Eben Calvin Cressman

1912 - 2001  (89 years)

• Name	Eben Calvin Cressman
  Born	29 Aug 1912	Breslau Mennonite Cemetery, Breslau, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1, 2]
  Gender	Male
  Residence	1987	20 Noel Cres., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-387122
  Died	14 Nov 2001	Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [2, 3]
  Buried	Wanner Mennonite Cemetery, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [2, 3]
  Person ID	I387122	Generations
  Last Modified	6 Apr 2024

  
  

  Father	Noah H. Cressman,   b. 24 Jan 1873, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 20 Jul 1953, New Hamburg, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 80 years)
  Mother	Catharine Brubacher,   b. 10 Jun 1879, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 23 Jun 1945  (Age 66 years)
  Married	23 Oct 1900  [4]
  Family ID	F18773	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Margaret Emily Georgina White,   b. 13 Aug 1914, Hamilton, Wentworth Co., Ontario, Canada ,   d. 2 Dec 1987, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 73 years)
  Married	28 Jun 1941
  Children	1. Margaret Rima Cressman   2. Paul Murray Cressman
  Last Modified	7 Apr 2024
  Family ID	F262054	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  CRESSMAN, Eben Calvin - Passed away, peacefully, surrounded by his family on Wed., Nov. 14, 2001, at Fairview Mennonite Home, in Cambridge, age 89 years. Mr. Cressman was a lifelong member of Wanner Mennonite church and very active in numerous church organizations. He retired as a public school principal from Alexandra and Elizabeth Ziegler Public Schools. Following his retirement, Mr. Cressman was in the Teacher Abroad Program in Zambia, Africa, sponsored by the Mennonite Central Committee. He was an avid gardener in his spare time and was active with the Canadian Bible Society and Mennonite Historical Society. Loving father of Marnie Derksen and her husband Erv of Kitchener, Paul Cressman and his wife Sharon of Waterloo. Special grandfather to Cathy and her husband Brad Kueneman, Chris Derksen and his wife Heather Holden, Kate, Joel and Alex Cressman. Also survived by a sister-in-law, Violet Cressman of Waterloo. Predeceased by his wife, Margaret (White); sisters, Ella Cressman, Ruby Shantz and brothers, Aylmer and Cecil Cressman...Wanner Mennonite Cemetery..." ___________________ "Teachers in rural one or two-room schools had to prepare lessons in their own time. Reflecting in June 1944 on his first ten years in the same school (Riverbank), Eben Cressman reported 'hundreds of 14-hour days grappling with the numerous duties of a rural school teacher' and the problems of 'handling many children daily and the lack of wisdom in handling discipline...In a room in which five grades are taught at one time it is a gigantic task to learn all the subject material and the best way to teach it'.....School sections differed in the levels of equipment and support provided to teachers. Eben Cressman remembers desperate shortages at Riverbank in the 1930s when 'there was no money for anything'......Eben Cressman remembers no delinquency in his 20 years as a teacher (or his earlier eight years as a pupil) in township schools." Waterloo Township Through Two Centuries" (Pg. 331) ________________ Eben Cressman, born in 1912, had three years' high school. Then, to give his sister her chance, he worked at the family's chopping and grist mill in Breslau until he was 21. He attended the Hamilton Normal School to qualify as a teacher and later studied for a B.A. degree while teaching at Riverbank school." Waterloo Township Through Two Centuries" (Pg. 337) _________________ "Area schoolboards allowed resources to be shared to enrich the rural curriculum. One of the first actions of the Area 1 Board (ie: 7 schools east of the Grand River) in 1944 was to appoint Eben Cressman as itinerant teacher in agricultural and natural science, manual crafts, construction work and physical education for all the Area 1 schools. With ten years' teaching experience already at Riverbank, he was sensitive to the needs of rural children and families and highly creative and conscientious. He called himself 'a jack of all trades' while former inspector Dobrindt, recalling this period in 1994, describes Cressman's role as 'almost an acting principal to the whole area'. Cressman was responsible for an area of about 25 square miles with 350 pupils in four suburban or village schools and five rural one-room schools. He spent half a day each week at each of the nine schools, and the remaining half day at a disused room at Riverbank school preparing his teaching and learning materials such as patterns, pictures, charts and puzzles. When he arrived at a school he would take charge of grades 5 to 8 for science until recess time. After inspecting work set the previous week, he would teach the agriculture lesson to Grades 7 and 8 and then the natural science lesson to grades 5and 6. After recess came the crafts period. In a one-room school, the grade 5 to 8 pupils would go to the basement for woodwork, and the regular teacher would present the science lesson Eben had prepared to grades 3 and 4 for half the period, then give a paper construction lesson. In a two-room school, Cressman would take the boys of grades 5 to8 to the basement while one regular teacher took the girls of those grades for crafts or domestic science and the other teacher taught the science and construction lessons to grades 3 and 4. Craft lessons were very popular with the children making objects to take home as well as useful items for the schoolroom. Physical education lessons were squeezed into recesses and designed in the form of games of all kinds to give children ideas for their own free time. Eben Cressman Waterloo Township Through Two Centuries" (Pg. 340)

  
  

• Sources

  [S2858] z Vit - ON - Birth Registration, Birth Certificate 054085 (1912). Name:Eben Calvin Cressman Date of Birth:29 Aug 1912 Gender:Male Birth Place:Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Father's name:Noah Cressman Mother's name:Catherine Brubacher [S3231] Find A Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/20594404. [S2588] Cemetery - ON, Waterloo, Cambridge - Wanner Cemetery Internet Link. CRESSMAN/ Margaret E. White/ 1914-1987/ Eben C. CRESSMAN/ 1912- / Under his wings/ [S8] News - Gospel Herald, August 18, 1953 - Obituary of Noah H. Cressman.

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 29 Aug 1912 - Breslau Mennonite Cemetery, Breslau, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Died - 14 Nov 2001 - Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Buried - - Wanner Mennonite Cemetery, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth