Kleefeld, Manitoba
| Kleefeld | |
|---|---|
| Village | |
First Mennonite settlement sign in Kleefeld Park
|
|
| Nickname(s): Honey Capital of Manitoba | |
| Motto: Land of Milk and Honey | |
 Kleefeld
|
|
| Coordinates: 49°30′05″N 96°52′29″W / 49.50139°N 96.87472°WCoordinates: 49°30′05″N 96°52′29″W / 49.50139°N 96.87472°W | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Manitoba |
| Region | Eastman |
| Rural Municipality | Hanover |
| Established | 1874 |
| Government | |
| • Governing body | R.M. of Hanover |
| • MP (Provencher) | Ted Falk (CPC) |
| • MLA (Steinbach) | Kelvin Goertzen (PC) |
| Area | |
| • Total | 0.65 km2 (0.25 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 268 m (879 ft) |
| Time zone | CST (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Postal Code | R0A 0V0 |
| Website | Kleefeld.ca |
Kleefeld (/ˈkleɪfɛld/; German: [ˈkleːfɛlt]; German: clover field) is a small community in the Rural Municipality of Hanover in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was settled in the 1870s and was originally called Gruenfeld (Grünfeld: German: green field).
Bilingual plaques in the community park proclaim that the village of Gruenfeld was the first Mennonite settlement in Western Canada. The original settlers of Gruenfeld, neighbouring Steinbach and Blumenort were Mennonites of the Kleine Gemeinde denomination, fleeing religious persecution in Imperial Russia.
Gruenfeld took its name from a village just north of the Borozenko colony in southern Russia which was the original home for many of the settlers. The village was originally settled in 1874 by 16 families and surrounded by six smaller satellite villages – Heuboden, Schoenau, Rosenfeld, Blumenfeld, Steinreich and Hochstadt – each with populations ranging from two to eighteen inhabitants.
The name of the community slowly began to change in 1896 thanks to Peter W. Reimer, the first postmaster. The name of Kleefeld was chosen for the post office to avoid confusion as Gruenfeld mail was being routinely sent to another village in western Canada named Grenfell. It is likely that he was influenced in his choice by the ancestral Reimer family village in Molotschna, Russia, also named Kleefeld.
...
Wikipedia