© Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Last updated 31 August 2012)
Repository: Mennonite Heritage Centre Archives
Retrieval numbers: Volume 5626 file 3; Photo Collection 323:416, 417.
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Title:Cornelia Lehn Collection
Dates: 1978-1986
Extent: 2 cm of textual material
Extent: 2 photographs
Extent: 2 audio recordings
Historical note
Cornelia Lehn was born the youngest of five children to Gerhard G. Lehn (1881-1970) and Sara Ens (1886-1993) on December 15, 1920 in Leonadewka, Ukraine. Cornelia (Nellie) was a journalist, story teller and church worker. She immigrated with her family to Saskatchewan in 1926 where they settled on a farm near Hanley, Saskatchewan. In 1941 the family moved to British Columbia where she was baptised in 1941 in the Greendale First Mennonite Church. After the war she volunteered with Mennonite Central Committee, working at a refugee camp in Gronau, Germany. Upon her return she attended Canadian Mennonite Bible College in Winnipeg, Bethel College in Newton, Kansas and earned an MA in journalism from the University of Iowa.
She worked for the Commission on Education for the General Conference Mennonite Church (Newton, Kansas) editing Sunday School curriculum. It was here that she decided it was against her conscience to pay the military portion of her taxes. She made her convictions public in 1977.
She wrote a number of books, many of them stories about faithful living even in the face of hardship. These include God Keeps His Promise, Peace Be With You, I Heard Good News Today, The Sun and the Wind, and The Homemade Brass Plate. In 1989 she researched and wrote the history of the Conference of Mennonites in British Columbia entitled, Frontier Challenge. Some of her publications have been translated into other languages.
Lehn was well liked and kept up with relationships through letter writing. After her retirement in December 1982, she lived with her sisters and served the Greendale church in Chilliwack. She died July 2, 2005.
Scope and content note
This collection was created by Muriel Stackley of Kansas City, Kansas. It includes some poetry by Lehn, correspondence, anecdotes about Lehn’s experience growing up (written by Muriel), articles about Lehn, and two photos.
Index terms
Creators
Adjunct descriptive data
Finding aids
Inventory File list available.
Notes
Custodial history
This material was created by Muriel Stackley through the friendship she had with Cornelia Lehn.
Language
Arrangement
Description by Conrad Stoesz August 20, 2012.
Restrictions on access
None
Other notes
Accession No. 2006-039
Related Materials
Glenbow Museum, Mennonite Historical Society of B.C.
Inventory file list:
Textual records
Volume 5626
Audio cassette
3100. Gerhard Ens Broadcast No. 427: Cornelia Lehn Stories 1 and 2.-- 02-Mar-1981.
Audio reel
147 Gerhard Ens Broadcast Cornelia Lehn Stories II. – March 1981.
Photo collection
323:416 Cornelia Lehn. - 1978. - 7.5 x 7.5 cm [b&w].
This photo is of Cornelia Lehn sitting at a desk writing. This could be her office in Newton Kansas where she worked for the General Conference Mennonite Church in the creation of Sunday School materials.
323:417 Cornelia Lehn. - June 22, 1986. - 8.5 x 8.5 cm [col.].
This photo is of Cornelia Lehn at her home in Chilliwack, BC. She is standing outside of a building holding a large red rose and wearing a pink and mauve blouse, jacket and skirt.