The Gebietsamt (district government) of the Reinländer Mennoniten Gemeinde on the West Reserve maintained records of individual and collective debts.¹ The Reinländer Gemeinde considered the repayment of these debts as its obligation.² Jacob Y. Shantz, in his position as Secretary and Treasurer of the “Unterstützungs-Committee von Ontario” (hereafter referred to as the Waterloo Society),³ was involved in the final resolution of some of these debts, in addition to having personal Manitoba real estate interests.

The government loan for the 1870s Mennonite immigrants’ travel and resettlement expenses, which was secured by bonds signed for by Ontario Mennonites, in addition to the direct loans of their own funds extended by the latter, has already been extensively covered by others.⁴ The West Reserve Gebietsamt records, fragmented as they may be, provide the Reinländer Gemeinde account of events. In 1875, the Mennonite immigrants destined for the West Reserve settled in eighteen villages and it seems apparent that the Waterloo Society had prepared for their arrival and anticipated their financial needs. The society had pre-printed promissory notes marked “Berlin”⁵ and dated April 1, 1875, with blanks left open for names, sums, and signatures. The individual’s name and village of settlement was subsequently added and that he was a member of the Mennonite “Gemeinde” of the Reinländer Colony at West Lynne. For value received, the individual promised to pay the society or bearer, a certain sum: in each case $100 was entered. It was repayable in 6 equal installments, the first payment with 6% interest due 5 years after the issue date, with payments continuing annually thereafter until it was fully paid. This promissory note was signed by the individual and then countersigned by Ältester (bishop) Johann Wiebe and three ministers, (Jacob Wiens, Abraham Wiebe, and Gerhard Paetkau), who promised to ensure the repayment.⁶ Some individuals signed several $100 notes.⁷ Heads of 145 families, all appearing to be 1875 arrivals, were recorded as owing $22,252 through these notes.⁸ However, at the end of 1875 this sum had only reached $21,852.⁹ This amount was recorded as part of the Gebietsamt corporate debt.¹⁰ Despite the first West Reserve settlers having only arrived in July 1875, the Gebietsamt noted that interest would be calculated thereon from the 1st of April,¹¹ the date on the preprinted promissory notes. Other such promissory notes for the 1876 immigrant arrivals likely existed but the Gebietsamt did not designate a further corresponding sum specifically owing to the Waterloo Society as they initially did for the 1875 arrivals.

The Gebietsamt also records that, independent of the government loan secured by the Waterloo Society, twenty-one individual Reinländer Gemeinde members provided their own personal bonds and independently obtained a total of three thousand dollars directly from the Department of Agriculture.¹² This group of men, all living in or having land belonging to the West Reserve villages of Neuhorst and Schoenwiese, included West Reserve Obervorsteher¹³ Isaac Miller (borrowed two hundred dollars), Franz Guenther (homesteaded SE 3-1-3W and borrowed five hundred dollars) and Johan Heide (borrowed fifty dollars but died June 1877 before obtaining a homestead).¹⁴ This money never passed through the hands of the Waterloo Society as Jacob Y. Shantz later claimed it did,¹⁵ but instead the total three thousand dollars was “paid to individual Mennonites by Department of Agriculture” agents at Emerson.¹⁶ Accordingly, patents for their individual¹⁷ homesteads could only be issued upon notification from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Interior that the bonds had been released.¹⁸ Having apparently negotiated these bonds independently of the Waterloo Society, these funds were not channeled through the Gebietsamt.¹⁹ Even though these individual bond obligations were not necessarily the responsibility of the Reinländer Gemeinde, the amounts borrowed were also included as part of their Gebietsamt corporate debt totals.²⁰ They not only took note as repayments were being made on them,²¹ but they also forwarded certain repayments through Jacob Y. Shantz.²² As newly arrived non-English speaking Mennonites were unlikely to have the necessary contacts to arrange for these individual loans, it was likely Obervorsteher Isaac Miller who organized and coordinated them through his relationships with government officials.²³ The involvement of Miller in these loans made their repayment a responsibility of the Gemeinde. Although no copies of these bonds are known to exist, the Gebietsamt noted that interest would be calculated thereon from July 19, 1876.²⁴

Beyond the resources provided by the Waterloo Society promissory notes and these direct government loans, the Gebietsamt acquired additional government funds through the Waterloo Society plus personal loans from several members of the society. These latter loans, from Jacob Y. Shantz ($458), Samuel(?) Reesor ($900), and Elias Schneider ($800), were likely made early in 1878.²⁵ From the dates given for interest calculations it appears that the government funds acquired through the Waterloo Society were $29,000 on January 8, 1877, $4,700 on November 5, 1877, and $1,458 on January 12, 1878.²⁶

