ELI BURLA - as told to Peter Gaber, by his mother, Grapina Burla

When Canada opened its doors wide open and allowed immigrants to come and settle here, a family in Voloco Eucovina, decided to sell their belongings there and go to Canada. So in the spring of 1900, Eli Burla, aged 33, and Zamfira, his wife, aged 35, and children Eugenia, 9, Grapina, 6, and Nick, 4 bade farewell to family and friends and took a last look at the beautiful and picturesque countryside which they were never to see again. They travelled by train to Hamburg, accompanied by other fainilies, Vasile Onchulenko, Stefan Ursulcnc, George Holunga, John Onofreichuk, Peter Romaniuk, and from there they boarded ship, which arrived at Halifax 14 days later.

On their way west by rail they made a brief stop in Winnipeg, where they remember picking saskatoons along the railroad track right beside the C.P.R. station. Their next stop was Saltcoats,
Sask., where they lived with Nick Pentlichuk, who had come a year earlier from Bucovina. There they looked around for work. Tom McLennan, from Asessippi gave Mr. and Mrs. Eli Burla
a job to care for about a hundred head of cattle for $10.00 a month during their first winter here.

The next spring Eli Burla decided to get a homestead and - was told that it was open for homesteading north-east of Asessippi. So one day with axe in hand, he blazed his way north through heavily wooded bush. At noon he sat on a log, had dinner, and being fired, he fell asleep. In his dream an old man came and told him to go a bit further, mark that place and apply for a homestead. Startled, he awoke - but the dream seemed so real that he followed instructions, homesteaded that place in 1901 and lived there until his death at 73 in 1940.

In Europe where they came from, wood was very scarce so that was why he looked for land that was heavily wooded. In building his first log cabin, all he had to do was chop the trees down and use them as logs to build. When he started clearing the land for breaking up, he found it was more of a curse than a blessing. The whole family sweated and labored the whole summer to clear up a patch of land, while he was out working to be able to buy a team of horses. The team was then hitched to a plow alongside an ox and was led by the eldest daughter, Grapina Burla. So they turned over the first sod.

Eli was soon followed by other settlers: John and George Paulcnko and Nick Pentlichuk from Saltcoats, who all settled on the same section.

Every year more settlers from Bucovina followed and settled around that area that was later called Lennard.

Being religious and belonging to the Eastern Orthodox faith they formed a parish in 1903 and in 1904 they built a little church of logs on two acres of land which he donated. Because of the active part he played in organizing the parish they named it the St. Eli Church, commemorating the Prophet Elijah, as well as himself.

Eli Burla’s Family
Eugenia, the eldest daughter, died while her father was working at Tom McLennan’s. She is buried in the Asessippi Cemetery.
Grapina was married at the age of 14 to Alex Gaber. Peter Gaber, her son, learned the family history from her (see Alex Gaber family).
Nick Burla married Anna Herechuk. They had seven children: Margaret, Mrs.Titian; Victoria, Mrs. Kalushka; Mary, Mrs. Taylor; Albina, Mrs. Pugh; John; Stanley and Joyce, Mrs. Smithniuk.
Maria married Dennis Gorda. They too had seven children :Dora, Mrs. Bileski; Bill; Olympia, Mrs. Weir; John; Margaret; Gerald; and Alex.

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