Engen, Fred (1863-1929)
Fred Engen was a Canadian[1] of Norwegian extraction who played an important role in the settlement of Mennonites from Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Paraguay in the 1920s. Engen was a pacifist, an explorer, and a land agent who dreamed of creating a country of pacifists. By the time of his death in 1929 he had become a beloved friend of the Canadian Mennonites who moved to Paraguay.
Engen’s work with Mennonites began after he lost his fortune and entered into the service of Samuel McRoberts, a New York banker with business connections in South America. This was around the same time that the Reinländer (also known as Old Colony) Mennonites contacted McRoberts, asking for his assistance in their efforts to emigrate from Canada. McRoberts commissioned Engen, who was already familiar with the Canadian Mennonites, to search for an appropriate site. Engen spent nearly a year exploring South America, including a June-July 1920[2] expedition into the forbidding Paraguayan Chaco. He was so impressed by its economic and agricultural prospects that immediately upon his return he wired McRoberts with the message that he had “found the promised land.”[3]
From this point on McRoberts remained focused on Paraguay as the best settlement option for the emigrating Mennonites. The Old Colony Mennonites decided to move to Mexico instead, but a federation of conservative Bergthal Mennonites looking to emigrate contacted McRoberts soon afterwards and he directed them to Paraguay. For the rest of the decade, Engen served as the primary point person between McRoberts and this group of emigrating Mennonites.
In April 1921 Engen led a delegation sent by the Bergthal groups on a tour of the Chaco. The tour left a very favourable impression on the delegates. By now a trusted companion, Engen accompanied this delegation on their return to Manitoba and strongly promotred a move to Paraguay.
The first shipload of Mennonite immigrants to Paraguay was only able to leave several years later. They arrived in Buenos Aires at the end of 1926 where Engen met them and brought them both the legal documents necessary to enter Paraguay and apples to help the children celebrate Christmas. At the end of December, the group disembarked at Puerto Casado, still 200 kilometers away from their newly purchased land.
At this point, the immigration ran into a series of unexpected and severe difficulties. Their land had not been surveyed or demarcated, there was no mode of transport to their land, and the temporary accommodations were grossly inadequate. The results were devastating. During the 16 months of waiting before the immigrants could establish their new settlement an epidemic broke out; out of a total migrant population of 1785, around 185 people died and around another 350 returned to Canada.
As the representative of the Corporación Paraguaya, founded by McRoberts to facilitate the Mennonites’ settlement in Paraguay, Engen was responsible for overcoming these obstacles, at least until McRoberts himself arrived in Puerto Casado in June 1927. Engen organized and led several initial forays into the Chaco beginning in January 1927, which resulted in several important temporary farming sites. Engen also managed to bring a much needed doctor to Puerto Casado in September 1927. And once survey work began, Engen appears to have played a leading role with the survey teams on the ground.[4]
Engen died in 1929 in Puerto Casado, shortly after the establishment of Menno Colony in 1928. He was greatly mourned by his many Mennonite friends. The Chaco railway station at Kilometer 145 and the main street of Loma Plata in Menno Colony are both named after him.
See Also
- Emigration from Canada to Mexico and Paraguay in the 1920s
- Canadian Mennonite Land-Seeking Delegations, 1919-1922
- McRoberts, Samuel (1868-1947)
- Corporación Paraguaya
Notes
Bibliography
Ens, Adolf. Subjects or Citizens? The Mennonite Experience in Canada, 1870-1925. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1994. Pp. 209-216.
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. P. 321
Fretz, Joseph W. Pilgrims in Paraguay: The Story of Mennonite Colonization in South America. Scottdale: Herald Press, 1953. Pp. 12-18.
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.
Loewen, Royden. Village among Nations: "Canadian" Mennonites in a Transnational World, 1916-2006. University of Toronto Press, 2013. Pp. 33-8, 57, 63, 72.
Quiring, Walter. “The Canadian Mennonite Immigration into the Paraguayan Chaco, 1926-27.” The Mennonite Quarterly Review 8, no. 1 (January 1934): 32-42.
Redekop, Calvin. Strangers Become Neighbors: Mennonite and Indigenous Relations in the Paraguayan Chaco. Herald Press, 1980. Pp. 97-98.
Stoesz, Edgar. Like a Mustard Seed: Mennonites in Paraguay. Scottdate: Herald Press, 2008. Pp. 27-39
Stoesz, Edgar and Muriel T. Stackley. Garden in the Wilderness: Mennonite Communities in the Paraguayan Chaco, 1927-1997. Winnipeg: CMBC Publications, 1999. Pp. 1-4, 17-36.
| Author(s) | Gerald Ens |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 2024 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Ens, Gerald. "Engen, Fred (1863-1929)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 2024. Web. 26 Apr 2025. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Engen,_Fred_(1863-1929)&oldid=180488.
APA style
Ens, Gerald. (2024). Engen, Fred (1863-1929). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 26 April 2025, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Engen,_Fred_(1863-1929)&oldid=180488.
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