Chapter 4:
Canada (1894-1910)
The Drewes family was headed to the New World. Canadian government agents had been soliciting pioneers to go to Strathcona in Canada’s North West Territories, which was at the terminal end of the Calgary and Edmonton railroad. This part of the NWT would later become the province of Alberta in 1905.
The pioneers were being sold land that had been set up under Treaty Number Six as Indian Reservation #136 in 1876. So let’s do a little First Nations history. While Canada had been able to convince the Natives to go onto reservations in 1876, things were not going so well south of the border. On July 25 and 26, 1876, the Sioux Nation hung a big hurt on the US Army and its leader, George Custer. The Battle of the Little Big Horn put an end to George Custer’s military career and his life.
In the spring of 1877, Sioux leader Sitting Bull and 5000 Sioux people came across the border to Wood Mountain in the Cypress Hills, seeking the protection of the Great White Mother. The choice to come on the east side of the Cypress Hills was influenced by the resident Assiniboin tribal group, also called the Nakoda Sioux, which spoke a Sioux dialect. Inspector James Walsh of the North West Mounted Police and Sitting Bull agreed on protection from the United States and Sioux compliance with Canadian law. The Canadian government, however, refused a request to establish a reserve for Sitting Bull’s people. The last of the Sioux (including Sitting Bull) surrendered to the USA and returned there in 1881.
Eight years later Canada had its turn, with the Métis uprising under Gabriel Dumont and Louis Riel. The 1884-1885 Rebellion was centered at North Battleford, Saskatchewan. The rebellion was in part a result of the vanishing of the buffalo by 1879, as well as the government’s failure to address Métis land claims. After the Métis Red River Rebellion of 1869-1870, Canada should have addressed the issue of Métis land claims.
In 1884, Fort Edmonton had a white population of no more than 125. If you added in those within a radius of 70 miles, the total was still under 280. The Métis greatly outnumbered them. Within that same area, there were between 500 and 1000 First Nations men and over 500 Métis men. A large number of both were living along the North Saskatchewan River and on the 39.9 square mile Papaschase (Woodpecker) Reserve on the south side of the North Saskatchewan River, which was within 5 miles of the Fort. The white population of Fort Edmonton was badly outnumbered and they felt desperate and afraid. With news of the rebellion, the women and children were put into the fort and embankments were dug around the fort.
James Mowatt volunteered to ride through the reserves on a 200-mile trip to Fort Calgary for help. He left after midnight on Apr 8, 1884 and he was able to sneak through the Papaschase Reserve undetected. He made it to Calgary in 36 hours. General Strange, who commanded the Alberta Field Force, ordered the force to go north. On April 14th, the home guard at Fort Edmonton was bolstered by 15 police and 35 settlers, but the fort also sheltered 84 women and children.
Catholic priests Father Scollen and Father Lacombe and missionary Henry Steinhauer were instrumental in helping keep the Natives and the Métis from joining the Métis rebellion. Chief Papaschase (Woodpecker) swore that he would not take up arms. When the arrival of General Strange’s force on May 1 finally ended the threat, Chief Papaschase was given a reward for cooperating.
In the spring of 1890, the Calgary-Edmonton Railway Company was organized. Surveys were carried out and by Christmas the steel had reached the Red Deer River. In the fall of 1891, the railroad was completed. It stopped on the south side of the North Saskatchewan River at Strathcona. Today that location is just south of where the CPR crosses Whyte Avenue (82 Ave).
But for the Natives on the Papaschase Reserve, things were not going well. With Edmonton’s population now over 500, the reservation was too close. The white population thought it had to go. To eliminate the reservation, the federal government offered the Métis per person scrip -- $160.00 plus 160 acres of government land in a part of northern Alberta. Chief Papaschase (Woodpecker), who had been born in Lesser Slave Lake in 1835, swore he was Métis. Along with his fellow Métis, he moved back to Lesser Slave Lake. The remaining small number of Natives were moved to the Louis Bull Reserve at Wetaskiwin.
The federal government put the reservation up for sale to recover the money that had been paid out in scrip. That is how 40 square miles of land was put up for auction in 1893. The sale was promoted in the United States, Germany, and Russia. The auction failed, so the land was then to be sold to prospective settlers for $3.00-4.00 per acre. The buyers agreed to build and settle the land within 1 year or forfeit the sale and the money paid. The area had a slightly rolling topography and it was 60% grassland and 40% trees.
