by Shelisa Klassen
History Department, University of Manitoba
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In Manitoban newspapers in the 1870s and 1880s, the residents of the new province worked through their feelings and anxieties about immigration and the creation of Manitoba into a “civilized” addition to the British and Canadian empire. The English-language newspapers were fascinated by the large families arriving to the prairies, complete with wives, children, and the elderly, and much of their discussion was centred around these gender and familial roles and how they differed from the more mainstream Canadian standards. The Mennonites were referred to as “recruits and comrades in a war of ambition” in a speech made by Lord Dufferin during the 1877 Vice Regal visit, which showed the Anglo-Canadian view of the Mennonites. [1] Everything from births and harvest to accidents and tragedy was up for discussion, as sources and access to information evolved. Newspapers allowed non-Mennonites to observe, critique, and examine Mennonite men, women, and children, who used the Mennonites to comment on their own goals for the future of the new province.
Gerald Friesen argues, in Citizens and Nation, that newspapers were one medium through which the new nation of Canada began to understand itself, writing that these early post-Confederation newspapers “helped to shape people’s awareness of boundaries.” [2] These newspapers were responsible for informing the general public, as well as for communicating a sense of community to Canadians living in a given area. Although many newspapers were printed daily in cities, at the end of the 19th century, weekly and monthly community-based rural papers also found an audience. These newspapers “defined by ethnicity, faith, or place imagined the world not in terms of consumption or politics but as networks of families and acquaintances.” [3] The Manitoban newspapers functioned as both rural and urban newspapers, as their readership included Winnipeg residents and other rural settlers.
Michael Eamon, in Imprinting Britain: Newspapers, Sociability, and the Shaping of British North America, stresses the importance of the Printer, who could exert a lot of control on small communities, who relied on him to both inform and entertain them. [4] Eamon also explores the importance of sociability among newspaper readership, arguing that newspapers created a culture that valued being informed about current information and created a hierarchy between people who could read and be informed, and those who could not. [5] In a world where newspapers represent the main (and in some cases, only) form of entertainment or receiving news, understanding the dynamics of newspaper printers and their readership is important.
Mennonite settlement in Manitoba typically occurred on reserves, which allowed Mennonites certain privileges in practising their own religion and culture. However, the reserve system also facilitated government intervention and observation, which allowed the newspapers to make intimate domestic observations of Mennonite homes and families. Ryan Eyford writes about the government regulation of the Icelandic reserve and how reserves more broadly functioned as “tutelary spaces where, under the watchful eye of state administrators, citizens could be made.” [6] Immigrant reserves were far less regulated than reserves created under the Indian Act, but the main goal of immigrant reserves, from the perspective of the government, was that in time “they would cease to exist and their residents would be fully assimilated members of Canadian society.” [7] This article addresses how newspapers reported these observations of Mennonite family and religious lives, monitoring the assimilation “progress” of the Mennonites. [8]
These observations were particularly interesting because settler societies were supposed to act as an “extension of Britain itself.” [9] As well, the newspapers used in this project were largely based in Winnipeg, making it the source of the “gaze” that was projected on the new arrivals to the province. The people living in Winnipeg, though striving for British acceptance through an out-of-place performance of identity, were ultimately living in a place with “homosocial relations (as opposed to nuclear families), and a fair amount of drinking, fighting, gambling, and prostitution” which was typical of the frontier throughout the late 19th century. [10] Kurt Korneski’s essay, “Reform and Empire: The Case of Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1870s–1910s,” speaks to the concerns that many social reformers felt about the state of cities, and their desire to make Winnipeg (and Manitoba) into a fine example of the British empire, while being “woefully aware that life in the territory they inhabited differed markedly from the one implied in prevailing standards of Britishness.” [11] This argument is helpful in understanding the concerns raised in newspapers about the Mennonites, who were seen as desirable “respectable settlers,” but were also distinctly not British. As much as the reality of Winnipeg did not measure up to the idea of what the reformers wanted it to be, they were optimistic that by bringing in the right sort of immigrants they would be able to shift the balance of the province.
