HUSKA, Roman (1868-1957)

Roman Huska

The Huskas/Martyniuks of Norquay: A Family History and Genealogy

 

Halifax, Nova Scotia – 27 May 1903

On an early spring morning, Wednesday, 27 May 1903, with fresh southerly and southeasterly winds promising unsettled weather,ⁱ the German passenger liner, S.S. Bulgaria,ⁱⁱ of the Hamburg American Line entered Halifax harbor.  The huge twin screw, two-masted steamer had left Hamburg, Germany, twelve days before in the early morning, Friday, 15 May.  Its 2,899-passenger cargo ⁱⁱⁱ – almost all were immigrants to Canada – was the largest number brought across the Atlantic in one boat on a single trip^iv.  After a brief stop on the same day at Boulogne-sur-Mer, south of Calais on the French side of the Straight of Dover, the liner struck out across the Atlantic, bound for Halifax.   On 20 May, the fifth day out, she experienced engine trouble and had to “lay to” for four hours while the ship’s engineers repaired her leaking boilers.^v   Other than that the voyage was relatively uneventful.  [Insert S.S Bulgaria picture.]  “The Bulgaria met with good weather all the run across, except Monday night, 25 May, when a heavy sea was met with that tossed the steamer about, much to the discomfiture of her human freight.”^vi   The big liner had actually arrived outside Halifax harbor at 10 o’clock the previous night because of the delay caused by the engine problem.  Due to the lateness, the fog conditions and the narrow entrance into Halifax harbor, the ship’s master, Captain Russ decided to lay to till morning.  At 4 o’clock on Wednesday morning, a harbor pilot boat led the Bulgaria into the harbor to the quarantine area where she docked at 5 o’clock.^vii  Dr. McKay, the port physician, went on board with his team to inspect the ship. The vessel was given a clean bill of health and at 9:15 a.m., she proceeded to Pier 2, the Deep-Water Terminus,^viii where the Department of the Interior’s immigration branch officials were waiting to begin processing the immigrants.  

Although the S.S. Bulgaria was a German ship, its passengers were essentially nationals from the two easternmost provinces^ix of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Galicia^x and Bukovyna .  It arrived carrying one more “soul” than when it had left Hamburg.  As testament to the young families, the ship’s manifest recorded four births.  And as testaments to the general state of health of the bulk of the passengers or to the questionable sanitary conditions on board, three of the passengers were listed as “died at sea”, all of whom were children.  Although there were three classes of passage available, nearly all of the passengers had booked third class, contemptuously referred to as steerage.^xi

Twelve days prior, at the port of embarkation in the early Hamburg morning light, the ship’s crew led the immigrants, who had arrived at Hamburg by train days earlier, on board the Bulgaria to their steerage accommodations.  They were taken down into the hold to the sleeping quarters – three large dormitories.  The passengers were divided into three groups: families, bachelor men, and bachelor women.  Each group was assigned to its own dorm.  The family groups were given the middle dorm, the single men off to one side and the single women off to the other side.  The family dorm effectively separated the single men from the single women.  In each instance, a rather wide – perhaps, eight feet – corridor separated the men’s dorm from the family dorm, and the women’s dorm from the family dorm.  The iron berths (bunks) were tiered with a space of 2 ½ feet between each, allowing a passenger to sit up carefully in his berth and not bang his head on the one above.  Each berth was equipped with a mattress and a pillow, which were filled with straw or seaweed.  Either gingham or coarse white canvas covered the mattress and pillow.  Invariably, the single blanket was inadequate in size and weight, even in summertime.  More often than not, the passengers had to sleep almost fully clothed to keep warm.  In many cases, the emigrants brought their own bedding with them, i.e., perennas (feather bedding). There was no closet space and no hooks for hanging clothing. 

The steerage quarters were without a separate dining room.  Instead makeshift dining areas were set up in the two corridors separating the dorms.  The table consisted of plain boards set on wooden trestles, which ran the length of the corridor.  And rough wooden benches, also extending the length of the corridor, provided the seating. In this cramped space, it was not possible to have all the steerage passengers seated at the same time.  It was necessary then, to eat in shifts or to obtain one’s rations and eat elsewhere, probably at one’s berth or if possible – but highly unlikely – up on deck.  [Insert dining room picture.]  The passengers were supplied with eating utensils at the outset, which were kept by them for the duration of the voyage.  When not being used, the utensils were stored in the berths along with everything else.  The stewards served the food.  The passengers passed single file before the servers who doled out the meal rations onto the extended plates and bowls.  After the meal was over, the passenger, if he wished, washed his own plate and eating utensils and stowed them in his berth until the next meal.  The dishes, if washed at all, were washed in the washrooms, each of which was equipped with a single warm-water faucet that had to serve everyone.  The quality of the food was daunting.  Leftovers from the second class galley (kitchen), where the food was of high quality, were served, but this was but a fraction of the food required for such a large number.  The steerage galley, on the other hand, wretchedly prepared the usual fare of meat and potatoes.  The bread was scarcely edible and very often was simply tossed into the sea by the passengers.  The coffee was bad, but the tea was passable, barely.  Fruits and vegetables were passed their prime and, therefore, of inferior quality.  However, there was one redeeming note in the food served.  Milk was provided for the small children.  Many passengers had been forewarned, possibly by the recruitment agents or by other immigrants who had preceded them and who had corresponded with them, and as a result, brought their own food.  Others, among the steerage passengers, who had the financial where-with-all, supplemented their diet with food purchases from the ship’s canteen or from the stewards.  This supplementary food was generally consumed in the dorms.  

There were separate washrooms and closet lavatories (toilets) for men and for women.  The washrooms were very small and the number of basins was inadequate for the number of passengers.  Washing was done with cold salt water, and as previously mentioned, a single faucet of warm water made do for the entire washroom.  Soap and towels were not furnished, but could be purchased from a steward or from the canteen.  The infrequent attention of the stewards to the upkeep of these facilities resulted in unsanitary conditions, particularly in the lavatories where the chronic “dampness” of the floors made them somewhat unsavory.  

Added to these miseries was the issue of ventilation.  Two 12-inch ventilator shafts were supposed to be in place for each 50 passengers in every steerage quarters’ room.  But the ship’s design failed to meet this requirement, resulting in inadequate ventilation with the concomitant bad air (oxygen-deprived).  In the instance of the Bulgaria, a bad situation was made worse due to the overcrowding in the steerage facilities.  In many cases, persons already weaken by seasickness just lay in their berths in a kind of stupor due to breathing the oxygen-depleted air in the dorm.  Relief from the foul air could be found up on deck, but the amount of deck space allocated to steerage was very limited.  Only a small number could be on deck at any given time.  There were times when those seeking relief from the foul air down below would fill the steerage open deck space long before sun-up.  As a result, the other passengers were forced to spend most of the day down in the dorms whiling away the time.

An infirmary, a small medical facility, was provided for the treatment of ill passengers.  It was equipped with a washbasin and a latrine closet, along with requisite medical implements, bandages, and medicines.  However, most ailments the passengers experienced did not qualify for treatment in the infirmary.  For example, the most common ailment, seasickness, from which a large percentage of the passengers suffered, did not qualify.  Therefore, passengers beset by seasickness were confined to their berths.  As a result, vomit of the retching seasick was deposited on the dorm and washroom floors.  Its stench was added to the already foul condition of the air.   

In the hold – and to a degree on deck – the passengers engaged in diversions that helped to pass the days at sea.  There was the invariable card playing, playing of musical instruments, singing, storytelling and endless conversation, and the occasional imbibing of homemade vodka and wine. 

The immigrants demonstrated amazing fortitude in the face of these appalling conditions.  The ship’s crew was not meeting the steerage passengers’ basic needs of clean air, wholesome food, undisturbed and restful sleep, privacy and access to medical attention.  Undoubtedly, this was largely so because the small crew of 150 was not adequate to handle the needs of 2,899 passengers.  The reason for understaffing the ship and the abysmal steerage conditions was the desire of the steam ship company to maximize its profits at the expense of the passengers.  

Throughout the entire voyage, the stewards ignored the clutter and the filth in the dorms, particularly in the washrooms and the lavatory closets. Whatever cleaning was done was done by the passengers themselves.  However, on the last day before entry into Halifax harbor, the stewards cleaned the floors and neatly arranged things in preparation for the port inspection at the quarantine dock.^xii 

Among the steerage passengers that looked out at the shores of their new land with tired eyes on that sunny spring morning were 35-year old Roman Huska (Роман Гуска),^xiii his wife, Paraska (Параска), age 25, and their two small sons, John (Іван) and Dmytro (Дмитро), ages three and one, respectively. The ship’s manifest listed Roman as a farmer of Austrian nationality and Dauphin, Manitoba, as the family’s final Canadian destination.  Accompanying them were two young men listed as laborers, George Martyniuk (Юрко Мартинюк), age 17, Paraska’s younger brother, and Roman’s nephew, John Romashenko (Іван Ромашенко), age 21.  John had reluctantly left behind his widowed mother, Salameya (Саламея), who was Roman’s oldest sister, and John’s two sisters, Lena (Василина) and Maria (Марія) also known as Martha. The feelings of the new arrivals, no doubt, were mixed to say the least.  Relief – that the exceedingly stressful ocean voyage was over.  They had been subjected to seasickness during the crossing.  Anticipation and excitement – at the prospect of establishing themselves in a land of opportunities.  Apprehension – as to the unknown trials and hardships still ahead.  And profound grief – at the death at sea of Roman and Paraska’s first born, their six-year old son, Michael (Mykhailo – Михайло).   S.S. Bulgaria had embarked from Hamburg on 15 May, and the ship’s manifest showed Mykhailo’s death to have occurred the very next day, 16 May – in fact, on Dmytro’s first birthday.  The exact cause of his death was unknown.  All that Roman and Paraska knew was that their first born was ill at the time of embarkation.  Whether he first took sick back in the home village, Babyntsi (Бабинці), or on the long train journey to Hamburg or in that seaport’s “Emigration City,”^xiv we shall never know. Shortly after the ship set sail, he died.  And as was the custom in those times, Mykhailo was buried at sea.

“The main deck and two lower decks were swarming with immigrants.  Men, women and children were grouped with their worldly belongings, squatting on the decks chattering merrily.  Others were hanging over the side rails, and more had their heads protruding from the portholes.   The steamer was a mass of humanity.”^xv  With mounting excitement, tinged with understandable anxiety, the immigrants, including George and John, together with Roman and Paraska carrying their two small sons were led down the gangway onto the dock.  [Insert passengers at the dock picture.]  The immigrants made quite a picture to those who waited on the dock.  The “Slavic women with no finery except their homespun, rough, tough, and clean…carrying upon their backs feather beds [parennas] and household utensils.  Their men accompanied them in the picturesque garb of their native villages.”^xvi  In each adult immigrant’s hands was the required documentation: ship’s ticket, passport, bill of lading and train ticket vouchers.

Many were taken to the giant examination hall at dockside for processing.  However, “the immigration building could not accommodate all the immigrants.  A very large number were crowded on the piers in the vicinity, awaiting their turn to be examined and to get their railway tickets.”^xvii Immigration officers quickly examined the physical condition of the immigrants. The medical inspection was cursory, perhaps, because of the great numbers involved and because the officials were aware that the immigrants had received other medical inspections before boarding the Bulgaria at Hamburg.  Nevertheless, the officials were thorough in their search for trachoma.^xviii  Any immigrant infected with trachoma, or in any other way was physically impaired, was refused admittance into Canada and deported to the point of embarkation,^xix in this case, Hamburg.  The immigrants were well aware and very apprehensive of this dire prospect.  After the medical inspection came the interrogation.  With the help of interpreters, the officials questioned the immigrants about their occupations and their intentions in coming to Canada.  They were asked to show the money that they had brought with them.  The official government policy was to not allow indigents into Canada as immigrants.  In order to gain admittance into Canada, an adult immigrant was supposed to have at least $100 on his person.  Although Roman had only $30 registered to his name in the ship’s manifest, John had less at $16, and George had the least at $4.60, they were allowed to disembark. ^xx

Finally, they were taken to the Halifax Immigration Hall^xxi for a few hours rest, in preparation for the next leg in their journey to the West.

The Journey West

[Insert Map 1]  Leaving Halifax, during the latter part of May, on board an Intercontinental Railway train, the family group traveled to Montreal.  In Montreal, they transferred to a CPR train and set out in a Colonist Car^xxii for Winnipeg.  They arrived in Winnipeg between 6 June and 9 June.^xxiii After a brief stopover at either the immigration hall in Winnipeg, but more likely the one in Selkirk, they continued on to Portage La Prairie, also by CPR. 

Roman, Paraska, George and John said little if anything to their children or grandchildren about their train journey from Halifax or if they did, it has been forgotten.  Nonetheless, we know what kinds of accommodations were provided for the family based on the experiences of other Galician immigrants arriving in Canada around the same time. Certainly the special immigrant coaches did not provide the same degree of sleeping comfort that Pullmans offered, but for people who did not have extra cash, the “Colonist” cars, generally were appreciated.  Those who had three dollars to spare could purchase an “outfit,” consisting of pillow, blanket, mattress, curtains, etc. from an employee of the railway, the “newsy” (newsboy), at the start of the rail journey.  But for others, the perennas made the “outfit” unnecessary.  [Insert colonist car picture]   Although meals were readily available in the dining car, most immigrants found the menu prices prohibitive.  Consequently, they prepared their own meals in the day coaches using whatever food they had brought with them or had purchased at train stops.  The train trip from Montreal to Winnipeg was extremely tiring.  And it was with great relief that they were able to detrain and rest up for a few of days in the Immigration Hall before resuming their journey westward.  After a short run from Winnipeg to Portage La Prairie, the family transferred to a different railway carrier, the CNR (Canadian Northern Railway), and covered the final distance to Grandview, Manitoba.  There to the great joy of all, Paraska’s uncle, Kyrylo (Karl) Lukey (Кирило Лукій)^xxiv, and family welcomed them.  It was now early June^xxv, about a week since their arrival in Halifax.

The First Homestead

 Kyrylo, b. 1849, and his wife Maria (Марія) came to Canada from Babyntsi, Galicia, in 1900 where he had been the village reeve or mayor (війтом),^xxvi together with three of their children, Wasylyna (Васйлйна) (b.1884), Simon (Семен) (b.1885), and Andrew (Андрай) (b.1892).  Their oldest child, Peter (Петро) (b. 1876), had immigrated to Canada earlier, in 1898.  It was Peter’s letters to his parents back in Babyntsi extolling the virtues of Canada that convinced them to seek a better life in Canada.  They settled on SE22-27-23-W1,^xxvii near Venlaw, north of Gilbert Plains, Manitoba.^xxviii  And like most other immigrants, who had arrived in Canada, they had maintained contact with their relatives back in Babyntsi, which included Paraska and Roman.  Although there were other Huskas settled in the Dauphin region, who were also from Babyntsi, it was Kyrylo and Maria who sponsored Roman, Paraska, George, and John. Because of the untenable conditions of their lives in Babyntsi and the favorable reports they had received by letter from the Lukeys in Venlaw^xxix, Roman and Paraska decided to join the flood of emigrants leaving Galicia in search of greener pastures in western Canada.  The plan was that all would stay with the Lukeys until such time that the newcomers could establish themselves sufficiently to go it on their own.  The 18 feet by 26 feet^xxx Lukey log house, typical of homesteaders’ residences, must have been extremely crowded with the addition of four adults and two small children to its confines.  

Although a few settlers had taken out homesteads earlier, the great immigration swell did not arrive until after the completion of the Canadian Northern rail line to Grandview in December 1896.  The Lukeys were part of that swell.  The settlers continued to arrive in great numbers, occupying almost all the available land by the time that Roman and Paraska and the two young men arrived.  The homesteads near the Lukeys were all taken.  In fact, when the Lukeys arrived in 1900, the best land had already been taken.  No doubt, this lead to hesitation on Kyrylo’s part to take out a homestead entry immediately.  Instead the Lukey family squatted on what was the best quarter of a bad lot.  However, under pressure from the local land office, Kyrylo filed his Entry for Homestead on June 21, 1901.^xxxi  

Although there was no opportunity for Roman, George, and John to homestead near the Lukeys, there still were some quarter sections of land available west of Grandview adjacent to the Valley River Indian Reserve, which is a considerable distance from Venlaw today at 63.3 km (39.3 miles)^xxxii by road.  In order to relieve the pressure that their presence placed on the Lukey family’s cramped quarters, Roman, in some haste, picked out an available quarter through which the Valley River flowed^xxxiii and filed a homestead entry with the local land agent in Dauphin.  The men erected a small house on the banks of the river using local materials such as poplar logs, clay, wild hay for thatch, and sod.  Then, because the small amount of money that they had brought with them was all but gone, Roman, George and John went out to work as hired hands in the fields of established farmers.  This was necessary because money was needed to provide for the family during the long winter months and ready cash was needed in the spring to meet the homestead’s start-up expenses.  It was fortunate that the settlers were able to find outside employment that paid well.  In a region that was undergoing development, jobs could always be found, particularly in railway construction, timber operations, and on established farms.  Roman found employment with a farmer in the area by the name of Fox.^xxxiv  Roman must have proved himself a capable worker, because, even though he would no longer live in the district, he continued to return to the Fox farm for the next few years in order to earn additional revenue.  Eventually the demands of his own farm became so great that he could no longer afford the time away from his own land.

At some point shortly after Roman filed his application to homestead the quarter section near the reserve, he was notified by the Canadian government that the homestead in question was being expropriated, along with others, as part of a planned expansion of the Valley River Indian Reserve.^xxxv  The Canadian Northern Railway line roadbed, running from Grandview to Kamsack and beyond, traversed the reserve from east to west with Shortdale station at the westward edge of the reserve. As far as we know, no compensation was paid for the improvements done to the land, which involved an expenditure of time and money.  To compound matters, there were no other homesteads available in that area.  The reason that the family chose to homestead in the Venlaw area in the first place was in order to be close to relatives.  But they had been forced to settle farther afield than they would have liked.  Now they would have to seek land elsewhere.  To complicate matters further was the fact that Paraska was pregnant, expecting to give birth, the following May. 

