Before Mennonites migrated from Russia in the 1870s, a steady stream of young immigrants to Canada had already started. In the last half of the nineteenth century, Victorian England found itself plagued with a variety of social problems, including children roaming the streets of their cities. Although some were orphans, others belonged to parents struggling to provide for their families.¹ The Industrial Revolution had brought a great number of people to the cities, resulting in overcrowding and poverty. As people moved, they lost the traditional support system of friends, neighbours, and family that they had relied upon in smaller communities. If disaster struck in these urban areas, they were on their own. Although workhouses offered the desperately poor food and shelter, and provided education for children, more needed to be done. A well-meaning yet cruel plan was devised whereby pauper children would be sent to Commonwealth countries. These boys and girls became known as home children.

In 1869 the children began arriving in Canada. The younger ones were sent for adoption and those over five years of age were placed with families as indentured servants. As harsh as life had been in the workhouses or on the streets, the farms and homes of Canada were not a big improvement. Some children were welcomed into their new homes, but others found their new families severe and unsympathetic. Many were overworked and abused, often denied proper food and shelter. Inspection and oversight were inadequate. Most times these wounded children would not talk about their experiences once they grew older. Psychologist Perry Stone, whose father was one of these children, wrote an extensive study on how these children were stripped of their identity so that the break from their family was permanent. Many were told they were orphans, even though this category applied to only three per cent of the children.²

In 1874, a month before the first Mennonites left Russia, the Local Government Board in England sent inspector Andrew Doyle to Canada to assess the child emigration system. He spent time investigating the child distribution centres, focusing on their methods of placing children and how the children were doing in those placements. His report did not speak well of the system. He concluded that the children were placed in homes too hastily.³ He pointed out that not enough care was given to the selection of families and that more oversight was necessary to protect children from mistreatment.

One incident of such abuse appeared in the courts in 1895. Allan Cameron, a coroner, was called by the police to a farm home near Keppel, Ontario. Upon arrival, he found the body of a young fifteen-year-old boy named George Green. In his forty years of practice he had never seen a body in such a deplorable state. George had been severely beaten and systematically starved. The boy had been in Canada for less than a year, employed by a spinster named Helen Findlay, who operated the family farm after her parents and brother passed away. At the trial witnesses testified to the violence and abuse the boy had endured, which included beatings with an axe handle and being chased and prodded with a pitchfork. Miss Findlay’s lawyers, however, had the boy’s body exhumed, and the doctors who examined it were able to persuade some jury members that the boy died not from abuse but because he had been unfit from the start. The trial resulted in a hung jury and Miss Findlay went free.⁴

Even with such cases taking place, this immigration system continued in Canada without interruption until 1939. Anywhere from 100,000 to 120,000 children were sent to Canada. About 250,000 were sent to Australia, New Zealand, Rhodesia, and South Africa. Some of the children sent to Canada ended up with Mennonite families in southern Manitoba.

Dr. Barnardo’s Homes

It is estimated about fifty agencies worked as agents for the procurement or the distribution of children. One of the best known of these agencies was Dr. Barnardo’s Homes. Thomas Barnardo was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1845 and died in 1905. His ambition had been to become a medical missionary to China, and while studying at the London Hospital he would go out into the streets and places of ill repute to spread the gospel. He also volunteered a few nights a week to teach in a “ragged school,” which had been set up for children of the labouring class. He soon realized that there was a need for his work in London, and he started to debate whether he should still go to China.

One incident helped to make up his mind. While teaching at the ragged school he came into contact with one of the “street Arabs,” as the homeless street children were called. One bitter chilly night, a young boy, shirtless, without shoes or socks, and without a hat, entered the school and did not want to leave. After a few questions he found that the boy, ten-year-old Jim Jarvis, did not have a home or parents. Thomas took the boy to his house and fed him, and in the course of the evening he also shared the story of Jesus with him. While telling the story he asked the boy if he knew who Jesus was. The boy answered, “Yes, he is the pope.” As the conversation continued, the boy told of his friends and offered to introduce Barnardo to them. After seeing some of these boys, sleeping on the steel roof of a shed without any cover, in hiding from the authorities, he was haunted for weeks on end. He decided to take action. With encouragement from the Earl of Shaftesbury, a parliamentarian and social reformer, he gave up the idea of going to China. Instead, in 1870, he opened up his first mission for the homeless in London with the help of some wealthy acquaintances.⁵ At his mission he taught the homeless children about morals and cleanliness and gave them a basic education before shipping them off to Commonwealth countries to have a chance at a better life.

