PART 13: THE DAY WHEN THEY HAD TO SAY FAREWELL

“LAW AND ORDER”, “GOOD GOVERNMENT”, “CHURCHES”, “SCHOOLS” ...

“The Romanian land” said great writer Liviu Rebreanu, “seems as if it can only produce Romanians. And so, the destiny of the land where we were born and which fed us had to command also the destiny of our nation. It imposed on us for centuries on end a vegetal existence, an existence of torment and humiliation which only the peasant could bear. The more the sufferings with the passing of time, the more obstinately patient the Romanian peasant was. His love for the land grew more vigorous. The dust would keep melting with the forefathers’ ashes and bones, and their ghosts and souls kept filling the heaven above. Nobody could uproot him, no force and no torture...”

However, a number of Romanian peasants did emigrate, seeking a rescue, as they were no longer able to feed their families and were deprived of the land which, as Liviu Rebreanu put it, they had grown to love more and more “vigorously”, and were unable to pay their debts and hoped that God would help them survive. It was God, they thought, that had brought there the immigration agents sent to Europe to tell the peasants that Canada’s prairie was the Promised Land.

James H. Gray reproduced in his book “Boomtime” a poster from the paraphernalia of those agents, which showed Canada as a magnet attracting even the United States farmers. As a matter of fact, thousands of settlers from the big country in the south deserted their homesteads and went to Canada. “Good bye South Dakota, Hurrah for Canada” advertised the then newspapers. What was there in store for them beyond the Boundary Line? Says the poster: “Golden Opportunity”, “Law and Order”, “Home Rule”, “Good Government”, “Churches”, “Schools”.

Nonetheless, the same J.H. Gray said, many of the settlers come from America soon changed their mind and returned to the States, “when they discovered that in Canada, they got twenty percent less for everything they sold and paid twenty percent more for everything they bought, thanks to freight rates and tariffs”.

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Likewise, the Romanian peasants, allured by the opportunity to till for awhile the wild land in Canada and come back home with money to buy land in their village, were carried away by that dream and took the risk, endangering their lives and forgetting about the possibility that they might never see their native land again. Whereas “Uncle Sam” could go back home when he discovered how tough the life in Canada’s prairie was, as the distance was small and the train fare cheap, the Romanian peasants, most of whom wanted to return to Romania after the first days spent on the homesteads, couldn’t. The train and ship fares overseas had cost them, when they came to Canada, almost all the earnings of their lifetime (house, a few acres of land, cattle, orchards, farm implements, etc.); they couldn't have possibly started back before working hard to earn money for tickets. And when some of them had managed to gather the money, the First World War was sweeping Romania. And so, it happened that the Romanian peasants remained in Canada, forever separated from the destiny of the Romanian land and longing for it until their last. Most of them bequeathed on their children and grandchildren the command to go to Romania and bring back dust from the yards of their native houses in order to spread it on their tombs. Dust from the land of their destiny that had been diverted from the course of the ancestors’ history.

Starting with this chapter the reader will find dramatic, unique episodes from the history of those families who dared part with the native land but whom, with a will characteristic of the Romanian peasant, with matchless dedication and dignity, helped build modern Canada. Seeing themselves hopelessly trapped by the endless prairie, the Romanian peasants did their utmost to adapt themselves; the call of the land was the same as it had been in Bucovina or Dobrogea. Canada's land had to be tilled, attended to, caressed by the flowers of crops, and tamed by skilled hands. Or, what else could the Romanian peasants’ hands do better than tame the land? Actually, that was the explanation of the pioneers’ baffling resistance and patience in the inhospitable, unworldly prairie, when the tilling of the land was, for years on end, the only meaning of the life on the homestead and the only alternative to despair, begging, abasement and even the only alternative to death.

Well, we will go back in time with awe, in order to try and describe what happened in the Romanian peasant’s soul and house the day he left his home and village and ventured into an unknown world. Of invaluable help are the interviews written down during the trip in 1983, which conjured up for me pages of history recounted with charm and truthfulness to facts. The respondents remembered with emotion their childhood spent in their native village. Or, as noted by great philosopher and poet Lucian Blaga, “The most congenial and productive environment of childhood is the village and it is just as true that the village, in turn, finds its supreme thriving in a child’s soul.”

This explains how come after 70 or 80 or even more years there still are people in Canada who are unable to forget their native village in Romania, the tragic day when they had to say farewell to its “cosmic horizon” (L. Blaga).

MOTHER’S CURSE

The Story of Mrs. Valeria Mihalcea, 97. Regina:

“When l left Saraiu, Dobrogea, in 1907, I had an 8-month-old baby girl, Ileana. My husband was Marin Mihalcea. Father, lon Ciurea, was the village mayor; he had 20 acres of land and a garden. But my man was poor, he had put it into his head to get rich in Canada and then come back to spite the village. He wouldn't

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go alone, so he took me with him. My parents didn't agree to my leaving. On the day of departure, mother spirited my Ileana away saying she would bring her up. She wanted to make sure I would come back... The women in the neighbourhood were crying and pitying us and urging her: “Give her back her baby, llinca, and let her go if it is fated so...” Poor mother... I had been of help to her with the weaving and the house chores. How could she let me go? ‘Valeria!’ she would cry desperately, holding Ileana tight to her breast, ‘Why do you break my heart, Valeria? Is this my reward for having brought you up, my daughter? If you're not afraid of God, do as you like, but leave the girl with me! Give me this comfort, have mercy, Valeria!’”

“Father understood that I was bound to go ahead and follow my husband so he took the baby from her arms and gave her to me, blessing us. While we were getting in the carriage of an uncle which would take us to Hirsova where from we would board a ship to sail on the Danube to Germany, mother was a little more composed, she turned eastwards and, leaning to the gate she shouted aloud, crossing herself: ‘Go away, Valeria, my girl, across nine seas and nine lands, and may you never find comfort if you leave me alone!...’”

“All my brothers died in the world war. Father was lost in Transylvania. I was never able to go back, first because of the war and then ‘because I hadn't money. Mother died having no one to comfort her... Oh, God, how can I make her soul in the heavens forgive me? Even now, after 76 years, I can see her crossing herself and cursing by the gate…”

GRANDMOTHER'S BREAD

The Story of Mr. Ilie Lupastean, 77, Regina:

“After three years spent in Canada, father, Ion Lupastean, returned to the village, to Bancesti, to take mother and the four children. But mother wouldn't follow him and my old man returned to Canada in 1911. A stray bullet hit my mother's heart in 1918. I lived hard and parentless until 1923 when father sent a friend of his to take me to him. I was 17 on the day when I went to grandmother to say good bye. It was granny that had brought me up, together with mother’s brother, Mihailo Pascal. They were both in the yard, looking at the trees planted by me: sweet cherries, apples and pears. ‘Where are you going?’ asked grandmother. ‘Well, I’m going to find a job in some town. Maybe Radauti. But my granny suspected the truth was different and started weeping, I kissed her hands white with wheat flour; she had prepared the bread and asked me to wait until she would take it out of the oven so she may give it to me for the travel. ‘Who knows, Iliuta, my boy, where that town of yours might be...?’ I left without waiting for the bread. I never saw grandmother again, or Mihailo Pascal. Nor have I ever tasted again bread like the bread Maria Lupastean used to bake.”

TICKETS FOR THE TITANIC

The Story of Mrs. Domnica Lupastean, 71, Regina:

“‘I don’t go’, said mother. ’I prefer my poverty to a foreign land.’ Father had a passport for the whole family. God, he had bought tickets for the Titanic. Seeing that he couldn't convince mother, he sold the tickets and bought just one ticket for another ship. Mother was everybody’s luck! In the end, she agreed to go, urged by her brother, Ion: ’Domnica, you mustn’t make the mistake not to follow your man... You know, on top

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of it all, you’re pregnant...’ She was pregnant with my brother Nick. So, she shared the cattle between the relatives and, eyes full of tears, we left all one morning for Hamburg. There was a cattle boat waiting for us there which, anyway, didn’t collide with any iceberg as the Titanic did...”

THE HOUSE STILL STANDS...

The Story of Ileana Vulpe, 83, Regina:

“Father, Stoica Lipan had a garden in Cilibichioiu, Dobrogea, a round garden extending up to the threshing floor, the place where the crops used to be threshed. Trees all over and piles of fruit which he would keep over winter in three huts... We liked it when the walnuts were ripe, boy, how we liked it when the walnuts were ripe... We would climb up the tree, would fall and fight sometimes... One wonders: I lived well, only I don't know why I left the place...My only luck was that I didn’t have to face the wars...”

“My grandson was in the Old Country and he said that the house and the well built by father in 1900 were still standing. Only they had, he said, to give the house another roofing... The house still stands... On the road from the railway station in Ducuzul (Cuza Voda), after Medgidia, the first house you meet is my parents’ house, really my parents’ house... And then, across the road, as they say, used to live godmother Maria who had christened me. There was another neighbour there, Ion Tilihoi, regular soaker he was, and he was lost in the war against the Bulgarians.”

“On the day of departure, mother scolded me and my sister Rada, she really did... You figure it: we had plunged in the pond and had caught a poor little fish. Mother said why did we catch fry instead of letting it go back in the water and grow... She said we would find big fish in Canada, she said we would...”

THE INVISIBLE FOREST GUARD

The Story of Mrs. Maria Boghean, 79, Regina:

“My parents were enticed here by a letter received from Iosif Vatamaniuc, God, how could they believe?! That Vatamaniuc wrote that hens were blind in Canada and used to lay eggs twice a day; that the pigs had no bones and that fish grew in wells. Poor parents! When they arrived in Saskatchewan and saw all that desolate place, they wanted to find the big liar and kill him.”

“Iosif’s father, Artemie Vatamaniuc, had come with us. But a queer thing had happened to him back in Sucevita. As he was a forest guard, he had found in the forest a gold mine, a hoard. He had filled his bag but there had been a spell cast on the treasure: whoever would find it and would take more than just one coin would die. After nights tormented by nightmares, his face had turned pale, his legs had been trembling and he had been sure to lose his mind. He had to give back what he had taken. Two sons of his followed him wanting to steal the treasure. But they lost him all of a sudden... He had turned invisible... He couldn’t sleep well even after he had arrived in Canada. ‘Father’ said Iosif, ‘let's go back and find the treasure’. And back they went. They never found the golden coins again, nor did they return to Canada.”

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THE SNOW HAD THAWED...

The Story of Dumitru Boghean, 83, Regina:

“Father had TB and lost his voice. My sister Dochita was running the whole household. All of us made charcoal out of hard wood, helped by godfather Dumitras Vatamaniuc, who had christened my elder sister, Chilina. That Chilina sister and brother Savu had come to Canada in 1908. They wrote us to come, as there was plenty of land and good it was too. Father decided that we should sell off and go. In the winter of 1910, he invited his friends from the village to a party. The next day the village chief bought out our homestead which was rather large. My parents, Iftemie and Zaharea were not a needy lot. I don’t remember the names of my grandfather and grandmother... I only remember that their house was between our own house and Gheorghe Usturoi’s. And there came the day of departure... I think it was in the morning... Toader, my friend, I can see him: he was running behind the cart and crying. Father motioned him up in the cart so he may follow us in Canada... Uncle Gheorghe Usturoi was with us. Maybe Andrei too, was with us... Maybe it was Agripina, the one who had married Ion Onofriciuc. They rode with us to Radauti. The snow had thawed and the grass had sprouted. Father, may he rest in peace, was holding a blade of grass between his teeth and smoking...”

TO GO AHEAD

The Story of Mr. Mihai (Mardare) Donison, 83, Regina:

“Half the population in Satu Mare, Bucovina, were Germans and the other half were Romanians. I remember the Romanian school, the old one, and the German, two-storied school building...It was a fine village, but so poor that children would roam all day long to find one or two potatoes... Father, Ion Donisan, went in the army. His first wife and the child died and he decided to stay with the army, to go ahead... He was a corporal... He would go at night to the German school, he was mighty ambitious. After eleven years he married mother. In 1912 father put it into his head to make a fortune across the ocean.

He already had ten children and he often heard rumours about a war that would start soon... Mother was scared. Said she: ‘I say, Ion, if things are like this, let’s go to America!’ They sold off right away. Village chief Ion Dumitrescu bought the house. They kept the clothes. When father, who was a soldierly man, saw us children unwilling to part with the house and the friends, he ordered: ‘Stop that crying! Or we'll leave the whiner behind!’ From that day of departure, which I remember only vaguely, I’ve never seen a quiet day...”

THE TARCEA CHILDREN AIN’T GOT A DADDY!

The Story of Mrs. Maria Bancescu, 89, Regina:

“Father, Ion Tarcea, had plenty of oxen; we drove them together to the fair in Medgidia. I was 10 in 1905 and I worked hard in the field, on threshing, in the village of Fagaras, Dobrogea. Mother would wake me up at sunrise and send me to work. I would hold the oxen by the string and father would drive them. I was shod with ‘rubbers’ made by mother from rags. Although father had 80 acres of land he wasn’t satisfied. He would also lease land from a (I have to think of it...) lazy neighbour.”

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“We went to Argentina first. Said an agent in Hamburg: ‘I say, folks, don’t go to Canada, it snows over there all the year long... Go to Argentina, it’s warm and fine there...’ In Argentina we found dugouts and not a portion of free land. I bled my fingers for five months in a Sugar Factory. Father worked in the field for a landlord. We went back home after a year. My sister Ana said: ‘I’m leaving for Canada to my brother Eftemie’. And so, she did. Me and father, mother and another sister went back home. Godmother Stana Radu went with us. Uncle Vasile Tarcea had taken care of the land back home. The grandparents were waiting for us. We had written them we would come. I remember them crying. And mother, too, was crying. She would say in the village: ‘I don’t want Canada any more...’ Father left alone and sent us ship tickets. Meanwhile my mother’s brother, uncle Ion Floca looked after us. And granddaddy would bring us wood and wheat flour. The children in the village would make me cry shouting at me through the fence: ‘The Tarcea children ain’t got a daddy! The Tarcea children ain’t got a daddy!’ When I got the ticket from father, I was happy to be rid of their big mouth. I feel like crying when I remember... Granddaddy saw us to the railway station and his cheeks were wet with tears. He kept saying: ‘You’re going to Canada but it’s mighty cold there. I know not how those people can live there!'”

CRAWFISH AS BIG AS AN OPINCA

The Story of Mrs. Dumitra Baciu, 84, Regina:

“I remember my parents’ house in Saraiu, Dobrogea... I can see the church, the school... I remember my sisters Voica and Marita. I haven’t forgotten Naonica Coleminte, Marita’s husband either. Well, I remember by name all folks on our street... I can See Gheorghe Burtosu, mother’s godson. Godfather Neagu Cotofana lived in the third house. Then, there were Joita Costache, Ion Ciocan, Vasile Neamtu... Stefan Stefan and his old wife, Sora.”

“Our house had two doors painted in blue, two large windows, a veranda in the back and at one end... A man of our village, Ion Raileanu, had emigrated to Canada, to Dysart. He kept writing to the village that it was fine there, that if one wanted to eat crawfish one would find crawfish as big as an opinca (a peasant sandal, author’s note) (Crawfish in Dysart?) ... Father would hear about it at the inn and would tell mother: ‘Listen, old girl, to what Ion is writing!’”

“On the day of departure, it was raining and the roads were all mud. It was the spring of 1907. It was dark. My sister Marita, who was left home, cried and cried... My godmother took me into her arms and whispered something into my ear... Honest to God, I didn’t hear what... The luggage was in the middle of the house... neighbours and friends were all there... Many were weeping...I was feeling as if I was holding the sky on my hands... I was out of breath... ‘Say, mother, when do we leave? When do we leave?’ The dogs were stepping on the wall like lunatics, honest to God, they were, and yelping... and yelping...to scare the hell out of us, really...”

THE DREAM IN THE FOREST

The Story of Mr. Emilian Petrisor, 77, Regina:

“I went with brother Vasile to look for the cattle in the forest, far from our village, Balaceana. I was 5. Looking for flowers I lost sight of him... I remember we were at lmasul Brastii. I passed the night in the

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forest, sleeping on the grass. And I had a dream: a high flight of stairs... leading to a cold light... angels going up and down the stairs... They would stop for a moment before me. I had climbed up at the level of the trees so as to be able to see far. Then they would go up or down again... I can’t forget, those angels had eagle’s wings and human faces... Soon after that night we left for Canada.”

THE MONEY AND THE PASSPORT!

The Story of Mrs. Leona Muntean, 80, Regina:

“I have memories from the time I was 2. I was in the yard of the parents’ house in Bilbiu, Dobrogea, playing on a mat... I can see a white calf drawing near and trying to hit me. I run away crying. And it was following me. For two years after that I was sick with fright...”

“In April 1909 mother made preparations for our departure. She packed clothes, linen, towels, frieze... Father, Petre Iorga, was already in Canada, since 1907. He had got a homestead. Father’s brother told mother: ‘Rada, leave the passport and the money with me, one never knows what’s going to happen tonight in the village...’ He was leaving for Bucharest and would wait for us there.”

“That was a dark, dark night, the dogs were yelping, the hens were cackling, frightened, in the neighbours’ coops, the wind was blowing savagely from the Black Sea. I and the other eight children (Ion, Petre, Nicolae, Maria, Lisaveta, Paraschiva, Dumitru and Constantin) couldn’t sleep. Mother and poor grandmother couldn't sleep either. And all of a sudden someone shook the door to break it. Granny heartened us: ‘Don’t be afraid, thieves have come...’ ‘The money and the passport!’ shouted one of the four giants who had broken down the door. ‘Ain't any’ answered grandmother while we took refuge under the blankets. They threw us off the bed and tore the mattresses open with the bayonets. They made a mess of our luggage while we were crying awfully. Seeing they wouldn’t find anything and fearing that the neighbours might hear, they vanished into thinned air. We hadn’t a minute’s sleep and left for Bucharest in the morning. My brother Ion leaned out of the train window. Oh, boy, what followed served him right: the wind stole his hat. A long time passed before he was able to make money enough to buy another hat, in Canada...”

THE GOAT WITH BITTER MILK

The Story of Mr. Vasile Ursu, 93, Regina:

“I tilled the land together with father and mother in Fagaras village, Dobrogea. Father would take with us a goat and mother would milk her and we would eat the milk with cold corn mush. But we would be left without our meal often; mother would spill the milk on the wheel hub, bitter milk just like the bitter juice of the spurge eaten by the goat.”

“I and my brother Ion tilled the whole land in 1903. Whatever was on my father’s mind, he took us to Canada in 1904. It was in March... The crop of 1903 had been spoilt because of the tremendous drought that had swept Dobrogea.”

“I can see myself back in the village. I remember or I dream about it at night. I wake up and can't go back to sleep. Father sold the property and the cattle, the horses, three carts... He asked 4,500 lei. The village priest wouldn't give him more than 3,500. They were drinking together at the inn. Father wouldn’t yield.

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And here came a man, an inconsequential man... like John Herdea... ‘Uncle Vimu’ said he, ‘don’t sell for 3,500, for I’m going to bring you someone who will give you 4,500.’ And here they came, an old man and an old woman, in the morning, with the money. Father took Ion Nistor’s horses and we left for Tulcea to draw up the papers on the bargain. We saw two guys coming towards us. Father said: ’Whip the horses fast, Vasile. We're in trouble!’ We had a narrow escape. Those guys were not quite sure father was father, they didn’t know the horses. They had been hired by the pope to kill my poor father.”

“When the time came for us to leave, the weather was fine, just like today. It was nine-ish in the morning... We rode in a cart to Cernavoda, Toma Radu, mos Zidaru, Piele Tarcea, Pantelimon Ceuga, Jean Olteanu, Gheorghe Staruiala were with us.”

THE CREEK BEHIND THE HOUSE

The Story of Mrs. Maria Rosca, 85, Regina:

“The creek was flowing behind the house...”

“My friend, Aspazia, was father Cernescu's daughter...”

“Whenever a burial procession passed by... ‘Come on’ would say Aspazia, ‘and get pomana’ (food for the dead) ...”

“It happened in Hirsova village, in 1910.”

“’Come on’, would say Aspazia, ‘let's have a bath in the creek.’”

“Then we would go to the Hill of the vineyard, to watch the vineyard. The hill was red like fire.”

“One day Stana Rosca came and looked into the garden. She sighed and told mother: ‘Oh, Velica, Velica, why do you leave this garden and go away? I wouldn’t leave it...’”

“Mother answered: ‘I have to, if my man leaves...’”

“We had left for Canada before, in 1903. We had had to pass through the customs in the Hungarian Country, but mother hadn't wanted to. No, and no! ‘Let’s go back!’”

“In 1910 we stole away without a passport. It was night. We crossed the Danube in a little boat. Then we sailed up the river aboard a steamer. I remember mother looking back, into the darkness, all the time...”

GRANDFATHER NENCESCU'S WORD

The Story of Mrs. Maria Nenciu, 83, Regina:

“I was a 9-year old when father dug a hole and called me, showing me a pear seedling. ‘You, Marita’ he said, ‘you plant it and we shall see your luck... We will travel across the Ocean and I want it to bring us luck...’ My grandfather Nencescu came to us one day and said: ‘Come on, boys, let’s go to Canada, for a war is bound to start here soon, God save our souls...’ How did he know it, I don't know...”?

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THE LAST BATH IN PIRIUL ROTARULUI

The Story of Mr. Ciprian Cazac, 90, Regina:

“I left together with father, dressed in peasant clothes... ‘Suman’, ‘itari’, ‘opinci’... The Jews took our pictures...they liked it... Mother remained there, she didn’t want to come. She accompanied us to Radauti. I can still see her, dressed in blouse and catrinta (peasant homespun skirt) ... She wept all the time from Sucevita to Radauti. On that day I had taken my last bath in Piriul Rotarului and had taken the last letter to destination. I had been a mail boy and knew all people in the village. Most of the mail I had I used to take to the inn; 20-30 letters a day. It was pretty good, the living was, but I hadn't land... In order to sustain myself when I wasn’t working with the post, I was making charcoal...”

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PART 14: MORE STORIES ABOUT THE HOMESTEAD

There were years, after people settled on the homestead, when dramatic happenings would abound in the prairie. Actually, such episodes were part of the specific of the life in those parts. When there were no locusts, worms or grass afire, then one heard of houses burned down, people who died of frost or were eaten by wolves, of oxen drowned in lakes, of diseases and other killing pains. When it was not collective, the drama remained however personal.

THE AXE WITH TWO SHARP EDGES The Story of Maria Rosca

“When father, Constantin Dragu, left Hirsova, he didn’t want to sell his land; he leased on a five-year term 30 acres and the garden by the house. He said he was going to stay 3-4 years in Canada and then come back. For, my mother-in-law too, said: ‘Why should he go and live among strangers when he has so much land?’ To die in the prairie, may God rest his soul. He froze dead, poor him, right in the second year of life on the homestead. Seeing that we were freezing (it was 40° below) he went to fetch wood from the forest, right on a Christmas night. The sky was clear, the stars shone but mother had a premonition: ’Forget about it, man’ she said, ’don’t go ...We better throw the fence into the hearth, and there still are some dry dungs left ...’But he was whistling and grinding his axe never minding my mother’s words. As if his fate was calling him. He barely left the house when mother called us to the window to show us some ugly clouds that hid the moon and darken the earth. By midnight snowflakes big like eggs started falling. We were unable to sleep until morning. We were afraid of the wind that was blowing in the windows and were thinking terrified of poor father. How could he have the guts to go?... And then the storm came, man, it was as if the End of the World was coming. The storm lasted for three days and three nights. Mother dared not even go to the barn and feed the cattle. When she tried, she took three steps and she lost her way; she didn't see the house, the sky or the earth. She mercifully stumbled against the string which father had tied between the barn and the house precisely in order to help us find our way if a storm would come. Poor father had done so taking the advice of the policeman who would go from farm in autumn time to warn the farmers about those strings.

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Well, father never came back. We searched him for one-and-a-half years. The police too, searched him...That storm also killed two girls of school age of rancher Achman's who toppled with the sleigh and froze dead. The next spring their younger sister found by mere chance a skeleton near a tree: ‘Father’ she called the rancher, 'Come and see, there are some bones here and the cows moo and won’t feed...’ The man ran to the place thinking about his daughters. But he found only one skeleton and our axe with two sharp edges by it. He also found the wallet with money and letters from Romania and that proved it was father.”

THE GERMAN FROM LIMERICK The Story of Mrs. Leona Muntea

“In the winter of 1911 we had a terrible snowstorm and deadly frost. Petre Iorga, our father, had left for Moose Jaw, 200 miles by foot, to buy sugar and edible oil. He was late, more than two weeks late, and we were very worried: he might have lost his way and might have been killed by the wolves. One morning, when the snowstorm had subsided a little, we heard the dogs yelping. ‘Father’s coming’ my brother shouted. A man was coming through the snowdrifts, stumbling and tottering with every step. We were looking as he was coming, accompanied by the yelping dogs; as soon as he opened the door, he fell down the stairs. There was ice on his face, on his clothes and his hands. Mother and grandmother dragged him by the fire and poured hot coffee down his throat. He was barely breathing. There was ice also by his eyelids. Poor man, his tears too, had frozen.”

“We didn't know his identity until 1932, when a neighbour, a German from Limerick, came to my brother Constantin, to buy registered bulls. They talked over dinner, the way we’re doing now. Said the man: ‘I was lost in these places in nineteen eleven, when I went to buy hay for horses. At Twelve Mile Lake I slipped from the bank, horses and all, from a height of 20 feet. I had a narrow escape from the ice, I took the pitchfork and rove for two days and two nights searching for a human settlement, I remember’, the German went on, ‘I had said farewell to life when I heard, like in a dream, dogs yelping. I don't know how I got into a dugout where two women and a few children nursed me and gave me hot coffee. They rescued me. And I also remember that the moment when I came back from the dead, for I had been half-dead, I saw a clock just like this one here, an old clock with a bell, “Original Jungans” ...’

“Then my brother Constantin said: ‘Mr. Martin’, that was his name, ‘you were rescued in my parents’ dugout...’

“My, was the German glad. He kissed my mother’s and grandmother’s hands, and he embraced everyone of us, moved and weeping. He was a good man that German from Limerick was. He was our family’s best friend ever after. And he didn't forget to tell us that in the spring after that accident he had found the place where the horses had died. He had gone there and taken their leather harnesses ...”

A LOVE SONG FOR A DYING MAN The Story of Mrs. Ileana Vulpe

“I lived happily with my first man, Stan Dinu. I didn’t need anything. He worked on ice, at Moose Jaw. Where did he cut it, where did he bring it from, I know not ...One day two men carried him home on their arms,

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‘cause he couldn't feel his foot I put him into a hospital. The doctors gave him some shots but the swelling would move up to the leg. Said the doctors: ‘Man, you better go to other doctors.’ I took him home, but he didn't live more than four days, poor him. He threw up all the blood there was in him. Honest, the floor was red. You know, even the blood had frozen in his veins in that damned ice.”

“I lived as a widow for 18 years; Costache Vulpe, a neighbour of mine, too, was widowed ...I knew him from the Old Country: I was born at Cilibichiori, and he at Cuza Voda. Said he: ‘I say, Ileana, we may die soon. Wherever you go you’re alone, one is always alone, honest, always alone. Let’s get married.’ And I lived with Costache for three years. Poor man, he too, died. He had fallen in Mrs. Caliniuc’s garage. His legs were feeble, he could barely drag them.”

“Mos Florea came to our place and said: ‘Come on, brother Costache, let’s have a beer’ ‘Well, uncle’ I said, ‘Leave him alone, for I think he is rather conceited these days...Look at him, I toil with my crochet and he won’t even get up from that chair...’ I went to him: ‘What’s the matter with you? C’mon, go to bed...’ I called an ambulance. ‘Where’s the big guy?’ said the doctor. They took him to the hospital. I phoned the girls to tell them. I went to the hospital and listened behind the door, for I didn't want to go in while he was asleep. To my surprise, there was Mrs. Sudima in there, a friend of his from the prairie. And what do you think she was doing? Singing a love song, she was...Costache had four gallons of glass under the bed, with pipes or something, and he was all dizzy and confused, one couldn’t make out what he was saying. But Mrs. Sudima was singing, my friend, singing of love and of fright and of green rose. And I don’t know what else ...I opened the door ‘Mrs. Sudima,’ I said, ‘the man has so many gallons under him, do you think he needs this song of yours?’ I said: ‘He doesn’t even see you ...and all the brains you have is to sing this song in the hospital?’ And there came a nurse. Said the nurse: ‘this the woman with the song?’ Said I ‘Yes’ said the nurse: ‘Mrs., you mustn’t sing in the hospital! Is she any relation with him?’ Said I: ‘No.’ ‘If she isn’t any relation, no more! ‘”

“I regret it now ...You know, poor Costache was dying and maybe that song could have brought him comfort in his last ...”

THE BOY WITH WEBBED FINGERS The Story of Mrs. Dumitra Banciu

“My son Petrea was born with webbed fingers at one hand. Mother, may God rest her soul, said: ‘You should take the boy to operation, my daughter...’ I took him. In Regina we were hosted by old Velica. The old woman's daughter was the boy’s godmother. My man returned home, to Lakenheath, to see to the other three children. I remained with the boy in the hospital for one week, then I left him there alone for a month. After that, I took him home; he seemed to recover but when I removed his bandages after a month his fingers were still sticking together: the damn doctor had stitched them wrong. Said my man after the threshing: ‘You go back to that doctor and have him straighten the boy’s fingers!’ The doctor told me he guaranteed it if I would leave the boy for a month with him so’s he may watch him...I left him two months even. We phoned him to inquire about the boy and the bandit said: come and take him, for his hand’s got black poison. My poor Petrea was only 2 at the time. I hurried to take him out of the hospital for I feared they might severe his hand. Said he: ‘You keep the bandages on his hand and wash it with this potion’ and he turned his back on us damn him! We had paid one thousand dollars for the operation. I took him to Lakenheath. Said a cousin of mine: ‘Dumitra, let’s take out the bandages and spread this ointment on the

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hand.’ What do you know? The boy recovered! Only, his hand remained a little thinner. I sent him to school and today he has a very good job, honest...”

THE RUSSIAN DOC AND THE HERBS The Story of Mrs. Maria Harold, Regina

“I remember, my brother, who is next to me, Alec, had black poison on his hand. The doctors used to be expensive and nobody had money. Anyway, we took him to a Russian doctor and he cured him. When a two-by-four fell on the hand of my father, Bucur Nenciu, docs told him ‘Come and we’ll severe your hand!’ Then father went to the same Russian and the doc said: ‘It’s not good, doesn’t look good I'll give you some medicines ...Sign here you won’t bother if something happens and come outside. He salved the hand with those medicines and poor father fainted in no time...He fell dead... When he came to, the Russian salved him once more and he fell again. And he salved him again and father fell down but that time he didn’t faint...’Well,’ said the Russian, ’it’s going to be all right’ and so it was.”

“Many Romanians trusted that doc. But many would have rather died than go to doctor... Many did die... many little children... That's why mother's brothers too, died (Maria Nenciu’s brothers, author’s note).”

“When Constantin, a brother of mine, severed his finger, instead of taking him to the doc, mother picked the finger from the dust, washed it with water and placed it back where it had fallen from. He had the finger tightly bound for a while and the finger stuck...It did happen, really...”

“I was ill myself, I was mighty feverish in the summer, in July...Nobody would take me to the doctor...l knew I had some infection in my body but at that time girls didn’t count for much...they were only good to get married and have children and that was it...”

“When l however got to the doctor I was almost dying. He found my tonsils ready to blow up with poison...”

“Mother was used to nursing us at home, with tea, with herbs...When someone had the flu or a bad cold in his chest, she would give him onion and garlic...Garlic is good if you’ve got high blood pressure...l mean mother knew it from the Old Country. You know, many medicines contain a little garlic...”

“When our forehead ached, mother would fix a plaster with mustard on it...”

“When we had a sore throat mother would salve us with an ointment smelling of peppermint and having also garlic in it and all kinds of stuff...Said she ‘Ten, nine, eight...four, three, two, one...none!”

A GOOD MAN CALLED COSCIUC The Story of Constantin Donison

“Of the past winters, the hardest was the winter of 1911 at Twelve Mile Lake. We had nothing to burn in the fire...Neither dungs, nor straws, nor even wood from the fence...Our teeth were chattering with cold. Mind you, 40° below...We were 13 children huddled together in the dugout and mother looked helpless at us...Said our eldest brother, he was 17, Achim was: ‘I take the oxen and the sleigh and go and fetch some coals from across the lake. He took father’s big oxen, our most precious asset. When he got at the lake, he

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followed in the traces of some other guy who was driving a sleigh with horses...The horses didn’t weigh that much, you know...The lake was frozen, but as it had salt water you couldn’t be sure...

And so, it happened that the ice broke right in the middle of the road...The sleigh loaded with coals, the heavy oxen, and the ice not very thick. Artemie was hitting with the whip but to no avail; the oxen were sinking, poor beasts...Artemie managed to undo their harness and ran to the place of a Swabian farmer nearby...He asked the man to help him drag the animals out but he was afraid and wouldn’t go...Then, the poor boy ran two miles back home and told father. My, my... did my mother cry...’Go to Cosciuc’ said father. Other two miles. And he came, may God rest his soul, uncle Cosciuc, with two shoed horses and two boys to help, with a cart and blankets. He tied chains to the oxen’s horns and he pulled them out, man. The wind was savage and it chilled the poor beasts...He took them out alive, but one of them died right there... The other one they took home, but he too, died overnight. Cosciuc came the next day to see what had happened. ‘Why are you crying, Ion?’ he asked father...’I’m crying, brother Cosciuc... come spring what shall I do without my dear oxen?’...’Now, then’ the neighbour said, ‘come to my place and I’ll give you two oxen...you’ll pay for them when you can’...And away went father and returned with two oxen and we couldn’t thank that kind-hearted man enough...I don’t remember what happened after that... everything is so confused in my head...”

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PART 15: FIRE, LOCUSTS, ARMY WORMS

So, the pioneers settled on the homesteads. And they made dugouts, then sod houses and then shacks. They built barns. As they realized that at least for a few years they had no chance to go back to Europe, they gradually started cultivating the Prairie. With the then means, it took one long year to plough and seed the whole 160-acre area. Oxen and horses were of invaluable help to those people. The joy of the first crops, even though modest, was real. They were proud to have defeated the wilderness of the places and built the New World. After all, the civilization of agriculture is man’s first social creation on the earth. Although a pioneer’s doing, agriculture in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta can by no means be compared with the agriculture practised at the dawn of mankind’s history. In these provinces of Canada agriculture started from an advanced stage reached by the Old World, taking practically a leap of thousands of years. For all the obstacles, the Romanian peasants, descendants of the Dacian farmers, took with them across the ocean their ploughs, hoes, sickles, and harrow teeth. Nobody had any complaint against the Canadian customs people in this respect for the simple reason that that “transfer of technology” was approved of even by the Canadian government. Nobody could have fancied that the virgin land of the endless prairie would be broken with Iron Age rough implements. The specialized factories too, took advantage of the “prototypes” brought by the Europeans, which they developed into new, better and multi- purpose implements. Actually, this is the general feature of the North American civilization which skipped the historical ages traversed by the European civilization.

But the one thing the pioneers didn’t anticipate was the natural calamities.

The years when Europe was swept by the First World War were years of relative thriving for the agriculture in the big Canadian provinces. First, most of the farmers managed to till and control the whole area of the homestead. The farmers were able to buy more animals, get better crops and make wooden dwellings for themselves. Many of them pre-empted one or several extra farms for 400 dollars apiece. When everything seemed to go straight toward welfare, numerous natural calamities, like fire, locusts, drought and armyworms spoilt the crops in several consecutive years, and the heroic pioneers relapsed in their initial despair.

We recount in this chapter several stories about those adverse times, which are irrepeatable through their dramatic content. After learning about all their misfortunes, one is sure to say: if they didn’t give up this time either, these people fully deserve an important place in Canada’s modern history.

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THE GRASS IS AFIRE

The Story of Dumitra Baciu

“It lasted for two weeks. The prairie grass was afire. Grass that had been growing undisturbed ever since God had created grass. Layer upon layer of dry stems accumulated, which could catch fire from two stones knocked against one another, from the passage of a cart or of metal-shoed oxen that knocked stones and issued sparkles or from a stray sparkle coming out of a chimney. They might even catch fire directly from the sun, from the hot air...A night would pass, a night would come again...there were flames all over the place, up to the horizon, that were eating away thousands upon thousands of cultivated acres. A year’s work of the farmers.”

“Women wanted to go and put out the flames, so as to protect our lands and houses. Mother went, and ‘tata’ Ioana (my sister-in-law), and the old Muntean woman, and the old Cojocaru woman, ‘tata’ Tudora, old Sora...The fire enveloped them. The old Bajenaru woman, for she too, was there, had her dress burnt. They abandoned the buckets of water and ran home. They took out in a hurry all the luggage after having ploughed stripes of land around the houses. They let me and my brother Vasile watch the things...Then ‘dada’ Voica and father got out. Gherghina was to see if the fire crossed the furrow. The flames were everywhere; it was like full daylight...Cattle were mooing something awful. Mother took the can with oil and two boxes of cartridges with which father used to kill ducks, and set them on the pond shore ‘cause they might blast out in the house. My sister kept crying, thinking of father: ‘daddy, daddy’ ‘Never mind’ mother shouted. ‘Forget about your daddy, he’ll come. Get the knife and cut the ropes off the cows!’ Mother cut them in the end, she was more courageous and cold-blooded, and the cows run into the lake. But we also had a vicious cow, Tica. She used to eat bread and drink slops. In the morning after the fire, she went to old Sora. She opened the oven with her horns and ate the woman’s bread. Then she spilled a bran bag. Old Sora came to us. ‘Safta’ she told mother, ‘hear what happened’...Sora was the grandmother of the man whom I would marry ...Mother gave her bread and a bran bag to get rid of her...Father came after two days ...He had went to the field and came back sad and destitute; the fire didn’t spare a straw of our wheat and oats...Poor father had hoped he would be able to sell several tens of bushels in order to pay for the coals and wood we would need in the winter. Fortunately, we still had several bags with old wheat and they helped us through the winter; half of them he exchanged for wood and the other half he milled for the bread. The firewood was not enough and we also had to burn dry dungs, nor could we eat much bread that winter. We fed more on potatoes and tea.”

I THOUGHT IT WAS THE END OF THE WORLD...

The Story of Vasile Petrisor

“It was in the years ‘31-’32... The crop was a beauty. We looked at our wheat as others look at the sun, for the depression had started and we were short of everything, money and food alike. We sold cows for ten dollars apiece and the calves didn’t sell at all. But in the end, we had no crop to thresh... For, the black worms came from the south to the north and fell upon us! Armyworms! Disgusting and slippery bugs, seeming to have passed through lard first; 3-4 cm. long, like caterpillars, and very swift they were. Thousands of millions they were, one couldn’t set foot on earth because of them! Every way, santry, wheat field, flower, weed, fence, well, every patch of land was invaded. Children and women were shouting in the

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house, I thought it was the End of the World. Figure it, they kept crawling upon us from July into October. They crawled beneath the door, they entered the house through any cranny, and they climbed the walls and crawled over the roofs. A regular army. They entered into the bucket with water, in the baby’s cradle, one found them in one’s bed in the morning. No matter how much one filled the holes, no matter what one tried, they entered; they stole inside, for they were very, very thin. They ate everything that was green. And left bare land behind them. When one opened the door to go to the barn and see to the cattle one had to steady well one’s feet not to slip. We walked as if on ice... Oh, my God, we lived through such dark days! We couldn’t even take water from wells; the chain would slip back on the wheel! Figure it: not even the train could run n its tracks, ‘cause they too, were slippery. The government gave us some help, because the armyworms had eaten up our hay for the cattle. Cows and sheep and horses died of starvation...the hay from the government was not enough.”

“Clouds of locusts also befell us in those years: the sky and the earth were covered by them. They ate out the vegetation and also ate one another. Whenever a storm started and stopped their progress, they started eating one another until they were fewer. I remember one couldn’t sleep at night because of the noise they made in their flight: buzzz, buzzz... We thought it was going to rain, it was going to be a rainstorm...Roar and darkness befell the man... Swarm after swarm, swarm after swarm...Children wake up, terrified, crying when they heard the locusts strike against the windows...Dogs took refuge yelping, in whatever places they could, hens sang like roosters, cows stampeded crushing the fences and breaking the ropes...The locusts severed even the strings on which we hung the linen in the yard...They were so furious we dared not get outside. Many flew by the people, without fearing the noise or anything... And I was thinking of father: why on earth did he need Canada for?”

A KINGDOM FOR A WELL...

The Story of Domnica Stef

“Godfather Mike Manea and brother-in-law Ion Stefanescu helped me and my man, Mihai Stet, build a sod house in Wood Mountain. Petrea Rosca, Stefan Manea, Neculai Munteanu, George Manea, David Cojanu and uncle Ion settled around us. I was never bored, I had where to go for tea or a glass of brandy. I was just swaddling my baby on that August day in 1915. My baby was Mihai, my eldest son...It was scorching heat outside...The old Cojanu woman said that the heat was an omen, meaning that God wanted to give us punishment for our sins. The old woman must have barely reached her home when I heard outside a heavy breath...Seemed as if somebody was blowing air out of some bellows or something...The kitchen glass (window) was smashed to pieces and the roof of our little house was being tossed awfully...The baby started crying and my legs were so feeble I couldn’t take two steps. We had a white kitten, a present from Mrs. Manea, who was so scared that she sought refuge in the baby’s trough. I struggled to the door and wanted to see what was happening. But I couldn’t open it...Seemed as if someone was pushing it against me.”

“Mercifully, my sister Casandra was in Mrs. Munteanu’s house. When she saw the hell outside, she run to us; she hit the door with a pick mattock and called me: ‘sister, get out right away.’ I regained my courage in a minute: ‘What is it, Casandra, what’s befallen us?’ When I cast my eyes to the field, I remained breathless. Boy, they were rolling and jumping, waves upon waves and dragons upon dragons of fire and smoke...I looked to the left, to the right, up the hill and down the valley, and there was no escape...The smoke rose up to the sky. The flames were like streamers of light carried by wind...Even the air vanished as

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it came, everything green vanished, everything dry vanished... ‘Don’t you wait, dear sister!’ My sister cried. ‘Take the baby and let’s run to the well before it’s too late...’ I took the baby and... Into the well...fortunately, my man had dug that well and it was not deeper than 10 feet. God rest him wherever he is now, in the Heavens and give him water and don’t make him suffer from thirst... Casandra too, came in, just in time, for the flames had enveloped the house. Even the face of the earth burned. The bogie and the poor horse were burned down...It broke my heart to hear him neighing and struggling in the fire. What could we do? How could we help him? We couldn’t take him into the well, there wasn’t room enough...And we barely escaped suffocation ourselves...The flames above were flying just like hawks, stealing our air. We pressed our faces against the wet walls of the well and breathed. The baby couldn’t even whine. I thought I was going to lose him...And the water...It was little but cold...I have rheumatic legs ever since...God had mercy. It passed. When we got out, we didn’t recognize a thing. Our neighbours too, had escaped, hidden in wells. But the houses, the barns, the cattle, the granaries had been eaten up by flames...Oh, God, the women were weeping, the children were crying...Daddy, may God rest his soul, had told us, when he accompanied me and Casandra to Cernauti: ‘Don’t go away, my dear girls, for it will be awful there...’ He knew it, my father did, he had been a policeman for 25 years...”

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PART 16: MAGNEZIUM FLAMES

Some would start bees for tempering mud and straws with which they would then build their little houses. We would be given a glass of brandy and would play ‘Rusasca’... A gipsy by the name of Gheorghe would play his fiddle...There was also another gipsy in our parts, Gavrila was his name... He used to play sad songs and women were weeping, you know, thinking of the Old Country...

(Reminisces Mr. Peirea Juravleu)

The still in which father used to boil brandy on the homestead is now at the Police Museum in Ottawa. They had all kinds of stills there, but none like father’s. ‘Who made it?’ Asked the police when they confiscated it. ‘A smart gipsy from the Old Country, that’s who...’ answered father.

