Memorable Manitobans: Heinrich H. “Henry” Ewert (1855-1934)

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Heinrich H. Ewert
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Educator, cleric.

Born at Thorn, West Prussia on 12 April 1855, he emigrated to the United States with his family in 1874 and settled at Kansas. He received an MA degree and started teaching in 1882 and was ordained to the ministry two years later. He taught school in Kansas for 11 years and co-founded Bethel College at Newton, Kansas.

In 1891, at the invitation of George Bryce on behalf of the Manitoba Department of Education, he came to Manitoba to serve as inspector for Mennonite schools of southern Manitoba (1891-1903), and as Principal of the Gretna Normal School (later renamed the Mennonite Collegiate Institute) until his death. He served as Editor of Der Mitarbeiter, a newspaper for the Conference of Mennonites in Canada and, in 1922, he chaired the organizational meeting of the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization.

He died at his home in Gretna on 29 December 1934 and was buried in the Gretna Cemetery. He is commemorated by a monument on the Winnipeg campus of the Canadian Mennonite University.

See also:

Western Local Mennonite Teachers’ Conference - An Early Minute Book by Lawrence Klippenstein
Manitoba Pageant, Volume 22, Number 2, Winter 1977

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Mennonite Heritage Centre Archives / Mennonite Educators Monument (600 Shaftesbury Boulevard, Winnipeg)

Sources:

1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.

Death registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

“Prof. H. H. Ewert, noted Mennonite educationist and minister, is dead,” Winnipeg Free Press, 31 December 1934, page 1.

“Prof. H. H. Ewert, veteran teacher, buried at Gretna,” Winnipeg Free Press, 31 December 1934, page 1.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 21 March 2023

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

This is a collection of noteworthy Manitobans from the past, compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society. We acknowledge that the collection contains both reputable and disreputable people. All are worth remembering as a lesson to future generations.

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