The ability of the West Reserve Gebietsamt to repay these loans to the government and the Waterloo Society depended upon those individuals who ultimately benefitted from them. Accordingly, the Gebietsamt kept meticulous records, including individual accounts for each family requiring assistance, which allowed these families to obtain on credit²⁷ the necessities of life as well as the equipment, livestock, and supplies to begin re-establishing themselves in farming. The case of Jacob Hildebrand and Maria Nickel illustrates this point. They arrived in July 1875, settling in the village of Rosenthal and making a homestead entry for NE 3-2-4W. The actual signing date was not recorded but Jacob signed two Waterloo Society promissory notes for $100, dated April 1, 1875. Over the span of two years he received on credit from the Gebietsamt flour, lard, meat, eggs, bacon, oil, beans, potatoes, salt, wheat, barley, oats, sacks, a stove, one-half share of a plow, an ox, and a cow for $95, and $5 in cash. Added to this balance was his $176 debt²⁸ which was still owed for the family travel costs from Russia. By the end of 1876 he owed $501 at which point the $200 from the Waterloo Society was deducted from the balance and noted as being transferred to the Shantz Gemeinde.²⁹ This distinction would seem to confirm that the amounts specified in the promissory notes were a separate source of funds.³⁰ However, for year-end 1878 this $200 owing to the Waterloo Society was, without explanation, added back to Hildebrand’s balance owing to the Gebietsamt.³¹ Within the personal accounts such as Hildebrand’s, the Gebietsamt appears to have only temporarily differentiated between the two sources of funds, the portion of the Canadian government funds which they had received through the Waterloo Society and the funds which they acknowledged as being from Ontario Mennonites as evidenced by these individual Waterloo Society promissory notes; by the end of 1878 they were also merged in the corporate records.³² The personal Gebietsamt accounts of certain 1876 arrivals also show $100 multiples being deducted and noted as transferred to the Shantz Gemeinde, but only in 1878, and then almost immediately added back to their debt totals.³³

On January 1, 1878 the Gebietsamt recorded that it owed $3,000 directly to the government on personal bonds, $50,952³⁴ to the Shantz Gemeinde (this sum would have included amounts owing both on the individual promissory notes as well as the government loan), and $4,285 to an unnamed bank. They also owed $14,240 to their own Reinländer Gemeinde members³⁵ and had received $1,881 in donations from unnamed sources.³⁶ By June 1, 1878 the bank loan appears to have been replaced by further advances from Ontario. Records indicate that $3,000 was owed directly to the government on the personal bonds, $21,952 to the Waterloo Society on the individual promissory notes, two entries of $29,000 and $4,000 to “Shantz” (the Waterloo Society for the government loan), plus the sums owing to Shantz, Reesor, and Schneider. In addition they now owed $17,140 to their own members and had received $1,886 in donations.³⁷ At year-end 1878 a lump sum of $69,934 was noted as owed to Shantz und Regierung (Government) and year-end 1879 the government (no reference to Shantz or the Shantz Gemeinde) was owed $71,691, plus $1,179 to Shantz and Reesor. By 1880 the government debt, (the term “Regierung” continuing to be used collectively for both debt to the government and to the Ontario Mennonites), was $75,971. The foregoing totals appear to include 6% simple interest.³⁸ Thereafter only government debt is noted but now including 6% interest compounded annually: $69,529 in 1881,³⁹ $74,691 in 1882,⁴⁰ $74,862 in 1883, $69,125 in 1884, $69,668 in 1885, $59,906 in 1886, and $47,211 in 1887.⁴¹

The largest loan repayments by the Gebietsamt appear to have occurred in 1887/1888, most of them recorded as paid to Shantz, without specifying whether they were intended for the government loan or the Ontario Mennonites.⁴² However, sometime during 1888 the Gebietsamt noted that they had fully repaid their government debt with $18,115⁴³ but subsequently noted that in July the government had cancelled $8,118 thereof.⁴⁴ As of January 1, 1888 they still owed the “Canadische Brüder” (the Ontario Mennonites) $28,990⁴⁵ but this was reduced to $23,367 after the Bergthaler Gemeinde assumed responsibility for $5,623.⁴⁶ This debt assumption by the Bergthaler was logically the sum total still owed by those former Reinländer Gemeinde members who had left the Reinländer and who were now Bergthaler members.⁴⁷ Upon the remaining $23,367, the West Reserve Gebietsamt repaid a total of $9,300 and in December 1888 the “Gemeinde in Canada” (the Ontario Mennonites) cancelled $4,065, leaving a total of $11,504 owing.⁴⁸ By October 7, 1890, only $84 remained, which was repaid on November 18, 1890 to Jacob Y. Shantz, together with an additional $150 to him personally for his efforts (“seine mühe”). Franz Froese, who was now Obervorsteher, signed the page after writing that the “Canadishe Gemeinde” was fully paid.⁴⁹ Although both the government and the Ontario Mennonite loans were now repaid, not all Reinländer Gemeinde members had been able to fully repay their own Gebietsamt accounts. These monies were still due the Gebietsamt but could not necessarily be collected.

