Peter W. Toews

Mennonite Genealogy with Michael Penner

Peter W. Toews (1831-1922)

from Blumenort, by Royden Loewen, page 315

Peter W. Toews was a cousin to Elder Peter Toews and Delegate Cornelius Toews. Peter came from the Borosenko village of Rosenfeld in 1874 to settle in Blumenort. His wife, Agnes, was the daughter of the old widower , Jacob Barkman. Peter was a well-to-do farmer in Blumenort and had a steam engine (portable Waltrous) several years before anyone else had one. He used the engine to operate his sawmill. After 1881 the Toews family joined the Holdeman Church, and in the early 1890s they moved to Greenland. Here Peter farmed and reached the old age of 91. He is remembered fondly by many Greenland people as Grousfoda Toews. His descendants live in Greenland, Whitemouth and Alberta.

Letter of Peter W. Toews, from Blumenort, by Royden Loewen, page 52-53

Blumenort
January 12, 1875

Dear Friends:

First of all a hearty greeting with the wish that these lines will find you living healthily, both physically and spiritually.

The worship service was here today and Ohm Barkman read a letter to us written by you in the beginning of November. So I will visit you brethren out there by letter. We are, thanks to God, quite healthy in our family. Grandfather [Jacob Barkman, Sr.] has had a severe ache in his cheekbones from suffering from extreme cold on the trip here from the [Red] River. He was completely drenched at the time by a cost west wind. He is, however, completely recovered now. Mother [Mrs. Jacob Toews], too, whose nose seemed to be getting very sore, is completely well now. So both of these elderly ones are once again quite well.

Today, on the third day of Christmas, it is 13 degrees and the weather very beautiful. We have a warm room, the interior of which is 15 1/2 feet wide and 19 fee long. In it stands a small brick oven. The work room is as long but only 12 feet wide. Here is the cooking oven. Our fuel is dry poplar wood which is again in large quantities, and is unlikely to become scarce in one year. There are also many young poplars where 30 acres on the old stand had previously burnt. The trees are about 15 to 18 feet high and seem to be growing very fast.

I am, thus, not worried about the material aspect of life. Concerning the spiritual life, however, it will require that we “work with fear and trembling”, which would be good particularly for me…

Concerning the barbarism of the native people; there is nothing to fear. A settlement of half breeds [Ste. Anne] lies five miles from here. Trips are often made to the place, where a brisk trade is going on. And if one goes from house to house to buy peas, chickens or cats, one is compelled to stop a little at each place, and, if it is the fist time, one is urged so much that one can hardly decline …

… in this world one can always find new worries. When we contemplate the reasons why we made the long trip with its many associated difficulties, we are greatly obliged to praise and thank the Lord and to pray that He would help and keep us with His Spirit and that [the move] would prove to be to His honor and our righteousness.

I would also like to report to you a few things about the trip. Do not take too little smoked ham and too few dried zwieback with you. One can easily back zwieback in light cases and take them [out of cargo] in Liverpool and on Lake Superior. Vinegar and onions can also be used as one notices in himself and in others much faintness after suffering from seasickness….

In conclusion, my family and I send greetings to all brothers and sisters and request that you all intercede for our protection in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Your friend and brother,
Peter Toews

P.S. If anyone knows where Martin Klassens are staying write to us, as we can get no news about them. Brother-in-law, Isaac Friesen, writes about Cornelius Enses in Kansas and says that Klassens will soon be there, but to this date we have heard nothing of Klassens and Heinrich Warkentins. ■

Anecdote by son-in-law Jacob S. Friesen in Mennonitische Rundschau, Sept 25, 1907, p.5

Our grandfather Peter Toews thought to settle in Kansas at his youngest son’s, Johann B. Toews, through the winter.

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