© Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Last
updated November 10, 2010)
Bergen, Jacob, 1897-1991
Retrieval numbers: Vol. 2138:12-16; Vol.
5479-5480; Photo Coll. 589.
Title: Jacob Bergen family fonds
Dates: 1923-2000
Extent: 2 cm of textual records ; 5 photographs
Repository: Mennonite Heritage Centre Archives
Historical note
Jacob Bergen (1897-1991) was born to Jacob Bergen
(1872-1941) and Katharina
Teichroeb (1872-1919). He grew up in the Borosenko colony, Russia.
During the First World War he worked in the forestry camps doing
alternative
service instead of entering the military. His mother was murdered in
1919 during the Russian Revolution in the village of Felsenbach. Jacob
and his father fled to the village of Schönhorst. While they
stayed
there,
young Jacob met Maria Peters and they got married. In 1923, with their
first born child, they immigrated to Canada. The family lived in
Saskatchewan and Manitoba for a time and Jacob worked on the
railroad. Eventually they settled in the Stephenfield area in Manitoba
and established a family farm. Education was important to the Bergen
family. Nine of the ten children spent some time at the Mennonite
Collegiate Institute in Gretna, Manitoba. Jacob and Maria were also
involved with the Schönwieser Mennonite church. Jacob Bergen
died in
Carman, Manitoba in 1991.
Scope and content note
This fonds contains a transcript of an interview
with Jacob Bergen, Jacob
Bergen correspondence with the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization
regarding immigration, payment of travel debt and the sponsorship of
relatives coming to Canada after the Second World War and
correspondence with the Schönwieser Mennonite church.
The fonds also includes the letters written by
Margaret Bergen (1928-) to her parents, Jacob and Maria Bergen, and the
letters received by Margaret from her parents, while attending the
Mennonite Collegiate Institute boarding school from 1941-1945, while
attending Normal School in Winnipeg 1945-1946, and while teaching in
various schools in Manitoba and on an exchange program in Coventry,
England in 1961-1962.
This material shows the difficult situation some
Mennonites
experienced in Russia after the First World War, how one family coped
and immigrated to Canada where they started a new life with their
children. The letters show the high value that this family placed on
education and staying in touch with each other when transportation,
travel and communication was quite limited.
There is also one file of letters which Margaret
Bergen
received from female Ukrainian agronomist of Zaporozhye who began to
care
for the Mennonite cemetery on the Island of Chortitza in
1998.
These letters contain a perspective of a Ukrainian who lived through
World War II as a prisoner in Germany and then returned to Ukraine in
1957, and eventually attending the Mennonite Church in Zaporozhye which
started in the late 1990s.
Index terms
Creators
Bergen, Jacob, 1897-1991
Bergen, Maria (Peters), 1898-1983
Bergen, Margaret, 1928-
Adjunct descriptive data
Finding aids
Inventory file list available
Online version of finding aid available at: http://www.mennonitechurch.ca/programs/archives/holdings/papers/Bergen,%20Jacob%20family%20fonds.htm
Related material in this repository
Anna Peters (1919-) fonds (Vol. 5425:8-13)
Jakob Peters fonds (Vol. 5425: 1-7)
Notes
Language
German and English
Arrangement
Described by Conrad Stoesz July 16, 2004. Updated
by Alf Redekopp, October 6, 2010, December 14, 2010 and May 19, 2011.
Restrictions on access
No restrictions
Immediate source of acquisition
Margaret Bergen of Winnipeg.
Other notes
Acc. Nos. 1999-002, 2000-097, 2010-065.
File List
Volume 2138
- Transcription and translation of the life
story
of Jacob Bergen (1897-1991) born in Steinbach, Borosenko Colony, Russia
and died in
Carman, Manitoba and his wife Maria Peters (1898- 1983)/ Margaret
Bergen. The interview recording was done in 1977, translation done in
2000. There is some information on the Ebenfeld massacre. Accession No:
00-97
- Jacob Bergen and Maria Bergen family documents related to
the
immigration to Canada and the payment of the travel debt (Reiseschuld)
with the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization. -- 1923-1924.
Accession No: 99-002
- Correspondence to Jacob and Maria Bergen from or
related to the Schönwieser Mennoniten Gemeinde in Manitoba. --
1934-1949.
-- Note: also included are some minutes. Accession No: 99-002
- Jacob and Maria Bergen sponsorship applications and
correspondence to and from
the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization and the Canadian
government regarding relatives Peters and Hildebrandt. -- 1945-1948.
Accession No: 99-002
- Copies of church membership certificates travel
documents and correspondence. -- 1923. Accession No: 99-002
Volume 5479
Margaret Bergen (1928-) letters to parents,
Jacob Bergen (1897-1991) and Maria Bergen (1898-1983) (Acc.
