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Johann Gerhard Fast, born April 25, 1860, in Petershagen, Molotschna (Russia), and Helene Warkentin, born Jan. 25, 1859, in Rueckenau, Molotschna, were married on the Warkentin parental estate of Gruenhof, in the Schoenfeld district, Ekaterinoslav province, Feb. 10, 1883. Helene inherited the larger part of the estate. The couple settled in Gruenhof where their family of six sons was born: Jakob (Jasch), Johann (Hans), Gerhard, Heinrich, David, and Peter. In 1898 Johann was elected minister of the Schoenfeld congregation. He had a preference for village life, and a keen business sense. In 1907 he sold the property in Gruenhof and bought two farms, with numerous large buildings, in Memrik. They were spared the trauma of the Stalinist era: Johann died June 16, 1915, from a series of strokes, and Helene from typhoid fever, Jan. 11, 1920.

Abram Friesen (1870-1943), Mennonite farmer, born in Berdjansk, Russia married in 1896 to Aganetha Reimer (1872-1924) born in Fernheim, Crimea. They had 9 children born to them in Ogus-Tobe, Crimea between 1897 and 1914. They were: Heinrich Friesen (1897-1919); Sara Friesen (1899-1968) married to Jacob Braun of Tiegenhagen, Molotschna, S. Russia; Helene Friesen (1902-1982) married to Abram Dueck; Peter Friesen (1903-1977) married to Eva Sudermann of Berdjansk; Renate Friesen (1906-1987) married to Peter Dueck; Gerhard Friesen (1907-1937); Mariechen Friesen (1909-2001) married to Hans Federau; Anna Friesen (1912-1997) married to Jacob Wall; and, Katherina Friesen (1914-1928). Jacob and Sara (Friesen) Braun lived in Tiegenhagen, Molotschna (S. Russia) until they immigrated to Canada in 1925 where they settled at Ste. Elizabeth, Manitoba. The rest of the Friesen family remained in the Soviet Union. Heinrich disappeared in 1919 after the Russian Revolution. Gerhard disappeared in 1937 in Siberia where he had been sent to work in the forest. With the changes during the early years of the new Soviet regime in the 1920s, Abram Friesen with some of his family was sent to Siberia in 1930, where he died in 1943. The family maintained letter contact with Jacob and Anna (Friesen) Braun in Canada from 1921 to 1938. In 1956 contact was again established between family members in the Soviet Union and the Braun family in Manitoba. Letters written mainly by Helene (Friesen) Dueck, Renate (Friesen) Dueck, Anna (Friesen) Wall and Peter Friesen were received from 1956 to 1982. Anna (Friesen) Braun died in 1968 in Manitoba. Jacob Braun visited visited many of these family members in the Soviet Union on a tour in 1971. The correspondence ceased shortly after Helene (Friesen) Dueck passed away in 1982. A few letters were exchanged after that. Anna (Friesen) Wall, the last of the siblings, died in 2001.

Jacob S. Friesen (1862-1931) was born to Heinrich Friesen (1827-1877) and Katharina Schellenberg (1824-1901) at Landskrone, South Russia. He immigrated to Canada with the family and settled in the Manitoba Mennonite East Reserve in 1876. He married Katharina Toews (1863-1933) in 1884. Jacob farmed the first few years in Manitoba and through his mechanical knowledge got a job at the local mill as an engineer.

The family moved to the Unites States in 1889 and back to Manitoba in 1897 where Jacob took up cheese making and watch repair. In 1908 he founded a printing business. His first newspaper was the Giroux Advocate (Volks Bote) in 1912. Other papers he printed include the Steinbach Post. He retired from printing in 1924. Until his death he remained a member of the Holdeman church.

Jacob's only son was Peter Friesen (1893-1983). He attended the Mennonite Collegiate Institute (MCI) in Gretna, Manitoba where he became more interested in music. He gained experience in the art of printing from his father. In 1919 he left home and began work at the Gazette in Saskatchewan and at a plant in Calgary, Alberta. In 1921 he moved to Winkler Manitoba and where he rented printing machinery from H.H. Neufeld and established a printing, book, and supply store.

When Peter's son Harvey returned from the war, Peter took him in as a partner of the business. In 1950 they began to publish the Winkler Progress, later called the Pembina Triangle Progress and in 1959 The Morden Times. Peter retired in 1967 when Harvey took control of Pembina Printing. Later Harvey's son Glen would join the business.

By 1994 the establishment printed The Carman Times, The Morden Times, The Winkler Times, The Agri-Times, and The Times Real Estate Guide. In 1994 Quebecor bought the business.

The Friesen printing tradition continues in Morden, Manitoba with Les J. Loewen and his company Morden Commercial Printers.

Cornelius H. Froese (1896-1948) married Elisabeth Fast (1901-1994) in 1921 in the Orenburg Colony, Russia. The Fast family had left the Molotschna Colony (Mariental, Gnadenfeld Volost) in 1896 and been first settlers in the village of Pretoria, in the Orenburg colony, where they had acquired 40 desjatin (hectares) of land. Four of the nine children had been born before this move. Elisabeth Fast who marred Cornelius Froese was born in this new settlement. After she married Froese, they lived in the village of Kubanka, Orenburg. In 1929 they left for Moscow and emigrated to Canada, together with one son, John Froese (b. 1924) – two other children had died young. Except for older brother David J. Fast (1894-1971) who moved to Brazil in 1929, the entire Fast family remained in Russia. Elisabeth (Fast) Froese’s parents, Johann A. Fast (1862-1937) and Maria (Koehn) Fast (1866-1933) and some of the siblings wrote letters to keep in contact with the family members that had left Russia.
In Canada, Cornelius H. & Elisabeth Froese, settled at Hepburn, Saskatchewan where Cornelius worked as a blacksmith for many years. They had a daughter Bertha born to them in 1931. Cornelius Froese died in 1948. Elisabeth later married Henry Block of Great Deer, Saskatchewan. Son John Froese (1924-2012) studied at University of Manitoba and Mennonite Brethren Bible College and had a long career in educational administration (Deputy superintendent of School in Yukon, Director of studies, Canadian Coast Guard College, Cape Breton, and Chief of International Training for the Department of Transport, Ottawa). Daughter Bertha also married a Henry Block. She pursued a nursing career and eventually retired in Winnipeg.
Susanna Fast (1908-1987), youngest sister of Mrs. Elisabeth (Fast) Froese lived and died in Kubanka. She kept a journal and also wrote a number of letters to her relatives that left Russia. She had a daughter, Hilda (b. 1938) who married a Jacob Krahn. Hilda and her family immigrated to Germany.