About the Warkentin family
Bernhard Warkentin, the son of a Mennonite miller, was born on June 19, 1847, in Crimea, Ukraine (Russia). He came to the United States in 1871. After traveling across several locations, he settled in Summerfield, Illinois.

He was seeking possible colonization sites for other Mennonites. In 1873, he came to Kansas and settled in Halstead where he built the first grist mill in the county. In August 1875, he married Wilhelmina (Mina) Eisenmeyer of Summerfield, Illinois, the daughter of a miller. Together they would have two children, daughter Edna and son Carl.

The family moved into their Newton home at 211 E. 1st Street in 1887, where Bernhard and Wilhelmina lived the remainder of their lives. Bernhard died of an accidental gunshot wound in 1908, and Wilhelmina died in the home in 1932.

How did Bernhard Warkentin get from Russia to Kansas?
Bernhard Warkentin was born on June 19, 1847, in the village of Altona in the Molotschna Mennonite colony in the Ukraine.  His father was a farmer and miller.  How did Bernhard end up settling in central Kansas less than thirty years after his birth?  The answer is a story that is both deeply personal and part of great geo-political shifts causing the migration of tens of thousands of people out of Russia.

In 1870 Russia passed laws which would restrict the religious and educational freedom of Germanic settlers who had been invited to farm the Ukraine and given special freedoms a century earlier.  In response to the laws many decided to leave and began looking for places with both good farm land and new guarantees of freedom. 

On June 5, 1872, Bernhard Warkentin arrived in New York with three friends – partly on an adventure and also looking at settlement possibilities.  He sent letters back to Russia and described his travels in great detail to his friend, David Goerz, who would one day become another very prominent Newtonian. Warkentin established the headquarters for his exploration of America in Summerfield, Illinois, just east of St. Louis. South German Mennonites had settled there a few years earlier, and Warkentin stayed at the home of Christian Krehbiel, who in the 1870s led many of the Summerfield Mennonites to Halstead and Moundridge.  This would be a fateful step for Warkentin.

Warkentin and his friends visited Minnesota, Manitoba, the Dakota Territory, Kansas, and Texas. His letters home stoked excitement about the prospects of Mennonite settlements in North America.  Warkentin's friends returned to Russia, but he stayed, heartbroken upon learning of the sudden death of his fiancée.

In 1873 he studied English at McKendree College in nearby Lebanon, Illinois. Over the next several years the young Warkentin worked with official delegations of Mennonites from Russia who looked for land and negotiated with railroads to buy sufficient acreage.  He even helped purchase tickets and escorted new arrivals from the seaports to Kansas and elsewhere.

When some of the Summerfield Mennonites purchased land near Halstead, Warkentin decided to join them in mid-1874.

He was soon joined by his new bride, Wilhelmina Eisenmeyer, a non-Mennonite, who he had met during his stay in Summerfield. They married on August 12, 1875, and she became not only a key part of Bernhard's life thenceforth, but also in the story of the Warkentin House. Her father was a wealthy miller, and Bernhard had already decided he would become a miller and had opened a small mill in Halstead.

Why did the Warkentins come to Newton and build the Warkentin House?
Warkentin expanded his mill and nearby farmstead on the north edge of Halstead in the late 1870s. He prospered, and his family also grew with the birth of a daughter, Edna Wella, on September 24, 1876, and a son, Carl Orlando, on January 3, 1880. In 1884 the Warkentins began construction of a fine new house in Halstead. His Little River Stock Farm (on the Little Arkansas River) featured an impressive and unique barn in addition to the fine new house. The site is today a National Historical Landmark.

In 1885 the now quite wealthy Warkentins took a six-month tour of Europe and visited family and friends in the Ukraine. When they returned, Warkentin sold his Halstead mill to his father-in-law, and his brother-in-law, Conrad, took over the operations in Halstead. Warkentin chartered a new company, the Newton Milling and Elevator Company, but initial plans to construct a new mill in Newton shifted and instead he purchased the existing Monarch Mill.

Just when the Warkentins seemed to be well established in Halstead everything changed and they relocated their business and started construction of their new home in Newton. Their motive is unknown. Was the business or family relationship with the Eisenmeyers a factor? Or was it just clear at this point that Newton was becoming a much larger community and greater business opportunity than Halstead? Also, the Mennonites were moving their school from Halstead and establishing a college in Newton, making Newton the locus of Mennonite settlers in Kansas. Whatever the reasons, it proved to be a move that was good for the Warkentins and for Newton.

What is the historical significance of the Warkentins?
While the Warkentins today are remembered primarily for the historical significance (and National Register status) of their Halstead farm and Newton home and mill (also a national landmark like the farm), during their lifetimes they achieved recognition for their entrepreneurship and support of their community.

Warkentin created what could be considered a business empire, owning another flour mill in Blackwell, Oklahoma, and serving as a director/owner of the Bank of Halstead, Kansas State Bank of Newton, Millers' National Insurance Company, the Terminal Warehouse Company, and the Western States Portland Cement Company. He was one of Newton's leading businessmen.

However, Bernhard Warkentin's leadership is perhaps best recognized today for his role in making Kansas into the “wheat” state. Growing wheat did not dominate Kansas agriculture in the early 1870s. Warkentin helped to shift farmers from planting spring and soft wheat to hard winter wheat. Warkentin encouraged farmers to grow Turkey Red Wheat from Russia, which was more suited to the Kansas climate and which his new steel roller mills could refine into excellent flour. In 1900 he worked with several groups to import 15,000 bushels of Turkey Red seed from Russia.  Some debate surrounds the story of how Kansas became America's breadbasket, but the innovation and promotion of Bernhard Warkentin played a major role. Moreover, Kansas Mennonites soon became well known for their wheat production.

The Warkentins also generously supported institutions important to their community with time and money.

He became one of three founders of Bethel College and served as the treasurer. He also became an instrumental donor to the Bethel Deaconess Hospital in Newton. In fact, the history of this institution is also entwined with that of the Warkentin House. Following her death in 1932, Wilhelmina deeded the house to the deaconesses, and they benefited greatly from using the home for three decades. Eventually, the deaconesses faded away and the home went to the City of Newton to operate as a historic site.

Bernhard Warkentin's life ended in tragedy decades before the passing of his wife. In 1908 he and his wife were taking a long-anticipated trip to southern Europe and the Holy Land, then a part of the Ottoman Empire. While riding on a train after visiting Nazareth on April 1, 1908, he was shot and killed when Mahemed Said, grandson of the emir of Algeria, accidentally discharged his gun through the wall of the train compartment striking and killing Bernhard. Said faced no justice for his irresponsible act, and it became somewhat of an international incident. Bernhard was 60 years old, and Newton and Kansas too soon lost one of their most prominent citizens.

For many years historians believed the Warkentin family continued to live in Halstead for a year while their home in Newton was constructed and then they moved into their new house in mid-1887. Recently discovered newspaper reports indicate the house actually took longer to complete, and the family lived in a rented house on West Broadway for some time before moving to their home on East 1st Street.