Manitoba School Days

Everyone's heard the story that begins "When I was a child I had to walk 5 miles up hill through a snow storm to get to school" or something like that. Well, my mother has a story like that and it's true! She and her siblings had to walk about 5 km up and down hill and through a ravine and by a creek to get to school in another province! Here is a picture of my mom in front of the school - she's the girl to the far left, in front of her brother Art. He must be poking her or something, she looks terribly unhappy!

From the writer's collection

I've written before about my mother's family and how they settled in MacNutt Saskatchewan. They actually lived a fair distance out of town and could not easily get there on a regular basis. There was a school located in town but this was not the school that the Besler children attended. There was a much closer school located in Manitoba!

The following map shows where my grandfather's two sections were located and where the school was. You can see MacNutt on the map way to the south of the Besler property.

Created using lsdfinder.com

The children attended Cupar School No. 1633. The one room school house was built in 1911 and is located in what is today the Municipality of Roblin. Here is a photo taken by School Inspector R. J. MacKenzie, date unknown. I don't recognize anyone in the photo but it gives you a good look at the school itself.

Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photos.

The Besler family walked from their farm to school and back every day. There were not real roads back then which made for a tough journey. My mother recalls a bear sighting one day when she was quite young - her older siblings took off and left her to fend for herself. Luckily she made it home in one piece! The teacher at the time was a Miss Campbell who was teased unmercifully by the farm boys - they called her Miss Camel and one day locked her in the outhouse (my uncle Art apparently was the instigator)

The school is still standing but has been turned into a private home. We were able to find it during our vacation this summer but no-one was around so we weren't able to get too close. Here's a picture I shot through the trees. The location is isolated now so I can only imagine how isolated it was back in the 1930s

The Beslers moved to Winnipeg in 1936 and my mother continued her education at Victory School located near their home in West Kildonan. This school was built after World War One and opened in 1920. Here's a picture from 1922.

Winnipeg Tribute, September 16 1922

Here's my mother and her classmates outside the school. She is 6th from the right in the second row. The second picture is from the pageant at this school, probably in her last year. She's fourth from the right in the second row.

From the writer's collection

And here's my mom visiting the school in 2012. We were able to go into the school but the school was drastically enlarged in 1950 and she really didn't recognize anything. The main door looks to be the same though!

In 1940 she graduated from Victory School - here's a notice from the Winnipeg Free Press on June 1st 1940 commemorating the occasion.

newspaperarchive.com

As the article note students from Victory School moved to Centennial School for Grade 10. Centennial School was built in 1913 and later became part of West Kildonan Collegiate. Unfortunately I was not able to get a picture before it was torn down but here is an undated picture showing what it looked like.

Source: A Historical Study of Public Education in West Kildonan to 1959 by Raymond Ronald Bailey, 1966

Later that year my mother's class was photographed for an article in the Winnipeg Free Press that ran on November 14th 1940. She still has a copy of this article showing the cooking and sewing skills being mastered. She is second from the right in the cooking photo. Answer to a bachelor's prayer indeed.

newspaperarchive.com

My mother only spent a brief time at Centennial School before she had to enter the work force but she remembers her school days fondly. She has never stopped learning and conveyed her love of reading (and sewing!) to my sister and I.

From Landestreu to Landestreu

This is my maternal grandfather. His name was Jacob Besler and he was born on 28 December 1883 in Landestreu a town in Galicia, a province in what was then the Austro-Hungarian empire.

From the writer's collection

Landestreu was a small town populated by members of Jacob's extended family - Baumungs, Kandels, Lowenbergers and Beslers (spelled Bößler in this town map. 

Courtesy of GalizienGermanDescencants.org

Beslers were among the earliest residents of Landestreu moving from Germany in the 1770s. The Austro-Hungarian Empire invited foreign settlers into its newly acquired province of Galizien. German settlers found the offers of transportation and special status attractive and moved east.

More emigration was to come, this time westward. In 1872 the Dominion Land Act was enacted by Canada's Parliament. For a $10 registration fee a settler would receive 160 acres of land. He would have to live on the land for six months of the year for three years, clear at least 30 acres, erect a house worth at least $300 and be a naturalized British citizen. Canadian officials actively recruited in Europe for immigrants to settle western Canada.

Library and Archives Canada, collecitonscanada.gc.ca

Some of the first settlers to take advantage of the Act were residents of Landestreu. They moved to Saskatchewan in 1890 and founded a village also named Landestreu in honour of their home in Galicia. The name of the town was eventually to changed to MacNutt in 1909 in honour of Thomas MacNutt, who was the Member of the Legislative Assembly at the time. But in 1902 it was still called Landestreu and this was the town that Jacob Besler emigrated to.

I have not yet been able to find Jacob on a passenger list but hope one day to locate him. I like to picture him heading for North America with other young men from his town, perhaps some of the Baumung and Kandel cousins who show up on Census records in the same part of Saskatchewan. He appears to have left Galicia in 1902 as his passport shows that year as does his land patent application. He was 18 years old

From the writer's collection

Jacob's passport lists his employment as "wagner" (wagon driver or wagon maker). Perhaps his opportunities were limited in the small village of Landestreu. No doubt the lure of free land beckoned.

