Memorable Manitobans: Nicholas Apoluner Hryhorczuk (1888-1979)

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Nicholas Apoluner Hryhorczuk
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Implement and lumber dealer, MLA (1921-1922), MLA (1923-1927), MLA (1927-1932), MLA (1933-1936), MLA (1941-1945).

Born at Buchachky, Western Ukraine on 19 December 1888, he came to Canada with his family in 1897, settling north of Gilbert Plains. He moved to Ethelbert in 1911 and opened a business which he operated until his retirement in 1978. He was a Director of the Ruthenian Farmers Elevator Company, President of the Ethelbert Agricultural Society (1927 and 1928), and Reeve of the Rural Municipality of Ethelbert (1917 to 1919).

On 22 February 1905, he married Anastasia “Nelly” Dzaman (1890-1973, daughter of Dmytro Dzaman) of Gilbert Plains. They had six children: Michael Nicholas Hryhorczuk, Wasyl “Bill” Hryhorczuk (1907-1979), Myroslaw “Ross” Hryhorczuk (1911-1950), Rozalia “Rose” Hryhorczuk (1914-?, wife of ? Dilodeau), Nadia Hryhorczuk (1922-2019, wife of Edward Theodore “Ted” Ewanchyshyn), and Elizabeth “Violet” Hryhorczuk (wife of ? Ploshynsky). He was elected an Independent MLA in 1920, acclaimed as a United Farmers candidate in 1922, and then was re-elected as a Liberal-Progressive in 1927, 1932, and 1941, but was defeated in 1936 and 1945. He was the first person of Ukrainian descent to become an MLA in Manitoba. Hryhorczuk was an active supporter of Ukrainian culture in Canada.

He died at Dauphin on 23 November 1979 and was buried in the Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Cemetery.

Sources:

Birth registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

1916 Canada census, Ancestry.

The Canadian Parliamentary Guide, 1929.

Obituary [Anastasia Hryhorczuk], Winnipeg Free Press, 25 January 1973, page 31.

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 26 November 1979, page 54.

Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.

Obituary [Nadia Ewanchyshyn], Dauphin Herald, 15 October 2019.

Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.

We thank Oliver Bernuetz for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 30 July 2020

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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