COLUMN: Village News – Steinbach’s First Families – Cornelius Fast & Helena (Fehr) Fast; Anna Baerg Wiebe

Congratulations to MHV Auxiliary Quilt Raffle winner Olga Hubert of Steinbach! This yearly fundraising raffle gives out a hand-sewn quilt, so don’t forget to get your tickets for a chance to win next year’s quilt.

In 1855, at the age of 15, Cornelius Fast was left with the responsibility of taking care of his widowed mother and younger siblings. He began working as a carpenter and millwright before marrying his first wife, Helena Born, at the age of 21. She passed of smallpox in 1873, and Cornelius broke with Gemeinde church tradition and married a Chortitzer Helena Defehr. They made the journey to Canada with five children, four of those from Cornelius’ first marriage.

Cornelius’ poverty meant that the family had to secure help from the Gemeinde to pay immigration costs. Upon arrival in Canada, this meant he and his eldest son Peter (then only 11 years old) had to begin working immediately to support the family. Cornelius had learned English while still in Russia, and this put him in a unique position with the Clearspring Settlers, with whom he often acted as a go-between for the two settlements.

Cornelius’ carpentry skills led to him building a saw rig with his neighbor, Klaas B. Friesen, but it seems he was not able to establish a business foothold and instead worked as a teacher and cowherd, earning a fairly low income. This may have been due to the fact that he was at odds with the Gemeinde leadership. In 1874, he was renounced by the leaders, and later separated from the church due to “undesirable talk,” and “his dissatisfaction… inclined against the brotherhood.” Three years later, Cornelius and Helena left for the West Reserve after the death of her father. They settled in Reinland to support her mother and their property was sold by the Steinbach village to Johann G. & Margaretha Barkman.

The couple returned to the East Reserve in 1892, but Helena passed away shortly after. Several of the younger children were fostered to families before Cornelius remarried Anna Baerg, daughter of the Kleine Gemeinde minister of Gruenfeld. They moved throughout many of the East Reserve villages where Cornelius taught in the schools, and even settled in Steinbach for a while as renters. On retiring, the couple settled on South Main Street in the Franz Kroeker house where they took in seniors of the Gemeinde who could no longer care for themselves. This was the first care home in the growing village of Steinbach.

The children from Cornelius’ various marriages spread far and wide. From his first marriage, two joined the Old Colony church and moved to Mexico, while another joined a Holdeman community in Kansas and two others stayed in Manitoba out of the Steinbach area. From the second marriage, son David Fast enlisted in the First World War, serving in the Canadian Army. His sister Aganetha was the first Steinbach resident to become a trained nurse and she worked in the town saving many lives during the 1918 influenza pandemic. In total, Cornelius fathered 24 children, 17 of whom lived into adulthood.

Upcoming events

Secret Treaty Book Launch, Sept. 22. Join the MHV in launching Jonathan Dyck and Elder Dave Scott’s book, The Secret Treaty: A Lost Story of Ojibwe and Mennonite Neighbours. Share stories of the West Reserve before Mennonite Settlement and first encounters between Ojibway and latecomers. How do we forge a different way of sharing this land?

Exhibit Grand Opening Event, “Mennonite Reflections: Arriving in Manitoba 150 Years Ago,” Sept. 24. Join the MHV in celebrating the opening of the new temporary exhibit exploring the mass immigration of Mennonite migrants to Manitoba in 1874.