ne Frädhoff (en kjoakjhoff)
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| Cmetarz mennonitow (Mennonite Cemetery in Poland) (c) A. T. Przechlewski |
Often it is only historians and new
mourners who worry about the upkeep of our ethnic heritage sites such as
graveyards and cemeteries. Perhaps the time
has come to consider the need for a national (international?) Mennonite foundation to
begin looking after this aspect of our shared and endangered diasporaic
heritage. For an ethnicity of historic
religious and political refugees, these remnants of our periodic stops along
the Martyrs’ Trek, are essential
historic markers preserving the dignity and truth of our group narrative and
missionary outreach. While many have
traveled to view the graves of our ancestors in Amsterdam, Danzig, Poland and
Ukraine, future generations will likewise look towards graveyards in Litchfield,
Henderson, Coaldale, Steinbach, Yarrow and Chinook for traces of their (our)
family stories – and signs of the historic faith that led our faith
predecessors to migrate and to establish new homes.
Recently (25 April 2012), Jennifer Stultz
alerted us via the Peabody Gazette of
the challenges of maintaining this shared heritage. She quotes Catlin Cemetery upkeeper Don
Stutzman, “We’re having trouble
maintaining the cemetery and could use some help. … There is a lot of history
to learn here yet and we are searching for a way to sustain the upkeep,”
(Stultz, see below).
The Catlin Cemetery is on the site of the
former Catlin Mennonite Church near Peabody, Kansas. Stultz indicates that the site contains some
125 graves and is still in use though most graves date between 1886 and
1961. Some of the history that Stutzman
pointed out to Stultz are the graves of those who suffered tragedy in early
farming accidents as Mennonite settlers learned to adopt and adapt new farming
technologies on the prairies, a mass of 14 graves belonging to Mennonite
children who died in the massive flu epidemic of 1874 (the year the Henderson
and Jansen Mennonites came to America), and the grave belonging to B. F.
Hamilton, a close relative of Colonial-era patriot Alexander Hamilton. B. F. Hamilton came to Catlin as a Mennonite church
planter and helped to establish the church in 1886. He died in 1898 (Stultz, ibid).
Similarly, of the Lustre – Volt churches in
Northeastern Montana, a large number of pioneer Mennonite churches are closed
and no longer found: Chinook
Brüderthaler Mennonite, Larslan Mennonite Brethren, Volt Mennonite Brethren,
Bethel GC Church of Wolf Point (Volt), Lustre General Conference Church, and at
some future point, probably the Lustre Brüderthaler / EMB church as well. Six of the nine churches have either closed
or are in danger of closing. Can?
Should? Would? the remaining three churches (Lustre MB, Wolf Point Community Bible
Church (FEBC) and the Gospel Fellowship (MB) take up the slack and preserve
these many cemeteries and abandoned church yards? These graveyards are spread out over 100
miles of gravel rural roads and would be impossible to patrol, let alone
maintain without significant effort.
Stultz indicates that Stutzman, Donald
Good, Paul Diener and Harold Beck are hoping to establish an endowment fund to
help preserve the cemetery in Kansas, maintain the plots and research and
preserve the history of those buried at Catlin.
Similarly, members of defunct General Conference churches in Lustre –
Volt have sought to establish endowment funds for sites in Lustre and Volt.
The Mennonites – both Russian and the old
American versions, are significantly interrelated. Even those who come from different
conferences owe debts of service and gratitude to each other. My relatives are yours – and yours are mine –
our heritage is shared and belongs to all of us. Regardless of denominational boundaries and
subsequent schisms, we remain a single ethnic identity (at least through the
end of the 20th Century).
Surviving churches and small rural congregations, even the large urban
denominations should not have to move funds away from missions, service,
evangelism and their own structural upkeep to assist in the preservation of
these sites – both at home and in the mission stations abroad. Perhaps an arm of MCC could begin a
foundation and work program to help out, but regardless, we really ought to
consider some options now while the task is still manageable and the shared
ethnic identity still viable enough to help in fund-raising.
While interested and related persons should
contact Stutzman in Catlin or the trustees of the cemeteries in Lustre to help
contribute to those funds, a larger, ethnic and church-wide effort to establish
a master fund for this purpose would be appropriate and useful.
We do not worship the dead, but we have
always taken proper care of our upkeep responsibilities. Maintaining a well-summerfallowed field or a tight,
well built hay stack has always been source of pride to our people. We should take at least as much care in the
sites where we have buried our dead and memorialized our antecedent faith testimonies. It is after all, part of our own witness
today.
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| Lilacs are often mentioned as a Russian Mennonite symbol of mourning and remembrance. |
To learn more
or to contribute to the Catlin Mennonite Cemetery, please contact Don Stutzman
at 620.327.4418. Those with heritage
ties to Lustre, Larslan and Volt in Montana should contact the Lustre Ministerial
Association via the above mentioned churches.
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