In this second and final installment of Uncle Marvin Taves’ 1988 presentation about our Mennonite legacy, he focuses on the history of the Mennonites and relates how the Toews family was involved in that history. Marvin’s point is not the promotion of the Menn0nite way of life After all, to my knowledge, since Grandpa and Grandma Jacob Toews left the Mennonite church in 1931, none of their descendants have been involved in the Mennonite movement.
What I believe we should glean from Uncle Marvin’s account here is a deep appreciation for the background and heritage God saw fit to give us in the history of our family. While there are specific beliefs in that background with which we may not agree completely, it is impossible to review this heritage without seeing much for which we can be thankful.
I, for one, am highly grateful for the obvious determination to take seriously the teachings of Jesus Christ that is part of Mennonite history. While I may not understand or apply some of those teachings in total harmony with the Mennonites, I can still honor their desire to follow Christ.
I am also greatly appreciative of the willingness of the Mennonites and Anabaptists through the centuries who have been willing to live out their beliefs in a consistent way, unmoved by the ridicule, persecution and even martyrdom that resulted. The examples of many of them serve to remind me and urge me to be faithful to practice what I preach, no matter what it may cost.
You will notice early in this account that Marvin mentions six tenets of faith in the Mennonite movement–but only enumerates four! I’m not sure why he gave the number six, nor why he only listed four. If you are interested to know the basic, characteristic beliefs of the historic Mennonite faith, you can look up and read online the Dordrecht Confession of Faith, adopted by the Dutch Mennonites in 1632. That confession lists eighteen articles of faith which were considered foundational to Mennonite identity.
With that, here is the remainder of Uncle Marvin’s presentation:
F. A Mennonite Tradition
So much about ancestors, per se. Let’s turn to the heritage they developed and transmitted. Whatever our forebears’ origin, they migrated to the Netherlands and became followers of Menno Simon in the early 1500s, hence the appellation Mennonites. The flight to the Netherlands was a search for a more direct and intimate personal relationship with God than permitted by their ruling authorities. Menno Simon had been a very sincere and respected priest in the Catholic church. He reported having enjoyed a very good life as a Catholic Priest. At the time, the Anabaptists decried infant baptism and practiced adult baptism only on confession of faith, even for those already baptized as infants.
According to Menno Simon’s own account, it was after he witnessed the brutal martyrdom of an Anabaptist for his religious beliefs that he left the priesthood, broke with the Catholic church and became a leader among the Anabaptists. For some time he was associated with another leader of the Reformation, Ulrich Zwingli. In 1525, in Zurich, Switzerland, he broke with him and gradually developed a following of his own, soon to be known as Mennonites.
Early on the Mennonites held to at least six tenets of faith:
1. Separation of church and state.
2. Adult baptism on confession of faith.
3. Pacifism (refusal to bear arms).
4. Refusal to take an oath on the Bible.
5.
6.
The Mennonites believed in obedience to the State in all matters EXCEPT those which conflicted with their religious beliefs. Between 1525 and 1577, the fortunes of dissenters, such as the Mennonites, ebbed and flowed with the fortunes of the warring political factions in whose territory they resided. The combatants generally represented, on the one hand, the established church, and, on the other, the reformists. Each sought control over territory, people, minds and souls. In 1577 William of Orange gained political dominance in Holland. If our forebears were still in Holland, they probably shared the high degree of religious freedom and considerable local autonomy William permitted.
G. Migrations
As early as the mid-1500s, some of the Mennonites in the Netherlands fled persecution there by migrating to East and West Prussia. There is some reason to believe that our ancestors may have been among those who settled along the Vistula River, including the vicinity of Danzig. This area later became known as the Polish Corridor. The partitioning of Poland left the Mennonites to the Prussian Hohenzollerns of Austria. Under Frederick The Great, the Mennonites enjoyed a great degree of freedom. Here they prospered financially and multiplied rapidly. They also refined their philosophy and theology into a coherent position.
Just when the Tows made the trek to Prussia, we do not know. They could have left the Netherlands during the struggles preceding 1577. We know they spent a significant period of time in Prussia. Family tradition credits at least one Tows with a high position in Bismark’s government.
With the passing of Frederick the Great, persecution replaced freedom for the Mennonites in Prussia. Consequently they welcomed invitations from Catherine the Great to migrate to Russia. In 1786 she had won a large territory from the Turks. This extended her territory down through the lowlands (swamps) to the Black Sea.