Dominion Lands Office officials from Dauphin informed them that a new homestead subdivision north of Kamsack, Assiniboia, was available for occupancy by prospective settlers.  The subdivision was in the vicinity of Fort Pelly, an old Hudson Bay Company trading post.  To reach Fort Pelly, meant travelling west to Kamsack, then north from there along the Pelly Trail, which followed the tortuous meandering of the Assiniboine River as it wended its way northward to the old fort at “the Elbow” of the river. The Pelly Trail was an old Hudson’s Bay Company overland supply trail that ran north from Fort Ellice (near present day St. Lazar, Manitoba) to Fort Pelly and beyond.  The problem that faced the family in getting to the fort was the lack of rail transport from Shortdale, their nearest train station, to Kamsack, and from Kamsack to Fort Pelly.  [Insert Map 2.]  It was more than 104 km (65 miles) overland from Shortdale to Fort Pelly.  However, the Canadian Northern Railway Company was in the process of extending its line all the way to Fort Edmonton.  They had completed the roadbed work and grading from Grandview to Kamsack by 1903 and would complete the laying of steel (track) sometime during early spring in 1904. But first the men would have to reconnoiter the new homestead subdivision.  A decision had to be made by the men whether to wait for the completion of the rail line and buy passenger tickets to ride the train to Kamsack, the 82 km (51 miles) first leg, thereby, leaving a short walking leg of about 23km (14 miles)^xxxvi to reach the fort, or to walk the entire distance. 

The decision was made on the side of thrift. The men would walk the entire distance to Fort Pelly in April of 1904, taking wherever provisions they could carry in gunnysacks slung across their backs, sleeping under whatever shelter they might find.^xxxvii  They walked along the railway roadbed to Kamsack.  Their trek coincided with the completion of the laying of the steel to Kamsack.  The first train arrived at Kamsack from Grandview on 16 April 1904.^xxxviii  When they arrived at Kamsack, they turned north onto the Pelly Trail and followed it for about 17 km (11 miles) to St. Philips Mission, a Roman Catholic missionary outreach working among the Indian people.  From there, they turned due west and walked the remaining 10 km (6 miles) to the fort.  It would have taken them four days to complete the journey, five at the outside.^xxxix

The homesteads available were west of Fort Pelly in Township 33, Range 1, West of the 2^nd Meridian.^xl In 1899, a Dominion land survey crew had prepared the quarter-section^xli homestead plots in grid fashion by completing the subdivision survey.^xlii  North-south cut lines, each approximately one meter wide, set at one-mile intervals were intersected by east-west cut lines, which were also spaced at one-mile intervals.  Thus, each square mile, known as a section consisting of 640 acres, had a cut line perimeter.^xliii  At the southeast corner of every section, square steel “pin” was driven deep into the ground with 15 to 31cm (6 to 12 inches) protruding above a small mound created by the surveyors.  Etched on the survey pin was the land description of the section, i.e. section number, township number, range number and meridian information.  A wooden stake was set into the ground at the center of each section and stakes were set midway on each side of the section. In this way, each section was divided into four quarters, each consisting of 160 acres. The Department of the Interior received the survey information in April 1900.^xliv  Seven digit Land File Numbers were assigned to each parcel of land and recorded by the Department on October 29, 1900.  The numbers were then sent to the Dominion Lands Office in Yorkton under whose jurisdiction the new homestead territory fell.  In his report to the Minister of the Interior, surveyor A.F. Martin described the township in these words: “This township may be described of being entirely wooded with poplar brule and heavy underbrush.  The land is very much broken throughout.  There are numerous lakes in the western half and fine hay meadows.  This township is scarcely fit for settlement except, perhaps, for ranching.”^xlv 

At Fort Pelly, lands office officials and interpreters who would assist them in picking their homesteads greeted the three men.  [Insert Fort Pelly picture.]  They discovered that a number of white families were already established in the area, in fact, had established themselves there before the land survey was conducted.  These very first settlers had been cattle ranchers who had driven their herds northward along the trails in search of range land.  And, as briefly touched on by A.F. Martin D.L.S’s survey report, the countryside in Township 33 with its great abundance of water, the vast wild hay meadows growing along the numerous lakes and sloughs, and woods to provide winter shelter for livestock, was ideal country for ranching.  They had squatted on the land in the 1890’s.  When the township was surveyed and made available for homesteading, they were acknowledged by the Department of the Interior as having squatter’s rights, which meant that each rancher had first dibs on the quarter that he had squatted on.  Needless to say, as a result, there was an abundance of cattle available to new comers and very eager sellers. 

A few other pioneers, newcomers like Roman, George and John, were also seeking homesteads in the vicinity.  They were all informed that it was necessary for homesteading settlers to make a note of the land description numbers (taken off the survey pins) of their homestead choices, then to make their way along the Pelly-Qu’Appelle Lakes Trail, from Fort Pelly to Yorkton, which was considerably farther than the distance they had already walked from Shortdale.  At Yorkton, each homesteader would have to personally submit his Entry to Homestead application at the Dominion Lands Office. Selecting suitable homesteads was time consuming.  

The area open for homesteading west of the fort was vast.  George, Roman and John walked along the cut lines, checking out the suitability of various quarters.  Availability of water was no problem.  A myriad of lakes of various sizes and sloughs spangled the region.  But it was impossible to assess individual quarters from the cut line.  It was necessary to leave the cut line with axe and spade and wander about in the bush – commonly referred to as bush whacking – to get some idea about the desirability of a quarter.  It must be remembered that each quarter consists of 160 acres, which covers a considerable area.  And the men had innumerable quarters to check out.  Also, they wished to pick quarters that were not only suitable, but which butted up against each other in order that they might be neighbors.  After many days of bush whacking, John, Roman and George^xlvi decided on several suitable homesteads in order of preference.  They now had to contend with another problem, submitting their entries to homestead at the Dominion Lands office in Yorkton.  It was now early May, and they were anxious to get back to Paraska, who was due to give birth at any time now.  It had taken them four to five days to walk the distance from Shortdale to Fort Pelly. And based on what land officials had told them, they calculated that the return trip to Yorkton from Fort Pelly would likely take two weeks or so.  They decided that going to Yorkton would cause too great a delay in their return to Paraska and the boys.  Therefore, they decided to return to Paraska and hoped that during their absence other prospecting homesteaders would not pick their first choices for homesteads before they were able to return with Paraska and the boys.

When they arrived back from Fort Pelly on 17 May, they discovered that Paraska had given birth two days earlier to a baby girl, whom Paraska named Maria (Mary).^xlvii   Both were in good health.  Sufficient time would have to be given Paraska and the new baby before undertaking what they knew would be an arduous journey for the two of them.  They allowed about one week.  This gave the men enough time to complete the necessary arrangements to make the move.  Although their stay in the Shortdale area was relatively brief, the three men’s earnings together with what was left of the money they had brought with them from Galicia, was sufficient to purchase an ox, a milch cow with a suckling calf, a small ox cart, which was barely sufficient to carry the family’s belongings, along with various tools and implements needed for the farming operation. And, most significantly, they bought train tickets for the four adult members of the family unit.  The boys and the baby rode free of charge. Then, early one morning in the latter part of May, the day to leave their homestead on the Valley River arrived.  The livestock and the cart along with all the baggage, which included the settler’s trunk and the tote bags, were loaded onboard the train at Shortdale.  The family boarded a day coach, and they traveled to Kamsack. They had now been in Canada one year.

The Second Homestead

Arriving in Kamsack, the family detrained and quickly loaded their baggage onto the small ox cart, completely filling it.  [Insert ox cart picture.]  There was not enough room in the cart for Paraska to ride with the baby.  She would have to walk the distance, the same as the men.  In fact, there would be barely enough room for the two small boys to ride on top of the load. The rope-haltered cow was tied with a rope to the back of the cart. Roman hitched the ox to the cart and the party immediately set off down the Pelly Trail to the old fort, 23 km (14 miles) to the north.  It was their intention to reach Fort Pelly sometime that same night.  Roman had no reins with which to steer the ox from behind; therefore, the men had to walk in front talking turns leading it by hand.  No doubt they also provide relief for Paraska who was nursing the baby and who walked behind the recalcitrant cow tied to the back of the cart occasionally switching it with a willow wand to make it move forward.  The calf was no problem.  It simply followed its mother, the source of its sustenance.  The boys, John and Dmytro, rode among the baggage in the cart. They certainly must have presented themselves as a rather strange procession as they made their way along the trail.  By late afternoon, they had been on the trail for hours.^xlviii  The baby had started to fuss and cry, and all were very weary from the long day that had begun at Shortdale many hours earlier.  They approached a lighted settlement and they decided to turn in to it for some respite. They had arrived at the St. Philips Mission.^xlix  [Insert St. Philips Mission picture] There, Paraska gave the baby a bath, which calmed her down, and the family was offered refreshment.^l  It was at this time that they first met the mission’s rector^li, Father Jules Decorby O.M.I., a Roman Catholic priest that the family would have many dealings with in the future.  Having rested up for a brief time, the family returned to the trail to complete the final 10 km (6 miles) to the fort. Finally, the long exhausting day came to an end. They had reached their destination.   

The next day, when the men walked out onto the land survey, to their consternation, they found that another settler had laid claim to the quarter that had been Roman’s first choice, and in fact was in the final process of plastering a log house that he had constructed there. And to compound matters, it was soon apparent that George’s first choice, too, had also been claimed by another settler.  It is not clear how this could have occurred, given the vast number of homesteads available and the relatively few homesteaders conducting their homestead searches.^lii  Having lost their first homestead near the Valley River Indian Reserve, and now having their second potential homestead claim superseded must have been like lightning striking twice in the same place.  It was in this frame of mind that Roman and George decided to go with their second choices.  Ever mindful of the need for an abundant water supply, Roman picked SE20-33-1-W2.  A large oval lake of about 30 acres surrounded by high steep banks stretched along much of the southwestern boundary of the homestead.  The western lakeshore touched against the neighboring quarter, SW20-33-1-W2, which George selected as his homestead.  The two quarters were 5 km (3 miles) north of the Key Indian Reserve, and 11½ km (7 miles) northwest from Fort Pelly.  This times Roman and George claimed homesteads on which they would both settled for life.  John, on the other hand, decided to delay his application for entry to a homestead for a short time.^liii   

Another settler family, by the name of Turner^liv, near Moss Lake, kindly offered to put up Paraska and the children, until such time as the Roman, George and John were able to construct their own dwelling place.  And since it was summer, the men bunked outside on the quarter that Roman had picked.   It was decided that Roman would immediately walk to Yorkton, by himself, to file his homestead entry at the Dominion Lands Office. [Insert Map 3.] George and John would stay behind, squatting on Roman’s homestead, to deal with four priorities.  First, it was necessary to clear a sufficient area so that a small garden could be immediately planted.  Secondly, a living place, Roman and Paraska’s house had to be constructed.  Thirdly, provision had to be made for the livestock.  And lastly, George’s homestead choice had to be guarded against selection by other prospective homesteaders.

Carrying in his pocket, the land description information taken from the survey pin, Roman left for Yorkton immediately via the Pelly-Qu’Appelle Lakes Trail^lv, a distance of 130 to 145 km (80 to 90 miles).^lvi  To access the trail, he walked due south from his homestead along the eastside cut line, skirting the east side of Pelly Meadow Lake, crossed onto the Key Indian Reserve and came upon the trail a short distance from the reserve’s northern boundary.^lvii  He spent about a week on the trail and arrived at Yorkton on the 8^th or 9^th of June.  He was directed to either the Lands Office or the Yorkton Immigration Hall, which provided interpreters for non-English speaking settlers and assistance in completing the Entry to Homestead application form.  Roman applied for and obtained entry to his homestead, after paying the requisite $10 registration fee, on 9 June 1904.^lviii  He then walked back to his homestead to which he now had legal claim, arriving around the middle of June. 

The three men continued clearing the garden plot, planting it, worked on the house and stable and put up winter hay for the cattle.  Because Paraska and the children were staying at the Turners, the pressure was off the men to complete the house so that they were able to concentrate their efforts to putting in the garden.  That being done, they turned to the task of building the house.  They decided to build a small 12 feet by 24 feet structure at the east end of the lake valley because of the proximity to water.  They dug into the lake bank, which was to serve as the east wall of the dwelling place.  Poles were used to frame the walls and the roof, which were then covered with sod.  The dirt floor was covered and packed down with mud, probably mixed with cow urine, which made the floor hard and easier for Paraska to keep clean.  A massive peech (піч), a large earthen stove made from fired clay was built inside the house to be used for cooking and heating.^lix  When the structure was completed, Paraska and the children were retrieved from the Turners, and they all moved into the house on the 9^th of July. ^lx     Shortly after moving in, the family had a frightening experience.  Some of the dirt in the sod ceiling began to shift, revealing a snake that was wriggling its way down towards them.

When the work had progressed satisfactorily and George could be spared, he was dispatched to Yorkton to file his entry for homestead.  He arrived in Yorkton on the 2^nd or 3^rd of August.  He obtained his homestead entry on 3 August 1904 and then returned to continue helping Roman and John with the work on Roman’s quarter. Sometime later, John probably left for employment outside the district.  During that first year on their homesteads, Roman and George cropped no land, but, instead, concentrated on expanding the garden area, building a small stable for the livestock, and “making” hay (wild swamp hay) in order that the livestock have winter feed.  Roman still had enough capital left to purchase two additional cows from local ranchers; the herd now totaled 5 head of cattle, which included the ox and the calf.^lxi  The more concerted effort to clear the grain fields for sowing would have to wait until the following spring.   

Almost fifteen months had now passed since their arrival in Canada on that fateful day in May 1903, before Roman and George finally obtained homesteads on which they were able to establish themselves.  They were among the earliest Ukrainian pioneers to settle in the Norquay district.  Only the rancher squatters preceded them.  As for John, it wouldn’t be until the following year, on 22 March 1905, before he would gain entry to his homestead, SE28-32-2-W2, a few miles west from George and Roman’s homesteads.  No doubt they had expected to encounter many difficulties when they left their native land and set off to a distant and strange county to make a new life for themselves and for their children.  But the hardships that beset them went far beyond anything that they had imagined.  Many a night Paraska cried herself to sleep.  And were it not for their strong religious faith, and the fact that they had bought only one-way tickets, they well might have returned to Babyntsi and tried to pick up the broken pieces of their former lives.

At this point, in order to understand the reasons why the family undertook to leave their native land, their families, their way of life, and like so many of their fellow countrymen, set forth to this new and raw land, Canada, it is necessary to pause in our narrative and take a look at what they had left behind.

The Ancestral Homeland

In 1903, Babyntsi was a selo (село) or village on the Nichlava (Нічлава) River, about 18 km (10 miles) from the povit (повіт) or county center and railway station in Borshchiv (Борщів) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  The village was surrounded by farmlands (fields), which were tilled by the Babyntsian peasants who resided within the village.  Together the village and its adjacent fields were known as a commune (громада).   The boundary of the Babyntsi southern countryside was the Dniester River.^lxii  Today, Babyntsi is a village in Borshchiv raion or county in Ternopil oblast or province in western Ukraine.  [Insert Map 4.]  Babyntsi has been known since 1785, but its origins probably go back to the 1500’s.

Geography

Present day Ukraine, with an area^lxiii comparable to the province of Manitoba, is the second largest country in Europe, next to Russia.

 Most of Ukraine consists of vast plains and plateaus with elevations generally below 500 meters (1600 feet) above sea level.  Babyntsi is located in the southwestern sector of the great Podillian Plateau.  The Carpathian Mountains, a short distance southerly from Babyntsi, extend through the southwest corner of western Ukraine.  The highest peak reaches 2,061 meters (6,760 feet).  [Insert Map 5] 

Numerous rivers and streams lace the Ukrainian landscape.  In the Podillian plateau country, steep valleys have been chiseled out by the rivers throughout the centuries since the last period of glaciation, the Nichlava being one such river.  The major rivers, including their tributaries, are the Dniester and the Southern Buh in the West, the Dniepro in central Ukraine, and the Donets in the East.

Babyntsi lies slightly south of the 49^th latitude on the Podillian Plateau.  It has a continental climate with a mean or average January temperature of –4 C (20 F) and a July mean of 20 C (68 F).^lxiv  Its climate is somewhat similar to Toronto’s.

.

Origins – Earliest Period

The Huska/Martyniuk/Romashenko family group, which disembarked in Halifax in May 1903, was ethnic Ukrainian, although the word, Ukrainian, did not come into general usage until the 1920’s.  There was considerable confusion among the resident population of Canada at the time as to who these newcomers (Ukrainians) were.   They were called Ruthenians, but they were also identified as Galicians, Austrians, Poles, Russians and Little Russians.^lxv The Ukrainians, in fact, are part of a much larger collection of peoples known as the Slavs.^lxvi

However, long before the Slavs appeared on the scene, evidence of human existence^lxvii in the west Podillian region reaches back more than 40,000 years ago to the Middle Paleolithic Age,^lxviii i.e. the Mesolithic Age, and it would be many millennia before the emergence of the Proto-Slavs, the forerunners of the Slavic nations. 

Although human life was present on the Podillia Plateau at the time, marked climatic changes brought about cycles of glaciation with ice sheets advancing and retreating in succession.  During the periods of glacial retreat, nomadic bands of hunters and gatherers moved onto the plateau following the herds of migratory game and to harvest the wild edible plants found there.  Conversely, during periods of glacial advance, the bands withdrew from the plateau and sought refuge in less hostile climes.  

The last two glacial advances, which impacted the Podillian plateau, were the Older and the Younger Dryas.  The Older Dryas ice phase began about 13,000 years ago.  It lasted for about 200 years.  It was followed by the more extensive Younger Dryas, which began 12,800 years ago and ended 11,500 years ago, a time span of 1300 years.  The onset of the two Dryas glaciation advances drove the human population off the plateau (also from other regions east and west of Podillia), forcing them to seek shelter in a less harsh environment near the Black Sea where a number of refuge centers were established.  One such center was the Ukrainian LGM (Last Glacial Maximum) refuge.  From this and other LGM refuges, the recolonization of the Podillian plateau, and other regions east and west of Podillia, took place with the receding of the ice and the onset of the present interglacial period, the Holocene.  

