THE PALECEK FARM
(Near
Joseph was the third son born to Frank and Josephine Palecek on March 15, 1877 in Bohemia . He was seven years old when his father brought them to Manitoba , Canada and his only education consisted of the three years of schooling he received while living in the city of Winnipeg . At the age of 10 he and his family moved out to a homestead in the community of Brokenhead, a farm municipality with Beausejour its nearest town. Beausejour in those days boasted a bank, a train station, a few stores, a drug store, a hardware store, and a post office, but at that time there was no school and thus Joseph's education came to an end. The town of Beausejour was 11 miles straight south of their homestead and besides the dominant Catholic Church, there were a few other churches in the vicinity, including a Baptist, Anglican and Presbyterian. Winnipeg was 40 miles away by highway and 35 by rail. Joseph no doubt learned to work hard on the farm all during his growing up years, beside his father and two brothers. It was thus only natural that when he married he continued on as a farmer as well.
Five miles down the road from the Palecek homestead there lived some neighbors by the name of Mr. and Mrs. (Annie) Wawryshyn, whom the Paleceks knew well. They were Ukrainian immigrants and as a young man Joseph had often visited them. On one such visit, Annie's younger sister, Mary Baronosky was also present, on a short visit from Winnipeg where she worked as a cook. She was then 22 years old and Joseph was 25. Thus began a year's courtship and on July 2, 1902 they were married. With $10. borrowed from Mary, Joseph bought a 160 acre homestead across the street from Frank and Josephine, legally described as Section 35, township 14, range 7. With the later addition of 40 acres inherited from Frank, Joseph and Mary then owned 200 acres.
Joseph proved to be a considerate, generous, but strict husband and father. He was a handsome man and hardworking, clearing the land by hand, raising crops and feeding his family from the profits of his produce. Times were still difficult in the pre-World War I years and produce was difficult to sell, which meant that at times food for the family was meager. Joseph no doubt heard much of the rumors of war on the horizon and when it finally broke out in 1914 it did cause sales to move a little easier and he was able to sell his produce but still only cheaply. Conditions were almost always a bitter struggle. Being a farmer he was spared enlistment, and what sons he had at that time were still little boys.
Thirteen children were born to Mary and Joseph. They follow in this order: Annette (1903), Marie (1904), Josephine (1905), Adolf;(1907), Walter (1908), Rudolph (1910), June (1911), Gerald (1913), Emily (1915), Robert (1916), and Florence (1918). The last two boys were stillborn.
By the time they were school age a country school had been erected two miles down the road for them to attend until well on into high school. There were so many children in their small house that there weren't chairs enough for them all to sit around the dinner table and some were required to stand or take meals in turns.
Joseph was born a Catholic in a strong Catholic community (Beau Sejour). Mary was originally Greek Orthodox, but joined her husband's faith when they married. When one of their first children was born they took her to the priest in Beau Sejour for baptism. However, working all week on the land, when 5undays rolled around, he was not often feeling up to a five mile walk to church and so his attendance to that date had been very irregular. This fact displeased the priest to the extent that when they came to him with their child, he was going to charge a $20 fee for her baptism. This was an impossible amount and angered Joseph considerably. That was the last he had to do with the Catholic church, and resulted in their children being raised with home .- religious training. The baby was taken on to Winnipeg and baptized by another priest named Zimmerman, and some children that were to follow were baptized by Mary's sister, Annie because she was a devout lay person who later became a devout 7th Day Adventist, or a Presbyterian minister.
For their act of rejection of the church, the family of Joseph Palecek was for some time ostracized by the Catholic community. They were branded "heathens", called "devils with the horns", and the local children would even throw- stones at Joseph's children at school. For some time the Palecek family were like "untouchables". In later years however, the population gradually began to discover that their particular priest was more of a money hungry rascal than a devout man concerned with spiritual affairs, and their feelings of prejudice for the Paleceks began to fade. All those who broke away from the church were not permitted burial in its cemetery.
The first home of Joseph and Mary had two rooms, an added kitchen and two rooms upstairs. It was a log house filled in with clay and whitewashed, built by Joseph. The six girls slept in one of the upper rooms and the five boys in the other, sleeping three in a bed. In their kitchen there were not enough chairs for all to sit down to meals at one time, and thus had to take turns.
It was a difficult task to make ends meet in those days with such a large family. Joseph's brother Louis, jealous and ever at odds with his younger brother's family, declared that Joseph had so many children they would all grow up to be naught but bums and paupers. Apparently Joseph's wife and daughters were more beautiful and capable than Louis', and this the supposed reason for the jealousy.
To keep them all in clothing Mary bought used goods, did all their sewing, made over hand-me-downs, and would even bleach and wash flour sacks and sew them into clothes on her sewing machine. In the daytime she was cooking, washing, plucking feathers, baking bread or numerous other tasks.
