© Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Last updated January 31, 2003)
David Stoesz (1842-1903) was born in Schoenthal, Bergthal Colony, Russia as the youngest children of Jacob Stoesz and Barbara Wiens. In 1862 he married Maria Wiebe. He was elected as a minister in the Bergthal Colony in 1869. This family settled in Manitoba in 1874. David Stoesz was elected to serve as assistant Bishop of the Chortitzer Mennonite Church in Manitoba in 1879. In 1882 he succeeded Bishop Gerhard Wiebe. Bishop David Stoesz served the church with communion, baptisms and ordinations in various communities including Fargo, North Dakota and Saskatchewan. He died and is buried in the Bergthal village cemetery. His wife died in 1912. David M. Stoesz (1870-1934) was the son of David Stoesz (1842-1903). He came to Canada in 1874 and settled in the village of Bergthal on the East Reserve. He married Agatha Kehler (1870- ) in 1890. In 1891 David and Agatha moved to the Mennonite West Reserve where land was better suited for farming, and bought eighty acres of and in the village of Gnadenfeld. David M. Stoesz was elected as a minister in the Sommerfeld Mennonite Church in 1912. In 1922 he emigrated to Mexico with portions of the Sommerfeld Mennonite church and founded the Santa Clara Colony. Dissatisfied with life in Mexico, he and his family returned to Canada within a year and settled in the village of Kronsthal, Manitoba. The David Stoesz family in Manitoba was an influential family along with brother Cornelius W. Stoesz (1836-1900) a minister and brother Jacob Stoesz the Brandaeltester (fire chief). Other members of the extended Stoesz family also became church leaders. One brother (Johann) chose to settle in Mountain Lake Minnesota.
The contents of the materials are largely sermons written by the two men. Other materials include a diary of David Stoesz, correspondence, church material and personal material. Some of the material has been microfilmed. See Microfilm # 91.
Stoesz, David
File list
A.D. Stoesz fonds, C.G. Stoesz fonds, Microfilm #91.
The records have come to the Mennonite Heritage Centre archives in four deposits. The first donation was the David M. Stoesz funeral sermon, brought by William and Trudy Harms of Altona, Manitoba in 1985 (Trudy was the granddaughter of David M. Stoesz.) The second donation was by W.J. Kehler, which included a cemetery index and a "General School Decree" (translated from the German "Allgemeine Schulverordnung". The third and largest, donation was made by William and Trudy Harms in 1988 and included Bishop David Stoesz' diary, sermons and other material. When son David M. Stoesz received the material from his father he continued to use the sermons and may have at times added to them. The fourth deposit came via Dennis Stoesz, archivist in Goshen, in August 1998. It consisted of an 1835 edition of the writings of Menno Simons which David Stoesz purchased in 1861. Dennis Stoesz had received this item from George Unger, a Stoesz descendant. The fifth deposit had been collected by David and Trudy Schellenberg of Winkler for the Christian Heritage Library.
The majority of the materials are original documents in Gothic German handwriting.
Described by Conrad Stoesz July 1999. Updated by Sharon H. H. Brown December, 2002.
No restrictions
Accession no. 85-39; 85-42; 88-050; 99-021; 97-150