.

The wedding was set for September, which meant wedding planning had to happen even while I was working. I was glad that I had gone from Payroll to an Accounting job so that I didn’t have quite the late hours I had had with getting the payroll checks out in time. Carolyn had a beautiful garden wedding! How much love I felt as I watched my beautiful red-haired fun-loving daughter at the altar with her groom!

Aron Fisher’s parents insisted that they pay for half of the wedding, and therefore we were able to keep the wedding costs somewhat in line with our financial status—the White Horse Inn though beautiful was expensive. The relationship we built with Aron’s parents was valuable to us and to how we were able to relate to them in years to come.

This was a joyous time and we had many good visits with both Aron and Carolyn. They were happy about their decisions, and it was fun being a part of that process.

Another friend entered my life at this stage in quite a miraculous way. Esther Enns was working with Don as an office associate. Their relationship became quite meaningful in that they were both working with difficult circumstances in their lives and they found help and encouragement from their conversations at work. Through this medium, Esther began to relate to both Florence LaRue and myself and we clicked! Esther has such a caring spirit about her, and she has been a such a wonderful encouragement to me both in helping me with my self-esteem and even in influencing Don to do fun, accepting and exciting things for special occasions. The threesome that has developed between Florence, Esther and myself is truly a wonderful Godsend!

Thinking about Kleefeld

Considered on their own, Peter D and Sarah Siebert Buller’s reasons for moving from Kleefeld to the U.S. are clear and easy to grasp: they neither owned nor had reasonable prospects of owning land in Molotschna, so they emigrated to central Nebraska, where land was both available and affordable.

The question of why Johann Siebert left behind his full land allotment in Kleefeld is more difficult to answer. In hopes of contextualizing Johann’s decision somewhat, I examined the available historical data for Kleefeld from the relevant time period, to search for clues that might shed light on Johann’s rationale.

We begin with a list of the first landowners at Kleefeld when it was founded in 1854. Glenn Penner has helpfully compiled the list from the Peter J. Braun archives and posted it here. Other relevant documents included in Penner’s list are the Kleefeld school registers from the 1857–1858 and 1861–1862 school years (we already examined the first school register here) and a voting list from 1862. Because only owners of full land allotments had the right to vote, the names recorded in the voting list tells us who Kleefeld’s land owners were in September of that year.

Correlating the names on all four lists produces the following, which serves as the basis for several observations:

1854 Founders	1857–1858 School	1861–1862 School	1862 Voting List
Peter Warkentin		Peter Warkentin	Heinrich Martens
Claas Kroeker	Claas Kroeker		Abraham Matthies
Michael Plett	Michael Plett	Michael Plett	Michael Plett
Dietrich Janzen	Dietrich Janzen	Dietrich Janzen	Dietrich Janzen
Abraham Thiesen	Abraham Thiesen	Abraham Thiesen	Abraham Thiesen
Peter Reimer	Peter Reimer	Peter Reimer	Peter Reimer
Peter Richert	Peter Richert	Peter Richert	Peter Richert
Benjamin Schmidt			Benjamin Schmidt
Cornelius Friesen	Jacob Friesen	Jacob Friesen	Jacob Friesen
Cornelius Abrahams	Cornelius Abrahams		Cornelius Abrahams
Peter Huebert	Peter Huebert	Peter Huebert	Peter Huebert
Heinrich Schroeder		Heinrich Schroeder	Heinrich Schroeder
Johann Martens	Johann Martens	Johann Martens	Johann Martens
Franz Bahnman	Franz Bahnman	Franz Bahnman	Franz Bahnman
Jacob Harms	Jacob Harms	Jacob Harms	Jacob Harms
Gerhard Neufeldt	Gerhard Neufeldt		Peter Neufeldt
Jacob Quiring	Jacob Quiring	Jacob Quiring	Jacob Quiring
Jacob Loetkemann		Jacob Loetkemann	Jacob Loetkemann
Heinrich Bekker			Heinrich Bekker
Peter Rogalsky	Peter Rogalsky	Peter Rogalsky	Peter Rogalsky
Andreas Flaming	Andreas Flaming	Andreas Flaming	Andreas Flaming
Jacob Friesen	Jacob Friesen		Franz Kroeker
Abraham Thiessen	Daniel Konrad	Daniel Konrad	Daniel Konrad
Abraham Wiens	Abraham Wiens	Abraham Wiens	Abraham Wiens
Johann Loewen	Johann Loewen	Johann Loewen	Johann Loewen
Johann Willms		Johann Willms	Johann Willms
Peter Janzen		Peter Janzen	Peter Janzen
Aron Thiessen	Aron Thiessen	Aron Thiessen	Aron Thiessen
Benjamin Ratzlaff	Benjamin Ratzlaff	Benjamin Ratzlaff	Benjamin Ratzlaff
Peter Schmidt	Peter Schmidt	Peter Schmidt	Peter Schmidt
Peter Friesen			Peter Friesen
Peter Toews	Peter Toews	Peter Toews	Peter Toews
Abraham Koop	Gerhard Harder	Gerhard Harder	Gerhard Harder
Heinrich Rogalsky	Johann Siebert	Johann Siebert	Johann Siebert
Johann Quiring	Johann Quiring	Johann Quiring	Johann Quiring
Peter Quiring	Peter Quiring	Cornelius Matthies	Cornelius Matthies
Wilhelm Huebner		Wilhelm Huebner	Wilhelm Huebner
Cornelius Plett	Cornelius Plett	Cornelius Plett	Cornelius Plett
Peter Warkentin	Peter Warkentin	Peter Warkentin	Peter Warkentin
Johann Wiens	Johann Wiens	Johann Wiens	Johann Wiens