Over the years Dr. Barnardo’s Homes grew to a vast organization of over 5,000 workers and over 20,000 fundraising volunteers. In 1888, he expanded his operation into Manitoba, purchasing 9,000 acres of farmland near Russell and establishing an industrial training farm for potential farm workers. Between 1888 and 1907 more than 1,660 British home boys were trained on that farm. Many more were sent directly to Manitoba farmsteads. In the autumn of 1896, Barnardo’s organization opened a receiving house at 115 Pacific Avenue in Winnipeg for boys.

The boys brought to Manitoba by Barnardo’s organization were mostly between the ages of ten and thirteen. Younger children sent to Canada were placed in foster homes in Ontario until they were considered old enough to start working on western Canadian farms. The process of selecting homes for the children had improved somewhat since Doyle made his report. According to Ups and Downs magazine, published in Toronto by Dr. Barnardo’s Homes, when a farmer applied for a farm worker, he had to supply information including his church affiliation and the recommendation of either a minister or magistrate. If found to be suitable, he was notified when a boy became available, and upon payment of three dollars to help defray the cost of bringing the child to Canada, he was allowed to pick one.

The aim of the organization was to find good homes for the children where they would be treated with humanity and consideration, under kind and wholesome influences, and where they would be well trained for their future in the West. This did not always happen, but Barnardo still expected that the children would be well provided for, and that their surroundings would be conducive to their happiness, health, and welfare. During the winter the organization stipulated that the child should attend school.

After the boy’s placement, for one to nine months, he worked for room and board and an opportunity to go to school. The boy was also clothed by his employer. After that period, an agreement for payment would be made. His age, size, strength, capabilities, and the tasks required to be performed were taken into consideration. The farmer was allowed to terminate the agreement with one month’s notice in writing. Barnardo’s organization was allowed to terminate at any time if there were problems with the placement. Once the boy had fulfilled his term of employment, the farmer had to make payment. If the boy was still under the age of responsibility, payment was made to Dr. Barnardo’s Homes and the money was invested on behalf of the boy without any benefit to the organization. If he was already of the age of responsibility, payment was made directly to the young man. If the child was ill and unable to perform his duties, Dr. Barnardo’s Homes pledged to take the child back to England for care.⁶

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, with an abundance of farm labour available everywhere, interest in the program dried up. In 1939, a group of twenty-one boys and seven girls was the last sent to Canada by Dr. Barnardo’s Homes. Between 1882 and 1939, the organization brought about 30,000 home children to Canada.

Life with Mennonites

At the time Barnardo’s set up its Winnipeg distribution centre in 1896–97, Mennonites in southeastern Manitoba were in the middle of a process of abandoning their traditional street village system and moving onto individual farms. Some were young families that needed the help of a boy to make their start, while others were already near retirement. In my research, I was able to locate fifteen home boys who lived with Mennonites. Some had stories attached to their names, while others did not. As the following stories demonstrate, British home children experienced both struggles and successes during their lives on Mennonite farms.

Henry Strains was born in Sussex, England, to Henry Strains Sr. and an unknown mother on December 26, 1889.⁷ He arrived in Canada at age eleven on board the Numidian from Liverpool and landed in Quebec on July 20, 1901. On board was a large party of Dr. Barnardo’s children. Of these children, 239 were sent to Toronto, 68 to Winnipeg, 20 to Barnardo’s Industrial Farm near Russell, and 3 to Peterborough. They ranged in age from three to twenty-one years.

Henry’s father died after accidentally falling off the mast of a boat. It is unclear when his mother died, but the records from his military enlistment in 1918 show that he had a stepfather, Harry Green, in England. He also had five siblings. His brother is believed to have travelled to the United States, but may have later returned to England. His sisters remained in England.

