Among Mennonites, Jacob Y. Shantz is known for his role in helping newly arrived settlers from Russia establish homes in Canada during the 1870s. Less known are his business activities in Manitoba and the Dakota Territory. In this article, I will explore the disposition of Shantz’s known properties in these regions. The existence of these properties demonstrates that Shantz’s business activities extended beyond Ontario.

In late 1872, Jacob Y. Shantz, accompanied by Bernhard Warkentin of Russia, made his first trip to Manitoba. They toured portions of the province¹ with Provincial Land Surveyor William Wagner and Deputy Inspector of Surveys Milner Hart.² Their route took them northwest of Winnipeg and then to Portage la Prairie where Shantz was favourably impressed by the lands between the Assiniboine River and Lake Manitoba. He commented that it was “principally open prairie and [was] a good soil” and noted that much of it was still available.³ The Dominion Lands Act of 1872 had established homestead policies but also made provision for the sale of land at $1 per acre to individuals, not exceeding 640 acres.⁴ Before he left Manitoba on November 20, 1872, he made an entry⁵ for section 10 of township 13, range 7 west,⁶ situated about midway between the village of Portage la Prairie and Lake Manitoba. When the 1873 Russian Mennonite delegates toured Manitoba they also inspected this portion of the province and took note of Shantz’s land.⁷ It is unknown whether any cultivation took place but the property appreciated in value. In April 1882 Shantz deeded it to Ontario merchant Samuel Groff for $7,000 but took back a mortgage for $4,000. Groff, for $7,500, immediately deeded it to Portage la Prairie merchants Thomas Logan and James Henderson, but it remained encumbered by the Shantz mortgage. In 1883 Logan and Henderson mortgaged the property for $2,000 to a third party, which was then registered as a second mortgage. Evidently Logan and Henderson defaulted on their mortgage payments to Shantz, who then foreclosed. In April 1884, under power of sale, Shantz, for $4,875, deeded the property to Samuel Robertson,⁸ who then immediately deeded it back to Shantz and Samuel Groff for the same sum. The third-party second mortgage obtained by Logan and Henderson was discharged in 1887 and in 1889 Shantz and Groff deeded the property to Amasa Mellon for $6,400. They took back a mortgage from Mellon for $5,400, which they subsequently assigned to the London and Canadian Loan and Agency Co. for $4,000. This ended Shantz’s involvement with section 10-13-7W,⁹ his first purchase in Manitoba.¹⁰

Shantz subsequently made numerous trips to Manitoba. When he arrived at Emerson on July 14, 1875, aboard the steamboat International,¹¹ he continued preparations related to the settlement of Russian Mennonite immigrants on what was referred to as the Dufferin or West Reserve. The town site of Emerson on the east bank of the Red River and immediately north of the United States border was surveyed in 1875¹² and Shantz acquired lot 2 in block K from the developers William Fairbanks and Thomas Carney.¹³ To store supplies for the Mennonite settlers he immediately began construction of two 18 by 30–foot warehouses,¹⁴ and by August 22 one of the buildings was already occupied and the other was nearing completion.¹⁵ Their location was most advantageous for trade, fronting on Main Street between Dominion and Park, backing on the riverbank above the steamboat landing, and also near the ferry, which provided ready access to the west side of the river.¹⁶ The intersection of Main and Park at the north end of Shantz’s lot was where both streets dead-ended at the river.

Shantz purchased farm equipment, including wagons, in the United States for the Mennonite settlers, but also provided and distributed to them plows, rakes, flour, wheat, barley and bean seeds, and fruit trees,¹⁷ as well as barrels of meat including bacon and lard, much of which likely passed through his warehouses.¹⁸ The continuing inflow of families during the following year was likely the reason Shantz expended $150 for an addition to the buildings in 1876.¹⁹

