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Arthur Slagel was born to D. W. and Mary Slagel in Flanagan, Illinois. He graduated Goshen College and performed service work with a Near East Relief expedition in Constantinople. He later served with American Mennonite Relief (AMR) in the Soviet Union, establishing and operating feeding stations.

Arthur Slagel (1891-1943) was one of three American volunteers sent to Russia with Orie Miller and Clayton Kratz in 1920. Initially Slagel remained in Constantinople to gather relief supplies and from there organized the shipment to the Russian Mennonite colonies. From 1922-1923 Arthur Slagel supervised the feeding program for 75,000 people in the Ukraine, including 60,000 Mennonites. The AMR under his direction appointed local committees whose duties were to receive and distribute relief supplies in their districts according to the official AMR instructions. Slagel oversaw the delivery of food for three Mennonite centres -- Chortitza, Ohrloff and Halbstadt.

During his three years on this assignment he also witnessed the first groups of Mennonites leaving for Canada in 1923. He also traveled to Moscow and other countries before returning home to the United States.

Upon his return to the United States, he resided in Chicago and worked for the Donnelly Advertising Corporation and later the Thiesan Printing Company.

Arthur W. Slagel married Vesta Zook in 1925, who had been an American relief worker in Constantinople in 1921, working in an orphanage that Mennonite Central Committee had just taken over from the American Red Cross in 1921. Initially they made their home in Chicago. Their son Donald (Don) was born in 1928. In 1932 the Slagel family move to a farm in Topeka, Indiana. Slagel was killed in an acident at the farm in 1943. Vesta died in Meadows, Illinois in 1973.

A number of business people from the Gretna-Altona-Plum Coulee area, who had purchased lots along the shore of Moose Lake, formed the Moose Lake Fellowship. The Conference of Mennonites in Manitoba was reluctant to build another camp but voted in favour of the idea at it's sessions in 1957. Initially the Moose Lake Fellowship took full responsibility under the leadership of Menno Klassen of Gretna who was also on the Conference camp committee. The Conference took administrative responsibility for Moose Lake in 1964.
The camp was sold in 2017 to Division Scolaire Franco-Manitobaine.

The Chortitzer Mennonite Church of Manitoba was the result of the migration of Mennonites from Southern Russia from 1874-1876, when almost the entire Bergthal colony was transplanted to the so called Mennonite East Reserve in Manitoba. The Bergthal colony began in 1836 as a daughter colony of the Chortitza colony in Russia. When the new colony was established, it began to form its own autonomy with its own church and civic leaders and institutions such as the Waisenamt (the organization responsible for orphans and settling inheritance matters for the community).

In the 1870s the Russian government wanted to impress upon the Mennonites of Russia new legislation, among them more Russian control of their schools and no more unqualified military exemption. In 1872 William Hespler, a Canadian immigration officer, met with various Mennonite groups to invite them to Canada. The various Mennonite colonies in Russia sent a delegation to Canada and the USA in 1873 to check out their options. The delegates secured a letter of invitation from the Canadian government, known as the Privilegium, or set of privilages extended to the Mennonites that allowed them to maintain their way of life. Among the privileges was control of education, religious life, exemption from military service, and land. After many high level meetings among the various Mennonite leaders and the Russian government, the Bergthal colony decided to emigrate. Bishop Gerhard Wiebe, with the support of his ministers, and the civic leader Oberschulze Jacob Peters, led the people out of Russia and into a new land. The Waisenamt which handling a lot of financial matters was a very important organization in this monumental migration. With the help of the Swiss Mennonites in Ontario, they were able to finance the emigration of all the people from the Bergthal Colony including the landless, poor, orphans and widows.
In Canada Bishop Gerhard Wiebe (1827-1900) lived near the small village of Chortitz and therefore his church became known as the "Chortitzer Church". He continued as the leader of the group until assistant bishop, David Stoesz, took over in 1881.