After his arrival in Manitoba he was placed with Isaac and Katharina Hildebrand of Kronsthal (present-day New Bothwell). When he first arrived, Mrs. Hildebrand struggled to pronounce his name. To make things easier for herself she gave him a new name. She called him Ei (Low German for egg) Strring (String with a rolling “r”), by which he is still remembered today by those who knew him. A few years after finishing his stay with the Hildebrands, he lived with the William Christie family, west of Niverville. Eventually he came to live with my great-grandparents, the Johann Krauses in Silberfeld, and later with my grandparents, the Cornelius Krauses.

His stay with the Krauses was off and on but lasted for many years. My mother, the youngest daughter of Cornelius Krause, told me that he would often show up after all the fall field work was done, asking if he could stay for the winter. Grandfather Krause didn’t have employment for him during this season, but he was allowed to stay as long as he was willing to help in the barn. In return he received room and board, laundry service, and tobacco. In spring when the farmers were getting ready for seeding, he would disappear to find employment on a larger farm, only to return again in late fall for another winter’s stay. On one return, as my mother recalled, he arrived with a load of lice. It was quite a job for her and Aunt Helen to rid Henry and his clothes of the lice. Tar soap baths and baking clothes in the oven were the methods of control. At other times he stuck around and worked on local threshing gangs. He was a farm worker all his life.

Four years into the First World War, Henry presented for a medical examination at Winnipeg’s Fort Osborne. His military records show he was a man of small stature, 65 inches tall and weighing 157 lb, with extremely flat feet. He was twenty-nine years old. His religion was Presbyterian. He was not sent overseas, serving only in Canada, first in the Canadian Expeditionary Force 1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment, and then in the 6th Battalion, Canadian Garrison Regiment. Nine months after he enlisted, he ended up in the Cogswell Street Military Hospital in Halifax with influenza. After an eleven-day stay, he was discharged from the hospital six days before military demobilization took place. He was discharged from the army on February 25, 1919. After collecting his final service pay of $72.92, he returned to civilian life. The loss of his father, separation from his family, life on the streets, and having to start a new life in a new country among complete strangers who primarily spoke a different language contributed to a life of loneliness that took their toll on Henry’s mental well-being. At times he let it be known that the behaviour of others towards him was unfair or unacceptable. One such incident, as related to me by my father, occurred while Henry was working on a threshing gang on one of the farms south of the Krause farm. Henry confronted the hostess for not serving an adequate noonday meal. She only served a “peasant’s meal,” consisting of a watery soup, without bread or anything else. She placed a large bowl of soup on the table and gave each worker a spoon, and that was how they were to eat. At other times, Mennonite young men were unkind to Henry. While working in the field someone might poke fun at him and provoke him to anger. One of Cornelius Krause’s nephews, living next door, usually came to his rescue and managed to calm him, until that young man married and moved away.

On July 21, 1942, Henry was at John Rempel’s garage in Silberfeld when he suffered a mental breakdown. After someone said something that Henry found insulting, he became extremely enraged and threatened the individual with physical harm, and gave chase with an axe. After the other party managed to escape, Henry returned to the Krause’s farm. His rage now turned to harming the three children living at the farm. As he was making his way across the field, someone who witnessed the incident at the garage quickly drove to the farm to warn them about what had happened and what Henry intended to do. Thanks to the warning, they managed to hide the children before he arrived. Neighbours came and a police officer was called. Together they were able to subdue and immobilize him. He was admitted to the Selkirk Mental Health Centre. After he was diagnosed with a mental illness, Henry was never discharged. He died twenty-two years later, on December 7, 1964, and his remains lie buried in St. Clements Cemetery in Selkirk.

Another young boy, Arthur James Dare, lived with the Cornelius Falk family southwest of Lowe Farm. He was born in 1895, arriving in Canada at the age of eleven on board the Dominion, destined for a distribution home in Toronto. According to his son, Falk had applied for a young worker and was allowed to choose the boy he wanted. He chose Arthur. Although the family remembered enjoying having him at their house, it would only be a short stay as after three years Arthur died.

