Tulare-Fresno County CA Archives Biographies.....(Friesen) Becker, Leona Mae March 9, 1929 - January 1, 2008 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Khrystal Isherwood kisherwood8@yahoo.com October 20, 2008, 3:04 pm Author: Khrystal Isherwood (borrowed from acct. of Helena Wittenberg Dueck) This History was borrowed from the account of Leona Friesen’s Aunt Helena Wittenberg Dueck History of the David Regehr Family-Father of Elisabeth Regehr Wittenberg who is Mother to Marie Wittenberg Friesen Who is Mother to Leona Friesen Becker From Leona’s point of view: Great Great Grandfather Regehr, Father of David Regehr, left Germany in the 1800’s. His ancestors originally came from Holland. He migrated to Russia as a result of the offer to German Mennonites from the Kaiserin Katherina of Russia. She offered German Mennonites freedom from military service if they would settle in Russia during the late 1700’s through the 1800’s. He settled in the Molotschna area of Russia where many other Mennonites had settled in villages and begun cultivating the land. Great Grandfather David Regehr, along with other Mennonites started the village of Altonoau. He married Helena Huebert and together they had three children; Agatha, Peter, and Elisabeth Regehr, who would later become Leona’s Grandmother. Helena died after the birth of Elisabeth. Great Grandfather David Regehr then married Margaretha Huebert, who was his first wife Helena’s sister. Together they had ten children, although the first seven were lost in infancy. The three surviving children were David, Margaretha, and Nicolai Regehr. After Margaretha and Nicolai married and moved to other villages, Great Grandfather David Regehr died at about the age of 80. His widow Margaretha Huebert Regerh remained at the home with her son David Regehr. Account of Great Grandfather David Regehr’s first three children with his first wife Helena Huebert: Agatha, Peter and Elisabeth Regehr-Leona’s Grandmother Peter married and lived in the village Lichtenau. Agatha married Kornelius Wittenberg-Leona’s Grandfather. Together they had two children; Elisabeth Wittenberg who later married Peter Geisbrecht, and Nicolai Wittenberg who later married Gertruda Neufeld. Agatha died after Nicolai was born. Within one year Kornelius married Agatha’s sister Elisabeth-Leona’s Grandmother. From this marriage eight children were born. One was stillborn and one child, Abram, died at the age of eight at Number 1 village Wanderlo, Terek. It was here that Leona’s mother Marie Wittenberg was born along with her three brothers and two sisters; David, Cornelius, Peter, Margaret, and Helena Wittenberg. In 1912, Grandfather Kornelius sold the family home and left Russia for America. They first traveled to Bremen, Germany where they boarded the ship “Brandenburg”. They sailed across the Atlantic to land at Baltimore, Maryland. From there they traveled to Georgia, then to Kansas and then to Reedley, California where they eventually settled. Grandfather Kornelius was a minister of the Gospel and was called to Portland, Oregon to Pastor a church in 1918. During this time his daughter Marie remained in Reedley, California where she married George Friesen. Together they had five children; Vera, George, Wilbur, Leona, and Wilma. Leona later married Edward Becker and together they had four children; Dennis, Ron, Cheryl, and Mary Becker. Dennis Becker had five children: Shonda, Khrystal, Fawn, Brian, and Brock Becker. Ron Becker had one son Thomas Becker. Cheryl Becker married John Forrester and had one daughter Stephanie Forrester. Shonda Becker married James Dougherty in 1995 and together they had three daughters: Savannah, Cassidy, and Morgan Dougherty, and one son James Daniel Howard Dougherty II. Khrystal Becker married Patrick Isherwood in 1998 and together they had one son Kaegan Mason Isherwood and one daughter Kennedy Anne Isherwood. Stephanie Forrester married Jesse Valerio and together they had one son Jesse Daniel Valerio. History of the children of Grandfather Kornelius Nickolai Wittenberg from his first wife Agatha Regehr who passed after the birth of her second child: These children would be Leona’s Aunt Elisabeth Wittenberg and Uncle Nicolai Wittenberg. Aunt Elisabeth Wittenberg, who married Peter Geisbrecht and moved to the Kuban, Russia had three children. They continued to live on the Kuban during World War I and the Russian Revolution. Peter Geisbrecht Sr. was taken prisoner by the “Reds” and narrowly escaped being hung. He was then sent to a prison camp in the mountains. After he was released, they later moved away from Russia and came to Mexico where they lived for about three years. They then moved to Canada with their ten children. Uncle Nicolai Wittenberg, who married Gertrude Neufeld, wanted to join the rest of the family to America but was still in the service of the Russian government at the time in a “Forstei” Service ( non-military service ). After his service was up World War I broke out and he joined the Red Cross as did his brother-in-law Peter Geisbrecht. After WWI, The Russian Revolution broke out and the “Reds” moved through the villages of the Molotschna plundering and killing the Mennonite settlers. During the Russian Revolution, while Uncle Nicolai Wittenberg was doing Red Cross work, he was arrested by the “Reds” on the way to bring food to a labor camp. He was herded, along with others, into a horse stockade. He was shot down in the back as he ran to escape. He was left laying there for three weeks before the “Reds” would let his wife, Gertrude Neufeld Wittenberg take his body away for burial. Gertrude later remarried and and moved to Germany. She