No. 2010-065)
- Introduction to letters written to parents from 1941-1962 /
Margaret Bergen. – 2010.
- Letters to parents while attending MCI. –
1941-1945. [originals]
- Letters…while attending Normal School on William
Avenue. – 1945-1946. [originals]
- Letters…while teaching at George Herbert School
near Pigeon Lake. – 1946-1948. [originals]
- Letters…while teaching at Mason School.
– 1951-1954. [originals]
- Letters…while teaching in Rose Farm School,
Schoenwiese
School, Mason School, one from Toronto while cooking for the fellows in
the “Students in Industry” unit, and one letter
from CMBC.
– 1948-1958. [originals]
- Letters to my parents 1941-1958 recopied from the Gothic to
the Latin script. – 2010.
- Letters…while teaching in Coventry, England on
an exchange
program 1961-1962 / translated to English from German by Margaret
Bergen. – before 2010. NOTE: originals have not survived.
Volume 5480
Margaret Bergen (1928- ) letters received from her parents,
Jakob Bergen (1897-1991) and Maria Bergen (1898-1983) (Acc.
No. 2010-065)
- Introduction to letters written by parents from 1941-1962 /
Margaret Bergen. – 2010.
- Letters received from my parents while attending M.C.I. in
Gretna. – 1941-1945.
- Letters received…while attending Normal School.
– 1945-1946.
- Letters received…while teaching at George
Herbert School 1946-1948.
- Letters received…while teaching at Rose Farm.
– 1948-1949. [only 2 survived]
- Letters received…while teaching at Mason School.
– 1951-1954. [only 3 survived]
- Letters received…while teaching in Coventry,
England. – 1961-1962.
- Letters by Parents to Margaret Bergen / compiled by Peter
and
Johanna Bergen. – 110 pp. – 2010. This coil-bound
compilation contains a typewritten version of files 1 to 6 [in German].
- Letters by Parents to Margaret Bergen [from 1941-1962] /
translated into English by Peter Bergen. -- 2010. -- 87 pp. (Acc. No.
2010-082)
- Letters from Sinaida Gulega, Zaporozhye to
Margaret Bergen, Winnipeg. -- 2001-2011. -- 16 letters. [In German with
English translation]. These letters come from a female Ukrainian
agronomist,
living on the island of Chortitza since 1957, who
began to tend the old Mennonite cemetery in 1998. She also attended
worship services at
Mennonite Church in Zaporozhye Mennonite Church where General
Conference
Mennonite Church Commission on Overseas Mission (COM) had involvement
beginning in 1996. (Acc. No. 2010-088) (Acc. No. 2011-026)
Photo
Collection 589 Jacob Bergen family fonds
- Mothers dad's daughter. -
[19-].. - 9 x 12 cm [b&w]. This photo is of a portrait of a
middle aged woman wearing a dark dress, sitting on a chair posing for a
photo. Her hair is pulled back. The description says "Mothers dad's
daughter". [It is believed that this is Margaret Bergen's writing so
that would make this person her aunt or Abram Peters 1874-1962 and
Margaretha Derksen (1878-1932) daughter.?]
- Nikolai Wiens. - [ca. 1918].
- 9 x 14 cm [b&w]. This photo is of Nikolai Wiens [Nicolai
Wiens] standing in a forest in the late fall or early spring when there
are no leaves on the trees. He is wearing a foresti or Russian forestry
service uniform used for alternative service in WWI. There is some
Russian writing on the back.
- Jacob Neufeldt. - [ca. 1918]. - 9 x 14 cm
[b&w]. This photo is of Jacob Neufeldt sitting on some rocks in
a small creek bed that has some snow in it. He is wearing a foresti or
forestry uniform which suggests this photo was taken during his
alternative service in the forestry service during WWI. There is some
Russian writing on the back.
- Herman Zacharias. - [191-]. - 9 x 14 cm
[b&w]. This photo is of Herman Zacharias, friend of A. Braun.
He is a young man, sitting on a chair outside a brick building with a
bit of snow on the ground. He is wearing a tall fur hat. He is wearing
a 3 piece suite with a tie. He is sitting with his legs crossed.
- Young man posing for a photo. - [191-]. - 6 x 10 cm
[b&w]. This photo
is of a young man posing for a photo in a photo studio. He is wearing a
3 piece suite. He has a short, under developed beard.
- Jacob Bergen Forestry Service Uniform during WW
I. - ca. 1913. - 10x15 cm: b&w. This
photo shows Jacob Bergen posing in front of a tree sitting on a wooden
ledge with one foot on a little stool.
Jacob Bergen was born in Steinbach, Borosenko Colony Russia and died in
Carman, Manitoba.