Based on genome studies (DNA research), “Haplogroup M17 or Hg R1a1, with an inferred age of about 15,000 years, is considered a marker to the people that originate from this glacial refuge.  This gene is found at high frequency in Poland, Russia, Ukraine, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and is common throughout Central Asia, but is rare in East Asia and Western Europe.  The microsatellite diversity of R1a1 is postulated to have been connected with population spread in the period subsequent to the LGM.  The marker was involved in recent migrations by Indo-European speaking peoples from the steppes, bring the gene to new frontiers and an ethnic distribution that add to the evidence that M17 is a diagnostic Indo-Iranian marker.  To the Northwest this same gene spread into Scandinavian territory and is diagnostic as a marker to Viking movements between 800 and 1300 CE^lxix.  To the East, this gene found its way as far as Eastern Siberia, with considerable concentrations in Kamchatka and Chukotka, and it cannot be ruled out the gene even entered the Americas by this route.  The current distribution of this M17 (Hg R1a1) marker is characterized by high concentrations of the gene over wide areas from Lapland to Ukraine and from Poland to Kazakhstan and Pakistan.”^lxx 

Circa 10,000 BCE^lxxi, the beginning of the Neolithic era in Europe, nomadic herding (animal husbandry) replaced Paleolithic hunting and gathering as the primary economic activity of the people who sparsely settled the Podillia Plateau.

During the Holocene period, since the last glaciation, the Younger Dryas, various pre-Slavic cultures developed throughout what is modern day Ukraine.  Of particular interest are three that were established in the Babyntsi area.

Trypillian Culture

In the Neolithic Age, the Trypillian^lxxii culture arose and flourished from ca 5500 BCE to 2750 BCE when it came to an end. The culture’s region took in parts of present-day Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. [Insert Map 6.]  It was centered on the Dniester River.  In the distant future, Babyntsi would be established in what had been the west central area of the cultural region.  To date, about 2,000 Trypillian settlement sites have been investigated.  The settlements range from small villages to small cities made up of hundreds of dwelling structures.  Systems of moats were in place providing protection from nomadic marauders.  It is generally accepted that the Trypillian culture was the first urban culture in Europe.  Ever mindful of the danger posed by nomadic tribes from the East, they built their settlements, usually, on high points, often fortified with berms, ditches and moats.  The first settlements contained ten to fifteen crude adobe huts.  However, at the height of the Trypillian culture, settlements had grown greatly, to the extent that a few hundred adobe houses, some of which were two-storied, were not unusual.  The houses were outfitted with clay ovens for heating and cooking, and round or oval windows for light.  Some of the settlements attained the size of small cities by today’s standards.  

The three largest cities were Talianki, Dobrovody and Maydanets.  In 3,700 BCE, Talianki had a population of about 15,000, covered an area of some 450 hectares (1,111.5 acres) and had 2,700 houses.  In 3,800 BCE Dobrovody with a population of about 10,000 was stoutly fortified and occupied an area of about 2.5 square km.  In 3,700 BCE, Maydanets, like Dobrovody, had a citizen population of 10,000 with 1575 houses and occupied 250 hectares of land.

At the beginning of the Trypillian culture era, the transition from a nomadic pastoral economy to sedentary agriculture occurred.^lxxiii  The people grew wheat, barley, rye and millet.  Grain was stored in pits. However, Trypillian man had not given up his hunting heritage.  The widespread presence of wild life remains at the excavation sites attest to that.  Animal husbandry included the raising of cattle, sheep, goats and swine.  Ceramic artifacts found at the sites were of the Linear Pottery culture.  Many of these artifacts are beautifully painted with the coloration and the motifs that very closely resemble the coloration and motifs used in Easter egg design, contemporary pottery and embroidery.  Copper artifacts imported from the Balkans indicate that the Trypillians engaged in active trade outside their region.  Figurine artifacts (found at the Cucuteni site), in the shape of the human female, appears to support the belief that their principal deity was the Mother goddess. 

Przeworsk-Zarubintsy Culture

Between 300 and 200 BCE, the Przeworsk-Zarubintsy culture^lxxiv arose and flourished north of the Carpathian Mountains.  [Insert Map 7.]  About 500 archaeological sites have been identified to date.  The culture was an admixture of Celtic, Scythian and Sarmatian cultures.  Artifacts found at the sites are especially indicative of the Scythian-Sarmatian origins.  The culture’s economy was primarily agriculture and animal husbandry.  However, even though Przeworsk culture was much more recent than Trypillian culture, hunting was still an important part of the economy.  The culture was engaged in trading the pelts of wild animals to settlements along the Black Sea.  After a relatively brief time, the culture came to an end.  About 200 CE, the Przeworsk-Zarubintsy culture was overwhelmed by Gothic tribes from the east who were driven out of their ancestral homeland by other tribes from farther east.

Cherniakhiv Culture

Within a generation of the destruction of the Przeworsk-Zarubintsy culture, a new culture, the Cherniakhiv culture arose from the ashes of the old.  [Insert Map 8 – Extent of the Cherniakhiv Culture]  The Cherniakhiv culture existed for a very short time span of about 200 years.  It emerged about 200 CE.  Its extent included most of Ukraine, the eastern portion of Romania, and Moldova.  The culture’s settlements tended to be narrow bands along the lengths of riverbanks.  Archaeological artifacts consist of various iron tools, highly polished black pottery items, and fine metal (iron and bronze) ornaments.  Also found at the excavation sites were trade goods obtained from regions to the south which lay within the Roman Empire at the time.  Like previous cultures, this culture’s citizens practiced paganism.  At a number of sites along the Dniester River, stone structures of pagan gods have been erected, ranging in height from one to three meters.  The culture ended about 400 CE when marauding Huns overran the entire region.    

Slavic Origins

There is much uncertainty regarding the ethnogenesis (origin) of the Proto-Slavs, the ancestors of all the Slavic nations.^lxxv   The uncertainty arises from the fact that there are no historical references (written sources) pertaining to the Proto-Slavs and very few to the earliest Slavic tribes.  Although the Proto-Slavs may have emerged as far back as 1500 BCE, the earliest written reference to the Slavs in any language was in the 5^th century BCE by the Greek historian, Herodotus.  About 1,000 years later, in the 6^th century CE, brief accounts of the Slavs appeared in the writings of the Byzantine, Procopius, and the Gothic writer, Jordanes.

However, with the advent of scientific archaeology and linguistic analysis in the 19^th century, a picture, albeit, a somewhat sketchy one, has begun to emerge.   Extensive study and research, particularly in the twentieth century, based on archaeological digs, which included excavations in the Borshchiv/Babyntsi area in the west Podilla Plateau, along with sophisticated linguistic studies have provided empirical evidence as to the location of the original homeland of the Slavs.  It occupied the area north of the Carpathian Mountains between the Elbe, Vistula, Buh and Pripet rivers.  [Insert Map 9]  Although not all researchers agree on the precise boundaries, they do agree that it was centered in what are present day southwestern Belarus, eastern Poland and western Ukraine.  Babyntsi, which is in western Ukraine, is located just within the southern boundary of the original Slavic homeland.

When the Slavs first emerged on the scene, they existed as small bands and tribes.  Political structure and organization would come much later.

Colonization

Previous to the 12^th century BCE, the vast region that was to become the Slavic homeland, although, no doubt, subjected to periodic small incursions by outside tribes, was not generally occupied by a foreign civilization.  That all changed with the arrival of the Cimmerians.

The Cimmerians’ civilization, circa 1150 BCE – 750 BCE, is generally accepted as the first known civilization^lxxvi to become established on Ukrainian lands.  They were a mixture of a number of tribes of Indo-European stock.  Cimmerian archaeological artifacts, including bronze implements, have been excavated north of the Black Sea and west as far as an area south of Kiev.  However, Cimmerian dominion did not extend as far west as Babyntsi.   In the 8^th century BCE, the Cimmerians were replaced by a new and more vigorous Indo-European civilization that swept in from the Turkistani steppes, the Scythians.

The Scythians, circa 750 BCE – 250 BCE, also a mixture of tribes, were the second nomadic civilization to gain control over a large portion of Ukrainian territory, north of the Black Sea.  Their control extended from the Caucasus Mountains westward to western Ukraine (i.e., the easternmost portion of former Galicia).  Babyntsi is located just within the westernmost border of former Scythia.  [Insert Map 10 – Extent of the Scythian Civilization]  In the 3^rd century CE, the Scythians, in their turn, were supplanted by another Indo-European civilization, the Sarmatians, also from the Turkistani region and who were culturally related to them.

The Sarmatians, circa 250 BCE – 250 CE, like their predecessors, were not a homogenous group.  They consisted of several tribes, each of which was an independent entity under the umbrella of a central leadership.  One of these tribes, the Alans, was of particular importance to Slavic development.

The Antes, 250 CE – 550 CE, initially an Alanic tribe, occupied the lands between the Prut and the lower Dniester Rivers during the 4^th century CE.  They began to organize the Slavic and other tribes under their control.  They were a sedentary people who established a number of hill forts, known as horodyshcha (городища) or horody.  Then in the same century, they moved their power base northwest into more densely Slavic regions, which included the Babyntsi area.  [Insert Map 11 – Extent of the Antes]  Over time, the majority Slavs came to replace their original masters as the Alanic element was absorbed into the Slavic masses.  The original Alanic name, “Antes,” remained, although now it denoted a Slavic nation.  Many authorities consider the Antes nation to be the first Slavic state.  However, that state disintegrated with the appearance of another nomadic people from the east, the Avars, who, in the mid sixth century, swept across Ukrainian lands in a brief span of about fifteen years, before crossing the Carpathians and passing into the Pannonian Plain.  The Antes disappeared from sight.  The last historical reference to them was in 602. 

Kievan Rus’

By the 600s, an important trading route via connecting waterways, including the Dniepro River, from the Varangian (Baltic) Sea to the Black Sea was established.  It provided northern Europe with access to the highly prized markets of Byzantium.  At the time, various Slavic and Finnic tribes sparsely settled the area north of the Western Dvina River, which emptied into the Varangian Sea.  Circa 854, Riuryk^lxxvii and his two brothers and their Varangian (Swedish Vikings) armies, who had come from north of present-day Stockholm, established themselves as the rulers of the region.  [Insert Map 12 – Extent of the Varangian Kingdom of Rus’]  They were known by the Finnic name, the “Rus’,” and their domain was known as the Kingdom of Rus’.  Later when Riuryk’s brothers had died, leaving Riuryk the sole ruler, the capital of Rus’ was established at Novgorod.

Circa 858, two of Riuryk’s military leaders, Askol’d and Dir, while on a trading mission to Byzantium, attacked and captured the old Antes hill fort of Kiev.  Although they defied him by declaring their independence from Rus’, Riuryk, whose attention was focused more on his western interests and territories, took no action against them.

When Riuryk died in 873, his successor, Oleh, a Norwegian by birth directed his attention to Kiev in the southeast.  In 878, Oleh, at the head of a large force, defeated Askol’d and Dir’s Kievan forces and executed the two renegades.  He proclaimed his newly expanded realm, “Kievan Rus’” with Kiev as its capital, and himself as its first Grand Prince.  [Insert Map 13 – Extent of Kievan Rus’]

During the remainder of his reign, Oleh spent his time in consolidating his realm by bringing various Slavic and non-Slavic tribes under his hegemony.^lxxviii  After his death in 912, the first four of his successors^lxxix carried on with his policy of expansion and consolidation with varying degrees of success.  Then in 980, his grandson, Volodymyr the Great, became Grand Prince after an eight-year internecine struggle with his two brothers.

Galicia

During its 938 years of existence, Galicia’s governance was to change at various times, thus dividing its history into five distinct periods.

Galicia   981 – 1199 

In 981, Kievan Rus’ Grand Prince Volodymyr the Great led his Rusyn (Ukrainian) forces against the Liakhs (a Polish tribe)^lxxx in the Galician region.  Volodymyr’s objective was to control the trade routes in the region between Kiev and central Europe.  A secondary, but nonetheless, an extremely important prize was the salt mines near Halych.  Salt was an incredibly valuable commodity as a preservative in medieval society.  The newly acquired territory became the Kievan Rus’ principality of Galicia (Halychyna) with Halych as its capital. 

In 988, Volodymyr renounced his previous pagan beliefs and practices^lxxxi and converted to Christianity.  He decreed that Christianity from that time forth was to be the state religion for all the principalities of Kievan Rus’, including Galicia.

Although the Christianization of Kievan Rus’ occurred late, in historical terms, a number of Christian settlements had existed along the north coast of the Black Sea on the territory that today is part of Ukraine.  These first Christians, in fact, were Greeks who settled along the northern coastline to engage in commerce and trade with the indigenous people.

After Grand Prince Ihor’s death in 945, Princess Ol’ha (Olga), his widow (890-969), converted to Christianity and was baptized in Constantinople probably in 955.  However, Sviatoslav I, Ol’ha’s son, remained a pagan.  Prior to his conversion to Christianity, Volodymyr had been an ardent pagan.  It was his ambition, however, to promote Kievan Rus’ prosperity and prestige by seeking a closer relationship with its most powerful neighbor and its most important trading partner, the Byzantine Empire.  To that end, he proposed establishing a family connection to the Byzantine court through marriage to Emperor Basil II’s younger sister, Princess Anna (963-1011).  In exchange for Volodymyr’s help in suppressing a rebellion within the empire, Basil promised to allow the marriage to take place.  However, when the rebellion was crushed with Volodymyr’s aid, Basil reneged on his promise because he would not allow his sister to marry a pagan.  Volodymyr responded by taking armed action against the empire, occupying the colony of Chersonese Taurica in the Crimea, thereby forcing the signing of a peace pact between the two nations.  Volodymyr was permitted to marry Princess Anna, but, in accordance with the treaty’s terms, he was to be baptized first and was to lead his nation into Christian conversion.  Volodymyr and Anna were married in the Crimea in 989. 

The first step in bringing Christianity to the populace of Kievan Rus’ was the ordering of the destruction of all pagan structures such as temples and statues.  Then the people were ordered to accept baptism, starting with the residents of Kiev city.  They waded into the Dniepro River and while priests conducted Divine Liturgy, were baptized.  The Primary Chronicle records this event as having taken place on 14 August 988 (NS).  Baptism outside Kiev, along water routes, where the population was concentrated, took place gradually over an extended period of time.  At first there was much opposition and resistance to the prince’s decree.  But in the end, Christianity was established and became an important and integral part of daily life at every level of Kievan Rus’ society.  However, many of the customs, rituals and observances that pre-dated Christianity live on, even to this day, and are unique and charming aspects of Ukrainian culture.              

It was during this early period of Galician history that the great schism in the Christian world occurred in 1054.  Western Europe recognized the primacy of the Catholic pope in Rome, whereas the rest of the Christian world recognized the orthodox patriarch of Constantinople.

Galicia – Volhynia   1199 – 1349

The Primary Chronicle does not tell us who the original Galician princes were.  Eventually, however, the ruling dynasty was vested in Iaroslav the Wise’s grandson, Rostyslav’s, descendants by a conference of the Kievan Rus’ princes, the Conference of Liubech in 1097.  Two of the Rostyslavych (of Rostyslav’s line) princes of note were Volodymyrko (reigned 1124 – 1153) and Iaroslav Osmenysl’ (reigned 1153 – 1187). 

When the Rostylavych line died out in 1199, the Galician pahns^lxxxii or boyars (nobles) invited Prince Roman of Volhynia to take up the throne of Galicia as well.  They assumed that Roman would rule both principalities from Volyn, the capital of Volhynia, and therefore, would be an absentee ruler in Galicia.  This, they thought, would provide the opportunity to acquire more political power for themselves.  However, when Roman accepted their invitation, to their chagrin, he took up residence in Halych and ruled both principalities from there.  Instead of the boyars gaining more power, Roman restricted the power they already had.  Roman died in 1205, leaving his four year old son, Danylo, heir to the throne.

Following a long period during which the boyars engaged in tactics that blocked the ascendancy of Roman’s infant son to the throne, Danylo finally became prince in 1238, thereby establishing the Romanovych dynasty.  Danylo had been prince for only three years when, in 1241, Halych was captured by the Mongols under the command of Batu, son of Genghis Khan.  Other notable Romanovych princes were Lev (reigned 1264 – 1301), Iurii (reigned 1301 – 1315), and Lev II (reigned 1315 – 1323).  It was during the first year of Lev I’s reign in 1264 that L’viv replaced Halych as the capital of Galicia-Volynia.

With Lev II’s death in 1323, the Romanovych male line died out.  Boleslav, a Roman Catholic Polish prince whose mother was a Romanovych, ascended the throne of Galicia.  He converted to the Orthodox faith and changed his name to Iurii II in order to placate his new subjects.  He reigned until 1340 when he was poisoned as a result of a boyar conspiracy.  The period of internal chaos within Galicia-Volhynia following Iurii II’s murder, made it an easy prey for the expansionist ambitions of its neighbors, Lithuania and Poland.  In 1344, Lithuania annexed Volhynia.  And in 1349, Casimir (Kazimierz) III “the Great” of Poland annexed Galicia, converting it into a Polish palatinate.

Galicia   1349 – 1772 

During the 423 years of Polish rule in Galicia, the Polish szlachta (nobility) came to largely supplant the Rusyn boyars.  The few remaining Rusyn pahns were, for the most part, thoroughly Polanized.

Beginning in 1495 and continuing over a span of about 75 years, the szlachta-controlled Polish Diet (governing assembly) passed a series of edicts which first imposed serfdom on the peasants, then increased the restrictions placed on them. The much hated panshchyna (панщна) or corvee, the unpaid labor obligation due the pahn, was set in place across Galicia.  Under the terms of corvee, the peasant-serf’s first obligation was to do the necessary labor on the pahn’s land.  Only after that obligation was met could he then do the required work on his own land.  That delay was often detrimental to his own farming enterprise. By 1573, the peasant-serfs were forbidden to leave the pahn’s estate on which they resided.  They were not allowed to marry without the pahn’s permission and only after the bride’s father paid him merchet, a matrimonial fee.^lxxxiii  

Ever on the alert for economic opportunities, in the 1500s, the szlachta moved into and developed large parts of sparsely settled regions.  Attracting disaffected serfs who had fled from oppressive pahns in other parts of Galicia, they were able to transform once empty areas into centers of grain production.  It was during this time frame that Babyntsi had its origins. 

