The articles listed here have been written over the years by various family members. There are no claims made to the accuracy of details contained in them. If you wish to submit an article for review email it to me
Otto & Amalia Metzker
Article Date 2019. Author Edie Metzker
Amalia and Otto were childhood friends, living in the same village and attended the same church. Then their friendship blossomed into love and on March 24, 1929 they were married in Poland.
For their honeymoon they came by ship to Canada. They arrived in Canada May 11, 1929 where Pastor Goos met them and brought them out to the Rosenthal farm which is across from the Milroy’s. Amalia worked for Emil Rosenthal as a maid for 3 months while Otto helped brush the land with the other men. Their oldest daughter, Ann was born in 1930. Then they worked for Basil Blakely while they lived on Buster Blakely’s quarter which was later owned by Alvin and then sold to Curtis Vesely. Living conditions weren’t really the best in those days and the gophers decided to rule the roost, so Otto and Amalia lived upstairs in the house and the gophers occupied the main floor. The next year Otto rented the land from Mr. Lechelt and moved on to it in 1930. At this time Otto worked for Adolph Busenius. Then Waldemere was born in 1931 and Alfred was born in 1933. This land is now owned by Waldemere who still lives there. In 1936 they bought the land which was to be the home quarter. This they bought from Victor Peradis. After Otto and Amalia moved to Camrose Alfred farmed it until he moved to Camrose. It’s now owned by Ken Metzker, Waldemere’s son.
Wages were much different then than they are now. Amalia worked for Mr and Mrs Ed Knopp for $15 a month, which at that time was a fairly good wage. Otto and Amalia worked for Gerappi’s for about 2 years. The same year they worked for Rudolph Schoenknecht for the spring work. Later on Mr. Lechelt needed men to help him brush his land so Otto worked there, helping clear the land. In 1937 Gertie was born and in 1939 Alvin was born, that same year their barn was built. They built a new home on their land in 1949 which is now being lived in by his grandson, Ken Metzker and his family.
Although all of Alvin’s brothers and sisters were born in Canada, Alvin was the only one born in the hospital. He was raised at the Metzker homestead. When they were kids Alvin and a buddy used to go to Bittern Lake Sunday afternoons and they would pick up the dead shells when the planes came over and scared the boys. The one boy picked up a dead shell to take home but it wasn’t dead. So he took it home and managed to pull it apart and deactivate it without blowing his head off.
Alvin went to school from Grade 1-8 in Harvest Home by Gwynne (not at Gwynne but near) then he went to the Gwynne school and then to Camrose to college. He lived in residence while in college. Grandpa Otto insisted that at least one of his children was going to go to college. But Alvin got in trouble lots. He got caught sneaking out at night (you weren’t allowed to leave after dark) and the dean caught him and wanted to kick him out but Grandpa Metzker talked the dean into letting Alvin stay. They had little money while in college and the typical college tricks applied. They would go to a restaurant one day and order a pop and keep the receipt. The next day they would order a meal and show the pop receipt and only pay for the pop from the prior day. He only went to college for one year before quitting and going to work on the rigs for about a year.
In 1959 Otto and Amalia flew to Germany to visit with old friends and relatives. In 1964 they bought a house in Camrose and moved in the same fall they retired. Their family and friends were deeply shocked when Otto passed away suddenly on July 1, 1972. In 1973 Amailia flew to Germany with her niece and her daughter from Edmonton. They were there for 6 weeks visiting. In the summer of 1974, Amalia’s two sisters, one from East Germany and one from West Germany flew to Vancouver to Adolph and Emilie Metzker’s, brother and sister-in-law of Amalia. From there Adolph and Emilie drove them through Banff and Jasper and to the Hay Lakes and Camrose district. There they were greeted by all of Amalia’s children and grandchildren. They visited all the children on their farms and were really amazed at all the wide open spaces and beautiful countryside. They took home, along with fond memories, twigs of spruce trees and flower slips which are so much different than their own. After approximately six weeks, they both flew back to Germany.
Amalia continued to live in the house in Camrose until July of 1986 when she moved to a retirement home in Camrose. She passed away peacefully in 1995 At the age of 89.