Jacob H. Janzen

Title: Jacob H. Janzen fonds

Dates of creation: [ca.1924] - [ca.1995]

Biographical sketch: Janzen was born in South Russia and immigrated to Canada in 1924. He was elder of the Waterloo-Kitchener United Mennonite Church, 1926-50 and Home Mission Worker in Canada, 1925-50.

Custodial history: The original manuscripts were donated to the Mennonite Archives of Ontario by Alexandra Janzen Neufeld in 1995. Later donations in May 2004 came via Philip Neufeld, J.H. Janzen's grandson. Notebook in Vol. 7 file 2 and book in Vol. 7 file 10 were donated to the Archives by Lane Stevens in 2023.

Scope and content: The fonds consists of original manuscripts, photocopies, and microfiche from the literary estate of Jacob H. Janzen (1878-1950). Manuscript material of the pre-Canadian period is missing.

Ten reels of 16mm microfilm of Janzen's correspondence (1926-1950) housed at the Mennonite Library & Archives are in the microfilm collection at Hist.Mss.11.6. A finding aid to the microfiche/microfilm collection is found at the beginning of vol. 2.

Notes: Related manuscripts are in the Mennonite Library and Archives, North Newton, Kansas and the Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Original description created by Sam Steiner; updated by Laureen Harder-Gissing in 2023.

File list:

Vol. 1: Correspondence

1. Photocopies of correspondence with David Toews, 1926-32 (originals at MHC)
2. Photocopies of correspondence with David Toews, 1932-45 (originals at MHC)
3. Correspondence with David Toews, 1934-41
4. Photocopies of correspondence with David Toews, 1936-37 (originals at MHC)

Vol. 2: Microfiche Collection

320. Round Robin correspondence, 1924-26
321. Special correspondence with David Toews, 1925-26
322. Special correspondence with Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization, 1924-26
323. Immigration correspondence, 1930
324. Correspondence with David Toews, 1934
325. Kinderbote material
326. Correspondence re: Reesor settlement, 1930-32
327. Correspondence re: Reesor settlement, 1934-35
328. Correspondence with CPR, 1934-37
329. Correspondence re: conference matters, 1940-41
330. Choral Book
331. Ohrloffer Girls' School
332. Pastoral letters and church minutes, 1936-37
333. Pastoral letters and church minutes, 1937
334. Personal memoirs
335. Personal memoirs
336. School work
337. Travel schedules and address book
338. Travel memoirs
339. Diary, 1927

Vol. 3: Microfiche Collection

291. Special correspondence, 1936
292. Special correspondence, 1937-38
293. Special correspondence, 1939
294. Special correspondence, 1940-41
340. Mennonite history
341. Mennonite history
342. Russian Mennonite history
343. Mennonites in Ontario
344. Mennonite doctrine on nonresistance
345. Mennonite doctrines
346. Travels in Western Canada, 1934
347. Baptism and ordination matters, 1928-29
348. Refugee Church in Ontario
349. Men in service
350. Addresses and concerns
351. General Conference concerns
352. Church round robin
353. Peace church materials
354. Young people
355. Briefe an mein Volk #1
356. Briefe an mein Volk #2
357. Briefe an Unser Volk
374. Sketches #2
375. "Vorsaetze und Ueberraschungen
376. "Durch Wind und Wellen"
378. "Mussen Christen Kriegen?"
379. Conference Addresses and Minutes #1
380. Conference Addresses and Minutes #2
381. Conference Addresses and Minutes #3
382. Manuscript copies #1
397. Scrapbook of circular letters and minutes, 1925-30
398. Scrapbook of circular letters and minutes, 1930-32

