Klukas-Norris Family

Family

Klukas-Norris Family

Unknown

Herman Klukas was born in Russia on July 18, 1892, and came to Canada with his family in 1894. His parents homesteaded in Leduc where his mother died in childbirth. His father moved on to the United States, and Herman went up to the Peace Country over the Long Trail in 1908, driving team for Mr. Henry Roper. He found work looking after the horses at A.M. Bezanson's Stopping Place near the old townsite of Bezanson, and was there when Dorothy Bezanson died after giving birth to her son in 1908.

In May 1912, Herman filed on the SE 1/4 of Township 71 Range 6, just north of the new townsite of Grande Prairie. He abandoned this in 1913 and moved on to the Bad Heart district where, according to the Grande Prairie Herald, he would build a cabin at the mouth of the Bad Heart on the Smoky River and spend the winter trapping in that district. Later he took a job hauling freight from Edmonton. It was while he was working as a teamster that Herman enlisted in World War I, on July 22, 1915. He was with the 66th Battalion of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment but was later transferred to the 49th Battalion. He was wounded at Vimy Ridge in 1916, but returned to the fight and attained the rank of Sergeant. He was discharged in 1919.

After the war, Herman worked for the Egg Lake Ranch near Eaglesham which used the Bad Heart prairie as their summer grazing lease. Taking a great liking to the land at Bad Heart, in 1920 he filed for a homestead on the SW of Section 28, Township 75, West of the 6th Meridian. This homestead was abandoned in 1922 for a position as game warden in Wood Buffalo Park, in the northeastern corner of Alberta. Here he worked with Malcolm Norris, who was harvesting hay for the winter feeding of the buffalo, and met Malcolm's sister, Catherine Jessie Norris.

Catherine Jessie Norris was Metis, born in Edmonton ca. 1905 to Euphrosine Plante, an Iroquois-Cree Metis from St. Albert and John Norris, who had come to Canada from Scotland as an indentured employee of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1946. She grew up in St. Albert with siblings Emily, Malcolm, and Thomas. The Norris home on the St. Albert Trail was a gathering place for the community, and they were recognized as being among the elite in early Edmonton". In 1924, when her brother Malcolm was working in Wood Buffalo National Park, Jessie decided to go up and visit him, taking her own route by canoe.

In Wood Buffalo Park she met Ranger Herman Klukas. They returned to Edmonton where they were married in May 1925. Their first son, Malcolm, was born in 1926. Around 1930 Herman and Jessie moved back to the Bad Heart district. Herman became a blacksmith and mechanic as well as proving up on his homestead where they raised their six children: Malcolm, who never married; Norman, who married Betty Carter; Campbell, who married Anne Jannie; Johanna, who married Ben Palser of Grande Prairie; Barbara, who married Mathew Wozniak of Eaglesham; and Robert, who married Helen Johnson.

As Herman grew older, the old war wounds became more troublesome and he was confined to a wheel chair at Mackenzie Place for the last few years of his life. He died on February 24, 1979, and Jessie in October 1982. They are buried in the Bad Heart cemetery.

Russia
Grande Prairie, Alberta
Eaglesham, Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Wood Buffalo Park, Alberta

Herman Klukas married Catherine Jessie Norris and had six children: Malcolm, Norman (m. Betty Carter), Campbell (m. Anne Jannie), Johanna (m. Ben Palser), Barbara (m. Mathew Wozniak), Robert (m. Helen Johnson)

South Peace Regional Archives

Final

Partial

Created by TD on April 20, 2016

• English

Biographical notes taken from the contents of the fonds.