Lowen Family Interview July 24th, 2007<\/div>\r\n
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Interviewed: Louise Corbett, Kathryn Schmidt, Margaret Durksen<\/div>\r\n
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Interviewed by: Leslie Norman (Curator)<\/div>\r\n
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The Lowen family lived in the Pitt Polder area on Rannie Road just north of Sturgeon Slough and just across from where Swaneset is today. This was the same area Rannie settled in the early part of the 20th century and is where Mennonite families settled in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Lowen sisters are Mennonites but Kathryn does not feel they were particularly involved with the church. It was their parents who emigrated from Russia (Mennonites are German but this family was from Russia). We have found the Lowen family in two directories supplied in the Heritage Inventory files, one dating to 1931 and the other to 1932. The sisters know the family moved to the area in 1928 or 1929 and were gone from the area by about 1933\/34. It appears they may have moved away for a short period and then came back before moving away for good by 1934. In the directory, the name is spelt Loeyen, but we are sure it is the same family as the initials are correct for their father (J.J.) and the spelling is another way to spell the family name. There is a second Loeyen listed but the women are sure he was no relation and do not recognize the name as being in the same area as their family.<\/div>\r\n
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There were 7 sisters and two brothers in the family. The two brothers are both deceased and did not live in Pitt Meadows.<\/div>\r\n
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The sisters from oldest to youngest, are as follows:<\/div>\r\n
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Louise (Corbett) – age 85 at the time of the interview (born 1922). She has the most memories of the area as she was school-age when they lived here. She attended school at the small Mennonite schoolhouse that was located beside the big red\/orange barn. She did not go past grade seven as that required a move to the school house in Pitt Meadows and she did not have transportation to the site. After grade seven she stayed home to look after the family. Louise now lives in Hope<\/div>\r\n
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Anne (Dickman) – Mrs. Dickman was not at the interview. She now lives in Abbotsford. Her sisters tell us she is three years younger than Louise and also attended school here. She may also have a memory of the area.<\/div>\r\n
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Freda (now deceased) – was born in 1929 – right around the time the family moved to the area.<\/div>\r\n
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Kathren (Schmidt) – was born in 1931 and has little or no memory of living here other than the black mud that was constantly around their property. Kathren lives in Ontario. It was she and her husband who got the sisters together to come and speak with Leslie. She was motivated by the fact her son has recently purchased a home in Coquitlam and she remembered that the first place she lived was Pitt Meadows.<\/div>\r\n
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Edna (Klaussen) – never lived in the area.<\/div>\r\n
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Margaret (Durksen) – never lived in the area but she did come to the interview with her sisters. She lives in Abbotsford.<\/div>\r\n
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Shirley (Friesen) – no information was given about this sister.<\/div>\r\n
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Louie Lowen remembers: Going to the little schoolhouse in Pitt Polder. In response to the curator's suggestion it was outside the Pitt Meadows School District, she stated that it must have been a public school as a school inspector came to the site every so often and she remembers him inspecting her school work (which made her very nervous). It was a one-room school with a pot-bellied stove for heat and windows on the south side. There was a small collection (library) of books in the classroom and she remembers her favourite being the World Book Encyclopedias. She was an avid reader of these books as they had none at home. Her teacher one year was Mr. Ward who she remembers having had dirty hair and fingernails. She remembers the school being right next to the barn. There is also a memory of Mr. Deleep Hall who went there in 1939 and Mr. Richardson has confirmed the school was near the barn.<\/div>\r\n
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Little cottages were built by the settlers on concrete blocks on mud. They had no electricity and no indoor plumbing. They did have a well with potable water. There was a sand point (heavy screen) on the well to filter out the dirt. Her father had been a teacher in Russia but was attempting farming in Canada. He also went out to the lake to work at a mill cutting shingles in order to earn money as they were unable to earn money by farming. He acted as the correspondent for the area as he was educated but his English was not good.<\/div>\r\n