and her husband Wilhelm Krause, a German soldier, later moved to Canada. Their son, Nicolai “Kolya” Wittenberg remained in Russia and was married. Nicolai “Kolya” was also later imprisoned and shot by the “Reds”. Peter Regehr, son of Great Grandfather David Regehr from his first marriage to Helena Huebert and Leona’s Great Uncle, was taken from his home by the “Reds” and shot under a tree and buried in the dirt. He was found there weeks later by his brother David Regehr who dug with his hands to reveal Peter’s body. With the help of others, Peter’s body was dug up and buried in the cemetery. Peter’s brothers David and Nicolai Regehr, sons of David Regehr Sr. from his second marriage to Margaretha Huebert Regehr and also Leona’s Great Uncles, went into hiding from the “Reds”. While the “Reds” were trying to find them, their mother, Margaretha Huebert Regehr, along with David Regehr’s wife and children were placed against a wall and had shots fired above and around their heads in an attempt to force them to tell where David and Nicolai Regehr were hiding. When David and Nicolai Regehr were found, the “Reds” sent them to Arch Angels, an island, where they were forced to do three years slave labor and eat moldy food that was covered with maggots. After their release they lived some years in villages in Russia but were later arrested again and then shot. Nicolai Regehr’s wife and two sons was able to escape to Germany but his brother David Regehr’s wife and children along with his mother Margaretha Huebert Regehr were sent to a Russian village far away where Margaretha Huebert Regehr died, her bed a trunk. Margaretha Regehr Dueck, Margaretha Huebert Regehr’s other child with Great Grandfather David Regehr, was sent to Siberia by freight car where her husband, her oldest son David, and her youngest daughter Hilda were taken away by the “Reds” and shot. Margaretha Regehr Dueck’s other children were forced into slave labor which consisted of loading bricks onto freight cars and digging potatoes. They had to walk eight miles daily to get to the fields. Margaretha Regehr Dueck, along with one daughter Agnes, one son Abram, granddaughter Aggie and family continued to live in Siberia through Stalin’s reign. History of Kornelius Nickolai Wittenberg: Father to Marie Wittenberg & Grandfather to Leona Friesen Becker Great Great Great Grandfather, Abram Wittenberg, was born in West Prussia, Germany. In 1803 he moved from West Prussia, Germany to Gortitza, Russia with his wife Helene Winzen, born at Neulingshorst, and family as a result of the offer made to German Mennonites, by Kaiserin Kathrina, of freedom from military service if they would settle Russia. They eventually settled at the village Munsterberg. Great Great Grandfather, Jacob Wittenberg, was born in Germany. He and his wife, Great Great Grandmother, Helene Weibe, lived in Munsterberg and were married there. Great Great Grandfather Jacob and Grandmother Helene Weibe Wittenberg’s son Great Grandfather Klaas Wittenberg Sr. married Margaretha Toews, also from Munsterberg and established their home in Altonau, Moltschna. They both died before the Russian Revolution broke out. Great Grandparents Klaas Wittenberg Sr. & Margaretha Toews Wittenberg Nine Children Daughter: Margaretha Wittenberg Enns (1858-1930) and family & Daughter: Maria Wittenberg Goddard (1861-1934) and husband lived some distance from their parents. Son or Daughter: Klaas or Tina Wittenberg (1859-1866) Conflicting information in family history packet Son: Kornelius Nickolai Wittenberg (1864-1940), Leona’s Grandfather, married Agatha Regehr and later her sister Elisabeth Regehr when Agatha died. Son: Klaas Wittenberg (1867-1919) married Maria Dueck Daughter: Katharina Wittenberg (1870-1902) Daughter: Anna Wittenberg (1873-1948) Daughter: Helena (stillborn) ? Son: Jacob Wittenberg (1878-1956) became a schoolteacher and later married Tina Weins, a nurse. They had one son, John. They moved to B.C. Canada several years after the Russian Revolution. Their son John Wittenberg and family moved to Africa where John taught in a mission school. When the Russian Revolution broke out, the “reds”, traveling in groups, went plundering and killing the people of the villages of the Molotschna. One group had already been at Great Uncle Klaas house and taken all of his money from him when another group showed up and demanded more money. While the women and children hid in the cellar, Great Uncle Klaas and his wife Maria Dueck Wittenberg, standing by his side and holding their infant child, stayed out to meet the “Reds”. When he told them there had already been a group earlier who had taken all his money, the one of the “Reds” pulled out a sword and slashed him over his head. Then they shot him and threatened all of the family before they left. They were all eventually sent to Siberia except for two daughters who were sent to live in other villages. Several died along the way and one son was never heard from again. Great Aunt Maria Dueck Wittenberg died in captivity. Great Aunt Anna Wittenberg was threatened to be shot by the “Reds”. She later made an attempt to travel to Germany with two cousins from the Peter Regehr family, but while traveling the train was stopped and all were ordered to get out. Their passes were taken away and they were transported to elsewhere in Russia. She died in captivity. The two cousins she was traveling with were sent to Siberia. Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/tulare/photos/bios/friesenb1000gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/tulare/bios/friesenb1000gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/ File size: 11.8 Kb