Stories

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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, 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, or Low German was the dominant language.  One of Sara’s grandchildren remembers it said that Heinrich Sr. was a 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.)

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.  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 Gnadenfeldstarted a new movement within the church.  He separated from the fellowship along with approximately 20 families. They were known as ApostolischeBrüedergemeinde (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 early1894, 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, 1908two 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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Revision 5/19/16- Recieved from Diana Peters Granddaughter of Jacob Henry and Elizabeth (nee Petkau)

      History of Alice (Warren) and Jack Peters
       Jack (Jacob John) Peters (first name later changed to James) was born on May 29, 1921, on the farm they were renting eight miles north of Rush Lake (near Herbert),Sask. He died June 30, 1987, and is buried at Hillcrest Memorial Gardens, Saskatoon. The Peters family moved from Rush Lake to the Lucky Lake area in 1925, where they had purchased unbroken land from the Hudson Bay Company. Their farmsite was located about 4.5 miles west of the current Peters farm which is 8 miles northwest of Lucky Lake.

       Jack’s mother was Elizabeth Petkau, born October 4, 1888 in Selo (Town of) Baburka, Ekaterinoslav Province, Russia, [died Edmonton, AB, November 18, 1973]. She immigrated to Canada with her son, David, and her father and step-mother (Jacob and Elizabeth Petkau) and siblings (Ike, Pete and Helen; one brother Jack stayed behind). After a long journey from her village in Russia to Rotterdam, Holland, they sailed to Halifax, Canada, landing in November, 1913, and traveling west by train. Her family settled in Herbert, SK. On January 23, 1917, she married Jacob Henry Peters, (born in Russia April 12, 1881; died in Edmonton, AB, on January 10, 1962), a widower who brought 5 children into the marriage. He had immigrated earlier to the USA from Russia (with his brothers Pete, Cornie and Dan), then moved up to Herbert, Saskatchewan. His previous wife was Helena Peters. Like many other immigrants, the Petkau and Peters families had left Russia in order to escape the terrible conditions there prior to the Russian revolution and to build a new life of freedom.
       Jack came from a very large family.  His brothers and sisters were:

         Irvin Peters (Helen) (b)June 12, 1906 USA (d) June 3, 1967, B.C.   
         Elizabeth (Beth) Pagan (Jim) (b)Sept.14, 1907 (d)April 17, 1985, Saskatoon, SK
         Dave Peters (May) (b)Feb. 26,1909  (d)October 11, 1996, Hamilton, ON
         Harry Peters (Joyce) (b)July 23, 1909 SK (d) 1970’s

         Annie Collins (Alex) (b)Rush Lake Feb.5,1911, (d) Feb. 16, 2003, Beechy, SK.
         Peter Peters (b) March 8, 1913(d) died of diphtheria Feb 5,1926,  Hillpoint Graveyard.
         Helena Thurlow (Frank) (b) Dec. 12, 1917 Rush Lake, (d)Dec.2, 2002 Chilliwack, BC
         Minnie Cone (Jim), Edmonton, AB (b) Nov. 30,1918 Rush Lake, SK. 
         Olga Ippolito (Maurice) (b) Jan 1,1924-twin to Orlanda-Rush Lake,SK (d)Sept. 24,1983, Edmonton, AB.
         Orlanda/Lindy Tokaryk(Stan)(b)Jan 1,1924-twin to Olga-Rush Lake, SK (d)Feb. 12,1983, Edmonton, AB.
         Ginger (Agnes) Hicks, Winnipeg, MN (b) May 9,1927
         Roy Peters (Cathy) Calgary, AB (b) April 26, 1929
         Margaret Carr, Ottawa, ON (b) Feb. 13/1931

       Jack attended Sleepy Hollow School, (northwest of Lucky Lake) completing Grade 7 or 8 and then went to work to help support the family at the age of 13. Jack worked as a hired hand for the Grant family and there he met their neighbour, Alice “Babe” Warren.

