A cycling party on the Fehderau property. On the left is Nicholas J. Fehderau's brother-in-law, Jakob Dyck; second from the right is Ernst Gosemann. The family's summer kitchen is in the background.
A group of young women. Rita's great-aunt, Anna Letkemann sister of her grandmother, Maria (Letkemann) Barkowsky is second from the right in the front row. As a single woman, Anna Letkemann was sent to Siberia and came to Canada in the 1940s.
Anna (Wiens) Rempel, grandmother of Elfrieda (Gossen) Dyck, poses, a book on her lap, surrounded by palm-leaf and myrtle plants. An exact date for this picture is not available. We do know that Anna was married at 18 years of age in 1901.
Anna (Wiens) Rempel, grandmother of Elfrieda (Gossen) Dyck, was a teacher and principal of a large kindergarten in Halbstadt. Anna’s husband Dietrich was taken away in 1941 with all the other men of the area. They were sent to Siberia where they died of hard labour and starvation. In 1941 to 1943 when the German army occupied the Ukraine, Anna continued her work as principal in the kindergarten. She was a very creative teacher and known for the plays she produced with young children, as illustrated here, where a number of the children are in costume. The children in the front row are in rabbit costumes. Another time she performed a play about the seven dwarfs with the kindergarten children (shown on another photo which Elfrieda also has). Anna also assisted the older students. Elfrieda remembers her grandmother helping her grade 8 class to perform shadow plays.
Teachers and students pose below and on a climbing apparatus in Halbstadt. On back of photograph: "High School (Fortbildingschule) in Halbstadt. Grandfather David Friesen on ladder to right - third from bottom, about 1898." The photograph was probably taken at the teacher training school in Halbstadt, the Halbstadt Zentralschule. The equipment may have been used for exercise or physical training.
Description: Formal photo of four young girls. They are, left to right clockwise: Anna Gossen, aged 6, Lena Kliewer, aged 3, Wanda Kliewer, aged 5 and Elfrieda Gossen (later Dyck) aged 4. Elfrieda’s mother had made the dresses, which Anna and Elfrieda are wearing as well as the shoes. Elfrieda (Gossen) Dyck remembers her mother making these shoes.
Elfrieda (Gossen) Dyck’s grandmother, Anna (Wiens) Rempel poses on the verandah with her two daughters, Herta at left, and Rita (Margarete), sitting on the step.
Formal family photo taken on the occasion of the engagement of Elfrieda (Gossen) Dyck’s grandparents, Anna Wiens and Dietrich Rempel, standing. Anna’s younger brother Peter stands at the right. Anna’s parents (and Elfrieda (Gossen) Dyck’s great-grandparents) Margareta (Dück) Wiens and Peter Wiens sit in the middle with their younger daughter, Gretchen (Margaret) seated on a low stool at the right. Peter and Margareta Wiens owned the store in Halbstadt, located across the street from the pharmacy.