Jacob Henry Neumann was born on March 12, 1912 in Slavgorod, Asiatic Russia. Jake’s working years began at age 6, in the summer of 1918, helping with the various chores associated with farming.  In the fall of his seventh year, after the fieldwork was completed, he was allowed to start school. Jake loved school and everything connected with it. Reading, he said, was a great discovery and he never got enough of it. In later years when they studied history, he found it so interesting he could not wait for the next lesson. At the age of 14, he had an opportunity to experience history in the making, when the family, after much anxious waiting, left their village for Canada.

     During that first winter in Saskatchewan, Jake helped his father and brothers with cutting wood, but when the family moved to Gerald the following year, Jake was able to return to school, along with his younger siblings. After the family moved to Gem, Alberta in 1932. Jake stayed one more year at his job, and rejoined the family in the spring of the following year.

     That fall, when a Bible School was opened by the Mennonite community, he decided to enrol. Not only was he able to pursue his love of studying, but he hoped to discover how he might find salvation. Even though he had made enquiries as young as the age of 9, the whole concept had remained a mystery.

     One Sunday evening in October of 1934 (at the age of 20), he asked the Bible School Principal, Mr. George Hubert for help. The scripture verses that Mr. Huebert shared did not open his understanding until, as Jake wrote in his memoirs:

“Mr. Huebert managed to make me understand that eternal life was a gift of God, and as such, had to be accepted by faith. When that truth sank in, I realized the mystery was solved. I too was included in the ‘whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’ I believed and thanked God that very moment, for sins forgiven because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ His Son. I had been under conviction for quite some time but nothing happened until I made the decision to ask for help. Many a battle remained to be fought, but faith based on God’s promises in Scripture always won out.”

     In 1935, Jake and his siblings, Dick, Sara, and Dave, made the journey to the Fraser Valley, in a car Jake had purchased and remodelled for the trip, to attend brother Henry’s wedding. All four decided to stay in B.C. and look for work. Jake, Dick, and Dave lived with the newly married couple, Henry and Katie for the next year, as they found work nearby. In July of 1936, Jake was baptized on confession of his faith, and accepted into the Mennonite Brethren church in Yarrow. On October 25^th of that same year he married Olga Van Bergen, whom he had previously met in Gem.

     Because of the difficulties of finding jobs in the Depression years, they left BC shortly after their first child, Harold, was born. Once more they found themselves in Gem, and it was during this time that Evelyn was born. During their Alberta years, Olga worked alongside Jake on their Alberta farm, stooking the grain, tending the garden, butchering chickens, ducks, a few turkeys, and a lamb they had raised on the bottle. When threshing time came, all the men had to be fed – lunch and coffee breaks taken out to the field. All the cooking and baking was done on the wood stove, for which Olga did all the chopping.

     In 1945, they moved back to B.C. and purchased a small farm on Watson Road in Sardis; it was the same year of Heinrich Neumann’s move to B.C. The next spring their daughter Lorna was added to the family. Lorna, however, became ill with leukemia and died just before her fourth birthday. At the celebration of their 40^th wedding anniversary, Jake shared how he had thought that the family would never feel complete again, but that the addition of four grandchildren had somehow filled that void, and had mended the breach that Lorna’s passing had left.

     In 1953, Jake took a job, away from home for six months, in Kemano, BC, to augment their finances. Olga and Harold did the chores, and Olga worked night shift at Canada Packers. The years in Sardis were years of service in the Greendale Mennonite Brethren church. Jake was involved in leadership roles in both Sunday School, Youth work, and in preaching. In 1952, he was elected by the congregation as a minister, and was ordained to the ministry on October 23, 1955. A year later they sold their farm and moved to Vancouver where he continued to serve in the Fraserview Mennonite Brethren Church in various capacities, including the occasional sermon. They lived in Vancouver for 20 years, and he earned his living as a housing contractor and later as a real estate salesman.

     A heart attack in 1959, at the age of 47, was the beginning of a history of other health difficulties which took some of the enjoyment out of his remaining years. He, however, enjoyed his family and often finished a meal with a good story, interspersed with some dry humour of life in Russia. In 1976, Jake and Olga retired to Clearbrook. Although retired, he continued to be a strong, positive influence on his children and grandchildren.

     On March 12, 1991, Jake celebrated his 79^th birthday. Shortly thereafter he was hospitalized with severe heart pains, and early Saturday morning, May 11, after six weeks of discomfort, Jake passed quietly into eternity. His last request the evening of his passing was to have Scripture read to him. He was comforted by that.

     After Jake’s passing, Olga filled her days with volunteer work at the MCC store and the Golden Age Society, serving lunches. She was also known for her numerous leisure-time pursuits – sewing, crocheting, knitting, stamp and coin collecting, and even some carpentry. At one point, she even tried her hand at laying bricks for a fireplace in one of Harold’s houses.

     At age 88, she moved into the Menno Home, where she lived for 3 years. On September 17, 2004, Olga passed away, one month shy of her 91^st birthday. Jake and Olga’s direct descendants number 15 (2022).