Most interactions between Mennonites and the newspapers took place among men in the public sphere of towns and marketplaces. The work ethic and productivity of men was under scrutiny, along with their position as the heads of large households. They were also praised because they all worked, even if they held other positions in the community, as shown in this statement: “They have bishops, pastors, teachers, deaconesses, but no salaries are paid, and the ministers and teachers maintain themselves and their families by daily labor.” [12] This labour, and this emphasis placed on how all men (and women) laboured, was important, because it was thought that the Mennonites would break the ground for other settlers to make their homes on the inhospitable prairie, as seen in this quote: “there can be no doubt that when once settled, they will induce others rapidly to follow.” [13] By 10 June 1876, the Manitoba Free Press was defending the Mennonites, saying that while it was:
[...] the habit with many people to make light of the Mennonites [...] judging by the results exhibited at their settlements, in the improvements made by them on their roadways and their general attention to material developments, they are likely to prove amongst the most valuable class of our settlers. [14]
The success of the Mennonites was credited partially to their perceived potential to assimilate and become full participants in “Canadian” society. Newspaper reports allowed non-Mennonites to observe the Mennonites and to more closely monitor their settlement process.
Kinder plenty. Like this family from Ontario, Mennonites arriving at Manitoba with large families attracted attention.
Source: Mennonite Historical Society of Canada, Brubacher Collection, CA MAO 1989-10 68
This “progress” continued to be reported in gendered observations about Mennonite men and their work ethic. This was evident in a speech made during Lord Dufferin’s Vice Regal visit to the Mennonites in 1877, where the work of the Mennonites was compared to a war, with the words “the war to which we invite you as recruits and comrades is a war waged against the brute forces of nature; but those forces will welcome our domination.” [15] Mennonite men were supposed to feel encouraged by this speech, with its rousing and aggressive language, generally saved for battles or times of war. To the reformers and promoters of the province of Manitoba, there was a cultural and racial battle taking place, as well as one with the land itself, and the Mennonites were valuable “warriors” in this process.
Mennonite men continued to be observed in the newspapers, although as time passed, it was not always only about their labour. In 1889, a newspaper reported that “Two German girls lately from the old country, working in a Mennonite village, eloped with a couple of young Mennonites. When last heard from, the quartette [sic.] were heading for Fargo, Dakota.” [16] It is possible that the newspaper’s interest in this story was merely due to neighbourly curiosity, but it also raises questions about the close-knit and supposedly closed-off Mennonite communities. Readers of this story may have wondered why these couples were not married in their own churches with the consent of their community and families, and how these couples met each other, even though many German immigrants found work in the Mennonite communities. [17] While reserves had been requested by the Mennonites in order to be able to live in their own communities, the story of Mennonite relationships with non-Mennonite people demonstrated that Mennonites also interacted with other settler communities.
Early newspaper recordings of Mennonite womanhood and femininity are even scarcer than references to Mennonite men, but they are most visible during discussions of their contributions to the cleanliness and productivity of their settlements. One of the early reports in the Manitoba Free Press came from the Montreal Witness, and described the Mennonites as settlers with the best sort of qualities, and specifically said that “they supplied the Winnipeg market with butter and eggs within a week of their arrival, as it had never been supplied before.” [18] Milking cows, making butter, and collecting eggs were generally tasks done by women on the farm, and so this article is praising the hard work of the Mennonite women.
Mennonite women were also praised for their work in their own homes, which was part of the observations made during the Vice Regal trip to the Mennonite settlements. During this trip, the villages of the Mennonites were described as having one street full of family lots, with gardens “cultivated with exquisite care.” [19] The homes themselves were also commented upon, describing how the floors were “swept and sanded afresh daily, and thus kept perfectly clean.” [20] Mennonite values were further praised by the statement that “Scrupulous cleanliness is a characteristic of the Mennonite house, throughout.” [21] This section about the homes ended with a statement about the overall Mennonite well-being, saying that “everything about the villages is indicative of a happy, frugal, and superlatively industrious people.” [22] Overall, the Vice Regal visit made observations about the Mennonite community and communicated to the rest of the nation that Mennonite women worked hard and were suitable settlers, proving that the frontier could in fact be a space for women and families.
