Isaac.P. Friesen and Henry.P. Friesen
Fangs of Bolshevism
Meine Reise nach Palästina
The two books Fangs of Bolshevism and Meine Reise nach Palästina are not available anywhere on the Internet. Therefore, I have digitized and uploaded them in order to preserve family history. My family name is Friesen, which is a common Mennonite name. My mother was also a Friesen, and my mother’s father was Isaac P. Friesen. Isaac died in 1952, before I was born, so I had no chance to meet him personally. Isaac had a younger brother called Henry P. Friesen.
Fangs of Bolshevism
In 1924, Isaac Braun, a Mennonite immigrant from Russia accused Henry (my great-uncle) of owing him $5000. This resulted in the infamous Friesen-Braun trials. This series of trials lasted five years, which was the longest in Saskatchewan until that time. Eventually, Braun was convicted of fraud, sentenced to prison in Prince Albert and deported back to the Soviet Union. Henry Friesen wrote a book about the trial, known as Fangs of Bolshevism. This is a rare book. I have digitized the copy that my parents received from Henry’s daughter which can be viewed or downloaded. The quality of the scan is not perfect but it is definitely readable. There is also a letter from Isaac Braun to Henry Friesen written in prison dated December 1931, in which he says that he just had a Christian conversion experience and begs for forgiveness.
Meine Reise nach Palästina
NEW: I have added several scanned pictures from an old photo album. In 1910, Isaac (my grandfather) took a three-month tour of Europe. He went by train from his home in Saskatchewan to New York, where he joined a Mediterranean cruise on the S.S. Arabic, a ship of the White Star line. The Arabic was launched in 1903 and sunk in 1915 by a German U-boat. The ship stopped at Madiera, Spain, Gibraltar, Algiers, Malta, Greece, Constantinople, Beirut, Jaffa, Alexandria, Naples, and Nice. From Nice, passengers had the opportunity to travel across Europe by train and catch any White Star line ship back to New York from Liverpool, which my grandfather did. There is an interesting historical twist to this because Isaac wanted to travel on the Titanic on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York, and his ticket would have allowed him to do so. However, the Titanic was not yet finished. She took her fateful maiden voyage in April 1912, while my grandfather returned from his European trip in April 1910, on the RMS Baltic.
My grandfather wrote a book about his trip, entitled Meine Reise nach Palästina (My Journey to Palestine). ¼ of the book describes Isaac’s time in Palestine, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. (The modern state of Israel was founded in 1948.) This book is especially interesting because Isaac took his trip during a window of time when modern technology coexisted with monarchy and medieval society. On the one hand, Isaac traveled as a modern tourist on a comfortable ship that was equipped with the brand-new invention of wireless telegraphy (it cost $2 to send 10 words to shore). On the other hand, the Ottoman Empire that Isaac visited was a historical relic of the medieval mindset. Isaac was able to take photographs of his trip and travel to most locations by train, but when there was no train, then the only alternative was horse and buggy, and Isaac repeatedly mentions the camel caravans and overloaded donkeys that he sees carrying goods and people in what he calls 'the Orient'. This juxtaposition of old society and new technology came crashing to the ground four years later when the First World War began, and four monarchial empires came to an end in this war: the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the German Reich, and the Russian Empire. (I examine this juxtaposition from a cognitive perspective in the book Natural Cognitive Theology.)
Isaac’s book is out-of-print. It was also printed in the dreadful Fraktur font, which was designed to look German rather than be legible. I found a program that is capable of recognizing this font and have uploaded a digital version of the book.
The relevant links are:
Meine Reise nach Palästina in the original German.
A Google translation into English of Meine Reise nach Palästina.
A diary written in English by a lady who took the same Mediterranean cruise as Isaac on the same ship two years earlier in 1908.
Isaac’s Canadian passport for the trip. This was a single large sheet of parchment paper with a wax seal:
An even larger version.
A scan of a nine page book of color photographs and dried flowers that Isaac brought back as a souvenir, portraying Palestine at that time (click for a bigger picture):
Some luggage stickers that Isaac kept from his trip as souvenirs (click for a bigger picture):
A menu from the S.S. Baltic, the ship on which he returned from Europe:
A letter he wrote on the S.S. Baltic on ship stationary on April 10, 1910. The text is in written German which is hard to read. The last sentence says that he is catching the train for Montréal at 5 o'clock.
