Elisabeth Regehr

Elisabeth nee Regehr and her family, c. 1898. Left to right: Katharina (c.1891-1922), Elisabeth (c.1869-1927), Helena (c.1892-?), Wilhelm (1894-1972), Heinrich (c.1865-c.1935), David (1895-?).

Mennonite Genealogy with Michael Penner

Elisabeth Regehr (c.1869-1927)

Elisabeth Regehr was born about 1869 to David and Katharina Regehr of Steinbach, Molotschna Colony, South Russia. She was the second youngest of six children.

Elisabeth received her childhood education at a private school on the Steinbach estate. In 1890, at about age 21, Elisabeth married Heinrich Wilhelm Reimer (c.1865 – c.1935), who was four years her senior.

The newlyweds settled down at the Steinbach estate where Heinrich presumably farmed. Elisabeth was soon pregnant and this was the start of a large family. Of their ten children, Elisabeth gave birth to at least their first seven children while in Steinbach: Katharina, Helena, Wilhelm, David, Elisabeth, Anna, and Jacob. They also had another child in Steinbach who died in December, 1901 at a young age.

The Reimer children attended the private school on the Steinbach estate along with their Regehr cousins.

Sometime after 1906, the Reimers moved to a Chutor on the Alexanderkrone steppes. By 1910, they had settled in at Rueckenau. Here, they lived in one of the finer Wirtschaften in the village, conveniently next door to Heinrich’s older brother Jacob, a prominent Mennonite Brethren itinerant minister. The Heinrich Reimer family lived for many years in Rueckenau where Heinrich made a living farming. Heinrich did not have any special religious education, but by 1910 he was also a lay minister in the Mennonite Brethren Church.

With many children and a household to maintain, Elisabeth was a busy mother. In addition to the seven children already mentioned, she gave birth to three more sons: Heinrich, Jacob, and Nicolai. In total, Elisabeth had ten children over a span of 23 years plus another child who died young. Elisabeth was about 45 years old when she gave birth to her youngest, Nicolai, in Rueckenau.

As the Reimer children married, Elisabeth gained grandchildren. Her first grandchild was Elisabeth Janzen, born in March of 1919 in Rueckenau, when Elisabeth was about 50 years of age.

The Reimer family endured the hardships of the South Russian famine of the early 1920s. On August 5, 1922, Heinrich wrote a letter to the Mennonitische Rundschau appealing for food aid behalf of his household of ten members:

Dear Mennonite brothers and sisters in America,

… By the fall of 1921, one could see that we would have a difficult winter ahead of us and it turned out even worse than we had anticipated. By the New Year, 1922, my stock of food was consumed despite the fact that we had carefully rationed it. Then I had to begin to sell items; at first those we could afford to do without. They did not fetch a good price, yet hunger aches, as the saying goes and as I have now personally experienced. Among other things I could have sold a good fur coat for 2 million rubles, for which I could have bought 2 puds 10 pf of barley. Unfortunately, the coat had already been turned into other articles of clothing. One after the other, I sold items for which I had paid a good price and which I would have dearly loved to keep. I looked with hope to the assistance that later became available to me and my family despite some difficulties, that is, the opening of a public kitchen. Now our circumstances have improved. Oh, how grateful we are to you and God for this help. The assistance did not extend as far as we would have wished so we had to do what we could to supplement it. Food products have climbed to 12 million ruble per pud and we needed a good harvest but we could seed very little. If God had blessed even this, we would have had enough for our own bread. Now, the harvest is over and each farmer knows how much he has and adjusts himself to make it last longer. The wheat yield is scarce and very little barley and oats were sowed. Many farmers in our village, who normally sowed 30 dessiatines or more, sowed only 4-6-10 dessiatines, bringing in 5-10-20 pud per dessiatines. Garden vegetables and field corn are also doing badly as a result of the continuing drought. Several corn fields are completely dried out, others promise very little…

It has often come to us, as we were eating our noonday meal in the public kitchen that we were like chickens drinking water. With each gulp they instinctively raise their heads as though they are thanking God for their nourishment. Stirred to tears, we would sit there and thank God and you for the help. Today, I have received my last meal and I am no longer in the position to qualify for assistance. Nevertheless, our stock of food will not last long and I have nothing left to sell. I am down to my last cow. I have no horses, nor the money to buy any. My fields remain unsowed and the future looks even darker as we approach winter. This year will go even worse than the last, when we at least had heating fuel in the forest. Now, even the woods are gone and if God does not send rain to grow thistles, we will not even have that for fuel. If one does not look away from all these calamities and trust completely in the Lord, one could easily lose the will to live. I am a farmer who was raised in the ranks and was always able to ensure the well-being of my family. Now I am in such terrible circumstances that I cannot feed even myself. I have a well developed farm and a good garden. Should anyone think of me in love and send a food draft, I would be very grateful. Some have already received drafts, but there are many needy people who have not.

