AC Parents and childhood

The Agnes (Classen) Martynes Story

1902-1965

My grandparents, Marie (nee Schroeder) and Abraham Klassen, lived on their estate, “Davidsfeld”, in the province of Taurien, in South Russia. They kept livestock and grew grain. In many places, their land was quite sandy. For this reason, they had a large flock of sheep because sheep can survive on poor grazing land. They also had large herds of cattle and oxen and they bred horses as well. Their many acres of land were cultivated by the use of oxen and horses. 

Of their large family, five children remained alive, three sons: David, Gerhard and Heinrich, and two daughters: Maria and Agnes. Having completed elementary school, all of the sons were sent to high school in Ohrloff. Then they helped their father with administration of the estate. Their father died as a man in his fifties in 1888. The oldest daughter married Heinrich Suderman at a young age and moved with her husband to their estate Selenay in the Bachmut territory. An adjacent estate, Bogdarovka, was later purchased by my grandfather, Gerhard Classen. David married Luise Hesse and moved to Prigorye, an estate belonging to his parents (Abraham A. Klassen). Prigorye was in the Molotschna area near the village of Altenau. Heinrich married Anna Friesen and after an initial stay on Davidsfeld, the young couple moved to Marienskaya.Anna died in 1892 and in 1896, Heinrich married Margaret Dirks. In 1906, they moved to Reimerhof  in the near vicinity of his brother David. Agnes, the youngest, married David Reimer and moved to the estate Yuschanlee, also in the Molotschna area. 

Gerhard wanted to travel to see something of the world. His mother (Marie Klassen) agreed to this and gave him the means to do it. She believed it would be good if someone in the family could see and get to know America because she said that perhaps her descendents might someday migrate to America (this turned out to be prophetic). Gerhard and his cousin, Heinrich Reimer (the brother of David who married Agnes, his sister), went on their travels in 1893. They toured the United States, Canada, Germany, Holland, France, Spain and England. The two young were on their travels for two years.

At that time, Canada was very sparsely settled. They were first in Ontario and then in Manitoba. In Gretna, Manitoba, they stayed with acquaintances of their parents. They became friendly with the Huebert family. Their son (17 years old) drove them to Winnipeg in his horse-drawn carriage. At that time, Winnipeg was a small city with no paved streets. During a rainstorm, their carriage became mired in the deep mud of Winnipeg’s main street.

In Chicago, there lived a Janzen family, good friends of my father’s parents. This family was very good to the young men from Russia. Mr. Janzen had a good managerial position in the Swift Meat Packing Co. He gave the young men a tour of the Swift facilities and introduced them to Mr. Swift. Mr. Swift suggested father and Heinrich Reimer that it was sometimes good to become acquainted with wealthy people because one never knew when one might be able to use them. Father invited Mr. Swift to visit him in Russia, which he did several years later. 

After their return in 1896, my father married Agnes Fast. Her parents were the Johann Fasts from the city of Jakaterinaslow, where her father had a mill.

Now that all her children were married, Marie (Klassen) decided to divide her properties among her children. First, she had a house built on the yard at Selenya, where her daughter lived. She lived there until her death in 1903. Now she wanted to divide. She called her children together. Between them, they sorted her properties into three parts. Then they knelt down and prayed. They prepared lots and each took his lot from their mother’s hand. The three sons obtained an estate. Gerhard, my father, got a large acreage without buildings but with enough money to have buildings built. He built a fine estate. Then he moved in with his young wife. Their first son, Nicolai, was born in 1896. Alexander was born in 1898. At this time, Mr. Swift from America came to visit my parents. Father went with Mr. Swift through the Russian countryside to Moscow and to St. Petersburg, the capital, and pointed out both riches and poverty, in order to make Mr. Swift acquainted with the country.

However, peace did not prevail in the land. In 1905, the first unrest began. Gangs moved about. They murdered, laid waste to properties by fire and stole what came to hand. Since my parents were also threatened by these bandits, they moved to the city of Cherson, which was the nearest city to our estate. The bandits did not stay away. They came to our estate, plundering and destroying several buildings, and they wanted to set fire to the main house. A fire was started in the living room, there was smoke damage in the room. After the bandits left, some of our employees extinguished the fire and the house was saved. In 1905, my father bought a house in the city of Cherson and we moved in. At that time, our family consisted of five children. A daughter named Katja died at six months of age.

