Person:Ionita Badea (2)

lonita Badea was a farmer who lived on a small tenant farm in Coza Voda, Romania. They lived in a three-room sod house, painted blue with a lean-to on the back and on one end. Times were hard and in 1907, hearing of land in Canada for ten dollars for 160 acres and improvements done over a period of years, he, along with his family and the families of the Stefans, Adamaches, Mihais, Radus, and Moldovans plus several young men decided to leave Romania and come to Canada.

On February 27 1907 he sold what few possessions he had and left his homeland behind. They say that it was particularly wet that year and mud was everywhere. Loaded down with all their worldly possessions, they boarded the train at Constantato Hamburg, Germany. Here the officials stopped those who were sick. Young Vasile had the measles, so he and his sister Dumitra “Daney” stayed behind with their older sister Voica and her husband Sharbon Radu to look after them. The name of the ship they boarded in Hamburg on April 13, 1907 was the “SS Patricia." Many of the people were sick; some died and were buried at sea. The voyage took two weeks at sea, landing in New York, April 29, 1907. From there they traveled by train to Montreal, Quebec.

As soon as Vasile was well he was able to travel. On May 17, 1907 Voica and Sharbon Radu, their daughter Matilda, Dumitra and Vasile boarded the “SS Pretoria". They arrived at the port of New York on May 31, 1907 and went on to join the rest of the family.

Unable to speak English, lonita and his children were at the mercy of the immigration department in Montreal. Hence when they were asked to give their names some confusion occured. Legend has it that they were asked to state their name, giving the last name first. lonita (not understanding what he was asked), stated his name as he always had, saying “lonita” instead of “Badea". A further misunderstanding occurred because the officials misinterpreted the “I" as a “T", and “Tonita" was recorded as the surname. Ionita was affectionately known for the big, bushy mustache he sported, thus he inherited the nickname “Mustatia”. When the family filed homesteading papers on February 4, 1909, he signed the documents as "lonita M. Mustatia". Thus his homesteading papers and grave stone list him as Mustatia. However, lonita's children decided to adopt the name Tonita to avoid further confusion.

The family traveled to Regina, Saskatchewan by train, with some of the group going to Dysart, Saskatchewan where they had relatives or friends who had come in 1905. In Dysart there was no land available so the men went back to Regina. They got in touch with land representatives in Regina and were shown land available. The land around Twelve Mile Lake appealed to them because of the abundance of water and to the south was bush that they could use to build their homes and supply their firewood and fence posts. However the land in this area still had not been surveyed and would take two years to do so. They were allowed to build a temporary home west of the area they decided to farm. There were several other families that also liked this area and wanted to farm there.

They lived in tents at first, while a sod hut was built to house them. Some of the first meals were tea, bread, boiled potatoes and greens from plants that grew along the lake. The odd rabbit, duck, birds, some fish and gophers and other small animals were their meat staples.

The Tonitas, Adamaches, Mehais, Moldovans, Stefans, Stoians and the Tatouis began to build their temporary home. This shelter was two long walls made of sod construction and the roof was made of poles, lighter branches and leaves with sod slabs on top. This long house was divided into seven partitions and each family lived in one of these rooms. Lean-tos were built on each end and were used for the animals. When it rained outside, mud would rain down from the ceiling on the inside, and the women would quickly repair the roof with a plaster made of mud and grass. Being used to the communal farming villages of the old country, the seven families built their houses next to one another, not realizing that the dwellings had to be on the homestead itself. They called this little village Sét, which means "settlement“ in Romanian. When the survey was finally completed, each family was required to relocate their homes to the homestead. Fortunately all received their land next to one another.

lonita built a three room sod house built on the top of a hill overlooking the lake. Made out of mud bricks, the house was covered with poles and sod for a roof. It was 45 feet long and 16 feet wide and was divided into three rooms; a kitchen/living area, and two bedrooms. A pot-bellied stove heated it and its two‐ foot thick walls provided excellent insulation that kept it relatively warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The walls were covered with a plaster made of straw, mud and water. The plaster filled in any cracks and helped to windproof the structure. In the winter he built a small sleigh for the children to sleigh ride on down the hill, but what a chore it was to pull the sleigh up the hill again. He also built a "Bordea" (root cellar) where he made his home brew.

As soon as they had built their homes and begun working their land, their next priority was to have a place in which to practice their religious beliefs. The settlers built St. Peter and Paul Romanian Greek Orthodox church and a stone home for the priest. At first the men obtained a permit to break twenty acres and seed it to oats. They bought a reaper in Moose Jaw, and were able to cut the oats and rake it into piles for winter-feed. After the crop had been sown, lonita decided to buy a cow, so he hitched the wagon and drove to Dysart where he obtained a red Guernsey cow and calf from a friend. He also purchased a few hens so they would have eggs for the winter. The trip took lonita over two weeks, but it ensured that there would be fresh milk, cream, eggs and cheese for the winter.

During the fall of 1907, the young men went to Dysart and Regina to work on threshing crews where they earned $1.50/day. lonita had earned $25.00 and with that money he was able to buy supplies for the winter. He purchased 200 pounds of sugar, ten sacks of flour, salt, and other staples. He also bought enough material for Safta to make shirts for the men and dresses for the women.

That first winter was extremely rough on the settlement. Miles from the nearest town, their closest neighbours were the North West Mounted Police at Wood Mountain, some fifteen miles southwest of Sét. It is said that the NWMP stopped by the village about once a month to check on the immigrants, to make sure no one was sick and to ensure they had enough to eat. Their care was a huge aid to lonita and his family, for the NWMP also took the time to explain the laws, familiarize them with the climate and help them with their English. It was a lonely winter as they waited for their homesteads and remembered family and friends in the old country.

In 1908 some of the young men went to Regina to work. They worked in the construction of the Regina Parliament buildings. Ionita looked after the roving up of the land for himself and his sons, while they were working in Regina. This is ploughing with a walking plough the number of acres required for each of them to hold their lands. At the settlement a big prairie fire came and legend has it they could see it coming for three days. The grass was knee high and very dry. The women and older men that were left in the village made fireguards. They took everything out of their homes, and turned the cattle loose and headed for the lake. After the fire passed, it rained all night, drenching all their clothes, ruining them as the colours ran. A cow got into one of the shelters, managed to open the oven door where the lady stored her bread and flour and ate it. The owner of the cow shared her small supply of flour with the lady who lost her bread and flour.

In 1909 the land was surveyed and the families went to Willowbunch, Saskatchewan to file on homesteads; interestingly, lonita filed under the name of lonita Mustatia from the Linthorpe district, with his son George Tonita as witness.