As previously covered by others the debt cancellations recorded by the Gebietsamt were actually due to an 1889 commutation of the interest charged on both the loans received from the government and from the Ontario Mennonites.⁵⁰ However, the implications of this reduction in interest for the Gebietsamt and the individual debtors, after the majority of the loans had already been repaid, should be noted. On November 6, 1890, Reinländer Mennoniten Gemeinde Ältester Johann Wiebe, together with several ministers, administrators and church members, met to discuss this reduction, or as they described it, “the gifted money upon the 1879 debt”(“das geschonkene geld welches auf Schuld Anno 1879 gewesen ist”).⁵¹ They noted that the 1879 loan balance had been $90,000, from which the government had now cancelled $10,000, and that the Canadian Mennonites had cancelled $5,000, for a total of $15,000, which represented 16.66%.⁵² Accordingly, for those who were still in debt, the ministers and administrators decided to calculate 16.5% of that person’s 1879 debt total and apply this sum to reduce any amounts currently still outstanding in 1890. Any surplus would be paid out to the poorest in the community once incoming funds permitted.⁵³ They also noted that “should the occasional person later also request such funds”(“sollte nachher einer oder der andere kommen”), they would then be paid out as per this decision.⁵⁴ In an attached list of those persons, whom they presumably considered the poorest, are persons with current debt which was then reduced by the sum calculated. Some had their “refunds” transferred to the Waisenamt, some took theirs in cash, while others had portions paid to a third-party, presumably to satisfy debts or make purchases. The majority of these refunds occurred in 1891/1892 but several were recorded as late as 1900.⁵⁵

As noted, except for the $3,000 obtained directly from the Department of Agriculture, the Waterloo Society and Jacob Y. Shantz had direct involvement with all other Gebietsamt recorded loan obligations. Others have already covered the concerns about repayment of these loans and the “First Lien”⁵⁶ which was a priority claim upon the individual debtor’s homestead prior to its being patented. Manitoba Mennonites had requested through petition that the patents to their homesteads not be issued until, in essence, their individual Gebietsamt debt was repaid, or “…until he or she shall have first paid to the said Jacob Y. Shantz as such Secretary and Treasurer as aforesaid of the Mennonite Community of the County of Waterloo the sum set opposite his or her name…,” (that sum being the 1882 debt as recorded by the Reinländer Gebietsamt). Because the petition acknowledged that, “Whereas certain monies have been advanced to us by the Mennonite Community of the County of Waterloo in the Province of Ontario….,” the wording of the petition implied that all monies advanced were from Ontario Mennonites and made no reference to the government as the source of any funds.⁵⁷

The repayment of these individual debts, as indicated in the various records, occurred either directly by payments from the debtors, through alternate financing by a mortgage company, through direct sale by the owner of the property, or through transfer of the property to a purchaser in exchange for their repayment or assumption of the Gebietsamt debt. In each case, prior to any patent being issued, Jacob Y. Shantz would first notify the Department of the Interior that the individual had repaid his debt to the Waterloo Society. However, Shantz in his position as Secretary and Treasurer of the Waterloo Society, was more directly involved in the final resolution of some of these debts, specifically in those situations in which the individual was unable to complete repayment to the Gebietsamt. The case of Jacob Hildebrand of Rosenthal illustrates how this worked. Due to the compounding of interest, his total indebtedness had increased but he had managed to repay only $26 thereof. At the end of 1882, he signed the Petition, the “First Lien,” and his debt was recorded as $823. On January 10, 1883 he made an application for patent to his homestead. Subsequently unable to