Clarence Morris New, born in England on February 2, 1884, immigrated to Canada on board the Labrador of the Dominion Line in 1897. Indentured to an elderly couple, Peter and Anna Penner, living on the southeast quarter of section 16-7-4E in the Rural Municipality of Hanover, Clarence arrived during threshing time in the fall of 1897. He claimed that he had never seen such big machines in his life. During his first winter, Clarence mostly performed odd jobs and helped around the house. In the spring, he learned how to drive a team of horses and operate a harrow. During harvest time he helped stook sheaves and cut bundles with the threshing machine. Summer work on the farm was much the same. During the next two summers his major jobs were stooking and ploughing. In a letter to Ups and Downs printed in April/May 1902, Clarence wrote that he had almost finished his contract with the Penners and expected a Good Conduct Medal soon. He could read and write in German. He had enjoyed his stay and had learned a multitude of skills required in farming. He strongly recommended that anyone in England looking for a place to go come to Canada as he had done. He finished his contract with the Penners in the fall of 1902. His cash payment for his five years of apprenticeship training and service was $100. He left the Penners and found employment elsewhere for $125 a year. During the year he was gone Mr. Penner died. Mr. Penner’s two sons, Erdman and Abraham, sold the farm and purchased the store and post office in Niverville of their uncle Erdman Penner, the well-known entrepreneur from Gretna. The brothers hired Clarence as postmaster and put him in charge of the stage route to and from Niverville. He stayed for a year, went to work on a farm for the summer, and returned to the store again. His winter wages were $25 a month.⁸ Clarence did not stay in Niverville. On September 20, 1913, he married Edith Alice Allen in Winnipeg. They would move to Smithers, BC, and then to Edmonton, where he passed away in 1967.

Accompanying Clarence on the Labrador was Henry John Coote. Henry was born in Middlesex, England, on August 3, 1883. His father had been killed while working on a ship and his mother passed away a year later. Henry and his younger sister Florence were placed in a Barnardo home. She was adopted out and he was sent to Canada. Later in life he tried finding her but he was unsuccessful. Henry was placed with Peter and Sara Toews who lived on section 36-6-5E, northeast of Steinbach. The 1901 census shows Henry’s occupation with the Toewses as “stable boy.”

On June 13, 1905, he joined the Mennonite church at Chortitz. A month later, on July 25, 1905, he married Barbara Blatz, daughter of Andreas and Barbara Blatz. In their first year of married life they lived with Barbara’s parents. As a source of income, they kept three milk cows plus three extra head of cattle and two sheep. After a short stint at farming Henry worked at various Steinbach businesses: Steinbach Flour Mills, K. Reimer & Sons store, and C. T. Loewen Lumber. During the mid-1920s he purchased the Travellers Home Hotel in Steinbach from Gerhard D. Gossen. In 1927 Henry took over the teamster and mail service between Giroux and Steinbach from him. Four years later he sold the hotel to the Peters family next door and moved to Winnipeg. In Winnipeg his family operated a three-story rooming house at 223 Donald Street, in the present-day location of the Millennium Library. Their main customer base was young Mennonite men seeking employment in Winnipeg. As the father of eleven children Henry passed away at his place of work on August 3, 1943. His remains lie buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

Edward Stephen Dudman was born in 1886 to Edward Stephen and Alice Dudman in London, England. He had five siblings: Alice, Edith, George, Winfried, and Bert (Richard). Edward’s father had been a grocer and oilman. He died when Edward was seven years old, and due to economic circumstances, he and his sister Alice were placed in a school with over four hundred boys and girls under the age of eleven. At eleven he was sent to Canada. He came to live with Jacob D. and Helena Wiebe in Chortitz (present-day Randolph). When he reached the age of sixteen his contract with Mr. Wiebe was fulfilled. He had an offer to stay on with the Wiebes, but decided that he could make more money elsewhere. His contract with the Wiebes stipulated that he would work for the first nine months for just room and board, and an opportunity to go to school. Edward, however, didn’t like school and Mr. Wiebe allowed him to stay home and help on the farm instead. After the nine months were up his pay was $10 for the first year, $20 for the following year, $30 for the third, and $40 for his final year.