1. Comparing the first column with the fourth shows that 32 out of the original 40 landowners (i.e., 80 percent) still held their property after eight years, which testifies to the community’s stability, even shortly after its founding.

2. The high percentage of landowners who are also listed as fathers of school students (64 out of a possible 80) indicates that by and large Kleefeld was founded and inhabited by families, not older couples whose children were grown and out of the house or newlyweds with no children of school age.

3. As noted earlier, Johann Siebert was not one of Kleefeld’s original founders, but he did acquire Wirtschaft (farm) 34 from Heinrich Rogalsky early on, within the first three years after Kleefeld’s founding.

All that is well and good and interesting, except that it tells us little about why Johann decided to leave. It does, however, provide us a means for evaluating whether Johann was unusual among his neighbors in leaving a stable situation for the unknowns of the Nebraska plains. That is, the list that Glenn Penner compiled also includes all known GRANDMA ID numbers for the men included on these lists (GRANDMA assigns each person in the database an ID number; e.g., Grandpa is 278506). Using those numbers to find the individuals in the GRANDMA database, one can gain some insight into who did what in the years following 1862.

1. Of the 40 individuals listed in the 1862 (fourth) column, 38 can be identified in GRANDMA or found on later Kleefeld records.

2. Of those 38, 4 died before large-scale emigration to the U.S. began in the 1870s.

3. Of the remaining 34 individuals, 16 emigrated to North America (mostly to the U.S., but several to Canada; the 16 who emigrated are displayed in red font).

4. A slightly larger number (18) remained in Russia, but the percentage remaining (53 percent) was considerably below the commonly accepted Molotschna-wide average of 67 percent.

From this one might reasonably conclude that Johann’s decision to emigrate was not unusual, that he did what many other landowners in his community were doing, that he was part of a significant wave of Mennonites leaving Kleefeld.

However, one additional consideration complicates this picture. From GRANDMA, we know not only who emigrated but also when each person or family did so. The distribution for Kleefeld is interesting:

• 1874: 4
• 1875: 6
• 1876: 1
• 1877: 2
• 1878: 2
• 1879: 1

Care to guess who was the only landowner to leave in 1879, who was the last one to leave during this period of emigration? Johann, of course.

So where does this lead and leave us? Although we may not have any greater insight into why Johann left Russia (yet), we can probably exclude several explanations.

First, Johann presumably enjoyed a stable life. By 1879, he had owned and farmed Wirtschaft 34 for over two decades. In all likelihood, there was no economic compulsion to leave.

Second, he did not leave with the first groups to emigrate, when the fear of russification and loss of Mennonite privilege was felt most acutely. By the time Johann left, those fears had largely subsided, and life was reasonably calm again in Molotschna. (More on these matters when we return to Bullers in Molotschna sometime in the not-too-distant future.)

Third, his decision was apparently well thought out and carefully considered. Johann did not rush off with the first ten families of the first two years of emigration; rather, he left in his own time and on his own terms. I view him being the last landowner to emigrate from Kleefeld not as a sign of being a Johann-come-lately but as evidence of careful reflection and thoughtful planning.

Having excluded these potential reasons for Johann and clan moving to the U.S., can we suggest a positive explanation instead? I suspect that we can, although it will require a little more digging and discovery. Suffice it to say for the moment that it would not be surprising if, rather than finances or politics or religion driving the decision, it really was all about the family.

Ruth’s Story 3

For the first two installments, see here and here.
 
CAROLYN’S BIRTH

Don and I decided that it was time to get a playmate for Cindy. Phyllis, Don’s sister, worked for a doctor and she arranged for an adoption with one of the single mothers through her doctor. I still remember the call that came the 8th of November saying that a baby girl was born! On November 11, 1965, we drove to the hospital and what a thrill when this dark, red-haired baby girl was put into our arms. We registered her as Carolyn Gayle Harms—and off she went with us! Cindy was real curious about the baby—but she really didn’t want to have anything to do with her. We finally talked her into taking a picture together with us along with her cousin Clarice at the Lovegren’s house.

