Marié(e) 18 octobre 1923 à Fisher Branch MB, par rév. Leroux,

12 enfants (6 fils, 6 filles) :

1.1. Lucy VANDERSTEEN, naissance 31 juillet 1924 à Grand Rapids Hospital ND. Marié(e) 1er octobre 1945 à Fisher Branch MB, par rév. Léo Marchand, Régis Réginald MEILLEUR, naissance 29 octobre 1923 "at home" in Fisher Branch MB, (fils de Moïse MEILLEUR et Délia PÉPIN) p/m Barthélemi Meilleur & Mathildée Vaillancoucourt, 11 enfants (7 fils, 4 filles).

1.2. Marguerite VANDERSTEEN, naissance 22 octobre 1925 à Fisher Branch MB, p/m Eusèbe Meilleur & Blanche Meilleur. Marié(e) 24 novembre 1943 à Fisher Branch MB, Gérard Adélard DANDENEAU, naissance 23 mars 1923, (fils de Louis II DANDENEAU et Fidélise BENOIT). 12 enfants (4 fils, 8 filles).
 

1.3. Bert (Barthélémi) VANDERSTEEN, naissance 10 octobre 1926 à Fisher Branch MB, décès 1er juillet 2013 au Fisher Branch Home Care, Fisher Branch MB, âge 86 ans, funérailles 11 à Fisher Branch Community Hall, Fisher Branch MB, sépulture in private at a later date. Mariage 14 octobre 1950 à Fisher Branch MB, Lea LALIBERTÉ, naissance 3 février 1928 à Bluecher SK (fille de Amédée LALIBERTÉ et Zoeline LABRECQUE), décès 24 juillet 2013 à Fisher Branch Personal Care Home, âge 85 ans, with family by her side, funérailles 28 à Fisher Christian Community Church, Fisher Branch MB, sépulture au Fisher Branch Cemetery MB (nécrologies). 8 enfants

1.4. Josephine VANDERSTEEN, naissance 2 décembre 1927 à Fisher Branch MB, p/m Albert (Bert) Meilleur & Élisabeth. Marié(e) 21 janvier 1946 à Fisher Branch MB, Honora Philippe TOUGAS, naissance 1er juillet 1913 à Fisher Branch MB, (fils de Éliodore Pierre TOUGAS et Almizéam BRUNEAU) décès 29 juin 2001 à Deer Lodge Centre, Winnipeg MB, âge 87 ans, sépulture 7 avril à Glen Lawn Memorial, Winnipeg MB. 7 enfants (2 fils, 5 filles).

1.5. John II VANDERSTEEN, naissance 18 avril 1929 à Carnduff SK. Marié(e) 5 juin 1953 à Fisher Branch MB, Claire Yvonne HUDON, naissance 26 mai 1935, (fille de Joseph B. HUDON et Esther MILLETTE). 10 enfants (5 fils, 5 filles).

John Nicholas Vandersteen & Josephine Meilleur

- October 18, 1923 -

married in Fisher Branch by Father Leroux

John Nicholas Vandersteen was born in the year 1895, in Utrecht, Holland. He started school when he was seven and went until he was thirteen. For the first couple of years he attended Soesterbergse School, and when his family moved to Soest in 1904, he attended a Catholic boy's school. He had to pay five cents a week for schooling and continued his education until he grade six. Later, to help his family, he worked at landscaping, and in a vegetable garden at home. In the winter of 1910, he planted trees along the streets. He was paid one gulden a day for eight to ten hours of work. A gulden has a Canadian value of thirty-three cents.

In May 1913, he came to Canada with some friends. He started work in Holland, Manitoba, on a farm, for fifteen dollars a month for the first month, and twenty-five dollars for the second month. He was breaking land with a team of four horses along the Assiniboine River, north of Holland. Then he worked in town helping to build a brick school house. The school is still standing today. The rest of the summer was spent helping farmers stook and thresh. He received one hundred dollars for two months work in harvest time. Then he moved to his fattier's homestead in Fisher Branch on December 30th, 1913.

