This is an extract from “Theodore and District History”, (c) Theodore Historical Society, published in 1987.
Martsia’s daughter Rose is my grandmother.
Martsia Kitzel family
Martsia Kitzul lived in Valiova, Bukowina with her husband and children – five sons and one daughter. They farmed their own land inherited from Martsia’s parents. The children attended school and Martsia had a household maid.
Martsia Kitzul — 1920.
When her husband died, Martsia continued to farm the land with her sons. Knowing the farm would not support five families when all her sons married, she sold her property and came to Canada with her family in the fall of 1900. John, the oldest son, and his wife Kalina remained in Bukowina to follow later.
Martsia, age 45, was accompanied by her daughter Rose, age 11, sons Dmetro 14, Prokop 18, Lazor 21, and Jacob 24 with his wife Katherine.
Surviving a grueling boat journey they arrived by CPR train to Yorkton, North West Territories. They purchased two oxen and a wagon and proceeded west, settling on her homestead in the present Theodore district – NE 1/4 14-28-8 W2. They lived in a hut on the Baziuk farm until they built a temporary shelter.
The sons then built her home – a mud-plastered log house with a thatched roof and veranda overhang, an entrance hall, two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and cellar. Martsia was not accustomed to physical labor; she was skilled in the art of spinning and weaving wool and linen fabrics for the family. She had her daughter Rose and Jacob’s wife Katherine to assist her in the initial years, while her sons worked on clearing and cultivating the land.
John, his wife Kalina (nee Homeniuk) and two children Raefta (Rosie) age two and Metro aged six months left Bukowina and joined his mother in April 1902. Her family all lived together for a year.
The following year 1903, the two oldest sons left this home and the Theodore district and settled on their own homesteads. Lazor left the district in 1905. Rose, the youngest and only daughter, born July 6, 1889, left her mother’s home in 1906 when she married Fred Ostapovitch. They remained in the Theodore district for their lifetime, raising thirteen children on their homestead farm 3/2 miles away.
Martsia was now alone with her two single sons Prokop and Dmetro, but not for long.
Prokop married Lakaria Kirstiuk, a sister of Reverend Dmetro Kirstiuk. Although Prokop had purchased a homestead NE 1/4 22-28-8 W2, he and his wife lived with Martsia. They had four children born on his mother’s homestead. Mary, born January 1909, Katie, a son who died in the flu epidemic, and William born in 1919. Prokop’s wife deserted him and the three children.
In the meantime Dmetro had his homestead land in the Ituna district. With Prokop’s help they had a similar but larger home built on this homestead and Dmetro then married Helen Kucharevy.
Prokop, his three children and his mother moved to the Ituna district in 1919-20 and lived with Dmetro and his family.
The mother Martsia, in failing health at the time of moving from her Theodore district home, died at Dmetro’s home in December 1922 at age 67 – a quiet, gentle lady. She was interred in the Greek Orthodox cemetery in the Edmore district.
John and Kalina moved to the present Edmore district with their two children and had four more children while he resided there – Steve, Mary, Peter, and John. John, the father, died January 28, 1941.
Jacob and Katherine also moved to a homestead in the present Edmore district and raised seven children on their farm – Mary, George, Lena, Edna, Anne, Nick, and Lillian. Jacob lived to age 86.
Lazor married Celia Pasichnyk, the daughter of Mary and John, in Feburary 1905 and settled on his homestead in the present Sheho district. They raised two sons and five daughters – Mary, John, Kay, Rose, Willie, Belle, and Jean. They lost two other sons at six weeks and two years of age. Lazor lived to age 96.
Dmetro and his wife Helen farmed on a large scale in the Ituna district. They had nine children – Bill, Steve, Mary, Eva, John, Metro, Alec, Mike, and Rose. Dmetro lived to age 87.
Prokop, a big heavy set man, was a regular visitor at the home of his sister Rose and family. Unable to purchase shirts large enough to fit him, he brought the fabric and while his sister sewed his shirts, he helped the children with chores and amused them with fairy tales. He always had candy for the children wherever he went.
Prokop and his children worked for Dmetro until his daughters married and his son Bill left in 1939. Prokop left the farm in 1940 and worked in the Chrysler plant in Windsor for 21 years. He retired in 1961 at age 79 and lived with his daughter Katie Yaschuk in Chatham, Ontario until his death in 1964 at age 82.
Prokop’s daughter Mary married a farmer, Alexander Danyluik in 1930. They had three daughters and three sons and are now residing in the Birkdale area, five miles from Foam Lake. .
Katie and her husband Bill Yaschuk lived on her father’s farm in the Ituna district, then moved to Chatham where they now reside. They had two children, a son and a daughter.
William (Bill) went east in 1939 to look for work. He was in the armed services and married Nellie Markowski from Ituna. At the end of the war he started a scrap iron business in Chatham. They had five children – three sons and two daughters.