Mennonite Women in Canada: A History

407 Pages·2008·3.389 MB·English

by  Marlene Epp

STUDIESINIMMIGRATIONAND CULTURE
Royden Loewen, Series editor
1 Imagined Homes
Soviet German Immigrants in Two Cities
Hans Werner
2 Mennonite Women in Canada
A History
Marlene Epp
Anna Enns Epp with ten of her forty-four grandchildren, 1958.
MENNONITE WOMEN
IN CANADA
A Histor y
MARLENE EPP
UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA PRESS
© 2008 Marlene Epp
University of Manitoba Press
Winnipeg Manitoba R3T 2M5 Canada
www.umanitoba.ca/uofmpress
Printed in Canada.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means or stored in a database and retrieval system without
the prior written permission of University of Manitoba Press, or, in the case of
photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from ACCESS COPYRIGHT
(Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, 6 Adelaide Street East, Suite 900, Toronto,
Ontario M5C 1H6 www.accesscopyright.ca)
Text design: Relish Design
Cover design: Doowah Design
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Epp, Marlene
Mennonite women in Canada : a history / Marlene Epp.
(Studies in immigration and culture 1914-1459 2)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-88755-182-6 (bound).—ISBN 978-0-88755-706-4 (pbk.)
1. Mennonite women—Canada—History. 2. Mennonite women—Canada—
Social conditions. I. Title. II. Series.
BX8128.W64E76 2008 305.48’689771 C2008-902246-7
Studies in Immigration and Culture Series, ISSN 1914-1459, #2
The University of Manitoba Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support
for its publication program provided by the Government of Canada through the
Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP), the Canada Council
for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Manitoba Department of Culture,
Heritage, Tourism and Sport.
Financial support for the publication of this book has also been provided by
the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada, Divergent Voices of Canadian
Mennonites Program.
For my mother
Helena Louise Dick Epp
And my late father
Frank Henry Epp
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
Illustrations.....................................................................................................viii
Preface..............................................................................................................ix
Introduction
‘The Curious Mennonite’: Seeing Canadian Mennonite Women
through Low-Lying Fog........................................................................................3
Chapter 1
Pioneers, Refugees, and Transnationals: Women Immigrate to Canada................23
Chapter 2
Wives, Mothers, and ‘Others’: Women within Families......................................59
Chapter 3
Preachers, Prophets, and Missionaries: Women in the Church...........................119
Chapter 4
Nonconformists, Nonresistors, and Citizens: Women Living in the World.........179
Chapter 5
Quilters, Canners, and Writers: Women in the Material World........................225
Conclusion.....................................................................................................275
Glossary..........................................................................................................283
Notes..............................................................................................................287
Bibliography...................................................................................................337
Index..............................................................................................................369
ILLUSTRATIONS
The author and publisher wish to thank the following institutions and individuals for
permission to reprint the photographs in this book:
Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies (CMBS); Essex-Kent Mennonite Historical
Association (EKMHA); Mennonite Archives of Ontario (MAO); Mennonite Heritage
Centre (MHC); Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies (CMBS); the Waterloo Region
Record,Ontario Canada; Anne Funk; David Hunsberger; and Chung Vang.
Frontispiece:Anna Enns Epp with ten of her forty-four grandchildren, 1958.
Illustrations following page 178:
Mennonite women, southern Manitoba, 1910s.
Postcard of Ontario Mennonite women at the beach, 1905.
Ontario wedding, 1902
Wedding photo, Manitoba, early 20th century.
Wedding photo of Ontario bishop Oscar Burkholder and Laura May Shantz, 1913.
Wedding photo, Manitoba, 1920.
Informal funeral photo, Manitoba, early 20th century.
Gender imbalance in class of 1946 at Ontario Mennonite Bible School, Kitchener.
Ontario women on their day off while working as domestics in California, 1911.
Helen Loewen Warkentin, missionary to India, c1920s.
Helen Willms, long time missionary nurse in northern Manitoba and Taiwan, c1950s.
Gathering at Mary Martha girls’ home for Mennonite women workers in the city,
Winnipeg, 1920s.
HelenaPenner, first Mennonite woman graduate of University of Manitoba, with
classmates, 1895.
City missionary AnnaThiessen and sewing class, Winnipeg, 1916.
Women’s society, North End Mennonite Brethren Church, Winnipeg, c1930.
Women’s sewing circle, Erb Street Mennonite Church, Waterloo, 1932.
Sorting material aid bundles at Mennonite Central Committee relief depot, Ontario, 1955.
Fraktur painting by Ontario artist Anna Weber, 1873.
OldOrder Mennonite women quilting, 1978.
Susie Reddekopp, packing for return trip to Mexico from Ontario, 2000.
Hmong Mennonite women in traditional dress.
Ontario Mennonite woman who enlisted in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps, 1942.
Midwife Frieda Isaak on her way to a delivery, northern Ontario, 1930s.
Mennonite women domestics in uniform, 1930s.
Making teaballs for Ontario Mennonite Relief Sale, 1970.
Selling eggs at the Kitchener Farmers’ Market, 1948.
Mennonite woman picking raspberries in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, 1948.
PREFACE
During one several-month period in the writing of this book, I frequently
drove past an attractive sign near downtown Waterloo, Ontario, that pro-
nounced ‘Mennonite Women’ in large bold lettering. The sign advertised an
exhibit of original paintings by artist Peter Etril Snyder. Well-known espe-
cially for his watercolour and oil depictions of Old Order Mennonites in
southwestern Ontario, Snyder had drawn together a collection of original
artwork on Mennonite women. When a co-worker and I were in the gallery
one day to purchase a gift for a colleague, we couldn’t help but chuckle
at ourselves, two ‘Mennonite women,’ in an exhibit devoted to, well, us!
The sign proclaimed a certain monolithic theme—as if one could capture
Mennonite women as a meaningful organizing focus—though the paintings
themselves hinted at the diversity of experience and perspective that one
might begin to discover if the women portrayed could give voice to their
stories. At times I have felt it presumptuous for me to write a book on
Mennonite women, as if I could even hope to paint a picture in words in
which every Mennonite woman could see herself or her female ancestors, in
the same way that I struggled with some amusement to find myself in that
exhibit of paintings.