© Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Last updated July 14, 2010)
Johann J. Enns was born on 2 Nov. 1884 in Schoenbrunn, Schoenfeld, Russia to Jakob Herman and Susanna (Dueck) Enns. He married Anna Rempel (1884-1958) of Tiegenhof on 21 May 1909. He immigrated to Canada in 1924 and settled in Grunthal, Manitoba in 1926. He was baptized in Schoenbrunn, Russia in 1902 and received into the membership of the local Mennonite church in the Schoenfeld Colony. Shortly after settling in Grunthal, Manitoba the local Mennonites called and ordained him to preach. In 1943 Johann Enns was elected and installed as the bishop (Aeltester) of the Elim Mennonite Church, which he had helped organize out of all the scattered Mennonite immigrants in the Grunthal area. He served in this position until shortly before his death in Grunthal in 1965. His wife Anna died in 1958. In 1961 he married widow Helena Mandler (nee Klassen) (1891-1979). Aeltester Johann J. Enns did not have any children. He and his first wife were the foster parents of his two of sister's children -- Jacob Neufeld (1908-1987) and Justina Neufeld (1910-1999) -- as well as several other children that had lost their parents.
This fonds consists of notes and notesbooks about the founding of Elim Mennonite Church in Grunthal, Manitoba in 1928 by the congregation's first bishop (Aeltester Johann J. Enns, 1884-1965), note books created by Johann Enns in the course of his leadership of the church (addresses of people he visited, notes taken at conferences including expenses, notes taken at events), and sermons prepared and delivered from 1928-1965.
File inventory list
Elim Mennonite Church (Grunthal) fonds
The materials were in the care of a nephew, Henry Rempel of Winnipeg, until they were given to his sister, Margaret Heese of Wymark in 2009.
German - much in Gothic script but not all.
Arranged and described by Alf Redekopp, 14 July 2010.
None to access
Margaret Heese, Wymark, Saskatchewan
Acc. No. 2010-048