A Toews clan reunion was held in June, 1988, at which Oma’s older brother Marvin presented a historical overview of what can be known about our background as a family. Thankfully, Uncle Marvin made the results of his research available in print to family members, inviting input and corrections to his report. So we are privileged to benefit from his considerable efforts.
Before we get to the first part of Marvin’s presentation, let me share a little with you about Uncle Marvin himself. He was born May 8, 1918, in Ossette, Montana, the first child of Grandpa and Grandma Jacob J. Toews. His area of interest and expertise was sociology, in which he earned his PhD. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Marvin taught at the State College of Washington in Pullman. Then he became a professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota, until the early 1960s. At that time he took a position in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Marvin held many important positions during his tenures as a professor and government worker. That becomes evident by anyone doing a Google search on “Marvin J Taves” over the worldwide web (Yes, he is one of the two brothers who changed the spelling of his last name). What also becomes evident is that as a professor, Marvin’s main interest was the sociology of rural life and small towns. As a government employee, Marvin’s main focus was on aging and the aged.
In his role within HEW, Marvin’s most well-known accomplishments are as a primary architect and developer of the national Meals on Wheels program and the Foster Grandparents program. Jill and I had the privilege of being given a tour of some of the governmental offices in Washington, D.C., by Uncle Marvin in the 1970s, as well as staying in his apartment overlooking the Potomac River.
The father of John Marvin and Peter Allen Taves, Uncle Marvin died on December 8, 2005, in Fullerton, California.
What Marvin wrote about the Mennonite heritage of the Toews clan is presented below as he produced it, except for a few spelling and punctuation corrections. This is the first of two installments on this site, due to the length of what Marvin presented.
A. Introduction
One function of family reunions is to preserve, in the memory of succeeding generations, the heritage created by forebears; another is to share experiences and lessons learned by contemporaries. A review of our heritage will teach us whence we came and should help us understand who we are and what we might be. An examination of our heritage also should help select those qualities in that heritage which we want to transmit to our children and the generations to follow.
It is difficult to summarize our heritage. Without being thought too presumptuous, let me propose that our forebears were generally a humble but proud lot with laudable purposes, realistic goals, firm convictions, exemplary character, and godly living.
At least four generations are here today: Uncle Rudolf and Aunt Martha Toews represent the oldest Toews generation living, the next includes, among others, George Taevs, Dora Friesen Shirling, Navalis Toews and myself. The fact that only one of these three male cousins uses the Toews spelling may well reflect the tendency for second generation Americans to seek assimilation with the American culture. This gathering, and the Toews reunion in Mt. Lake last August, reflect the counterpoint ‐ the effort to retain elements of our earlier heritage.
Navalis Toews has searched the Toews family history extensively and will give us many interesting details. By way of orientation I will note a few of the observations which have impressed me as I, over the years, have read studies such as “From the Steppes to the Prairies” or Ferdinand Schultz’s Masters Thesis (in the archives at the University of Minnesota) on the history of the Mennonites who migrated to Mt. Lake.
B. Genealogically
Our review encompasses almost 500 years, beginning in 1500 a.d., the time of the Reformation; and identifies eight generations. I have not found a first name for the first Toews on whom there are documented records; therefore let’s identify him simply as “Tows” or “Father Tows“, and let him represent the first generation in our account. He is my Great-Great-Grandfather. We can identify “our” Great‐Grandfather Franz Tows (later spelled Toews), Grandfather Jacob F. Toews and, in my case, father Jacob J.Toews.)
NOTE: Wherever “Our ‐‐‐‐‐“ appears the “Our” refers to my and my cousins’ generation (e.g., Arno Friesen, Dora Shirling, Marvin Taves, George Taevs, Navalis Toews, and Edith Burkhart and their siblings).
When the Mennonite communities’ religious and political freedoms were threatened in Prussia, Father Tows migrated from Prussia to the Steppes of Southern Russia (an area then inhabited sparsely by Nomads) with a colony of Mennonites at the invitation of Catherine The Great. Catherine had promised religious freedom, exemption from military service and local self-rule. Tows apparently fathered only one child, our Great Grandfather Franz Tows, born in 1812. Franz was orphaned as an infant.
My first introduction to this second generation was in a family Journal handwritten in German script by my grandparents, Jacob F. and Helena Lohrenz Toews. They refer back 180 years, to 1808. The first 49 pages of this journal consist of hymns with the pitch represented by numbers rather than notes on a staff. This probably is why Grandfather inscribed the book:
Liederbuch
Jacob Toews
1880
Grandfather started writing this book over a hundred years ago!
The song section is followed by accounts of the births and deaths of family members. When reading the journal one must be careful to differentiate between the original author and the more current writer of the journal. For instance, the first narrative is in Grandmother Helena’s handwriting, but must be the result of her copying an earlier Helena’s writings. Similarly, some material in Grandfather J. F. Toews’ hand must be a direct copy from his father Franz Toews, for the narrative is in the first person but deals with dates and events prior to JF’s time. Also, later writers on occasion have inserted additional information in the text or in the margin. While marginal notes are so identified in the English translation, the inserts in the text generally are not. Thus references in a person’s account to events occurring after that writer’s demise are such additions.