He and his brothers built a shanty and cut logs for a log house in January. In the month of February he worked at the first saw mill in Hodgson for a wage of fifteen dollars a month. Instead of taking money, he took lumber at eighteen dollars a thousand feet. He worked there for about five weeks and then helped his brothers (Bert and Cornelius) cut logs for two log houses and barns. In April, he walked thirty-five miles to Arborg and took a train from Arborg to Holland, Manitoba. He worked for farmers for seven months at thirty-five dollars a month. He came home to Fisher Branch and helped his parents bullet a log house in May, 1914.

During the following four or five years, he cleared land, built barns, and waited two years to get a well dug by a government machine. All these tasks were aiming at a goal: improving the homestead. Meanwhile he had to haul water half a mile.

In 1915, he started working out in Holland, Manitoba, and Carnduff, Saskatchewan, threshing, and in 1920 working on the Winnipeg railway, eighty miles south-east of Winnipeg. On his return. he drove his horses back from Winnipeg to home, which took him three days.

Josephine was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota in 1905. Because she was the oldest girl in the family, she helped her mother and when she was only twelve years old, her mother died. This left her with the responsibility of looking after the rest of the family.

John and Josephine were married in 1923 and left to work in the bush in Minnesota, United States, where he worked at maintenance, putting in ties, etc., for three dollars a day, ten hours a day.

On July 31st, Lucy was born, their first child, in Grand Rapids Hospital. In the fall of 1924, they came back to Fisher Branch. He started farming and stayed one winter with his parents, at the same time renting a farm near Marble Ridge. He cut wood in the winter of 1925, hauling it to Hodgson.

Margaret was born in 1925.In the same winter, he helped his father-in-law, Bert Meilleur, in the bush for a couple of months.

They lived three years on this rented farm, milking four cows all the time. Bert was born in the fall of 1926. In the fall of 1927, they moved to town because Grandma had got hurt. Josephine was born in 1927. That winter he hauled cordwood from ten miles west of Fisher Branch. He worked the summer for a farmer and in the winter he cut brush.

In 1929, they moved to Carnduff, Sask. He rented a farm, put in a crop in the spring and worked out part time. This meant that his wife was working in the field and caring for the children, while he worked to provide for the futurity. Johnny was born in April of that year. Everything turned out for the better as the crop was good. There was such a supply of barley that in the winter it was used as fuel for the furnace. At that time people who shipped barley received a bill instead of a cheque.

In 1930, they moved to another farm in Carnduff. The summer was spent cutting wood and shearing sheep. They stayed on this farm for two or three years, and in 1931, put in a crop, but they only got five loads of green feed out of it. The "grasshopper years" had begun and there was no rain all summer. In the meantime, Mary was born in July, 1930, and Ben in June, 1932.

In 1933, late fall, they moved to Dumus, Saskatchewan. They drove sixty miles with two teams of horses. That winter he cut wood at fifty cents a load. They bought a farm, built a log house and moved in. Eight or ten neighbors helped them to build the house. Each one brought his own pork, beef, potatoes, or whatever, to help make a meal. The following summer (1934) John worked back for the help he had received to build his house.

One of his neighbors broke two acres of land for him because all of their own horses had died the first winter they moved to Dumas. There had been no food for them and the winter was cold and harsh.

In 1935, John grew a big garden of vegetables and potatoes, shearing sheep in the spring, and peddling the vegetables at a summer resort in White Bear Lake and in the Kanosa Lake. When he was building a log kitchen, in the process of lifting a heavy log over his head, he broke a vein in his stomach. In the fall he worked on the highway for two or three months at a wage of two dollars a day in Caiville. In the winter he cut wood. Another son came along that year, Neil. In 1936, Bill was born, They stayed in Dumas until the spring of 1939, and in May the family moved back to good old Fisher Branch. It took two cars, one belonging to Teddy Caners and the other belonging to Victor Meilleur, to move the family to Fisher Branch. Meanwhile, two trucks also made the trip, transporting the five cows, pony and furniture. They moved into Bocek's place and stayed in the house south of Fisher Branch for one year.