The land sale became known to the Drewes clan in Germany from correspondence between Friedrich Fuhrhop and J. Heinrich Drewes. J. Heinrich’s wife Anna (nee Westermann) had gone to school with Friedrich Fuhrhop.
The Friedrich “Fred” and Bertha Fuhrhop family had come to Ellerslie in 1893. They purchased the W½-1-52-24 W4. Fred was a friend of the Drewes family, as he had been a schoolmate of Anna Drewes in Germany. Fred was born with a foot problem, which limited his mobility. As a result, he was exempted from military service and instead studied to become a teacher. In 1884, he left Germany and travelled to New York City. While in New York, he met and married Bertha Beltz. They went to Minnesota, where they worked as farm laborers. They had 5 children: Helen, Ella, Fred, Henry, and William. The small Fuhrhop village north of Dorfmark lays on the outside of the Hohne Millitary Range and as a consequence it still exists today.
Fred and the German community in Minnesota became aware of Canada’s proposed sale of the Papaschase Reserve. This opportunity would allow young immigrants to actually own land of their own. He advised Johann Heinrich and Anna Drewes of this sale and the opportunity. As a result, the Drewes family decided to sell Mackenthun Hof and go to Ellerslie. The arrival of the Drewes at Ellerslie was a reconnection of schoolmates and neighbors.
J. Heinrich appears to have received the largest fund from the sale of Mackenthun Hof. He purchased the NW ¼ and SW ¼ of 24-51-24. He also purchased the 80-acre west half of NE-24-51-24. Then he also purchased the SE-24-51-24 (less 40 acres) for his oldest son Henry.
J. Heinrich Drewes in Ellerslie (1897)
These 2 photos were taken by the same photographer
Back row: Anna and Henry Drewes
Front row: William and J. Heinrich Drewes (Ellerslie, 1897 )
William Drewes purchased the SE-26-51-24 along with the 80-acre east half of the NE-24-51-24, and finally a 40-acre portion of the SE-24-51-24, the quarter in Henry Drewes’ name.
In 1902, Ilsa and Henry Heuer took possession of the S½-23-51-24 W4, which had previously been purchased by J. Heinrich Drewes.
The Drewes family had been accompanied by a neighbor family from Obereinzingen, Heinrich and Maria Oelhorn (English change to Elhorn). They purchased 80 acres of NW 26-51-24 W4 near William Drewes. They had children Heinrich Jr., and Friedrich Wilhelm, who were born in Germany, and Herman who was born at Ellerslie October 1, 1898. Heinrich Oelhorn died on September 26, 1900. At that time, his son Henry was only 2 years old. Over the years, the family contacts would continue. As a young man, Herman learned to be steam engine operator. In the 1920’s, William Drewes added his first steam engine to generate electricity for his flour mill. Henry Elhorn came to Stettler to operate the power plant. He did this until the mill was put on the hydro grid. Herman lived in a small house immediately west of the flour mill on the south side of 49 Street.
The last was a nephew of Johann Heinrich: Karl Kruse. Karl was a close friend of his cousin Henry and he lived with the family at Ellerslie. He later joined the Texas migration with his parents and the rest of the Drewes clan.
The families were all able to develop successful farming operations. Their social life was centered on their neighbors and a strong conviction in the Lutheran Church.
In 1894, they started holding church services in the home of Michael Werner. His home was located on his son Karl’s farm on the NE-28-51-24. Pastor Pempeit came there from Spruce Grove until 1897, when he moved to Ellerslie. In 1895, the congregation purchased the NE-21-51-24 and built a log church (Betsaal – prayer hall). Heinrich Drewes, Michael Werner, and Michael Kruger acted as trustees in the land purchase.
In 1902, they made a decision to build a church. William Drewes donated a 5-acre site in the southeast corner of SE-26-51-24 and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church was built there. Heinrich donated 5 acres kitty-corner to it on the NW-24-51-24 for the pastor’s animals. The site was referred to as Lutherhort, meaning “Lutheran refuge or stronghold,” which was in part taken from Martin Luther’s hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.”
The congregation then sold 120 acres of the original site to help pay for building the new church. In 1910, an additional 38 acres were sold. The Betsaal was moved to the new site and it started being used as a parish hall. In those days, the church could only be used for church services, weddings, and funerals. Sunday school and any other functions had to be held in the Betsaal.