(Reminisces Mr. Nicolae Nisror)

Granny cooked food and baked a pie, we were happy: we hadn’t seen so much food before. It was Shrovetide, granny said. But a neighbour happened to call on us; ‘what do you celebrate?’ asked he. ‘The Shrovetide’ we answered. ‘Oh, my,’ the guy said, ‘you’ve made a mistake. It’s the next Sunday, the Shrovetide is!’ ‘Dear me’ said granny. ‘He’s right! Well, we’ll eat beets, since we haven’t got other food.’

(Reminisces Mrs. Maria Nenciul)

Father, Stefan Colibaba, was a cherished fiddler of the prairie Romanians. He played everywhere, at many wedding parties and other celebrations. He would always wear a black suit and white shirt...Never a colour shirt. I didn’t record him on the tape ‘cause l didn’t think my father could die... He loved to paint eggs. Neighbour Martincu would bring to him 12 dozen eggs every Easter to paint...And he also sewed on the sewing machine. Shirts he sewed, and clothes for us to go to school in... He was also a barber and a carpenter...And he could grind plough blades and disks...He had a smithy...When he played songs of joy at a wedding party, dancers would go crazy...They would strike the floor to kill it, oh God, something very nice...

(Reminisces Mrs. Virginia Fawcett)

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He was a good priest, God rest his soul, Maxim was. Never mind what others might say ... l remember: when Aurel Magda suffered from an unknown disease, he told the congregation: ‘on your knees, my dear folks, for a man is suffering.’ They knelt down and he read out a prayer. A week passed and God called poor Magda to him.

(Reminisces Mrs. Ana Istvan)

My brother Constantin and a friend of his once wanted to steal father’s car from the garage. They had taken gas in a bucket, for the tank was empty. A gander followed them while they were busy to unlock the door, the gander toppled their bucket. Poor boy, he broke the gander’s neck right away, so mad he was...Two girls were waiting for them at a dancing party, and there was no way to find another supply of gas...

(Reminisces Mrs. Maria Lascue)

My grandfather, ‘mos’ Petru Avram from Scarisoara, was a very delicate and tidy man. He was illiterate but had a keen mind. He had befriended even the mayor of the city. He needed no translator, for he had learned English in a month’s time. When he died and his affairs were discussed, the lawyer said he had never seen such a neat business in all his 16 years of practice.

(Reminisces Mr. George Stefan)

Varone’s two boys worked hard for a very mean Englishman, Charlie Mitchel. The man would wake them up at 5 in the morning and send them to work. The Englishman’s two boys slept in the same bed with them. Well, what do you think that monster would do? He would pick a snake which he used to keep in a barrel, and would throw it onto the sleeping boys. Poor children were scared breathless.

(Reminisces Mr. John Cojouzru)

I haven’t had a family, I have no history... God so wanted... Nobody should follow in my steps.

(Says with deep sorrow Mr. Ilie Donison, Regina)

It happened when none of us could speak English...Two lads, I don’t remember their names, were hoeing in an Englishman’s garden. As one of them stopped the work to light a cigarette, here comes the boss: ‘Come on for supper!’ said he. But the lad who didn’t smoke, startled, shouted to the other: ‘I say, he said supper! Sapa (a Romanian word which is pronounced approximately the same as supper, meaning ‘hoe’, author’s note), my boy, and forget about the cigarette...Hear, he is scolding us, he’s seen you...’ And they fell to hoeing, my, the hoes were sparkling in their hands...They didn’t want to lose the job...And they didn’t go to...supper, not before the boss took the hoes out of their hands.”

(Recounts Mrs. Agripina Gabor)

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The Romanians would have a fight now and then, at some wedding party or other celebration...The way it happened also in the Old Country. Some were hot-headed, you know, and there were sources of trouble in the prairie as well: pretty girls, pending debts, plenty of brandy...I remember an anglic (an Englishman) who had heard of this passion, went to a Romanian wedding party out of curiosity. And he waited there for an hour, two hours...Eating nothing, drinking nothing...losing his patience, he started asking: ‘I say, guys, when are you going to start that fight?’ He thought perhaps he was going to see a box fighting match. But so, it happened that that particular wedding party was quite peaceful.

(Reminisces Mr. Alex. Holouaci)

Girls’ fate was to be obedient with their parents. When time came to get married, I liked a boy. Said mother: ‘Not this one, he’s Russian...’ I wanted to marry another one, but godmother Frusina interfered: ‘Sister, if you become related with that one (my boyfriend’s mother) I don’t want to see you anymore... you don’t come to my place and I don’t come to yours, ever’... I wanted to marry another Russian, Pavel Chivar, he’s dead now, poor man... But it was godmother again, who said this and that and so on...

(Reminisces Mrs. Mariu Nenciu)

People were so kind in the times past... When you invited somebody’s wife to dance the man would be glad... Now in Regina this is a source of argument and great jealousy... And not only in Regina, but all over the world...

(Reminisces Mrs. Virginia Fawcett)

My Mira married an Englishman from the States... She is very fond of the Romanian language... She writes to me that even now she speaks Romanian alone in the house, twice or thrice a week, in order not to forget it...

(Recounts Mrs. Ioana Moldovian)

A policeman stopped father who was driving a car, an old car it was, to check for brandy. Someone had told on him, on his producing and transporting alcohol illegally. Remembering he had a full bottle in the back of the car and that policeman might apprehend him for that, father said: ‘Mister police, would you be so kind and take the steering wheel while I’m pushing the car? This pile of junk here won’t start!’ ‘Sure, said the man.’ And while the police got in the car, father, behind the car, gulp-gulp, tossed off the content of the bottle and disposed of the bottle itself. After that, as the engine was started, he allowed the uniformed man to do all the checking he wanted...

(Reminisces Mr. Vasile Ursu)

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When we moved to town, my man asked me what I missed most. School, I said. ‘Only that?’ he wondered. ‘Then you go to school, you’re free...’ I was 45 when I enrolled myself in the ninth grade... I was the oldest pupil in that time. After the first exam the teacher called my boy on the telephone and told him: ‘Tell the girl: she made it...’

(Reminisces Mrs. Ruby Popescu)

During the First World War, we Bucovinians had to have a pass in order to get out of town. Many were even taken to camps for a while... No wonder though: Bucovina was part of Austria and Austria was at war with Romania which was an ally of Great Britain, hence of Canada as well...

(Reminisces Mrs. Bancescu)

Paliuc was a big man... Mighty vigorous he was, but he couldn’t speak English at all. He went to a store thinking to buy beer yeast. He started to show muscles and to puff up like a turkey...Mercifully, brother-in- law Zaremba arrived there and he told the storekeeper who had hidden under the counter, frightened: ‘Don’t be afraid, the man wants yeast’.

(Reminisces Mr. Dumitru Boghean)

As it was hard to carry the water from big distances, father decided that we move the house near the well, for there was no spring nearer. Said neighbour Cuciurean: ‘Bring six horses and down the slope with it!’ Two horses were enough; for father had wheels (we would have needed six if we had dragged it). And we moved it half a mile farther, to make people cross themselves.

(Reminisces Mr. Durnitru Boghean)

My boy, Nicolae, died young, though he wasn’t ill. I was heart-broken. They found him dead in the house one morning. Two weeks after that, ‘the lady’ went out with a boyfriend. I say there was something fishy there. The police said the same.

(Reminisces Mrs. Julia Costache)

My brother Constantin bought a radio from the States in 1930. It was a nice novelty in the prairie. But the license cost a lot. We would listen to it at night and then would hide the batteries. Without batteries, the police couldn’t prove anything, couldn’t fine us.

(Reminisces Mr. Pete Morise)

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My sister Anita used to return mighty tired from dancing. She was very fond of the Romanian dances. But father would wake her up at dawn and send her to set poison in the holes of the gofers. But so tired she was that she would put all the poison in one hole and cover it least father might see it.

(Reminisces Mr. Pete Morise)

“I worked all by myself, the boys didn’t want to remain on the farm”

“Now, one question: did you really work alone?!”

“I said I worked the land. Sure, you lent a hand with feeding the chicken or something”

“Didn’t I work the land as well?!”

“You drove the tractor, ya”

“But with the combine? Jesus! Honest... Didn’t I drive also the truck with wheat?”

“Well, maybe...Ya...”

(Dialogue between Mr. Emilian Petrisor and his wife Mrs. Grace Petrisor)

The Purcels, our neighbours, sent a wagon with young bullocks to Winnipeg. After one week, he got a cable informing him he had to pay a remainder of 38 dollars for the transportation, that the bullocks had sold but the money they had made hadn’t been enough to cover the freight.

(Recounts Mr. Emiliarz Petrisor)

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PART 17: NEVER FAR FROM EAGLE TAIL HILL

Excerpted from Never Far from Eagle Tail Hill: By Michael G. Toma INTRODUCTION

Nearly all the Romanian families who settled in the vicinity of Eagle Tail Hill north and east of present-day Willingdon, came from the province of Bukovina which at that time formed part of the powerful Austro- Hungarian Empire ruled by the Hapsburgs. After World War I, the boundaries shifted and Bukovina along with Bessarabia were incorporated into Romania. However, following World War II, northern Bukovina became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, while Bessarabia formed the greater part of the Republic of Moldavia.

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At the turn of the twentieth century the population of Bukovina numbered about 800,000 people of which 31% were Romanians. Boian itself was totally Romanian but the neighboring villages of Rarancha, Sadagura, Chahor, Mahala, Molodija and Toporoutz also had many Romanian families. The population was increasing annually but the land supply was limited and had already been divided and re-divided from generation to generation. A point had been reached where it was impossible to sub-divide further. Seventy-five per cent of the peasants owned less than an acre of land. Others had none. To earn a living or supplement their income from the land, many worked for the boyars (landowners) for low wages. Some borrowed money at very high interest rates, sometimes at rates as high as fifty to one hundred per cent. How could such loans ever be repaid? With no industrialization of any kind there were no jobs for the youth. When the young men were of military age, they were compelled to do military service. To escape such a future and at the same time enjoy a more adventurous life many Romanian families decided to immigrate to Canada.

THEIR ARRIVAL IN ALBERTA

“La Canada! La Canada!” (to Canada) answered Metro, a young lad of nine, when asked where the family was going. He and his mother were filling some buckets with water at the village well in Boian, Bukovina, in March 1899. Metro had heard his people talking about a far away land called Canada. His parents had decided to leave their home and emigrate. Preparations were well underway for departure.

The land and railroad agents from Canada had done their work well. They had visited Cernauti and had painted glowing pictures of the New World. Word had filtered down to the villages including Boian. The inhabitants began discussing the disadvantages and advantages of making such a major move. Some said that "Ciine umble cu colaci pe coada. Si nuceli asa sint de mare ca poti si le arunci in pod cu furca”. (The

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dogs run around with bread rings on their tails. The walnuts are so large that you can pitch them into the hayloft by the forkful). The advantages outweighed the disadvantages and many decided to emigrate.

The first Romanian settlers in east-central Alberta were Ichim Yurko, his wife Iftinca, their four-year-old daughter Ioana and Elie Ravliuk. They arrived in Alberta in 1898 and spent the first winter in a bordei (covered dug-out) near present day Andrew. It was a miserable lonely time, made more so by the death of the Yurko’s only child. Ioana and Ravliuk wrote home and encouraged others to come.

The first group, consisting of about a dozen families, arrived the following year in March. Two months later the Tomas arrived with a larger group including Metro's family and disembarked in Strathcona, the end of the railroad. Petre who had come earlier was there to meet them and began scolding the new arrivals. “Why did you come?” he asked. “There is nothing but bush, water and wilderness here. How do you expect to keep alive?”

Another man told him bluntly, “Keep your mouth shut. Your father-in-law is here, too!”

“What!” exclaimed Petre, “the old bushy-haired one came too!”

Two of the women began crying. A few of the more cool-headed men calmed the disturbance and the entire group made its way to the immigration hall.

These pioneers had taken along with them what they could and what they thought they would need. They had transported boxes, bags and trunks. Of course, they were all dressed in their native garb and took what other articles of clothing they owned. The women had blankets, tapestries, bolts of cloth, vegetable and flower seeds. The more resourceful ones had dried potato peels and stored them in bags. This lowly vegetable was to prove a godsend when planted in the virgin Alberta soil. The men brought sickles, scythes, axes and the few carpenters among them had their complete sets of tools. One of them had even brought a small wooden plough. Few, if any, had money and no one spoke English. But they had courage, most were young and were doggedly determined to succeed in this new environment.

COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS: CHURCHES

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THE ROMANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCHES

1. St. Mary's (Sfanta Maria) Romanian Orthodox Church at Boian.

The church on the hill some four miles directly east of Willingdon has had a long, interesting and at times a rather turbulent history. As early as 1900 when the first Romanian emigrants settled there, the more aggressive ones began to think of building a house of prayer. Already two persons had passed away and there was no cemetery and no church. They needed such an edifice in which to baptize their newborn, in which to marry their youth, and from which to bury their dead. The first meeting was held in the home of Mitru Moscaliuk early in 1901 for the purpose of choosing a location for a cemetery and a church.

According to earlier research done by a former local teacher, George N. Kelba, we learn that in 1901 a forty- acre parcel of land legally described as subdivision thirteen N.W. 1/4, sec. 10, 56, 14, W.4th was purchased as homestead land, paid for and registered in the names of three elected trustees, namely, John (Ion) T. Toma, Mihai T. Yurko and Konstantin Kachuk. A good deal of correspondence took place between this group and Ottawa, since Alberta was not yet a province and letters took a long time to reach their destination. However, progress was made towards the fulfillment of their hopes.

A Russian Orthodox missionary priest from Edmonton was invited to bless the cemetery once a site was selected. Then a committee was elected to make necessary arrangements for the erection of a church. It consisted of Ion T. Toma, Nicolai lftody and Dumitru Moscaluk. In the fall of 1903 lon T. Toma, George T.

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Toma and Dumitru Moscaluk hauled huge stones from Ion Seminiuk's and Nicolai Yurko’s farms to serve as a foundation for the new church. Other men helped cut down tamarack logs and hauled them to the banks of the North Saskatchewan River at Desjarlais where some French sawyers operated a sawmill and squared the logs. Then these had to be hauled back to Boian some six miles south.

Ion T. Toma, Dumitru Moscaliuk, George T. Toma and George Porozni Sr. played a major role in hauling these logs. At a subsequent meeting it was decided that each man was to donate twenty dollars in cash and volunteer twenty days of free labour. The chief carpenter was Elie Ravliuk and he was to be paid two hundred dollars for this major project. The building was started and Ravliuk, without any blue prints, built it basing his design on what he could recall about the church in Boian, Bucovina. Typical of Orthodox churches, it includes a belfry (separate from the church), a cupola, crosses on top, fan-light windows, the altar and sacristy.

By the summer of 1905, the building was completed and a Russian Orthodox priest from Wostok, in all probability Father Mihailo Skibinski, was invited to come and consecrate the church. On Aug. 2 the consecration took place. What a joyous occasion for all the members! They came from far and near, on foot, or by wagons drawn by horses or oxen, following the trails that led to the church on the hill. Everyone enjoyed the festivities and left with a feeling of pride and satisfaction. In 1918 the building was covered with siding and in 1948 stucco replaced the siding and the entrance was modified. The stone foundation was covered with concrete. The roof too has been repaired and the belfry rebuilt. Credit must be given to all the active members of the community for having taken, through the years, such excellent care of the building, that it is as solid today as the day it was completed.

The church's original designation was not St. Mary's. Not only has its name changed but its owners too. Research in the files of the Land Titles Office in Edmonton shows that in 1906 this property was registered as the Parish of St. Demetrius and the owner was the Bishop of the Russo-Greek Catholic Orthodox Church. In 1909 it became the Parish of Rouminish Greek Oriental Church of Soda Lake. The owner was “His Majesty the King in the Right of the Province of Alberta”. Then in 1945 the Certificate of Title states that “The St. Mary's Roumanian Orthodox Parish of Boian, Alberta” is the owner. To conclude this part of the history of this church it is necessary to add that in 1979 the local church board drew up a realistic constitution and replaced the word "parish" by "congregation”. Today the Certificate of Title to the property reads as follows: “St. Mary's Romanian Orthodox Congregation of Boian is now the owner…”

This place of worship has been in continuous use since it was built and is being used today. The church has been the scene of hundreds of church services, numerous christenings, weddings and funerals of the Romanian and Ukrainian people of the Orthodox faith. Because this church was one of the first to be built in the area some Ukrainian families became founding members as well. Among them were Gawrylo Lakusta, Sandyk Chebree, Mike Goroniuk, Vasile Chrapko and a few others.

The Romanian Community of Boian and neighboring districts was far from other similar ethnic settlements. This and the fact that it was a rural community, it was difficult to retain the services of a local priest for long periods of time. For these and other reasons priests came and went. From 1905 till the forties there were at least twenty priests who served in the local churches.

Most of these priests were bilingual, speaking Romanian and Ukrainian and some spoke English as well. Three of the more outstanding ones were Doctor Lazar Gherman, Vasile Cohan and Grigore Costea.

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2. The Romanian Orthodox Church of Hairy Hill (Nasterea Fecioarei Maria)

When one studies the history of religious groups it is not unusual to find conflicting opinions and strong disagreements among the members and if two strong personalities emerge there is bound to be a split. Such a situation occurred at Boian. The first church built was under the jurisdiction of Russian Orthodox bishops and some of the members wanted a truly Romanian church. In 1911 a small group held a meeting of their own and elected Vasile Moroz as president. They decided to build a church of their own on a small parcel of land which the president donated. In time a small church was built. Services were held intermittently, whenever a priest was available. Today services are held annually when there is a prohod — prayers for dead — on a Sunday between Easter and Ascension Day. This property is located on N.W.1/4, 32-55-14, W.4th.

3. Holy Cross Romanian Orthodox Church of Shepenge (Inaltarea Sfintei Cruci)

A number of Romanian families living several miles east of the Boian church decided to build a small church in their own district. Nicolae Cuciurean donated about two acres of land on N.E.1/4-10-56-13, W4th. This was registered in April, 1914, at the same time as the church was incorporated. The first president was Toder Nickiforeak. Other founding members were Stefan Nickiforeak, Nicolae Basaraba, Vasile Basaraba, Andrei Basaraba, Stefan and Ion Simenovich, Toder Shuhany, Costachi Harasim, Petre and Nicolae Cuciurean, Toder Biduleac, and Vasile Darda. Initially about two or three hundred dollars were collected locally, to pay for the materials. Doors and windows were made at Oshatski’s cabinet shop in Vegreville where a special discount was granted to the church. All the labour was voluntary. Since the community was too small to support a local priest, they depended on the occasional monk who would perform services for them. Later priests from Boian journeyed to the Malin Church, as it's popularly known locally, and performed marriage or funeral services, or church services on special church holidays. The first burial there was Petre Cuciurean, infant son of Nicolae Cuciurean. Frozina Basaraba, wife of Andrei Basaraba, was the first adult buried there.

Today there are very few members but these few devoted ones upgraded the building in 1984 and the church was rededicated in June of the same year.

4. Descent of the Holy Ghost Romanian Orthodox Church at Hamlin. (Pogorarea Duhului Sfant).

On the north side of the swiftly flowing North Saskatchewan River, north of the former Desjarlais ferry site, there existed a school district known as Gold Creek. The land is sandy, hilly with many ravines through which in the rainy season and in spring, bubbling brooks flow southwards to the river. Here, too, as early as 1912, several Romanian families began settling on homesteads. Among these was a monk, Teodosie Nica, who built a log cabin in which he conducted religious services. In 1915, a general meeting was held for the purpose of electing an executive and planning the building of a church. Vasile Basaraba was the first president. The following year the church was built on S.E.1/4 sec. 22-57-14 W.4th. and Father Nica served the parish for two years. He was followed by Elie Alda, a local farmer who had been ordained as a priest. Following his death, the church has been served intermittently by the priests from Boian. Today the church is still there in a very picturesque place, guarding the well-kept cemetery, but there are few members. Generally, in June, a grave-side service is held in memory of the deceased pioneers.

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SCHOOL DISTRICTS

Boian Marea S.D. #2053

Scoala

Mindra-i scoala, scoala-i mindra, Mindri-s cei ce-n scoala intra. Scoala-i sfinta si-a ei prag La copii mult le e drag.

The School

Beautiful is the school without and within, Beautiful are the children that enter therein. Saintly is the school and past its threshold, To the eager children there is much to unfold.

Since nearly all the pioneers that settled south and east of Eagle Tail Hill were Romanians, they decided to name their district Boian after the village in which they lived in Bucovina. However, just four miles east there was already a district named Bojan, also settled largely by Romanians. The spelling was Austrian but

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the pronunciation was the same. Since it was impossible to have two districts by the same name, they decided to call their school Boian Marea. The spelling should have been Boian Mare meaning “Big Boian”, to differentiate it from Bojan. In later years the districts were called Shalka, the same as the post office and Boian respectively. Officially the names of the schools remained as originally registered.

As early as 1908 parents with children of school age began thinking of building a school. The following year the district was organized and comprised the following lands: Sections 2-11, 14-18, 21-23 in Township 56, Range 14, and West of the fourth meridian. A special meeting was held in the home of Vasile Romanko on May 28, 1910, with trustees Wasyl Romanko, Nazarie Yurko and George K. Kucheran (Cucheran) present. The last named trustee was elected chairman. At this meeting it was decided to appoint Pat (Patrick) Bolan of Whitford as sec.-treas. for 1910 at a salary of thirty dollars and five dollars for stamps and stationery. At the same meeting it was decided to borrow $1150 for the purpose of purchasing a site, building and furnishing a school house as well as a teacherage.

On July 5, 1910 the full board met at the new school, found it satisfactory and agreed to pay the builder, Frank Mikota, $117.00 for building it. Early the following year, Pat Bolan was again appointed as sec.- treasurer and George Kuchurian as chairman. The board decided to purchase forty-six primers, twelve seconds and twelve firsts and to engage a teacher.

