Nicolai Henry Pauls
by Peter N. Pauls
My parents came to Glenbush, Saskatchewan in 1927, It was in 1925
that my parents left central Russia, the province of Ufa. They
arrived in Quebec in June of 1925 and then came to Rostern, Saskatchewan.
From there we came to Waldheim and with several other families,
lived in a farm house. In this exodus my parents were joined with
two of mother's family, Uncle Peter Wiens, who then was seventeen
years of age, and Aunt Margaret (Mrs. John Enns). The reason for
our coming to Canada was the result of the Russian Revolution.
After a brief stay of two years at Waldheim, we came to Glenbush.
It was in this short stay at Waldheim when we experienced deep
sorrow through the loss of two of my brothers. Here Tina was born
and she joined us in our trek to Glenbush.
In the spring of 1927 a railroad car was loaded with some of the
belongings that we, and the Henry Kroeker family, had accumulated.
My dad went along to milk the cows and probably feed the pigs
and chickens, while Mr. Henry Kroeker and his nephew John Toews
took the horses with wagons from Waldheim to Glenbush. The woman
and children were put on a model T Ford and made this long trip
of one hundred miles in one day. We arrived at Monpetites who
lived close to Long Lake, and from here we finally came to our
new place which then was Gus Kennedy's farm, and was located four
miles east and a mile and a half north of Glenbush, just a half
mile north of Mike Weldon.
Here we lived until 1930 when we moved into our new house built
on the N.E.1/4 49-14-W3. This quarter had no cultivated land and
every acre that was put under cultivation was done by my parents.
Some was done by hiring a man who broke land with a tractor on
steel wheels or by horses and a breaking plow.
It was from this place, located four miles from Artichoke, that
I personally commuted back and forth, mostly by horses, to complete
my grade eleven. I treasure many of these experiences, though
throughtout poverty and sickness there was always enough to eat,
a warm place to stay, and loving parents who tried to meet our
physical, psychological and spiritual needs.
One of the interesting things of those days was the socializing.
It was in those days that there was a fair amount of visiting,
seeing friends and neighbours. Even such things as sawing firewood
was an occasion where many interchanged help, and mealtimes were
a social event.
Since my home was a deeply religious home, most of our events
centered around the church. My father spent much time with our
young people teaching them to read notes, singing in choir, at
first totally unaccompanied. Another feature thing in our environment
was music. We had such things as a guitar, violins, autoharps
and many mouth organs. It was a way of expressing ourselves and
also a way of making each other happy.
Being a member of a family of ten children, we also experienced
an exodus. In 1956 my parents moved to Kelowna, B.C. As a result,
only two of us stayed here, my brother Henry Pauls and myself.
The rest are: three in British Columbia, one in California, one
in Papua, New Guinea, teaching under Wycliff Bible translators,
three in Sask. One sister passed away of cancer in Calgary. My
father passed away in the fall of 1976 at age of eighty-three,
and my mother is still alive and well at age eighty-one in the
Tabor House, Clearbrook, B.C.