Corvee obligations varied from family to family.  As a rule, it involved working for the pahn between three to six days a week, usually with the use of the peasant’s draught animals, either oxen or horses.  Each peasant was given an allotment of land from which he was to provide for his own and his family’s needs.  The amount of corvee performed by the peasant determined the size of the allotment of his land.  The greater the corvee rendered, the larger the land allotment.   Generally, the head of the peasant household and his older sons spent most of their time fulfilling the family’s corvee obligations.  This left the peasant’s wife, daughters and younger children to work their own land allotment in a subsistence-level farming enterprise.  At harvest time, when the peasants’ labor was urgently required, the corvee obligations were intensified.  Every member of every family was conscripted into the manor’s harvest campaign.  And only after the manor’s harvest was completed could the peasants harvest their own crops.   

In addition to their land allotment, the peasants had the use of a community pasture for their livestock and a community forest from which they obtained firewood and logs needed for building construction.

In the latter part of the 16^th century, a delegation of Galician and Belarussian Orthodox bishops traveled to Rome to petition Pope Clement VIII.  They proposed the union of the Galician and Belarussian Orthodox Churches with the Catholic Church, but with certain provisos.  The Galician and Belarussian Churches would recognize the primacy of the pope.  In exchange, they would be allowed to use traditional (Orthodox) liturgy, and their priests would not be compelled to take the vow of celibacy.  Pope Clement did not object to the provisos.  So, in October 1596, under the terms of the Union of Brest-Litovsk, a new Catholic Church, the Uniate Church, of the Byzantine rite came into being.^lxxxiv  Later, in 1774, the Uniate Church came to be known as the Greek Catholic Church.  Today it’s known as the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

Galicia   1772 – 1848 

As extensive as its holdings were and the great power that the Polish kingdom had, it was, nonetheless, beset with an inadequate political structure which would bring about its demise some four centuries after the reign of Casimir the Great.  Its kings, elected by the szlachta, were mere figureheads.  The real power was vested and diffused among the self-interested szlachta who rarely acted in concert to deal with internal problems or external threats.  By the 18^th century, Poland was ripe for takeover. 

In 1772, Russia, Prussia and Austria agreed amongst themselves to annex portions of their giant but ineffectual neighbor.  Galicia was Austria’s share of the spoils.  Two years later in 1774, Austria annexed Bukovyna, the northern region of Moldavia, attaching it to Galicia in 1786.  It was later separated from Galicia in 1849.  In two subsequent annexations of Polish territory by its three neighbors, 1793 and 1795, Poland disappeared from the map of Europe.  It would be reconstituted as a country 124 years later with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919, which marked the end of WWI.

The Austrian annexations took place during the latter period of Empress Maria Theresa’s forty-year reign (reigned 1740 – 1780).  Although she began reforms to the feudal system, in the early years of Austrian rule, it was her son and successor, Emperor Joseph II (reigned 1780 – 1790) who brought about most change.  Collectively, the enlightened rulers, Maria Theresa and Joseph’s changes are known as the Josephine reforms.  

The official religion of Austria had been Roman Catholicism.  The Austrian government now proclaimed that all three Catholic rites, which existed within the empire – Roman, Byzantine (Uniate) and Armenian – were of equal standing.  Then in 1782, a church fund was set up and the parish priest became, in essence, a state employee and was paid a state salary.

Although German was made the empire’s official language, i.e. the language of government and the courts, compulsory elementary schooling brought in by Joseph in 1784 was to be conducted in the local vernacular.  In Babyntsi’s case, the local vernacular was Ruthenian (Ukrainian), although Babyntsi did not have, nor would not have a public school until many decades later.

A number of the reforms were directed at the szlachta and their dealings with their peasant-serfs.  The previously tax-exempted szlachta were now required to pay taxes.  And they became subject to Austrian law that allowed for no special treatment based on social status.  The peasants were allowed to marry without the pahn’s permission and matrimonial payment was abolished.  The manorial lands were divided into dominical lands, owned by the pahn, and rustical lands, held, but not owned by the peasants.  By law, the rustical lands could not be added to the pahn’s dominical lands, however, the law was not always observed.

There was concern in imperial government circles that on the one hand, peasant rustical lands might be consolidated into larger but fewer holdings through inheritance or buyouts, and on the other hand, holdings might be so splintered through subdivision as a result of inheritance as to make them economically nonviable.^lxxxv  The considered opinion among state officials was that a peasant’s rustical holding of less than 10 morgs (14 acres or 5.7 hectares) was not an economically viable farming operation.  To forestall the possibility of splintering, regulations concerning the transfer of rustical lands were enacted between 1787 and 1790.  The peasant’s rustical holding was to remain intact.  The eldest son, as principal heir, was to inherit his father’s holding, which included the lot in the village with the house on it.  The other heirs, the principal’s brothers and sisters, were to have an equal share (i.e. equal to the principal’s share) of the total value of the holding.  Their share was to be paid to them by the principal heir either in cash, which was unlikely, or in kind (e.g. livestock, grain, etc.).  Invariably, this resulted in a long-term payment process, which was not to the liking of the principal heir or his siblings.  These regulations were in effect until 1868.

Not all the changes were for the betterment of life in the peasant villages.  The Josephine reforms imposed a heavier tax burden on the peasants.  And compulsory military service for all young adult males was introduced.  Collection of peasant taxes and military recruitment was left in the hands of the local pahn, much to the consternation of the peasantry.  These and other impositions notwithstanding, the overall improvement in the quality of life among the grateful peasants resulted in an allegiance to the Austrian monarchy that the Polish rulers had never known.  After the enlightened rule of Maria Theresa and Joseph II, a period of reaction set in under the rule of the three succeeding emperors: Leopold II (reigned 1790 – 1792), Franz I (reigned 1793 – 1835) and Ferdinand I (reigned 1835 – 1848).  Even so, the peasantry continued to be kindly disposed toward the monarchy.

During the Napoleonic wars of the early 19^th century, Russia was briefly allied with France.  Following his defeat of Austria in his 1809 campaign, Napoleon, by the terms of the Treaty of Schonbrunn on 14 October 1809, forced Austria to cede the easternmost region of Galicia, Ternopil, to Russia.  The Ternopil region remained in Russian hands for six years until the Congress of Vienna, which followed Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, returned it to Austria on 18 June 1815.  During those six years of Russian occupation, the Russian government recruited peasants from the Ternopil region to settle on free lands being made available in Siberia.  As a result, a number of peasant families from Babyntsi relocated to Siberia.^lxxxvi

Galicia   1848 – 1903 

The French Revolution of 1789 was to have a profound effect on the future and fortune of the European peasantry, including those that dwelled within Galicia.  With the overthrow of the Bourbon dynasty in France and the establishment of France’s “First Republic,” the European nations, all monarchies, fearful of the spread of popular revolution to their own borders, declared war on France.  A young Corsican officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, by dint of his amazing battlefield successes, was quickly elevated through the military ranks to become the Republic’s commander-in-chief.  As the French army ranged far and wide throughout Europe, defeating their enemies at every turn, the French soldiers spread the watch words of the Revolution, “Liberty, Fraternity, Equality,” giving hope and determination to the oppressed masses of Europe.  Ironically, even after Napoleon’s usurpation of power when he proclaimed himself Emperor of France, his troops still carried the republican message abroad.

Following Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo, the European monarchic powers met at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to dictate terms to France and to restore the order of things to what they were before the French Revolution.  The reactionary Austrian Foreign Minister, Prince Klemens von Metternick, who presided over the Congress, exhorted the delegates to take back to their respective governments the need to stamp out in severe fashion any vestiges of republican sentiment.  As a result of this policy, the oppression of an already oppressed European peasantry was heightened.

By 1848, matters came to a head.  Popular uprisings broke out in urban centers throughout Europe, threatening to overthrow the monarchic governments.  In order to defuse the volatile situation, governments were forced to make concessions to their citizenry, which were extended to the peasantry.  Although this scenario was played out somewhat differently in each country, the end result was the same.  The reactionary decades brought about by Prince Matternick and the Congress of Vienna were greatly ameliorated.  However, the 1848 revolution left enough of the old order intact that would require further revolution to bring about a more equitable society.

In Austria, from the 6^th to the 12^th of March, 1848, members of Vienna’s educated elite such as physicians, professors, teachers and lawyers along with college students circulated petitions that the government provide certain civil liberties to the people.  With the demand for academic freedom, trial by jury, freedom of the press and other civil rights, came the call for a constitutional representative government and the emancipation of the peasant-serfs.  Then on the 13^th of March, things got out of hand when students and riot troops clashed outside the diet building in Vienna.  Fearing the spread of uncontrollable violence, the government asked for and got the resignation of Prince Matternick who since 1821 had been serving as the Austrian chancellor, and who was widely regarded as the architect of all that was harsh and repressive in Austria-Hungary.  At the same time, the government also introduced reforms that provided many of the civil rights demanded by the intelligentsia.  Subsequently, on 15 May, the peasant-serfs were emancipated.  Also in May, Emperor Ferdinand left Austria, later abdicating the throne on 2 December 1848.  He took up residence in Hradcany Palace in Prague, Bohemia, where he remained until his death in 1875.  His nephew, the eighteen-year old Archduke Franz, succeeded Ferdinand as emperor on 2 December.  Franz added Joseph to his name and ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire for the next sixty-eight years as Emperor Franz Joseph.

In Galicia, the 1848 revolution was to have a profound effect upon the lives of the Ukrainians.  Of greatest significance was the 17 April proclamation that effective 17 May 1848, serfdom was to be abolished.  Among the emancipated serf-peasants in the village of Babyntsi were Ilia Huska, Roman Huska’s grandfather, and Petro (Peter) Martyniuk, Yurko (George) and Paraska (Martyniuk) Huska’s grandfather.  And on 7 September 1848, a land patent (deed) was granted to every former serf to the rustical land that he had been previously allotted.  Ilia Huska was granted ownership of the rustical land that he had previously farmed.^lxxxvii  Roman’s father, Mykhailo, who was 25 years old in 1848, was still unmarried – he married in 1857.  Customarily, unmarried adult children continued to reside with their parents, contributing their labor to the total family enterprise.  Therefore, he would have not qualified for a land grant. Paraska and Yurko (George) Martyniuk’s father, Andriej, was born three years later in 1851.  Hence, the grant of rustical land was given to either Andriej’s father or to his grandfather or to both.

As was to be expected, there was a great outcry among the pahns at the loss of control over the rustical lands and an even greater outcry over the loss of corvee.  To compensate the pahns, the imperial government paid them for their rustical lands and their corvee losses out of Austria’s national reserve fund and from the Crownland reserve fund.  The monies thus paid out to the pahns were to be recovered by the government over a period of years by a special state tax that was imposed on the peasant landowners.  This resulted in a doubling of the regular state tax, giving Galicia, the poorest crownland in Austro-Hungary, the dubious reputation of having the highest state tax rate in the empire.  And the peasants paid the special tax for 50 years.  

Shortly before the Huska/Martyniuk/Romashenko emigration, in 1903, the Galician population of 7½ million was 40% Ukrainian, 40% Polish, 10% Jewish, and the remaining 10% was made up of a medley of Magyars (Hungarians), Germans, Slovaks, etc.  Of the 3 million Ukrainians, 80% were concentrated in the eastern region of Galicia, whereas 80% of the Poles were concentrated in the western region.  About 95% of the Ukrainian population was peasant farmers. 

Life in Babyntsi^lxxxviii

                      Hey! Who in the world has a better lot

                      Than he who plows the sacred earth?

                      Than he who falls in debt as deep as the bottomless sea, 

                      Than he who struggles on till driven to auction his land, 

                      Than he who reaps for someone else, 

                      Hey! Who in the world has a better lot?^lxxxix

Roman Huska was born in 1868, Paraska and George (Yurko) Martyniuk in 1878 and 1886 respectively, and John (Ivan) Romashenko in 1882.  At that time, Babyntsi commune (hromada  –  громада), which was in Borshchiv county, consisted of Babyntsi village and the adjoining upland fields which surrounded it.    The commune was located in one of the most fertile areas of the Podillian plateau.  Babyntsi village, located in the deep, steep-sided Nichlava River valley, sat at a height of 924 meters (4,879 feet) above sea level.  The Nichlava flowed southward and emptied into the knee-shaped Dniester River.  At Babyntsi, the Nichlava ranged in depth from four to six feet in low water season, to twelve to sixteen feet in high water season.   The peasant houses were strung out along the length of the river valley for about 4 km (2.5 miles) like beads on a necklace.  [Insert portion of road map showing Babyntsi village configuration.]  Steep trails leading from the village to the upland fields were extremely difficult to negotiate when they were wet.       

Like other Galician villages that had served the seigniorial manor, Babyntsi was essentially a closed community.  Except for the three years of compulsory military service which were spent away from the village by the young men, and the occasional visits to the market places, the Babyntsian peasants had virtually no contact with the outside world, surprisingly even with its neighboring villages.  It was there within Babyntsi that they were born; they labored; they socialized; they loved; they married; they had children; they went to church; they experienced sickness; and they died.  They functioned as an integrated body.  And their purpose was agricultural production. 

A Babyntsi landmark, the Baba rock, which stands on the elevation above the Nichlava valley, reaches back to ancient times.  [Insert Baba rock picture.]  There were several stories circulating among the villagers concerning the rock.  The one most widespread was a legend according to which the rock represented the petrification of a local girl.  To atone for her wicked sins, she had come before the local priest and elders to beg forgiveness.  When she finished her atonement, “someone” maliciously cast her into a stone image that was then left above the village as a warning and to deter others from sinning.  At one time, there had been another stone “Baba” figure.  This “Baba” was affixed to a grand stone platform within the village.  However, according to local myth, the heathen god, Peroon (Перун) destroyed it by hurling a thunder bolt at it.  By the latter part of the 19^th century, only a few rock fragments of the “Baba” remained on what was the lower portion of the platform.

The town (meesti – місті) of Krevche lay 2.4 miles (3.8 km) to the east of Babyntsi village.  On the south, it bordered Pylypche and Kolodribka villages and the Dniester River, which separated it from Bukovyna.  And on the west, it bordered Shuparka and Hudykivtsi villages.  On the other side of the Dniester was the Bukovynian village of Musorivka.  The mid-channel of the Dniester formed the border between Galicia and Bukovyna.^xc

The total communal territory, including the pahn’s manorial estate, was 3028 mo (morgs), which was equivalent to 4,300 a (acres) or 1,741 ha (hectares).  Land owned by the pahn was 1,371 mo (1,947 a or 781 ha), about 45% of the total communal territory.  The pahn’s estate consisted of 765 mo (1,086 a or 436 ha) of tillage (crop land), 59 mo (84 a or 34 ha) of hay meadows and gardens, 155 mo (220 a or 88 ha) of pasturage, and 392 mo (557 a or 233 ha) of forest.  Collectively, the village peasants’ holdings consisted of 1,481 mo (2,103 a or 844 ha) of tillage, 119 mo (169 a or 68 ha) of hay meadows and gardens, and 57 mo (81 a or 33 ha) of pasturage. 

By comparing the land holding figures between those of the pahn and those of the village peasants, two major discrepancies become apparent.  First, even though the peasants’ tillage holdings were almost double that of the pahn’s, all the forestland was owned by the pahn.  And secondly, the pahn’s pasturage holding was nearly three times that of the peasants.  This skewed apportionment of the land was the result of measures taken by the Galician pahns following the abolition of serfdom in 1848.  An important issue that was not addressed by the government at the time of emancipation was the matter of the servitudes, i.e. the use of community pastures and woodlands.  The government left the matter of servitudes control to be resolved by the pahns and the peasants in a manner satisfactory to both parties.  However, this was not to be.  The communal servitudes were now being claimed by the pahn as his personal property as compensation for the loss of rustical lands and peasant corvee.  Throughout Galicia, the servitudes issue became a chronic source of contention, and this was particularly so between the local pahn and the peasants of Babyntsi.  The communal woodlands and pastures, to which they had had unrestricted access prior to emancipation and which they regarded as part of their rustical heritage, were now accessible only through payment to the pahn of either money or (in most instances) their labor.  Through control of access to servitudes, the pahn forced the peasants to work his estate, a de facto re-imposition of the detested corvee.  There was widespread protest among the peasants across Galicia as there was in Babyntsi.  The protests continued unabated over the next decade.  In order to resolve disputes between pahns and peasants regarding servitudes, the imperial government in 1858 established special courts.

In Babyntsi, the servitudes issue was the principal cause of antagonism and hostility between the local pahn and the peasants.  The hostility continued unabated on both sides right up to the time of the Huska/Martyniuk/Romashenko emigration in 1903.  In 1897, in retaliation for work stoppage on his estate, the Babyntsian pahn ordered his servants to plough up the access roads leading from the village to the peasants’ fields on the uplands.^xci  Then in 1900, the Babyntsi reeve (viit) was ordered arrested because he had supported the villagers during another work stoppage on the pahn’s estate.^xcii  The Babyntsi commune sued the local pahn on more than one occasion, but in each case the county court, which sat in Borshchiv and Mel’nytsia-Podil’ska (Мельниця-Подільска), ruled in the pahn’s favor.   

With restricted access to what had been the community forest and the community pasture, peasants were now faced with critical shortages of fuel wood and pasturage for their cattle and sheep.  As a result, the villagers’ primary fuel for stove heating was straw and cattle dung.  Although this may have sufficed for the summer season, wintertime required wood fuel to provide a more sustained heating.  On a number of occasions, Roman Huska led his ox to the banks of the Dniester River to an area where in earlier years the old oak forest had been subjected to logging.  There he would grub out several huge oak stumps and haul them back to Babyntsi where he would cut and split them up to be used as winter fuel.^xciii  

Around the turn of the 20^th century, the local Babyntsian pahn ordered his overseer (foreman) to procure the necessary oak wood from the forest in order to manufacture new furniture for the manor house.  The overseer obtained the services of four villagers and sent them with the manor’s chief cabinetmaker^xciv who was to select a single oak tree which would provide the necessary wood for the furniture.  The cabinetmaker chose a massive tree, perhaps five or six feet in diameter, and instructed the men in the manner the tree was to be harvested.  The tree was to be grubbed out in order that as much of the wood as possible be garnered.  So, the four of them attacked the tree.  They dug around the roots, cutting them with minimal wastage.  When the tree was brought down, its huge limbs were carefully detached and saved.  Only the very small branches were removed and stacked in the waste pile along with the leaves and smaller roots that could not be utilized.  Because of the huge size of the tree, the waste pile was huge, too.  This project took the men a full day’s work to do.  The manor’s pay for their labor was the waste pile, divided among the four men.^xcv  This incident typifies the contemptuous and exploitive attitude the manor held towards the village workers.

