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Born - July 21 1894
Died - April 25 1954
Married - Katharina Harach 1914
Remarried - Helen Novicki (nee: Zaleschuk 1949
Children - Anastasia(Nettie), Donald, Ann, Bud, Victor, Julie
Photo Galleries - Gallery1,
The year 1908 was one of great unrest in Europe. Bulgaria was struggling for independance from the Ottoman Turkish Empire. There was ferment brewing in Turkey itself as well as insurrections against the Ottoman Empire in Macedonia. A revolutionary movement in Russia had been quashed by Czar Nichols II just two years earlier. The Anglo/Russian entente was negotiated a year earlier. Acts and rumors of war were common.John Zuck was not going to let himself and his family become enmeshed in this melee. His oldest son, Dan, was 19 years old and subject to conscription in the Austrian army. His next son Anthony, age 16 years, was also close to the age of conscription. So John and Anna liquidated their possessions and holdings, collected just a few personal belongings, and along with his family, and accompanied by four other families were to set out for South America in September 1908. Their plans were changed, literally, at the last minute. Why is unclear, although it was likely due to reports from the Kazimer Jaseniuk family, also from Dowzniw, The Jaseniuk family had emigrated earlier to South America, and suffered many hardships before returning to East Prussia and then on to Canada. Canada then became the Zuck's destination. John, Anna and their five children came together to Canada as a family unit. They had one more child Katherine, three years later in Canada.
Embarking from Antwerp, Belgium, in September 1908, they were delayed because the ship that was to take them was quarantined due to typhus. They were billeted at a hotel at the shippers expense till a 'clean' ship arrived. The voyage lasted two weeks. It was a difficult passage in fall, the Atlantic Ocean is stormy and most of the passengers suffered acute motion sickness. John and Antonia were the only members not afflicted and they actually enjoyed the adventure. It is unknown if they disembarked at Montreal or Quebec City. long and tedious train journey to Rosthern took place in 'tourist class' coaches. They were the lucky few who had pull down wooden bunks. Most sat on hard wood seats below these bunks. The Zuck family, along with three other families (names unknown), detrained in Rosthern. Here, land was selected from a 'book' in the Land Titles Office. John and one of the other families, who all were destined for the Krydor/Hafford area, joined forces, John purchased a team of oxen, the other family purchased a wagon, and together the two families departed Rosthern.
As was now late fall and winter was fast approaching, the Zuck family took up residence with John's stepsister Mary (nee:) who was married to Kuzma Zarubiak. The Zarubiak's had children of their own, so the two room house was very crowded. During this first winter, Anthony and Dan kept busy cutting poplar trees to provide the logs for the construction of the Zuck homestead, located on SEC22 TWP44 W3. In 1909, Dan and Anthony built the first house at that location over that winter. The winter of 08/09 was very cold, with a unusually large amount of snow. Because the Zarubiak house was so crowded, and Mary was then expecting their third child, Andrew, the Zuck family moved into this house as soon as it was habitable. an and Anthony Zuck were 'proving' two quarter sections of SEC22, TWP44. Here the John Zuck family resided in this first home, and their last child Katherine was born, until 1911. The first crop was wheat, grown on a four acre plot on Dans quarter and this crop was reserved for seed. Wth no small effort, 22 acres were cleared and under cultivation. This was on Hudson Bay land and was up for sale for cash and not available for 'homesteading'. So the Zuck Family was dispossessed from their first building site and moved to homestead in TWP45. In 1910 Anthony filed for his homestead in Redberry RM435; SW20; TWP44; R9; W3. There is still the remnants of those buildings including the house standing today, although it has long since been abandoned.
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In the meantime, Anthony worked in Rosthern at the very famous "Seeger Wheeler Farm". Here Anthony worked as a cattle herdsman and thus became involved in scientific farming. He from then on only used registered seed or the second generation on his own farm. It was all just normal life for Anna to walk the 75 miles to Rosthern and then a further 26 miles to the Seeger Weeler Farm. As the return trip took most of an entire week one can assume Anthony was not visited every week.