During his stay with the Wiebes, a special announcement appeared in the January 1901 issue of Ups and Downs offering a $10 prize to the boy who gave the best description of his experiences in Canada. Edward took up the challenge, writing: “I have been in Canada over three years, and it does not seem to me so long as it is. I am among the Germans, and they are a God-fearing people. I have not much to do in the Winter as feed the cattle. I can talk German better than English, and this is a very good country for Barnardo boys. They learn all farm work, ploughing, raking and so forth. . . . In the village is a school and church and the children go to school in the Winter, and they go every Winter till they are fourteen years of age.”⁹ The editor added that the magazine also received a letter from Mr. Wiebe, who wrote kind and flattering things about the boy, but since it was written in German he could not publish it.

Many of the child-immigration agents worked towards a complete separation of the child from the rest of the family; however, Barnardo’s organization was different. They allowed the boys to have contact with their families. From time to time they organized excursions for the boys back to England or for their mothers to Canada. Individuals had to cover the cost of the excursion, which was fairly expensive at $62.40. Many times these trips to England resulted in complete disappointment, as their families were nowhere to be found. Therefore, Barnardo’s preferred to have the mothers come visit the boys instead. Other boys joined the armed forces during the First World War in hopes that they would be sent to England and would be able to find some of their family in this way.¹⁰ After Edward finished his apprenticeship with Mr. Wiebe in 1902, his mother asked him to return to England, but in turn he persuaded her and his brothers and sisters to come to Canada. This didn’t happen until 1909. They settled in Niverville and Winnipeg.

After leaving the Wiebes in 1902, Edward worked for several other farmers in the area. In his first year he was able to earn $63. On June 6, 1906, Edward joined the Mennonite church at Chortitz. A year later, on June 11, 1907, he married Regina Doerksen. For the next three years he taught in a private German school. Following that, in about 1910, they moved to Niverville where Edward was able to purchase the International Harvester dealership. He also bought the Penner Brothers store and the Robert Hotel. He sold the hotel first in 1919, the International dealership two years later, and the store two years after that, in 1923. After selling out in Niverville, Regina and Edward moved to Ontario to live on a small fruit farm in the Kitchener area for a few years. Before leaving Ontario, they went on an extended trip to visit England, through France, and on to the Holy Land. It must have been quite a trip, for their return journey alone, from Jaffa to Providence, Rhode Island, lasted almost a month. After their venture in Ontario and trip abroad Regina and Edward returned to the Niverville area once more to purchase a portion of River Lot 592A, located west of Saint Mary’s Road and reaching back to the Red River.

In addition to stints as a farmhand, schoolteacher, businessman, and fruit farmer, Edward also established and preached in a church next door to his river lot property. He had earlier sold a neighbouring lot to a widow with a large family. He said it wasn’t right that due to their location and circumstances this family couldn’t attend church services, so he purchased one of the former Niverville school buildings, moved it onto an adjacent lot, and turned it into a small family church. Edward lived a long life of many experiences and accomplishments, passing away at ninety-seven years of age.¹¹

William Harding arrived in Canada at the age of thirteen on board the Lake Huron in 1899. He was indentured to John S. and Helena Johnsen (Janzen), living on section 36-7-6E in the RM of Hanover. In response to the prize offered in the January 1901 Ups and Downs, William wrote: “I like this country very much and I think it is a good climate for health. It is very beautiful in Summer and the Winter very cold. There has been much stormy weather for the last few weeks. The snow is piled up like big walls. The roads are very bad and there are many people upsetting. The nearest village is four miles from my home, and that is where I go to church…. I am going to school to learn German.”

Mr. Janzen followed with a letter of his own. He wrote: “I take great pleasure in writing these few lines in regard to my boy, William H. Harding. He came to me on August 12th, 1899. He is doing very well. He is learning to farm very fast. He can plough, harrow, feed stock, cut wood. I think it is a very good thing for this country. I am going to have another boy before long. I must say my boy is a credit to the Old Country. . . . We are sending him to school to learn German. Excuse bad writing. I never learnt English.”¹²

Edward Taylor, born March 17, 1887, was indentured to John J. Wiebe of the postal district of Plum Coulee. In Ups and Downs, Edward wrote: “I am now going to school and I learn both kinds of speech – English and German. I can talk good German, and when I first came here I could not speak one word. There are three more boys in this locality, one of them is about a mile off.”