Another incident, which also illustrates the typical manorial attitude towards the peasants, took place in a different village in Borshchiv county.  During the harvest season, the villagers were employed by the local pahn to harvest his fields.  Men were paid the equivalent of 25 cents per day and women 15 cents per day.  The men advanced into the field of standing grain with scythes and sickles to cut the stocks of grain and lay them down on the ground.  The women came behind the men, twisting handfuls of stocks into wreathes, which they then used as ropes to bind the grain into small sheaves.  The sheaves were set on the ground to be picked up later by horse cart or ox cart and hauled to a special area on the pahn’s estate.  There, the sheaves were set out to dry for a number of weeks.  When the grain was sufficiently dry, it was threshed by means of hand flails.  The whole operation was under the supervision of the pahn’s overseer.  One year during the harvesting of the pahn’s crop, some women who worked in the pahn’s fields, found it necessary to occasionally return to their houses in the village, a short distance away, to attend to household matters.  The common footwear at that time were felt valanaki, which covered the entire foot and came up to just below the knee.  One young woman, returning from her house to resume her field duties on the pahn’s land, with eyes cast down to ensure safe passage across the field, spied the occasional heads of grain that had broken off from some sheaves.  Like the Biblical gleaners on Boaz’s land, she stooped and picked up a few heads of grain and tucked them into the tops of her valanaki.  Unknown to her, she was observed by the overseer.  The pahn of the manor was on location at the time, and the overseer went to him and reported what he had seen.  The pahn instructed the overseer to bring the woman to him.  When she arrived with great trepidation, the pahn ordered her to turn down the tops of her valanaki, which she did.  From the tops of her valanaki, a small handful of heads of grain fell out onto the ground.  The pahn asked her what she had intended to do with them.  She replied that she had intended to take them back to her house and use them for making bread for her family.  The pahn said, “That is stealing!”  And as punishment, she was forced to work the entire following week without pay.^xcvi

The native soil of Babyntsi was chernozem, which produced splendid plant growth.  On the uplands where the fields were, the constant howling of the winds made it difficult to cope with, while down below in the valley, where the village was, all was peaceful and quiet.  No fences were used to separate the individual fields.  The holdings were simply staked out at the corners.  The width of a plough’s furrow, which ran along the edge of the field, was the marker that separated one peasant’s holding from another.

In Babyntsi village, there were 229 small two-room, clay-plastered, straw thatched houses (хати), which had a drab appearance.  In 1872, when Roman was four years old, fire destroyed 50 houses.  The loss of personal property was immense.  And a number of people died in the fire’s raging flames.  There were several better quality buildings in the village, namely, the grist mill, a wooden tavern located on the edge of Babyntsi on the road to Krevche, the Greek Catholic priest’s residence, and a new masonry Greek Catholic parish church, the Holy Trinity Church.^xcvii 

The priest’s residence was made of wood and was covered with straw thatch.  For  his exclusive use, the priest received a parish grant of 40 mo (57 a or 23 ha) of arable land and 8 mo (11 a or 5 ha) of meadows and gardens.  Included in his income was a parish salary obtained through a tax levied on the parishioners and a 380 gulden^xcviii government salary.  The priest was also able to supplement his income by receiving payment for certain sarcramental services such as marriages, funerals, baptisms, and confirmations.  Invariably, the income from these sacremental fees greatly exceeded his government salary.^xcix

In 1874, there were 1181 persons living in Babyntsi.  The village population consisted of 1 priest, 3 private officials, 4 soldiers (gendarmes), 128 landowners, 7 transient workers, 5 artisans, 258 laborers and servants, and 775 women and children.  There were 62 surnames of Babyntsi’s residents, which included those of Huska, Martyniuk and Romashenko.^c  All the villagers, except for 50, belonged to the Greek Catholic Holy Trinity parish.  Of the 50, 43 were Roman Catholic and 7 were Orthodox.  The churchwarden resided in Borshchiv.  The Roman Catholic parish was in Krevche.  The county court and the post office were about 1 km (.6 mi) away in Mel’nytsia-Podil’ska.  The nearest market, the Krevchian market, was located on the road to Krevche, about one-half mile (.8 km) from Babyntsi.  The nearest train station was in Borshchiv.  The most tax paid out in 1874 was by Jarema Zahurtney – 8 gulden.  The second highest tax paid out was by Semen Huska, Jakiv Stehar, and Tanaska Huska – 7 gulden.  The average tax paid out was 5 gulden.  In 1868, the year of Roman Huska’s birth, the reeve (mayor) of Babyntsi was Wasyl Wasylynchuk.

With the land reform legislation of 1868, which removed the hindrances that had been placed previously on the parcellation or subdivision of rustical land, the peasants were now free to subdivide their property.  In Babyntsi, a peasant’s land was divided equally among his children, both male and female, at the time of his death, except for his married daughters.  They received their share as a dowry at the time of their marriage.  The oldest son received the family house and had the responsibility of providing for his widowed mother and any younger siblings who were still at home.  In Roman’s Huska case, because he was the only son in a family of 6 children, and because his father, Mykhailo, died when he was only 3 years old, the family house was held in trust for him until he came of age. As a result of the splintering (subdivision) of peasant estates, each succeeding generation received less land than the previous one, thus making the farming operation less and less viable. When Roman and Paraska married in 1895, their combined upland holdings amounted to 4 morgs.  Roman’s inheritance was one-sixth of his father, Mykhailo’s, holding, and Paraska’s dowry was one-quarter of her father, Andriej’s, holding.  Roman’s parcel was located on one side of Babyntsi, while Paraska’s, which was the larger of the two parcels, was located at a great distance from Roman’s, on the other side of the village.^ci  Unlike the pahn’s manorial lands, which were compact and adjacent to the manor house (palace), the peasant’s land usually consisted of a number of small plots and strips scattered about the uplands.  The peasant’s travel time between his house down in the valley to his various minute holdings reduced his working time in his fields. 

Alcohol was an important part of the social life of Babyntsi, as it was in all Galician villages.  It was used in the celebration of life’s milestones such as birth, marrige, and death.  It was used in times of illness for its alleged curative powers.  It was used to alleviate the hardships of their lives.  But it was used mostly to promote good fellowship and friendship among the villagers.  On Sundays, the villagers met and socialized briefly at the church before and after mass.  On weekdays, however, that venue was not available to them.  And because the peasant houses were so small, it was impractical to have social gatherings at one’s place, even for a small group.  The tavern, then, became the hub of the villager’s social life.  The pahn, having a vested interest in the peasants’ consumption of alcohol, encouraged its usage.  Centuries earlier, during Galicia’s Polish reign, the ius propinandi or  propination law awarded the pahn, the monopoly to manufacture and sell whiskey and beer in his manor’s domain.  The peasants, however, were allowed to make their own wine.  When Austria annexed Galicia in 1772, the imperial government allowed the pahns to retain their monopoly, but taxed their revenues.  Vodka and beer were the staple beverages produced in the manor’s distillery and brewery, and sold in the pahn’s village tavern.  In some villages, peasants who worked on the manor, were given the option of receiving payment either in cash or in liquor vouchers, which could be redeemed at the tavern.  Although it was technically illegal, nevertheless, many villagers made their own vodka and beer.  In many families, excessive drinking became a problem that served to exacerbate an already difficult life.  Drunken brawls frequently occurred at fairs and markets.  Paraska and Yurko’s father Andriej, drank excessively.  As a result when Paraska married Roman Huska, she limited the amount that he drank.^cii  Drunkeness in southern Podillia, which included Borshchiv county, reached alarming proportions in the latter part of the 19^th century.  A temperance movement arose to deal with the crisis, which in many villages was headed by the local priest.

In order to address the high illiteracy rate among the peasant population, in May 1873, the Galician Sejm (legislative assembly) enacted legislation mandating compulsory elementary school education for children between the ages of 7 and 13.^ciii  This legislation flew in the face of the local pahn’s vested interests, which was to keep the peasants ill-informed and ignorant.  Although a few villages – very few! – in Borshchiv county had a public school at the time, Babyntsi did not.  School districts consisting of one or more communes, were charged with the responsibilitly and cost of establishing village schools.  However, in many of the poorer communes such as those in Borshchiv county, there was a great reluctance to incur the cost of building a school and hiring a teacher.  And although the Sejm had passed the education law in 1873, the state authorities, initially, did little to enforce the law.  As a result, in Babyntsi, the building of a village school was delayed to the extent that Roman Huska and others of his generation never went to school.  However, the school was in place by the time Paraska and Yurko Martyniuk were of age.  Hence, they both attended school and were literate.   

Almost all the Babyntsian villagers were engaged in agriculture and livestock raising.  In 1874, there were 98 horses, 302 oxen, 217 cows and 604 sheep, along with swine and the usual large numbers of chickens and geese.  Babyntsi’s breed of cattle was the bos taurus primigenitus.  They were large gray cattle with a strong stride.  They made excellent oxen.  However, they were primarily beef cattle, which produced exceptional meat, but only small amounts of milk.  The local sheep were predominately black.  Their wool was used for winter clothing such as coats and pants.  Their hides were used for hats and coats.  Some sheep’s milk was used, but for the most part, the villagers relied on cow’s milk.  Cattle and sheep were seldom slaughtered for domestic consumption.  They were usually traded or sold at the Krevchian market.  With swine, it was a different matter.  Galician pigs were famous throughout Europe, particularly in Germany, for their excellent meat and tasty pork fat.  The villagers traded most of their pigs at the market, but they also kept a liberal number for their own use.  Along with live pigs, they sold pork fat at the marketplace.  One form of pork fat, salynyna (сальнина), was considered a delicacy to be used only on special occasions.  They also stored salt pork in large barrels for their own consumption.  Prices varied at the marketplace for livestock, depending on the animals’ size, weight, age, etc., but the following rates can be considered average: 1 horse – 100 to 150 g (gulden); 1 cow – 25 g; 1 mature pig – 10 g; 1 lamb – 2 g.  Poultry (chickens and geese) – solely the woman’s responsibility – along with their products such as eggs, feathers, and goose grease were also sold at the market.  Only on special days would a chicken or a goose be butchered for the family table, or eggs be used.  Once sufficient feathers were used for perenna ticking, the rest were marketed.  Small flocks of poultry were the norm.  Roman and Paraska probably had about two dozen chickens with a smaller number of geese.  The poultry were given free range of the village, to move about scavenging for food.  They were also fed any scrap leftovers from the family’s table.  They intermingled within the village with other peasants’ fowl, but they always returned to their rightful owner’s place at night to roost.  In that way, the peasant was able to retain control over his flock.  The livestock and poultry part of the peasants’ mixed farming enterprise was very lucrative.  It accounted for about half of the villagers’ total income.

As in the care and management of poultry, tending the gardens was also “woman’s work.”  The peasant’s garden was located adjacent the house, either out back or alongside of it.  A wide variety of vegetables such as onions, radishes, turnips, carrots, peas, parsley, cucumbers, beets, beans, maize (corn), cabbage, parsnips, cauliflower, celery, small melons, and potatoes – along with different fruits and flowers – were grown.  Berries, which included raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, currants, and loganberries, were grown in the garden as well.  Spices and medicinal plants such as dill, caraway, garlic, anise, fennel, and poppies were also planted.  Part of the garden was reserved for orchard trees, which produced such fruits as apples, plums, pears, apricots, and cherries.  In earlier days, grapes had also been grown in Babyntsi.

As extensive as his village garden was, the peasant, nonetheless, found it necessary to use his fields in the uplands to grow what were normally considered to be garden crops in order to meet the family’s dietary needs and to trade at the marketplace.  Wheat, oats, barley, and rye were the principle grain crops, but buckwheat and maize, two other grains, were also cultivated.  Because of the importance of straw for fuel and thatching, grain that produced long stems was cultivated.  Planted between the widely spaced rows of maize, were sunflowers, tobacco,^civ hemp, and such garden items as beans, pumpkins, and beets.  Cabbage and potatoes, the mainstay of the villager’s diet, were planted in separate plots in the upland fields.  Caraway and poppies, along with anise and fennel, which both produced licorice-flavored seeds, were also cultivated in the upland fields, primarily to be sold in the marketplace.  The productive capacity of the land allowed the peasants to sell a considerable portion of their crop at the Krevchian marketplace.  However, prolonged drought and/or early frost often resulted in reduced yields.

Bee keeping among the villagers provided them with their principal sweetener, honey, and bee’s wax that was used to make candles their principal source of evening lighting.  The honey and bee’s wax were also marketed and proved to be very lucrative.  However, what was once a prosperous activity, was on the decline.  Perhaps the manorial entitlement of one-tenth of the village’s honey production – a carry-over from feudal times – coupled with the resentment the villagers felt towards the pahn regarding servitudes and other issues proved to be the disincentive in their bee keeping enterprise.

Outbreaks of disease with accompanying raging fever and respiratory ailments were frequent in Babyntsi.  As a result, life expectancy in the village was short – about 45 years – and the child mortality rate was exceedingly high.  Imperial government records show that 64,849 persons in the Austrian empire died from smallpox in 1873, with the highest mortality rate occurring in Galicia’s two poorest counties, Borshchiv and its neighbor, Zalishchyky.  One such plague in earlier times resulted in the burial of a large portion of the Babyntsi village population.  Recurring cholera epidemics swept through Galicia in 1848, 1855, 1866, 1872-3, 1886, and 1893-5, with extremely high rates among the villages of Borshchiv county.  Besides smallpox and cholera, Babyntsi was beset by rabies and tuberculosis.  The usual childhood diseases such as diphtheria, measles, whooping cough, and scarlet fever took a heavy toll on children’s lives.  There was no hospital, health clinic or care facility, nor a doctor in Babyntsi.  Therefore, in times of sickness, the villagers were left to their own resources.  Often they resorted to the services of the resident witch doctor or sorcerer (vorozhky) who with incantations and noxious potions, made from poisonous mushrooms and the like, attempted to treat the patient.  The local residents had to rely on folk medicines with varying degrees of success in the treatment of their ailments.  A variety of salves, infusions, plasters, and potions were used.  A number of plants with “known” therapeutic qualities were grown in their gardens; others were picked wild in the forest or in the pasture.  St. John’s wort, rue, poppy, salvia, tansy, mint, absinthe, melissa, and the ubiquitous garlic, for the most part made up the natural medicines kit.  To serve the women of Babyntsi giving birth, mid wifery was practiced by a number of local village women.

In the latter part of the 19^th century, the imperial government attempted to deal with the high mortality rate in Galicia through public education and increased access to medical care.  The Austrian government addressed the twin scourges of cholera and smallpox.  Cholera was contained and virtually eliminated from southern Podillia, as was smallpox as a result of a massive vaccination campaign.  Health officials went into local communities and promoted improved sanitation and diet.  At the time, the most common foods eaten by the peasants were potatoes, cabbage, beets, and corn.  They were urged to change to a more varied and healthful diet by including such things as eggs, white bread, red meat, poultry, and more milk.  The campaign enjoyed a high degree of success, and Galicia’s death rate was significantly lowered.^cv

The success of the Austrian government’s health campaign resulted in a surge in Galicia’s population in the late 19^th century, which produced a greatly expanded work force.  At the same time, the splintering effect on peasant land holdings brought about by the 1868 land reform law made most peasants farming operations non-viable.  The village peasant was forced to seek supplemental employment.  To make matters worse for the villagers, with the exception of a single tobacco-processing factory, eastern Galicia was without industry, which might have provided them with manufacturing jobs.  As hateful as the prospect was, they were forced to work for the manor, which “used” them and abused them at every turn.  The pahns took advantage of this new increased labor pool by lowering the wages paid to the peasants.  In some manors the pay was as low as 5 cents per day. 

It was against this background, then, that the Andriej Martyniuk and the Mykhailo Huska families were placed.

The Andriej Martyniuk and Mykhailo Huska Families of Babyntsi 

Andriej Martyniuk was born on 12 December 1851.  His father was Petro Martyniuk and his mother was Paraska Lukey.  In 1872, at the age of 21, he married Wasylyna Sapach, daughter of Yurko Sapach and Martha Huska.  They took up residence in House No. 36 (Число дому or Numerus Domus 36).  Andriej and Wasylyna had eight children, four of whom survived into adulthood.  The two oldest, Ivan (b. 30 July 1873) and Petro (b. 2 July 1875) died in their infancy, i.e. in the first year of their birth.  The third born, Paraska (b. 24 October 1878), survived and later married Roman Huska.  The next two both died in childhood.  Theodor (b. 22 February 1881) died in his third year on 1 December 1884, and Maria (b. 1 May 1883) died in her sixth year in 1889.  The three youngest survived into adulthood.  Yurko (b. 17 April 1886) emigrated to Canada and later married Wasylyna Romashenko.  Ivan (b. 1 September 1888)^cvi remained in Babyntsi and later was married and raised a family.  The youngest, Anna (b. 16 August 1892), also stayed in Babyntsi and later married Joseph Yatiuk.

Mykhailo Huska was born in 1823, the son of Ilia Huska and his wife, Maria.  In 1857, Mykhailo married Anna Jarema.  They resided in house number 113.  Mykhailo and Anna had six children, five daughters and one son, who was the youngest.  Salameya (b. 1855), the oldest married Nykyfor Romashenko.  Anastasia (b. 9 November 1857) was the second oldest. The third daughter was Maria (b. 29 August 1860).  The fourth, Wasylyna (b. 1863) was married in 1884.  The youngest daughter, Paraska, was born 14 April 1865.  Roman, the only son, was born on 7 August 1868.  Mykhailo’s farming operation entailed about 8 mo (12 a or 4.8 ha).^cvii  In 1871, Mykhailo died at the age of 48, leaving his widow, Anna to raise the five children who ranged in age from 16 to 3 (Roman).  As the years transpired, the daughters, when they came of age, married, leaving their widowed mother and their brother in the family house.