Emerson was experiencing a boom as businesses were established to service the rapidly growing agricultural sector created by homesteaders settling beyond the Mennonite Reserve. The Post Road brought grain to market and riverboats and flatboats continued to carry freight, despite service commencing November 1878 on the Canadian Pacific Railway, Pembina Branch, connecting Winnipeg with the United States through Emerson. Perhaps because of this increased local availability of equipment and supplies, in September 1879 Shantz agreed to sell a 35-foot width of his lot for $350.²⁰ His lot had 240 feet of Main Street frontage but the site of his original two buildings could possibly have been towards the centre of the lot, which left much of it unused. Accordingly, on December 9, 1879, he deeded 35 feet to Alanson Harris, John Harris, James Kerr Osborne, and Lyman Melvin Jones, agricultural implement manufacturers of Brantford, Ontario,²¹ who had already begun construction of a 25 by 75–foot warehouse.²² In February 1881 for $800 Shantz sold to the same company, now renamed A. Harris, Son & Co., the southernmost 25 feet of his lot, this being adjacent to their existing 35 feet.²³

In 1879, the Hudson’s Bay Company established the town site of West Lynne directly opposite Emerson, on the west bank of the Red River, where Jacob Shantz’s nephew Aaron E. Shantz built a house the following year.²⁴ Being on the east bank, the businesses of Emerson were now at a disadvantage since their trading area was primarily to the west, although a ferry operated during the summer at the north end of Jacob Shantz’s lot where Park Street dead-ended.²⁵ With the construction of a bridge over the Red River in 1880, the problems associated with steep riverbanks and mud during the summer,²⁶ limited ferry operation during spring thaw and autumn freeze-up, and sometimes unsafe ice conditions during the winter were resolved to Emerson’s benefit.²⁷ To Jacob Shantz’s personal benefit, the bridge was located at the north end of his property towards which purpose he donated his northernmost 75 feet of frontage.²⁸ It would appear that the approaches to the bridge proved inadequate since in January 1884 Shantz donated to the city of Emerson an adjacent triangular parcel with 27 feet of Main Street frontage.²⁹

No further dealings with the remaining 78 feet of his Main Street frontage, and backing on the river, can be located, but by 1889 Shantz was no longer listed as the registered owner in the Emerson assessment roll.³⁰ By 1891, Harris, Son & Co. was being assessed for the entire lot.³¹ Some portions of the riverbank may have eroded and reduced its value as the property was subject to seasonal flooding. It was later abandoned. Whether Shantz continued with his business interests in Emerson after the initial Mennonite settlement period appears unlikely, as the 1882 completion of the CPR Pembina Mountain Branch through the West Reserve altered transportation routes and reduced the significance of the town.

In addition to real estate, Shantz also engaged in the construction of a gristmill in Manitoba. The construction, but not the location, of Shantz’s Manitoba gristmill was noted on September 28, 1876: “The Berliner Journal reported that two men from the Maude Foundry were going to Manitoba to put Jacob Y. Shantz’s new gristmill into readiness, the ironwork having been constructed at the local foundry.”³² Two months later, on November 28, 1876, the Manitoba Free Press reported, “A new grist mill has recently been erected in the heart of the Mennonite Settlement, about fifteen miles from Rat River. It is a two and a half storey building, 26 x 34, and has one run of stone, the motive power being supplied by a twelve-horsepower engine. The builders are Messrs. Maud and Co., of Berlin, Ont., and the machinery was procured from Gouldie & McCollough, of Galt. The mill will cost about $4,000, and is expected to be in running order shortly. Mr Weins [sic], a Mennonite, is the proprietor.”³³ Unfortunately, there is no additional verification of Shantz’s direct involvement in any mill in Manitoba; however, from this information it seems reasonably certain that this was the mill at Reinfeld in township 7, range 5 on the East Reserve. Whether Shantz was indeed the owner, or a partner with Peter Wiens and Johan Braun, could not be determined.³⁴ Shantz’s involvement is entirely probable as Mennonites both needed and benefitted from a steam-powered mill on the reserve.³⁵

