Mihalcheon, Zaharie and Domnica

Zaharie Mihalcheon was born in 1866 in Boian, Bukovina. His wife, Domnica Marițak, was born in 1872 also in Boian. They were married in 1888 and had four children in the old country – Alexander who died in infancy, Sarah, Maria and Sanda. In 1899 the family emigrated to Canada along with other families from the same villages.

Here Zaharie decided to settle on a homestead which had a creek running through it. He constructed the necessary buildings and proceeded to break the land and raised good crops as well as livestock. The family grew in size and prospered. Zaharie always had hired hands working for him as there was so much to do and all the children, except one, were girls. The older children attended the local school and learned to speak, read and write English. They became trilingual speaking Romanian, Ukrainian and English.
In 1918 Zaharie sold out and moved to the Warwick district as he wanted to be closer to a Romanian church and he also needed more good farm land. Here he purchased three quarters of rich farm land and again proceeded to establish an excellent farmyard. The family grew in size too.
Sarah married Metro Predy. They had four boys, Steve, Nick, Mike and George. Maria married Kozma Cherniwchan and they had two boys Don and Johnny and two girls Kay and Anne. Sanda married Vasile Romanchuk. They raised three children John, Steve and Katie. Ioana married Tom Zaharichuk. Five children were born to this couple, Mary, Doreen, Pearl, Katherine and Steve. Katie (Dochija) married Wm. Harrison and they had three girls and one boy, Doris, Marie, Velma and Nick. Mr. and Mrs. William Harri¬son always took a very active part in the Romanian community both at Boian and in Edmonton. While on the farm Bill was secretary-treasurer for the Boian church for twenty-five years. His wife was a member of the Romanian Ladies’ Auxiliary for many years. Both are still enjoying life. Bill at the time of writing is ninety-five years young. Katrina married Mike Serbu and raised a family of five children, Doris, Sam, Steve, John and Evelyn. Frank, the only son, married Laura Bordian and they had three sons, Sandy, Bobby and Johnny. Velma (Veronca) married Alex Hawka. They had two daughters Marjorie and Irene. Bella, the youngest, remained single and lived all her life with the Harrison’s.
Zaharie and his wife were extremely hard workers. Blessed with eight daughters and one son there were bound to be parties, anniversaries and, of course, weddings. The Mihalcheons enjoyed entertaining and enjoyed socializing. They were also church-minded and attended the Romanian church regularly. When they got older, Frank took over the farming opera¬tions.
Domnica passed away in 1938 at the age of sixty- six and Zaharie died in 1940 at the age of seventy-four. Both are buried in St. Mary’s cemetery at Boian.