Maria Friesen

Mennonite Genealogy with Michael Penner

Maria Penner nee Friesen (1880-1945)

From my book Our Friesen Heritage, p. 47-48

Maria Wiebe Friesen was born December 23, 1880, in the community of Hochstadt, Manitoba, about halfway between what is present day Kleefeld and Grunthal. Her parents were Gerhard S. Friesen and Maria nee Wiebe. When Maria was seven, her family moved to North Dakota, where she attended school to grade 8. The family was not well-to-do, so as a teenager Maria helped support the family by working in a hotel in Hannah, North Dakota.

In 1899, Maria attended a local church event where a visiting young people’s choir from Manitoba was singing. This was a Holdeman choir and one of the singers was a handsome young man named Peter M. Penner. The encounter was memorable.

Maria married Peter on January 16, 1902 in southern Manitoba. Shortly thereafter, the newlyweds settled near Sunnyslope, Alberta, at SW34-30-25-W4, with Maria’s dad helping with the arrangements. Here, they farmed and homesteaded in the close vicinity of Maria’s parents and siblings. The Friesen family in fact owned the all four quarter sections of 34-30-25: Maria & Peter owned the SW, David the NW, Gerhard & Henrietta the NE, and Gerhard Jr. the SE. Family was never far away.

In late 1903, Maria gave birth to her first child, David, followed by Abe in 1905.

In 1906, Peter and Maria were offered a free quarter section of land in Manitoba (26-8-5E) in the vicinity of Peter’s parents. There was a catch, though—they needed to settle the land to take ownership of it. Maria had a strong attachment to her Friesen family and so found it difficult when in the end they decided to leave. They sold their homestead in Sunnyslope for $3,000, a large sum at the time, and travelled to their new home.

In the spring of 1907, the Penners settled on their land near present day Landmark, Manitoba where they were one of the founding families of that community. The family broke and farmed the land, living close to Peter’s brother, Abram. They initially had quite a small house, but in 1919 built a larger one to house their family which by now had seven children.

Maria and Peter officially retained their memberships in the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite (the Holdeman Church) throughout their adult life, but in thinking and sentiment they did not feel denominationally bound. Their son Archie recalls how his father gathered their children into the family car and travelled to Winnipeg to see the move Uncle Tom’s Cabin, at a time when this movie was a popular topic of conversation around North America. Movie-going, even to a movie considered entertainment for the whole family, would have been considered worldly by most church-going people in their community at that time. The Penners also chose other avenues of nurturing the spirituality of their children, including the occasional attendance at well known chapels in Winnipeg and at the local Kleine Gemeinde fellowship.

The Penners developed friendships among the pioneers who joined the community just after WWI. Maria’s family grew in size to nine children, the last of whom was born in 1928.

In 1936, Maria’s husband died very unexpectedly of a ruptured appendix, leaving Maria very mournful. She had difficulty recovering from this loss. As a widow, Maria ran the family farm with the help of her younger sons. She passed away from a heart attack at the age of 64. Her body is laid to rest at the Prairie Rose Evangelical Mennonite Church cemetery near Landmark.

When asked to describe Maria, her son Archie gave these anecdotes: her grandchildren were very fond of her, she was a planner especially around the farm, cooking was very important to her, she made fancy meals and fancy dishes, she enjoyed travelling around the area, she wrote many letters, she enjoyed sewing, she enjoyed having a big garden and sang a lot in the garden.

(Sources: (i) Contending for the Faith: A biography of Dr. Archie Penner, by Mary Barkman, (ii) interview with Archie F. Penner (1917-2007), August 13, 2002, Kola, Manitoba, (iii) anecdotes by various of Maria Penner nee Friesen’s descendants). ■