Grunthal was first settled in 1876 by Russian Mennonites who had come to Canada in what is referred to as the first major wave of Russian immigration. James Urry, in his book None But Saints, defines the three big immigration movements of Mennonites from Russia to America. The first was in the 1870's when Alexander II (then Czar) voided the charters that provided Russian Mennonites from Religious Freedoms and self-determination of their communities. From 1873 to 1884 about 8,000 Mennonites migrated to Manitoba, with another 13,000 settling in the mid-western United States. The second major wave of Russian Mennonites migrated to Canada soon after the Russian Revolution in 1919. more... See more text