Buhr, Maria Braun Warkentin Loewen (1870-1963)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1963 Mar 28 p. 7

Birth date: 1870 June 8

text of obituary:

Manitoba Pioneer Leaves Over 100 Descendants

Altona, Man. — This Mennonite community lost another pioneer in the death March 2 of Mrs. Maria Buhr, 92, who passed away after having been injured in a fall several months previously.

Funeral services were held from the Altona Bergthaler Church with Bishop David Schultz and Rev. H. J. Gerbrandt officiating.

Mrs. Buhr, born Maria Braun in southern Russia on June 8, 1870, came to Canada with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Braun, in1875. They came by train from Duluth to Fargo, thence to Emerson by Red River steamer, The International. Her first home was a sod house at Gruenthal near Gretna.

At the age of 18 she married Cornelius Warkentin who died ten years later. With her nine children she then moved to Osterwick, southwest of Winkler, where her parents and many relatives were engaged in farming on the Manitoba prairies. In 1910 she married Franz Loewen. Three children were born of this union. In 1919 she was widowed again but continued to farm in the Glencross school district until 1922 when she married Peter Buhr of Altona. Buhr died in 1936.

Surviving here are nine children, 38 grandchildren, 68 great-grandchildren, and one sister, Mrs. Jacob Warkentin, Cloverdale, B. C. — P. H.