On St. Demetrius's feast day, Anthony married Katharina Harach, newly arrived from Ukraine whom was living with her oldest brother Harry Harach. John Zuck and his family were frequent visiters at Harry Harach's home. There Anthony met Katharina, courted her and became engaged. Katharina (nee:Harach Dec.1890-July 1945) was the daughter of Theodore Harach and Magdalena (nee:Maliicka-Mazurok) a farmer in Warez, in the district of Sokal. Katharina's four brothers Harry, Nicholas, John and Peter Harach preceeded her to Canada She arrived in Canada alone in 1914 to live with Harry. The wedding of Anthony to Katharina was solemnized by Rev. Sarmatiuk in the Ukrianian Catholic Church of Saint Demetrius near Krydor. It was a double wedding as Katharina's brother Peter Harach was also married to Catherine Toporowski on the same day. The reception was held at Harry's home for both couples and the next day, according to custom, Anthony and Katharina went to live with John and Anna till their home was built.
In the winter of 1916, brothers Anthony and Paul went north of TWP45 to cut coniferous trees for lumber. Anthony became critically ill with double pneumonia from camping outdoors and was brought to John and Anna's for tending. As was no improvement, Paul took Anthony and Katharina to Hafford to catch the train to the nearest hospital at North Battleford. Anthony recovered after a lengthy convalescence at the hospital. In the meantime Katharina took over all the duties on the farm. On release from hospital Anthony was employed as a land assessor for the Rural Municipality of Redberry.
Dad filed for his own homestead, on TWP44, R9, SEC20, W3 on May 20, 1913. He and Katharina were wed on November 1914 and the two lived with John and Anna till 1916. During this time father and mother were developing their homestead quarter and were able to file for the 'Homestead Patent'. The record shows 10 acres broken in 1913, 9 acres broken in 1914, and 15 acres were broken in 1915.
Katherina and Anthony Zuck's children. Anne, born on January 20, 1916, Nettie (Anastasia) born on March 15, 1917, Don, born on December 27, 1918, Bud (Bohdan) was born on January 30th, 1920, Victor, born on June 13, 1925, Julie, born on April 21, 1927
At home breakfast was at seven o'clock or earlier. It consisted mainly of cooked cereal, bacon and eggs, fried potatoes, cottage cheese with sour cream, bread, butter and coffee. By seven thirty dad and the hired man would head for the fields with the four horse team to do field work. The children were packed off for the mile hike to school at eight o'clock for a nine o'clock start.
The great depression, as it is known, hit in the spring of 1929. At the time it was a farmers custom to opt for an 'initial payment' in the fall for the crop and finalize the price in spring when prices were higher and receive the final payment. In the spring of '29, instead of the price rising, it fell, and continued to fall till reached the level of the previous falls initial payment. The first few years of the depression were the hardest for everyone till we all learned to cope with the conditions. The price of top quality No.1 wheat fell to twenty cents per bushel. Five gallons of sweet cream dropped to $2.75. Bologna sold for ten cents a pound, farm hand wages were fifty cents a day plus room and board. Teachers salaries plummeted from twelve to fifteen hundred dollars a term to three to four hundred dollars. In some of the harder hit areas, even this amount was not available. Being on a farm that was not as hard hit as the southern areas, we had the advantage over city folks by the ability of raising garden produce and meat for our table. In the cities, many actually starved. Unemployment was rampant and it became a common sight to see unemployed riding the tops of boxcars on the train looking for work. As well as the economic slump, it was also the driest years on the prairies. Virtually entire farms blew away with a windstorm. Many farms in the worst off areas were abandoned, with the occupants moving mainly to the west coast to try their luck there. On our farm, yields dropped from the twenty five-thirty bushels an acre range, to five-ten bushels an acre. This was only double the amount of seed it required to seed the fields. The stock shrunk to skin and bones as all the feed we could gather was wild buckwheat with a specially designed attachment to the hay mower. The government feebly tried to alleviate the feed shortage by buying animals for one cent a pound. Farmers, who up to these years, hauled their grain to the elevators for sale in sixty bushel capacity wagons, instead hauled their entire crop in a couple of three bushel gunny sacks. There was no effort by the government to assist people during this time and as a result a few riots broke out. A famous one being the trek to Ottawa riot in Regina. Today, our more well informed citizenry would never tolerate such negligent inaction by the government. Those of us who survived, were scarred for the rest of our lives. Still, life went on. Dances were held, couples married, community events were held in the local halls which were a welcome diversion.
