View source for Plett, Elizabeth Esau (1893-1976)

[[File:PlettElizabeth.jpg|300px|thumb|right|'''']]    Elizabeth Esau Plett, Mennonite pioneer, was born on 11 April 1893 in Neuanlage (Twin Creek), Manitoba. She was the youngest of seven children born to John Esau (1861-1940) and Maria Unger (1862-1894), immigrants to Canada from [[Russia|Russia]] during the 1870s. 

When Elizabeth was 11 months old her mother died. As a result she was raised by her maternal grandparents Peter H. Unger (1841-1896) and Justina B. Friesen (1836-1905). Twelve-year-old Elizabeth went to live with her Uncle Peter F. Unger (1875-1951) and his family of 12 children when her grandmother died in 1905. 

On 10 July 1910 she married David D.K. Plett (1889-1930). Eventually she and her husband settled in Prairie Rose, Manitoba where they farmed and raised their family. They had ten children together. In 1930 Elizabeth lost her 15 year old daughter Katharine, as well as her husband David, during a typhoid fever epidemic. After her husband David died in 1930, Elizabeth continued to farm until 1951 when the farm was taken over by her son Frank. 

Like many Mennonite pioneers Elizabeth stood as an example of courage and determination but in addition she left a valuable historical record in the form of a diary which she kept from 1910 until 1957. Elizabeth Esau Plett died on 10 March 1976.
= Bibliography =
Plett, Harvey G. "Elizabeth Esau Plett 1893-1976." <em class="gameo_bibliography">Preservings </em>No. 10 Part I (June 1997): 58-61.
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