Wed For 60 Years

Barons District Pioneers Celebrate Diamond Wedding

MR. AND MRS. J. ERDMAN

(Special to the Herald.)

BARONS, May 15. - Mr. and Mrs. J. Erdman attained the sixtieth year of their married life on Monday, May 1, 1933. On Sunday. April 30, a large group of relatives and neighbors gathered at the old folks' homestead to offer congratulations and enjoy & pleasant afternoon.

Mrs. Erdman was born in 1854 find Mr. Erdman In 1852, both near Tollinn, Esthonia. In the year 1862, Mary Tint (later Mrs. Erdman) and Jacob Erdman, with their parents and seventy other families, set out on a long Journey to Crimea. The men, women and children walked, while their clothes and provisions were conveyed In one-horse vehicles. They Arrived nine weeks later In Crimea, where they settld in a villag near Simferopol.

Here they lived until their marriage at Simferopol. May 1, 1873. Then for nearly thirty years Mr. and Mrs. J. Erdman resided in Targhan, where they farmed. They had seven daughters and two sons, six of whom are still living.

Leave Old Home

In 1903. hearing of the great opportunities for wheat farming and homesteading In America, Mr. and Mrs. Erdman and family sold their lands and set out for South Dakota. A year of ranching proved distasteful and unprofitable, so they proceeded farther west, to find suitable farm land. This brought them to Southern Alberta. At Claresholm they were Informed of free homesteads in the district which Is now Barons. There they made their home till 1921.

Then Mr. and Mrs Erdman, accompanies by Mr. and Mrs. A. Kulpas and family, went to Salem, Oregon, where they owned fruit farms. After the death of their daughter, Mrs. Kulpas, they returned to their homestead in 1930 at Barons, where they are residing.

Their family is now widely scattered: Mrs. J. Salman in Crimea; Miss Natalle Erdman B.A., a missionary in Arabia; Miss Charlotte Erdman, secretary of S.D.A. of Western Canada, at Winnipeg, and Mrs. M. Silberman, Mrs. J. Kotkas and Mr. G. Erdman, of Barons, Mr. and Mrs. J. Erdman have 24 grandchildren and three great-grandchildre.

Many Gifts

The afternoon of Sunday, April 30, was pleasantly spent In songs and presentation or many beautiful gifts. During the delightful lunch, short addresses were made and letters of congratulation from relatives and friends were read. Among them was a letter from a teacher from their old home, Mr. A. F. Raudkepp, 84, who congratulated them on their good fortune in leaving Crimea in time to escape the horrors under the Soviet regime.

Lethbridge Herald