|
 |
|
|
|
Mennonites are noted for their love of the land and their agricultural skills. In south Russia they had been model farmers who ran the country's agricultural program. While the Mennonites had been successful commercial farmers in Russia, in Manitoba they had to start again and break the virgin prairie sod. Using horses and a 12 inch plough a farmer could break 20 acres of prairie per year. The new villages were immediately re established on similar land using the old systems brought over from Russia. And even the place names were the same, as one new settler was happy to report back to relatives in Russia. Steinbach is taken from the same Russian Village the immigrants had left and means stony creek. Altona means fertile plain and was taken from a city in Germany. Sommerfeld stands for summer field, while Blumenfeld means flower field. At one time, 59 villages in the east and 70 villages on the west dotted the Manitoba landscape. Fifty-five minutes south-east from Winnipeg, lies one of these original villages, the town of Steinbach. Steinbach was founded in 1874 by 18 families that set up a traditional Mennonitevillage along a creek. The founders' names included Wiebe, Penner, Reimer, Toewes, Friesen, Plett are the ancestral names of many Mennonites in Manitoba today. Commerce started with a sawmill, a flour mill and Reimer's store. But as merchandising started to grow in the villages, business became frowned on as an activity. |
