Abraham and Margarethe Regier

Classification scheme:

Hist.Mss.1.275

Title: Abraham P. and Margarethe (Kroeger) Regier family fonds

Dates of creation: 1898-2022

Physical description: 60 cm of textual records; 66 photographs

Biographical sketch: Margarethe Kroeger (1896-1988) was born in Rosenthal, south Russia to David and Margaretha (Krahn) Kroeger. The Kroeger family were renowned clockmakers. She married Abraham Peter Regier (1895-1995) in June 1920. Around this time, the couple lost both sets of parents to the typhus epidemic of 1919-1920.

Abraham Peter ("A.P.") Regier was born in Chortitza, south Russia to Peter A. and Katarina (Koop) Regier. Peter Regier held elected offices, including mayor. Katarina Regier's father was one of the brothers who founded the A.J. Koop implement factory. A.P. Regier graduated from the Halbstadt Kommerzschule (commerce school) in 1916. Through 1917, he was in alternative service with the Red Cross in Romania. During the turbulent years of 1918-1923 he held positions in local government and worked in the former Koop factory as an assistant manager. He was also involved with the Verband der Bürger holländischer Herkunft (Union of Citizens of Dutch Ancestry) and the American Mennonite Relief Committee.

Margarethe and Abraham had ten children (one died in infancy). They immigrated to Canada in 1923 first to Edmonton, and then Lymburn, Alberta. The family moved to Niagara-on-the-Lake in 1943, where they became active members of the Niagara United Mennonite Church. The couple moved to the Vineland United Mennonite Home for the Aged in 1984.

In 1944, A.P. was one of the founders of the Niagara Credit Union. He was familiar with the credit union model from his youth because of the involvement of his father and grandfather in the Chortitza Society of Mutual Credit. A.P. served as secretary-treasurer and was later hired as manager, retiring in 1965.

Custodial history: Donated to the Archives by Henry A. Regier (son of Margarethe and Abraham Regier), 2014-2022

Scope and content: Series 1 consists of family photographs. Series 2 holds the files of A.P. Regier. Series 3 consists of the papers of Margarethe (Kroeger) Regier, predominantly journals, autobiographical writings and postcards, but also a recipe book and other items. Series 4 are items related to personal and family history written and collected by Henry A. Regier. Series 5 includes research by Arthur P. Kroeger, a cousin of Henry Regier, into the Kroeger clock enterprise. Series 6 documents the life of Margarethe Kroeger's niece, Anna, who remained in the Soviet Union/Russian Federation. Abraham and Margarethe's children were able to reconnect with their cousin in the 1990s.

Notes: For photographs related to this family search the Mennonite Archival Information Database.
An encyclopedia entry for Abraham P. Regier may be found in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.
Original archival description created 2021 by Laureen Harder-Gissing.

File list:

Series 1: Photographs

See the Mennonite Archival Information Database for descriptions. Cataloguing of these photographs is ongoing.

Series 2: Abraham P. Regier

Russian and immigration documents
1. Currency (German, Russian and Soviet)
2. Text for wedding invitation for Abraham Regier and Margarethe Kroeger, 1920
    Note: Due to the shortage of paper, the text is written on the back of an archived government document from A.P. Regier's office.
3. Waldheim Credit Society documents in Russian, 1913, 1918
4. Family personal documents, 1912, 1916-1923
   Note: Includes Red Cross service papers, American Mennonite Relief Committee authorization, Union of Citizens of Dutch Origin membership    card, family vital records, factory work records
5. Immigration documents, predominantly 1923
    Note: Includes passenger lists on the third train from Chortitza, 1923. A.P. had a leadership role on that train.
6. Notes by Dietrich Regier providing context for some of the documents in this file.
Family account books, 1926-1942, 1944-1945, 1946-1947
Book lending and distribution by A.P. Regier, 1936-2014
Family home in Lymburn, Alberta, 1928-1943, 1969, 2008, 2014
Note: Includes notes by Henry Regier
Attempted correspondence with Johann A. Regier in the Soviet Union, 1941-1942
Note: includes regulations for mail delivery to “enemy occupied countries.”
Autobiographical and biographical writings of Abraham Regier, 1968-2014
Note: Includes transcriptions by Henry Regier of A.P. Regier’s writings, and the transcript of an interview of A.P. Regier by Henry Paetkau in 1976. See Hist.Mss.22.2.39 Russian Mennonite Immigrants oral history project.
“Last historical comments” by A.P. Regier, 1991-1995
Genealogical notes and correspondence
News clippings of current events in Soviet Union, 1972, 1987, 1989, 1990
Misc. news clippings
Key ’73 notes and clippings, 1972
Awards and certificates for A.P. Regier
Birthday congratulations, 1985, 1990, 1994, 1995
Notes on Christian stewardship
Correspondence on Christian stewardship
Devotional and Bible study notes
Devotional poems
Niagara Credit Union, 1945-1988
See also XV-29.1
General correspondence, [19--], 1923-1995
Correspondence with David G. Rempel, 1974-1975
Mennonite Foundation agreement and correspondence, 1983-1989
Correspondence with Rev. Wilhelm and Maria (Froese) Pauls, 1943-2012
Note: Includes copy of Gedichte verschiedenen Inhalts in hoch und plattdeutscher Sprache by Wilhelm Pauls, and two photographs
Speech to an Orange Order banquet, Dunnville, 1967
Autobiographical talk at Young Peoples’ dinner for grandparents at Grace Mennonite Church, 1977
Wedding anniversaries, 1945, 1970, 1980, 1985, 1995
Obituary and funeral tributes, 1995
Ephemera
Note: Includes a copy of the catalogue of the Mennonite Bible school in Leamington: Mennonitischen Bibel- u. Fortbildungsschule zu Leamington, Ontario, 1946-1947
A.P. Regier's ziffern notation Choralbuch

