Lisa Silbermann’s legacy

Lillian Munz

Lisa Erdman was about 20 years old when she and her family left Crimea, first settling in South Dakota and then homesteading in Barons, in 1904. Lisa worked as a housemaid in Lethbridge and in Medicine Hat where Reverend Sillak had encouraged many Estonians to settle. It was there that Lisa first met her future husband, Martin Silbermann, who stopped off the train there in 1905 on his way from Estonia. After Martin earned some money working for a year as a blacksmith at the Exshaw cement factory, he was able to marry Lisa in 1907 and settle on CPR land 3 miles south of Barons.

After first living in a sod house, they eventually built a large two storey house which was sent out in sections from Winnipeg. A daughter and twin boys were born. Lisa was busy as a pioneer farm wife, cooking for threshing crews, raising vegetables, chickens and pigs. When the children were approaching high school age, the Silbermanns rented out their farm and moved to Estonia for over 10 years This was Lisa’s first experience with the homeland of her parents. The family lived in Tartu so the children could attend university there.

In the early thirties, the Silbermanns returned to the Barons farm. Over the next 17 years, Lisa and Martin

had eight grandchildren, among whom are Martha Munz-Gue, Albert Munz and Lillian Munz, children of Helmi. The three Silvertons (Mae, Silvia and Ernie) are children of Lea Weiler and Walter Silverton who farmed in Barons and retired to Victoria.

Lisa was very creative and enjoyed writing, gardening, painting and needlework whenever she had spare time. While she was in Estonia she hand knotted a Persian style carpet measuring 8 feet by 10 feet. Like many immigrants she was hard working, community minded, and proud to be a Canadian. She often reminisced about her semi-tropical birth place, Crimea, quite a contrast from the dry flat prairies of southern Alberta.