Part Three: Immigration to Essex County

The First Places of Employment

The Mennonites that came to Essex County seemingly gained their employment at first in two chief area: the Broadwell brickyard at Kingsville and the Jasperson brickyard at Coatsworth. The work at the brickyards was burdensome, since men at that time were doing work done by machines today. In the photograph above, one can see Rev. Jacob D. Janzen and his brother Henry loading clay on small wagons at Coatsworth.

In this area there were also farms employing Mennonite families, such as John Martens, Jacob. J. Toews, Cornelius Neufeld, John A. Dick with mother and sisters, and others. The so-called Duke’s farm at Olinda supplied work for the Peter Jacob Tiessens and their sons Peter, Frank and Nicolai. Their oldest son, Peter, passed away here. The same farm at first also provided work for Henry and John Tiessen and their mother. Other families were dispersed on other farms and worked either for wages or as share-croppers.

At this time, the Mennonites lived in small cottages near the main farm dwelling, or in dwelling places reserved for workers at the brickyards, or in houses on neglected farms. Sometimes two or three families shared the same dwelling. Furnishings were indeed primitive. Chests once used for storage on the journey from Russia were now used, along with boxes, for seating arrangements. Orange crates were the raw material for much furniture just as flour and sugar sacks were the raw material for clothing, bed linens, etc. Privations existed everywhere – a far cry from today’s luxury and superfluity. And still from records kept in 1928, one reads about warnings concerning the intrusions of fashion into Mennonite life at that time. Human nature has not changed, one must conclude.

In spite of poverty and discomforts however, a spirit of contentment pervaded in Mennonite families – perhaps more then than now. One must remember, too, that families were still repaying their travel loans and thus money had to be spent frugally. The reasons then for general contentment were the grateful thoughts of having sufficient nourishment for the day and the peace and quiet after the horrible years of civil war, anarchy, and famine in the old country.

In spite of dispersions, distances, and transportation difficulties, the people visited and met with one another. No one looked with condescension on those travelling on foot or by horse. Quite soon bicycles came into use, and many times Rev. Jacob D. Janzen did his spiritual shepherding by this means. A feeling of community in social and spiritual matters among the Mennonites spared them from sudden evaporation in a strange environment and made possible the eventual establishment of a congregation.

In a report to an assembly on September 4, 1927, the late Rev. Jacob H. Janzen stated:

“Both joy and sorrow moved the hearts of the new immigrants – joy because they had been released from the land of oppression and harassment into a land of freedom; sorrow because a common plight had tossed many together in the difficult years in Russia as well as in the long migration to Canada, and now separation had come about with one person not even knowing of another’s whereabouts.

Because of the great upheavals of the past, most all of the immigrants brought with them a tremendous feeling of community that could only be satiated in a reunion of the people.”