       Alice Hazel Lavinia Warren (“Babe”) was born on July 10, 1917, on the Warren homestead (SE18-24-9-W3, 8 miles northwest of Lucky Lake). She died on January 9, 2009, at the age of 91.
       Her parents were John George Warren (born Feb 9, 1878, in Strabane, near Dundas, ON; died Fall, 1947) and Alice Lavinia (nee Gravett/ original surname Salter) Warren (born July 15,  app.1985, Midland area, Ontario; died March, 1918, Regina SK.), and step-mother, Jessie (nee Dawson) (born Feb. 21, 1878, Hamilton, ON.; died 1970, Swift Current, SK). John Warren was one of the earliest homesteaders in the area, coming to the Crescent Valley area in 1905 from the Dundas, Ontario, area (where his family were), and from Welwyn (near Moosomin), SK, where he had been working earlier. He built his first 12’ x 14’ home out of sod, and the following year his brothers Reuben, Roy, Norman and Med (Metherill) followed (Med later returned to Ontario). By approx. 1910 to 1914 he had constructed a large two-storey house, barn and numerous other buildings. John Warren was a kind and industrious man with true Pioneer spirit. He was very involved in helping to establish the Crescent Valley community, from helping build the first school in the area and establishing the first church, to building sod homes for other settlers coming in, and serving on the R.M. of Coteau council as well as other boards and committees. He married Alice Gravette from Moosomin on August 16, 1910. After her death at an early age in 1918, his cousin, Jessie (Jenet) Dawson, came from Ontario to help with the children and he married her in 1920. It was she who nicknamed baby Alice, “Babe”, a name still used by family and friends.
       Alice’s siblings were :

-Bertram George (Jean) (b) March 31, 1913 (d) August 24, 1943, Flight Sergeant for the Royal Canadian Air Force.
-Marjorie Fenton (Jack), Calgary AB, (b) August 14, 1915, d approx 2006.

       Alice attended Crescent Valley School and took high school by correspondence up to Grade 10, also working alongside her parents on the farm. She married Jack Peters in June, 1943.

       Jack volunteered for the Canadian Armed Forces during World War II, serving 3 ½ years in Sicily, Italy, Holland, France and England. He returned home from the war in April, 1946. John and Jessie Warren retired to Lucky Lake and Jack and Alice took over the Warren homestead in 1946, where they built their life with their six children (Hazel, Dennis, Diane, Donna, John and Dean). In 1948 they also started renting and eventually purchased the Peters’ homestead in October, 1948, when Jack’s parents retired to Edmonton, Alberta.

       Jack and Alice, like their pioneer parents before them, were both incredibly hard workers, and life centered around raising their six children and expanding and improving the farm. While they originally lived in the house built by John Warren, in 1956 they built a new home overlooking the large coulee that ran through their land and named the farm “Crescent Coulee Farm”. The family farm (now named “Peters Farms”) has received a “Heritage Farm Award” (at 75 years) and, in 2005, a “Century Family Farm Award”, having now been farmed by the family for 100 years.   

       Jack loved collecting and listening to music (some of his favourites were Billy Vaughn Orchestra, Glenn Miller and Nana Mouskouri), reading, horses, and fishing. He was very much a self-educated person, a good businessman and farmer, a good neighbour, and was talented in singing and drawing, as well. Jack’s two older sons, Dennis and John, began farming with him in the 1970’s, eventually taking over as his health declined.  In 1979, tragedy struck the family with the drowning death of their youngest child, Dean. Jack died in Saskatoon on June 30, 1987, and is buried in Saskatoon Memorial Gardens.

       Alice was a strong and resourceful farming wife who managed to do it all with good humour to boot. She milked cows, shipping cream and making butter, raised chickens and turkeys, grew a huge garden to feed her large family, and helped the men with the farm work. She often canned up to 500 jars of preserves in summer.  She was an excellent seamstress, making much of the family’s clothing, and some of her children recall her staying up all night after the other work was done, to sew Halloween costumes or dresses, which magically appeared in the morning. Her baking and cooking were beyond compare. She and the kids liked entering the Agricultural Fairs and she won many prizes for her sewing and baking—one year we won a chicken brooder as a prize. In later years, she has thoroughly enjoyed being “Grandma” to 13 grandchildren and 11 (so far) great grandchilden, quilting and reading. She has two “green thumbs” and enjoyed growing a huge garden up until her mid 80’s, always eager to share its bounty with her family and friends. She is 89 and still resides on the family farm.

       Grandma Jessie Warren (Alice’s step-mother), affectionately known by most as “Aunt Jessie”, also lived with the family for many years after John Warren died.  She was a wonderful story-teller, entertaining the children with stories from the depression and earlier days. She passed away in 1970 at the age of 92.  

CHILDREN OF ALICE (WARREN) AND JACK PETERS, LUCKY LAKE:
Hazel Mildred b. June 7, 1943 m. Myron Barton Sept, 1961 (Myron deceased Dec. 30, 2014)
Dennis Bertram b. April 17, 1947 m. Connie Ayers Nov, 1969
Diane Barbara Peters b. August 23, 1948 m. John Wedley, 1990 (div. Dec.31, 2006)
Donna Lynn b. August 24, 1951 m. Clarence Procknow, Aug 1971
John Byron b. February 15, 1953 m. Linda Redstone May, 1973
Dean Ward b. February 28, 1963 and d. July 29, 1979 (Vera Cemetery)

Hazel’s 2 Children and 4 grandchildren:  Patricia (Patty) Marie Barton-Watt, husband Lyle Schwetz (grandchildren, Jessica Watt, and Cody Watt and his wife as of May 21/2016 Nirosha Hoover); Robert Lyle Barton and his wife Leah (grandchildren, Zachary James Barton, and Jarrett Barton and wife Veronica).