A Mennonite woman in Ontario getting water from a well, 1913.
Source: Mennonite Historical Society of Canada, CA MAO HM1-66 39
Further emphasis about the labour of women was made in reporting of the “Ministerial visit” to the Mennonites in September 1877. During this visit, the Mennonites were described as neither “particularly sharp or brilliant, yet they have in the most remarkable degree the quality of persevering labor.” [23] What makes this observation interesting was the language used to specifically describe the ways in which women participated in labour that went beyond the forms of labour previously discussed. The article says that:
On the occasion of this visit the women were seen working like men at outdoor labor. Two were seen plastering the outside of the house; others on the roofs of outhouses; and others in the field, together with children. We saw women and children starting to begin their work before the day had begun to dawn in the morning. [24]
The interesting phrase here is not that women worked, but rather that they were “working like men.” Women on frontiers naturally worked hard, as did farm women in general, but the observers from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of the Interior were struck by the manner of work in which these women were engaged. When commenting on the cleanliness of homes or gardens, or the productivity of their cows or chickens, the observers did not mention that women were the ones performing these tasks. However, when it came to work like plastering homes or working in the field, observers commented that it was women who were engaged in men’s work, and not just for part of the day, but starting before dawn. While it appears that the observers found this foreign, labour was one of the reasons that they viewed the Mennonites as suitable first settlers. When the entire family was engaged in labour, farms were settled and successful in much less time.
The value of family labour was mentioned in an article entitled “Who Should Come to Manitoba,” which appeared on 23 March 1878 in the Manitoba Free Press. By this time, Mennonite immigration had slowed down slightly and the provincial government was trying to recruit immigrants of other backgrounds. This article made it clear who was welcome and who was not; for example, there were no openings for those looking for “genteel occupations.” [25] Essentially, they were asking for farmers, but not just any farmers. Based on the Mennonite example, the article made recommendations, saying that it would be “very advantageous to the new settler to have abundant help in his own family. Among the Mennonites, all work—which is one of the secrets of the immense progress their settlements have made.” [26] The article concluded with a call for domestic servants (young single women), as they were always in demand on the frontier, specifically saying that “one condition necessary to the success of the young farmer is the possession of a suitable helpmate.” [27] Mennonite immigrants to Canada came as entire family units, which was noted as their key to success. The labour of Mennonite women was regularly used as an example of how the Mennonites were the ideal immigrants for Manitoba.
Mennonite women were also discussed in 1880, such as in this poetic observation of an evening harvest in a Mennonite village:
If not employed with the steam threshing machine you will probably find Mr. Mennonite and his frow [sp. “Frau?”] with a Russian machine [...]. Madam places the sheaves around in a circle and Mr. Mennonite drives around on the top with this wonderful piece of machinery. [...] It takes no gold out of Mr. Mennonite’s pouch to thresh this way. [28]
A Mennonite couple farming together was described as cost effective and efficient, and while the people described were not named, the Mennonite woman in this story was referred to as “Madam” or “frow,” referencing her title as a married woman and implying at least some level of respect.
Non-Mennonite observers were also interested in Mennonite children, frequently commenting on their presence. When Mennonite babies were born during the immigration journey, newspapers recorded these births, mentioning that they were given such patriotic names as “Patrick John Toronto” and “Arthur Ontario.” [29] Including these specifics in an immigration report gave hope to the reader that despite the foreignness of the Mennonites, they desired to adapt and were also a hardy people who gave birth to healthy children, even during the gruelling journey. Non-Mennonites were clearly observing the presence of children during immigration, and this was possibly because immigration rarely happened in complete family units. The family-building process normally took place over several years on the frontier, but in the Mennonite case, families came complete with men, women, children, and even the elderly.