A new brick church was built in 1924, but in 1935 it was struck by lightning and it burned down. It was replaced by a brick-faced church that still stands. If you visit the churchyard today (as of 2018), you can still see the church, Betsaal, and manse. Next to the Betsaal is a commemorative stone honoring the original families. William and Dorothea Drewes, Heinrich and Anna Drewes, Henry Drewes, and Heinrich and Ilsa Heuer are listed on it.
The 2 acres of the original Betsaal are still there as the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church Cemetery. A second cemetery was started in 1894 on the NW-25-51-24 and today it is known as the Rosedale Cemetery.
The next big change to affect the Drewes clan occurred in 1903. The Steinbrecher brothers of Calgary owned the German American Colonization Company and they had a contract to sell 50,000 acres of CPR land at the terminus of a CPR rail line, which would be extended 50 miles east of Blackfalds/Lacombe. Carl Stettler, a Swiss promoter who had made money as a beer distributor for Annheuser Bush in Kansas and Oklahoma, was managing the sale of the land. They wanted to establish a Swiss-German community at the end of the rail.
Carl Stettler had a stopping house built at his Blumenau homestead in 1904. In the late summer of 1905, he had a post office building built. John Adams, a local farmer, had a building built as a store at the same time.
The CPR arrived at the Stettler townsite in November 1905. By January 1906, construction of the town was well underway.
They were looking for a young German-speaking farmer familiar with Canadian conditions. They also wanted someone with experience in operating a steam plowing and threshing outfit. The reward was a section of farmland and financing of a steam tractor, threshing machine, and plow. The volunteer was Henry Drewes, the oldest son of J. Heinrich Drewes.
Henry’s father Heinrich stayed in Ellerslie to look after that farm, but he also had his name on a quarter section of land at Blumenau/ Stettler. Henry and his brother William each had their own quarter and Henry’s friend George Stack had the last one in that section. At that time, George used the German spelling of his last name, Stachske. They were eligible to homestead because they had bought the land at Ellerslie.
Henry Drewes' homestead record
In the summer of 1904, the Drewes group took out homesteads on the 30-38-18 W4, with Heinrich’s name on the SE¼, Henry on the SW¼, William on the NW¼, and George Stack on the NE¼. They then returned to Ellerslie for the winter.
They returned in the summer of 1905. They cut logs from the Red Deer River valley 20 miles west and they hauled them by horse and wagon to the homesteads. That summer, they built 2 12 x 20-foot log houses. Then they again returned to Ellerslie for the winter.
Johann Heinrich Drewes' homestead
(SE¼-30-38-18 W4)
c. 1950
William Drewes' homestead
(NW¼-30-38-18 W4)
c. 1950
George Stach's homestead
(NE¼-30-38-18 W4)
c. 1950
At some point, someone must have complained to Land Titles that J. Heinrich was not living on his homestead at Botha. The family had split its resources, with J. Heinrich looking after the farmlands in Ellerslie while his sons were in Stettler. To the right is a statement filed at Land Titles that was prepared and witnessed by Carl Stettler to cover this issue.
In March 1906, Henry and William Drewes returned to Stettler. On Mar 15, 1906, they unloaded a new Sawyer Massey steam engine off of a CPR flatcar in Stettler. They then proceeded to drag Carl Stettler’s post office from Blumenau into Stettler, placing it on a south facing lot on 50 Avenue. They then hauled John Adams’ store to the northwest corner of Main Street and Railroad Avenue, just south of the CPR Station. This gave Carl Stettler and John Adams some of the earliest operating buildings in the new town.
The Drewes brothers then had to hurry back to Ellerslie for a wedding. On Mar 31, 1906, Pastor Bredlow presided over the wedding of George Stack and Emma Lechelt in St. John’s Lutheran Church in Leduc. They were going to live on George’s homestead at Blumenau. Later that summer, Pastor Bredlow made a missionary trip to Stettler and he stayed with the Stacks.
George Stack was a close family friend and he had been part of the Drewes family when they homesteaded section 30-38-18 W4. In the intervening years, he had purchased the W½-31-38-18 W4 from the CPR.
H. F. W Drewes' steam engineer certificate (1907)
In 1910, Henry Bauer purchased the homesteads of Chris Jensen (the SW-6-39-18 W4) and Chris Hansen (the NE-6-39-18 W4). His brother Charlie Bauer, who also came from Ontario, purchased the SW-36-38-19 W4 on the next quarter north of Robert Zimmerman. Henry had earned his steam engineer certificate working for the Henschell family on their custom harvesting crew. In 1907, his brother William also became a certified steam engineer.
