Immigration
SS Montrose
In the years following the Russian Revolution (1917) and Civil War (1920-22), many Mennonites began to feel the urge to leave the homes and land they and their ancestors had resided in for the past 200 years. Their strong religious beliefs as it related to war, and the growing threat to their safety and well-being brought them to that difficult decision. Rumours were circulating that all men would have to take up arms and that there would no longer be any freedom of religion. Some people had already left for Canada in 1923, and many had sent letters back to Russia describing how nice Canada was. The Mennonites struggling with the decision whether or not to leave were well-aware of the sentiments expressed in these letters. Of the 20,201 who emigrated between 1923 and 1930, the single largest number emigrated in 1926 – a total of 5,940.
In 1926, Abraham and Maria Loewen decided to leave Russia, for the promise of a better life in Canada. In actual fact, it was Helena, the oldest, who convinced her parents to emigrate, based on correspondence with individuals in Canada, as well as the support of the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization, which had completed all negotiations with the Canadian government and with the CPR. Abraham was the only member of his immediate family to do so; a decision his siblings could not understand. They had no relatives or friends in Canada on whom they could depend once they arrived in that strange land. Canada was willing to accept immigrants, so they applied. Three hundred people were allowed to leave from the Orenburg region, and 1000 had applied. Some couldn’t go because of illness, like trachoma; others because of finances, and still others wanted to wait until the 1926 crop was harvested.
The Canadian doctor (Drury) who examined Abraham Loewen noticed a ‘mangled’ thumb (through injury) and would likely have denied him permission to enter Canada had it not been for the fact that the Abraham Loewen family had more than enough able-bodied sons to compensate for that ‘handicap’. They were, therefore, among the relatively lucky few who secured one of Dr. Drury”s valuable “Medical Certificates“. Finally there were only 285 ready to go, and had people known that these would be the last from Orenburg to be allowed to leave, more would likely have been willing to forgo the promise of a bountiful harvest.
Boarding the SS Baltara
Of the 1000 or so that had applied, only 285 were selected. This group ‘elected’ seven men, who took care of getting passports and making travel arrangements. Among these seven were a cousin, Abram Loewen, and Rev. P.P. Dyck, who later became Mary Loewen’s father-in-law. Dan Loewen recalls that time:
“Summer of 1926 – Pretoria, Russia – a long time ago and oh, so far away. And I was so young – only 8 years old. Parents and everybody talking about us going to a far country. Where would that be? In a young mind, excitement and wonder. Preparations being made that I could not grasp.”
Tina Loewen remembers on the day of the sale that all the household goods were outside and it was a sunny day.
“Father sold everything that he was allowed to sell – cattle, horses, chickens, implements, and many household items. Plus the large addition to the barn, which was for storage of straw, hay, and some implements. It was dismantled and put up at another village. The day of moving or journeying came. Father had made some special suitcases for this trip. They were of black wood with iron bands to hold them together. We had dinner of noodle soup at Uncle Abram and Aunt Margareta Driedger’s home. They had a nicer home than we had and they were financially better off. Everything that we could take for the journey was put on a wagon (hayrack) that some villagers supplied to take us to the railway station at the town of Petrofka.”
On September 3, 1926, the family left Pretoria, Village #14, – Abraham and Maria Loewen and their children: Lena, Abe, Martin, Isaac, Mary, Henry, Tina, Dan, and Anna, with their Uncle Abram Driedger driving the wagon. The family list was missing one name however – that of Jakob, who opted to remain in Russia to continue his studies at university. He lived out his years in the U.S.S.R. and died at the age of 99.
SS Baltara
The road to the railway station, approximately 50 miles away from Pretoria, was for the most part, only country trails. One section went through a small ravine with water. On driving through, one wheel dropped down (there was a concealed hole beneath the water), nearly upsetting the load.
“My next recollection is of getting onto the train”, says Tina (10 years old at the time). “It was not a passenger train as we know it these days, but a box car train. I had never seen a train or a town before.” It would also be the occasion of her first steam bath. The next day the Loewen family, along with many other families, boarded their assigned boxcar. There were nine boxcars for the entire party, each with double bunks at either end. Toilet facilities were behind curtains, but whenever the train stopped, passengers looked for alternatives. There were four families in the ‘Loewen car’ – the Abe Froese family with 2 children, the Redekops with 2 children, Frank Wiens family, with a baby, and the Loewen family with 11 people – a total of 22 passengers in one boxcar.
On September 9, when all was ready, the doors were closed and the train chugged off towards Moscow, where arrangements would have to be made for further travel. This group departed the Orenburg colony under the leadership of Peter P. Dyck. Abraham Loewen had bought a cup for each family member to use on the trip. The train would make stops and people would get out of the cars to attend to their affairs. If possible, Abraham would bring in loaves of bread and sausage to eat. Hot water was available at all stations for “Prips” (Postum). Henry remembers, “Mother had roasted buns and had smoked meat and lots of other stuff.” Tina remembers playing with Katie Wiens who was only 6 months old at the time, and that she enjoyed the train ride very much. There was hay on the beds and the passengers supplied the blankets.
According to Tina, the train had made a “longer” stop in Samara on the second day of travel. Two brothers, Abe and Martin decided to get off and tour the town. When they returned to the place where the train should be, it was gone. They were able to get onto another train and catch up to the family. The train arrived in Moscow on September 15, 1926.
