Julius Schmuland

Julius Schmuland was born on Christmas Day 1870, probably in East Prussia, and possibly while his father was away at war. He moved to Volynhia with the rest of his family and when he was 14 they came to Canada. At 17 he was tending livestock in Manitoba. In 1891 he arrived in the Wetaskiwin area and claimed the homestead directly north of his father's and the quarter west of that (NE and NW Sec 10 T45 R24 W4). In 1911, when his father died, Julius got his quarter as well.

Sometime in the early 1890's Julius met a girl who was working for his parents. Her name was Bertha Marie Witzke, and she was the daughter of August Witzke and Anna Domeris. Julius and Bertha were later married at a neighbor's home (the Sigalit's), by a preacher who came down from Wetaskiwin. On October 31 1894, Julius and his father were naturalized. By spring of 1895 Julius had a 21 by 26 foot log home built on his eastern quarter, and he and his wife began continuous residence. (Later on, there would be two frame houses on this land, one for Julius and one for his sons Adolph and Gus and Gus' family.) In was called continuous residence although Julius often went away for months at a time to work. From May to September 1895 he worked near Leduc as a section hand on the railroad. From October 7 to December 16 of the same year he was also away working. His brother Gus recalls him walking to Red Deer to work in a lumber camp for a winter and carrying his wages, fifty pounds of flour, on his back all the way home.

Through his hard work his farm prospered as we can see by the reports he made.

At home, Julius and Bertha spoke in German and their children regularly took a day off school for German lessons with their grandfather Witzke. Julius himself was illiterate and had his wife read to him from the German bible. A granddaughter, Mrs. Beryl Templeman, remembers reading English letters and items to Bertha as she wasn't good in English.

In 1928, at the age of 57, Julius decided to retire. On June 12 1928 he sold his three quarters of land to Sam Pudrzke for $15,680 and they moved to town. His son Adolph came with him and his son Gus went to Edberg and ran a garage that he bought. John Buskas talked Julius into buying a farm five miles west of Hobemma, partly because there was nothing for Adolph to do. So Gus sold his garage and came back to help out on the farm. But the Pudrzkes couldn't pay for the land, so Julius got it back on November 5 1932, and they all moved back.

Julius farmed there until his death on May 9 1945. Bertha then moved into Gus' house with Adolph, and Gus' family moved into Julius' house. Bertha lived there until her death on January 8 1958.

Back to Andrew Schmuland

Ferdinand Schmuland

Gustav Schmuland

Rudolph Schmuland