Family stories

I received two family stories Fast and Wiens 

Here is a link to the Fast Story 

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/005730880

Probates

Today I learned about probates. Probate is the legal process whereby a will is "proved" in a court and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased.

Probates have a lot of information in them; this will help confirm family members along with where they are residing and also gives you an insight into the wealth of the family.

I was able to find the probate of my second great grandfather Heinrich S Peters. In the document it was noted the health of his wife Anna Wall Peters and also who he wanted to take care of his wife in the event that he passes before his wife.

I have a hard time reading some of the words, so I'm going to see if I can have someone dictate it for me.

I was able to find Heinrich S Peters's where it mentions his wife Anna, and his children:
Heinrich K "Henry" Peters - b. 1868, d. 1946

Cornelius Henry "Nels" Peters - b. 1887, d. 1943
Johannes "John" Henry Peters - b. 1891, d. 1948
Hermann Heinrich Peters - b. 1861, d. 1921
Anna Peters Hiebert - b. 1866, d. 1950
Peter H Peters - b. 1874, d. 1937
Elizabeth H Peters Wiens - b. 1877, d. 1946
Jacob Henry Peters - b. 1880, d. 1962
Daniel H Peters - b. 1883, d. 1960

Click on the Documents tab to see the 3 page file

John (Johann) A. Fast and his wife, Anna H. (Peters) Fast

This story was found on Ancestry.com, From preface of Fast Family Tree, Compiled by Martha Lepp (Mrs. John) 1971. Judy_Pahlke originally shared this on 10 Nov 2007



Looking for material for a brief historical background of our forefathers it is difficult to find information on one certain family. This is due to the fact that our people were at times forced to flee because of persecution and continual search for religious freedom.In checking history we find the family name of Fast among a group living in Prussia in about the year 1776. Just when they moved to Prussia is not known, however, it could have been during the 1500's when Charles V persecuted and tortured those that could not go along with the rituals and practices of the Roman Church because of their personal beliefs in Christ our Lord. These conditions caused our forefathers to flee, leaving their homes and farms. Some even lost their lives. It was at this time that our people scattered, some going to Holland, others to north Germany, Freisland and Prussia.It was during this time that Menno Simon, a priest, left his church and was converted. He became and evangelist and organized many churches and this became the faith of our fathers and whereby we received the name of Mennonites.Our forefathers were not considered citizens for Prussia, and in spite of the fact that they were people of great talents in farming and business, problems and difficulties arose again and again putting an increasing amount of pressure on the Mennonite families. Young men were pressured to serve in the army (Mennonite faith taught non-resistance) or else the heavily taxed.In the year 1786 Catherine II, Empress of Russia, having heard of the Mennonites as hard working and talented people, who were looking for a new land with less political and religious pressures, invited them to come from Germany and Prussia and to the Ukraine in South Russia. 

 In the year 1818 the forefathers of the Fasts moved to Russia. Here they prospered and the Mennonite people engaged in silk production, flour mills, factories in farm equipment and dairy products, farming and many profitable businesses. A good educational system was established. Here most of our forefathers prospered and a number of churches were built in the area.In time, again their freedom was restricted and our people were gravely concerned for the future of their children and coming generations. At this time their thoughts turned to America and it was in the year of 1876, John (Johann) A. Fast and his wife, Anna H. (Peters) Fast decided to leave Russia and come to America with their nine children. Two more children were born later in America. They left their home in Alixzandkron, Russia with a group of others and arrived in Mountain Lake, Minnesota on August 1, 1875. They settled on a farm 10 miles northwest of Mountain Lake in Carson Township. The mother, Anna, died when the youngest child, Herman was six years old.


Later John Fast married Mrs. Enns Penner who had several children of her own. John Fast died in June 1896 leaving his children fatherless when the youngest was fourteen. The stepmother then left the children on their own. An older married sister moved in with them and cared for them.

I found the probate for John A Fast- The document is 56 pages. I have it saved, but do not know how to upload such a large document to the site.  

