Watonwan Enterprises builds Mennonite-style Miaschaup for Heritage Village
Their task?
To create a design and build a book shelf, storage cabinet and media center unit – all in one.
To be constructed with a specific look – Mennonite-style – similar to a Miaschaup (Low German for wall cabinet).
To be manufactured exclusively for the Welcome Center at Heritage Village of Mountain Lake.
The crew from Watonwan Enterprises Inc. of Mountain Lake eagerly went to work on these directives. Paul Nibbe drew up the basic original design, taken from images found in Mennonite furniture history books provided to them by Lorin and Becky Epp. Ken Fast took up those plans as he began construction, the two brainstorming on ideas and styles as the piece began to take shape. “I had a concept, and Ken took it and went with it,” explains Nibbe.
Making it Mennonite
In the 1870s and 1880s, Mennonites emigrated from Prussia, Poland and south Russia (Ukraine) to the Midwest Plains of the United States as well as the Canadian Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario. The only furniture they could bring with them on board ship was a dowry chest or travel trunk.
Among the immigrants were skilled cabinetmakers and carpenters who built furniture for their new homes in the new land. The new furniture was made and decorated in the style of furniture they had left behind.
Generally Mennonite immigrant furniture was large, sturdy and constructed of ash or pine. The furniture was decorated with inlaid veneer, paint or stain. The cabinetry joints used in Mennonite furniture were butterfly key, dovetail, mortise and tenon, tongue and groove, and wood pin. A less well known joinery technique was the wedge cleat, often used to connect the bottom and top cases of a wardrobe to the central portion.
Capturing the tradition
Nibbe and Fast met more than four decades ago when both were studying the two-year carpentry course at Jackson Vocational-Technical Institute (today, Minnesota West Community and Technical College-Jackson Campus. Both of the men acknowledge that at that time they already sensed a bond between them when it came to cabinet construction.
Before attending school for specialized carpentry study, Fast already had some construction experience under his belt, having worked while in high school as a trim carpenter for local carpentry shop owner, Clarence Buller (the man who would eventually become his father-in-law). “The first thing I built? A bookshelf,” says Fast with a laugh.
In fact, reflecting on his longtime interest in carpentry, Fast recalls that some of his happiest moments as a child were when he was able to build bird houses out of peach crates. “My grandpa, John B. Fast, had a lot knick-knacks and jigs,” reminisces Fast, “maybe I can trace it back to him and say it is ‘in my genes.'” The first Christmas as a married couple for Fast and his wife, Wendy, was typical for young, newly-married couples. “We didn’t have much money, but I remember I carved a creche for us. Later, the owners of house in which we were renters liked it and offered to buy it, and we sold it to them,” Fast recalls. “For sentimental reasons, I really wish I had it now.”
After the coursework, Fast returned to the Buller Carpentry Shop, with Nibbe later joining him at the business. The duo eventually bought that shop on Seventh Street and began working together as Mountain Lake Concrete.
The emphasis later switched to cabinet manufacturing, offering millwork, crown molding installation and cabinet restoration, and the business expanded to its current location on Cottonwood County Road #27 in Mountain Lake’s manufacturing district on the east side of the city.
Today, Watonwan Enterprises, Inc. also offers custom cabinetry, custom home construction, deck construction, flooring installation, home addition and home improvement and remodeling services.
Watonwan’s everyday cabinet creation work remains, “Hands-on. We build close to the same as we have for the past 42 years,” shares Fast.
Capturing the tradition
“What they (Mennonite immigrants) could do with the simple wood-working tools they had – amazing!” stresses Fast. “With the valance and cabinet door designs of the unit for Heritage Village, we worked to capture some of the traditional accents found in Mennonite furniture.
However, we do have what the Mennonite carpenters of years ago did not have – self-closing drawer slides and soft-closing hinges – along with power tools to complete the work.
A Miaschaup built in classic Mennonite style – but, with modern details.