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Latest revision as of 01:11, 13 May 2025

In 1907 Johann Zacharias became the first minister of the Sommerfeld Mennonites in the Herbert and Gouldtown area in Saskatchewan. He later served under David Doerksen, who became the Ältester of the Herbert Sommerfelder in 1911.

In 1922, Zacharias led a small group of followers to Mexico together with a group of Saskatchewan Bergthaler under the leadership of Kornelius Epp, part of the larger emigration from Canada to Mexico and Paraguay in the 1920s of conservative Mennonites from Canada to Latin America in the 1920s. There is little information on what happened to this small group of immigrants. Many appear to have first established themselves on a small settlement at Milpillas, with the nearest government offices at Cusihuiriachic, about 25 kilometers distance from Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua. This settlement soon failed and most of the Herbert Sommerfelder who moved to Mexico returned to Canada within a few years; other Mennonite settlements in the region apparently absorbed the few who remained. Zacharias returned to Canada in 1929 and settled in the Meadow Lake area in north-central Saskatchewan.

Zacharias was born to Abraham Zacharias and Maria Klassen on 19 November 1868 in the Chortitza Colony in Russia (present day Ukraine). He immigrated to Canada in 1876, settling in the West Reserve and then moving to Herbert sometime around 1906. He married Elizabeth Rempel (1869-1959) on 29 November 1888 and had 12 children with her. Zacharias died in Meadow Lake in July 1954.

Bibliography

Author(s)	Gerald Ens
Date Published	2025

Bergen, Peter, comp. History of the Sommerfeld Mennonite Church. Sommerfeld Mennonite Church, 2001. Pp. 57-59, 213.

Doell, Leonard. "The Bergthaler Mennonite Emigration to Mexico and Paraguay." Saskatchewan Mennonite Historian 27, no. 2 (2022): 13-21.

Doell, Leonard. The Bergthaler Mennonite Church of Saskatchewan, 1892-1975. CMBC Publications, 1987. P. 17.

Ens, Adolf. “Sommerfeld Mennonites at Santa Clara, Mexico.” In Church, Family and Village: Essays on Mennonite Life on the West Reserve, edited by Adolf Ens et al. Winnipeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 2001. P. 187.

GRANDMA (The Genealogical Registry and Database of Mennonite Ancestry) Database, 5.00 ed. Fresno, CA: California Mennonite Historical Society, 2006: #157879.

Hildebrand, Lydia et al., ed. and comp. The History of Gouldtown and Districts. Gouldtown History Book Committee, 1973.

Peters, Jacob E. “Ältester Abraham Doerksen (1852-1929).” In Church, Family and Village: Essays on Mennonite Life on the West Reserve, ed. Adolf Ens et al. Winnipeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 2001. P. 121

Sawatzky, Harry Leonard. They Sought a Country: Mennonite Colonization in Mexico. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971. Pp. 52 and 73.

Cite This Article

MLA style

Ens, Gerald. "Zacharias, Johann (1868-1954)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 2025. Web. 1 Feb 2026. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Zacharias,_Johann_(1868-1954)&oldid=180681.