Heinrich Peters and Heinrich Peters, Jr.

This information was provided by the descendants of Sara H. Peters Fast, Elizabeth H. Peters Kroeker, Anna Peters Fast and Heinrich Peters Jr.

Heinrich Peters and Heinrich Peters, Jr.

The Peters family is thought to be of the Dutch and German descent, originating in Friesland, a province of Holland.  (According to the “Mennonite Encyclopedia” Vo. IV, p. 150). The family name appears frequently among lists of deacons and preachers of West Prussia from where they migrated to South Russia.

Heinrich Peter’s family lived near Elbing, Prussia. Heinrich Sr.’s oldest child, Sara, was baptized in 1843 by Elder Peters at the age of 14 in Thiensdorf (map), about six or eight miles south of Elbing.  Thiensdorf was a Mennonite village in the Vistula Delta, 25 miles south of the Baltic Sea.  Plautdietsch (plautdietsch), or Low German was the dominant language.  One of Sara’s grandchildren remembers it said that Heinrich Sr. was a miller (Miller) in Russia. It is thought his ancestors also followed this trade in Prussia. (Although we know in Mountain Lake, Heinrich Jr. was a blacksmith, plying his trade at 611 Tenth Street where part of the original home is now used as a garage.) (611-10th-St-N-Mountain-Lake-MN-56159)

Heinrich moved to Russia in the spring of 1843.  He came by wagon on a two month trip, bringing his wife and six children with him.  Sara, the oldest was fourteen.  Cornelius, the youngest child was about one year old.  Other family stories mention Ukrainian robbers who often preyed on the Mennonites as they travelled, killing their victims first and then searching them for whatever they might find. 

Heinrich Sr. chose to move his family to the Russian Mennonite colony of Molotchna (Molotschna).  Molotchna contained more than fifty little farm villages and was located approximately 100 miles southeast of Chortitza, in the Russian province of Tourida.  The family lived first in the village of Alexandria, second in the neighboring village of Gnadenheim, third in Steinbach, about 12 miles to the southeast, and finally in Pordenau.  (The length of stay in each village is not known.)  Elizabeth Peter’s husband, Peter Wiens, used to talk about how as a teenager he would skate to town and up and down the river visiting friends in other villages. One has to wonder if the younger Heinrich and his brothers did the same during their years in Molotchna.

During this time, the family were members of the Mennonite Church of Gnadenfeld.  All of the villages in the eastern half of the settlement were related to that principal Mennonite town and its church.  In 1860, the Mennonite Brethren Church became an independent branch of the Gnadenfeld congregation and Heinrich Jr. joined their membership. 

In 1865-66, a certain Herman Peters from Molotchna and a member of the fledgling Mennonite Brethren Church of Gnadenfeld started a new movement within the church.  He separated from the fellowship along with approximately 20 families.  They were known as Apostolische Brüedergemeinde (Apostolic Brotherhood), the Peters Brethren and the “Brotbrecher” (Breadbreakers).  This was a nickname bestowed upon the group because its members broke their bread in their homes as well as in communion service. The movement was an attempt to encourage extreme separation from the world and from anything in one’s personal life, like bodily adornments or personal photographs, which could result from pride or worldliness.  In some ways they were similar to the Amish. 

It is known that Heinrich Jr. became a member of this group, though he did not always stay geographically related to it in the following years. His grandchildren said that when they knew him in Mountain Lake, Minnesota, his mirror was always covered with a cloth so that he could see only his hair when he combed. Pride in self was not tolerated.  They never knew him to allow a photograph of himself to be taken, though his children did finally take one of him after his death.  In Mountain Lake, even though he was a member of the Mennonite Brethren Church, he was still known as “Brotbrecher” (Breadbreaker) Peters.  There has been much family debate as to whether or not the Herman Peters who founded the Breadbreakers was the younger brother of Heinrich.  The Herman Peters who started the movement was said to have been born 1840/1841, lived in Gnadenheim as a child, and joined the Mennonite Brethren Church in 1860 when Heinrich did.  Both men moved to the same area of Crimea at about the same time.  In later years, Elizabeth Peter’s children remembered her talking quite a bit about “Smolyantz”. A town by the name of Smolyanovka is located near Omsk, Siberia in the area where Herman Peters settled with his church in 1900.  Note:  There is no definitive proof of this theory.  It has just made for interesting debate.