Carolyn was a very easy-going baby and she was such a wonderful addition to our home. Don had agreed to get up for night feeding after the second week and when it came his tum, she forgot to wake up! We had lots of fun as the weeks went by cuddling, feeding and loving our daughter. Whenever a friend of Cindy’s came over, they would crawl into the rocking chair together and hold her and have their picture taken with this new baby.

My health really took a serious twist at this time right before Christmas. New babies, Christmas coming up and all this commotion made it very difficult for me to keep pushing like I needed to. Thinking I was sick with the flu, I went to bed with a pan at the side of my bed. I woke up and knew something was different when I finished throwing up. Don put on the light and there in the pan was at least a cup or more of pure red blood. We called our neighbor, Daisy Stauffer, and I walked to the car with Don. Before I reached the kitchen, I had fainted dead away. They immediately called the ambulance and I was in the hospital for a week.

Grandma Harms came to our house to take care of the two girls. Don noticed that she had a very difficult time in handling our strong-willed Cindy. While I was in the hospital being treated for an ulcer, never did the doctor sit down to discuss what was causing this dilemma. On Christmas day, I was dismissed and we all went to Phyllis’s house for a short time of lunch. Even though it all seemed too much, it was such a special day with our brand new baby girl!

Little Carolyn was a good baby and even though Cindy had been very jealous at first—even resorting to crawling—she soon decided that this new baby was a lot of company. They found many fun things to do together as they grew older. Together with Richard, David, Carolyn and Jill, they put together a kool-aid stand, staged a wedding, and made mud pies on the back-yard glider.

Carolyn was our entertainer. She had such a sweet spirit that made life fun. Dress-up was her favorite activity as a toddler. I also remember a black skirt she loved so much; we redid it several times so she could continue wearing it. Kids seemed to gravitate to her because of her personality.

We had a teenage neighbor girl, Kathy, who was a wonderful babysitter. She would always bring little projects to cut, glue, color, etc. that the girls both loved. They would play with these for the longest time! One, I remember, was a life-size paper doll!

Life continued being difficult for me. I can remember asking God what is happening, why is it so hard to keep going? Because the doctors were not acknowledging any problems, I was keeping it pushed down wondering what could be the matter with ME. The Lord promises that nothing is wasted in our life but that He will use all events to work out His perfect plan. God did not desire these difficulties for my life, but in His divine knowledge He was allowing this very persistent “Mom” to learn how to walk in trusting God when the light at the end of the tunnel seemed very faint!

It was approximately at this time of my life that I met Florence LaRue. We began to work together as Pioneer Girl’s leaders. She has been a truly wonderful friend in my life. We would do so many things together and her calm, always positive contribution encouraged me to find better ways to relate to my family and circumstances than I had here-to-fore. Florence has modeled the Christian life for me close-up and her generous, loving spirit has helped me tremendously in my quest to find God’s direction in my life!

THE SCHOOL YEARS

Site of Enns Pontiac, which was established by Jack and
John Enns in 1936 and closed its doors in 2009.

By this time, life was so laborious for me that I finally announced to Don that either a doctor find the cause, or I would need to find psychological help. Don had just gotten a new job at Enns Pontiac as an Office Manager and because of his job change, it was decided I needed to wait a couple of months before going to the doctor so that insurance would cover me. When I finally made an appointment with the gynecologist, he took many more thorough tests than had ever been taken previously. Even before the results came back, when he learnt that I had not had any hormone since my hysterectomy, he suggested that I must have problems. The tests affirmed his suspicion as not only were my hormones totally out of kilter, but my adrenal gland at this point was at a dangerously low point of producing cortisone. He put me on shots of B12, hormone shot as well as hormone pills, and also prednisone pills (an artificial cortisone).

Even with all that, it took my body over a year to feel like a “people again.” I was amazed at my emotions, for instead of relief I found myself struggling with bitterness—bitterness at the doctors, at Don for not being more involved in finding me help, but ultimately I realized I was angry at God. “God, I don’t know how not to be angry at this time. You show me how to experience your grace for this tragedy in my life!” And God did—but I was to struggle intermittently especially with the realization that physically I wasn’t able to attend to my children as I would have liked because neither the energy nor the emotional strength were adequate in those years.

We sold our house and moved to Reedley so Don would be close to his job. Cindy started third grade and Carolyn started kindergarten. A job opened up for half days as the secretary to our City Program Director, Nick Pavlovich. This job was good for me and still I could be home when the kids came home from school.

Life moves on! We loved our new neighborhood. It was close to downtown, we had much more room in our new home, and the neighbors across the street were Abundio and Manuella Islas with ten children! The girls had many friends right in this one family. Manuella was a wonderful Christian woman and soon we were meeting regularly for fellowship and encouragement.