World war two broke out for Canada, on September 3. 1939. Brothers Don and Bud were serving in the air force. Don was an 'Officer Pilot' overseas in England and Africa. Bud was a 'Warrant Officer First Class' with the ferry command, transferring planes from Canada to England. Anthony had a threshing outfit for many years and would hire field men who with their rack and team would deliver sheafs from the field to the threshing machine. He would move this outfit from farm to farm custom harvesting their crops. During the war years there were no young men left on the farms, so the threshing was done by the very old, and very young. The youngest, Julie, would be put on the hay rack with a pitch fork to arrange the sheafs while Nettie and Victor would toss the sheaf's up to her. They could only fill the rack half full and then would take them to the thresher. It was slow compared to prewar days but it was the best in the wartime situation. At this time Nettie was teaching school nearby, so in summer she was able to be home to help in any way she could.
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Katharina was booked for two surgeries in Saskatoon in July. One, a varicose vein legation and after ten days, an umbilical hernia. She came thru her varicose surgery well, but five days after her abdominal surgery, she suddenly died on July 20, 1945 of a pulmonary embolism. Julie was 18 years old and Victor was 20. Anthony and Nettie drove into Saskatoon to make funeral arrangements while Victor and Julie stayed on the farm to do the chores and milking, feeding the stock, and etc. Anthony remarried to Helen Novicki nee:Zaleschuk a widow in 1949.
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In 1950 Anthony was very ill in the Hafford Hospital with a gallstone attack. It was a very critical night, he had to pass the stone or he wouldn't make it. It was a morning of thanksgiving when he passed the stone and was up shaving. After some discussion, the plan of action was to get Anthony and Julie to fly to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota to see what could be done for him. That evening Dad and Julie took their first flight ever to Winnipeg, stopped overnight and flew into Rochester, Julie found two sleeping rooms walking distance from the clinic. Dad went through a series of tests and doctors. The result was a repeat choleeystectomy. Anthony had surgery at St. Mary's hospital, Julie had moved to a sleeping room closer to St. Mary's and she spent nights, and most of the days with him. Julie would bath and shave him before they started the I.V.'s around six AM when the staff came on, and then she would go to her room for a sleep, returning to stay till the next morning. When Anthony was discharged they moved to the Samaritan Hotel that catered to discharged patients. Julie got a room next to Anthony's and at bedtime she would connect his T-tube to a drainage bottle, take off his binder from his abdomen and settle him for the night. There was a nurse stationed at the hotel that gave out sleeping pills and other meds. The dining room was separated into regular and special diet sections and Anthony was on a low-fat diet and Julie ate in the regular section. They met some nice people who were also convalescing. Anthony's incision wasn't healing so they went daily to the Mayo Clinic for heat lamp treatments to try and heal the wound. Don and Vera drove down with a Hindu friend from Wisconsin one Sunday afternoon to see us. It was wonderful to see some of the family as Anthony and Julie were getting quite lonely as they had been away most of a month. The Monday after Don and Vera left Anthony developed severe chills and spiked a high fever. They diagnosed a incisional abscess and they returned to the St. Mary's O.R. and they drained the abscess. There were only limited antibiotics in those times but they treated the infected area with sulfa and a few days later they were back in the Samaritan Hotel. Anthony improved and six weeks after leaving home he and Julie were on the return flight for home.
While Julie and Peter were still staying at Anthony and Helen's in Hafford, their daughter Eileen was born on August 13, 1952. Anthony was a wonderful grandfather and he doted especially on Julie and Peter's Eileen. When she was older, almost every day during the week, he would walk to their house which was close as Julie could see his house from the bedroom window, and be ready to take Eileen out for a morning outing. Anthony would take her uptown in a stroller or sleigh he bought, for the morning, return to his place and have lunch and by 2PM would return Eileen home to Julie for her afternoon nap. By 4PM Anthony was there to take her again for the afternoon. Eileen and her Dido (Ukrainian for Grandpa) had their time together all that winter.
In spring, April 25, 1954 4PM Easter Sunday Anthony died of a massive heart attack at the age of 59. Julie and Peter last saw him that Easter Friday when he was up at their place playing with Eileen and David. Little did anyone realize it was to be the last time he was seen alive. After the funeral Eileen sorely missed her Dido and she pulled Julie over to his house. They walked in and Eileen said 'hi Baba' (Grandma) and she ran from room to room looking for Dido, not finding him, she ran out of their house and went home, leaving Baba and Julie in tears. As tiny as she was she realized he was not around to play with her anymore.
