Call Number: Mss 131 (A.95-44)

Title: John P. Friesen fonds.

Dates: 1933-1977.

Extent: 0.6 m of textual records.

Biographical sketch: John P. Friesen was born in 1912. He was the son of Peter J. Friesen and Anna Heinrichs. He received a few months education in a private classroom and later attended Houston School District No. 214. In 1932, he married Mary Neufeld. In 1933, they inherited eighty acres of land near Letellier, Manitoba. They rented forty acres more and farmed this area for twelve years. In 1945, they bought a farm three miles west of St. Joseph, Manitoba. They were involved in mixed-farming in the early years and slowly went into cattle feed after 1950. By 1977, the area which he farmed had grown to 1200 acres. Friesen's farming records, especially sugar beet farming, led him to be included in a book by American historian Hiram M. Drache on successful farming in the twentieth century. John served on the local sugar beet board for seventeen years and on the Provincial Sugar Beet Board for six years. He was a school trustee from 1945 to 1966. John and Mary had four boys: William, Edwin, Clarence, and Jack. In total, John farmed for forty-five years. He farmed with his son Clarence for sixteen of those years. He retired to Altona, Manitoba, where he died in 1998.

Custodial history: The fonds was donated to University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections by John P. Friesen on October 5, 1995.

Scope and content: The fonds consists mainly of financial records in the form of farm account books. These account books were made available to farmers by various sources over the years, including the John Deere Company, United Grain Growers, the Division of Agricultural Economics at the University of Manitoba, and the Manitoba Department of Agriculture and Conservation. There were a number of miscellaneous documents stuffed inside the account books. A few documents have been left where they were found, but the larger groups of documents have been placed in separate folders. There are computer printouts in this fonds from 1976 and 1977 from the CANFARM farm accounting system, which has a computerized program in which all financial transactions were encoded and sent by farmers to the regional CANFARM office. These transactions were then compiled and sent out to the farmer in the form of printed summaries. There are some newspaper clippings which were collected by Mr. Friesen which discuss income tax issues.

Source of supplied title: Title based on the contents of the fonds.

Restrictions: There are no restrictions on this material.

Finding aid: A printed finding aid is available in the Archives reading room and an on-line finding aid is available at the link below:

MSS 131 (A.95-44).