Both girls liked school a lot and got very good grades. Carolyn got a very good background in reading by phonics and we could tell that it made a difference in her ability to read very difficult assignments at an early age. Cindy seemed to excel in drawing, and teachers commented on her leadership abilities at this age already. Cindy also excelled in track and set a record in the mile as well as qualified for the Junior Olympics. Carolyn seemed to do better at team sports and was chosen as pitcher for the Miss America softball team she played with. Her calmness under pressure became a real asset as she pitched the team to many victories. She brought home trophies to show off her accomplishments. In later grade school years, she did very well in basketball. She had the fun-loving personality that everyone liked. They both enjoyed horses and spent many Saturdays at the youth ranch. Cindy’s friend Candi Klassen had some horses and they had fun riding around the countryside on them.

Both girls loved their Barbie dolls and they played lots with the clothes I made for their dolls. Even though I worked part-time, I managed to be actively involved in PTA as well as the Pioneer Girls programs at church. We worked together on cooking assignments, hikes, leaf collecting, etc. for their badges for the Wednesday night programs. I would plan at least one event each week to do something special together with them.

When Cindy was in the third grade, I remember getting a call from the school that she had fallen from the exercise bars and we needed to take her to the doctor. Her fall was broken by her elbow and x-rays showed that the ball at the edge of her elbow was completely knocked out of the socket. This required a major surgery right at Halloween time—and exercise that required pretty constant discipline. Her sister and cousins went tricks or treating for her and had quite a large stash of candy for her in the hospital. Cindy worked diligently at her exercises and got 99% function back from that elbow.

My job at the city was moving into a three-fourths position and I wanted to be home when the kids came home so I quit that job. I was only home for couple of years when Harold Enns suggested I do the Immanuel books—60 hours a month [Immanuel is a Mennonite Brethren school; see here]. That job was a challenge! It seldom took less than 120 hours and was a constant learning of bookkeeping I had not previously done before. This job required keeping three sets of books. The plus was that I could do most of it at home. Also, I was there when Cindy moved into Immanuel and it helped me to be aware of how things operated at that school. I worked for a couple of years (over a year even after I had asked them to replace me)—and after training another girl, I had to go back again and train another person as the first girl had moved away.

Both girls took piano lessons. Cindy took two years with a teacher she really liked. Carolyn quit after her first year because he wasn’t the right teacher for her. The following year, the kid’s choir director convinced that she was musically talented, talked her into trying some lessons on the piano with her. When she moved out of town, we found another popular teacher who taught her for five years and helped Carolyn to become an excellent pianist.

Yosemite National Park

Our favorite family activity was a trip to Yosemite for a week of hiking, barbecuing, visiting and fun. Each summer the girls made a new friend they wanted to keep in contact with—and they did for awhile by letter. Each summer we would plan a new hiking trip just a little harder and farther than the year before. We went first part of June as Cindy started packing fruit and we needed to do it before she started her summer job. We shall remember those trips with real fondness.

A highlight for our family was the time that we hosted three Japanese Jr. Highers. Their names were Yoshie, Kaoru and Mutsumi. They could not speak English but they brought dictionaries both of English and Japanese and it was amazing how much we could communicate. We wrote to the girls for many years and later hosted Yoshie for a summer at our house and the following summer we were able to entertain both Yoshie and her sister.

Our family wanted to be involved in a project together helping someone so we decided that we would take a foster girl into our home. We asked for a baby but they had an eight-year-old and together we agreed to take Elaine Rodriguez into our family. She loved our home and the attention we gave her. But soon she discovered we had rules and disciplines, something which in the five to six places she’d been moved to had been sadly lacking. Elaine had a quiet resistance, and after several years we realized we could no longer help her. This also seemed to be a very difficult experience for Carolyn, who needed more time and attention than she was getting. We noticed a change in her personality. After one and a half years we decided through counseling that it would be best for Elaine to move back to an uncle who wanted to take her to his home.

It was during this time that my Internist decided that I must go off of the prednisone. After having taken prednisone for ten years, then going without for approximately six months, I began to get the tired, achy feeling just as I had done years previously. Knowing the doctors would not give me that medication unless it was a life or death matter, I began to really seriously watch my eating, cutting out sugars, taking mega vitamins and eating mostly whole grains and vegetables. Over the years I discovered that it did make a difference and it seemed to get better by years rather than by days.

Both girls began to pack fruit at a packing shed for the summers. They worked by piece work and this was quite a challenge for it could pay well if they packed thoroughly and quickly, but it took discipline and concentration. Buying their clothes for school became a real problem as they did not have time off in-between to do their school shopping. We decided to go to the coast where they could do more diversified things for our week’s vacation. We had wonderful trips of fun and shopping—and I got to read which was something I hadn’t been able to get much in for sometime.

Photo of the day

Judging by the apparent ages of the kids (Can you identify them all without looking at the Buller Family Record?), the year was 1942. Presumably the photograph was taken on the Lushton farm, but it is not clear exactly where.

There appears to be a windmill and corn crib in the background on their left, which would lead one to think of the corn crib marked number 7 in the aerial photograph here. If so, the photograph needs to be flipped horizontally, as below, since it seems one of the chicken coops is on the “wrong” side of the picture.