They bought a quarter section of land in the fall of 1939, and rented a quarter section of hayland across the road from their home place. In the winter of 1939, he cut cordwood and logs for the sawmill. Once the logs were cut, the neighbors formed a "bee" and hauled the logs to Funk's sawmill at Brown's place, south-east of Hodgson. Eugene LeTexier helped him saw the logs and the same "bee" that hauled the logs also hauled the lumber out. In the spring of 1940, Bert Meilleur, acting as foreman, called neighbors together to build the homestead on the land where Bert and Lea Vandersteen live today. In the summer he cleared ten acres of land, dug seneca roots, and sheared sheep. In the fall he went out harvesting for the neighbors.

In 1941, he cleared ten acres of land for Elie Savoie and in return Elie broke land for him. In the winter of 1941-1942 he cleared for Mr. Smith and in return Smith broke ten acres for him. In the spring, digging snake roots and shearing sheep was his main source of income. After he finished breaking land he went harvesting for local farmers. In the winter he cleared land, and cut wood and logs to build a barn.

In the spring of 1943 they started to build a big barn, and it was finished in the fall. Elizabeth was born that year.

In 1944 a lean-to-kitchen was built onto the house and a well was drilled. In 1945 he went to work out in the fall for the Ontario Hydro, while Johnny and Ben were caring for the cattle and horses. He came back from Ontario in the spring of 1946, and put a down payment on a quarter section of land for my father.

Harvey was born in 1944. Dorothy was born in 1949. In the winter of that year he went to work up north in the bush with his son, Bert. In the spring of 1950, they bought a tractor, (which Bert still has today), and a crop was seeded, but unfortunately the crops all froze, and again he decided to clear more land.

In 1951 he went up north to cut logs for lumber and plywood. The following spring he helped Johnny build his house. In 1953 he worked at McArthur Falls for the Manitoba Hydro. Johnny was married that year. In 1954 he also worked for Manitoba Hydro.

In 1955 he worked at Ear Falls Hydro Plant, fought fire for two weeks and went to Red Lake for his camp he was asked to fetch some water for cooking. He went to a near-by stream and found the water was terribly dirty and unfit for any use. He went back and showed the cook the water, and then told the cook he would find some clear, clean water. He went with a shaped stick on the tips of his fingers with the bottom stem running along the ground. He found a spring with clear, clean water.

In 1956, he left there and worked at White-Dog Falls for hydro. He came back to Fisher Branch in March and stayed home for next couple of years, working the land and looking after the cattle. In 1960 Bill was married and he moved onto the homestead. Meanwhile the rest of the family rented Tougas's house on Highway 224. They stayed there a couple of years and he was part of a crew working on three bridges in the Fisher Branch-Hodgson area. The summer of 1962 was spent in Winnipeg caring for a cemetery and doing landscaping work.

In the spring of 1961, they moved to town and John worked for the hospital for four and a half years as caretaker to the grounds and also as part-time caretaker of the high school grounds. In 1964 he took a trip to Holland to see his sister and other friends. In 1965 he had an operation on an ulcer. That year when he turned seventy, he was laid off at the hospital. He helped build three basements in the spring of 1966, and helped to move the houses onto the foundations. The next year he built a greenhouse and since then he has been growing plants and selling them to local customers.

Once in town, Josephine got involved in community activities. She was one of the people who organized the Senior Citizens Club, and was their first president.

In 1973, John and Josephine celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Their grandchildren - "The Family Six" provided the music. In 1975, he went to British Columbia for a month, and in August of 1976, he went to Montreal and the Maritime Provinces.

John Vandersteen died on July 28, 1980. Josephine currently resides at the Fisher Branch Chalet.

The first family reunion for the descendants of John & Josephine Vandersteen is being held in the yard of John Jr. & Claire Vandersteen in Fisher Branch on July 30, 31 & Aug. 1, 1988. Currently John & Josephine have 73 grandchildren & 85 great grandchildren.