Rural Diary Archive
Rural Diary Archive

Gordon Eby

Coverage Dates: 1911 to 1919
County: Waterloo
Township: Waterloo
Lot: 409 Mill St.
Concession: Berlin
Gender: Male
Year of Birth: 1890
Year of Death: 1965
Ethnicity: Pennsylvania Mennonite
Religion: Mennonite
Occupation: Gardener
Relationships: 
Father: Christian Eby
Mother: Catherine
Brothers: Jacob and Clayton Stenzel (adopted)
Sister: Isabella
Archive: The original diaries are at the Mennonite Archives of Ontario Conrad Grebel University College.
Posted on Rural Diary Archive: No
Age During Diary: 21-30
Coverage: 9 years

Biography: 

As a Mennonite farm boy, Gordon will surprise you. He details his hobby of photography and experiments with all sorts of “new-fangled things,” such as a telephone, the moving pictures and a gramophone. His father is a noted herbalist, faith healer and ‘charmer,” and while he travels, Gordon attends to their gardening and hauls produce to the market in Berlin/Kitchener. Then he departs to serve in the war overseas and life changes.
His full diaries are transcribed in: Gordon C. Eby, Paul Tiessen, and Anne Eby Millar. ‘Of Course I Was Only an Onlooker for I Can’t Dance’ : The 1911-1919 Diary of Gordon Christian Eby, Mennonite Farmer. Waterloo, Ontario: MLR Editions Canada, 2007, available at: https://uwaterloo.ca/grebel/sites/default/files/uploads/files/EbyDiary.pdf