APA style

Ens, Gerald. (2025). Zacharias, Johann (1868-1954). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 1 February 2026, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Zacharias,_Johann_(1868-1954)&oldid=180681.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Aron Zacharias was an [[Bishop (Ältester)|Ältester]] of the [[Bergthal Mennonites#Saskatchewan Bergthaler|Saskatchewan-Bergthaler]] in the [[Rosthern (Saskatchewan, Canada)|Rosthern]], [[Saskatchewan (Canada)|Saskatchwan]] region. Elected in 1908, he led part of his church to [[Paraguay]] in 1926, but died before he could reach the new colony.
+In 1907 Johann Zacharias became the first [[Ministry (Prusso-Russian Background Mennonites)|minister]] of the [[Sommerfeld Mennonites]] in the [[Herbert (Saskatchewan, Canada)|Herbert]] and Gouldtown area in [[Saskatchewan (Canada)|Saskatchewan]]. He later served under David Doerksen, who became the ''[[Bishop|Ältester]]'' of the Herbert Sommerfelder in 1911.
-Zacharias was born on 24 January 1871 in imperial [[Russia]] (likely in either the [[Fürstenland Mennonite Settlement (Kherson Oblast, Ukraine)|Fürstenland]] or [[Chortitza Mennonite Settlement (Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine)|Chortitza Colony]]). In 1876 he [[Migrations#From Europe to the Americas|came with his parents]] to the [[West Reserve (Manitoba, Canada)|West Reserve]], [[Manitoba (Canada)|Manitoba]] where they were members of the [[Reinlander Mennoniten Gemeinde (Manitoba)|Reinländer]] church. In 1893 he was [[Baptism|baptized]] and [[Migrations#Within North and South America|moved]] to the Rosthern area of what later became Saskatchewan. In 1895 he [[Marriage|married]] Margaretha Bergen and in 1903 he was [[Ordination|ordained]] as a [[Ministry (Prusso-Russian Background Mennonites)|minister]] in the newly formed Bergthaler church in Saskatchewan.
+In 1922, Zacharias led a small group of followers to [[Mexico]] together with a group of [[Bergthal Mennonites#Saskatchewan Bergthaler|Saskatchewan Bergthaler]] under the leadership of [[Epp, Kornelius (1861-1936)|Kornelius Epp]], part of the larger emigration from [[Canada]] to Mexico and [[Paraguay]] in the 1920s of [[Conservative Mennonites (Dutch-Prussian-Russian)|conservative Mennonites]] from [[Canada]] to [[South America|Latin America]] in the 1920s. There is little information on what happened to this small group of immigrants. Many appear to have first established themselves on a small settlement at Milpillas, with the nearest government offices at Cusihuiriachic, about 25 kilometers distance from [[Cuauhtémoc (Chihuahua State, Mexico)|Cuauhtémoc]], [[Chihuahua (Mexico)|Chihuahua]]. This settlement soon failed and most of the Herbert Sommerfelder who moved to Mexico returned to Canada within a few years; other Mennonite settlements in the region apparently absorbed the few who remained. Zacharias returned to Canada in 1929 and settled in the Meadow Lake area in north-central Saskatchewan.
-In 1908, the Ältester of the Rosthern Saskatchewan-Bergthaler, Kornelius Epp, left the church in Rosthern after a controversy over the adoption of modern [[Dress|clothing]]. The church elected Zacharias as a successor and Ältester [[Doerksen, Abraham (1852-1929)|Abraham Doerksen]] of the [[Sommerfeld Mennonites|Sommerfelder]] ordained him in the fall of 1908.
+Zacharias was born to Abraham Zacharias and Maria Klassen on 19 November 1868 in the [[Chortitza Mennonite Settlement (Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine)|Chortitza Colony]] in [[Russia]] (present day [[Ukraine]]). He immigrated to Canada in 1876, settling in the [[West Reserve (Manitoba, Canada)|West Reserve]] and then moving to Herbert sometime around 1906. He married Elizabeth Rempel (1869-1959) on 29 November 1888 and had 12 children with her. Zacharias died in Meadow Lake in July 1954.