The Stettler area was a treeless prairie in 1905. Every few years as the grassy fuel built up, a prairie fire would burn off the grass and any tree seedlings. Henry’s caution to the new settlers was to plow or burn the area around the new farmstead. For some newcomers, no trees was bad enough, but to burn or plow the homestead black was too much for them. As a result, a large prairie fire during the fall of 1905 caused widespread damage. The fire was over 100 miles long and 30 miles wide. Many settlers’ homes and supplies were destroyed.
In addition to the Sawyer Massey tractor, Henry had purchased a Sawyer Massey threshing machine and a John Deere 8-bottom gang plow. He had a monopoly contract to thresh Carl Stettler’s Swiss-German community. The area he threshed extended from the east side of Stettler (section 4-39-19) to southeast of Botha (section 18-38-17).
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Threshing in the colony of Stettler (1907-1908)
In preparation for threshing in the fall, Henry had the settlers stack the grain bundles into a large stack or two stacks placed 10 feet apart. These stacks could then be threshed after snowfall by either shaking the snow off of the top or by discarding the top layer for livestock feed.
According to Henry Drewes’ records, he and the Sawyer Massey threshed in the Swiss-German community until December 12 in 1906 and until December 20 in 1907. When the threshing was completed in December 1909, Henry sold all the equipment at an auction sale. He then joined the family members who were going to Texas. George Stack was left in charge of the Stettler/Botha farms.
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Drewes brothers threshing (1907-1909)
Plowing
Left to right: William Drewes (on plow), George Stack (on water wagon), Sawyer Massey rep in bowler hat, and Henry Drewes (tractor driver )
In 1907, the Drewes families in Ellerslie had made a decision to go to Texas. They sent word to Germany to see if the families that had stayed there wanted to join them in this new venture.
Fred (or “Fritz”) Drewes had stayed in Germany. His wife Marie Euhus had inherited a 10-hectare farm that had been part of Mackenthun Hof. While Fred was reluctant to leave Germany, his wife Marie insisted that they move so she and her mother sold her land holding. Fred, Marie, their 4 children, and Mrs. Euhus arrived in Ellerslie in late 1908. Shortly after their arrival, Mrs. Euhus became ill. She passed away in 1909.
The same year, Jacob Kruse and his wife Sophia (Westerman) Kruse came to Ellerslie with their 2 sons. Sophia was a sister to J. Heinrich Drewes’ wife Anna. Sophia’s move to Ellerslie reunited 2 of the 3 Westerman sisters and the 3 sons of Jacob and Sophia Kruse.
In 1909, Heinrich Drewes and his son William made a trip back to Germany. They were going to visit old friends, but in particular they wanted to visit Heinrich’s brother-in-law Jacob Wischoff. Jacob’s first wife Marie (Westerman) Wischoff was the third Westerman sister. She had died in about 1885, leaving Jacob with 2 sons. Jacob had then married Dorothea Beneke. This marriage resulted in 2 daughters: Maria Christina Dorothea “Dorothea” (born on Feb 21, 1889) and Sophie. Dorothea had become a pen pal to William Drewes and the pen pal relationship had progressed from “Liebe cousin” (Dear cousin) to wanting to meet.
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A postcard from William Drewes to Dora
In 1910, Dorothea left Germany and sailed to New York. Heinrich and Anna Drewes met her at Ellis Island in New York. On June 24, 1910, William and Dorothea were married in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Ellerslie.
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William and Dorothea Drewes' wedding in Ellerslie (1910)
The land held by the Drewes and Heuer families at Ellerslie was all sold when they left for Texas. There was no coming back.
On Dec 15, 1910, the 5 families (the J. Heinrich Drewes family, the Fred Drewes family, the William Drewes family, the Heinrich Heuer family, and the Jacob Kruse family) passed through Portal, North Dakota by train. They were leaving Canada for Texas. In doing so, they renounced any allegiance to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and swore allegiance to the United States.
SE-26-51-24 W4: Donated by William Drewes in 1902, became Lutherhort
NW-24-51-24 W4: Heinrich Drewes donated 5 acres in the northwest corner as pasture for the minister’s animals
SW-24-51-24 W4: Purchased by Heinrich Drewes on May 24, 1894
NE-21-51-24 W4: Prior to 1899, Heinrich Drewes, Michael Werner, and Michael Kruger purchased 40 acres. They sold 38 acres to Christian Treichel. The balance became the Ellerslie Lutheran Cemetery.
