This is an extract from “Theodore and District History”, (c) Theodore Historical Society, published in 1987.
Peter and Aksana’s son Fred is my grandfather.
OSTAPOVITCH, Peter and Aksana
Prior to emigrating to Canada, Peter and his family resided in Pohorloutz, a village close to the city of Czernowitz in Bukowina, Austria. Peter was born in 1845, served in the Austrian army and was decorated for valor in serving his country. Army services were compulsory for all healthy males at age 21 for a three-year minimum period, and marriage during this term was not permissable. Peter’s fiancee died while he was in the army and her younger sister Aksana Kolebaba, born in 1856, later became his bride at age 14.
They lived in the village under a feudal system and Peter farmed a strip of land with his two brothers. Peter and Aksana were raising five children in Austria, four daughters and one son. Several sons had died in infancy or childhood.
In 1901, responding to the Canadian Immigration campaign of a promised land, Peter and his brother Elash, along with many other Ukrainians, brought their families to Canada. Their brother Wasyl had preceded them in 1900, eventually settling in the Edmore area. Peter’s aging mother and Aksana’s living sister remained in Bukowina.
Travelling with them on the same ship were the senior Dumanski and Fred Minken families. Their journey by rail from the east coast ended in central Canada, the North West Territories.
Peter and his family settled in the present Theodore district; his brother Elash eventually located in the Sheho area.
At the time of this major uprooting in May 1901, Peter was 56, Aksana 44 and six months pregnant, their three youngest children Annie, Katherine and Fred, aged five, fourteen, and fifteen respectively. Their two oldest daughters and their husbands, Mary and Nick Gerla and Wasylena and Nick Chernipeski obtained land adjoining their parents. The three homestead quarters were in 20-28-7-W2. Peter had the NW quarter.
On arrival, they lived in a hut on the Baziuk farm. This was a temporary haven offered by this family to new settlers in this area, permitting them time to build on their own land.
Fred, their only son, born August 11, 1885, had no skill in building. As a young lad in Bukowina, he tended the sheep and did not attend school. His parents gave the truant officer one rooster so his absence was never reported. Now, having landed in this new country, he was given twenty-five cents and sent out to find work, as money was needed for their livelihood. At age fifteen, having no knowledge of English and unable to read or write in any language, this seemed almost too much to bear.
In later years he periodically recalled his thirty mile walk on the trail to the nearest town, Yorkton, where he met an established settler from the new Theodore district. He negotiated a loan and a delivery of groceries to his family. Then proceeding along the railroad track towards Manitoba, he came to a bridge over a river, and gazing into its depths, contemplated how easy it would be to end it all. All of a sudden he heard a train whistle and ran for his life. His journey ended in the Assinaboine Valley when he was hired by an English speaking farmer near Brandon. Fred learned to speak English while working for this family.
He returned for the winter to the home built by his parents – a mud plastered log house with a log ceiling and thatched roof. He presented his earnings to his parents and met the new baby born in August – his brother John. As the primary wage earner for the family, Fred continued this work pattern for the next four years until his marriage in 1906.
Wasylena and her husband Nick Chernipeski were comparatively wealthy and could employ skilled workmen to build their house. Since the two homesteads adjoined, it was built near the parental home. For many years mother and daughter visited back and forth using a foot path, assisting and supporting each other through hardships. With a husband unaccustomed to work, two stepdaughters, three children and expecting a fourth, Wasylena was fully occupied managing her household.
Mary, age twenty-one and her husband, Nick Gerla, had no children at this time and assisted their parents the first year before moving into their own home one mile away. Nick had mastered the craft of hard hat making out of wheat straw in the old country and continued his handicraft after his first wheat crops in the new land. He also grew his own pipe tobacco and became the best vodka maker in the district.
Grandfather Peter diligently worked his land with a pair of oxen purchased from Mrs. Frederickson (Carl’s mother). A new two storey house with a leanto kitchen and shingled roof was erected around 1910 built by Nick Hutzul. Horses were introduced but Peter loved his oxen, and when the oxen were sold he retired from active farming. By this time he had ninety acres of land under tillage; the two daughters were married – Katherine Maleschuk and Annie Kreklewetz, and only the youngest son John remained at home.
Life became easier for Aksana as she now had more of her husband’s assistance in the garden, the hen house, the milking and household tasks.
Family ties were developed and strengthened when annually, on Ukrainian Easter Sunday, throughout their lifetime on this farm they hosted a gathering of their clan. It was an event to look forward to – for adults and children. The initial family group of sixteen grew to over 50 during this period.
Peter lived to age 75 – a quiet, gentle man, very camera shy, needing no fanfare.
Aksana lived to age 85. Becoming more aggressive following her husband’s death, she continued to live on the farm with her son John and his family, and later alone. She became troubled with frequent buzzing noises in her head which she described as angels like bees singing to her. Her family felt she was hallucinating. Several years later her son Fred discovered a “honey” mine between the ceiling and second floor of her home. Bees had lived there for some years. Aksana had a good chuckle over this discovery and was greatly relieved – her sanity was no longer questioned.
Her last four years she spent living with Fred and his family, occupying a cottage located near their home. She enjoyed peace of mind, good health, and the attention of Fred’s wife and young daughters until her death following a stroke in the fall of 1941.
Her homestead farm remained in the family, now owned and farmed by her grandson Frederic, son of Fred.