repay his debt and therefore ineligible to be granted the patent, on June 6, 1887 Hildebrand signed a Quit Claim deed of the property to Jacob Y. Shantz personally and the patent was issued in Shantz’s name. At his request the patent was sent to Obervorsteher Franz Froese at the Gebietsamt where the property was sold via a deed from Shantz to Julius Klassen for $1,250. According to the Gebietsamt records, at the end of 1887 Hildebrand still owed $1,100 and the difference of $150 was paid to him in cash on April 14, 1888. These arrangements were acknowledged by Hildebrand to have been made in his presence and with his consent. The only monies that changed hands were the $150 paid to Hildebrand by the Gebietsamt after having received them from Klassen who then additionally assumed responsibility for the repayment of the remaining $1,100 of Hildebrand’s Gebietsamt debt.⁵⁸

In a somewhat similar manner, 28 other West Reserve homesteads were also patented to Jacob Y. Shantz to enable their disposition and the repayment of the related debt owed to the Gebietsamt and, by extension, to the Waterloo Society on the government loan or to Ontario Mennonites.⁵⁹ Despite the Gebietsamt having satisfied all debt owed to Ontario Mennonites by November 1890, continuing for some time thereafter Shantz’s authorization was still required in order for patents to be issued to a homesteader who had signed the First Lien, and this aided the Gebietsamt in their continuing efforts to collect monies owed.⁶⁰

The inexplicable initial segregation of the individual debtor’s $100 Waterloo Society Promissory Note obligations is open to conjecture. Whether or not these funds originated with the Ontario Mennonite community or the government loan secured by them, the notes were clearly repayable to the Waterloo Society. The government would have had no obligation to assure Manitoba Mennonite repayment of the Ontario Mennonites’ own funds but government funds advanced to and secured by the Ontario Mennonites was another matter. A February 6, 1883 report of the Privy Council Committee which recommended the First Lien noted that “it would tend to facilitate the repayment by the Western Ontario Mennonite Community of the loan made by the Government.”⁶¹ Whether intentional or not, the 1878 commingling of these sums had the effect of obscuring their origin. Mortgage Companies who later wished to advance monies to Mennonites for debt consolidation,⁶² but who had to await the issue of patents to enable the execution of such mortgages to secure their position,⁶³ could perhaps have argued that theirs would have been no less a priority claim prior to patent than that of the Waterloo Society’s personal funds.⁶⁴ However, this possibility was then effectively pre-empted by the subsequent May 24, 1883 Dominion Lands Act where, similar to the “First Lien, Section 38 of that Act made provision for charges upon homesteads.”⁶⁵

1. In the West Reserve Gebietsamt records the reference is always to “Regierungs Schuld” and/or “Shantz Gemeinde Schuld” but never to “Brotschuld.” This latter term appears limited to the East Reserve. ↩︎
2. Although the Gebietsamt annually balanced its books, it is not evident exactly how they recorded and then reconciled certain assets and liabilities. The income and expense statements are incomplete and therefore there is no alternative but to accept the numbers as they recorded them as fact for purposes of this paper. ↩︎
3. Waterloo Society is how Jacob Y. Shantz himself referred to them in his extensive correspondence with the Department of the Interior. Homestead application files, Mennonite Heritage Archives (hereafter MHA). November 1883 Memorandum, Minister of the Interior to the Privy council, Library and Archives Canada (hereafter LAC), RG 15, D-II-I, vol. 250, file 27630, pt. I, “Western Ontario Mennonite Community, otherwise known as the “Waterloo Society.” ↩︎
