A Tale of Two Cemeteries at Schoenau

This is pretty ridiculous: in May 2024 I had booked a vacation day for the express purpose of exploring more Mennonite cemeteries with Joe, yantzied. Trouble is, after three posts, I just… stopped. I was getting overwhelmed with the speed at which our Poland trip was approaching, knowing full well I should be doing more research ahead of that trip. But also, I wasn’t sure if I should tell you about this next part. However, it’s true, it happened, and frankly in my opinion this is just what blogs are for. So here we go!

WEST RESERVE

It was my day off. Joe and I had a big plan to visit lots and lots of cemeteries I had never seen before. After Bergfeld, we went to Schoenau, which actually has two cemeteries. First, we visited the cemetery with public access, in what to me felt like an open field:

It is very well cared for, which is nice to see.

Then, Joe told me there were more graves across the road. But, they are on private property. But, she knows the new owners. She called them to announce we were on their driveway. They were home and said we could explore!

We were welcomed and shown to the graves. What a beautiful resting place!

Being new owners, they didn’t know the history, however, some informative papers had been left to them. A yellowing piece of paper contains these words, hand-written:

“North. 1 (My Uncle) Heinrich Wieben. 2 (My Uncle) Peter H. Wiebe. Father to Ed. P. Wiebe. 3 (My Grand Parents) Heinrich Wieben Father + Mother (nee Dueck) to the I Wiebe Boys Mrs. Harder’s Parents. (My Great Grand Parents) Peter Wieben The Father + Mother to (Heinrich Wieben). Frank Thiessen (child). Boy John? Cornelius Duecken also My (Great Grand Parents) or Father + Mother Mrs. Heinrich Wiebe. *Sarah Wiebe sister to (Heinrich + Peter A. Wiebe). Anna Wiebe daughter to (Heinrich Wiebe) (My Uncle)). My Brothers + sisters: Mary or Maria Harder, Corny Harder, Tina Harder. (All four – Anna, Mary, Corny, Tina – stillborn.) Henry Harder – Morris. West side. Heinrich Wiebe – Mrs. Harder’s parents. Heinrich Wiebe’s parents further North. 2 houses. East side. Ja. Ginter. School. John Schroeder. Ben Dueck. About 20 students(?)”

It’s a little tricky to read someone’s handwriting so I’m not sure I got that all correct. But also, I find their use of “-en” interesting — definitely a yantzied thing. (Right?)

Also included was a photocopy of page 3 from issue No. 62 of Heritage Posting from December 2008. I’ll put the link to the pdf here so you can check it out for yourself.

Now, let’s continue exploring the cemetery.

Time for my confession. This was the day I tried water witching for the first time.

Is it water witching if you use it to find graves? The two techniques seem identical. I have never seen anyone do this before. But when our host mentioned that he’d tried it and it had worked, I expressed interest and curiosity, so he went to get the witching sticks. (If I remember correctly, they’re just metal coat hangers that have been straightened.)

I watched intently as he stepped over graves and the wires crossed. When he was not over graves, the wires straightened. My eyes widened. Is this bullshit? I asked to try for myself.

Sure enough. Of their own volition, the wires in my hands crossed over graves, and uncrossed when not over graves. Look, I can’t explain it.

We were told that two Catholics had tried this and it didn’t work. Okay so what does this mean, only Mennonites can do witching?

It all felt pretty innocuous, honestly. I felt inclined to try this technique when looking for many other graves. But at the same time, as Joe and I drove around, we discussed how truly there are burial sites everywhere. I don’t know that any place can have no burial sites. Just think of all the garden graves we know of, that have been completely cultivated over. There are lots — and that’s just the ones we know of. I feel like maybe the whole world is a grave.