Mennonite Settlement

Mennonite settlement in Alberta stretches back to 1894, when Mennonites from Waterloo County, Ontario, established a settlement at Didsbury, where the first building was a narrow log immigrant shed for new arrivals before they moved to their homesteads. Over the next 20 years, more families came from Ontario and Manitoba and from American states including Iowa, Nebraska, Indiana, and Pennsylvania; some settled in Didsbury while others went to places including the Tofield and Carstairs areas. In the 1920s, some Mennonites left the Soviet Union and came to Canada, settling in Alberta near Didsbury, Linden, Rosedale, and Coaldale. In the Coaldale area, settlers recalled sleeping in granaries and weeding beet fields as they began their new lives, and many had come through a Canadian Pacific Railway colonization scheme and took up irrigated land there. The new settlers established churches, a bible school, a library, a cheese factory, and a hospital, and they tried to keep the German language alive by forming the Society for the Preservation of the German Language and holding German school on Saturdays. In the 1930s, settlement spread to the Peace River area of northern Alberta when Mennonites from Saskatchewan moved west, and family lore preserved stories of difficult journeys on snowy trails and night skies lit by forest fires; alongside farming, many also trapped furs in their early years there. Mennonite immigrants have continued to arrive in Alberta from places including Mexico, South America, and other parts of Canada, and although Mennonite congregations differ on many aspects of religious and cultural life, they share a belief in pacifism, an understanding of immigrants’ challenges, and a commitment to helping others make the transition to life in Canada through organizations and outreach.

Alberta · Canada