© Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Last
updated 11 June 2013
Rempel,
David H., 1869-1962
Retrieval numbers:
Volumes 557, 580, 3456, 4310, 4790; Photograph Collection
634:1
Title: David H. Rempel Fonds
Dates:
1876-1982 , predominant 1910-1962
Extent: 32 cm
of textual material
Extent: 2 artifacts
Extent: 1
photograph
Repository: Mennonite Heritage Centre
Archives
Historical note
David H. Rempel was born on 16 May 1869 in
Michaelsburg, Fürstenland, in southern Russia, to Heinrich and
Justina (Klassen) Rempel. He attended the Zentralschule and was one of
the first six students from his community to take the teacher's exam.
He became the teacher and principal of the Neu-Osterwick school. He was
baptized by Aeltester Heinrich Epp of the Chortitza Mennonite Church in
1889. He was ordained as a minister in 1901. He married Sara
Dyck on September 12, 1893. They had 10 children, six of whom survived
childhood: Sara, Anna, David, Justina, Margareta, and Johann. The
family also adopted Sara's nephew, Dietrich Jacob Dyck, who was
orphaned during the revolution. David, Sara and their adult children
immigrated to Canada in 1923. David and Sara settled on a farm at
Hochfeld, Saskatchewan, near Hague, and joined the Rosenorter Gemeinde
with which David served as a minister for churches in the Hague and
Rosthern districts. Sara died in October 1930, and David was married to
Helene (Wiens) Willms in 1932. She died in 1946, and David married Anna
Giesbrecht on 17 October 1950, who then died in 1959. David
spent his last years in the nursing home at the Rosthern Youth Farm and
died on 28 January 1962.
Scope and content note
This fonds consists of some early handwritten
Christmas and New Years Wishes, some artworks (sketches done in school
in Russia) school documents, notebooks of sermons and loose sermons,
presentations at events and conferences, some correspondence
and family records. Most of the materials are handwritten
originals. The collection also contains a table cloth and a samovar
that were brought from Russia.
Index terms
Subject terms
Rempel, David H., 1869-1962
Creators
Rempel, David H., 1869-1962
Adjunct descriptive data
Finding aids
Inventory file list available
Notes
Language
Primarily German with some Russian and English
Arrangement
Description completed by Joanne Moyer in March
2007. Updated by Alf Redekopp, June 2013.
Restrictions on access
None to access
Immediate source of acquisition
Materials were donated by David's children and
grandchildren. (Acc. Nos. 87-228, 95-112, 99-083, 13-060)
Inventory File List
Volume 557
- Correspondence from David H. Rempel to his children,
handwritten in German, 1930-1961.
- Notebook of poems, pen-and-ink sketches, names and
addresses, 27 December, 1923. Note: contents missing.
- Notebook of jottings by D. H. Rempel in German, 2 February,
1960, to 21 December, 1961.
- D. H. Rempel’s “Gebet”
(prayers), “Traurede” (funeral sermon) for daughter
Anna, etc., 1905-1947.
- Correspondence to D. H. Rempel and others in German,
1924-1961.
- Notebook entitled, “Eine Sammlung von 22
russische geistlichen Liedern mit Noten,” by D. H. Rempel,
containing Russian songs, 1958; loose sheets of music in Russian; and
notebook entitled, “Notezbuch von Katja Willms,
1915,” belonging to a member of the Peter Willms family,
husband of D. H. Rempel’s daughter, Anna.
- D. H. Rempel’s obituary, handwritten and
typewritten in German, 1962.
Note: a photograph from this box has been removed to the photograph
collection. The photograph depicted David H. Rempel, principal of the
Neu-Osterwick school, with his students and fellow teachers, 1903-1904.
Volume 580
- Sermon notebook, 1916.
- Sermon notebook, 1916-1917.
- Sermon notebook, 1917.
- Sermon notebook, 1917-1918.
- Sermon notebook, 1918.
- Sermon notebook, 1919-1920.
- Sermon notebook, 1921.
- Sermon notebook, 1922.
- Sermon notebook, 1925-1927.
