Henry Koop born 1923,

Meadow Valley, Pennsylvania, USA

I was born shortly after my parents Jacob and Maria Dick Koop's arrival in the US from Russia. Meadow Valley is near Ephrata; it was here that the Hoover family, our sponsors, lived.. It had been arranged in advance that we sharecrop their burley tobacco and thus pay off our travel debt to the Hoovers. Our parents' children were Susie, Mary and Jacob born in Russia; Helen and I were born in the US; Ben was born in Canada

My first memory is of sliding downhill onto the creek which was not completely frozen. I fell through and got soaked. I also remember baby sister Lena sleeping on the window sill; the home was built of stone making the sills about 20 inches wide.

Early one Sunday morning brother Jake went out to check the skunk trap and got sprayed. Before we went to church, Mom removed all his clothing and buried it. In those days, doctors and pharmacies could not be quickly reached and home remedies were often used. For instance, I recall that human urine was used as a remedy for eye irritations.

Because Mom's family members lived in the Leamington, Ontario area, we planned to move there. In 1929, we travelled from Pennsylvania to Ontario in a Star car with curtains on the windows. Dad had purchased a 50 acre farm on concession six, west of the Albuna Townline for $7,500. Times were still good. Little did we realize that in the following year, 1930, we'd experience the first year of the Depression and the potato crop income wouldn't pay for the seed.

I started school at seven years of age at S.S.#19, a one room school at the southeast corner of concession six and the Albuna Townline. I remember teachers Lola Bracket and Mr. Forbes. On my first day, I was reprimanded when I went with the older boys to get water at the Beatty's who lived kitty corner from the school. The school didn't have water. It didn't have a bathroom either. We needed to fill a pail with water and pour it into the school fountain. We pressed the fountain button and drank directly from it; no glass was needed. One day when Henry Wiebe, now in the Mennonite Home, bent over somebody sprayed him. This did not go over well with Henry or the teacher.

I completed the eight grades in six years time. In those days, we needed to go to the Leamington High School, then located across the street from today's school on Talbot West, to write our entrance examinations. With that, my formal education ended.

Our farm had a frame house with a kitchen, living room and two bedrooms. Dad bought a kiln, tore it down and used the lumber to add a second story to the house. This gave us a total of four bedrooms. Martha Tiessen's dad, Jake Rempel, our friend from Russia, was a good builder. He came and built the stairway for us with a curved bottom, complete with a big post.

It was 1930 and the time of the Big Depression. That Christmas I awoke early and went downstairs to check out my gifts. All I got was a little toy car and an apple. I was disappointed and went back to bed. In retrospect, I'm sure that my parents were disappointed as well. That year Dad was lucky when he managed to sell his tobacco for 1/2 cent per pound because he happened to know Marshal Wigle from the Imperial Tobacco Company. Most farmers dumped their tobacco. We killed one pig weekly, made sausage, and delivered it to homes. The Mennonite women did housework for families like Raleighs and Atkins on concession one. Gas was 25 cents per gallon. We went to town twice weekly: to buy groceries and to church. Our mattresses were filled with straw.

By 1936, tobacco sold for 6 cents per pound. We grew tomatoes for Heinz. We had four horses for working the land. It so happened that the Martens family who lived just back of us had electricity installed and since the line went by near our place, we could get our house and the small house my brother Jake and Gertrude lived in wired for electricity. But we shared the outhouse.

In the winter months we often skated on Willet's gravel pit behind Nickel's gas station on the north side of #3 Highway not far from the Albuna Townline. It was a very deep pit and I remember one time that the ice would sink and rise as we skated across the surface. I was skating with Anne Bergen Segedin and when we got to the side and stopped, we broke through. Jake Founk, Walter Tiessen and Jake Bergen flattened their bodies on the ice, held out a hockey stick and pulled us out. By the time we got to the car, our clothes were frozen. Jake Flaming took us home where I sat in front of our Quebec heater.

In 1942, I went to Montreal River Camp for five months as a Conscientious Objector . A group of five or six were from Leamington, later more came. We received 50 cents daily; meals were good and consisted mostly of beans and boiled eggs. I often bought caramel suckers called BB Bats; they were considered a treat. When my nephew Walter Koop became seriously ill with spinal meningitis, our farm neighbour Mrs. Quick suggested to my parents that they call me to come home in hopes that Walter would get better. I came home and Walter recuperated.

Helen Lehn and I were married in 1946 in the Mennonite Church on Oak Street of Leamington by Reverend Herman Lepp. A meal for 400 guests followed in the Ruthven Hall. Martin Tiessen was the accordionist for the evening. Helen and I raised four children and today we have a family of 43, all living in the immediate area.

AK 2008

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