The first known patriarch of our Cornies farmily was Johann Cornies (1741-1814) who lived in the Danzig area of northern Poland. Cornies was a sailor in the Danziger Merchant Marine and made many ocean voyages. One voyage took him around the horn of Africa to India. Johann was in Lisbon, Portugal, at the time the city was hit by a tsunami started by an earthquake under the Atlantic Ocean. Half of Lisbon was destroyed, as were ships in the city's port.

Johann Cornies married Maria Klassen, they had four children and the family moved to southern Russia in 1804. They brought with them one wagon, two implements, four horses, one plough, three cows, 100 sheaves of grain to be thrashed, some hay and about 1,000 Rubles.

They lived first in Chortitza and later moved to Ohrloff, Molotschna. Johann Cornies had some medical knowledge and brought a medical book with him from Poland. He treated people with illnesses and was soon known as Ljekar (Doctor). In 1814, after 10 years in Russia, he died.

Johann and Maria Cornies had four sons: the famous Johann (1789-1848), Peter (1791-1847), David (1794-1853) and Henry (1806-?). I am a direct descendant of Johann's son Peter. Peter Cornies also had four children: Maria, Johann, Peter and Anne. Peter was born in Ohrloff in 1823 and married Maria Dueck in 1847. This family moved to the Schoenfeld Colony, north of the Molotschna.1

My Grandfather Johann Cornies was born in Ohrloff on March 20, 1853 and died in Schoenfeld October 22, 1915. He married Margarethe Klassen in 1876 and they lived on a 880 acre Schoenfeld estate. Grandfather Johann received an invitation to visit Moscow for the crowning of Czar Nicholas II and received a leather-bound book of the coronation ceremonies. Grandfather Cornies had four children: John, my father David (1884-1938), Peter and Maria.

My father David Cornies married Sara Dick (1885-1943) and they had eight children: John married Katie Janzen, Mary married George Krueger, Agatha married George Konrad, Jacob married Elizabeth Toews, Sally married Arthur Epp, Margaret married Dietrich Walde, David married Agnes Neufeld and I, William, married Helen Rempel. A set of twins, David and Katherine, died at two years of age.

In 1924, my parents, along with their seven oldest children arrived in Canada. They farmed near

Winnipeg, Manitoba with a dairy herd and wheat crops. It was the time of the Great Depression.

I was born in Winnipeg in 1928. Here Victor Dirks' grandmother Mrs. Warkentin, a midwife at 144 Logan Avenue, delivered me. I was the youngest of eight children. Many years later in Ontario, one of my siblings told me how my birth had interrupted my parents efforts in getting settled in our new country. My first memory is of my siblings and I coming down with whooping cough. My parents needed to post a quarantine sign on their front door until we recovered.

In the early 1930s, we decided to move to Ontario where mother had sisters. We first moved to a farm near Cottam, then to Harry Adams place on #18 Highway which we farmed on shares until 1941. I attended the original Ruthven Public School which stood on the same lot as the present Ruthven School. Jake, Henry and Ernie Driedger, Irene Willms Woodsit and Harry Willms went to the same school. Miss Olsen and later Rod Brown were our teachers. On the way to school, I'd sometimes carry a fresh chicken egg as far as the Scratch General Store where I'd trade it for a BB Bat, a wonderful candy treat!

In 1941, when I was in grade six, my mother and one older brother purchased a 50 acre farm on Wilkinson Drive. Now we attended the Ridge School where Mrs. Lindsay was principal. We were all afraid of her. My classmates there were Helen Dick Epp, Rudy and Frank Bartel, and Helga Neufeld Driedger.

After grade eight, I, along with Jake Driedger, Art and Rudy Rempel, Herm Dick, Gary Toews, Helen Dick Epp, Edith Derksen Wiens, Mary Woelk Neufeld and other Leamington people attended the Ontario Bible School, today named Niagara Christian College. Here the boys lived on the 4^th floor; the girls on the 3^rd. Elmer Steckley was principal. I recently discovered that George Dyck, our LUMC pastor David's father, was my science teacher there. Tuition was about $300, which included room and board.

In 1946, after two years of high school, I took up farming. My father had died in 1938, when I was nine. Mother died several years later, in 1943. Brother Jake married Elizabeth Toews in 1943 and they moved into the family home. I met Helen Rempel at our young people's parties and we were married in 1952 by Reverend N. N. Driedger in Leamington. We moved into a little house on the farm that my older siblings had lived in earlier. Here we farmed together with my brothers. We grew flu tobacco, early tomatoes, potatoes and cabbage. This was taken to Erie Produce.

In 1955, Helen and I bought Mike Bocan's greenhouse farm on #18 Highway near Frazer Road. Here we grew cucumbers and tomatoes. This farm was later purchased by Amicone. In 1962 we bought a greenhouse farm on Morse Road. In 2003 we moved into the town of Leamington.

Today we have four children and eight grandchildren.

AK2009

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