Bear’s Corner
By Doreen Flewelling
The longer I’m associated with the beef industry and the older I get, the luckier I feel to have had the opportunity to meet so many interesting and intelligent women. Often the unsung heroes of our industry are the women, and in this column I hope to share some of their lives with you. They form a diverse and devoted group who can proudly claim the titles of wife, mother, career women and then often become secretary, bookkeeper, farmhand, entertainment co-ordinator and shrewd business partner as well.
Traditions Matter
Valerie (Mamchur) Lees of Blair-Athol Polled Herefords was raised in a traditional family where work came first and extra-curricular activities were well earned pleasures. Val describes herself as the “middle child” born to Alex and Callie Mamchur. She has an older brother, a younger sister and brother as well as two older half sisters from her mother’s first marriage. Val’s father, Alex Mamchur, was born in a part of the Ukraine that was then occupied by Russia, and he arrived in Canada as a Russian immigrant. He could speak Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, and English, but because he couldn’t read or write in English, he was considered illiterate. In the Ukraine, Val’s grandfather Mamchur had a gristmill and grew wheat, oats and barley. He also had a fruit orchard producing both hard and soft fruit. Long before pesticides were used, the Mamchurs would boil rhubarb leaves and spray the juice on the hard fruit trees, such as apples, to control insects. In turn, they sprayed the soft fruit trees, such as pears, with soapy water as an organic pesticide. It was the “push factor” that forced the Mamchur family to leave the Ukraine. When the Russian government expected all of the able bodied young men to defend Russia over a land dispute with Poland, Val’s grandfather was sure this war would be sudden death for his two sons, Val’s uncle and her father Alex. At the same time, the Russian government was raising funds for the war effort, so they decided to tax the out buildings on farms. They taxed barns, grain bins, storage sheds and even outhouses. A double-hole outhouse was taxed more than a single-hole outhouse. Val’s grandfather felt the Russian government was just asking too much. They wanted his sons and his money! Val’s great uncle had already immigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba and they had received two letters from him that emphasized his excitement about settling in Canada. The Mamchur family walked away from their farm with what they could carry and eventually set sail for Canada. They landed in Canada in the 1920’s, and with the help of Val’s great uncle, they were directed to Saskatchewan. At the time, homestead land was still available in Saskatchewan so they settled into an English community near Parkside. The first thing Grandfather Mamchur did was use his two sons to pull the plough to get a potato crop planted. An English neighbour stopped by when he saw the Mamchurs spreading manure on the field. He was adamant when he told them that manure was to be piled and not to be spread on the land. He insisted that they would never get a crop of potatoes! Grandfather Mamchur spent a worrisome summer checking under the plants for potatoes. He thought perhaps the English knew what they were talking about! As it turned out, they harvested a bumper crop of potatoes their first fall in Saskatchewan! Callie (Wilkinson) Mamchur’s family (Val’s mother) came to Saskatchewan via the United States. Val’s grandmother was born in West Virginia, married and moved to Oklahoma to take part in the Land Rush. We don’t know whether they acquired land in Oklahoma, but they eventually made their way to Northern Saskatchewan. Val describes her mother’s father as a ne’er-do-well, because the way the story goes is that he sold moonshine, and one day he just disappeared… rumours were that he was killed by Indians. Val’s grandmother raised her seven children alone! When Alex and Callie Mamchur married, Alex was a Section Foreman for the railroad, so they moved around Saskatchewan somewhat, but their Val’s Family 1985 second child, Val, was born in a community north of Prince Albert called Big River. For grades eight through twelve Val attended the “Sisters of the Presentation of Mary” girls’ boarding school as a day student in the French community of Debden. Herefords Today Winter 2012 52