Selma Redekopp (1898–1975)
1935–1975.
8 m textual material, artifact, and one photograph.
Biographical sketch
Selma Martens Redekopp, daughter of Franz Martens and Helene Friesen Martens, was born in 1887 in Wohldemfuerst, Kuban. Selma’s mother was a pious, praying woman who influenced her daughter significantly. After Selma’s conversion at the age of 19, she taught Sunday School and helped her mother with the care of a large household.
Selma remained single until 1915 when she married widower Wilhelm G. Redekopp who had lost his first wife earlier that same year. At age 28 Selma became a mother to Wilhelm’s six children, just prior to the bloody Revolution of 1917 and its aftermath which would wreak hovoc and destruction on the Redekopps as it did on countless other people in what then became the Soviet Union. In 1921, Selma promised God that if He would bring her family through the horrors of war and famine, she would serve Him and wait for His return.
In September of 1924, the entire Redekopp family immigrated to Canada, eventually settling in Osterwick near Winkler. In 1934, Selma had a spiritual experience that changed her life. After that, earthly matters became secondary while she concentrated first on spiritual things. She felt that God had chosen her to be his hand-maiden and she began to prophesy that the Lord would return on Christmas eve. Her spiritual single-mindedness made her seem eccentric to some people.
Selma and Wilhelm Redekopp moved to Winkler in 1945 to spend their retirement years, but this was short-lived as Wilhelm died in July of 1946. After her husband’s death, Selma moved to Yarrow, B.C. for three years and then was brought to Winnipeg by her step-son, Henry, who provided her with a comfortable home until her death in 1975.
Selma Redekopp’s main motivation in life was to follow the leading of God which she saw differently from most other Mennonites. For her, faith was primary and all other matters were secondary. “She undauntingly stated her opinions on theological subjects, which often differed from traditional church teaching. She felt the freedom to do this in the midst of worship services, when even the most respected ministers of the day were speaking. This was further compounded by the fact that she was a woman who dared to venture into the male-dominated world of biblical and theological teaching.”
Taken from Ken Reddig’s Foreword in Mary Enns, Selma Redekopp: An Unusual Woman, published by the estate of Henry W. Redekopp in 1990.
Selma Redekopp read newspapers and periodicals with the Bible beside her, making frequent notations in the margins as to what the Bible, according to her interpretation, had to say on current issues.
Scope and content
The Selma Redekopp fonds consists of eighteen boxes of diaries of religious writings in diaries and notebooks, chronologically arranged. Her diaries are home-made brown paper folders, with attached cloth and button closure, dated and decorated on the outside. Inside each folder is a home-made indexed notebook, closely handwritten on both sides in the Gothic script. Box 19 consists of research material for the Mary Enns book, Selma Redekopp: An Unusual Woman. Also in the fonds is Mary Enns’s first edition or unpublished draft, some oversized scrapbooks with Redekopp’s notations in the margins, and some personal effects. There is also a Bible, that Redekopp tried to send to Russia in the 1960s and identified as a .50 cent story book, in the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies display case.
Custodial history
According to the Mennonite Brethren Historical Society Newsletter 5.4 (November 1983), 238 crates of periodicals, personal papers and books from the collection of the late Selma Redekopp were donated by the H.W. Redekopp family in 1983.
Notes
- Title based on contents of fonds.
File list
- Diaries of religious writings and notebooks. Located in box 1. – 1935–1939.
- Diaries of religious writings and notebooks. Located in box 2. – 1938–1940.
- Diaries of religious writings and oversize notebooks. Located in box 3. – 1936–1937, 1939.
- Diaries of religious writings and notebooks. Located in box 4. – [194-].
- Diaries of religious writings and notebooks. Located in box 5. – 1940–1970, predominantly from 1940–1950, 1955, 1956, 1970.
- Diaries of religious writings and notebooks. Located in box 6. – 1950–1954.
- Diaries of religious writings and notebooks. Located in box 7. – 1955–1959.
- Diaries of religious writings and notebooks. Located in box 8. – 1960, 1962, 1964, 1965–1967.
- Diaries of religious writings and notebooks. Located in box 9. – 1941–1961, predominantly from 1941–1952, 1955, 1959–1961.
- Diaries of religious writings. Located in box 10. – January to July, 1962.
- Diaries of religious writings. Located in box 11. – August to December, 1962.
- Diaries of religious writings. Located in box 12. – January to September, 1963.
- Diaries of religious writings. Located in box 13. – February to December, 1964.
- Diaries of religious writings. Located in box 14. – January to December, 1965.
- Diaries of religious writings. Located in box 15. – 1966.
- Diaries of religious writings. Located in box 16. – 1967–1969.
- Diaries of religious writings. Located in box 17. – 1970–1975.
- Diaries of religious writings. – Undated.
- 19:1 Receipts from charitable organizations. – 1953–1973.
- 19:2 Immigration documents, some photocopied. – 1916–1932.
- 19:3 Legal documents, such as land transfers, credit arrangements, quit claim deed, death certificate. Originals. – 1926–1946.
- 19:4 Genealogical records. – 1918-[19-].
- 19:5 Religious writings of Selma Redekopp. In Gothic script. – 1944–1948, 1951.
- 19:6 Personal correspondence. – 1928–1947, some undated.
- 19:7 Personal correspondence. – 1948–1972.
- One photograph.
- 19:8 Letters to “Liebe Geschwister.” – Undated.
- 19:9 Personal effects.
- 19:10 Religious writings, Gothic script. – Undated.
- 19:11 Diaries, labelled very significant personal diary. – 1941, 1942, 1948–1951.