The government of Canada granted Shantz four quarter sections of land in what was referred to as the Rat River or East Reserve, in exchange for him building four sheds as housing to be at the disposal of Mennonite immigrants from Russia.³⁶ However, he only obtained patent to those lands on September 1, 1879,³⁷ and he only registered those patents on January 29, 1900. These properties, all in township 7, range 4 east, were NW 17, NE 18, SE 19, and SW 20, “excepting and reserving thereout the Public road or trail one chain and a half wide crossing the same being the Highway between Saint Boniface and Emerson.”³⁸ In addition, Shantz in November 1882, via a deed, purchased for $1,200 from Peter Dyck the nearby NE, NW, and SW quarters of section 7-7-4E.³⁹ Also that month he purchased for $1,200 the NE, SE, and SW quarters of section 33-7-4E from Jacob Hiebert.⁴⁰ In December 1882 he acquired the SE quarter of section 1-5-5E from Johan Harder for $75.⁴¹ These deeds were all dated prior to the lands having being patented and accordingly the patents were issued in the name of Jacob Y. Shantz. Shantz had business interests in Ontario and as additional collateral for his outstanding debts,⁴² on February 11, 1885, he and his wife Sarah mortgaged his personal Manitoba properties to the Canadian Bank of Commerce. This nominal $1 mortgage was registered on March 11 on his remaining portion of the Emerson lot as well as all these quarter sections.⁴³ On February 3, 1890, Jacob Shantz sold NW 7-7-4E to Jacob Hiebert Jr. for $650, but this appears to have been more of a swap since on May 20 he purchased NE 28-7-4E from Hiebert for the same sum. Shantz resold this latter parcel to Wilhelm Streich for $500 on October 19, 1893, but took back a mortgage for the full amount; this mortgage was only discharged December 5, 1901.⁴⁴

By whom Shantz’s East Reserve properties were occupied, and to what extent they were cultivated, has not been clearly documented. However, Hugh Street, who was a tenant on the property, was assessed taxes from 1889 to 1894 on the four contiguous quarter sections at the immigration sheds site. During those years his cultivated acreage rose from 75 to 110 acres.⁴⁵ Whether Street was operating the farm for Shantz is unclear, but on November 20, 1894, the Chortitzer Waisenamt conducted an auction sale of Shantz’s assets at the farm. Horses, cattle, farm equipment, etc. were sold for cash or on credit with a three-year repayment term plus 6 per cent interest.⁴⁶ There is no record of Shantz having previously been assessed taxes for any personal assets such as cattle, but Street was so assessed as late as 1893,⁴⁷ which suggests this as a possibility.⁴⁸ There was a connection between them through Jacob’s nephew Aaron Shantz, whose first wife, Veronica Eby, was a cousin to Street’s wife, Amelia Eby. Street appears to have arrived from Ontario in 1882.⁴⁹ The auction sale grossed $680, and after deducting expenses and $73, which had been immediately forwarded to Shantz, there remained a total $569 outstanding, which was repaid over the next three years by thirteen individuals, and this was forwarded to Shantz by the Waisenvorsteher.⁵⁰

Coinciding with receipt of the final payments from his auction proceeds, Shantz began to divest his Manitoba properties. On January 1, 1898, an agreement between Jacob Y. Shantz as vendor, the Canadian Bank of Commerce, and Peter Kehler and Bernhard Kehler as purchasers was signed. Shantz agreed to sell NW 17-7-4E and NE 18-7-4E to the Kehlers for $1,300. The deal was structured in the following way: $200 having already been paid, $150 was payable every November 1 from 1898 through 1903, with the remaining $200 due on November 1, 1904, plus 6 per cent interest, all monies to be paid directly to the bank. The Kehlers were permitted to (and did) prepay, as Shantz gave them a deed on November 13, 1900. It is not evident now but likely others engaged in similar agreements and payment terms for the subsequent sales: SW 7-7-4E to Johan Loeppky for $250 on February 25, 1898; NE 7-7-4E to Jacob Hiebert Sr. for $250 on March 28, 1898; SE 19-7-4E and SW 20-7-4E to Martin Friesen for $1,300 on December 2, 1899; and SE 1-5-5E to Jacob P Wiebe for $400 on November 3, 1902. The NE, SE, and SW quarters of section 33-7-4E were sold to Edith M. England for $1,000 on October 29, 1901, but almost immediately, on November 8, 1901, she re-deeded the SE and SW quarters to Wilhelm Streich for $700, and the NE quarter to David Dueck for $500.⁵¹