When Roman reached the age of 19, he was asked by local authorities to report to Borshchiv for a military recruitment examination.  All men of the peasant and working class faced possible induction into the army following the examination at age 19.  However, the actual induction age was 20.  Middle class (gentry) and upper class (nobility) men also served in the army, but in their case, it was a matter of choice.  In 1888, at the age of 20, he was called up to serve in the Austrian army.  The compulsory military service was for three years.  Although board and room, uniforms, boots, and various other things were provided, the recruits were not paid a salary.  Compulsory service was widely resented, not because their officers mistreated the young men, but because the absence of their labor for three years for their home farming enterprise increased their families’ hardship.  This was particularly true in Roman’s case, given that he was the only son and his father was dead.

Roman was assigned to the kavallerie corps (cavalry).^cviii  During his three years as a germeiner (private)  in the Austrian cavalry, Roman learned very little German, except for the basic military commands such as “mount up,” “forward,” “halt,” etc. along with the inevitable expletives.^cix  The troopers’ immediate superiors were the NCO’s (sergeants, etc.) with whom they had the most dealings.  However, the stables where they housed their horses and the horses themselves were regularly inspected by commissioned officers.  The stables had to be immaculate.  And in inspecting the troopers’ horses, the officer donned a white silk glove on one hand and passed it everywhere over the horse’s body, including under the tail. If so much as a speck showed up on the silk glove, the offending trooper was cited and punished.  In three years of military service, Roman was never cited.  Roman’s service was done during peacetime, so, fortunately, he was spared military action.  Upon completion of his active duty in 1891, he was placed on 9 years of reserve duty, subject to active recall should the need arise, usually in the case of war.

When Roman returned to Babyntsi from the army, he spent several years working his small land holding of about 1.5 mo.  The family house and plot in Babyntsi were his, given that he was the only son in the family.  His mother, Anna, continued to live with him, as was the custom.

Meanwhile, in the Martyniuk house, Andriej’s wife, Wasylyna, took sick and died in 1894.  Andriej was left with one teenaged daughter, Paraska 16, and three younger children, Yurko 8, Ivan 6, and Anna 2.  The following year, on 12 November 1895, Paraska married Roman Huska and took up residence in his house.  Then two and one-half months later, on 28 January 1896, Andriej, now age 44, married his second wife, Kateryna, age 40.  Kateryna was probably a widow from a previous marriage.  For a considerable portion of the 7½ year span of their relationship, before Yurko left for Canada, he and his step-mother, Kateryna, were deeply alienated.  As a result, he spent a great deal of time away from his own home, over at Roman and Paraska’s house where he came to look upon his older sister as a surrogate mother.

Roman and Paraska in Babyntsi

The plot of land in the village that held Roman and Paraska’s house, outbuildings, and their huge garden and orchard, on its north side, butted up against Wasyl and Anna Huska’s village plot.^cx  This was extremely fortuitous for Paraska because Anna (nee Sapach) was her aunt, her mother’s younger sister.  Wasyl and Anna had three surviving children, Yurko and Paraska’s cousins: Mykhailo (b. 1883), Maria, and Semen (b. 1899) who is more commonly known as Sam.  Years later when Sam was established as a farmer in Canada, he still remembered graphically the departure of Roman, Paraska and their three sons in May 1903.  Roman and Paraska’s neighbor on the west side of their property was another villager by the name of Roman Huska who was somewhat younger.  The two Roman Huskas were not related, but were good friends.  In later years, the younger Roman Huska also emigrated to Canada and homesteaded in the Nampa area of the Peace River region.  He reconnected with Sam with whom he shared many fond memories of Babyntsi and his neighbors, the other Roman Huska and Paraska.  Kitty-corner, i.e. northwest, of Roman and Paraska’s plot, were Wasyl Tanasichuk and his wife Nastia (nee Huska).  When Sam was orphaned at a young age, the Tanasichuks raised him.

For Roman and Paraska, their eight years of married life in Babyntsi was an unrelenting struggle.  Prior to his marriage in 1895, Roman’s one and a half morgs was inadequate for his needs.  He had no alternative but to seek employment at the only place available, the pahn’s estate.  For a day’s labor consisting of fourteen to eighteen hours, Roman might have received during harvest time 10 to 15 small sheaves of grain.^cxi  At other times, he might have earned 25 kreuzers (10 cents) or 50 kreuzers (20 cents) a day depending on the season.  In summertime with its longer days, the men generally earned around 65 kreuzers (25 cents) per day, and the women about 38 kreuzers (15 cents) per day.  The manor hired children to tend the estate’s cattle in exchange for food and shelter.  Although after their marriage Paraska’s 2½ morgs dowry increased the total land holding to 4 morgs, the farming operation was still far from being viable.  In order to supplement their income, Roman had to continue working for the manor, which had “first call” on his labor – before he worked on his own land – particularly at spring seeding time and at harvest time.  

When not occupied on the pahn’s estate, Roman worked his own fields with a single ox.  As previously mentioned, Roman and Paraska’s holding consisted of two upland fields on opposite ends of the village.  The 1 ½ morgs field that Roman had inherited from his father was a long narrow sliver of land.  It was so narrow, in fact, that Roman, when working with the ox, coming to the end of a sweep, had to pass onto his neighbor’s land in order to turn the ox around.  Roman worked his fields with his ox mostly by himself, but occasionally, when he had to handle a field appliance being drawn by the ox such as a plow, he required the help of another person, usually Paraska, to lead the ox.  Roman used a light wooden plow in the field, which was difficult to keep in the ground and which did a poor job of turning the soil over.^cxii  Much superior steel plows were being imported into eastern Galicia in the late 19^th century, but only the pahns, the priests, and the occasional well-to-do peasant could afford them.  Crop yields were low in eastern Galicia in comparison to other parts of Galicia.  Therefore, they were heavily reliant on their gardens, their livestock, their poultry, and their pahn.  With the abolition of serfdom in 1848, a market economy evolved in eastern Galicia as elsewhere in Galicia.  Although the Babyntsian peasants were now able to sell (or trade) their products at the Krevchian market, prices paid for agricultural goods were low.  On the other hand, prices for products that they could not produce themselves such as salt, tea, cutlery, rice, cotton cloth,^cxiii knives, saws, axes, shovels and spades, scythes, sickles, etc. were exceedingly high.

In those early years in Babyntsi, Roman and Paraska were blessed with three sons, Mykhailo (b. 1897), Ivan (b. 1900), and Dmytro (b. 1902).

Emigration

In Russian Ukraine, Taras Shevchenko (b. 1814 – d. 1861), Ukraine’s greatest poet and ultra-patriot, began writing his poetry in the Ukrainian language.  Many of his poems praised traditional Ukrainian culture.  Others were critical of the autocratic control of the Ukrainian serf-peasants^cxiv by their lords, the Russian boyars.  In many ways the relationship between the Russian boyars and their serfs paralleled that of Galicia’s Polish pahns and the village peasants.  In the 1860s, within Galicia, the writings of Shevchenko served to rouse a dormant awareness of national identity among a small group of Ukrainian intellectuals.  They responded by establishing various cultural organizations with the purpose of promoting Ukrainian culture, by means of education, throughout Galicia.  One such organization, Prosvita (Enlightenment), established in 1868 in L’viv, extended its operations into eastern Galicia.  Posvita was the first organization to set up reading clubs ((chytalnia – читалня) in the Galician villages.  The clubs generally met on Sundays after church service and on holidays.  Initially, the local tavern served as the meeting place.  Later, a special building was constructed for that purpose.  A literate peasant or the priest would read out loud from newspapers, pamphlets, etc. provided by the cultural organization.  In this way, the villagers received information about new, improved farming techniques, political concerns, civil rights, cultural matters, and world affairs.  It was through the reading clubs that the peasants became aware that there was free land in Canada.^cxv  However, not every village had a reading club.  For example, there was no reading club in Babyntsi in 1898, but there was one in Pylypche, which was located on Babyntsi’s southeast border, and one in Krevche.  It was probably through social and commercial interaction with the residents of these two villages, particularly at the Krevchian market, that the Babyntsians were made aware of Canada.  In any event, the “free lands” of Canada became the hot topic of conversation in Babyntsi as it was throughout the villages of eastern Galicia and Bukovyna.

With the realization that better economic opportunities for themselves and for their children could be found abroad, in Canada, many Bukovynans and eastern Galicians, including many in Babyntsi, seriously considered immigration to Canada.  The Austrian government passed a law in 1862 guaranteeing personal liberty to all its citizens, which included the right to emigrate.  All that was required from a villager contemplating emigration was a passport obtained from the starostvo, the head of the county council, and where applicable, the fulfillment of the compulsory military service requirement.  The pahns, who saw this as an attack on their labor pool, were opposed to the legislation at the time of its enactment and became even more hostile towards it when emigration from Galicia and Bukovyna became widespread after 1895.^cxvi  The Austrian government, on the other hand, was prepared to allow the emigration of what it considered surplus peasant population.

While the reading clubs were publicizing homestead opportunities in Canada, the Canadian Ministry of the Interior, the branch of government responsible for immigration, actively engaged in recruiting agriculturists (farmers) from Galicia.  The Canadian authorities were aware that the Ukrainian peasants were accustomed to hardship and to working for very long hours with very little remuneration.  This, to their way of thinking, made them ideal pioneers.  The Ministry also made contact with German steamship company ticket agents, primarily in Hamburg and Bremerhaven.  It offered the agents a bonus of $5 per qualified agriculturist delivered to a Canadian port of entry, plus $2 for each additional family member, i.e. wife and children.  The agents then employed sub-agents^cxvii from Galicia and Bukovyna.  These sub-agents went into the Bukovynan and Galician villages and actively recruited potential settlers.  Their greatest success was in Bukovyna and eastern Galicia, the poorest reaches of the Empire.  Then in 1899, the Canadian government entered into a contract with the newly created NATC (North Atlantic Trading Company),^cxviii which granted the company the monopoly to recruit settlers from continental Europe, including Galicia and Bukovyna.  To qualify as a settler, a person had to be at least 18 years old, male (or a widowed female), in possession of $100 Canadian, and have an agricultural background.

The sub-agents, who were in the forefront of recruitment, used contacts in the villages within their territory of operation, perhaps the reeve or a commune councilor.  They visited their villages on a regular basis.  When a villager informed the contact person that he wished to emigrate, he was brought to the sub-agent, upon his arrival in the village, who then explained to him the emigration procedure.  After familiarizing himself with the villager’s circumstances, the sub-agent decided whether the villager qualified as a settler or not.  If, in his estimation, he did, the sub-agent was prepared to sell him (upon receipt of the money) railway tickets from the nearest train station to a German seaport, usually Hamburg or Bremerhaven, and the ship’s tickets or vouchers from the German port to a Canadian port of entry, usually Halifax or Quebec City.  But first the villager had to travel to the county center to obtain passports for all members or the family from the starostvo’s office. 

For Roman and Paraska, life continued to be a struggle.  Among their other concerns, Dmytro’s birth in 1902 raised a new one.^cxix  Paraska was only 24 years old, and she already had three children.  How many more children would she have, another three, another five, or more?  When the subdivision of their 4 morgs among their children took place, how much would each child get?^cxx  Although the Lukeys had immigrated to Canada in 1900 (Peter in 1898), they kept in touch with their relatives back in Babyntsi through correspondence.  They painted a very bright picture of life in Canada compared to life in Babyntsi.  Shortly after Dmytro’s birth, Roman had to call on Paraska to lead the ox in the field while he handled the plow.^cxxi  Paraska could leave her two older boys, Mykhailo and Ivan, in the care of a neighbor, probably her aunt, Anna Huska (nee Sapach), but Dmytro was a problem since he was still nursing.  Paraska had to carry him from the house, out of the village, and into the field on the uplands.  Once there, while Roman handled the plow, she had to lead the ox by one hand, and carry Dmytro on the other arm, stopping occasionally to nurse him.  Not given to complaining normally, this one time she said to Roman, “It’s so hard here!  Let’s go to Canada!”  Conservative by nature, Roman at first balked at the prospect of emigrating, but eventually agreed to go.  When word got out among the family concerning Roman and Paraska’s decision, Paraska’s brother, Yurko, asked to go with them.  He was 16 years old at the time, in 1902, and would be eligible for the dreaded military draft in three years’ time; something from which he wanted to escape.  Also, economic prospects were much brighter for him in Canada than in Babyntsi.  And, whatsmore, he would be out of reach of his stepmother, Kateryna.  Roman’s nephew, Ivan Romashenko, also wished to accompany them.  He too was looking for better economic opportunities.  His father, Nykyfor, who had been the mail carrier between the post office in Mel’nytsia-Podil’ska and Babyntsi village, had died in 1899.  It was Ivan’s plan to immigrate to Canada, then to bring his mother and his two sisters to Canada when he had acquired the necessary money.

In order to finance the immigration to Canada, Roman and Paraska had to sell their property.  In all likelihood, their extended family and their neighbors had the first opportunity to purchase their livestock, farming implements and tools, and household effects.  What family and friends did not buy would have been sold at the Krevchian market.  Because of its shortage, farmland was in great demand and fetched a high price.  According to Dr. Oleskiw, it sold for about $80 an acre on average.  It, too, was first offered to family members, then to other villagers.  Whoever the buyer might have been, he would not have had the ready cash.  He would have had to borrow the money.  The sale of the village plot with the house, outbuildings, and garden/orchard on it brought considerable money to Roman and Paraska.  Dr. Oleskiw estimated, on the average, the village plot sold for about $120.

Once the liquidation of their property had been completed and the passports procured from the starostvo’s office in Borshchiv, Roman could proceed with making the necessary arrangements with the sub-agent.  The immigrating party was given train tickets for rail travel from Borshchiv to Hamburg and ship’s tickets for passage from Hamburg to Halifax.^cxxii  Railway tickets or vouchers from Halifax to Grandview, if not purchased from the sub-agent at the time, would have to be purchased in Halifax upon arrival.  Total transportation costs, including rail and ocean passage per adult, from eastern Galician villages such as Babyntsi to western Canada was $60, as calculated by Dr. Oleskiw.  It was now springtime, 1903.

On the designated day, after the exchange of many sorrowful good-byes between them and their Babyntsian family and friends, the emigrants were transported to Borshchiv, probably by horse and wagon, to board the train for Hamburg.  At the railway station in Borshchiv, which was the terminus of a short subsidiary line to Skala (Скала), they were met with other emigrants who had been recruited from other county villages.  A guide, hired by the sub-agent, was there to accompany them on the two-day journey to deal with any exigencies that might arise such as bribing border guards. 

From Borshchiv, the train traveled the 25 km branch line to Skala, which lay on the north-east on the west bank of the Zbruch River.  From there, the train proceeded north-westerly along the 40 km branch to Chortkiv (Чорків) on the main line.  From Chortkiv, the train passed through such centers as Buchach (Бучач), Halych                                                               

(Галич), L’viv (Львів), Krakow (Краков), Oderberg, Berlin, Uelzen before finally reaching Hamburg.

At Oderburg, the German border crossing, the Galician emigrants were subjected to a thorough medical examination before being permitted to enter Germany.  The German authorities were somewhat paranoid about the influx of Galician and Bukovynan emigrants into their territory because of what had happened 11 years earlier.  In 1892, a horrendous cholera epidemic hit Hamburg.  The first case was diagnosed in 15 August.  The epidemic raged for only 10 weeks, but 160,000 people were infected, and 86,000 died.  Although public health officials determined that contaminated drinking water was the cause of the outbreak, state authorities mistakenly believed that the Galician and the Bukovynan emigants were somehow to blame.  As a consequence, health inspection stations were set up at every crossing from Galicia into Germany.  The steamship companies in Bremerhaven and Hamburg, which were engaged in recruiting immigrants to North America, were required to bear the costs of erecting and operating the stations.

When the train arrived in Hamburg, the emigrants were taken directly to the “Emigration City” on Vedel Island where they waited for the embarkation day of the S.S. Bulgaria on which they were booked to sail.

Our narrative now returns to Saskatchewan where the Huska/Martyniuks had established themselves in the summer of 1904.

Saskatchewan – The First Years 

1904 was mostly spent by Roman, George and John in establishing a “home base” on Roman’s land.   It wasn’t until 1905, the province of Saskatchewan’s inaugural year that George was able to devote an appreciable amount of time to his own homestead, and for John to file his entry to homestead a few miles westward.

The following spring, in 1905, Roman and George began the arduous task of clearing the land by means of a process known as “grubbing.”  A special tool called a grub hoe, which had a heavy hoe on one side and a narrow axe on the other, was used.  The hoe side was used to dig around the roots of a tree; then the axe side was used to cut the roots.  Next, a logging chain was attached as high up the tree that one could reach.  Then the tree was pulled over by the ox.  In this manner, that year, Roman and George both cleared 2 acres on their respective homesteads.^cxxiii  The cleared land was then “broken,” i.e. received its first plowing, by means of a single-share breaking plow drawn by the ox.  The roots, which lay strewn on the newly broken land, were picked by hand and placed alongside the field, to be burnt at a later date.  However, neither Roman nor George cropped any land that year.  Also in March 1905, George undertook to build his own house.^cxxiv  His log house at 13 feet by 30 feet or 390 square feet was considerably larger than Roman and Paraska’s 288 square feet domicile.  No doubt, the time that George spent in the cramped quarters of the Huska house convinced him that a larger living area was most desirable.

While the men worked on the land, Paraska tended to the “woman’s work.”  Besides providing for all the needs of her three young children, she cooked all the meals, washed clothes, tended her large garden, milked the cow(s), fed the pig(s), and did countless other chores.  In late summer and fall, on a Sunday, the men’s day of rest, she would leave the children with them and grasping the hem of her voluminous apron, draw it up to her waist to form a huge receptacle, she would range far and wide, picking hazelnuts, wild berries such as cranberries, raspberries, strawberries, saskatoons, gooseberries, and mushrooms – peetpanke (                  ) and smoorzhi (             ).  