On 15 August 1874, the Manitoban and Northwest Herald published an article with a letter from one of the Mennonites, giving an overall description of their community. The unnamed Mennonite writer provided answers to many of the questions with which the non-Mennonites were concerned, writing:
We all work at agricultural pursuits; we don’t smoke; if we drink too much we are publicly reproved in our religious meetings. We do not use wedding rings; we have no divorce; if man and wife separate neither is allowed to remarry again [...] We have a large number of families here, some of them being as large as eight or ten children. There are always some very old people amongst us, like great-grandmother Hesterstahl, who is about 82 years of age. [30]
These discussions of Mennonite families were interesting to the reformers who wanted to see Manitoba develop into a respectable part of the empire, and no longer remain a frontier. Mennonite women, children, and elderly people played an important part in the transformation of Manitoba from a frontier into a settler-state.
Mennonite family roles were further praised through stories about Mennonite arrival, which commented upon the wide age range of children present when the Mennonites arrived in Canada. Given the number and range of the children, newspapers wrote that the Mennonites were just the people to “multiply and replenish the region of the lower Red River valley.” [31] Using this type of language erased the long history of settlement and the forced removal of Indigenous and Métis people from the region, which the Mennonites had “settled.” [32] The high birth rate also confirmed a large new generation of Canadian-born Mennonite children who may be easier to assimilate than their Russian-born parents and grandparents.
Jacob Y. Shantz (1822–1909), a German immigrant to Ontario, served as the immigration agent for Mennonite immigration to
Manitoba, circa 1880.
Source: Mennonite Historical Society of Canada, CA MAO HM10-9 1
Newspapers also observed the labour of children, while commenting on the success of Mennonite settlements. Some of this was discussed earlier, where the children were observed working alongside their parents, but in other cases they were observed separately. An 1876 article tackled the issue of finding fuel for the winters. One suggestion was that hay could be “woven (by the children usually) into as large braids as can be conveniently handled.” The article also stated that “the Mennonite settlers have put in furnaces for this special purpose.” [33] While no doubt children of all backgrounds were involved in braiding hay to keep houses warm, Mennonite children were visible to observers during the settlement period due to the reserve system and the various government inspections and visits, which brought observers into their homes.
Mennonite children were also employed in tasks that were more specific to their ethnic villages, such as herding cattle for the entire community. The task was described in the following way:
The cattle of a village are driven out to the prairie by day, watched and kept off the wheat or other grain fields; driven home at night to milk; and kept in an uncovered enclosure till morning. We saw this duty done by two very small children. One of the severe expenses of farming is thus cheaply saved. [34]
The writer and observers seemed to be impressed with this child labour as a money-saving practice, and as one of the ways Mennonites had an advantage in building up successful farms. Not only did this mean that each farmer could avoid the cost and time of building and maintaining fences around a pasture, but two small children could care for the cattle of an entire community, saving each family time and money. The labour of children set the Mennonite communities apart from other settlers in the eyes of the observers, which was recorded in the newspapers.
Another element of the observation of Mennonite families can be seen in the published diary of Lady Dufferin’s Vice Regal visit to the Mennonites with her husband, the Governor General of Canada. This visit was the subject of many newspaper articles in the various English newspapers. However, Lady Dufferin’s voice was never included in the newspaper coverage of this event, even though she had a lot to say about Mennonite homes and families. She always intended to publish her diary, and although her observations were privately recorded, they were written with the intent of being read by the public. She had found publishing success with her previous “Indian Journal,” written while Lord Dufferin was the Governor General of India; so she had a sense of who her audience would be with this second journal. [35] When she visited the Mennonites, she observed them as she would have observed any of the communities she had visited with her husband during imperial visits. She noted that Mennonites “are hard-working, honest, sober, simple, hardy people; they bring money into the country, and can settle in a woodless place, which no other people will do.” [36] Her observations were similar to those in other newspaper stories but she also offered unique insight into the more personal aspects of Mennonite life.
