Remembering our roots ~ Peter and Elsie Nikkel

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By John Godsman Times Contributor

Peter’s family originated in the northern part of the Netherlands and in Germany, prior to settling in the Crimea in the 1700s. Following the Seven Years War, a global war fought between 1756 and 1763 involving all five European great powers of the time and spanning five continents, Russian Czarina Catherine the Great needed the services of farmers to rehabilitate her nation’s farmland and persuaded many Mennonites – including the Nikkel family – to move to what is now known as Ukraine.
In 1926, Peter’s grandparents, Peter and Anna Nikkel, immigrated to Canada and settled in Coaldale, Alta. with the family, which included Peter’s father Abram. Immigrants with farming backgrounds flocked to this area because of opportunities associated with irrigation and sugar beets.
Peter was born in Coaldale in 1938 and attended Readymade School southeast of Coaldale for both elementary and junior high; he then attended the Alberta Mennonite High School located at Coaldale. From 1958 to 1960, he took courses in aircraft maintenance at SAIT in Calgary, before joining Pacific Western Airlines in Edmonton.
From 1964 to 1982, Peter was an automotive teacher at Bowness High School in northwest Calgary. After completing several alternative fuel courses in 1983, his intention was to return to teaching with the Calgary Board of Education, but instead he became a specialist in vocational courses at all Calgary public high schools from 1983 to 1993. Then in 1993 he joined Alberta Education on their career and technology team, rewriting the curriculum on automotive, autobody, electronics and electricity. The alternative fuel course came in handy after he started farming and using irrigation.
Elsie Thiessen’s family also originated in Ukraine. Her grandparents, Abram and Anna Willms and Abraham and Gertrude Thiessen, immigrated to Canada from Russia in the 1920s and settled in the Namaka area.
Elsie was born at her parent’s farm at Namaka and attended school there and at the Alberta Mennonite High School where she met Peter. They were married in 1962 and have three children and nine grandchildren.
In 1996, assisted by his family, Peter and Elsie started building the house they now live in, and completed construction in 1998. The couple dabbled in raising miniature cattle, like Dexter cattle from Ireland. Peter says that as they were now senior citizens, they required smaller steaks! They also raised miniature horses, donkeys, llamas and miniature chickens, known as bantams.