Another letter written on February 3, 1910 on his Rosthern store's stationary to I.P. Friesen in Cairo, Egypt. The text says: Dear uncle, everything okay. Weather fine. Business slow – yesterday $22, day before $44. The only thing going on in town now is talk about local option. There was an awful large meeting regards the same night before last but I do not think it will pull through. You have a new kitchen girl down the house. The one you had when you left evaporated. Lena was pretty sick yesterday and to make sure there was nothing serious we called Dr. Stewart but it was only an attack of a cold. She’s all right and fully on deck this morning. Closing with best regards, Henry.
In 1937, I.P. Friesen received a personal letter from the deposed Kaiser of Germany in response to sending the Kaiser two books of Christian poems that he had written. Translated into English, the letter says, "I thank you sincerely for the poems you sent me and for your two collections of poems 'In the Service of the Master', which are inspired by the Christian spirit. May you serve the believing reader with edification and consolation and lead some who still stand aside and doubtful back to the right path, so that the word of our Lord and Savior may be fulfilled in them: 'If you will seek me with all your heart, then I will let myself be found'. As an outward sign of my thanks, I am sending you my picture attached." I only have a copy of this letter. have
In November 1925, I.P. Friesen bought his five-year-old daughter Louise (my mother) a Canadian government annuity, from which mother received $300 annually paid four times a year from 1940 until she died in 2017. I have looked on the web for a picture of one of these annuities and could not find anything.
Click here for more pictures.
Legacy of I.P. Friesen?
My cousin J. Glenn Friesen has written a rather negative biography of our grandfather I.P. Friesen. He entitles the first section ‘Multi-generational trauma’ and begins by saying, “Perhaps there are genetic reasons for the number of cases of psychological illness on my mother’s side of the family: depression, schizophrenia, hospitalizations, and even suicide. But I believe that they are due at least in part to the religious conflict experienced by my mother’s father (my maternal grandfather) I.P. Friesen.” The section entitled ‘Abuse of his children’ asserts that “All of the children were influenced by IP’s severe and melancholy outlook, including his fear of losing God’s favour, and his belief that we must evangelize everyone around us.” Glenn also makes an accusation regarding I.P. Friesen’s treatment of his daughter Alice. I have tried to verify Glenn’s accusation and I do not know if it is true or not.
Looking at this cognitively, I.P. Friesen was an evangelical Christian who believed that the Bible is the Word of God. What happens mentally is that Mercy feelings of fervor and reverence for God and religion overwhelm Perceiver thought into ‘knowing’ that the Bible is ‘true’. Such ‘belief’ can only survive mentally as long as the believer feels that the emotional source of ‘truth’ is far more important than personal identity. This will create potent feelings of religious self-denial because following God will be equated with suppressing self-identity. Going further, if I ‘believe’ that God has revealed absolute truth to me through the Bible, then I will feel that it is my duty to encourage others to have an emotional encounter with God so that they too can ‘believe’ in ‘truth’. This type of thinking has become discredited in modern society, but it was pervasive during the early 20th century, as illustrated by the willingness of soldiers to die for God and country during the First World War. More generally, every child starts life believing that adults are the source of absolute truth, and school education begins with teachers using their emotional status to impose the truth of textbooks upon students.
Glenn and I are actually double cousins. My mother Louise Friesen and her older sister Alice Friesen (Glenn’s mother) married two brothers: Jack Friesen (my dad) and Menno Friesen (Glenn’s dad). (We checked at the Mennonite historical society and my mom and dad are 4th cousins once removed. This type of situation is sufficiently common to have inspired an article in the Daily Bonnet.) This situation is also curious from the perspective of cognitive styles. My mother Louise was a Mercy person while my father Jack was a Contributor person. In contrast, Glenn’s mother Alice (Louise’s older sister) was a Contributor person while Glenn’s father Menno (Jack’s older brother) was a Mercy person. A marriage between Contributor and Mercy is very common, and what typically happens is that the Mercy adds emotional sensitivity to the Contributor while the Contributor controls and squelches the Mercy. Menno and Alice lived in Rosthern, Saskatchewan, the town where I.P. Friesen also lived. In contrast, my mom and dad told me that Jack moved from Saskatchewan to British Columbia, where I was born, in order to allow Louise (the Mercy person) to become emotionally free of the control of Alice (her older Contributor sister). When I was in Grade 9, we moved back to Saskatchewan and I remember going often with my mother to visit my aunt Alice in Rosthern, where the sisters would usually enjoy a game of Scrabble. I also remember my mom and her sisters regularly having breakfast at the Sheraton, just across from the Bessborough Hotel.