It appears that sometime around 1866, Heinrich moved his family to Crimea, a peninsula jutting into the Baltic Sea, about 200 miles southwest of Molotchna.  Then, in 1871, the Molotchna settlement, in an attempt to find more land for its growing population, opened a new settlement called Zagradovka (Sagradovka), located west of the Ingulets River, a tributary of the Dnieper.  Heinrich Jr. moved his family there sometime thereafter. It is unknown how long they lived here, but it was long enough that Elizabeth spoke about it to her children.  She would often say, “When we still lived in Zagradovka . . . “.  Her children couldn’t remember the details of the conversation, only the name of the town.  She would also refer to Molotchna in conversation, but more vaguely. 

After Zagradovka, the Peters family moved to the village of Tokulchak in Crimea. This was another village that Elizabeth spoke to her children about.  (I only wish they had remembered details of her life there in addition to the names.)

In early 1894, Heinrich Jr. moved his family to Mountain Lake, MN.  His brother-in-law, Johann J. Fast – husband of Heinrich’s oldest sister Sara, helped finance the trip.  On the way to the ship, the family stopped by some deep water to wash clothes.  Elizabeth, 15 years old at the time, was washing clothes on the bank.  When she got up she became dizzy and tumbled into the water.  She went under three times and was close to drowning.  When she came up the third time her brother caught hold of her hair braid and pulled her to safety. She was upset he had pulled so hard on her hair, not realizing how much trouble she had been in. (Heinrich Jr.’s siblings - Johann & Sara Peters Fast, Martin &  Elisabeth Peters Kroeker, and Johann Abraham & Anna Peters Fast previously immigrated to Mountain Lake on July 25, 1875. They sailed from Antwerp, Belgium on the ship name “Nederland”. The Fast name was misspelled as “Faas”.)  

The 1900 census shows Heinrich and Anna in Midway Township, Mountain Lake, MN District, with their youngest two sons.  They confirm the 1894 immigration date.  Anna lists herself as being the mother of 9 children, 6 of who are still living.  Heinrich is a blacksmith.  Anna developed severe rheumatoid arthritis shortly thereafter and was unable to care for herself the last 20 years of her life. 

Notes on Elizabeth Peters, daughter of Heinrich, Jr.

Elizabeth was a very petite woman, only 5’2”. Her schooling was all in Russia, so she spoke only German. She was about 36 years old when she learned English.  She was an avid reader, becoming so engrossed in her books that she wouldn’t hear her children ask her questions.  She first read German books that were passed around the community.  After learning English and returning to Mountain Lake, she would check out books from the Public Library.

Before they met, Peter P. Wiens (age 19) worked as a laborer at the farm of his cousin, Heinrich Kroecker, in Midway, Cottonwood, MN. Heinrich was also Elizabeth’s cousin.  Peter spoke Russian and German, and learned to speak English working on the farm.

After their marriage, Peter apprenticed as a carpenter and opened his own business in addition to farming.  He helped build the red brick Mountain Lake School at 12^th Street and 4^th Avenue that his grandchildren later attended.

Elizabeth and family were members of the EMB Church – originally known as the Burderthaler Church. One of her daughters remembered being baptized along with several other girls in the middle of the winter.  They travelled to a lake about 2 or 3 miles from the church where the men took a tree saw and cut a hole in the ice.  The girls were then baptized by immersion and travelled back to church in the buggies.  

Peter and Elizabeth moved to Canada in 1900 to try farming, but returned within a year because the land was too dry.