One day, she decided to deal with a pressing problem.  Although they had livestock, they had no chickens.  Neither did their fellow settlers.  But she was aware that the Indians on the Key Reserve did.  So she decided that she would engage in a bit of bartering.  Because she had a “fresh” cow, she was able to make a quantity of butter with which to barter.  Carrying her precious cargo, a large jar of butter, she walked south along the cut-line trail until she came to the reserve and the Pelly Trail.   She followed the trail eastwards a short distance until she came upon a native residence.  To her delight there were a number of chickens scrounging about the yard.  And seated in a chair next to the dwelling place was the obvious master of the house.  Paraska attempted to communicate with him verbally, but his comprehension of Ukrainian was sorely lacking as was hers of Ojibwa.  As a result, she mimed her intensions by showing him the jar of butter, holding up two fingers and pointing at the chickens.  The Indian apparently understood her desire to barter, because he nodded and went over to where the chickens were and grabbed two of the largest, both roosters, and brought them over to her.  She was delighted that he understood her intentions and was willing to engage in the trade, but she had to make him understand that she wanted only one rooster.  The other bird had to be a hen.  So she gave one of the roosters back to him and pointed at a hen, but he misunderstood and brought her another rooster.  It was frustrating!  How to make him understand?  Then she had an inspiration.  She squatted down, drew her hands against her chest, fluttered her elbows and uttered, “Qua, qua, qua, qua, quaaaaa,” the sound a hen makes when laying an egg.  The Indian was startled at first, then he smiled, and he walked over to the chickens and picked up a fine hen and gave it to her.  They both had a good laugh; and Paraska returned to the farm with her two chickens, a rooster and a hen, one under each arm.  And so her flock was started. 

While every year was eventful, 1906 was particularly so.  After their arrival in Canada, Paraska, George and John remained in touch with their families back in Babyntsi through correspondence.  While they were at Valley River, the nearest P.O. (post office) was at Shortdale.  When they moved to their new location west of Fort Pelly, their closest postal station was Fort Pelly P.O., which was not in the fort itself but on a farm a short distance away at SW24-32-1-W2.  However, the Fort Pelly P.O. closed at the year’s end in 1906, and a new P.O. on N.D. Wylie’s homestead, 24-33-1-W2, only 2 miles east of Roman’s homestead was established in January 1907.  Wylie named his post office, Norquay P.O., after John Norquay, former premier of Manitoba, whom he greatly admired.  John had undertaken to sponsor the immigration of his mother and his two sisters to Canada.  The necessary arrangements were completed through correspondence and in the spring of 1906, Salameya Romashenko arrived in Canada with her daughters, Maria and Wasylyna.

Also, in the spring of 1906, Roman and George planted their first crops^cxxv by broadcasting the seed grain, i.e. casting to seed outwards onto the land by hand.  George acquired his first livestock, 3 head of cattle.  And another member was added to the Huska family.  Paraska gave birth to her second daughter, Anna, on 5 April.

That summer, a delegation of family member and friends traveled to St. Philip’s Mission to participate in a double wedding.  On 16 July, George Martyniuk and Wasylyna (Lena) Romashenko, and John Romashenko and Alexandra (Valeska) Twerdoclib were joined in the Holy Bonds of Matrimony by Fr. Jules Decorby OMI.  Three months later, George and Lena moved into the house that George had built on his homestead the previous year.

Roman and Paraska  

_1908 – Wasylyna (Lena) Huska born on 17 June

_1909 – Willow Grove School District established, p. 26

_1912 – twins, George and Sophia born on 3 May, p. 8

           – Fort Pelly closed on 1June, 26

           – Dmytro goes to school in Sifton, p. 10

           – Norquay incorporated, p.1

           – Norquay P.O. transferred to Norquay town site, p. 7

_1916 – Roman bought first team of horses, p. 8

           – Bill Huska born on 20 October, p. 8

_1917 – Roman Huska hired carpenters to build house, p. 10

_1918 – Huska’s first car, p. 10

_1922 – Mary Huska married Onufry Cherewyk on 23 July

_1926 – John Huska married Anna Cherewyk on 7 June

_1926 – Anna Huska married Joseph Lozinski on 20 June

_1929 – Dmytro Huska married Anna Gulansky on 23 June

_1937 – George Huska married Stella Cherewyk on 19 September

_1938 – Wasylyna (Lena) Huska married Mike Kyba in October

           – Bill Huska married Jean Panagabko on 21 November

George and Lena

_1907 – Yurko (George) broke 6 acres and cropped 2 acres; he now had a total of 8 

              acres broken; he had 5 cattle 

_1908 – Maria was born on 28 August

           – Yurko (George) broke 12 acres and cropped 12 acres; he now had a total   

              of 20 acre broken; the cattle herd remained at 5 head

           – Yurko was naturalized on 29 August

_ 1909 – Yurko (George) broke 12 acres and cropped 20 acres; he now had a total 

               of 32 acres broken; he had 7 cattle and 1 pig

_1910 – John was born on 30 July

           – Yurko (George) had 8 cattle and 1 pig; he had 2 stables and 1 well

_1912 – Anna born on 8 September; died on 24 May 1926

_1914 – Michael (Mike) born on 4 September

_1916 – Anastasia (Nell) born on 8 September

_1918 – Sonia born on 8 June

_1920 – Dmytro (Monty) born on 4 January

_1921 – William (Bill) born on 28 November

_1924 – Andrew born in 1924; he died in 1926

_ 1926 – Paul born in 1926; he died in 1929

_1927 – Emil born on 21 August

_1929 – Roman (Ron) born on 16 December

_1932 – Athanasius (Tony) born on 19 July

_1934 – Bernadette born on 5 June

           – Maria Martyniuk married Jaroslaw Furmaniuk on 11 November

           – John Martyniuk married Paraskevia (Pearl) Gurski on 18 November

_1936 – Theophile (Ted) born on 14 April

_1947 – Dmytro (Monty) married Florence Warden on 29 January

_1949 – Sonia Martyniuk married Bill McLeod on 23 October

         F – Michael Martyniuk married Patricia Musey on 13 November

_1953 – Anastasia (Nell) Martyniuk married Joseph Nahachewsky on 11 July

_1957 – Theophile (Ted) married Olga (Ollie) Ginetz on 8 June

_1966 – William (Bill) married Anne Teslak on 29 January

           – Athanasius (Tony) married Laura Bulger on 17 December

 

  

   

   

 

    

Notes                                                                   

ⁱ  Weather reported in [The Halifax Herald, Wednesday, 27 May 1903, edition.]

ⁱⁱ The S.S. Bulgaria was in its fifth year of service.  It had been built for the Hamburg America Line by Blohm and Voss, Hamburg and launched on 5 February 1898.  Tonnage: 11,440 tons; length, 501.4 feet; width, 62.2 feet; vertical 42.6 feet.  It was seized by the U.S. Government during WWI and renamed.  It was scrapped in New York City in 1924.  [The Mariners Museum Library, Newport News, VA.]

ⁱⁱⁱ  S.S. Bulgaria.  Port-of-call, Ship’s Manifest (Passenger List), 27 May 1903.  [PAM, Provincial Archives of Manitoba.]

^iv  Ibid.

^v  [The Halifax Herald, Thursday, 28 May 1903, ed.]

^vi  Ibid.

^vii  Ibid.

^viii  Deep Water Terminus was a dock complex that could house 12 steamers simultaneously.  [www.portofhalifax.ca]

^ix  I.e. crownlands. The various provinces of the empire were known as crownlands.

^x  The Ukrainian immigrants called their homeland “Halychyna”.  “Galicia,” the name that is most commonly used, is a Polish derivative.  The Austrian (German) name was “Galizien”.

^xi  It is not clear how steerage came into common usage; nonetheless, it appears to be an appropriate and descriptive word to designate third class passage.  Third class conditions were deplorable on board the undermanned Bulgaria in 1903 as they were on all the liners of that period.  Of the 2,899 passengers on board, 2,871 were register as steerage and 28 were register as second class.  There were no first class passengers registered.  [Ship’s Manifest, 27 May 1903.]

  

^xii Steerage conditions in steam ship lines whose vessels docked in the USA had been thoroughly investigated and documented by undercover investigators. Hamburg America liners were such vessels. The description of steerage conditions given here is a digest of one such investigator’s report. Legislation based on those investigations, which was passed by the American government in 1908, greatly ameliorated those conditions.  [www.balchinstitue.org]

^xiii   The text of this document employs the American Library of Congress system of transliteration from the Cyrillic (Ukrainian) alphabet to the Latin (English) alphabet.

^xiv   In 1901, the Hamburg America Line (Hamburg Amerika Linie) opened an “Emigration City” located on Vedel Island in the harbor complex of the Elbe River.  Its complex of buildings was replete with lodging and dining halls to handle the rush from eastern Europe with accommodations for 5,000 emigrants at a time.  Although the lodging was provided free of charge, food had to be purchased.  It was there at the city’s emigration halls (Auswandererhallen) that the emigrants waited days and sometimes weeks for the next ship to North America.  [http.www.bargaintraveleurope.com/07/Germany_Hamburg_Immigratioon]

 

^xv [The Halifax Herald, Thursday, 28 May 1903 ed.]

^xvi  [www.gjvick.com/Steerage]

^xvii  [The Halifax Herald, Thursday, 28 May 1903 ed.]

^xviii  Trachoma is a bilateral chronic follicular conjunctivitis of childhood that leads to blindness during adulthood, if left untreated.  The symptoms include inflamed eyes, tearing, ocular pain, and purulent exudates and lid edema.  [Textbook of Medical-Surgical Nursing, by Rene A. Day et al]

^xix   The cost of deportation was born by the shipping line.

^xx  As slight as these amounts may seem – even in 1903 dollars – for a family about to establish itself in a new land, many other immigrants recorded much smaller amounts.  Many recorded amounts less than $5 and a few as little as $1.50. Obviously, the officials had discovered that the vast majority of the immigrants from Galicia and Bukovyna were not sufficiently affluent to offically qualify for admittance into Canada.  Nonetheless, they were allowed into the country. Because of the great drive, by the Canadian government, to settle the prairies and because of the sheer numbers that deluged the officials, they felt that they had no other choice but to “wink” at the money requirement.

              

^xxi  Canada’s immigration halls like Hamburg,s “Emigration City” provided sleeping accommodations for its newcomers, but food was the immigrant’s responsibility.

^xxii  Prior to 1903, the CPR designed and put into use special railroad coaches in order to cope with the flood of immigrants.  Known as “Colonist” cars, these day coaches were designed to be converted into sleeping areas when required. “Colonists” or immigrants boarded these special cars that bore the inscription, “Colonist Car.”  Each car consisted of a long hall with wooden benches.  The car had a wash basin, drinking water, and a washroom in the corner.  At night, the conductor converted the benches into berths with the help of a special key.

    

^xxiii   “Just 1,312 immigrants arrived between noon Saturday (6 June) and Sunday afternoon (7 June), or inside 24 hours, which looks like a rather business-like swiftness in populating the West.  One train arrived Saturday afternoon, another at night, and the third at Sunday noon.  The mass was made up of 95 English, 1,120 Galicians, 30 Scandinavians, 60 Hungarians, and 7 Russians.  Nearly all of these were held over at Selkirk.  On the road west, between here and Montreal, are 861 more on two specials and today’s regular.”  [The Manitoba Free Press, Monday, 8 June 1903 ed.]

 

^xxiv  The relationship between Paraska and Kyrylo has yet to be verified.

^xxv  “Six coaches loaded with Galicians arrived last week.  The new arrivals were located at Sifton, Ethelbert and Fork River.  During the trip, several children belonging to the party took sick and two of them died shortly after arrival.”  [The Dauphin Press, Tuesday, 11 June 1903ed.]

^xxvi   [Mary (Huska) Cherewyk, as related in an interview to Lawrence Huska, 11 August 1983.]

^xxvii   South East quarter of Section 22, Township 27, Range 23, West of the 1^st Meridian

^xxviii   [Norquay Nostalgia 1912-1982, p.103]

^xxix   Venlaw P.O. had been newly established in December 1899.  [www.collectionscanada.gc.ca]

^xxx  Kyrylo Lukey’s (sic Kyrylo Lukiw) Application for Patent, 31 October 1904 [PAM – Provincial Archives of Manitoba]

^xxxi  Ibid.

^xxxii   All mileage given is based on present day distances between places as cited by [http://maps.google.ca], unless otherwise stated.

^xxxiii   Except for erecting a log house, the family did very little in the way of improvements on the quarter section, understandable, given the short time they were there.  No doubt, Paraska had her garden, but no crop was sown.  So its doubtful if the family made any meaningful assessment of the homestead.  However, it did have one feature that was essential in Roman’s eyes.  The river was a good water source for a livestock operation.  [Dmytro Huska as related to Lawrence Huska.]

  

^xxxiv  George and John probably hired out to local established farmers as well.

^xxxv   Today the Reserve covers an area of 18 ¼ sections.

 

^xxxvi   The distances along the Pelly Trail are derived from present-day road maps, and as such do not accurately denote the true trail distances involved.  Invariably, the trail distances were much longer.

^xxxvii   What provisions were made for Paraska, who was in her eigthth month of pregnancy and the two boys, 4-year old John and 2-year old Dmytro are not known.  However, in all likelihood, they were left with the Lukeys at Venlaw until such time that the three men returned from Fort Pelly.

^xxxviii  “The first train for Kamsack and intermediate points, departed from here (Dauphin) on Friday last (16 April 1904).  There were a number of passengers and freight comprising of livestock, settlers effects, and merchandise.” [The Dauphin Press, Tuesday, 20 April 1904 ed.]

   

^xxxix  “An average walking speed is 4 to 5 km/h (2 to 3 mph), although this depends heavily on such factors as height, weight, age and terrain.”  [Wikipedia.]  “… looking to cover 15 – 20 miles (24 to 32 km) a day, depending on the weather and trail conditions.”  [www.hikingforums.net – daily distance to cover?]  These citations correspond to my own experience as a hiker in my younger years – Lawrence Huska.

^xl   Fort Pelly was situated on NW30-32-32-W1, immediately east of the Second Meridian.  The Second Meridian would later serve as the eastern boundary of the Rural Municipality of Keys.

^xli  I.e., 160 acres.

^xlii  A. F. Martin D.L.S., with a crew of sixteen men completed the survey between 9 December and 30 December 1899.  [Information Services Corporation of Saskatchewan Legal Surveys.]

^xliii   Except where lakes, rivers, swamps and other natural barriers presented themselves.

^xliv   Ibid.  Although the survey information was received in Ottawa in April 1900, the actual survey was conducted between 9 December and 30 December 1899.  See note xlii.  

^xlv   Ibid.  In retrospect, given the great bounty of the homesteads throughout the decades, we might wonder at surveyor Martin’s assessment of this township in the Parkland belt.  Officials of the Canadian Northern Railway were of a different mind.  CNR President William MacKenzie, in his first report, attributed the success of the CNR to the fact that “the railway throughout its length passes through some of the richest territory in Canada.”

^xlvi   When the family first arrived in Manitoba in 1903, George was 17 years old, one year too young to qualify for entry to a homestead.  However, he turned 18 on 17 April 1904 and now was entitled to apply for his own homestead.

^xlvii   [Mary (Huska) Cherewyk, as related in an interview with Lawrence Huska in 1983.]

 

^xlviii   It has been estimated that an ox walks at half the speed of a man.

^xlix   Father Jules De Corby founded St. Philips Mission in 1895.  “It was situated on the Fort Pelly Trail, approximately ¾ miles (1 km) east of the Assiniboine River and about two miles (3.2 km) west of the present St. Philips Mission.  It was composed of three log buildings, a small chapel, a day school and a rectory for the missionary and the teacher.  The mission was located on the Keeseekoose Indian Reserve.  In 1903, the mission was moved two miles west to higher ground where it now stands.  With the help of some Indians, half-breeds and a few white people, a first Indian residential school was built in 1903 with adjacent chapel, a residence for missionaries, a store and post office.  Much of the material was hauled in carts from Yorkton.”  [History Coming Alive: R.M. of St. Philips & Pelly and District] 

^l   The family was kindly received and allowed to rest up before resuming their journey.  They were served tea as refreshment, which was greatly appreciated.  [Mary (Huska) Cherewyk and Dmytro Huska; both in conversation with Lawrence Huska]

^li   It is possible that Roman, John and George met Father De Corby during their first trek along the Pelly Trail in April, but the oldest family members have provided no information to that effect.

^lii   Perhaps, the fact that other settlers claimed the first choices the two men made was a testament to the excellence of those choices.

^liii It was his intention to sponsor his mother and sisters’ immigration to Canada. So toward that end, he would seek employment for a short time to begin saving up the necessary funds.

^liv  The Turners had squatted in the Moss Lake area prior to the land survey in 1899 and had set up a ranching operation.  [Norquay Nostalgia: 1912 – 1982]

^lv   “The Pelly-Qu’ Appelle Trail ran southwest from Fort Pelly, past present day Verigin, Hampton, Ebenezer, Orcadia, Goodeve and on to the Qu’ Appelle Lakes trading post.  Shortly after the first settlers fromYork County in southern Ontario arrived in the Yorkton area in1882, a connecting trail from the settlement provided an eight mile (13 km) link up with the Fort Pelly-Qu’ Appelle Lakes Trail near present day Orcadia.”  [“The Red River Cart and Trails: The Fur Trade,” Manitoba Historical Society archives.]

^lvi   Although, maps.google.ca attributes a “road distance” of 99 km (61.1 miles), obviously, the trail distance, which was the real distance, was much greater.  This is particularly apparent because of the Orcadia link up.

 

^lvii   Field Book No. 6290, which includes detailed sketches of the land survey of Township 33, Range 1, shows the trail to have run almost due west from Fort Pelly, just north of the reserve boundary, through Sections 1, 2 and 3 before turning south into the reserve at SE3-33-1-W1.  [Information Services Corporation of Saskatchewan Legal Surveys]

^lviii   Roman Huska ‘s Application for Patent. 21 February 1910.  [SAB – Saskatchewan Archives Board]

^lix   The pioneering Ukrainians constructed their peechs basically in the same manner as the peechs back in their Galician home villages.  Roman, George and John used stout poplar or birch logs to make the peech frame which was approximately 3 feet wide, 6 or 7 feet long and 3 feet high.  For outdoor peechs, a semi-circular roof was employed to shed the rain and snow.  Then the walls and the top were covered with lighter poles which were placed side by side.  The outer surface of the structure was then plastered with 3 to 4 inches of clay, except for what would be the front opening of the oven.  After allowing the clay to dry for a day or two, a fire was built inside the oven, which burnt up the wooden frame and baked the clay at the same time.