Lady Dufferin noted that “they dress in the plainest and least decorative fashion.” [37] After going into the specifics of their wardrobe, she concluded that “partly in consequence of this unbecoming costume, all the people, men and women, are plain.” [38] She then commented on their welcome into one of the villages, where “three little girls, with lace handkerchiefs on their heads” brought them beverages and flowers, upon which time the speeches began. [39] At this point in her diary, she reprinted her husband’s speech and context from the newspapers, writing that “they never cheered, but when anything pleased them they lifted their caps.” [40] She specifically included the excerpt from the speech about the Mennonites “as recruits and comrades” in “a war waged against the brute forces of nature [...] It is a war of ambition—for we intend to annex territory.” [41] This reprint of her husband’s speech was evidence that while she may have published her journal for her own audience, ultimately her writing supported the colonial projects of her husband.
A unique aspect of Lady Dufferin’s writings was the description of her interactions with Mennonite women and children, which she recorded in detail. She wrote about being unable to communicate with them, but despite this, her maid and companion, Nellie, enjoyed holding the babies, and “having nursed one for some time, its mother presented her [Nellie] with a cucumber.” [42] After this, some women invited them into their homes, to show their visitors how they lived. Lady Dufferin commented that “the only fault with this is that the stables open into the living room.” [43] However, she thought that the Mennonites “will gradually leave off this nasty plan.” [44] In her writing, Lady Dufferin was able to speak candidly in a way that the newspapers and official reports often did not, and yet, her writing contributed to “othering” Mennonites and communicating their differences to a non-Mennonite audience.
These official government visits to the Mennonites were part of a project of surveillance that confirmed the success of the Mennonite settlement project. Through observing men, women, and children within their own homes other residents of Manitoba and visitors to the province learned more about their Mennonite neighbours who would otherwise have only interacted with them economically. While newspapers made observations about the work ethic and family dynamics of Mennonites, they also noted problems and tragedies within Mennonite families and communities. One of the reported incidents was a lightning strike in the Rat River settlement, which shocked a couple and their two children, leaving one child paralyzed and injuring the mother and other child. [45] In a recap of the events of 1889, the 20 June edition of the Free Press had an event listed as “A Mennonite woman commits suicide at Morden.” [46] A longer report documented an incident in 1893, which involved an accidental shooting, where a man “by some carelessness” discharged his gun at his mother and brother while they were sitting in a wagon on his yard at “Ustervick.” [47] In another incident, the wife of Johann Neufeld went out to milk a cow and was found dead by her husband, presumably after being kicked by a horse. [48] These tragedies were accidents and self-inflicted, and in early years after Mennonite arrival, newspapers would not have been informed about them. The early observations are centred around government visits and market relationships, but in the later years of the 1880s and early 1890s, the newspapers were informed about other events in the Mennonite community. The inclusion of these stories in the newspapers demonstrated a level of assimilation, as Mennonites visited towns, used hospitals, and engaged with local governments. Accidents on the Mennonite reserves were not kept within the community, but were shared as any other community would have their news shared.
In October 1890, a Mennonite man named Jacob Friesen was arrested for stabbing his neighbour in Plum Coulee. In this incident, the newspaper offered a judgement of his character, writing that “he appears to be a bad Mennonite and a hard citizen.” [49] The stabbing had occurred as a result of a conflict over Friesen’s cattle “straying onto the lands of a neighbor named Rempel” and escalated. [50] An interpreter was required to present evidence for each party, but there was too much contradictory evidence and the charges were dropped, which had “excited a lot of interest among the followers of Menno.” [51] This story was available to the public due to the court’s involvement, and it is interesting that the newspaper included the statement that he was a “bad Mennonite and a hard citizen,” recognizing that Friesen was not “typical” for a Mennonite, and that Mennonites were considered to be citizens.
