Maria Wiebe

Mennonite Genealogy with Michael Penner

Maria Friesen nee Wiebe (1853-1886)

Our Friesen Heritage, third edition, p.31-32

Maria Wiebe was born in Rosengart, Chortitza Colony, South Russia on February 15, 1852. Her father was Aron Wiebe and we only know her mother’s name as Mrs. Aron Wiebe. Maria appears to have been the only child from this marriage. Maria’s father died before Maria was three years old.

Maria’s widowed mother remarried to David Unger (1830-1906) in 1852 or 1853. From this union, Maria gained a half-brother, Abraham Unger (1854-1881).

Twelve days after Maria’s fifth birthday, tragedy struck again: her mother died at the young age of about 27. This left her 26 year-old step-father David Unger a widower with two young children. Needing a spouse to support the household, he married just eleven days later, on March 10, 1857, to Maria Warkentin (1825-1885). The young child Maria Wiebe would grow up with no memories of her biological father and perhaps a few memories of her biological mother. Although she had no blood connection with either of her new parents, she was incorporated into the Unger family as one of their own. As was tradition, she retained the surname of her birth father, Wiebe.

David Unger was baptized and became a member of the Kleine Gemeinde in 1857. This affiliation would have been a defining characteristic of the family, since it made them in many ways outsiders among the larger Mennonite community. It affected with whom they would fellowship and worship, and with whom the children, including Maria Wiebe, would eventually marry.

The Unger family increased in size as David and Maria Unger went on to have five children together: Judith “Ida” (b. 1858-?), David (1860-60), David W. (1861-1935), Jakob (1863-1931), and Heinrich (1866-66). Among the children, Maria Wiebe was the big sister and would have undoubtedly played an important role in the household tending the younger ones.

The Ungers at some point moved to Blumenhoff, Borosenko Colony, South Russia. This colony was a collection of hamlets on a tract of land the Kleine Gemeinde pooled finances to purchase. Here the Kleine Gemeinde lived together in very small villages within a tight-knit colony.

Maria was baptized at the age of 18, on February 28, 1871.

We have no information at present on how Maria Wiebe met her husband-to-be, Gerhard S. Friesen. The fact that they were both Kleine Gemeinde would have played a central role. The couple married on June 22, 1873, in Blumenhoff, Borosenko Colony in a wedding officiated by Kleine Gemeinde minister Peter Kroeker. They were a young couple: Maria and Gerhard were age 20 and 21, respectively.

Maria became pregnant about a year into her marriage, in the spring of 1874, just a few months prior to their emigration to Canada. She gave birth to her first child, a daughter, on February 14, 1875 in Blumenfeld, Manitoba, in the midst of a very harsh winter. Thereafter, Maria gave birth about every 18 months for the next ten years. On her twelfth wedding anniversary, June 10, 1885, Maria bore her eighth child. Of these children, four daughters died in infancy.

Maria began to manifest signs of lung disease (likely tuberculosis) in late 1885. The illness progressed and became more debilitating until she finally passed away at 8 a.m. on November 24, 1886, after having suffered for a year. She lived to age 33. She was predeceased by her birth parents, step-mother, four infant children, half-brother Abraham Unger, and at least one step-brother and step-sister. She was survived by her 34 year-old husband, four young children aged 10, 7, 5, and 4, and her step-father. Her body was laid to rest in the Gruenfeld cemetery, near present day Kleefeld, Manitoba. ■

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Register erected in 1971 at the Gruenfeld cemetery where Gerhard S. Friesen’s first wife, Maria Wiebe is buried. A line in the lower left reads “Friesen Gerhard Mrs. 1853 1886”

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