By 1910 Jacob had met all the Land Act requirements and successfully claim his property. In reviewing his file I found that he had returned his first plot of land as it was too rocky to farm

Taken by the writer June 2018

The first land was granted to another settler; Jacob had more luck with is second grant of land which he took possession of in 1906.

Saskatchewan Archives Board, Department of the Interior

The immigration agents did not tell potential immigrants how hard it was to farm in Canada. They did not tell them how harsh the prairie winters were. But the farmers carried on. My grandparents married in 1915. A wife and family were needed to help farm as hired help were few and far between. My grandmother Bena and the older Besler children were expected to help with chores. My mother was the youngest girl and didn't have too many chores during the farm years. Here she is as a baby.

And with her Dad outside the family home.

From the writer's collection

The family resided in the log cabin that Jacob built. It was neither roomy nor well-insulated. My mother remembers lying in bed looking at the icicles that had formed on the roof of the cabin. The three girls slept together for warmth. The children walked several miles to a one room school house that was actually located over the provincial border in Manitoba.

My sister, niece and I recently visited the area with the mother - it was the first time she had returned to Saskatchewan since she was a child. 

Taken by the writer June 2018

Obviously there were changes but the isolation remains. Homes are far apart on large plot of land. As of 2006 there were only 80 people living in MacNutt. 

Taken by writer June 2018

Winters were particularly isolating. Even now the roads in the area are dirt and gravel only. There would have been no snow clearing. The family rarely went into town and did not even attend church on a regular basis. My mother remembers attending the Christmas pageant at the school. The family would pile into the sleigh with warm bricks wrapped in blankets to keep the cold out.

The 1930s were especially harsh in Saskatchewan and unfortunately Jacob was no longer able to support his family by farming. After over 30 years he abandoned the farm and moved to Winnipeg. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for him. Jacob worked for the Canadian National Railway in Winnipeg. In the late 1940s Jacob and Bena moved to Toronto to join their children. My grandfather died in 1961 when I was two years old so I don't really remember him. I do like this picture of him and me though!

From the writer's collection

On Canada Day I salute Jacob Besler for leaving his home in Europe to come to Canada. He was a 20th Century pioneer and played an important role in settling our western provinces. He helped make Canada the wonderful country it is today through sacrifice and perseverance and I am thankful that he did.

The Matzke Women

March 8th is International Women's Day and March is International Women's History Month. When I hear those words I think of famous and noteworthy women, but I also think of the women in my family. Not a lot of fame but many noteworthy and interesting. Despite being just average folk I've been able to find some of my relatives in the newspaper and I'd like to share their stories in this month's post.

From the writer's collection

Here's a picture of some Matzke women - from left to right they are Josephine Faustman Matzke (my great-grandmother), Christina Matzke Schneider (my great-aunt), Iris Schneider Allard (my first cousin once removed) and Bonita Allard Reis (my second cousin). Before I get to the newspaper article some background on the family.

I've written before about the Matzke family and their long journey to Canada from Romania. The driving force behind this journey was Josephine. She was born on July 8th 1875 in Atmagea Romania, a small village located inland from the Black Sea on the east coast of Romania. Though born in Romania Josephine and her family were of German background and were staunch Lutherans. On February 1st 1894 Josephine married Franz Matzke from the nearby village of Tulcea. Franz had been raised a Roman Catholic but the couple was married in the Lutheran Church. Josephine was in charge from the start!

A young Josephine, from the writer's collection

Josephine had one sibling that I am aware of - her younger brother Karl. Karl had moved to Canada in 1906 and settled in the community of Landestreu in Saskatchewan. Landestreu was eventually renamed MacNutt. No doubt he suggested to his sister the she and her family join him in Canada, and eight years later they did.

The Matzke family - Carolina, Josephine, Christina, Jacobena and Franz 

Life was hard on the Canadian prairies. Franz tried farming but was unsuccessful. He ultimately started a shoe repair business in town. Meanwhile, Josephine managed the family. She was strict - there was no dancing or card playing allowed on Sundays. But her girls were lively and all married young - my grandmother Bena married in 1915 at the age of 17, my great-aunt Lena married in 1919 at the age of 16 and great-aunt Tina married in 1925 at the age of 16.

In 1936 my grandparents left their farm in MacNutt and moved to Winnipeg with their six children. Josephine and Franz followed. It must have been hard to leave behind their two younger daughters as they likely weren't able to visit too often. Lena and her husband Fred had three children, Tina and her husband John had six children.  

And that brings me to the newspaper article that I found. In earlier times newspapers were great sources of social information. I was searching the Winnipeg Free Press for my family and discovered this article dated July 19th 1944:

Courtesy of the Winnipeg Free Press

A visit from Saskatchewan was an exciting occasion for the Matzkes and also made for a great human interest story. The ages of the women make for a neat little fact and I think is a really cool article. You'll note that Tina's eldest daughter Iris continued the family tradition of marrying early and starting a family right away!

The picture may have been taken by the newspaper photographer and presented to Josephine but I don't know for sure. I do know that she treasured the photo and had it nicely framed. Unfortunately all the women in this picture have now passed away. On International Women's Day I'm remembering them and all my other female ancestors.

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