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 12th Street and 4th 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.
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