Sarah Regehr

Mennonite Genealogy with Michael Penner

Sarah Regehr (1862-1933)

Sarah nee Regehr (1862-1933) and Gerhard Jacob Wiens (1859-1904), c. 1901.

Sarah Regehr was born on September 1, 1862 to David Regehr and Katharina Warkentin of Steinbach, Molotschna, South Russia. Sarah was the second oldest of six children.

Sarah and her siblings grew up in Steinbach, which wasn’t actually a village at all, but an estate that included immense land holdings and lavish mansions. Here, Sarah’s parents were employed as shepherds, a common occupation on the large Mennonite estates.

Sarah married Gerhard Wiens at about age 23 in circa 1885. Gerhard was a well-to-do young widower with one surviving young son.

Gerhard and Sarah owned a private estate, referred to by family simply as “Hochfeld”, west of the Russian town of Varvarovka within the Schoenfeld Colony. The estate was one in a cluster of such estates that was referred to generically as Hochfeld.

One day soon after their wedding, Sarah and Gerhard’s son was by a window inside the house. Outside, a dog barked and startled the boy. The boy fell, resulting in his death. He was laid to rest in their estate’s private cemetery. This incident is remembered as a particularly difficult blow to the young couple.

Sarah and Gerhard began a family together in Hochfeld. Within a span of less than thirteen years, they had ten children. One can imagine the household must have been a very busy place with many little feet scampering about.

The estate had the means to support a private school and this is where the Wiens children received their childhood education.

Life on the estate was affluent. Family stories tell of servants who helped around the house and garden, of a Jewish tailor visiting the estate to sew corsets for the girls, and of a private school on the estate where the children were educated. Other stories relate of how Gerhard would be waited upon. His eggs were not to be fried until he was seated at the table so they would be fresh for the eating and his boots had to be well shined. Gerhard enjoyed keeping the Hochfeld estate well manicured.

The affluence of the family was fueled from the estate’s considerable land holdings. Hochfeld consisted of 383 dessiatines (1,030 acres) and employed about thirty farmhands who lived on or near the property in addition to servants helping around the house and garden.,

In his early forties, Gerhard’s health began to decline. The doctors were consulted and gave a grim diagnosis: liver failure. For this they had no treatment.

In 1904, Gerhard and Sarah decided to move from Hochfeld to Steinbach, Molotschna where Sarah grew up and where their children would be surrounded by good Christian influences. The Hochfeld estate was arranged to be sold, but before the transaction completed, Gerhard died. While the family knew Gerhard was in poor health, his sudden passing took them by surprise.

Gerhard Wiens passed away at 4 a.m. on February 23, 1904 at the age of 44. He was survived by his wife Sarah and ten children: David, Katharina, Heinrich, Gerhard, Jacob, Anna, Sarah, John, Abram, and Margarethe. He was predeceased by his first wife and their two young sons. Gerhard accepted the Lord in his later years. Although the family wished for some things to be different in Gerhard’s life, he is remembered as a good provider, a hard worker, and compassionate to the poor.

Gerhard’s funeral was held four days later, on February 27, 1904. He was buried in the Hochfeld estate’s private cemetery where Gerhard’s two sons already lay. Gerhard had lost so much weight during his illness that the undertakers padded out his suit to make it fit.

As a result of Gerhard’s death, the pending sale of the Hochfeld estate mentioned earlier fell through, but Sarah and her children proceeded with the move to Steinbach anyway. This created an awkward situation with Sarah owning two properties a large distance apart. A grieving widow with ten children and considerable property to manage, this was a very difficult year for Sarah.

The Steinbach estate was a welcome and familiar place for Sarah and her children. The younger children attended the local private school alongside their Regehr cousins and Sarah integrated into a local church. The Wiens family embarked on a new life together within a large circle of extended family.

As part of the move to Steinbach, Sarah purchased and relocated onto her parents’ farmstead. She upgraded the property, building into a hill a fine, spacious house that had virtually enough rooms in later years for all her children’s families. The house was multi-level and built into the hillside. Its entrance on the hill side was on the upper storey, and the entrance on the valley side was on the lower storey. The house was situated on the northern bank of the Tschokrak river, on the eastern half where the slope down to the Tschokrak was particularly steep. Her farmstead consisted of 61 dessiatines (165 acres) in a triangle formed by the Yuschanlee and Tschokrak Rivers. By one of the river banks was a large orchard. Other features of the property included a large hay barn with a granary at one end.

About seven years after the move to Steinbach, when Sarah was 49 years of age, the Wiens children began to spread their wings and leave the family home. The oldest three children, David, Katharina, and Heinrich married in successive years, starting in 1911. Gerhard and Heinrich were recruited into the Forstei, and later Johann and Abram were too called into its service. The Wiens household was emptying and this proved a difficult experience for Sarah.

The Russian Revolution and its aftermath were a very challenging time. During periods of unrest, Sarah, even as an older woman, periodically hid in the reeds by a stream at night to avoid being assaulted by lawless young men. The soldiers brought a wave of typhus to the Colony, and Sarah was one of the many who were afflicted by it. She fell deathly ill and her family did not think she would survive, yet after some months she eventually recovered.

The late 1920’s were a time of great social upheaval in Russia. The Bolshevik regime dispossessed and punishing the wealthy as it moved toward a communistic economy. The wealthy Steinbach estate owners felt this first, but a couple of years later Sarah and her children were targeted as well. Sarah’s grandson, Heinz Wiens, recalls the following:

“Now in Russia it is a fact that one can be sentenced not only on grounds of actual crimes committed, but also on grounds of potential damage [one might cause]. Farmers such as grandmother, that is major landowners, were treated as “experts”. They were declared to be dangerous, for out of their midst exploiters could eventually develop. These dangerous individuals were then dispossessed, that is their entire estate and property was taken from them, and they were directed to leave the particular region. Grandmother, Uncle Hans and Aunt Sara were dispossessed of their property in this way in 1927. They had to leave house and home just standing there, and go. The whole estate and property just went over to the state, that is became socialist property. The house was turned over to the orphanage and everything began to fall apart.”

After losing her home and nearly all of her belongings, Sarah relocated to the Memrik Colony with her unmarried children Sara and Johann.

Letters from the Wienses in Russia tell of the hardships Sarah faced in her elderly years. Food was at times in short supply. In spite of this, Sarah displayed a positive spirit. She writes in a 1930 letter, “Everything this family had has been taken away except some clothes, cooking utensils, but as long as man is alive we must have food, but until now the Lord has helped us.”

In the twilight of her life, Sarah was cared for by her son and daughter-in-law and family, the David and Justina Wienses of Bahndorf, Memrik Colony. In her last days, she was of ill health and looked forward to meeting the Lord. Sarah Wiens nee Regehr passed away in Bahndorf on April 22, 1933, at the age of 70.

Back to the Regehr page.

Sarah nee Regehr (1862-1933) at about age 70, c. 1932.

Recent satellite photo of the Steinbach estate, with Sarah Wiens’ farm noted in black. Her house built into the steep hillside, now 100 years old, still stands today. Source: Google Maps.

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