4. Adolf Ens, Subjects or Citizens: The Mennonite Experience in Canada, 1870–1925 (University of Ottawa Press, 1994), 24–27. Samuel J. Steiner, Vicarious Pioneer: The Life of Jacob Y. Shantz (Winnipeg, MB: Hyperion Press, 1988), chapters 7,10. Frank H. Epp, Mennonites in Canada: The History of a Separate People, 1786–1920 (Toronto: MacMillan of Canada, 1974), 216-226. E. K. Francis, In Search of Utopia: The Mennonites in Manitoba (Altona, MB: D. W. Friesen & Sons Ltd, 1955), 55–59. Peter D. Zacharias, Reinland: An Experience in Community (Reinland, MB:Reinland Cenntenial Committee, 1976), 63–68. ↩︎
5. Berlin, now Kitchener, Ontario. ↩︎
6. West Reserve Gebietsamt records were located in 1992 in Mexico by the author and borrowed for microfilming. The handwritten volumes are not always titled, have few indexes, are sometimes repurposed, infrequently paginated, and entries fragmented over multiple volumes. Copies available at MHA. Gebietsamt, one booklet containing 184 signed promissory notes at the end of which, in what appears to be the handwriting of Jacob Y. Shantz, is noted “Total Notes Signed in this Book 18,400.00, Total in other.” It should also be noted that examples of a somewhat similar (with different repayment terms and without a preprinted date, other than identifying the decade) type of promissory note used by the East Reserve Bergthaler exist in the Chortitzer Waisenamt collection. They include one note for $17 and another for $799. ↩︎
7. To a certain extent these funds appear to have been doled out by Jacob Y. Shantz to various 1875 group leaders to assist the needy: Jacob Niebuhr ($3,370), Abraham Doell ($967), Isaac Miller ($465), Johann Wiebe ($1,502), Peter Friesen ($1,244), David Nickel ($1,847). Gebietsamt, “An Schreibe Buch des Peter Wiens,” MHA. ↩︎
8. Gebietsamt, “Raport-Buch, Hauptanschreibungen von Einnahmen und Ausgaben der Kolonie Reinland 1877 und 1878” MHA. “Namen derjenigen die an Shantz Gemeinde schuldig ist und wie viel,” MHA. Undated list of individuals by village and amounts owing to Shantz Gemeinde. Gebietsamt, Gemeindebuch der Dorfschaften Schanzenfeld, Chortitz, Waldheim, Schoendorf, Blumstein, Schoenfeld, p. 307, MHA, records this sum in June 1878 as $25,852. ↩︎
9. Gebietsamt, “Gemeinde Buch der Kolonie auf dem Reservierten Land in Manitoba von die Fuerstenländer und Alt Kolonie Ansiedler,” MHA. The record is undated but inferred from the names recorded. ↩︎
10. “West Reserve Gebietsamt,” volume in private hands located and photographed in Mexico by the author in 2009. Current location unknown. “Anschreibe Buch des Bezirks Amt zu Reinland, der Schlussrechnung vom 6ten Juli 1875 bis 11ten Januar 1878.“ Hand paginated 2, column heading, “Nachweis wie viel die Doerfer an Shantz Gemeinde schuldig.” ↩︎
11. Gebietsamt, “Raport-Buch, Hauptanschreibungen von Einnahmen und Ausgaben der Kolonie Reinland 1877 und 1878,” MHA. ↩︎
12. LAC, RG 15, D-II-I, vol. 250, file 27630, pt 1. Schedule of Mennonite Bonds given direct to the Government. When these bonds were actually signed and the monies received is not recorded. ↩︎
13. In the Gebietsamt election results, Obervorsteher is the term used for Miller’s position. No 13, Bekanntmachungen and Wahlresultaten, 6, MHA. ↩︎
14. Schedule of Mennonite Bonds given direct to the Government. LAC, RG 15, D-II-I, vol. 250, file 27630, pt 1. ↩︎
15. June 1, 1886, Jacob Y. Shantz to the Department of the Interior. LAC, RG 15, D-II-I, vol. 288, file 54018. ↩︎
16. Ibid., June 25, 1886, Department of the Interior to Jacob Y. Shantz. The letter also states that “the bonds given by these men are an entirely separate affair from those given by the Waterloo Society and must be kept separately.” ↩︎
17. The other individuals and their bonds were: Johan Guenther( $100), Jacob Reimer( $100), Gerhard Enns ($100), Gerhard Friesen ($100), Peter Froese ($300), Bernhard Wiebe ($100), David Giesbrecht ($100), Isaac Miller Jr, ($50), Johan Bueckert ($200), Bernhard Penner ($200), Abraham Friesen ($100), Heinrich Vogt ($50), Gerhard Friesen ($50), Jacob Wall ($100), Johan Miller ($200), Peter Klassen ($100), Jacob Wall ($200), Klaas Wall ($100). ↩︎
18. June 25, 1886, Department of the Interior to Jacob Y. Shantz. LAC, RG 15, D-II-I, vol. 288, file 54018. Klaas Wall Homestead application file. Oct. 29, 1886, Department of the Interior to John Lowe, Department of Agriculture. ↩︎
19. Ibid. Implied by the wording of the June 25, 1886 letter to Shantz. ↩︎
