Introducing the Avrams. The following information is courtesy of Percy Avram of Mesa, Arizona who has been the Avram family's curator of valuable information and the author of his family's history. He has also been my, Steve Feica's, mentor in many ways.

John Avram was born on August 15th,1888 in the village of Lapusi, in the County of Scarisoara, in the JudicialDistrict of Alba, in Transylvania, Romania.    He was the fourth living child of Peterand Sarah (Lupu) Avram. He attended a parochial school in Romania, but advanced himself through life by self-education.   He came to Canada with his parents when he was 14 years of age, and immediately went to work as a ranch hand on the Spring Rice Ranch located some 20 miles south west of Rouleau, Sask.  As payment for his labor, he took horses both for his father’s farm as well as for his own. He filed for his own homestead when he was 18 years of age.    He was united in marriage to Lena Feica on October 10th, 1910 at the St. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church. A  rural church he helped to build at now Kayville, Sask.    

Lena was the daughter of Dumitru Feica and Ana Lazar. She was born in the village of Boian, in the province of Bucovina,in Romania and came to Canada with her parents at the turn of the century.    

John and Lena were not only children of pioneers, but pioneers in their own right. Their homestead was NW1/4,-13-10-24-W2nd, and it was here that he placed his farm buildings and home. He hauled all the material required for construction from Rouleau, Sask. A distance of 40 miles by horse drawn wagon or sleigh, depending on the season of the year. He would drive to town with a load of wheat and return with a load of coal and other needed supplies.     He acquired more land as time moved on and eventually owned more than 700 acres. He moved with the times, switching from horse power to tractor power farming and to appropriate tractor implements.    He loved mechanical implements and was thefirst  in the district to purchase an Aultman and Taylor  threshing outfit and did crop harvesting on his farm and custom work for others. He owned and operated an automobile since 1918 and it was only during the Great Depression that he was forced to convert an old automobile chassis into a horse drawn vehicle known asa  “Bennett BuggY’. It was so named after R.B., Bennett, the Canadian Prime Minister during the period of the depression. 

 Lena’s parents farmed the N1/2-31-9-23-W2nd, and it was her parents that donated  four acres of land for the Romanian pioneers to construct the St. Peter and Paul Romanian Orthodox Church and provision for a cemetery.   

Lena was a jovial person, a good mother, a fantastic cook, and always carried a smile which put people at ease. At parties and social functions both John and Lena loved to sing, and Lena was a very good singer and had a long repertoire of Romanian songs which she sang from memory with heartfelt ardor and gusto.    

John was very active in community affairs.He was one of the original ratepayers to sponsor the establishment of the Queen Alexandra School in DistrictNo.3750, and was the Secretary-Treasurer of the School Board for many years..He was active and served on the Kayville Wheat Pool Committee, a delegate to the Wheat Pool District and Provincial Conventions, an elder on the ChurchParish Council, and a member of the Romanian Cultural and Beneficial Society“TRAIAN.”   

 He was considered a good man by all his relatives and neighbors. He was  a jolly person, loved music, fun and jokes. He took great patience with his family, and drove his sons to picnics and ball games, and his daughters to take part in local drama and theater groups.    They were amongst the first in the community to purchase a radio, and it was not uncommon for their home to be crowded with visiting relatives and friends to listen to hockey broadcasts,boxing matches, and other  radio programs such Fibber  McGee and Molly or Amos and Andy. The long winter evenings, after the chores were completed were spent away playing the famous Romanian card game of “Hoala” or another game called “Moara.”    

Both John and Lena revered their religious faith. In fact Lena’s father was a Romanian Orthodox Priest. They lived together a married life of 37 years. John predeceased Lena and passed to eternity on November 30th, 1947. Lena passed away on February 4th,1980. They are buried near each other in the family plot at the rural St. Peter and Paul Cemetery at Kayville, Saskatchewan.    

During their life together, John and Lena had a family of  fourteen living children; five girls and nine boys: Ruby, Sarah, Mary, Anne, George, Daniel, Constantine, Peter, Wesley, John, Rochelle, Leo, Joseph and Steve.