The school was built on a brick foundation of lumber and painted white. The interior was typical of the schools of the time. The north wall had a blackboard from end to end and the teacher's desk was at the front by the blackboard. The pupils sat in double-row desks facing the front. In one corner was a small shelf for books and there on the walls were the usual maps and pictures. The children used slates and pencils. When the slates were covered with writing, they were cleaned and the students started writing again. The core subjects taught were reading, writing and arithmetic, art and grammar. At recess few organized games were played as there was no equipment of any kind.

For lunch the children brought some bread, possible boiled eggs or cheese. Sometimes some of the children brought boiled potatoes or dumplings. The lunch pail was an empty lard can.

The first teacher was Etta Smalley, a young attractive girl of medium height who lived south of present-day Hairy Hill. Her brother would bring her to Boian on Monday morning. She stayed in the teacherage all week and Friday evening she returned home. She taught about six months as the school was closed during the cold winter months.

Among the first pupils at Boian Marea school were the following: John, Dochita and Tom S. Chebree; George and Metro J. Cucheran; Domnica and Pachita J. Darda; Bill, Pat and George J. Gordey; George, John and Bill N. Hauca; Mertin and Dora P. Hauca; Nick and Bill J. Hnetka; Elie P. Hutzcal; Raveta and Domnica N. Kelba; Annie and Metro T. Kelba; Nick and John M. Moscaliuk; Alex, Metro and Steve G. Sawchuk; Ewana and Vasile J. Toma; Mary and Pachita M. Toma; John and Sanda N. Yurko.

Miss Smalley was followed by a Mr. Hudson, a man of medium height, dark complexion, very artistic and a teacher who explained the lessons extremely well. In 1913 Mr. Keyes was hired as the teacher and he taught one term. He was succeeded by Earl Smalley, Etta’s cousin. Earl Smalley was a tall man, of dark complexion and very religious in his outlook on life. He was followed by Mr. Wallace, an older man who mixed well in the community. Mr. Wallace was followed by Frank J.W. Fane who taught until Christmas in 1914 and then enlisted in World War I. John B. Cavey arrived to teach in 1915, having come directly from

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London, England. He smoked a pipe continuously and impressed the students with his knowledge of British history. The school was closed in December. In March of 1916 the board employed George M. Mihalcheon to teach until the end of the year. In 1917 G.M. Mihalcheon attended the Camrose Normal School for a few months and then returned.

The one-room school was now becoming crowded. More of the older students remained in school longer and there were many beginners starting school each year. Since the families were large, as many as five or six children from one family would be attending the school at one time. On October 24, 1917 a special meeting was held at the school for the purpose of reaching a decision on adding another room to the existing structure. A vote was taken and some fifteen people voted in favor of the addition on condition that approval be received from the Department of Education.

Surprisingly enough, a month later a special ratepayers meeting was held at the school under the chairmanship of Matthew Shalka. After the preliminaries were dispersed with, a motion was made and seconded that all construction on the addition be stopped. The motion was passed with a large majority. Those who voted against the motion, in other words, to have the addition completed were the following: Metro Mihalcean, Wasyl T. Toma, Geo. T. Toma, Gregori M. Toma, Wasyl Harrasim, G.M. Mihalcheon and Nicolai Darda. (Minutes of Meetings 1917). The construction was halted. Heated arguments and name- calling followed. Matters got so out of hand that on June 10, 1919, J.C. Butchart, the school inspector, who lived in Vegreville, was appointed as official trustee by the Department of Education and the local school board was dissolved.

On September 24, 1919 following instructions of the official trustee and the sec.—treas. A.M. Boutillier, the district was to borrow three thousand dollars for the purpose of: a. erecting a frame addition and to equip it, b. to construct a stable on the school grounds, c. to add two acres to the school site. This money was to be paid back in ten equal instalments at eight percent per annum. The money was borrowed and construction was completed.

For a brief period, a Mr. A.C. Francis was engaged as teacher to teach from May 3rd to the end of September at a salary of $100 a month. This gentleman was teaching a class one day and remarked casually, “If any of you do not understand any material or you have any problems just ask this chap,” and he pointed to himself. Not long afterwards on the playground and in the community, he was known as “Mr. Chap”. In Sept. of that same year G.M. Mihalcheon returned to teaching.

Mr. J.C. Butchart acted as official trustee until Sept. of 1922. On Aug. 2nd of that year a special meeting was called chaired by Geo. T. Toma. The purpose of this meeting was to seek permission from the Department of Education to allow the taxpayers to elect their own trustees and be self-governing. Three delegates were elected, namely, Geo. T. Toma, George Cucheran and Peter Mihalcheon. They were instructed to see the inspector as soon as possible and make known their request.

As a result, on Sept. 2nd another meeting was held at which the official trustee presided. A.M. Boutillier was secretary. It was at this meeting that authority for discharging the duties of trustees was placed back in the hands of the local people. The same three men who had previously been chosen as delegates, were now re—elected as trustees. Local government had been restored!

The two-room school now had a gravity furnace in which coal and wood was burned.

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A Mr. Halverson taught briefly in the Junior Room and then Mrs. Nellie Berry arrived. She taught the junior room classes for nine consecutive years and she left a lasting impression on her classes. G.M. Mihalcheon left in 1926 when he was elected an M.L.A., running as a candidate for the United Farmers of Alberta party.

When Mr. Mihalcheon left in the spring of 1926, classes were instructed by a Mr. Gardiner briefly and then Mr. Charles Seeley who completed the school term. In the fall of 1926 S.M. Matei took over the principalship. He was a local farm boy who had completed high school in Vegreville, went to Camrose Normal School and came back to teach at Boian. He taught for thirteen consecutive years and besides being a very conscientious teacher, he was very active in organizing community activities, particularly concerts and sports.

In 1927, a local young man Mertin P. Hauca was appointed Sec.-Treas. for the district, a position he held until 1931 at which time Mike S. Chebree replaced him.

The Romanians were a prolific people so that by 1928 the two-room school was overflowing with pupils. In 1928-29 a third room was opened in Wasyl T. Toma's vacant house on top of the hill just north of the school. There were now three teachers: Nellie A. Berry who taught grades 1-3, Alice W. Martin who taught four and five on the hill and S.M. Matei who was the principal and taught grades 6, 7, 8 and 9. At this time Boian Marea had the distinction of being the only three-room rural school in the province of Alberta. Because of the additional expenses the mill rate was increased from 71/2 cents an acre to thirty mills on the dollar of the assessed value of the farm land.

Mrs. Nellie Berry resigned at the end of June, 1929 and the community felt a real loss in her departure. She was replaced by Alice W. Martin. At this time the C.P.R. railroad had been built and the neighboring villages of Hairy Hill and Willingdon had sprung up like mushrooms overnight. School boundaries were changed and students were transferred to the newly constructed schools in Willingdon and Hairy Hill. The school population shrank so the school reverted to its previous status of a rural two—room school.

In the early hours of an August cloudy night, 1937, this school burned to the ground, destroying all supplies, books and records. All were sacrificed to the angry gods. It was a complete loss. No one knew or was able to determine the cause of the conflagration. Immediately meetings were held to plan the construction of a new school. That fall, classes were held in the vacant parish house and in the community hall on Ion T. Toma's farm. The Junior Room was taught by Peter K. Iftody and S.M. Matei was still principal. The children enjoyed school that fall. At noon they would go berry picking in the churchyard and sometimes would forget to get back in time.

Under the chairmanship of John G. Porozni it was decided to erect a stone building with two classrooms on the main floor, cloak rooms and office space. It was to have a full basement with two large rooms and a furnace room in the center. During the thirties many of the ratepayers owed money on back taxes and so were able to pay these in the form of labour by hauling stones for miles for the new building. In 1938 the school was completed and everyone was rightfully proud of it.

On Nov. 2, 1938 Boian Marea S.D. #2053 became part of the Two Hills School Division No. 21. In 1950 the school was closed and the students were vanned to Willingdon and a few went to Hairy Hill. On March 6, 1951 approval was given for the sale of the site and buildings of this school district. The community bought the property and it owns it to this day.

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Some interesting facts gleaned from the minutes of the meetings held in the district: a. The district was always borrowing money for building or for operating expenses. What else is new? b. Although school attendance was compulsory, it was difficult to enforce. c. In 1912 the teacher was paid sixty dollars per month but was charged one dollar ($1.00) per week “for the use of the residential shack and furniture”. d. In 1914 the tax rate was set at seven- and one-half cents per acre. If a farmer owned 160 acres of land, he would pay a tax of twelve dollars. The good old days! e. In 1914 the interest rate was 8%. Not too far out of line today. f. Two additional acres of land were purchased in 1914 from Wasyl T. Toma at fifteen ($15.00) per acre. What are land prices today? g. As early as Jan. 1916 at a meeting of the Board of Trustees a motion was passed authorizing the chairman to plough the school grounds in spring and prepare the land for seeding it to grass. Further, the ground along the fence was to be prepared for planting trees. The secretary was to write to Indian Head, Saskatchewan and make an application for young trees. That was why the Boian Marea School grounds were always the nicest in the vicinity of Eagle Tail Hill! h. In 1918 a young girl was employed as janitor of the school at the rate of seven and half cents (71/2¢) per school day. She probably supplied her own cleaning materials too!

The Bojan School District #1777

On March 11 1908 the Bojan S.D. #1777 was established. It comprised the following land areas Sections 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 28, 29 and 30 in Twp. 56 Rge 13; Sections 1, 12, 13, 24 and 25 in Twp. 56, Rge 14, W.4th. The official trustee was Robert Fletcher of Wostok, Alberta.

On Aug. 14, 1909 approval was given for a site selected at S.E. corner of Sec. 18, 56, 13, W.4th. That same year on Nov. 17, the district borrowed seven hundred dollars for the purpose of constructing and furnishing a school and a teacherage. During the following years lands were withdrawn or added to the district, i.e. the boundaries kept changing. In 1919 Mr. J.C. Butchard of Vegreville was appointed the official trustee.

Since the school population kept increasing it was necessary to build another room. On Feb. 3, 1926 the district borrowed sixteen hundred dollars for the purpose of paying for the additional room.

When the school first opened in 1910, the teacher was Mr. Disher. When the junior room was added the first teacher was Lena W. Svekla. The treasurer at this time was George W. Svekla.

In 1928 more land was required for a playground area. Hence approval was given for additional land making a total of five acres. There was room for a baseball diamond. When the school burned down in 1930, it was replaced by the existing present structure.

In 1937 the Bojan School District was incorporated into the Two Hills School Division No. 21. In 1955, in April, approval was given for the sale of the site and buildings. Today the grounds and buildings are still there but are seldom used.

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Desjarlais S.D. #1779

The Desjarlais S.D. #1779 was established on March 11, 1908. It was comprised of the following lands: Sections 33-36 inclusive in township 56, range 14; sections 1-10 inclusive, 16, 17 and those portions of sections 11, 12, 15, 20, 21 and 29 lying South and West of the Saskatchewan River in Twp. 57, Rge. 14, W. of 4th. The senior trustee was Thos. Strenatka of Desjarlais. On March 26, 1910 the following lands were added: sec. 26, 27 and 28 in same township. On April 5, the same year, the district borrowed eight hundred dollars for the purpose of building and furnishing a school. The treasurer was Wm. Hawreliak of Shandro, Alberta. On June 28, 1910 a site was selected at S.E. corner of section 4, in Twp. 57, Rge. 14, W. of 4th. The one room school was built and classes began. During the next few years lands were withdrawn or added. A serious problem existed in that the school was not centrally located so that the children living near the river had some four miles to walk to school. In 1925 the school burned to the ground and a new school was to be built. In the interval classes were held in a farm house.

The ratepayers working with the Department of Education through O. Williams, who was the school inspector and the official trustee, agreed to divide the area into two school districts to be named Desjarlais and Deep Lake respectively.

On Aug. 14, 1926 the district borrowed the sum of five thousand dollars in order to build and equip a two- room school, a teacher’s residence and a barn. The treasurer was Wm. Karbashewski, of Desjarlais. The site selected was a parcel of three acres situated on S.E.1/4, 9, 57, 14 W.4th. More lands were added or subtracted. The buildings were put up and classes were held for many years in the Desjarlais School. In 1938 the school district was integrated into the Two Hills School Division. On December 29, 1950 approval was given for the sale of all the school buildings situated on the site. The pupils were vanned to the neighboring Willingdon School. On November 16, 1965 the school site was put up for sale and only the memories were left.

SCHOOLS

Soda Lake #1119 (Later New Hairy Hill S.D. #1119)

On Oct. 11, 1904 the Soda Lake School District #1119 was established. It was comprised of the following lands: Sections 3 to 10 inclusive, 15 to 22 inclusive and 27 to 30 inclusive in Twp. 55, Rge. 14, W. of 4th. The senior trustee was J.H. Weldon of Soda Lake, Alberta. On Feb. 11, of the following year the district borrowed eight hundred dollars for the purpose of erecting a school building and furnishing it. The treasurer was A.M. Boutillier of Soda Lake. In the following years lands were added or withdrawn.

In 1928 all the sections of land comprising the Berhometh School District #1499 were added to the Soda Lake S.D. #1119, and the former school district was dissolved. Owen Williams of Vegreville was appointed official trustee.

On March 8, 1929 the name of the school district was changed from the Soda Lake School District to the new Hairy Hill School District. The same year on March 11, the new school district borrowed the sum of twenty thousand dollars for the purpose of erecting a brick veneer school of six rooms, with full equipment, on the south-west corner of the Hairy Hill townsite. The name Soda Lake became extinct.

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The Deep Lake School District #4242

As the number indicates this was a comparatively newer school district. It was established on March 17, 1926, and took the following lands: Section 31 and N.E.1/4 of sec. 30, Twp. 56, Rge. 13; sections 25, 26, 35 and 36; N.E. ¼ of section 27; east half of section 34, in Twp. 56, Rge. 14; section 6 and that portion of section 7 lying south of the Saskatchewan River, in Twp. 57, Rge. 13; sections 1 and 2, and those portions of sections 11 and 12 lying south of the Saskatchewan River, in Twp. 57, Rge. 14, W. of 4th. The senior trustee was George Leonty of Desjarlais, Alberta.

Two days later in 1926 a site was selected, comprising three acres situated on N.E. corner of N.W. ¼ section 36, 56, 14, W.4th. The name Deep Lake was chosen because near the site there is a lake, not too large, but deceivingly quite deep.

On Aug. 7, 1926 the district borrowed the sum of twenty-seven hundred dollars for erecting and equipping a new school house. The school was built and functioned for some twenty—five years. The treasurer in 1926 was Mike Chornohus of Desjarlais. Few changes were made in the boundaries of this district.

On Nov. 2, 1937 the Deep Lake School District #4242 was included in the Two Hills School Division #21. The final chapter in the life of this small school district took place on Oct; 7, 1953 when the site and buildings were put up for sale. The author recalls with nostalgia spending an interesting week doing his practice teaching in the Deep Lake School in April, 1936.

POST OFFICES IN THE AREA

The earliest post office was established in 1894 on sec. 20, 56, 15, w.4th m. It was called Manawan and Miss L.M. Bibbie was the postmistress. She resigned two years later and was replaced by Richard L. Hughson who operated it till late 1898 when the office was closed.

Whitford Post Office was used extensively by the early settlers in the surrounding area. It was established on sec. 36, 56, 16, w. of 4th in July 1897. It was operated by John C. Gordon and was succeeded by Archibald Whitford. The latter operated it from 1898-1903.

A post office closer to Boian was opened on July 11, 1903 in the home of A.M. Boutillier on sec. 30, 55, 14, w. of 4th. In 1907 the name was changed to Hairy Hill. Further north of Boian, the Desjarlais Post Office was opened on sec. 11, 57, 14, w. 4th. Since the first postmaster was Daniel Desjarlias, the local district was named after him. George Strynadka also was postmaster a few years, but in 1920 Andrew Fedoreak became postmaster and operated it in his home at 9-57-14 w.4th. The post office remained there till 1958 when it was permanently closed.

To the east the Shalka post office was opened in the home of Matt Shalka who operated it till 1943. Kost Bizovie operated it one year and then Alex Dubec operated it till 1970 when it too was no longer needed.

The Boian post office was first established in the home of George K. Cucheran on sec. 18, 56, 14, w.4th in 1913. Three years later Vasile D. Toma became postmaster for two years. When he resigned G.M. Mihalcheon took it over, followed by P.M. Serbu, then G.M. Mihalcheon again. In 1927 Tom Russ was appointed postmaster and operated it till 1942 when it was closed because of lack of usefulness.

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THE COMMUNITY HALL

The first community hall was built on Vasile D. Toma’s homestead in 1914. It was a log building with siding on the outside. The floor was shiplap with an elevated stage at the front. Two years later the building burned to the ground and arson was suspected. When George Kachuk and G.M. Mihalcheon owned the store, they added three walls to the west side of the store and this building served as a hall for a few years. Then this part was dismantled and a separate, modern lumber building was built. This lasted till the coming of the railroad, when the store closed and the hall was moved to Hairy Hill where it was converted to a store.

In 1929 a new community hall was built on John T. Toma’s farm directly across the road from Vasile Romanko's farmyard. This served till the early forties when another frame stucco building was built in the north-west corner of the church property. When the school was closed in 1951, the community sold the hall and purchased the stone school. This solid building was and still is used as a community centre for the district.

BOIAN TRADING STORE

As early as 1914 Vasile D. Toma and Dumitru Cucheran invested money and opened a store in the former’s house on S.W. 10, 56, 14, w. of 4th. In 1916 the partnership was dissolved and new buildings were built about one quarter of a mile south on the east side of the road on land owned by George T. Toma. The business was operated by Dumitru and Petre Cucheran for two years. In 1918 a co-operative was organized by G.M. Mihalcheon. When this venture failed, G.M. Mihalcheon and George K. Kachuk, purchased the store. A year later P.M. Serbu and John Harasim bought the store but in 1922, because of financial difficulties, G.M. Mihalcheon repossessed the business. At the time he was teaching the senior room in the Boian Marea School so he engaged Mertin Hauca to manage the store. The young employee proved to be an excellent manager and stayed on for many years. In 1928 the business was moved to Hairy Hill and the old buildings were destroyed.

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THE TELEPHONE SERVICE AT BOIAN

Telephone service was first introduced at Boian on March 22, 1920. This office consisted of a single hand cranked telephone by means of which the operator could place long-distance calls usually to Vegreville the nearest town. There were never any private or rural line phones connected to the Boian office.

George M. Mihalcheon and George K. Tkachuk were the first agents handling the telephone service. They were followed by P.M. Serbu and John V. Harasim. In 1922 G.M. Mihalcheon regained the telephone and continued to this capacity until February, 1929. Then Rev. Vasile Cohan took over the phone service. The following year on January 28, 1930 Mike S. Chebree became the phone agent and he continued until January 11, 1937 when the Boian office was closed. By this time there were telephones in the neighboring villages of Willingdon and Hairy Hill.

As payment the agents received twenty-five percent of the money handled.

CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS CHRISTMAS

Obiceiurli de Craciun (Christmas Customs)

The Romanian homesteaders tried to transplant their customs and traditions in their adopted country. One of the most important events of the year was Christmas which at that time was celebrated on January 7.

Preparations began early. In the home the mother would whitewash the complete interior and replace the icons and the many colourful calendars that were brought from the village stores or grain elevators. These calendars were free and the brightly coloured scenes added much to the rooms. Among them there was always a Ukrainian calendar because it had the Orthodox holidays clearly marked.

In November the school children and the young who had left school began rehearsing for the Christmas concert. Which of the readers who attended the rural schools in the twenties, thirties and possibly the forties can forget the Christmas concert?

On the last teaching day of the year, generally December 23, the school children under the direction of their teacher put on the performance in the community hall. The program was almost totally in English, possibly sprinkled with a Romanian carol or two and likewise one or two recitations. The applause with which the program was received spoke for itself. Two weeks later on the eve of January 6 the youth of the community under the direction of the teachers and the local priest would put on a lengthy Christmas concert totally in Romanian. As a part of the program there was always a three-act play which formed the biggest part of the entertainment. The first such program was put on in 1920 by G.M. Mihalcheon who wrote the text of the play, "Asa au fostsa fie”. (It had to be thus). It was well received and the money earned was used to purchase a used organ to help raise the quality of music in the community. The author recalls that in the thirties the youth acted the Shakespearian play, “The Taming of the Shrew,” in Romanian. Floyd Toma acted the part of Petruchio and Katie Kelba acted opposite him as Katherine. The hall was packed literally to the rafters and the applause was thunderous. On such occasions there were always carols interspersed among the items and Romanian dancing.

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Often there would be the King Herod play, consisting of three short scenes which re-enacted the announcement of Christ's birth, the arrival of the three magi, the visit to King Herod's court, and then the magi returning via another route to escape Herod's wrath. The singing of the carol Trei Crai (Magi) was solemn and impressive. These programs were always wholesome, enjoyable and uplifting. Everybody would leave contented.

In the early days, January 7, Christmas morning, most families went to church by horse-drawn sleighs. The women wore their traditional clothes including their fine sheep skin coats. The jingle of sleigh bells was heard from near and far as team after team pulled up the steep hill leading to St. Mary's Romanian Church. By eleven o'clock the church would be packed with young and old. At the end of the service after the Christmas message was delivered the whole congregation would burst out singing the old favorites, “Trei Crai,” “Dimineata lui Craciun,” and “In Orasul Vifleem”. There were no books of song sheets because the older folks, particularly the mothers knew these songs from memory. Once the service finished everyone left eager to partake in the Christmas dinner, now that the Lenten season was over.

Early in the afternoon young boys who had previously organized themselves into small groups started their carolling. Often if the weather was mild, they would carry a star (steaua). They walked or else rode in a cutter drawn by one horse. The carollers would continue as long as their energy and voices held out. At each home they were welcomed and were paid five cents per person by the host or hostess. Prior to the author's carolling days, the host would reward the carollers with a colac (bread twist). The writer remembers when he was twelve years old, he earned $3.50 at Christmas and on New Year's Eve. With this money he purchased a sled from T. Eaton’s catalogue. What a thrill it was to go sledding down the hills by the school, if you didn't meet a horse-drawn sleigh coming up the hill towards you! For a few weeks he was the most popular boy in the school because everyone wanted to try a bought sled.