It should be noted that for a time Shantz owned property about 130 miles into the Dakota Territory. Shantz had accompanied the 1873 Mennonite delegation on their land inspection trip to this area but he opposed settlement there in favour of Manitoba. Beginning in 1874, a number of Russian Mennonite families did, however, settle in Cass County⁵² and Shantz appeared to have maintained contact with them. Despite favouring Manitoba over Dakota, the land that he inspected must have made a positive impression, since on March 2, 1876, Shantz personally purchased two entire sections of land in Cass County for $5,620. These were sections 23-142-49 and 33-141-50, purchased from the Northern Pacific Rail Road (NPRR).⁵³ Just two years later, on July 6, 1878, Shantz sold section 33 for $3,200, but on November 10 that same year he purchased a further two sections of land from the NPRR, this time in Barnes County.⁵⁴ For $5,440 he acquired sections 15-142-61 and 21-142-61. In case the NPRR chose to construct a railway across any of the four sections, it initially reserved the rights to a 400-foot-wide strip of land across each of the four sections purchased, but this right was never exercised. On October 4, 1881, five years after having purchased it, Shantz sold his remaining section in Cass County, 23-142-49, for $2,560. Whether these properties were occupied and being cultivated has not been researched⁵⁵ but Shantz retained ownership of both his Barnes County sections until 1892. It is unlikely that the Canadian Bank of Commerce would have known about these Dakota properties since they were not mortgaged as additional collateral for Shantz’s debts in the mid-1880s, in contrast to his Manitoba properties. However, the bank’s involvement in their subsequent disposition suggests that they later had a vested interest. On February 26, 1892, Shantz sold NW 15-142-61 for $800 and on October 15, 1892, he sold SE 15-142-61 for the same amount. Whether these monies were forwarded to the bank is not indicated. However, between those two dates, on July 9, 1892, he sold NE 15-142-61 for $800, but extended 7 per cent mortgage financing for $550. The purchaser was to pay $200 on December 1, 1893, and $350 on December 1, 1894. On October 15 Shantz assigned this mortgage to the Canadian Bank of Commerce for $550. Finally, on July 16, 1895, Shantz deeded his remaining Dakota lands, SW 15-142-61 and all of section 21, to the Canadian Bank of Commerce for the nominal sum of $1. The bank subsequently resold the properties.⁵⁶

Certain Manitoba West Reserve homesteads were patented to Shantz, to facilitate repayment of the original homesteaders’ Gebietsamt (district government) debts, but they were not considered his personal properties by the parties involved.⁵⁷ However, since the patents were registered in his name, the law did not make this distinction, and to Shantz’s apparent vexation he became the defendant in a civil suit, Braun vs. Shantz, in the Court of Queen’s Bench in Equity. After a quit-claim from homesteader Gerhard Janzen, the patent to SW 25-1-5W was sent at Shantz’s request to the Gebietsamt in Reinland, Manitoba, where Obervorsteher Franz Froese sold the property at auction to Jacob Braun of Osterwick, who then resold it to his own son Jacob the younger. After learning that his purchase was still subject to the Osterwick village agreement,⁵⁸ Jacob Braun the younger filed a bill of complaint. The original deed from Shantz to Braun the elder was not made subject to the village agreement and Braun had refused to sign a document that would acknowledge it was. The lawyer for the Gebietsamt, J. B. McLaren, acting as power of attorney for Shantz, then filed a second deed to Braun the elder but now made subject to the village agreement. In the suit, Braun the younger demanded that Shantz cancel the second deed and pay all costs of the suit. In a deposition Shantz elaborated on his role: “It was understood that as I was only a trustee, I would do whatever Froese and the Committee then agreed to.” He also stated that Franz Froese had told him that the land would have sold for a higher price had it not been subject to the village agreement. On January 27, 1891, the court ordered the bill of complaint dismissed without costs to either party. A dissatisfied Braun the younger then requested a rehearing, which on February 14 the court also dismissed, but now ordering him to pay Shantz’s costs.⁵⁹ This case was so unusual that an 1891 newspaper reported it as “Strange Occurrence of a Mennonite as Plaintiff in a Law Suit.”⁶⁰