Vol. 4: Personal Papers & Correspondence

1. Emigration / Immigration Papers (including legal & travel documents)
2. Personal Correspondence, 1922-24
3. Correspondence from Heinz and Olga Janzen, 1924-26
4. Correspondence from Heinz and Olga Janzen, 1924-26
5. Correspondence from Hans, Woldemar and Hardie Janzen, 1925
6. Correspondence with Jacob H. Janzen's children, 1924-25
7. Correspondence with B.H. Unruh and B.J. Schellenberg, 1947-48
8. Correspondence with Jacob Wiens, 1928
9. Correspondence with children, 1935
10. Correspondence with children, 1936-50
11. General correspondence, 1950
12. Janzen genealogical records
13. Personal Financial Ledger, 1926-1950 
14. Legal & personal documents related to death (will, cemetery plot sale, letter to children & wife, etc.), 1949-1950 
15. Will of Johannes Braun witnessed by J.H. Janzen, 1943 
16. Copyright certificates for "Unwaundre, Stimmungsbild in zwei Aufzuegen" (1931) and "Abraham, Innere Wandlungen" (1931) 

Vol. 5: Correspondence

1. Photocopies of correspondence in General Conference Mennonite Church Home Mission files, MLA, 1927- 28. Includes a report on the organization and development of the United Mennonite Conference in Ontario.
2. Photocopies of correspondence with David Toews and others, MHC, 1934-35
3. Photocopies of correspondence with David Toews and others, MHC, 1938-40
4. Photocopies of correspondence with David Toews and others, MHC, 1941-46
5. Photocopies of correspondence with J.J. Thiessen, 1941-46

Vol. 6: Correspondence and Minutes

1. Military Problems Committee, Non-Resistant Relief Organization correspondence, 1945-47
2. Military Problems Committee correspondence, 1945-46
3. Military Problems Committee correspondence, 1945
4. Military Problems Committee correspondence, 1943
5. Non-Resistant Relief Organization and Conference of Historic Peace Churches correspondence, 1941-42
6. Canadian Fellowship Service and Military Problems Committee correspondence, 1940-41
7. Misc. correspondence, 1940- 42
8. Winkler Conference Military Problems Committee minutes and correspondence, May 15, 1939
9. Conference of Historic Peace Churches minutes, 1940-41
10. Military Problems Committee correspondence, 1940
11. Non-Resistant Relief Organization, minutes and correspondence, 1939-41

Vol. 7: Books and Ephemera

1. Biographical materials
2. Sermon notes
    Note: Includes notebook which begins with a "Konferenz gebet" from 1926, and continues with further prayers and a scripture index.
3. Sermon notes
4. Bible
5. Dispensationalist Chart
6. Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) honorary degree bestowed by Bethel College, Newton, Kansas on 17 May 1944
7. Academic Hood received with D.D. degree
8. Two books by J.H. Janzen inscribed to grandchildren (Altes und neues zu Weihnachten un Neujahr (1947) andErzählungen aus der Mennoniten-Geschichte (1943)).
Kraft Fuer Den Tag, a devotional book containing some diary entries, received from Marta Schafer in 2010. 
9. Drawing and poem by Johannes Heinrich Janzen (Jacob's older brother), n.d.
10. Copy of Sarasa Antoine Alphonse de and Christian Ernst von Windheim. Die Kunst stets froelich zu seyn. Helmstädt: Christian Friedrich Weygand, 1749. Name on flyleaf: John P. Rempel of Mountain Lake, Minnestota.
11. Brief overview of the history of the county of Ebenfeld as it appeared in the Christlichen Wandkalender (1943), August 1944

Vol. 8: Church-Related Records

1. Address List for "Briefe an Mein Volk"
2. Ministerial Credentials
3. Madchenschule Reunion Memoirs, 1938
4. Correspondence relating to the Incorporation of the Conference of the United Mennonite Churches in Ontario
5. Waterloo-Kitchener United Mennonite Church Records, 1937- 40
6. Waterloo-Kitchener United Mennonite Church Records, 1941- 52
7. Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization Records, 1939-40, 1948-49
8. Sunday School Conference Records, 1940
9. Correspondence with General Conference Mennonite Church, 1940
10. Correspondence with fellow ministers, etc., 1948-50
11. Correspondence with MCC, 1947