One group of older boys would act the play,” Irodul” (King Herod). These were generally young men with good singing voices. It was a solemn serious play and everyone waited anxiously for the arrival of these actors.

Another group would dance the “Calu” (the horse). In contrast to the King Herod play, this performance was humorous and boisterous. The man dancing the-horse was graceful and light on his feet, keeping time to the music provided by the violinist and his partner who played the dulcimer. The “old man” with his sheepskin coat turned inside out covering a huge hump on his back and carrying a cudgel in his right hand led the dance in a large circle constantly dancing backwards, followed by the prancing horse. The "baba” (old lady) dressed in a typical Romanian older woman's costume carried a doll cradled in one arm and in her free hand carried a broom, symbols of motherhood and household duties. She followed the “horse” closely, shuffling her tired feet but keeping time to the music. To add to the merriment there was a gypsy who was out to tell everyone’s fortune for a price; a pedlar and a woodsman each one trying to outdo one another. In the late forties the young men of the time Canadianized this performance by including an “Indian” as a member of the troupe. The high point of this spectacle was reached when the mosneag (old man) danced a Romaneasca with the farmer's wife or daughter — whichever was more buxom. Likewise, the farmer would dance with the baba. In charge was the constable who was also the treasurer. He saw to it that the various dances were of proper length and that the performers did not outdo themselves in one place as there were many homes to be visited. When he called out “forverds” the dance ended and all too soon the entertainers left, much to the sorrow of the children in the house. Since most of the entertainers wore masks, the host and his guests spent some time guessing who played what part.

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Everyone enjoyed the “calu”. The money collected by these groups was turned into the community fund. Part of it was used to hire an orchestra and the whole community enjoyed a free dance usually in the afternoon of January 8.

One New Year's Eve January 13, on the Julian Calendar the “calu” performance was repeated if there were enough willing to participate. The young lads visited the homes this round with the plugusorul (the plough). While one boy kept swinging a bell, another recited a long poem in which the narrator described the ploughing of the land, seeding of the grain, ending with the baking of the bread. Since they were an agrarian people, this was understandable. To complete the New Year's Day activities early in the morning these same boys would come with their pockets full of grain and would scatter it in the homes while reciting verses wishing long life and a fruitful harvest in the coming year. When the groups were through, the housewife generally ended up with enough grain to feed her flock of poultry that day.

With “the blessing of the water” on January 19, the Christmas holidays ended and the community settled down to the regular winter activities. The children were in school, the mothers and older unmarried daughters held feathering bees, carded, spun and wove the wool for their tapestries. The menfolk looked after the livestock and cut down cords of wood so that there would be a plentiful supply for the coming year. All this would be done before the spring thaw.

EASTER

The Orthodox Easter is observed on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of spring. That is why it varies from year to year. Keeping in mind that the first day of spring is March 21, it is easy to set the date for Easter. One other condition must be met. It cannot precede the Jewish Passover.

At Boian, Easter too, was an important day but the whole occasion was and still is a solemn dignified observance terminating on Sunday morning with the resurrection service and the blessing of the pasca (Easter bread). The Easter service started at midnight, Saturday night with the priest chanting the prayers, the choir responding. While this went on, the young men of the district built a huge bonfire at a respectable distance from the church and kept it burning all night. The men and boys chatted, exchanged jokes and took turns hauling firewood from the nearby bushes. Those who were tired standing in the church would come out and others would go in.

Early in the morning the priest and the members of the congregation would come out and the women would make a large circle in front of the church placing their pascas on the ground before them. The priest, cantor and a few choir members were inside the circle for the special prayers before the blessing. This was followed by the blessing itself which consisted of sprinkling of holy water by the priest. At this time the whole congregation would sing, “Hristos a inviat!” (Christ is risen). When completed everyone went home to have a short nap before the joyous Easter dinner which was always eagerly anticipated after six weeks of lent.

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THE BAPTISM OF CHILDREN

Generally, within a year after marriage, a baby would be born to the young couple. There were no doctors or hospitals so the birth took place in the farm home and the delivery was supervised by a moasa (midwife). Occasionally the birth would be a real traumatic experience and some mothers died in child birth. Within three weeks or so the baby would be baptized and named, often right at the church following the regular service.

A basin of water would be placed on the table in front of the altar and the sponsors would take turns in holding the baby while the priest and the cantor chanted the appropriate prayers. The climax would be reached when the priest would lift the naked child from his swaddling clothes and dip him in the water. Some priests would pinch the child's nostrils and if there was sufficient water would hold the child's face down, completely immersed. None drowned. Nearly all children cried loudly, not knowing what was taking place. Once dried, and dressed, the little darling would quieten down especially if there was a soother handy.

During the pioneer days, most of the children were named after close relatives, generally the grandparents and then favorite uncles and aunts. At one time in the Boian area, there were six George Tomas. Evidently George was a favorite name but what confusion it would cause. None of the children had second names. Every child inevitably used the initial of the father's Christian name. So, we had George J. Toma, George D. Toma, George W. Toma and so on. The writer's grandmother was Sanda (Alexandra) Toma and she lived to see five granddaughters named after her. The next generation chose other names for their offspring.

NUNTA (THE WEDDING)

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The long Orthodox Church service had finally ended this October Sunday. The priest had finished his message and was now making his announcements of forthcoming events. Suddenly everyone, including the older women at the back of the church, who had been busy exchanging bits of gossip, began listening attentively.

“From today in three weeks”, announced the priest, “the marriage ceremony of Sanda, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. Ionescu* and Nicolai, son of Mr. And Mrs. V. Balta* will be performed in this church following the service. If for any reason anyone feels that this marriage should be prevented, please let me know prior to that day. The banns will be proclaimed two more times”. With these words the priest snapped shut his notebook and took his place between the two icons in front of the altar, holding a small cross in his hands, ready to bless each person that passed him on the way to receive the offering of holy bread.

Sanda and Nicolai had known each other since childhood. They had attended the same school, although Nicolai was six years older. Their parents had known each other in the old land. The traditional customs had been followed closely. Nicolai, with a “staruste" (matchmaker) had visited Sanda’s home and Sanda had consented to the marriage. She had barely passed her sixteenth birthday, but she saw no other occupation other than marrying and living on a farm, like her mother and her grandmother had done before her. Besides there were eight younger brothers and sisters.

* Names have been changed.

The wedding day had arrived and at Sanda’s home there was great excitement as everyone was preparing for the celebration. The young bride, looking radiant in her Romanian wedding dress, was in the third room of the fairly large house, looking quite happy. She wore the traditional embroidered blouse with an attached underskirt. Over this she wore a sucna (jumper) made of a rich velvet material, wine in colour. The skirt was further embellished by ribbons sewn horizontally on the lower part of this garment. Around her neck she had a beaded neck piece, given to her by her grandmother, and two strands of red beads. On her feet she wore white stockings and white shoes. She looked remarkably lovely and very innocent.

The bride's parents were busy welcoming guests and relatives who had already arrived to help and participate in the bride's send-off to church. The members of the orchestra were seated to one side, each one holding his instrument — a violin, a dulcimer and a flute. The table was set for a light meal. In the center was a large “colac” (braided bread) and on it lay the bridal wreath made of peacock feathers, decorated with colourful ribbons. The groomsmen hastened to seat everyone while they themselves sat at the ends of the long table ready to assist in the proceedings.

When everyone was seated, the light meal was served and appropriate toasts made. Following the repast, the orchestra struck a wedding song and the parents approached the bride who was seated directly behind the braided bread with a bridesmaid on each side of her. The parents reached forward and picked up the bridal wreath and placed it on their daughter's head. Her maids adjusted it quickly, making certain that it rested securely. The bride who had tasted no food, appeared slightly nervous but still radiant. She and the groom had gone to church Saturday evening and had confessed. Since they were to receive holy communion before the ceremony, they were warned not to eat any solid food.

The moment had arrived for departure. The ushers stood up and motioned to everyone to join hands. The orchestra began playing. Those at the table began singing the traditional wedding song:

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“De trei ori pe linga masa (bis) Sa scoatem dansul din casa. Sa ramie binili Sa traiesca tineri” — — — — — — etc.

“Thrice we go the table round, For the outside we are bound. May the good be left behind May the young a long life find”

— — — — — — etc.

Led by the “vatajel” (groomsman), the guests still singing, proceeded to the outdoors. As they left the house the bride's aunts threw rice after the bride, a symbol of good luck. The wedding party left shortly for the church in the few cars that could be mustered for the occasion. Others left by wagon or democrat.

A similar tradition was being observed at the groom's home some four miles away. The groom sat behind the head table with the nanasi (sponsors) on one side and his young niece on the other side. The colac was in front and on it lay his hat. At the appropriate moment, his parents approached the table and placed the hat on his head accompanied by music. Then all joined hands and the circle dance and singing started. This time words were directed to the groom:

“Pe o margina de pamint (bis) Merge badea samanind. Si din gura cuvantind.” — — — — — — etc.

“On a piece of ploughed land Walks a man seeding by hand With his mouth these words he utters." — — — — — — etc.

The participants ended outside and they left for church.

The bride's group entered first. All eyes turned towards the entrance and even the members of the choir upstairs began stretching their necks in order to catch a glimpse of the young bride. The priest continued chanting the prayers. After venerating the icons, the bride and her attendants moved to the north side of the church and listened to the service.

Shortly after the groom arrived, tall, dark and strikingly handsome. He and his attendants venerated the icons and took their place at the south side of the room. He clasped his hands in front, glanced briefly at the bride, then drew his breath in sharply. She looked prettier than ever. The service droned on.

At 12:30 P.M. the service was over and preparations were made for the ceremony. A small table was placed in front of the altar. This was covered with an embroidered cloth on which were placed items necessary — the crowns, the jar of honey, the colac and the rings. On the floor before the table the “nanasa” put a

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Romanian tapestry and on it a pure white handkerchief was spread out. At the four corners of the hanky four quarters were placed for good fortune.

The couple approached the table and each one placed one foot on the handkerchief, the bride her right, the groom his left. Directly behind the bride stood her matron of honor (nanasa) holding a lit candle decorated with a pink ribbon and a flower. Behind the groom stood his nanas (sponsor) also with a lit candle embellished with a blue ribbon and a blue flower. Everyone was now ready. The Romanian Orthodox marriage ceremony is long and rich in symbolism and ritual. The lit candles (symbols of purity), the rings (symbols of endless love and union), the joining of the right hands (which signify that the bride and groom become one) — all these add much to the ceremony. The most exciting moment is the crowning of the groom and bride. The crowns represent the honor and reward placed on them for the purity of their lives. The drinking of wine from the same cup symbolizes the sharing of joys and sorrows. Finally, the procession around the table led by the priest signifies that the marriage has no end and likens Christian living to an orbit around the gospel. Triple circling commemorates the Holy Trinity.

The next part of the ceremony was the removal of the crowns. The priest and the nanas each placed one hand on the crown and the former chanted, “Bridegroom, may you be exalted like Abraham, blessed like Isaac, fruitful like Jacob, yet obeying the commandments of God”. The crown was then removed and placed on the table. Likewise, the nanasa and the priest each laid a hand on the bride's crown. Again, the priest intoned, “Bride, may you be exalted like Sarah, rejoice like Rebecca and be fruitful like Rachel, also obeying God’s laws”. The crown was laid on the table.

A few more prayers with responses of “Doamne milueste” (Lord have mercy) and the ceremony was over. The whole congregation led by the choir sang “Multi ani!” (Many years!)

The wedding party left the church slowly, and as they descended the steps, pictures were taken by the one person who was fortunate to have a box camera. The bride and her group left first and returned to her parents’ home where a huge meal was served. The afternoon was spent dancing, singing and visiting. The groom, with his attendants, returned to his home where similar festivities were enjoyed by all.

At about 4:00 P.M. preparations were hastily made by the groom's usher to leave for the bride's place and “buy” the bride. Once there, they were invited in. Sanda was behind the table with her bridesmaids. The groom's usher with the help of the bride's younger brother proceeded to “buy” the bride. The young lad held two slender willow wands over which was draped a white silk shawl with long fringes. Appropriate verses were exchanged between the groomsmen and the bridesmaids ending with coins being tossed to the latter. The shawl was then placed on the bride's head over her wreath and adjusted to stay in place. Sanda will henceforth wear her hair in a bun on top of her head and over this she will wear a white shawl. At this point the guests sang the bride's farewell song. It told the bride not to grieve for her parents, siblings, nor the garden with its lovely flowers as she really is not going so far away. More toasts followed and more shouts were heard of “Vivat! Vivat! Sa traiesca mireasa! Sa traiesca tineri!” (Long live the bride! Long live the young couple). The groom who now joined his bride prepared to leave. Hands were joined and the group began singing once again. Sanda tried to look happy as she bade her parents farewell but tears blinded her eyes. Her mother, too, was overcome as she gazed at her favorite daughter, so young, so lovely and so innocent, and prayed silently that her marriage be a happy one and that she not be burdened by too many children.

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Before the group left for the groom’s house, the bride's trousseau had to be carried out. The groomsmen brought out the trousseau which consisted of a sizeable trunk filled with the bride's clothes, tablecloths, pillow cases and linens. In addition, there were pillows and two wool-filled quilts. All these were brought out to the accompaniment of couplets sung by the attendants.

Then on to Nicolai’s place, the wedding party made its noisy way. At the door of Nicolai’s home, the couple was met by the parents. Nicolai’s father held a bottle and a glass in his hands for more toasts while his mother held a colac and a glass half-filled with salt – basic necessities of life. Toasts were exchanged and the mother-in-law took the bride's hand and let the group inside the house where they were seated once more at the head table. More food and drinks were served. How could they eat so much!

Later in the evening the head cook and three of her helpers put on a performance. They danced into the room (more of a shuffle than a dance) chanting humorous verses all the while about the important guests. Each woman carried a platter with a well-roasted stuffed chicken decorated with grapes and slices of apple. Each chicken was meant for one of the participants behind the table such as the groom or the sponsor. The cook wanted to show her culinary skill. Humorous verses were exchanged, as the women swayed their bodies rhythmically and tempted the seated guests with the loaded platters. Eventually money was offered to the cooks and the delicious food was laid on the table. The tired bride looked up and smiled graciously. The cooks enriched by the proffered money, joined hands and made a circle of their own. The orchestra struck up a “hora” and these jolly women performed a circle dance of their own all the time interjecting humorous couplets.

When this was all over, the groomsmen took up the donations to the young couple and following this there was dancing and singing late into the night.

In the early pioneer days, the Romanian weddings generally lasted three days. The marriages always took place in a church on Sundays and despite some unhappy ones, they lasted through life. The receptions were held in the homes of the young couple as described above and there was a definite ritual to be followed. The “vatajel” (groomsman) was in charge and he saw to it that the traditional steps were followed closely. In the mid-twenties the brides began wearing the white dress and veil in place of the Romanian attire. Slowly some of the other customs were dropped. In the forties, weddings began to be held at the community hall as a joint venture by the parties concerted. This made it more economical and less tiring for the women. Today, besides the usual good food that is served, the only custom that is still retained is the custom of donating money and/or gifts to the newly married. Only a few of the older people know the traditional wedding songs.

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MORMANTAREA (THE FUNERAL)

Near St. Mary's Church at Boian, there is a belfry which holds a huge church bell. The original bell has been replaced but it was said that on clear, quiet days, when the church bell rang, it could be heard within a seven—mile radius. The bell tolled to call the faithful to worship, at certain times during a church service but also to let the people in the area know that one of their own had been called to the Lord.

Should the bell be rung during the week, the first thought that came to the listener’s mind was “Cine a murit”? (Who died?). The priest and the cantor would be the first to know, as well as Ion T. Toma’s family, as nearly always one of the boys would be ringing the bell. Even though there was only one phone in the district the news spread via the grapevine and within a day or so the whole community would know.

Maria* had kidney problems for some time but she continued working and caring for her eight children. She kept hoping that another day or in another week she would improve. The opposite happened. Her condition worsened till one day she was so ill that her oldest son took her to the nearest hospital. Within two weeks Maria died.

The bell began tolling the sad news on a Wednesday evening. The immediate relatives were notified and in time everyone knew. The women began arriving immediately at the home of the deceased. The body was brought home and since there was no funeral home nearby a few of the older women prepared the body. They bathed the corpse and then dressed it in the usual colourful Romanian costume —Maria wore her bridal costume — the same blouse, same underskirt and jumper, the shawl on her head, but different

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shoes. The men made a wooden coffin out of some pine boards and the body was placed in it. It was then put on a wide bench in the “casa cei mare” (the third room of the house). There it would lie for three days. A candle burned nearby and as the news travelled, friends and relatives would arrive to pay their respects to the departed. It was customary to offer food to guests so the women were constantly occupied in the kitchen. Everyone was so kind and helpful and many moved about quietly saying nothing but kind words about the deceased woman.

* Name has been changed.

The evening prior to the funeral the priest and cantor arrived and the prayer service was held right in the room where the deceased lay. After the service a light lunch was served to all who attended. Then all would leave except some of the closest relatives and friends who stayed all night, observing the wake for the dead.

The day of the funeral arrived. The priest, cantor and pallbearers came early. They had brought two banners from the church to use in the procession. The prayers began at ten o'clock and when completed, the pallbearers proceeded to take the coffin out. As they crossed the threshold they raised and lowered the body three times. This symbolized Maria's farewell to the home she loved so well. While this went on two older women were wailing close to the body causing the children to cry too as well as other soft- hearted folk. Outside the house, the coffin was placed on some supports and the husband invited all to the “prasnic” (memorial dinner). The tables had been set quickly and efficiently by the many women who volunteered to help, feeling that they could at least do some small favour for the deceased. There was a large crowd so this meant three settings would have to be made. This was done rapidly enough under the supervision of Domnica, the head cook who seemed to have boundless energy. When everyone finished the procession set out for the church.

It was a sunny day and the hearse was drawn by two white horses who seemed to sense that it was a sad, dignified occasion. They responded knowingly to their master's every command. Many of the people walked. At the farm gate the procession halted and prayers were said. When this was finished one of the older children handed a pomana (braided bread, apple and a candle) to one of the bystanders. This would be repeated at least six times, ending in front of the church. Once the body was inside the church, the long funeral service started. Candles were lit in memory of the dead.

After the eulogy was given, the crowd filed past the open casket paying their final respects. More tears, blowing of noses and sobbing! The unfortunate husband and father moved slowly, numb from so much sorrow and so many problems. Even the most hardened of the spectators could not hold back their tears when the children, especially the little ones, were lifted up to kiss their mother farewell. The casket was closed and the procession moved out. Again, the wailers started and continued till the open grave was reached.

More prayers by the grave ending with “Vesnica ei pominere” (memory eternal), sung by all and the body was lowered. Some of the older people threw a few coins into the open grave. Then grave diggers began shovelling dirt into the hole. At this point the youngest child looked back and asked “Why are they doing that Bunica?” His grandmother clasped him in her arms and began sobbing uncontrollably. Others crowded near the family trying to comfort them. Slowly the crowd began dispersing, many of them whispering almost inaudibly, “Dumnezeu s’o ierte!” (May the Lord forgive her!) The family left last, returning slowly to a motherless home, but time heals all wounds, physical or emotional.

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THE TYPICAL ROMANIAN PIONEER HOUSE

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After living two years or so in a bordei or possibly a small hut built totally above ground, most families built sizeable log houses on their own homesteads. The architecture was simple and nearly all their homes had similar characteristics.

Each house was built of long straight tamarack logs hauled from the forest to the north bordering the Saskatchewan River although poplars were used too. These logs were hewn on four sides, then dove-tailed at the corners when put in place. Holes were drilled at appropriate places and wooden pegs were pounded in securing the last log to the one below. Windows and doors were cut out where necessary.

The typical house faced south with a door in the centre of the structure, two windows with small panes appeared on each side of the main entrance. In addition, there was at least one window on the east side of the house counterbalanced by one or two windows on the west. To the north there were no windows for obvious reasons. The rafters for the roof were made of straight rails from coniferous trees. Likewise, the ceiling was constructed from rails which were later covered with plaster. The roofs were thatched at first with slough hay, then later with rye straw. When more money became available and especially when the C.N.R. was built through Vegreville in 1907 and it was easier to procure lumber, shingles replaced the thatch. On the south slope of the roof two breathers were inserted to allow the smoke to make its lazy exit.

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Once the log structure was completed a claca (bee) was held for the purpose of mud plastering the walls and ceiling. The gospodar (owner) would haul enough clay soil, straw and water needed for the plaster. The clay had to be spread out and mixed with water so that there were no hard chunks anywhere. To this would be added straw and more water and the whole mess mixed and trampled on. Sometimes a young lad on horseback rode the animal up and down and around making sure that the horse stepped on every spot in the gooey mixture. If there were no horses the women and children would do this work while the men would turn the plaster over so that in the end it was soft, pliable and easy to handle.

Then began the plastering. Some of the helpers would haul the plaster while others applied it to the walls by throwing handfuls of the soft mixture into the cracks of the walls and then flattening it out so that it would be fairly smooth. The interior walls were done the same way. After a week or so when the walls were completely dry a second coat would be applied. This was much thinner and easier work. The mixture this time was made of clay, finer straw and even fresh horse manure if there was any available. These added ingredients along with some sand prevented the clay from cracking when drying. All this required a good deal of hard labour. When the women felt that the walls were smooth enough, they would whitewash the whole house inside and out. To add to the beauty of the building the women would search for huma (clay) that was blue grey in colour. To this they added some bluing and water and then painted a three- inch border around the base of the walls. Some ambitious women would even paint crosses just below the eaves all around the house. Others would make little crosses out of busioc (sweet basil) and arrange them below the wide eaves on the walls. The whole building when completed looked clean, bright and homey.

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The main entrance was on the south side, so if a visitor entered, he would find himself in the tindé (porch). To the right was a door which led to the “casa cei mare” (the big room). Once inside this room the visitor would notice a long table at the far end reaching almost from wall to wall. Above this table on the wall there would be a number of icons hung just below the ceiling. These icons included generally the Last Supper, the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ as well as some of the apostles. Along the sides of the walls there were benches usually covered with tapestries. This room was always kept clean and used for weddings, hrams, parties or any other large festivity. Most women also used it as a storeroom and a pantry since it was always cool and clean. If the family was crowded for space, this room was also used for a bedroom.