Still, it is not absolutely certain from the aerial photograph that there was a windmill in front of the corn crib. Could this be in front of the feed bin (number 4 in the aerial photograph)? I welcome any clarifications from those who actually know.

Time permitting, the next installment of Ruth’s Story will be posted tomorrow, to be followed at some point by another photograph of the entire family and then one of just Grandpa and Grandma.

Ruth’s Story 2

For the first installment, see here.


CINDY’S BIRTH

It was a beautiful day! Days were turning a little nippy in Nebraska but it was lovely in that small church where Roger Dale Regier and Ruth Buller were married on September 28, 1956 in Friend, Nebraska. We lived in Hillsboro, Kansas after our marriage where Roger went to Tabor College for his second year and I worked as a waitress at the Wagon Wheel restaurant on the edge of town. Our first apartment was three rooms and a bathroom in an upstairs apartment. There was a faucet in the wall which became the kitchen sink when a dishpan was placed on the kitchen table underneath it. Our first kitchen cupboards consisted of a four door hutch with curtains on the top half. A chest of drawers along with two chairs in the room right next to the kitchen served as our living room. Love made up for the lack of any soft living arrangements.

A move to Topeka, Kansas was made the next year where Roger served in 1-W work as an aide at Menninger’s Psychiatric Hospital [NOTE: conscientious objectors who were drafted worked in other government positions for two years rather than as soldiers]. He later worked for the State. I worked at various jobs which eventually led to an accounting job at the large Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. We had many friends and one of our biggest accomplishments was to be amongst the charter members of a Mennonite Brethren Church in Topeka. [NOTE: see here for more about this church] We also became involved with a children’s club for kids in Northern Topeka. They had been flooded a few years previously and Mennonite Disaster Service had come in to help rebuild. A club for these children was a wonderful activity that we helped to carry on until we left.

After several years Roger finished the commitment he had to his 1-W work. The time seemed right to make a change and when Jack Enns (a relative of his mother) from Reedley, California called to offer Roger a job as a mechanic—something that he enjoyed very much—it seemed the time to make a move to the place of his dreams.

Roger had worked at Enns Pontiac for several years when he had the opportunity to work at a larger Pontiac dealer in Fresno. We were living in a small two bedroom house on Friesen street and he enjoyed driving his motorcycle to work. The motorcycle had been a favorite activity of both Roger and I, first in trips from Kansas to Nebraska and then in trips to the General Grant mountains together. He had over the years not only rebuilt several motorcycles, but he had also done many total overhauls on cars including body work. He had started a body and repair shop for cars in one of our Topeka houses with a huge garage at the back together with Roger Reimer, a 1-W friend at the Menninger hospital. His biggest accomplishment which never got any more recognition than his own satisfaction was three carburetors he welded together for stronger horsepower! He subsequently was to learn that this was a patented accomplishment later by someone else.

Roger and I were excited when after almost five years of marriage, we were scheduled to have our first baby. I spent many of those evenings outside talking and planning with him because the kitchen with the smells of supper were too much for me to stomach! Roger had his Fresno mechanical job and I was working as a bookkeeper at Mathis and Bolinger Furniture store. It was a brisk fall morning and Roger mentioned it would probably be his last trip to Fresno on the motorcycle. I remember running outside to tell him one last thing but he was too far gone to hear and I said, “Guess I won’t tell him that anymore!”

I thought nothing more of that but went to work myself. Then about midmorning I was called by my pastor, Dan Friesen, who asked to take me away to share some news. He took me to his office in the church and he had the difficulty of telling me that his daughter, Marilyn Wall, had seen my husband in an accident on her way to work. I remember thinking he must be hurt pretty bad for him to take me to the office and then he told me that I would never be able to talk to him again! Although the news hit very hard, I can remember that even then I already felt the arms of Jesus around me through the arms of Pastor Friesen.

Roger and I had not been that close to the Lord at this time in our life—in the past he had been my mentor as he had drawn very close to the Lord in the home of a mother who helped him work through a very difficult childhood. Roger and I had just been talking that we needed to take our faith in the Lord deeper than we were at the present time!

Family and friends overwhelmed me with their love. So many things were done for me by friends I hardly knew. One friend I remember in particular is Bonnie Boldt. We had previously worked together at the bank and as couples we became best friends. She took over making arrangements for the funeral, planning for out-of-town guests, etc. I shall always remember her loving service and the many fun times we enjoyed together. What a special friend she was to me—and she still is even though many miles away! More food came in than I could use but what a boon when many of my family from Nebraska and Minnesota came to be with me during this loss. I can still remember thinking I would share some news with Roger, when the realization that I would never be able to tell him anything again really hit me; the shock that accompanies death had wore off! As I realized that I would not see him in this life ever again, the Lord assured me that He cared and He was there in an even nearer sense.