On Jun 22, 1908 two tornados combined into one massive tornado and hit Cottonwood County. The tornado set down on the home of Jacob Fast (son of Anna Peters & Johann Fast). It tore out the chimneys, blew out all of the windows and destroyed several buildings before moving on. This was the third tornado to hit Jacob’s property in the previous few years and his losses were tremendous. The storm also hit 25 other Mennonite farms, including Peter Wiens. Peter’s barn and outbuildings were completely destroyed, but his house located only a few rods east of the barn had only minor damage. Two steel water tanks were carried away and no trace of them was ever found.  A team of horses was carried a half a mile and dropped, unharmed.  Fortunately, because of the use of storm cellars, few people died.

In 1913 Peter and Elizabeth moved along with several other Mountain Lake Mennonite families to a new settlement in Chinook, Montana.  Peter and the other fathers traveled by immigrant car – box freight cars in which all of their belongings were loaded including farm machinery and cattle, chickens and pigs.  Elizabeth and 7 children, ranging from ages eleven months to twelve, came by passenger train.  In addition to homesteading, Peter helped build the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren church in Chinook as well as several homes.  Because their home was close to the school, they often boarded teachers.  Since the teachers did not speak German, Elizabeth learned English in order to communicate with them.

In 1937, the family returned to Mountain Lake.

Elizabeth’s children described their home life as simple, but their family relationship as close. Every evening before retiring the family gathered in friendly conversation, eating sunflower seeds (commonly known as Russian peanuts). There was also a short prayer session before retiring.  Music was a large part of their life at home.

Food was plain, but nourishing.  Coffee was roasted barley, rye bread was made from home ground rye. Zwieback, pfeffernüsse and pluma moos were favorites. Preparing for Sunday worship kept everyone busy on Saturday. There was the baking of bread, cakes, cookies and dried fruit pies.  Meat was generally cooked, not roasted.  Sunday was faithfully observed by everyone going to church early, taking lunch or dinner along. As was custom, men sat on one side and women on the other.  Women wore black veils or scarves after they were married.  After church, there was lunch, choir practice and visiting. Although church services were always in German, after WWI the services were switched to English.

Filling in The Blanks

I'm so over joyed to have been contacted by a "Missing Peters"

I have been trying to fill in the blanks for the two oldest:

Peter Henry Peters
Elizabeth H Peters Wiens

Almost a month exactly from the last blog post, I had Elizabeth H Peters Wiens great granddaughter email me. She found my last blog post and emailed me.

So excited to have her fill in the blanks.

Finding The Peters Family

This blog has been so helpful to the lost Peters family!
So many people have contacted me and I have a large list of family to help fill in the blanks
 Heinrich S "Henry" Peters and Anna Wall Peters had 6 children together:

Peter Henry Peters
Elizabeth H Peters Wiens
Jacob Henry Peters
Daniel Henry Peters
Cornelius Henry "Nels" Peters
Johannes "John Henry Peters

I have contacts for:
Jacob Henry Peters
Daniel Henry Peters
Cornelius Henry "Nels" Peters
Johannes "John Henry Peters

But I'm missing the two oldest:
Peter Henry Peters
Elizabeth H Peters Wiens

This is a summary of what I have for Peter:
When Peter H Peters was born on October 16, 1873, in Russia, his father, Heinrich, was 36 and his mother, Anna, was 21. He married Elizabeth Margie Toews and they had four children together. He then married Margaret R "Maggie" Dahlke Peters and they had eight children together. He died on November 10, 1937, in North Dakota, at the age of 64, and was buried in Margie, Minnesota.

This is a summary of what I have for Elizabeth H Peters Wiens:
When Elizabeth H Peters Wiens was born on January 25, 1877, in Russia, her father, Heinrich, was 40 and her mother, Anna, was 24. She married Peter P. Wiens on November 24, 1896, in Mountain Lake, Minnesota. They had eight children in 18 years. She died on July 24, 1946, in Mountain Lake, Minnesota, at the age of 69, and was buried there.