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The farm had eight cows but they were always ill as they were never dry and they never produced enough to keep the family in funds. When the family returned to the area for a second time they lived in a different house but the conditions remained the same. This house was closer to the barn. Christmas concerts were held in the school building. The family earned on occasion 5.00 per month to do janitorial work at the school. Another student who attended was George Berg and his family also earned money this way. Other names in the area at the time: Kuntz, Neufeld (John and Mary),Pankratz, and Fast. Louise does not remember the Koberstein name and we believe the Kobersteins either came after the Lowens left or they left before the Lowens came.<\/div>\r\n
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She remembers when she was about 13 or 14 years old riding her family's bike into Pitt Meadows for sports day. On her return, she was stopped by an elderly woman at a home on Menzies Mountain. This woman gave her tea and was very kind to her and told her not to leave school as it would be a horrible mistake. She remembers the woman having an English accent and we think this must have been Mrs. Menzies. The year would have been 1935 or 1936. In particular, Louise remembers the beautiful bone china tea cups they drank out of.<\/div>\r\n
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German was not allowed to be spoken in the school. English only.<\/div>\r\n
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She remembers a native woman by the name of Annie who lived close to where Swaneset is now. She remembers being good friends and that the woman was working there but was not from the area. Many years later she met her in a community in the Fraser Canyon beyond Hope. It appears Annie was not Katzie.<\/div>\r\n
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Overall, Louise’s greatest memory is of how bitter her parents were about their years in the Polder area. The family feels they were conned into farming there and they also remember their parents feeling someone deliberately flooded the land to drive them out. They also recall a constant fear of impending floods and what they would do or where they would go to escape especially if their father was away from home for days or weeks working at the shingle mill. They remember having absolutely no money and having to take gifts of food from time to time. However, Kathren also remembers her mother feeding a more needy family on a regular basis (this was from an interview done earlier in July when she and her husband made an initial visit to the Museum).<\/div>\r\n
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Interviewer’s note: Many years ago Mrs. Koberstein related the same feeling of bitterness and anger over having been conned into moving to this area to farm. It is the interviewer's understanding that many of the Mennonite families who tried to farm the area and gave up, felt much the same way. However, it is unlikely anyone flooded the land deliberately as the land at that time stayed almost permanently wet on its own.<\/div>\r\n
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*Please note: This is an approximate location of the family farm, as we were given that it was on Rannie Road, north of the Sturgeon Slough and across from Swaneset Resort.<\/i><\/div>","SEO_LINK":"lowen-family-interview","VIDEO_LINK":"","SOUNDCLOUD_LINK":"","IMG1":"","IMG2":"","IMG3":"","IMG4":"","IMG5":"","IMG6":"","IMG7":"","IMG1_THUMB":"","IMG2_THUMB":"","IMG3_THUMB":"","IMG4_THUMB":"","IMG5_THUMB":"","IMG6_THUMB":"","IMG7_THUMB":""}X
Lowen Family Interview
Lowen Family Interview July 24th, 2007
Interviewed: Louise Corbett, Kathryn Schmidt, Margaret Durksen
Interviewed by: Leslie Norman (Curator)
The Lowen family lived in the Pitt Polder area on Rannie Road just north of Sturgeon Slough and just across from where Swaneset is today. This was the same area Rannie settled in the early part of the 20th century and is where Mennonite families settled in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Lowen sisters are Mennonites but Kathryn does not feel they were particularly involved with the church. It was their parents who emigrated from Russia (Mennonites are German but this family was from Russia). We have found the Lowen family in two directories supplied in the Heritage Inventory files, one dating to 1931 and the other to 1932. The sisters know the family moved to the area in 1928 or 1929 and were gone from the area by about 1933/34. It appears they may have moved away for a short period and then came back before moving away for good by 1934. In the directory, the name is spelt Loeyen, but we are sure it is the same family as the initials are correct for their father (J.J.) and the spelling is another way to spell the family name. There is a second Loeyen listed but the women are sure he was no relation and do not recognize the name as being in the same area as their family.
There were 7 sisters and two brothers in the family. The two brothers are both deceased and did not live in Pitt Meadows.
The sisters from oldest to youngest, are as follows:
Louise (Corbett) – age 85 at the time of the interview (born 1922). She has the most memories of the area as she was school-age when they lived here. She attended school at the small Mennonite schoolhouse that was located beside the big red/orange barn. She did not go past grade seven as that required a move to the school house in Pitt Meadows and she did not have transportation to the site. After grade seven she stayed home to look after the family. Louise now lives in Hope
Anne (Dickman) – Mrs. Dickman was not at the interview. She now lives in Abbotsford. Her sisters tell us she is three years younger than Louise and also attended school here. She may also have a memory of the area.