Glenn titled his biography ‘Unto the Third and Fourth Generation: The long shadow of my grandfather I.P. Friesen’. Growing up 1000 miles away from Rosthern as the youngest son of I.P. Friesen’s youngest daughter, I experienced very little of this ‘long shadow’. What I did experience from my mother Louise was primarily the expectation that our family was expected to live by a higher moral standard than those around us as well as an emphasis upon evangelization.
Glenn and I have both attempted to move beyond a ‘melancholic Christianity’ motivated by religious self-denial, but we have gone in totally different directions. Glenn has become a recognized expert in the philosophy of Herman Dooyewoord. Back in 2012, I wrote a cognitive analysis of Dooyewoord as interpreted by two experts: Glenn Friesen and Andrew Basden. What struck me when writing the essay was that Glenn and Andrew seem to be describing two different people: Glenn focuses upon the subjective and intuitive side of Dooyeweerd’s philosophy, whereas Andrew describes the objective and analytical side of his philosophy. Glenn did not appreciate my essay. Glenn refers to his philosophy as ‘Christian non-dualism’, which I suggest is just fancy language for Buddhist mysticism clothed in Christian language. More generally, I have come to the conclusion that mysticism, whatever its form, uses a mental trick to create the feeling of encountering God while disabling both conscience and personal transformation.
In contrast, I have used theory of mental symmetry to reformulate Christian theology and practice from a cognitive perspective as the search for mental and spiritual wholeness. This preserves the conscience and personal transformation of Christianity while getting rid of the ‘melancholic Christianity’ of religious self-denial. Saying this another way, instead of regarding the Bible as the only source of ‘absolute’ truth, I now regard the Bible as an accurate source of universal truth—a textbook of cognitive principles.
I would like to give the last word to I.P. Friesen. I was recently reading through a book on the history of Winkler, Manitoba and I encountered the following paragraph: “When Rev. Isaac P. Friesen of Rosthern, Saskatchewan, conducted evangelistic services in the Winkler churches in 1934, there were many local citizens who at the invitation to repent and confess, moved to the front of the church at the conclusion of the evening service and at the altar found remorse and repented for their sins. To rectify their misdeeds and to allay the pangs of conscience, some new converts would head for the downtown area next morning and make restitution in the stores where their fingers had been too long. It appeared that some had taken advantage of Mr. Sirluck’s [a local Jewish store owner] kind and gentle nature, and behind his back, had left the store without waiting for the cash register to ring out the sale. Because of this sudden increase in retribution money, Mr. Sirluck personally decided to attend some of the services in the local Mennonite church to see and hear firsthand the motivation for payment of these debts which had not found their way into the charge account ledger. Later Mr. Sirluck remarked, ‘Rev. I.P. Friesen accomplishes things which no policeman can achieve.’” So many people repented during this evangelistic crusade that an entirely new Mennonite denomination emerged, known as the Rudnerweidner or EMMC. I appreciate a form of Christianity that enables people’s consciences and encourages them to make restitution, because when people follow conscience, then we do not need a police state, and the United States is currently heading in the direction of a police state.
Store Coins
This page has focused upon my mother’s father, I.P. Friesen. My father’s father, John C. Friesen, also owned a store in Rosthern. I have a set of store tokens that were issued by Friesen & Co. The Saskatoon Coin Club provides the following description. “John C. Friesen and a cousin George Epp, started the store in 1926 with groceries, hardware and dry goods. In December 1932 Friesen bought out Epp. Tokens were issued in 1927, issue 100 of each denomination and were used until 1951. In 1943, Jack and Menno, sons of J.C.; purchased the business from their father and in 1949 Menno purchased his brother’s share.” There are also store tokens from the O.K. Economy in Hague (between Rosthern and Saskatoon). The description says, “On selling their store to Friesen’s, Schellenberg’s opened the first (so they claim) groceteria in Canada. This idea proved quite popular so in 1927 they sold this store to Friesen’s and moved to Saskatoon where they started a retail and wholesale under the same name.” I remember dad mentioning that he wanted to work at the Shelley brothers’ new warehouse in Saskatoon but being passed over for one of the Schellenberg sons.
