Families Honour Hilliard Area Pioneers at Graveside Service

Families Honour Hilliard Area Pioneers at Graveside Service

Michelle Pinon News Advertiser

Descendants of pioneers from the Hilliard area gathered for a graveside service on Aug. 22.

Family members huddled underneath umbrellas for the brief prayer service and the blessing of the graves of settlers, who are laid to rest in Pioneer Cemetery, which is located approximately four and a half kilometres southwest of the hamlet of Hilliard.

Organizer Cassie Gavinchuk declared, “What a day we’ve got,” as the rain began falling steadily. Perhaps it was God’s way of blessing the pioneers as well as their descendants who were in attendance for the 11th annual service.

People from as far away as Manitoba, Calgary, Lacombe and Edmonton were in attendance. Several of them said they attend the service every year as a way of remembering and honouring their family members who settled in the area to carve out a new life.

The community cemetery was created by the Gavinchuk and Tomashewsky families who donated the land. Over the years the cemetery became neglected. One fall while combining her and her husband’s land adjacent to the cemetery Cassie began thinking that it should be cleaned up.

The clean-up was a huge undertaking for the family of Cassie and William as it had become overrun with caragana bushes, spruce trees and thistles. But with the help of other family members, they were able to do the work in stages for four years. Today there are 61 unmarked graves and 18 marked graves in the cemetery.

The first service was held in 2009 and has been held every year since. Donations from attendees have allowed for the continued maintenance of the cemetery. Cassie said they are very grateful for all of the donations, and she hopes the support will continue and allow the legacy of the pioneers to live on.

Edmonton resident Lois French said her grandmother Pearl Diduck is buried in the cemetery. She said her grandmother lived on a homestead near Hilliard. “I didn’t know her,” said French, as her grandmother was in her sixties when she passed away from cancer in 1932. French said she also came to honour her mother Anne Yanchuk, who has also passed away.

French pointed out that her aunt, Kay Tymchuk, donated the large granite monument in the cemetery. French grew up in the Paulus area, eight miles south of Chipman. A former church was converted into the school she attended. French said her first job was as a secretary of Strathearn School in Edmonton. Ironically, she learned from Principal Tom Blacklock that his first posting as a teacher was at Paulus School. Primary School records are dated between 1904-1969. Paulus School was one of 67 schools registered in the municipality of Lamont County no.30.

According to the Provincial Archives of Alberta, (Heritage Resources Management System) website, the school was located in the geographical area identified as Fonds. The area, comprising Lamont County no. 30, was first surveyed in 1883. The first settler homesteaded in 1887. Many Ukrainian immigrants began settling in the area in 1891.