In Moscow, the authorities searched the cars, but Tina doesn’t know for what. She remembers leaving the car to go into the station and after remembering that she had left her apple on the train, she returned to retrieve it. A soldier shouted at her to go to the station and frightened, she returned. Henry notes that they were checking that no money would be taken out of the country. To his recollection, each family was allowed to take only 150 Rubles. Abraham had a button on the top of his cap and soldiers kept inspecting it, wondering if it contained any gold. Finally, he told them that they could cut off the button and keep it. Finally, they allowed the family to proceed.
On September 16, they left Moscow and in 16 hours arrived at Sebesh, on the border, where they were checked again. Eight days after leaving Orenburg, on September 17, the train crossed the border. Dan recalls some people started singing. “After all, we were being freed from the oppression of Communism which was, at that time, only starting to oppress people. Ownership of property was taken away from the people. That is why father could not sell his house and land – it was taken as government-owned.”
At Zilupe, a CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) officer met the group and took over the leadership. The cost of the trip from Orenburg to Zilupe had to be paid for by the emigrants, but from this point onward to Canada, the cost of the trip was on credit from the CPR. Here they transferred to another train, 4th class, for the trip through Latvia to Riga, where they arrived on September 18 and underwent a thorough health examination. Tina recalls, “The hunt for lice was intense”. At Riga they were joined by another group from Voronesh, which brought the size of the group to 400. Tina remembers the church services that were held, and that Margaret, Mary, Isaac, and Peter Klassen sang in a quartet.
On September 24, they boarded the SS ‘Baltara’. “Never had I seen so big a ship, or so much water, and travelling by ship, so much sea-sickness”, recalls Dan. Tina recalls enjoying the boat ride, which took four days to reach London. The voyage followed a route via the Baltic, the Kiel Canal, English Channel, and finally up the Thames River. The sights of London overwhelmed many emigrants and Dan was no exception. “Sailing up the Thames River, there in front of us was a very large bridge. As I gazed at the bridge, it started to open in the centre. I could hardly grasp what would happen next.”
In London, 8 autobuses took them to the train for Southampton, from where they were taken to Atlantic Park and served supper in a large room. Men and women slept in separate rooms. In the morning, everyone had to take a bath, during which their clothes were checked and disinfected, and a doctor again examined them. Tina notes, “We were to have a clean start in a new world.”
On September 30, they left Southampton and traveled by train to Liverpool, and on October 1, boarded the CPR ship, ‘SS Montrose’. This was actually the second version of Montrose – Montrose 2 – built in 1920; it had its maiden voyage in 1922, so the ship was one of three ‘flag ships’ in the Canadian Pacific fleet of ships. One of the others was the “Montclare”, aboard which the Neumann family sailed that same fall. The Montrose II was torpedoed in 1940 by U99 off the coast of Ireland, ending an 18-year term of service.
Daniel loved to be on deck and soon made friends with a member of the ship’s kitchen staff, who named him “full moon”, because of his round face. They were unable to understand each other’s language but learned to communicate by pointing. It was onboard this ship that Daniel tasted his first orange, which he did not appreciate. Daniel writes, “I enjoyed this trip on the Atlantic Ocean more than on the Baltic Sea. But seasickness also occurred here.” Tina was sick five days out of seven. “I remember going to the dining room. This is where I had my first orange and I did not like it, but it helped with my seasickness. I did see a whale spouting water.”
Maria Loewen remained seasick until the ship reached the St. Lawrence River. The children, however, fared much better and were encouraged to go on deck for fresh air. Henry writes,
“One day some of the sailors coaxed four of us boys to follow them into the dining room, where they gave us coffee and big buns to eat. We couldn’t understand a word they said, but they were having a good time laughing and watching us eat like hungry wolves or something. I gave them to mother, and this was the only thing that she could eat that would stay down. She was glad to get them”.
On the voyage they encountered some fog and icebergs, but otherwise, their voyage was uneventful. The ‘Montrose’ arrived at Quebec City on October 8, and on the following day they disembarked. Again, they were subjected to a physical examination. Isaac Zacharias, a member of the Mennonite Board of Colonization, was there to meet the group with six railway cars ready to take them to Winnipeg.
Unlike the first leg of their journey, they now were able to ride in regular passenger train cars, a privilege not shared by all the immigrant groups that arrived in Canada that year. The family of Martin Loewen’s future wife Sara Neumann, which also arrived in 1926, made the train journey to Saskatchewan in a box car. Food for the journey was brought to them in baskets. A few mothers had to stay behind in Quebec City because of their children who had chickenpox.
Upon their arrival in Winnipeg, the immigrants were met by a group of people who represented the Mennonite churches, the Canadian Pacific Railway, and the government of Canada. The Canadian government was anxious to attract farmers to the Canadian prairies, as farm workers were in great demand. The authorities asked if any had relatives or friends to whom they wanted to go. If they did, then provisions were made for those families to go to those places. As Abraham Loewen had no relatives to go to, he enquired as to where in Canada would be the best opportunity of getting farm work. He wanted to go where there was work so that he could earn money immediately. He was told that at Acme, Alberta, there were Mennonite people who were very anxious to have help harvesting their crops. An early snowfall had delayed the harvest, and now that the crop had dried, the farmers were in desperate need of help.
So, they were once again on the train and heading west to Calgary, some 900 miles away. When they reached Calgary, they were transferred to another train, which took them to Acme where they arrived Wednesday, October 13, on a sunny afternoon; the daytime temperatures were at the freezing mark. Henry writes, “The train stopped in Acme at 1:00 p.m. Holdeman farmers were waiting to take all the men to the field, and by 3:00 p.m., they were pitching bundles”.
