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David Bräul was born in Ohrloff, Molotschna on September 8, 1861 to Johann Braeul and Katharina Huebert. He started to teach in Friedensruh, Molotschna, in 1882, where he worked for two years. After some problems with the village, he was dismissed. In 1886, Bräul started to teach in the school of Wernersdorf, Molotschna, Russia, where he taught for 38 years, until 1924. In August of 1893, Bräul married Eliese Harder. In this marriage, nine children were born. Eliese passed away in 1916 in Wernersdorf.
In 1924 Bräul migrated to Arnaud, Manitoba, where he married Agatha Nickel (1862 – 1935) in April of 1926. He wrote his “Lebensgeschichte” (life story) in 1928. In October of 1933 Bräul passed away in the Concordia Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, at the age of 72 years. He died exactly 9 years after immigrating into Canada. His obituary was published in the Mennonitische Rundschau on November 15, 1933

A.K. Friesen was born February 1, 1881 to Abraham R. Friesen (February 16, 1846-September 16, 1884) and Agatha Kornelson (April 2, 1846-March 2, 1897). From the age of 7 till 13, A.K. Friesen attended school. For several years after he was a teamster and helped his stepfather Johann Thiessen (1813-1888) at home. Agatha married for a third time in 1891 to Peter Dalke (September 17, 1828-April 12, 1909). In 1899, A.K. Friesen did some carpentry work and attended English school at Clear Springs. Then in 1900 continued his education at Mennonite Education Institute (MCI) in Gretna.

A.K. Friesen married Anna Sawatsky (August 29, 1884-December 2, 1953) in June of 1902 and they had 6 children together. Rev. Heinrich H. Ewert, Principal of Mennonite Collegiate Institute, was the officiating minister and one of the authors of many letters in A.K. Friesen’s letter collection. After living and teaching in Lowe Farm for a few years (1904-1907), A.K. and Anna moved to Winkler, MB where he worked as a store assistant and then a teacher. Then in 1910, A.K. began working at the Monarch Lumber Company where he retired as the manager in 1954 after 44 years of employment. After Anna’s death A.K. remarried in 1959 to Nettie Toews (May 1, 1884-January 26, 1963). A.K. Friesen died later the same year on December 22.

Anna Sudermann was born in 1892 on the Alexeyevka Estate near Nikopol. Her parents were David and Maria (Heese) Sudermann. Anna’s father passed away in 1902 when she was only 9 years old. The family would stay living on the estate until 1917 when they were forced to move to Nikopol because of the Russian Revolution and then they moved again in 1920 to Chortitza. 1933 was a tumultuous year for Anna as her brother Jacob was arrested twice by the secret police and eventually sent to a labour camp in Siberia, never to be seen again. Shortly after Jacob’s second arrest, Anna’s mother became sick and passed away. During these years in Chortitza, Anna worked as a teacher at the Zentralschule before she and her family moved to Germany as refugees in 1943. The family at this point had gotten quite small as two more of Anna’s brothers, Nikolai and Heinrich, were both arrested in 1937 by the secret police and not seen or heard from again. Anna stayed in Germany with her sister-in-law Elizabeth (Epp) Sudermann and her children, as well as her sister Maria (Sudermann) Toews and her family until they were able to immigrate to Canada together in 1948. In Canada, Anna originally settled in the Saskatoon area with Elizabeth’s brother before moving to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Anna became a part of the First Mennonite Church and was very active in ladies’ groups. In 1975, Anna moved into the Bethania Personal Care Home in Winnipeg, Manitoba where she lived for seven years before she passed away at the age of 88. Anna never married but always remained close with her family, she was buried in the Brookside Cemetery in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Jacob Sudermann was born in 1888 on the Alexeyevka Estate near Nikopol. His parents were David and Maria (Heese) Sudermann. When Jacob was 14 years old, his father passed away. Jacob attended the Zentralschule in Chortitza and continued his studies in mathematics and physics in St. Petersburg (Leningrad). However, his main interest was architecture. He drew up detailed plans for estate houses and grounds but was never able to apply them. Jacob decided to become a teacher as he thought that would be the best career for him aside from being an architect. He had an interest in music and art which was made evident by the many pictures that he painted. In 1917, Jacob along with his mother and siblings had to leave the estate and they moved to Nikopol and in 1920 they went to Chortitza. In 1923 Jacob was hired as a teacher of physics and art at the Chortitza teachers’ college. As a college instructor and son of an estate owner, Jacob was a frequent target for the secret police and was arrested in 1933. He was released for a few months before being arrested again and sentenced to five years in a labour camp in Siberia. The sentence was delivered upon the accusation that Jacob was participating in counter-revolutionary activities. Jacob was allowed to send a few letters each month to his family which he would often include drawings or paintings of the landscape around him or of places residing in his imagination. In one of the letters that Jacob received from his family, he learned that his mother had passed away not long after he was sent to the labour camp. Being apart from his family at this time took a great toll on Jacob as he mourned the loss of his mother in solitude. In 1937 Jacob’s family stopped receiving letters from him and they were later told by the Russian government that he had died in 1940. In 2003, Werner Toews the son of Jacob’s niece Gretel, received a letter from the Red Cross which stated that Jacob was shot on October 15, 1937, by the Russian authorities. In 1990, Jacob’s conviction and execution were deemed unlawful, and he was posthumously exonerated, and he was rehabilitated on September 13, 1990.

Author of a student paper in the Vertical Files - "The Background and Development of Church Music in Mennonite Russia from 1803-1926", 1976. (Box 5806, No. 28)

Gerhard G. Loewen was a teacher, poet and minister from Chortitza, Russia, today part of Ukraine. He took his teacher qualifying exams in 1879 at the age of 16, and taught in several small Mennonite villages in Russia, including Einlage, Neuhorst, Neu-Osterwick, and Rosenthal. He was a major proponent of literacy, at times paying for books out of his own pocket so his students could have better reading material in the classroom than what the local governments supplied.

His first book of poetry, entitled "Feldblumen" (Field Flowers) was published in 1895 according to GAMEO, or 1905 according to The Mennonite Historian. He also published another solo book of poetry, "Eine Ferienreise" (A Train Journey) in 1906, and a collection of plays and poems for use in school Christmas programs called "Fröhliche Weihnachten" (Merry Christmas) in collaboration with Martin Fast and Peter Penner.

Loewen married Maria Derksen in 1884, with whom he had 13 children, of whom eight survived to adulthood. Maria died in 1913, shortly after the family moved to a daughter colony of Chortitza known as Oktiaberskii. In 1925, the widowed Loewen immigrated to Canada in response to dangers posed by revolution and civil war in Russia. They settled near Altona, Manitoba, where Loewen took a position teaching German and religion at Mennonite Educational Institute. At the time of his death in 1946, he had been living with his daughter Helena and her husband for eight years.