Dennis’s 3 Children and 4 grandchildren:    Brad Warren Peters, wife Christa (grandchildren Chance Peters, Logan Peters, Riley Peters, Taylor Peters); Blake Elliott Peters and wife Lynelle; Todd Rylan Peters and fiancée Linda Goy.

Diane’s 2 Children: Rachel Alyssa Peters (fiancé Aren Bergstrom), Evyn McMillan Peters

Donna’s 3 Children and 2 grandchildren  : Jason Wade Procknow (grandchild Jason Justice Procknow); Mark Allan Procknow and wife Shannon Foster; Karlyn Deanne Takeda and husband Chris Takeda (grandchildren Oliver Nghia Takeda and “one on the way”)

John’s 3 Children and 4 grandchildren : Jody Richard Peters and wife Terri (grandchildren, Matthew, Nathan, Rebecca, and Carter); daughter Erin Michelle Peters (and fiancée Chris), son Tyler Dean Peters.

    

(Sources: Grandma Elizabeth Peters’ diary, “Echoes of Coteau” publication, “A Tree Grows on the Prairie” publication, Alice Warren Peters and Marjory Warren Fenton, Maxine Thurlow Lepine, Elaine Fenton Cooper and all the Peters children.)

Memories of Farm Life by the Peters Children:

-Walking the half mile to Edith and Clifford Grant’s house to play and have tea parties. Edith was a kid’s best friend.

-Having ball games in the pasture with the McIntosh kids after school.  With their family and ours, we had enough for a team.  We used cow patties as bases.  Sometimes the bus driver would stop on his way home and play with us for a while.

-Dad would hitch a stoneboat to the team of horses and give us a ride in winter. He would clean off the ice on the coulee that circled our farm, using a front-end loader, and we would skate after school every day until supper.  We would follow it along half a mile or so, as long as there was still ice, often walking over dirt and rocks with our skates, till we found the next patch of ice.

-Hazel started school at Crescent Valley country school up to Grade 3, but later all of us were bussed to Lucky Lake. When the roads were too snowy, we often traveled to school by bombardier (which made us all feel sick). Some of us went back to old Crescent Valley to “play school”. Sometimes there was the joy of  being snowed in so we couldn’t get to school, or being “storm stayed” and having to stay with someone in town overnight—such excitement. 

-Having Edith and Clifford Grant over for Christmas every year and playing cards. Sitting around the table doing a huge puzzle and eating all night, during the Christmas holidays.

-Clifford taking us to the hospital in winter, when the roads were snowed in, by way of a heated closed-in horse-drawn buggy (we called a“cutter”).

-Learning to dance at the Saturday dances at the Lucky Lake Legion and Rob Roy Halls. 

-Wonderful Sunday and holiday suppers, with three or four choices of pie/dessert, and having family ball games or races out in the yard afterward.

-Hired men, Matt Stadnyk, from Foxwarren, MB; Jimmy Boon; Mom’s cousin, Billy Jones; Sheldon Scholtz and others.

-Dad hanging a skunk on the Grant’s gatepost as a Halloween prank.

-Huge snowstorm on New Year’s Eve, 1959—snowbanks up to the clothesline and building caves in the snow all winter.

-Dad’s April Fool’s jokes.

-Swimming lessons at Spring Lake given by Bev Kimble and Joy Smith.

-Mom driving supper and lunches to the men in the field so they could work all night and get the harvest done. When old enough to drive ourselves, taking coffee and meals out and trying not to wreck the swath!

-Delivering cream cans to the train station in the early morning hours.

-Going with Mom to pick up baby chicks off the train and seeing and hearing thousands of them.

-Conversations with girlfriends and boyfriends had to take place on the party line (with the potential of people “rubbering”, or listening to you, not to mention everyone else on the line was waiting to use the phone). No private phones, cell phones, e-mail, chat-mail, or text messaging.

-Before our first flush toilet in about 1957, we had chemical toilets or a commode in winter, and the old outhouse in summer.  Many an old Eaton’s catalogue was recycled out there, as well as all the saved papers from Christmas oranges. Now that’s recycling!  

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