52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 13 Prompt – The Old Homestead
When I think of an homestead, I think
of a piece of land claimed by immigrants and the home which they
built themselves. It seems to me that it should be something that
has been in the same family for many generations. As I look at my
direct ancestors I can't seem to put my finger on one homestead. I
wonder why? Partly because I haven't been looking into homesteads in
my research. I suspect that being Mennonite is the other part of it.
Mennonites used communal type farming. I'm not sure how this worked
with claiming a homestead and attaching it to one person in Canada.
Obviously I need to do more work on it.
I look to my maternal side for any
semblance of a homestead.
Last week I spoke of my maternal
grandfather, Andreas Krikau, his wife and children and their arrival
through Ellis Island. Their destination was Rosthern, Saskatchewan.
They were sponsored by Phillip Krikau who was a first cousin of
Andreas Krikau, my grandfather.
In 2009 I had a chance to connect with
Charles Krikau whom is a grandson of the above Phillip Krikau.
Charles lives in Waldheim, Saskatchewan which is a 45 minute drive
north of Saskatoon. Charles farmed on land close to the Phillip
Homestead farm. Charles father was Fred Krikau.
Fred Krikau and his brother Henry
Krikau along with John Krikau from Chicago paid to have the Krikau
family researched which produced a RAGAS chart ( a descendant chart).
It was John Krikau who suggested that I write to Henry Krikau who
lived in a nursing home in Rosthern at that time. I sent a letter to
Henry in November 2007. I never heard back from him, but that is how
I connected with Charles Krikau who was going through his father's
paperwork after he died and found my letter. He emailed:
“Hello. I'm Charles Krikau, Fred
Krikau's son. Dad passed away in May, and I found your letter when I
sorted through his papers. Dad had not been well for the last number
of years. I do not think you would have had much success finding
information from him with the condition he was in.”
That was summer of 2008.
We arranged a meeting in the summer of
2009. Charles told me about his grandfather whom homesteaded a farm
between Waldheim and Rosthern. He told me Philip married a Catherine
Kinzel in Warenburg Russia. Philip's parents did not approve of the
marriage and the bride. They married anyway in early March 1910 and
came to Canada for their honeymoon. Philip was in the military and
due to work his compulsory 2 years. The officials came on board his
ship to America to question Philip and make sure that it was only an
honeymoon and that he would be back. He said yes and breathed a huge
sigh of relief when the ship was out of port. Of course he never did
go back and instead started on his homestead that year and sponsored
my grandparents and family the following year.
Charles and I looked over the Ragas
chart and tried to find out where our two families intersected. (and
we never did). This Ragas was new to him which confused me because
his father supposedly had a copy that he paid to have done. However
Charles said that his father may have had it but was “not good at
putting paperwork together. Or he may have put it off for another day
which never happened.”
Charles took us to see his aunt Esther
(sibling of Fred). Esther had some memories of my grandma McLaughlin
visiting the farm with her children. Mainly it was my uncle Wally
because Vivian (my mother) did not like to visit the farm. As Esther
pointedly said, “she was angry and always did her own thing. We
accepted her as she was.”
Esther said that Grandma (and children)
would get to the farm by taking the bus to Martinsville and then
switch buses to Hague, but got off the bus at Esther's farm. Esther
would visit with my grandmother until the farm work was done and she
could be driven to the Phillip Krickau farm.
One of the reasons we tried to connect
to this side of the family was to see if they had information of
grandmother’s first husband- you remember Pat Sullivan that
Irishman. Esther said she vaguely knew of him and his “rather bad
history”. And yet she could not or maybe would not shed any
further details. I have learned that people would rather be silent
than tell a bad story.
I also had another family story that I
wanted an opinion on. We heard that Andreas Krikau (grandfather)
left Rosthern because he had built two homes for The Kinzels and was
never paid for them. Or as we were told he was swindled out of his
money. Charles and Esther tried to figure out who it may have been
but came up with no answers. Esther thought the story “could have
some merit.”
Charles drove us to the sight of the
Philip Krikau homestead. It remains in the family. Fred Krikau's
brother, Rheiny owned it and then it was sold to Rheiny's son Glenn.
I would have really liked to stop and poke around the homestead.
However Charles informed us that Glenn is an “odd sort, if not a
weird dragon and Glenn was not hospitable to company.”
We took pictures. We saw where Grandpa
Andreas and family ended up at upon arriving in the area. We saw the
flat Saskatchewan fields. I understand that Andreas did not stay on
the farm but stayed in one of the two homes he built in town. He was
only in the area for 3 years. He apparently did not like farming and
wanted to move to a city a pursue carpentry.
This may not have been my ancestral
homestead, but it was a homestead where my ancestors first lived.
Wendy
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| The Philip Krikau Homestead Property Circa 2009 |
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| Looking Back on The Philip Krikau Homestead Property Circa 2009 |
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