Another incident that went to court involved “an elderly man named Cornelius Klassen” who was wounded by “Jacob Lempki, a Mennonite youth of 20.” [52] This incident had been the result of a family feud and dispute over wages that had initially been mediated by “a judge or priest of their own people” but the outcome had not been satisfactory. Lempki’s father was in debt to “the old man Klassen” so when Jacob met him he “grievously assaulted him with an axe.” [53] He was found guilty, but it was noted that the court proceedings took longer than necessary because “the witnesses, being Mennonites and unable to speak English [needed] their evidence [to be] interpreted. [54] This incident and the way in which it was reported reminded the readers that Mennonites were still speaking their own language and not English, and in some cases were still trying to use their own court system. In this story, the Mennonite mediation system was portrayed as a failure, but the article does not discuss whether there were cases when the mediation system was successful, although no doubt there were, since the system was still in use some twenty years after Mennonites arrived in Manitoba. This article reveals a lack of assimilation in the Mennonite community, and suggests how inconvenient it was for the non-Mennonites, who then had to provide interpreters and court services when Mennonite mediation failed.
Another incident occurred at Plum Coulee in 1893 when three German brothers were charged with stabbing a man, during the arrest of a Mennonite man, who in turn was charged with the attempted theft of an ox. [55] While the Mennonite was waiting to be charged for stealing the ox, he was caught up in this violent incident involving the three brothers and their stabbing victim, and so was further detained and made a witness in the assault case. This chaotic event was blamed on the influence of alcohol, as the newspaper wrote that “The prisoners are decent, quiet men when sober, but were only accustomed to drinking beer in Germany and when they get whiskey in this country, they get wild.” [56] While a Mennonite man is involved in this story in the role of “ox thief,” he was not part of the escalating stabbing incident, other than as a witness. He also did not have his indiscretion become a cultural stereotype in the way that German brothers did. Their violence was credited to their lack of exposure to whisky, because they were from Germany, which had made them “wild.” In contrast, the Mennonite man who stole an ox did not become representative of all Mennonites, and not all Mennonites would be perceived as thieves because of this incident.
Some cases dealt more specifically with gendered violence, and these were generally described in the newspapers with great disgust. One incident described how a “brute in man’s form,” while passing through a Mennonite village, “beat the owners of the house at which he had been most hospitably treated, not only the male portion but ill-used the women also.” [57] The story went on to explain that there should be increased law enforcement at the American border, because “these very peaceful citizens” were being targeted by criminals heading towards the border. [58] This story reflected the non-Mennonite belief that the frontier was not a suitable place for women, particularly those seen as “respectable.” This also showed how Mennonites, and specifically Mennonite women, were used as justification for an increased presence of law enforcement on the prairie, which was another way for governments to have increased surveillance and control over monitoring Indigenous groups and groups seen as “less respectable.”
Mennonites were not only the victims of violence, but sometime the perpetrators. One story, entitled “To Arrest a Brute” described the arrest of a Mennonite man near Gretna who had tried to entice “three little girls into an empty house, but they succeeded in escaping by jumping out of the window, one of the children sustaining an injury.” [59] Other crimes were reported in more direct terms, simply listing the case and writing “a Mennonite accused of rape.” [60] When Mennonites were violent towards their own women and children, there were no calls for law enforcement and surveillance, which stands in contrast to stories of Mennonites experiencing violence at the hands of others.
Newspapers in Manitoba were involved in observing Mennonite domestic lives, through government surveillance and reports in early years, and court records and hospital reports in later years. In these discussions of gender and family roles and the tragedies and conflicts in Mennonite communities, readers were introduced to their neighbours, and how they both aligned with and differed from British-Canadian society. Stories like these in frontier newspapers factor into arguments about nation-building and the assimilation of Mennonites into Canadian society. The ethnicity and “respectability” of Mennonites meant that even intimate discussions of Mennonite home life were critiqued for the readership. In the late 19th century, newspapers created a sense of community among their readers, and stories about Mennonite families, although not read by Mennonites, provided a lens for commentary about the ambitions of the settler Manitoban community.