Another documented West Reserve land transaction involving Shantz warrants clarification as it might mistakenly be considered his personal property.⁶¹ In 1883 some West Reserve Mennonites, with the cooperation of Shantz, obtained mortgages from the London and Ontario Investment Co. for repayment of first lien sums owed to the Waterloo Society, a group of Ontario Mennonites who had guaranteed the Canadian government’s loan for the 1870s Mennonite immigrants’ travel and resettlement expenses. The individual Mennonites signed the mortgage documents and powers of attorney which allowed the mortgagee to obtain the patent from the Department of the Interior. Shantz notified the department that the individuals’ Waterloo Society debts were repaid, and the department forwarded the patents to London and Ontario. The latter had the mortgages registered and paid Shantz the sums owed to the Waterloo Society.⁶² A similar 1885/86 plan involved the London and Canadian Loan and Agency Co., but is somewhat ambiguous in that the mortgages, in some cases, repaid only a portion of the individual’s first lien debt.⁶³ Such was certainly the case of Bernhard Neufeld of NE 30-2-2W, whose $300 mortgage was only a third of his $917 first lien debt. Since, in order for patent to issue and the mortgage to be registered, Shantz had already certified that London and Canadian had paid the monies due to the Waterloo Society under the lien, the patent was issued in Neufeld’s name and there was no further recourse. However, in June 1887, for $1,140, Neufeld signed a quit-claim deed transferring the property to Shantz.⁶⁴ For $1,000, Shantz subsequently deeded it to Johan Penner, who financed the purchase via his own mortgage from London and Canadian. With 6 per cent compound interest, by 1887 Neufeld’s total debt would have approximated $1,140,⁶⁵ and this would have been cancelled by the deed to Shantz for this sum. These transactions parallel those where other patents were issued to Shantz to resolve debts, and this, plus the lack of any financial gain in these transactions, clearly indicates that Shantz’s role was not personal.

The foregoing documents Jacob Y. Shantz’s known assets in Manitoba and in Dakota Territory. Doubtless there are other of his activities in this province which are lesser known but also provide some insights into his motives and evidence his business acumen. One of these involved the Manitoba wheat crop of 1883, which had been damaged by frost and had no local market. Without Mennonite farmers’ payments on their debts, the West Reserve Gebietsamt and the East and West Reserve Bergthaler would have been unable to remit funds for payment on the loan from the Canadian government. To salvage the situation, in early 1884 Shantz spent a month in Manitoba purchasing damaged grain from the Mennonites for shipment back to Ontario, where he expected to find a ready market for it. He intended to delay selling the undamaged wheat, approximately one-third of the crop, until spring when it would realize better prices.⁶⁶ Since he had to ship through the United States, Shantz also saved the Mennonite farmers money by arranging for the use of a railway siding on the American side to load the rail cars.⁶⁷ Other such details about Shantz’s involvements may yet appear.