They raised wheat, oats, barley, rye, sometimes flax, hay, and potatoes, and an acre of peas on their farm. They had a vegetable garden, root cellar, 6 horses, 8 head of cattle (bull calves were raised for meat, heifers for their milk, and old ones were sold), and milk and butter was sold to the creameries. They had 3 sows which produced 34-40 piglets annually, also sold, and 75 laying hens. They usually had 15-18 geese, of which they would sell all but three and pluck them for their down for quilts and pillows. They raised 30-35 turkeys which they would also sell. Growing wild on their land were raspberries, blueberries, chokecherries, black currants, which they would can for their own use, as well as strawberries and saskatoons.
Sometime in 1919 Joseph developed severe side pains. Mary pleaded with him to go to a doctor, but being stubborn, he would not. When they grew worse, Mary finally sent her oldest son, Alf, to fetch Uncle Louis. Reminding Joseph that he had a wife and 11 children to support and his health was therefore important, Louis managed to persuade Joseph to go to a doctor. So he was packed up and taken on a wagon to Beau Sejour. There the doctor examined him, told him he had some 19 days to live and sent him on to a hospital in Winnipeg . Before leaving town however, Joseph went to a lawyer to make out a will. He was never to come home again. On the 19th day, January 19, 1920, he died, not quite 44 years old.
Some said it was cancer, others a ruptured appendix. The family differ as to what it was. When Louis returned to tell Mary of her husband's impending death, it hit her pretty hard, for that was the last day she was to ever see him alive. There was no money for her to travel the 40 miles to Winnipeg to visit him during his last days, so his daughters Marie and Annette, who had since grown up and left home to live in the city, were his only visitors. When Joseph died his body was brought home and kept in a casket in the house until his funeral. Because the priest refused to conduct the service, Mary's uncle read the funeral service to neighbors that gathered in the home. Joseph was buried in the Ladywood Private cemetery.
For six months after his death, Josepn's dog, Jack, a collie continued his faithful walk down the road to whatever spot it was that he was accustomed to waiting for Joseph to be coming home in the evening, to walk home with him. But of course Joseph never came home again.
THE PALECEK FARM
(Near
Additional Information Given by Walter Palecek
Frank Palecek came to
He got a homestead at Brokenhead when young Joseph
was 10 years old. Frank got a
government grant for $1,000. at a low interest to be repaid in 10 years.
Frank built a house, and a barn for the horses and cattle, and a
chicken
coop. He bought a team of horses, a binder, hay mower, hay rack, and a walking
plow, harrows and a wagon.
The homestead wasn't all bush, some parts were
prairie, and some light bush. Joseph
helped his father to clear 30 acres for crops. In 1895 Frank was 42 years old and Joseph 18 years. He helped his father harvest the crop then went west of
Mary Baronowski came to
In the early days Mary had to work in the
fields too. She took her baby to the hayfield in a
buggy, parked it in the shade under a tree, and
worked in the field. She would return to nurse the baby when it was hungry.
Joseph was born March 15, 1877, and Mary was born
July 22, 1880.
They were married July 2, 1901.
Joseph died January 19, 1921 after only 20 years
of marriage, when Mary was 40 years
old.
Mary died in April 1960, at the age of 80 years.
She was a widow for 40 years.
Joseph died January 19, 1921
Albert was born February 2, 1920 Stillborn Joseph (jr.) was born June 5, 1921 Stillborn
Joseph Palecek's Sr. funeral was conducted by
FRANK MOLINSKI
Mary's brother, William Baronowski, came to
help them on the farm after Joseph died, on March 9,
1921. (He later shortened his name to Bill Baron.)
All the children were born on the farm at home, as
there was no hospital in Beausejour. A nurse from
CLPA/C.y
Ward's children:
Danielle
Itevafte-y,_born October 22, 1974
Children of
William & Pearl Baronowski (Pearl Kozier)
ANNIE
Born:
Married: Ted Wawryshwyn
Children: Ted, Nettie, Mary, Stella, Bill, Mike Residence:
PETER
Born:
Believed killed in WWI in
MARY
Born: July 23, 1860
Married: Joseph
Palecek
Children: Anette, Marie, Josephine, Adolf, Walter, Rudolph, June, Gerald, Emily,
Robert,
Residence:
DORA
Born:
Believed killed
hauling munitions during WWI.
JOSEPHINE
Born:
Only sister to survive
war Residence:
JOHN
Born:
Died at 2Z of a
rheumatic heart
WILLIAM
Born: ?, Died: August
Married:
Chichi
Residence:
The Baranovskys
lived at Poplavy, Skallet
municipality in the