This post is part of a series of biography writing by students in Joel Warkentin’s Religious Studies class at UMEI Christian High School in Leamington, Ontario. Look for a new biography every Monday morning or view the entire series here.
Biography of Martin Tiessen
January 2016
by C. Driedger, student biographer
Martin Tiessen has been a major aspect in many people’s lives and is also and influence and an inspiration to many. He is a very hard worker, which is how he got to be where he is today. And yet there are many more things to be discovered about Martin.
Martin was born on March 16, 1939, in Petipese, Manitoba, to Nikolas and Margareta Tiessen. Martin’s parents moved to Canada in 1925 away from the Bolsheviks and communism. When Martin was 6, he, his parents, and his eleven siblings moved to the fifth concession to live with his grandparents and for agricultural opportunities. This was an exciting experience for his whole family, as they traveled by train to their new home. Martin’s family has strong faith backgrounds, attending church every Sunday and gathering with family every Sunday. Growing up, Martin didn’t mind spending countless hours helping out on the family farm. He attended Bellwood Public School for most of his childhood. Sports was one of Martin’s favourite pastimes during his school years, as he would spend lots of time playing softball, football, and baseball. He excelled in school and finished his elementary school education at Gore Hill Public School. After graduating, Martin spent two years at UMEI. Upon finishing his two years at UMEI, Martin became dedicated to the farm.
Martin’s childhood and teenage life was quite a bit different teenagers living in today’s world. Of course, one of the biggest differences is in technology, but also in culture. Martin was still a child when televisions were introduced to the world. Hydraulics is a form of technology which Martin has claimed to be a major development that affected the entire world, as well as his profession, agriculture, in particular. Hydraulics removed the excessive forces of labour that were once required to perform farm tasks. As for culture, an example is during Martin’s teenage life, racism was a common and accepted action whereas now it is frowned upon.
As faith continued to be an important art to Martin’s life, he was baptized on June 1, 1958. His baptism verse was Romans 3 verse 24, “wir werden ohne verdienst gerecht aus seiner gnade durch die erloesung, so durch christum jesum geschehe ist”, which translates to “we will be done justice by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus without merit.”
Another big milestone in Martin’s life is his marriage, to Suzanne Cornies. They met in choir at church and were married in 1964. Martin, 23, and Suzanne, 19, would go on to live a long happy life together. The two have always enjoyed travelling, and one of his favourite trips was to Hawaii. Martin and Suzanne had two children; Paul and Jennifer. Paul was born in 1966 and Jennifer in 1970. They both became a very important part of Martin’s life, as they grew up into the wonderful adults they are today.
If there’s one thing Martin is passionate about, it’s agriculture. This is a pride passed down from generations, and Martin was involved on the farm as a child and still is to this day. In his early years, he would spend most of time doing labour chores that needed to be done. For quite some time, they raised about 75 cows, which provided Martin and his family with an abundance of chores! But he never complained about the jobs he had to do, because he knew it had to be done and he enjoyed it as well. They also grew tobacco, cauliflower, cabbage, and lots of tomatoes. As he grew up, he continued to be an important helper on the family farm. His dedication to the farm was showcased when he left UMEI to work full time. It wasn’t until the seventies that they began the transition to wheat, corn, beans, and tomatoes. Eventually, Nikolas (Martin’s dad) came to the point of retirement and Martin was the one of his eleven siblings to purchase the family farm. This was a very important part of his life, because it was the very beginning of his very own farm. However, his farming career has not seen only successful days. A major national event that affected him personally was the selling of Heinz in 2013. Martin and his farm supplied for the company with their tomato harvest, and so it was unfortunate when the company was no longer operating in Leamington. However, this would in no way change his driving passion for farming. To this day Martin is actively involved in the farm, and has truly been farming since birth. He now lives happily on his farm in Leamington with Suzanne, and still has much ahead him.
As Martin would say, “Have good day and a better one tomorrow.”