 

^lx   Roman Huska’s Application for Patent, 21 February 1910.  [SAB]

^lxi  Ibid.

^lxii   The Dniester River was extremely important to the traders.  It provided a direct route from western Europe to the Black Sea, and from there to the riches of the Byzantine Empire.

^lxiii   603,700 square kilometers (232,000 square miles).

^lxiv  Compare with Wynyard, SK, which is approximately on the same latitude as Norquay, SK.       

      Wynyard: Average winter mean temperature –12.7C.

                       Average summer mean temperature 17.7C

^lxv   The Austrian government used Ruthenia, the Latin word for Rus’, to designate the Ukrainian populace within its borders.  Hence, they were known as Ruthenians inside the Empire and abroad.

       Since they had come from the Austrian crownland of Galicia, they were also known as Galicians.  This appears to have been the most common designation in the immigrant ships’ manifests (passenger lists).

        Occasionally, they were referred to as Austrians, simply because they carried Austrian passports.

        Some people thought they were Polish because of the confusion about the difference in ethnicity between the Ukrainians and the Poles who co-existed in Galicia.

        And some Canadians thought them to be Russian.  The Galician Ukrainians referred to themselves as Rusyn (of Rus’), which caused considerable confusion because of the similarity in sound with the word, Russian.

        While most Ukrainians tolerated these designations to a greater or lesser degree, the “Little Russian” appellation, they found particularly degrading and offensive.  Little or Lesser Rus’ (Mala Rus’) was a term first used to denote Galicia by Boleslaw (Iurii II), Prince of Galicia (reigned 1323 – 1340).  In the 17^th century, Mala Rus’ morphed into Malorossiya, which translates into Little Russian in the English language.

        The earliest use of the word, Ukrainian, was as recent as the 1870’s.  The word had its origin in the Russian Empire and was derived from okraina (окраїна – Russian) or ukraina (україна – Ukrainian), which means borderland or on the borderland.  It was applied to the territory occupied by the Ukrainian people within the Russian Empire.  The designation was accepted only gradually by the western Ukrainian people after World War I.

^lxvi   Today (2011), the Slavs are the most numerous of the European peoples, with a population of more than 250 million.  They are distributed principally throughout Eastern and Central Europe, and occupy most of the Balkan Peninsula.  They have expanded beyond the Ural Mountains into Asia.  Significant numbers are also found in North America, Australia and in other regions of the world.

     Slavic languages are part of the family of Indo-European languages.  Slavic languages are grouped into three branches: the South Slavic consisting of Macedonian, Bulgarian, Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian; the West Slavic consisting of Czech, Slovak, Polish and Sorbian – Sorbia is a small east German enclave – and the East Slavic branch consisting of Russian, Belarussian and Ukrainian.

^lxvii Excavations at two sites on the Dniester River in the Chernovtsy Oblast (province), a short distance from Babyntsi, have yielded Mousterian artifacts.  Human residence at the sites has been placed in the Mesolithic period.

^lxviii   The Paleolithic is the earliest of the Ages of Man.  It is divided into three periods: Lower, 2.6 million BCE to 100,000 BCE; Middle (Mesolithic), 300,000 BCE to 30,000 BCE; and Upper (Neolithic), 50,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE.  The introduction of the earliest crude stone tools, the controlled use of fire, and a nomadic way of life by small bands (25-100) of hunters and gatherers characterized the Lower Paleolithic period.  The Mesolithic Age was characterized by a greater variety of stone tools of finer quality than those of the Paleolithic.  The bow and arrow, fish baskets and boats were introduced in this period.  Hunting and gathering were still the dominant economy, but tribes and bands were much larger, usually in excess of 100 people.  The Neolithic Age saw the development of tools associated with agriculture such as hoe, plow, yoke and reaping hook, along with chisel and loom.  Also, pottery was introduced at this time.  The Neolithic man engaged in a mixed economy involving hunting, gathering, fishing, domestication of animals (herding), and agriculture (the earliest stages of farming).  Tribes were larger and chiefdoms came into being.

 

^lxix   Common (Christian) Era.

^lxx   Ukrainian LGM refuge, [Wikipedia.]

^lxxi   Before the Common (Christian) Era.

^lxxii   Also known as the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture – Cucuteni, after the first excavation site, which was in Romania, and Trypillian, after an excavation site in the Kyivan region.

       The distinctive patterns of behavior shared by people living within the same community makes up the culture of that group.  The community’s culture consists of social organization, common language, values, beliefs and practices and so forth.

^lxxiii   The natural evolution of human economy on the Podillia Plateau (as well as in most other areas of the world) from Paleolithic times to modern times was from nomadic hunting and gathering, to nomadic pastoralism, to sedentary agriculture, to industrialism and commerce.  Trade (the exchange of goods) was present in every economy.

^lxxiv   When archaeological excavations of the culture began in the late 19^th century, it was first believed that the Przeworsk and the Zarubintsy were two separate cultures.  Today, however, it is generally held that they are two halves of the same culture: Przeworsk, the western half; and Zarubintsy, the eastern half.

^lxxv  The Proto-Slavic tribes evolved from the amalgamation of various and numerous pre-Slavic tribes that inhabited the region.

^lxxvi  It is difficult if not impossible to draw a sharp demarcation line between a culture and a civilization.  Essentially, a civilization is a culture in which the social organization is more structured and sophisticated.

^lxxvii  Events surrounding the semi-legendary figure of Riuryk and the early years of Kievan Rus’ are cited in Primary Chronicle.  First commissioned by Grand Prince Iaroslav the Wise (reigned 1036 – 1054), it was revised and updated a number of times by court scribes and monks.  It was completely overhauled in 1113 by the monk, Nestor.  Later in 1118 and 1123, two of Nestor’s fellow monks reworked Nestor’s version of the Chronicle.  It’s these two last revisions that have survived to the present day.

^lxxviii  Kievan Rus’ was not a unitary state, i.e., under the rule of one monarch.  It was a confederation of principalities, each with its own prince.  The princes were all subject to the authority of the Grand Prince of Kiev.  The number of principalities varied as Kievan Rus’s territory, never constant, expanded or contracted.  Among the most notable principalities were Pereiaslav, Cherihiv, Galicia, Volhynia, Polatsk, Smolensk, Rostov-Suzdal and Novgorod, all satellites of Kiev.

^lxxix  Ihor (reigned 912 – 945); Ol’ha (reigned 945 – 962); Sviatoslav (reigned 962 – 972); and Iaropolk (reigned 972 – 980).

^lxxx  [The Primary Chronicle.]

^lxxxi   Paganism (поганство), nature worship, in Kievan Rus’ had it origins thousands of years before the Slavs evolved into a separate culture.  It was an amalgam of the numerous and various pagan beliefs among the nomadic bands and later sedentary tribes that predated the Slavs.

         Under animism, the oldest form of paganism, objects and aspects of nature were deified (i.e., vested with spiritual essence), but rarely named.  As a rule, animistic spirits were held to be either good or evil.  Virtually every natural object such as a stone, a hill, a valley, a wild animal, etc. was believed to possess its own spirit.  Every tree in a forest was thought to have its own resident spirit.  Local people worshipped local spirits.  Each individual community had its own set of deities to whom it paid homage.  And with the advent of agriculture, things such as fields, pastures and crops were also invested with animist spirits.

         Over the millennia, paganistic beliefs evolved.  Individual spirits were given names, and the more important ones that were widely accepted by the Slavs came to form a pantheon of gods.

         Among the earliest of those deities were the fertility gods Rod (Род) and the rozhanytsi (рожаниці).  Among Slavic mythologists, it is generally accepted that the first supreme deity was Svaroh (Сварог), the god of fire and heaven.  By the time of Volodymyr’s accession to the throne, Peroon (Перун), the god of thunder, lightning, rain and war, had replaced Svaroh as the chief god.  Peroon’s statue (idol) stood on a hill near Volodymyr’s palace in Kiev, along with the statues of other principal gods: Khors (Хорс), god of the sun and righteousness; Dazhboh (Дажбог), son of Svaroh and also god of the sun; Stryboh (Стрибог), god of the wind; Symarhl (Симаргл), god of the ____; and Mokosh (Мокошь), god of fertility, water and women.  After his conversion to Christianity, Volodymyr had the site razed.  In later years, Byzantine and Rus’ builders erected St. Basil’s Church on the location.

^lxxxii  Pahn  (пан) – lord.

  

^lxxxiii    The dowry given to a daughter upon the occasion of her wedding was considered a form of inheritance, and as such, was subject to an inheritance tax, which in this case was called merchet.

^lxxxiv   There are seven canonical rites within the Catholic Church.  Each rite possesses its own hierarchy, has its own unique liturgy and ecclesiastical discipline, and possesses its own spiritual heritage.  All come under the authority of the pastoral government of the Vatican.

^lxxxv   This fear, in fact, came to fruition.

^lxxxvi   [Cited by Dr. Hanna Kostiv-Huska in conversation with Lawrence Huska in Babyntsi in 2003.]  There is a strong possibility that Huskas and/or Martyniuks were among those Siberian immigrants.

^lxxxvii   [As related to Lawrence Huska by Dmytro Huska.]

^lxxxviii   Much of the geographic and demographic information in this section was obtained from [History of Cities and Villages: Babyntsi, Encyklopedya do krajoznawstwa Galicyi…  —Tom drugi.  —Zebral I wydal  Anton Schneider.  Lwow.  1874.  S. 124-129.]

^lxxxix   Ivan Franko, “The Farmer” (“Хлібороб” – “Khliborob”)

^xc   The distances of the neighboring villages from Babyntsi, “as the crow flies,” were as follows: Kryvche – 3 km (1.8 miles)

                           Pylypche – 4 km (2.4 miles)

                           Kolodribka – 4 km

                           Shuparka – 4 km

                           Dniester River – 1 km ( .6  mile)

          

^xci   [Svoboda (Свобода), 22 July 1897 ed.]

^xcii   [Hromadskyi holos (Громадский голос), 1 April 1900 ed.]

^xciii   [As related by Dmytro Huska to Lawrence Huska.]

^xciv   The manor employed its own servants and artisans.

^xcv   [As related by Sam (Semen) Huska to Mike Huska.]

^xcvi   [This incident was related to Lawrence Huska by Ernie Homeniuk, Jean Cherewyk’s husband.]  The young woman in the story was Ernie’s mother.

^xcvii   The new church replaced St. Mary’s Church, a wooden-constructed church, which had burnt down shortly before 1874.

^xcviii   The gulden, also known as the zolotyi or rynskyi, was the standard currency of Austria in the second half of the 19^th century.  One gulden consisted of 100 kreuzers.  In the late 19^th century, one gulden was worth 40.4 cents Canadian.  In 1892, the Austrian government introduced a new currency, the crown (krone), each worth half a gulden or 20.2 cents Canadian.  Each crown consisted of 100 hallers.  Under the terms of the national currency reform of 1900, the crown replaced the gulden as the standard currency.  

          Although the monetary sums cited in this document might appear trivial, it must be kept in mind that those sums had a much greater purchasing power over a century ago.  For example, a working man could support his family for two days on one gulden.  Around the turn of the 20^th century, one cent Canadian had the same buying power as 95 cents in 2010 – [Winnepeg Free Press, 28 May 2010 ed.].

^xcix   The imposition of sacramental fees was a serious “bone” of contention between the local priest and the parishioners in many villages.

^c   The complete list of Babyntsi surnames is as follows: Huska (Гуска) – 23 families, Martyniuk (Мартинюк) – 6 families, Romashenko (Ромашенко) – 6 families, Lukey (Лукий) – 10 families, Sapach (Сапач) – 5 families, Jarema (Ярема) – 8 families, Tanasichuk (Танасійчук) – 3 families,  Heshka (Гишка) – 4 families, Hadzesya (Гадзеся) – 2 families, Rohanka (Роганка) – 1 family, Laba (Лаба) – 3 families, Krupka (Крупка) – 3 families, Birka (Бірка) – 8 families, Zahurtney (Загуртний) – 1 family, Sereda (Середа) – 1 family, Seredyn (Середин) – 2 families, Evanyshyn (Іванишин) – 1 family, Semenyshyn (Семенишин) – 3 families, Semeniv (Семенів) – 1 family, Serman (Серман) – 2 families, Fedoryshyn (Федоришин) – 1 family, Kyrylyshyn (Кирилишин) – 3 families, Wasylyshyn (Василишин) – 2 families, Zakalyn (Закалин) – 1 family, Dykune (Дикун) – 1 family, Stehar (Стигар) – 2 families, Drebot (Дребот) – 1 family, Kozak (Козак) – 3 families, Kryk (Крик) – 1 family, Peleh (Пелех) – 1 family, Chubay (Чубай) – 9 families, Baley (Балий) – 2 families, Rudey (Рудий) – 7 families, Shkwarko (Шкварко) – 5 families, Boyechko (Боєчко) – 2 families, Shushko (Шушко) – 1 family, Verbney (Вербний) – 1 family, Zahirney (Загірний) – 1 family, Fedoriv (Федорів) – 1 family, Pankiv (Паньків) – 1 family, Pavlov (Павлов) – 2 families, Oleksiyiv (Олексіїв) – 1 family, Oleksiuk (Олексюк) – 1 family, Hnatiuk (Гнатюк) – 4 families, Andreychuk (Андрейчук) – 9 families, Antoniuk (Анмонюк) – 1 family, Wasylynchuk (Василинчук) – 2 families, Stetiuk (Стецюк) – 2 families, Yatiuk (Яцюк) – 3 families, Kovaliuk (Ковалюк) – 2 families, Kutsyak (Куцяк) – 4 families, Zubchak (Зубчак) – 2 families, Sytnyk (Ситник) – 4 families, Ishevski (Ішевський) – 1 family, Palashchovski (Палащовський) – 3 families, Skipski (Скіпські) – 1 family, Lamirski (Ламірські) – 1 family, Lozovski (Лазовські) – 2 families, Borovski (Боровський) – 1 family, Bobinski (Бобінський) – 1 family, Javorski (Яворський) – 1 family, Malytski (Малицький) – 2 families.

 

^ci   [Dmytro Huska as related to Lawrence Huska.]

^cii   [Mary (Huska) Cherewyk, as related in an interview with Lawrence Huska, 11 August 1983.]

 

^ciii   It appears that the previous compulsory elementary education law of 1784 was allowed to lapse.  The law had been vehemently opposed by the pahns who preferred that their peasant-serfs remain uneducated and ignorant. 

^civ   There was a high incidence of smoking among the Babyntsi men.  However, the law forbade the growing of tobacco for private consumption by the peasants, thus forcing them to circumvent the law by hiding their tobacco plants amidst the corn.

^cv   A case in point: A generation earlier in the Andriej Martyniuk family, before the Austrian government embarked on its public health program, of the 8 children born to Andriej and his wife, Wasylyna, 4 died in infancy.  After the government had embarked on its program, Roman Huska and his wife Paraska had three children; all survived their time in Babyntsi, although Myhkailo died shortly after leaving Babyntsi.

^cvi   Two of the five boys were named “Ivan.”  It was not unusual for parents to commemorate the memory of a deceased child in this manner.

^cvii   8 mo is an educated guess.  If Roman’s share of Mykhailo’s estate was 1.5 mo or 1/5  of the total, then the total land holding must have been about 8 mo. 

^cviii   [Roman Huska’s service in the cavalry was related by Dmytro Huska to Lawrence Huska.]

     The Austrian army was basically made up of three units: the artillery, the infantry, and the cavalry.  Only those recruits who possessed the requisite education to make the necessary calculations in determining a shell’s landing point, based on such factors as distance, windage, trajectory, and shell size, were assigned to the artillery.  The others were relegated to the other units; the bigger men to the infantry and the smaller ones to the cavalry.  The Austrian cavalry horses tended to be rather small; therefore, it was felt that a small cavalry trooper’s weight could be more readily borne by his horse. 

^cix   There were about 80 standard command words or phrases that were used by the NCO’s to direct their troopers.

^cx  [Sam Huska as related to Mike Huska in Edmonton, Alberta.]   

^cxi  Given the option of accepting grain for cash, many peasants took the grain, which they used as seed on their land the following spring.  It was widely recognized that the manor’s grain was superior to the peasants.   

^cxii   [Roman working his land, as related by Dmytro Huska to Lawrence Huska.]

^cxiii   Rice and cotton cloth were being brought into the east Galician marketplaces from the 1890s onward.

^cxiv   Serfdom was abolished in the Russian Empire in 1861.

^cxv  Canada was actively seeking agricultural immigrants to settle the Canadian prairies. 

^cxvi    Ironically, the Polish pahn, Count Casimir Badeni, became Prime Minister of Austria-Hungary in 1895.  And it was during his administration that the upsurge in emigration began.

^cxvii   The sub-agents were usually Jews who knew their way around and who could speak the language.

^cxviii  NATC was headquartered in Amsterdam.  It was a consortium of German steamship ticket agents who were brought together for the purpose of recruiting agricultural emigrants to Canada from continental Europe. 

^cxix   [Related by Dmytro Huska to Lawrence Huska.]

^cxx  [Ibid.]   

^cxxi  [Related by Mary Cherewyk (nee Huska) to Lawrence Huska in 1983.] 

^cxxii   In all probability, because at 17 he was nearing the military draft age, the sub-agent, as was customary, charged Yurko double the rates for both the rail ticket to Hamburg and the ship’s ticket.  He would have to be smuggled out of Austria, which involved bribing the border guards.

      The usual bribe offered the border guards was a few gulden, which was much less than the “premium” Yurko was charged for his tickets.  This was just one of the ways the emigrants were exploited by the sub-agents and others on their long journey.  

^cxxiii   Yurko Martyniuk: Application for Homestead Patent for SW20-33-1W of the 2^nd , 27 January 1910 – patent approved 16 March 1910.   

^cxxiv   Ibid.   

^cxxv   Ibid.