-As an Ältester, Zacharias attempted to lead his church in a selective [[Acculturation|accommodation]] to a [[Modernity|modernizing]] world. Adoption of [[Automobile|automobiles]] and telephones were particularly thorny matters. In consultation with the Ältesten of the [[Christian Mennonite Conference|Chortitzer]] and Sommerfelder churches in Manitoba, and unlike the Reinländer (also known as [[Old Colony Mennonites|Old Colony]]) church in both provinces, Zacharias’s church complied with the [[Canada|Canadian]] government in its registration of adult males during [[World War (1914-1918)|World War I]], after assurances from Canadian officials that Mennonites would not be subject to a draft. However, alongside the Reinländer, he resisted pressure from the Saskatchewan government around the same time to introduce any [[English Language|English]] into the private, [[German Language|German-language]] [[Elementary Education#North America|elementary schools]] the Mennonites in Saskatchewan operated; some sources suggest that the extent of this recalcitrance was likely part of what motivated the Saskatchewan government to act as coercively as it did in the coming years on the school issue.
-In addition to his ministry in the Rosthern area, Zacharias played a leadership role in the first few years of the newly founded Mennonite Church at [[Lost River Bethany Church (Lost River, Saskatchewan, Canada)|Lost River]]. After he nullified a congregational vote over where to build a new church building in 1914 a church split took place. Zacharias presided over the formation of a new Saskatchewan-Bergthaler church in the area and ordained its new ministers.
-In 1917 the Saskatchewan government passed mandatory school attendance legislation and then in 1919 began a [[Old Colony Mennonites#The School Question|concerted campaign]] to shut down the Mennonite private schools, thereby forcing Mennonite children to attend [[Public Schools|public]] and secular English-speaking schools with a [[Nationalism|nationalistic]] and militaristic curriculum. The Reinländer church strongly opposed these schools and [[Excommunication|excommunicated]] [[Church Membership|members]] whose [[Children|children]] attended them, despite the fact that they faced steep fines when their children did not attend, to the point that some families were near to starvation. Under Zacharias, the Saskatchewan-Bergthaler in Rosthern opposed the public schools but did not excommunicate their members who complied with them.
-In the response to the education crisis many Mennonite groups sought to relocate to a new homeland where they would have autonomy over the schooling of their children. In his exploration of the emigration option, Zacharias worked together with the Chortitzer and Sommerfelder churches in Manitoba, which shared an [[Bergthal Mennonites|ecclesial lineage]] with the Saskatchewan-Bergthaler. Zacharias organized the Saskatchewan portion of a joint [[Canadian Mennonite Land-Seeking Delegations, 1919-1922|delegation]] with these two churches which investigated [[Colonization|settlement]] opportunities in both Paraguay and [[Mexico]] in 1921. The delegation returned with the recommendation that the church remove to Paraguay. This recommendation swayed Zacharias, while most other [[Emigration from Canada to Mexico and Paraguay in the 1920s|emigrating groups of Mennonites]] from Saskatchewan chose Mexico.
-Delays with [[Emigration from Canada to Mexico and Paraguay in the 1920s#Paraguay|financing the emigration]] pushed back its beginning until the end of 1926, which dampened enthusiasm for the migration. On 14 December 1926, Zacharias led 195 of his followers to Paraguay, another 32 following behind shortly thereafter, a total of approximately eighteen percent of Zacharias's church.<ref>By some calculations this figure represents a higher percentage of the church's population at that time. See Ens, 215 for discussion.</ref> A series of delays and disasters beset the new immigrants when they disembarked at [[Puerto Casado (Departamento de Alto Paraguay, Paraguay)|Puerto Casado]], some 200 kilometers away from their new land. It took sixteen months before the immigrants could begin to settle their land and in the meantime an epidemic broke out and nearly 200 people died. Another 350 people or so returned to Canada. Zacharias himself died on 10 October 1928 while ''en route'' to the new colony.
