MY MOTHER (ANNIE VERIGIN) VERSION ON HISTORY OF WASYL VERIGIN

(Dated January 04, 1990)

Note: Elmer Verigin, son of Annie Verigin, transcribed from her personal  writings using her own words  (she was a grade four graduate) with no corrections to keep the authenticity.

“……How much I know history of Wasyl Verigin.

He was your great grandfather, Wasyl Verigin.  (as written to Nona, Lori, Tamara and Kimbal, Elmer and Marilyn Verigin’s children)

I don’t think I know everything, but I will try my best. He was born in Russia, Republic of Georgia in the Village of Slavlanka.

He was born to the Slastukin family. He was the youngest of seven children and when he was little over 2 years old, his father was killed by a horse. There was no welfare in Russia, so his poor mother couldn’t look after them all, but it happened in that village, Fediya and Pareniya Verigin had no children so they adopted him. So that is how it happened that he became to be Verigin.

He was about 10 years old (Elmer thinks this must be an error as he was already married ot just got married when the moved to Canada) when his new parents and he moved to Canada with the first group of Doukhobors in 1899, they say.

It was big freight ship. They had to clean it good before they could move in. It was thirty days and 30 nights on the water. Oh, yes, they boarded the ship in Port Batum in December 1898. The ship arrived in Halifax in January 1899. They were allowed to take limited personal belongings.

After a month long journey, they were glad to be on ground again. There were a lot of kind people helped them but they worked hard to survive.

They spent the rest of the winter in the Selkirk, Winnipeg area. In the spring they were brought by train to Saskatchewan (Elmer note, this was actually North West Territories, then)

I don’t know where the Verigins lived in early days here in Canada. Wasyl grew up, he married girl by name of Malasha. I heard her last name but forgot. They had 2 children, boy and girl. The boys name was Pete but the girl died when she was just an infant. The Malasha died and his second wife was Auxyuta, her maiden name was Chursinoff and the had 7 children, 5 sons and 2 daughters.

The oldest son William (Bill), then daughter Polly, then son John, Then Sam, then fourth son George, the fifth son Alex and youngest daughter Anne, she married Pete Popoff.

I don’t know where they lived at first but I heard they lived in Village by name of Pockrovka about 5 miles North of Veregin town on Ely Morozoff homestead N.E. quarter section 28, township 30.

There were 7 or 8 families were living in that village, 2 families Haleshoffs, Kazakoff, Chursinoff and Verigins. Each family had their own homesteads around but they lived in village and worked their land and started building on the homestead.

Fediya’s and Wasyl’s homestead was not far from the village. It was about 2 miles North of village and ir was near Whitesand River.

Wasyl build beautiful 3 storey high  house. Very few people had that kind of houses in those days. I can’t remember how many rooms this house had but I guess they had to have a lot of rooms for big family like that, Wasyl and his family, Fediya and Paraniya. Peter got married to Nastiya (Elmer’s note, nee Savinkoff) and they had also 2 children at that time and so a lot of space was needed.

I don’t remember how long they lived together in that big beautiful house. When things started to change. Pete and Nastiya and their family moved to their own farm. It was sometimes in the twenties. Mother Paraniya died, the crisis started more than ever. The beautiful house burned down and Pete and his family decided to move to Russia and they did.

His other sons build a cheap house on that place where the beautiful house used to stand and life went on. Bur Wasyl’s health started to fail. His third son Sam got married to Mary Wasenlinkoff and they had 2 children Mildred and Mike. That’s when I, Anne Morozoff got married his oldest son William (Bill) in March 6, 1930 and in 1931 May 9th our oldest son Lawrence was born and in June that summer Wasyl Verigin died at home.

I don’t know exactly how long Fediya lived afterward. Maybe a year or two then he also died. We all keep on living together. Next John got married to Vera Sookoroff, year later they had son Pete. Bill and I had second son Russel and Sam and Mary had their son Sam. Yet we kept on living together.

Polly got married to Mike Ratushny. Sometimes they lived with us and sometimes not. They had son Fred.

When Russel was little over 2 years old, when Bill and I and our 2 little boys moved to different farm to live and about a year or so John and his family moved to different place to live too. I can’t remember exactly when Sam and Mary and their family moved away from that place too.

Then just 4 of them left there, Auxyuta (mother), George, Alex and Anne. The Auxyuta died in October 03, 1953. Anne soon got married to Pete Popoff in Pelly. (Elmer note: this marriage happened previous to this date)  Then George and Alex lived there for awhile. I guess it was hard and lonely for two of them to live by themselves. George decided to finish himself. He came to town of Veregin and right on main street he shot himself. Alex lived for a while with his sister Anne Popoff in Arran, then bought a house in Kamsack. He lived there for awhile and got sick and was in Kamsack hospital for awhile. He died on 29th of March 1976.

That house on Verigin homestead, near river still there with lot of memories. Nobody couldn’t believe then that it could’ve happened like that. When there were so many going on that yard. So there was so many people, so many cows and horses, chickens, geese and pigs. Now just old house and few old barns and many, many memories of hardship and also happy days too.

Transcribed by Elmer Verigin September 18, 2012

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