20. Gebietsamt, “Anschreibe Buch des Bezirks Amt zu Reinland, der Schlussrechnung vom 6ten Juli 1875 bis 11ten Januar 1878.” Hand paginated 2, column heading, “Die Gemeinde schuldig an die Gemeinde Glieder, an Shantz, Waisenamt, und Regierung betrag,” MHA. ↩︎
21. Gebietsamt vol. 1 “Gemeinde ausgaben…,” 216, “Verzeichnis wie viel die Bürgen, die für die $3000 Dol bei der Regierung gebürgt haben, bezahlt haben, in Summe ein Jeder,” MHA. ↩︎
22. April 27, 1886, Jacob Y Shantz to the Minister of the Interior. LAC, RG 15, D-II-I, vol. 288, file 54018. ↩︎
23. Gebietsamt, “Gemeinde Buch der Dorfschaften Schoenwiese, Neuendorf, Rosenort, Kronsthal, Neuhorst, Blumenort,“ 3,195, MHA. In the accounts for at least two of these individuals during this time period there appear entries of sums they received from Miller equal to the sum each borrowed from the government. E.g. Gerhard Enns ($100) and Jacob Wall ($100). Additionally, one of the individuals, Franz Guenther, who provided these bonds, was relatively wealthy and had himself loaned monies to the Gebietsamt, which suggests that at least a portion of the $3,000 was intended for Gebietsamt and not personal usage. ↩︎
24. Gebietsamt, “Raport-Buch, Hauptanschreibungen von Einnahmen und Ausgaben der Kolonie Reinland 1877 und 1878, MHA. ↩︎
25. Ibid. ↩︎
26. Ibid. However, Gebietsamt, “Haupt Ausgaben und Einnahmen der Reinländer Kolonie vom 1sten Januar 1879,”368, MHA, records $21,952, $3,000, $29,000, and $4,000 all as from the government and only $700 and $1,457 from Shantz. This practice of using the term “Regierung” collectively occurs until the government portion itself was fully repaid. The already noted publications in note 4 vary considerably in their calculations as to the amounts owed by the West Reserve Reinländer Gemeinde on their portion of the Government loan. ↩︎
27. Credit extended by the Gebietsamt which was funded in turn by the Gebietsamt’s portion of the Government loan, the individual’s signed Waterloo Society promissory notes, and funds acquired by the Gebietsamt from, and owed to, other Mennonites with surplus funds. ↩︎
28. Cents have been omitted from all sums in this paper. ↩︎
29. Hildebrand’s drawings compiled from the various Gebietsamt volumes with Rosenthal village entries. This particular entry is recorded as “von obige Schuld an Schanz Gemeine ueberwiesen $200,” MHA. ↩︎
30. This being the $22,252 owing to the Waterloo Society as per the Promissory Notes. The already noted publications in note 4 also vary considerably in their calculations as to the amounts owed by the West Reserve Reinländer Gemeinde to the Ontario Mennonites. ↩︎
31. Gebietsamt, various volumes with entries for individuals in the village of Rosenthal. Other examples of such $100 or $200 in and out entries include those for Johan Guenther, Franz Peters, and all others so verified. MHA. ↩︎
32. “Anschreibe Buch des Bezirks Amt zu Reinland, der Schlussrechnung vom 6ten Juli 1875 bis 11ten Januar 1878,” Hand paginated 10, 17, MHA. ↩︎
33. The available records for Wilhelm Janzen, Jacob Doerksen, and Heinrich Letkeman. ↩︎
34. The “Raport-Buch, Hauptanschreibungen von Einnahmen und Ausgaben der Kolonie Reinland 1877 und 1878” (MHA) records the $3,000, $21,952, $29,000, and $4,000 all as owing to the “Regierung,” the government. However, an undated list in Gebietsamt, „Gebietsamt, Haupt Ausgaben und Einnahmen der Reinländer Kolonie vom 1sten Januar 1879,” 321 records the previous year’s debt to Shantz as $22,052 and the current year’s as $4,047. Thus within one year the Gebietsamt refers to the same total debt owed on the individual Waterloo Society promissory notes as owing to the government and to Shantz. A totally untitled, unpaginated, and undated Gebietsamt volume records $21,853 as owing to “Jacob Y Shantz Gemeinde.” Another unpaginated Gebietsamt volume simply entitled “Gemeindebuch,” for 1875 and 1876 records that, according to Shantz’s calculation, they owe the Shantz Gemeinde $22,052. This sum Shantz has calculated is composed of $18,381 for grain, flour, meat, and lard, $3,480 for wagons, $990 for plows, $198 for tickets, and $108 for wheels(?), less the amount already paid $1,105. ↩︎
35. Some of these Gemeinde member’s monies were available to the Gebietsamt without interest. ↩︎
