Oldest Hutterite cherished by community

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This article was published 29/12/2022 (985 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DECKER HUTTERITE COLONY — Susanna Wollman has earned a remarkable distinction.

It’s believed Wollman, who turned 100 on Oct. 30, is the current oldest-living Hutterite.

“She is special,” said her sister-in-law Susan Waldner.

Wollman, who is among the 151 residents of Decker Hutterite Colony, northwest of Hamiota, has witnessed North America’s Hutterite population grow and prosper over the last century.

In 1918, the first six Hutterite colonies were established in Manitoba, as Hutterites fled the northern United States en masse in response to the persecution they faced as pacifists during the First World War. James Valley, Huron, Milltown, Bon Homme, Rosedale and Maxwell colonies were all founded in the Elie area, west of Winnipeg.

Four years later, Wollman (maiden name Waldner) was born.

The Hutterites, who live apart from mainstream society on colonies throughout Western Canada and the northwestern United States, number approximately 50,000. Manitoba has the second-largest number of Hutterite colonies after Alberta, at approximately 125.

Among the Hutterites, reaching 100 years of age is a rare feat. They use an app called Members to track geographic and demographic data throughout Hutterite communities as well as preserve colony and family records including genealogy.

Spring Hill Colony member David Hofer, who lived to nearly 103 before his death in 2021, is believed to be one of the oldest-living Hutterites ever to be recorded.

According to members of Wollman’s family, she is the current oldest Hutterite.

“It’s harder to communicate now but for the last decade we were able to have conversations with her,” said grandson Michael Waldner, Second Minister at Decker Colony. “That’s pretty special.”

Wollman grew up at Maxwell Colony, married Joseph Wollman on Aug. 6, 1944, and lived there until 1959 when the community established a daughter colony, Brightstone.

When a Hutterite colony reaches a population threshold, typically around 150 people, a daughter colony is established. When it is built, the original colony splits in two, with half of the families moving to the new colony. This keeps colony populations low and inadvertently follows Dunbar’s number, the theoretical cognitive threshold of the number of people any one person can maintain stable social relationships with, proposed by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar.

Susanna Wollman and her husband lived at Brightstone until 1981 when it branched its own daughter colony, Decker.

Wollman is one of 17 siblings, some of whom have died. Two of her brothers also live at Decker Colony.

“She’s very dear to me,” said her brother Albert Waldner, who lives next door and visits with her daily. “I got more connected to her in my old age than I was when I was young.”

As the second youngest of the siblings, Waldner is 23 years below Wollman.

She and her husband raised nine children — eight girls and one boy. Joseph Wollman died in 2008 at age 89. Together they have 54 grandchildren, 152 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. Although there are many, Susanna Wollman loves visiting with them.

Over the years, she has served as head cook at Maxwell Colony and took care of the essenschul (eating school in Hutterisch, Hutterite German) children at Brightstone Colony. (Hutterite children between five and 15 eat separately from the adults in the communal dining rooms.) She was also in charge of sourcing materials and fabrics for sewing clothes on the colony, making trips to the fabric outlets in Winnipeg.

But now Wollman spends her days visiting with family and guests. She fondly remembers stories from her youth, including using horses and buggies for travel. As someone with a century of lived experience, she is a living record of Hutterite history in Manitoba.

“She [has] a memory like a computer,” her brother Waldner said.

» tsmith@brandonsun.com