1. Manitoba had become a Canadian province the previous year and only extended 110 miles north of the US border and 130 miles from east to west. ↩︎
2. Manitoba Free Press, November 30, 1872 ↩︎
3. Samuel J. Steiner, Vicarious Pioneer: The Life of Jacob Y. Shantz (Winnipeg: Hyperion Press, 1988), 165–167. ↩︎
4. The act was published in the Manitoba Free Press, November 30, 1872. ↩︎
5. There was a Dominion Lands office in Winnipeg. ↩︎
6. Township General Register, GR7666, G10494, Archives of Manitoba (hereafter AM). Approval for patent was dated May 10, 1873, and the patent itself July 10, 1873, but Shantz himself never registered it in the Lands Office. More than a century later, April 8, 1993, the District Registrar had it recorded on the abstract for 10-13-7W. ↩︎
7. Leonhard Sudermann, In Search of Freedom, trans. Elmer F. Suderman (Steinbach: Derksen Printers, 1974), 18. William Hespeler also purchased land in the vicinity: section 10 and the east half of section 15 in township 13, range 6 west, and in township 14, range 6 west, the fractional west half of section 2 and the fractional south half of section 3. Township General Register, GR7666, G10494, AM. Hespeler also made entry for the east half of 3-13-6, but appears to have cancelled or abandoned it. ↩︎
8. Robertson may have been either the brother or father to Groff’s wife Marion nee Robertson. ↩︎
9. All foregoing entries recorded on the abstract for 10-13-7W at the Portage la Prairie Land Titles Office (LTO). Additional details from the Assessment and Collector Rolls at the RM of Portage la Prairie. ↩︎
10. Manitoba registrations are recorded on the abstracts for the relevant quarter sections at the Winnipeg Land Titles Office. Document dates used are as of signing and not registration unless noted. The terms sale and deed are used interchangeably since the transactions were prior to these lands having been brought under the Real Property Act. There is sometimes ambiguity as to sale or purchase prices since the abstract entries do not conclusively specify whether the amount recorded as paid is only for a particular parcel or for several included in the same registration. ↩︎
11. Manitoba Free Press, July 14, 1875, 3. Also aboard the International were fifty-three Mennonite families who landed at West Lynne and another forty families who landed at Rat River later that day. Although the Free Press actually reported the fifty-three families debarked at West Lynne with Shantz in charge, it is more likely that this occurred at the Fort Dufferin immigration sheds located only two miles north of Emerson and the Hudson’s Bay Company Post at West Lynne. Steamboats had landing sites at all three locations according to Emerson International, June 12, 1879. ↩︎
12. A portion of an 1874 survey, #1, of the town was cancelled. ↩︎
13. Deed # 377. On January 13, 1876, Fairbanks and Carney deeded lot 2 in block K to Shantz for $1. Although Shantz began construction of the warehouses earlier than the deed was dated, its delay was due to the Plan of Survey (#2) only being registered December 22, 1875. The townsite developers may have initially sold lots for a nominal $1 to businessmen who intended to immediately build and thereby create further demand. ↩︎
14. Manitoba Free Press, August 6, 1875. A month before Shantz’s arrival, there were only twenty frame buildings in Emerson – Manitoba Free Press, June 12, 1875. ↩︎
15. Manitoba Free Press, August 25, 1875. ↩︎
16. Manitoba Free Press, August 6, 1875. ↩︎
17. Gemeindebuch Allerlei Anschreibung der Kolonie Reinland, Anschreibe Buch des Peter Wiens, Reinlaender Gebietsamt records, MHA; Steiner, 102; Minneapolis Daily Tribune, September 21, 1875. ↩︎
18. Manitoba Free Press, August 19, 1875. ↩︎
19. Manitoba Free Press, November 22, 1876. ↩︎
20. The agreement, dated September 12, 1879, was signed by Enoch Winkler on behalf of Shantz, and the purchaser actually named was Messieurs Harris and Company of Emerson in the Province of Manitoba, Agricultural Implement Manufacturers. ↩︎
21. Deed # 3215. The 35-foot frontage sold split his lot and left Shantz 25 feet to the south and 180 feet to the north. The purchasers operating as A. Harris, Son & Co., along with their other branches in Brandon and Portage la Prairie and the headquarters in Winnipeg, were retailers of agricultural equipment. ↩︎
22. Emerson International, September 18, 1879. ↩︎
23. Deed # 991, February 18, 1881, Jacob Y. Shantz to Alanson Harris, John Harris, James Kerr Osborne, and Lyman Melvin Jones, known as A. Harris Son & Co. ↩︎
24. West Lynne Southern Manitoba Times, December 11, 1880. ↩︎
25. Emerson International, February 27, 1879. ↩︎
26. West Lynne Southern Manitoba Times, December 11, 1880. ↩︎
27. Emerson International, June 3; July 1, 8; September 16, 30; and October 1, 28, 1880. ↩︎
