Mihalcheon, Gheorghe and Maria

Gheorghe was born in Boian in 1892, the youngest child of Maftei and Pachija Mihalcheon. He was left motherless at four so his father and his older sisters took care of him. He attended the local school and completed grade two before coming to Canada with the rest of the family in 1901. They settled in the Shalka district, but as a very young lad he went to work for Richard Hughson, a large rancher in the Whitford district. While in the employ of Hughson, he was encouraged to attend the Manawan School #282, a one-room log school located on S.E.32-56-15-4. There and from his employer he quickly picked up the English language. From there he went to Vegreville School. He did odd jobs in return for room and board. In 1917 he graduated from the Camrose Normal School and began teaching at Boian Marea School where he remained till 1926.
Up to that time teachers had come and gone, but “G.M.”, as he was known popularly, stayed. A strict disciplinarian, he introduced ball games such as soccer and baseball, organized school fairs and began the practice of working with the whole community, school and church, to put on English and Romanian programs. Money was raised as early as 1920 through a school concert to raise money for the purchase of an organ. This musical instrument was in great use in the following years and the quality of singing improved accordingly.
In 1921 George Michalcheon married Mary Lutzak of Shepenge and they lived for a few months in the parish house with Doctor Lazar Gherman, the local priest. Then he took over the Boian Trading store and moved there and lived in the small house nearby. In 1926 he was elected as M.L.A. for the Whitford constituency and represented it until 1930, when he was renominated but resigned. In 1928 the family moved the store to Hairy Hill. He later sold it and went into the hotel business in North Battleford and then Vermilion. George Mihalcheon was always involved in community and school activities all his life. He helped the Romanian community a great deal and often acted as interpreter, counsellor and adviser.
George and Mary Mehalcheon raised a family of five girls and one boy – Elizabeth, Marion, Anne, Marjorie, Frances and George.
In 1956 this man who had worked so hard to raise the quality of life in the Romanian community, who had always participated in the political, religious, cultural, educational and social activities passed away at age 62. He was buried at Boian, the district in which he had spent most of his life. His beloved wife Mary resides in Edmonton.