If on entering one opened the door to the left, he would find himself in a fairly large room that served as a family room, dining room, bedroom, and initially as a kitchen too. There was always a table near the south windows. In the northwest corner there was a bed and above a beam suspended from the ceiling. On this beam the housewife stored pillows, bedding and pieces of linen. In the jog created by the walls of the vestibule the famous clay oven (cuptor) would be built with a sparhat (clay stove) next to it. The oven besides being used for baking excellent bread also served as a bed. Although the cuptor was hard, it was very cozy and warm after the baking was done especially in the long cold winter nights. The smoke from the fires made its way upwards into the attic through a hole in the ceiling and then out through the breathers. In time chimneys made out of wattles and clay were built into this opening. These too, were replaced in time by genuine brick chimneys.

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These houses were solidly built and very practical for their time. They had low ceilings which helped conserve the heat and wide eaves that kept the sun's rays out in summer, yet allowed the same sunshine to penetrate the small window panes in the cold winter months. Most homes were warm and cozy in winter, yet cool and comfortable in summer.

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The Romanian pioneer houses in some cases lasted two generations, being gradually replaced by modern wood and stucco buildings. If one drives in the area today, one may still see the remnants of these structures that housed such large families not so long ago.

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Nu da pasarea din mina pentru cea din gard. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

Apa treace dar pietrele ramin. The water flows on, the rocks remain.

Dupa furtuna vreme buna vine. After the storm, fine weather arrives.

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PART 18: BILL & ANNA MOSCALIUK FAMILY

When working at a copper mine in Butte, Montana in 1925, Bill Moscaliuk had the opportunity to witness a boxing match in which Jack Dempsey participated. He was so impressed by Dempsey’s skill and strength that he immediately started training at the local YMCA.

Bill still talks of how he won his first fight against a boxer named Charles McGillvary who had come to get the “long-legged guy”. After the bell went Bill gave his opponent the straight left but the latter moved his head and ran into Bill’s strong right. Fourteen seconds and McGillvary was out. No one was more surprised than Bill.

From Butte, Bill went east to Buffalo N.Y. where with his one-two punch he earned the title of “kayo- artist”. Later family and health problems forced him to return home where he took up farming. His record as a middleweight amateur boxer follows: Lost-3; Draws-2; K.O.’s-23; T.K.O.-1.

In 1933 he married Ann Russ and raised a family of four sons and one daughter. The Moscaliuks’ high priority on education was reflected in the educational careers of their children, all of whom attended post secondary educational institutions.

Patricia graduated from U. of A. in Home Economics and became a Home Management specialist in Alberta. Bernie attended the school of technology in Calgary and specialized in meteorology. He is at present in Brisbane, Australia.

George attended U. of A. and has his own business investments in Edmonton.

Don Mitch took up veterinary medicine and won a gold medal for proficiency.

Armand, the youngest, studied law at the U. of A. and also won a gold medal.

John Moskaliuk was born in 1907. He joined the U.S.A. army in July, 1926. With the American artillery he served in the Philippine Islands. He also, took up boxing and became a champion boxer in the army. While serving, he took sick and passed away in 1927.

Mary Hryhorets was born in 1908. She resides in Edmonton and is in good health.

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Lena was born in 1910. She married George Cleet and they resided in Drumheller. They had two daughters and a son but unfortunately George was killed in a mine accident leaving a young family behind. Later Lena moved to Calgary and married Albert Solverson. In 1979 after a brief illness, Lena passed away.

Doris, the youngest daughter, was born in 1912. She completed school at Boian, then left for Drumheller where she married Joe Suffesick. She moved to Calgary where she owned and operated a hair dressing salon. She died of cancer in 1978.

Mike Moss was born in 1914 but left for Drumheller in 1928. There he began working for Canadian Utilities Power Co. where he worked his way up to the position of assistant operating superintendent.

In 1940 he married Lucy Laurent, which resulted in two sons Nolan and Brent. Besides being an excellent worker and a good father, Mike took a very active part in community affairs. Like his brothers, he also took up boxing and won a bronze medal in Drumheller. After a long illness, Mike passed way in 1981.

The baby of the family was Floyd who was left motherless when very young. He is presently living in Toronto where he has his own business.

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PART 19: LUPASTEAN FAMILY FROM BUCOVINA

Excerpted from Lupastean Family from Bucovina: A Monograph of One of Canada’s People The Romanians By Eilleen F.P. Lupastin

PREFACE

“The second-generation ethnic Canadian rejects the Old-World traditions and values of the immigrant parents and the third generation returns to the values of the grandparents and reawakens the traditions.”

- Marcus L. Hansen

The theory is derived from the almost universal phenomenon that what the son wishes to forget the grandson wishes to remember. There is a return to ethnicity in the third generation. The process of filtering out ethnic traditions which do not fit into an individual’s needs and interests occurs among the second generation. When the second generation was growing up, it was frequently difficult to cope with a foreign heritage at all. The Canadian-born, of the second generation, went through a period when the attitude towards ethnic ties was negative. They tried to pasteurize them, homogenize them, and make them ashamed of their heritage. They were forced to prostitute patriotism. The first two generations, of immigrant families, had to struggle for survival and acceptance; but the later generation has the time, means, leisure, whish and will to rediscover the Romanian culture. It seemed that one ought to apologize for being a foreigner or conceal it, but that I never did nor even thought of doing. I knew little of scorn and nothing of a foreign background. It has become a little glamourous to be foreign. With this ethnic revival one does not have to deny one’s heritage just to fit in. people now think a foreign background and language are marvelous.

The Romanian immigrants did not throw overboard the luggage of traditions. The alien only begins to feel at home when he has succeeded in blending his own culture and ideas and mode of life with those of the people who were here before him. The old culture is to be blended, not overcomer. Our awareness of the ethnic factor has been aroused by the descendants of the original immigrants and deepened y scholars of the ethnic experience. Ethnic heritage studies can be useful in promoting unity and freedom in Canada by encouraging an appreciation of one’s ancestry.

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Canadianism is no one’s monopoly. It is a movement from primitive racism and herd instincts, toward a pan-human culture; a movement from uniformity and conformity to welcoming differences. Unity within diversity. The best, most effective, most useful Canadians are those who do not reject their original backgrounds. One should not lose one’s inheritance by neglecting to claim it. There can be no freedom without diversity. A society is characterized as a free society because of its tolerance of diversity. The Romanian immigrant added his contribution with many others to Canada’s cultural pluralism. Though immigrants to our county were diverse in origin – in seeking liberty, democracy and tolerance, they shared a common devotion for these ideals. His story has been one of hard work, of love for his heritage, of love for his new country, and an inspiration for those he left in his place.

Canadianism is nourished by pride in the individual’s racial past. A person with an awareness of his ancestry and a pride in the achievements of his forebears is a better citizen of his county. As a Canadian he is not poorer but richer because he realized his place in a notable stream of human relationship down through the centuries. The citizen is a member of a multi-ethnic community, the proceeds of the achievements of his immigrant forebears. To know a people, you must know its history and origins. To understand the Canadian people, we must also study their ethnic origins. Knowing one’s past makes a person a fuller, better human. It is essential to understand the contributions of one’s own heritage. It is only as we begin to sort out the different meanings of the legacy of ethnicity that our involvement with each other will begin to make sense.

Barth’s definition of an ethnic group is “being biologically self-perpetuation, sharing fundamental cultural values, making up a field of communication and interaction, and having a distinguishable membership from other categories oft the same order”. When you give up your sense of identity with a group, you also give up the sense of values brought here by that group. We must learn to celebrate rather than deny the ethnic, racial and religious diversity of our nation in a democratic community which believes in the sacredness of the individual. We bequeath more to future generations by contributing the uniqueness and beauty of our ethnic heritage to the world. A study of family history brings one closer to the lives of those no longer living – those who have given us life. We are the tapestry of civilization; instead of dropped threads we strengthen family ties. Each ethnic group is like a unique and lovely flower giving beauty and variety to the garden of our nation.

This story is a story about ordinary people, but there are many wonders in the lives of ordinary people with fairly humble callings. “Tell them the story of my family so their names should be mentioned with honour.” These people have behind them a long, historical tradition. They yearned; they aspired; they achieved. Romantic history has always been one of my weaknesses. Since childhood I had always wished to know the history of my people. I have always longed for a romanticized historical past, a cultural texture. We come to full flower when we learn about our ancestors and have a veneration for the magnificent relics of our past. I had completed an arc and am reaping the fruits of their hardships and sacrifice.

CHAPTER 4: SWEET BUCOVINA, MY BUCOVINA

Bucovina was first noted in fifteenth-century documents. The Princes of Moldau, Bucovina’s border on the north end, enjoyed the reign of Bucovina which was acknowledged by Stephen the Great and with the consent of Alexander the Good. In 1520 the Turks mismanaged Bucovina; visitations of war and war taxes put Bucovina back in a state of neglect. On 7 May 1775 Bucovina was taken from Moldau into the Austrian

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Monarchy without the consent of the Princes. Turkey had no power to cede what did not belong to her. At that time Bucovina was in desolate conditions, depopulated cities in ruins, trade and crafts at a standstill, and agriculture at its lowest ebb, with no national culture or education. The Hapsburg monarchy was held together through the centuries by the danger of the Turks.

Bucovina was part of Moldovia until 1775 when Austria occupied the northern region of Moldovia claiming 4,000 square miles of woodland and 80,000 people. Emperor Joseph II of Austria secured the consent of Turkey to the occupation. Austria named their new domain “Bucovina”. This land had had no separate administrative life. It included the Moldovian capital, the most famous fifteenth and sixteenth-century battlegrounds, and the ancient monasteries. In 1786 Bucovina was merged with Galicia, which Austria had wrested from Poland, which opened a slow infiltration of Poles, Jews and Ruthenians in quest for better living conditions – the southward migration of Galician far labour. Bucovina formed part of Galicia until 1849; and was then made first into a duchy, and later into a separate crownland or province. Bucovina had five counties: Suceava, Radauti, Cimpulung, Storojinet, and Cernauti. The Austrians developed Bucovina’s capital city, Cernauti, into an important educational and commercial centre. Each Romanian village was divided into three classes: distinguished people, middle class and low-class people. Each village inhabitant was classed according to his capabilities, his property, and his origin. New innovations were indulged in only by the aristocrats. Bucovina has 1,000 kilometres of roads and 430 kilometres of railway.

Bucovina is the smallest historical province of Romania which is no longer a political entity. This region is situated in the extreme north-central part of Romania between Moldovia and Transylvania. Bucovina is an East European territory now located in north-east Romania and the Western Ukraine, U.S.S.R., between the Carpathian Mountains and the Dniester River. The east part of the Carpathian-mountain system is in the historical and cultural region of Moldovia. The mountains range from 3,000 to 6,000 feet and boast 3,000 lakes. The inhabitants are found in the valleys between the mountains, living in small villages. There are hew large cities, but spectacular mountain scenery and skiing. Bucovina adjoins Bessarabia in the foothills of the East Carpathian Mountains. Bucovina is between the extreme continental climate of Russia and the temperate climate of Central Europe with cold winters with much snowfall; and hot, dry summers; and rainy autumns and springs – a typical country of the Temperate Zone.

One must understand and know the geography and politics of Eastern Europe to enhance the correct geographical designation to use for the period of time in which our ancestors lived in these areas, for the Romanians jealously retained their nationality. This was an area which acknowledged the boundaries of blood and kin rather than arbitrary political lines. Nationality depended on religion, not on place of ethnic origin. If to be Irish was to be Catholic, then to be Romanian was to be Orthodox. Bucovina and Romania had long histories of changing and shifting borders. The geographical area cannot be artificially sectioned off into peoples and nations. Probably no where else in the world do political boundaries mean so little. Not only have the political boundaries of Eastern Europe shifted for some hundreds of years, but the changing political fortunes of countries have caused wide-spread dispersion of peoples and the re-naming of geographical locations. The constant ebb and flow of boundaries in East Europe is an extensive subject with the most recent changes dating only from the post-war years of World War II.

Bucovina and Moldovia traditionally were the most powerful and civilized of the provinces which now make up Romania. Bucovina is the land of the oldest legends about the history of the Romanian people. Bucovina was the historical nucleus of Moldovia with its capital at Suceava. Bucovina is one of Romania’s most beautiful zones. Its landscape is rich with thickly forested mountain, gently sloping hills, crystal clear

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brooks, and extensive meadows. Bucovina gave Romania literature, poetry, religion, and numerous important men and women. It was the cradle of Romanian statehood. Its churches, monasteries and ancient fortresses, all built by Romanian rulers, testify Romania’s cultural, religious and political history. Bucovina is traceable to the dawn of mankind in Europe, and vestiges of the country’s historical past. It is one part of Europe which is richest in pre-Renaissance feudal art monuments. Upper Moldovia, home of peerless beauty. It is a generous realm in point of history, economy, social realities, arts, human relations and geography. It is a history of dignity and struggle; a permanent love of our forefathers’ land. It is creative genius in this country’s vestiges and foundations recalling. Its edifices are invested with their pure thoughts and sensitiveness, an undying gesture over times. It is a landscape of emotion and recollections, of victories obtained through bravery and unquenched love of the country. It is the vibration of the colours which the local population put in their houses and in their clothes, in very good taste and of great artistic refinement. The evergreen or deciduous forests clothe lofty peaks and delightful hills; the natural monuments, unique in the country, call you with their relics, memories of long past epochs, while the rich fauna urge you to hunting parties and to breath the invigorating air of the summits. These soft and green hills and ivory citadel walls were the princely seat of hospodar Stephen the Great. These expressions of countless secret connecting threads has become a symbol connected with the struggle for national freedom. This part of the old voivodate used to be one of the oldest nuclei of Romanian state life and feudal culture. The state power had its seat at Suceava. It had been the headquarters of the church power – the Metropolitan Bishopric of Moldovia and Suceava. Moldovia used to be ruled by voivodes, hospodars. In this frontier zone the attitude of defending tradition had built important fortresses in their impenetrable forests.

Close to Christian Transylvania whose population, though subject to a foreign government, spoke the same language and boasted the same origin and the same cultural tradition. The local population of Bucovina was augmented by the influx of tens of thousands of Romanians from northern Transylvania to these fertile valleys of the large rivers with their princely citadels and courts. Upper Moldovian culture has always been provided by folk culture. The exceptional variety of culture corresponds to the widely different environmental conditions: mountains, hills, plains, farmers, forestry, industrialization, pastoral settlements. The historical folk culture was a process more easily noticed and circumscribed than in other provinces. The art of timbering, wood carving and furniture decorated with geometrical motifs, joined wood utensils without nails, peasant handicraft: furniture, pottery, costumes, textiles, were folk art that placed their bearers socially. All Bucovina, with both military glory and brilliance of culture, always had to win each plot of ground, each material or spiritual asset, at the price of continuous and solidary collective efforts. The harmony and balance are inherited from the Bucovina of hospodars, fortresses and monasteries. Defined by monuments of the first magnitude, it is the host of tradition and of past glory. This small multi-cultural land of old Bucovina has dense forests, swamps, meadows, grassy woodlands, exceptionally good pastures, picturesque highlands, hills and mountains, mountain streams, and vails widening out into lush valley meadows. This grey soil was a land blessed by God.

Important crops of flax and hemp were used for spinning and weaving. Hemp fibre was a main source for textile material to make bed linen, towels, and tablecloths. Hemp was plucked out of the fertile ground, then bound in bundles and dried in the sun. About the middle of August when the hemp was dry it was immersed in the river and tied to two wooden poles driven into the river bottom. For two weeks the hemp was submerged in the water, then washed in the river and placed in the open sun to dry by spreading the washed bundles out to bleach. The hemp bundles were hauled home in a wagon, then lined up against the walls of the house for additional drying. The hemp-breaker was used to break the dried hemp stalk to

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separate the fiber from the stalk. After the hemp was “broken”, the hemp bundle was struck against a wooden pole to further separate the fiber from the stalks so that the fiber could be peeled from the bleached and dried stalk. The final step in refining the hemp fiber before it could be spun into fine thread was combing the hemp with a comb. The hemp was ready for processing into a fine fiber which could be spun into hemp thread by hand. The refined hemp was spun either by spinning wheel or a spindle during the slow winter season into yarn. The yarn was then wound from the spool. During the winter months material was woven. From the home-grown hemp, bed linen, tablecloths, towels and underwear were made. From sheep’s wool, blankets and heavy winter clothing were woven. In the spring all the linen, all made out of hemp, were placed into a large vat the day before wash day. A coarse linen cloth was spread over the washing on which a layer of ashes was spread. From a nearby kettle a boiling solution of alkaline and water poured over the ashes in the vat. The hot mixture would seep through the ashes and laundry and drain into a container under the vat. Then the mixture was re-boiled and the same procedure continued for a whole day. (*This was the pre-soak cycle!). The next day the coarse, heavy linen had to be thoroughly beaten on a bench with a wooden beater while soaking wet, to beat the remaining dirt out of it. The procedure of the day before was repeated once more. This process would further bleach the linens.

Hand-pulled home-grown flax straw, after the seeds and heads were removed, were soaked for two weeks in the river where they were anchored with rocks in order to rot the fibres. The flax was then dried and beaten to leave the fibre, which was then carded and racked. This fibre was spun into thread then woven into fabric which was bleached with boiling ash water and shrunk by soaking and drying. Bolts of flax linen were unwound on clean pebbles of clear brooks and left for the sun’s rays to dry and bleach. This process went on for weeks. All seams of the garments made from this linen were handsewn and hemstitched throughout the garments including the hem.

Primitive man gave himself distinguishing identification by means of tattoos, scars, bone piercing, hair cutting and other markings. These markings and mutilations identify the individual as belonging to a tribe or a clan under one cause. Costume was another means of identification and of differentiating one group from another. The sari of India, the plaid of the Scot, the tunic of ancient Rome or the bunita of the Romanian, all identify specific cultures.

Romanian men wear the white tunics and leather sandals which the sculptured reliefs of the Column of Trajan in Rome faithfully depict captive Dacians wearing in the second century A.D. The Romanian men's costume, made of wool, linen, hemp or cotton, use white as the basic colour. The plain coarse linen shirt, which hangs down over the trousers like a workman’s blouse, is worn long like a tunic over a pair of long, tight straight trousers made of home-spun cloth. Men's clothing was designed to be formfitting, and comfort was not regarded as essential. The trousers, which fit rather tightly to the leg, are in summer of linen, and in winter of a coarse white cloth. The men's embroidered side-slit shirt is confined at the waist by a wide woolen belt, or a broad red or black leather belt which contains various receptacles for holding money, pistols, knives, or forks. The shirt is covered with a sheep-skin jacket with the skin side elaborately embroidered and hemmed with the fur of wild animals. The fur is worn inside except during a rain. This is the bunita. An embroidered coat of woolen cloth is worn for winter or a large overcoat from coarse white cloth or a sheep-skin pelisse. Leather moccasins with a turned-up toe, sandals made from an oval-shaped piece of leather drawn together by leather thongs, cover their feet and are fastened by the leather thongs wound around the ankles and lower legs. These shoes are excellent for climbing. In summer a black felt hat with a round crown and medium to wide brim is worn. In winter a fur cap, a lambskin hat, high and pointed, covers the head. There is simple elegance in the men's outfits.

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The women’s costumes are of refined richness. Undoubtedly, the most valuable piece is the white blouse with richly embroidered sleeves and front, blue and black, more often including lively colours and fanciful motifs, namely flowers. The thread pleating around the neck goes back to early Thracian, Illyro-Thracian, sources. The Romanian women considered tight-fitting dresses unseemly and ugly, and dresses that showed the bosom uncomely. There was always ampleness of the clothes. Women’s clothing was to be pretty not comfortable. A skirt and a cover for the skirt – a single piece of material wrapped around the lower body – had pleats that were always vertical and extra big on the upper part of the dress. The straight- falling one-piece folding skirt, gathered at the waist, is austere with vertical stripes, green, golden and yellow upon a black foundation, hemmed with a broad red or blue band. Particularly elegant are the sleeveless jackets, short fleece-lined coats, or fur vests with loose lower parts and rich embroidery, adorned with wild-beast fur. The head is generally covered with a scarf, a brightly coloured kerchief that varies with the different districts. The way a scarf is worn and its colour often indicates the age, social position, and marital status of the wearer. These peasant costumes, worn 19 centuries ago, are still worn by Romanian peasants today. This indicates an ancient and stable community that is dignified and elegant. Authentic pride and consciousness of one’s worth is sometimes proven by the costume pieces that are so noble.

The costume varies with different localities. Each village has its own set of colours and patterns using the blue, scarlet and white in oriental designs. Each village has its traditional motif in embroideries as do each family. The long Turkish domination left ad imprint of ornate orientalism. Designs tended to be geometric, a style handed down from the Thracians. The preponderance of geomatical patterns in Romanian folk-art places it in contrast with that of Western Europe. The ability to use colour effectively is perhaps the one major distinguishing feature in all types of Romanian art. Bucovinian art is characterized by its abstract geometrism. Each region has Romanianized the techniques and decorative models of the East.

Houses are usually painted white. Some are built of wood, others have walls of clay or bricks: while roofs may be made of thatch, shingles, or tiles. The house is surrounded by a yard, which is enclosed by a fence, often elaborately woven from wattle. The yard is entered through a gate, often in the form of an archway, of which the posts are sometimes elaborately carved. The provincial forms of the Bucovinian houses are of Secession style, neo classical style, and baroque style; an extremely elegant example of the power of assimilation. Houses shine cheerfully, with white walls under the grey cap of the shingled roofs, among the green trees of the landscape, with its gently arching lines along the apple tree orchards. The whitewashed walls, over-handing thatched roofs, and terraces surrounded by suburban horticulture are typical in Moldovia. The roof projects over and is supported by wooden pillars at the corners. At the entrance of the yard is usually a beautiful gate with two pillars carved with all kinds of motifs in geometric design. The attractive peasant cottages have wooden fences and doors carved by hand, great decorations in Byzantine designs, flame coloured hangings on their walls, home-spun carpets, and down pillows piled to the ceiling.

