Heinrich A. Klassen

Heinrich A. Klassen (my great grandpa), was first married to Anna Dietrich Friesen (1868-1892). Intially, they lived on te Davidsfeld estate and then moved to the Marienskaya estate. They had two children, Heinrich H. (my grandpa) and Helena, who married Wilhelm Friesen.  Anna did quite peasing pencil sketches and we have some signed copies of her work that she did befofre her marriage. She was very tiny. However, Anna died at a very young age. Returning from a trip to the Crimea, she was struck down with cholera and died very soon thereafter. My grandpa and his younger sister were then looked after by their grandmother.

Heinrich A. married again in 1898. His new bride was Margarethe Dirks, daughter of Missionary Heinrich Dirks, who had served many years in Sumatra.  One of the joys of Agnes Klassen's childhood was listening to stories about how the Dirks' kids had monkeys for pets. Such a different world from the gophers, rabbits, weasels and coyotes on the Canadian prairies.

Heinrich A, and his new bride moved to a beautiful estate called Reimerhof in 1906. The house had turrets and round corner rooms, having a total of 60 rooms. They needed the the room for all the chldren that came along in rather quick succession.  The garden on this estate, with its tree-lined promenades was the envy of the countryside and picnics were arranged for school groups from Halbstadt and Tiege, the neighboring communities, to visit the estate and to see the gardens and orchards. Heinrich A. and all of his children were great horse fanciers. They recall with pleasure the horse stories of their youth.

There were nine children of this second marriage:

(i) Agnes, born 1898, married Heinrich Lueder

(ii) Maria (Mika), born 1900, married Berthold von Stauffenberg

(iii) Anna (Njuta), born 1901, married Edgar Reimer

(iv) David, born 1903, married Minnie Rushbrook

(v) Nicolas (Kolja), born 1904, married Grace Schaefer

(vi) Constantine (Kostja), born 1906, married Dolores Schaefer

(vii) Victor (Vitja), born 1908, marrried Laura Dedels

(viii) Margaretha (Gredy), born 1910, married Walter Armstrong

(ix) Irene, born 1916, married Hugh "Jack" Cairns