BLAST FROM MY RURAL SASKATCHEWAN PAST

Growing up near the villages of Elbow and Loreburn, Saskatchewan made a huge impression on me. Here’s a blast from the area’s past. The article was published in the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society's Bulletin of December 2025.

History of the Elbow-Loreburn Mennonites

By Elma Martens Schemenauer

Both of my parents (children at the time) emigrated from Russia to Saskatchewan with their families in the mid-1920s. By the late 1920s, both families had found their way to the Elbow-Loreburn area halfway between Saskatoon and Regina. In that area, Mennonites were a minority outnumbered by Lutherans, United Church people, and Catholics.

The Loreburn-Elbow Mennonites—determined to stick to their faith, traditions, and language (German)—held church services in their homes. Mennonite Brethren families included the Bahnmans, Dahls, Janzens, and Martens. They met with those of the same denomination. General Conference Mennonite families including the Driedigers, Bergmans, Penners, and Heeses also met with those of their own denomination.

The faith of both the MBs and GCs was severely tested by the Great Depression and drought of the 1930s. Some of them left for greener pastures. Those who remained continued to meet in their homes for worship, prayer, fellowship, and mutual encouragement.

In 1940, after the rains returned and the Great Depression ended, my parents, in their twenties by then, made plans to marry. Since the local Mennonites had no church building, the wedding was held in the Bonnie View United Church west of Loreburn. MB minister Frank Wiens officiated.

At that time, many country schools dotted the Saskatchewan landscape. In 1941, the Berndt School near my parents’ home closed because of declining enrolment. Seeing an opportunity, the local Mennonites decided to buy it and turn it into a church. This would be a big project, too big for either the GCs or MBs to tackle alone. So they did it together, using their own volunteer labour primed with lots of coffee.

The two congregations who shared the building were served by visiting ministers. A General Conference Mennonite minister would preach one Sunday, a Mennonite Brethren minister the next, and so on. GCs and MBs usually attended each other’s services. The language of church was High German, though most local Mennonites also spoke Low German and English.

In 1948, my parents and we children (three of us by then) moved closer to the village of Elbow. We attended the Alliance church in Elbow, but still visited the country Mennonite church regularly.

I have such happy memories of that country church. I enjoyed the stories I heard there, of Adam and Eve, Queen Esther, Ruth and Naomi, Daniel in the lion’s den, and more. I loved the pump organ, which I sometimes had the privilege of playing for the singing. A grandfather clock hung on the wall. I can still hear its slow, solemn ticking accompanying the visiting ministers’ messages.

The two congregations who shared the building got along well together. However, the MBs eventually decided to build their own English-language church in Elbow. It opened in 1962. The GC congregation continued to meet in the country church until 1968, when lightning badly damaged the building. Opting not to repair it, the GCs closed their church. Some of them joined the GC church in Hanley, an hour’s drive away. The MB church in Elbow continued to hold services until 1997. Then it closed because of low attendance.

Maybe the closing of the two small Mennonite churches in the Elbow-Loreburn area was inevitable. The area never had many Mennonites. Even those were divided along denominational lines. Also, the Mennonites’ cultural distinctives tended to discourage outsiders from attending.

However, the Mennonite community of my youth survives in the memories of those it touched, instructed and inspired. It also survives in my novel SONG FOR SUSIE EPP. The story is set mainly in a community based on the Elbow-Loreburn area. It’s about a bashful Mennonite woman gaining courage and a new understanding of faith as she contends with a bossy mother-in-law and a secret that threatens to destroy her family.

If you’re interested in SONG FOR SUSIE EPP, ask for it in a bookstore or library. Or order the paperback or e-book from an online seller such as Amazon or Chapters Indigo. https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/search?q=elma+schemenauer&search-button=&lang=null

If you’re interested in other books involving the Elbow-Loreburn area, they include:

Krogan, Agnes. ELBOW HOMESTEAD DAYS. Privately published, Elbow, Saskatchewan, 1965.

Krogan, Agnes. MORE MEMORIES. Privately published, Elbow, Saskatchewan, 1971.

Loreburn Historical Committee. FROM MOULDBOARD TO METRIC: A HISTORY OF LOREBURN & DISTRCT. Loreburn, Saskatchewan: Loreburn Historical Committee, 1978.

Soggie, Neil. THE YOUNG-DOGS OF ELBOW. New York. Bloomsbury Academic, 2007.

Soggie, Joan. LOOKING FOR AIKTOW. Privately published, Elbow, Saskatchewan, 2015.

Soggie, Joan. RIKKA. BWL Publishing, 2021.

Book, Rick. NECKING WITH LOUISE: STORIES. Leaside, Ontario. Red Deer Press, 1999.