There is no chimney and the smoke must find its way out among the rafters. Meat is hung in the attic from the rafters to cure as the smoke finds its way out through the breathers. In Moldovia one often finds a symmetrical house plan with the entrance door in the centre of the house front. The house is single storage and surrounded by narrow raised terrace running around the house. The interior consists of two or three rooms. The walls of the room are lined with wooden benches covered with long woolen rugs. Wall rugs made from hemp and wool are part of every cottage’s decoration. A beam runs above the bed and is used for hanging clothes. They are well ordered-houses. The house is clothed in colours: upon the shining white of the walls, the warm colours of the woollen rugs and chest covers, the lively colours of the ornamental towels, the cheerful rainbow of the enamelled pottery and of the golden-haloed saints in the icons. There

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is one thing that all Romanian homes have in common. They are full of hand painted plates, jugs, pots, bright woven rugs and tablecloths.

Agrarian and pastoral life have generated a rich culture with the varied functions blended with artistic valences. Wall carpet, covers for chests, towels to be hung on walls, embroidery, carved wooden furniture, iron and wooden utensils for the kitchen are a synthesis of the folk art. Near the peasant house there are usually some farm buildings, such as a barn, a shed for livestock, a pigsty, a chicken coop, and a corn crib.

Mamaliga is “corn bread”, Bucovina-style. Mamaliga corn mash, the national dish, is the bread of the Romanian peasant. The Romanian peasant farmers considered mamaliga the gift of God. As long as the poor peasant had mamaliga, he felt safe. Even the corn cob peelings were used as tissue in the outhouse. Now, the daily socialist newspaper is used for this purpose. Romania is an agricultural country. When the harvest fails, the country is poor; when conditions are kind and the grain and fruit are plentiful, the whole country is rich. The underground wealth has never made their peasants who lived above it rich.

Then came hard times for the Romanian land. The rich harvest of the grim reaper of death hit Bucovina many times. In the 1700’s, there was a four-year period without any rain. Since the children of the Romanians are the most favoured people in the country and the best food is reserved for them, the old people were deserted and left to starve to death in a style typical of the Eskimo and North American Indian cultures.

In 1788 there was crop failure. In 1789 there was a serious cattle epidemic. Between 1830 and 1831 there was a scarlet fever epidemic in which many children died. In 1844 cholera raged through. In 1865 and 1866 the country was afflicted with cholera combined with famine. In 1866 a hail storm unloaded hail stones the size of pigeon eggs over the fields, and totally destroyed the crops. The after-growth was later eaten bare by grasshoppers. There was a great famine. There was great poverty. To stretch the flour they ground cobs with the corn. Soup was made of corn meal and field pigweeds. Many cattle had to be slaughtered. They even fed the straw taken from the roof of the granaries. After, a cholera epidemic raged through the land. Many villages had a cholera cemetery. The grape production was greatly affected by an outbreak of phylloxera disease in 1882 to 1884. In 1918 the influenza literally wiped out whole families. This was followed in the spring by the Spanish flu. Ten percent of the population was lost.

The Austro–Hungarian Empire was formed in 1867 and it ruled over the ethnically Romanian province of Bucovina. Transylvania had been annexed to Hungary. Emperor Francis Joseph II, who ruled as absolute monarch, could defy the wishes of all portions of the empire when he decreed all nations under his rule had the right to their own autonomy, and education in their own language in elementary school. The Hungarian Regime, as part of the dual monarchy created in 1867, had been granted broad authority. Its activities intensified the difficulties of life for the Romanians by adding to agricultural exploitation, Magyarization in the schools and civil service, and conversion of the subjected people to Catholicism. Ninety percent of the Romanians were Orthodox.

The brutal policy of colonization on the part of Russia and Austro–Hungary gave Bucovina it's ethnological character. Since Bucovina fell under the rule of the Hapsburg Empire, it came in touch with the forms of Western culture and civilization earlier than the rest of Romania. Among Bucovina population, there were also some Ruthenians and Ukrainians, many of them colonized under the Austrian administration, but who had their own forms of popular culture, coexisting with the Romanian ones. Springing from a country streaked with a variegated population, there was not a province in the Austrian empire in which the people

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deported themselves as in Bucovina. They were noted for their peaceful conduct, acceptance of each other, and respect for each other's rights and privileges. The population was a mixture of many nations. The multicultural province of the Bucovina included Romanians, Ruthenians, Jews, Germans, Huzulens, Slovaks, Polish, and Hungarians.

From these majestic mountains, pageant-like valleys, and picturesque villages came stout-hearted men and women. They were hospitable, great people with a keen sense of humor. They were the slender, healthy women of Bucovina; the very polite, tall, well built youth. The typical Romanian is of medium height with dark hair and eyes, called a “Latin” appearance. In norther Moldovia we find a taller type with fair colouring. Bucovinians are fiercely independent, quick tempered, feared by the other Romanians, the biggest drinkers, the most in corrigible gamblers, the least willing to make any compromise of any of the other Romanians; but the most devoutly religious of the Romanian North Americans. Romanians from Bucovina in Canada and the United States are among the most active members of the Romanian communities. Throughout the eighteenth century agriculture (mainly grain), mining, handicrafts and manufacturing developed. But the condition of the peasantry steadily worsened for the Romanian serfs. The rebels had social and political grievances: they demanded abolition of aristocratic titles and privileges, division of the big estate, equal rights and duties for all the population - a complete upsetting of the feudal order. But instead there were heavy obligations for the peasants in favour of the big landlords. The exclusively land – based system of economy and a rapidly growing population, had produced at impoverished, land less society of peasants. Bucovina, prior to 1914, had been feudal. Generally, the peasantry remained poor, oppressed and exploited. Most of the land was controlled by absentee landlords who monopolized timber resources and dictated timber prices. Land rents and timber prices were unduly high and even gathering kindling was illegal. Because of constant subdivision, farm plots were small (12 to 25 acres). With the addition of high taxation and interest rates, immigration was the only solution to this depressing socio-economic situation. Overpopulation and the continued subdivision of land among sons of large peasant families made for a precarious future. Seeking union with the mother country until 1918 produced large-scale migration of rural Romanians to North America with the hope of escaping from that depressed economic and social position of the rural villages.

Steamship-company agents publicized instructions on how young men could evade military service in the Austro–Hungarian army by emigrating. Austrian authorities were disturbed and uneasy over that impact – a mass exodus of peasants from the country would mean a loss of cheap labour…less soldiers for the Emperor.

Land holdings were continually subdivided and for those with smaller plots this meant a decline in status, decrease in an already precarious income with continuing debt and more borrowing at excessive interest. Other causes of emigration involved agricultural disasters and resultant poverty: shipping declines in the 1890s caused prices of some products to be badly depressed; phylloxera, a plant past, destroyed vineyards; anthrax killed large numbers of sheep; treaties admitted another country’s products at a lower rate; mandatory service in the army during which time they were forbidden to marry; many refused military service in an army of a country which was not their nationality and left to escape such services; many resented the political situation which made them oppressed; seek adventure; join others who had left; some were lured by representatives of companies and labour agencies seeking labourers for railroad gigs at industrial centers. The oppression of the Romanians in Bucovina, Transylvania and Banat had determined

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a trend of emigration of poor peasants to Canada and the United States, where important colonies of Romanians are still to be found today.

This region was heavily forested on the mountain slopes. Having endless forests at hand, the evergreen valleys boasted fir tree forests of beech, oak, ash, spruce and birch. Bucovina produced grain, sugar beets, and livestock, cattle and sheep. The farm crops, cereal greens and fruit included: potatoes, walnuts, chestnuts, corn, rice, oats, barley, flax, wheat, apples, pears, plums, peaches, cherries, grapes, and other berries. Lumber and wood, minerals, salt, and petroleum were also products of Bucovina. Bucovina was the most densely settled province of Romania. In 1913 there were 200 people per square mile and 800,000 people in the whole of Bucovina. In World War I, Bucovina withstood four years of the sweep of Russian and Austrian drives over her territory. After 250 years of Turkish rule, 145 years under Austrian rule, and 50 years under the Austro-Hungarian empire, Bucovina unanimously voted to unite with the kingdom of Romania on 28 November 1918. Greater Romania obtained Bucovina from Austria under the St. Germain Treaty in September 1919. Romania gained control of the whole province of Bucovina on 4 June 1920 through the signing of the Treaty of Trianon near Paris, France. After years of foreign rule in this tiny province, Bucovina, which means “Beechland” by virtue of its beech forest, was 1% Russian, 10% German and Jew, 30% Ruthenian and Ukrainian, and 59% Romanian.

CHAPTER 10 – CANADA!

The climatic conditions in Canada and the policy of the Canadian government to encourage settlement only by those Europeans who had been accustomed to severe winters, accounted for four groups from the Balkan peninsula, which in its hills has a winter severe enough to satisfy the most hardened Canadian. Numerically, the largest group was that of the Romanians. These wide prairies are very like the great plains of South-East Europe. Romania is traditionally a great wheat producing country. The Romanians were peasants whose families had lived on the land for generations. They shared in the great adventure of opening up the Canadian West.

In Canada, after the turn of the 20th century, all the world poured in. The settlement era on the Canadian prairies was almost without parallel in human history. People came by the thousands and the hundreds of thousands, from across the continent or across the globe. Yet, in the space of scarcely a generation, this varied throng turned raw country into farmland and created what almost amounted to a new nation state.

On 7 September 1891, the first Ukrainian immigrants, Ivan Pylypiw and Wasyl Eleniak, landed on Canadian soil at the Montreal port. In 1898 there was an influx of Romanian Jews to Canada. The Romanian Jews do not belong to the Romanian ethnic stock. They have different ethnic, ethos, and religious distinction. Infiltration of Galician and Polish Jews took place from Russia. They migrated to Romania when persecution drove them away.

In 1891 there were 30 Romanians living near Regina. One of the very first Romanian-Orthodox immigrants to set foot in Canada was Nicholae Zora. He came to Saskatchewan in 1894 with his family and his good friend, Ilie Banesco and family, from Bucovina. A change in immigration policy in 1896 saw an ever- increasing number of continental Europeans, especially Eastern Europeans, migrate to Canada. It also marked the rush of the settlement to Saskatchewan and Alberta and lead to their creation as separate provinces in 1905. Immigrants also poured in from the United States.

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The original inhabitants of Western Canada were the various tribes of native peoples who occupied the area thousands of years before the coming of white settlement. These include such groups as the Cree, Saulteaux, Assiniboine, Chipewayan in and Blackfoot on the prairies. Saskatchewan, in Cree, means “swift- flowing water”.

Since Canada was so young in 1881, the Canadian Pacific Railway imported American timbers, German steel, American and Scottish engineers, and thousands of British, Chinese and Russian labourers to do the job. Railway companies continued service expansion, building elegant city hotels, providing express, money order and telegraph service where ever the steel went.

Smaller numbers of Romanian-Orthodox immigrants, mostly Bucovinian, arrived in the 1890s; and most settled in the Dysart region, 52 miles north of Regina. This old Romanian community on the prairies was chosen for the availability of land, water and wood; and to join relatives or friends. St. George Romanian Orthodox Church, built in 1906 in Dysart, is the second oldest Romanian orthodox church in North America. In 1916 there were 107 people in Dysart. There were 26 births registered in 1917 in St. George Church. Boomtown for Dysart was in 1951 with 318 people. In 1972 there were 246 persons living in Dysart.

There are 10 Romanian settlements in Saskatchewan. There are more than 20 Romanian Orthodox parishes in Canada with more than 10 in the prairies. The Windsor community was founded in the early 1900s. In Windsor many Romanians have played an important role in the development of the automobile industry.

It was from Bucovina that the majority of early Romanian immigrants came to Canada between 1900 to 1913, the first wave of immigration. The Romanian settlers who came to Canada before World War I, the Sifton Era, were of peasant stock and came to farm. From 1900 to 1913 they immigrated as solitary individuals, in response to the Canadian Pacific Railway’s request for workers on the construction of new lines; and as members of kin groups which resulted in links in migration between villages and districts in Romania. In 1901 there were 354 Romanians in Canada.

It was from Bucovina most Romanians in Western Canada originate. Saskatchewan was one of the earliest places in North America to which Romanians immigrated. It was to this province the first Romanians in Canada came and where most have remained through four generations. Early settlements were founded at Regina and Dysart. Romanians who farmed in Saskatchewan produced most of the same crops as in the old country; there was one noticeable difference – unlike Romania, there were no vineyards or fruit orchards in Saskatchewan. Wheat was king. By 1908 Regina was Canada’s largest distribution centre for agricultural implements. By 1911 Saskatchewan led all other provinces or states in Canada and the United States in production of wheat. In 1911 the British born population of Regina was 23,383; the foreign-born, 6,830. Germantown, as East Regina was called had a population that was only 50% German. There were 5,883 Romanians in Canada; 1,404 Romanians in Ontario; 2,336 in Saskatchewan; and 1,235 living in Regina in 1911. In Regina in 1911 there are 902 emigrants from Bucovina and 733 from Romania.

In 1912 there were 793 Romanians who arrived in Canada. In 1912, 46,158 immigrants gave Saskatchewan as their intended destination. There were 171 real estate firms in Regina in 1912. In 1978, with a five-fold increase in population, there were only 123. At five o’clock in the evening of Sunday 30 June 1912, death and devastation hit. Twenty eight persons were killed by the Regina cyclone; hundreds were seriously injured; 2,500 were homeless; and 400 buildings, valued at $5 million, were razed. There were 190 deaths by typhoid fever following the cycle.

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From 10,000 farmers in 1900, Saskatchewan grew to some 250,000 farmsteads by 1914. At first, farms were small, often only the 160-acre homestead. Until the railways expanded, most farms tended to be self- sufficient economic units. Later, farming change from self-sufficiency to a market economy; farmers produced and sold crops best suited to the land they tilled, buying their other necessities from the proceeds.

The Canadian government offer of “160 acres of ‘free’ land” appealed to the peasants, and “free farms for millions” encouraged many more.

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The treeless expanses, ready for a plough without clearing, beckoned them. The Romanians left the forests of Bucovina to treeless Saskatchewan, where the provincial tree in this pastoral province is a telephone pole! The government’s “farmers only” admission policy were the bona fide agriculturalist provisions of the Canadian immigration legislation. The Homestead Act provided that a homesteader would receive 160 acres for $10. Homestead duties required that the homesteaders reside on the land six months of each year for three years and have 30 acres under cultivation; if 320 acres were obtained, 160 acres of this was pre-empted for which they promised to pay three dollars an acre. After three years, they could file for title to their land. Most of the immigrants during this first wave were farmers; therefore, their destination was the “Last Best West”.

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Anyone whose ancestors homesteaded in frost-bitten, gumbo-glued, tumble-weeded, wind-swept, dust- laden, loveable central Saskatchewan must have some sturdy and redeeming features.

“They are engaging, these beech–wood folk from Austria; and their loving kindness is like honey to my mouth.” “They are a credit to the country; and by the sweat of their brow, clearing forests, breaking in the soil, improving the land, they have and are still making a contribution to Canada.” Romanians from Bucovina continued on to Regina where they worked on the building of the legislative buildings or the construction of the railway until they accumulated enough money to set up a farm. The Canadian experience for the Romanian immigrants differed from that in the United States because many of the early Romanians arriving in Canada were Bucovinian peasant farmers who settled in the prairie provinces and continued to farm in Canada for decades; unlike the American Romanians who came to the cities to work in factories, and were mostly from Transylvania. The Canadian–Romanian immigrant came to Canada with his family with the intention of staying, while the American – Romanian came alone to make money in the United States then return to his family in Romania.

They went to Canada, the land of immigrants; to Saskatchewan with its one – quarter million square miles; to Regina and its thick, rich, tenacious mud. Regina was the city through which almost all the early immigrants passed on their way to homestead; it was the centre to which they returned for employment; and it is the city to which many have permanently moved. Regina also was a distribution point for Romanians in Saskatchewan. Most Romanians farmed, laboured on the city sewer and water systems, on the Parliament buildings, or owned small businesses. The Romanians dug the sewer and water-main trenches in downtown Scarph-Hamilton area. They laboured on the railway for a long period and toiled for many hours on the homesteads the Canadian government provided them after discerning their desire to live an agrarian lifestyle; they broke virgin soil, cleared stumps, forests and stones, cultivated the land, and sold and harvested crops. Agriculture was in their blood since they were from and raised in an agrarian society. Most of the Romanians who came to Canada were young and had a great desire to make a place for themselves and their families in their own country. They came to Canada to earn enough money to purchase land in Romania, where they intended to return. Although many of them did return to Romania and had their dreams fulfilled, a large number remained in Canada to continue their new way of life on their farms and in the small rural communities.

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In the summertime they were burned by the sun, rained upon by the torrential downpours, and pretty nearly chewed to pieces by the mosquitoes, Saskatchewan’s provincial bird! They spent many hours on lonely gopher-blackfly infested hillsides among the Russian kidnap weed, thistles, and sagebrush. In the old country women would not have thought of wearing a blouse that was not embroidered; but in Canada they were too poor and had no time for fine work. On a bald and boundless Prairie, with biting, wind-driven snow in winter; intense heat and searing winds in summer, they all had a little prairie wool in their hair and a reflection of the golden sunset in their eyes as they bent their backs to the plough. And called this land their own. When our present media have had their fill of glorified women who have been protected and sheltered all of their lives, how will they treat and honour the story of our pioneer women, many of whom survived on their spirit alone.

Why and how did tens of thousands of simple peasant folk remove themselves from their pastoral world and come to settle in North America. It was not only for the money to be made; they were also responding to the promise of self – improvement and of freedom. The glowing accounts of the marvellous prosperity in the New World and promises of work induced the conservative Romanian ploughmen to leave home, to travel farther than ever before in their lives, and to separate from family and friends. The vast majority of Europeans who had come to Canada since 1866 were the victims of social and economic conditions created by wars over which they had no control. Although it was no doubt true of many immigrants from Romania to Canada and the United States, that immigration to North America from the Balkans were abject poverty and a desire to avoid being drafted into an army which their ethnic groups were not involved, as well as for economic reasons. Romanians also came to Saskatchewan because there was no land to be had in Romania. In Canada you were a free man, serving no overlord, being no man’s man but your own, and each master of your own farm. They came to a country where untiring work was rewarded. Freedom was in such a large measure that it was intoxicating. They had found the promised land. “This is the greatest land in the whole world, and don’t you ever forget it.”

Ever–changing boundaries in Europe resulted in emigration, much of which has come to Canada. The boundaries were fluid. (One neighbour had three uncles born in Bucovina, in the same house, in the same bed, but in three different countries. A fellow teacher had a relative who lived in the same house in Bucovina all his life, but under five different flags.) The motives for migrating to the New World are well known: to find economic opportunity, to escape from political and cultural oppression, and to avoid Austro- Hungarian military service. They crossed the Atlantic hoping to find more congenial conditions in Canada. They emigrated because of land hunger, opposition to conscription, letters and reports from friends and relatives in Canada, and the unsteady social conditions in Europe. They crossed mountains and oceans and disappeared into past history. They came to make a better living in a climate of religious and political liberty. The situation in Romania after World War I was confusing; but in Canada their land was cleared, houses built and families established.

The Romanian people, with their rich spiritual heritage, had understandably placed the establishment of their Orthodox faith in this country as their first and most important priority, unlike the American Romanians. Although they attended the Divine Services in other ethnic Orthodox Churches (Ukrainian and Russian), they desired to establish their own Romanian Orthodox Church because the difficulties of language and culture were very real to them. Having a strong desire for a better life through honest work and a pure spiritual faith they would not exchange for anything in the world, they entered the situation and began to establish themselves, even without any educated clergy, and build picturesque wooden churches on the prairies. St. Nicholas, the first Romanian Orthodox Church established in North America, was built

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of local lumber in Regina in 1902. St. George Romanian Orthodox Church in Regina, also constructed of local wood, was built in 1914, and remodelled in 1928 after a fire destroyed part of the edifice. St. George Church is one of the most distinctive Church buildings existing in Canada today. St. George church in Regina is the largest Romanian Orthodox parish in Canada with 400 members and the largest Romanian Orthodox Church on the continent with a seating capacity of 500 people.

Orthodoxy is a fullness of faith; it is a tolerant belief in non–violence and peace, and has much compassion. It is not pragmatic like Protestantism nor is it a militant faith like Catholicism. The Roman Catholic Church has no tradition of compromise, but rather resistance. The social life is centred around the churches. This close association with the church is due partly to the inherent religious sentiment of the Romanians and harshly to the fact that the churches are to them not only places of prayer but community centres where they can get together socially and fraternally. There have been internal splits of the membership, common among Eastern Orthodoxy in the New World, and the Anglicans have benefited. The candles burning in front of the holy icons, the long brocade robes of the priest, the heavy brass candelabra, and the Byzantine liturgy give to the church a mediaeval atmosphere. A characteristic feature in the service of these Transcarpathian churches is the sadness of the hymns. It is hoped that they are not becoming solely a matter of nostalgic remembrances and empty Byzantine churches on the prairies.

Six hundred Regina men were killed in World War I. The Spanish influenza epidemic claimed 300 Regina victims. In the 1918 influenza epidemic there were three funerals a day in North America. In November of 1918 there was a funeral every 15 minutes in Saskatchewan. Four thousand Saskatchewan residents died during the influenza outbreak. Church services, public meetings, and amusements were banned.

… a mighty stream of men, women, and children have been coming to our country. Until the European War the number who were coming each year was increasing at a rapid rate. They came from the ends of the earth and settled in groups in our large cities. About 12 years ago these foreign neighbours began to come, not to live in a city, but to build cities. – “The Foreign Problem in North West Indiana” (1917).

The second wave of Romanian immigration occurred between 1920 and 1929 when most came to labour on the railroad lines. Immigrants came to join relatives and friends who were already established in Canada and were in a position to guide and assist them. These connections between Canada and Romania continued and affected more migration. Many left war-exhausted Romania to join friends and relatives in Canada. That jump in number of Romanians probably represented a desire to leave a war-torn and poor homeland after World War I. There were 13,470 Romanians in Canada in 1921; 5,645 in Saskatchewan; and 944 in Regina. In 1918 there were 53,000 vehicles registered in Saskatchewan. In 1921 there was one vehicle per 12.4 residence, the highest in Canada. Large scale immigration to Canada continued until the beginning of the Depression except for a short pause during the First World War.