In 1902, Marie Klassen became sick with cancer. My father went to see her. This was about the time when I was to be born. My mother encouraged her husband to stay with his mother until she should leave this world rather than to return to his wife for the birth of the baby. Grandmother was touched by my mother’s generosity and suggested that the new baby be named after her mother, Agnes.

I was three years old when we moved to Cherson. I still have a clear memory of the nice big place we had there. There was a big yard and a nice big house and several other buildings. There was also a flower garden and swings and a sandbox where we played a lot.

In the fall of 1906, Nicolai (Koljaa as we called him) and Mariechen, my oldest brother and my oldest sister became sick with scarlet fever. They were both very ill and one night my parents kept watch over Mariechen because they feared she might die, but she survived. My youngest sister, Lisa, and I became sick also but we had it in a lighter form. Only my brother, Alex (Sasha, as we called him), didn’t get the sickness, even though he came into the sickroom and didn’t take any precautions.

That same year on December 27, our dear mother died suddenly. Since we were all still sick, Alex and our father were the only ones from the family who could accompany her to the cemetery.  She had a beautiful memorial stone, and a large angel stood on top. During that time, my grandparents from my mother’s side were frequently with us. However, after a year, Fraeulein Minna came to us. She was charged with the supervision of us children. All of us loved her. She came from Tallinn, Estonia. She spent much time with us, played games with us, and she also made things such as doll rooms with furniture therein, and much else. I was much attached to her and to this day I have good memories of her. In the basement of our house two rooms had been furnished. One of the rooms was used as a school room where Kolja, Sasha and mariechen were taught by a hired teacher. The teacher, Herman Dirks, son of Missionary Heinrich Dirks, and two of my cousins, David and Kolja Klassen (David A. Klassen’s sons) lived in the other room in the basement. They had room and board with us. These three men would often give us their attention. My cousin Kolja was a great friend of the children. On many a Sunday afternoon, my father and Kolja would take Lisa and me to Swarowsky Park. 

The city of Cherson is situated on the Dnieper River and the park was on the river bank. It was a large and beautiful park. I loved to watch the water and to see how the waves would splash against the water’s edge. We five siblings had pleasant childhood years in the city.

Then, three years after my mother’s death, my father married Barbara Neufeld. By that time the previous unrest was allayed. The bandits were scattered and disarmed and the estate owners could again live undisturbed on their estates. In that spring, our family moved back to the estate. Our parents were married in the spring. For us children the large, beautiful garden was a paradise. Lisa and I, who were about the same age (I was two years older), played in the garden all day long. Apple trees that stood together and that had very thick branches were a good playground. We spent many days there with our dolls. And also the sandbox with its fine yellow sand and the swings provided us with much pleasure. We also fashioned many toys from clay: animals, dolls, furniture and much else. Our sister Mariechen was adept at this.

Sasha was good at building machines. As a young boy, he already spent much time in the smithy and woodshop. There was a machine like a steam engine in the front that operated the threshing box in the rear. All grain was threshed in this way at the time. We threw the marinka in the box, just as the sheaves of grain were put in the threshing box, and then the marinka came out below. That was our straw. We loaded our ladder wagon and took it to our straw pile.

In the center of the garden was a high mound. There was a path up to the top where there were two benches. There was also a path leading down the other side. The whole mound was covered with marinka plants. It has very tiny pink flowers when in blossom. The foliage consists not of leaves but of “soft green stuff”. We hauled this green stuff in our ladder wagon, built by Sasha, which was pulled by sheep horns (these were our oxen) to the threshing machine. Much too soon the summer was over.

In the fall, our teacher came. Now the school consisted of us three (Sasha, Mariechen and me), two children came from a neighboring estate, and six more children belonging to our German employees also attended. Teacher Jakob Dick came from the Crimea. Our oldest brother Nicholas was already in the high school in Ohrloff. In the following  year, Sasha also went there. The town of Ohrloff was in the Molochnaya area not far from uncle David’s and uncle Heinrich’s estates. My sister Mariechen was a real bookworm, utilizing every free moment in reading. We children would often sit around her to listen to her stories. We loved it. She was a talented, hard-working girl.

