© Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Last updated April 2, 2007)

  • Reimer, Jacob Heinrich, 1893-1976


    Retrieval numbers: Volume 5155; CD coll. No. 26.

    Title: Jacob Heinrich Reimer fonds
    Dates: 1920-1923
    Extent: 7 cm of textual records
    Extent: 1 compact disk
    Repository: Mennonite Heritage Centre Archives

    Historical note

    Jacob Heinrich Reimer was born November 15, 1893 to Rev. Heinrich Reimer (1850-1929) and Margareta Regehr (1862-1923) at the Vladimir Forestry camp where his father was minister and manager of this Mennonite alternative service camp. Jacob was the first child of 7 from this marriage. Heinrich Reimer's first wife was Gertrude Warkentin (1850-1890) and they had 7 children. From the forestry camp the Reimers moved to Neu-Schönsee, Zagradovka colony, South Russia where Jacob Heinrich Reimer attended elementary school.
    In 1905 the family moved to the Mennonite village of Lichtfeld, Molotschna colony. Later Jacob attended the Zentralschule in Alexanderkrone and Kommerzschule in Halbstadt from 1910 to 1915.
    In 1915, during the First World War, Jacob served as a Sanitäter (ambulance attendant) aboard train number 192 and was later stationed in Moscow as a bookkeeper. One of Reimer's activities after returning from his service was the collection of wild plants in the Molotschna area including Halbstadt, Lichtefelde, and Landskrone which he carried on from 1919-1923.
    In the fall of 1918 he began a teaching career in Alexandertal and around this time Reimer was baptized and became a member of the Lichtfelder Allianz Mennonite Church. In 1920 he was teaching at the Fortbildungsschule (junior high school) in Landskrone, Molotschna.
    Jacob Reimer was married to teacher Lydia Dyck (1901-1937) on July 17, 1922. They left Russia and arrived in Rosthern, Saskatchewan on April 16, 1924, just days before the birth of their first child, Heinrich, on April 18. Jacob continued his formal Canadian education by attending the Herbert Bible School 1924-1925, the Mennonite Collegiate Institute (MCI) in Gretna, Manitoba 1926-1928, the Manitoba Provincial Normal School 1928 and 1930, and summer school at the University of Manitoba in 1937. He was a teacher in the Carruthers school near Burwalde, the Gruenthal school near Altona, and the Woolwich school, near Gruenthal. He also did some farming, usually on rented land, during his teaching career.
    In 1938 Jacob married Aganetha Klassen (1899-1982) and together had 2 children. In 1944 Jacob quit teaching due to health concerns and moved the family to St. Catharines, Ontario and later Vineland where he gained employment at the English Electric Factory until his retirement 15 years later. The family was active in the Vineland Mennonite Brethren Church and he was a congregational correspondent to the Mennonitische Rundschau. Jacob Reimer died May 30, 1976 in St. Catharines General Hospital.

    Scope and content note

    This fonds consists of eleven thin notebooks containing dried wild plants collected from the Molotschna area, South Russia, current day Ukraine, north west of Berdyansk. The area was a large grassland agricultural plain with a moderate climate. The plants are mounted on scrap pages that have a mixture of German and Russian handwriting and print on both sides that include correspondence, mathematical and chemistry equations and financial accounting from ca. 1914-1920. Along with each specimen is its name. Many also include location and date obtained. With each notebook there is a separate listing of the Latin, German and English names of the plants, possibly prepared by faculty at the University of Manitoba.
    This fonds is very unique and the only one of its kind in this archive. This fonds provides a snap shot into the native vegetation of the area and can give suggestions as to accompanying animals found in the area and what inhabitants used for everyday living including food and medicine. It has not been determined if the scrap paper the plants are mounted on have any significance.
    Photographs were taken of the collection and saved on compact disk.

    Index terms

    Creators

  • Reimer, Jacob Heinrich, 1893-1976

    Adjunct descriptive data

    Finding aids

    Inventory file list available

    Notes

    Custodial history

    This material was donated to the archives in 1999 by Helen Bergmann, daughter of Jacob Reimer

    Physical description details

    Very fragile.

    Language

    German, Russian and English.

    Arrangement

    Described by Conrad Stoesz February 26, 2007.

    Restrictions on access

    No restrictions to viewing content on CD # 26. Handling restrictions on originals in Volume 5155.

    Other notes

    Accession no. 1999-124.

    • Inventory File List

    Volume 5155
    Jacob Reimer dried wild plants collection.
    1. Tetpaab A. No. 3 (small green notebook). – 1920.
    2. Compositae B (plants with heads composed of many florets: aster; daisy; dandelion; goldenrod; marigold; lettuces; ragweed; sunflower; thistle; zinnia) (small beige notebook). – 1921.
    3. Papilionaceae B (leguminous plants whose flowers have butterfly-shaped corollas; commonly included in the family Leguminosae) (small light brown notebook). -- 1921.
    4. Scrophulariaceae B Sapindoceac and Malvaceae (a family of dicotyledonous plants of the order Polemoniales; includes figwort and snapdragon and foxglove and toadflax and speedwell and mullein; in some classifications placed in the order Scrophulariales) (small rose coloured notebook). – 1921.
    5. Baragin B (Boraginaceae - a widely distributed family of plants distinguished by circinate flowers and nutlike fruit) (small dark green notebook). – 1921.
    6. Rubiaceae B (widely distributed family of mostly tropical trees and shrubs and herbs; includes coffee and chinchona and gardenia and madder and bedstraws and partridgeberry). (small sand coloured notebook). – 1921.
    7. Laeiatae B (the mints: aromatic herbs and shrubs having flowers resembling the lips of a mouth and four-lobed ovaries yielding four one-seeded nutlets and including thyme; sage; rosemary) (small brown notebook). – 1921.
    8. B (large purple notebook). – 1921.
    9. B (large purple notebook). – 1921.
    10. Large black hard cover note book. – 1921.
    11. Small green hardcover notebook. – 1923.
    Compact Disk collection
    26. Jpg images of textual records listed above.