36. “Anschreibe Buch des Bezirks Amt zu Reinland, der Schlussrechnung vom 6ten Juli 1875 bis 11ten Januar 1878,” hand pagination 2, MHA. ↩︎
37. Gebietsamt, “Gemeindebuch der Dorfschaften Schanzenfeld, Chortitz, Waldheim, Schoendorf, Blumstein, Schoenfeld,” 296, MHA, Gebietsamt, “Raport-Buch, Hauptanschreibungen von Einnahmen und Ausgaben der Kolonie Reinland 1877 und 1878,” MHA. ↩︎
38. The Gebietsamt initially calculated compound interest on the various loans but then noted them as incorrectly calculated. Gebietsamt, “Raport-Buch, Hauptanschreibungen von Einnahmen und Ausgaben der Kolonie Reinland 1877 und 1878,” MHA. ↩︎
39. The remaining $536 debt to Shantz, Reesor, and Schneider was paid January 6, 1881. Gebietsamt, “Haupt Ausgaben und Einnahmen der Reinländer Kolonie vom 1sten Januar 1879,” 366. They also later noted having made an $8,000 payment to the government in December 1881, 368. ↩︎
40. Ibid. $3,000 was noted as paid to the Government in February 1882. ↩︎
41. “Anschreibe Buch des Bezirks Amt zu Reinland, der Schlussrechnung vom 6ten Juli 1875 bis 11ten Januar 1878.” There are minor discrepancies in the year-end totals when compared to those recorded in “Haupt Ausgaben und Einnahmen der Reinländer Kolonie vom 1 Januar 1879.” ↩︎
42. Record of payments made is incomplete with individual entries distributed among various volumes. The earliest payments located included $1,250 to Shantz in 1880, and 6 payments totaling $2,060 in 1881/1882 for Miller to send to Ottawa. The majority of the payments were to Shantz with only a few specified as to the Government. ↩︎
43. Gebietsamt, Haupt Ausgaben und Einnahmen der Reinländer Kolonie vom 1 Januar 1879, p 327. ↩︎
44. Ibid., 329. ↩︎
45. Ibid., 327. The $47,211 owing at year-end 1887 was reduced by $106 in January 1888 from which the $18,115 was then deducted to arrive at $28,990, the amount still due the Ontario Mennonites. ↩︎
46. Gebietsamt, “Haupt Ausgaben und Einnahmen der Reinländer Kolonie vom 1 Januar 1879,” 327. ↩︎
47. Gebietsamt, “Enthaltend wer an die Gemeinde schuldig ist,” MHA, file no. 6. The individual amounts transferred to the Bergthaler are recorded in the Gebietsamt pages for such individuals, for example, Ludwig Esau ($907), David Driedger ($168), Peter Rempel ($691), Wilhelm Toews ($324), Franz Enns ($917), Johan Niessen ($403), etc. ↩︎
48. Ibid., 328. There were also other minor entries plus added interest to arrive at this sum. ↩︎
49. Ibid., 329. Without details of payments made and debt cancellations the “Anschreibe Buch des Bezirks Amt zu Reinland, der Schlussrechnung vom 6ten Juli 1875 bis 11ten Januar 1878,” 115 records owing the “Canadische [sic] Brüder” $15,965 at year-end 1888, and 118, the “Canadische Gemeinde” $11,003 at year-end 1889. No such debt totals are recorded thereafter. ↩︎
50. Ens, Subjects or Citizens, 25 and Steiner, Vicarious Pioneer, 147, Epp, Mennonites in Canada: The History of a Separate People, 226, Francis, In Search of Utopia, 57,59, Zacharias, Reinland, 65. ↩︎
51. “Vorschuss erhalten bei Rosthern und Hague. Bis dahin Regierungsschuld (Alte),” 192, MHA, file no 10. ↩︎
52. Although this percentage calculation is obvious, the rationale is not. For it to be accurate would require that the 1879 total Reinländer Gemeinde debt, including interest, owed both to the government and the Ontario Mennonites, be $90,000 (they had recorded it as $71,691 at year-end 1879) and that the cancelled sums total had for this purpose been rounded off to $15,000 from $12,183. ↩︎
53. These payouts would be dependent upon other debtors continuing to repay their Gebietsamt debts. ↩︎
54. “No 10, Vorschuss erhalten bei Rosthern und Hague. Bis dahin Regierungsschuld (Alte),” 192, MHA. ↩︎
55. Ibid., 192-209. At year-end 1890 they noted that $4,245 was to be paid out to those on their list. To offset this sum and other liabilities the Gebietsamt had $13,767 receivable from still outstanding debts at year-end 1890. No totals are recorded for the actual amounts that loans were reduced and refunds paid but 16.5 % of $71,691 suggests that, although the Reinländer Gemeinde leadership obviously did not anticipate a great demand, $11,829 in total could have been so requested by their members. Gebietsamt, “No 6, Enthaltend wer an die Gemeinde schuldig ist”, records additional such debt reductions, for example, for Peter Heide ($26), 37, and Heinrich Hildebrand ($32), 39. ↩︎