Series 3: Margarethe (Kroeger) Regier

Journals and autobiographical writings
Note: Includes translations by David and Henry Regier. Translations also available in digital form.
Letter from A.P. Regier during typhus epidemic, 1920
Note: Includes translation by Henry Regier
Kroeger family reunions, 1959, 1983
Kroeger family entries in Chortitzer Gemeindebuch (photocopies)
Margarethe Regier’s recipe book
Note: The Archives has made a digital copy of the Margarethe Regier recipe book
Postcards and greeting cards (accompanied by the following handwritten notes):
1. To Margarethe Kroeger and Abraham Regier from their pre-marriage years in Rosenthal and Chortitza to early years in Alberta after their arrival there in 1923. A number of the cards are from people in Swalwell who welcomed them to Canada and after they all moved to Edmonton in 1924.

2. Sent by Abraham Peter Regier to Margarethe Kroeger from December 1915 when he was a student in the Halbstadt commerce school to February 1917 when he was serving in the Red Cross medical service with the Czarist Army in Romania. Letters from Romania contained no information about his service, but rather excerpts from literature. The Halbstadt card refers to Margarethe as reading Anna Karenina by Tolstoy.

3. A card from Anna Dyck, who married Johan P. Klassen (later of Blufton College), and a card from Sara Andres who died young of tuberculosis.

4. From male friends of Margarethe Kroeger. These were friends of her mother’s relatives, but without romantic motivations apparently. Some have comments in pencil by David Victor Regier apparently based on what his mother Margarethe Kroeger told him at the time.

5 Postcards and greeting cards without personal messages and signatures.
Maria (Krahn) Harder obituary, 2008
Note: Maria Harder (1900-2008) was a cousin to Margarethe Regier
Obituary and funeral tributes for Margarethe Regier, 1988
See also obituary in Der Bote, 28 Sept 1988
Margarethe Regier's ziffern notation chorale books

Series 4: Henry A. Regier

Notes, writings and correspondence, 1995-2023
Childhood memories of the Regier sibling, 2014, 2016
Historical writings ("'C' documents"), 2007-2014
"Happenings Related to the 'Peter Regier House' in Chortitza." David, Dietrich and Henry Regier.
"An Exchange of E-mails Between Henry Regier and James Urry."
"Heinrich Jakob Dyck (1880-1919) of Rosenthal, Art Teacher (1908-1919), Chortitzer Zentralschule." Henry Regier and siblings.
"Regier Family Entanglements with Respect to the Construction of the Chortitza Railroad." Henry Regier.
"In Matters, Old and New from the History of the German Coloniges of South Russia: The Battle of the Catharine Railroad." Dietrich H. Epp.
"American Mennonite Relief in the Chortitza Colony, USSR: Some Historical Details for 1922." Henry Regier.
Agatha (Sawatsky) Kroeger biographical information
Note: Agatha Kroeger was the grandmother of Margarethe (Kroeger) Regier
Kroeger clocks correspondence and clippings
Note: The following were not kept; copies are in the Milton Good Library: numerous Der Bote clippings on the Kroeger clocks; Reinhild Kavenhoven Janzen, “Keeping Faith and Keeping Time,” Mennonite Life, Dec 2000.
85^th Anniversary of the family’s emigration, 2008

Series 5: Arthur Peter Kroeger

Note: Arthur Peter Kroeger (1922-2015) is a first cousin to Henry Regier

Writings
“Serendipety [sic] Going Back to Rosental,” 1997
“Biography of Johann Bartsch the Deputy,” 2002
Note: This manuscript is probably an earlier version of The Story of Johann Bartsch: A Mennonite Land Scout and Delegate, 2015. A copy is located in the Milton Good Library.
“’Kolonies-garten’ Near Rosental,” 2003
“Seven Stories,” 2011
Kroeger Clock research papers
“Die Kroeger Uhr,” Arthur Kroeger, 1977. A second copy in English.
“Kroeger Clocks,” Arthur Kroeger, 1983
“Turning Back the Hands of Time,” Mennonite Heritage Village exhibit program, 1995
“Three Antique Kroeger Clocks,” 2003
“Remembering Tante Agathe,” Arthur Kroeger, 1997
Note: A tribute to Agathe (Kroeger) Peters
Arthur Peter Kroeger, biographical notes and correspondence

Series 6: Anna Kroeger

Note: Due to information affecting living persons, this file is restricted until 2053.

Anna Kroeger was the daughter of Johann and Anna (Martens) Kroeger. Johann was a brother to Margarethe (Kroeger) Regier, and thus Anna Kroeger was Margarethe's niece. Anna lived her entire life in the Soviet Union/Russian Federation. Further biographical details are located within the file.