-Accounts of this trying period for the Mennonites in Paraguay make almost no mention of Zacharias’s leadership or activities, a contrast to the many sources that offer significant comment on and praise for the leadership of [[Friesen, Martin C. (1889-1968)|Martin C. Friesen]], Ältester of the much larger Chortitzer group (and ''de facto'' leader of the Sommerfelder). While we do not know what role Zacharias may have played, we do know that, as difficulties mounted, discord grew between the different Mennonite groups gathered at Puerto Casado and that those from Saskatchewan remained separate from the rest of the settlement after the establishment of [[Menno Colony (Boquerón Department, Paraguay)|Menno Colony]], all of them settling in the new village of Bergthal and maintaining a separate church organization. It may also be noteworthy that a highly disproportionate number of those immigrants who returned to Canada before the new colony was established were part of the Saskatchewan Bergthaler group.
-=Notes and References=
-<references />
 =Bibliography=
-Doell, Leonard. "Bergthaler Mennonites at Carrot River." In ''Church, Family and Village: Essays on Mennonite Life on the West Reserve'', edited by Adolf Ens et al. Winnipeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 2001.
+Bergen, Peter, comp. ''History of the Sommerfeld Mennonite Church''. Sommerfeld Mennonite Church, 2001. Pp. 57-59, 213.
-Doell, Leonard. "Emigration to Paraguay, 1921-1930: Preserving the Faith." In ''Hague-Osler Mennonite Reserve, 1895-1995'', edited by Jacob G. Guenter et al. Hepburn: Hague-Osler Reserve Book Committee, 1995. Pp. 390-391.
-Doell, Leonard. ''The Bergthaler Mennonite Church of Saskatchewan, 1892-1975''. CMBC Publications, 1987. Pp. 13-34, 109.
 Doell, Leonard. "The Bergthaler Mennonite Emigration to Mexico and Paraguay." ''Saskatchewan Mennonite Historian'' 27, no. 2 (2022): 13-21.
-Ens, Adolf. ''Subjects or Citizens? The Mennonite Experience in Canada, 1870-1925''. University of Ottawa Press, 1994. Pp. 214-217.
+Doell, Leonard. ''The Bergthaler Mennonite Church of Saskatchewan, 1892-1975''. CMBC Publications, 1987. P. 17.
-Ens, Adolf and Ernest N. Braun. "Emigration to Paraguay 1926 to 1927." In ''Settlers of the East Reserve'', edited by Adolf Ens et al. Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 2009. Pp. 323-324.
-[[Friesen, Martin W. (1912-2000)|Friesen, M.W.]] ''Canadian Mennonites Conquer a Wilderness: The Beginning and Development of the Menno Colony, First Mennonite Settlement in South America''. Translated by Christel Wiebe. Historical Committee of the Menno Colony, 2009. Pp. 27-28.
+Ens, Adolf. “Sommerfeld Mennonites at Santa Clara, Mexico.” In ''Church, Family and Village: Essays on Mennonite Life on the West Reserve'', edited by Adolf Ens et al. Winnipeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 2001. P. 187.
 GRANDMA (The <strong>G</strong>enealogical <strong>R</strong>egistry <strong>an</strong>d <strong>D</strong>atabase of <strong>M</strong>ennonite <strong>A</strong>ncestry) Database, 5.00 ed. Fresno, CA: California Mennonite Historical Society, 2006: #157879.
-Kouwenhoven, Arlette. ''The Fehrs: Four Centuries of Mennonite Migration'', translated by Lesley Fast and Kerry Fast. Leiden: Winco, 2013. P. 174.
+Hildebrand, Lydia et al., ed. and comp. ''The History of Gouldtown and Districts''. Gouldtown History Book Committee, 1973.
-Stoesz, Edgar and Muriel T. Stackley. ''Garden in the Wilderness: Mennonite Communities in the Paraguayan Chaco, 1927-1997''. Winnipeg: CMBC Publications, 1999. P. 28
+Peters, Jacob E. “Ältester Abraham Doerksen (1852-1929).” In ''Church, Family and Village: Essays on Mennonite Life on the West Reserve'', ed. Adolf Ens et al. Winnipeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 2001. P. 121
-Toews, Bernhard. "Life and Travel Remembrances of Bernhard Toews," translated by [[Plett, Delbert F. (1948-2004)|Delbert Plett]]. ''Preservings'' 16 (June 2000): 33-37.
+Sawatzky, Harry Leonard. ''They Sought a Country: Mennonite Colonization in Mexico''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971. Pp. 52 and 73.
-{{GAMEO_footer|hp=|date=2024|a1_last=Ens|a1_first=Gerald|a2_last=|a2_first=}}
+{{GAMEO_footer|hp=|date=2025|a1_last=Ens|a1_first=Gerald|a2_last=|a2_first=}}
+[[Category:Persons]]
+[[Category:Ministers]]

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