Johann Plett

Johann Plett, Ellerwald: A Mennonite Family Saga, with Biographies to the Fifth and Sixth Generation.

From the back cover: The story of the Plett family is a template for the Flemish Mennonites who fled Polish-Prussia to Imperial Russia in search of a refuge for their faith. Having pioneered in the Moloschna Colony in 1804, descendants Ältester Johann Plett Harder (1811-75), Blumstein, and Ältester Peter Plett Toews (1841-1922), Fischau, speak for the Mennonite Church in the face of growing apostasy and the loss of religious freedom. In 1874, Mayor Cornelius Plett (1820-1900), Kleefeld, and Delegate Cornelius Plett Toews (1836-1908), Hierschau, lead the Plett family to North America where they wrest a new homeland from the prairie wilderness. In the U.S.S.R., Ältester Gerhard Plett (1860-1933), Hierschau, and minister Gerhard Kornelius Plett (1891-1937), Nikolaifeld, are martyred for the faith under Sovietization and the exile of Mennonites to the prison camps of the Siberian GUlag.