Like most things I start, I did not finish writing about this adventure. You see, Andrew had flown to Toronto to join the Russlaender Train, and I stayed in Manitoba. But, I didn’t want to just be having normal days. I wanted to dive into Mennonite history too. So I booked some vacation days and headed west.
Looking back, I’m realizing that our computer has melded the photos Andrew and I took, which ends up a little disjointedly fascinating. I see Manitoba headstones mixed with the CN Tower. Fields and farmsites with downtown Toronto.
The last thing I wrote about my adventures at this time was: “Time to check some cemeteries off my list!”
Yes, well let’s.
WEST RESERVE
I had obtained Burwalde Woods Honey and a gas station coffee. NOW I was on my way to finally check some cemeteries off my list!
But first, there was some sort of old house the old men had told me was still standing … was it this one?
Hmmm I think I’m off my map already.
Stopped yet again for a school site cairn. This one says: “The School District of Rosenbach Manitoba Number 880 1896-1967 Dedicated June 24, 2012”.
It was not on my list of things to see, but I do brake for cairns, so it is what it is.
Once again I was searching for the sites of the little dots on the map that the old men at Mulligans had helped me with. We did have a bit of a challenge in that the squares of the grid are tiny and some mistakes may have been made. Not to mention a few days had passed by now and their instructions were fading fast from my very poor memory.
And then, a miracle happened. I FOUND A CEMETERY!
This was just what I had been hoping to find. I couldn’t believe it. After all my failures and setbacks, here it was!
Coffee in hand, I lingered and wandered and examined the few headstones I could see.
I could not for the life of me figure out what this place may have been. But I took pictures of each headstone carefully:
I looked up Aron Peters (from the above stone) on grandmaonline.org and the only place-names it gave were stating he was born in South Russia, lived in the RM of Stanley, and was buried at se34-3-4W, which is the location of this cemetery, I guess? (Or, probably the stones were moved off the field. If that is the case, then I appreciate that they were not destroyed.)
I looked up Elisabet’s parents, to see what place-names their other offspring had been born at. Some were listed as being born at Rosenbach, which makes sense with the school cairn I had encountered. When I look for Rosenbach on a West Reserve map, I see that it’s just south of Burwalde and Greenfarm, which makes sense.
I found the entry for Rosenbach in the historical atlas of the WR (by Rempel & Harms) on page 124 it notes that Rosenbach has a cemetery that is “still in use” just north of Winkler. Well. That does not describe this collection of stones. So this may have been Rosenbach lands, but not the village per se. I guess?
I had discovered a new cemetery (well, new to me, and probably actually lots of people, but not the local historical society) and it was a beautiful day and I had a coffee and I wanted to sit there for a bit. I was quite transfixed.
However. Something pulled me back to the present.
I began to realize I may have planned things poorly and was running out of time. It takes far longer to travel from one end of the West Reserve to the other, than it does the East Reserve. I had forgotten this. I had a lunch appointment coming up, so I tore myself from this mysterious cemetery… and promptly ran into another one — which those gentlemen had told me about.
It’s clearly not a Mennonite cemetery, but interesting nevertheless. Findagrave tells me it is the Bulin Cemetery.
At this point I knew I had to really hurry to make it to my friend’s place for lunch… in Gretna. Which, as I suddenly realized with horror, was pretty far from Morden. (Anyone from yantzied will laugh at me for letting myself get so far away from my destination.) It’s like time and space mean nothing to me when I’m cemetery hunting.
…
I’ve had to dive deep into my memory and my photos to reconstruct what took place on these days. Here are all of the previous posts in this particular series:
Exploring Winkler Part 1: It begins!
Exploring Winkler Part 2: Kronsgart
Exploring Winkler Part 3: Greenfarm
Exploring Winkler Part 4: Discover Nature Sanctuary
Exploring Winkler Part 5: Neureinland (again)
Exploring Winkler Part 6: Winkler Cemetery
Exploring Winkler Part 7: Meeting Mr. Falk and Joe
Exploring Winkler Part 8: Winkler Archives
Joe & the Cemeteries Part 1: Reinthal
Joe & the Cemeteries Part 2: Heuboden
Joe & the Cemeteries Part 3: Neuhoffnung
Joe & the Cemeteries Part 4: Rudnerweide