Knock Knock! “Hi Mrs. Brown..it’s Louise..is Judy home”? As usual Katie was in the kitchen, cleaning up after doing some baking. I had always known her to be busy….cleaning, washing, baking, cooking and preserving vegetables from her garden. No freezers in the early 1950’s. She had a cold room in the basement where the jars from her canning were stored. And if she wasn’t busy around the home, she was selling Avon products in her area or was at the church for choir practice. She loved music and sang in her church choir. She had an autoharp which she enjoyed playing. In the fall, I remember fires in the Brown’s backyard as it was cleaned up before winter set in. Mr. Brown, aka Eric, was the fire starter.
Although I had known Katie since I was 2 years old, it was only in later years after her husband Eric had passed away in 1994, that we became good friends. We had many conversations, some at Swiss Chalet our favorite eating place and it was during these, plus others with family members, that I learned about her remarkable life.
Katie’s family came from the villages of Grossweide and Rudnerweide.
Katie was born into a large Mennonite family in 1921 in the small village of Grossweide, one of 57 in the Molotschna Colony just above the sea of Azov in the Russian Empire, today part of the Ukraine. The colony of Molotschna was founded in 1804 by Mennonite settlers from West Prussia. Each village had an elementary school. At a time when compulsory education was unknown in Europe, the students were taught reading and writing (Mennonite Plaudiestch dialect – low German), arithmetic, religion and singing. The teacher was typically a craftsperson or herder, untrained in teaching, who fit class time around his main work. I understood Katie had only the equivalent of grade 6 education..but she was a smart woman. After her husband Eric passed away in 1994, she kept all her household accounts in a book. She would record when all her bills were paid, how much things cost and in 1992 when she and Eric sold the family home, she was the person that handled most of the real estate dealings to purchase the new condo. Katie also loved to crochet and all her family has at least one afghan by which to remember her.
Times were tough in Russia in 1920, there was little food and many families had already left for North and South America. The Mennonite villages felt the full impact of the famine and the preceding drought. If the people were lucky they might find an onion or a few beet greens, if not then their diet was reduced to moss, chaff, dried weeds and ground corn cobs. Katie’s father Herman Wall was a teacher in the village. He and his wife Katherina had a large family…5 boys and 7 girls. Katie had been sickly as a young child and inadequate food didn’t help a growing girl. Mennonites of Molotschna sent a commission to North America in the summer of 1920 to alert American Mennonites of the dire conditions of war-torn Ukraine. A year passed before the Soviet government gave official permission for the international Mennonites to conduct relief work among the villages of Ukraine. Kitchens provided 25,000 people a day with rations over a period of three years beginning in 1922, with a peak of 40,000 servings during August of that year.
Hermann 36, Katherina 35, Anna 6, Katherina 4, Lisa 2, Johann 1+ and Mary 6 mo. Departed Liverpool England for St. John New Brunswick arriving 25Jan1926
In 1925 it was the Wall Family’s turn to leave. They would take a train across the country to a European port . There they would board a ship that would take them to Liverpool, England. They were held up in quarantine in England for several months before before sailing to Canada. They sailed aboard the Montrose and arrived in on Jan 25, 1926 at the port in St. John New Brunswick.
Waiting to board the train to leave Russia.
They then had a long train journey across Canada from New Brunswick to Edmonton, Alberta and then on to Wembly where there were to live. How they made that part of the journey I do not know. I found this document online (South Peace Archives) and see that it wasn’t long before this industrious group of people were purchasing land for their settlement at Wembley.
Johann J. Gossen fonds, 1930, April 5, 2018 2:19 pm Accession 2011.011 Administrative/Biographical History South Peace Archives
John Gossen represented the families in the purchase of the land from the Adair Ranch Company. Name Herman Wall (Katie’s Father) is listed.
Big Horn School
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Katie and Eric in Sexsmith, Alberta
Young Katie at 20 years of age
Always a smile
Wedding Day
The Brown Family…Katie, Eric and Judy, Shirley and Verna
Eric and his mother Lizzie with the girls
Katie and her family …Eric, Verna, Judy and Shirley
Eric looking so proud of his family in this studio photograph. (1948)
Katie spent the latter years of her life in her west end condo, followed by several years at Lifestyle’s Terra Losa. She celebrated many birthdays at these places.
Judy and Katie
My Favorite man….
Scott, Shirley and Katie at dinner at Swiss Chalet
Gatherings over time….
Matriarch Katie Brown at her 97 Birthday July 5, 2018
Hurry Verna…I want my Cake and Ice Cream
Her final years were spent at the Edmonton General Continuing Care Center. Katie was an ordinary woman who lived an extraordinary life. She will be missed.
Katie and her sister Margaret at 98th birthday party July 5, 2019
BROWN, Katie
On January 30, 2020, Katie Brown, of Edmonton, passed away peacefully into the presence of her Lord at the age of 98 years. Predeceased in 1994 by her loving husband, Eric, after 53 years of marriage. She will be lovingly remembered by her three daughters, Verna, Shirley, and Judy (Brian); seven grandchildren, thirteen great-grandchildren, four great-great-grandchildren, two remaining sisters, Margaret and Lena; and many other relatives and friends. Funeral Service will be held on Saturday, February 8, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. at Beulah Alliance Church, 17504 98A Ave NW, Edmonton.