- Sermon notebook, 1945-1946.
- Sermon notebook, 1945.
- Sermon notebook, 1949-1950.
- Sermon notebook, 1950.
- Sermon file, 1901-1909.
- Sermon file, 1910-1919.
- Sermon file, 1920-1933.
- Sermon file, 1930-1939.
- Sermon file, 1940-1949.
- Sermon file, 1950-1959.
Volume 3456
Acc. # 87-228
- School certificates and report cards in Russian, 1888-1892.
- Notebooks containing recitations, poems, etc. in German,
1876-1883, 1982.
- Travel diaries: “Reisebericht von Russland bis
Lechfeld,” and “Tagebuch Lechfeld,” in
German, Russian and English, 1923-1925.
- Osterwick Reunion Material, including programs and
correspondence in German, 1945.
- Rempel biographical material, including obituaries and
correspondence, and text of Brahms’ German Requiem in English
and German, ca. 1959.
- Rempel genealogical and family records with memorabilia
including correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, cards, and
various writings by David, his children and others, in German, Russian
and English, 18-- -1982.
- “Zur Jahrhundert des Dorfes Neu-Osterwick, jetzt
Pawlowka, anno 1912,” nach D. H. Rempel und von D. H. Epp,
article from Der Bote (two copies), 1967.
- Sermon schedules, 1938, 1960-1961.
- List of emigrant Mennonite young people ages 12-20 in
Lechfeld, Germany, 1923.
- A biographical sketch and description of David’s
sermon collection from his daughter Sara, in English, 1965; and a
letter from the Province of Saskatchewan regarding clergy registration,
192-?.
Volume 4310
- Finances, 1962.
- Correspondence, a family record of Jacob Janzen, and David
H. Rempel funeral card, in German, Russian and English, 1910-1976.
- Notebooks containing Bible study and teaching notes,
1932-1938.
- Familienbuch containing family records, 1911-1960.
- Notebooks: “Andacht auf dem Schiff: Briefe in
Lechfeld” and “Auf der Bibelkonferenz
Eigenheim,” and some miscellaneous notes, in English,
1923-1924, 1954-1958.
- Sermons, 1943-1955.
- Sermons, 1914-1961.
- Lechfeld Tagebuch and other papers, photocopied, in German,
1922-1929. Accession Number 95-112.
Volume 4790
Acc. # 99-083
Table cloth and explanatory note in English, likely written by Elsie
Rempel Wiebe.
Volume 5696
Acc. No. 2011-024; Acc. 2013-060)
- Notebook: "Homiletic"
- Notebook: a) Sermon (July 1908) b) "Monatsgegenstand: die
Kartoffel
- Notebook: "Die Stellung der Jugend zur Gemeinde" (1931)
(=young people's view toward the church)
- Notebook: "Anstellung der Predigers" (=installation of
ministers)
- Notebook: "Referat gehalten auf der S.S. Konferenz in
Hague: über S.S. Unterricht" (=re. teaching of Sunday School)
- Notebook: Bible school notebook with student work
(Eigenheim Church).
- Notebook: "Predigerentwurf zur Predigerkonferenz in
Saskatoon" (14-15 Oct. 1937) (minister's conference)
- Notebook: "Referat: Paulus" (sermon on Apostle Paul)
- Notebook: "Referat: Wen darf eine Gemeinde als Glied
aufnehmen" (receiving someone into church membership)
- Notebook: unidentified notebook without a cover.
- Notebook: recipes
- Loose sermons (handwritten) found with these
notebooks
- Sermons: typewritten
- Translation of the last will and testament. -- 1932.
- Photocopy of map of Neu-Osterwick (Russia) showing names of
residents. -- 1928. [original filed as Map 1268.]
- Two envelopes with letters from Heinrich & Helena
Rempel, USSR, dated 1948, 1957, 1961.
- Nine colour photocopies of sketches (drawings) created by David H. Rempel ca. 1886 in Russia. (Acc. no. 13-060)
- Loose sermons [over 200 sermons, unsorted and uncatalogued].
-- 1902-1962.