In a 1921 Saskatchewan had twice the number of non-British immigrants as British-born with Central European predominating. Saskatchewan had the highest percentage of persons with European origin other than British or French in Canada with 39%. In 1981 the British and French population of Saskatchewan was less than half. “In 1921 the rate of naturalization in Saskatchewan exceeds that of any other province with the exception of Prince Edward Island.” No obligation to take up citizenship was made on these immigrants when they entered Canada.

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These immigrants, most of whom were peasant farmers, did not have an easy time earning a living. They found that they had to accept the hardest work with the longest hours at the lowest pay. They supplied what was needed at that time – their labour. “We built Canada,” exclaimed that immigrants. They realized that even in this promised land moneymaking was not such a rapid process. The reality, as always, was harsher than the dream. They were living in an atmosphere scornful of immigrants in the early 20th century. They would do hard, dirty, dangerous work; and live as cheaply as possible. The problem of acceptance by the host society was prejudiced with your rational antagonism toward those healing from non-English- speaking countries.

There was the fear of reduced wages and fewer employment opportunities for the native born; and that “alien origin” was the “natural mark of inferiority”. They complained that it had never been the intention of the founders of the Dominion to turn this “partly French and partly English country” into a land of refuge for the “scum of all nations”. A Ku Klux Klan chapter at Limerick, Saskatchewan, was established and headed by an Anglican clergyman in order to “Keep Canada British”. There were masses of underprivileged and often poorly educated peasants and agricultural labourers. Th immigrants were considered as “European coolies”, good for back breaking work that no one else wanted to perform. Their toil was steady and uncomplaining versus the uncertain, spasmodic labour of their English-speaking rivals. If a person was Romanian, he was brushed off, treated with indifference or with contempt. Perhaps the feelings of discrimination resulted from that frustration felt by a society faced with absorbing large numbers of poorly educated, non-English speaking immigrants in a short period of time. “Saxon and Slav, Norseman and Celt, all have gifts that have been proven great in the annals of civilization; but sincere cooperation, whether in the New World or in the Old, becomes humanly possible only as men realize the worth of their fellow man.”

In 1928-1929 the world wheat market collapsed. The world financial depression occurred in 1929-1931. After 1929 there was a gradual shift from the drought–stricken prairies to the cities. With drought and the depression of the 1930’s, there was considerable rural-urban migration from the farms to urban areas. Thousands accepted “relief” despite their abhorrence of accepting anything their own work had not earned. By October 1932, 20% of Regina’s population was seeking relief. “Next-year country”, the folk- saying for Saskatchewan, carried pioneers through droughts, blizzards, floods, isolation, wars and depressions.

In 1931, of the 40,322 people from Romania in Canada, 29,056 were ethnic Romanians, with 42% of them belong to the Romanian Orthodox Church, 12,192. There were 16,088 Romanians in rural Canada and 12,968 in urban Canada. There were 8,297 Romanians residing in Ontario and 9,530 in Saskatchewan with 1,279 in Regina; 689 of them in Regina were Romanian Orthodox. Very few Romanian immigrants arrived in Saskatchewan after 1929.

Given a strong back, perseverance, ingenuity and good luck, the individual immigrant could satisfy most of his basic material requirements. Through cooperation, often achieved by close association with his co- nationals, some ethnics could also satisfy their social and cultural needs. Those of Eastern and Central European ancestry tend to group together. Formerly, it was by neighbourhoods in cities; then, and now, into special interest groups. The first-generation immigrants congregated in colonies close to where their fellow nationals from the same region or village lived with an average of five immigrants per village. Their first housing was on city outskirts. This support provided by district and regional compatriots among their neighbours soon overrode local and village loyalties and mitigated feelings of loneliness and alienation. A common folk culture molded the conglomeration into concentrated ethnic settlements based on church

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and club. The “club and church” Romanian remained in that ethnic neighbourhood through the second and third generation and continued to centre their lives on work, ethnic society, and church.

The traditional large families, the social insurance of the day, were disappearing. Fewer children, the acquisition of property, and the willingness of parents to finance the education of the second-generation accounts for their early prosperity. Romanians were more apt to send their children to public schools, thus increasing their exposure to the larger society. Parish schools attached to the Romanian churches were never intended to supplant the public schools, but rather to assist in the retention of the Romanian language and culture without retarding assimilations.

“In education they are not lacking, several of the young folks having won high honours and distinction in schools, colleges and universities. They are loyal citizens, which cannot be disputed, as many of the young men have served and fought in the World War.”

The Romanians’ acceptance of education as a means of upward mobility facilitated their rapid gain of middle-class status. They claimed a higher social position because of their superior education. The foundation of all superiority is intelligence and education. Intellectual cultures are international with more similarities.

Romanian immigrants became bicultural because their working hours were spent in one world that was Canadian and their leisure in another that was Romanian, with family and friends, churches and societies. Here in Canada they had the best of both worlds. Although unskilled labourers were the economic foundation of Romanian communities, some accumulated sufficient capital to become small entrepreneurs – owners of boarding houses, saloons, and pool halls. This petty bourgeoisie saw its sons move into the ranks of skilled labour or become white-collar workers. Economic assimilation was rapid and upward social movement followed economic success. A man’s occupation is the most important index of his social status. It translates natural endowment, upbringing, and education. The Romanians were firmly established in the entrepreneurial middle and professional classes. Most Romanians embraced the capitalist system wholeheartedly in North America. From a socialized Romanian peasant has gradually become a small capitalist.

The immigrants wanted to become rich. They worked to improve themselves economically. The ambition and desire of acquisition of Romanians are so strong that they use all their earning power to accumulate more riches. Romanians are dominated by the idea of money-making and saving for their children and for their old age. Greed for money has been keen and active among the Romanians. Frugality was a practised virtue. The descendants have the same concern in this respect for economy as their forefathers. They chose material comforts over cultural. Money–making came before the betterment of an occupation or the pursuit of a higher education. Liberty is the midpoint between stinginess and extravagance. Romanians prefer eating to reading. They are first carpenters, later poets. Libraries in Romanian clubs are neglected. Here people are isolated in suburban homes, separated from each other by suspicion and preoccupation with financial advancement and job security. There was a lack of time to be involved in church activities because of the need to work hard in the new setting. There was a rigorous schedule of urban life because of society’s demand of their time. The bravado veneer polish of the over-modernized city dwellers.

The Romanians very early began to marry outside the group, even crossing religious boundaries. Inter- marriage seemed to breed, however, a tolerance in the ethnically mixed marriages, for the cultural heritages to which such marriages exposed them, an alloy tended to make Canada a colourful and a

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cohesive nation with cultural diversity. A wedding gift given to a Romanian couple usually amounted to a day’s wages of the guest. Wedding gifts received by the couple usually amounted to two-months’ wages of the groom. The wedding dress and the groom’s outfit usually cost a week’s wages each.

A quality of persistence enabled the Romanian settlers of Saskatchewan to establish themselves, thrive economically, and at the same time maintain a social, cultural and religious existence as Romanians. The Romanian Canadians were hard-working, law-abiding and worthwhile citizens with the majority working the land or as day labourers. Contentment with his lot, devotion to his job, friendliness to his neighbor, a high moral standard and a happy disposition made the Romanian the best kind of citizen that Canada could desire. Industry, energy, fortitude, perseverance, and stubborn endurance have ever been the characteristics of the Romanian race, although they are not enterprising. They had a legitimate desire to prove to Canada that the Romanians were as good and as law-abiding as any other national group. The effect of national pride was in keeping untainted the Romanian name. National pride may also contribute to the lack of delinquency among the Romanian youth. These devout emigres had a devotion to hard work, concern for their children, and a sense of belonging to an ancient people. Romanians respect the traditions and beliefs of others. There is no such thing as a Romanian vote. Most of the Romanian Canadians owned their own houses. The urban ethnic folk is not a naïve folk. They have a humour that only hindsight has given them.

Present day customs of the Romanians in North America are greatly affected by social changes, but in religious forms and customs, the Romanians still clung tenaciously to their traditions. Many of the customs kept alive by the Romanians are of a religious nature. Most belong to the Romanian Orthodox Church. Retaining a spiritual and cultural heritage was a great aptitude in fitting in their adopted country. Perhaps the most striking survival among the old customs of the Romanians was their hospitality. In their unselfish hospitality they were very open and unthreatened. The warm interpersonal relations for which Romanians are so well-known carry on the Romanian tradition of hospitality towards strangers by opening their homes

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and lives, and by sharing the rich cuisine of their homeland. Among the Romanian customs and traditions to survive the longest in North America is the Romanian way of cooking. A typical Romanian-Canadian fare would be “pancove” (biscuits), noodle soup, pork meat with dumplings, dried bean purée, sauerkraut, “sarmale” (cabbage rolls), and chorba (sour soup), along with homemade bread. Romanian women are good housekeepers and their standards of cleanliness are high. Romanian housewives go out of their way to keep their homes painfully clean.

In 1941 they were 24,689 Romanians in Canada with 7,093 in Saskatchewan and 1,279 in Regina. There were 51,992 Canadian servicemen who lost their lives in World War II. After World War II Romanian immigrants were mainly displaced persons who were better educated than the first and second waves of settlers. They included professionals, administrators, office workers, doctors, lawyers, clergymen, scientists and teachers.

In 1961 there are 43,805 Romanians in Canada with Ontario having the largest number of 15,787 and Saskatchewan second with 7,128.

There were 350,000 Romanians who immigrated to the United States and Canada. Now there are 87,000 ethnic Romanians in North America with 160,000 children born of Romanians in North America. There were 45,000 Canadians of Romanian Origin as of 1979, or 1% of Canada’s population, with the largest Romanian community in the Regina area with 7,000 persons and Windsor second with 6,000. Regina has the largest number of people of Romanian descent, 10% of the Romanians in Canada, but only 500 Romanian Orthodox members. One third of the Romanians live in Toronto and 1/6 in Montreal. The people of Romanian origin residing in Saskatchewan are second highest in Canada following Ontario.

Although there has been an intensive process of integration and re-definition of their identity, Romanians have brought to Canada a wealth of folk lore, folk songs and dances of which they are justifiably proud. The art of dancing preceded the art of music and drama. Hebrews used the dance in their religious ceremonies. Egyptians practised the dance incessantly, and the Greeks combined dance with poetry. Dances confirm the yearning of the Romanian people to express their feelings for a meaningful life. Religion, music, poetry, dance, national costume, sculpture and art are a kind of mirror in which are reflected all characteristics of the Romanian people. The Romanians have a historic presence in Canada and are still vitally concerned with the retention of their cultural heritage. While they mix well with others and gladly accept new loyalties, they never forget their ancient Romanian ways, but always remember the country from which they sprang. There is a strong sense of ethnic consciousness as those who specialize in the study of Eastern Europeans have always been aware. Hopefully, much of the heritage of this ancient and hearty Balkan people which transplanted so many of its sons and daughters to the soil of Saskatchewan early in this century, may yet be preserved to nourish the pride and inspire the respect of future generations.

Canadians have not been blended. Our neighbours in the United States are hurrying to make every citizen 100% American like colours blended with a brush on a palette; but in Canada we are bright inlays of separate coloured pieces. The Canadian mosaic versus the American melting pot.

“The lion assimilates the lamb when he eats him.” – Miss Janey Canuck

We have been enriched by our own multi cultural heritage. Saskatchewan is a prairie tapestry with strands from many different cultures. Saskatchewan is the only province in Canada whose majority inhabitants trace their origins to non-British and non-French sources with the largest ethnic group being German, with

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20% of the population of German background and 10% are Germans from Russia. This is distinctly Saskatchewan. Ethnic backgrounds give Canadians an identity of their own and remembers the past.

Next to Russia, Canada is the second largest country in the world. Saskatchewan embraces 160,000,000 acres. It has five regions – from the grasslands of the south up through the Aspen Grove and mixed woodland to the coniferous forests and the subarctic of the North. Much of Saskatchewan is forested, with only 2/5 open plains. Over half of Saskatchewan is forest seamed with rivers. The most northerly part is shifting desert surrounded by boreal forest. The southern half is a rich, agricultural belt – the largest and most productive garden in the world. Wheat is the main crop grown on the prairies, although canola is becoming increasingly important in the northern Parkland. Oats, barley, rye, and flax are grown extensively. Specialty crops such as mustard, buckwheat, safflower, sunflowers, faba beans, field peas, lentils, canary seed, triticale, and corn silage are also grown in smaller quantities. Saskatchewan, the world’s bread basket, also has underground coal, oil and gas, and northern forest resources. The province has over half of the world’s known recoverable potash reserves. Sport fishing is the finest in North America. Saskatchewan is the continent’s most popular breeding ground for migratory birds.

Saskatchewan, the vast north country, most of which is as it was 1000 years ago, abounds with big game, especially deer, moose, elk and caribou. Numberless flocks of feathered game, particularly ducks, geese, prairie chicken, partridge and grouse, may be found in almost any locality. There are hundreds of lakes teaming with fish – pickerel, pike, trout, Arctic grayling. Also included in the prairie fauna are pelicans, sandhill crane, bison, timber wolves and beaver.

We walk, run, snowshoe, ski, ride horses and bicycles, paddle canoes down white-water rivers, or sail serenely on our lakes…reliving our heritage! Saskatchewan has over 200 museums; more museums per capita than anywhere else in Canada – another indication that we are proud of our past.

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PART 20: THE RAILROADS

The Railroads, the Mines, Construction, and Industry

Upon their arrival in Alberta, the Romanian pioneers homesteaded in the area, which they later named Boian Mare, Bojan, Ispas, Suchava and others. After building their first shelters, the bordei, the men set out to earn some money. They would have little cash left after their arduous trip and getting to their new homestead. The wilderness had to be cleared. Trees had to be cut, stumps and roots cleared and huge stones removed. They needed farm implements, oxen or horses, and tools to begin their life in the wilderness. They would have brought a few tools only, like an axe, spade, saw, and a hoe. The women would have brought some seeds for their garden and some to sow for crops.

How sad it must have been leaving their wife and children to fend for themselves. Yet, they must have had hope and the courage to work hard and progress in this new land.

The railways were being built across the province. News came that one could make $1.10 for a ten-hour day. From this great sum, they later learned, that they had to pay fifty cents per day for room and board. This will be told in more detail later. The men walked some many hundreds of miles to get employment.

Some who went to work on the railways included Ion Darda, Tanas Dublitz, Peter Esak Jr., Petre Hauca, George Hauca, Nicolai Hutscal, Nicolai Kelba, Toader Kelba, Andrei Lutic, Gheorghe Perozni, Ion Semeniuk, Condea Skirka, George T. Toma, Gregori Toma.

Peter Esak Jr. left home at about 12 years of age with some older men to work on the railroad. Some Catholic nuns felt sorry for him and asked him to attend school. They supplied him with room and board so he could attend school. He stayed for a time but had to return home to work on the farm.

George Hauca, at 14 years of age, went to work on the railway and the money he earned helped to purchase food for the family.

Bill Harrison (Vasile Harasim) worked for a time in the coal mines of West Virginia before coming to Alberta. He worked in the coal mines in Drumheller and at Burns Packing plant in Edmonton. He was made a foreman because his good knowledge of English made him not to appear as a lowly immigrant. He then moved to Boian.

Ion Hutscal came to Canada t the age of 17. He was hired to work on the C.P.R. He worked near Banff and Kicking Horse Pass. This was the time of the Frank Slide mine disaster. After two years, Ion, who was a very hard worker, learned English and was made a foreman. Quite a change from the pick and shovel. He stayed as a foreman for two more years until he came to join other Romanians at Boian.

George Perozni worked on the railway (extra gangs) at Lethbridge and Calgary. One summer he earned enough to buy a team of horses from a rancher near Cochrane. After paying for them he had two dollars

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left. Once they tried to run off but he hung on and was dragged but did not let go. It took him 17 days to walk the horses home as they were not yet trained.

When Tanas Dublitz arrived in Canada he landed his first job on the C.P.R., Canadian Pacific Railway. He worked near Lethbridge for three years. In his first year a serious fall broke his back. He was kept on the payroll when he stayed in hospital. He learned English and returned to work but then came to homestead at Boian.

Many went to work in the coal mines of southern Alberta.

Floria Axani, upon his arrival in Canada, worked in the eastern provinces but eventually arrived in southern Alberta where he worked in the mines with friends from back home. Labour was unbearable drudgery in hazardous and unsanitary conditions. He worked on his knees in wet and cold quarters. He blamed these early years for his bad health when he homesteaded at Boian and raised a large family there.

Nick Nichifor, uncertain of the future in war-torn Romania, left for Canada in 1920. In 1921 he hitched a ride atop a freight car and travelled to Alberta. He toiled for a few years in the dark coal mines of Drumheller while learning to speak English, and saved his hard-earned wages. He then joined the Romanian settlement at Boian, Alberta.

Many Romanian immigrants came as skilled carpenters. Elie Ravliuk, one of the first settlers, was contracted to build the Boian Romanian Orthodox church.

Ion Dard, a talented carpenter, helped to build much of the town of Hairy Hill including the Co-op store, the railroad station, lumber yard and many others. Toader Bidulock worked on the railroad and helped to build the High Level Bridge in Edmonton with other Romanians from Boian.

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Railroad Labour

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Between 1900 and 1918 over 20,000 miles of railways were laid down in Canada. In Alberta alone 4,657 miles were built between 1900 and 1930. Working conditions on the railroads were deplorable. In 1912 a foreign consul, with personal knowledge of conditions in Europe and South America, stated that he knew "of no other country where the rights of workmen have been so flagrantly abused as on railway construction in Canada." According to official statistics, 3,667 employees were killed on railroad construction and another 41,272 were injured, between 1901 and 1918 in Canada. Through these years most issues of Ukrainian-Canadian newspapers carried news items about Ukrainian immigrants who had been killed on railroad construction.

Those who worked as navvies had to endure intolerable working conditions and irregular, exploitative wages. The average working day lasted 10 to 12 hours at 15¢ to 20¢ an hour, although it was not unusual for navies to work 16, 18 and even 20 hours a day when a contract had to be completed. Most navies earned $1.75 to $2 daily, except when inclement weather prevented work. In the summer their diet could consist of little more than half raw, inedible bread, beans and hard cheese since their meat supply frequently rotted while in transit or storage. It should also be noted that $4.50 was deducted weekly for food and lodging and an additional $1.25 was deducted monthly for medical services which were rarely provided. When one considers that most navvies were already indebted before they started working, as a result of advances given to them for transportation fare to the construction site and for the purchase of proper clothing and equipment, it becomes obvious that even after three or four months of work many navvies were left with almost no net wages. After nine months of work and travel in search of work, many navvies had less than $200 to show for their efforts.

Ukrainian settlers performed a variety of tasks on railroad construction. They were "put to work removing old ties from the railroad and replacing them with new ones. In a day’s work a man was expected to replace 20 ties and nail the rails down with four spikes on each end of the new tie." They worked in city railroad yard changing rails to a heavier gauge or helping to level the yard and lay tracks. They helped expand mountain tunnels by hauling and dumping gravel, they formed advance parties clearing bush for wagon trails, and they worked with shovels, grub-hoes and barrows building road-beds on which track was to be laid. From Martynowych, Orest T. The Ukrainian Bloc Settlement in East Central Alberta, 1890-1930: A History. Occasional Paper No. 10, 1985 (1990).

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Working on the Railroad for the Last Time

In the spring of 1902, I left once again to a job on the railroad. I reported to the C.P.R. office in Strathcona where they gave me a pass to Calgary where I would be advised of a job. The Calgary office told me there was an opening for a section hand in Banff, a resort town, in the Rocky Mountains some 80 miles west of Calgary on the mainline. Early next day I was in Banff reporting to the section foreman, a robust Swede named Johnsson. There were two young Ukrainians working for him already: Anton Turta and Andrew Pidhirney, both from the Rabbit Hill settlement a few miles south west of Strathcona. The three of us lived in a small shack near the foreman’s house that in turn was in view of the railway station. Once again, we engaged in a batching situation so as to save as much of our earnings as we could. Wood was plentiful and there was lots of pure spring mountain water. That was perhaps why our food tasted so good. Only a thirsting person can fully appreciate how refreshing a drink of cold mountain spring water can be. We baked our own bread and our daily menu was quite simple. For breakfast we had rolled oats porridge with milk which was made by diluting a teaspoon of condensed milk in a cup of water which barely tinted the water a pale white. For lunch and supper, we prepared beans with pork, sometimes for a change we had corned beef, potatoes and for a real treat we used to catch trout in the Bow River. The trout provided us with delicious inexpensive eating. The three of us got along very well and our friendship continued for many years.

Our pay was 15 cents an hour or $1.50 for a ten-hour day. The job was maintaining the tracks, which required the replacing of rotting ties with new ones, tamping them in solid and then bringing up the low

356 spots to the required level. Much hard work was involved with all this. We also did all the maintenance work around the station. Banff was already world-renowned for its beauty and healing mineral springs. During the summer months special trains brought tourists and holidayers from eastern Canada and the United States. The visitors lived in these sidetracked coaches and horse drawn carriages took them to the cave and swimming pool or for sightseeing. Many simply just walked the distance. On Sundays the three of us packed lunches and walked up high on Sulphur Mountain, someplace in the area of the present Upper Hot Springs. Here among the pine trees the spring flowed out and formed a sort of basin in which four people could comfortably immerse. We used to spend hours soaking ourselves in this natural basin. The pine scented air and soothing feeling of the hot water had a most relaxing and invigorating effect and this alone made our stay in Banff a most memorable one. It sort of compensated for the difficult situations connected with work on the railway. Quite often we worked in cuts along a mountainside with solid rock on both sides. On hot days these areas became unbearably hot. Sweat poured down our bodies and filled the shoes to overflowing. Just being in such an area made you perspire, never mind any exertion. Our foreman was quite lenient and he told us to take it easy under such conditions. Nevertheless, we did what had to be done to keep the tracks in top-notch condition. Then as the sun sank beyond the mountains, the cool breezes coming off the glaciers and snow-capped mountains and the ice-cold water in the Bow River quickly cooled the magnificent valley to the freezing point later in the evening. Quite often snowflakes flitted down.

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