pasture land there could be
subdivided only so many times
as new generations came of age;
they resented a compulsory mil-
itary service that could result in
mercenary deployment; and they
were entranced by reports of
the available land and personal
freedom available in Canada.
And so Anton and Magdalena
Zurbrigg, together with their
seven children, travelled by
stagecoach from their mountain
valley to the port of Le Havre,
France. Magdalena was ill, and
she travelled in a basket slung
under the cart. This arrange-
ment seems to have slowed
them, for—in a heart-wrenching
disappointment—their boat to
New York had weighed anchor
less than an hour before their
arrival, and they had to wait
another two weeks for the next
one. They were to experience a
great loss when they finally were
on board a ship: their daughter
Susan died on the voyage and
was buried at sea.
Besides the loss of Susan,
family history records trying
conditions in steerage; when
the passengers ran out of their
own provisions, they had to buy
food (mostly hardtack) from the
ship’s steward. Arriving o New
York after a proverbial 40 days at
sea, they were puzzled that the
boat was not docking. Finally, a
crew member tipped them o
that the captain was delaying
their landing until all the re-
maining food on board had been
sold. It was the mothers who
rose up in revolt, threatening
to throw the captain overboard
if he did not enter the harbour
immediately. In the end, they
were 49 days at sea. Finally on
dry land, they took to the road
again, travelling to settle near
New Hamburg in Canada West,
now Ontario.A Harsh Existence
As might be expected, the pi-
oneer experience was far from
easy. Early on, the family lived
in the house of Anton’s brother,
Peter, an earlier immigrant, and
his family; the illness of Mag-
dalena continued, and she died
before two years had passed.
Anton remarried, but the arrival
of desperate news from Magda-
lena’s family in Frutigen became
one of the most unsettling events
of the family’s first decade in
Canada. Letters addressed to
Anton arrived, reporting that
the father, mother and an elder
brother in the family had died in
rapid succession, and that the
remaining children could not
continue to pay the debt on their
farmstead. Magdalena’s family
had been reduced to poverty, and
was asking Anton to send money
to help them.
One of my cousins still has
this correspondence—two letters
dated in the year 1856, sent in
envelopes marked “In Haste”
and “No Delay.” As we read the
letters today, we imagine that
life for Anton’s own family was
not much above subsistence, and
wonder what anguish he may
have experienced at receiving
this news. The fact that we still
have the letters today indicates
that Anton took them to heart,
since he never discarded them.
We hope that he was able to send
something back, just as new im-migrants to Canada send money
“home” today.
One of the benefits of a con-
tinuing family reunion is that
the stories and artifacts of the
past are carried forward. Zur-
brigg reunions have been held
since 1925, until very recently
always on July 1. Early on, the
family gathered at farmsteads in
the Listowel area. I remember
the wild delight of jumping in
a hayloft with rural cousins I
scarcely knew. Now we meet at
community centres or churches.
Genealogy is a big part of the re-
union record-keeping; the family
tree once could be reproduced on
a single, if huge, sheet of paper
that was then rolled to carry, but
this is no longer possible. The
Zurbriggs went forth from Fruti-
gen and multiplied!
My mother was seven when the
reunion was first held. Growing
up in St. Marys and Stratford,
Ont., she would have met many
of her Zurbrigg cousins in set-
tings other than the reunion—at
school, athletic events or young
peoples’ gatherings. This prox-
imity of cousins has been lost for
many, as families have moved
away from the family epicentre
near Listowel, and connections
have grown distant as new gener-
ations grew up. We wonder how
much longer we will have a strong
enough constituency to continue
the tradition. For those with a
love of history, and a zest to know
about family roots, the reunion
will continue to have an attrac-
tion. One thing is sure: we are all
looking forward to celebrating the
100th anniversary of the reunion
in 2025. If you are a Zurbrigg
reading this, see you there! Peter can be reached by email
at [email protected].Top left: Peter’s great-grandfather,
John Zurbrigg and family, including
his wife Lydia seated at right beside
him. Peter’s grandfather, Harry, who
initiated the family reunion in 1925, is
standing at the back on the far left.
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