Source: Wikipedia Commons

Winkler, a town (population in 1959, 2,500; population in 2006, 9,106) in southern Manitoba, 80 miles southwest of Winnipeg, 12 miles north of the United States boundary (coordinates: 49° 10′ 0″ N, 97° 56′ 0″ W), in an area where grains, fruits, sugar beets, sunflowers, corn, and canning crops are grown, was founded in 1892. During the 1950s it was the business, educational, and religious center for a 6,000 Mennonite population in the rural municipali­ties of Stanley and Rhineland, which were settled village-style in 1875. At the time it had an Mennonite Brethren Bible school (Winkler Bible Institute), organized in 1925, with 4 teachers and 80 students; a public high school, largely Mennonite in teachers and student body, with 9 teachers and 225 students; and four Mennonite churches: Bergthal, Mennonite Brethren, Rudnerweide, and Sommerfeld, with a total membership of over 1,000. The Winkler Mennonite Brethren (MB) Church, organized in Burwalde in 1886, was the first MB church in Canada.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 960. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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