This collection consists of copies of the photos collected by Cornelius Krause from a Mexican land agent that traveled with Krause and other Mennonite delegates from Manitoba and Saskatchewan who were investigating the possibility of the migration of a group of Mennonites from Canada to Mexico and photos taken by Cornelius Krause himself while investigating Mexico as a possible country to which a group of Manitoba and Saskatchewan Mennonites could move. The photos which Krause took himself show people and places visited on the trip in Mexico (Collection 592). The photos by the land agent (Collection 590) taken before the arrival of the Mennonite delegation and during their visit to Mexico. The photos were taken to encourage the Mennonites to move to Mexico. They show road and railway construction, wide open wild areas, places where there was water, villages, homes, and fields successfully developed by the Old Colony and Sommerfeld Mennonites who had moved to Mexico in 1922.
This fonds consists of letters written to Cornelius L. Plett by friends and family. They provide a valuable insight into the daily life in Mennonite village settlements in Canada, U.S., and Mexico in the first two decades of the twentieth century, as they discuss village and church dynamics, as well as personal issues and challenges of the writers. Most of these letters are written in the German Ghotic Script.
Research notes by Marianne Janzen of Winnipeg about Mennonites who migrated directly from Russia to Mexico in the 1920s. Also some correspondence between Janzen and the MLA.
Includes a copy of "As It Was: Experiences in the family of Henry and Katie Regehr as told to the children and grandchildren".
The H.P. Krehbiel fonds consists of material related to Krehbiel's involvement with the Mennonite Colonization Board's efforts at settling Russian Menonites in Mexico. The files include correspondence with various individuals and institutions regarding Mennonite settlements in Roasario, San Juan, Las Aminas, El Trebol and Cuauhtemoc, applications for emigration to Mexico, settlers lists, detailing when and where they settled, and accounts regarding how the MCB assisted Mennonite settlers in Mexico.
Most of the papers are photocopies from the National Archives and Library of Congress related to Teichroew’s thesis or dissertation (never completed) about Mennonites in World War I. There is some later material also, World War 2 related.