As early as 1877 some members of the community felt it was necessary to look for better farming land. Almost half of the families moved to the eastern portion of the so called Mennonite West Reserve (west of the Red River) between 1877-1882. In 1882 Aeltester David Stoesz ordained Johann Funk as Bishop to minister to these families that had relocated, thus beginning the process of giving them more church autonomy. The process of dividing up the Waisenamt also began. In 1892 the church under Funk split, with the major issue being the amount of external influence invited into the Mennonite community through formal education. The Chortitzer church opposed the direction of Funk and ordained Abraham Doerksen as their bishop. Since Abraham Doerksen was from the village of Sommerfeld, this group came to be called the Sommerfeld Mennonite church. The Funk group took on the name of Bergthaler.

In 1903 the Chortitzer church's Bishop, David Stoesz, died and Peter Toews stepped in and continued to tend to the spiritual needs of the Chortitzer church and their members. In 1915 another major leadership change happened with the ordination of Johann Dueck as Bishop.
In 1916 the Manitoba Government passed a law that seriously affected the Mennonites' autonomy with regards to education as they had been promised in the 1870s. The church petitioned and tried to work with the government to reverse this law or to make exceptions. These tactics did not have the desired result and the church began to respond with civil disobedience (deliberate non-cooperation). The government responded consistently with fining the people.

With time the people realized this approach was a loosing matter, either they would have to accept the new regulations or move once again. They again began to look for places to emigrate and found Paraguay to be a safe haven. In 1926-1927, 1177 of the 2930 people from the Chortitzer Mennonite church moved and began the Menno colony in Paraguay and were joined by some of their counter parts from the West Reserve Sommerfeld Mennonite church. Another group of 1700 persons emigrated from Manitoba to Paraguay in 1948.
During the 1950s the Chortitzer Church leadership participated in minister's conferences organized by the Sommerfeld Mennonite Churches (of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia), the Bergthaler Church (of Saskatchewan) and by themselves. During this era the Chortitzer Church also began conducting revival meetings.

The Chortitzer Church (Gemeinde) decided to adopt a number of changes in 1968 and following. They took the name "Chortitzer Mennonite Conference" and developed a conference committee structure (welfare, building and maintenance and missions and Christian education). Gradually they also began using English and musical instruments in church worship. The official conference publication is the "CMC Chronicle".

Isaac Loewen was born in Neuenberg, South Russia, on May 31, 1865, to Isaac and Susanna (Krahn) Loewen. The family immigrated to Canada in 1877, settling in Osterwick, Manitoba. Isaac began working for Peter Abrams at the Abrams and Esau store in Gretna. After Peter Abrams died, Isaac married his widow, Susanna (Rempel) Peters, on June 29, 1890. Susanna brought with her seven children. She and Isaac had six more children, but only one survived childhood, a daughter named Susanna. In 1890, Isaac also became Wilhelm Esau's partner in the Gretna store. This partnership only lasted for three years, after which Isaac opened his own store. In 1902, he moved to Osler, Saskatchewan and opened a general store there, transferring his membership to the Rosenort Mennonite Church. While living in Osler, Isaac also marketed grain and provided loans to farmers. In both Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Isaac was influential as a community leader, serving in various capacities including as a member of the Bethel College Corporation (1893), on the Gretna Town Council (1899), as an auditor for the Mennonite Aid Plan (1901), on a committee to establish a ferry across the South Saskatchewan River near Osler, and on various boards for the German English Academy in Rosthern, Saskatchewan. Isaac died from a stroke on December 7, 1918, during the influenza epidemic.

She was 70 years old in 1943 and was married to minister David H. Epp

Married Peter Dyck in 1909 in Rosenthal.

Married Katharina Klassen in Rosenthal in 1909.

Owned a factory. He had one plant located in Chortitza and another one in Schoenwiese.

Mennonite pastor and General Secretary of the General Conference Mennonite Church (GCMC) in Newton, Kansas, USA (1969-1980)