1. Manitoba Free Press [hereafter MFP], 25August 1877, “Vice Regal Visit.”
2. Gerald Friesen, Citizens and Nation: An Essay on History, Communication, and Canada, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000, p. 148.
3. Ibid., p. 150.
4. Michael Eamon, Imprinting Britain: Newspapers, Sociability, and the Shaping of British North America, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015, p. 44.
5. Eamon, p. 65.
6. Ryan Eyford, “An Experiment in Immigrant Colonization: Canada and the Icelandic Reserve, 1875-1897,” PhD dissertation, University of Manitoba, 2010.
7. Ryan Eyford, “An Experiment in Immigrant Colonization: Canada and the Icelandic Reserve, 1875–1897.”
8. For more information and context about Mennonite immigration to Manitoba told from their own perspective, see the work of Royden Loewen, Adolf Ens, Marlene Epp, and Frank Epp, and others included in the bibliography.
9. Kurt Korneski, “Reform and Empire: The Case of Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1870s-1910s,” Urban History Review Vol. 37, No. 1 (Fall 2008), p. 52.
10. Korneski, p. 53.
11. Korneski, p. 53.
12. MFP, 4 September 1875, “More about the Mennonites.”
13. MFP, 1 August 1874, “Mennonites for Manitoba.”
14. MFP, 10 June 1876,“The Mennonites.”
15. MFP, 25 August, 1877, “Vice Regal Visit.”
16. MFP, 25 June 1889, “A Gretna Elopement: Two German Girls Hie Away to Fargo with Mennonite Lovers.”
17. Kenneth Michael Sylvester, The Limits of Rural Capitalism: Family, Culture, and Markets in Montcalm, Manitoba, 1870–1940, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001, p. 89.
18. MFP, 27 May 1876, “Local and Provincial.”
19. MFP, 25 August 1877, “Vice Regal Visit.”
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. MFP, 29 September 1877, “Ministerial Visit to the Mennonites.”
24. Ibid.
25. MFP 23 March 1878, “Who Should Come to Manitoba.”
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. MFP, 14 October 1880, “Pembina Mountain.”
29. MFP, 24 July 1875, “Mennonites en route.”
30. Manitoban and Northwest Herald, 15 August 1874, “The Mennonites.”
31. MFP, 20 July 1878, “The Mennonites.”
32. See D. N. Sprague’s Canada and the Metis, 1869–1885 for more context about the government and its relationship with the Metis and Indigenous peoples Manitoba at this time.
33. MFP, 26 August 1876, “The Fuel Question.”
34. MFP, 29 September 1877, “Ministerial Visit to the Mennonites.”
35. Lady Dufferin, My Canadian Journal, 1872–8: Extracts from my Letters Home Written While Lord Dufferin was Governor-General, London: John Murray, 1891, p. 7.
36. Ibid., p. 332.
37. Ibid., p. 333.
38. Ibid.
39. Ibid., p. 334.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid., p. 335.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid.
45. MFP, 31 May 1878, “City and Provincial.”
46. MFP, 21 December 1889.
47. MFP, 18 August 1893, “Serious Shooting Accident.”
48. MFP, 23 March 1896, “Western Fatalities: A Mennonite Woman Killed.”
49. MFP, 23 October 1890, “Morden Monitor.”
50. Ibid.
51. Ibid.
52. MFP, 10 November 1893, “A Wounding Case.”
53. Ibid.
54. Ibid.
55. MFP, 18 November 1893, “Plum Coulee Stabbing.”
56. Ibid.
57. MFP, 17 June 1880, “West Lynne.”
58. Ibid.
59. MFP, 11 March 1896, “To Arrest a Brute.”
60. MFP, 12 March 1895, “The Assizes.”
We thank Clara Bachmann for assistance in preparing the online version of this article.
We thank S. Goldsborough for assistance in preparing the online version of this article.
Page revised: 26 November 2020
