Porozni, John and Anne

One of the more progressive farmers in the Romanian community at Boian was John Porozni. He was born in 1903 and grew up on the farm, had little formal education because the local school remained open only during the summer months.
By the time he was eleven he had to help in the fields by walking behind four harrows drawn by three horses. Three years later John started breaking prairie by hanging on to a walking plow pulled by four horses.
In 1923 he left home and for five months worked at Davidson, Saskatchewan which affected his views about farming. In 1924 he went west to Vancouver Island to work at a Pulp & Paper Mill that employed some 300 Japanese workers and only five Caucasians. Although the weather was mild, John was very homesick for the prairies and his home so he returned to go farming with his father.
Farming was still not easy. It meant long hours of hard work in summer. In winter it meant hauling grain in the cold weather to Vegreville or hauling sleigh loads of wood from across the Saskatchewan River – wood for fire, rails for fencing and posts for corrals and fencing.
In 1926 John married Anne Svekla of Shalka district and together they started their farming venture. The following year they built a log house 16’x20′ on the quarter across the road from his father’s homestead. Other buildings followed in due time. In 1930 they bought another quarter of land and more machinery all on credit, but all paid for later.
The farming enterprise was registered as the Willingdon Stock and Seed Farm. They raised purebred Yorkshire hogs, also pure bred Hereford cattle. Some of these animals were shown at fairs in Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge, Lacombe, Lloydminster and St. Paul. Breeding stock was sold at home and abroad.
In 1951 the Porozni family won the Master Farm Family award for north-east Alberta, an achievement of which they were justly proud.
John and his wife Anne have served on many boards and committees, almost too numerous to mention. A few of these include, John as president of the Agricultural Society of Willingdon for ten years, first president of Willingdon Seed Cleaning Plant, member of the Agriculture Service Board, and for sixteen years trustee and chairman of the Boian Marea S.D. #2053, just to mention a few. His wife Anne was active too. She took part in the agricultural society, the Shandro museum, Boian Ladies’ Club, I.O.D.E. and Willingdon Home and School Association.
In 1977 they retired to their new home in Vegreville but are more active than ever.
The Poroznis are proud of their children. Nicholas is the A.M.A. Manager CNCP Tele-communications in Edmonton. Willis is farming successfully in the Willingdon area. George is a professor at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. Robert is a pharmacist and owns his own pharmacy in St. Paul. Bettyann worked at the Univ. of Alberta Hospital as a lab technician for ten years and for two years as a dietitian at the same place.
John and Anne have thirteen grandchildren and one great grandchild. They still enjoy farm life and often assist their son on the farm.