Village News

This year Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV) is working hard to complete not just one renovation, but five. They include repainting the Livery Barn Restaurant exterior and floor, restoring the Printery, upgrading the Reimer store lights, painting the General Store, and refreshing the Village Centre trim.

The biggest and most significant portion of this project is The Printery. Its foundation is rotting and failing. It was not built to endure the elements and the weight of several heavy printing presses. I wonder if the original founder Jacob S. Friesen had the same problem when he set up shop in 1909. We need to move everything out and redo the foundation to make it permanently solid.

In addition, the restoration will include a transformation. The current building’s generic English name “The Printery” will be changed to the historical and more contextual name “Steinbach Post”. This name will give it more prominence on the village main street and draw visitors into a very specific local story of deep significance that they won’t get anywhere else in the world.

‘Die Steinbach Post’ (The Steinbach Post) which we will shorten to ‘Steinbach Post’ so non-German speakers don’t think we are uttering threats of death to Steinbach. “Die! Steinbach Post!” Die Steinbach Post was a unique German-language newspaper. It was a valuable source of information and connection not only for the Mennonite community in Steinbach, but throughout the Americas.

The Post underwent many changes over its history. During WWI, German publications were banned in Canada and Printer Friesen then published it in English. In 1922 when about 8,000 Mennonites began leaving Canada for Mexico and Paraguay, they left much behind, but they did not leave their Steinbach Post subscriptions. The first letter from a Mennonite in Mexico to the Steinbach Post editor included an update on their situation and then ended with a PS requesting that they be able to keep receiving the paper. Quickly the lowly Steinbach Post grew to an international newspaper serving all the Americas: North, Central, and South for decades to come. It kept Mennonites everywhere connected.

Exactly a 100 years ago, in 1923, Gerhard Derksen, a Mennonite high school principal in Russia, became a leader in the Russländer migration of 1000s to Saskatchewan. He settled into a farm himself, but after 9 years he had had enough and accepted an invitation from a former colleague in Russia to assist him in Steinbach. He would eventually start Derksen printers. His son Eugene took over in 1957 and would start the Carillon Newspaper which keeps winning numerous provincial awards and even won Canada’s ‘best weekly’ in 1958. Eugene would also become a founding member and advocate of MHV, volunteering often in The Printery when it was built in the 1970s.

The total estimate for the Village Street Renewal Project is $110,000. The good news is that the Building Sustainable Communities grant has approved funding for the half of it (nearly $55,000). Our heritage champions like MHV Auxiliary and other donors have contributed $45,000 to this point. We now have only $10,000 left to raise to get this entire project rolling! Please consider a donation today. Ten people donating $1000 each will make sure the village street and the stories it tells remains vibrant for the next generation.