Peter Jakob Bergmann

Mennonite Genealogy with Michael Penner

Peter J. Bergmann (1850-1933)

Peter J. Bergmann c.1893.

Source: George Bergmann, Steinbach, Manitoba

Based on Chapter 6 of my book Of Russian Roots and Canadian Migration, second edition.

Biography of Peter Jakob Bergmann (1850-1933)

Peter Jakob Bergmann, my great-great-grandfather, was born on February 17, 1850 in Ladekopp, Molotschna, South Russia to Jakob Jakob Baergmann and Eva Pauls. Peter was the third of five children who survived passed infancy. He had an older sister, an older brother, two younger brothers, in addition to five siblings who died very young.

Virtually nothing is known about great-grandfather Peter Bergmann’s youth aside from what can be gleaned from government and genealogical records. We know from the 1847 Molotschna voters list that Peter’s father was part of the one-third of Mennonite families who were landowners at the time, indicating Peter was born into at least a somewhat privileged family. Peter would undoubtedly have spent much of his youth helping on the family farm.

By the time Peter was a young man, he was well acquainted with grief. Before he was 22, he had lost both his parents, and by age 28 he and his older brother Jakob were the only surviving member of his twelve person family.

Peter J. Bergmann married Elisabeth Toews on May 20, 1871, in Tiege, Molotschna, where his bride had been living. The couple settled into a homestead in Ladekopp where they enjoyed a large pear and apple orchard.

Peter was a farmer, as were most others in those days, but he was also a chiropractor and dentist. With health and dental care as primitive as it was in those days, he would have had to endure much wailing from his clients. As a child, Aunt Helen remembers her grandfather’s “fierce-looking” equipment for extracting teeth which, of course, would have been used without anesthetic.

Peter was also a minister. In 1880, at about age 30, he came a minister in the Kirchliche Mennonite church. Four years later, he had a spiritual experience whereupon he joined and was ordained a minister in the Mennonite Brethren church. He was an influential M. B. minister and is described by historian John A. Toews as one of “several men with outstanding leadership ability who helped to expand the spiritual horizons of the Mennonite Brethren.” Another historian, P. M. Friesen, describes Peter as “a gifted and promising preacher”.

Peter appears to have believed in the importance of his children’s education. From what we know about his children’s scholastic activities, Peter permitted them leave from the family

farm responsibilities to reach significant educational milestones. His children Kornelius, Jakob, Elisabeth, and Abram are known to have completed all seven years of primary school. Kornelius and Abram also completed three years of secondary school, with Kornelius furthering his education at universities in St. Petersburg, Russia and Jena, Germany. The family would have been considered well-educated by the standards of the day.

Peter Bergmann’s wife, Elisabeth, became ill with tuberculosis of the spine at about age 48, and died ten years later, on November 12, 1907. About six months after her death, on May 8, 1908, Peter remarried to his cousin’s widow, Helena Baergmann nee Loewen, gaining one stepson and four stepdaughters. He then moved into his second wife’s house, which was also in Ladekopp, leaving the ancestral home to one or more of his sons. The couple enjoyed fourteen years of married life before Helena passed away on June 19, 1922.

The difficult Russian civil war years did not escape Peter and his second wife. An anecdote from the diary of Peter J. Dyck of Ladekopp, who was very familiar with the Bergmann family, provides some glimpse of the troubles encountered.

17-4-1919

More robber raids have occurred. Four thieves attacked our neighbours, the Janzens. A large number forced the Preacher P. Bergmann outside in his undergarments and extracted 1000 rubles from him. The militia guard had again been taken captive beforehand. These insisted that there must have been at least twelve mounted men in the gang, besides a number on a horse-drawn vehicle.

During this difficult time, Peter and Helena periodically visited the Bergmann home in Rückenau overnight for safety. Grandma spoke very fondly of her mother-in-law Helena and even named her third oldest daughter in her mother-in-law’s honor.

After Peter’s second wife, Helena, passed away, Peter came to live at his son’s place in Rückenau. Aunt Helen has fond memories of her grandfather’s stay. She tells of how her grandfather loved to carry little Liese around the house and how he would curl up against the wall heated by the stove and tell stories to the children.

As a widower in 1931, Peter moved into Uncle Kornelius and Tante Ida Bergmann’s home, who by this time had also moved to Rückenau. In a letter to the Abram P. Bergmann family, who were now living in Steinbach, Manitoba, Tante Ida wrote of the condition of their father. He was elderly and ill and developed an intense itchiness on his chest that Tante Ida referred to in German as Plagmous. The menace was to the point that Peter’s scratching wore holes through all his shirts, and later shirts lent to him by Uncle Kornelius.

Peter Jakob Bergmann passed away very shortly after his 83rd birthday, in late February or early March of 1933, in Rückenau, Molotschna, South Russia.

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