Tina Matthies

Title: Tina Matthies fonds

Dates of creation: predominantly 1922-1925

Physical description: 0.5 cm  of textual records

Biographical sketch: Tina ("Tinchen") Matthies (ca. 1892-1928), daughter of Abram and Anna (Wiebe Reimer) Matthies, was born on an estate in the Kuban Mennonite Settlement (northern Caucasus, Russia). In 1911, she travelled to Germany where she attended a specialized school for a year. In 1917 the Reimer estate was plundered by the Red Army. Tina Matthies, with her brother Isaak Matthies and his family, emigrated to Mexico in 1924. The Mexican settlement was not satisfactory so after two years, most of the group immigrated to Canada or the United States. The Isaak Matthies family moved to a farm in Manitou, Manitoba. Tina Matthies found a job at a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients in Ninette, Manitoba. After a year she became ill and came to the Maedchenheim in Winnipeg, run by Anna Thiessen. She died in 1928 in Winnipeg.

Custodial history: Copied by the Public Archives of Canada in 1974 from originals held by Anna (Reimer) Dyck, niece, of Niverville, Manitoba. In 1984, Frank H. Epp requested a photocopy from the Public Archives and subsequently transferred the copy to the Mennonite Archives of Ontario.

Scope and content: The Tina Matthies fonds consists of a photocopied travel diary in German, written by Tina Matthies, relating events from 1924 and 1925 while she was travelling from Russia to Mexico and her experiences in Mexico. This is followed by several pages of notes written by Anna (Reimer) Dyck.

Notes:
Original archival description created 2013 and updates 2021 by Laureen Harder-Gissing, relying heavily on the description for the same fonds created by the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies.
Library Archives Canada identifies this fonds as the Tinchen Matthies fonds (MG 31, H53).
See also "Tinchen Matthes," Mennonitische Rundschau, July 4, 1928, 8-9.
 

File list:

1. Diary of Tina Matthies, 1924-1925
2. Life notes on Tina Matthies by Anna (Reimer) Dyck