Series 04 - Correspondence

The Yarrow Research Committee 1998-2010

The Yarrow Research Committee, an international group of researchers and writers, began as a hopeful concept in 1998 when Jacob A. Loewen approached Harvey Neufeldt about establishing a group, consisting mainly of individuals with strong ties to the Mennonite community of Yarrow, to write and publish one or more volumes on the history of Yarrow from its founding to the 1960s. In March of 1999 such a group had been formed, Jacob Loewen and Harvey Neufeldt had assumed the directorship as co-coordinators, and the Committee conducted its first plenary meeting at the home of Jacob Loewen. By the fall of 1999 the rough outlines of a volume were agreed to, Leonard Neufeldt was appointed editor-in-chief, and Lora Sawatsky was appointed managing editor.
The initial volume soon became a brace of volumes under the title of Yarrow, British Columbia: Mennonite Promise (with volume titles Before We Were the Land’s and Village of Unsettled Yearnings), and Robert Martens came aboard as Assistant Editor. These volumes were published late in 2002 by Horsdal & Shubart under their TouchWood Editions imprint. The success of these books led to three additional related studies. In 2004, First Nations and First Settlers in the Fraser Valley (1890-1960), edited by Harvey Neufeldt, Ruth Derksen Siemens and Robert Martens, was published by Pandora Press. Three years later Pandora Press published Windows to a Village: Life Studies of Yarrow Pioneers, edited by Robert Martens, Maryann Tjart Jantzen and Harvey Neufeldt. Theodore D. Regehr authored the final volume, A Generation of Vigilance: The Lives and Work of Johannes and Tina Harder. This study was published by CMU Press in 2009. The Committee concluded its business in 2010 and officially dissolved in 2011.
Full-term members of the Yarrow Research Committee include the following: Harold Dyck, David Giesbrecht, Esther Epp Harder, Agatha Klassen, Jacob Loewen, Robert Martens, Harvey Neufeldt, Leonard Neufeldt, Peter Penner, Chuck Regehr, T.D. Regehr, Lora Neufeldt Sawatsky and Ruth Derksen Siemens. Maryann Tjart Jantzen and Bill Loewen served on the Committee for the latter volumes.
Substantial financial contributions to the projects of the Yarrow Research Committee were provided by the Jacob H. Enns Estate, Jacob A. and Anne Loewen, the Henry and Margaret Neufeldt Fund, the Peter and Helen Neufeldt Fund, the Quiring-Loewen Trust, the Vine and Branch Foundation (Arthur Block), and the Gerhard Lohrenz Publication Fund.