Our family enjoyed three more wonderful years (1909-1912) on our estate Zawetuaja,. Father inherited the land from his parents. He got 15,000 acres and enough money to build all the buildings. Since mother loved flowers and a garden, she made the plans for the garden. It was beautiful. Around the garden was a Russian olive hedge and a “Gladischen'' hedge. Then there was a forest. At the edge of the woods there was a path with a planting of currant bushes next to the path. Directly beyond the house was a large flower garden, and further along was an alley of acacias leading to the central mound that was there from previous times. As already mentioned, there were two benches on the top of the mound where one could take one’s rest. The garden was sectioned into quarters and many kinds of fruit trees were planted: apricots, peaches, cherries, apples, pears, plums, airva (a large round fruit that I have never again seen or eaten), hazelnuts, walnuts and a grapery. The whole garden was irrigated and the fruit grew well. Close to the house was a rose garden with many colorful and beautiful varieties. There were also many berries: gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries. We spent so much time in the garden. There was also a greenhouse where vegetables and flowers for the spring garden were started.

Our Fraeulin Minna, who had always been with us, also came to Zawetuaja. Since we were older now and in school, she became our seamstress and she sewed whatever came to hand. In 1910, our brother Gerhard was born. 

The estate was completely built up. There was the main house and a minor house. The there were: a horse stable, a cow barn, a pig sty, two lone store houses for storing grain, a smithy, a woodworking shop, a building where products (vegetables and fruit) were kept, and a barn surrounded by a large fence where the horses were corralled when they came in from the pasture. Then there were the workers' residences: four with two quarters in each house for the married workers and a larger building that housed the single workers and included a kitchen, a dining room and bedrooms. There was also a hen house where hens, geese and ducks were raised. An adjacent building housed a woman who looked after the poultry. A little distance from the yard was a pond and a well. All the animals were watered here.

In 1911, Kolja had finished high school in Ohrloff and went to the Realschule in Berdjansk. Sasha and Mariechen went to Ohrloff to the high school and Maedchenschule respectively.

It was pleasant at Zawetusaja, but many of the neighboring estate owners were putting estate managers on their estates and moving elsewhere to other estates. Since the Mennonite estate owners in the area had largely moved away, our parents were lonely. When an estate became available in the Bachmut area in the near vicinity of father’s eldest sister’s estate Selenaya, father bought it. In 1912, we moved to Bogadarowka. There were many Mennonite owners in that area. Mr. Isaac Ediger became our administrator on Zawetuaja. Bogadarowka was situated on the little stream Widjanaja. On the opposite shore there was the estate Epeterendarowka. There were two brothers in the employ of Catherine the Great as coachmen responsible for horses. They were so good that the empress had rewarded each of them with an estate. They were these two estates. They had a nice bridge built across the stream and they visited frequently. Unfortunately, as they had become wealthy they wanted to live high. They began to drink heavily and to gamble. They quarreled and had the bridge destroyed and they had no more communication with each other. When we lived there, Johann Friesens lived on the opposite shore. They had a rowboat and we had a rowboat and so we visited with each other.

Johann Freisens had four children in Lisa’s and my age group and a girl who was younger than we were. We often saw each other. And in the winter, we particularly enjoyed sliding down the steep banks with the sled.

In 1913, Mrs. Friesen died of stomach cancer. The oldest three children were Isaac Friesen’s children whose parents had died within a year and so were adopted by the Johann Friesen’s. The youngest two children, Franz and Nunya (Anna) were their own. In the next year after the crops had been harvested and the threshing machine was put in storage, Mr. Friesen met with an accident. His leg was pushed against the wall by the connecting rod from the machine causing a large wound. He bled to death that same evening. Now the children were distributed among their relatives. Heinrich Dick and Hans Wiens rented the estate as the land belonged to the minor children.

Mariechen completed the girl’s school in 1913 and I entered that school in Ohrloff in 1914. I had board and room at the Salomon Edigers. There were also my cousins, Mika and Njuta (Heinrich Klassens’s daughters) and Lisa Klassen (David Klassen’s daughter) and Mika Wiens in one room and Katja Neufeld in another room. It was my first year away from home and it was hard for me.