Anna Barkman Wohlgemuth

My name is Anna Barkman Wohlgemuth. I was born April 14, 1866, on a farm near Caslov, a city in Crimea, Russia. My parents, Peter M. and Anna Barkman, belonged to the Krimmer Mennonite Brethren Church there.

When I was about 8 years old, the ruler of Russia made a law that Mennonites must serve as soldiers, just as other Russians did. The people of the church thought it wrong for men to be soldiers.

My parents, along with 23 other families from our church, decided to leave Crimea and move to America. We started making plans and preparations to move to a far away land.

My father grew wheat in Russia, and wanted to continue doing so in Kansas. So one day, he gave me two jars, about a gallon each, that I was to fill with seed wheat. He said to pick only the largest grains. They were to have a reddish gold color, and a good shape. None of the grains were to be pale in color, small or soft.

So I set to work. I crouched beside my father’s wheat bin for a whole week, picking just the finest kernels. Oh, the jars filled so slowly. It took more than 250,000 grains of wheat to fill those two jars. And I had to choose them one at a time!

Finally I finished. My father was so pleased with the wheat in the jars. He gave me a wonderful treat of hazelnuts for all my hard work. Mother carefully packed the jars in the trunk with our clothes so that it would be safe on our trip across the ocean. It took two months for us to get to Kansas.

My father planted the wheat that Fall. And in June of the next year, he harvested and threshed his wheat. It was such good wheat!

The other farmers in Kansas had never seen such good wheat.

Soon all the neighbors were buying their seed from the Mennonites. Eventually, nearly all the farmers in Kansas bought some of our Turkey Red Wheat. Kansas became one of the greatest wheat-growing states in America. In fact, this wheat is the grandfather of all the hard winter wheats in the U.S.

My parents were devoted members of the Gnadenau Church, where my father served as a deacon, and helped to establish the orphanage.

When I was 26, I married Johann Wohlgemuth. His family had also come from the Crimea in 1874. We raised two sons, Peter and John, and a foster daughter, Margaretha Klassen.

I long felt unworthy of the grace which Christ Jesus offered me. It took me a long time to accept that I was worthy of the gift of eternal life. I thank the Lord that I was able to grab hold of the picture of salvation he had for me. One of the most precious verses to me is found in John 10:28: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”

After fighting cancer for some time, I went home to be with the Lord on August 12, 1929 at the age of 63. The verse that John J. Friesen chose to read at the funeral service was another witness of my life: “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8)