Heinrich Ratzlaff, first mayor of Rosenort, Manitoba, upon seeing the land near the Scratching River, wrote the following words in German on the trunk of a dead tree. “ It is good to be here, let us build our homes.”

In 1874, 31 Russian Mennonite families moved to the banks of the Scratching River near Morris.
David Klassen, a delegate who explored migration to North America in 1873, chose the land near Morris because it was highly fertile, near Winnipeg by road, well-drained for early spring seeding and easy to cultivate since it was free of rocks and trees. That first year two villages were settled – Rosenort and Rosenhoff (now Riverside).