Born in Siberia in 1911, Henry Schulz Sr. lived in a prisoner-of-war camp as a child and came with his parents to Holdfast, Saskatchewan in 1925. Their son Henry Jr. remained temporarily in Russia for health reasons. Schulz and his wife Elizabeth lived in Glidden, Saskatchewan from 1927 to 1932, where three more children were born. In 1932, after losing the family farm, the Schulz family decided to travel as far west as the railroad would take them. They came to Black Creek, south of Campbell River, because they could buy about 50 acres of land that had been the headquarters of a logging company. The area had been destroyed by fire and was full of blackened stumps. Henry Schulz Sr. wrote articles for German-language newspapers in the Prairies encouraging more Mennonites to settle at Black Creek. The Schulz family operated the Black Creek store that began as a lean-to attached to the house. It doubled as a Post Office. Henry Jr. worked in logging camps until he opened a butcher shop at Black Creek in 1943. At age 37 in 1949, Henry Schulz Jr. married his wife Eugenie Albrecht and they had three children. He lived at Black Creek until his death in 1994. The general store was taken over by his daughter Annie who maried Jake Wiebe, but they sold it in the early 1970s. The former Mennonite-run store at Black Creek is now a government liquor outlet. The memoirs of Henry Schulz Sr. were printed by Ptarmigan Press in Campbell River. The first volume Snowborne: The Siberian Chronicles of Henry Schulz was followed by his Black Creek memoir, A New Frontier: The Canadian Chronicles of Henry Schulz (Campbell River: Ptarmigan Press, 1984). These were published by H.H. Schulz Enterprises, Box 34, Black Creek, B.C. V0R 1C0.

[BCBW 2003] "Local History" "Mennonite"