Alvin and Mary Joyal

Alvin Joyal was born at Stanstead, Quebec in 1885. His dad was Israel Joyal who had married Delphine Frappier. They had five children, Moses, Alphonse, David and Alvin and Ernest (who were twins). Israel died when he was in his late 30' s and Delphine remarried Amie Carbonneau and they had four daughters. Therefore Alvin had four brothers and four half sisters.

¶ In 1909 Alvin went west to Rouleau, Saskatchewan. In 1913 he homesteaded at Hazenmore, Saskatchewan. It was there that he met and married Mary Riley, who had recently moved there from Bath, New Brunswick.

¶ While at Hazenmore, Mr. Joyal became well known for his herd of Brown Swiss cattle (the first of their kind in Western Canada).

¶ They went out to Pitt Meadows, B.C. with their two boys, Ernest and Hughie, around 1915.

¶ Mr. Joyal used to take his cattle to all the fairs around there and he had won cups and many medals for them.

¶ It was however the saddest years of their lives as it was here that they lost their two sons. One died of pneumonia and the other one was run over by a car.

¶ It devastated both of them and they went back to Hazenmore to their friends.

¶ Mr. Joyal farmed for awhile and then moved into town where he had a Car and Implement Business. In 1929-1930 the crops in the district were wiped out. Mr. Joyal had financed a lot of people and they were unable to pay so he lost it all.

¶ They left Hazenmore then with their four children. (Ethel, Wilfred, Gerald and Jackie)

¶ They travelled by wagon and four horses pulling a caboose that Mr. Joyal had made. They were three weeks on the road. When they were about forty miles from Meadow Lake, at Andersons Shingle Mill, their horses ran away during the night. Alvin had to go by foot to look for them. When he located them, they had come out on the highway close to Glaslyn, which was about fifty miles from their camp.

¶ After they arrived at Meadow Lake they lived in the caboose for a short time until Alvin bought a house and moved it onto the site near where the Legion is now.

¶ At that time Alvin acquired a homestead in the St. Cyr district. He worked it for a year while still living in town.

¶ He then decided to haul freight up north in the winter and south in the summer. In the winter he went as far as Ile la Crosse with freight and picked up a load of fish and took it to Big River to Waite Fisheries and then back home to Meadow Lake.

¶ He had to do this in the winter because he had to go across the lakes and rivers when they were frozen.

¶ One spring when he was coming back, Alvin's four horses fell through the ice on Crooked River near Green Lake and they all drowned. He had two teams, one pulled and the others trailed behind.

¶ The following year, Alvin bought a truck and for many years he did general trucking. He used to haul blueberries and vegetables down south in the fall of the year.

¶ When the new hospital was built in Meadow Lake in 1936 they traded their house for the old hospital. Alvin fixed the old log hospital up for a home and they lived there for many years.

¶ It was there that Mary took in boarders and maternity patients.

¶ The expectant mothers would come and stay at Joyal's until they had their babies and were well enough to go home. In those days, maternity patients stayed in bed for ten days after the baby was born. Mary not only assisted with the delivery (the Doctor used to come to the house) but she nursed the mother, looked after the baby's needs, as well as cooking for the new mother and caring for her own family's needs. She was known as an excellent cook and no one was turned away from her home hungry.

¶ In Alvin's later years he did some farming for his sons. Then he worked for a few years as caretaker at the new hospital. He also did all the painting that was to be done there.

¶ He had the biggest and best garden in town with not a weed in it.

¶ He was also a carpenter. He built a home for his son Wilfred and when Wilfred moved out, Alvin built on to it and lived there and it is now Jacky's home. He also built a cabin for Gerald up at Greig Lake.

¶ He was just handy at any job and would help out any of his family at anytime. He had a quick temper but a soft heart.

¶ Alvin passed away October 22nd, 1959.

¶ A few years later Mary remarried Vint Tillotson. After Vint passed away Mary stayed in her home as long as she was able and then into the Villa. Towards the end when she needed more care she lived in the Meadow Lake nursing home. Mary passed away January 12th, 1987, (the same month and day that Alvin and Mary were married is the day and month she died).

Next: Memories of the 1993 Reunion