Slovaks and Slovakia logo
Picture
rectrect
rectrect
rect
rect
rect
rect
rect
rect
rect
rect
rect
rect
rect
Logo for the 90th Anniversary of the church

EARLY HISTORY (1885-1907)

Fort William was a town which was built on the very northern shore of Lake Superior  in the land which was the traditional home of  the Ojibway people. At the mouth of the Kaministiquia river,  a fur trading post

Picture

was erected in the 1700s and for many years, Fort William was the site of the annual rendezvous at which furs were traded for supplies. Eventually, the forts closed down and the land fell to the Canadian  Pacific Railway and Fort William developed into an important town for the shipment of grain and coal from ships to rail. Immigrants willing to provide the hard labour for these jobs flocked to the town and settled in the neighbourhood which was building up next to the railyards and James Murphy coal dock. Ukrainian, Italian, Polish, Syrian and Slovak peoples made up the majority of the immigrants living on  streets named McIntosh, McTavish and McLaughlin after the scions of the fur trading trade. As soon as they came to Canada, the Slovaks looked for a spiritual home. According to oral history, Masses were sometimes held by a Syrian priest in one of the neighbourhood stores.

Rule

For more details about the upcoming events, contact
Pauline Krupa
at RR14 621 Gorevale Road Thunder Bay P7B 5N1 or
Angela Meady at
ameady@norlink.net

Site Webmaster is Ondro Mihal at omihal@slovak.com.

Document written by Angela Meady (Mikita) © 1998. All rights reserved.
All graphics, design, structure by Ondro Mihal.
All contents ©  1998. All rights reserved.
Last update:
Jan 10, 1998