28. Deed # 6639, June 10, 1880, Jacob Y. Shantz to the Corporation of the Town of Emerson, for $1. Although the 75 feet fronted on Main Street, this was a triangular wedge with limited commercial value. The ideal location of Shantz’s lot was now obvious as the Harris Company leased from the townsite developers the un-surveyed property between their warehouse and the river (lease dated October 4, 1880), where their farm machinery would be visible to all traffic over the bridge, according to the Emerson International, June 3, 1880. ↩︎
29. Deed # 7319, January 1, 1884, Jacob Y. Shantz to the Corporation of the City of Emerson, for $1. ↩︎
30. Town of Emerson Assessment Roll, 1889, GR8232, G11809, AM. ↩︎
31. Town of Emerson Assessment Roll, 1891, GR8232, G11810, AM. ↩︎
32. Steiner, 106. Jacob Y. Shantz had constructed a foundry in Berlin, which in 1872 he sold to William and James Maude, and for which he provided mortgage financing for four years (Steiner, 59). His interest in directing business to this foundry is obvious. ↩︎
33. Manitoba Free Press, November 28, 1876, 3. ↩︎
34. Details about the relocation and later dismantling of the mill, but no financial information, are provided in Jake Peters, “Pioneer Windmills,” Preservings, no. 16 (June 2000): 122. The partner named there as Jakob Braun was recorded as Johan Braun in 75 Gedenkfeier der Mennonitischen Einwanderung in Manitoba, Canada, ed. K. J. B. Reimer (Steinbach: Festkomitee, 1949), 113, and Historical Atlas of the East Reserve, ed. Ernest N. Braun and Glen R. Klassen (Winnipeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 2015), 105. ↩︎
35. Other Ontarians seeing such opportunities included Jacob’s nephew Aaron Shantz who, together with David Lapp, had a grain warehouse and crusher operating in Winnipeg in 1878. Manitoba Free Press, November 2, 1878, December 18, 1878. An existing steam grist mill at Emerson, built by Borrow (or Baner?), was rented in 1878 and subsequently purchased by Abraham Stauffer and partners. Manitoba Free Pess, October 16, 1878, November 8, 1879; Emerson, Manitoba, and her Industries (Winnipeg: Steen & Boyce, 1882), 27. ↩︎
36. Steiner, 93; Julius G. Toews and Lawrence Klippenstein, eds., Manitoba Mennonite Memories (Altona and Steinbach: Manitoba Mennonite Centennial Committee, 1974), 31. ↩︎
37. Toews and Klippenstein, 37. ↩︎
38. The wording of the patent contains this exclusion. ↩︎
39. Abstract registration at Winnipeg LTO; Jacob Y. Shantz to Department of the Interior, December 18, 1882, RG15, D-II-I, vol. 288, file 54018, Library and Archives Canada (hereafter LAC). ↩︎
40. Ibid. The lands Shantz acquired Nov 1882 in sections 33- and 7-7-4E were not homestead lands; they had been purchased by their owners Hiebert and Dyck. These were regular deeds to Shantz, purchases by him, whether done to satisfy a Waterloo Society debt or not does not enter into it. They were not subject to forfeiture of homestead right. ↩︎
41. Conveyance dated December 5, 1882, and registered by the Department of the Interior December 1, 1883. Johann Harder of Reinland, Manitoba, Yeoman to Shantz, Jacob Y. of Berlin, Ontario, Manufacturer, RG15, D-II-8-I, vol. 1429, LAC. There is no explanation given as to the low value placed on this quarter as compared to the others. This Johan Harder quarter section in 1-5-5E was a homestead and the application for patent was signed Nov. 24, 1882 and appears to have been recommended on Nov. 28. As per the LTO abstract, the deed from Harder to Shantz was dated Dec. 5, 1882 and registered Dec. 20, 1882. On Jan. 9, 1883, Shantz forwarded a “conveyance”, likely the same deed since it bears same date, Dec. 5, 1882, to the Department of the Interior and it was registered Jan. 12, 1883. Shantz’s patent was dated Feb. 8, 1883. Harder would not then have forfeited his homestead right since he conveyed the property after recommendation for patent. Again, a straightforward purchase by Shantz with no evidence for or against it having been a transaction to satisfy a Waterloo Society obligation other than that Harder’s 1880 Brotschuld debt only amounted to $14. ↩︎
42. Further details about Shantz’s financial situation in Steiner, 139. ↩︎
43. Mortgage # 7947. Thereafter discharges were registered by the bank only as Shantz disposed of the properties. Interestingly, the Canadian Bank of Commerce mortgage was not registered on the section of land at Portage la Prairie owned by Shantz and Groff. ↩︎
44. Abstracts, Winnipeg LTO. ↩︎
45. RM of Hanover taxation records. ↩︎
46. Der Nordwesten, November 15, 1894. The notice (Bekanntmachung) dated November 8 gave the auction sale location merely as “bei Hugh Street,” and did not specify who the actual owner was. Capital Buch des Jacob Y. Shantz, Berlin, 1895 1 Januar angefangen, Chortitzer Mennonite Church Waisenamt collection, MHA; Friedrichsthal 1869, Capital Buch fuer Shantz, CMC Waisenamt collection, MHA. ↩︎
