Fonds PP - Johan W. Thiesen fonds

Identity area

Reference code

CA MHC PP

Title

Johan W. Thiesen fonds

Date(s)

  • 1878-1954 (Creation)

Level of description

Fonds

Extent and medium

10 cm of textual records
2 reels of microfilm: 16 mm

Context area

Name of creator

(1882-1954)

Biographical history

Johan W. Thiesen (1882-1954) was born at Neuhorst, Manitoba in the West Reserve to Jakob Thiesen and Getruda Mueller. He married in 1901 to Katharina Wiebe (1880-1948). After 1922 he migrated to Mexico with many other members of the Reinlaender Mennonite Church (Reinlaender Gemeinde) due to increased pressure and efforts from the government to assimilate the Mennonite children through compulsory public school attendance. Johan W. Thiesen settled in the village Neuhorst, Manitoba Colony, Mexico, where he lived the rest of his life.

Archival history

These materials were discovered in the possession of Abram Enns, of Strassbourg, Manitoba Colony, Mexico by Bruce Wiebe of Winkler, Manitoba, who negotiated their loan for microfilming at the Mennonite Heritage Centre in 1995.

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Scope and content

This fonds consists of diaries, correspondence, community announcements, legal documents, financial ledgers and memorabilia which record events, transactions and experiences in the life of Johan W. Thiesen in Neuhorst, Manitoba prior to 1922 and later in Neuhorst, Mexico until his death in 1954. The diaries consist of 7 volumes covering 1902-1951. The correspondence includes letters written by Isaac Mueller, Jacob Lehn, Andreas Wallmann, Johann Wall and many more who wrote from Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada, as well as from village in the Durango Mennonite settlement in Mexico, and from Paraguay and Russia, arranged alphabetically by writer. The legal documents include the 1877 Neuhorst village agreement from Manitoba and other land deeds held by the family between 1880 and 1933. The financial ledgers cover records income and expense records (1902-1954) and account books of the Old Colonia Waisenamt (1930-1953). Personal memorabilia includes several school notebooks (hand-writing, arithmetic, religious instruction, poems), genealogical data and a hand-copied transcription of Heinrich Donner's 1783 history of the Hutterian movement.

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Finding aids

Inventory file list (Microfilm 708-709; Volume 1600)

Uploaded finding aid

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Dates of creation revision deletion

Arranged and described by Alf Redekopp,; microfilmed by Conrad Stoesz, as Project 161 in August 1995.

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