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Johann C. Reimer
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Educator, farmer, historian.
Born at Steinbach on 30 October 1894, son of Johann W. Reimer and Maria T. Barkman, third of eleven children, he became crippled at the age of 15 by a severe attack of rheumatoid arthritis. While bedridden for three years, he became proficient at the mandolin. He taught at the private Blumenhof village school from 1916 to 1919, when the school was closed.
On 6 July 1919, he married Maria D. Loewen (c1897-1986) at Steinbach and they subsequently had one daughter and five sons. They bought a farm in the Prairie Rose district and he began teaching in the public school system, at Ekron School (1922-1923), Blumenhof School (1923-1925, 1926-1928), Blumenort School (1928-1939), Shakespeare School (1943), and other places. After receiving additional training at Altona, he taught for another 16 years.
In 1924, while teaching at Blumenhof School, he and his students built a replica Semlin for the 1924 Diamond Jubilee of the arrival of the Mennonites to Manitoba in 1874. Well before the concept known as Experiential Leaning became popular, he was a practitioner. This was a technique he used through out his life as an educator, museum curator, and tour guide.
By the time that the 75th anniversary of the arrival of Mennonites in Manitoba, he and students again built a replica Semlin and he chaired the Gedenfsseier der Mennonitisschen Einwandeerung (Commemorative of the Mennonite Immigration) with a ceremony held in Steinbach on 8 July 1949. Guest speakers included Mayor Klaas R. “K. R.” Barkman, Reeve Theodore “Ted” Chornoboy, MLA Edmond Prefontaine, Minister of Municipal Affairs Sauveur Marcoux, and MP Rene Jutras. The rest of the program included speeches, prayers, sermons and choirs by leading figures of the Kleine Gemeide and others.
In the 1920s he had started to conduct research and collect artifacts to help tell the story of the arrival of Mennonites to Manitoba. He used these artifacts in the classroom to show the students part of their heritage. It was an attempt to counter the indifference many had to their own history. In his research, he had discovered in 1950 his grandfather’s store (built in 1884) on a Steinbach area farm where it was being used as a barn. After acquiring the building, he had it moved to North Main Street Steinbach, here he established Steinbach’s first museum. He displayed the artifacts from his grandfather Klaas Reimer and other artifacts he had collected. Upon request he would open the doors for visitors. Often teachers during summer training programs arrived by bus to hear from him the history of the Mennonites in Manitoba.
Nearby to Steinbach’s first museum stood the G. G. Kornelsen home, the last of Steinbach’s house barns. He envisioned this as part of a larger museum complex. The demolition of this built heritage in 1960 for a car lot, became a turning point in preservation of Mennonite heritage in the old Mennonite East Reserve.
Reimer would often speak to the town council about the need for a museum. It was around the mid-1950s that a reconfigured Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society—whose board consisted of Mennonites from across Manitoba, including clerics, businessmen, and educators, along with John Reimer—was starting to articulate the need to tell the story of the Mennonites coming to Manitoba. With Reimer's significant collection of Mennonite artifacts as a nucleus, in 1961 the Society purchased a six-acre lot from P. A Reimer north of Steinbach where the Mennonite Heritage Village would be developed..
Timing was fortunate with the upcoming 1967 Canadian Centenery and the 1970 Manitoba Centenery that government funding was received for this project, to commemorate the arrival of Mennonites in Manitoba. On 3 September 1967, thousands of people attended the grand opening. Over the years, more collections and built heritage were added to the museum, including the construction of an artifacts building where the material collection could be preserved and conserved. Reimer served as the museum's Curator until 1974 when he was declared Curator Emeritus.
At heart Reimer remained a farmer, so on a small scale he farmed, keeping bees and a small dairy to produce cheese. He was also the Secretary of the Hanover Agricultural Society for five years, where he planned community fairs, and arranged farm implementation demonstrations of an earlier era. Over time this morphed into the Pioneer Days in Steinbach which grew into a major tourist attraction.
In recognition of his contributions to the preservation of Mennonite history in Manitoba, he received a Centennial Medal from the Manitoba Historical Society and received an honorary life membership in the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society (1980).
After spending his later years taking care of his wife as her health declined, he died at Steinbach on 19 March 1990 and was buried in the Steinbach Memorial Cemetery.
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Mennonite Village Museum / Mennonite Heritage Village (Highway 12, Steinbach)
Birth registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Gedenfsseier der Mennonitisschen Einwandeerung (Commemorative of the Mennonite Immigration) 1874-1949.
Reflections on Our Heritage: A History of Steinbach and the RM of Hanover from 1874, Derksen Printers, 1971.
Manitoba Mennonite Memories: 1874-1974 by Julius G. Toews and Lawrence Klippenstein, Manitoba Mennonite Centennial Committee, Altona and Steinbach.
Schools Our Heritage by John K. Schellenberg, 1985. Board of the Hanover School Division No 15, Derksen Printers, Steinbach, Manitoba.
Obituary [Maria Reimer], Winnipeg Free Press, 22 March 1986, page 31.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 21 March 1990, page 40.
“From wells we did not find: Biography of John C Reimer 1894-1990” by Arnold Reimer, Preservings No, 16 (June 2000), pages 112-119.
Der Canadisch Mennonit: Ein Querschnitt in Bilden / Mennonites in Canada: A Pictorial Record by Walter Quiring and Helen Bartel, D W Friesen & Sons Ltd, Altona, Manitoba.
Reimer, John C. (1894-1990), Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.
This page was prepared by Ed Krahn and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 13 December 2024
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