The Gordon C. Eby Diaries, 1911-13: Chronicle of a Mennonite Farmer

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

A part of the growing Multicultural History Society of Ontario collection, the “Ethnocultural Voices” series, this journal, kept between 1911 and 1913 by a young Mennonite farmer of the Kitchener area, is a convincing picture of the daily life of a man unique as all human beings are, yet fairly representative of his community and its way of life.

One point of particular interest regarding the Eby family was diarist Eby’s father Christian’s status as a “charmer” (a kind of folk healer or medicine man). He was known and respected both locally and abroad, as Gordon’s diaries demonstrate. Gordon himself was something of an amateur photographer; a few specimens of his work are included.

This day-to-day picture of a way of life, unusual in the detail provided, is a valuable addition to Canadian studies, more particularly in that it directs attention to the neglected Pennsylvania German community which was at one time one of the largest ethnic groups in the province.