The first narrative is not by Grandfather J. F. Toews, but by a Helena. The handwriting is that of our Grandmother Helena Lohrenz Toews. Since the genealogy it reports describes an earlier generation and family, she apparently was recopying what another Helena had written. It reads: “1808 den 7 Nov. ist mein Groszwater David Nickel geboren in West Prussia.” That is, “my Grandfather David Nickel was born in West Prussia November 7, 1808.” It continues: “June 21, 1813, my Grandmother was born in Sch(e)newiese, Russia. November 11, 1831, my parents were married. The following are my siblings. September 4, Anna was born. She passed away on February 3, 1893, and was buried February 7. December 13, 1834, I, Helena was born.” This was Helena Nickel (who married Gerhard Lohrenz January 26, 1854, mother of our Grandmother, Helena Lohrenz.
NOTE: Although we have concluded that the handwriting is that of Grandmother Helena Lohrenz Toews, it could be that of her mother who lived to 1905 and therefore was living when this account was penned in the early 1890s. A handwriting expert might be needed to resolve the question.
Six pages further on is the first narrative entry in Grandfather Jacob F. Toews’ handwriting. It translates: “Written March 12, 1893.“ He writes about ‘my dear wife’s grandparents and their family, Peter Lohrenz and Maria Du(e)ck’ (our Great Great Grandparents). He gives the dates of birth and death of each generation of children until he died in 1935. After that Grandmother Helena, and later my father Jacob J. Toews entered such information in the book. In quite a few cases references are made to the length of terminal illness, the cause of death, and a strong Christian faith. There is no reference to occupation, migration, community participation or social standing. Some of that information can be gleaned from the National Archives with its ship lists and copies of the original handwritten census reports (with family members, occupation and certain belongings listed). The archives include reports on Franz Toews (originally spelled Tows) and his family under Midway Township and Mt. Lake, Minnesota.
C. Prussia to Russia and the USA
Franz was born in Heubuden, Prussia, and migrated to Russia. There he married four times and was widowed thrice. His first wife died 18 months after their marriage. His second wife was 24 years his senior. The first two marriages were childless. He had two children by his third wife. One child died at eight months, the other at age 74, in Pordenau, Russia.
Still in Russia in 1856 at the age of 44, Franz married his fourth wife, the 20-year-old Elizabeth Dick, who outlived him by 24 years. During their 18 years of married life they had eleven children, of which our Grandfather, Jacob F. Toews, was the seventh. Three of the eleven died in Pordenau, the other seven sons and one daughter accompanied their parents to the USA in 1878. They were reared on a farm six miles southeast of Mt. Lake. Their first home was of sod cut from the homestead on which it was built. They reached 57 to 86 years of age.
Incidentally, Herbert Friesen tells of the remains of a cave on Jacob F. and Helena Toews’ farm north of Mt. Lake used for shelter while erecting their farm buildings. My parents’ first homes were a 16×20 foot one-room clapboard cabin on the Montana prairie and a corner of the new barn they built when returning to farm near Mt. Lake.
Of the eight children Franz brought to the USA, three died in Mt. Lake, Minnesota; three in Dallas, Oregon; and one in Salem, Oregon. Where the other died I know not.
The first generation we noted was Great‐Great-Grandfather Tows who migrated from West Prussia to Russia. The second generation, namely, Franz Tows/Toews was born in Russia and in 1878 migrated to the USA. On the boat with him was the third generation, our Grandfather Jacob F. Toews (then 17); also, our Grandmother Helena Lohrenz (then 10) and her family. They had both been born in Pordenau, Russia; he September 5, 1861, she June 19, 1868. They married in Mt. Lake October 30, 1888, and had eight children, of whom one died in infancy. Their other children were Helena Friesen, Elizabeth Friesen, Jacob J. Toews, Nicolai J. Toews, Gerhard J. Toews, Marie Warkentin and Rudolf J. Toews.
D. In the USA
Jacob F. and Helena Toews farmed 2 quarter sections 4 miles north of Mt. Lake, land later purchased largely by Herbert and Cleo Friesen, their grandson and his wife. Grandfather Toews died in Mt. Lake April 8, 1935, at age 74, Grandmother August 4, 1967, at over 99 years old.
Incidentally, our generation’s grandchildren ( my granddaughter Joellen) would refer to our first known specific ancestor (Father Tows) as their Great‐Great‐Great-Great‐ Grandfather (for example, for J. Herbert Friesen’s grandchildren there is father Scott Friesen, Grandfather J. Herbert Friesen, Great‐Grandfather John S. Friesen, Great‐Great‐Grandfather Jacob F. Toews, Great‐Great-Great-Grandfather Franz Toews and Great‐Great‐Great-Great‐Grandfather Tows.) That represents 7 generations and a span of over 200 years.
E. Before Father Tows
So far records of specific ancestors of father Tows have eluded us. However, the probable lineage can be assumed from accounts of religious migrations during and after the Reformation. Some accounts suggest our ancestors came to the Netherlands (Holland) from the British Isles. It seems more likely that they came from among the Waldenses who fled persecution in Italy and France.