I continued working at my bookkeeping job but made arrangements to quit at the birth of our child so I could spend time with her. The baby was scheduled to come on February 23, 1962, only five days before the twenty-fifth anniversary of Roger’s parents, John and Hannah Regier and what would have been the twenty-fourth birthday of Roger who was born on their first anniversary. Although conditions were right, it was not to be! I went to the hospital on the 28th and they started an IV to start the labor but the labor wouldn’t start. I came home a very discouraged young mother and had to wait until March 8, 1962 before Cynthia Dale Regier arrived weighing 7 lbs. 9 oz.

The labor was not hard and the delivery was very smooth. Grandma and Grandpa Regier had come all the way to California to be there for the birth of their first grandchild and the doctor went out to tell him that it was a baby girl! Although I requested to see the baby, I was told they would clean Cindy up and I should go to sleep for awhile and they would bring her to me after I had rested. This was in the wee hours of the morning. My next recollection is waking up and being aware that something terrible was happening—not sure what it was so I rang the buzzer for the nurse. I had been hemorrhaging and had lost an enormous amount of blood. Although the events are not clear in my head, I will attempt to give the tidbits as they come to mind. Scraping and a DNC could not stop the bleeding. My father in Nebraska was called and it was discovered that when I had had surgery as an early teenager, I had already had a serious problem in my blood clotting but somehow this had not followed my doctor records. Finally, a specialist from Fresno was consulted who came to Reedley to perform an emergency hysterectomy. By this time so much blood had been lost that the head nurse could not even get my pulse. I can remember an experience in which it seemed there was a tunnel in front of me, long and dark but at the other end I saw Roger waiting for me. How I longed to walk through that tunnel!

Although times are fuzzy, I remember that when Wayne and Alma, my sister, came to visit me at this time and during one of my coming to times, Alma told me the good news that she was expecting her second child. I knew my prospects were pretty bad and I asked if they would raise Cindy for me. There were many tears. I was under the care of a special nurse for several days because of my condition and Helen, my Christian nurse house mate from Canada, filled some of those shifts.

Roger’s parents stayed on to take care of Cindy. Because of hospital rules of no contact with the outside world in the nursery, Cindy would have to stay in the nursery and I would be unable to see her until she was taken home. Grandma Hannah volunteered to take her home so she could bring her to visit me in my room!

The challenge for Grandma was greater than she had bargained for. Cindy was a colicky baby and she got very little sleep. I was too weak to be of any help in caring for her when she was visiting me. At two weeks the doctor finally told her to feed the baby some cereal and that seemed to satisfy our little cherub.

In the meantime, I finally got out of the hospital after couple weeks but I was still too weak to care for myself. The Regiers went home and I went to stay with Wayne and Alma for a month where Alma did the night feedings and I basically fed and burped the baby during the days. How much I appreciate family for all the love and care we got during that time.

Perhaps this would be the place to insert how Lowell Kliewer, a first cousin to Roger, had helped me with all my financial affairs but he also supervised during my hospital stay a painting group consisting of my Sunday School class to repaint every room in the house I had purchased with the insurance money I received. I’m not even sure who moved all my things from the Friesen Avenue house to my house on Washington Street. Various people came over the course of time to help pack things into cupboards and keep up my yard. This kind of love from God’s people have had a great influence on my involvement in working with people who are hurting.

While I was still in the hospital, I got a letter from Mrs. Herb Kagley who had lost her first husband when the children were young and had later married Herb. She now was bidding her daughter with her only grandchildren at this time goodbye to go as missionaries to Brazil. She asked if she could adopt my Cindy as a substitute grandchild. Although I had only met her briefly, I couldn’t possibly tum down such a wonderful offer. That relationship was to stay special all through the years. What a treasure house of wisdom and understanding she passed on to me. We would spend hours talking about God’s involvement in our status as widows. We would laugh and cry together and she was just a great substitute close by “mother” for me. God supplied my needs in so many various and wonderful ways!!

Finally we settled down to Helen, Cindy and myself and we began to function in a normal fashion—with one exception. Christ now had a central place in all our lives for we knew He had a special purpose to have seen us through such a time. I sold Tupperware and Mrs. Harry Goertzen, across the way from us, would baby-sit. Many times, Cindy was so tired she just fell asleep in her high chair when I fed her after a morning party. She was a strong-willed but a cheerful girl and brought much joy into my life. I remember wiping my dishwater hands one time and dancing a jig around the room with my fussy little toddler! This was a hard but good time for us.

In March just before Cindy was to turn two, Helen and I planned a birthday party inviting Helen’s aunt & uncle, Henry & Sue Enns, and Herb and Esther Kagley to celebrate with us. Pastor Friesen, the town match maker, asked to have me meet a bachelor my age OVER THE PHONE. He organized a conference call, introduced me to Don Harms and then hung up. I immediately invited Don to join us for the party. The first date he asked me out to was a trip to the zoo taking Cindy along with us. Was I ever impressed!

That June, Don and I were married and we became a family of three. Helen took care of Cindy for us while we went on a honeymoon for a week to the Los Angeles area. Helen always remained a very close friend—one who influenced me a lot in a personal time of fellowship with my Lord. She loved my children and was always so good to all of us. I’m sure it must have been very hard for her to watch all this take place while leaving her alone again.