56. Ens, Subjects or Citizens, 39–41 and Steiner, Vicarious, 145. ↩︎
57. There were two copies of the petition with only minor variations signed by 190 individuals in the westerly portion of the West Reserve, and two copies of another petition signed by 146 individuals in the easterly portion. LAC, RG 15, D-II-I, vol. 250, file 27630, pt 1 has copies of all petitions. ↩︎
58. Although Klassen assumed responsibility for the debt January 1, 1888, the deed from Shantz to Klassen was only dated November 6, 1889. Details of all transactions from Hildebrand’s relevant Gebietsamt debt records, the Homestead Application File for NE 3-2-4W, and the abstract for NE 3-2-4W. ↩︎
59. Of the twenty-nine individuals whose homesteads were patented to Shantz, twenty-four were recorded on the petition for the westerly portion of the West Reserve and their debts were to the Reinländer Mennoniten Gemeinde’s West Reserve Gebietsamt. The other five were on the easterly portion and would therefore have been indebted to the Bergthaler Gemeinde. ↩︎
60. Homestead Application Files, SW 19-2-4W correspondence where on February 3, 1891 Shantz advises the Department of the Interior not to issue patent since the individual still owes $346. However as per LAC, RG 15, D-II-I, vol. 250, file 27630, pt 2, on April 26, 1892, Shantz advises that “the Waterloo Society make no further claim on any land held by the Mennonites of Man: The loan which they were security for is all settled.” ↩︎
61. LAC, RG 15, D-II-I, vol. 250, file 27630, pt 1. ↩︎
62. January 1883, Frank Smith, President, The London and Ontario Investment Co Limited to Right Hon Sir John A Macdonald, Minister of the Interior etc. These debts were incurred for purchases of “livestock, implements, and other supplies,” the same type of expenses financed by the sums secured by the First Lien. LAC, RG 15, D-II-I, vol. 250, file 27630, pt 1. ↩︎
63. Ibid. ↩︎
64. An Act to amend and consolidate the several Acts respecting the Public Lands of the Dominion, assented to May 15, 1879, made no provision for such charges prior to patent. Great care in the wording of any security documents would have been required since Section 34 subsection 17 noted that assignments and transfers of homestead rights prior to recommendation for patent would be deemed evidence of abandonment of the right and a second entry would not be permitted. http://metisportals.ca/MetisRights/wp/wp-admin/images/1879%20Dominion%20Lands%20Act,%201879%20Amendments%20(s%20126%20impotrant%20as%20others%20too).pdf ↩︎
65. The “Dominion Lands act, 1883, with the amendments and additions thereto” (Canadiana Online, http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03762/3?r=0&s=1) clearly stated the requirements in order for advances to immigrants to be considered for a lien upon their homesteads. Unlike the Mennonites who had received travel subsidies, it differed from the First Lien in that the immigrants were to be placed free of expense to the government and that charges could not exceed $500. Section 36 of this Act also retained the forfeiture of homestead if such right had been assigned or transferred prior to recommendation for patent. There appears to have been some confusion about how the First Lien had not contravened this particular Section or whether perhaps Mennonites were not subject to it. September 9, 1885, Winnipeg Law Firm Bain Blanchard & Mulock, acting for The London & Canadian Loan & Agency Co, inquired of the Minister of the Interior whether they were not subject. The company intended to make loans to Mennonites and wanted to ensure that it was safe to do so. The Department did not categorically address this on Sept 22nd when it replied that in the case of Mennonites the only difference was “the Agent does not issue a certificate of recommendation, but forwards the application here, where if the debt due to the Waterloo Society has been liquidated, the patent is issued at once.” LAC, RG 15, D-ll-1, vol. 288, file 54018. ↩︎