Mr. Wiebe, Edward’s employer, also wrote a letter about his charge: “He is smart, good-tempered and quick to learn anything in the farming line, although, like most boys, he is apt to be a little careless and not sufficiently thorough; but he is getting much better of that. He is growing fast and will be quite tall, I think, and I am sure if he goes on as he has been doing he will soon be, when he come [sic] to farm for himself, an independent man.”¹³

Even though linguistic and cultural differences existed between Mennonites and their charges, the Barnardo organization supported the influence of Mennonites on these boys. This support is demonstrated in the following letter in Ups and Downs: “From Myrtle, Man., we have received two letters, one from William Whittaker, in which he tells us what might easily be inferred from his syntax, viz.: that he is learning ‘the German’; and the other from his employer, Mr. John H. Dyck, a worthy German yoeman [sic] who has mastered the English tongue to the extent of expressing himself in a manner that leaves no room for doubt that he and William are on the best of terms with each other and in no mood to part. If, with the German language, William acquires the German thrift and the national traits which make our Teutonic cousins ever welcome to a home under our flag, there will be no cause for regret. For patience, prudence, perseverance and prosperity the German settler is hard to beat.”¹⁴

The history of British Home children working on Mennonite farms is not widely known in the community. I hope that these stories will inspire interest in this topic and that some readers will come forth with a story of their own.¹⁵

1. For more on the workhouses, see Florence Davenport Hill, Children of the State (London: Macmillan, 1889), available at https://archive.org/details/childrenstate00hillgoog. ↩︎
2. Perry Snow, Neither Waif Nor Stray: The Search for Stolen Identity (USA: Universal Publishers, 2000). ↩︎
3. The full report is available at https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_05950. Mr. Doyle referred to workhouse children as paupers, and street and gutter children as Arabs. ↩︎
4. For more information on the case, see https://canadianbritishhomechildren.weebly.com/george-everett-green.html. ↩︎
5. Kenneth Bagnell, The Little Immigrants: The Orphans Who Came to Canada, new ed. (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2001), 89–97. ↩︎
6. Ups and Downs, April 1901, 6 (hereafter cited as U&D). ↩︎
7. Henry signed his surname “Strains” on his military documents, and this is how he was known to my family. Library and Archives Canada documents use the name “Strain,” and Selkirk Mental Health Centre documents say “Strane.” ↩︎
8. Letters to the April 1899, May 1902, November 1903, and June 1905 issues of U&D. ↩︎
9. U&D, April 1901, 40. ↩︎
10. Most of the information on the operation of the Barnardo organization – purpose, pay scale, excursions and so on – is taken from issues of U&D. ↩︎
11. For more on Edward Dudman, see his autobiography as told by Norman Wittick in Niverville: A History, 1878–1986 (Niverville: Niverville District Historical Society, 1986), 89–90. ↩︎
12. U&D, April 1901, 34. ↩︎
13. U&D, April 1901, 59, and 1901 Census of Canada. ↩︎
14. U&D, April 1901, 55–56. ↩︎
15. Other boys placed in Mennonites homes included: Fredrick Lowe, born in London, England, April 7, 1889; sailed from Liverpool, April 23, 1899; arrived in Halifax on April 13; indentured to Peter and Maria Banman, sec. 35-7-5E, RM of Hanover. Wm G. Hughes, born in England, September 15, 1885; immigrated to Canada in 1895; indentured to John and Katharina Funk, RM of Hanover. Joseph Burton, arrived in Canada as a 13-year-old on board the Southwark; indentured to Peter and Maria Harder, sec. 30-7-6E, RM of Hanover. Arthur Tessy indentured to Bernard and Elizabeth Wiebe of Hochfeld, RM of Hanover. Henry Delley, born in England, October 27, 1885; immigrated to Canada in 1895; indentured to Peter and Kate Giesbrecht, sec. 36-7-4E, RM of Hanover. Reginald H. W. Symons, immigrated to Canada in 1897 as a ten-year-old; because of age, placed in Toronto before coming west; indentured in Manitoba in 1901 to C. J. Loewen, postal address Rosenort. Fred Clayton, born 1887; left Liverpool on June 10, 1897; arrived in Quebec on June 19 on board the Labrador; indentured to C. P. Janzen, postal address Steinbach. Delley, Symons, and Clayton were among the first hundred boys placed out of the Winnipeg Home. ↩︎