The Move To Gem, Alberta
Heinrich & Sarah Neumann, ca. 1946
Heinrich and Sarah had relatives in Gem, Alberta, so in January of 1932, Heinrich travelled west and after three weeks, returned home with the news that a 160-acre, irrigation farm awaited them in Gem.
In March, they chartered a railway car for their cattle and furniture (accompanied by David and Dick), and the others took a passenger train. The only equity they had in the farm was four years of hard work, so they simply left it for someone else to pick up. The Neumann family had grown by three in Saskatchewan, bringing the total to 13. Henry had permanently moved to the Fraser Valley in 1931, to work on a dairy farm.
The farm in Gem was “taken over” from another Mennonite family for the price of $100.00; it was a “CPR” farm. While farming was very different in Gem, it didn’t change the fact that the Depression years still dictated the return on their investments. Referred to as irrigation farming, regular tasks included digging ditches, opening and closing floodgates, and regular ‘ditch-riding’ on horse to check the integrity of the ditches.
Sally Loewen recalls an incident from the time the family arrived in Gem, which speaks not only to the character of her father, Heinrich, but to that of the Mennonite people as a whole. Upon their arrival, Heinrich had to borrow some seed to plant his first crop. He approached a man who was wealthy, but who also didn’t think very highly of Mennonites. Heinrich had promised this man that as soon as he harvested, he would repay him for the seeds. The man assented. Several days later, and unknown to Heinrich, a neighbour (Mennonite pastor) also approached this wealthy farmer for seed, and promised to repay after harvest. When harvest was over, both men repaid in full. After this, the lending farmer was quoted to have said, “If a Mennonite gives you his word, he’ll stick to it.”
The biggest change for the Neumann family was the community they now had become a part of. With a Mennonite church of 100+, a new world of social interaction, of spiritual formation and nurturing, and new opportunities opened up to them. One can only imagine the impact that the sudden arrival of a family of 13 would have on a small, homogeneous community. Henry Janzen (Kay Neumann’s future husband at the time) writes:
It was always an important occasion when a new family moved into the district. One occasion such as this became important to me when the Henry Neumanns moved to Gem and became our next-door neighbours. This fascinated me in more ways than one. They were quite a large family and I believe they did not know the meaning of the word boredom as they were always having so much fun. Mr. Neumann immediately became my hero. Behind his visage he hid a sharp and humorous character. He never was too busy to teach me to braid leather or explain something he was going to make with the hides he was tanning. He was very inventive and artistic when it came to making harness.
Heinrich, Helen, and Olga (VanBergen) Neumann; Gem
George, Margaret, Hilrie, Gem, ca. 1942.
The Neumann Residence
Jake & Heinrich Neumann; first tractor in Gem.
Sarah & Heinrich Neumann, Gem.
George, Hilrie, Margaret, Peter, Neil, John, Helen, ca. 1940.
The next 10+ years saw the addition of two more children to the family, and the oldest children moving away, either to British Columbia or to Calgary. Henry and Jake were already in B.C. by 1936, when Sally moved west to join them. She worked in Vancouver and lived in the “Maedchenheim”, a home established by Mennonite churches as a “safe” place for their young women who were increasingly being attracted to the large urban centres to find work, primarily domestic. That same winter, Sally attended Bible School in Yarrow and in 1937, moved back to Calgary, where she found work and again, lived in the ‘Maedchenheim’.
The youngest children, enrolled in public school and learned about discrimination through personal experience. When Canada became embroiled in WW II, young Mennonite men chose alternative service. The young children were associated with the enemy, as their mother tongue was German, and defending themselves and their siblings became common.
Clearly, farming provided for the physical needs of the large Neumann family, but beyond that, each year’s harvest, or lack thereof, determined the extent to which Heinrich and Sarah Neumann could anticipate a “comfortable” winter.
The first years of the Neumann farming experience in Gem occurred during the Depression years, and coupled with weather-related challenges, they were difficult years. Kay describes 1937 as follows:
When I was nineteen years old, my parents lost their entire crop through hail and we faced a bleak winter without income. I asked my parents if I could go to Calgary to work. They agreed and so began two years of housework for me.
David Neumann was 21 years old at that time, but he already demonstrated a keen understanding for the hardships of a farmer’s life. Brother Peter recalls that on one occasion, with a threatening hailstorm, David came running from the field where he had been tending the irrigation process, to help his mother get the turkeys under shelter, since they represented a major source of revenue and likely the only revenue that would provide the Christmas they anticipated. Their crops were badly damaged in that storm and so his actions had likely spared the turkeys’ lives and ensured some income.
In the early years in Saskatchewan and later, Alberta, it was a sad event when the older sons took their leave from home to venture elsewhere in search of work, as in the case of Henry leaving for B.C. Sarah would take out the gramophone and put on the record, “God be with you till we meet again”.
They sang along and then stood at the window until the boy(s) were out of sight. They might not return home for several years. Running through her mind may have been memories of Russia when indeed, departing family and friends were never seen again, much like the moves she had personally been involved in.
At war’s end, in 1945, Heinrich and Sarah made a visit to relatives in B.C., and discovered what Heinrich considered the world’s most beautiful spot. and they were going to move there.