Freda (now deceased) – was born in 1929 – right around the time the family moved to the area.
Kathren (Schmidt) – was born in 1931 and has little or no memory of living here other than the black mud that was constantly around their property. Kathren lives in Ontario. It was she and her husband who got the sisters together to come and speak with Leslie. She was motivated by the fact her son has recently purchased a home in Coquitlam and she remembered that the first place she lived was Pitt Meadows.
Edna (Klaussen) – never lived in the area.
Margaret (Durksen) – never lived in the area but she did come to the interview with her sisters. She lives in Abbotsford.
Shirley (Friesen) – no information was given about this sister.
Louie Lowen remembers: Going to the little schoolhouse in Pitt Polder. In response to the curator's suggestion it was outside the Pitt Meadows School District, she stated that it must have been a public school as a school inspector came to the site every so often and she remembers him inspecting her school work (which made her very nervous). It was a one-room school with a pot-bellied stove for heat and windows on the south side. There was a small collection (library) of books in the classroom and she remembers her favourite being the World Book Encyclopedias. She was an avid reader of these books as they had none at home. Her teacher one year was Mr. Ward who she remembers having had dirty hair and fingernails. She remembers the school being right next to the barn. There is also a memory of Mr. Deleep Hall who went there in 1939 and Mr. Richardson has confirmed the school was near the barn.
Little cottages were built by the settlers on concrete blocks on mud. They had no electricity and no indoor plumbing. They did have a well with potable water. There was a sand point (heavy screen) on the well to filter out the dirt. Her father had been a teacher in Russia but was attempting farming in Canada. He also went out to the lake to work at a mill cutting shingles in order to earn money as they were unable to earn money by farming. He acted as the correspondent for the area as he was educated but his English was not good.
The farm had eight cows but they were always ill as they were never dry and they never produced enough to keep the family in funds. When the family returned to the area for a second time they lived in a different house but the conditions remained the same. This house was closer to the barn. Christmas concerts were held in the school building. The family earned on occasion 5.00 per month to do janitorial work at the school. Another student who attended was George Berg and his family also earned money this way. Other names in the area at the time: Kuntz, Neufeld (John and Mary),Pankratz, and Fast. Louise does not remember the Koberstein name and we believe the Kobersteins either came after the Lowens left or they left before the Lowens came.
She remembers when she was about 13 or 14 years old riding her family's bike into Pitt Meadows for sports day. On her return, she was stopped by an elderly woman at a home on Menzies Mountain. This woman gave her tea and was very kind to her and told her not to leave school as it would be a horrible mistake. She remembers the woman having an English accent and we think this must have been Mrs. Menzies. The year would have been 1935 or 1936. In particular, Louise remembers the beautiful bone china tea cups they drank out of.
German was not allowed to be spoken in the school. English only.
She remembers a native woman by the name of Annie who lived close to where Swaneset is now. She remembers being good friends and that the woman was working there but was not from the area. Many years later she met her in a community in the Fraser Canyon beyond Hope. It appears Annie was not Katzie.
Overall, Louise’s greatest memory is of how bitter her parents were about their years in the Polder area. The family feels they were conned into farming there and they also remember their parents feeling someone deliberately flooded the land to drive them out. They also recall a constant fear of impending floods and what they would do or where they would go to escape especially if their father was away from home for days or weeks working at the shingle mill. They remember having absolutely no money and having to take gifts of food from time to time. However, Kathren also remembers her mother feeding a more needy family on a regular basis (this was from an interview done earlier in July when she and her husband made an initial visit to the Museum).
Interviewer’s note: Many years ago Mrs. Koberstein related the same feeling of bitterness and anger over having been conned into moving to this area to farm. It is the interviewer's understanding that many of the Mennonite families who tried to farm the area and gave up, felt much the same way. However, it is unlikely anyone flooded the land deliberately as the land at that time stayed almost permanently wet on its own.
*Please note: This is an approximate location of the family farm, as we were given that it was on Rannie Road, north of the Sturgeon Slough and across from Swaneset Resort.
Details:
Latitude: 49.3081098965467
Longitude: -122.64422176304
Direct Link: https://www.pittmeadowsmuseum.com/locations/lowen-family-interview
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