47. RM of Hanover taxation records. ↩︎
48. Alternatively, but less likely, Shantz might have acquired such assets from tenants of his other properties. ↩︎
49. Street was residing at Palmerston, Ontario, in the 1881 census but the September 19, 1882, Manitoba Daily Free Press reported that five packages being shipped by rail, destined for Hugh Street in Manitoba, had been transferred at Chicago (p. 5). ↩︎
50. Capital Buch des Jacob Y. Shantz, Berlin, 1895 1 Januar angefangen; Friedrichsthal 1869, Capital Buch fuer Shantz. ↩︎
51. Abstracts, Winnipeg LTO. ↩︎
52. Cass County is west of the Red River, with Fargo as the county seat. ↩︎
53. This particular section is located in Berlin Township, which suggests that it was named after Shantz’s home town. ↩︎
54. Barnes County is adjacent to the west of Cass County. ↩︎
55. This is likely undocumented unless property tax records still exist, and provided the actual occupant was assessed for same. ↩︎
56. Bruce Wiebe, “The Russian Mennonite Settlement in Cass County, Dakota Territory” (unpublished manuscript, 2007). Excerpts, but not the foregoing details, appear in “The Mennonite Settlements in Dakota 1874 to 1892,” in Settlers of the East Reserve, ed. Adolf Ens, Ernest N. Braun, and Henry N. Fast (Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 2009), 289–304. Since Shantz had purchased directly from the NPRR and the company had lands in adjacent counties, searches of Stutsman, Traill, and Clay were also conducted as well as of Pembina County, because of its proximity to Manitoba. No further such purchases were located. ↩︎
57. Bruce Wiebe, “Mennonite Debt in the West Reserve,” Preservings, no. 39 (2019): 25. This included debts owing to both the Reinlaender Gemeinde West Reserve Gebietsamt as well as the West Reserve Bergthaler for the Waterloo Society debt. ↩︎
58. “. . . subject however to all rights, liabilities, duties and easements, claims, interests and estates therein and thereto of the inhabitants of the said village of Osterwick . . .” ↩︎
59. For the full details of this suit consult microfilm at Morden LTO, O/S 7087. The Braun vs. Shantz, no. 7087 (1890), Court of Queen’s Bench in Equity pocket, ATG0014, GR0181, B-14-4-3, AM, contains only one page referring to the file as being located at the LTO. ↩︎
60. Manitoba Daily Free Press, January 28, 1891. ↩︎
61. E. K. Francis, in In Search of Utopia, 139, states that by 1889, 1,200 acres of land in the RM of Douglas were registered to Shantz, i.e., were owned by him. However, the 1889 assessment rolls actually indicate only 320 acres, 160 of which had been patented to Shantz to facilitate repayment of a Gebietsamt debt (described in Wiebe, “Mennonite Debt in the West Reserve,” 25). This leaves the quarter section hereafter described to now be clarified. ↩︎
62. It is unclear exactly when the funds were forwarded to Shantz and how soon he notified the West Reserve Gebietsamt or West Reserve Bergthaler of their receipt so that this could be reflected in their own records. ↩︎
63. The London and Canadian Loan and Agency Co. to A. M. Burgess, Deputy Minister of the Interior, April 11, 1885, RG15, D-II-I, vol. 288, file 54018, LAC: “We are about making a considerable number of small loans to Mennonites in Southern Manitoba to be secured by separate mortgages over each individual’s property. The Waterloo Society of Ontario, as perhaps you know, gave the Dominion Govt bonds to secure moneys advanced by the latter to Manitoba Mennonites. Our present operation is designed to repay to the Govt, with the concurrence of the Waterloo Society, certain portions of those advances.” Reinlaender Gebietsamt records “No. 6 Enthaltend wer an die Gemeinde schuldig ist” and “Vorschusz erhalten bei Rosthern und Hague, bis dahin Regierungschuld, alte” both have other examples of these mortgages as partial payment for outstanding debt. ↩︎
64. One might assume that this had been voluntary by Neufeld; however, the West Reserve Bergthaler church’s involvement cannot be dismissed. ↩︎
65. Both the first lien and London and Canadian mortgage balances had to be repaid to enable the sale to Penner. ↩︎
66. Winnipeg Daily Sun, January 25, 1884, 5. Here it was also reported that Shantz had already purchased and shipped over 15,000 bushels of wheat to Ontario, whereas the February 7, 1884, Emerson International reported that 243,500 bushels of wheat and 20,000 bushels of flax were purchased. The Mennonites had also retained 100,000 bushels of wheat for food and seed. ↩︎
67. Steiner, 201; Shantz Testimony to Parliament, April 8, 1886. From the context this would have been at Neche, ND. The Canadian elevator, Ogilvie, did not want to handle the grain and bypassing them produced the cost saving. ↩︎