I was born in 1919 in Fürstenland, a daughter settlement of Chortitza. Each farm there consisted of approximately 175 acres. This land was rented from the Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevitch, and was located south of Chortitza in the Melitopol district.

My parents were Henry Janzen born 1878 and Elizabeth Dyck born 1885. They had a total of seven children. Three children died, leaving four of which I was the youngest. During the typhus epidemic, my mother died in July of 1920 and my father died in November of the same year. This orphaned me and my two brothers and one sister Elizabeth. My brothers Peter and Henry and I came to Canada; my sister Elizabeth was adopted by a Russian family and stayed in Russia.

Abram Epp, centre, with brothers Peter and Henry Johnson.

I remember when I was 3 1/2 years old. I got on a train in Siberia along with six or seven other children and their parents. I was very pleased with my new felt boots. As we travelled along, the man took off my boots, put them on his son, and gave me his son’s old boots in exchange. I didn’t think that was right. We travelled to a town in Ukraine, where they told to me to "Walk down this road; someone will meet you there." It was my mother's brother, Uncle Frank Dyck and his sister Mary who met me and took me to their house. I lived with them until we moved to Canada in 1926. My brother Peter and I each travelled on our aunt’s passport and brother Henry had his own.

My first language was Low German, then I learned to speak High German. When we moved to Canada I quickly picked up the English language. I spent a total of five years in school.

I recall landing in Quebec and walking up the steps at the harbour. We boarded a train which took us West to Herbert, Saskatchewan. After spending a year and a half on my uncle’s farm, I met my parents-to-be Jacob and Tina [Peters] Epp who adopted me in January of 1928, the day before my ninth birthday. In February of 1929, baby Ruby was added to the family. In 1934 we moved north to Rabbit Lake, Saskatchewan where my father and I built a log cabin. My brothers eventually changed their family name from Janzen to Johnson.

In 1937, during the Depression, crops were poor in Western Canada and our family decided to move to Pelee Island, Ontario. I was 18 years old and got work husking corn on Reverend Gerhard Thiessen's farm and lived with the family. During the winter months we cut lake ice for summer use. My Epp family first lived at the Frank Harris place, then in summer we moved to the South End on the Beach Road near the pump house, not far from the Barnes Fishery. Then we moved to the East-West Road near the Stoltz farm. Mennonite church services were held in John Wiebe's house on Parson Road. We share-cropped John Wiebe's burley tobacco.

I met Hilda Klassen on the Island and we were married by Reverend N. N. Driedger in George Pegg's Mission Hall in 1944. This Mission Hall on Henderson Road had been used by the Mennonites when they first came to the Island in 1925. Hilda and I lived on Earl Piper's farm near the DeBell place.

In 1947 we moved off the Island to the outskirts of Cottam onto a farm with a big brick house. Here we bought our first tractor and grew tobacco. I also worked on Arnold Wigle's farm in Ruthven where they grew corn and tobacco. While we lived here, my brothers Peter and Henry [Janzen] Johnson came from Saskatchewan to visit us. My brother Peter bought a place next to the Blytheswood Post Office and found work at a radiator business in Kingsville.

In February of 1949, Hilda and I bought a farm on the 12-13 Sideroad between the 6^th and 7^th concessions. This farm had 20 acres of which 12 acres were bush land. We cleared the bush and built a new house on the property in 1969 where we lived until 1984.

My brother Peter died in 1985. Henry, who had remained on a farm in Saskatchewan, married Hazel, a widow with four children and they had eight more children together. Henry died in 1992. My sister Ruby married Otto Epp from Saskatchewan and they had three children together. Ruby died in 1981.

One day Aunt Mary Klassen came to say that Aunt Mary Dyck from Saskatchewan was looking for me. She had placed an ad in the Mennonitische Rundschau (German language Mennonite paper) asking for my whereabouts. I contacted her and paid my $100 Reisechuld (travel debt).

Hilda and I, along with our family, attended the United Mennonite Church on Oak Street of Leamington. We had eight children. Hilda died of cancer in 1983. Today five children remain, along with 16 grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren and one great-great grand daughter. I am a resident in the Leamington Mennonite Home where I am very well cared for.

AK2009

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