A. K. Friesen

Avenue and Seventh Street. At first Mr. Friesen found employment as clerk in Dyck & Kroeker‘s General Store, and from 1908 to 1910 he taught in the Winkler Public School. His salary was $35.00 per month and he had 60 children in his classroom. On June 1, 1910, he accepted the position as manager of the Monarch Lumber Company Limited at Winkler where he re- mained untii his retirement on April 30, 1954. The Monarch Lumber Yard building had been constructed about 1899 at the south-west corner of Mountain Avenue and Main Street by Mr. Jacob B. Dyck.

Apart from the office hours as lumber dealer, Mr. Friesen found time to serve the Village of Winkler as councillor (1914 to 1915), and the Winkler School District as trustee and secretary-treasurer with interrup- tions from 1917 to 1930. At various times he also par- ticipated actively in such sports as tennis, golf, and curl— ing. He passed away December 22, 1963.

Mr. A. K. Friesen traced his family tree ancestry as follows:

A. K. Friesen, born February 1, 1881, at Lichtenau near Steinbach, Manitoba. He died December 22, 1963, at Winkler.

Abraham R. Friesen (Father), born February 16, 1846, at Wernersdorl‘, Ukraine, Russia. He died September 16, 1884, at Lichtenau near Steinbach.

Cornelius Friesen (Grandfather), born December 7, 1810, at Lindenau, Ukraine.

Kluss Friesen (Great-Grandfather), born in 1774, in West Prussia.

lsbrand Friesen (Greal-Grout-Grandfather).

Mr. John J. Loewen — Mayor & Hardware Merchant

Mr. John J. Loewen who served as trustee, coun- cillor, and mayor of the Village of Winkler, was born February 28, 1873, in Russia and immigrated to Canada with his parents. In 1891. Rev. H. H. Ewert arrived in Manitoba from Kansas to take over the principalship of the M.C.1. at Gretna, and Mr. Loewen‘s name appears on the student roster for that year. in 1905 he opened a hardware store in Winkler on the east side of Main Street

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and continued in business there until his death in 1932. Before coming to Winklcr Mr. Loewen had opened business outlets in Regina and Osler in Saskatchewan, as well as in Altona and Plum Coulee, Manitoba. He con— tinued to operate a farm machinery outlet at Plum Coulee and in the late 1890's sold the first threshing machine to be used in the Mennonite community near Winklcr. The threshing outfit consisted of an American Abel return-flue steamer and an Advance separator.

About 1908. Mr. Loewen purchased the first automobile in Winklcr. This was a buggy style vehicie with large wheels and narrow solid rubber tires. It could do about ten miles per hour. A little later he acquired a big seven-passenger Reo that was equipped with carbide headlights and in those days was considered to be a lux- ury car. One day son Henry Loewen and his pal found a discarded carbide tank and decided to quench some of their curiosity by tossing a burning match into the con- tainer. When the flammable gas exploded both boys were badly burned about the face. Mr. Loewen later owned two other cars. namely. a Star sedan with electric lights, and an Essex with a Venetian type radiator shutter which was push-button controlled and proved to be a rent bonanza during the low temperatures of winter.

Mr. & Mrs. Loewen with their fumiiy ofsix children tired for many years in a large dwelling at the north—east corner of Mountain Avenue and Sixth Street. This house was known as the former Esau residence and was later occupied by Dr. G. F. Weatherhead after the Loewen family moved a block south to 195 Sixth Street. On one occasion when the family arrived home from a visit they found their street blocked by the town belfry and tower which had been blown over in a severe storm.

As Mrs. John Loewen had been born in Southern Russia on January 1. 1875, under the Julian calendar, and as her parents. Mr. & Mrs. Jakob Braun, im- migrated to Canada later that same year, the problem arose as to the desirability of changing her birthday to January 13 in accordance with the Gregorian calendar which was the accepted Canadian procedure. However, the Braun family decided not to foiiow the usual practice and consequently Mrs. Loewcn ever alter continued to celebrate her birthday on January I, the most popular day of the year.

in the Loewen famiiy, mother set the example of service in the home. church, and community. Her tove for service in the local Bergthaler church ranged from culinary kitchen duties to personal spiritual counselling of the erring to accept Christ and to live for Him. She found time to attend night classes and acquired a com- paratively rich English vocabulary through the study of Shakespearc so that she couid correspond with their two daughters, Susan and Mary. while they were away from home following the teaching profession. Two of the sons served the Town ol‘Winkler in civic offices; Jake as counu cilior, and Ed as trustee of the school board. in his childhood. John was seriously injured while playing a game of King of the Castle on an earthen mound which had been deposited on the Winkler Elementary Schooi grounds from the excavations for the basement of the two—storey brick building. He subsequently lost his eyesight in 1919, but after studying braille at Brantford, Ontario, he read, carried on considerabie cor-