Russian government leaders had learned of the Mennonites’ agricultural successes on similar soil in Holland. They knew them to be productive, reliable, peaceful, religious people, and to be experiencing persecution in Prussia. Catherine first sent two, then four more delegations to negotiate their immigration with these Mennonites.
She guaranteed the Mennonites all the freedoms they had ever enjoyed in any of the countries to welcome them. They came to largely wild and low-lying land, uninhabited except for the scattering of nomadic Tartars who roamed it.
Some 230 families made the long trek from Prussia to this new Russian territory in 1786. Father Tows was among them or those who came shortly thereafter. This was 200 years ago; 26 years before Franz Tows was born. By 1840 the Mennonite population in Russia numbered 6000; by 1916, 100,000. Since then some 22,000 have emigrated, most of them to Canada.
In the early 1870s (when Franz Tows was almost 60 and Grandfather Jacob F. Toews was approaching 10 years old), Czar Alexander of Russia had a change of heart and policy. He had been allowing the Mennonites the generous array of religious freedoms and the large measure of self-rule Catherine had afforded them. But now he decided it was time to forge the many diverse cultures under Russian domination into one cohesive nation. This was to include submission to the Russian courts and universal military service. This ran directly counter to Mennonite tradition, philosophy and religious belief. The Mennonites sent several delegations to plead their case before the Czar, but he was adamant. No longer would they be allowed their own schools, freedom from military conscription and local self government; they would have to assimilate into the larger Russian culture. In response to their vigorous protests he gave them the alternative of leaving Russia by 1880. After that, those who remained would be subject to the assimilation decrees. By 1874 many were emigrating, and Alexander became concerned and relented somewhat. In the end one‐third left, the rest remained in Russia at the time.
Among those planning to leave Russia in the 1870s, family tradition tells of three Tows going out to determine which one of three destinations (South America, the USA or Canada) would be best for all three of the families. Each went to explore one of these. On returning, each of the three was so sure he had found the best place that they could not agree on one destination for all, so each took his family to the area he had explored. Hence, there are now many Tows/Toews/Taves/Taevs, etc. in all three: the USA, Canada and South America. For the basic story there is corroboration; that the three explorers were three Tows descended from the Father Tows we have identified, is unlikely unless Franz had brothers of whom we know not.
Today a descendent of Jacob F. and Helena Toews resides in every continent of the world. Represented at this J. F. Toews Reunion West are at least 11 states, including Kansas, Minnesota and Washington, D.C.
The USA was just 102 years old when Grandpa and Grandma J.F. Toews, at ages 17 and 10 respectively, immigrated to Mt. Lake with their parents 110 years ago. They were part of some 1800 Mennonites who settled in Mt . Lake.
H. Earlier Mennonite Migrations to the USA
Not all Mennonites now in the USA came the same route. In 1632, almost 250 years before our forefathers came to the USA, a Mennonite colony came directly from Holland to Pennsylvania. That was just 25 years after the first permanent settlement in the USA, at Jamestown! These earlier Mennonites settled along the Delaware River, only to have their lands taken from them and their establishments destroyed 30 years later by the British when they wrested the territory from the Dutch in 1664. Twenty years later (1683) a group of Mennonite immigrants from Germany established Germantown, Pennsylvania in response to William Penn’s invitation. This appears to be the oldest surviving Mennonite community in the USA (now over 300 years old).
During the Revolutionary War (the War of Independence) many of the Mennonites favored the British rather than the colonists. Many moved to Ontario, Canada, after the Declaration of Independence, during the war and after the establishment of the United States of America.
I. Summary
This is a brief orientation to the Toews heritage. Much more could be told of their deep Christian faith, their generally enviable reputations as farmers, woodsmen, mill operators — even as counselors to the powerful. It is a history of competence and goodwill; of strong attachment to principles even if, as in their commitment to pacifism, it meant migrating to Holland, to Prussia, to Russia, and finally to North or South America. It is a noble heritage in many ways.
How this heritage was carried forward in the USA over the last 110 years, I leave to others to tell. Whether, to what extent and in what form it shall endure over the next 100 years, is up to each of us, the children and children’s children who share the Toews heritage, whatever our name.