Family Tree:Information about Victor Monette
Victor Monette (b. 1879, d. 1945)
Notes for Victor Monette:
Victor Monette was born at St Phillip Conté Laprairie, Quebec in 1879. As a young man he helped on his father's farm. He loved to step-dance and he and a friend danced one winter on the stage in Montreal to earn funds to go west. There they had heard of the many opportunities for good homesteads. In 1907, Victor headed west on the train as far as Winnipeg. From there he worked his way to the Qu'Appelle Valley. Farmers there had advertised for farm workers and harvesters. He immediately got on a threshing crew and remained at some farm for one a half years. He had saved all his wages and bought four oxen. He now headed further west and was astounded to see the miles of rolling prairie. In January of 1909 he filed on his homestead 12 miles south of Meyronne. He built a sod shack. With his oxen he broke, tilled and seeded the soil. He also travelled to Morse quite often to get supplies. It took almost three days to go and three days to return. He slept by his oxen to keep warm. He brought back mail, groceries, lumber and flax seed for himself and a few neighbours.
Victor was a hard worker and very ambitious. Through the years he accumulated three sections of Land and rented some.
In 1914 he contracted to have a large house, barn and other farm buildings built. In Feb. 1917 he married Émilienne Monette also from St. Phillip, Laprairie. They had six children, three boys and three girls. Aimé, Frank (Kolo) and Germaine have passed away. Victor the eldest lives at Aldergrove, BC; Rita (Mrs Len. Sims) Living near Trail, BC for 47 years now Lives in Prince George, Be. Claire (Mrs. F. Krause) now lives at Point Venture, Texas. The children all went to Grace Hill School. The girls finished their education at LaFlèche Mathieu School.
Victor and Frank joined the R.C.A.F., when the Second World War broke out. Victor stationed in Western BC and Frank a Spitfire fighter pilot over-seas. Aimé took up farming on the home farm.
Victor Sr. was the first farmer to get a Case combine in the thirties in his area. As with many farmers they had their ups and downs - dust storms, drought, hail and grasshoppers by the millions. However during the depression we really were not too much in want. We had cattle, milk, cows, pigs and chickens and always a large garden. One year during the depression, mom and dad planted a garden about 1/4 mile from the house in a Large dried out slough. There must have been moisture in the soil because they had a bumper crop of vegetables; actually they harvested half the hay rack of citrons.
To make extra money for the family, Victor equipped his farm truck with side racks and went buying Livestock from local farmers which he trucked to Burns Slaughter House in Moose Jaw. He made a small profit doing this. Mom as all early farm women canned hundreds of quarts of vegetables, meat, chicken and some fruit, mostly saskatoons mixed with rhubarb. The family would go in the bush country about 20 to 25 miles south to pick saskatoons and sometimes as much as a tub full. The only other wild fruit was chokecherry which made good pancake syrup. Mom sewed most of the girls clothing and was quite handy at dying clothes especially those made from flour and sugar sacks.
Victor had built a small well equipped blacksmith shop. He shoed his own horses and repaired a Lot of his machinery. In his later years he went into the egg business. He had a very modern chicken house built with self-feeders and watering troughs. The front was all windows and electricity was kept on all night. He bought a thousand Leghorn pullets and shipped eggs to Moose Jaw several times a week. After a few years he became ill and had to quit the egg business.
Dad passed away June 1945 and Mom passed away suddenly August 1938.