Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthFebruary 26, 1889
Place of BirthSamara
CountryRussia
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinMrs. Dora Foster, Okno P.O., Manitoba
Trade / CallingFarmer
ReligionLutheran
Service Details
Regimental Number3349195
Service RecordLink to Service Record
Battalion1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Place of EnlistmentWinnipeg, Manitoba
Address at EnlistmentOkno P.O., Manitoba
Date of EnlistmentNovember 11, 1917
Age at Enlistment28
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathAugust 19, 1939
Age at Death50
Buried AtBrookside Cemetery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Plot22-1646-0

Stoppel, Christian Johann

According to his recruitment papers and other documents, Christian Johann Stoppel was born on 26 February 1889 in Samara, Russia. He immigrated to Canada via the U.S. in April 1907 and settled in Manitoba. His mother Dorothea and brothers Carl and Alexander also came to Manitoba the same year. A sister, Elizabeth (Mrs. Daniel Meier), arrived about two years later with her husband and children. All the families took up farming north of Gimli.

The war started in August 1914 and conscription was introduced in Canada three years later. Single men aged 20 to 34 were required to register by the fall of 1917. Christian failed to register and he was called up as a defaulter on 11 November. He was apprehended a year later, on 19 October 1918. He was a farmer at the time, 29 years old, and living near Okno, Manitoba. He listed his mother Dora Foster, also living near Okno, as next of kin. Christian was drafted to the 1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment then assigned to the 10th Battalion, Canadian Garrison Regiment. He was discharged from service on 8 December 1918, due to being in a medical category lower than “B” (i.e. not suitable for overseas service). His final pay certificate notes that he had not been issued a uniform.

When the 1921 census was taken Christian was enumerated in both Bifrost, Manitoba and Minaki, Ontario. In Bifrost he was a farmer on his own farm. Living nearby and also farming were his brothers Carl and Alexander, his sister Elizabeth Meier and her family, and their mother Dorothea. In the census for Minaki, Ontario Christian was listed as a sawmill labourer, seasonal work that he likely took to supplement his farming income.

Christian was married on 7 June 1922 in Winnipeg. His wife, Emily Hintz, was from a large family in the RM of Rhineland, which is south of Winnipeg. She was born in Rhineland in 1898, the eldest daughter of August Hintz, a farmer, and Caroline Sontag. Christian and Emily spent a few years living in Louisiana then settled in Winnipeg. They raised four sons: George Ronald, Christian John, Frederick William (born in Lake Providence, Louisiana) and Karl Lewis.

Christian passed away in the Misericordia Hospital in Winnipeg on 19 August 1939, at age 50. Emily remarried and died in 1973 (Mrs. Nickolai Loesner). Christian, Emily and their four sons are all buried at Brookside Cemetery in Winnipeg.

By Becky Johnson


Gravemarker photo courtesy of Ken, findagrave.com


« Back To Soldier Biographies