In the fall of that year, we moved to a house in Dinuba that Don had built (and where his folks lived with him). Don’s folk had rented out their house and it became vacant so they moved back there. We are so naive when we’re young—it must have been very difficult for his mother to have to step down to an older home, again. They later built a new house in Kingsburg closer to Dad’s work so it finally worked out for the best.

It was hard for me to keep up the pace my personality wanted to function at. Twice I went to a doctor to find out what could be the problem but other than a minor thyroid problem, I was told that perhaps I needed to get a job. Thinking it must be emotional, I dug in my heels and tried that much harder—but I couldn’t understand why I would actually end up sick enough to have to go down for a day or two. It affected very much my ability to enjoy my children as my body ached and my mind just wouldn’t function as alertly as I wanted.

Cindy was our joy and sunshine. She loved her Daddy and wanted me to leave the house for her. She wanted to marry him and wanted this house just as it was. She made good friends with Rene Mendel who lived down about six houses and enjoyed preschool with her. Richard Stauffer lived across the street and they were always making mud pies, and doing all the things little kids love to do. The White girls lived around the comer from our house. Carolyn and Jill White were special friends. One of her favorite activities with her mother was to ring the doorbell with her dolly in hand and I would welcome “Mrs. Jones and her baby” into the house for some tea. She got practice in how to be a “mother” in those days and today she has become a wonderful “mother” to four children.

Ruth’s Story 1

I learned several months ago that Ruth and Esther had put together a brief story recounting Ruth’s life thus far. Thanks to Ruth for making this available for the entire family to read (and treasure). Thanks also to Dad for forwarding a copy of Ruth’s Story and to Dan for scanning it into a PDF file.

If you would like to download the entire file at once (6.3 MB), click here. If you prefer to to access the story online, then keep reading below and in the following installments over the next week or two as we share Ruth’s Story (and whatever photographs I can dig up).

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CHILDHOOD DAYS

It was a clear crisp day in the country home of Cornelius and Malinda Franz Buller, located in between two small Nebraska towns of Lushton and Grafton. With six small children aged nine years to eleven months old, there was never a lack of excitement going on in the home. But this day in February was especially preoccupied and intense. The doctor had come to the home to deliver a baby and all the children were astir with excitement while adults were concerned about boiled water for sterilizing, timing of the pains, and such. This made for an intensely busy household. A cry in the air brought about smiles to the faces of the children and relief to those involved in the delivering of a baby girl on that February 16, 1937. She was named Ruth C. and so was beginning of the seventh child in the Chris Buller home.

Lushton schoolhouse

There were to be five girls total in this home, interspersed between the three boys, as follows: Matilda, Esther, Daniel, Darlene, Carl, Wayne, Ruth and Alma. Although all started school in Lushton Grade School, because the town had dwindled, the school was closed and the younger three [actually, five] attended High School at Grafton. Although buses were available for the youngest, all of them at some time had the privilege of walking the two and one-half miles up the hill to Lushton school in summer and winter.

Low German was the tongue used most by the family in the beginning. The oldest girls chattered with friends each in their own language and had to learn the English language as they went to school. Lushton had a large two-story building—lower grades downstairs and high school upstairs. There were the usual dilemmas of racism—during the World War II years the little German kids were called names to imply their status with the ill thought of Germany! The Bullers were amongst the very small minority of German background kids and these name callings were always painful!

School always leaves so many memories. I remember loving math and writing stories. I wrote a 30–40 page handwritten book which I demonstrated with pictures of horses and horse races. I gave it to my teacher, approximately 5th or 6th grade, and she graded it for me. Her encouragement was rewarding to me and she encouraged me to continue writing. I regret that when we moved to California from Kansas, we decided all unnecessary things needed to be discarded and that was one of the things I burnt. How I would love to go back to see some of the work I had done then!

Besides reading and story writing, we played many games. Our playground had swings, merry-go-rounds and baseball fields. Recess had us playing the usual childhood games, the usual choosing of sides and the hurt feelings. We had one teacher for all eight grades and there was always activity, noises and competition. My grades were always high and I don't recall having to really study hard.

My favorite activity was reading books. I was always the top reader in my class winning the prizes for a contest which often was another book. We knew each other well and in our small community we usually only had a few friends our age. My best friend was Carolyn Stark. She had only sisters and I can remember many times when we would play in an empty trailer or make a stage of some kind in the yard, acting like movie stars. We were enthralled by them even though we never had seen one in a movie or in person.

I was tall and muscular, pretty well coordinated, I did very well in the competitive girls volleyball teams between the schools in that territory. I remember the bus rides to the towns, the great sharp spikes by our team player, Joan Arp and the joy of winning many games. Our class consisted of three boys and myself and I found myself pretty much at the head of the class. Our classes in high school were usually two grades grouped together.

