Biographical Sketch

Tina Matthies (GR#312964), the daughter of Abram Matthies and Anna Wiebe Reimer, was born on a farming estate in the Kuban. In 1911, she travelled to Germany where she attended a specialized school for a year. In 1917, the family estate farm was plundered by the red army and the families were forced to abandon the property. Tina Matthies, with her brother Isaak Matthies and his family, emigrated from the Kuban, Russia, to Mexico in 1924. The Mexican settlement was not satisfactory. After two years, she and most of the group immigrated to Canada or the United States. The Isaak Matthies family moved to a farm in Manitou, Manitoba. Tina Matthies found a job at a sanitorium for tuberculosis patients in Ninette, Manitoba. After a year, she became ill and came to the Winnipeg Maedchenheim run by Anna Thiessen. She died in 1928 in Winnipeg at the age of 36.