Questions of birth 3

Little by little we fill out our family story. The earlier posts in this series (here and here) explored the birth practices of Mennonite families of days gone by way of background and then inquired about the experience of our family in the early twentieth century (1920s and 1930s). This post clarifies a detail left hanging and reveals an important family fact in the process.

The previous post in the series noted, “all eight [of Grandma Malinda’s] children were born at home, although there is a minor question about which home was the setting for the first child born: Grandma and Grandpa’s house or the home of one of their parents.”

Dad has now spoken with Matilda, and we have further clarity on that issue. In fact, Grandma gave birth to Matilda at her parents’ house, that is, the home of Isaac G. and Sarah Epp Franz. The Franz farm was located in section 15 of Henderson Township, marked by the arrow in the center of the plat map below. For reference, the Peter P Buller farm is also marked: to the east and north of the Franz farm.

So why was Matilda born at Grandpa and Grandma Franz’s home instead of her parents’ own house? As was common in Mennonite communities of that day, when Grandpa Chris and Grandma Malinda were married, they lived with one set of parents. Young couples often did not immediately establish their own homes but rather began their married lives in the home of one set of parents.

Three weeks after Matilda was born, the new family moved to the farm south of Lushton (arrow at the bottom right of the map). Based on this new information, we can identify when the John Runnalls farm became the Buller farm: March 1928.

As has been reported several times in this blog, Grandpa Chris’s father Peter P gave the couple 40 acres, and they bought another 40 acres (the south half of the quarter). The north half of the quarter was owned by Grandpa’s brother Pete and sister Anna (?), but Grandpa rented that land and farmed the entire quarter. More important, all seven children who came after Matilda were born at home on that farm.