Grafton school, built in 1914 and now closed for many years
photograph © dahusker on panoramio

Perhaps the most difficult time was when I finished ninth grade at a new school in Grafton. Because things were happening to my body that were puzzling, I spent most of that summer going to doctors for tests. When it became apparent that there was something that needed more specialized treatment, I was sent to stay with an Aunt and Uncle in Omaha, Nebraska so that a hospital that trained physicians could do some special tests. They planned a surgery to explore and to take out my appendix. That revealed very little.

At that point, I was kept in the hospital while testing was done on a much larger scale. I became a favorite with the nurses and got to do odd jobs for them, a real help in dispelling some of the boredom. Tests eventually revealed that there was something wrong in my adrenal gland and another surgery was scheduled. They were surprised to discover that the adrenal gland on the left side was filled with tumors.

School started that fall and by now I was anxious to get back to my friends and studies. I was recuperating in the hospital so they could keep a close check on me. I remember Ed and Esther Thorne coming to visit me—I was approximately 150 miles away from home, (I was lonesome and homesick.) I was hoping I could go home with them. They waited around for the results from a test doctors took but it showed that there was still something in my body that shouldn't be there. When the doctors told me they would probably have to do another surgery, I was one low chick! I thought I was probably stuck in that hospital forever!

This next surgery was scheduled and it was decided that while they had gone into the left side before, the subsequent surgery would be across the middle of my stomach so they could explore both sides. There they found several tumors the size of large grapefruit up inside my rib cage—far enough up on the left side that it had been missed the first time.

Finally, I believe it was close to Christmastime, I was able to go home. I had to wear a girdle but healing and health came back swiftly and before the season was over I was again playing volleyball, I caught up with my schoolwork (I had done some of the school work in the hospital) and I was fast back to my normal routine. Although all the problems caused by those tumors never were totally corrected, the direction that it had caused my body to go because of the hormonal imbalance was corrected and I learnt to live gratefully as I had met young people in the hospital with much worse situations than I had to bear.

While I was in the hospital, I met a lady named Irma. Her family came to see her and during that time, her son David took an interest in me. He was at least four years older, but it certainly added a dimension to my stay that I liked. He came to Lushton to visit me and I remember staying with his folks once when I needed to be back for checkups. He was thinking of marriage and I was too young to be thinking about that at this time, and since he became quite pushy, I squashed the relationship.

Revival meetings played a central part in my life in my growing up years. At age eleven, The Musical Morgans came to our small community to preach to us the wonderful news of salvation. Our entire family went forward during the course of those meetings, myself to accept Christ as my personal Saviour.

Former Friend Bible Church; now New Life Community Church.
The building had served as the chapel on the Fairmont Air Force base.

Approximately the same time, we began to look for a church that would help us to grow in the Lord. The folks had heard Pastor Peter Friesen on the radio and they decided to go to the church in Friend, Nebraska. It was summer and the Friend Bible Church was going to send their young people to camp the following week. They invited us to stay for a church potluck that Sunday and talked my folks into letting us three younger kids go to Polk Bible Camp the following Sunday for a week. We had no idea how wonderful that week would be for us—and we were privileged to go to future camps where long term decisions were made to serve the Lord—and once I even came home to admit a lie I told to our small town grocery store owner.

This church, even though 60 miles from our farm, became our regular church body. Their friendliness, love for the Lord and encouragement brought us coming back time and again. Eventually our parents moved to Friend after all of us kids were gone.

The Musical Morgans were having revival meetings in Henderson and by now I was a senior in high school. Our friend Wanda Janzen Goertzen took us with her to one of the meetings. My sister, Alma, saw a guy in the choir that Wanda knew and she liked. She talked Wanda into trying to hook her up with a date with him. Roger Regier was looking for his brothers and came by in his car. Wanda also knew him and stopped him to talk to him about the date. He promised he would see what he could do if I would go out with him. Roger was not able to get “Clyde” as he already was going steady, but he got Wayne Martens to come along and Alma and I had our first blind dates—and our parents said we could go! Guess the fact that they were Mennonite Brethren did give them some confidence in them. This was the beginning of something much more permanent for both of us!

I graduated that spring. The next fall, I left to go to college at Northwestern Bible College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I begged to be able to go to Tabor College where Roger would be attending but my parents did not agree. Roger and I were in love so we waited it out this year and planned a wedding for the following September. Alma married Wayne after her graduation from high school in June, 3 months before we got married.

I cared for two Jewish preschool children in their home for my room and board and a little spending money at college. They were good children and it was a good experience. My parents paid the tuition. I remember bus rides to school in below freezing weather, but mostly I remember the friendships I made, several of which I kept in touch with over the years.

Planning a wedding absorbed most of my time while working a summer time job of auditing books for a furniture store in Minneapolis. I shopped for my trousseau and relished in spending money that I earned myself! My parents could not afford two wedding gowns in one year, so I needed to redo Alma’s dress to fit me. I made a sweetheart collar instead of the stand up collar she had to be different, plus I used a different veil.