Cornelius C. Penner and Eliesabeth "Liese" (Baergen) Penner were both born in south Russia and immigrated to Canada in 1924. In 1925, he purchased the east half of Lot 7, Concession 3 in the Township of Eilber. Thus the family joined the Mennonite settlement of Reesor, Ontario. The couple had 7 children, 5 of whom survived infancy. In 1927, their son Cornelius Jr. (Neil) secured the adjoining lot (west half of Lot 7, Con. 3). Cornelius Sr. died in 1939; Eliesabeth and her children settled in the Niagara area beginning in 1943. The fonds consists of photographs of family and community life in Reesor, as well as some photographs of the immigration journey in 1924 undertaken by Neufeld relatives.
Photographs of camp life and work at Montreal River Alternative Service work camp by conscientious objectors ("COs") during the winter of 1942-1943, a homemade calendar for 1942 featuring a picture of the camp, and a colourized photograph of the camp framed with birch bark.
These slides are of fraktur images, many of them published in "Ontario Fraktur: a Pennsylvania-German Folk Tradition in Early Canada." Toronto: M.F. Feheley, 1977 by Michael Bird.
Contains the formal and informal records of the congregation. Reflecting the early recordkeeping practices of the group when the pastor or bishop served as primary recordkeeper, many of the congregation's early records are located within the pastors' files series.
Vineland United Mennonite Church (Vineland, Ontario)