Katharina Loewen Rempel Schellenberg (19 June 1836 – 24 September 1904), was the daughter of Johann Jacob Loewen (1800-1848) and Helena Klassen (1801-1851). Her father immigrated in 1819 to Schoenhorst, Chortitza, Ukraine from Prussia.

     Her first husband Aron Rempel died in Schoendorf, Ukraine before the youngest of their six children was a year old and the oldest just fourteen. Very little is documented about her second husband Jacob Schellenberg.  He married Katharina in Schoenhorst after his  first two marriages ended as a result of death in childbirth for his first two wives; the two infant boys survived.

He may have owned a mill and appears to have been  gifted in business skills. Family anecdotal history indicates that his first two sons from the first two wives were sent to Germany to university, but he was disconcerted by their turning away from religion.

     Katharina was a firm but generous person.  When her stepson Jacob Schellenberg and his wife were killed in a buggy accident, she fostered their child Peter.  When her own son Aron suffered business reverses and could not feed his children, she took in three of them until finances improved.  It is said that there were 25 children fostered by this couple over the years.

     Katharina valued work.  She enjoyed gardening and had a wonderful collection of irises, but when she took a break, her hands were always busy with knitting or sewing. When her granddaughter Maria climbed a tree despite being told not to, she coaxed her down with cookies but spanked her anyway.  When Maria walked the mile or two from her home to visit her grandmother, Katharina asked if she had told her mother where she was going.  When Maria admitted she hadn’t, Katharina turned her around and ordered her home again.

Source: Krysanne Klassen