H. W. Reimer

Mennonite historian Leona Gislason notes that conditions gradually improved, but trials and tribulations did not cease for Heinrich and his family. In July, 1924, Heinrich’s son Wilhelm and Heinrich’s older brother, Jacob, immigrated to Canada. Heinrich and Elisabeth, too, wanted to emigrate with the remainder of his family but for some reason this was not possible. He continued to serve as minister in the Mennonite Brethren Church. On October 5, 1926, he attended a General Conference of Russian Mennonites in Melitopol. Already, he had served a sentence of one month of hard labor for issuing birth certificates and his congregation was forced to disband. It was not clear why the issuing of birth certificates was treated as a criminal offence. It is possible that certificates were altered to enable young men, who otherwise would be drafted into the Red Army, to emigrate.

In January, 1927, Elisabeth died of dropsy. Perhaps it was her ill health that had prevented the family’s departure. In the spring, Heinrich drove to Siberia and in the fall he married Maria Siemens from Hierschau, a widow for over eight years.

Heinrich wrote to the Mennonitische Rundschau in 1928 explaining his circumstances:

Rueckenau, Molotschna

Give this to all friends to know how the dear God led me recently. I had 36 years with my dear wife, who was one Elisabeth, born the daughter of David Regehr of Steindorf, who is also well known to many. We shared life, joy and sorrow together. It went quite well with us. We wanted always to move to America, but the dear God did now allow it. Then in 1926 she became sick, in September she went on bed rest on order of the physician; her legs were swollen. The illness got worse, it being dropsy. She became also bloated, but did not having especially great pain, only that she was very heavy. Then on January 19, at 1 a.m. she died. Those whom already had a dear wife die know what pain it brings. I went at the time in my widowerhood to Siberia, which was in the spring. Then in the autumn of 1927 the dear God again gave me a dear woman, who was widowed 8 ½ years. She had 2 husbands: the first was Jakob Janzen, Rosenheim, and the second Johann Kliewer. She lived with her three children in Waldheim. Therefore with her, I also got three adult children. My dear wife is one born Maria Siemens from Hierschau. We have now been married about 5 months and must say to the honor of God, it goes very well with us. We are convinced that the dear God led us together and are very thankful to and indebted to the dear God. It is our wish, also to live onward in the fear of God.

In the early 1930s, Heinrich was forced to leave Rueckenau (ausgesiedelt). He wrote a letter to his sister-in-law in Canada, Gertruda Reimer, wife of his brother Jacob, communicating the difficulties of life, thanking her for money sent, and requesting further assistance. The letter appeared in the October 5, 1932 issue of the Mennonitische Rundschau. Heinrich’s mailing address at the time was Cholodnaja Street, Post Grodowka, Station Grischino, Donbas, USSR (formerly the Memrik Colony).

Dear sister-in-law Truda and children!

In past week, news from the hard currency stores that we could get hold of products for $3.00. And so I sent Lena to Jekaterinoslaw to get some. No instruction from whom it [the money] came, but because you wrote that you also wanted to send something, I thus concluded it came from you and spoke this with my heart. Thanks for that. So the world turns. First I could give you so much and now I get it back. God rewards amply.

The harvest is here, however it provides very little and me nothing at all. Flour costs 100 rubles per pud on the market. Anybody sees the future darkly, and ours is black. Do not have money with which to buy and I cannot earn it. In Revelation it stands written that the future can be black and as a “haerener” sack: could this be it?

Your Gerhard is happy to be gone; I would gladly have taken his place. Now I am pleased for the future glory, soon all will be overcome. Should someone have desire and the task to delight us with something, we’d be very grateful. It almost shames me to write this, but it is now so. Our address is the old one, but whether we will still get it, we know not, but the Lord knows. If we could, would also be there with you.

Our Wirtschaft in Rueckenau was dismantled to the ground and in a Russian village a school was constructed from it. One questions how things here get managed. Our Nickolai went away to Moscow for work. Liese (she is a young widow with 2 small children) and Heinrich struggle in Rueckenau for their existence. There is there little grain, no fruit. Liese writes very full of concerns.

It rained much and yet poor grain, no blessing from above. Please, dear Truda, give such of which you are in a position to help, to our address. You have it yes; can you perhaps make our situation well known in the Rundschau? We have there yes many acquaintances who in their time stopped us and we allowed them to receive, which went well for us. Greet all dear friends and acquaintances! Does Jakob Friesen, whom I had once learned with, yet live? Heard that he was very sick. Is Peter Friesen there also? I am not healthy, often experiencing dizziness.

Sincere greetings to you all, your uncle and siblings,

Heinrich and Maria Reimer

In April of 1933, Heinrich attended the funeral of his sister-in-law, Sarah Regehr Wiens, where he gave some closing remarks. At this time, he was living in Landskrone, Memrik where there was very little food. In Memrik, Heinrich died of malnutrition and starvation in about 1935.

Sources include Rueckenau, by Leona Gislason, correspondence with Leona Gislason, and the Mennonitische Rundschau.

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