TODORUK

Born 22 September 1904, Dauphin area, Manitoba,Canada²
Died 24 February 2008, Dauphin, Manitoba,Canada³
Buried Riverside Cemetery, Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada
Mike Todoruk
The parents of Mike Todoruk, Dora and Wasyl Todoruk, came to Canada from the Ukraine in 1896 or 1897. They started their homestead in the Mink Creek-Ashville district. Their block of land is shown in the settlement map. During the first winter, they lived in a sod burrow constructed mostly underground. Mike Todoruk was born in 1904. He quit school after grade 8, when he was 16 to begin to farm. He went to school longer than any one else in his family.
At the age of 17, he bought his first car, a Model-T Ford for 20 cords of wood and $3000. In 1924, at the age of 19, he bought an International Harvester threshing outfit with his brother, Steve. In 1928 he left farming and went to Chicago to look for employment. He came back in June of 1930, and married Josephine Drebniski later that month. He got a job as a mail carrier that same year, and continued this job until 1948. This job payed $42 per month. They had their first child, Nellie, in 1931. In 1935 he bought an International Harvester dealership and machine shop in Ashville, Manitoba. In 1938 he and Josephine had their second child, Ernie. In 1939 he opened a general store and Texaco gas and oil business in Ashville. Sometimes he had to deliver as many as 25 barrels of gas to farmers each day. In 1947 he bought the Massey-Harris dealership in Strathclair which he sold in 1949. In 1949, he sold his gas and oil business in Ashville for $13, 000, and bought a Cockshutt dealership in Dauphin for $20, 000. In his first year of business he sold over 20 new combines and received 10 sales awards including trips to Bermuda, Freeport, Jamaica, Los Angeles, Sandiego, Miami, and a cruise from Miami. In his early years, he had some difficulties because the local Co-op dealer sold the same equipment for the same price under the Co-op name. He forced them to close within two years by accepting trades for machinery, and giving better deals on used machinery. In 1971 he sold his dealership and went back to farming. In 1973 his wife Josephine died, and in 1974 he married Anne Syrnyk (Perih). They now live in Dauphin.
From
The Stewart Family, A Brief Family History
By Graham Stewart, October 19, 1998 Term 1 Canadian History Project

Alias Josephine TODORUK
Born 1913, Gilbert Plains, Manitoba, Canada
Died 29 July 1973, Wagagaming, Manitoba, Canada⁴
Buried Riverside Cemetery, Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada